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ESTABLISHED BY EDWARD L. YOUMANS.

THE

POPULAK SCIENCE

MONTHLY

EDITED BY WILLIAM JAY YOUMANS.

VOL. XLIII.

MAY TO OCTOBER, 1893.

NEW YORK :

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,

1, 3, AND 5 BOND STREET.

1893.

COPYRIGHT, 1893,
BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.

SAMUEL WILLIAM JOHNSON.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

MAY, 1893.
JAPANESE HOME LIFE.

By DR. W. DELANO EASTLAKE.

IT must be confessed that the ideas of Japan and the Japanese
which we are likely to gain through the current literature of
the day are apt to be sadly confusing. This, I am quite confident,
is not from any desire on the part of writers on Japanese subjects
to encourage any false impressions, but rather from the very fact
that neither poet nor artist traveler — ay, nor many of the long
residents in Japan, for that matter — have opportunity to see or
take part in the home life of the people of Japan.

But few visitors to that country have been able, in so short a
time, to become so thoroughly en rapport with the customs and
life of this interesting people as Sir Edwin Arnold, whose grace-
ful writings show us how he has thought with them, lived with
them, and loved with them in a deeper and truer sense than many
of the oldest foreign residents, although his stay was compara-
tively short. Yet even in Sir Edwin's writings on Japan we see
the poetry rather than the prose of Japanese life ; and this is not
to be wondered at, for of all countries and people none could
appeal so deeply to the poet as does this fairyland of flowers and
romance. The very air one breathes, the delicious sense of rest
and quiet, the graceful courtesy of the people, the romantic
beauty of mountain or highway, city or dwelling — all these, and
far more, complete an ideal picture that awakens enthusiasm in
the prosiest of tourists or visitors. It could surely scarcely have
been otherwise that the author of the Light of Asia, whose very
heart-strings are tuned to the melody of poetry, should have struck
the keynote of Japanese life and awakened naught but answering
chords of most enchanting harmony.

VOL. XLIII. — 1

2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

So he has given us these in his writings on Japan so vividly
and artistically that we can almost hear the soft-voiced welcome
of the serving maiden, as the soji is noiselessly pushed aside, and
amid the subtle fragrance of the plum blossoms sink back among
the silken cushions with that delicious sense of repose, while
lulled to rest by the melodic echo of the koto strings, and find
ourselves once more in fairyland Japan. And would it were only

true!

Yet we are not all of us poets, and few of us are artists, and so
find that there is prose beneath the fragrant blossoms that the
poet's pen has so lavishly scattered over things Japanese. On the

other hand, we find that the sweeping assertions regarding Japa-
nese ethics and morals — or rather lack of morals — as contained in
other writings on Japan, are both unjust and untrue.

On the one hand, Sir Edwin Arnold tells us that the women of
Japan approach our ideal of the angelic, while another writer
cries out against the utter lack of morality in Japanese women.
Such diametrically opposed statements are distressingly confus-
ing, and the characteristics of " angelic immorality " are hard to
conceive of, and must be rather paradoxical, to say the least.

Should we desire to gain any true idea of the "prose and
poetry " of Japan, we must look into the details of the home life
of the people ; for, after all, it is the daily routine, the domestic
and social duties, the thoughts, pastimes, and aspirations typical

JAPANESE HOME LIFE. 3

to any people that mold the ethics and character of the nation
itself. In a word, we must enter the homes of both high and low,
there to learn facts and not " foreign impressions."

But, alas ! the task is one most difficult to accomplish, for it
must be acknowledged that the vast majority of foreign residents,
and practically all transient visitors to the country, see little or
nothing of the details of the home life of the people. And why ?
Is the life of the people just what they see it to be in its pic-
turesque and courteous superficiality, and is it indeed all poetry,
music, and flowers, and no earnest reality ?

I&deed, there is; for the word "home" has the same tender
meaning in the hearts of the Japanese as with us ; and the cricket
that chirps so lustily on the hearths of American or English
homes would find a rival songster in the cheery little fellow
whose contented chirp by the side of the glowing brazier, or
hibachi, makes such sweet music in Japanese homes.

Apart from the diplomatic and consular representatives from
Western countries, the foreign residents of Japan are chiefly com-
posed of merchants, missionaries, and a comparatively small
number of professional men. The merchant or trading class
represent by all odds the majority of the foreign community.
Numerically, missionaries would come next. Indeed, it would
not be an unfair estimate to state that these two classes constitute
at least four fifths of the foreign population. Trading, as far as
foreigners are concerned, is still limited to the treaty ports, in-
cluding Yokohama, Kobe', Nagasaki, and a few others. Socially,
the Japanese merchant ranks below the humblest tradesman, and,
as all foreign trading with the interior must be carried on through
the medium of these Japanese commission merchants, it is with
this class of people that the majority of the foreign residents
come in contact, and then only in their business relations, and
seldom socially or intimately ; although, were this the case, the
idea gained of Japanese home life would be misleading, for the
Japanese trader very soon learns to conform himself to the man-
ners of his customers, and can not be regarded — as thus met — as
typical of the truly Japanese.

The missionaries as well, for the most part at least, have little
opportunity to study the details of the social or home life of the
people they are working among. Theirs is a duty and vocation
which from its very nature would render this well-nigh impossi-
ble. They are teachers, not students ; they are bearers of spiritual
truths, and must needs open warfare against the existing creeds of
the people ; and this attitude in itself would, in the majority of in-
stances at least, debar them from entering into the pursuits or
pastimes of the people. Before leaving the subject of mission-
aries, I would call attention to the frequent allusions made by the

JAPANESE HOME LIFE. 5

representatives of certain missions, to the disrespect and disre-
gard paid to them or their teachings by the Japanese. Such
assertions are too sweeping, to say the least, as well as mislead-
ing, for many of the foreign missionaries in Japan have gained
the high esteem of natives, and have endeared themselves, both
by their noble, self-sacrificing lives, as well as ever ready sym-
pathy and friendliness. There have been many missionaries sent
to Japan during the past decade who are educationally sadly in-
€ompetent to meet the emergencies that present themselves in
Japan. It must be borne in mind that the standard of education
of the present generation in Japan is most high. The works of
Huxley, Spencer, Darwin, and many others have, for the most
part, been translated into Japanese, and the students and gradu-
ates of the university, the Dai gakko, are able to compete educa-
tionally with men from our best colleges and universities. The
eagerness for knowledge that one finds so universally displayed
among the Japanese, together with the remarkable advance in
this direction that the nation has made during the past twenty
years, and the prominent position Japan is assuming in its rela-
tions to America and European countries — all this commands our
unbiased interest and respect.

The task of endeavoring to portray a clear, although of neces-
sity incomplete, view of Japanese home life is one of no little dif-
ficulty. It would seem almost as difficult as an adequate descrip-
tion of a Beethoven sonata would be without the aid of music.
For there is a subtle " something " about Japan in which, perhaps,
the exquisite harmony of the land — the scenery and the people —
plays an important part ; yet a " something " that is wont to cast
a charmed spell around one, and causes a former resident, like
myself, to look back to the years spent in the " Land of the Rising
Sun" as to the memory of some peaceful vision of fairyland.
This indefinable charm can not be described in mere word-pic-
tures, and yet escapes few visitors to Japan, and is seldom lost
even after long residence in that country.

The sense of restfulness that pervades our Japanese towns, in
bold contradistinction to that feeling of noisy hurry and feverish
excitement of a busy American city, has been attributed to the
comparative absence of horse traffic in the former. Undoubtedly
this is a potent factor, but not the only one which gives that sense
of quiet and repose already referred to. The courteous politeness
of the people, both rich and poor, the general evidences of light-
heartedness among even the poorest laboring classes, the absence
of that distracting hurry and rush so typical of our great busi-
ness centers, and in. addition to all this the picturesque houses and
streets, the spotlessly clean homes, the evidences everywhere of a
national love for the beautiful and artistic, the absence of saloons

6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

or barrooms, and their substitution by public bath-houses, at al-
most every corner— all these must be regarded as factors produc-
tive of this sense of quiet and rest. Then, again, the strange com-
mingling of the new and the old— for, turning aside from some
busy street thronged with shoppers, venders and tradesmen, a
few steps may find us approaching some majestic temple gate-
way, leading to the shrine or tomb of some great hero of centuries
gone by. Ascending the time-worn stone steps, and standing be-
neath the shadow of the lofty gabled roof of the gateway, our gaze
may follow the intricate maze of lacquer and bronze architectural
adornment until it is lost in the shadowy gloom overhead. On
either side of the two central columns, and shut off by a railing,
are the colossal figures of the "guardians of the temple," grim
and gaunt, with sword in hand. Flanked on either side are the
tall bronze or stone lanterns of the temple, and still beyond, back
even of the font of water and the great temple bell in its gabled
belfry, is the shrine itself, a fitting resting place or tribute to one
who has served his country well, guarded as it is by gnarled and
ancient pines and lofty cryptomarias that were ancient when the
grandsires of the happy throng below ascended these self -same
steps to offer a tribute to the memory of the hero.

There is a marked similarity in the daily routine of the inmates
of Japanese homes, whether they be homes of the rich or poor,
the official or tradesman. The wife is always the mistress of the
home, and hers is the duty of in every way possible rendering the
life of her husband happy — and to be happy herself, as far as he
knows. The instruction of the daughters of the home in the
various domestic duties also devolves upon the mother. The
wardrobe of the entire family is the work of her hands, with the
assistance, perhaps, of an aunt (obasari), maid, or her growing
daughters. The latter, by the way, are taught how to sew while
yet quite little tots, and as they grow older in years and skill, are
initiated into the mysteries of art needlework. Then the daugh-
ters are instructed in music, a certain knowledge of the samisen,
koto, or some other musical instrument being regarded as a requi-
site accomplishment in even the poorer and middle classes, while
the daughters of the higher classes and nobility are well versed
in art, music, and the poetry of the country. The other accom-
plishments deemed desirable in women consist principally in the
artistic arrangement of flowers and the details of ceremonial tea
making and drinking (cha-no-yu) .

The recitation, or reading of historical poems (utai) is a favor-
ite study, especially if some romance is interwoven into the story.
Usually the dramatic poems (iorori) are ceremoniously read or
sung by the young maidens, while an elder sister or teacher will
thrum a minor accentuated accompaniment on the samisen. Some-

8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

times the story of the utai is told in prose to the eager group of
children gathered around the glowing brazier, or hibachi. The
latter, it must be confessed, in spite of its cheery appearance, ra-
diates but a scant amount of heat in comparison with the open
grates of the Occident. Such a family group may be seen in
thousands of homes in Tokyo alone, on a winter's afternoon ; the
boys, if back from school, resting contentedly on the white tatami,
or studying the morrow's lessons in some quiet nook ; the little
maidens, demurely grouped about the hibachi, busily plying their
needles, while listening to some story told by the old aunt or
nurse, that may be acting as instructress. The contented hum of

SINGING GIRLS PLAYING ON THE KOTO AND SAMISEN.

the quaint old iron kettle, resting over the glowing coals, sup-
ported by an iron tripod thrust into the ashes of the hibachi, sug-
gests its entire readiness to assist in the preparation of tiny cups
of fragrant tea for any chance guest that arrives, or for any mem-
ber of the family that wants a steaming cup of this delicate bev-
erage— which is so much more dainty and delicious as prepared
and drunk by the Japanese than by us.

It is then that the telling of stories finds its place in Japanese.
The deeds of heroes, the romances of ancient dynasties, mystical
lore, stories of ghosts and ghouls, and of the wicked and revenge-
ful deeds of fox or badger sprites — this folk lore, historical or
mythical, as it may be, has become so blended with the home life

JAPANESE HOME LIFE. 9

of the people that one can not well dissociate the one from the
other. The story of Kogo-no-Tsubone— properly an utai, or his-
torical poem — is a favorite on account of the sweet romance it

contains.

THE STORY OF KOGO-NO-TSUBON&

Long, long years ago, before the Shoguns, that now sleep in
their ancient graves in Shiba, had gained power, and before the
advent of foreigners had been even dreamed of, the peace-loving
young Emperor Takakura, a monarch of the imperial line, graced
the sacred throne of his ancestors.

But the imperial power of Takakura was but a nominal one,
for the prime minister— one Kiyomori, of Taira descent— virtually
ruled the land, and, to accomplish his ends more adroitly, had
even caused his daughter to be made empress. Thus the peace-
loving young monarch was a mere tool in the artful hands of Ki-
yomori. Indeed, his power was great, for the emperor could not
have declared war or made peace against Kiyomorr' s tyrant will.

So, while the prime minister was scheming with his daughter
the empress, the young monarch was forced to seek consolation
in music and art, and found a willing and loving follower in one
of his retainers, Nakakuni, who himself was a most skilled per-
former on the flute. Now, it happened that among the royal mu-
sicians at the palace there was a lady in waiting to the royal
household who in music far outranked any other. Fair as a
dream, gifted with the sweetest of voices, Kogo — for this was her
name — was able to awaken music from her koto strings that
seemed to spring from the very soul of the instrument. None
but the tapering fingers of the fair Kogo could create such en-
trancing harmony, and it truly seemed as though the silken strings
would murmur a loving response to her gentle caress.

Frequently the flutist Nakakuni would accompany Kogo's mu-
sic and song, while the young emperor would listen like one en-
tranced. These three passed many happy hours together ; but as
time wore on, the young monarch realized that sweet Kogo's mu-
sic and verse had awakened love. But, alas ! Kiyomori learned of
the emperor's infatuation, and poor Kogo was compelled to se-
cretly flee to the mountain forests of Saga in order to escape from
the relentless persecutions of Kiyomori and his daughter the em-
press.

On learning of Kogo's flight from the palace, Takakura at once
ordered his faithful retainer Nakakuni to go in search of the miss-
ing maiden, and look far and wide, and not to return until he had
found her hiding place. The fleetest horse of the royal mews
was made ready, and Nakakuni, bearing with him a message from
the Emperor, was soon speeding toward the gloomy mountain of
Saga.

10

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Long he rode ; the giant cryptomarias that flanked the high-
way towered overhead, and well-nigh shut out the remnant of
the dying day. Night dropped her black pall over the earth as
he entered the dark forests of the mountain, but far, far above the
tree-tops the silver moon shone forth, with the stars peeping out

A GEISHA, OR PROFESSIONAL ENTERTAINER AND MUSICIAN.

one by one, as though desiring to aid the loyal retainer in his
search. Again and again he would check his horse and stop to
listen, for it seemed that he could hear the melodious tones of a
koto. At last, when, far late into the night, he arrived at the
ancient temple of Horin, the sounds became more audible, al-

JAPANESE HOME LIFE. it

though, still distant. Was it the distant moan of some far-away
tempest among the mountain peaks ? Was it merely the night
wind sighing through the lofty pines overhead ? Or could it be
the plaintive, liquid melody from the harp of the lost one ? Check-
ing his panting, foaming steed, Nakakuni listened intently, and
while listening his heart began to beat wildly, for he now recog-
nized the music of an old love song, and the magic touch of Kogo's
fingers on the koto strings. Led by the guiding music, he soon
reached a miserable-looking hut, whence the sounds proceeded.
Dismounting at the door of the hut, he proclaimed himself a royal
messenger and demanded admittance.

A voice from within answered that no dweller in so humble a
hut was worthy of being the recipient of a message from the em-
peror, and that surely he had made some mistake. Not to be put
off, however, Nakakuni declared that he had recognized Kogo's
music, and that it was for Kogo that he was seeking. Then, in-
deed, he was made welcome to the humble abode ; but, after de-
livering the emperor's message, the fair Kogo announced her
determination to forsake the world forever and live the holy life
of a recluse, and begged that Nakakuni would secure the em-
peror's pardon for her enforced disobedience to his commands.
In vain did the faithful messenger endeavor to alter this deter-
mination, and presently the two fell to talking of the happy past
at the palace. The koto was brought forth, and Kogo once more
sang those well-known love songs, and the harp strings rang again
with melody. The moments rolled into hours, and the day was
breaking when Nakakuni took leave of the weeping and disconso-
late maiden and rode slowly back to the palace alone.

Sometimes the story is ended here with the conclusion that
Kogo became a Buddhist nun and spent her life in ministering to
others, self-abnegation, and prayer; but the history of the ro-
mance, as set forth in the utai, is kindlier, for the emperor again
sent for the sweet musician, who was finally prevailed upon to
return to the palace, where she was restored to her former honor-
able position in the imperial household.

In rendering the above in English I have endeavored to retain,
as far as possible, the quaintness of the original with which almost
every Japanese is familiar. Regarding the purely legendary lore
of Japan, this is as a rule most weird and mystical. The large
variety of supernatural beings, for the most part of a purely
psychical origin, is truly startling ; indeed, it would be difficult to
imagine or invent any grewsome form for an. apparition that is
not already an old inhabitant of Japanese " ghostdom."

But for " fireside " stories it is, after all, the recital of the un-
canny and magical deeds of foxes and badgers that awakens the

JAPANESE HOME LIFE. 13

greatest interest among the children, and which are, for the most
part, believed in even by the elders. In fact, among the more illit-
erate classes to be possessed with the spirit of a fox (kitsune-tsuki)
is a form of zoanthropy not infrequently met with, although the
disorder is more likely to be assumed than real, and the epithet
kitsune-tsuki, or " f ox-hearted," is more apt to be figuratively
applied than otherwise. Undoubtedly the popular belief in the
magical powers of foxes and badgers in Japan is as extensive as-
the frequently unexpressed belief in the supernatural found in
this country. The educated classes will decry any such super-
stitious belief, and yet will tell you of alleged experiences of their
friends or relatives with foxes or badgers, which are " very
strange and not to be accounted for." Fox and badger stories
are therefore highly appreciated by the juvenile members of any
Japanese family, principally on account of their " authenticity,"
and because of that fascinating condition of fear and " the creeps ""
that their recital occasions. Here is a good badger story, the truth
of which I can vouch for, insomuch as there is a field of Inami
near Kyoto, and that it is a grewsome spot well suited for a tryst-
ing place for ghouls and ghosts.

THE BURIAL AT MIDNIGHT.*

Not far from Kyoto, in the smiling hill-land of Harima, there-
is a broad, open plain known as the " Field of Inami." Although
surrounded by verdant hillsides, this plain is bleak and barren ;
great gusts of wind sweep over the long, dry grasses, and no
farmer or peasant has ever found a home in this desolate spot.
Yet the great highway to Kyoto runs just to one side of the plain,
and on this road a postman used to carry his load of letters once
or twice every week. A little bypath leads across one corner of
the plain, lessening the distance to the city, and this path was a
great favorite with the postman, as it made his journey so much
the shorter.

Going one day as usual to Kyoto, he reached the field a little
later than was his wont, and night came on before he had ad-
vanced very far. Without a light or the means of procuring one,,
he wandered aimlessly on for a while, but finally seeing that he
had missed the path in the darkness, resolved to pass the night
where he was, with the sky for a coverlet. Without giving a
second thought to all the ugly stories told of the field, the ghosts
and malicious fox-sprites said to hold their nightly revels in that
spot, the postman bravely determined to make the best of it, and

* This tale was first translated from the Japanese into German, and read, among others,
before the Gesellschaft fur Volkerkunde in Ost-Asien, in Yokohama, by F. Warrington
Eastlake, Ph. D.

H THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

was just looking for some sort of shelter when he caught sight of
a little, half-ruined hut. Drawing nearer, he found that it was a
sort of watch-house, such as the peasants build near the rice-fields
in order to protect the growing grain. Overjoyed at having
found even this poor shelter, the postman entered the little hut,
and, throwing himself on a heap of dried grass, was soon fast
asleep. Perfect silence reigned over the sterile plain ; only now
and again the far-off hoot of an owl or the mournful cry of some
night bird broke the stillness of the night.

Several hours had passed, when the sleeper was suddenly awak-
ened by the deep, sonorous note of a bell. The sound seemed to
come from the western portion of the field, and all at once the
startled sleeper heard a tramping as of many feet, and a confused
murmur of Buddhist chants and prayers. Nearer and nearer
came the crowd of people, to the listener's great astonishment.
" There are no houses in the field," thought he, " and anyhow no
one would think of going at midnight to such a deserted and ill-
omened spot." The stars were shining brightly, but no moon
illumined the scene, so that the trembling postman could only see
objects very near him. Nevertheless he peeped cautiously out of
his hiding place and saw, to his unbounded surprise, a long pro-
cession of men bearing torches and lanterns. In front of all
marched a tall priest, reciting the Buddhist invocation, Namu
Amida Butsu, in a clear, loud voice. " It is a funeral procession ! "
thought the frightened listener, and crept farther back into the
shadows of the hut.

As soon as the mournful procession had reached the little hut
.a halt was made, and the coffin-bearers stepped forward. Scarcely
five paces from the hut the grave was dug, and the coffin placed
in it. The priest then threw the earth back into the grave and
built a little mound above it, and finally placed a few sticks cov-
ered with Buddhist characters in one end of the mound. With-
out further word the somber procession turned back, and moved
slowly away in the same solemn and impressive manner, leaving
the postman in a most pitiable frame of mind. It was quite bad
enough to be compelled to spend the night in such an uncanny
and grewsome spot ; but the late hour, mysterious burial, and the
proximity of the freshly dug grave were enough to frighten the
bravest heart.

As if chained to the spot by some evil spell, the postman kept
staring at the little mound before him. Suddenly, while he was
gazing fixedly at the grave, it began to rock slowly from side to
side. Quicker and quicker became the rocking, while the invol-
untary spectator underwent an agony of terror. Faster and faster
still rocked the mound, until it fell over with a great shock, and
a naked, horrid thing jumped from the grave and ran toward the

16

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

postman. In an instant he remembered that horrible ghouls
always attend a burial, and that these ghouls often kill and eat
living beings. There was no time to lose, for the creature had
already reached the entrance of the hut. Crazed with fear, the

postman drew his sword and made one desperate cut at his enemy,
and then, without daring to give a second blow, ran out of the
hut and into the night.

Hours seemed to have passed before the postman arrived, half
dead with exhaustion and panting for breath, at the house of a

JAPANESE HOME LIFE. 17

peasant, just beyond the outskirts of the field. He knocked again
and again, but no one came in answer, and so he had to wait for
the day to dawn. Shortly after sunrise the people of the house
arose, and, hearing the knocking, took the still breathless wan-
derer into the guest chamber, where they attended to his pitiable
state, and then begged him to relate what had befallen him.
This he did, and the peasants at once determined to go to the
little hut in the field of Inami, which was well known to them.
Upon arriving at the spot they found no signs of a burial or of a
grave. Mound and coffin had utterly disappeared; but just in
front of the hut lay the body of a huge badger, killed by the one
cut of the good steel. At once they saw what had happened.
The evil beast had wished to frighten the belated wanderer ; and
the funeral procession and priest, coffin, and grave had been
merely the work of magic.

So much for the stories that play such an important role in
the drama of home life in Japan. It is to be regretted that this
subject has not been more extensively dealt with in recent writ-
ings of the country, for many of the hidden beauties of the coun-
try and people are best portrayed in the stories of bygone heroes,
as told to the children around the liibachi, or as sung by some
graceful maiden with samisen or koto accompaniment ; while the
tales of ghosts or ghouls rival those of almost any other land in
variety and horror.

Turning to the pastimes common to Japanese homes, a brief
mention of the most popular games must not be omitted. Go and
slwgi are similar to our games of draughts and chess, yet the for-
mer is far more scientific than checkers. There are several games
of cards, the playing cards being about as long as those used in
this country, but scarcely three quarters of an inch wide. Another
favorite game is that of " One Hundred Poems." It is somewhat
similar to our rather childish game of " Authors," with the excep-
tion that the Japanese game is by no means childish, and requires
an intimate knowledge of at least one hundred poems of well-
known merit. Two hundred cards are used in the game, and half
a poem is written on each card. The cards being spread before
the players, the half of a poem on any one card is read, and the
other half searched for by the contestants. Then the different
seasons of the year have typical games. The most picturesque of
these is haguita, or " battledoor and shuttlecock," which is exclu-
sively a New- Year's game. Then the time of the cherry blooms
brings its games beneath the bloom-laden branches. Music and
song find their way into the homes of Japan far more extensively
than in this country. To be sure, the music of either koto or
samisen is apt to sound strange, and at first perhaps almost unin-

VOL. XLHI. 2

18 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

telligible, to our untutored ears; but we soon become familiar
with the plaintive notes of the koto or the sonorous vibrations of
the samisen, and learn to both recognize and appreciate the quaint
minor harmonies and softly worded melody of some love song, or
so-fu-ren.

As I have already had occasion to mention, the dramatic or
operatic poems are sung with the accompaniment of the samisen,
while the historical poems, or utai, find a musical accompaniment
only when recited on the no stage, and then flute and drums are
the instruments used. The dramatization of the utai upon the
no stages is a very ancient custom, and can only be appreciated
by the better educated classes. Correctly speaking, no is a his-

FACSIMILE OF A POEM BT ARITSUNE.

torical dance, full of weird mysticisms almost unintelligible to
those not conversant with its meaning, but its proper performance
is a classic art. It has remained unchanged in the slightest detail
for centuries, and through its medium the classic historical poetry
of the nation is retained and placed before the appreciative public
of the higher class.

Thus the drama and history of the country, so full of heroism
and romance, shape themselves into poetry and song. The blend-
ing of art with poetry is another feature typical of the Japanese
people. There are two purely Japanese schools of art : the one
dealing with the minutest details, and the other with the bold and
forcible portrayal of impressions and suggestions, rather than
details ; graceful sketches, rather than detailed drawings. " We

JAPANESE HOME LIFE. 19

can not reproduce Nature in art," a Japanese artist has said, " and
instead of making so bold an attempt, had best satisfy ourselves
with mere suggestions of Nature's beauties." The same may be
said of some Japanese poetry, for the uta, or sonnets, usually are
mere poetic suggestions of a deeper meaning or sentiment. This
brings one to a realization of the close connection between art and
poetry in Japan, as also between poetry and music. In social
gatherings among friends, a favorite mode for mutual entertain-
ment is fo'r one of the guests to quickly sketch some passing
thought or memory of one of Nature's beauties ; it may be the
crest of some distant mountain, a branch heavy with blossoms, or
a flower. This sketch is then passed on to another guest, who,
in looking at it, seeks to find some poetic suggestion, or hidden
lesson, and having done so, adds the verse to the sketch, and
the picture is complete. These illustrated sonnets, the fruits of
poetic inspiration and artistic impression, are taken home, to
be preserved as cherished souvenirs of the evening's entertain-
ment.

To illustrate this more clearly, we will say that an artist has,
with two or three rough strokes of his brush, depicted a bleak
mountain peak, with a flock of birds flying above it. This is
passed to Aritsune', a Japanese poet of recognized merit, who
after a few moments' thought adds a sonnet to the sketch. It is,
like the sketch, a mere suggestion of a deeper sentiment, or imi, as
the Japanese would have it. I can best render it as follows,
making the translation as literal as possible :

We may struggle to the peak
Of the mountain, bare and bleak,

There but to learn,

And well discern,
That the winging birds above,
Speeding to their nests of love,
More of Nature's beauties see

Far than we.

Surely the beauty of the thought is evident, and the deeper
meaning, or imi, appreciable even to the prosiest of us. Yet in
rendering the lesson of the sonnet, as implied to the Japanese
reader of the above words, I might add the following lines :

So, when striving naught but fame to obtain,
Thou chance mayst reach the highest peak of earthly gain ;
Then thou wilt learn,
And well discern,

That Nature doth her beauties wide outspread
For those to daily duties who are wed.
While simple lives yield peace and light,
Fame blinds the sight.

20

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

One more example of this variety of illustrated verse will suf-
fice, and in the one I have chosen the meaning is confessedly
obscure, or at least deep enough to require some thought. The
picture, or sketch, is one of a bunch of wild flowers (chrysanthe-
mums), which make their first appearance during the closing days
of September, by which time, also, the cheery voice of the locust
has been hushed by the increasing cold of the autumn :

Though September's last days are fast ebbing away,

And the locust's bright sonnet is stilled,
Yet the wild flowers fair breathe a far sweeter song

While the air with their fragrance is filled.

In justice it must be confessed that the imi of the above lines
is rather vague, but may be regarded as a reminder of Nature's
kind compensation, for, with the change of seasons, one beauty is

FACSIMILE OF AN UTA, OB SONNET.

scarcely missed before another has filled its place. Perhaps the
words may be construed as a gentle reproof to discontented spir-
its. That the very heart of the nation finds its voice in song is
quite evident, for in every instance where a sonnet or poem would
find application we are sure to find one. During the time of the
cherry and plum blossoms, in early spring, the bloom-laden
branches are further ornamented by numerous sonnets inspired
by the beauty of the scene — written on strips of white paper, and
then made fast to the low-hanging branches. Indeed, the poetic
enthusiasm of a score of Orlandos in the forests of Arden would
be put to shame. Every season of the year, with the flowers that

THE INADEQUACY OF "NATURAL SELECTION." 21

it brings, is praised in verse. From the chrysanthemums in
autumn, the camellias and plum blossoms of the winter months,
the cherry and peach blossoms and wistaria during early spring,
the peony in May, and the great lotus flowers during the summer
months, so every season has its typical flower, and every flower
is loved and praised in song and sonnet by the people. There is
room for flowers in the humblest abode, and even the crests of the
thatch-roofed huts of the farmers are transformed into miniature
gardens of hyacinths and tulips.

So we have pushed aside the latticed doors and glanced in at the
Japanese home. True, our stay has been short, and much must
be left unnoticed ; yet, as we take our reluctant leave, above the
soft melody of the koto strings, we can clearly hear the lusty chirp
of the " cricket on the hearth/'

THE INADEQUACY OF " NATURAL SELECTION."

BY HERBERT SPENCER.

ALONG with that inadequacy of natural section to explain
changes of structure which do not aid life in important
ways, alleged in § 166 of The Principles of Biology, a further in-
adequacy was alleged. It was contended that the relative powers
of co-operative parts can not be adjusted solely by survival of the
fittest ; and especially where the parts are numerous and the co-
operation complex. In illustration it was pointed out that im-
mensely developed horns, such as those of the extinct Irish elk,
weighing over a hundredweight, could not, with the massive
skull bearing them, be carried at the extremity of the outstretched
neck without many and great modifications of adjacent bones and
muscles of the neck and thorax ; and that without strengthening
of the fore-legs, too, there would be failure alike in fighting and in
locomotion. And it was argued that while we can not assume
spontaneous increase of all these parts proportionate to the ad-
ditional strains, we can not suppose them to increase by variation
one at once, without supposing the creature to be disadvantaged
by the weight and nutrition of parts that were for the time use-
less— parts, moreover, which would revert to their original sizes
before the other needful variations occurred.

When, in reply to me, it was cgntended that co-operative parts
vary together, I named facts conflicting with this assertion — the
fact that the blind crabs of the Kentucky caves have lost their
eyes but not the foot-stalks carrying them ; the fact that the nor-
mal proportion between tongue and beak in certain selected varie-
ties of pigeons is lost ; the fact that lack of concomitance in de-

22 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

crease of jaws and teeth in sundry kinds of pet dogs, has caused
great crowding of the teeth (The Factors of Organic Evolution,
pp. 12, 13). And I then argued that if co-operative parts, small
in number and so closely associated as these are, do not vary to-
gether, it is unwarrantable to allege that co-operative parts which
are very numerous and remote from one another vary together.
After making this rejoinder I enforced my argument by a further
example — that of the giraffe. Tacitly recognizing the truth that
the unusual structure of this creature must have been, in its more
conspicuous traits, the result of survival of the fittest (since it is
absurd to suppose that efforts to reach a high branch could
lengthen the legs), I illustrated afresh the obstacles to co-adapta-
tion. Not dwelling on the objection that increase of any com-
ponents of the fore-quarters out of adjustment to the others would
cause evil rather than good, I went on to argue that the co-adapta-
tion of parts required to make the giraffe's structure useful, is
much greater than at first appears. This animal has a grotesque
gallop, necessitated by the great difference in length between the
fore and the hind limbs. I pointed out that the mode of action of
the hind limbs shows that the bones and muscles have all been
changed in their proportions and adjustments ; and I contended
that, difficult as it is to believe that all parts of the fore- quarters
have been co-adapted by the appropriate variations now of this
part, now of that, it becomes impossible to believe that all the
parts in the hind-quarters have been simultaneously co-adapted to
one another and to all the parts of the fore-quarters : adding that
want of co-adaptation, even in a single muscle, would cause fatal
results when high speed had to be maintained while escaping
from an enemy.

Since this argument, repeated with this fresh illustration, was
published in 1886, 1 have met with nothing to be called a reply ;
and might, I think, if convictions usually followed proofs, leave
the matter as it stands. It is true that, in his Darwinism, Mr.
Wallace has adverted to my renewed objection and, as already
said, contended that changes such as those instanced can be
effected by natural selection, since such changes can be effected
by artificial selection : a contention which, as I have pointed out,
assumes a parallelism that does not exist. But now, instead of
pursuing the argument further along the same line, let me take a
somewhat different line.

If there occurs some change in an organ, say, by increase of
its size, which adapts it better to the creature's needs, it is ad-
mitted that when, as commonly happens, the use of the organ
demands the co-operation of other organs, the change in it will
generally be of no service unless the co-operative organs are
changed. If, for instance, there takes place such a modification

THE INADEQUACY OF "NATURAL SELECTIONS 23

of a rodent's tail as that which, by successive increases, produces
the trowel-shaped tail of the beaver, no advantage will be derived
unless there also take place certain modifications in the bulks and
shapes of the adjacent vertebrse and their attached muscles, as
well, probably, as in the hind limbs, enabling them to withstand
the reactions of the blows given by the tail. And the question is,
by what process these many parts, changed in different degrees,
are co-adapted to the new requirements — whether variation and
natural selection alone can effect the readjustment. There are
three conceivable ways in which the parts may simultaneously
change: (1) they may all increase or decrease together in like
degrees ; (2) they may all simultaneously increase or decrease in-
dependently, so as not to maintain their previous proportions or
assume any other special proportions ; (3) they may vary in such
ways and degrees as to make them jointly serviceable for the new
end. Let us consider closely these several conceivabilities.

And first of all, what are we to understand by co-operative
parts ? In a general sense, all the organs of the body are co-
operative parts, and are respectively liable to be more or less
changed by change in any one. In a narrower sense, more directly
relevant to the argument, we may, if we choose to multiply diffi-
culties, take the entire framework of bones and muscles as formed
of co-operative parts; for these are so related that any consider-
able change in the actions of some entails change in the actions of
most others. It needs only to observe how, when putting out an
effort, there goes, along with a deep breath, an expansion of the
chest and a bracing up of the abdomen, to see that various muscles
beyond those directly concerned are strained along with them.
Or, when suffering from lumbago, an effort to lift a chair will
cause an acute consciousness that not the arms only are brought
into action, but also the muscles of the back. These cases show
how the motor organs are so tied together that altered actions of
some implicate others quite remote from them.

But without using the advantage which this interpretation of
the words would give, let us take as co-operative organs those
which are obviously such — the organs of locomotion. What, then,
shall we say of the fore and hind limbs of terrestrial mammals,
which co-operate closely and perpetually ? Do they vary together ?
If so, how have there been produced such contrasted structures as
that of the kangaroo, with its large hind limbs and small fore
limbs, and that of the giraffe, in which the hind limbs are small
and the fore limbs large — how does it happen that, descending
from the same primitive mammal, these creatures have diverged
in the proportions of their limbs in opposite directions ? Take,
again, the articulate animals. Compare one of the lower types,
with its rows of almost equal-sized limbs, and one of the higher

24 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

types, as a crab or a lobster, with limbs some very small and some
very large. How came this contrast to arise in the course of evo-
lution, if there was the equality of variation supposed ?

But now let us narrow the meaning of the phrase still further ;
giving it a more favorable interpretation. Instead of considering
separate limbs as co-operative, let us consider the component parts
of the same limb as co-operative, and ask what would result from
varying together. It would in that case happen that, though the
fore and hind limbs of a mammal might become different in' their
sizes, they would not become different in their structures. If so,
how have there arisen the unlikeness between the hind legs of the
kangaroo and those of the elephant ? Or if this comparison is
objected to, because the creatures belong to the widely different
divisions of implacental and placental mammals, take the cases of
the rabbit and the elephant, both belonging to the last division.
On the hypothesis of evolution these are both derived from the
same original form, but the proportions of the parts have become
so widely unlike that the corresponding joints are scarcely recog-
nized as such by the unobservant: at what seem corresponding
places the legs bend in opposite ways. Equally marked, or more
marked, is the parallel fact among the Articulata. Take that limb
of the lobster which bears the claw and compare it with the cor-
responding limb in an inferior articulate animal, or the corre-
sponding limb of its near ally, the crayfish, and it becomes obvious
that the component segments of the limb have come to bear to one
another in the one case proportions immensely different from those
they bear in the other case. Undeniably, then, on contemplating
the general facts of organic structure, we see that the concomitant
variations in the parts of limbs have not been of a kind to produce
equal amounts 'of change in them, but quite the opposite — have
been everywhere producing inequalities. Moreover, we are re-
minded that this production of inequalities among co-operative
parts, is an essential principle of development. Had it not been
so, there could not have been that progress from homogeneity of
structure to heterogeneity of structure which constitutes evolution.

We pass now to the second supposition : — that the variations
in co-operative parts occur irregularly, or in such independent
' ways that they bear no definite relations to one another — miscel-
laneously, let us say. This is the supposition which best corre-
sponds with the facts. Glances at the faces around yield conspic-
uous proofs. Many of the muscles of the face and some of the
bones, are distinctly co-operative ; and these respectively vary in
such ways as to produce in each person a different combination.
What we see in the face we have reason to believe holds in the
limbs as in all other parts. Indeed, it needs but to compare people
whose arms are of the same lengths, and observe how stumpy are

tqc

THE INADEQUACY OF "NATURAL SELECTION." 25

the fingers of one and how slender those of another ; or it needs
but to note the unlikeness of gait of passers-by, implying small
unlikenesses of structure; to be convinced that the relations
among the variations of co-operative parts are anything but fixed.
And now, confining our attention to limbs, let us consider what
must happen if, by variations taking place miscellaneously, limbs
have to be partially changed from fitness for one function to fitness
for another function — have to be re-adapted. That the reader
may fully comprehend the argument, he must here have patience
while a good many anatomical details are. set down.

Let us suppose a species of quadruped of which the members
have for long past periods been accustomed to locomotion over a
relatively even surface, as, for instance, the "prairie dogs" of
North America ; and let us suppose that increase of numbers has
driven part of them into a region full of obstacles to easy locomo-
tion— covered, say, by the decaying stems of fallen trees, such as
one sees in portions of primeval forest. Ability to leap must be-
come a useful trait ; and, according to the hypothesis we are con-
sidering, this ability will be produced by the selection of favor-
able variations. What are the variations required ? A leap is
effected chiefly by the bending of the hind limbs so as to make
sharp angles at the joints, and then suddenly straightening them ;
as any one may see on watching a cat leap on to the table. The
first required change, then, is increase of the large extensor mus-
cles, by which the hind limbs are straightened. Their increases
must be duly proportioned, for if those which straighten one
joint become much stronger than those which straighten the
other joint, the result must be collapse of the other joint when
the muscles are contracted together. But let us make a large
admission, and suppose these muscles to vary together; what
further muscular change is next required ? In a plantigrade
mammal the metatarsal bones chiefly bear the reaction of the
leap, though the toes may have a share. In a digitigrade mam-
mal, however, the toes form almost exclusively the fulcrum, and
if they are to bear the reaction of a higher leap, the flexor mus-
cles which depress and bend them must be proportionately en-
larged ; if not, the leap will fail from want of a firm point d'appui.
Tendons as well as muscles must be modified ; and, among others,
the many tendons which go to the digits and their phalanges.
Stronger muscles and tendons imply greater strains on the joints ;
and unless these are strengthened, one or other dislocation will be
caused by a more powerful spring. Not only the articulations
themselves must be so modified as to bear greater stress, but also
the numerous ligaments which hold the parts of each in place.
Nor can the bodies of the bones remain unstrengthened ; for if
they have no more than the strengths needed for previous move-

VOL. XLIII. — 3

26 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

merits they will fail to bear more violent movements. Tims, say-
ing nothing of the required changes in the pelvis as well as in the
nerves and blood-vessels, there are, counting bones, muscles, ten-
dons, ligaments, at least fifty different parts in each hind leg
which have to be enlarged. Moreover, they have to be enlarged
in unlike degrees. The muscles and tendons of the outer toes, for
example, need not be added to so much as those of the median
toes. Now, throughout their successive stages of growth, all
these parts have to be kept fairly well balanced ; as any one may
infer on remembering sundry of the accidents he has known.
Among my own friends I could name one who, when playing
lawn-tennis, snapped the Achilles tendon; another who, while
swinging his children, tore some of the muscular fibers in the calf
of his leg ; another who, in getting over a fence, tore a ligament
of one knee. Such facts, joined with every one's experience of
sprains, show that during the extreme exertions to which limbs
are now and then subject, there is a giving way of parts not quite
up to the required level of strength. How, then, is this balance
to be maintained ? Suppose the extensor muscles have all varied
appropriately ; their variations are useless unless the other co-
operative parts have also varied appropriately. Worse than this.
Saying nothing of the disadvantage caused by extra weight and
cost of nutrition, they will be causes of mischief — causes of de-
rangement to the rest by contracting with undue force. And
then, how long will it take for the rest to be brought into adjust-
ment ? As Mr. Darwin says concerning domestic. animals: "Any
particular variation would generally be lost by crossing, rever-
sions etc., . . . unless carefully preserved by man." In a state
of nature, then, favorable variations of these muscles would dis-
appear again long before one or a few of the co-operative parts
could be appropriately varied, much more before all of them
could.

With this insurmountable difficulty goes a difficulty still more
insurmountable — if the expression may be allowed. It is not a
question of increased sizes of parts only, but of altered shapes of
parts, too. A glance at the skeletons of mammals shows how un-
like are the forms of the corresponding bones of their limbs ; and
shows that they have been severally remolded in each species to
the different requirements entailed by its different habits. The
change from the structures of hind limbs fitted only for walking
and trotting to hind limbs fitted also for leaping, implies, there-
fore, that along with strengthenings of bones there must go alter-
ations in their forms. Now the spontaneous alterations of form
which may take place in any bone are countless. How long, then,
will it be before there takes place that particular alteration which
will make the bone fitter for its new action ? And what is the

THE INADEQUACY OF "NATURAL SELECTIONS 27

probability that the many required changes of shape, as well as
of size, in bones will each of them be effected before all the others
are lost again ? If the probabilities against success are incalcu-
lable, when we take account only of changes in the size of parts,
what shall we say of their incalculableness when differences of
form also are taken into account ?

" Surely this piling up of difficulties has gone far enough " ; the
reader will be inclined to say. By no means. There is a difficulty
immeasurably transcending those named. We have thus far
omitted the second half of the leap, and the provisions to be made
for it. After ascent of the animaFs body comes descent ; and the
greater the force with which it is projected up, the greater is the
force with which it comes down. Hence, if the supposed creature
has undergone such changes in the hind limbs as will enable
them to propel it to a greater height, without having undergone
any changes in the fore limbs, the result will be that on its de-
scent the fore limbs will give way, and it will come down on its
nose. The fore limbs, then, have to be changed simultaneously
with the hind. How changed ? Contrast the markedly bent hind
limbs of a cat with its almost straight fore limbs, or contrast the
silence of the upward spring on to the table with the thud which
the fore paws make as it jumps off the table. See how unlike the
actions of the hind and fore limbs are, and how unlike their
structures. In what way, then, is the required co-adaptation to
be effected ? Even were it a question of relative sizes only, there
would be no answer ; for facts already given show that we may
not assume simultaneous increases of size to take place in the hind
and fore limbs ; and, indeed, a glance at the various human races,
which differ considerably in the ratios of their legs to their arms,
shows us this. But it is not simply a question of sizes. To bear
the increased shock of descent the fore limbs must be changed
throughout in their structures. Like those in the hind limb, the
changes must be of many parts in many proportions ; and they
must be both in sizes and in shapes. More than this. The scapu-
lar arch and its attached muscles must also be strengthened and
remolded. See, then, the total requirements. We must suppose
that by natural selection of miscellaneous variations, the parts of
the hind limbs shall be co-adapted to one another, in sizes, shapes,
and ratios ; that those of the fore limbs shall undergo co-adapta-
tions similar in their complexity, but dissimilar in their kinds ;
and that the two sets of co-adaptations shall be effected pari
passu. If, as may be held, the probabilities are millions to one
against the first set of changes being achieved, then it may be
held that the probabilities are billions to one against the second
being simultaneously achieved, in progressive adjustment to the
first.

V /

28 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

There remains only to notice the third conceivable mode of
adjustment. It may be imagined that though, by the natural
selection of miscellaneous variations, these adjustments can not
be effected, they may nevertheless be made to take place appro-
priately. How made ? To suppose them so made is to suppose
that the prescribed end is somewhere recognized ; and that the
changes are step by step simultaneously proportioned for achiev-
ing it — is to suppose a designed production of these changes. In
such case, then, we have to fall back in part upon the primi-
tive hypothesis ; and if we do this in part, we may as well do it
wholly — may as well avowedly return to the doctrine of special
creation.

What, then, is the only defensible interpretation ? If such
modifications of structure produced by modifications of function
as we see take place in each individual, are in any measure trans-
missible to descendants, then all these co-adaptations, from the
simplest up to the most complex, are accounted for. In some
cases this inheritance of acquired characters suffices by itself to
explain the facts ; and in other cases it suffices when taken in com-
bination with the selection of favorable variations. An example
of the first class is furnished by the change just considered ; and
an example of the second class is furnished by the case before
named of development in a deer's horns. If, by some extra mass-
iveness spontaneously arising, or by formation of an additional
" point," an advantage is gained either for attack or defense, then,
if the increased muscularity and strengthened structure of the
neck and thorax, which wielding of these somewhat heavier horns
produces, are in a greater or less degree inherited, and in several
successive generations, are by this process brought up to the re-
quired extra strength, it becomes possible and advantageous for a
further increase of the horns to take place, and a further increase
in the apparatus for wielding them, and so on continuously. By
such processes only, in which each part gains strength in propor-
tion to function, can co-operative parts be kept in adjustment,
and be readjusted to meet new requirements. Close contempla-
tion of the facts impresses me more strongly than ever with the
two alternatives — either there has been inheritance of acquired
characters, or there has been no evolution. — Contemporary Review.

[To be concluded.']

IN his work on Burma and Farther India, General A. It. MacMahon, ex-
Political Resident, expresses the opinion that the caste restriction on social inter-
course, the absence of which in Burma gives occasion for much pleasant inti-
macy with Europeans, has preserved the natives of India from many evils— the
result of a too sudden introduction to European ways and habits to which the
Burmese succumb.

EVIDENCES OF GLACIAL MAN IN OHIO. 29

EVIDENCES OF GLACIAL MAN IN OHIO.

BY PROF. G. FREDERICK WRIGHT.

THE recent sweeping denials by Mr. W. H. Holmes, of the
Bureau of Ethnology, respecting the validity of the evidence
upon which the existence of glacial man in America has been so
generally accepted makes it necessary to present the facts in
greater detail than has heretofore been done. It seems that Mr.
Holmes has been himself looking for palaeolithic implements in
undisturbed gravel of glacial age for two or three years, but has
not found any ; and that he has discovered that the Indians had
quarries and workshops in various places where they threw aside
great piles of partially wrought and rejected implements which
were of such shape as not to be readily available for their pur-
poses, and which had a faint resemblance to palaeolithic imple-
ments. In view of these experiences Mr. Holmes has come to the
conclusion, first, that all the so-called palaeolithic implements
which have been found by Dr. C. C. Abbott and others in America
are simply " rejects " ; and, secondly, that nobody in America has
found any implements iri undisturbed gravel of glacial age. In
Science for January 20, 1892, he uses the following language : " If
there was, as is claimed, an ice-age man, or at any rate a palaeo-
lithic man, in eastern America, the evidence so far collected in
support of these propositions is so unsatisfactory and in such a
state of utter chaos that the investigation must practically begin
anew."

The best answer which I can give to this sweeping denial will
be to present, with illustrations, the details concerning a single
discovery in Ohio with which I am familiar, namely, that at New-
comerstown. But, to get the full significance of this discovery,
and the cumulative value of the evidence afforded by it, a brief
statement of other discoveries must be made.

The evidence naturally begins with that at Trenton, N. J.,
where Dr. C. C. Abbott has been so long at work. Dr. Abbott,
it is true, is not a professional geologist, but his familiarity with
the gravel at Trenton, where he resides, the exceptional oppor-
tunities afforded to him for investigation, and the frequent visits
of geologists have made him an expert whose opinion is of the
highest value upon the question of the undisturbed character of
the gravel deposit. The gravel banks which he has examined so
long and so carefully have been extensively exposed by the
undermining of floods on the river-side, but principally by the
excavations which have been made by the railroad and by private
parties in search of gravel. For years the railroads had been at
work digging away the side of the banks until they had removed

3o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

a great many acres of the gravel to a depth of twenty or twenty-
five feet. Any one can see that in such conditions there has been
no chance for " creep " or landslides to have disturbed the strati-
fication ; for the whole area was full of gravel, and there was no
chance of disturbance by natural causes. Now, Dr. Abbott's tes-
timony is that up to the year 1888 sixty of the four hundred palaeo-
lithic implements which he had found at Trenton had been found
at recorded depths in the gravel. Coming down to specifications,
he describes in his reports the discovery of one (see Primitive
Industry, page 492) found while watching the progress of an ex-

FIG. 1. — SECTION OF THE TRENTON GRAVEL, IN WHICH THE IMPLEMENTS DESCRIBED IN THE
TEXT ARE FOUND. The shelf on which the man stands is made in process of excavation.
The gravel is the same above and below. (Photograph by Abbott.)

tensive excavation in Centre Street, which was nearly seven feet
below the surface, surrounded by a mass of large cobble-stones
and bowlders, one of the latter overlying it. Another was found
at the bluff at Trenton, in a narrow gorge where the material
forming the sides of the chasm had not been displaced, under a
large bowlder nine feet below the surface (ibid., page 496). An-
other was found in a perpendicular exposure of the bluff imme-
diately after the detachment of a large mass of material, and in a
surface that had but the day before been exposed, and had not

EVIDENCES OF GLACIAL MAN IN OHIO. 31

yet begun to crumble. The specimen was twenty-one feet from
the surface of the ground.

In all these and numerous other cases Dr. Abbott's attention
was specially directed to the question of the undisturbed char-
acter of the gravel, he having been cautioned upon this point in
the early part of his investigations.

Here it is proper to premise that the apparent monopoly of
this evidence by Prof. Putnam and his associates in the Peabody
Museum at Cambridge, Mass., has come about by a legitimate
and natural process, which at the same time has probably inter-
fered to a considerable extent with the general spread of the
specific information in hand. Early in the investigations at Tren-
ton, Prof. Putnam, who had lately become curator of the museum,
with its large fund for prosecuting investigations, satisfied him-
self of the genuineness of Dr. Abbott's discoveries, and at once
retained him as an assistant in the work of the museum, thus
diverting to Cambridge all his discoveries at Trenton. Living on
the ground during long-continued and extensive excavations made
by the railroad, Dr. Abbott's opportunities were exceptionally
favorable ; hence his own prominence in the whole matter.

It is important also to note that, before taking up with Dr.
Abbott's work, Prof. Putnam took ample pains to satisfy himself

FIG. 2. — SECTION ACROSS THE DELAWARE EIVER AT TRENTON, N. J. : a, a, Philadelphia red
gravel and brick clay (McGee's Columbia deposit) ; i, 6, Trenton gravel, in which the im-
plements are found ; c, present flood plain of the Delaware River (after Lewis). (From
Abbott's Primitive Industry.)

of its character and correctness. In 1878 Prof. J. D. Whitney
visited Trenton in company with Mr. Carr, assistant curator of
the museum. In the Twelfth Annual Report Mr. Carr writes :
" We were fortunate enough to find several of these implements
in place. Prof. Whitney has no doubt as to the antiquity of the
drift, and we are both in full accord with Dr. Abbott as to the
artificial character of many of these implements." In reporting
further upon this instance at the meeting of the Boston Society
of Natural History, on January 19, 1881, Mr. Carr states that the
circumstances were such that " it [i. e., one of the particular im-
plements] must have been deposited at the time the containing
bed was laid down." In 1879, and again in 1880, Prof. Putnam
spent some time at Trenton, and succeeded in finding with his
own hands " five unquestionable palaeolithic implements from the
gravel, at various depths and at different points." One of these
was four feet below the surface soil and one foot in from the per-
pendicular face which had just been exposed, and where it was

32 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

clear that the gravel had not been disturbed. A second one was
eight feet below the surface. (Proc. Boston Soc. of Nat. Hist, for
January 19, 1881.)

As confirming the entire trustworthiness of Dr. Abbott's ob-
servations, it is to be noted that, with a single exception, all the
implements reported below the loam which constitutes the sur-
face soil are of argillite, while those upon the surface, which are
innumerable, are chiefly of a different type, made from flint and
jasper, or of other material of related character. Another fact,
which has always had great weight in my own mind, is one men-
tioned by the late Prof. Carvill Lewis, in his chapter upon the
subject at the end of Dr. Abbott's volume on Primitive Industry.
I have the more reason to feel the force of his conclusions, be-
cause the proof-sheets passed through Lewis's hands at the time
we were together conducting the survey in Pennsylvania, soon
after we had visited the deposits in question. The fact was this :
Prof. Lewis had been at work for a considerable time in classify-
ing and mapping the gravels in the Delaware Valley, being all the
while in ignorance of Dr. Abbott's work until his own results
were definitely formulated. But, after he had accurately deter-
mined the boundary between the glacial gravels and the far older
gravels which surround them and spread over a considerable por-
tion of the territory beyond, he found that the localities where
Mr. Carr, Prof. Putnam, and Dr. Abbott had reported finding
their implements in undisturbed gravel, all fell within the limits
of the glacial gravels, and had in no case been put outside of
those limits. Now, Dr. Abbott's house is situated upon the older
gravel ; but at the time of most of his discoveries he had not
learned to distinguish the one gravel from the other. If these
implements are all from the surface and had been commingled
with lower strata by excavations, landslides, or windfalls, there is
no reason why they should not have been found in the older
gravels as well as in those of glacial age. There is here a coin-
cidence which is strongly confirmatory of the correctness of our
conclusion that there is no mistake in believing that the imple-
ments were originally deposited with the gravel where they were
found.

Such was the progress of discovery at the time when I began
my special investigations upon the glacial boundary in Ohio, and
of the glacial terraces there corresponding in age with that at
Trenton. To the similarity of conditions along these streams I
promptly called attention in 1883, pointing out various places in
Ohio where it would be profitable for local observers to be upon
the lookout for such evidences of glacial man as had been discov-
ered by Dr. Abbott. The first response to this came from Dr. C.
L. Metz, of Madisonville, on the Little Miami River, in southern

EVIDENCES OF GLACIAL MAN IN OHIO.

33

Ohio. Dr. Metz is a physician of large practice, of high char-
acter, and of long experience as an assistant of Prof. Putnam in
exploring the mounds of Ohio. He knows the difference between
disturbed and undisturbed gravel as perfectly as any one does.
His residence is upon the glacial terrace which borders the Little
Miami Valley. In 1885, while digging a cistern in this terrace, a
perfectly formed implement of black chert was found by him in
undisturbed gravel eight feet below the surface. This was ex-
hibited by Prof. Putnam at a meeting of the Boston Society of
Natural History, on the 4th of November, 1885, and is No. 40,970
in the Peabody Museum. Two other implements were discovered
at a later time by Dr. Metz in the talus of the glacial terrace of
the Little Miami, at Loveland, where also numerous bones of the

FIG. 3. — CHIPPED PEBBLE OF BLACK CHERT, found by Dr. C. L. Metz, October, 1885, at
Madison ville, Ohio, in gravel eight feet from surface under clay : a, face view ; ft, side
view. Natural size.

mammoth were found. But, as these were not in place when dis-
covered, they can not be adduced as positive evidence.

The discovery at Newcomerstown, of which Messrs. Holmes,
Brinton, and McGee speak so lightly because they do not know
the facts, is really one of the best attested of all the single cases.
The discovery was made in 1889 by Mr. W. C. Mills. The imple-
ment has been presented to the Western Reserve Historical Soci-
ety of Cleveland, and can there be seen at any time in company
with various implements from France. A photogravure from it
appears in the smaller figure in the following cut.

The discovery of the implement was made in October, but it
was not brought to public notice until the next spring, when I
chanced to meet Mr. Mills and learned about it. He then for-

34

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

warded it to me, when its exact resemblance in form and finish-
ing to an implement which I have in my own collection, that was
obtained by Dr. Evans, of London, at Amiens, France, greatly im-
pressed me. I forwarded it immediately to Prof. H. W. Haynes,

A .

FIG. 4. — THE SMALLER is THE PAL^OLITH FKOM NEWCOMERSTOWN, THE LARGER FROM AMIENS,
FRANCE (face view). Keduced one half in diameter.

of Boston, whose expert judgment is second to that of no other
person in America, or indeed of the world. Prof. Haynes ex-
hibited it at the meeting of the Boston Society of Natural History
on May 7, 1890, and his account was published in the Proceedings
of that evening. In conclusion, after having enumerated its dis-
tinctive characteristics, he said, " I desire to express most emphat-
ically my belief in the genuineness and age of this Newcomers-
town implement, as well as to call attention to the close resem-
blance in all particulars which it bears to these unquestioned
palseolithic implements [which he exhibited beside it] of the Old
World." This implement is not a " reject," but is a finished im-
plement, with the secondary chippings all around the edge. The

EVIDENCES OF GLACIAL MAN IN OHIO.

35

cuts, reproduced from photographs, perfect as they are, by no
means do it justice.

I promptly gave an account of this discovery in The Nation, in
its issue for April 24, 1890, and repeated it in substance with some
additional particulars on page 620 of the third edition of my
volume on The Ice Age in North America. This account was
also reprinted in The Popular Science Monthly, Volume XXXIX,
pages 314 to 319. The account in my later volume, on Man and
the Glacial Period, is still more condensed. The more detailed
evidence is published in Tract No. 75 of the Western Reserve His-
torical Society, Cleveland, Ohio, containing the report of the meet-

Fio. 5. — EDGE VIEW OF THE PRECEDING.

ing when Mr. Mills was present and gave his own testimony.
This was held December 12, 1890.

The facts are these : There is a glacial gravel terrace in New-
comerstown at the mouth of Buckhorn Creek, where it enters the
larger valley of the Tuscarawas River. There can be no question
about the glacial age of this terrace. It is continuous up the

36

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

river to the terminal moraine. Its surface is about thirty-five
feet above the flood-plain of the Tuscarawas ; it consists of strati-
fied material, containing many granitic pebbles and much gra-
nitic gravel. The deposit at Newcomerstown extends over many
acres, having been protected from erosion in the recess at the

FIG. 6.

mouth of Buckhorn Creek. Through the middle of this deposit
the railroad had cut its road-bed, and for years has been appro-
priating the gravel for ballast.

Mr. Mills is an educated business man, who had been a pupil
in geology of Prof. Orton, of the State University, and had with
him done considerable field-work in geology. Mr. Mills's charac-
ter and reputation are entirely above suspicion. In addition to
his business he took a laudable interest in the collection of Indian
relics, and had in his office thousands of flint implements, col-
lected by him and his associates in the vicinity, who had been
organized into an archaeological society. His office was but a
short distance from the gravel pit from which I have said the

EVIDENCES OF GLACIAL MAN IN OHIO. 37

railroad had been for so many years obtaining ballast. The per-
pendicular face of this bank of gravel as it was exposed from time
to time by the excavations of the railroad men was frequently
examined by Mr. Mills, not with special reference to finding im-
plements, for that thought had not entered his rnind, but for the
sake of obtaining specimens of coral, which occasionally occurred
in the gravel. While engaged in one of these rounds, on the 27th
of October, 1S89, he found this specimen projecting from a fresh
exposure of the perpendicular bank, fifteen feet below the sur-
face, and, according to his custom, recorded the facts at the time
in his note-book. There was no lack of discrimination in his ob-
servations, or of distinctness in his memory.

The accompanying illustration from a photograph taken six
months after the discovery, and when a talus consequent upon
the frosts of winter had accumulated to a considerable extent at

FIG. 7. — '

FERRACE IN NEWCOMERSTOWN, SHOWING WHERE W. <?. MILLS FOUND A PAI.JDO
LITHIC IMPLEMENT.

the base of the deposit, shows the spot in the bank from which
the implement was taken. In looking for objects of his quest,
Mr. Mills thrust in his cane into the coarser gravel which is seen
to overlie the finer deposits. This resulted in detaching a large
mass about six feet long and two feet wide, which fell down at his

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

— Sand, >/a foot.

feet. It was in the face of the bank behind this mass that Mr.

Mills's eye, so long trained for the detection of artificially chipped

flints, discovered the implement under consideration, which he

removed with his own hands, and placed in his collection, with

little thought at the time

of the significance attach- r^~^^

ing to the position in m* — Soil, s to « feet.

which it was found. The

accompanying map of the

vicinity and drawing of

the bank were made by

Mr. Mills at the time of

our visit, and furnish,

with the photograph, all

the additional informa- -.^-~_~— — — — 1 gand

tion necessary.

There is no possibility >;';;; .-. ;X • ;" ;A . ~;:: :'^3ft\
of mistake concerning the
undisturbed character of FIG. 8.

the gravel from which Mr.

Mills took the implement. All the strata were clearly exposed
and observed by him.

These facts, submitted at the meeting of the Western Reserve
Historical Society referred to, were fully detailed upon the spot

Where palseolith
was found.

FIG. 9. — Height of Terrace exposed, 25 feet. Palseolith was found 143/4 feet from surface.

to myself and a party of gentlemen, consisting of Judge C. C.
Baldwin, E. A. Angell, Esq., William Gushing, Esq., all lawyers
of eminence, and Mr. David Baldwin, who accompanied me in a

OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE DEEP SEA. 39

visit to the place on the llth of April, 1890. We had all the op-
portunity to question and cross-question that could be desired.

In conclusion, it is proper to say that the sweeping character
and the suddenness of these attacks of Mr. Holmes and his asso-
ciates upon the evidence of glacial man in America have been
somewhat bewildering. It has come like thunder from a clear
sky. One has but to go back to Mr. McGee's article in The Popu-
lar Science Monthly for November, 1888, to find an unquestioning
and enthusiastic indorsement of nearly all the facts concerning
glacial man which I have incorporated in my recent volume upon
Man and the Glacial Period, together with a number which I have
omitted, except the discovery at Newcomerstown, which had not
then been made. Had I been aware of the preparations which
these investigators were making to discredit all past observers on
the matter, I should have introduced more detailed evidence in my
summary in the volume referred to. Still, it is probably as well
that the statements were left as they are, for they are all capable
of ample proof ; and it is perhaps better for the public to be re-
ferred for details to such fuller reports as are made in this article
and in the other publications here indicated.

I submit that this evidence is neither " chaotic " nor " unsatis-
factory," but is as specific and definite and as worthy to be be-
lieved as almost anything any expert in this country, or any other
country, can be expected to produce.

GROWTH OF OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE DEEP SEA.

BY G. W. LITTLEHALES,

CHIEF OF THE DIVISION OF CHART CONSTRUCTION, UNITED STATES HYDROGRAPHIC OFFICE.

BEFORE the time of the project for the Atlantic telegraph
cable in 1854, there seemed to be no practical value attached
to a knowledge of the depths of the sea, and, beyond a few doubt-
ful results obtained for purely scientific purposes, nothing was
clearly known of bathymetry, or of the geology of the sea bottom.
The advent of submarine cables gave rise to the necessity for an
accurate knowledge of the bed of the ocean where they were laid,
and lent a stimulus to all forms of deep-sea investigation. But
although our extensive and accurate knowledge of the deep sea is
of so late an origin, the beginnings of deep-sea research date far
back into antiquity. The ancients can not be said to have had
any definite conceptions of the deep sea. Experienced mariners,
like the Phosnicians and Carthaginians, must necessarily have
possessed some knowledge of the depths of the waters with which
they were familiar, but this knowledge, whatever its extent, has

4o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

now passed away. To the writings of Aristotle, who lived during
the fourth century B. c., are credited the first bathymetric data.
He states that the Black Sea has whirlpools so deep that the lead
has never reached the bottom ; that the Black Sea is deeper than
the Sea of Azov, that the .^Egean is deeper than the Black Sea,
and that the Tyrrhenian and Sardinian Seas are deeper than all
the others. The first record of a deep-sea sounding should be
credited to Posidonius, who stated, about a century B. c., that the
sea about Sardinia had been sounded to a depth of one thousand
fathoms. No account is given of the manner in which the sound-
ing was taken, and we have no information as to the methods
employed by the ancients in these bathymetric measurements.

The opinions of the learned with respect to the greatest depth
of the sea, in the first and second centuries A. D., may be gleaned
from the writings of Plutarch and Cleomedes, the first of whom
says, " The geometers think that no mountain exceeds ten stadia
[about one geographic mile] in height, and no sea ten stadia in
depth." And the second : " Those who doubt the sphericity of the
earth on account of the hollows of the sea and the elevation of
the mountains, are mistaken. There does not, in fact, exist a
mountain higher than fifteen stadia, and that is also the depth of
the ocean."

There was no important addition to our knowledge of the deep
sea during the middle ages, and no definite attempt to provide
effective means for deep-sea sounding appears to have been made
until Mcolaus Causanus, who lived in the first half of the fifteenth
century, invented an apparatus consisting of a hollow sphere, to
which a weight was attached by means of a hook, intended to
carry the sphere down through the water with a certain velocity.
On touching the ground the weight became detached and the
sphere ascended alone. The depth was calculated from the time
the sphere was under water. This apparatus was afterward mod-
ified by Pliicher and Alberti, and, in the seventeenth century, by
Hooke, who substituted a piece of light wood well varnished over
for the hollow sphere. Hooke's instrument was no doubt fairly
accurate in shallow water, but useless in great depths, where the
enormous pressure waterlogged the wood and, by materially in-
creasing its density, greatly diminished the speed with which it
rose from the bottom. When used in currents the float was car-
ried away and the record lost.

During the period when the voyages of Columbus, Vasco da
Gama, and Magellan added a hemisphere to the chart of the world
and forever established the fundamental principles of all scientific
geography, navigators had sounding lines of one hundred and two
hundred fathoms in length, and, although they eagerly studied the
oceanic phenomena revealed at the surface, the deep sea did not

OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE DEEP SEA. 41

engage their attention. Kircher, in his Mundus Subterraneus,
gives the ideas as to the depths of the sea that were accepted
in the first half of the seventeenth century, stating that " in the
same manner as the highest mountains are grouped in the center
of the land, so also should the greatest depths be found in the
middle of the largest oceans ; near the coasts with but slight ele-
vations the depth will gradually diminish toward the shore. I
say coasts with but slight elevations, for, if the shores are sur-
rounded by high rocks, then greater depths are found. This is
proved by experience on the shores of Norway, Iceland, and the
islands of Flanders."

Several soundings were taken in deep water during the eight-
eenth century, but they were not of much value. The first at all
reliable were made by Sir John Ross during his well-known arc-
tic expedition in 1818. He brought up six pounds of mud from
1,050 fathoms in Baffin Bay, and obtained correct soundings in
1,000 fathoms in Possession Bay, finding worms and other animals
in the mud procured. Sir James Clark Ross, during his antarctic
expedition from 1839 to 1843, obtained satisfactory soundings of
2,425 and 2,677 fathoms in the South Atlantic, with a hempen cord.
He also dredged successfully in depths of 400 fathoms.

Meanwhile, about the middle of the eighteenth century, the first
definite ideas about the formation of the bottom soil began to be
advanced, although there had been speculations on the formation
of alluvial layers since the time of Herodotus. In 1725 Marsilli
made a few observations on the bathymetric knowledge then pos-
sessed concerning the nature of the bottom of the sea. He admit-
ted that the basin of the sea was excavated " at the time of the
creation out of the same stone which we see in the strata of the
earth, with the same interstices of clay to bind them together,"
and pointed out that we should not judge of the nature of the bot-
tom of the basins by the materials which seamen bring up in their
soundings. The dredgings almost always indicate a muddy bot-
tom, and very rarely a rocky one, because the latter is covered
with slime, sand, and sandy, earthy, and calcareous concretions,
and organic matter. These substances, he said, conceal the real
bottom of the sea, and have been brought there by the action of
the water. Lastly, by way of explanation, he compared the bed
of the sea to the inside of an old wine cask, which seems to be made
of dregs of tartar although it is really of wood.

Donati's studies on the bottom of the Adriatic Sea led him to
announce, about the middle of the eighteenth century, that it is
hardly different from the surface of the land, and is but a prolon-
gation of the superposed strata in the neighboring continent, the
strata themselves being in the same order. The bottom of this
sea is, according to him, covered with a layer formed by crusta-

VOL. XLIII. 1

42 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ceans, testaceans, and polyps, mixed with sand, and to a great ex-
tent petrified. This crust may be seven or eight feet deep, and he
attributed to this deposit, bound together with the remains of or-
ganisms and sedimentary mineral matter, the rising of the bot-
tom of the sea, and the encroachment of the water on the coasts.

In 1836 Ehrenberg produced the first of a long series of publi-
cations relating to microscopic organisms which distinguished him
as a naturalist of rare sagacity. He devoted the whole of his life
to the study of microscopic organisms, to the examination of ma-
terials brought up from deep-sea soundings, and to all questions
appertaining to the sea. Having discovered that the siliceous
strata known as tripoli, found in various parts of the globe, are
but accumulations of the skeletons of diatoms, sponges, and radio-
laria, and having found living diatoms and radiolaria on the sur-
face of the Baltic of the same species as those found in the Ter-
tiary deposits of Sicily, and having shown that in the diatom layers
of Bilin in Bohemia the siliceous deposit had, under the influ-
ence of infiltrated water, been transformed into compact opaline
masses, he concluded that rocks like those which play so impor-
tant a part in the terrestrial crust are still being formed on the
bottom of the sea.

The investigation of the distribution of marine animals accord-
ing to the depths of the sea may be said to have commenced in
1840 with Forbes's studies in the Mediterranean. He maintained
that the dredgings showed the existence of distinct regions at suc-
cessive depths, having each a special association of species ; and
remarks that the speciea found at the greatest depths are also
found on the coast of England — concluding, therefore, that such
species have a wider geographical distribution. He divided the
whole range of depth occupied by marine animals into eight zones,
in which animal life gradually diminished with increase of depth,
until a zero was reached at about three hundred fathoms. He
also supposed that plants, like animals, disappeared at a certain
depth, the zero of vegetable life being at a less depth than that of
animal life.

It has already been mentioned that probably the first reliable
deep-sea soundings ever made were by Sir John Ross in 1818. To
him is due the invention of the so-called deep-sea clam, by means
of which specimens of the bottom were for the first time brought
up from great depths in any quantity. This instrument was in
the form of a pair of spoon-forceps, kept apart while descending,
but closed by a falling weight on striking the bottom. Two
separate casts were usually made, one to ascertain the depth and
the other to bring up a specimen of the bottom soil.

For the development of accurate knowledge of the depths of
the sea the world will ever be indebted to the genius of Midship-

OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE DEEP SEA.

43

man Brooke, of the United States Navy, who made the first great
improvement in deep-sea sounding in 1854 by inventing a machine
in which, applying Causanus's idea of disengaging a weight at-
tached to the sounding line, the sinker was detached on striking
the bottom and left behind when the tube was drawn up. The
arrangement of the parts is shown in the
accompanying figure. When the tube B
strikes the bottom, the lines A A slack and
allow the arms C C to be pulled down by the
weight D. When these arms have reached
the positions indicated by the dotted lines,
the slings supporting the weight have
slipped off, and the tube can be hauled up,
bringing within it a specimen of the bottom.
This implement has been improved from
time to time by various officers of our own
and foreign navies by changing the manner
of slinging and detaching the sinker, and by
adding valves to the upper and lower ends
of the tube to prevent the specimen from
being washed out during the rapid ascent
which has been rendered possible by the use
of wire sounding line and steam hoisting
engines ; but in all the essential features it
is the same as the most successful modern
sounding apparatus. The impulse given to
deep-sea sounding by Brooke was seconded by the successful
adaptation of pianoforte wire to use as a sounding line, in 1872,
by Sir William Thomson ; and within recent years soundings
have been taken far and wide in all the seas by national vessels
during their cruises, by vessels engaged in laying submarine
cables, and by various specially organized expeditions, among
which that known as the Challenger Expedition, sent out by the
Government of Great Britain during the period from 1873 to 1876,
stands pre-eminent. As a result of this work many of the ques-
tions which perplexed the naturalists of the middle of the present
century have now been cleared away.

Many of the specimens of the bottom that were brought up in
the early days of deep-sea sounding were studied through the
microscopes of Ehrenberg, of Berlin, and Bailey, of West Point.
Maury, who believed that there are no currents and no life at the
bottom of the sea, wrote : " They all tell the same story. They
teach us that the quiet of the grave reigns everywhere in the
profound depths of the ocean ; that the repose there is beyond
the reach of wind ; it is so perfect that none of the powers of
earth, save only the earthquake and volcano can disturb it. The

44 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

specimens of deep-sea soundings are as pure and as free from the
sand of the sea as the snowfiake that falls when it is calm upon
the lea is from the dust of the earth. Indeed, these soundings
suggest the idea that the sea, like the snow cloud with its flakes in
a calm, is always letting fall upon its bed showers of these micro-
scopic shells; and we may readily imagine that the 'sunless
wrecks ' which strew its bottom are, in the process of ages, hid
under this fleecy covering, presenting the rounded appearance
which is seen over the body of a traveler who has perished in the
snowstorm. The ocean, especially within and near the tropics,
swarms with life. The remains of its myriads of moving things
are conveyed by currents, and scattered and lodged in the course
of time all over its bottom. The process, continued for ages, has
covered the depths of the ocean as with a mantle, consisting of
organisms as delicate as the macled frost and as light as the un-
drifted snowflake of the mountain."

Maury was right in respect to the covering of the bed of the
deep sea, for, as a result of all our researches, it is found that in
waters removed from the land and more than fourteen hundred
fathoms in depth there is an almost unbroken layer of pteropod,
globigerina, diatom, and radiolarian oozes, and red clay which
occupies nearly 115,000,000 of the 143,000,000 square miles of the
water surface of the globe. But he was wrong in asserting that
low temperature, pressure, and the absence of light preclude the
possibility of life in very deep water.

Ehrenberg held the opposite opinion with regard to the condi-
tions of life at the bottom of the sea, as may be seen from the fol-
lowing extract from a letter which he wrote to Maury in 1857 :
" The other argument for life in the deep which I have established
is the surprising quantity of new forms which are wanting in
other parts of the sea. If the bottom were nothing but the sedi-
ment of the troubled sea, like the fall of snow in the air, and if
the biolithic curves of the bottom were nothing else than the prod-
uct of the currents of the sea which heap up the flakes, similarly
to the glaciers, there would necessarily be much less of unknown
and peculiar forms in the depths. The surface and the borders of
the sea are much more productive and much more extended than
the depths ; hence the forms peculiar to the depths should not be
perceived. The great quantity of peculiar forms and of soft bodies
existing in the innumerable carapaces, accompanied by the obser-
vation of the number of unknowns, increasing with the depth —
these are the arguments which seem to me to hold firmly to the
opinion of stationary life at the bottom of the deep sea."

It would appear to have been definitely established by the re-
searches of the last fifty years that life in some of its many forms
is universally distributed throughout the ocean. Not only in the

OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE DEEP SEA. 45

shallower waters near coasts, but even in the greater depths of all
oceans, animal life is exceedingly abundant. A trawling in a
depth of over a mile yielded two hundred specimens of animals be-
longing to seventy-nine species and fifty-five genera. A trawling
in a depth of about three miles yielded over fifty specimens be-
longing to twenty-seven species and twenty-five genera. Even in
depths of four miles fishes and animals belonging to all the chief
invertebrate groups have been procured, and in a sample of ooze
from nearly five miles and a quarter there was evidence to the
naturalists of the Challenger that living creatures could exist at
that depth.

Recent oceanographic researches have also established beyond
doubt that while in great depths the water is not subjected to the
influence of superficial movements like waves, tides, and swift
currents, there is an extremely slow movement, in striking con-
trast with the agitation of the surface water. Although the
movement at the bottom is so slow that the ordinary means of
measuring currents can not be applied accurately to them, the
thermometer furnishes an indirect means of ascertaining their ex-
istence. Water is a very bad conductor of heat, and consequently
a body of water at a given temperature passing into a region
where the temperature conditions are different retains for a long
time, and without much change, its original temperature. To
illustrate: The bottom temperature near Fernando do Noronha,
almost under the equator, is 0'2° C., or close upon the freezing
point ; it is obvious that this temperature was not acquired at the
equator, where the mean annual temperature of the surface layer
of the water is 21° C., and the mean normal temperature of the
crust of the earth not lower than 8° C. The water must therefore
have come from a place where the conditions were such as to give
it a freezing temperature ; and not only must it have come from
such a place, but the supply must be continually renewed, how-
ever slowly, for otherwise its temperature would gradually rise by
conduction and mixture. Across the whole of the North Atlantic
the bottom temperature is considerably higher, so that the cold
water can not be coming from that direction; on the other hand,
we can trace a band of water at a like temperature at nearly the
same depth continuously to the Antarctic Sea, where the condi-
tions are normally such as to impart to it this low temperature.
There seems, therefore, to be no doubt that there is a current
from the antarctic to the equator along the bottom of the South
Atlantic.

From the millions of reliable deep-sea soundings that have
been made during the last forty years the more general features
of the bathymetric chart of the world have been firmly estab-
lished ; and the ancient idea, derived chiefly from a supposed

46

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

physical relation, that the depths of the sea are about equal to
the heights of the mountains, has given place to exact notions as
to the depths as well as the heights.

The greatest known depths that have been reliably sounded in
the different oceans are given in the following list :

Latitude.

Longitude.

Depth in
fathoms.

North Atlantic Ocean

19° 39' N.

66° 26' W.

4,561

19° 65' S.

24° 50' W.

3,284

North Sea (Skagerack)

58° 12' N.

9° 30' E.

442

Baltic Sea

58° 37' N.

18° 30' E.

233

Mediterranean Sea . . \ .

35° 45' N.

21° 46' E.

2,405

Black Sea

42° 55' N

33° 18' E.

1,431

19° 0' N.

81° 10' W.

3,427

11° 22' S.

116° 50' E.

3,393

North Pacific Ocean

44° 55' N.

152° 26' E.

4,655

South Pacific Ocean

24° 37' S.

175° 08' W.

4,428

Bering Sea

54° 30' N

175° 32' W

2,146

Sea of Japan

38° 30' N

135° 0' N

1 640

China Sea

17° 15' N.

118° 50' E.

2,350

Sulu Sea .

8° 32' N.

121° 55' E.

2,549

Celebes Sea

4° 16' N

124° 02' E.

2,794

Banda Sea

5° 24' S

130° 37' E

2,799

Flores Sea

7° 43' S.

120° 26' E.

2,799

Arctic Ocean

78° 05' N.

2° 30' W.

2,469

Antarctic Ocean

62° 26' S

95° 44' E.

1,975

THE CULTIVATION OF HUMANE IDEAS AND
FEELINGS.*

BY PROF. WESLEY MILLS, M. A., M. D.,

MC GILL UNIVERSITY, MONTREAL.

THE main object of every society for the prevention of cruelty
to animals I take to be the establishment of right feelings
toward our speechless fellow- creatures. But feeling, to be correct,
strong, and abiding, must be based on sound conceptions of the
nature of that toward which it is exercised. So long as any indi-
vidual believes that another wishes to injure him, so long will he
find it most difficult to entertain kindly feelings toward the man
that he deems his enemy ; but let it appear that he has entirely
misunderstood the motive and actions of the individual in ques-
tion— that instead of an enemy he proves to be a friend — and the
whole current of feeling is changed. Thus would it be, in my
opinion, with thousands of people if they could be made to see
animals in their true light.

Glancing at historical and national views of animal life, we
find at all periods widely different conceptions, and consequently

* An Address before the American Humane Association, Philadelphia, October 27, 1892.

HUMANE IDEAS AND FEELINGS. 47

feelings, in regard to some of our domestic animals. A certain
animal regarded as a fit subject for contempt by some peoples has
been an object of worship, or something akin to it, by others ;
hence it is not surprising that the lot of such animals has been
very different in some parts of the world as compared with others.
To illustrate this we need go no further than the universally dis-
tributed dog and cat. In the East the dog is rarely other than
a homeless, despised outcast. In Europe generally he is a mem-
ber of the family. But it is to Great Britain especially that we
look to find all our domestic animals in the highest perfection,
and cherished with feelings of peculiar regard. In Britain it is
contrary to law to hitch a dog, however large and strong, to a cart
to draw even a small child, while in Germany dogs may be seen
used as beasts of burden in all the large cities. In no part of the
world are the good qualities of dogs so appreciated and valued as
in Great Britain ; hence it is not at all inexplicable that cruelty
to the dog and other animals is there comparatively rare.

It may safely be said that never before in civilized countries
were animals — and especially our domestic animals — treated so
well, because never before were they so thoroughly understood.
To what is this to be attributed ? Not alone to the spread of kind-
lier feelings and better principles generally, but largely to the
advance of science. There was a time, well within the recollec-
tion of persons not yet old, when man, we were told by those to
whom we looked for light and guidance, stood utterly apart from
all else in the universe as the one being in whom the Creator
specially, and we might say solely, delighted, and for whose benefit
every other object, animate and inanimate, existed. How natu-
ral, then, for man to believe that animals, as such, had few if any
rights !

The one test to which many persons naturally enough brought
every animal was just this : Is the creature of any use whatever
to man ? If not, then it was held that it simply cumbered the
ground. People, it is true, admitted that man was an animal ; but
they did not realize what this expression meant, or did not accept
it in its full significance. To them man was an " animal," but not
like the others. He was too exalted to have any more than the
common principle of life. Men could not realize then as now that
mind and body are so closely related that for every mental process
there must be a corresponding physical correlative. But this once
being admitted it became possible to understand that animals be-
low man may have minds whose processes are akin to ours. The
question then became, not have animals minds, but what sort of
minds. Wherein does animal intelligence in the widest sense dif-
fer from human intelligence ? As soon as man himself became
better understood it was plain that his feelings were, on certain

48 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

planes, parallel with groups of animals much lower in the scale
generally. To them pleasures and pains were just as real as they
were similar to those of human beings.

I suggest that these most important advances are owing chiefly
to the progress and the diffusion of scientific knowledge and the
scientific spirit. The doctrine of organic evolution published by
Darwin over thirty years ago at once offered to man a broader
kinship than he had previously been able to comprehend. In my
opinion the importance of this conception will, for a right under-
standing of the relations of man and other animals, outweigh
all others, because it will bring us to see that, with a common
origin, there must always remain numerous similarities of nature.

But, without taking advantage of the doctrine of evolution, it
has become apparent that the claim for man of a nature entirely
distinct and different from that of other forms of life is baseless.
Gradually, from many different quarters, this conception of simi-
larity of nature is spreading among the masses ; and the friend
of animals can not do better than encourage people to dwell upon
the resemblances rather than the differences between the highest
.and the lower grades of animal life. It will be readily perceived,
then, that my conviction is that we shall best advance the cause we
have at heart — the humane treatment of our animals — by spread-
ing sound views of their nature, and in that keeping prominent
the resemblances to man rather than the differences from him,
many of them questionable, at all events as to kind.

Inasmuch as science has done more than all other agencies in
dissipating man's prejudices and freeing the mind from erroneous
and enslaving views, it will be wise for all societies with a hu-
mane object to think well before in any way interfering with sci-
entific investigations of any kind. Without research the true
nature of those diseases which afflict man and the lower animals
can not be known.

With many persons dogs and hydrophobia are closely associ-
ated mentally, and I recently read an article in which the author
spoke of the dog as the " breeder of hydrophobia." The societies
will do good by publishing actual statistics and other details bear-
ing on the nature of this dreaded disease. I have also read argu-
ments for the complete extirpation of dogs based on the fact that
some sheep were worried. The plain preventive for rabies is the
proper care and management of dogs; and for sheep- worry ing,
the confinement of dogs at night, which would ~be, indeed, a
proper proceeding if no sheep existed. A roaming dog is no more
desirable than a human tramp ; but no one has advocated the
destruction of the human race to get rid of tramps. In attempt-
ing to spread sound views in regard to diseases that are common
to man and our domestic animals, such as rabies, indirectly much

HUMANE IDEAS AND FEELINGS. 49

information will be given to the public about the care of dogs,
with a view to avoiding conditions that simulate this terrible
malady. The "mad dog" of the streets is, we know, rarely rabid,
and usually only needs a little judicious and kindly assistance to
restore him to health. It is just about as reasonable to pounce on
and kill a human being that falls in an epileptic fit, as the majority
of the dogs that are attacked and killed by an excited crowd.

Above all, the public needs enlightenment regarding the true
nature of animals. When that is complete and thorough, right
feelings toward them will spring up in the larger proportion of
people. I would especially direct attention to the education of
children in and out of school on this subject. It should be held
before a child as a more cowardly thing to abuse a defenseless
animal than one of its own species. But this will not weigh much
with the child if all it hears tends to belittle the creatures by which
it is surrounded, and to exalt man beyond all measure. I should
begin with very young children by pointing to similarities of
structure and function between themselves and the family cat or
dog. They have eyes, ears, tongues, etc. ; they see, hear, taste,
feel pain, and experience pleasure just as children do ; therefore,
let us recognize their rights, avoid giving them pain, and increase
their pleasures. I strongly advocate each family having some
one animal, at least, to be brought up with the household to some
extent, whether it be bird, cat, or dog. But, on the other hand, it
seems to me to be a great mistake to introduce any animal as a
mere toy or plaything for very young children. Such a proceed-
ing rather tends to encourage cruelty.

It is of great importance for the education of the public mind
that fine specimens of animals be exhibited. All shows for our
domestic animals are worthy of encouragement as educators.
Many a person that regards the ordinary mongrel dogs of the
street with indifference, if not aversion, has his views and feelings
changed when he attends a dog show, with its numerous speci-
mens of fine, pure-bred animals ; and the same may be said of
horse, cattle, and poultry shows. The aesthetic has a very great
influence in our age. We devote a large share of our energies to
securing the gratification of our sense of the beautiful. It will
be judicious, therefore, to present the beautiful in animals to the
public. For this reason, again, exhibitions of superior specimens
of domestic animals, zoological gardens, museums, and kindred
institutions prepare the public mind to appreciate animals more;
and, as I am endeavoring to show, to understand and to admire
are usually necessary steps to the generation of humane feelings
toward the creatures with which we come in contact.

Once establish the proper feelings, and fitting conduct is likely
to follow ; but before these feelings arise we must have right con-

TOL. XLIII. 5

5o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ceptions of man's relations, if not relationship, to the animal
kingdom.

While many persons are ready to admit that, so far as phys-
ical organization is concerned, man and other animals are on the
one plane, they either do not believe in any likeness beyond this,
or more probably they have never examined the subject.

It is not unlikely that the great majority of persons have not
devoted a half hour of their lives, taken altogether, to any thought
upon such a subject. It has been taken for granted that man is
on one plane of intellect and feeling, and all other animals are so
much below him that their acts are not commonly regarded as
other than the result of instinct, a sort of blind impulse, so that
they are not regarded as showing at all those qualities which we
term mental, much less moral ones. Even educated persons have
but vague conceptions on the subject of animal intelligence. The
publications of many of the humane societies bearing on animal
intelligence must have done a vast amount of good in dissipating
ignorance and prejudice.

We have in Montreal, in connection with the Faculty of Com-
parative Medicine and Veterinary Science of McGill University,
a society for the study of comparative psychology — the only insti-
tution of the kind with which I am acquainted. It has been in
existence now six years.

A brief account of the proceedings of each meeting is pub-
lished in the daily press of the city, and I have reason to believe
that the association has in this way alone helped considerably
the cause of the lower animals. The Montreal Association for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has received and circulated
large numbers of copies of several of the papers read before this
society for the study of animal intelligence.

I suggest that if the interest of teachers — especially the heads
of schools — can be secured, some steps may be taken in leading
the young to entertain correct views and feelings toward the lower
animals. The keynote should be : They are our fellow-creatures ;
in some, but not all respects, our " poor relations " ; to be guarded
and assisted, but also to be respected ; for in not a few directions
they are superior to ourselves. Let this spirit get into schools
and families, and but little actual formal teaching will be required
to accomplish the end in view. Actions on the part of elders in
this, as in other cases, speak louder than words.

Of course, now, and for a long time to come, the ignorant, the
lowly organized, and the depraved will maltreat animals ; and
they must be appealed to in a way that is deterrent — that is, by
punishment. But the sooner we can establish a strong and cor-
rect public feeling on the subject of the rights and relations of
animals, the more effectually will cruelty be prevented ; and when

THE OSWEGO STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. 51

it does occur, be detected and punished. All cases of prosecution
should be published, on account not only of its preventive effect,
but because it strengthens public sentiment.

The cause will be hindered by mawkish sentiment, interfer-
ence to an undue degree in slight cases, while neglecting great
and widespread injustice, or positive wrong, toward our faithful
dumb friends. In spreading sound ideas in regard to animals ; in
correcting generally admitted and great cruelties ; in providing
temporary homes for lost and stray animals; by encouraging,
directly or indirectly, scientific research in biology, especially on
the diseases common to man and our domestic animals ; in con-
tributing to the investigation of animal intelligence — we have, in
addition to many other lines of effort, large and worthy fields of
•endeavor for the improvement of the condition of things in the
world in which we live, both for man and his fellow-creatures,
lower in the scale, it is true, but withal very admirable.

THE OSWEGO STATE NORMAL SCHOOL.

BY PROF. WILLIAM M. ABER.

TO-DAY, in the quiet, old city of Oswego, N. Y., stands a school
whose influence has extended throughout the land. At its
head is its founder, Dr. E. A. Sheldon : the school is his life work.

In 1848 Mr. Sheldon, a young man of twenty-four, then a resi-
dent of Oswego, felt moved to study somewhat into the condition
•of the poor of that city. Their ignorance and misery excited pro-
found pity. Influential friends were enlisted, an "Orphan and
Free School Association" was formed, a schoolroom provided,
and a teacher sought. To his surprise, he found that he must
teach the school or the enterprise would be abandoned. For sal-
ary he asked the estimated cost of his living, two hundred and
seventy-five dollars per year, and received three hundred dollars.
In the basement of an old church, the inexperienced young teacher
was brought face to face with one hundred and twenty wild boys
and girls of from five to twenty-one. These he held in order and
kept at work by insight, love, and patience — those potent exer-
cisers of evil spirits.

From this movement, though against strenuous opposition,
sprang the free and graded schools of Oswego, which were organ-
ized by Mr. Sheldon in 1853. As a superintendent of schools he
might have ended his days, had he not possessed qualities of mind
and heart which led him to turn from easy, routine work and
•encounter toils and dangers to find or make a better way. As
machines for securing from the pupils the -learning, memoriter, of

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

so many pages per day, and from the teachers recitation-hearing,
marking, and reporting, his schools were eminently successful.
Teachers, pupils, and patrons neither knew nor desired anything
better; but that sympathy with childhood which had led Mr.
Sheldon into this work was not satisfied with these poor results.
Five years of growing dissatisfaction with the current range of

E. A. SHELDON.

subjects and methods of instruction had culminated in a determi-
nation to prepare some books and charts for himself, when a visit
to Toronto revealed the object of his search. He saw there in the
National Museum, though not used in their own schools, collec-
tions of appliances employed abroad — notably in the Home and
Colonial Training School in London. Evidently the seed sown
by this school had not found in Toronto so good a soil as in the
mind of this Yankee schoolmaster. From this visit he returned
with the delight of a discoverer of a new world, laden with
charts, books, balls, cards, pictures of animals, building blocks.

THE OSWEGO STATE NORMAL SCHOOL.

53

cocoons, cotton bolls, samples of grain, and specimens of pottery
and glass.

In 1859 a new course for the primary schools was introduced
at Oswego, in which lessons on form, color, size, weight, animals,
plants, the human body, and moral instruction were prominent.
But his teachers knew little about the subject matter of such les-
sons, and less about methods of teaching them. The superintend-
ent was forced to become the teacher and trainer of his teachers.
Without training himself, he sadly felt the inadequacy of his in-
structions, and determined to try to obtain a training teacher from

OLD NORMAL SCHOOL BUILDING.

the Home and Colonial School. The Board of Education con-
sented, " on condition of its not costing the city a single cent." To
assist in providing the means, some of his teachers resigned, for
one year, half their salaries, which ranged from three to five hun-
dred dollars. Their names should be recorded among the found-
ers of the school, and written in letters of gold on its walls.
To begin this work, Miss M. E. M. Jones was obtained, for one
year, from the Home and Colonial School. After school hours
each day, Mr. Sheldon, his most interested teachers, and a few
from abroad, sat for two hours in a small, obscure room to receive
the instruction which had been brought from over the sea at so
much personal sacrifice. For one year these men and women be-
came as little children, that they might enter and win the king-
dom of childhood through the door opened by Pestalozzi, for Miss
Jones was a disciple of that master. The work thus begun was
continued by some of her pupils, and by Prof. Hermann Kriisi,
who also had taught in the Home and Colonial, and was a son of
one of Pestalozzi's most trusted helpers.

For two years, this training class was maintained by the city.

54 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

In 1863 it was adopted by the State, and a grant of three thousand
dollars per year was made for its support, on condition of the
city's furnishing the necessary buildings and accommodations,
and of not less than fifty teachers designing to teach in the com-
mon schools of the State receiving free tuition each year. These
persons were to be recommended by county commissioners or city
superintendents and appointed by the State Superintendent. In
1865 a building was purchased and fitted up by the Oswego
Board of Education at a cost of twenty-six thousand dollars,
In 1866 a general act was passed by the Legislature, which
provided for four additional normal and training schools in
various parts of the State, to be governed by local boards, ap-
pointed and removable at will by the State Superintendent, and
supported by an annual grant of twelve thousand dollars each.
On March 27, 1867, the building provided by Oswego was ac-
cepted by the State. With the appointment of a local board of
thirteen, the Training School's connection with the city schools
ended, except that which necessarily arose from the Practice
School. So the city teachers' class had in six years grown into a
State Normal and Training School, and had produced four other
schools fashioned in its own image.*

The development from a training class for the primary teach-
ers of one city to a school for the training of teachers for all
grades and for all parts of the State, necessitated an enlargement
of the curriculum. The one-year course was enlarged to courses
of two, three, and four years. The first covered the field of in-
struction below the high schools ; the second included high-school
work ; and the third added Latin and Greek, with German and
French as an alternative for Greek. The last year of each course
was devoted to professional work. In these enlargements there
was no departure from the original plan. Instruction in the sub-
ject matter to be taught, in the history and philosophy of educa-
tion, in psychology, in general methods of teaching, and methods
in detail for special subjects, and practice in teaching have from
the first characterized the Oswego school — characteristics which
have been reproduced in most of the normal schools of the coun-
try. These enlargements were bitterly opposed by the private
school interests of the State, represented in the academies; but
they were forced upon the normal schools by two facts : most of
the appointees were too imperfectly instructed in the subjects to
enter at once upon the discussion of methods of teaching them ;
and if the schools had rejected all such appointees, their duty of
furnishing teachers for the public schools of the State would have

* The Normal School at Albany already existed, but had been organized on a different
plan.

5 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

been so unfulfilled as to have imperiled their very existence.
New York State makes her normal-school diplomas valid as life
certificates, pays one half the railway fares of State appointees,
and furnishes text-books free to all. Pupils from other States
were formerly admitted free, but now pay a tuition of forty dollars
per year. In 1892 the two years7 course was dropped, and at present
the State Normal Schools have three courses — an English course
of three years, and classical and scientific courses of four years.

In 1890 the Oswego school decided to discontinue instruction
in the ancient and modern languages " when the pupils already
entered for these subjects shall have finished their courses " ; but
diplomas for the classical and scientific courses will be given to
students who possess the required knowledge. This departure
was made because Dr. Sheldon became convinced that more could
be accomplished for the public schools by concentrating the en-
ergy, time, and money required for these linguistic studies on ad-
vanced academic and professional work on the lines of the Eng-
lish course. In lieu of these languages, the Oswego school now
offers three one-year post-graduate courses : — advanced instruction
in natural science, psychology, history, and English, and practice
teaching in higher English and science subjects; kindergarten
training, and special training for primary teaching ; and prepara-
tion of teachers for teaching in training schools. For the kinder-
garten work a diploma is given : for each of the other courses a
certificate testifying to the extra work and qualifications.

To keep pace with these various changes, the faculty of the
school has been increased from six to fifteen persons ; the annual
appropriation raised from $3,000 to $21,000; and in 1879 a new
building was provided by the State at a cost of $56,000. This
building (see cut) stands on the summit of a ridge rising west-
ward from the Oswego River. It forms three sides of an ob-
long, with a south front one hundred and ninety feet, an east
front one hundred and thirty-five feet, and a west front one hun-
dred and twenty-two feet. In its construction, exterior form and
ornament were sacrificed for interior convenience and furnishing.
It gives more recitation room and laboratory space, and is better
equipped with appliances for the best methods of study and pro-
fessional training, than some normal-school buildings of twice its
cost. Arrangements for heat, light, and ventilation are excellent.
On the first floor are the general offices and waiting rooms, the
kindergarten and practice school; on the second, the assembly
hall, library, reading room, and general recitation rooms ; on the
third, literary society rooms, scientific laboratories, and lecture
room ; and on the fourth, an art room.

The kindergarten is domiciled in the east end of the front, in
a charming room, whose adornments and work make a fairyland

THE OSWEGO STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. 59

through which the little ones enter school life with fearless, happy
steps. As the visitor watches the little ones at play, weaving
bright colors, building with blocks, or molding clay into forms
surpassing in interest even the mud pies of his childhood, he may
sigh for his own first day at school. The writer's is an indelible
memory. In a rough stone house, with a forest in the rear and
a swamp in front — land of more value could not be afforded — he
sat for hours, with dangling feet, on a backless slab bench, until
called up to receive at the master's knees, from a tattered primer,
his first lesson, — looking at and calling the names of queer marks
whose appearance was not interesting, and whose use was not
known. Fortunate children, for whose kindly and wise guidance
over the threshold of education men and women of great minds
and hearts have labored, will you, as actors on the stage of life,
be wiser and better than this generation ?

The practice school has three large assembly rooms and twenty
recitation rooms. The assembly rooms have lofty ceilings and
great windows which preach the gospel of good air and sunshine,
choice products of the children's work adorn their walls, and
libraries for the children's use are attractive features. The school
comprises from four to five hundred children of "the primary,
junior, and senior grades. Each grade is divided into classes of
fifteen to twenty pupils. Each class is assigned its own room and
a teacher from the normal class which has reached the point of
practice teaching — the last twenty weeks of the courses. Each of
the rooms is an independent school, for whose discipline and in-
struction the practicing teacher is primarily responsible. One of
these teachers has for ten weeks a primary class and for ten weeks
a junior or senior class; and the conditions are much like those
which a teacher will have in a school of his own. The work of
the same grades in the other schools of the city is done ; and, in
addition, extra work in drawing, color, form, work in modeling,
parquetry, folding, cutting, sewing, and shop work with carpen-
ter's tools. Drawing and modeling are extensively applied in the
study of geography, plants, and animals. Each class room is
adorned with the best work of its children; and ample black-
boards give space for work in number, language, drawing, etc.
In each is a cabinet to whose shelves field, forest, and factory
have furnished treasures which delight and instruct the children.
As these cabinets are constantly growing by the contributions of
pupils and teachers, they have a future of great possibilities.*
They are all descendants of that little cabinet stored with thel
spoils of the Toronto visit.

The whole collection of little schools is under the charge of five
permanent critic teachers upon whom the tone and character of
the whole depend, and who have the ultimate responsibility for

60 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the welfare and progress of the children. To attempt to give, in
this article, details as to the methods of securing real practice
teaching, and yet conserve the interests of the children, is not
practicable. That these objects are attained is evidenced by two
facts,— the practice school is popular with the city patrons, and
the term of practice work is generally regarded by Oswego gradu-
ates as the most valuable in their entire course. It is justly so
regarded ; for five months of teaching under searching but kindly
and constructive criticism may be worth more than years of un-
aided experience. The critic teachers, while employees of the city
Board of Education and responsible to them for the discipline and
progress of the city pupils, are chosen and nominated by the State
Normal School authorities, and are responsible to them for the
normal practice teachers. This arrangement gives opportunity for
difficulty and friction ; but there has been little serious trouble at
Oswego, a fact which speaks volumes for the good sense and tact
of all concerned. The executive ability and teaching power re-
quired to drill a succession of inexperienced teachers, and during
this process to work through these teachers the same or better
discipline and teaching than prevails in the other city schools, can
be better imagined than described. Whether the saying, "A
teacher is born and not made," is true in all branches of the pro-
fession or not, it certainly is true of the critic teachers of a great
practice school.

On the second floor of the building are eight recitation rooms,
seating from fifty to one hundred students, devoted to mathemat-
ics, language, history, etc., and supplied with maps, charts, models,
ample blackboards, and abundant light. The reading room and
library on this floor have the standard periodicals and well-se-
lected books. The visitor can not forbear the wish that some of
the thousands yearly wasted by New York State could be used to
increase this library ; yet smallness is not an unmixed ill for a
school library if the books are the best of their kind, and the lim-
ited number secures concentration of attention and thorough ac-
quaintance. The Oswego School Library is supplemented by the
City Library, whose volumes are accessible to the normal students.

The Normal Assembly Hall occupies the entire upper portion of
the west wing. This wing, although of the same height as the main
part of the building, is divided into but two stories above the gym-
nasium, thus securing extra height of ceiling for the assembly
rooms of the practice school below and for the Normal Hall above.
This hall is sixty-eight by seventy-six feet, seated for four hun-
dred students, and has a capacity for three hundred additional
seats on public occasions ; it has large windows on three sides, and
plain but tasteful coloring and decoration.

The third floor is the domain of the natural-science department

THE OSWEGO STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. 63

whose laboratories and lecture rooms occupy almost the whole
space. The zoological laboratory is at the western end of the
front, the mineralogical and geological at the eastern, and between
them are the physical laboratory, storerooms, and lecture rooms
for these sciences. The botanical and chemical laboratories are in
the east wing. The zoological laboratory — extending thirty -two
by fifty-six feet, flooded with light by a row of southern windows,
lined on its northern side by spacious glass-fronted cases of speci-
mens, at its eastern end a large tank for the storage of working
materials, on the floor tables, and along the southern side a broad
shelf, sufficient in all to furnish room for a hundred workers —
wins the heart of the zoologist. It has a full supply of dissecting
apparatus and small microscopes for elementary work, and a fair
equipment of large microscopes with accessories for more ad-
vanced work. The botanical laboratory is twenty-eight by forty
feet. The other laboratories furnish working facilities for forty
pupils each. The furnishing of the chemical laboratory is note-
worthy for the convenience of the tables, apparatus, and water
supply. In the largeness and fineness of the home provided for the
natural sciences in this building, as compared with the crowding
of these subjects into two or three small rooms in some recently
erected normal-school buildings, there is a fit expression of Os-
wego educational ideas.

The art room on the fourth floor is forty-four by fifty-two feet,
admirably lighted, and furnished with fine facilities for teaching
drawing. Two of the three literary societies of the school — the
Athenean and Adelphi — have private rooms neatly fitted up and
furnished by themselves. The rhetorical and literary work of the
school is largely done in connection with these societies. The
Adelphi and Athenean lay out their own work and conduct their
business in their own way. Alternately, about once in two weeks,
they give public exercises in the Normal Hall. The Keystone,
which embraces the lower classes, is in charge of members of the
faculty and occasionally gives a public exercise.

On the ground floor is the workshop, provided with engine,
lathes, circular saws, tools, benches, and facilities for various kinds
of woodwork. In this the normal students learn to make the
simpler pieces of scientific and other apparatus, and get some skill
in using tools. In the class in familiar science each pupil con-
structs his own apparatus for illustrations and thus becomes pro-
vided with the necessary apparatus for teaching the elements of
science in public schools. A room for clay modeling and one for
free-hand drawing is also supplied for the manual training work.
The Normal School Gymnasium is on the ground floor of the
west wing. Daily exercise is required of all students, and is con-
sidered important, both for its immediate effects upon health and

64 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

comeliness, and for instruction in methods of physical training.
The gymnasium is large and well equipped, and was until recently
under the charge of Dr. Mary V. Lee, a physician who was a spe-
cialist in physical training and made much use of the Delsarte
system. Her recent, untimely death has left the department in
charge of one of her pupils.

From the observatory, which crowns the central front of the
building, the students see, as a whole, the views which all day
long they catch from the windows below — views which have no
small part in their student life. Northward stretches Ontario
with boundless limit, its shores extending right and left in wind-
ing curves, bold bluffs, lowland, field, and forest. Below and
around is the city : to the east, sloping down to the river and rising
beyond it ; to the west, soon shading off into farm lands ; to the
south, rising in a steep slope on which stands the City Orphan
Asylum, a sister institution, tracing its origin to the same source.
Whether the water and land sleep under a June sky or are vexed
by January storms, the eye need ask for no finer scene.

As the mother of normal schools and methods, the Oswego
school presents its most interesting aspect. Normal schools have
been organized on the Oswego plan and called Oswego graduates
to introduce her methods — as city schools in Portland, Boston, New
Haven, New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Detroit,
Washington, D. C., and other cities of less note; and as State
schools in all the New England States, in New York, New Jer-
sey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota,
Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Mississippi, and California.* This
influence was felt first in New England and the Mississippi
Valley and later in the South.

The graduates of the Oswego school number 1,703. Oswego
gradiiates have taught in every State and Territory except Idaho
and Nevada, in the District of Columbia, and in five foreign
countries. Of the graduates who were born and reared in New
York State over four hundred have been called away to teach in
thirty-nine States, two Territories, the District of Columbia,
Canada, Mexico, South America, Sandwich Islands, and Japan.
New York State has complained that through Oswego she has
educated teachers for the schools of other States ; but could any
but an unnatural mother fail to be proud to have her children
worthy to be thus called away, and glad to have within her bor-
ders an institution whose graduates are sought for from the
Atlantic to the Pacific, from Canada to the Argentine Republic,
and the borders of Asia ?

* See Circular of Information No. 8, 1891, Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C.,
and Historical Sketches of the State Normal and Training School at Oswego, N. Y.

VOL. XLIII. fi

THE OSWEGO STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. 67

The fundamental causes of this widespread influence were the
educational imrest which filled the United States forty years ago,
and the fact that through Mr. Sheldon's efforts the Oswego school
offered a means of satisfying it. This unrest made a good soil
for the new educational ideas ; these new ideas were discussed by
school men before New York State had a normal school ; and the
school at Albany was founded and began the teaching of educa-
tional theories before the Oswego school was even thought of.
What Mr. Sheldon did was to focus all these floating ideas on
actual practice, and work out a systematic and rational expression
of these theories for the daily work of the schoolroom — to do
what other men were dreaming about. Doubtless Mr. Sheldon
had unusual genius for organizing and teaching, but these exer-
cised under purely selfish motives would not have led to such re-
sults. School work as a business, pursued for salary alone, attains
no more than it seeks. E. A. Sheldon with his ragged Oswego
boys and girls in 1848, and Heinrich Pestalozzi with his destitute
orphans at Stanz in 1799, teach the same lesson. Love, hope, and
faith are the most potent forces in education as well as in religion.
Through these forces the Oswego movement began; through
these, its founder became and has remained a seeker for educa-
tional righteousness, ready to try all things and to hold fast the
better; through these, he became receptive of good influences
from all sources, and eagerly sought to impart them to others.
An incident occurring in 1861 shows how Oswego's gospel was
at first spread. An invitation was issued to leading educators of
different States to come to Oswego to observe the methods. This
invitation was cordially accepted, and after careful examination
these observers made a favorable report, stating that " the system
of object teaching is admirably adapted to cultivate the perceptive
faculty of the child, to furnish him with clear conceptions and the
power of expression, and thus to prepare him for the prosecution
of the sciences or the pursuits of active life." They also expressed
the opinion that this system " demands of the teacher varied
knowledge and thorough culture ; and that attempts to introduce
it by those who do not clearly comprehend its principles, and who
are not trained in its methods, can result only in failure," thus in-
dorsing the necessity of training schools.

The system introduced at Oswego is commonly called Pestaloz-
zian, because it was inspired so directly from that source, for the
Home and Colonial was founded by disciples of Pestalozzi. The
essentials of Pestalozzianism may be summed up as a new point
of view ; and, as resultants of this, a new conception of education,
and methods appropriate for realizing it.* The old education takes

* See Krusi's Life and Work of Pestalozzi.

THE OS WE GO STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. 69

the standpoint of the adult ; the new, that of the child. From the
former, the whole mass of heterogeneous facts composing the
knowledge to be acquired is viewed as having been classified,
labeled, and stored in books. From this conception, what method
of acquiring knowledge can be more direct than the memorizing
of books ? By a cheerful optimism this system crams the child
with words, and trusts that somehow he will grasp the ideas for
himself and will have his powers cultivated in the process. In
exceptional cases these objects are accomplished ; but the average
child is left in a condition of permanent mental dyspepsia and
torpor. The new education conceives the child as looking forward
into the phenomena of Nature and life, curious and eager to know
realities first, then to express his knowledge, and delighted with
the exercise of his powers. To bring the child into contact with
facts, to guide him in classifying and labeling these facts for him-
self, becomes the teacher's first and chief duty, in obedience to the
sound principle that development of powers is gained by their ex-
ercise only. From this point of view education is conceived of as
a natural process extending from the cradle to the grave, with
Nature as the chief teacher, and the mother as the first assistant,
whose work is carried on by the schools and the experiences of
life. In this natural process of education, ideas come before ex-
pressions, whether the idea be the child's first conception of color
and form or the profoundest abstraction of a philosopher ; and its
principles are therefore applicable to education in all grades
from the kindergarten to the university.*

As to the correctness of this conception of education and the
general means of realizing it, there is substantial unanimity among
school men ; but, as to details of courses of study and methods of
presenting subjects, diversity of opinion necessarily exists. Here,
as in other fields, practice lags far behind theory. To the Oswe-
go school belongs the honor of having developed in great detail
courses of study and methods of teaching that have received the
indorsement of educational reformers and of teachers in hundreds
of schoolrooms as being capable of realizing in large measure the
true educational ideal. Here also were devised simple and effi-
cient means for giving teachers the training required for the new
kind of work. To all who know how broad and how difficult to
bridge is the chasm between educational theory and practice, these
achievements will seem of no small importance. In this con-
nection, Prof. Hermann Kriisi, for twenty-five years the teacher
of the history and philosophy of education, geometry, French,
and German ; Miss Matilda S. Cooper, for the same period teacher

* For an interesting application, see Sheldon's General History, and Sheldon-Barnes's
United States History, by Oswego graduates.

7o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of English grammar and primary methods; and Prof. Isaac B.
Poucher, from 1867 to the present time — excepting an absence of
four years — teacher of arithmetic, algebra, and methods of teach-
ing these subjects, should be especially remembered. In many
a school called normal the pupils are, in preparatory instruction,
taught exactly as they should not be, in defiance of the principles
and methods to be mastered in their professional training. At
Oswego the preparatory work in mathematics, language, history,
natural science, etc., has, for the most part, been done by intelli-
gent and loyal adherents of the schoors professed principles, and
been consistent with the methods inculcated in the professional
work. The students having seen the daily application of these
principles and methods to all sorts of subjects, and experienced
their value in their own persons, more easily comprehend and ap-
ply them in subsequent method and practice work.

The Oswego movement did not lack opponents — a class whose
services in all reforms are equally useful as extinguishers of false
lights and disseminators of true. The most notable of these help-
ers was Dr. Wilbur, Superintendent of the New York State Idiot
Asylum, a man eminently successful in his work. In the New
York State Teachers' Convention of 1862, and in the National
Convention of 1864, he severely attacked the whole system, from
philosophical standpoints. In consequence, a committee was ap-
pointed to examine thoroughly the practical bearings of the
" vicious " system. The chairman of this committee, Prof. Greene,
of Brown University, visited the Oswego schools, tested their re-
sults thoroughly, and made his report before the National Con-
vention of 1865. This report was so intelligent, exhaustive, and
favorable that the underlying principles of the Oswego methods
have never since met serious opposition in any authoritative
body.*

Students at Oswego have sometimes complained of the rigor-
ous drill of classes in methods, and of the practice school, as too
mechanical, tending to produce mannerisms and to crush individ-
uality. These complaints were sometimes made by those who
best comprehended the principles and felt the power and desire
to work out their own applications. These complaints admit this
answer : For the average man and woman comprehension of prin-
ciples does not secure practice. The principles must be embodied
in precepts and rules, must be applied in a practical course of ac-
tion under whose influence habits of right conduct are formed.
Right habits can not be formed in the teacher by imparting to him
the principles merely of his profession more than in the soldier.
If in some cases the product of drill is a mere machine, it is

* See Circular of Information, No. 8, 1891, Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C.

THE OSWEGO STATE NORMAL SCHOOL.

usually because the person is inclined to become a machine, and a
well-constructed machine is better than a poor one. The few so
specially gifted as not to need so much detail and drill suffer no
permanent injury by the temporary restraint of their powers of
independent action. The habits formed in the thorough training
school will but aid their steps into new paths in the wide field be-
yond its walls. To the careful, unremitting drill of her method
and practice school work is largely due the fact that the Oswego
Normal School has turned out so large a product of successful

r

HERMANN KRUSI.

teachers as compared with her production of mere talkers and
essay writers. No one else deserves so much credit for this as
Miss Cooper. The maxims, The idea before the word, The con-
crete before the abstract, One step at a time, Never tell a child
what he can find out for himself, were constantly applied by her
as the plumb-line and try-square to test all work. Her method of
inculcating principles and teaching the art of questioning was
philosophical. The student was required to write out a series of
logical questions and answers for drawing out the ideas to be
taught; not once, but daily for twenty weeks, in a series of
graduated lessons in each of the subjects to be taught in primary

7z THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

schools. The imaginary child which each student set up for him
self displayed his ignorance of child life; and his processes of
questioning showed the limitations of his grasp of the principles
involved. To the student whose sympathy with childhood is
spontaneous and whose grasp of principles is intuitive, such drill
is needlessly irksome. But that the vague notions of childhood
and vaguer grasp of principles of most normal students can be
developed and trained by such courses of drill only, the subse-
quent twenty weeks in the practice school will abundantly dem-
onstrate.

The school has been exceptionally fortunate in its social and
physical environments ; and no enumeration of the causes of her

MATILDA S. COOPER.

success can afford to omit these potent influences. The site of the
city, at the mouth of the Oswego River and on the shores of On-
tario, one of the fairest of our Great Lakes, is unsurpassed, both
for beauty and for commercial and manufacturing advantages.
Ridges which rise gently on both sides of the river near its mouth,
and, farther back, form bold, picturesque hills, furnish almost ideal
ground for a city. The place is not lacking in the charm of his-

THE OSWEGO STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. 73

toric associations. As one of the gateways to central New York,
its old fort was the prize of battle between Indian, French, Eng-
lish, and Continentals during colonial and Revolutionary days.
To one who has stood on the bluffs to the west of the old har-
bor, with the lake outspread as a shining mirror, and listened to
the soft lapping of the waters on the shelving rocks below ; or
from the crumbling ramparts of the old fort on the eastern side
has watched the sun like a burnished, golden shield slowly sink
into the western waters, sending a flaming track across the wave-
lets, the soothing and restful influences were of unspeakable
value. For a time the fret and fever of ignoble strife departed,
and in the saner hour the spirit was open to better impulses.
When the waters were lashed into fury by storms and hurled in
fierce onset against the rocky shores, not less useful inspiration
came from wind and wave — exultation in strength and courage
for conflict. Nor did these influences altogether perish with the
hour. What Oswego pupil, susceptible at all to Nature's influ-
ence, did not feel the power of those scenes and does not cherish
their memory ?

The social and religious influences of Oswego have been favor-
able to the Normal pupils. The city is not so large as to cause the
Normal School factor to be ignored, nor so small as to cause it to
have undue prominence. In churches, Sunday schools, and other
societies pupils have been welcomed as guests and kept as valued
helpers. A more important social influence has been the free
mingling in work and recreations of the young men and women
composing the school. In the recitation rooms and laboratories,
this influence has produced wholesome rivalry and respect for one
another's powers ; at social gatherings and merrymakings, it has
been refining and ennobling. For many a bashful boy and shy
maiden, excursions on the lake and rambles in woods and fields
have replaced awkwardness and constraint by the easy, natural
manners of comradeship, and given insight into each other's na-
tures and characters. Such introductions into the kingdoms of
true manhood and womanhood are not the least among the
school's gifts to her children. Social intercourse has always been
left as free as the ordinary rules of propriety admit. Rarely has
this freedom been misused, and the good arising from it has out-
weighed a thousandfold the evil. An important center of the
school's social life is the Welland, the girl's boarding hall, whose
parlors have so often echoed to the pleasures of the Friday even-
ing socials.

Dr. Sheldon's home has been the chief center and source of
social influences. This home is situated on a high, wooded point
of the lake shore, a mile west of the city — a very paradise for
quiet beauty. On the spacious grounds, beneath the shadow of

74

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

great forest trees, and in the hospitable halls of this home, many
a generation of Normal pupils have had their merrymakings —
springtime maple-sugar parties and autumnal fruit festivals and
corn-roasts — the hearty participation of the master and mistress
of the place making all feel at home. This home — with its evi-
dence that refinement and simple but generous hospitality can be

ISAAC B. POUCHER.

maintained without wealth or extravagance ; that gentle, winning
manners and a cheerful heart are not incompatible with serious
character and heavy burdens— has been the finest object lesson at
Oswego.

Thirty years have passed since the tender shoot was planted
that has grown into this stately tree : its fruits have dropped all
over our land ; some of the seeds have fallen on stony ground and
withered away after a superficial growth ; others have been choked
by the growth of purely selfish ambitions and brought forth little
fruit ; but some have fallen on good soil and brought forth an
hundredfold. Much has been done for education in our land dur-
ing these thirty years, but a thousandfold more remains to be done
to make the public schools what they must become to merit confi-

THE OSWEGO STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. 75

dence as the efficient conservators of our national happiness and
prosperity. In the work of the past, the Oswego Normal has
played an honorable part ; but her mission is not yet ended, nor
her powers abated. With youthful energy, both at home and
through her graduates,* she is grappling with the question of what
to teach, a question of not less importance than the how. That
more useful and interesting material for study may be brought
into schoolrooms, especially in the primary, is to be ardently de-
sired. The best methods applied to trite or useless subject mat-
ter can not make school life interesting or valuable to pupil or
teacher.

After all that has been done, and well done, no one but a most
willful optimist can be blind to the lamentable defects of our
schools, f The censure for these defects usually falls upon teach-
ers, but does not primarily belong there. Teaching requires in-
sight into and sympathy with child life, a condition spontaneous
in but few adults, requiring in most laborious and sustained effort
to gain and to maintain it ; and a constant effort to advance in
scholastic and professional attainments to escape slipping back
into the abyss of slothful indifference. Teaching is, of all the
professions, the most useful for the public welfare, as it is one of
the most laborious and skilled, and should be paid according to
its deserts. Eecitation-hearing , however, is one of the easiest, least
skilled, and most useless of all occupations. In this field, as in
others, the public gets the kind of work it pays for. The wages
of the rank and file of public-school teachers average less than
those of skilled mechanics. As long as the public continues to
pay for recitation-hearing, it will not get much teaching ; for
educational missionaries to work without the ordinary induce-
ments are too few to supply the demand, and will probably con-
tinue so until the millennium.

There is need of educational statesmen to secure legislation
efficient for preventing the employment of teachers without ade-
quate scholastic acquirements and professional training, as physi-
cians are forbidden to practice without such attainments. Is the
body of so much more value than mind or soul that it should
have greater safeguards ? There is need of educational agitators
to rouse and awaken the people from complacent day-dream-
ing about the schools, to show them that much of their ex-
penditure is wasted through poor work, and to convince them

* See work of Mr. L. H. Jones for Indianapolis schools in the Forum for December,
1892; " An Experiment in Education," in Popular Science Monthly for January and Feb-
ruary, 1892 ; and the work of Prof. Barnes in Stanford University.

f See articles by Dr. J. M. Rice in the Forum for October, November, and Decem-
ber, 1892.

76 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that better pay and more honor for their teachers would be a
wise economy.

That our alma mater may bear as brave and glorious a part
in the struggles of coming years as in the past must be the heart-
felt wish of every graduate of the Oswego Normal and Training
School.

DECAY IN THE APPLE BARREL.

BY BYRON D. HALSTED, Sc. D.,

RUTGERS COLLEGE.

Tj^RUITS decay and everybody knows it, but how this rotting
-L takes place is less evident. Grandfathers told our parents
that it was due to the weather, and some of them may have held
to the notion that the moon had a remarkable influence upon
the keeping quality of various fruits. The perfection of the
microscope and its more general use as an aid in seeing the minute
things which surround us upon every side have led to a deeper
comprehension of decays. It is the purpose of this article to show,
if possible, some of the facts connected with the rotting of our
apples, realizing that what holds true concerning one kind of fruit
applies almost equally well to others.

Let us in the first place take a survey of the normal subject,
or, in other words, of a healthy apple. It is made up of five seed
cavities which occupy the central portion of the fruit and con-
stitute the core. Outside of this is the edible portion called the
flesh, consisting of cells of small size filled with liquid substances.
A tough layer covers the outside, which is the skin, and bears the
coloring substance that determines whether the apple is green,
red, mottled, or striped. At one end of the fruit is the stem, or, as
found in the barrel, this former means of attachment to the
branch of the tree may have been broken away or pulled from
the fruit — a matter of no small consideration when the question
of decay is concerned. This end of the apple is known to the
horticulturists as the "cavity," and varies greatly in diiferent
sorts, sometimes being deep and narrow as in the Winesap and
Pearmain, and broad and shallow in the Greening and Peck's
Pleasant.

The opposite end of the apple bears the name of " basin," and
contains the remnants of the blossom — sometimes called the eye
of the fruit. This part of the apple is likewise deep in some
varieties, and shallow and open in others. This is the weakest
point in the whole apple as concerns the question of the keeping
quality of the fruit. If the basin is shallow and the canal to the
core firmly closed, there is much less likelihood of the fruit decay-

DECAY IN THE APPLE BARREL.

77

ing than when it is deep, and the evident opening connects the
center of the fruit with the surface.

For its own protection the perfect apple has a continuous
layer of skin over its whole surface. The stem has not been re-
moved from its cavity, but remains of its full length, for there is
a place naturally provided for its separation from the branch
which bore it. Such an apple is the rare exception as found in
the barrel. At the market or in the storeroom of the consumer,
instead of being without
blemish upon the surface,
there are small specks as
large as a pin-head, or
smaller, which dot the skin
in patches. A portion of
the surface of an apple
with these specks is shown
three times magnified in
Fig. 1. Sometimes one
needs to look for a long
time to find a fruit entirely
free from these specks.
Under the compound mi-
croscope these dots are re-
solved into a thin layer of
interwoven threads, with
their free ends radiating
from a central point. This
is one of the low forms of plant life belonging to the molds, and
grows from microscopic cells called spores, which in the economy
of the mold serves the purpose of seeds. These spores are pro-
duced in great abundance, and, being carried by the air, alight
upon the fruit and there germinate and grow into a colony or
speck which is all the time feeding upon the substance obtained
from the skin of the apple.

The second defect in apples, as seen in the barrel, is the one
known to fruit-dealers as the " scab." To the eye this is recog-
nized by the rough-coated patches, often circular in outline, that
are present upon the skin. There may be several of these spots,
and, by their borders becoming confluent, one half or less of a fruit
may be thus rough coated and more or less dwarfed, making the
apple one-sided. This scab is due to a mold which, under the
microscope, is as different in its real structure from the specks
above mentioned as the two are unlike in general appearance. If
it will add anything to the value of this popular article, the
botanical name of the species of mold causing the apple scab may
be given as Fusicladium dendriticum, Fl. It is as much a distinct

FIG. 1. — APPLE SPECKS. (Magnified.)

78 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

kind of plant as the apple tree upon which it thrives. It is not
confined to the fruit, but grows luxuriantly upon the foliage,
causing it to become blotched with the brown patches and other-
wise destroyed. The mold consists of fine, cobwebby threads,
which penetrate the leaf and rob it of nourishment, and after a
time form patches upon the surfaces, where innumerable spores of
a dark color are produced.

The apples are first attacked by the scab fungus when they
are quite small, probably while the tree is in blossom, or shortly
after. At that time the surface of the young fruit is tender and
has no well-developed skin, which, when the fruit nears maturity,
might be so tough as to prevent the entrance of the scab mold.
This, therefore, is a defect that does not come upon the fruit after
harvest, and usually does not spread much after the apples are in
the barrel.

The knowledge of the fact that the scab is due to a mold that
begins to infest the fruit in early summer has led to experiments

FIG. 2. — APPLE SCAB.

in spraying the trees during the growing season with the Bor-
deaux mixture and other fungicides, with marked success in
checking its ravages. Trees sprayed three or four times in May
or June have borne abundant fruit comparatively free from scab,
while unsprayed trees otherwise alike yielded a scant amount of
distorted, scabby, withered apples. Fig. 2 shows an apple that is
a fair illustration of the working of the scab fungus.

One of the most interesting things in connection with the
study of the decays of apples is the relation which one mold bears
to another. There are several very common kinds of molds,

DECAY IN THE APPLE BARREL.

79

which grow nearly everywhere when circumstances favor them.
Their spores seem to be almost omnipresent, but they do not
possess the ability to penetrate tough substances, and the natural
skin of the apple is usually a barrier they can not pass. Of all
these molds the Penicillium glaucum, Lk., or commonly known
as the " blue mold/7 is the one that causes the greatest destruction
in the storeroom. A large part of the rapid soft rot is due to the
Penicillium.

In a few words let the work of the scab fungus be reviewed.
As the name indicates, it causes a scab upon the surface, the

FIG. 3. — APPLE MOLD FOLLOWING APPLE SCAB.

naturally smooth, tough skin is roughened, and minute cracks are
produced which in short replace the ordinary skin, impervious to
the blue mold, with a disrupted coat that furnishes both a fine
lodgment for the spores of the mold and the condition favorable
for their germination and the further rapid growth of the mold.
It is easy to conceive of the scab upon an apple being so slight
and superficial as not to affect its real value, but the one deface-
ment becomes the entrance of a decay germ, that in a few days
reduces the whole apple to a noisome mass of rottenness resulting
in a million spores or blue mold. To prevent the soft rot of the
apple in midwinter in the barrel, the trees need to be sprayed in
midsummer in the orchard, to check the development of the scab
that would otherwise furnish the place of entrance of the blue
mold. Fig. 3 shows an apple that, when harvested, had a number
of rough circular patches due to the scab fungus. When the
photograph was taken, each one of these spots was the seat of a

8o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

rapid decay, due to the development upon them of the Penicil-
lium, while all other portions of the fruit were in a normal con-
dition.

There are many diseases due to those exceedingly minute
germs so widely talked of nowadays — namely, the bacteria. They
attack animals and induce fevers of many sorts, and man sinks
before them with the dreaded cholera, consumption, etc. Plants
have their enemies among these micro-organisms, and apples do
not enjoy an immunity from them. The succulent substance of a
ripe apple is a favorite food for the bacteria, the only check upon
their abundant entrance being the tough skin. But there are too
many weak places, and it is presumable that these germs when
falling upon them are capable of beginning their course of rapid
multiplication which, when unchecked, reduces the fruit to rot-
tenness. In Fig. 4 is seen an apple under the apparently un-
broken skin of which in several places were decaying spots with
no signs of any other mischief-makers than the swarming mil-

Fio. 4. — APPLE BLOTCH.

lions of the micro-organisms. As soon as the skin becomes
broken in any such places, the coarser decay germs enter and
quickly the fruit is overrun with a motley vegetation of various
molds.

If we look further among the decaying fruits, it will not be
long usually before an apple is found that does not agree with
any of the descriptions given above. Perhaps it is healthy in all
parts save one, and that has no scab present. The blue mold is

DECAY IN THE APPLE BARREL. 81

absent, the skin is unbroken except in a peculiar, almost regular
manner. There is an evident central point where the fungus
started, and, as it has spread, numerous pimples have formed just
under the skin, and sometimes in eccentric circles. From these
minute light-colored pimples spores ooze out and are ready to
find their way to some other specimen. The affected portion of
the apple has a bitter taste, and, on account of this, the term
"bitter rot" has long been given to this form of decay. This

FIG. 5. — APPLE BITTER EOT.

same fungus causes the rotting of the grapes, and, if all the facts
were known, this Glmosporium fructigenum, Berk., might be
definitely charged with a large percentage of the decay of other
fruits. An apple badly affected with the bitter rot is shown in
Fig. 5, but one regrets that many of the details are lost in the
photo-engraving process by which the engraving was made.

This form of rot while it may be met with upon the tree or
in the windfalls beneath it in late summer, is most abundant in
the storeroom and is decidedly contagious — that is, an apple that
is decaying with the bitter rot is able to communicate the decay
to other fruits by means of the myriads of spores which are
borne upon the surface of the ruptured pimples. These facts sug-
gest the precaution of discarding any rotting fruits whenever
found. There is little room for doubt that were the harvested
fruits themselves sprayed with a fungicide, it would aid mate-
rially in preserving them. Thus, if a thin coating of the Bor-
deaux mixture was applied, the spores of bitter rot and other
decay germs would not so readily germinate. But there is the

VOL. XLIII. 7

82 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

objection of having the beauty of clean fruit lost under a film of
fungicide that while not particularly poisonous is decidedly un-
palatable, consisting of lime and sulphate of copper. A sensation
was created in New York two years ago because grapes were thus
marketed, and the same process for stored fruit is not here recom-
mended, although its effectiveness as a preservative is granted.

A decay that might be mistaken for the last mentioned is
caused by a fungus of a widely separated order. It is shown in
Fig. 6. This might be called the black rot, as it has a strong tend-
ency to turn the affected portions of a dark color. One of the
characteristic features is the almost black pimples formed in con-
siderable numbers beneath the skin, which they finally rupture
and then discharge large numbers of dark-olive spores. This fun-

Fio. 6. — APPLE BLACK EOT.

gus is a described species bearing the name Sphc&ropsis malorum,
Pk. It may be seen in early apples before they begin to ripen,
and the windfalls as they lie upon the ground become badly in-
fested with the Sphceropsis. It is not confined to the apple, but
thrives destructively upon quinces and pears as well. This decay
in its habits of growth calls to mind the fact that the basin is the
weakest point of fruits like the three above mentioned, for in
most instances the black rot begins at the free end where the
remnants of the flower may be still adhering, and very likely as-
sist in the fungus gaining a foothold. This decay, like the bitter
rot, is amenable to treatment, and therefore, in order to check
their destructive work in the storeroom, the fungicide needs to

DECAY IN THE APPLE BARREL. 83

be applied while the fruits are growing upon the trees. Thus the
work of the prevention begins a long time previous to picking —
while the barrel -staves are possibly still in the living forest tree.
This reminds one of the time when the boy's education should be-
gin as stated by Dr. Holmes, namely, with his grandfather when
he was a small lad.

Up to this point remarks concerning the mechanical treatment
of apples have been purposely withheld. There is no question
about the importance of so far as possible preventing the bruis-
ing of the fruit. From what has been said in strong terms con-
cerning the barrier of a tough skin which Nature has placed upon
the apples, it goes without saying that this defense should not be
ruthlessly broken down. It may be safely assumed that germs of
decay are lurking almost everywhere, ready to come in contact
with any substances. A bruise or cut in the skin is therefore
even worse than a rough place caused by a scab fungus as a
lodgment provided by the minute spores of various sorts. If the
juice exudes, it at once furnishes the choicest of conditions for
molds to grow. An apple bruised is a fruit for the decay of
which germs are specially invited, and when such a specimen is
placed in the midst of other fruit it soon becomes a point of infec-
tion for its neighbors on all sides. Seldom is a fully rotten apple
found in a bin without several others near by it being more or less
affected. A rotten apple is not its brother's keeper.

The surrounding conditions favor or retard the growth of the
decay fungi. If the temperature is near freezing they are com-
paratively inactive, but when the room is warm and moist the
fruit can not be expected to keep well. Cold storage naturally
checks the decay. The ideal apple has no fungous defacements
and no bruises. If it could be placed in a dry, cool room free from
fungous germs it ought to keep indefinitely until chemical change
ruins it as an article of food. But the facts in the case are far
different from this ideal. The apple when gathered from the tree
may have the germs of decay already within its tissue. They
may have extended through the basin, become firmly located in
the ragged remnants of the flower or by means of some insect or
" worm " that has bit or burrowed the fruit. Its stem may have
been broken close to the fruit or pulled out from it, or over the
surface specks and scabs may have formed during the season of
growth that have so destroyed the skin as to furnish a ready en-
trance for other more destructive germs. Bruises of the pulp
and breaks in the skin expose the soft, highly decomposable flesh
to the " seeds " of decay, and as one contemplates what an apple is
made of and its many enemies, it seems almost a marvel that
fruit keeps at all until it is cooked to kill the germs within it and
then canned to prevent the entrance of those that are without. It

84 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

is not designed that apples in their natural state should keep for
long, and all attempts to preserve them in the fresh condition
through the winter and far into the succeeding spring are a tri-
umph against Nature only to be won by the person who is con-
versant with the methods of his microscopic opponents. The use
of fungicides in the orchard while the fruit is growing will insure
more and fairer specimens, thus filling a larger number of barrels
with apples that are less subject to attack after harvest. This,
with careful handling to avoid bruises when picked and housed,
together with a dry storage room, should all bring a full reward.
Fig. 7 shows an apple in the last stages of dissolution, overrun
inside and out with a diminutive forest of fungi. It is the seed-

FIG. 7. — APPLE MOLD.

time, so to speak, with the host of species each vying with the
others for the last particle of the apple, the seeds only being
left behind ready to grow into trees when suitable circumstances
obtain, provided the vital spark does not expire before the favor-
ing condition arrive. The pulp that has been destroyed is large-
ly man's product developed by him through long years of selec-
tion and culture, and for which the orchard is planted and pre-
served. Nature wants more apple seed ; man desires more and
better pulp. Nature claims that the pulp of the wild apple is
only to secure the wider dissemination of the seed, and to the
orchardist, middleman, and consumer she speaks in her emphatic
way that " if you would exact of me extra-fine pulp, you must at
the same time employ the best devices of your high civilization
to preserve it from your omnipresent and active competitors, the
insidious germs of decay."

DISCOVERY OF ALCOHOL AND DISTILLATION. 85
THE DISCOVERY OF ALCOHOL AND DISTILLATION.

BY M. P. E. M. BERTHELOT.

A LCOHOL is an important factor in modern civilizations, the
-£j~ source of great revenues to states, and of immense wealth,
to those who deal in products containing it. While wine, beer,
hydromel, etc., have been in use from prehistoric times, the active
principle common to them which produces the pleasant excite-
ment and the disgusting intoxication, and which is concentrated
in spirituous liquors, alcohol, has been known for only seven or
eight centuries ; it was unknown in antiquity. The story of the
way the discovery of it was made is one of much interest.

The reservation of the name of alcohol for the product of the
distillation of wine is modern. Till the end of the eighteenth
century the word, of Arabic origin, signified any principle atten-
uated by extreme pulverization or by sublimation. It was applied,
for example, to the powder of sulphuret of antimony (koheul),
which was used for blackening the eyes, and to various other
substances, as well as to spirits of wine. No author has been
found of the thirteenth century, or even of the fourteenth cen-
tury and later, who applied the word alcohol to the product of
the distillation of wine. The term spirit of wine or ardent spirit,
although more ancient, was also not in use in the thirteenth
century ; for the word spirit was at that time reserved for vola-
tile agents, like mercury, sulphur, the sulphurets of arsenic, and
sal ammoniac, which were capable of acting on metals and modi-
fying their color and properties. The term eau-de-vie was given
in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries to the elixir of long
life. It was Arnaud de- Villeneuve who employed it for the first
time to designate the product of the distillation of wine. But he
used it, not as a specific name, but in order to mark the assimila-
tion which he made of it with the product drawn from wine. The
elixir of long life of the ancient alchemists had nothing in com-
mon with our alcohol. Confusion of the two has led the historians
of science into more than one error.

Our alcohol first appeared under the name of inflammable
water, a name which was likewise given to spirits of turpentine.
Let us try to determine, from the ancient authors and those of
the middle ages, what was the origin of the discovery of alcohol,
and to trace the successive steps in the knowledge of that sub-
stance. The ancients observed that wine gave out something
inflammable. We read in Aristotle's Meteorologica, "Ordinary
wine possesses a kind of exhalation, and that is why it gives out
a flame." Theophrastus, an immediate disciple of Aristotle's, says,
" Wine poured upon the fire, as for libations, throws out a light"

86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

— that is, produces a shining flame. Pliny says, still more decid-
edly, that the Falernian wine, the product of the Faustian field, is
the only wine that can be ignited " on contact with a flame " ; a
thing that happens with some wines very rich in alcohol. These
are common phenomena, accidental observations made in the
course of sacrifices and festivals which served as the beginning of
the discovery. But there had to be many intermediate steps.
Among them was this experiment, an amusing trick in physics,
doubtless devised by some prestidigitator, which is explained in
a Latin manuscript in the Royal Library of Munich : " Wine can
be burned in a pot, as follows : Put white or red wine in a pot,
the top of the pot being raised and having a cover with a hole in
the middle. Having heated the wine till it begins to boil and the
vapor comes out through the hole, put a light to it. The vapor
will at once take fire and the flame will last as long as it comes
out." But alcohol was not isolated by the ancients.

Distillation, or a method of separating the inflammable prin-
ciple from wine, had to be discovered before a further knowledge
of alcohol could be gained. This process passed through several
stages. It also started from common observations. When water
is heated in a vessel, its vapor condenses on the walls of surround-
ing objects, and especially on the cover of the vessel ; this can be
observed by every one, in domestic economy, on the covers of soup
dishes, of kettles, and of tea and coffee pots. Aristotle mentions
the fact in his Meteorologica. " Vapor," he says, " condenses under
the form of water, if we take pains to collect it." He speaks in
another place of a less usual observation, which was probably
likewise accidental, and which has been extensively applied in
our own time. " Experiment has taught us that sea- water when
converted into vapor becomes potable, and the vaporized product,
when condensed, 110 longer resembles sea-water. . . . Wine and all
liquids, when vaporized, turn into water." It appeared, then,
according to Aristotle, as if evaporation changed the nature of
the vaporized liquids and reduced them all to an identical condi-
tion— that of water. This change was conformable to the philo-
sophical ideas of the author, wine and sea-water being reduced to
the same condition of water, the principle of liquidity, which was
regarded by the ancient philosophers as one of the four funda-
mental elements of things.

Aristotle's remarks on sea-water soon gave the suggestion of a
practical process mentioned by Alexander of Aphrodisias, one of
his earliest commentators, about the second or third century A. D.
According to that author, sea- water was heated in brass kettles,
and the water that condensed on the covers was collected for
drinking. This was the germ of the industry of the distillation of
sea-water, which is practiced now on a large scale on board of ves-

DISCOVERY OF ALCOHOL AND DISTILLATION. 87

sels. But, before this process could be carried out in a practical
form, the modern improvements in the process of distillation had
to be discovered.

Similar processes to that mentioned by Alexander of Aphro-
disias are described by Dioscorides and Pliny, in the first century
A. D., for the preparation of two liquids so different as mercury
and spirits of turpentine. These discoveries, also met in acci-
dental observations, began to make more general the ideas of the
industrial men and physicists of the time. Cinnabar, or sulphuret
of mercury, has been used from remote antiquity as a red coloring
matter (vermilion) ; the Romans got it from Spain, where the
principal mines of mercury in Europe are still situated. It was
early remarked that, in heating in an iron vessel to purify it, it
disengages vapors of mercury, which are condensed on neighbor-
ing objects, chiefly on the cover of the vessel. This discovery was
the origin of the regular extracting process, described by Dioscori-
des and Pliny. The cinnabar was placed in a capsule of iron in
the middle of an earthenware pot. The cover was sealed on, and
heat was applied. After the operation the cover was scraped, in
order to detach and collect the globules of mercury which had
sublimed from the capsule. Thus was obtained artificial quick-
silver, which the ancients supposed to have different properties
from natural quicksilver, or that which occurs in Nature in mines.
This was an illusion, the mercury being identical, whatever the
mode of extraction. At any rate, the process employed for the
extraction of mercury by vaporization is the same as that de-
scribed by Alexander of Aphrodisias for making sea-water po-
table ; and this process, as I shall shortly explain, was the begin-
ning of the alembic.

Another rudimentary process, the first that was applied to the
extraction of an essential oil, is described by Dioscorides and by
Pliny. It is for the distillation of pine resins, which are now
called turpentines. They were heated in vessels over which wool
was spread ; this condensed the vapor ; then the wool was pressed,
in order to extract from it the liquefied product, spirits of turpen-
tine, which was then called resin oil or flower of resin. It soon
assumed an important function in the composition of the inflam-
mable substances used in the arts and in war. But these terms
seem at first to have designated also and at the same time the most
liquid part of the resins, as well as the water charged with their
soluble principles, which was floating on these resins like whey on
milk, at the moment of their extraction ; and, lastly, the distilled
and odorous water which was vaporized at the same time with the
essence. The ancients were in some confusion about these sub-
stances, which are distinct in modern chemistry ; and this it is which
makes the reading and interpretation of the old authors so hard.

88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

•

The decisive step in the knowledge of distillation was taken in
Egypt. There were invented the first real distilling apparatus
during the first centuries of the Christian era. They are described
precisely in the works of Zosimus, an author of the third century,
from the technical treatises of two women chemists named Cleo-
patra and Mary. In the margin of a Greek text of St. Mark are
the drawings of the apparatus, and they agree exactly with the
author's descriptions. The apparatus consists of a boiler or bal-
loon-shaped receiver, in which the liquid was put ; but the cover
was replaced by a large tube topping the balloon, and ending
above in a cap shaped like an inverted balloon, to serve as a con-
denser. The cap was furnished with lateral conical tubes inclined
downward, which were intended to collect the condensed liquid
and allow it to flow out into small bottles. All the essential parts
of a distilling apparatus are here defined. These lateral tubes
and their recipients constitute the chief improvement, and are
what constitutes the alembic. Among the distinctive character-
istics of the primitive alembic described by Zosimus is the multi-
plicity of the abductor tubes. He distinguishes between two-
beaked and three-beaked alembics. The flow of vapor was simul-
taneous, though there were several beaks, and condensation took
place in two or three receivers at once. Another figure represents
an alembic with a single beak, to which a large copper tube was
attached. An alembic described by Synesius, an author of the
fourth century, and figured in less ancient manuscripts, shows the
boiler with its cap, furnished with a single tube, the whole appa-
ratus being heated in a marine bath. This form varied but little
till the sixteenth century. The alembic passed from the Greco-
Egyptian experimenters to the Arabs without any notable change.
The Arabs were not, therefore, the inventors of distillation, as has
been too often affirmed. In chemistry, as in astronomy and medi-
cine, they merely reproduced the apparatus and processes of the
Greeks, their masters, adding a few improvements in details. It
is a mistake to trace the discovery of distillation and of alcohol
to Rases, or Abulcasis, or other Arabian authors; the verified
texts have at least furnished me no indication of that kind. In
fact, Rases (tenth century), in the passages cited in support of
that opinion, speaks only of vinous liquids or false wines ob-
tained by the fermentation of sugar, honey, and rice; liquids,
some of which, like hydromel, were known to the ancients. But
there is nothing about distilling them, or extracting a more
active principle, in any passage in Rases that I am acquainted
with. In the pharmaceutical works attributed to Abulcasis or
Abulcasim, a Spanish doctor of Cordova, who died in 1107, we
only find a distilling apparatus for preparing rose-water which
did not differ in principle from those of the old Grecian alche-

DISCOVERY OF ALCOHOL AND DISTILLATION. 89

mists. The Arabs, therefore, were still, in the beginning of the
fourteenth century, using the complicated apparatus of the Greco-
Egyptians.

Alembics with several beaks were still employed by the Western
alchemists in the sixteenth century. In Porta's treatise, entitled
Natural Magic, a collection of processes or secret operations, the
author mentions the cap of three and four beaks, each furnished
with its tube and receiver. It is still the old apparatus of Zosi-
mus. Porta, however, describes two important improvements
which have come down to modern industry — graduated condensa-
tions during the same operation and the cooling worm. We need
not suppose that he invented them, but only that he described the
practice of his time. The new feature is as follows : In the alem-
bics described by Zosimus the three pipes are at the same level,
and doubtless disengaged an identical vapor; the ideas of the
chemists of the time were too vague to allow anything else to be
expected. The three tubes of Porta, on the other hand, are at
different heights, arid the author adds that the highest tube fur-
nishes the purest spirit. We can already discern the ideas that
have fructified in our apparatus for fractional rectification, with
series of superposed chambers and trays delivering alcohols of
higher degrees of concentration from the higher levels. This ar-
rangement, however, was abandoned; at least we find no more
trace of it during the following centuries. In this as in many
other incidents, the men of the sixteenth century foresaw the most
modern advances, but by a kind of intuition, without their having
those clear notions and those exact principles of physics which,
being wanting, progress is accidental and transient.

Another more durable improvement was that of the worm.
The alembics of the ancient Greeks doubtless permitted distilled
liquors to be obtained, but on condition of operating slowly and
with a very moderate heat. In fact, the vapors were imperfectly
condensed on the small surfaces of the tubes and the caps repre-
sented in the manuscripts. However little we might try to hasten
the distillation, the receivers would become warm and condensation
would become almost impossible. Hence the ancient authors pre-
scribed that their apparatus should be heated over very slow fires.
They operated by means of sand baths, baths of ashes, or water
baths. Sometimes they tried to distill with no other heat than
that of fermenting manure or a low fire of dung or sawdust.
Their operations were therefore very slow, and often lasted for
days and weeks. It required fourteen days, or twenty-one days, a
text would say, to perform the operation. Not only did they in
this way assure the effect of digestions and cementations, designed
to produce gradual permeation with sulphurous and arsenical
vapors, into sheets of metal submitted to the tinctorial action of

9o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the elixirs, but they also made it practicable to collect the liquids
placed in the alembics.

At last, however, the operators of the middle ages perceived
that the manipulations could be conducted more rapidly, the dis-
tillations, for instance, by cooling the cap and the connected tube
that conducted to the last receiver. For that purpose they first
fixed around the boiler cap a bucket filled with cold water ; this
facilitated the condensation, but caused a part of the liquefied
vapors to fall back into the boiler. A new improvement — the one
described by Porta — consisted in bending the tube between the
cap and the receiver and giving it the form of a serpent. This
was the origin of the modern still-worm. It was surrounded by
cold water in a wooden vessel. But the use of the serpentine ar-
rangement spread very slowly, and was still regarded as recent by
the authors of the eighteenth century.

Let us observe here that we are using the word distillation in
the modern sense of evaporation followed by a condensation of
liquid ; but in many authors of the middle ages the sense is more
vague. The word means, in its literal sense, a flow drop by drop,
and is applied equally to filtration and all refining and purifica-
tion. The word distill is often employed in the same sense in
modern language. It also comprehended from the Greco-Egyp-
tian epoch two fundamentally distinct operations, viz., the con-
densation of dry vapors into a solid form — such as calamines or
metallic oxides, sulphur, metallic sulphurets, arsenious acid and
metallic arsenic (which was the second mercury of the Grecian
alchemists), and at a later date chlorides of mercury, sal ammo-
niac, etc. — the process which is now called sublimation. It re-
quires special apparatus, which the ancients devised and used, and
which gave rise to the Arabian aludel. We mention this here on
account of its connection with many modern industries, although
it has no relation to the discovery of alcohol.

I proceed now to describe distilled liquids and the successive
steps made in their study. " Celestial things above, terrestrial
things below," was the phrase by which the Grecian alchemists
designated the products of all distillation and sublimation. They
declared that "the sublimed vapor emitted from below up is
called divine. . . . White mercury is likewise called divine, be-
cause it, too, is emitted from below up. . . . The drops which
affix themselves to the covers of boilers are likewise called di-
vine." In this expression we find the marks of Aristotle, Dios-
corides, and Alexander of Aphrodisias. The alchemists, accord-
ing to their usage, interpreted these purely physical ideas by
symbols and a curious mysticism. Democritus (or the alchemic
author who took that name) called the spherical apparatus in
which the distillation of water was carried on " celestial natures."

DISCOVERY OF ALCOHOL AND DISTILLATION. 91

The separation which is effected in these between volatile water
and fixed matter is expressed as follows in the text of Olympiodo-
rus, who lived at the beginning of the fifth century : " Earth is
taken in the early morning, still impregnated with the dew which
the rising sun lifts with its rays. It is then like a widow and de-
prived of its spouse, according to the oracles of Apollo. . . . By
divine water I mean my dew, aerial water." In the same style
Comarius, a writer of the seventh century, drew the allegorical
picture of evaporation and the condensation that accompanies it,
condensed liquids reacting on the solid products exposed to their
action : " Tell us ... how the blessed waters descend from above
to visit the dead, stretched out, chained, and loaded down in dark-
ness and shadow, in the interior of hades ; . . . how new waters
enter in, ... come by the action of the fire ; the cloud holds them
up ; it rises from the sea, sustaining the waters."

This singular language, this enthusiasm borrowing the most
exalted religious formulas, need not surprise us. The men of that
time, excepting a few superior geniuses, had not reached that
state of calm and abstraction that permits the contemplation of
scientific verities with a serene coolness. Their education, the
symbolical traditions of ancient Egypt, and the gnostic ideas
with which the first alchemists were all impregnated, did not
allow them to preserve their even balance. They were trans-
ported and intoxicated, as it were, by the revelation of that hidden
world of chemical transformations which appeared to the human
mind for the first time.

In the first Greek treatises, all the active liquids of chemistry
are confounded under the common name of divine water or
waters. " Divine water is one in kind," they said ; " but it is mul-
tiplied as to species, and admits of an infinite number of varieties
and methods of treatment." They designated those varieties by
the most various symbolical names, such as aerial water, fluvial
water, dew, virginal milk, water of native sulphur, silver water,
Attic honey, sea-foam, etc. Confusion was systematically engen-
dered by this variety of denominations, for the avowed purpose
of concealing the secrets of the alchemical fabrications from the
vulgar and uninitiated. Although it is occasionally possible to
discern something precise in the deliberate vagueness of the de-
scriptions, there does not exist among them, so far as I know, any
text that is applicable to the distillation of wine. It is barely pos-
sible that the principle of fractional distillation and the diversity
of its successive products are indicated in one or two passages,
but those passages appear to apply to the treatment of alkaline
polysulphides or of organic sulphureted substances, which have
nothing in common with alcohol.

I have not, moreover, met in the Arabic treatises on medicine

92 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and materia medico, as yet printed, or in the manuscript Arabic
works of Geber and other alchemic authors which I possess and
am preparing for publication, with any precise text relative to
alcohol or to any definite distilled liquid. I have already ex-
plained the passages of Rases that have been wrongly cited as
bearing on this point, which relate only to fermented liquids
without reference to their distillation or to the extraction of alco-
hol. So Abulcasim, who has been cited, after describing some dis-
tilling apparatus modeled after the dibicos and tribicos of the
Greeks, adds simply, " According to this method, whoever wants
distilled wine can distill it." He gives directions for distilling rose-
water and vinegar in the same way. He speaks only of distilla-
tion in a mass. Still, the idea of the preparation of a distilled
fragrant water, like rose-water, appears here clearly for the first
time ; but there is nothing in it that applies to an essence proper,
or especially to alcohol.

I repeat that simply a distillation of wine, without any dis-
tinction between the successive products of a fractional distilla-
tion, is meant in these texts. But it was perceived from that
time, contrary to the opinion of Aristotle, that distilled wine was
not identical with water ; still, our authors do not speak of alco-
hol, although the knowledge of that substance would result al-
most immediately from the study of the distilled liquids yielded
by wine.

The most ancient manuscript containing a precise reference to
this product is in the Clef de la peinture, which was written in
the twelfth century. It is a receipt in cipher, which when de-
ciphered and translated reads : " By mixing pure and very strong
wine with three parts of salt and heating it in vessels designed
for the purpose, we obtain an inflammable water, which is con-
sumed without burning the matter on which it is placed." This
meant alcohol. The property of burning on the surface of bodies
without burning them greatly struck the first observers of it. A
more explicit mention is contained in the Treatise on Fires of
Marcus Grsecus, a Latin work drawn from Arabian and Grecian
sources, no manuscripts of which, however, are of earlier date
than the year 1500. It is a compilation of technical receipts,
mostly relating to the art of war. The receipt for the burning
water was added later to the original text ; for it is not a part of
another manuscript that exists in Munich, but is inserted in it
outside of and after the Treatise on Fires. It contains some new
hints and characteristics, and is as follows : " Preparation of In-
flammable Water. — Take wine, black, thick, and old. For a quar-
ter of a pound add two scruples of very finely powdered sulphur,
one or two of tartar, extract of a good white wine, and two scru-
ples of common salt in coarse fragments. Place the whole in a

DISCOVERY OF ALCOHOL AND DISTILLATION. 93

good leaden alembic; put on the cap, and you will distill the
burning water. It should be kept in a glass vessel tightly closed."
The Munich manuscript adds : " These are the virtue and proper-
erties of the inflammable water : A rag moistened with it and
set on fire will burn with a great flame. When the fire is extin-
guished the cloth will be found unharmed. If you dip your fin-
ger in this water and then put fire to it, it will burn like a candle
and not suffer any wounding." This was in fact a prestidigitator's
trick ; and the part those people played is manifest in the begin-
nings of a large number of inventions in antiquity and the middle
ages. In any case the facts pointed to in this description are ex-
act, and show how first observers are often struck by real or ap-
parent properties of bodies, even though they be insignificant.
Frequently, too, they complicate operations by superfluous if not
annoying details, to which, according to the theories by which
they are guided, they attach the same importance as to the rest.
For instance, in the first receipt of Marcus Grsecus is a direction
to add sulphur previous to the distillation, which occurs likewise
in a book by Al Farabi, transcribed into another manuscript of
the same period, as well as in Porta's Natural Magic, which was
composed in the sixteenth century. It is therefore not accidental.
It is the product of a theory which is expounded at length in sev-
eral texts, held by the chemists of the time, that the great moist-
ure of wine is opposed to its inflammability. To counteract this
they added salts or sulphur, the dryness of which, they said, aug-
mented the combustible properties. One of these old authors re-
fers, in support of his theory, to dry wood and green wood, un-
equally combustible, according to the season when they were cut
and the proportion of moisture they contain.

We should recollect also that volatility and combustibility were
then confounded and called sulphurity, a term which was still ap-
plied in this sense in the time of Stahl, at the beginning of the eight-
eenth century. These ideas go back to the Grecian alchemists,
who called every volatile liquid and every sublimate sulphurous
(or divine) water. In this we can see the origin of those compli-
cated preparations, so hard to understand now, which were em-
ployed by the old alchemists. They tried to communicate to bod-
ies the qualities in which they were lacking by adding to them
substances in which those qualities were supposed to be con-
centrated. Hence sulphur was added to wine in the belief that it
would render the manifestation of its inflammable principle easier.

The first man of science known by name who spoke of alcohol
is Arnaud de Villeneuve, who was of a date posterior to the com-
position of these writings. He is commonly spoken of as the
author of the discovery, though he never himself presented such
a claim. He only spoke of alcohol as a preparation known in his

94 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

time, which, he admired very much. He recorded of it in his
work Concerning the Preservation of Youth : " We extract, by
distillation of wine or its lees, burning wine, called also eau-de-
vie. It is the most subtile portion of the wine."

He then exalts its virtues : " Discourse on Eau-de-vie. — Some
call it water of life ; some of the moderns say it is permanent
water, or rather golden water, on account of the sublime nature
of its preparation. Its virtues are well known." He next enu-
merates the maladies for which it is a cure : " It prolongs life, and
therefore deserves to be called water of life. It should be kept in
a golden vessel ; all other kinds of ware, except glass, are liable
to be acted upon by it." Then he speaks of alcoholates : " On ac-
count of its simplicity, it receives every impression of taste, odor,
and other properties. When the virtues of rosemary and sage
are imparted to it, it exercises a favorable influence on the nerves,"
etc. The pretended Raymond Lulle, a more modern author than
Arnaud de Yilleneuve, speaks of alcohol with equal enthusiasm.
He describes the distillation of the inflammable water, derived
from wine, and of its rectifications, repeated seven times if neces-
sary, till the product burns without leaving a trace of water, and
adds, " It is called vegetable mercury." So it appears that the
alchemists in the beginning of the fourteenth century were taken
with such admiration for the discovery of alcohol that they lik-
ened it to the elixir of long life and the mercury of the philoso-
phers. Yet we have to be cautious against taking every text con-
cerning the mercury of the philosophers or the elixir of long life
as applicable to alcohol.

The elixir of long life is a fancy of ancient Egypt. Diodorus
Siculus calls it "the remedy of immortality." Its invention is
attributed to Isis, and the composition of it may be found in the
works of Galen. The formulas for it in the middle ages were
various. It was also reputed to be capable of changing silver
into gold, or, in other words, was credited with the same chimerical
properties as the philosopher's stone.

Although the discovery of alcohol did not give realization to
these illusions, it has nevertheless had the gravest consequences
in the history of the world. Alcohol is an eminently active
agent, and thereby at once useful and harmful. It may prolong
human life or shorten its term, according to the use that is made
of it. It is also a source of inexhaustible wealth for individuals
and states — a more fruitful source than the pretended philoso-
pher's stone of the alchemists could have been. Their long and
patient labors were therefore not lost ; and their dreams have
been realized beyond their hopes by the discoveries of modern
chemistry. — Translated for The Popular Science Monthly from
the Revue des Deux Mondes.

AMERICAN EXPLORATION TRIBUTE. 95

TRIBUTE OF THE FRENCH ACADEMY TO AMERICAN
GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATION.*

THE following tribute to the Americans who have conducted
meritorious geological and geographical explorations is a
graceful and well-bestowed recognition from the French people
of the remarkable results that have been achieved in this coun-
try by individual and Government agencies in adding to the sum
of human knowledge. The tribute of words is even more beauti-
ful than the elegant medal which accompanied it, and while the
United States Geological Survey is made the official recipient of
the gift, it will be seen that it is intended to honor other American
workers in this field of science.

Institute of France, Academy of Science. Meeting of Decem-
ber 21, 1891. Pages 70 to 74.

CUVIER PKIZES.

COMMISSIONEES : MM. GATJDEY, FOTTQUE, DE QTJATBEFAGES, MILNE-EDWABDS.
M. DAUBEEE, RAPPOETEFE.

The commission charged with awarding the Cuvier prize for
the year 1891 has with unanimous voice given this high mark of
esteem to the collective work of the Geological Survey of the
United States.

In the United States, where all the natural resources are ex-
ploited with so much ardor, the studies relative to the soil ought
necessarily to demand a very particular attention by reason of
the numerous applications which they legitimately promise. It
is therefore more than half a century since the governments of
many States instituted a geological exploration of the lands which
belonged to them. These geological surveys were organized and
confided to men most prominent in their profession. It was in
the Northern States that the most considerable progress was
made. Hitchcock published, in 1833, the Geology of Massachu-
setts. From 1836 to 1840 the eminent Henry Rogers and his
brother, W. B. Rogers, undertook that of Pennsylvania and Vir-
ginia, the essential characteristics and distorted structure of
which they so admirably made known. Charles T. Jackson, of
Boston, the discoverer of etherization, and already known by his
mineralogical works, undertook that of Maine, New Hampshire,
and Rhode Island (1837 to 1839), after having published in 1833 a
study of Nova Scotia. The geology of the State of New York is
confided to James Hall — who has not yet discontinued the series

• * Translated by Robert T. Hill, of the United States Geological Survey.

96 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of Ms discoveries — Mather, Emmons, and Vamixem. It has given
existence to publications that have become classic (1836 to 1842).
By the side of these promoters who have the merit of having been
the first to conquer the greatest difficulties, justice demands that
there should be written the names of two geologists not attached
officially to the service of the United States, whose powerful influ-
ence ought to be proclaimed. Our compatriot De Verneuil pur-
sued since 1846, with the success that is well known, a task which
no other could better undertake, that of comparing upon the two
continents all the sedimentary deposits, from the most ancient
down to those that contain the coal ; and Dana, by his original
work and by his excellent books, has contributed singularly to
the education of all those who, in Europe as well as in America,
devoted themselves and still devote themselves to the study of
geology and mineralogy.

The first results attained proved the utility of like enterprises.
Thus, following the steps of the local governments, the Federal
Government entered into the same path.

It was at first for the great Territories of the West, little
known and not yet classed as independent States. The wise
geologist Hayden, to whom this study was confided and of whom
we deplore the loss, worked there with ardor during a dozen
years. First of all had to be adopted a rational plan for an ex-
ploration at the same time geographic and geologic. This new
service bore, indeed, the title of Geological and Geographical
Survey of the Territories. Then followed the discovery in 1871,
and the detailed exploration in 1872, of the region of the geysers
of the Yellowstone ; from 1873 to 1879 the complete topographic
and geologic survey of the Alpine part of the Rocky Mountains
comprised in the State of Colorado. The atlas which unites all
these researches (1877) is a chef-d'oeuvre of cartography ; it is in
great part the work of Mr. Holmes, the artist-geologist, of whom
one admires the incomparable sketches scattered in profusion
through the official publications.

In order to explore the Rocky Mountains (1869 to 1875), Mr.
J. W. Powell descended by water the celebrated and dangerous
canons of the Colorado, and made a report which has become
classic on the phenomena of erosion. During the same epoch Mr.
Gilbert made an extremely remarkable study of the Henry Moun-
tains.

At the same time the Engineer Department of the United
States Army was charged with work of the same class over an
immense country still little more than desert and very little
known. The title of this new service, " Geological and geographi-
cal exploration and survey of the one hundredth meridian," shows
that, in this case also, the examination of the constitution of the

AMERICAN EXPLORATION TRIBUTE. 97

soil marched side by side with, the study of its topography and
relief. This important mission was placed, in 1872, under the
direction of Lieutenant Wheeler, who in the preceding year had
explored a portion of Nevada and Arizona. The choice could not
have been better, as is proved by the career since then of the dis-
tinguished engineer. His purpose was to reconnoitre the natu-
ral resources of the mountainous country in the neighborhood of
the chosen parallel, and also of the great railroad lines of the
Union and Central Pacific between the one hundred and fourth
and one hundred and twentieth degrees of longitude west from
Greenwich. After having examined the Sierra Nevada and the
Coast Ranges, Prof. Whitney, Director of the Geological Survey
of California, pushed his investigations toward the Pacific slope.
But, between California on the west and the base of the Rocky
Mountains on the east, exploited by Hayden, there remained a
vast gap of sixteen degrees of longitude which was little known.
Under the direction of Mr. Clarence King this gap was very well
filled. A general knowledge was acquired of the great mountain
system of North America and that in its greatest expansion. We
possess now results sufficient to make clear the important problem
of the dynamics of mountain chains.

Since 1879 all the geological studies executed at the expense of
the central Government have been confided to a single adminis-
tration bearing the title of the Geological Survey.

Organized by Clarence King, it passed in the following year
under the direction of J. W. Powell, in whose able hands it has
since remained. Its end, as is defined by the organic law, is the
reconnoissance of the geological structure of the country, of its
mineral resources, and finally the execution of a geologic map.

The researches carried forward in very different directions of
science have been apportioned to many divisions: Geography,
geology, paleontology, and others. Geologists, to the number of
about twenty, are each one charged with special functions, and
their results are gathered each year into a report of the director
under the name of Annual Report. It is a large volume pub-
lished in magnificent shape, in which are likewise collected mem-
oirs upon divers subjects, with an accompaniment of numerous
maps, engravings, and photolithographs. Already ten annual
reports have appeared.

Besides these reports the survey has published from time to
time monographs upon subjects particularly interesting, likewise
under the form of very beautiful volumes, accompanied with
many figures, and occasionally by a voluminous atlas.

Also under the title of bulletins, of which already have ap-
peared sixty papers relating to subjects new and interesting. And,
finally, a statistical publication bearing the name of Mineral

VOL. XLIII. — 8

98 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Resources of the United States appears annually and makes
known not only the figures of production but also the numerous
theoretical considerations which interest the miner.

As to the geographic work which the Geological Survey also
possesses among its attributes, a numerous personnel of topogra-
phers and engineers work actively at the execution of the map in
the most diverse parts of the country under the direction of Mr.
H. Gannett. Already more than six hundred sheets have been
surveyed and drawn, and about four hundred have appeared.

Besides geology and geography ought to be mentioned a con-
siderable work, of which Mr. Powell is the founder, in the domain
of the pre-Columbian archaeology, the linguistics, the ethnology,
and the anthropology of the Indians of North America, splendidly
illustrated by Mr. Holmes. The last publication of Mr. Powell
upon the classification of American languages is, according to the
best judges, of great importance.

Not being able to give here a complete list of all the actual
collaborators of the survey, or of their services, we must content
ourselves with noticing those who have taken the principal part
in the execution of the works already published. These are in
alphabetical order: Messrs. Becker, Chamberlin, Cross, Davis,
Day, Diller, S. F. Emmons, Fontaine, Gannett, Gilbert, Hague,
Hayes, Holmes, Iddings, McGee, Marsh, Newberry, Peale, Russell,
Shaler, Van Hise, Walcott, Ward, Upham, Weed, C. A. White,
Whitfield, A. Williams, G. H. Williams, and H. S. Williams. It
is but just that we should not omit the names of those who are
dead : Messrs. Hayden, Irving, Lesquereux, Leidy, Marvine, and
Newton ; or of those who no longer belong to the survey : Messrs.
Bradley, Cope, Curtis, Dutton, Eiidlich, Hill, Howell, Clarence
King, St. John, Stevenson, and Wheeler. Many of these names
will remain justly illustrious.

It will be impossible to give in this report even a summary
idea of the most remarkable discoveries, which are due to the
Geological Survey. They belong to branches very diverse: re-
gional geology, monographs concerning metalliferous deposits,
general and comparative stratigraphy, mineralogy and petrogra-
phy, volcanic phenomena, glacial phenomena, ancient Quaternary
lakes, and a history of the Atlantic littoral.

Among the most considerable results must be mentioned the
paleontological discoveries made in the Rocky Mountains. Since
the day in which Hayden undertook his memorable explorations,
we have learned that the site of the Rocky Mountains was con-
tinuously a part of the continent during the greater portion of
the Secondary, Tertiary, and Quaternary epochs. Upon this vast
continent the quadrupeds could develop during extended time,
freely, without any interruption to their evolution, and thus they

AMERICAN EXPLORATION TRIBUTE. 99

became numerous, gigantic, and sometimes strange. The paleon-
tologists attached to the Geological Survey have brought to light
these curious creatures. The monographs of the regretted Leidy,
of Cope, and of Prof. Marsh are among the most beautiful pale-
ontologic works accomplished since Cuvier.

Magnificent researches have also been made concerning the
invertebrates and the fossil vegetables.

To resume, under the powerful impulse which the Federal
Government has given to it, the geologic service of the United
States has produced in twenty-five years results very considerable
and very skillfully attained. It must be said that in no other
region of the globe have been made such discoveries in so short a
space of time. Moreover, this organization, all perfect as it is-,
could not have given such fruits if the galaxy of savants who
have taken part in it had not given proof, at all times, of a valor
and of a tenacity which, in the diverse and inhospitable regions in
which they were exercised, recall the heroism of an army attack-
ing the most arduous and most inaccessible obstacles.

The work of the Geological Survey, with the magnificent col-
lection of results that it comprises, merits then that we should
render to it a striking homage for the light so vivid and so unex-
pected that it has thrown upon the geologic history and the min-
eral riches of North America.

The Cuvier prize is decreed to this grand collective work, not
only to the actual collaborators, but also to those who have ceased
their labors. It will, we hope, be preserved in the archives of the
Geological Survey as a witness of the high esteem of the Academy
of Sciences.

His studies of the planet Jupiter for the past thirteen or fourteen years have
satisfied M. Terby that the conditions existing there are more stable than astrono-
mers have of late years been supposing. Even if the phenomena of the spots and
bands are atmospheric, their permanency and regularity point to some fixed cause,
on the real surface of the planet, controlling them. Besides the " red spot," which
has now attracted attention for many years, he finds permanent spots, even on the
equatorial zone, having a movement of rotation corresponding with that of this
object. The supposition may be legitimately drawn from this fact that this period
of rotation agrees with that of the rotation of the planet itself.

AT present, the Hon. Rollo Russell contends, in his book on the Causes and
Prevention of Epidemic Plagues and Fevers, the science of "public life-saving"
is far ahead of the practice. We teach, he observes, in compulsorily attended
schools the names of "ancient and unworthy kings," of lakes, mountains, rivers,
and so on; while we neglect to instruct in the weightier matters that concern,
life, health, prosperity, and happiness. The remedy lies in placing the knowledge
of the first principles of hygiene within the acquisition of every person of the
cornmunitv.

ioo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

HOW SCIENCE IS HELPING THE FARMER.

BT CHAKLES S. PLUMB, B. S.,

DIRECTOR INDIANA AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION.

A SCORE or more years ago, when Horace Greeley and Henry
Ward Beecher were telling the American public what they
knew about farming, there was quite a general tendency on the
part of the agricultural class to hold up to ridicule what was
termed " scientific farming." Great claims were then made as to
the importance of a knowledge of science, so that the farmer
might analyze the soil, crops, fertilizers, etc. Especial stress was
laid upon having a knowledge of chemistry, in order to be able to
analyze something. Chemistry was to be the panacea for all the
farmer's ills, and writers indiscriminately quoted Liebig, Boussin-
gault, Johnston, Lawes, and Gilbert, and other famous agricul-
tural chemists. There was much book farming done that was a
source of amusement for practical agriculturists. Much of the
written matter and advice published was worthless, and time and
the labors of science conclusively demonstrated as much. Early
investigators, engaged in faithful and hard work, gleaned much
information of scientific importance, and eventually overturned
numerous theories that had hitherto seemed plausible. Chief
among these was the analysis of soils, whereby one could know
the composition of his soil and at once determine in what ingredi-
ents of plant food it was deficient, so that he might feed back to
it the lacking elements. Time and study have shown that soil is
a very complex substance, and one analysis is usually quite un-
satisfactory, because a little sample of soil represents only a small
piece of ground, perhaps representing quite unfairly the entire
field. Consequently, as remarked by Dr. Caldwell,* soil analyses
are not thoroughly practical, on account of the difficulty in secur-
ing a sample of a few pounds that shall correctly represent the
millions of pounds of soil in even a single acre, to say nothing of
a field of many acres.

Fifty years ago Justus von Liebig, a German chemist, through
an interest in rural economy which resulted in far-reaching dis-
coveries, established himself as the father of agricultural chem-
istry. His investigations largely related to the composition of
the soil and plant nutrition. He was the first to prove that plants
fed on certain ingredients of the soil, and that different classes of
soils and plants varied in their composition. Liebig's was the
pioneer work, and from his time to the present a mass of scientific
information has been gradually accumulating that in numerous
ways is serving a good purpose.

* Agricultural Science, vol. i, p. 25.

HOW SCIENCE IS HELPING THE FARMER. 101

Never before in history have scientific workers been so prac-
tical as now. We live in essentially a practical age, and men
live better, more intelligently, and more easily than ever before.
Practical problems engage the attention of the scientist over all
others ; and so, instead of ridicule, science as applied to the farm
is now receiving most respectful consideration, for the work is
practical, and sound practice always receives respectful attention.

Science is knowledge. There is no scientific farming. The
highest type of farming is intelligent farming. The intelligent
farmer of to-day is simply making use of certain scientific facts
that have a practical application.

For a half century science has been laboring in the interests
of agriculture. This year the United States appropriates nearly
one million dollars for scientific experimentation as applied to
agriculture. And yet but few farmers realize how material is the
assistance being given the agricultural classes of the country
through the direct application of accomplished scientific work.
In view of this condition of affairs, in the following pages I pro-
pose to give illustrations of what is now in practical use, show-
ing how science has helped and is helping the farmer. These
examples signify something. They mean a saving of millions of
dollars to the people of the country. Millions have been saved to
the farmers in the past ; millions will be saved in the future ;
and all through the aid of scientific research.

The first real substantial assistance received by the farming
public from science was in the examination and inspection of
commercial fertilizers. Liebig demonstrated that plants secured
most of their nutrition from soil ingredients. Nitrogen, potash,
and phosphoric acid were those most in demand by the plant, and
where crops were removed from the soil these articles of plant
food were diminished, thereby reducing cropping capacity. Soil
exhaustion in a measure followed if these substances were not
returned to feed subsequent crops. Natural manures (animal
excrement) contained nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric acid ; con-
sequently soil fertility could be maintained by the application of
these. But chemistry here came to the farmer's aid, by suggest-
ing that the various essentials of plant food be supplied in arti-
ficially prepared form. Nitrogen could be obtained from Peruvian
guano and animal matter, potash from wood ashes or German
salts, and phosphoric acid from bones ; consequently these sub-
stances could be supplied as desired. With the propagation of
this idea was developed the commercial fertilizer, and artificial
manures were made and sold on the market as is any other com-
modity. However, it was not long before much fraudulent ma-
terial found its way into the buyer's hands ; many dealers were
not honest, and farmers were often outrageously swindled. Here,

102 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

again, the chemists came to the assistance of agriculture. Ferti-
lizers could be analyzed, their component parts determined, and
purchasers might learn how many pounds of plant food a ton of
artificial manure contained. Nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric
acid each had a commercial value per pound ; consequently the
chemist could easily determine in a fair manner the value of a
ton of fertilizer.

In 1872, through the efforts of Dr. C. A. Goessmann, Professor
of Chemistry in the Massachusetts Agricultural College, the Mas-
sachusetts Legislature passed a law appointing a State inspector
of fertilizers, requiring that all fertilizer manufacturers making
a fertilizer having a valuation of over twelve dollars a ton should
print on a tag attached to the bag or barrel containing the same the
percentage of nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric acid in the brand
sold. Samples of all fertilizers selling for over twelve dollars per
ton had first to be analyzed by the State chemist before they could
be sold in the market ; and this officer, designated " inspector,"
was authorized to sample and analyze any or all fertilizers sold
in the State. This Massachusetts law was at first more or less
imperfect, but it was later on amended and made eminently satis-
factory to both the manufacturer and the consumer. Other States
followed the example of Massachusetts, and to-day there is not a
State in the Union handling fertilizers to any extent that has not
upon its statute-books laws patterned to some degree after the
Massachusetts idea, and as a result manufacturers can not with
safety sell the farmers shoddy fertilizers. Now and then a fraud-
ulent fertilizer appears, but its sale is quickly stopped by the
chemist's exposure. Only a short time ago (the summer of 1890)
two fertilizers were suddenly placed upon the Indiana market and
sold for $27.50 and $22.50 per ton, respectively. These were ana-
lyzed by the State chemist, and the former was found to have a
value of $5.76 and the latter of $4.44 per ton. These were out-
and-out swindles ; yet, had it not been for a prompt publication
from the State Experiment Station at Purdue University as to
their real character, many farmers of the State of Indiana would
have been unmercifully swindled. In view of the fact that
millions of dollars' worth of fertilizers are sold yearly in the
United States, one can readily understand how great is the sum
of money that is being yearly saved to the farmers of the country
through the interposition of the chemist.

In the Eastern and more populous part of the United States,
which has been long under cultivation, farm manures are more
highly valued than in the newer regions of the country. For
years investigators have advised that stable manure be handled
economicall}7". Chemists argued that, unless properly protected,
these manures would lose much of their valuable properties,

HOW SCIENCE IS HELPING THE FARMER. 103

mainly through rain leaching away the soluble plant food. Fig-
ures supplied from foreign investigation were used to prove the
point. Finally, in 1889 the Cornell University Agricultural Ex-
periment Station did some practical work to demonstrate how
farmyard manure would deteriorate by leaching and fermenta-
tion.* It was shown that one ton of fresh horse manure had a
valuation of $2.45, but exposed outdoors for six months its valu-
ation was $1.42, a loss of $1.03 per ton, or forty-two per cent.
Mixed horse and cow manure, after leaching for six months,
showed a loss of 9'2 per cent, a less amount, no doubt, than occurs
on the average farm.

At the present time, while there is a vast loss of plant food to
the farms through the improper care of the manure produced
thereon, there is at the same time saved to economic use an enor-
mous amount of fertility through the careful husbanding of the
materials as produced upon the farms of those who are intelli-
gent and economical. We must give scientific investigation the
credit for thus showing husbandmen how important farm losses
may be prevented ; the numerous devices at present used on the
farm for conserving manures, such as manure sheds, pits, cellars,
etc., are money-saving equipments.

In a somewhat different direction, yet in a line where the work
of the chemist is of equal if not greater importance than in fer-
tilizer control, is the inspection of milk. Milk is the most essen-
tial article of food for human consumption, for, properly used, it
is as nearly a perfect food as is known. But milk is a fluid, and
as such is easily adulterated. It consists of from eighty-five to
eighty-eight per cent water, and twelve to fifteen per cent solid
substance — as fat, casein (cheesy matter), albumen, sugar, and ash.
On the percentage and purity of solids in milk is its quality
mainly dependent. After the selling of milk became a recognized
industry, adulteration came more or less to be practiced. The
pump was brought into requisition. Flour, chalk, and other in-
gredients were used to thicken it. In 1872 Dr. C. F. Chandler, of
Columbia College, stated f that, from long-continued investiga-
tion, the milk supply of New York and Boston receives on an
average one quart of water to every three quarts of pure milk be-
fore reaching consumers. He further says, " With the addition of
water in the proportion of one to three before delivering to con-
sumers, we find milk-growers deprived of a business which would
return to them $1,390,000 yearly, at an average first price of fifteen
cents per gallon, city consumers, on the other hand, paying more
than $3,700,000 annually for water."

* Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station, Bulletin 13, December, 1889.
t Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for 1872, p. 335.

104 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Here the dairy farmer was either injuring his own interests or
some other fellow was hurting it. The intelligent producer real-
izes that anything that is done to injure the character of market
milk injures the general trade. Were pure milk always placed
on the market, a better price could be secured for it, and there
would not be the extensive sale for patent baby foods and con-
densed milk that there now is. To remedy this evil it became
necessary to treat milk in a measure as the fertilizers were treated,
or, in other words, determine the character of milk by analysis.
As in fertilizer control, so in milk inspection, Massachusetts was
a pioneer worker. The first act to punish fraud in the sale of
adulterated milk in Massachusetts was passed by the Legislature
in 1856. This law was ineffective, so in 1859 a new law was en-
acted, which provided for the appointment of milk inspectors in
towns and cities, whose duties it should be to detect adulteration
of milk, and secure the conviction and punishment of offenders.
This law has since been frequently amended and improved. At
the present time the Massachusetts law requires all milk to con-
tain at least thirteen per cent solids, and milk containing less than
that amount is condemned. Since the Massachusetts law was
first enacted the more progressive dairy States of the Union have
passed laws to prevent deception in the sale of dairy products,
and usually twelve per cent of solids is required in the milk
sold in the market. The London (England) milk supply is care-
fully watched by inspectors. The Aylesbury Dairy Company
of London is the largest of its kind in the world. During 1891
chemists analyzed 21,855 samples of the milk of this company,
and found before delivery 12*75, during delivery 1274, and after
delivery 12'81 per cent solids, showing a very good grade of
milk.*

That substance which makes milk most palatable is the fat in
it. Good milk should have four or five ; cream, eighteen to twen-
ty-five, and butter, eighty to eighty-five per cent of fat. Skim
milk, or thin, insipid, disagreeable milk, contains a small amount
of milk fat. When we speak of rich milk, we mean that which
contains a large percentage of this substance. There are in the
United States many thousands of cows, each of which does not
produce over one fourth or one half the amount of butter it
should. The claim is made f that the average yield of our dairy
cows is not over one hundred and twenty-five pounds of butter a
year, whereas it should be three hundred pounds at the least.
Some cows produce a much larger percentage of fat or butter in
their milk than do others. The farmer should own the better

* Milch Zeitung, xxl, Nos. 11 and 12.

f The Dairy Industry, by Peter Collier, New York, 1889, p. 8.

HOW SCIENCE IS HELPING THE FARMER. 105

class of the two, the butter dairyman can only afford to keep prof-
itable cows, and the thousands of creameries over the country
can not afford to purchase good and poor milk for one and the
same price, for that is unjust to the person supplying the best
grade of milk. Consequently, for some years chemists have been
laboring to invent some simple method of determining the per-
centage of fat in milk, so that creamery men and farmers with a
common education might be able to use it, and thus test their
milk accurately. The first method for practical application among
farmers to attract very general attention was that devised by Mr.
F. G. Short, chemist to the Wisconsin Experiment Station, whose
method was published in 1888.* This, however, was somewhat
complex, and too slow of operation. Other methods were after-
ward developed by Messrs. Patrick, Parsons, Cochran, Babcock,
etc. Dr. S. M. Babcock, while chemist at the New York State Ex-
periment Station, did much valuable work in the study of milk
and its products, and in 1889, after becoming chemist of the State
Experiment Station at Madison, Wis., he developed and brought
out a method for testing the fat in milk or cream that is now a
recognized success. The method is simple, and can easily be per-
formed by any person of fair intelligence. Equal quantities of
milk and sulphuric acid are placed in specially constructed bot-
tles, and these put in a simple machine, largely consisting of a tin
cylinder or wheel, about fifteen or twenty inches in diameter, re-
volving on its side, within which, after the manner of spokes, are
cups or pockets, in which these bottles are placed. The wheel is
revolved by a crank and cog movement, and by centrifugal force
and the action of the acid the fat in the milk is separated from
the rest of the fluid. Enough hot water is added to each bottle
to fill the measuring neck, and the fat, after five or six minutes'
turning of the machine, comes to the top clear and yellow, after
which the amount present may be read upon the graduated lines
on the sides of the long neck of the bottle. The milk of as many
as twenty-four cows can be tested in an hour. Machines of from
four to fifty bottles capacity are manufactured:

This invention, the result of long and laborious scientific re-
search, is not patented, and is largely used in the creameries of
Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, and many other States in the purchas-
ing of milk. The patrons of the creameries are paid for their
milk according to its quality, as decided by the Babcock machine.
Such a method as this is a blessing to the country, for it informs
the farmer if his milk is inferior to that of his neighbor, and will
consequently incite him to improve his stock.

* University of Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 16, July, 1888.
A New Method for determining Fat in

106 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The Babcock milk-testing macliine is now just as generally
sold by dairy firms as is an improved churn or butter- worker.

One of the most wonderful of agricultural inventions is the
centrifugal or milk separator. Briefly, this machine is designed
to separate the cream from the milk as soon as drawn from the
cow, thus dispensing with the old process of setting milk and
waiting for the cream to rise by gravity. At the International
Dairy Show at Hamburg, in 1877, an instrument was exhibited*
consisting of two wheels in a stand, one of which actuated the
other by means of a belt. In the upper wheel four glass tubes
containing milk were securely placed, and the lower wheel was
then revolved, giving the upper upward of one thousand revolu-
tions per minute. Whirling at this speed brought centrifugal
force to bear on the milk in the tubes, and the cream, being light-
est, collected at one end and the skim milk at the other, f

In 1879 De Laval, a Swede, exhibited to the British public at
Kilburn a centrifugal separator entirely unlike the preceding one,
and this machine of De Laval, in principle and general plan, is
the form now commonly used over Europe and America. Milk,
warm from the cow, is conveyed into a hollow steel drum about
ten inches in diameter, which is made to revolve six thousand to
seven thousand times per minute within a slightly larger metal
chamber. The skim milk, being heavier, is thrown to the outside,
and passes off through a tube which rises from a point in the
skim milk where the least amount of fat exists to the upper edge
of the drum ; while the lighter cream rises near the center of the
drum and passes off through another hole, coming out of the
separator on the opposite side from the skim milk. One or two
thousand pounds of milk an hour may be creamed with this ma-
chine, when run by horse or steam power. Several other designs
of centrifugals have more recently been invented, some of greater
capacity than the De Laval, but at the present day the modern De
Laval's is unsurpassed. For small dairies De Laval invented a
hand separator, which is known as "the baby separator." With
the No. 2 size one person can separate the cream from three hun-
dred pounds of milk in an hour, the drum making six thousand
revolutions per minute to forty-two turns of the crank.

The manufacture of this cream separator has been followed
by the invention and introduction within the past two years of a
combined cream separator and butter extractor, which makes it

* Sheldon, Dairy Farming, p. 303.

f An editorial in Farm and Fireside, for June 1, 1892, states that the cream separator
has been in process of evolution for thirty-three years, and that the first known application
of centrifugal force for creaming milk was made in 1859. Dairy authorities, so far as I can
learn, give no data on the subject preceding that quoted above in the text. — C. S. P.

HOW SCIENCE IS HELPING THE FARMER. 107

practicable to run milk into the machine and take from it butter,
thus avoiding the handling of the cream at all.

The cream separator enables the dairyman to dispense with
numerous utensils ordinarily used in setting milk, and in hot
climates is invaluable, as it saves much of the great expense of
ice. Centrifugal cream is unexcelled. In a comparatively few
years these valuable dairy utensils will be commonly found in use
on the dairy farms of the country.

Never before in the history of man have agricultural plants
apparently suffered so greatly from parasitic vegetable growths
and injurious insects. The conditions of growth have been made
so much more intense for many plants that they have in conse-
quence, in certain directions, thus made themselves more vulner-
able to the attacks of parasites and insects. Some insects have
been deprived of their normal food in a large degree, and have
sought sustenance in agricultural crops. The destruction of these
ravagers meant the saving of valuable crops ; consequently much
important experimental work has been accomplished with fungi-
cides and insecticides.

For two score of years the grape rot has caused immense
damage in the vineyards of the Eastern United States. A small
plant, so minute as to require a high-power microscope to bring
it to view, feeds upon the juices of the tender leaves and ber-
ries of the grape, blasting and ruining the fruit. The parasite
matures and ripens its spores or seeds in vast quantities, and
these are blown over adjacent vines and the disease more widely
scattered.

Within a few years the botanists of both Europe and America
began to devise means to prevent this malady. After long ex-
perimental work with fungicides and spraying machines, a mix-
ture of sulphate of copper (six pounds), unslaked lime (four
pounds), and water (forty-five gallons), termed Bordeaux mixture,
was adopted,* which, when sprayed on the vines several times
during the growing season before the grapes became ripe, com-
pletely prevented the ravages of the rot. Applications are made
after the buds have started, and four or five times later on. Ex-
periments, generally conducted by scientists with the Bordeaux
mixture, have shown it to be most excellent for preventing nu-
merous diseases of plants caused by parasitic growth. The method
is cheap, and small hand machines, or large pump tanks with
spraying attachments and drawn by teams, are made, by which
one can rapidly and effectively spray large areas at comparatively
slight expense. So extensive is the use of Bordeaux mixture be-
coming that all along the Hudson and in other grape regions, in

* American Gardening, April, 1892, p. 260.

io8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

vineyards of the country, this is the method employed to save the
crop from black rot, mildew, etc.

In the cereal-growing regions, oats and wheat are frequently
damaged by the ravages of smut, a disease nearly all farmers are
familiar with, which destroys the seed or the entire head. This
smut is a mass of spores or seeds of a parasitic plant ripened in
the seed grain. The spores are scattered over the field, and min-
gle among the grain when thrashed out. The grain is planted in
the fall or spring, and the spores of the parasite germinate and
grow along with the young plant, feeding on its juices. When
the head of the plant begins to mature its seed it is blasted by the
smut.

A simple remedy has been devised to combat the smut of oats
and what is known as " bunt " or stinking smut of wheat. Inves-
tigations begun by Prof. Jensen, a Danish scientist, and also con-
ducted at the Kansas and Purdue University Experiment Sta-
tions, conclusively show that by soaking the seeds of these cereals
in water at a temperature of 135° to 140° Fahr. for five minutes
all the spores were killed, and the crop from the treated seed
would grow free of the malady. This simple method, costing
nothing for materials, bids fair to be extensively used in future.
It is estimated, as a result of investigation, that ten per cent of the
oat crop is destroyed by smut. In 1889 the oat crop of Indiana
amounted to 28,710,935 bushels. The value of the estimated ten
per cent of loss is $797,526 for 3,190,104 bushels of oats at 25 cents
a bushel. Certainly, if this sum can be saved it should be.

Few people realize the enormous loss to agriculture through
the ravages of insects. In his annual address before the Associa-
tion of Economic Entomologists at Washington in August, 1891,
Mr. James Fletcher, the president, gave important facts concern-
ing the extent of the losses from insect ravages. In 1864, Dr.
Shimer estimated the loss to the corn and grain crops of Illinois
to be $73,000,000. In 1874, Dr. Riley estimated a loss to Missouri
by insects of $19,000,000. In 1887, Prof. Osborne, of the Iowa Agri-
cultural College, estimated the loss to Iowa by insects at $25,000,-
000. Mr. L. O. Howard, in 1887, estimates $60,000,000 losses from
chinch bug in nine States ; and Prof. Comstock estimates that the
cotton Aletia in 1879 caused a loss of $30,000,000 in the cotton
States. Finally, Mr. Fletcher estimates $380,000,000 as the sum
total per year for losses from insect ravages.

There are numerous illustrations available to demonstrate
how great are the services of scientific research, from an ento-
mological point of view, to agriculture, but I will refer to only
three, as these are of striking interest and serve to illustrate the
work.

The citrus industry of California is a great one, involving

HOW SCIENCE IS HELPING THE FARMER. 109

hundreds of thousands of dollars. What is known as the fluted
scale insect had for about twenty-five years a foothold in the
orange and lemon groves, and bade fair to cause enormous losses
to the orchardists. A study was made of the parasites affecting
this scale insect, and in 1888 the United States Government sent
two entomologists to Australia to study the parasites of the scale
insects in that country, and bring live specimens to California to
distribute in the orange and lemon groves. Suffice it to say that
these parasites rapidly multiplied and fed upon both the white
and fluted scale, to their destruction. With surprising rapidity
the beneficial insect destroyed the injurious one. Says Dr. C. V.
Riley, United States Entomologist,* " The history of the introduc-
tion of this pest (scale insect), its spread for upward of twenty
years, and the discouragement which resulted, the numerous ex-
periments which were made to overcome the insect, and its final
reduction to unimportant numbers by means of an apparently in-
significant little beetle imported for the purpose from Australia,
will always remain one of the most interesting stories in the rec-
ords of practical entomology."

I have just quoted Mr. Howard's statement that the chinch
bug in 1887 caused $60,000,000 of losses in nine States. A few
years ago the attention of entomologists was drawn to the fact
that chinch bugs occasionally died in large numbers from a pecul-
iar disease. The bugs were found on the ground dead and cov-
ered with a white fungus. This disease seemed to be infectious,
and several entomologists gave special attention to the matter.
Prof. F. H. Snow, of the University of Kansas, pushed the inves-
tigation and thought it possible to artificially induce the disease
and communicate it to healthy bugs, and thus diminish their
numbers, and for the past three years Prof. Snow has worked
upon this line. The Legislature of Kansas appropriated $3,500
for carrying on his investigations during 1891-'92.

In his annual report to the Governor of Kansas, describing his
investigations, Prof. Snow gives a list of 1,400 persons who con-
ducted experiments under his direction in 1891, to assist in dis-
seminating the disease. Of these 1,071 were successful, 181 unsuc-
cessful, and 148 doubtful, in their attempts. As a result of their
season's work, Prof. Snow estimates that, on the basis of the re-
ports rendered, $200,000 in crops were saved to those 1,071 persons
who worked under his instruction.! Four hundred and eighty-
two farmers reported to him an estimated saving of $87,244.10
through scattering the diseased insects among the healthy, thus

* United States Department of Agriculture Report, 1889, pp. 334, 335.
f University of Kansas Experiment Station, First Annual Report of the Director, for the
Year 1891, p. 171.

no THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

resulting in the rapid destruction of all. While this is experi-
mental work, and may not invariably give the satisfactory results
to be wished for, it illustrates in a striking manner one way in
which science is working in the interests of agriculture.

In 1887 what is known as the gypsy moth (Ocneria dispar) was
discovered in eastern Massachusetts. This insect was originally
brought to Massachusetts from France, where it is exceedingly de-
structive to vegetation, and especially the foliage of trees. When
first found in Massachusetts its character was not known by the
finder, but when later examined by Prof. Fernald, of the State
Agricultural College, he, knowing its nature, at once began an in-
vestigation to ascertain how much of a foothold it had in the
State. It was located in numerous towns. The Legislature was
advised of the dangerous character of the insect. A State law
was enacted to provide against the depredations of the gypsy
moth. Several commissioners were appointed and money appro-
priated to eradicate the insect. During the entire growing season
of 1892 bands of men were engaged in destroying this insect in
its various forms, and every effort is being made to prevent its
further increase.

Perhaps the most serviceable labor given by science to the
cultivator, in its application to insects, is the invention and per-
fection of insecticides. A great number of experiments have
been conducted in agricultural colleges and experiment stations
over the country with solutions and powders with which to kill
injurious insects. Arsenic in different preparations, carbolized
plaster, kerosene, hellebore, pyrethrum, hot water, and Bordeaux
mixture have been in use and tested in many ways, so that, as a
result of this work, standard insecticides can be recommended to
farmers generally, which may be easily made at home out of sim-
ple ingredients. What is termed the kerosene emulsion is per-
haps, all things considered, the best general insecticide in use.
This may be made as follows, following Cook's directions : * Dis-
solve in two quarts of water one quart of soft soap or one fourth
pound of hard soap, by heating to boiling ; then add one pint of
kerosene oil, and stir violently for from three to five minutes.
This can then be diluted with twice its bulk of water for use.
This emulsion will destroy lice on both live stock and plants.

Finally, we have in the United States nearly fifty experiment
stations where trained men are working in the interests of agri-
culture— men whose one aim is to conduct research of benefit to
mankind. Considering this fact, and that numerous scientists
outside of the stations are also engaged in a class of work that of

* Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station, Bulletin 76, October, 1891, p. 5. Kero-
sene emulsion.

DIETARY FOR THE SICK. 111

necessity is of value to agriculture, farmers should feel satisfied
that their interests are being well looked after outside the pale of
politics. It requires no effort to emphatically show that already
many, many millions of dollars have been gained to agriculture
through the disinterested efforts of scientists. Scientific investi-
gation will continue in the future as it has in the past, and it is
fair to assume that each year will see much good work done.
Certainly no other class of labor is receiving greater benefits from
science than is agriculture at the present day.

DIETARY FOR THE SICK.

BY SIR DYCE DUCKWORTH, M.D., LL.D.,

PHYSICIAN AND LECTURER ON MEDICINE AT ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S HOSPITAL;
HON. PHYSICIAN TO H. R. H. THE PRINCE OF WALES.

IN" the practice of medicine as now carried on, one marked
feature is the particular and detailed attention directed to the
diet. It thus happens that as much heed is paid to "kitchen
physic" as to pharmaceutical agents. Dietetics, according to
modern enlightenment, has secured careful study, more particu-
larly within the last quarter of this century, and the subject was
certainly insufficiently appreciated before that time. Now, guided
by the researches of the physiologist and the chemist, we have
more exact knowledge to bring to bear in the dietetic treatment
of many morbid states, and a good deal of this knowledge is now
well established and beyond dispute.

The duty of the practical physician is to apply this knowledge
and to test it in his efforts to re-establish health. And here, as in
the case of the employment of drugs, we have to consider the
clinical side of the question, apart from the researches of the
physiologist and the chemist in their laboratories. The progress
of our art depends on the steady work of both sets of investiga-
tors. The ultimate appeal is to the clinical results. In the matter
of diet we meet with strange differences of opinion — differences
relating to the employment and value of sometimes very simple
forms of aliment. Some of these plainly arise from ignorance in
respect of the properties and qualities of certain foods. Some of
them result from the foisting of mere personal or of very limited
experience of such articles on patients ; and some of them can only
be described as mere vagaries and " fads."

The whole subject has naturally a large interest for several
classes of patients, notably among the well-to-do, the luxurious,
the hypochondriacal, and the dyspeptic. Such persons having
exhausted many methods of drug treatment, resorted to spas,

112 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

undergone massage with incarceration, and found temporary sal-
vation in sipping hot water, pass from one consultant to another
seeking the last new paradox in dietetics. They will continue to
do so, and the more if they fall into the hands of those who give
them really judicious advice. They dislike that, and it is indeed
seldom helpful to such persons. In this brief communication I
shall have nothing to say in respect of them.

We may fairly remark that we are in danger of being per-
plexed by the number of patent and proprietary articles of food
daily brought under our notice. The chemists, especially the
Continental and American, try to help us in our daily work by
contriving the most subtle, and often palatable, preparations of
nutrient materials. And, not content with this, they would fain
abolish almost the entire Pharmacopoeia, and offer food and physic
in one ; aiding themselves in this bold effort by the most fantastic
and obtrusive advertisements, which pass one's best ingenuity to
escape from. Strange to say, they compel attention from persons
who should know better, and should use calm judgment in sweep-
ing most of them aside. So it happens that one frequently finds
many of these vaunted preparations in use by persons who have
not even a bare knowledge of their qualities and powers for good
or evil.

The mischief of all this in respect of foods and new drugs is,
as I have before now stated, that the practitioners in trying, as
they think, to keep pace with the times, lose their hold of well-
approved methods and therapeutic agents, which drop out to make
way for something new and unapproved. They thus fail in the
art of medicine, which I make bold to say is less well established
to-day than it was, in many respects, half a century ago, and
chiefly because of this pursuit of novelties.

We have witnessed many changes of opinion respecting some
of the commonest articles of diet for the sick. The old view, that
calves'-feet jelly was of exceeding nutritive value, was at one time
so controverted that the jelly ceased to be much used. It is now
sanctioned as having a place in dietetics, and I believe it may be
safely regarded as a temporary form of nourishment of no incon-
siderable value.

Beef-tea has been in and out of repute, but we have, or should
have, no doubt now as to its stimulant and reparative properties.
We can not think lightly of it as commonly prepared, for it can
certainly prove harmful, when not desirable, as in the case of
rheumatic fever. I believe it is right to withhold it in such cases.
Again, it is so far apt to act as an aperient that it is best not to
employ it in enteric fever, or in diarrhoea, when the bowels are
in an irritable condition. Mutton, veal, or chicken essences can,
however, be used, having no such aperient action. We have to

DIETARY FOR THE SICK. 113

distinguish between a dietary suitable for acute disease, when we
have to wait and tide over difficulties, and one that may be better
adapted to restore a convalescent or weakly patient. The highest
nutritive value may not be (I think it is not) the most essential
point to have regard to in selecting a dietary in acute diseases.*

In most cases of acute disease, beef tea, freshly prepared, can
well be taken and digested. It is now often peptonized, and I be-
lieve for clinical purposes this is generally unnecessary, unless
there is manifest failure of secretion of gastric juice. This re-
mark applies equally to milk, which is also too often given pep-
tonized. I feel sure that we do best to administer nutriment in
the most natural and unaltered forms when possible — that is, with
as little of culinary or medicinal interference as may be ; to give
it, in fact, fresh from Nature's laboratory.

In many illnesses it is well to vary the broths given, changing
from beef to mutton, veal, or chicken, and so providing variety
for the patient. Milk and veal broth may often be given together^
Alcoholized liquids are best not administered with animal broths.
These are better given separately, but brandy, rum, or whisky
may be given with milk.

It is, unfortunately, a good rule to boil milk before using it,
especially in the case of children and young persons. This no
doubt averts many of the evils of milk diet, and may also prevent
some specific diseases. I say unfortunately, because I suspect
boiling much damages the nutritive value of a secretion such as
milk. Dilution with barley water, lime water, or the addition of
sodium bicarbonate, certainly aids its digestibility in children and
adults, both in health and disease ; the bicarbonate being prefer-
able if there is constipation. Whey is of considerable value for
many dyspeptics, and also in enteritis, typhlitis, and intestinal
obstruction, and may be freely given. Isinglass boiled in milk is
very useful, and children readily take this in the form of blanc-
mange when not too firm in consistence. Alum whey is of much
avail in diarrhoea, and in cases of enteric fever with haemorrhage.
One drachm of powdered alum is added to a pint of hot milk, and
the whey strained off. Cream with an equal volume of hot water
can often be taken when milk disagrees.

Koumiss has considerable value in cases of great irritability of
the gastric mucous surface. Koumiss one week old I find the most
useful, and I have often known troublesome vomiting checked by
it. Few plans are better than that of employing milk with one

* Thus alcohol, which is by some denied to have any nutrient property whatever, will,
with water, maintain life for days hi some cases of acute illness, to the exclusion of any
other articles of diet. I consider alcoholized liquids as /ooc?, for both ordinary and clinical
purposes

VOL. XLIII. — 9

u4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

third of its volume of lime water, given in teaspoonful doses each
quarter of an hour by the clock, in rebellious vomiting of reflex
origin. This quantity will be retained when larger ones will be
rapidly rejected.

The inability to digest amylaceous food when pyrexia is present
is generally recognized : hence the principle of milk and beef -tea
diet in fever. I would strongly urge the employment of occasional
draughts of pure water in fever. This is much neglected. Patients
are plied with strong essence of beef, Brand's jelly, and milk with
stimulants — all this ad nauseam, but a cooling draught of water is
withheld. Water, however, is generally relished, and is of real
service. It promotes appetite for the next food, and cleans the
mouth.

The nutritive value of purely amylaceous foods has been de-
cried, but, I think, with no satisfactory clinical reason. Arrow-
root prepared with water only, or with milk, is certainly sufficiently
sustaining for many invalids who temporarily can not take bread.
In gastric and gastro-enteric catarrh it is of much service, and
diarrhoea may sometimes be checked by stirring into a cupful of
milk-arrowroot half a teaspoonful of raw arrowroot powder, and
ten grains of powdered cinnamon.

Eggs often disagree because of their albuminous constituents.
The yolk alone can often be taken with advantage in soup or in
milk, or beaten up with spirit.

In the treatment of febrile states, tea and coffee are too often
omitted, without reason, from the dietary. They will enable cases
to go on well with a diminished amount of alcohol. Cold tea with
cream is an excellent refreshment early in the morning after pro-
fuse sweats in phthisis. One meets with patients who have been
forbidden butcher's meat, but allowed to eat chicken or game. I
am at a loss to understand the reason for this. I recognize the
greater digestibility of the latter as a rule, although I much doubt
if there is really any difference if the beef or mutton be tender
and of good quality. If, as I conceive, there is an idea that the
one tends to plethora and vascular tension, or is apt to induce uric-
acid disturbances, while the other does not, I should be prepared
to controvert that idea, believing that all these flesh foods fall into
the same category. With fish the case is different, and large meat-
eaters may sometimes with advantage be ordered to substitute
fish. It is hardly possible for any one to overeat himself on fish,
and, whatever may be the explanation of the fact, I am satisfied
that great mental energy and capacity may be secured by occa-
sional meals of white fish to the exclusion of other animal food.

It were well if greater heed were paid to the treatment of the
patient than is commonly bestowed on that of the disease. One
not rarely finds measures adopted for the latter, and no thought

DIETARY FOR THE SICK. 115

bestowed on the subject of it. It is always necessary to treat the
patient, and sometimes what is seemingly necessary for his ail-
ment is very poor treatment for him, if too long kept up. We
especially note this in respect of the employment of wine and
stimulants, and in the conduct of cases of Bright's disease and of
chronic gout.

I think well of the skim-milk treatment in cases of chronic
tubal nephritis. But it is not always well borne by the patient.
He may fail to be sufficiently nourished by it, and a time comes
when the diet must be altered. There is a large variety of foods
available in this condition : bread, biscuit, butter, light farinaceous
pudding, sometimes with egg in it, potatoes, spinach and other
green vegetables, with cooked fruit. The albuminuria is often
not materially increased in chronic cases if fish be given once a
day, or the yolks of two eggs be added to the diet. Fat bacon
may also be taken. And on alternate days we may sometimes
give a little mutton or chicken, without any apparent harm to
the disease, and with material benefit to the patient. The con-
dition of the urine must be carefully noted in making these
amendments. Certainly, in some cases, the " large white kidney "
is an expression of a frail and feeble constitution, and has not
always the same significance. A better level of general nutrition,
directed in relation to the renal adequacy, may much aid in help-
ing the kidneys to recovery. It is surely wrong to starve the
patient while aiming only to rid him of his ailment. Of course,
age, habits, constitution, and tissue-proclivity must be had regard
to in all such cases.

The treatment of acute phases of dysentery by absolute milk
diet I believe to be excellent ; and I agree with those Indian au-
thorities who forbid the least addition of animal broth or of fari-
naceous matters to it, possibly for many consecutive weeks.

In many cases of gout and gouty habit of body I often find in-
adequate diet prescribed, and a frail, painful condition of body as
the result. In such cases, again, each person is to be studied as to
his previous habits, inherited proclivities, and textural condition.
The prohibition of meat and wine is often bad, and gouty mani-
festations will be held in check, not seldom, by a good diet and
the use of some trustworthy wine. The tendency now is to make
all gouty persons avoid meat, and drink whisky in routine fash-
ion, or to take to water-drinking. The latter plan has its place,
but many sufferers from gout, in both sexes, are better with some
wine. If they starve themselves of what they formerly took,
perhaps in moderation, and of what their progenitors took per-
haps too freely, they will not so much have gout as gout will
have them — as has been quaintly remarked. Such persons must
attain their highest level of good health, and live above their

ii6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

gout, or they will never be free from untoward symptoms, and
will become miserable. Water-drinking at this stage of our
social evolution is not, I feel very sure, the summum bonum for
humanity.

The tendency to drink whisky, now so common, is not all due
to medical prescription, as is often alleged. If good wines were
readily procurable at fair prices, especially at hotels, more would
be drunk. People resort to whisky because they know it is com-
monly to be depended on, whereas wine is dear and bad, and they
seek at once to relieve their digestion and save their purses. They
take far more alcohol, and lose the wholesomeness of the many
other good things to be found in a moderate use of honest and
sound wine. " Cheap claret " has done no good in England, but
much harm, and intelligent persons now hardly know the differ-
ence between a vintage of the MeMoc and the abominable stuffs
that issue from Bordeaux, gathered from all other wine-growing
countries, and called " claret." This has been well termed " red
ink at a shilling, or, it may be, six shillings, a bottle." These
compounds are disastrous to digestion, and it is small wonder that
invalids and others resort to whisky. Real Mddoc wine is never
advertised for sale, but consumers have now ready means of
knowing where to procure it.

The present agitations in favor of temperance, which should
rather be termed efforts to abolish all alcoholic drinks, have, I
believe, led members of our profession to neglect this important
part of the subject of dietetics, and prevented their gaining an ade-
quate knowledge of the nature and qualities of wine, a knowledge
every physician should possess. Were this more commonly in
possession, we should not hear such discrepant statements respect-
ing wines dogmatically laid down by members of our profession.

Perhaps I should offer an apology for many of the remarks I
have ventured to make in this communication, both because I
have set down little that is new, and may also have appeared to
uproot some well-grown opinions. I will only add, however, that
I believe I have stated nothing that will not be found to be true
and helpful in the daily practice of our art. — The Practitioner.

A NOVELTY in scientific photography is the photograph of a meteor, which was
obtained by Mr. John E. Lewis, of Ansonia, Conn., while trying to photograph
Holmes's comet. The path of the meteor is shown as a bright, clear-cut, almost
straight diagonal line running across the plate, and reaching across about eighteen
degrees of the heavens. Where the line enters the field it shows minute varia-
tions indicating irregularities in the amount of the meteor's light ; the rest of the
line is sharp and level, and of about the breadth of a lead-pencil mark. At every
point it appears brighter after only an instantaneous exposure than any of the
stars, which were subjected to an exposure of thirty-three minutes.

SKETCH OF SAMUEL WILLIAM JOHNSON. 117

SKETCH OF SAMUEL WILLIAM JOHNSON.

PROF. SAMUEL WILLIAM JOHNSON is eminent for the
services which, he has rendered to scientific agriculture as an
experimenter, a contributor to its literature, and a teacher ; and
for his agency, always active and earnest, in securing the intro-
duction of whatever could advance its standards or add to the
prosperity of the farming interest. A descendant of Robert John-
son, one of the founders of the town of New Haven, he was born
in Kingsboro, Fulton County, New York, July 3, 1830. When he
was four years old the family removed to Deer River, Lewis
County, in the "Black River country " He was taught in the
common school and in Lowville Academy, where he studied Latin,
Greek, French, algebra, physics, botany, and chemistry. His
home, says the American Agriculturist, was upon a large, pro-
ductive, and well-managed farm, where he became familiar with
a wide range of agricultural practice. He taught in the common
schools during the winters of 1846-'47 and 1847-'48, and during
1848-'49 was teacher of natural science in the Flushing Institute,
Long Island. In 1850 he entered the Yale Scientific School, where
he spent eighteen months under Profs. John P. Norton and B.
Silliman, Jr., studying agricultural chemistry. He served during
the winter of 1851-52 as instructor in the natural sciences in the
New York State Normal School at Albany. Having spent the
succeeding winter in work in the laboratory at New Haven, he
went to Germany in January, 1853, where he spent two years in
study at Leipsic and Munich, under Erdmann, Liebig, von Kobell,
and Pettenkofer. Thence he went to England, visiting the Paris
Exposition on the way, and spent the summer of 1855 in study
under Frankland.

In September, 1855, he became Chief Assistant in Chemistry in
the Scientific School of Yale College, and took charge of the labo-
ratory. The next year he was appointed Professor of Analytical
Chemistry in that school, and in 1857 he took charge also, succeed-
ing Prof. John A. Porter, of the chair of Agricultural Chemistry.
In 1875 he became Professor of Theoretical and Agricultural
Chemistry ; and, in addition to the performance of these several
duties, he has taught organic chemistry since 1870.

With the establishment of the State Board of Agriculture of
Connecticut in 1866, Prof. Johnson was constituted one of its
members. On expiration of his term of service, two years after-
ward, he was appointed chemist to the board, and has served in
that capacity ever since. He began to advocate the establish-
ment of a State Agricultural Experiment Station as early as 1873.
The act of the Legislature organizing the station was passed in

ii8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

1877, and, on its going into effect, Prof. Johnson was appointed
director. " For many years," says the Rural New-Yorker, " the
station was confined to two small rooms, and the appliances and
works of reference were for the most part loaned from Yale
College or borrowed from the professor's private laboratory and
library."

Mr. Johnson began his literary work while still a student,
writing for the agricultural papers. Among the earliest of his
publications of general interest was an address before the State
Agricultural Society of Connecticut, in 1866, on Fraud in Chem-
ical Fertilizers. This was followed by the adoption of measures
intended to protect buyers of fertilizers against imposition through
adulterations. As chemist to the State Agricultural Society he
made a series of reports on fertilizers in 1857, 1858, and 1859, by
means of which knowledge on the subject was extended, and
frauds received a further check. Besides his official reports,
" which have been models for works of their kind," Prof. John-
son's writings include many contributions to the agricultural
press, which have been highly appreciated, and several books on
the special subjects of his studies. The best known of these are
How Crops Grow ; How Crops Feed ; Peat and its Uses as Fer-
tilizer and Fuel. The earliest and best known of these books —
How Crops Grow, published in 1868 — embodied the results of
stvdies undertaken by the author in preparing instruction in
agricultural science. Together with its companion volume — How
Crops Feed — it was intended to present concisely but fully the
state of the science at the time regarding the nutrition of the
higher plants, and the relations of the atmosphere, water, and soil
to agricultural vegetation. In it the chemical composition of
agricultural plants was described in detail, the substances indis-
pensable to their growth were indicated, and an account was
given of the apparatus and processes by which the plant takes up
its food. The book was received with great favor in America and
in Europe. It was republished in England under the joint editor-
ship of Profs. Church and Dyer, of the Royal Agricultural Col-
lege at Cirencester ; a translation of it was published in Germany
under the instigation of Prof. Liebig ; and other versions of it
have been made in Swedish, Italian, and Japanese, and twice in
Russian.

In view of the great advance that had been made in all branches
of science, a new edition of How Crops Grow was issued in 1890,
in which the purpose was guarded of bringing the treatise up to
date as fully as possible without greatly enlarging its bulk or
changing its essential character.

The account of the sources of the food of plants, which were
noticed in this volume in only the briefest manner, was reserved

SKETCH OF SAMUEL WILLIAM JOHNSON. 119

for the next book, its complement, How Plants Feed, published
in 1870. It was exclusively occupied with the subject of vege-
table nutrition. The writer, the author said, did not flatter him-
self that he had produced a popular book. " He has not sought
to excite the imagination with high-wrought pictures of over-
flowing fertility as the immediate result of scientific discussion
or experiment ; nor has he attempted to make a show of revolu-
tionizing his subject by bold or striking speculations. His office
has been to digest the cumbrous mass of evidence in which the
truths of vegetable nutrition lie buried out of the reach of the
ordinary inquirer, and to set them forth in proper order and in
plain dress for their legitimate and sober uses." The author's
method was to bring forth all accessible facts, to present their
evidence on the topic under discussion, and dispassionately to
record their verdict. The books were therefore commended to
students of agriculture on the farm or in the school. Besides these
books, Prof. Johnson edited Fresenius's Quantitative Analysis,
and two editions of his Qualitative Analysis.

The American Agriculturist names Prof. Johnson as one of
the trio, consisting of Johnson, Gossman, and the late Dr. Cook,
of New Jersey, " who have done so much for agricultural science
and experimentation."

The purposes and efforts of Prof. Johnson to make the Con-
necticut Agricultural Experiment Station of practical benefit to
farmers are obvious to every one who inquires into the character
of the work done there, or who will peruse a series of the re-
ports of the institution. These reports are consistently animated
by the single thought of those particular features of agricultural
science in which the farmers are most immediately interested.
One of the predominant crops of the State is grass ; the thing the
farmers most need to make their agriculture profitable is econom-
ical and efficient fertilizers. Accordingly, we find these among
the subjects most conspicuously presented. It would be impracti-
cable to go over all the reports seeking instances of this happy
adaptation of investigations to the peculiar wants of the people
whom it was the station-director's purpose to serve ; but two or
three from the later reports will illustrate this characteristic of
his work. Attention is directed in the report for 1886 to the
important relation of the mechanical constitution of soils to the
growth of plants. Very little practical benefit, the author ob-
serves, is commonly obtained from the analysis of any special
soil beyond the detection of some deleterious ingredient, or prov-
ing the relative deficiency of one or more needful elements. In
most of the cases where the station had undertaken to make soil
analyses, the results had probably disappointed those who sup-
plied the samples. It was pointed out as an obvious defect of the

120 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ordinary chemical analysis that it could give at the best only an
imperfect or one-sided view of the character of the soil. Two
soils might agree fairly in chemical composition, and yet differ
extremely in their fertility. Again, two soils might be about
equally productive, and yet have unlike chemical composition.
The physical characters of a soil— the texture, porosity, tenacity,
amenability to tillage, retentiveness for water, capacity for heat,
etc. — equally with the chemical composition, influence its product-
iveness and value. These considerations had been appreciated for
a long time, attempts had been made to take account of the phys-
ical capacities of soils ; and of late years much attention had been
bestowed upon their mechanical analysis — that is, on separating
into various grades, according to the dimensions of their parti-
cles. Such mechanical analysis was in most cases essential to
any conclusive investigation of a soil.

In the report for 1887 the intention was declared to include
in the forage garden of the station specimens of all the grasses
found in Connecticut. There were about one hundred and twenty
species of grasses in the State, of which eighty-one were then
growing in the garden. Prominence was given to persistent
meadow, pasture, and lawn grasses, and to those which continu-
ally reproduce by culture and seeding ; also to other forage plants,
sedges, etc. The question of methods of improving Connecticut
grass lands so as to make them more productive and more perma-
nent, wherever that was desirable, was declared a question of the
first importance. To answer such questions, it is needed to know
more about the plants of this character which would grow in the
State with less care than others, and with no expense for seeding,
their habits of growth, seed production, fitness for meadow and
pasture on different soils, feeding value, rooting peculiarities,
growth with other varieties, possible improvement by cultivation
or by selection of seed, and the effect of different fertilizers. A
more general and closer observation of the appearance and be-
havior of all the useful grasses was also needed, so that they
might be known by botanists and farmers at sight through the
spring, summer, and fall. Names were needed, also, which should
be current everywhere, free from all confusion ; because without
names there could be no discussion of grasses away from the
grasses themselves.

With this eminently practical direction and purpose of his
work, Prof. Johnson is a devoted student of science, and an ear-
nest advocate of scientific methods of investigation. He has a
pleasant, modest manner, a full knowledge of human nature, and
"a practical conception of what farmers want of agricultural
experiment stations." As a writer, " his style is clear and con-
cise, yet delightfully smooth, and most agreeably finished."

EDITOR'S TABLE.

121

EDITOR'S TABLE.

SOUND WORDS ON EDUCATION.

THE article of President Eliot to
which we called attention three
months ago dealt with the subject of
education mainly in its intellectual as-
pect. In a recent number of the Con-
temporary Review we find an article
entitled The Teacher's Training of Him-
self, which discusses the same subject,
but mainly from the moral point of
view. The author is Dr. Weldon, head
roaster of Harrow, and the article is a
reproduction of an address delivered by
him before the Birmingham Teachers'
Association. Seldom, if ever, have we
found more of sound sense and right
feeling in any discussion of the general
subject of education than is contained
in this essay of Dr. Weldon's. From
first to last it may be said to be a plea
for that which, according to Dr. J. M.
Rice, is so conspicuously lacking in most
of our own public schools — sympathy.
The writer sees that this, above all
things, is needed to vivify education and
make it what it ought to be, a blessing
both to the giver and the receiver — to
prevent it, indeed, from becoming posi-
tively injurious in its effects. Is it due
simply to mental inertness and inferi-
ority on the part of the mass of society
that there is on the whole so little love
of knowledge and so little pleasure in
intellectual effort ? May it not be in a
measure due to the fact that in child-
hood the acquisition of knowledge was
carried on under more or less repulsive
conditions with the mental faculties only
half aroused and the sympathetic or emo-
tional nature wholly untouched, except
in so far as it may have been moved to
opposition ?

It is the first step, says Dr. Weldon,
in the teacher's self- culture to realize
the dignity of his profession, which,
though it may lack the distinction be-

longing to the pulpit, the platform, or
the bar, has "this signal advantage, that
in all its branches and among its hum-
blest no less than its highest representa-
tives, it aspires constantly to two ob-
jects that are among the worthiest of
which human nature is capable — name-
ly, the promotion of virtue and the in-
crease of knowledge." He places the
promotion of virtue first, but in actual
practice we fear that the amount of at-
tention given in public schools of the
ordinary type, here or elsewhere, to that
special object is far from commensurate
with its recognized importance. The
discipline of the school is often said to
be of itself a powerful moral influence ;
and so it would be if the discipline were
maintained in any large degree by the
help of sympathy ; but if it is enforced
in the thoroughly unsympathetic way
described by Dr. Rice we fear it can
hardly be counted on for any very
moralizing effects.

We must, however, pass over much
that we would wish to note in Dr. Wel-
don's address, in order to leave space for
a few of his more striking remarks.
The following are worth quoting and
remembering :

" If a teacher is to train others, still
more must he train himself. . . . The
reason is that the influence of every
teacher depends not upon what he says,
nor even upon what he does, but upon
what he is. He can not be greater or
better than himself. He can not teach
nobly, if he is not himself noble.

" It is sadly true that we as teachers
may make mistakes. We may break the
bruised reed ; we may quench the smok-
ing flax. By making the young dislike
us we may make them dislike the sub-
jects we represent. Strongly would I
impress upon you and upon myself the
terrible responsibility which belongs to

122

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

us of making one of these little ones to
offend. Perhaps if I might sum up in a
single phrase the teacher's true temper
toward his pupils, especially boys in a
large school, I should say it is one of
sympathetic severity. . . . Severity is
not worth much if it stands alone. It
may be said that severity without sym-
pathy is a guarantee of failure.

"There is one word, and only one,
that I have simply begged my colleagues
never to use in their reports of boys —
the word ' hopeless.' Masters and mis-
tresses may perhaps be hopeless, I can
not tell ; but boys and girls — never.

" An angry schoolmaster, or rather
a schoolmaster who can not control his
anger, is the drunken helot of the pro-
fession. In an angry moment words are
spoken, deeds are done, that are irrep-
arable. Fling away from you the poi-
soned shafts of sarcasm ; they are for-
bidden to the humanities of school life.

" It appears to be the particular
danger of schoolmasters and schoolmis-
tresses that their profession has natural-
ly a cramping or narrowing influence
upon the mind ; it is therefore the pri-
mary duty of all teachers to take every
opportunity of enlarging and liberalizing
their views. The schoolmaster must not
be a schoolmaster only ; he must be more
than a schoolmaster. He must be a man
of wide interests and information; he
must move freely in the world of affairs.
Fill your pitchers, however humble they
may be, at the wide and ever-flowing
stream of human culture. It is my coun-
sel, as a precaution against narrowness,
that you indulge largely and lavishly in
reading. You can hardly read too much.
It may be a paradox to say so ; but I
doubt if it matters much what you read,
so long as you read widely. . . . Novel-
reading I conscientiously recommend.
It will take you out of yourselves, and
that is perhaps the best holiday that any
one can have. It will give your minds
an edge, an elasticity. The peril of
reading no novels is much more serious
than that of reading too many. .

Apollo himself does not keep his bow
on the stretch forever, and most of us
need relaxation as much as Apollo."

The above is good advice, and happy
is it for those who can take it to heart
and act upon it — for those whose facul-
ties have not been already so deadened
by a mechanical routine as to be incapa-
ble of the ambition of individual culture.
Dr. Weldon speaks and writes from the
elevated standpoint of head master of
one of the great English public schools,
a position of as great independence
probably as any the educational world
affords, and one in which there is infi-
nite scope for the exercise of individu-
ality. The position of the average pub-
lic-school teacher is very different. To
the latter functionary individuality may
be a personal advantage, but it may
easily become, from a professional point
of view, a burden and a drag through
the lack of encouragement or even op-
portunity for its exercise. That the ad-
vice given by Dr. "Weldon as to reading
is not very widely followed out by teach-
ers in this country was proved some few
years ago by some one who took the
trouble to write to all the principal
public libraries to ascertain to what ex-
tent teachers took advantage of the
privileges which these institutions af-
forded. We forget the precise result of
the inquiry; but it showed that the
teachers, as a body, used the libraries
almost less than any other class of the
community. We recall this fact in no
unfriendly spirit, but solely with a view
of showing to a public that is hard to
convince on this point how far we are
from having as yet commanded the most
successful conditions for general educa-
tion.

THE SCIENTIFIC ALLIANCE.

THE formation of the Scientific Alli-
ance of New York marks an important
step in the scientific movements of this
city, and will not be without beneficial
influence, we believe, in the advance-
ment of research in the country at

EDITOR'S TABLE.

123

large. New York, long recognized as
the great financial and commercial cen-
ter of the Union, and pre-eminent in
some other departments of the life of
the century, has not been eminent in
science. It has, indeed, as President
Low said at the late joint meeting of
the Alliance, many scientific men of the
first order, and has a record of scientific
work of the highest character that has
been done by such men as Draper, Morse,
Rutberfurd, Newberry, and Edison ; but
the fame of that work has been dissi-
pated : it has never been concentrated,
as in other metropolitan cities and many
much smaller towns, under the panoply
of a single organization, central for all the
branches of research. London has its
Royal Institute and Royal Society ; Par-
is, Berlin, and other European capitals
have their Academies of Sciences, where
the work ot the whole nation has a com-
mon home, and contributes to the fame
of its chief city. In the United States,
Boston has its Academy; Philadelphia,
its Academy and the American Philo-
sophical Society; Brooklyn, the Brook-
lyn Institute ; and other cities, down to
many relatively small ones, have central
organizations through which the scien-
tific work done by citizens receives all
the credit it is entitled to; but New
York, which should have been in the
advance of all of these, has had only a
few struggling societies devoted to spe-
cialties— nothing comprehensive enough
to command the allegiance of students
of different branches and the attention
of the public. To use President Low's
words again, "These bodies have re-
vealed at once the strength and the
weakness of New York in these direc-
tions. They have made clear beyond a
doubt the vast resources of the city,
both in men and means. But they have
also revealed the fact that these re-
sources are as yet insufficiently organ-
ized." To this time, by reason of the
division among these special societies
and the want of a general one, the sci-
entific spirit of the city has lacked in-

tensity of expression. It will be the
object of the Scientific Alliance, as
President Low believes it has the ca-
pacity, to give to New York the agency
which it has long needed to develop to
the utmost its activities of investigation
and experiment in the direction of pure
science.

Seven societies, each of which is well
known and has done creditable work
in its special field, have united in the
formation of the Scientific Alliance.
They are the New York Academy of
Sciences, the Torrey Botanical Club, the
New York Microscopical Society, the
Linnsean Society of New York, the New
York Mineralogical Club, the New York
Mathematical Society, and the New
York Section of the American Chemical
Society.

The advantages which are expected
to accrue to these societies and their
work from united organization were
well presented in the address of Mr.
Charles F. Cox. Among them are " the
stimulating and re- energizing effect
which will be wrought in them by the
demand made upon them for an in-
creased output of effort for the public
good " ; the re-enforcement and encour-
agement they and their members will
receive from contact with one another;
the saving of work in doing over again
what has been already done which will
be effected by bringing these laborers
in different fields into co-operation and
consultation with one another, and en-
abling them to contribute their several
results to a common stock ; in short, a
union of forces to produce the best re-
sults.

The need of endowment for scientific
research and publication was presented
at the meeting for organization in an
address by the Hon. Addison Brown.
The existence of such a body as the
Alliance, proving its efficiency by its
work and extending its influence, may
be expected to attract the gifts of lib-
eral-minded capitalists, as do other en-
terprises for the public good that ac-

124

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

complish something. Still another ad-
vantage that may be derived from the
organization is revealed in Prof. Bol-
ton's idea of its furnishing accommo-
dations in a single building for all the
libraries of the societies and for such
other libraries of scientific works as
may seek a domicile there ; each library
to be kept distinct, but accessible alike
to all the societies, and one supplement-
ing the others. For this and other pur-
poses of the Alliance a building will be
necessary, and a plea in behalf of this
was made by Prof. N. L. Britton.

Another view of. the advantages
that may be derived from this move-
ment is afforded by the advances which
are being made in all departments of
enterprise in which scientific research
is the original and most important fac-
tor. " The practical men," said the
Hon. Addison Brown, basing his re-
mark on the confession to him of an
electrical expert who had made several
very interesting and important inven-
tions, " do not work at random, but
upon the basis of what scientific re-
search and publication have previously
put within their grasp." Capitalists
and corporations have derived immense
wealth and power from the fruits of
this work ; and yet science, which has
furnished them the instruments of their
success, has received the most niggardly
treatment from them, and has been
spurned and scorned by them as un-
practical. A society that will serve as
a center for its scattered forces and
give it a voice by which it can assert
itself and emphasize its claim for recog-
nition can not fail to help it greatly in
commanding the homage of its debtors.

MORAL EVOLUTION.

THE recent articles of Prof. St.
George Mivart on Happiness in Hell,
in spite of what must seem to many
their fanciful character, may reason-
ably be regarded as an encouraging
sign of the progress the modern world

is making in the direction of reasona-
ble views and humane sentiments. Mr.
Mivart states at the outset that " not a
few persons have abandoned Christian-
ity " on account of the popular doctrine
of a hell involving unending torture for
untold multitudes of human beings, and
that this doctrine now " constitutes the
very greatest difficulty for many who
desire to obtain a rational religious be-
lief and to accept the Church's teach-
ing." The object which he has in view
is to show that the absurd and cruel
ideas which have gathered round the
conception of hell are no essential or
authoritative part of Christian doctrine.
Whether he has succeeded in doing so,
we must leave to the professional the-
ologians to discuss and, if possible, de-
cide ; but, meantime, some of the writ-
er's utterances deserve to be put on
record as evidences of the moral evo-
lution which theology itself is under-
going.

"To think," says Prof. Mivart,
" that God could punish men however
slightly, still less could damn them for
all eternity, for anything which they
had not full power to avoid, or for any
act the nature or consequences of which
they did not fully understand, is a doc-
trine so monstrous and revolting that
stark atheism is plainly a preferable
belief." The writer of these words
could evidently not subscribe to the
Westminster Confession, nor to the
views of those Congregationalists who
have lately been so much exercised
over the daring theory advanced by
some of their brethren that fairly de-
cent heathen may perchance escape
hell without any aid from missionaries.
A Catholic authority whom Mr. Mivart
quotes says that " if there is one thing
certain it is this — that no one will ever
be punished with the positive punish-
ments of the life to come who has not
with full knowledge, complete con-
sciousness, and full consent turned his
back upon Almighty God." The same
authority further says that "the God

LITERARY NOTICES.

125

of all justice must, and will, make every
allowance for antecedent passion, for
blindness, for ignorance, for inadvert-
ence " ; and this, Mr. Mivart explains,
will apply to that "large proportion
of men's actions which can not be freely
controlled by them on account of an-
cestral influences, early associations or
intellectual and volitional feebleness."
As we read these declarations we begin
to find ourselves somewhat at a loss to
conceive the kind of person who would
really constitute an eligible candidate
for the place which Mr. Mivart so far
offends ears polite as to mention. How-
ever, some do get there, and then they
fare according to their deserts. Their
great loss consists in being shut out
from what theologians describe as " the
beatific vision " — that is, from the hap-
piness of heaven ; but they have appar-
ently all the means of enjoyment and
even of moral improvement open to
them which they had on earth, though
without hope of ever changing their
fundamental state of separation from
God.

Waiving all questions as to the real-
ity of the matter which Mr. Mivart
discusses, we venture to express the
opinion that the view he puts forward
is far more favorable to the interests of
religion, and much better adapted to
produce moral thoughtfulness, than the
heretofore current notions, which no
amount of sophistical ingenuity can tor-
ture into conformity with justice, be-
nevolence, or reason. So far we ex-
tend to the distinguished naturalist and,
as it would appear, not inexpert theo-
logian our sympathy, and bid him God-
speed.

THE Index to Volumes I to XL of
The Popular Science Monthly, an-
nounced as in preparation some months
ago, has been completed, and up to March
25th about fifty pages had been put in
type. It will make nearly three hun
dred pages, and, as setting the type for
such a book is slow work, we must ask

a little more patience from the many
who have been anxiously inquiring for
the volume.

LITERARY NOTICES.

A HANDBOOK OF PATHOLOGICAL ANATOMY AND
HISTOLOGY. With an Introductory Sec-
tion on Post-mortem Examinations and the
Methods of Preserving and Examining
Diseased Tissues. By FRANCIS DELA-
FIELD, M. D., LL. D., and T. MITCHELL
PRUDDEN, M. D. Fourth edition. New
York: William Wood & Co. 1892. Pp.
xvii+3'to 715.

THE fourth edition of this standard work
has an increase of more than one hundred
pages of text, with the addition of seventy-
six engravings, while many portions of the
book have been rewritten, so that it may in-
clude the principal discoveries that have been
made in pathology since the publication of
the third edition in 1889.

In the section on the methods of prepar-
ing pathological specimens for study there
has been added a description of the phloro-
glucin method of decalcifying bone, which is
one of the best that can be used, and there
is also a description of the satisfactory method
of hardening tissues by Lang's corrosive-sub-
limate solution.

The chapter on the composition and struc-
ture of the blood has received important ad-
ditions in the description of oligocythsemia
and of the determination of the presence of
the micro, macro, and poikilocytes, as well
as a description of the polynuclear neutro-
phile and eosinophile leucocytes and lympho-
cytes ; and there is a section on the methods
of examination necessary to study these va-
rious forms.

One of the most important additions to
the volume is the section on hypertrophy,
hyperplasia, regeneration, and metaplasia;
the authors calling attention to the patho-
logical importance of a knowledge of caryo-
cinesis, because a recognition of mitotic fig-
ures may permit a decision regarding the
particular cells involved in the formation of
new tissue.

The chapter on inflammation has been
practically rewritten and rearranged, the sub-
jects of tubercular and syphilitic inflamma-
tions being now considered under the sections
relating to the diseases producing them.

126

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The chapter on animal parasites contains
a reference to the Amoeba coli and its relation
to dysentery, and also brief reference to the
presence of coccidia in certain epithelial
growths. The chapter on vegetable para-
sites contains reference to ptomaines, toxins,
and toxalbumins, as well as an excellent sum-
mary of the important question of immunity,
though the authors do not commit themselves
to any doctrine regarding that subject.

The subject of infectious diseases induced
by the pyogenic bacteria has been rearranged
and placed as one of the earlier chapters in
the work, which seems to us to be an excel-
lent plan. An illustration of the caution dis-
played by the authors is shown in the section
on lupus, in which reference is made to the
fact that, while that disease is a form of tu-
bercular inflammation, it is not unlikely that
in the clinical group of diseases called lupus
there may be lesions that are not caused by
the tubercle bacillus, a point that must be
decided by more exact bacterial studies.
This same caution is shown in accepting the
bacillus described by Lustgarten as the cause
of syphilitic inflammation.

The skepticism expressed in the former
edition regarding the causative relationship
of Loffler's Bacillus diphtherice to diphtheria,
has been supplanted by a frank acceptance
of that organism, the first sentence in the
section on diphtheria defining that as an
acute infectious disease caused by the Bacil-

New sections on rhinoscleroma, tetanus,
influenza, smallpox, scarlatina, measles, and
actinomycosis, and descriptions of the Bacil-
lus cedematis maligni, Bacillus pneumonias,
and Bacillus coli communis have been added.

The chapter on tumors contains a refer-
ence to the structures that have been found
in and between the cells of tumors, " inclu-
sions " that the authors consider to be invagi-
nated epithelial or other cells, or cell nuclei
that have undergone various degenerative
metamorphoses, fragmentation, etc. They
state that some of the cell inclusions in car-
cinoma may be coccidia or allied organisms ;
but while not asserting that tumors can not
be caused by parasites, they do not believe
that adequate ground exists for believing
that they are so caused, because the trans-
plantation of tumors from one species of ani-
mal to another has almost uniformly failed,

while it has been impossible to cultivate
either directly or by inoculation any constant
organisms from these morbid growths. This
matter is one that is attracting the attention
of pathologists in several countries, and the
more thorough study of the subject of the
etiology of cancer will probably determine
the status of the coccidia in relation thereto.

The section on chronic arteritis has been
rewritten, the authors believing that the mor-
bid changes in the arteries are the results of
a combination of chronic productive inflam-
mation and of degeneration occurring in con-
nective tissue — a point of view that regards
the arteries as definite parts of the body, and
as likely to become the seat of chronic in-
flammation as the liver or kidneys.

The subject of colitis is another valuable
addition, and the text is enriched by some
excellent engravings of the several varieties
of pathological conditions that occur in in-
flammation of the large intestine.

In the section on the organs of generation
reference is made to the adenomata that lie
on the border between the distinctly benign
and the definitely malignant new epithelial
tissue growths, attention being called to the
fact that the more benign forms are extremely
prone to develop, both in structure and ma-
lignancy, into carcinomata.

While the substitution of the terms "lymph
nodes" and "lymph nodules" for "lymph
glands " and " lymph follicles " respectively
was recommended in the last edition, the
change has been made throughout the text
in this volume.

The work is fully abreast of the scientific
knowledge of the day, and it will undoubtedly
be accorded a popularity similar to what it
has received in the past.

THE STORY OF COLUMBUS. By ELIZABETH
EGGLESTON SEEL YE. New York: D. Ap-
pleton & Co. Pp. 303. Price, $1.

THIS volume is the first of a series enti-
tled Delights of History, and a delightful
book has been made of it. Beginning with
the wonderful journeys of the Polos, and
the expeditions sent out by Prince Henry
of Portugal, events which may well have
fired the imagination of the youthful Co-
lumbus, we are brought at length to the
gates of Genoa. Here we learn something
of the condition of the weavers among whom

LITERARY NOTICES.

127

the Colombos were numbered. Even the
house in which the family lived is pointed
out. Then follows the story of Columbus's
journey to Portugal, his weary waiting in
Spain, his voyages, discoveries, misfortunes,
and last days spent in pleading with the un-
appreciative Ferdinand. The tale is related
in very simple but graphic fashion, with
many touches of humor, while the varied
illustrations constantly keep fresh the flavor
of the time. Only those anecdotes are given
that come from authentic sources, and the
recent labors of Mr. Henry Harrisse and
Signer Stalieno have added so largely to
the fund that there are enough to make the
narrative sufficiently life like. No attempt
is made to screen the failings of Columbus
— his pursuit of wealth, his curious theories,
and the evil which is chargeable to him as
an exponent of his time, the establishment
of slavery in the New World. On the other
hand, these are not enlarged until they ob-
scure his courageous project and unflagging
zeal. He still remains " the most conspicu-
ous figure in the history of his age." He
crossed the sea of darkness, and we rightly
honor him for his great achievement.

THE VISIBLE UNIVERSE. By J. ELLARD GORE,
F. R. A. S. London : Crosby Lockwood
& Son. New York: Macmillan & Co.
Pp. 346. Price, $3.75.

ALTHOUGH astronomers have not yet
solved the problem of celestial construction,
the author of this volume refrains from add-
ing any new conjecture to the list. He ex-
amines critically all the explanations worth
serious mention, and this task may well have
served to keep him within the dry land of
fact. Besides the theoretical discussions, the
book contains the latest observations of the
position of stars and nebulae and, so far as
known, their motions and chemical compo-
sition.

Five principal objections have been
brought against the nebular theory ; most of
these have been well answered by M. Roche.
According to M. Wolf, two points are yet un-
determined— how large planets were formed
from the nebulous mass, and how the equa-
torial and orbital inclinations were produced.
M. Faye, however, finds the fifth objection —
the retrograde motion of the satellites of
Uranus and Neptune — destructive of La-

place's theory and advances another hy-
pothesis in his work, Sur 1'Origine du Monde,
with which Mr. Gore agrees. In this he as-
sumes that the earth was formed before the
sun, and that its internal heat sufficed for
the evaporation of water and for the uni-
form vegetation that existed for aeons of
time. Laplace did not explain the origin of
the primitive nebula, therefore Dr. Croll con-
sidered the hypothesis incomplete and fur-
nished a cause in his impact theory. Two
dark bodies endowed with enormous veloci-
ty collided in space and produced a perfect
nebula !

A contention which promises no settle-
ment is the duration of the sun's heat in past
time. Noted physicists allow only twelve
millions of years as the maximum period on
the gravitation theory. This is insufficient
for the geologists, who demand a hundred
millions for the denudation of rocks. Dr.
Croll's careful estimate is ninety millions ;
while biologists ask for a still longer period
for the evolution of species. Most astrono-
mers concur in the theory of Helmholtz that
the heat of the sun is caused by the shrink-
age of its mass through gravitation. To this
philosopher also is due the vortex-ring idea
— that matter consists of whirling portions
of the luminiferous ether. This wondrous
fluid, supposed to fill interstellar space and
act as a medium for the transmission of
light, is enormously elastic and wholly un-
like matter, since planetary motion is not
retarded by it as it would be by the most
attenuated gas.

The spectroscope, which has revealed so
much of the constitution of the stars, shows
also another defect in the nebular theory,
unless chemists may come to the rescue.
The spectra of various nebulae give only hy-
drogen and one other unknown element. If
the solar system was evolved from a nebu-
lous mass by condensation, whence the dozen
elements of the sun and the sixty-five of our
own planet ? It has been suggested that all
our elements may be further resolved into
one original element. In anticipation of its
discovery this has been named protyle.

Lockyer's hypothesis was that the upper
reaches of the atmosphere contained parti-
cles of magnesium, manganese, iron, and car-
bon, and that nebulae were swarms of mete-
oritic dust His observations in regard to

128

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the magnesium flutings are not accepted by
other astronomers, and experiments do not
confirm his explanation of the aurora. Most
puzzling of all astronomical problems per-
haps is the arrangement of stars. If we
could observe from some other point in the
heavens the system might be disclosed to
us, or even if we could compute the distance
of every star, the design might appear. In
all cases, however, the parallaxes are so
small that the measurements are exceeding-
ly difficult. The number of visible stars is
estimated by the author as seventy millions.
Outside of this finite universe there may ex-
ist vast systems in space whose light has not
yet reached us, or which may be forever
hidden, because light itself is extinguished
in a separating void.

Some fine photographs of stars and nebu-
lae accompany the text ; an index and notes
are also added.

HUMAN EMBRYOLOGY. By CHARLES SEDG-
WICK MINOT. Illustrated. New York :
William Wood & Co. 1892. Pp. xxiii

+ 815.

THE appearance of another v/ork on em-
bryology justifies the assertion that was re-
cently made in these columns that there was
a growing appreciation of the importance of
this subject. The present volume has been
expected for some time past, as the announce-
ment was made some years ago that Prof.
Minot was engaged in the preparation of a
work upon this topic. The ten years' labor
that has been directed to making original in-
vestigations and to collecting and reviewing
the literature of the subject, is presented in
this splendid volume that is a worthy repre-
sentation of American scholarship and re-
search.

On account of the intimate relations be-
tween the uterus and the embryo, the author
devotes his first chapter to a careful presen-
tation of the anatomy and the histology of
the uterus, together with a description of the
changes that occur during pregnancy. In the
second chapter there is a general outline of
human development, in which there are re-
trogressive and progressive histories of the
foetus and its envelopes.

The author calls attention to the limita-
tion of the term genoblast to the sexual ele-
ments proper, to the spermatozoon or the

egg-cell after maturation, and not to the sper-
matophore or the egg-cell before maturation.
The subjects of spermatozoa, ova, ovulation,
and impregnation are described with refer-
ence to the latest investigations. The author
believes that the ovum draws the spermato-
zoa toward itself by chemical influence, act-
ing as an attracting stimulus, in a similar
manner to the attraction Pfeffer has shown
certain chemical substances may have for
moving spores ; the attractive power of the
ovum being annulled or weakened by the
formation of the male pronucleus. As a so-
lution of the origin of sexuality the attractive
hypothesis is offered that sexuality is coexten-
sive with life ; that in protozoa the male and
female are united in each of the conjugating
cells, and impregnation is double ; and, finally,
that in the metazoa the male and female of the
cells separate to form genoblasts or true sexual
elements, and impregnation is single.

The author presents a great deal of evi-
dence to support the theory that concrescence
is the typical means of forming the primitive
streak in the vertebrate, the primitive axis of
which is formed by the growing together in
the axial line of the future embryo of the two
halves of the ectental line.

The origin of the mesoderm, the forma-
tion of the coalom and mesothelium, and the
origin of the mesenchyma, are carefully de-
scribed in connection with a review of the
principal theories in regard to the morpho-
logical significance of the mesoderm, the au-
thor believing that Hatschek's germ-band
theory offers the best-founded explanation
of the vertebrate mesoderm.

Emphasis is laid on the fact that the
splanchnocoele (pleuroperitoneal cavity) is al-
most, if not quite, from the start divided into
a precociously enlarged cervical portion (am-
nio-cardial vesicles), and a rump portion (ab-
dominal cavity), the boundary between the
two portions being marked by the omphalo-
mesaraic veins, that run from the area vas-
culosa into the embryo proper at nearly right
angles to the embryonic axis.

The author agrees with Ziegler that the
red blood-cells of all vertebrates arise by pro-
liferation of the endothelial lining of the ves-
sels, basing this conclusion upon the facts
that hi various vertebrates certain parts of
the vascular system are at first solid cords of
cells, the central portion becoming blood-cells

LITERARY NOTICES.

129

and the peripheral portion the vascular wall,
and in birds the red cells arise from the walls
of the venous capillaries of the bony marrow.
In other words, the blood-cell is a liberated,
specialized endothelial cell.

One of the most interesting and valuable
chapters in the volume is that on the germi-
nal area and the embryo and its appendages,
in which there is a synopsis of the published
descriptions of embryos not over three weeks
old ; from these it is learned that no human
ovum has been observed to have a primitive
streak, which is the first stage of the series
formulated by the author. In this stage
(twelfth or thirteenth day) the human ovum
is a rounded, somewhat flattened sac of three
or four millimetres in diameter, bearing an
equatorial zone of short, unbranched villi that
are probably formed by the ectoderm only ;
the wall of the sac is ectoderm, whether un-
derlaid by somatic mesoderm or not is uncer-
tain ; a mass of cells is attached to the inner
wall of the sac, over one of the bare poles of
the ovum, constituting the rudiment of the
embryo. The second stage is characterized
by the appearance of the medullary plate, the
third by the appearance of the medullary
groove, the fourth by the formation of the
heart and medullary canal, the fifth by the
development of the first external gill-cleft,
the sixth by the appearance of two external
gill-clefts, the seventh by the appearance of
three gill-clefts, and the eighth by the ap-
pearance of four external gill-clefts.

The fourth part of the work includes de-
scriptions of the chorion, the amnion and
proamnion, the yolk-sac, allantois, and um-
bilical cord, and the placenta.

The final portion of the volume is de-
voted to chapters on the growth and devel-
opment of the various organic systems of the
foetus.

Each section and chapter aims to present
a comprehensive review of the literature re-
garding the subject therein considered, the
author stating the reasons for accepting cer-
tain theories in preference to others. One
blemish in the volume is the free use of Ger-
man embryological terms. The author's de-
votion to German has often led him to use,
also, forms of expression that, while correct
in German, are faulty English. This is, how-
ever, a minor and remediable fault in what
is a most excellent book.
VOL. XLIII. — 10

PIONEERS OF SCIENCE. By OLIVER LODGE,
F. R. S. London : Macmillan & Co., 1893.
Pp. 404. Price, $2.50.

THIS work consists of a course of eight-
een lectures on the history and progress
of astronomical research, with biographical
sketches of each pioneer and an examina-
tion of their influence on the progress of
thought. It is divided into two parts. The
first, which is entitled From Dusk to Day-
light, contains ten lectures giving a brief
outline of the physical science of the an-
cients, with an interesting account of the
progress of astronomy from Thales, 640 B. c.,
to the death of Newton, 1727 A. D. The
second part is called A Couple of Centu-
ries' Progress, and embraces the period of
astronomical discovery from the publication
of Newton's Principia to the present time.

The author shows considerable power of
lucid condensation in his description of the
labors of the early astronomical scientists,
and while giving a brief history of their
discoveries — notably those of Archimedes,
Ptolemy, and Roger Bacon — he brings us at
a bound over the void of the middle ages
to the beginning of the sixteenth century
(1543) when Copernicus (Nicolas Copernik)
published his famous work, De Revolutioni-
bus Orbium Coelestium, in which he proved
that the earth is a planet like the others, and
that it revolves round the sun — thus shatter-
ing the accepted Ptolemaic system and revo-
lutionizing all other (speculative and theo-
logical) doctrines concerning the form of the
earth and the motion of the heavenly bodies.

This period is called by Mr. Lodge " the
real dawn of modern science." His sketch of
Tycho Brah6 is most interestingly written ;
and in the summaries of facts which preface
each lecture will be found some curious coin-
cidences of the dates of the birth and death
of the famous philosophers from Copernicus
to Newton. While admitting the great labors
and immense value to astronomical research
of Galileo's discoveries, the author does not
class him with Copernicus, Kepler, or New-
ton ; in fact, he says that " Archimedes and
Galileo can only be considered in the light
of experimental philosophers." Lord Bacon,
who flourished about the same time as Des-
cartes, is very summarily dismissed ; he does
not admit him into his list of philosophers,
and says: "His (Bacon's) methods are not

1 3o

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

those which the experience of mankind has
found serviceable; nor are they such as a
scientific man would have thought of devis-
ing."

Mr. Lodge pays reverent tribute to the
genius of Sir Isaac Newton, and claims for
him the palm-wreath among all other phi-
losophers— ancient or modern. His treat-
ment of the biographical sketch of Newton
and of his discoveries and the preparation
of his laws of gravitation, motion, etc., as
contained in the Principia, are most interest-
ing as well as valuable.

The second part of the work (eight lec-
tures) is rather condensed. Laplace's mathe-
matical genius is briefly described, while the
birth of stellar astronomy and the works
of Sir William and Caroline Herschel are
excellently portrayed. The volume closes
with chapters upon Comets and Meteors, and
Tides and Planetary Evolution. It is pro-
fusely illustrated.

HYGIENIC MEASURES IN RELATION TO INFEC-
TIOUS DISEASES. By GEORGE H. F. NUT-
TALL, M. D., Ph. D. (Gottingen). New
York : G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1893. Pp.
112. Price, 75 cents.

THIS is a very useful little work and
should have a place in every home library.
There seems to be an almost general ignorance
of both the causes of infectious diseases and
how to prevent their spread; and Dr. Nut-
tall has produced this little handbook in a
form that is so simple and instructive that
even the least scientific reader can, without
any difficulty, prepare and use ample means
for the disinfection of persons, houses, fur-
niture, etc. — no matter from what cause the
infectious material may exist.

The author warns people against using
" made and patent disinfectants " ; for, as
he says, "the term disinfection means the
absolute destruction of infectious material,"
and "many preparations sold as disinfect-
ants are nothing of the kind," but belong
to the antiseptic and deodorant classes. He
gives, as the best and most certain methods,
those by fire, dry heat, steam, and chemicals,
and in a foot-note to the paragraph " Disin-
fection by Boiling," he quotes Fliigge most
instructively : " The ordinary treatment to
which soiled linen and clothes are subjected
in the laundry (one half -hour's boiling) would

be quite sufficient for their disinfection were
it not for the fact that the process of boiling
is preceded by the processes of sorting, soak-
ing, and rinsing in cold water"

The volume contains practical directions
for the treatment of infectious diseases in
private houses and other places; and the
second part is devoted to excellent " infor-
mation as to the causes and mode of spread-
ing of certain infectious diseases and the pre-
ventive measures that should be resorted to."

REST AND PAIN. By the late JOHN HILTON,
F. R. S. London and New York : George
Bell & Sons. Pp. 614. Price, $2.

THIS work, which its editor speaks of as
" acknowledged to be one of our few surgical
classics," has reached its fifth edition in Eng-
land, and is now offered to medical students
and practitioners in America. Its special
claim to attention is that it presents certain
facts in a different grouping from that of
the usual treatises, thus throwing a new light
upon the bearing of much that may seem use-
less or abstruse to the student. It has the
two objects of preaching to physicians a let-
alone gospel, designed to secure greater reli-
ance upon the work of Nature, and of point-
ing out how much can be learned in regard
to various disorders from the pains that ac-
company them. The volume consists of a
course of lectures delivered by the author as
consulting surgeon to Guy's Hospital, under
the title, The Therapeutic Influence of Rest
and the Diagnostic Value of Pain in Acci-
dents and Surgical Diseases. It deals with
injuries and diseases of the brain, spinal col-
umn, the joints, the sacro-iliac region, with
abscesses, and miscellaneous other disorders.
A large number of cases are quoted in this
treatise, and the text is illustrated with 105
cuts.

DOMESTIC SCIENCE. By JAMES E. TALMAGE.
Salt Lake City: George Q. Cannon &
Sons. Pp. 389.

THE field of this book embraces the ap-
plications of science to the affairs of domes-
tic life — a field concerning which there has
always been a great amount of ignorance.
The dispelling of this ignorance was one of
the tasks that enlisted the efforts of the
founder of this magazine, who published his
Handbook of Household Science over thirtv

LITERARY NOTICES.

13*

years ago. Dr. Talmage's treatise is very like
the Handbook as to scope and method, and
the author quotes his predecessor frequently
in foot-notes. It is divided into four parts,
treating respectively of Air and Ventilation
with chapters on Heating and Lighting, Wa-
ter, Food and its Cookery, Cleansing Agents,
to the last of which is added Poisons and
their Antidotes. In each of these divisions
the laws of Nature that especially concern
the matters in hand are stated, and the evil
effects of disregarding these laws in each
case are pointed out. The text is much
strengthened by illustrations. The book has
been adopted as a text-book for the Territory
of Utah, and the present is a second and re-
vised edition prepared for such use. The in-
troduction of this subject into the schools can
not fail to do much good.

INTRODUCTION TO PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY.
By Dr. THEODOR ZIEHEN. Translated by
C. C. VAN LIEW and Dr. OTTO BEYER.
New York : Macmillan & Co. Pp. 284.
Price, $1.50.

THE recent introduction of the inductive
and evolutionary mode of treatment into the
field of mental science has brought forth
abundant fruit where, for a long time, bar-
ren speculation had held sway. Psychology,
or a division of it at least, has become a
natural science, and knowledge of mental
processes has been rapidly extended in con-
sequence. Especially has this work gone on
actively in Germany, and the facts obtained
have received two distinct interpretations —
the one held by Wundt and his school, the
other by Miinsterberg and Ziehen. Only one
treatise on physiological psychology — the
large work by Prof. Ladd, of Yale — has ap-
peared hi English, hence the translators have
thought that such a small introductory com-
pendium as the present volume would be de-
sirable. The work originated in a series of
lectures that Dr. Ziehen has delivered at the
University of Jena for several years. It has
been the aim of the author throughout to
develop all explanations from physical or
physiological data, and to account for the
presence of certain functions by an applica-
tion of the laws of evolution. The doctrines
that he presents differ essentially from
Wundt's theory and conform closely to the
English psychology of association. By intro-

ducing an especial auxiliary function, the so-
called apperception, for the explanation of
certain psychical processes, Wundt evades nu-
merous difficulties in demonstration. This
book is intended to show that such an " aux-
iliary function" is superfluous, and that all
psychological phenomena can be explained
without it.

CHEMICAL LECTURE EXPERIMENTS. By G. S.
NEWTH, F. I. C. London and New York :
Longmans, Green & Co. 1892. Pp. 323.
Price, $3.

THIS book is of some importance to
chemical lecturers and teachers, as well as
being a valuable assistance to the chemical
student. It consists of six hundred and
thirty-two illustrated experiments, which are
given with remarkable lucidity, the author
claiming that " no account of any experiment
has been introduced upon the authority sole-
ly of any verbal or printed description, but
every experiment has been the subject of his
own personal investigation, and illustrated
by woodcuts from original drawings." It is
arranged in such a manner that students may
learn from it the methods of preparation and
most of the important properties of the non-
metallic elements and their more common
compounds. As a companion to the lectures
which he may attend, the chemical student
will find fully described in this book most,
if not all, of the experiments he is likely to
see performed upon the lecture table, there-
by relieving him from the necessity of labori-
iously noting the apparatus, etc., used by the
demonstrator. Many of the experiments are
novel and interesting, and the tables which
form the appendix will be found to contain
important information for which books of
reference are usually needed.

An overgrown volume of nearly fifteen
hundred pages on Education in the Industrial
and Fine Arts in the United States comes to
us from the Bureau of Education. This is
only the second part of a special report by
Isaac Edwards Clarke, and the editor states
that most of the matter intended for this vol-
ume has been relegated to a third part. There
is first an Introduction of over a hundred
pages, in which the editor devotes several of
the early pages to telling how his first part
bus been praised. Soon after this come three

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tributes to deceased educators, which would
be better published elsewhere. A little far-
ther on the editor has a tilt with Prof. C. M.
Woodward, and near the end several defenses
of the public schools, having no bearing on
the proper subject of the report, are brought
in. The report proper consists of five hundred
pages of well-digested material, being mostly
accounts of the instruction in industrial art
and the use of mechanical tools that has been
introduced in various places. This is followed
by eight hundred pages of appendixes made
up of miscellaneous reports, essays, and ad-
dresses, parts of which are valuable, other
parts pleasant but vague, and much of the
whole merely duplicating other matter in the
volume. There is a great deal of matter in
these appendixes that only makes the vol-
ume clumsy and impedes the earnest student
of pedagogy. Here and there we find poeti-
cal quotations or wholly unnecessary lists of
names, and in one place a lot of " after-din-
ner " speeches with the " applause " duly in-
terjected. It is no wonder that the public
printer can not get these bulky reports out
until they are stale, and that so many copies
go unread back to the paper- vat.

A little text-book devoted wholly to men-
suration has been prepared by Alfred J.
Pearce, and is published by Longmans, Green
& Co., under the title Longmans' School Men-
suration (80 cents). It comprises reduction
of denominate numbers and the calculation
of lengths, areas, and volumes. There are a
large number of examples at the end of each
section, and several sets of examination pa-
pers have been introduced. A simple proof
of nearly every rule is given. The diagrams
illustrating the various figures and solids are
very numerous, and have been carefully pre-
pared.

The Step-by- Step Primer, prepared by Mrs.
E. B. Burnz (Burnz & Co., 24 Clinton Place,
New York, 25 cents), embodies a thoroughly
scientific mode of teaching reading. The
phonetic principle is the basis of its method,
and the author does not allow any such host
of exceptions and deviations from this prin-
ciple as often makes what passes for " phonic
teaching " into a mongrel practice. The au-
thor insists that the letters shall be regarded
as standing for spoken sounds, just as defi-
nitely as the characters in a piece of music
stand for musical sounds. No one can ques-

tion that this was the intention of the an-
cient inventors of the alphabet, but the fact
is too often lost sight of, especially by teach-
ers of reading. la this primer each letter is
made to show what sound it stands for, and
the learner has only to combine these several
sounds to get the whole word. This is ef-
fected by means of the Burnz's Pronouncing
Print, the chief feature of which is that
when a letter has an irregular sound this
sound is indicated by a small subscript letter
cast on the shoulder of the type. Webster's
diacritics are also made use of, and silent
letters are denoted by Leigh's hair-line type.
Some Hints on Phonic Teaching are ap-
pended to the book. The primer is attract-
ively illustrated and neatly printed.

In a volume of 443 p ages, John C. Bran-
ner, Ph. D., State Geologist of Arkansas, has
issued Vol. Ill of the Geological Survey of
Arkansas. This volume concerns " whet-
stones and the novaculites of Arkansas," and
was prepared by L. S. Griswold, assistant
geologist. The whetstone industry is very
exhaustively treated, and the admirable illus-
trations and maps will be found very useful.
The last chapter is devoted to an interesting
account of The Fossils of the Novaculite
Area, and contains articles by R. R. Gurley,
H. D., and Charles S. Prosser, on The Geo-
logical Age of the Graptolite Shales of Ar-
kansas and Notes on Lower Carboniferous
Plants. (Little Rock, Ark., Press Printing
Company, 1892.)

Under the title Coal Pits and Pitmen,
R. Nelson Boyd, M. Inst. C. E., has recast
his publication Coal Mines Inspection ; its
History and Results. In this volume of 256
pages the author reviews the conditions of
the mining operatives of Great Britain, and
gives in somewhat of detail a history of the
legislation for the prevention of the employ-
ment of women and children in coal mines.
Considerable space is devoted to an exami-
nation of the causes of explosions in mines,
and there are some excellent suggestions as
to required legislation in the direction of in-
creased inspection. In treating of the de-
velopment of the coal industry in England
the author gives some very interesting facts :
for instance, toward the end of the eighteenth
century the yearly output was estimated to
be ten millions of tons — giving employment
to fifty thousand work-people, whereas the

LITERARY NOTICES.

133

output of coal in 1891 reached the enormous
total of one hundred and eighty-five millions
of tons — giving employment to about six
hundred thousand persons. The book con-
tains some excellent illustrations, and will be
read with interest by those who desire to
study the social and labor questions. (Lon-
don: Whittaker & Co. New York agents,
Macmillan & Co. 1892.)

Few persons outside those connected with
engineering business are aware of the im-
portance of the pattern-maker. In a volume
of 180 pages A Foreman Pattern-maker has
embodied the most useful hints to appren-
tices and students in technical schools under
the title The Principles of Pattern-making.
The book is fully illustrated with one hun-
dred and one engravings, and includes a
useful glossary of the common terms em-
ployed both in pattern-making and molding.
Considering the size of the volume it is real-
ly surprising to find such a fund of useful
information upon the fundamental principles
of pattern-making condensed into so small
a space. The illustrations were nearly all
made by the author himself, and are almost
self-explanatory. It is published by Whit-
taker & Co., London. (New York agents,
Macmillan & Co. Price, 90 cents.)

The Microscopical Examination of Pota-
ble Water is a little volume of 160 pages
which contains a good deal of useful infor-
mation concerning the best methods and ap-
paratus necessary for the microscopical and
bacteriological examination of water. The
author, George W. Rafter, devotes consider-
able space to an explanation of the advan-
tages of filtration by sand over the Parkins
cloth method, and gives minute details of
several examinations and analyses of the
various public water supplies of the country,
basing the arguments which follow upon the
results of an examination of the Boston Sud-
bury River Water Supply. The remarks
upon the effect of light upon the formation
of starch in the algae are interesting, and he
claims that in certain lights the starch re-
mains protoplasmic, and that a low tempera-
ture and darkness are unfavorable to the
growth of algae in the water supplies. The
book is No. 103 of the Van Nostrand Science
Series.

In a volume of 322 pages entitled Figure
Skating, Simple and Combined, Messrs. Mon-

tagu S. Monier -Williams, Winter R. Pidgeon,
and Arthur Dry den, the most eminent of
British figure skaters, have given an elabo-
rate treatise upon the development of figure
skating in England. It is profusely illus-
trated with cuts and diagrams, and is pub-
lished by Macmillan & Co., New York ($2.25).

Leonard Dobbin, Ph. D., and James Walk-
er, Ph. D., D. Sc., have issued a useful hand-
book of 240 pages entitled Chemical Theory
for Beginners. It is written with the object
of assisting beginners in obtaining an ele-
mentary knowledge of the principles upon
which modern chemistry is based. The
chapters on Elements and Compounds,
Chemical Action, Vapor Density, and The
Kinetic Molecular Theory are interesting
from a standpoint far advanced from the be-
ginner. The use of symbols has been disre-
garded in this work, so that a very young
student in chemistry will have no difficulty
in understanding the most intricate exam-
ples of chemical compounds, etc., which are
given. The kinetic theory of gases, as dis-
covered by Clerk Maxwell and Clausius, is
very simply demonstrated. The book is pub-
lished by Macmillan & Co., of London and
New York (70 cents).

In a volume of 978 pages the Interstate
Commerce Commission has issued its Third
Annual Report on iht Statistics of Railways
in the United States. It is a comprehensive
tabulation of the classification, mileage, earn-
ings, expenditures, and capital of the various
railway systems of the country. In the read-
ing matter which prefaces the voluminous
and interesting statistics there is a com-
plaint that the statistical data procurable
from the monthly reports of the different
railway corporations is of little value to pub-
licists and economists; and it is claimed
that the present system of bookkeeping in
vogue among the accountants of the differ-
ent roads " leads inevitably to an erroneous
balance-sheet." The remarks upon and the
statistics of the enormous increase of mile-
age will be read with interest by economists,
and the fact that this increase is propor-
tionately far greater in the Southern States
will be a surprise to those who have not
carefully observed the industrial progress of
that section of the country.

D. C. Heath & Co., Boston, have issued
a new publication entitled The Complete

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Musical Reader, which is designed for " high
and normal schools, academies, and semi-
naries." It is compiled and edited by Charles
E. Whiting, and is really a most useful addi-
tion to the repertoire of school music books.
The first forty-eight pages are devoted to
musical notation, embracing exercises and
solfeggios of a very educational type. The
collection of two, three, and four part songs
is excellent ; but in the two latter sections
some of the selections are rather difficult
for beginners. Among the three-part songs
is a novel arrangement of a solo with voice
(duet) accompaniment — a style of voice cul-
ture that will probably become more general.
The hymn tunes are easy, and will be found
useful by teachers in connection with the
rudimentary exercises and solfeggios. It
contains 224 pages, and is published at 85
cents.

Recognizing the great agricultural de-
pression existing in England and the appar-
ent impossibility of farmers being able to
prosper from the cultivation of grain crops,
J. Cheal, F. R. H. S., suggests that cultiva-
tors of the land should consider what other
means might be adopted in the way of yield-
ing crops that would give more satisfactory
returns. In his book entitled Practical fruit
Culture, which is published by George Bell
and Sons, London, 1892, he advocates that,
taking into consideration the " enormous
quantities of fruit " imported into England
for consumption there, fruit culture would
be one of the best if not the most important
means toward a renewed agricultural pros-
perity. The volume contains some excellent
information upon the fruits most adaptable
to the climate of Great Britain, and instruct-
ive hints as to their planting, cultivation, etc.
(194 pages ; price, 75 cents).

In a volume of 241 pages, C. W. Bardeen,
of Syracuse. N. Y., has published three series
of songs " for schools," which contain over
three hundred selections. The first series is
entitled The Song Budget, and is devoted to
nursery rhymes and songs for young chil-
dren ; the second is called The Song Century,
embracing some of the most popular stand-
ard songs ; and the third, The Song Patriot,
gives examples of patriotic songs, war songs,
and national hymns. It is a useful cheap
edition of song music, but the compiler has
made some rather unfortunate omissions in

neglecting to give the composers' names,
while in at least one important instance
wrong authorship is claimed. This, however,
does not affect the arrangement of the music,
which is excellent (price, 50 cents).

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Abbe, Cleveland. The Mechanics of the
Earth'8 Atmosphere. Smithsonian Institution.
Pp. 324.

Abbott, Samuel W., M. D. On the Geograph-
ical Distribution of Certain Causes of Death in
Massachusetts. Boston. Pp. 116.

American Young People. Monthly. Volume
I, No. 1. Pp. 52. 10 cents. $1 a year.

Ball Sir Robert Stawell. An Atlas of Astron-
omy. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 57.
With 72 Plates. $4.

Baumgarten, G., M. D. The St. Louis Medical
College. An Historical Address. St. Louis. Pp.
19.

Bedell, Frederick, and Crehore, Albert Gushing.
Alternating Currents. New York: The W. J.
Johnston Co., Limited. Pp. 325.

Bidgood, John. A Course of Practical Biol-
ogy. New York: Longmans, Green & Co.
Pp. 353. $1.50.

Bishop, Louis F. A New Measurement in the
Study of Fever. Pp.5.

Boland, Mary A. A Handbook of Invalid
Cooking. New York: The Century Co. Pp. 323.
$2.

Bolles, Frank. Students' Expenses. Cam-
bridge, Mass., Harvard University. Pp. 45.

Booth, Charles. Life and Labor of the Poor in
London. Volume TV. New York: Macmillan &
Co. Pp.354. $1.50.

Bradford, E. F., M.D., and Lewis, Louis,
M. D. Handbook of Emergencies and Common
Ailments. Boston: B. B. Russell. Pp. 448.

Bradstreet Company, New York. A Record,
not a Prospectus. Pp. 16.— Its Work in Relation
to Mercantile Credit. Pp. 4.

Brinton, D. G., Philadelphia. The Anthropo-
logical Sciences. Proposed Classification and
Nomenclature. Pp. 2.— Reminiscences of Pennsyl-
vania Folk Lore. Pp. 10.— Columbus Day Address,
1892. Pp.8. — Books on American Languages. Pp.
4.—" Further Notes" on Fuegian Languages (pp. 5)
and on the Betoya Dialects. Pp. 8.— The Etrnsco-
Libyan Elements in the Song of the Arval
Brethren. Pp. 8.— Analytical Catalogue of Works
and Scientific Articles. Pp. 16.

Calderwood, Henry. Evolution and Man's
Place in Nature. New York: Macmillan & Co.
Pp. 349. $1.

College Association of the Middle States and
Maryland. Fourth Annual Convention. New
York: Educational Review. Pp. 86.

Colas, Jules A. Poole Brothers' Celestial
Handbook. Chicago: Poole Brothers. Pp. 110.
With Plates. Poole Brothers1 Celestial Plani-
sphere (Revolving Card).

Comstock, Theo. B. Utilization of the Sul-
phide Ores of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz. Pp. 20.

Current Topics. Monthly. February, 1893.
Chicago. Pp. 80. With Portrait. 15 cents. $1
a year.

Duluth, Minn. Annual Report of the Board of
Education, 1892. Pp. 113.

Egbert, Seneca. The Bicycle in its Relation to
the Physician. Boston: A. A. Pope. Pp. 11.

Farquhar, Henry. Competition and Combina-
tion in Nature. Pp. 3.

Fassig, Oliver L. Report of Bibliographer and
Librarian of the U. S. Signal Office. Pp. 22.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

Gilbert, G. K. Continental Problems. Roch-
ester, N. Y.: Geological Society of America.
Pp.12.

Glazebrook, R. T., and Shaw, W. N. Practical
Physics. New York: Longmans, Green & Co.
Pp. 633. $2.50.

Hague, Arnold. Geology of the Eureka Dis-
trict, Nevada. Pp. 419. With Plates and an Atlas.

Henderson, C. Hanford. The Cretaceous Fold
of the Alps, between the Linth and the Sihl. Pp.
22. With Chart.

Hogg, Prof. Alex., Fort Worth, Texas. The
Railroad as an Element in Education. Pp. 70.

Hudson, W. H. Idle Days in Patagonia. New
York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 256. $4.

James, Joseph F. Paleontology of the Cin-
cinnati Group. Part IV. Pp. 16.

Jenkins, Oliver P. Primary Lessons in Human
Physiology. Pp. 211. Advanced do. Pp. 318.
Indianapolis, Ind. : Indiana School Book Co.

Jones, Prof. George William. Logarithmic
Tables. Macmillan & Co., and the Author, Ithaca,
New York. Pp. 160.

Joelin, R. Wait. Industrial Union. Pp. 21.

Loney, S. L. Mechanics and Hydrostatics for
Beginners. Macmillan & Co. Pp.304. $1.25.

Lysacht, Sidney Royse. The Marplot. Mtc-
millan&Co. Pp.425. $1.50.

McDonald, Marshall. Report of the Commis-
sioner of Fish and Fisheries for 1888. Washing-
ton: Government Printing Office. Pp. 902.

Marine Biological Laboratory. Fifth Annual
Report. Pp. 62.

Martin, Lillie J. Laboratory Exercises in
Physics. Pp. 36.— Outline of Laboratory Work
in Chemistry in San Francisco Girls' High School.
Pp.16.

New York State Reformatory at Elmira. Sev-
enteenth Year Book.

Nichols, Rev. George W. Miscellanies Re-
ligious and Personal, and Sermons. Bridgeport,
Conn. Pp. 379. $1.25.

Oliver, Charles A. Symmetrically placed
Opacities of the Cornea, occurring in Mother and
Son. Pp. 3.

Owen, D. A., Franklin, Ind. Observations on
Heloderma Suspectum. Pp. 3.

Pancoast, Henry S. Representative English
Literature, from Chaucer to Tennyson. New
York: Henry Holt & Co. Pp.514. $1.60.

Parton, James. General Jackson. D. Appleton
&Co. Pp.332.

Pater, Walter. Plato and Platonism. Mac-
millan & Co. Pp. 256. $1.75.

Peabody Museum of American Archaeology
and Ethnology. Report. Pp. 13.

. Philadelphia Polyclinic, February, 1893.
Monthly. Pp.30. $1 a year.

Pilling, James Constantine. Bibliography of
the Athapascan Languages. Washington: Bu-
reau of Ethnology. Pp. 125.

Pohlman, Julius, M. D. Duration of Life bf
the Nervous American. Pp. 8.

Pope, Albert A. Memorial to Congress on the
Subject of a Road Department. Pp. 96.

Raymon, George Lansing. Genesis of Art-
form. New York: G.P.Putnam's Sons. Pp.311.
$2.25.

Robinson's New Rudiments of Arithmetic.
Pp. 224. 30 cents.— New Primary Arithmetic.
Pp. 80. 18 cents.— New Practical Arithmetic.
Pp.416. 65 cents.

Salazar, A. E., and Newman, Q. Sur la con-
servation des dissolutions de I'acide sulfhydrique
(On the Preservation of Solutions of Sulphydric
Acid). Translation from the Spanish. Paris. Pp.
16.

Scott, Sir Walter. Marmion. American Book
Company. Pp.247. 20 cento.

Sherwood, Sidney. The History and Theory
of Money. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co.
Pp. 413. ft,

Shufeldt, R. W. On the Classification of the
Longipennes. Pp. 5.

Smith, Roderick H., New York. The Silver
Question settled. Pp. 31.

Stebbins, Genevieve. Dynamic Breathing and
Harmonic Gymnastics. New York: Edgar 8.
Werner. Pp. 155. $1.50.

Stephen, Leslie. An Agnostic's Apology, and
other Essays. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
Pp.380.

Tenney, D. K., Chicago. Never-ending Life
assured by Science. Pp. 15.

Trumbull, General M. M. Earl Grey on Reci-
procity and Civil Reform. Chicago: Open Court
Publishing Co. Pp.27. 10 cents.

United States National Museum. Report for
1890. Smithsonian Institution. Pp. 811.

Watts, Francis. Introductory Manual for
Sugar-Growers. New York: Longmans, Green
& Co. Pp. 151. $1.50.

Willink, Arthur. The World of the Unseen.
Macmillan & Co. Pp. 184. $1.25.

Wilson, Woodrow. Division and Reunion,
1829-1889. (Epochs of American History.) Long-
mans, Green & Co. Pp. 326. $1.25.

Wright, G. Frederick. Unity of the Glacial
Epoch. Pp. 24.— Extra-Morainic Drift in the
Susquehanna, Lehigh, and Delaware Valleys. Pp.
25.— Replies to Criticisms. Pp. 8.

Yale Review, February, 1893. Quarterly. Bos-
ton: Ginn & Co. Pp. 454. 75 cents; $3 a year.

Zola, fimile. Modern Marriage. New York:
Benjamin H. Tucker. Pp.64. 15 cents.

POPULAR MISCELLANY,

Number of Glacial Periods.— An article
by Prof. George F. Wright, in the American,
Journal of Science, is devoted chiefly to show-
ing that certain points of evidence relied
upon by those who believe that the " Glacial
epoch" consisted of two periods of glacia-
tion of similar extent separated by a long
interglacial epoch, are insufficient to afford a
basis for such a conclusion. Furthermore,
the author adds to this : " As bearing against
the duality of the Glacial period, it may be
urged with great force that it is improbable
that two periods should so nearly duplicate
one another as these two are supposed to
have done. To those who maintain the suf-
ficiency of Croll's astronomical cause, how-
ever, this is rather an argument in favor.
But, on the other hand, that cause would
also demand a long succession of periods
during all the geological ages, and of these
we lack sufficient proof; while it would
throw the two periods which Prof. Chamber-
lin recognizes back much farther than the
facts will admit. It must be said, however,
that it is not wholly out of analogy with
known earth movements to suppose that

i36

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

there has been in connection with the Glacial
period a succession of oscillations of the
earth's crust nearly duplicating one another.
Such oscillations seem to have occurred in
various geological ages, as, for instance, dur-
ing the coal period, when the successive coal
beds were formed. And, indeed, much can
be said in favor of the view that such an
oscillation when once begun would perpetu-
ate itself. . . . But our knowledge of these
matters is too vague to reason of it with any
confidence, as is that also of the other causes
which have been suggested for the produc-
tion of the phenomena of the period. In
conclusion, it is sufficient to remark that our
present state of knowledge on the subject
seems so imperfect that it is not conducive
to success in investigation to hold any theory
as to the unity or duality of the period with
great positiveness. Overconfidence on this
point at the present time is likely to blind
the eyes of the investigator, and to hinder
progress both in the collection and in the in-
terpretation of the multitudinous and com-
plicated facts which everywhere invite our
close attention."

Preservation of Leaves as Fossils. — In

a paper on the Preservation of Plants as Fos-
sils, Mr. Joseph F. James, of Cincinnati,
names as one of the requisites to secure the
preservation of any plant, that it must be in
a position to be almost immediately covered
by some material. A leaf or branch falling
to the ground and likely to be exposed to
the elements has a poor prospect of being
preserved. But if it fall into the water and,
sinking to the bottom of a lake or swamp or
morass, be covered by mud or sand ; or if it
lie on the seashore and be covered by sand
brought in with the tide, it may at least leave
its mark. Or it may, through certain chem-
ical properties it possesses, so act upon the
stone on which it lies as to be preserved, not
in actual substance, but as an intaglio. The
author was impressed with the possibilities
of the last process while walking along the
street in the rain and looking at the fallen
leaves on the pavements. He first noticed
numerous irregular, discolored patches on
the stone slabs. Looking more closely, he
says : " I found that these discolorations had
been caused by the leaves, which had left
their impress on the stone. In many cases

this impression was so distinct that there
was no difficulty in recognizing the species.
The leaves were those of the soft maple, one
or two species of oak, tulip tree, and syca-
more. There is here a possibility of the
preservation of the remains of plants, or, at
all events, of their impress upon stone, had
it occurred under more favorable circum-
stances. But on a pavement, where people
were passing constantly, the impressions were
worn off and soon disappeared. The rain,
however, did not seem to wash them away,
so they were something more than mere sur-
face markings." A similar phenomenon was
observed and described in 1858 by Mr. Charles
Peach in a paper on the Nature Printing of
Sea-weeds, on the rocks of one of the Ork-
ney Islands in Scotland.

Breath Figures. — Some interesting ex-
periments are described by W. B. Croft in
the production of " breath figures "—or la-
tent impressions on contact of objects with
glass and electrifying, which are made visi-
ble by breathing upon them. While there
appears to be no limit to the durability of
these figures if they are carefully protected,
they usually become obscured by dust gath-
ering on them after being often breathed
upon. But certain changes or developments
take place after the lapse of some weeks or
months. In coin pictures, the object is near
to the glass, but not in contact with it ; for
in the best specimens the rim of the coin
keeps the inner part clear of the surface.
Even if a coin only rest for a while on glass,
an outline of the disk and sometimes faint
traces of the inner detail will be produced
when the spot is breathed upon. An exami-
nation paper, printed on one side, put be-
tween two plates of glass and left for ten
hours, either in the dark or the daylight, will
leave a perfect breath impression of the print,
both on the glass that lay against the print,
and on that which faced the blank side of
the paper. Sometimes both impressions are
white, and sometimes they are both black ;
or one may be part white and part black, or
may even change while being examined. The
impressions were very easy to produce during
a sharp frost with east winds early in March,
1890. The following experiments easily suc-
ceed at any time : Stars and crosses of paper
are placed for a few hours beneath a plate of

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

glass ; clear white breath figures of the de-
vice will appear. A piece of paper is folded
several times each way to form small squares,
then spread out and placed under glass ; the
raised lines of the folds produce white breath
traces, and in one instance a letter-weight
that was above left a latent mark of its cir-
cular rim. Some writing made on paper with
ordinary ink and well dried, left a very last-
ing white breath image after a few hours'
contact. Plates of glass lying for a few hours
on a table cover worked with silk acquired
strong white figures from the silk. Two cases
have been reported where blinds with em-
bossed letters left a latent image on the win-
dow near which they lay ; it was revealed in
misty weather, and had not been removed by
washing. A glass which has lain above a
picture for several years, but has been kept
from contact by the mount, will often show
on its inner side an outline of the picture,
always visible without breath. The words
white and black in the descriptions of the
impressions relate to the adherence of the
breath to the reliefs (white) or its non-adher-
ence (black). The exact cause of the phe-
nomenon is not known, but is supposed to lie
in some of the unknown regions of molecular
agency.

Exclusive Communities. — The number of
ants dwelling together in a community, ac-
cording to Sir John Lubbock, is sometimes
as great as five hundred thousand. They are
always friendly toward each other, no quar-
rel ever having been observed between two
ants, members of the same community. They
are, however, very exclusive, and regard an
immigrant with horror. When an ant of the
same species belonging to another nest ap-
pears among them, he is promptly taken by
the leg or antenna and put out. It would
naturally be surmised that this distinction
was made by means of some communication.
To test whether they could recognize each
other without signs, attempts were made to
render them insensible, first by chloroform
und afterward by whisky. "None of the
ants would voluntarily degrade themselves
by getting drunk." Finally, fifty ants were
taken, twenty-five from one community and
twenty-five from another, and dipped into
whisky until intoxicated. They were then
appropriately marked with a spot of paint

and placed on a table where the ants from
one nest were feeding. The sober ones no-
ticed the drunkards and seemed much per-
plexed. At length they took the interlopers
to the edge of the moat surrounding the ta-
ble and dropped each one into the water.
Their comrades, however, they carried home
and placed in the nest, where they slept off
the effects of the liquor.

The Comma Bacillus, Cholera, and Sani-
tation.— Experiments by Prof, von Petten-
kofer and Prof. Emmerich, in which they
swallowed fresh cultures of comma bacillus
upon empty, neutralized stomachs, show con-
clusively to von Pettenkofer that the com-
ma bacillus, during its sojourn in the intes-
tine, does not produce the specific poison that
causes Asiatic cholera. This agrees with the
results obtained by Bouchard, who was able
to induce the symptoms of cholera in rabbits
by giving them the excreta of human cholera
patients, but not by giving them pure cultures
of comma bacilli or their metabolic products.
While he does not deny that the comma ba-
cillus has some etiological importance, von
Pettenkofer can not believe it is the x which,
without the assistance of y, can cause epi-
demics of cholera ; and he reiterates his well-
known views on the influence of the soil, es-
pecially in connection with the rainfall. His
practical teaching may be summarized in the
formula that it is the y — that is, the local
physical and sanitary conditions — that must
be attended to ; each place must, in short,
be made cholera-proof by sanitation.

Children and Flowers. — In a paper read
before the Society of American Florists, on
training children to love and cultivate flow-
ers, Mr. Robert Farquhar argued that we
could either stifle or strengthen the love of
Nature which is planted in every young heart.
If we encourage and cultivate this love the
mind of the growing child will be opened to
the beauties of Nature, and we shall in thia
way provide for it a means of healthy exer-
cise out of doors and a source of delightful
recreation all through life. Children should
have gardens of their own to care for, and
they should be instructed in garden practice.
They should be allowed to sow the seed and
care for the plants themselves, although they
should be directed in all these operations.

138

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Florists who do business in villages and
towns enjoy opportunities for doing effective
work among children by explaining to their
young visitors the methods of propagation.
The claims of children should never be for-
gotten hi making up the lists of premiums
for agricultural and horticultural fairs. Prizes
should be given for plants grown by them
and for bouquets and collections of wild
flowers made by them. Village improve-
ment societies are doing excellent work in
many sections. Some have distributed seeds
and plants to the school children with most
satisfactory results.

African Pluck.— Mr. Alfred Coode Hore,
in his Eleven Years in Central Africa, speaks
well of the tribes of the Tanganyika region,
which he finds are peaceable and industrious
for the most part, but turbulent and aggres-
sive when they have learned to dread moles-
tation by strangers. " It seems hard," he
says, " that a man should be called lazy be-
cause he has ample leisure between his busy
times ; who has made with his own hands
from Nature's raw materials his house, his
axe, hoe, and spear, his clothing and orna-
ments, his furniture and corn-mill, and all
that he has, and who, though liable often in
a lifetime to have to commence that whole
process over again, has the energy and enter-
prise to do so. Too often have the same
people been called savage and bloodthirsty
who, through all experience and by all their
traditions regarding armed strangers as ene-
mies, defend themselves and their own with
the desperate energy which, as displayed by
our own ancestral relations, we term patriot-
ism and courage."

Impurities in Ice. — The once popular
theory that water is purified by freezing is,
as Mr. Charles Platt shows in Science, not in
accordance with facts. While water in its
crystalline state should theoretically be near-
ly pure, still, owing to its formation in
needle-like crystals, considerable foreign mat-
ter present in the water in suspension may
be and is mechanically held within the mass.
Another view, that in the freezing of still
water a certain concentration of some spe-
cies of bacteria on the surface of the water
may take place, and the first inch of ice may
contain these in increased numbers as com-

pared with a sample of water from the same
lake, may be well founded, but it is not yet
proved that these bacteria have an increased
or any vital activity. But when the ice is
melted and the temperature of the water is
considerably raised, " then we have another
problem, that of possible decomposition and
organic change in those organisms that may
induce results equal to and exceeding those
of the bacteria themselves." Disease hag
undoubtedly, Mr. Platt affirms, been pro-
duced by the use of ice from impure sources
and this, too, when mere analysis of the ice
in comparison with water standards would
not condemn it. But the standards in the
analysis of ice must be higher than in that
of water. The Massachusetts Board of
Health has pointed out that it is not the
number of bacteria alone that is to be con-
sidered, but their kind, and insists that no
water supply that is not fit for drinking pur-
poses should be used as a supply for ice.
This is done when ice is gathered from stag-
nant ponds and sluggish canals that receive
the drainage from various sources. Snow
ice and ice that has been formed by flooding
ice fields with surface water are very liable
to be contaminated. In making artificial ice
it is customary to use the entire contents of
the water tanks. In that case the impuri-
ties, repelled at first by the ice forming at
the sides of the vessels, are driven to the
center and there concentrated, to be at last
included in the freezing of the entire mass.

Protection of Orchards against Frost,

— According to Charles Howard Shinn, in
Garden and Forest, experiments are carried
on on a practical scale for the protection of
fruit against frost hi the orange groves at
Riverside, Cal. In some winters the tem-
perature falls so low that the oranges are
destroyed or injured. As a remedy the cul-
tivators are using appliances for warming
the orchards on a large scale. Their experi-
ments show that the temperature can be
raised from four to ten degrees by the use
of fires. The moment the thermometer falls
to the danger point electric bells can be rung
and tanks of crude petroleum lighted. One
man has fitted up an eighty-acre orchard at a
cost of $10,000 or $12,000. He claims that
his grove is absolutely protected, and that
the running expense will be very little. Other

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

139

growers use coal-oil cans filled with kindling
wood and coal and placed in the orchard at
the rate of from eight to twenty-five per
acre. Some provide themselves with two-
gallon iron kettles and use reduced petro-
leum. Ten dollars per acre will pay for the
plant and the expense of one night's burn-
ing. Horticulturists in other citrus colonies
are following in the track of Riverside and
preparing for future " cold snaps."

Curious Fauna of La Plata. — A curious
medley of animal life is described by Mr-
W. H. Hudson as existing in the pampas re-
gion of La Plata : A poisonous toad which
kills horses ; the wrestler frog, which suddenly
pinches its enemy with its fore legs and then
runs away ; a large, venomous, man-chasing
spider, which pursues men on foot and on
horseback ; dragon flies, a single individual
of which will cause clouds of gnats, mos-
quitoes, and sand flies to disappear in an in-
stant; and an opossum, fully adapted to life
in trees, which yet lives in a desert destitute
of trees, and when brought to a tree, which
it may never have seen before, will clasp it
and climb it with all the agility of its forest-
dwelling relatives of North America.

Manufacture of Fans. — The manufac-
ture of fans is chiefly carried on now in
France, Spain, China, Japan, and India.
The fashions are established in France prin-
cipally at Sainte-Genevieve, Audeville, Cor-
beil-Cerf, Le Deluge, Coudray, and the vi-
cinity of Beauvais and Meru. At Sainte-
Genevieve they work in bone, mother-of-
pearl, and ivory ; at Le Petit-Fercourt, and
Andecourt, in mother-of-pearl and horn;
at Le De"luge and Corbeil-Cerf, pear tree,
apple tree, and hornbeam wood; at Boir-
siere, in bone ; and at Paris, in shell. The
leaf of the fan is generally made and the fan
mounted at Paris. Fans have been made in
Spain only for some sixty or seventy years,
notably at Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Mala-
ga, and Cadiz. Most of the Chinese fans are
made hi Canton and E-moui, but the manu-
facture is generally diffused through the
country, for the fan is a part of the na-
tional costume. Every Chinese of good so-
cial standing holds a fan during visits of
ceremony, and the custom of writing on fans
is spread throughout the empire. The prin-

cipal centers of production in Japan are the
cities of Osaka, Kioto, and Nagoya. In that
country the fan is a part of the costume of
both sexes, and is to be seen in the hand of
the soldier as well as in that of the monk.
When a gentleman gives alms to a beggar,
he often puts the coin upon his fan ; and
salutes are made by waving the fan as they
are hi Europe by tipping the hat. There are
also fan factories in some other countries.
Lace fans are made at Brussels and De
Grammont, in Belgium ; fans of braided
straw, at Fiesole and Vicenza in Italy ; and
fan-standards of braided grass and cloth em-
broidered with gold and silver, in Tunis and
Morocco ; but France holds the first place in
the manufacture of luxurious, and China in
that of cheap, fans.

Origin of « Hot Waves."— A theory is
published by Prof. F. Hawn, of Leavenworth,
Kan., that our southwest winds are tropical
currents, which rise to great elevations in
the upper atmosphere, and then flow north
and reach the ground again in latitude 34°,
bringing subtropical heat. As other results
of his theory he concludes that the close at-
mospheric relations between the upper and
lower currents attest their common origin ;
that the atmospheric temperature is inci-
dentally if not perpetually higher in the
upper than on the lower levels ; that these
relatively higher thermal conditions of the
upper atmosphere control the lower atmos-
phere in the spring and summer, and indi-
dentally in the winter ; that the hot waves
of the Northwest have their origin in a
superheated upper atmosphere, and are con-
densed by gravitation in their descent to the
surface, evolving heat in a ratio inverse to
the humidity; and that thefoehn winds (hot
waves), with their resultant temperatures of
more than 100° in the temperate seasons
and from 65° to 73° in the winter, are not
local west of the eighty-eighth meridian, but
at intervals simultaneously cover the north-
ern half of the United States.

Qualities of Slates. — From experimental
studies with roofing slates, Mr. Mansfield
Merriman has drawn the conclusions that those
with soft ribbons are of an inferior quality
and should not be used in good work ; the
stronger the slate the greater are its tough-

140

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ness and softness and the less its porosity
and corrodibility ; softness or liability to abra-
sion does not indicate inferiority, but is an
indication of strength and good weathering
qualities. The strongest slate stands high-
est in weathering qualities,' so that a flexural
test affords an excellent index of all its prop-
erties, particularly if the ultimate deflection
and the manner of rupture be noted. The
strongest and best slate has the highest per-
centage of silicates of iron and aluminum, but
is not necessarily the lowest in carbonates of
lime and magnesia. Chemical analyses give
only imperfect conclusions regarding the
weathering qualities of slate, and they do not
satisfactorily explain the physical properties.
The soft roofing slates weigh about one hun-
dred and seventy-three pounds per cubic foot,
and the best qualities have a modulus of rup-
ture of from seven thousand to ten thousand
pounds per square inch. The test of a slate
by balancing it, striking it, and observing its
ring is a good one, but is not susceptible of
quantitative expression.

Pasteur's Seventieth Birthday. — The

seventieth birthday of Louis Pasteur was im-
posingly celebrated December 27th, in the
presence of eminent men of science and states-
men of different countries. The first address
was made by the French Minister of Public
Instruction, who spoke of the occasion as the
" festival of France and of mankind." Ad-
dressing M. Pasteur, he said that while his
work could be analyzed only by the scientific,
the ignorant and the learned alike knew that
he had accomplished something great. All
his success was due to his unswerving " apos-
tle's faith " in science. Had he devoted him-
self to pure science, the topmost place would
have been his. Happily for himself and for
mankind, he deserted that path and hence-
forth passed his days in inventing antidotes
for diseases that had for centuries decimated
the animal and human populations. Prof.
Joseph Lister acknowledged the obligations
of the professors of the healing art to M. Pas-
teur. Numerous testimonials and offerings
of different kinds were presented to M. Pas-
teur, with a splendid gold medal, the product
of an international subscription.

Origin of the Asteroids. — A paper on
Groups of Asteroids, by Prof. Daniel Kirk-

wood, illustrates the theory that these bodies
were formed by the resolution of nebulous as-
teroids. When the number of telescopic plan-
ets had grown to hundreds, and when the peri-
helion distance of some of them had become
greater by many millions of miles than the
aphelion of others, the theory of explosion
was necessarily abandoned. But the doc-
trine of similarity of origin, the author holds,
was not so easily disposed of. The original
dimensions of nebulous asteroids were proba-
bly many times greater than those of the pres-
ent bodies. The disrupting tendency of the
great bodies of the system, especially when
resisted only by the slight central attraction of
nebulous asteroids, is easily imagined. Such
separation, in short, has no improbability what-
ever. The dismemberment of comets, as is
well known, has actually occurred under our
own eyes. Why not also the pulling asunder
of nebulous planets ? The fact that in many
cases the motions of asteroids indicate a com-
mon origin, affords strong presumptive evi-
dence in favor of the nebular hypothesis.
Possibly, indeed, its true form may have dif-
fered from that proposed by Laplace. How
many primitive, separate nebulae were con-
tained in our system, and how many of these
primitive masses suffered dismemberment
while Mars and the then future earth were
yet floating in the solar atmosphere, can not
now be told. An indefinite number may, how-
ever, undoubtedly be traced. " May not simi-
lar processes be also indicated in the slow
evolution of binary and multiple stars in the
sidereal heavens ? "

Early Fans.— The extreme antiquity of
fans is attested by their appearance in ancient
Egyptian and Assyrian sculptures, where they
have the shape of a semicircle with a long
handle attached at the center. They were
probably used in worship to protect the offer-
ings and sacred objects against contamination
by dust and flies. They were known also in
India, where they were perhaps introduced
from China. The story of their origin in the
latter country runs that the daughter of a
powerful mandarin was obliged, on account
of the heat, to take off her mask during the
feast of lanterns, in violation of the law and
convention. She shook it rapidly in front of
her face, both to give herself air and by the
quick motion to veil her identity as fully as

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

141

possible. Other women followed her exam-
ple, and the fan was invented. The Chinese
historians trace the use of the fan in their
country back to a contemporary of Rameses
II of Egypt ; and it is mentioned by a writer
of a thousand years before the Christian era.
In ancient Grecian life, a eunuch, in one of
the tragedies of Euripides, relates how he
waved a fan, "according to the Phrygian
fashion," before the hair, face, and bosom of
the fair Helen. Fans were early adopted by
Roman matrons, who had two kinds — the
flabella of ostrich plumes, and the lobelia of
thin woven stuff stretched over a frame. A
Roman woman never went out without a slave
(flabettiferd) whose duty it was to fan her.
It is not known whether the fan was used in
Europe as an article of the feminine toilet be-
tween the fall of the Roman Empire and the
eleventh century, for it is not mentioned in
that relation ; but it was certainly used a
great deal in the ceremonies of Roman Cath-
olic worship, when the deacons and the aco-
lytes waved it over the altar at mass. This
usage Pere Bonami assumes to have traced
back to the apostles. Fans are represented
in manuscripts and on monuments of the
twelfth century and inventories of the four-
teenth, under different names, but without
specification of their use. They seem to have
been disused in the church in the thirteenth
century, to appear again after the Crusades in
the warmer countries — Spain and Italy — as
an accessory to woman's dress ; but were not
seen in France till the sixteenth century, when
they were introduced at court by the Italian
perfumers who came in the suite of Catherine
de Medicis.

American and ifrican Deserts. — The

most striking contrast between the North
American " deserts " and those of North
Africa is described by Prof. Johannes Wal-
ther, of Berlin, as consisting in the far
greater wealth of vegetation which charac-
terizes the former. In every direction the
eye is met by the yellow-blossoming ha-
lophytae, silver- gray artemisiae, and prickly
cacti ; between the opuntias are found cush-
ions of moss, and at the foot of the hills
juniper trees seven feet high with trunks a
foot thick. Such are the features of the
landscape of the deserts of Utah, where
plant-growth has completely disappeared

only in those places in which the saline
complexion of the soil kills vegetation. The
Van Horn deserts in western Texas, and the
Gila deserts in California are equally rich
in vegetation ; the altitude of these deserts
above the sea-level makes no important
difference. Either the mean rainfall in the
American deserts is greater than in those of
Africa, or else the flora of the American
deserts is better adapted to a dry atmos-
phere. Although the deserts of the two
continents present fundamental differences
as regards vegetation, there is a surprising
similarity between them as regards certain
important and characteristic desert phe-
nomena, especially with respect to the to-
pography of the country. There is the
prevalence of plains, with mountains rising
from them like islands, with no intervening
heaps of debris passing from the plains to
the steep mountain slopes. This phenome-
non is the more striking, as there are no
rubbish deltas, even at the outlet of valleys
a thousand feet deep. Another feature com-
mon to both is the large number of isolated
"island" mountains and of amphitheatre
formations in the valleys ; also the intensive
effect of insolation, which splits the rocks
and flints, and disintegrates the granite into
rubbish. The denuding influence of the
wind is visible not only in the characteristics
of the surface forms just mentioned, which
differ in important points from erosion
forms, but it can be directly observed in the
mighty dust-storms which rush through the
desert. In view of such agreement of im-
portant and incidental geological phenomena
in regions so remote from each other, the
phenomenon of desert formation must be
considered to be a telluric process which
runs its course according to law, just as the
glacial phenomena of the polar zone or cu-
mulative disintegration in the tropics.

Wind Effects. — In a paper on The Wind
as a Factor in Geology, published in the
Engineer's Magazine, Mr. George P. Merrill,
after mentioning several familiar examples
of the formation of dunes in Europe, passes
to the account of similar phenomena in the
United States. In May, 1889, a dust-storm
occurred in Dakota during which the soil
was torn up to a depth of four or five inches
and scattered in all directions ; while drifts

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of sand were formed, several feet deep in
favorable places, packed as snow-drifts are
packed by a blizzard. In parts of the West-
ern plains the fine, loose sand has been
blown away at times, leaving every pebble
and large bowlder standing out in bold re-
lief. The loose material often gathers in the
form of drifts or dunes, which travel across
the country with frequent changes of out-
line. A few miles north of Winnemucca
Lake, in western Nevada, is a belt of these
drifting sand hills, described by the geolo-
gist Russell as some seventy-five feet in
thickness and about forty miles in length by
eight miles in breadth. Another range of
sand dunes, at least twenty miles long, and
forming hills some two or three hundred
feet high, is on the eastern end of Alkali
Lake in the same State. Dunes of equal
height have been formed on the eastern
shore of Lake Michigan, and at Grand Ha-
ven and Sleeping Bear have drifted over the
woodlands, so as to leave only the dead tops
of trees exposed. The erosive power of
these drifting sands is often an important
agent in wearing away the rocks upon which
they strike. Carried along by the force of
the winds, they work effectively in undermin-
ing cliffs, scouring down mountain passes,
and giving curious and fantastic forms to
prominent rocks.

The Whistled Language of the Canary
Islands* — As a result of his studies of the
whistled language of Gomera, in the Canary
Islands, M. J. Lajard affirms that it is not a
special idiom or a whistle which tries to imi-
tate the Spanish language; but it is the
Spanish language strengthened by the aid
of whistling. " The Gomerian, while he is
speaking, puts one, two, or four fingers in
his mouth, as we sometimes see done hi the
street in order to make shrill sounds, and at
the same time he whistles with force. There
results a mixture of words and whistle, un-
intelligible to ears not accustomed to it, but
in which can be distinguished the words of
the language. . . . The whistling, then, is
only an artifice employed to carry to a dis-
tance the sound of the voice, to the detri-
ment of its distinctness and tone-quality.
This last inconvenience is so great that up
to this time travelers have been unable to
understand the whistled language. To be

able to understand it, you must know how
to whistle yourself." It is, however, very
limited in its compass, and whistled conver-
sations are of short duration. It exists in
other of the Canary Islands than in Go-
mera, and there is reason for believing that
it was formerly more widespread and more
prevalent than now. Rudiments of a whis-
tled language, the mechanism of which is
like that of the Canaries, exist even in
Paris ; it is employed by butchers and by
thieves.

What constitutes a Polluted Water. —

A water is said to be polluted, according to
Prof, von Pettenkofer, when it is no longer
clear and inodorous, when fishes and plants
perish in it, and when it contains more
organic matter and less oxygen than are to
be found in the unpolluted portions of the
flow of the stream. Such contamination is
essentially different from the transient tur-
bidity due to heavy rains or to melting snow.
Still, even the permanent pollutions disappear
in the further course of the river bed, by
deposition and other agencies. Here the
rapidity of the stream and the quantity of
the water exert a preponderating effect. The
most formidable impurities are supposed to
consist of the putrescent refuse which flows
out of sewers of cities, and quickly produces
an offensive odor at the places where it
accumulates. Prof, von Pettenkofer has for
many years given his attention to the ques-
tion of the extent to which rivers are polluted
by such agencies, and has had researches
conducted by his pupils. But nothing has
hitherto altered the opinion which he ex-
pressed long ago, that sewage may be safely
permitted to flow into a river if its volume
is not more than one fifteenth that of the
river water, and its rate of flow is decidedly
greater than that of the current. Taking the
city of Munich, which has 280,000 inhabit-
tants, he computes the pollution of the Isar
by its sewage as amounting to only TWOTFOS
of the discharge of the river — a pollution so
inconsiderable that it can not be detected by
the eye when a corresponding mixture is made
up experimentally. But it is also not perma-
nent, for at Ismaning, seven kilometres below
Munich, the sewage influx is no longer to be
detected ; and at Freising, thirty-three kilome-
tres below, the chemical and bacteriological

NOTES.

tests show that it has lost nearly all its power
of pollution. Thus, the number of 198,000
bacteria per cubic centimetre found by Praus-
nitz at the mouth of the Munich sewer was
reduced at Ismaning to 16,231, and at Frei-
sing to 3,602. A similar result was obtained
by Frankel with the water of the Spree at
and below Berlin. The mere number of
bacteria found has, however, no sanitary sig-
nificance, since these particular microbes are
mostly harmless, and in fact destroy the patho-
genic microbes in the struggle for existence.
The purifying action of rivers is ascribed by
von Pettenkofer to the oxygen dissolved in
the water in a free state or separated from
organisms. In the latter respect the green
algae and even non-chlorophyllic plants come
prominently into consideration. This vegeta-
tion should be preserved ; but it may be de-
stroyed by a too great concentration of the
water to be purified ; and to prevent this, in-
dustrial waste waters which destroy vegeta-
tion must be kept out till they have been
purified.

Bacteriological Processes against Dis-
ease.— According to a summary in the Satur-
day Review, attempts by bacteriological pro-
cesses to remove from the human system the
germs of infectious disease have been made
by six different methods. The first is by
Pasteur's preventive inoculation, in which a
minute quantity of an attenuated culture of
the virus is administered to produce a light
attack of the disease. The second is M.
Pasteur's method in rabies, in which a miti-
gated virus is injected into a person already
attacked with the disease, to overtake it.
The third is the employment of the virus of
a comparatively mild disease to protect
against a more severe one, as in vaccination
for smallpox. Next in order is the destruc-
tion of the disease-producing bacteria by the
administration of antiseptics or bactericides.
A fifth method is the re-enforcement of natural
means possessed by our systems for combat-
ing disease germs : by re-enforcing the leuco-
cytes or white blood-corpuscles, which de-
stroy bacteria, by means of the injection of
the blood of animals insusceptible to the
disease ; by raising or lowering the tempera-
ture of the body of the patient; by alter-
ations of diet, climate, or surroundings ; or
by injection of phagocyte invigorators. The

sixth method is by the injection of the " tox-
albumens " formed by the bacteria growing
in artificial cultures, as is done in Koch's
method for tuberculosis. That these methods
have not proved entirely satisfactory, and
bacteriological treatment is now apparent-
ly at a standstill, is not due, it is thought,
to any innate defect in the system, but to
some technical detail. " When the ingenuity
of man has arrived at the point of being able
to prove absolutely that organisms, complete-
ly invisible to all but the highest magnifying
powers attainable, cause each its particular
infectious disease ; when these tiny things
may be made to grow like plants in a garden,
separately and in order ; when we can keep
rows of tubes each with its deadly contents
on our laboratory shelves, or in our incuba-
tors, like druggists' bottles of inert powders
or crystals — surely we shall not stop at this
stage in our control over this ' world of the
infinitely little.' "

NOTES.

A CLARIFICATION of muddy liquids and
partial separation of micro-organisms is
effected by M. R. Lez6 by subjecting the
liquid to a rapid rotation. Thus, cider, in
turbid fermentation, after being whirled in
a turbine wheel, came out clear ; and while
specimens kept in bottles at 86° soon gen-
erated bacteria, the yeast and alcoholic fer-
mentation had all disappeared. This method
may be found useful in bacteriological inves-
tigation ; and in industrial operations, for rid-
ding impure and unhealthy waters of most
of the organisms contained in them.

CHEMICAL analysis has been applied by
M. Berthelot to the solution of a problem in
archaeology. Taking a piece of copper found
by M. de Sarzec in his explorations of the
ruins in Mesopotamia, which was obtained
from one of the most ancient sites, he made
an exact determination of its composition.
It contained no tin or zinc, and only slight
traces of lead and arsenic. It had been oxi-
dized throughout, and presented itself as a
suboxide or a mixture of protoxide and me-
tallic copper. Hence, while the question
can not yet be considered decided, the speci-
men is a contribution of evidence hi favor of
the existence of an age of copper.

THE physicians of Massachusetts have in
recent years noticed a development of ma-
larial disease in Cambridge and the vicinity
of Boston and in other towns of the State.
The origin of the cases in Cambridge seems,
from the investigations thus far made, to be

144

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

associated with the excavations of brickyards.
The examination of cases in the suburbs of
Boston points to the upper waters of certain
streams.

A VERT simple remedy for the annexa-
tion fever now beginning to prevail in Cana-
da and the exodus to this country which is
in full flow, is proposed by Mr. Allen Prin-
gle. It is to " take down the bars " between
Canada and her natural market — to culti-
vate friendly and intimate commercial rela-
tions with the United States.

A PATENTED substance called alumino-
ferric is prepared by English manufacturers,
to promote the precipitation of sewage. It
is used solid, in slabs twenty-one inches long
by ten inches wide and four inches thick,
which are placed in a cage fixed in the flow
of the sewage, or in solution. The " sludge "
is deposited, to be separately carried off or
made into manure, and clear water flows
away. The use of this substance has been
very successful.

PROF. H. CARRINGTON BOLTON has been
elected President of the New York Academy
of Sciences.

THE Department of Ethnology and Archae-
ology of the Columbian Exposition intends
to provide as complete an anthropological
library as possible, by aid of which students
and educators may be enabled to become ac-
quainted with the mass of literature on the
subject. All authors, societies, museums,
and publishers are invited to contribute from
their stoves all publications on the various
branches of the subject. A complete cata-
logue of the collection will be published and
widely distributed. The library will be con-
veniently and properly arranged and accessi-
ble to students, and full information will be
given them respecting the books. At the
close of the Exhibition loaned books will be
returned, and the rest of the library will be
placed in the permanent Memorial Museum
of Science which is to be established in Chi-
cago.

IT is said that the passage of boats con-
taining naphtha has had the effect of poi-
soning the waters of the Volga. A great
deal of the liquid is transported in badly
built wooden barges, with a resultant loss by
leakage of about three per cent. Consequent-
ly the fish are decreasing rapidly, and have
already become extinct in some places where
the boats stop. The naphtha likewise kills
off the insect life on which the fish feed, by
being carried in times of flood to the adja-
cent meadows and destroying the larvas there.

THE New York branch of the American
Folk Lore Society was organized at the house
of Mrs. Henry Draper, February 24th, when a
constitution was adopted, and officers were
elected as follows : President, H. Carrington

Bolton; vice-presidents, G. B. Grinnell, R.
W. Gilder; treasurer, H. M. Lester; secre-
tary, William B. Tuthill. These officers and
Mrs. Harriet M. Converse, Mrs. Anna P.
Draper, and Mrs. Mary J. Field, constitute
the Executive Committee. Papers were read
at the meeting by Prof. Bolton on Divination
by the Mirror as practiced in New York To-
day, and by George Bird Grinnell on How
the Pawnees stole the Corn. Mr. G. F.
Kunz exhibited a human tooth inlaid with
jadeite. Mr. Newell, founder and secretary
of the National Society, was present and
made some remarks.

OBITUARY NOTES.

THE death was announced about the be-
ginning of the year of General Axel Wilhel-
movitch Gadolin, of the Russian army, an emi-
nent mineralogist and physicist, and a mem-
ber of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He
engaged, when not active in military duties,
in research into the molecular forces that
act in the formation of crystals. His chief
work, which is also known to the world
through a German translation, was his Deduc-
tion of all the Systems of Crystals and their
Derivates from a Unique Principle. A paper
on the resistance of the walls of a gun to the
pressure of gunpowder gases is also notice-
able for having given a new formula of
minimal resistance.

NIKOLAI IVANOVITCH KOKSHAROFF, who
died in St. Petersburg January 2d, was an
eminent mineralogist and author of a work in
eleven large quarto volumes, to which a
twelfth is to be added, of contributions to
the mineralogy of Russia.

M. FRANCOIS VAN RYSSELBERGHE, Pro-
fessor of Electrotechnics in the University of
Ghent, and a famous inventor, died suddenly
at Antwerp, Belgium, February 3d, in the
forty-seventh year of his age. Among his
inventions were a universal meteorograph,
exhibited at Paris in 1881, which registered
periodically on a strip of paper the pressure,
temperature, humidity, depth of rainfall, and
direction and force of the wind ; and a sys-
tem of simultaneous telegraphic and tele-
phonic transmission which has come into
general use on urban and suburban lines.
He was counsel in electrical matters for the
Belgian administration of railroads, posts,
and telegraphs.

MR. HENRY F. BLACKFORD, a distinguished
geologist and meteorologist of India, died in
January. Originally attached to the Geo-
logical Survey of India, in connection with
which he wrote several memoirs of much
value, he afterward became Superintendent
of the Meteorological Department of Bengal,
and ultimately of the whole of India ; and in
connection with this position also he pub-
lished useful books and papers.

ARCHIBALD GEIKIE.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

JUNE, 1893.
IRRIGATION IN THE ARID STATES.

BY CHARLES HOWARD SHINN.

A MOST vital change is going on in the region west of central
Kansas — a change which will in the near future profoundly
affect many if not all classes of agriculturists in other American
States, and incidentally in Europe also. I refer to the change
that has been brought about by the success of private irrigation
enterprises, by important alterations in the laws respecting irri-
gation, by district irrigation under such laws, and by the steady
growth of a public sentiment favorable to the irrigator, even
when his necessities override ancient precedent.

It is my purpose in this article to give, as far as may be, a
faithful and conservative account of the present condition of arid-
land irrigation enterprises. My account will be statistical as far
as acreage, flow of water, cost of construction, and similar items ;
it will be descriptive, and largely from personal knowledge, as
regards practical methods and their results. The entire subject,
it seems to me, possesses an immeasurable interest for farmers
elsewhere, and for all who are in any way dependent upon the
farming class. Successful irrigation upon a large scale intro-
duces, it is true, a new kind of competition, but it also urges in-
telligent farmers to adopt improved methods of farming in their
own defense, and often leads them to apply the water of neglected
streams upon their lands. Even the general reader is often inter-
ested in discussions upon farm mortgages, farm rents, wages of
laborers, taxes on crops, cost of fertilizers, and similar agricul-
tural problems of the present time, because he has learned that
they affect his own welfare. Much broader is the application of
arid-land irrigation to every occupation and industry. America

VO! . XLIII. 1 1

IRRIGATION IN THE ARID STATES.

H7

has many and greater valleys of the Nile waiting to pour forth
enormous harvests whenever the legislative and executive work
of the irrigator has been accomplished.

If I were writing a history of irrigation in America — and a
wonderful story it is — I should have to devote a chapter to the
Spanish influence in all the lands from Texas to southern Cali-
fornia, where men, whose mountaineer ancestors had learned the
value of water in arid districts from the builders of the Alham-
bra, made reservoirs and led many a fertilizing stream to acres of
vines and oranges on the high plains about old missions, or in
the adobe- walled gardens of newly founded towns, such as San
Antonio, Santa F6, and Los Angeles. I should have to tell about
the ruined irrigation canals of forgotten tribes in Arizona, south-
ern Utah, and other regions of the Southwest where hundreds of
square miles were covered with a network of water ditches, small
and great. The modern irrigator often adopts the grades of these
prehistoric channels for his enterprises, finding that no engineer
can improve upon them. I should have to describe the fields
under the red and yellow heights of Zuni or Acoma, where the
Pueblo Indians still raise their spotted corn by irrigation, as their
ancestors did centuries ago, .in the bottoms of narrow canons
where the ruins of their fortressed cliff -dwellings still remain.
But these things, except perhaps for a passing allusion, are for-
eign to the purpose of this investigation.

The arid States and Territories are beginning to organize as a
group of communities that have common interests and a common
purpose. Their respective areas and populations are shown in
the following table :

NAME.

Area, square miles.

Population in 1890.

Texas

265 780

2 235 523

New Mexico

122 580

153 593

Arizona . ...

113 020

59 620

•California

158 360

1 208 130

Colorado

103 925

412 198

Utah ... . . .. .

84 970

207 905

Nevada

110 700

45 761

Kansas (west of 97°)

56000

807 000

NVhrasku

76 855

1 058 910

Wyoming ...

97 890

60 705

South Dakota . )

328 808

North Dakota f

149,100

182 719

Montana

146 080

132 159

Idaho

84 800

84 385

( >n'"on (eastern)

48 000

113 767

Washington (eastern)

35000

149,390

Total...

1,652,060

7.480.573

IRRIGATION IN THE ARID STATES. 149

The total area is more than half of the United States (without
Alaska), and the total present population is less than one eighth
of the population of the United States.

It is difficult, perhaps impracticable, to divide States once cre-
ated. Although a respectable minority in California and Texas
favor division schemes, which would make of the former three
States, and of the latter four, the tendencies of the time are
against it. But with the Territories it is different ; and if admis-
sion is long delayed, so that irrigation developments will have
enabled the soil to sustain a dense population, such Territories as
Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah are very likely to be divided.
Eastern Oregon and Washington are separated by diverse inter-
ests from the western slopes of those States in somewhat the same
way as southern California is separated from the northern coun-
ties. If the desire for smaller States should increase in the fu-
ture, it is not impossible, therefore, that the States and Territories
of the arid belt should some time contain twenty-five or thirty
political divisions instead of sixteen, as at present. It is perhaps
too much to say that the balance of power can ever be transferred
from the Mississippi Valley to the ultimate West of the Rockies,
the Great Basin, the valley of the Rio Grande, the irrigated
leagues of the Nevada and Arizona deserts, the vast valley plains
of the Sacramento and San Joaquin, the mountains of Coast
Range, Cascade, and Sierra. But if such a change is ever brought
about, the irrigator will be the principal cause of the transfer of
leadership from the man of the corn lands to the man of the fruit
lands.

Twenty years ago no one in America knew how to utilize
water on a large scale for irrigation. A few colonies in different
parts of the arid zone, a few settlers in isolated valleys, were mak-
ing experiments. Half a dozen ranchers would come together
and plow an open ditch two or three feet wide, to irrigate their
crops in years of severe drought. As for the districts where the
average annual rainfall was below the required amount, no one
tried to live there. But some of the most successful of recent en-
terprises have been upon lands where there is " no rainfall." Even
ten years ago, though the number of colonists had increased,
the total area under water ditches in the arid region was hardly
more than two million acres. In 1886 it had increased to five and
a half million acres, and the following table shows the state of
affairs in 1891 :

150

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Irrigated Areas in Arid Region.

STATE OB TERRITORY.

Acreage under
ditch.

Acreage cultivated
by the irrigators.

Artesian
welle.

California

4,500,000

3,550,000

3,500

WVominff . . .

3,031 484

185,000

6

Colorado

3 007 050

1 800 000

4500

Montana

1,250,000

419,000

36

Idaho

1,200,000

330,000

12

Kansas (west of 97°)

990,000

120,000

50

Utah

735 000

423,000

2 524

New Mexico

700 000

405 000

10

Arizona

660 000

315 000

42

Texas

350,000

160,000

1,000

Nebraska

200,000

40,000

1 000

\Vashi ngton

176 000

75000

10

Nevada

150 900

75 000

76

Oregon

125,000

45,000

6

South Dakota . ....

100,000

54,000

960

North Dakota

2 500

2,000

670

Total

17 177 843

7 998 000

13492

Some of the artesian wells are of enormous size,, and yield four
and five million gallons of water daily, capable of irrigating a sec-
tion of land. The greater number are small, however, and prob-
ably not capable of irrigating more than five or ten acres. Half
a million acres is the utmost limit of the present wells. Some
artesian districts contain at least that acreage, so that, if the water
supply is sufficient, a vast area will be reclaimed by this method.

In the above table the most noticeable fact is that less than
half the area lying beneath the water ditches, and capable of irri-
gation, is now cultivated. This is because it takes a number of
years to settle the country, break up the soil, and bring it into
cultivation. In progressive communities the possible acreage
keeps ahead of the demand until the water supply or the land
supply is exhausted. Judging the future by the past, and taking
into consideration many projected ditch lines, there will be from
thirty to thirty -five million acres under some irrigation system by
the close of the decade, and the actually cultivated area may be
close upon twenty million acres.

California has had a longer and more extensive experience with
irrigation than any other division of the arid belt, and immense
sums have been wasted in litigation and experiment. The sys-
tems now in use in different districts illustrate all the details of
the business. All the larger problems connected with irriga-
tion, such as seepage, drainage, reservoirs, alkali deposits, econ-
omy in distribution, can be studied in the valleys of California.
More particularly one sees private ownership and district owner-
ship in operation side by side, often in the same county.

The Wright irrigation act, passed in 1887, gave a great impetus

IRRIGATION IN THE ARID STATES.

to the process of uniting land and water in a permanent union.
No less than thirty-eight districts have been organized already, and
they include a total of about two and a half million acres, upon
which bonds to the extent of twelve million dollars have been
voted. About three million dollars in bonds have been actually
issued and sold ; seven districts have some of their ditches con-
structed and full of water ; one has completed its entire irrigation
system and is in successful operation. It will take a considerable
time to obtain the desired capital and complete all the districts
organized. Some of them are very large, and will greatly add to
the irrigated area. The following table shows the acreage and
estimated cost of water supply in the ten largest districts :

Irrigation Districts.

NAME.

Acreage.

Estimated cost.

Sunset

363,000

$2,000,000

Madera

308,000

850,000

Selma

271,000

1,000,000

Turlock

176,000

1,200,000

Central

156,000

750,000

Alta . , . .

129,000

675,000

Colusa

100,000

600,000

Kern and Tulare

84,000

700,000

80,000

1,400,000

Palradale

160,000

175,000

Total. .

1,717,000

$9,350,000

The bulk of the district acreage is included in these ten dis-
tricts, nine of which are situated in the San Joaquin and Sacra-
mento Valleys. The lowest estimate of cost in any of the thirty-
eight districts is $2.56 per acre, and the highest is $83. The
last is in the famous orange colony of Riverside, where the water
is piped to the land, and where the science of irrigation is perhaps
better understood than in any other colony in America. The aver-
age first cost of water per acre is a little over eight dollars. Bonds
issued are a lien upon all the real estate within the boundaries of
the district, as well as upon the irrigation system itself, and are
considered by conservative bankers as excellent security.

Beyond doubt the irrigation district laws of California are full
of suggestion for cheap and effective work by the land-owners
themselves. They are best adapted to communities that have
learned something of the value of irrigation and can work to-
gether. There are many places where no irrigation will be done
until the Government or some private corporation takes hold with
the required skill and capital to secure the water and distribute it
to the land ; then the scattered settlers will use it, and others will
come in and buy the land and water. Some of the irrigation dis-

156 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tricts already organized are meeting with bitter opposition from
large land-owners who do not wish to sell, nor to pay higher taxes
upon more valuable because more fruitful land. The average
farmer with his hundred or five hundred acres, where crops fail
one year in three or two in five, is compelled to have water or be-
come bankrupt. The owner of fifty or a hundred thousand acres
pastures cattle there and makes a living that suits him. If the
small farmers form an irrigation district, the cattle baron is apt
to fight it on general principles, and if they outvote him and
include any of his land in the taxable area, he fights them to the
end. Several of the most promising district ditches of California
are lying unfinished at the present time because of the stub-
born opposition of the large land-owners, some of them living in
Europe.

Private ownership of irrigation canals exists more or less in
every county of California. It is too soon to decide the compara-
tive cost of water under the two systems, but the logic of the
situation requires supervision of private enterprises by either the
State or the General Government. The danger in many private
schemes is the sale of more water than can be supplied in seasons
of drought, and the consequent loss of crops planted in the ex-
pectation of receiving an abundance. There is a golden mean
between this extreme and the other, now less frequent than for-
merly, of claiming ten times as much water as can be used and
allowing it to go to waste. One of the greatest corporate irriga-
tion enterprises in the United States is in Merced County. The
late Charles Crocker, of San Francisco, was the leading stock-
holder. Three and a half million dollars has now been spent upon
a fifty-mile canal from the Merced River, with a hundred and fifty
miles of lesser ditches ; a giant reservoir, Lake Yosemite, covering
a square mile thirty feet deep, and the purchase of large tracts of
land. The company now has water to irrigate six hundred thou-
sand acres. The carrying capacity of the main canal is not less
than four thousand cubic feet per second. Colonies are springing
up along the line of the canal, and thousands of acres have been
planted to crops that justify irrigation.

A still better illustration of what private enterprise has done
in this field is shown in the Kern region. Seven hundred miles
of large irrigating ditches have been dug in this imperial county,
which contains more than five million acres. The annual rain-
fall is from three to five inches, so that irrigation is absolutely
necessary. Thirty large canals have been taken out of Kern
River, which rises in the highest part of the Sierra Nevada Moun-
tains. The most famous of these canals is the Calloway, eighty
feet wide on the bottom and one hundred and twenty feet wide at
the top, seven feet in depth, and usually full to within a few

IRRIGATION IN THE ARID STATES. 159

inches of the top of the bank. It irrigates two hundred thousand
acres through sixty-five laterals, of an aggregate length of one
hundred and fifty miles. 0

But the glory of Kern is the enormous irrigation system upon
the Kern Delta, constructed by two San Francisco capitalists —
Lloyd Tevis and J. B. Haggin. All in all, it is the largest enter-
prise of the kind of which I have any knowledge. The total
expenditure has been fully four million dollars. For this the
owners have obtained a system of twenty-seven main canals
with an aggregate length of three hundred miles, besides about
eleven hundred miles of permanent laterals. Six hundred thou-
sand acres can be watered from these artificial rivers. The sandy
plain slopes south and west upon a grade of five or six feet to the
mile. Very little of the land requires leveling. The great reser-
voir, a former lake basin, covers twenty-five thousand acres and
contains fifty billion gallons of water. The various canals of this
company and others take from Kern River alone a total of twelve
thousand cubic feet of water per second.

Twenty years ago the value of such land was less than a dollar
an acre. No settler could live on a quarter section, and like Fres-
no, Tulare, and in fact most of the San Joaquin Valley, it was
used only for pasturage. To-day there are fields of hundreds of
acres of alfalfa, where the best of Jerseys and Holsteins are kept ;
there are orchards of peaches, apricots, prunes, and almonds —
thousands of acres — loaded each year with fruit ; cotton, sugar
beets, the sugar cane of Louisiana, tobacco, corn, cassava, and a
multitude of the products of the temperate and semitropic re-
gions thrive here and can be grown as staple crops.

Irrigation is often supposed to belong only to the arid lands.
There, it is true, it produces the most surprising changes and the
greatest proportionate increase of values. Water poured upon a
rainless desert makes it blossom under the tropic sun as if some
magician's wand had been waved over it. Vines, fruits, flowers,
green lawns, golden wheat, and silver barley, for miles on miles,
all lifted by the sparkling rivers above the fluctuations of the
season — such are the changes the irrigator brings to the desert.
But thousands of valleys and hillsides in the arid regions have
enough rainfall to enable farmers to struggle along, and not
enough to make their crops a certainty every year. Here there
is an even more immediate need of water to supplement the nat-
ural supply. No available statistics can illustrate the extent to
which pioneers in the Rockies, Sierras, and Coast Range are de-
veloping cheaply and easily a local supply of water for their
ranches. The last census, which says there are about thirteen
thousand irrigators in California (there are really twice as
many), is very incomplete in this direction. Besides the organ-

IRRIGATION IN THE ARID STATES. 161

ized districts and the great irrigation corporations, there are illus-
trations in thousands of beautiful and fertile valleys, and upon
many a sunny hillside, that it pays to irrigate.

In the old placer-mining regions of California one sees much
of the local use of water, ranch by ranch, spring by spring,
cheaply, easily, and effectually. The miners have long been
familiar with the management of water. They built hundreds
of miles of hydraulic mining ditches, triumphs of engineering
skill, bringing whole rivers from the snow peaks to the beds of
gold-bearing gravel below. They siphoned streams over moun-
tains ; they belted their flumes in mid-air to perpendicular cliffs
of granite a thousand feet from base to crest ; they changed little
Alpine valleys into mountain lakes. Such men as these find it
only child's play to water their hillside gardens, to wall up the
" flats " by mountain streams and flood them so that the white
clover or alfalfa keeps green there all the year. Thus one finds
oases of verdure and fruitfulness about the cottage houses of
thousands of mountaineers in Shasta, Trinity, Butte, Lassen, El
Dorado, and the whole Sierra range of mining counties south of
" Old Tuolumne." Such men as these live in all the mountain
ranges of the western half of the continent, and not the least at-
tractive chapter of the story of irrigation is that which tells of
their home acres. Even where the annual rainfall is more than
sufficient for the ordinary field crops and the deciduous fruits to
thrive without irrigation, the dry air and sunlight of the semi-
tropic summers often make the application of water desirable
for specialized horticulture, or for the greatest obtainable profit
from ordinary crops.

Here, then, are the primary schools of the irrigator in the
thousands of hidden valleys of Idaho, Dakota, Utah, Colorado,
Nevada, and California. Out of them, upon the wide valley
plains, upon the vast distances of the high desert mesa lands, the
young men of the coming generation of irrigation adepts pass on
to greater victories. Artesian fountains spring up along their
paths ; rivers from regions of mountains, of forests and abundant
rainfall, follow in their footsteps ; they lead these rivers into the
desert and plant gardens there — the grape, the olive, the date
palm, the orange, the lemon, the banana, the pomegranate.

The facts and figures which I have used to show the progress
of the States and Territories of the arid region are crowded with
infinite suggestions and possibilities. Some time, it is not im-
probable, men may speak of the overflowing granaries, the un-
paralleled horticultural wealth along the Rio Grande, the Colo-
rado, the Sacramento, the San Joaquin, and other great river
plains, as history speaks of Egypt and Assyria in their splendid
prime. What are the duties of the American people toward irri-

TOL. XL1II. — 12

i6z THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

gation in these all-important years of the beginnings of new com-
monwealths based upon new industries ? Millions of acres of
land are forever worthless without water. Who shall own the
streams and reservoirs — a few far-sighted men, or the people
themselves ? Irrigation journals and conventions of irrigators
discuss the matter from the standpoint of the present, and en-
deavor to shape legislation to profitable ends. The slow, dumb
masses have not yet recognized the magnitude of the problems
involved. An effort is being made to have the United States
give all the arid lands to the several States and Territories in
which they lie, but the plan is dangerous. Only the Federal
Government can protect the sources of water supply; utilize,
reservoir, and distribute that supply, and unite water and land in
an indissoluble marriage bond.

THE INADEQUACY OF " NATURAL SELECTION."

BY HERBERT SPENCEE.
[Concluded.}

THIS very pronounced opinion will be met on the part of some
by a no less pronounced demurrer, which involves a denial
of possibility. It has been of late asserted, and by many believed,
that inheritance of acquired characters can not occur. Weis-
mann, they say, has shown that there is early established in the
evolution of each organism, such a distinctness between those
component units which carry on the individual life and those
which are devoted to maintenance of the species, that changes in
the one can not affect the other. We will look closely into his
doctrine.

Basing his argument on the principle of the physiological
division of labor, and assuming that the primary division of labor
is that between such part of an organism as carries on individual
life and such part as is reserved for the production of other lives,
Weismann, starting with " the first multicellular organism," says
that — " Hence the single group would come to be divided into two
groups of cells, which may be called somatic and reproductive —
the cells of the body as opposed to those which are concerned with
reproduction" (Essays upon Heredity, p. 27).

Though he admits that this differentiation " was not at first
absolute, and indeed is not always so to-day," yet he holds that
the differentiation eventually becomes absolute in the sense that
the somatic cells, or those which compose the body at large, come
to have only a limited power of cell-division, instead of an un-
limited power which the reproductive cells have ; and also in the

THE INADEQUACY OF ' NATURAL SELECTIONS 163

sense that eventually there ceases to he any communication be-
tween the two, further than that implied by the supplying of
nutriment to the reproductive cells by the somatic cells. The out-
come of this argument is that, in the absence of communication,
changes induced in the somatic cells, constituting the individual,
can not influence the natures of the reproductive cells, and can
not therefore be transmitted to posterity. Such is the theory.
Now let us look at a few facts — some familiar, some unfamiliar.

His investigations led Pasteur to the positive conclusion that
the silkworm diseases are inherited. The transmission from par-
ent to offspring resulted, not through any contamination of the
surface of the egg by the body of the parent while being deposited,
but resulted from infection of the egg itself — intrusion of the
parasitic organism. Generalized observations concerning the dis-
ease called pebrine enabled him to decide by inspection of the
eggs which were infected and which were not: certain modifi-
cations of form distinguishing the diseased ones. More than this,
the infection was proved by microscopical examination of the
contents of the egg ; in proof of which he quotes as follows from
Dr. Carlo Vittadini :

" II resulte de mes recherches sur les graines, & 1'epoque oil commence le de-
veloppement du germe, que les corpuscles, une fois appams dans I'oeuf, augmen-
tent graduellement en nombre, & mesure que 1'embryon se d6veloppe; que, dans
les derniers jours de 1'inctibation, I'oauf en est plein, au po.int de faire croire que
la majeure partie des granules du jaune se sont transformes en corpuscules.

" Une autre observation importante est que 1'embryon aussi est souil!6 de cor-
puscules, et a un degre tel qu'on peut soupconner que 1'infectiou du jaune tire son
origine du germe lui-meme ; en d'autres termes que le germe est primordiale-
ment infecte, et porte en lui-meme ces corpuscules tout comme les vers adultes,
frappes du meme mal." *

Thus, then, the substance of the egg, and even its innermost
vital part, is permeable by a parasite sufficiently large to be mi-
croscopically visible. It is also of course permeable by the invisi-
ble molecules of protein, out of which its living tissues are formed,
and by absorption of which they subsequently grow. But, accord-
ing to Weismann, it is not permeable by those invisible units of
protoplasm out of which the vitally active tissues of the parent
are constituted : units composed, as we must assume, of variously
arranged molecules of protein. So that the big thing may pass,
and the little thing may pass, but the intermediate thing may
not pass !

A fact of kindred nature, unhappily more familiar, may be
next brought in evidence. It concerns the transmission of a dis-
ease not unfrequent amorig those of unregulated lives. The high-

* Les Maladies des Vers a Soie, par L. Pasteur, i, 39.

164 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

est authority concerning this disease, in its inherited form, is Mr.
Jonathan Hutchinson; and the following are extracts from a
letter I have received from him, and which I publish with his
assent :

"I do not think that there can be any reasonable doubt that a very largo ma-
jority of those who suffer from inherited syphilis take the taint from the male
parent. ... It is the rule when a man marries who has no remaining local
lesion, but in whom the taint is not eradicated, for his wife to remain apparently
well, while her child may suffer. No doubt the child infects its mother's blood,
but this does not usually evoke any obvious symptoms of syphilis. ... I am sure
I have seen hundreds of syphilitic infants whose mothers had not, so far as I
could ascertain, ever displayed a single symptom."

See, then, to what we are committed if we accept Weismann's
hypothesis. We must conclude that, whereas the reproductive
cell may be effectually invaded by an abnormal living element in
the parental organism, those normal living elements which con-
stitute the vital protoplasm of the parental organism, can not
evade it. Or if it be admitted that both intrude, then the impli-
cation is that, whereas the abnormal element can so modify the
development as to cause changes of structure (as of the teeth),
the normal element can cause no changes of structure ! *

We pass now to evidence not much known in the world at
large, but widely known in the biological world, though known
in so incomplete a manner as to be undervalued in it. Indeed,
when I name it probably many will vent a mental pooh-pooh.
The fact to which I refer is one of which record is preserved in the
museum of the College of Surgeons, in the shape of paintings of
a foal borne by a mare not quite thoroughbred, to a sire which
was thoroughbred — a foal which bears the markings of the quag-
ga. The history of this remarkable foal is given by the Earl of
Morton, F. R. S., in a letter to the President of the Royal Society
(read November 23, 1820). In it he states that wishing to domes-

* Curiously enough, Weismann refers to, and recognizes, syphilitic infection of the re-
productive cells. Dealing with Brown-Sequard's cases of inherited epilepsy (concerning
which, let me say, that I do not commit myself to any derived conclusions), he says : " In
the case of epilepsy, at any rate, it is easy to imagine [many of Weismann's arguments are
based on things ' it is easy to imagine '] that the passage of some specific organism through
the reproductive cells may take place, as in the case of syphilis " (p. 82). Here is a sam-
ple of his reasoning. It is well known that epilepsy is frequently caused by some periph-
eral irritation (even by the lodging of a small foreign body under the skin), and that, among
peripheral irritations causing it, imperfect healing is one. Yet though, in Brown-Sequard's
cases, a peripheral irritation caused in the parent by local injury was the apparent origin,
Weismann chooses gratuitously to assume that the progeny were infected by " some spe-
cific organism," which produced the epilepsy ! And then, though the epileptic virus, like
the syphilitic virus, makes itself at home in the egg, the parental protoplasm is not ad-
mitted !

THE INADEQUACY OF "NATURAL SELECTION." 165

ticate the quagga, and having obtained a male, but not a female,
he made an experiment.

" I tried to breed from the male quagga and a young chestnut mare of seven -
eighths Arabian blood, and which had never been bred from ; the result was the
production of a female hybrid, now five years old, and bearing, both in her form
and in her color, very decided indications oi her mixed origin. I subsequently
parted with the seven-eighths Arabian mare to Sir Gore Ouseley, who has bred
from her by a very fine black Arabian horse. I yesterday morning examined the
produce, namely, a two-year-old filly and a year-old colt. They have the charac-
ter of the Arabian breed as decidedly as can be expected, where fifteen-sixteenths
of the blood are Arabian ; and they are tine specimens of that breed ; but both in
their color and in the hair of their manes, they have a striking resemblance to the
quagga. Their color is bay, marked more or less like the quagga in a darker tint.
Both are distinguished by the dark line along the ridge of the back, the dark
stripes across the fore-hand, and the dark bars across the back part of the legs." *

Lord Morton then names sundry further correspondences. Dr.
Wollaston, at that time President of the Royal Society, who had
seen the animals, testified to the correctness of his description,
and, as shown by his remarks, entertained no doubt about the al-
leged facts. But good reason for doubt may be assigned. There
naturally arises the question — How does it happen that parallel
results are not observed in other cases ? If in any progeny cer-
tain traits not belonging to the sire, but belonging to a sire of
preceding progeny, are reproduced, how is it that such anoma-
lously-inherited traits are not observed in domestic animals, and
indeed in mankind ? How is it that the children of a widow by a
second husband do not bear traceable resemblances of the first
husband ? To these questions nothing like satisfactory replies
seem forthcoming ; and, in the absence of replies, skepticism, if
not disbelief, may be held reasonable.

There is an explanation, however. Forty years ago I made
acquaintance with a fact which impressed me by its significant
implications ; and has for this reason, I suppose, remained in my
memory. It is set forth in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural
Society, vol. xiv (1853), pp. 214 et seq., and concerns certain results
of crossing English and French breeds of sheep. The writer of
the translated paper, M. Malingie'-Nouel, Director of the Agri-
cultural School of La Charmoise, states that when the French
breeds of sheep (in which were included " the mongrel Merinos ")
were crossed with an English breed, " the lambs present the fol-
lowing results. Most of them resemble the mother more than the
father ; some show no trace of the father." Joining the admis-
sion respecting the mongrels with the facts subsequently stated,
it is tolerably clear that the cases in which the lambs bore no

* Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society for the Year 1821, Port I, pp. 20-24.

i66 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

traces of the father were cases in which the mother was of pure
breed. Speaking of the results of these crossings in the second
generation "having 75 per cent of English blood," M. Nouel
says : " The lambs thrive, wear a beautiful appearance, and com-
plete the joy of the breeder. . . . No sooner are the lambs weaned
than their strength, their vigor, and their beauty begin to decay.
... At last the constitution gives way. ... he remains stunted
for life," the constitution being thus proved unstable or un-
adapted to the requirements. How, then, did M. Nouel succeed
in obtaining a desirable combination of a fine English breed with
the relatively poor French breeds ?

"He took an animal from 'flocks originally sprung from a mixture of the two
distinct races that are established in these two provinces [Berry and La Sologne],'
and these he 'united with animals of another mixed breed. . . . which blended
the Tourangelle and native Merino blood of La Beauce and Touraine, and ob-
tained a mixture of all four races ' without decided character, without fixity. . . .
but possessing the advantage of being used to our climate and management.'

"Putting one of these 'mixed-blood ewes to a pure New-Kent ram. . . . one
obtains a lamb containing fifty-hundredths of the purest and most ancient Eng-
lish blood, with twelve and a half hundredths of four different French races,
which are individually lost in the preponderance of English blood, and disappear
almost entirely, leaving the improving type in the ascendant. ... All the lambs
produced strikingly resembled each other, and even Englishmen took them for
animals of their own country.' "

M. Nouel goes on to remark that when this derived breed was
bred with itself, the marks of the French breeds were lost. " Some
slight traces could be detected by experts, but these soon disap-
peared."

Thus, we get proof that relatively pure constitutions predomi-
nate in progeny over much mixed constitutions. The reason is
not difficult to see. Every organism tends to become adapted to
its conditions of life ; and all the structures of a species, accus-
tomed through multitudinous generations to the climate, food,
and various influences of its locality, are molded into harmoni-
ous co-operation favorable to life in that locality: the result
being that in the development of each young individual, the
tendencies conspire to produce the fit organization. It is other-
wise when the species is removed to a habitat of different charac-
ter, or when it is of mixed breed. In the one case its organs,
partially out of harmony with the requirements of its new life,
become partially out of harmony with one another ; since, while
one influence, say of climate, is but little changed, another influ-
ence, say of food, is much changed ; and consequently, the per-
turbed relations of the organs interfere with their original stable
equilibrium. Still more in the other case is there a disturbance
of equilibrium. In a mongrel the constitution derived from each

THE INADEQUACY OF "NATURAL SELECTION." 167

source repeats itself as far as possible. Hence a conflict of tend-
encies to evolve two structures more or less unlike. The tenden-
cies do not harmoniously conspire ; but produce partially incon-
gruous sets of organs. And evidently where the breed is one in
which there are united the traits of various lines of ancestry,
there results an organization so full of small incongruities of
structure and action, that it has a much-diminished power of
maintaining its balance ; and while it can not withstand so well
adverse influences, it can not so well hold its own in the offspring.
Concerning parents of pure and mixed breeds respectively, sev-
erally tending to reproduce their own structures in progeny, we
may, therefore, say figuratively that the house divided against
itself can not withstand the house, of which the members are in
concord.

Now if this is shown to be the case with breeds the purest of
which have been adapted to their habitats and modes of life dur-
ing some few hundred years only, what shall we say when the
question is of a breed which has had a constant mode of life in
the same locality for ten thousand years or more, like the quagga ?
In this the stability of constitution must be such as no domestic
animal can approach. Relatively stable as may have been the
constitutions of Lord Morton's horses, as compared with the con-
stitutions of ordinary horses, yet, since Arab horses, even in their
native country, have probably in the course of successive con-
quests and migrations of tribes become more or less mixed, and
since they have been subject to the conditions of domestic life,
differing much from the conditions of their original wild life, and
since the English breed has undergone the perturbing effects of
change from the climate and food of the East to the climate and
food of the West, the organizations of the horse and mare in ques-
tion could have had nothing like that perfect balance produced in
the quagga by a hundred centuries of harmonious co-operation.
Hence the result. And hence at the same time the interpretation
of the fact that analogous phenomena are not perceived among
domestic animals, or among ourselves ; since both have relatively
mixed, and generally extremely mixed, constitutions, which, as we
see in ourselves, have been made generation after generation, not
by the formation of a mean between two parents, but by the jum-
bling of traits of the one with traits of the other, until there exist
no such conspiring tendencies among the parts as cause repetition
of combined details of structure in posterity.

Expectation that skepticism might be felt respecting this al-
leged anomaly presented by the quagga-marked foal, had led me
to think over the matter; and I had reached this interpretation
before sending to the College of Surgeons Museum (being unable
to go myself) to obtain the particulars and refer to the records.

i68 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

When there was brought to me a copy of the account as set forth
in the Philosophical Transactions, it was joined with the infor-
mation that there existed an appended account of pigs, in which a
parallel fact had been observed. To my immediate inquiry—
" Was the male a wild pig ? " — there came the reply : " I did not
observe/'' Of course I forthwith obtained the volume, and there
found what I expected. Jt was contained in a paper communi-
cated by Dr. Wollaston from Daniel Giles, Esq., concerning his
" sow and her produce," which said that

"she was one of a well-known black and white breed of Mr. Western, the Mem-
ber for Essex. About ten years since I put her to a boar of the wild breed, and
of a deep chestnut color, which I had just received from Hatfield House, and
which was soon afterward drowned by accident. The pigs produced (which
were her first litter) partook in appearance of both boar and sow, but in some
the chestnut color of the boar strongly prevailed.

"The sow was afterward put to a boar of Mr. Western's breed (the wild boar
having been long dead). The produce was a litter of pigs, some of which, we
observed with much surprise, to be stained and clearly marked with the chestnut
color which had prevailed in the former litter.1'

Mr. Giles adds that in a second litter of pigs, the father of which
was of Mr. Western's breed, he and his bailiff believe there was a
recurrence, in some, of the chestnut color, but admits that their
" recollection is much less perfect than I wish it to be." He also
adds that, in the course of many years' experience, he had never
known the least appearance of the chestnut color in Mr. Western's
breed.

What are the probabilities that these two anomalous results
should have arisen, under these exceptional conditions, as a matter
of chance ? Evidently the probabilities against such a coinci-
dence are enormous. The testimony is in both cases so good that,
even apart from the coincidence, it would be unreasonable to re-
ject it; but the coincidence makes acceptance of it imperative.
There is mutual verification, at the same time that there is a joint
interpretation yielded of the strange phenomenon, and of its non-
occurrence under ordinary circumstances.

And now, in the presence of these facts, what are we to say ?
Simply that they are fatal to Weismann's hypothesis. They show
that there is none of the alleged independence of the reproductive
cells ; but that the two sets of cells are in close communion. They
prove that while the reproductive cells multiply and arrange them-
selves during the evolution of the embryo, some of their germ-
plasm passes into the mass of somatic cells constituting the
parental body, and becomes a permanent component of it. Fur-
ther, they necessitate the inference that this introduced germ-
plasm, everywhere diffused, is some of it included in the repro-
ductive cells subsequently formed. And if we thus get a demon-

THE INADEQUACY OF "NATURAL SELECTION." 169

stration that the somewhat different units of a foreign germ-plasm
permeating the organism, permeate also the subsequently-formed
reproductive cells, and affect the structures of the individuals
arising from them, the implication is that the like happens with
those native units which have been made somewhat different by
modified functions: there must be a tendency to inheritance of
acquired characters.

One more step only has to be taken. It remains to ask what is
the flaw in the assumption with which Weismann's theory sets
out. If, as we see, the conclusions drawn from it do not corre-
spond to the facts, then, either the reasoning is invalid, or the
original postulate is untrue. Leaving aside all questions concern-
ing the reasoning, it will suffice here to show the untruth of the
postulate. Had his work been written during the early years of
the cell-doctrine, the supposition that the multiplying cells of
which the Metazoa and the Metaphyta are composed, become com-
pletely separate, could not have been met by a reasonable skepti-
cism ; but now, not only is skepticism justifiable, but denial is
called for. Some dozen years ago it was discovered that in many
cases vegetal cells are connected with one another by threads of
protoplasm — threads which unite the internal protoplasm of one
cell with the internal protoplasms of cells around. It is as though
the pseudopodia of imprisoned rhizopods were fused with the
pseudopodia of adjacent imprisoned rhizopods. We can not reason-
ably suppose that the continuous network of protoplasm thus con-
stituted has been produced after the cells have become adult.
These protoplasmic connections must have survived the process
of fission. The implication is that the cells forming the embryo-
plant retained their protoplasmic connections while they multi-
plied, and that such connections continued throughout all subse-
quent multiplications — an implication which has, I believe, been
established by researches upon germinating palm-seeds. But now
we come to a verifying series of facts which the cell-structures
of animals in their early stages present. In his Monograph of
the Development of Peripatus Capensis, Mr. Adam Sedgwick,
F. R. S., Reader in Animal Morphology at Cambridge, writes as
follows : —

"All the cells of the ovum, ectodermal as well as endodermal, are connected
together by a fine protoplasmic reticulum " (p. 41).

" The continuity of the various cells of the segmenting ovum is primary, and
not secondary; i.e., ill the cleavage the segments do not completely separate
from one another. But are we justified in speaking of cells at all in this case?
The fully segmented ovum is a syncytium, and there are not and have not been at
any stage cell limits" (p. 41).

" It is becoming more and more clear every day that the cells composing the
tissues of animals are not isolated units, but that they are connected with one

1 70 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

another. I need only refer to the connection known to exist between connective-
tissue cells, cartilage cells, epithelial cells, etc. And not only may the cells of
one tissue be continuous with each other, but they may also be continuous with
the cells of other tissues " (pp. 47, 48).

" Finally, if the protoplasm of the body is primitively a syncytium, and the
ovum until maturity a part of that syncytium, the separation of the generative
products does not differ essentially from the internal gemmation of a Protozoon,
and the inheritance by the offspring of peculiarities first appearing in the parent,
though not explained, is rendered less mysterious; for the protoplasm of the
whole body being continuous, change in the molecular constitution of any part of
it would naturally be expected to spread, in time, through the whole mass " (p. 49).

Mr. Sedgwick's subsequent investigations confirm these con-
clusions. In a letter of December 27, 1892, passages, which he
allows me to publish, run as follows :

" All the embryological studies that I have made since that to which you refer
confirm me more and more in the view that the connections between the cells of
adults are not secondary connections, but primary, dating from the time when
the embryo was a unicellular structure. . . . My own investigations on this sub-
ject have been confined to the Arthropoda, Elasmobranchii, and Avts. I have
thoroughly examined the development of at least one kind of each of these groups,
and I have never been able to detect a stage in which the cells were not continu-
ous with each other; and I have studied innumerable stages from the beginning
of cleavage onward."

So that the alleged independence of the reproductive cells does
not exist. The soma— to use Weismann's name for the aggregate
of cells forming the body — is, in the words of Mr. Sedgwick, " a
continuous mass of vacuolated protoplasm " ; and the reproductive
cells are nothing more than portions of it separated some little
time before they are required to perform their functions.

Thus the theory of Weismann is doubly disproved. Inductively
we are shown that there does take place that communication of
characters from the somatic cells to the reproductive cells, which
he says can not take place ; and deductively we are shown that
this communication is a natural sequence of connections between
the two which he ignores: his various conclusions are deduced
from a postulate which is untrue.

From the title of this essay, and from much of its contents,
nine readers out of ten will infer that it is directed against the
views of Mr. Darwin. They will be astonished on being told that,
contrariwise, it is directed against the views of those who, in a
considerable measure, dissent from Mr. Darwin. For the inher-
itance of acquired characters, which it is now the fashion in the
biological world to deny, was, by Mr. Darwin, fully recognized
and often insisted on. Such of the foregoing arguments as touch
Mr. Darwin's views, simply imply that the .cause of evolution
which at first he thought unimportant, but the importance of

THE INADEQUACY OF "NATURAL SELECTION." 171

which he increasingly perceived as he grew older, is more im-
portant than he admitted even at the last. The neo-Darwinists,
however, do not admit this cause at all.

Let it not be supposed that this explanation implies any dis-
approval of the dissentients, considered as such. Seeing how little
regard for authority I have myself usually shown, it would be
absurd in me to reflect in any degree upon those who have re-
jected certain of Mr. Darwin's teachings, for reasons which they
have thought sufficient. But while their independence of thought
is to be applauded rather than blamed, it is, I think, to be re-
gretted that they have not guarded themselves against a long-
standing bias. It is a common trait of human nature to seek
some excuse when found in the wrong. Invaded self-esteem sets
up a defense, and anything is made to serve. Thus it happened
that when geologists and biologists, previously holding that all
kinds of organisms arose by special creations, surrendered to
the battery opened upon them by The Origin of Species, they
sought to minimize their irrationality by pointing to irrationality
on the other side. "Well, at any rate, Lamarck was in the
wrong." " It is clear that we were right in rejecting his doctrine."
And so, by duly emphasizing the fact that he overlooked " Natural
Selection" as the chief cause, and by showing how erroneous
were some of his interpretations, they succeeded in mitigating the
sense of their own error. It is true their creed was that at success-
ive periods in the Earth's history, old Floras and Faunas had
been abolished and others introduced ; just as though, to use Prof.
Huxley's figure, the table had been now and again kicked over
and a new pack of cards brought out. And it is true that La-
marck, while he rejected this absurd creed, assigned for the facts
reasons some of which are absurd. But in consequence of the
feeling described, his defensible belief was forgotten and only
his indefensible ones remembered. This one-sided estimate has
become traditional ; so that there is now often shown a subdued
contempt for those who suppose that there can be any truth in
the conclusions of a man whose general conception was partly
sense, at a time when the general conceptions of his contempo-
raries were wholly nonsense. Hence results unfair treatment —
hence result the different dealings with the views of Lamarck
and of Weismann.

"Where are the facts proving the inheritance of acquired
characters " ? ask those who deny it. Well, in the first place,
there might be asked the counter-question — Where are the facts
which disprove it ? Surely if not only the general structures of
organisms, but also many of the modifications arising in them,
are inheritable, the natural implication is that all modifications
are inheritable ; and if any say that the inheritableness is limited

172 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to those arising in a certain way, the onus lies on them of prov-
ing that those otherwise arising are not inheritable. Leaving
this counter-question aside, however, it will suffice if we ask
another counter-question. It is asserted that the dwindling of
organs from disuse is due to the successive survivals in posterity
of individuals in which the organs had varied in the direction of
decrease. Where now are the facts supporting this assertion ?
Not one has been assigned or can be assigned. Not a single case
can be named in which panmixia is a proved cause of diminution.
Even had the deductive argument for panmixia been as valid as
we have found it to be invalid, there would still have been re-
quired, in pursuance of scientific method, some verifying induc-
tive evidence. Yet though not a shred of such evidence has been
given, the doctrine is accepted with acclamation, and adopted as
part of current biological theory. Articles are written and let-
ters published in which it is assumed that this mere speculation,
justified by not a tittle of proof, displaces large conclusions previ-
ously drawn. And then, passing into the outer world, this unsup-
ported belief affects opinion there too ; so that we have recently
had a Right Honorable lecturer who, taking for granted its truth,
represents the inheritance of acquired characters as an exploded
hypothesis, and thereupon proceeds to give revised views of
human affairs.

Finally, there comes the reply that there are facts proving the
inheritance of acquired characters. All those assigned by Mr.
Darwin, together with others such, remain outstanding when we
find that the interpretation by panmixia is untenable. Indeed,
even had that hypothesis been tenable, it would have been inap-
plicable to these cases ; since in domestic animals, artificially fed
and often overfed, the supposed advantage from economy can not
be shown to tell; and since, in these cases, individuals are not
naturally selected during the struggle for life in which certain
traits are advantageous, but are artificially selected by man with-
out regard to such traits. Should it be urged that the assigned
facts are not numerous, it may be replied that there are no per-
sons whose occupations and amusements incidentally bring out
such facts; and that they are probably as numerous as those
which would have been available for Mr. Darwin's hypothesis,
had there been no breeders and fanciers and gardeners who, in
pursuit of their profits and hobbies, furnished him with evidence.
It may be added that the required facts are not likely to be
numerous, if biologists refuse to seek for them.

See, then, how the case stands. Natural selection, or survival
of the fittest, is almost exclusively operative throughout the vege-
tal world and throughout the lower animal world, characterized
by relative passivity. But with the ascent to higher types of

THE CEREMONIAL USE OF TOBACCO. 173

animals, its effects are in increasing degrees involved with those
produced by inheritance of acquired characters ; until, in animals
of complex structures, inheritance of acquired characters becomes
an important, if not the chief, cause of evolution. We have seen
that natural selection can not work any changes in organisms
save such as conduce in considerable degrees, directly or indi-
rectly, to the multiplication of the stirp ; whence failure to ac-
count for various changes ascribed to it. And we have seen that
it yields no explanation of the co-adaptation of co-operative parts,
even when the co-operation is relatively simple, and still less
when it is complex. On the other hand, we see that if, along
with the transmission of generic and specific structures, there
tend to be transmitted modifications arising in a certain way,
there is a strong a priori probability that there tend to be trans-
mitted modifications arising in all ways. We have a number of
facts confirming this inference, and showing that acquired char-
acters are inherited — as large a number as can be expected, con-
sidering the difficulty of observing them and the absence of
search. And then to these facts may be added the facts with
which this essay set out, concerning the distribution of tactual
discriminativeness. While we saw that these are inexplicable by
survival of the fittest, we saw that they are clearly explicable as
resulting from the inheritance of acquired characters. And here
let it be added that this conclusion is conspicuously warranted
by one of the methods of inductive logic, known as the method
of concomitant variations. For throughout the whole series of
gradations in perceptive power, we saw that the amount of the
effect is proportionate to the amount of the alleged cause.— Con-
temporary Review.

THE CEREMONIAL USE OF TOBACCO.

BY JOHN HAWKINS.

COMPARING the stone age of the New World with that of the
**J Old, an important point of difference comes at once into
view. The American race is distinguished in culture from all
other savages by the possession and use of an implement to which
nothing analogous is found among the prehistoric relics of the
Eastern hemisphere. That implement is the tobacco pipe.

Among the aborigines of America the use of tobacco was
widely prevalent. The practice of cigar-smoking was observed
by the companions of Columbus on his first voyage; and in the
brilliant series of discoveries which followed the great admiral's
achievement, as well as in the slower process of exploration and
colonization, the pipe, the cigar, and the snuff mortar revealed

174 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

themselves at every step. Even if written records were wanting,
the ancient American smoking implements which enrich the mu-
seums of this country and Europe would enable us to assert the
general use of tobacco throughout the New World. Combining
the written and unwritten records, our information on this point
is complete. On the southern continent, although pre-Columbian
pipes are occasionally found, smoking was not so extensively
practiced as in the north. Still, several varieties of the tobacco
plant occur here, and the natives were doubtless well acquainted
with its use. Cabral, in 1515, observed in Brazil the practice of
chewing tobacco, and on the western coast the abundance of
small mortars, carved like the mound pipes of the Mississippi
Valley in the shape of various animals, attest the extensive use of
tobacco as snuff. Leaving South America and crossing the tenth
degree of north latitude, we approach the native land of the pipe.
A province of Yucatan is thought by some to have given a name
to the tobacco plant. A tubular pipe occurs in the sculptures of
Palenque. In Mexico the common custom of smoking was noted
by Cortes in 1519, and the truth of his statement is evinced by
the quantities of elaborately decorated clay pipes since unearthed
in that country, as well as by some of the pictured figures of the
ancient manuscripts. Pipes of clay or stone are found in abun-
dance throughout the United States, those from the mounds, sculp-
tured in the form of various quadrupeds and birds, and occasion-
ally of men. being among the most interesting examples of native
art. Still farther north the great narcotic had established its
sway, prior to the advent of Europeans, beyond the Great Lakes,
in the far Northwest, and in the East, where the French gave to a
tribe of inordinate smokers the name of Petuns, from petune, a
native name of the tobacco plant.

The use of tobacco excited in the first Europeans who wit-
nessed it feelings of astonishment and disgust. If Montesquieu
is to be believed, the Spanish casuists of the fifteenth century of-
fered to the public conscience, in extenuation of the enslavement
of the Indians, the fact, among others, that they smoked tobacco.
There is other evidence to show that the early explorers of the
New World regarded the custom of smoking as the extremity of
barbarism; nor have advocates of this view been lacking from
that day to this. But, in spite of all objections, tobacco has ex-
tended its reign over the entire earth ; it is an important source
of revenue to the most enlightened of modern governments ; it
numbers among its devotees men of all races and of all ranks ; it
solaces the dreary life of the Eskimo and of the Central African
savage ; but a little while ago it furnished inspiration to the genius
of one of the world's great poets. Concerning the adoption by
civilized people of a barbarous custom like that under discussion

THE CEREMONIAL USE OF TOBACCO. 175

much might be said ; but leaving this for the present, I desire to
call attention to a phase of the subject which has received but lit-
tle attention, namely, the ceremonial use of tobacco by the natives
of America.

Since the world-wide diffusion of the tobacco habit, its earliest,
and perhaps original, use has been in a great measure overlooked.
With the aborigines of America, smoking and its kindred prac-
tices were not mere sensual gratifications, but tobacco was re-
garded as an herb of peculiar and mysterious sanctity, and its use
was deeply and intimately interwoven with native rites and cere-
monies. With reasonable certainty the pipe may be considered
as an implement the use of which was originally confined to the
priest, medicine-man, or sorcerer, in whose hands it was a means
of communication between savage man and the unseen spirits
with which his universal doctrine of animism invested every ob-
ject that came under his observation. Similar to this use of the
pipe was its employment in the treatment of disease, which in
savage philosophy is always thought to be the work of evil spirits.
Tobacco was also regarded as an offering of peculiar acceptability
to the unknown powers in whose hands the Indian conceived his
fate for good or ill to lie ; hence it is observed to figure promi-
nently in ceremonies as incense, and as material for sacrifice. It
will be my task to collect here some of the many observations of
travelers, and of students of Indian custom and belief, which illus-
trate these remarks.

Embalmed in poetry and frequently described in prose, per-
haps the most familiar example of the ceremonial employment of
tobacco is the use of the calumet, or peace pipe. In its pungent
fumes agreements were made binding, enmity was disarmed. It
was at once the implement of Indian diplomacy, the universally
recognized emblem of friendship, the flag of truce used in ap-
proaching strange or hostile tribes, the seal of solemn compacts.
Upon its use was founded the widely diffused calumet dance, a per-
formance reserved for occasions when it was desired to express spe-
cial friendship. Like many other usages connected with the pipe,
the calumet, with the traditions which surround it, have survived
to the present day. In many parts of Canada and the western
United States the visitor to the Indian villages is still expected to
present pipes and tobacco as evidences of amity and good will.

There were other sacred pipes besides the calumet, and these
were called into requisition on every possible occasion — in the
election of chiefs, in the ceremony of adoption into the tribe, at
the beginning of a hunt, on going to war, at the end of the har-
vest, and in innumerable other acts of Indian life, both public and
private, as well as in many dances and festivals. Tobacco, in
short, was intimately connected with the entire social and reli-

176 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

gious systems of the Americans. References to these minor usages
are so abundant in the writings of those who have described the
customs and arts of the aborigines, and so familiar to the general
reader, that they may be here omitted.

Of more importance are the accounts of the employment of to-
bacco as sacrifice and incense. Hariot, the historian of Sir Rich-
ard Grenville's expedition to Virginia in 1584, after speaking of
the cultivation and use by the natives of tobacco, or uppowoc,
says: "This uppowoc is of so precious estimation among them
that they think their gods are marvellously delighted therewith ;
whereupon they sometimes make hallowed fires, and cast some of
the powder therein for a sacrifice. Being in a storme upon the
waters, to pacifie their gods they cast some up into the aire, and
into the water ; so a weare for fish being newly set up, they cast
some therein, and into the aire ; also after an escape of danger
they cast some into the aire likewise; but all done with such
strange gestures, stamping, sometimes dancing, clapping of hands,
holding up of hands, and staring up into the heavens, uttering
therewithal, and chattering strange words and noises." In the
narrative of the voyage of Drake, in 1572, it is noted that the na-
tives brought little rush baskets filled with tdbak, offering them
to the whites, as the narrator says, " upon the persuasion that we
were gods." The Jesuit missionary Allouez, in 1671, visited the
Foxes, in the neighborhood of Green Bay, and after some trouble
succeeded in inducing them to listen to his preaching, which was,
as Parkman relates, so successful at length that when he showed
them his crucifix they would throw tobacco on it as an offering.
An early missionary among the Hurons states that they wor-
shiped an okiy or spirit, who dwelt in a certain rock, and who
could give success to travelers. Into the clefts of the rock they
were accustomed to place offerings of tobacco, praying for protec-
tion from their enemies and from shipwreck. Early explorers
frequently refer to offerings of tobacco found near prominent
hills, rocks, and trees, and in the vicinity of dangerous rapids and
falls — places, as the poet Moore has it —

" Where the trembling Indian brings
Belts of porcelain, pipes, and rings,
Tributes, to be hung in air,
To the fiend presiding there."

In the narrative of his captivity among the Indians of Lake
Superior John Tanner gives a prayer which he heard recited by
the leader of a fleet of canoes upon the lake, asking for a safe
voyage. At its conclusion the chief threw tobacco into the water,
and the occupants of each canoe followed his example. Coming
down to more recent times, the presence of two sacred bowlders

THE CEREMONIAL USE OF TOBACCO. 177

near the famous red pipestone quarry of the Coteau des Prairies
is mentioned by Catlin, who says that the Indians never went
quite to them, but standing some distance away they would throw
plugs of tobacco to them, thus asking permission of the indwell-
ing spirits to dig and remove the precious pipestone.

Still later survivals of the ancient customs connected with the
use of tobacco may be noted. According to Colonel Garrick
Mallery, an instance of the use of tobacco as incense was fur-
nished by the Iroquois as late as 1882. The following words
were addressed to the fire : " Bless thy grandchildren ; protect
and strengthen them. By this tobacco we give thee a sweet-
smelling sacrifice, and ask thy care to keep us from sickness and
famine." The Iroquois still make an annual sacrifice of a white
dog, on which occasions tobacco is solemnly burned. The idea
underlying this employment of tobacco is well shown in the
prayer which accompanies the ceremony : " I now cast into the
fire the Indian tobacco, that as the scent rises up into the air it
may ascend to thy abode of peace and quietness ; and thou wilt
perceive and know that thy counsels are duly observed by man-
kind, and wilt recognize and approve the objects for which thy
blessing has been asked." Another late custom of the Iroquois is
thus related by Mrs. Erminnie A. Smith : " In a dry summer sea-
son, the horizon being filled with distant thunderheads, it was cus-
tomary to burn what the Indians call real tobacco, as an offering
to bring rain. . . . Every family was supposed to have a private
altar upon which its offerings were secretly made ; after which
that family must repair, bearing its tithe, to the council house
where the gathered tithes of tobacco were burned in the council
fire. . . . Burning tobacco is the same as praying. In times of
trouble or fear, after a bad dream, or any event which frightens
them, they say, 'My mother went out and burned tobacco/"
The Cohuilla Indians of California believe in evil spirits called
sespes, and when they can not sleep they make offerings to these
of tobacco. In making their buffalo medicine the Dakotas were
accustomed to burn tobacco to bring the herds. Some American
Indians before killing a rattlesnake would make an offering to its
spirit by sprinkling a pinch of tobacco on its head. Others would
beg pardon of a bear which they had killed, and by placing the
peace pipe in its mouth and blowing the smoke down its throat,
ask its spirit not to take revenge. The Sioux in Hennepin's time
looked toward the sun when they smoked, and when the calumet
was lighted they held it aloft, saying, " Smoke, sun." A like cus-
tom prevailed among the Creeks. Gordon William Lillie (" Paw-
nee Bill "), speaking of the pipe dance of the Pawnees, says that
" before lighting their pipes they throw a pinch of the tobacco
into the air. This, with the first three puffs of smoke, which are

VOL. XLIII. 13

178 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

also blown high, in the air, goes to the good spirit. The ashes they
are very particular to throw to the fire, and this is ill luck to the
bad spirit. The pipe (the Indian's idol and shrine) is to the Paw-
nee what the Bible is to the white man, and goes hand in hand
with all the principal dances."

The facts of this paragraph are gleaned from the interesting
reports made by Miss Alice C. Fletcher upon her studies of vari-
ous Indian tribes : At the Uncpapa festival of the white buffalo, a
priest must be present to fill the pipe, a ceremony performed with
a ritual of words, and it is believed that should the person saying
it make a mistake, or omit a word, he would incur death from the
sacrilege. Relating the details of this festival for publication, the
narrators seated themselves toward the sunrise, lighted the pipe,
bowed to the earth, and passed it, uttering a prayer. In the Elk
mystery or festival of the Ogallala Sioux the pipe is introduced,
together with little bunches of tobacco rolled in cloth. It figures
also in the ghost-lodge ceremony of the same Indians. The pipe
dance of the Omahas is an elaborate ceremony which can not here
be adequately described. It is sometimes exchanged between dif-
ferent gentes of the same tribe, but generally between two tribes.
The two " pipes " peculiar to this dance are not pipes at all, but
only stems, the pipe-bowls being replaced by the heads of ducks.
The stems are hollowed carefully, however, and smoking is some-
times simulated, in which cases the symbolism is as binding as
when the fumes are present. The perforation of the stems is made
quite large, to prevent clogging, which is regarded as a great ca-
lamity. Among the Pawnees, if a stoppage occurs in smoking a
peace pipe, the bearer loses his life. Only a man who has proved
himself valiant in battle, or wise in council, or who has given
away horses, can make one of these pipes. The pipes are wrapped
in the skin of a wild cat, and the bearing of this roll is a special
office. This ceremony, which is accompanied by an elaborate
ritual comprising a number of songs, handed down with their
archaic words through many generations, was one of the means
in ancient times by which possessions were accumulated and ex-
changed, and honors counted and received. It seems to symbolize
fellowship or kinship. The same dance, with a few minor points
of difference, is common to the Omaha, Ponca, Otoe, Pawnee, and
Sioux tribes. In their journeys to and fro the dance parties are
regarded as peacemakers by all who meet them, because of the
presence of the pipes. Should a war party come in sight, the
warriors would make a wide detour to avoid the group, even
though it belonged to the tribe about to be attacked.

The investigations of the Rev. J. Owen Dorsey among the
Omahas also reveal many survivals of ancient ceremonies which
illustrate the sacred characteristics pertaining to the pipe. This

THE CEREMONIAL USE OF TOBACCO. 179

tribe possesses but two sacred pipes, which are in the keeping of a
certain gens, though seven gentes are said to have once possessed
pipes which were reserved for ceremonial usages. The two now
in existence are called sacred pipes, or red pipes, and are made of
the famous red pipestone. The filling of the pipes is not done by
the keepers, but by a man of another gens ; and, when this official
does not go to the council, the pipes can not be smoked, since no
one else can fill them. The ancient ritual for this ceremonial fill-
ing of the pipes must not be heard, so he sends all the others out
of the lodge. He utters some words when he cleans out the bowl,
others when he fills it. The pipes are then lighted by the keep-
er, and are ready for use. In opening, handling, smoking, and
emptying them certain regulations must be carefully observed.
Any violation of these laws they believe will be followed by
the death of the offender. In smoking they blow the smoke up-
ward, saying, " Here, Wakanda, is the smoke." If the presence
of enemies renders necessary the sending out of scouts, the pipes
are filled and offered to them, and they are solemnly admonished
to report on their return only the exact truth, and to be careful
to observe well. When the first thunder is heard in the spring
the sacred pipes are filled and held toward the sky, while the
thunder-god is admonished to depart and cease from frightening
his grandchildren. In the time of a fog the men of the Turtle sub-
gens draw on the ground the figure of a turtle with its face toward
the south. On the head, tail, middle of the back, and on each leg
are placed small pieces of breechcloth with some tobacco. This
is to make the fog disappear. Should an enemy appear in the
lodge and put the pipe in his mouth, he can not be injured by
any member of the tribe, as he is bound for the time by the laws
of hospitality, and must be protected and sent to his home in
safety. These Indians use the pipe when declaring war and when
making peace. Among the Poncas at the election of chiefs, the
chiefs-elect must put the sacred pipes to their mouths and inhale
the smoke. If they should refuse to inhale it they would die, it
is thought, before the end of the year. The election of Omaha
chiefs is similar.

Major J. W. Powell states that when the Wyandot tribal coun-
cil meets, the chief of a certain gens fills and lights a pipe, sending
one puff of smoke to the heavens and another to the earth. The
pipe is then handed to the sachem, who fills his mouth with smoke,
and, turning from left to right with the sun, slowly puffs it out
over the heads of the councilors who are sitting in a circle. He
then hands the pipe to the man on his left, and it is smoked in turn
by each person until it has passed around the circle, after which
the sachem explains the object for which the council was called.

A possible evidence of the religious veneration with which the

i8o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

pipe was regarded in America is furnished by the mound pipes,
upon which the native sculptors expended a much greater amount
of patient and careful labor than they devoted to any other im-
plement. So skillfully executed are they that Dr. Rau does not
hesitate to affirm that modern artists would find no small diffi-
culty in reproducing them, even with the great advantage of
metallic tools. These facts seem to have impressed themselves
strongly upon the mind of the late Sir Daniel Wilson, who many
years ago investigated thoroughly the narcotic arts and super-
stitions of the Americans, and to whom the writer is indebted for
the main idea of the present paper. The mound pipes are, indeed,
a suggestive theme, though the conclusions which archaeologists
have drawn from them are by no means unanimous. A remark-
able depository of carved pipes was unearthed by Squier and
Davis in one of the mounds of the group known as Mound City,
in Ohio. From a single hearth they took nearly two hundred
finely sculptured pipes, many of them, however, being broken and
injured by the action of fire. Recalling the sacred associations
connected in the mind of the Indian with the tobacco plant and
the instrument of its use, theorists have found in this mound a
possible altar devoted exclusively to nicotian rites. Without dis-
cussing the motives which may have led the builders of the
mounds to deposit so many of these pipes in one place, we may
assume with some confidence that the carved pipes were most
probably totems. "Their sacred nature," remarks Henshaw,
" would enable us to understand how naturally pipes would be
selected as the medium for totemic representations."

Leaving for a time the regions where the pipe occupies so
prominent a place in religious rites, we find, on approaching the
Rio Grande, that the use of tobacco becomes of far less frequent
occurrence. In the pueblos of the Southwest very few pipes have
been found. The Indians of this region have, however, a sacred
cigarette, the antiquity of which is indicated by repeated allusions
to it in the pueblo folk lore. The Navajos share with the Moquis
the smoke-prayer, in which the sacred smoke of the cigarette is
blown east, north, west, and south, to propitiate the good spirits
and drive away the evil ones. Gushing observed that the older
men of Zuni, in smoking cigarettes, would blow the smoke in dif-
ferent directions, closing their eyes, and muttering a few words
which he regarded as invocations. In Mexico and Central Amer-
ica the pipe reappears, though here it is evidently of much less
importance than in the North. One prominent example of its
application to religious uses is furnished by Diego de Landa. In
his Relacion de Cosas de Yucatan, describing the curious native
ceremony of baptism he says : " Tras esto (the priest) ivan los
dernas ayudantes del sacerdote con un manojo de flores y un

THE CEREMONIAL USE OF TOBACCO. 181

humago que los indios usan chupar ; y amagavan con cada uno
dellos nueve vezes a cado mochacho, y despues davanle a oler las
flores y a chupar el humago." That this is not an isolated instance
of the use of tobacco in religious practices in these regions is
shown by the pipes and cigars pictured in some of the ancient
manuscripts. Bancroft states that after some of the hideous
human sacrifices made by the people of Central America, great
fires were built, into which the men threw pipes, among other
offerings. Among the remarkable sculptures of the " Palace of
the Sun," at Palenque, occurs the figure of a priest dressed in a
leopard's skin, a complicated head dress, and rufiies around his
wrists and ankles. In his mouth, supported by both hands, is a
tubular pipe, similar in shape and decoration to many that have
been found in California and in other parts of the United States.
In this figure the learned Dr. Hamy sees, and doubtless correctly,
the performance of an act of worship. He says : " Le pontif e soufiie
en Thonneur du Dieu dont 1'image est sculpte'e au fond de la
chapelle une large bouftMe de tabac," and proceeds to trace the
analogies which exist between this practice of the builders of
Palenque and the rites of the mound-builders and California In-
dians, of whose tubular pipes he says : " Elles servent a soufiler
une fume'e consacre'e, dans certaines ce're'rnonies religieuses, et le
medicine-man sait, suivant les besoins, les transformer soit en
tubes a ventouse, soit en porte-moxa."

The treatment of disease by means of tobacco and tobacco
pipes, which is here suggested, may now claim attention. The
" sucking cure," in which the medicine-man or sorcerer applies to
the patient's body a tube of stone or bone and pretends to extract
through it some small object, such as a stick or stone, is of world-
wide distribution. In America the tube used is frequently the
tobacco pipe, sometimes empty, and sometimes filled with burn-
ing tobacco. Vanegas, an early historian of California, asserts
that stone tubes sometimes filled with lighted tobacco were often
applied to the suffering part of the patient's body. Forbes states
that in the same region, in 1728, Father Luyanto, of the Loreto
Mission, " as a preliminary to baptism insisted on the abjuration
of faith in the native jugglers or priests, and demanded the break-
ing and burning of their smoking tubes and other instruments
and tokens of superstition in proof of this." Among the modern
Apaches the medicine-man's diagnosis of a case is made by the
pretended swallowing of a pipe filled with burning tobacco. It
works out of his arm or leg, and if white the patient will recover ;
if colored, he is likely to die. Tubular pipes occur in many parts
of the United States, and in California they are numerous. While
they were designed primarily as smoking implements, they were
no doubt often used, as here indicated, in the treatment of disease.

182 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

From the point of view here taken in regard to tobacco its
most interesting use by far is for the purpose of producing a state
of ecstasy or delirium in which, according to the barbaric theory
of animism, the person under its influence could hold communica-
tion in dreams and visions with the spirits who brought disease
and death, and also with those to whom the savage felt himself
indebted for life and all its blessings. The importance attached
to dreams by savages is well known. Schoolcraf fc, in 1823, noted
the besotted and spellbound condition of the Indians of the Great
Lake regions, due to their implicit belief in the prophetic nature
of dreams. " Their whole lives," he remarks, " are rendered a per-
fect scene of doubts and fears and terrors by them. Their jug-
glers are both dreamers and dream interpreters." In ancient
Mexico the will of the gods was made known to the four chief
medicine-men in dreams, and Bandelier recalls the familiar story
that Montezuma, previous to the coming of the Spaniards, being
alarmed by mysterious prognostics, called upon the old men and
women, and upon the medicine-men, to report what they might
dream or had dreamed within a certain lapse of time. In the same
country certain men were particularly expert in dream interpre-
tation, so much so that they were generally applied to for that
purpose.

It should be remembered that the capacity of the Indian to
withstand the effect of narcotics is much less than that of the
European, and that the native practice of inhaling the smoke
secured a far deeper and more lasting effect than the modern
method. Oviedo is authority for the statement that tobacco was
greatly valued by the Caribbees, " who call it koliiba, and im-
agined when they were drunk with the fumes of it that they were
in some sort inspired." The Carib sorcerer, in evoking a demon or
spirit from his patient, would puff tobacco smoke into the air as
an agreeable perfume to attract the spirit from the afflicted body.
With the aid of tobacco smoke and darkness he could also hold
communion with his own familiar demon or guardian spirit.
" In La Espanola and the other islands," says Benzoni, " when
their doctors wanted to cure a sick man, they went to the place
where they were to administer the smoke, and when he was
thoroughly intoxicated by it the cure was mostly effected. On
returning to his senses he told a thousand stories of his having
been at the counqils of the gods, and other high visions." The
Indians of California sometimes stupefied children with narcotic
drink, in order to gain from the ensuing vision information about
their enemies. Dr. E. B. Tylor notes similar practices in Darien,
Brazil, and Peru. The Brazilian tribes took tobacco to produce
ecstasy, and in this state had supernatural visions. The same
custom obtained in North America. A peculiar use of the sweat

THE CEREMONIAL USE OF TOBACCO. 183

lodge (a common institution in America) was observed by Loskiel
among the Delaware Indians. After a feast in honor of the fire-
god and his twelve attendant manitous, a hut was constructed of
skins stretched upon twelve poles tied together at the top. Into
this hut twelve men were crowded, twelve red-hot stones were
placed among them, and upon these stones an old man threw
twelve pipef uls of tobacco. The men had to remain inside as long
as they could endure the heat and smoke, and when taken out at
last they were almost suffocated, generally falling in a swoon.
The precise object of this ceremony is not mentioned, but it is
probable that the dominant idea was that of a spiritual inter-
course between the swooning men and the deities.

The origin of the custom of smoking tobacco may, with some
degree of probability, be traced to the ceremonies here recounted.
That stage of primitive culture which is characterized by a strong
belief in the reality of dream figures and the prophetic nature of
visions tended inevitably to engender a class of professional
dreamers and soothsayers. When dreams were in great demand,
it was natural that some man in every savage community, on ac-
count of a mental peculiarity — a taint of insanity, or some power-
ful nervous derangement — should become distinguished above his
fellows for vivid and frequent visions. As the business of the
prophet and seer increased, it became necessary for him to adopt
artificial measures for bringing on the condition of stupor which
was essential to the exercise of his calling. He therefore resorted
to fasting, or, more frequently, to the use of narcotic drugs.
Along the Amazon the seeds of Mimosa acacioides were thus em-
ployed ; among the Peruvians and the Darien Indians it was the
Datura sanguined ; in Brazil, the West Indies, and North Amer-
ica the great narcotic was tobacco.

In like manner it may be reasonably conjectured that tobacco
did not become an article of sacrifice and incense until it had
passed out of the hands of the medicine-men, by whom alone it
was at first used. In every age men have offered in sacrifice that
which they valued most — the best and first fruits, and the most
precious of their flocks. Tobacco must have come into general
use and become one of the Indian's most prized possessions before
it was offered as a gift to his deities. It is not difficult to trace
this advance from its restricted use by professional dreamers as
just described. When men had learned that the sacred herb could
drive away disease, recall the past and reveal the future, they
naturally wished to try its effects upon themselves — to walk in
.person in the hidden land of spirits, instead of sending the medi-
cine-man as a deputy. Thus, in time, every man became his own
seer, tobacco rose in the estimation of the Indian above all his
other possessions, and smoking became a common practice.

184 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

AN ETHNOLOGIC STUDY OF THE YURUKS.

BY ALCIDE T. M. 1>'ANDRIA.

THE Yuruks are nomadic tribes whose existence is a phenom-
enon difficult to understand and to explain. Ethnologists
consider them as direct descendants of the Turkomans, whose dis-
tinctive features they have preserved ; while those properly called
Turks, though descendants of the Turkomans, have mingled with
Aryan and Semitic races, and lost their original characteristics.
Mr. Riegler states that the Turks, owing to numerous crossings
with various foreign races for several centuries, present nowadays
important modifications in their type; while the ungovernable
Yuruks are proud of their savage origin, and value themselves
as superior to the Turks among whom they live.

The Yuruk has generally a large head, round face, high fore-
head, projecting chin, and long though not oblique eyes. His skin
is brown, his hair dark or auburn ; he has a very strong osse-
ous frame, and is of medium height. Such is the physical descrip-
tion of the Yuruks.

As for the etymology of their name, it is entirely Persian, and
is derived from the verb yurumek, which means to walk. In
some provinces of Asia Minor they are called Gueutchebe. This
word has the same meaning as yurumek, and is derived from the
verb gueutchmek, which may be rendered in English by to
change lodging. The literal meanings of their names show suffi-
ciently the most striking side of their nature — they are nomadic.
Their tribes are scattered over the Asiatic peninsula. Some eth-
nologists place their number at three hundred thousand, and M.
Elise*e Reclus reckons as many as a hundred different tribes. Each
tribe appoints a chief called a sheik. His authority is absolute,
and he fills the office of a judge to settle their quarrels.

The chief occupation of the Yuruks is the breeding of cattle.
In winter they set their tents near their barns ; but when spring
approaches they fold them and remove to lands more favorable
for the welfare of their animals. Through the warm months -of
the summer they live in the open air. If they happen to be in the
vicinity of a forest, they apply themselves to wood-felling, and
they dispose of the product of their labor in the neighboring cities
or villages.

Their wives and daughters are very skillful in weaving carpets,
particularly one kind known as kilim. Each tribe manufac-
tures carpets having the same design and size ; each family trans-
mits to the children the design it possesses, and the young girls
learn easily the art of weaving without the help of a pattern.

It is unnecessary to say that nomadic life is dear to them, as

AN ETHNOLOGIC STUDY OF THE YURUKS. 185

can be testified by the following quatrain, which is taken from one
of their patriotic songs :

" There is no rest for the sovereign,
And glory requires many toils and pains.
For me, I would not exchange my poor attire
For all the universe ! "

The Ottoman Government has often tried to stop their wander-
ing life, and many severe edicts have been issued for this purpose.

FIG. 1. — YUBUK WOMEN AT THE SPRING.

The Sultan's idea was to destroy their tents, so as to confine them
in one place where they might apply themselves to agriculture.
The nomads submitted for a time, but their cattle in many places
suffered so much from the sterility of the soil that the authorities
were obliged to grant them again a permit for emigration.

i86

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The language of the Yuruks resembles much the Turkish. In
their dialect, words and even syntactic forms are also found which
recall the Persian and Arabic languages.

Their creed is Islamism, although they do not observe all its
precepts. Thus, they build no mosques, and do not confine them-

selves to the obligation of the five daily prayers imposed upon all
good Mohammedans. Neither do they undergo the long and pain-
ful fasting of the Ramazan. Their women do not cover their faces
as do the Turkish ladies.

The Yuruks who dwell in the plains which extend from the

AN ETHNOLOGIC STUDY OF THE YURUKS. 187

Sipylus to the Tmolus Mountains are named " Kizil-Bach." Their
tribe is the most important and the most numerous ; they comprise
nearly two thirds of the Yuruk element. In the ethnologic point
of view their study presents the most interest.

The Kizil-Bach, as, in fact, all the Yuruks, are the followers of
Ali, whom they consider as their prophet. Therefore, Mohammed
has no worshipers among them, and this explains why they do not
observe the precepts of the Koran.

A curious thing to notice is also a slight mixture of paganism
in their creed. For instance, in the spring and fall of every year
they set large tents in a remote place, and when night comes men
and women gather to celebrate religious banquets and mysterious
ceremonies, followed by songs and dances.

Their principal poems express veneration for Ali. They also
possess remarkably exalted hymns to chant their adoration to the
Supreme Being and their love for their brethren. The dance, per-
formed only by the women, has an original and Asiatic character ;
its rhythm is grave and slow, the gestures and motions of the
dancers show kindness and amiability for their guests. Only
those initiated in their mysteries are allowed to attend the above
ceremonies, while vigilant and unmerciful guardians, posted in
the surroundings, prevent the approach of strangers on pain of
immediate death.

Besides these banquets and nocturnal ceremonies, which recall
the Saturnalia of the Romans in the time of Tiberius, another fact
leads me to believe that the Yuruks have preserved pre-Islamitic
doctrines that we can also trace in the darkest paganism. For in-
stance, their belief in metempsychosis. The Yuruks, indeed, assert
that human souls return into the bodies of animals, and that the
spirits of the latter take also a human form and appear at deter-
mined epochs. This is certainly the reason why they are so kind
to animals. M. Elise*e Reclus says that a Yuruk loves his horse as
much as his family. The horses have their place under the tent,
and it is not uncommon to see them warmly wrapped in a mag-
nificent robe when the Yuruk and his children are covered with
rags. Some other customs attest also a pagan origin; in the
Orient everybody knows that the Yuruks worship certain trees
and rocks. These facts yield sufficient evidence that monotheism
is by no means the essential dogma of their religion.

Among the qualities possessed by the Yuruk, hospitality is, no
doubt, prominent. Deprived, by the very influence of his adventur-
ous life, of all the fierce instincts which characterize the Turko-
mans; restricted, because of his occupations, to the woods, the
plains, or the mountains ; constantly exposed to the inclemency of
the seasons, to dangers and enemies of all kinds, the Yuruk has
conceived a generous and noble idea of hospitality, and he prac-

AN ETHNOLOGIC STUDY OF THE YURUKS. 189

tices it with disinterestedness and pleasure. His tent, whether
in his presence or absence, is always opened to the traveler,
ajid food and drink in abundance are given him. The tents of
the Yuruks are square, and made of a sort of thick black woolen
cloth.

Aside from the information I have given here, nothing precise
is known of their private life. For instance, nobody ever knew
what became of their dead, as no one has ever seen a cemetery. All
I am able to say is that the body of the deceased is placed on a black
mule, destined exclusively for that use, and thus carried to a
mountain. There, I am not aware whether it is cremated or bur-
ied ; but, as I was told that they also take a sheaf of firewood, it
is safe to believe that cremation takes place.

No traveler has ever seen a Yuruk pray according to any rite.
Yet it seems that they are not left without religious instruction,
as a venerable old man, his hair dressed as a Persian dervish, comes
once a year from Syria and remains awhile among them. The
pilgrim becomes the object of their respect and devotion, and they
give him the name of father.

Now, who is this man ? What affinity between him and these
Turkomans ? What does he teach them ? Why do they call him
father ? All these questions involve as many mysteries.

Men are often absent in the woods or on the mountains, and
their wives remain alone in the tents, but they are secure from
all danger, as they have weapons and know how to use them.
Among the women they select one in each tribe whose age and
personal merits render her deserving of distinction, and they in-
vest her with a superior authority. All the women show her a
profound veneration and blindly obey her orders. Even men kiss
her hand, and it is customary that every stranger who arrives in
the tribe should do the same.

All people agree in acknowledging the good morality of the
Yuruk, also his peaceful character, his sober habits and honesty.
The very thought of stealing is a crime in his mind, and the weap-
ons he carries he only uses for personal defense.

Here are a few interesting details about the way their mar-
riages are contracted : First of all, I must say that no religious
ceremony is performed, as they have neither mosques nor priest,
and no person among them is invested with a sacred character.
Marriages among young people of different races are strictly pro-
hibited. Therefore, when a young man has remarked among the
girls of his tribe the one whom he would like to marry, he dele-
gates a third person, who is usually a friend, to the father of the
girl, to announce his intention. If the father sees no objection'
the delegate presents him a small sum of money, and that gift in
their dialect is called aghirlik — that is, weight. Afterward the

AN ETHNOLOGIC STUDY OF THE YURUKS. 191

parents and friends of the intended go to the tent of the young
lady, where, as soon as they arrive, they are offered the sherbet
or sorbet, a beverage made with water, lemon, sugar, amber and
other spices. The purpose of this visit is to appoint a day for the
marriage. When the time comes the young man engages a numer-
ous escort of friends, and they start all together for the tent of
the young woman. The bride has also gathered around her a large
number of her friends to protect her. When the escort of the
groom is near, the bride's protectors utter, at a signal, the wildest
cries, run to the aggressors, insult them, and endeavor to defend
the access of the tent. Insults and even blows are profusely ex-
changed between the two camps. This sham fight ends when one
of the bravest succeeds in carrying off a goat or a sheep belonging
to the father-in-law, and immolates it at once.

The blood shed is considered as a sacred libation, and from that
moment the rights of the groom over his wife are recognized. The
two families and all their friends are invited to a banquet in which
they eat the sheep that was sacrificed.

Before night the bride is escorted to the tent of her husband on
horseback. There, before alighting, she must remove the reins
from her horse and throw them with force over the tent. If she
succeeds in flinging them on the other side, without their touching
the tent, they all declare it a happy omen.

At last some women execute dances appropriate to the circum-
stances, and, as they dance, all armed for the occasion, the effect
of their graceful movements, in the magnificence and freshness of
the Oriental twilight, is very impressive.

When all these formalities are accomplished, the guests re-
tire, and the husband, accompanied by his most intimate friends,
is led to the tent where his young wife awaits him. All the
Yuruks espouse one woman at a time; polygamy is prohibited
and severely punished.

DE. D. G. BRINTON and Dr. de la Tourette are agreed that nervous diseases
and hysteria are not specially developed by civilization, as is commonly supposed.
Dr. Brinton, in Science, quotes travelers for evidence that violent and epidemic
nervous seizures are very common in uncultivated nations. Castian describes
them among the Sibiric tribes. An unexpected blow on the outside of a tent will
throw its occupants into spasms. The early Jesuit missionaries painted extraordi-
nary pictures of epidemic nervous maladies among the Iroquois and Llurons.
Scenes of this kind were witnessed in the middle ages that are impossible to-day.
The hypothesis is advanced by Dr. I. 0. Rosse, of Georgia Medical College, that a
sudden change in the social habit and condition of any race, at any stage of ad-
vancement, may result in a prompt development of nervous disease; and that
a stable high civilization may excite nervous disorders less than unstable condi-
tions of lower grades of advancement.

i92 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

MODERN MIRACLES.

BY PROF. E. P. EVANS.

IF, as it has often been stated, the age of miracles in the his-
tory of religions is past, it is certain that the age of marvels in
the evolution of science is just beginning. The Orient, which
from time immemorial has been the chief seat and source of theo-
sophic systems and theurgic traditions, is still peculiarly prolific
in all sorts of magical phenomena and other mysterious mani-
festations.

In illustration of this fact we may refer to the performances
of the Arabian fakirs which excited so great astonishment at the
Paris Exposition of 1889, and to the more recent but equally
wonderful feats of the East Indian, Soliman, in the Panoptikum
at Berlin. These fakirs are called ' Aissavidya from the name of
the founder of the fraternity, Sid Mohammed Ben 'Aissa, a saint
of royal lineage born at Mekinez, in Morocco, about the end of
the fifteenth century. 'Alssa, or ' Yissa, is the Arabic for Jesus :
'Aissavtdya is therefore etymologically synonymous with Jesuits,
and both orders are really somewhat akin in scope and spirit,
although to a superficial observer the Mohammedan society may
seem to have1- little in common with that founded by Ignatius
Loyola, except the name and the general principle of absolute
obedience, which is thus forcibly inculcated in one of 'Aissa's
statutes : " Thou shalt be in the hands of thy sheik like a corpse
in the hands of the embalmer ; his commands are the commands
of God himself." In this injunction the Jesuitical doctrine of the
" sacrifice of the intellect " is pushed to its extreme consequences.
It is also a curious coincidence that 'Aissa should have established
in northern Africa a religious order having for its general aim
the revival and propagation of Islam, at the same time that Loyola
established a religious order in Paris under the same name, hav-
ing for its object the revival and propagation of Catholicism.
Both orders are likewise exceedingly intolerant and fanatical, not-
withstanding wide differences in their methods of procedure and
the manner in which this zealotry manifests itself.

Besides the common purpose of propagandism as an associa-
tion, each individual member of the order aspires by means of a
severely ascetic life and long-continued physical and spiritual dis-
cipline to attain perfection through emancipation from the flesh
with all its trammels and torments. In order to arrive at this
state, called Tauhidi, and corresponding to the Jtvanmukti (release
from the body before death) of the Hindu Yogi, the candidate
passes through seven stages of penitential purification, each more
rigorous than the preceding one, resulting not only in the com-

MODERN MIRACLES. 193

plete subjection of the moral and mental faculties of the adept to
the will of his superior, but also, as it would seem, in a change of
the vital processes and a suspension of the ordinary conditions of
bodily existence, which give him immunity from pain and enable
him to inflict upon himself wounds that would be fatal to common
mortals.

At Paris the performance took place every evening at nine
o'clock in the upper story of the Moorish ca/e, in the Rue du
Caire, of the Oriental quarter. Four 'A'issavidya, with their sheik,
squatted in Eastern fashion on a carpeted platform, in the center
of which stood a brazier of burning coals. The exhibition began
with a monotonous sing-song, the burden of which was the in-
vocation of 'Aissa and Allah, accompanied by a sort of tambourine
or tom-tom edged with bells. The music was at first slow and
rather low, but soon went faster and grew louder, until it rose to a
fearful howl and furious din. At this juncture one of the fakirs
sprang up and, throwing off his upper garment, began to dance
with his hands on his hips, his head bent forward, and his eyes in-
tently fixed on the sheik. This dance, called Ishdeb, became at
every moment wilder and the swaying motion of the dancer's body
more violent, until he fell down in a fit of exhaustion, foaming at
the mouth and his eyes in a " fine frenzy rolling." In this state of
ecstasy he is supposed to be possessed by the spirit of 'Ai'ssa and
thereby rendered invulnerable to the sharpest weapons and proof
against the deadliest poisons. We may add that Soliman at Berlin
prepared himself for the ordeal of fire and sword, not by music
and dancing, but by burning a powder and inhaling the smoke,
which, however, did not produce any perceptibly stupefying or
exhilarating effect upon him. He is a member of the order of
Saadi, founded in 1335 by Saadeddin Jebari. Each order seems to
have its own method of procedure in this respect, which forms a
part of its secret science.

In a short time the fakir had sufficiently recovered from his
trance to stand up, and, when the sheik pointed to the brazier, he
thrust his hand into it, seized some of the live coals, blew them
till they emitted sparks, bit off pieces of them, as one would bite
an apple, and eagerly ate them up. He then went to a large
prickly cactus, which was standing on the platform, plucked a leaf
armed with strong spines, bit off a piece, and swallowed it. With
equal avidity he crunched and consumed thin sheets of glass.
Fragments of the cactus and the glass were handed to the specta-
tors, who examined them and convinced themselves that they were
really the substances they were represented to be. An attendant
brought in a shovel, the iron part of which was red-hot, so that a
bit of paper thrown upon it flashed at once into flame. The fakir
took the wooden handle of the shovel with his right hand, placed

VOL. XLIII. — 14

i94 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

his left hand on the glowing iron plate, which he also licked with
apparent relish, and then stood upon it with his bare feet until it
became black. This last exploit filled the air with a faint odor of
burned horn. A sword, so sharp that it cut a piece of paper in
two when drawn across the edge, was handed to the fakir, who
thrust it with all his force against his throat, his breast, and his
sides. The sword was then held in a horizontal position about
three feet from the ground with the edge upward, by the servant
who took hold of the point, which was wrapped in several folds
of cloth for the protection of his hand, and by another 'Aissaui,
who held it by the hilt. The fakir placed his hands on the shoul-
ders of the two men and, leaping up barefoot on the edge of the
sword, stood there for some seconds. He then stripped and, rest-
ing his naked abdomen on the edge of the sword, balanced himself
in the air without touching the floor with his feet, the sheik mean-
while pressing down upon the fakir's back with the whole weight
of his body. The fakir also thrust a dagger from the inside of his
mouth through his cheek, so that the point projected more than
an inch. Finally, he took a serpent out of a box, and, after irri-
tating it into fierce anger, let it bite various parts of his person ;
at last he himself bit off the head of the venomous reptile and
devoured nearly half of its body.

Having thus gorged his barbarous appetite, he resumed his
dance in the same rapid measure, in which he had finished it,
but the movement became gradually slower, and in due time,
after kissing the yellow turban of the sheik, he sat down again,
" clothed and in his right mind."

Another fakir danced himself into a trance and fed upon
snakes and scorpions, apparently relishing this limited but piquant
bill of fare. In conclusion, the sheik himself performed the most
marvelous feat of all : with the point of a dagger he lifted his
right eye out of its socket, so that one could see into the cavity,
the cornea assuming a dull, glassy appearance so long as the
eye rested on the point of the dagger, but no sooner was it
replaced and gently rubbed than it became clear again and
seemed to be as serviceable as ever. Several medical and sci-
entific men examined the fakir thoroughly after the performance
was over, and unanimously declared that none of these feats left
the slightest trace of a wound on any part of his body, nor did
they draw a single drop of blood. They furthermore affirmed
that, so far as they could discover, no jugglery or sleight of hand
was practiced.

That these things actually happened is as conclusively estab-
lished as the occurrence of any event can be by human and even
expert testimony. The literature of the subject is quite volumi-
nous and rapidly increasing in extent, corresponding in this respect

MODERN MIRACLES. 195

with the growth and development of anthropology and ethno-
psychology. Missionaries, tourists, government officials, and the
most eminent English, French, German, and Italian scientists,
who have witnessed these exhibitions in India and other Ori-
ental countries, all agree as to the genuineness of the phenomena,
although no one has yet been able to give a satisfactory explana-
tion of them. If we accept the argumentum ex consensu gentium
as valid, the evidence is overwhelming and the proof complete.

Indeed, one need not go so far away in search of such mani-
festations. The so-called Choreutse (dancers) of the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries, the Flagellants of a later period, and simi-
lar fanatical sects, are not to be considered in this connection,
since their object was to inflict pain upon themselves, the physical
suffering being regarded as a sacrament or efficient means of
grace. There is, however, quite a remarkable resemblance be-
tween the marvelous feats of Arabian and Indian fakirs and those
performed by Jansenist convulsionaries in the last century (1730-
1762) at the grave of their ascetic saint, Francis of Paris, in the
suburban church of St. Medardus, the genuineness of which is not
denied by their bitter enemies, the Jesuits, and is even admitted
by such scrutinizing skeptics as Hume and Diderot. These re-
ligious enthusiasts maltreated their bodies much in the same way
as the fakirs and with like impunity, and regarded such actions
as contributing to their spiritual growth and perfection. It was a
sort of homoeopathic treatment, the principle of similia similibus
applied to the cure of souls, whose infirmities were indicated by
bodily symptoms and required vigorous remedies. Thus, an op-
pression of the chest, which had a pathological significance in re-
lation to the spirit, pointed to the therapeutic necessity of beating
it with the greatest violence ; if the convulsionary had a sense of
burning heat, he exposed himself to the flames ; an acute and bor-
ing pain in the mouth, neck, eye, or any other organ required a
dagger to be thrust into the afflicted part, but, strangely enough,
no force could make the sharpest instrument enter the flesh or
inflict a wound. If we are to accept autoptic testimony, given by
shrewd observers, who would have been glad to expose any impos-
ture, these enthusiasts could eat the most injurious things, swal-
low poisons, and lie for hours in the fire, like salamanders, without
singeing a hair or having any smell of burning on their persons.

Doubtless, as Charcot, Lombroso, Mendel, and other scientists
suggest, hypnotism may furnish a partial solution of this physio-
logical and psychological puzzle ; but hypnotism, although recog-
nized as a fact, still remains a mystery, and differs from a miracle
only in being attributed to natural instead of supernatural causes.
It is well known that, in obedience to hypnotic suggestion, persons
will eat the most unpalatable and even disgusting substances as

196 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

though they were the rarest delicacies ; the hypnotic state is also
attended by " analgesia " or freedom from pain, and serves as an
effective anodyne in dental and surgical operations ; but we can
recall no well-authenticated case in which it has rendered the hu-
man body incombustible. The hypnotizer can prevent the sub-
ject of his experiment from feeling the surgeon's knife, or cause
him to regard the cutting as an agreeable sensation, but we are
not aware that he is able to make the flesh impenetrable to the
scalpel, although it is possible for him, as Donato has shown, to
thrust sharp instruments into the arm of a hypnotized person
without drawing blood or leaving a visible wound. By hypnotic
suggestion a man may believe himself to be a dog, a wolf, or any
other animal, and act accordingly; and this imaginary meta-
morphosis may perhaps explain the supposed existence of were-
wolves. In like manner, pure water may produce an intoxicating
effect, while, on the contrary, alcohol ceases to inebriate ; and a
simple piece of paper placed on the skin may raise a blister, al-
though the strongest irritant fails to do so. Here we have to deal
with enigmas of the physical and psychical organization, hitherto
unsuspected, the study of which opens up a wide and fruitful field
for research.

THE PHENOMENA OF DEATH IN BATTLE.

BY GEOEGE L. K1LMEB.

IN an article printed in the Monthly for June, 1892, 1 presented
some of the phenomena of the soldier's first actions under a
death-hurt. A field for investigation lying just beyond that — as
I infer from the incomplete records and deductions offered by
men of science — is that of the phenomena of death itself. In a
casual way I stated in my paper that the symptoms attending
death in battle might, in certain cases, be determined by the ap-
pearances of the bodies, and cited a remarkable scene at Antie-
tam, where dead Confederates in one place, to the number of sev-
eral hundred, seemed to have been killed instantly, and to have
retained in death something of the last attitudes of their combat-
ive life. After my manuscript had been given to the editor, my
attention was called to a brief discussion of this question in a
sketch by Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, in the Century for February,
1892. The views of Dr. Mitchell are not openly declared in his
Century article, but he quotes, on the lips of fictitious characters,
the opinions of Generals Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan, and re-
fers to Dr. J. H. Brinton, an army surgeon, who is on record as a
very positive witness in this matter. General Sherman, accord-
ing to Dr. Mitchell, told the story of a soldier killed by a bullet in

THE PHENOMENA OF DEATH IN BATTLE. 197

the brain while kneeling at a spring to drink, who retained his
extraordinary attitude naturally in death. General Grant, when
appealed to, said that it could not be true, as he had never seen a
single instance where a soldier, shot dead, retained the posture
held in life, and his attention had never been called to it in the
war. General Sheridan stated that he had often seen it. I wrote
what I recalled of the Antietam scene thirty years after, and, never
having had a doubt raised but such things could be and were not
rare in war, I assumed the phenomenon to be fairly well estab-
lished, and that citation without proof would not tax the credulity
of readers. Yet the denial by General Grant caused me to ques-
tion my own senses or my memory. As against both Sherman
and Sheridan, the one sanguine and imaginative, the other impul-
sive and good-natured, it would seem that, all things being equal,
a question of fact would have the more competent judge in Grant.
General Grant went no further in his denial than to say that he
had never seen the phenomenon. There are veterans who, having
had the best of opportunities for seeing all phases of the battle-
field, not only say that they never saw a case of the kind, but,
resting upon professional knowledge, assert its impossibility. For
my own part, I can report only what I saw in my capacity as a
combatant — that is, extraordinary attitudes of dead men on cer-
tain fields. Reports of comrades of analogous cases, and the quite
prevalent belief that the manifestation was possible, led to the
acceptance of it as a natural yet withal a rare occurrence. The
fact that military men, and more especially surgeons who have
been on the field, are skeptical on the point, that such phenomena
are comparatively rare, and that scientific observations have been
recorded in but few instances, makes the subject one for extreme
caution and conservatism in treatment. In my paper on wounded
soldiers I cited the cases of officers killed while leading the charge,
who in death held their sword-arms out as when last seen in life.
The inference drawn was that death must have been instanta-
neous. The Antietam scene described was of similar character,
yet extraordinary in the number of examples of the same order.
I confess that I did not see on any other of the score of fields
where I was present a scene at all comparable to that at Antietam,
but competent witnesses have reported similar things on other
fields, as well as on different parts of that field.

The field of Antietam was peculiarly favorable for the devel-
opment of the phenomenon, which for brevity, borrowing a term
from Surgeon Brinton's record of research, I will call battlefield
rigor. It was the hardest fought battle in the East — perhaps in
the whole country. The Confederates were at bay, with the Po-
tomac River behind them, and the Union soldiers were exultant
over the enemy's dilemma, and the fact that for once battle was

198 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

invited on their own soil. Circumstances have relegated it to the
background, but at one time it was deemed worthy the best efforts
of descriptive writers. Charles Carleton Coffin, the war corre-
spondent and historian, wrote of one of the scenes there in lan-
guage that will seem to many overcolored. Speaking of an ac-
tion almost contemporaneous with that at the north cornfield of
which I have written, he says : " The Confederates had gone down
as grass before the scythe. . . . Resolution and energy still lin-
gered on the pallid cheeks, in the set teeth, in the griping hand.
I recall a soldier with the cartridge between his thumb and finger,
the end of the cartridge bitten off, and the paper between his
teeth, when the bullet pierced his heart and the machinery of life
— all the muscles and nerves — came to a standstill. A young lieu-
tenant had fallen in trying to rally his men ; his hand was still
firmly grasping his sword, and determination was visible in every
line of his face."

Curiously enough, Surgeon Brinton's field records, which form
the basis of a paper referred to in Dr. Mitchell's remarks on the
subject, include three Antietam scenes. The doctor confesses in
the opening paragraph of his article (American Journal of the
Medical Sciences, vol. xix, p. 87) that this line of investigation was
a comparatively new one at the close of the war, 1865. He says :
" I have been greatly surprised at the extraordinary attitudes pre-
sented by the bodies of those who had fallen with wounds appar-
ently instantaneously fatal — as in the head or heart. In many
instances the body was rigid throughout, and the position unques-
tionably that of the last moment of life. The muscles had, as it
were, been surprised by death, and the limbs remained set and
fixed in the position held at the moment of the reception of the
fatal wound."

In the cornfield, along the sunken road at Antietam (the
scene of Mr. Coffin's description), Dr. Brinton saw a Confederate
corpse semi-erect, one foot on the ground, one knee against a bank
of earth, and one arm stretched forward on a low breastwork. His
musket, with rammer in, lay on the ground, and the appearances
indicated that he had been killed while rising to load and fire. He
was shot through the center of the forehead. In the field adjoin-
ing the doctor counted nearly forty dead Confederates, some with
their arms rigidly in the air, some with legs drawn and fixed, and
many with trunks drawn and fixed. The positions were "not
those of the relaxation of death," but were due to " final muscular
action at the last moment of life, in the spasm of which the mus-
cles set and remained rigid." The wounds were chiefly in the
chest, though some were in the head and abdomen. His observa-
tions were made thirty-six hours after death.

Another Antietam case included in Dr. Brinton's list, but re-

THE PHENOMENA OF DEATH IN BATTLE. 199

ported by Surgeon Thomas B. Read, was the corpse of a Union
soldier with his right arm raised above his head and rigidly fixed,
his hand still holding the cap with which he had been cheering on
his comrades.

Aside from the desperate nature of the fighting at Antietam,
the situation was especially favorable to these phenomena, par-
ticularly on the Confederate side. They had fought nine battles
and engagements within one month, besides marching over two
hundred miles. The troops engaged on the portions of the field
under consideration had fought at South Mountain two days be-
fore— September 14th — had been alert all night on the 14th, 15th,
and 16th, marching, countermarching, and skirmishing constant-
ly, and were run down physically from hunger and general ex-
haustion. They had subsisted for several days upon green corn
and apples, and had been one month on half rations of meal and
bacon. The day — September 17th — was about like sultry August
weather in the North, close and lowery in the morning, followed
by a burning sun. The night of the battle was sweltering hot on
the field. These circumstances may have played a part in the de-
velopment of instantaneous rigor.

The first cases that came to the eye of Dr. Brinton were at
Belmont, Mo., November 7, 1861. One was a Union soldier kneel-
ing by a tree, in the act of firing, and shot obliquely through the
head, front to back. His warm body rested on right knee and
leg, left leg bent, with foot on the ground ; the left hand firmly
clinched the barrel of his musket, which rested with the butt on
the ground. The soldier's head drooped to the chest, and rested
against the tree. Attitude generally forward, jaw fixed, rigidity
perfect. The doctor supposed him to be alive, and could scarcely
believe that death rested upon a statue so lifelike. Another Union
soldier, shot near the heart, mounted a straying mule and rode
beside the doctor some distance. Soon the glazed eyeballs gave
unequivocal signs of death, but the body rode on upright. After
a time the mule was needed for a live victim, and the body of the
other was so firm and rigid that it required force to loosen the
knee-grip on the animal's shoulders.

Belmont was fought in autumn, yet the physical activity was
such as to generate great bodily heat. It was a running fight for
seven hours through wood and marsh. The desperate nature of
the struggle is shown by the list of casualties. On the average
during the war the proportion of killed and mortally wounded to
wounded was one to three. In four of the five regiments engaged
at Belmont the proportion was over one to two. The Seventh Iowa
lost 188 killed, wounded, and missing. The death-list reached 74,
leaving 114 for surviving wounded — over one and a quarter to two.

At Williamsburg, Va., May 5, 1862, Surgeon Kead reported a

200 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Zouave with, one leg half over a fence, body crawling forward,
one hand clinched and raised to level of forehead, with palmar
surface outward, as if to ward off evil. Williamsburg was fought
during a rain, but the men wore overcoats, the ground was low
and heavily wooded, the troops new to war— like those at Bel-
mont — and the mental strain and excitement would be favorable
to bodily heat. That field also brought forth a bit of the kind
of historical description termed fanciful. It is from the pen of
Warren Lee Goss, who has published several narratives of the
civil war. He was a soldier in the Union ranks at Williams-
burg, and states that after the engagement he visited the scene of
a charge in front of the Confederate fort. " Advancing through
the tangled mass of logs and stumps, I saw one of our men aim-
ing over the branch of a fallen tree which lay among the tangled
abatis. I called to him, but he did not turn nor move. Advanc-
ing nearer, I put my hand on his shoulder, looked in his face, and
started back. He was dead — shot through the brain — and so sud-
denly had the end come that his rigid right hand grasped his
musket, and he still preserved the attitude of watchfulness, liter-
ally occupying his post after death."

A case reported to Dr. Brinton from Goldsboro, N. C., is one of
the most striking on record, and it is to be regretted that particu-
lars as to atmospheric and other conditions are wanting. Other-
wise the details are most complete. A party of Union cavalry
met some dismounted Confederates, and the latter, taking alarm,
sprang to their saddles. The Union men fired a volley, and all of
the Confederates rode off save one. He was in position preparing
to mount, his face turned toward the advancing enemy, who were
about to fire again when their leader restrained them, and told
them to capture him. Riding up, they found a corpse with one
foot in the stirrup, left hand grasping the bridle and mane of the
horse, right hand clasping carbine near muzzle, stock resting on
ground. Every muscle was rigid in death, and it was difficult to
detach the fingers from the carbine, bridle, and mane. The body
was laid down, and the same positions and inflexibility were re-
tained by all the members. There were two wounds, one at the
right of the spine, emerging near the heart, the other in the right
temple.

Another case reported at second hand to Dr. Brinton, but
vouched for to him, was that of a cavalryman of the Fourth Wis-
consin, who in a skirmish in Louisiana was shot through the
heart. His comrades placed him alone in a buggy, which was
dragged for an hour by a rope attached to a saddle, the man dying
meanwhile, and his body sitting bolt upright and rigid.

The cases examined by Dr. Brinton were sufficient to fully es-
tablish all that he claims — namely, the existence of a rigor pecul-

THE PHENOMENA OF DEATH IN BATTLE. 201

iar to the battlefield which is as instantaneous as the death with
which it is synchronous. He states that he frequently passed
without examination corpses holding muskets in grasp, pointing
forward as if in a charge; bodies prone, face to earth; trunks
bent, limbs apparently rigid. From other sources come reports
of similar phenomena in more or less details. In a compilation
of surgical reports by J. G. Chenu (Rapport au Conseil de Saute*
des Arme'es, 1865), Surgeon Perir, from the field of Alma, Boudin
from Inkerman, and Armand from Magenta, named many general
and special appearances of the phenomena. At Magenta many
bodies held to their weapons, even those lying face downward.
The conclusion of M. Armand, appended to his report, was that
death came so suddenly that the hands had not time to let go.
These were head shots. The fighting at Magenta was again ter-
rific, and it was warm June weather. The struggle on the part of
the French side was for possession of the town, the key to the
position, and it was carried house by house. On the scene of one
hand-to-hand combat a corpse was found with the arms raised in
front, one bent, one extended, with fists clutched; also a dead
hussar on a fallen horse, almost intact in saddle, but leaning on
the right side, holding his saber at a thrust. The Magenta cases
were seen by the surgeons when forty-eight hours old.

At Inkerman, fought in November, during a dull, foggy rain,
M. Boudin saw numberless cases where the bodies rested on the
knees, with guns in firm clasp, cartridges in the mouth, and in
some instances arms upraised, as though parrying blows. " Long
files of the dead seemed to need but the impulse of vital breath to
recommence the action of battle." An eye-witness's off-hand de-
scription of scenes on that field is found in W. H. Russell's corre-
spondence to the London Times. He said : " The battle of Inker-
man admits of no description. It was a series of dreadful deeds
of daring, of sanguinary hand-to-hand fights, of despairing rallies,
of desperate assaults, in glens and valleys, in brushwood glades
and remote dells. . . .

" The British and French, many of whom had been murdered
by the Russians as they lay wounded, wore terrible frowns on
their faces, with which the agonies of death had clad them.
Some in their last throes had torn up the earth in their hands,
and held the grass between their fingers up toward heaven."

At Alma, M. Perir saw a great number of cases. One in par-
ticular he reported where the body lay upon the side, legs bent,
hands lifted at joints, and head thrown back as if in prayer.
Alma was fought in September (in the Crimea). Russell termed
it one of the most bloody and determined struggles in the annals
of war. The allies charged through the waters of the Alma up
the steeps to the Russian batteries on the crest.

202 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Instantaneous rigor following violent death has been assumed
to be ordinary rigor mortis, hastened in development by circum-
stances, or a rigidity of tetanic character. Dr. Carpenter, the
English physician, held to the latter theory, and believed that the
rigidity ceased after a few hours, to be succeeded by relaxation
and ordinary rigor mortis in turn. Dr. Brinton, reviewing all
other theories, claimed that the phenomena on the battlefield are
unique. " Ordinary rigor mortis" he wrote, " is developed after
muscular irritability has ceased, but before putrefaction sets in.
The appearance of battlefield rigor is probably synchronous with
violent death.

" In ordinary rigor mortis the march is downward ; the parts
first affected are the neck and jaw ; the lower jaw, if previously
relaxed, is drawn up ; flexor muscles are supposed to be affected
in a greater degree. Battlefield rigor affects probably all regions
alike at once.

" Ordinary rigor mortis is usually of twenty-four to thirty-six
hours' duration ; battlefield rigor remains longer than is supposed.
. . . The prolonged continuance shows that it is not tetanic nor
followed by rigor mortis proper." The doctor saw cases of it
twenty-four to forty-eight hours and once sixty hours after
death. Armand saw it at Magenta twenty-four hours old and
Perir at Alma forty-eight hours after death. Dr. Brinton's paper
closes with this brief summary of the distinctive features of bat-
tlefield rigor :

" The rigor is developed at the instant of death.

" The cadaveric attitudes are those of the last moment of life.

" The death most probably is instantaneous and unaccompanied
by convulsions or agony.

" The rigor is probably more lasting than is usually supposed.

" It is extremely doubtful whether this instantaneous rigor of
sudden death or rigor of the battlefield is succeeded by flexibility,
in its turn to be followed by ordinary rigor mortis."

This subject lies, of course, beyond the realm of experiment.
If rigor mortis is due, as is believed, to solidification of the juices
of the muscles by the acid conditions developed therein, marked
chemical changes, either rapid or prolonged, follow death under
ordinary circumstances. In what degree may the solidification be
hastened by extraordinary violence in death ? We learn that pro-
toplasm is subject to peculiar changes under peculiar conditions ;
that it contracts under electric shocks, and that certain forms of
it coagulate under temperatures varying from 100° to 122° Fahr.,
a species of "heat-stiffening" illustrated by the coagulation of
the white of an egg. The presence of certain salts will cause
muscle juice (myosin) to coagulate at a temperature possible to
be attained in the system of a hard-working man on a hot day,

THE PHENOMENA OF DEATH IN BATTLE. 203

and a slight degree of acidity in the muscle juice lowers the tem-
perature for coagulation ; so that hard-worked and heated mus-
cles are, upon chemical grounds, susceptible to the onset of rigor.
The most remarkable cases of battlefield rigor seem to develop
under extraordinary heat. Given heat and the release of blood
pressure, the sudden check of muscular energy consequent upon
the wound cuts off from the protoplasm all healthy expenditure
of waste, and its action may be brought to a halt so sudden and
so effectual as to preclude the slightest change of attitude beyond
what may be caused by external forces. Reduced to its plainest
terms the idea is as follows : Muscular action and excitement de-
velop heat and chemical action. The myosin, or muscle juice,
normally alkaline, is by hard work and excitement rendered acid.
Heat and acidity being present in the muscles, tetanic or early
rigor-mortis contractions might be expected in case of sudden
death.

Again, the outstretched hand of the soldier, the grasp of weap-
ons— even the fixing of the eyeballs in angry stare — are acts of
the will. If death cuts short the power to will a reaction in the
muscles involved by instantly destroying the nerve centers con-
trolling the expanded member, why should the muscles contract
any more than they would expand, if death came at the moment
of contraction ?

The immediate effect of an electric current of lethal energy
comes nearest to what must be supposed as the manifestations
attending instantaneous death in the heat of individual action.
In an electric chair, at the moment of contact with the deadly
current, the entire muscular system of the victim is thrown into
a state of sudden and severe rigidity, lasting until the electrode
is removed. All bodily sensation, motion, and consciousness are
suspended at the same time ; that is to say, the cessation of con-
sciousness and the physical death — " total paralysis of all the vital
organs and the nervous centers by which they are directly or in-
directly vitalized, and by which the muscles of the extremities
are actuated so that when the current is broken there can be no
reflex action of the muscles, such as would indicate the presence
of residual life energy or the possibility of resuscitation" — are
synchronous. In the case of McElvaine, executed at Sing Sing,
February 8, 1892, the reflex action of the voluntary muscles was
tested approximately two or three minutes after the breaking of
the current, and was found to be "absolutely unresponsive to
ordinary mechanical stimuli." Dr. Van Gieson, in his report of
the experiment, says: "This tends to show how superlatively
complete and far-reaching the effects of the current are in abol-
ishing life, not only in the concrete form, but also in the integral
activities of the body, which, in other forms of sudden and vio-

204 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

lent death, is liable to persist for a time after life is extinct. From
observation at this execution, as well as at the subsequent exami-
nation of the body, the current appears at first not only to extin-
guish life in the ordinary sense of the word, so far as conscious-
ness, feeling, and volition are concerned, with overwhelming sud-
denness, but reaches beyond this, and destroys the energies of the
individual component parts of the body, so that they can not be
raised into activity by artificial mechanical stimulation, as is usu-
ally the case in sudden violent death/'

The same thought has been applied to the phenomena of bat-
tlefield rigor. M. Armand wrote of the Magenta cases in 1859,
"Death came so sudden that hands holding weapons had not time
to let go." Dr. Brinton, in 1865, wrote, " The muscles had, as it
were, been surprised by death, and limbs remained set and fixed
in the position held at the moment of receiving the fatal wound."

Lightning strokes have produced like phenomena. Men and
animals have been found dead in upright postures, a horse even
standing on all fours, with his eyes wide open and nostrils dilated
by the terror which the storm evoked. If rigidity can be instan-
taneous in any one case, why not in another where similar causes
work upon the same elements ?

There is still a link awaiting further physiological research
to connect the manifestations attending deaths in battle action
with those under the electric current. Huxley asserted that the
matter of life depends on carbonic acid, water, and ammonia
brought together under certain conditions, and that the with-
drawal of any one of them puts an end to vital phenomena ; also,
that every form of human action is resolvable into muscular con-
tractions, or transitory changes in the relative positions of the
parts of a muscle. In 1868 he said : " Perhaps it would not yet
be safe to say that all forms of protoplasm are affected by electric
shocks ; and yet the number of cases in which the contraction of
protoplasm is shown to be affected by this agency increases every
day."

Therefore the sudden appearance of agents in the nature of
electricity and heat may change the combination of acid, water,
and ammonia that causes the constant transition of the molecules
of a muscle, and when that proportion changes and transition
ceases, everything is at a dead stop until other combinations set
in motion other changes that give rise to a new order of phe-
nomena. The first stage is vital life, the last putrefaction, and
the interim rigidity. The electric current causes unconsciousness
and muscular death at one stroke. In battle the wound may pro-
duce swift unconsciousness. May it not also let loose a stored
supply of heat to augment the already intense heat distributed
by the energy of passion and physical action and thus stiffen the

THE PHENOMENA OF DEATH IN BATTLE. 205

muscle jelly ? Or has the capacity for spasmodic reaction been
exhausted by the previous overexertion of the soldier — volition
being cut short by the wound ?

Some men of science not only admit the validity of the evi-
dence offered as to the appearancce of phenomenal rigor under war
wounds as well as electric shocks, but assume it as an established
physiological fact, without, however, accounting for it. Dr.
Mitchell, in his indirect suggestions before mentioned, leaves no
reason to doubt that he believes in it. Dr. Brinton and other
army surgeons familiar with the phenomenon have speculated as
to its causes, and almost all medical men who are not familiar
with it in actual experience are curious as to what proof or ex-
planations may be produced.

There is one other form of manifestations of the battlefield
almost as unique, though not so startling, as instantaneous rigor,
and being more frequently encountered has doubtless impressed
itself more widely upon the minds of soldiers and visitants to the
field. At first thought it seems but reasonable that the intensity
of battle passion and energy should leave its mark upon the
forms and features of combatants who die in the midst of the
fray. Per contra, it seems odd that corpses made so by violence
in the midst of violence should sometimes wear on their faces the
peaceful look of calmness usually associated with quiet death-
beds. I mentioned in the paper of last year, on wounds, that
many of the dead appear to have passed away in a state of mental
composure and freedom from pain. Often in contemplating these
scenes one is surprised at the contrasts between the happy smile
on the dead warrior's face and the blood, the spent missiles, the
weapons, and other ghastly symbols of the strife that has passed,
lying beside him. Here, again, Nature has wrought a good work.
Wrath is soon spent, the inciting din of battle quickly hushed ;
pain and melancholy thoughts, even surprise that life remains,
swiftly loosen the chords that once bound the now suffering
man to the warrior's terrible trade. Thought, fanciful it may
be but yet enchanting, takes him miles and leagues away, the
while his torn body lies not ten feet from the cannon that mangled
it, and the smoke of the fatal discharge still hovers about the
scene. Again he is only a man. He tries bravely to live, for-
getting to hate ; makes light of his condition, and may be helps
another victim supposed to be worse off than himself. Finally,
death steals on while some noble or pleasant thoughts play upon
the features. We sometimes found our dead comrades a long
distance away from the landmarks on the spots where they fell.
This brings up a practical suggestion. Those who fall asleep
peacefully die as we would have them if die they must. They
usually, however, show unmistakably that they survived their

206 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

wound some little time, and the wound often seems trivial to have
caused death. Since surgical aid to all is out of the question, why
should not every soldier be his own surgeon ? Suppose his pack
contained a tourniquet, bandages, and lint, to the use of which he
has been trained ; also, a draught of some strong cordial which
might sustain his own life or that of a comrade in extremities,
until the relief corps should appear. A simple knowledge of the
tourniquet, of bandages, and lint, and readiness to improvise sub-
stitutes, have saved countless lives. Lack of knowledge, some-
times, and sometimes an inexcusable lack of materials, have sac-
rificed thousands. A wounded soldier of our civil war stopped a
severe haemorrhage in the neck by clogging the artery with balls
made of sand and blood-clot. He had nothing better at hand.

THE REVIVAL OF WITCHCRAFT.

BY EENEST HART.

IN the byways of science, as on the scenes of a theatre and in
the pages of fiction, an alias is often found to serve a very
convenient purpose. But it is always a little disappointing, to
those in search of a veritable novelty, to find in place of it only
a discredited piece of antiquity, though varnished, polished, and
faced with a new color; and it is not inspiriting, even to the
dilettante of the drama or of fiction, to be put off with old and
worn-out characters, masquerading under new names, with fan-
tastic costumes and modern effects, however ingenious and
startling.

The modern Athenians, who dignify themselves with the title
of psychical researchers, have for some time been inviting us to
the investigation of what they have led us to believe were altogeth-
er new departures into the domain of mental philosophy. A new
horizon was opened out before us ; methods of the communication
of thought were described which set distance at naught, which
dispensed with speech or gesture, touch, sight, or smell. Sensa-
tion, we were told, was transmissible without material expression ;
mental impressions could be conveyed by the unexpressed power
of the will, character could be transferred by subtle and invisible
channels into those whose morality required strengthening, or
whose self-control needed bracing. All this has been indicated
with some confidence, and with a careful and measured approxi-
mation to methods of rational inquiry, by some English observers
whose competence in literature and some departments of physical

THE REVIVAL OF WITCHCRAFT. 207

research were calculated to invite confidence. But it must be
confessed that the results which they had obtained, and the very
rudimentary evidence which they had adduced in this country,
were far from sufficing to persuade any but a very select band
of idealists that there was anything substantial either in their
premises or their conclusions. For the last year or two, however,
public attention has been invited to a series of phenomena which
were seriously alleged to afford positive evidence of the existence
of a variety of endowments of the human body, and of marvelous
powers of mental action, which realized some of the promised
wonders of " the new psychology." France was now, as in the last
century, the chosen land of marvel. There appears to be some-
thing in the temperament of the Latin race which lends itself
easily to neurotic disorder, to hysterical excitement, and to the
production of startling displays of mental eccentricity. We have
never been celebrated in this country, even in the middle ages,
for our demoniacs, our dancing hysterics, or our miraculous cures.
We have nothing to rival the ancient histories of St. Medard and
Port Royal, or the modern pilgrimages of Lourdes. But if the
modern hypnotists, psychists, and faith-curers are allowed the
full play which has recently been given to them, in infecting the
public mind with the follies of the " new hypnotism/' the " pro-
found hypnosis/' the " new mesmerism/' the " magnetization of
hypnotics/' and the " externalization of sensation," which they
have been so solemnly propounding and so profusely describing in
the pages of our leading newspapers and serials, we may yet see
here an abundant harvest of mentally disordered and pathological
creatures, such as have now for some years been permanently
on show across the Channel ; we may expect also to find our more
solid literature poisoned with this evil influence, as our literature
of romance and fiction already has been. From what I hear and
know of the attractions which these false phenomena, these dan-
gerous tricks, and this practice of mental subordination to another
will, are already exercising on some ladies of the upper class in
England and on some writers of influence, it appears high time
that a thorough exposure should be made of the imposture and
the self-deception which underlie the performances. Some of them
have been rehearsed before eminent British journalists on their
visits to Paris, and by them described in good faith, with no
small literary power and considerable although imperfect detail,
to the readers of the great English journals. The most vivid de-
scriptions of the modern development of the new superstitions
appeared in a series of articles in the Pall Mall Gazette early in
last December, and in the Times at the end of December and the
beginning of the present year. I was induced thereby to devote a
fortnight at the end of the year to an investigation of the facts

208 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

described and the phenomena produced, and to an endeavor to
find out how they were produced, and, as is always important in
an inquiry of the sort, in what sort of people they took place.
As a result I was able briefly to affirm in the columns of the Times
that I found the whole series of performances to be based upon
fraud, and that I had succeeded in reproducing the phenomena
without employing any occult means or invoking any new powers
of mind or body. This statement was welcomed by persons whose
opinion I value, and by many of whom the articles in question
had been read, as Prof. Tyndall writes, with " disfavor and indeed
dismay." I am urged to lose no time in sweeping away this mass
of rubbish, and " the disgusting superstitions " which these letters
and publications have tended to promote. This I will attempt to do
by stating in some detail precisely what the performances at the
Charite* are, and removing from them, the halo of false science
which has rendered them attractive and credible, and has to some
extent obscured their demoralizing character. The business of
demonstrating the marvels of the new hypnotism has been going
on now for upward of twenty years, with very mischievous effects.
It has culminated in performances of the patients of Dr. Luys in
the wards of one of the greatest and most historically celebrated
of the Paris hospitals. The Hospital of La Charite' is a hospital
with great traditions, dignified by great names, and still the seat
of sound and able clinical instruction by a staff who must, I am
sure, feel humiliated at finding the name of the great institution
to which they belong becoming thus notorious throughout Europe
for its connection with proceedings which they can but view with
extreme disfavor.

In the first place, two patients were presented (who must be
among the patients referred to), for they are and have been for
some time the main subjects for demonstration at La Charite*.
One of these is a man named Mervel, an. unhappy being of whom
Dr. Luys promised to give me the clinical history, and of whom,
briefly, it may be said that he has been all his life a wretched hys-
teric, subject to fits, to sleep-walking, and to catalepsy. He has
passed through all the phases of this form of extreme nerve dis-
order. If he had been let alone, as he would have been in this
country, or treated to a sound course of tonics, cold water (inter-
nally and externally), and field labor, he might have lived a more
healthy life. He is now a miserable object, trained to all the
tricks and the pathological aptitudes for simulation of a highly
trained hypnotic, and on him were demonstrated phenomena
which might indeed be " marvels " if they were not almost wholly
frauds. I will run rapidly over a series of this man's perform-
ances as they were shown to me in the wards by Dr. Luys in the
presence of observers, and I will presently add some of the other

THE REVIVAL OF WITCHCRAFT. 209

performances of other patients and trained subjects of Dr. Luys
who have differing aptitudes and a various repertoire. The man
was brought in from the waiting-room and put in an arm-chair ; a
finger held up before his eyes sufficed to plunge him into induced
sleep. This was clearly not simulated, and in a highly trained
subject is exceedingly common. The eyelids were then lifted, and
a little performance was gone through, which is described in the
programme set out in Dr. Luys's Legons Cliniques as the prise
du regard. A finger is held before him ; he gazes at it, sits bolt
upright, and follows it as though fascinated around the room.
This is, of course, a very ordinary performance, and is only, so to
speak, the lever de rideau. He is taken back to his chair, and
then begins the second performance. He is shown a magnetic
bar, and here the true stage play begins, as it does in so many of
these mesmeric performances, with the utterly irrelevant introduc-
tion of the apparatus of magnetism. He sees now from one pole
of the magnet the " odic " effluvia, the blue flames, which are famil-
iar to the readers of Reichenbach. He is delighted with them ;
he caresses the bar like a child with a toy ; he follows it all over
the place, and when the opposite pole of the magnet is presented
to him, he is struck with horror at the red flames which issue
from it, and shows every sign of fear and disgust. There are in-
finite variations of this marvel. Thus, a photograph of the poles
of a magnet affects him in a similar way, no matter how old the
photograph. On the face of Dr. Luys he sees red flames proceeding
from the eyes and nostrils on one side of the face and blue flames
on the other, which is supposed to coincide with the duality of
the nerve-centers of the brain and the opposite polarity of the two
sides of the body — puerile deductions which bear upon their face
ignorant credulity, but which are supposed to derive evidential
strength from these heightenings of the visual perception of this
individual and the other performers of the same school. For
these subjects quickly learn how to pretend to see the same thing ;
and Colonel de Rochas d'Aiglun, the administrateur of the Poly-
technic School in Paris, whom Dr. Luys was good enough to in-
troduce to me, has subjects who have made for him also a con-
siderable series of drawings showing these flames playing about
magnets and parts of magnets, surrounding crystals, and irradiat-
ing the features of himself and others. One patient has done me
the honor of making my portrait with all its magnetic accompani-
ments. To the heightened visual perception of these ladies and
gentlemen it seems that from one side of my face issues a sheet of
lambent blue flame, and my eyes dart rays of blue fire ; the other
side is equally luminous with red flame, while down the middle
of my face is a bright streak of yellow. Mervel drew this inter-
esting picture, and the others confirmed it ; and as this was done

TOL. XLIII. — 15

210 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in the wards of a hospital and by a patient in a state of " lucid
somnambulism," and of good faith, I suppose I ought to have as-
sumed that " there was no room for fraud or imposture." I ven-
tured, however, to think otherwise. I took with me on the third
occasion a magnet lent me by Dr. Johnson, of London, which had
been thoroughly demagnetized by being thrust into the fire, and a
series of steel pins which had been variously magnetized in in-
verse senses, and I found that the heightened senses of Mervel
were quite incapable of distinguishing between the inert magnet,
the variously magnetized needles, and the true magnet. I even
placed the needles and the magnet in the hands of Dr. Luys and
asked him to determine what Mervel saw. He saw always, in reply
to Dr. Luys's questions, the orthodox thing. I then gently sug-
gested to Dr. Luys that he should try some test experiments and
use an electro-magnet, in which he could at will put on and take
off the current and try for himself whether the patient did or did
not really perceive what he described. I ventured to repeat the
same suggestion when Mervel was describing the colored lights he
saw around the poles of a f aradic machine. My suggestions, how-
ever, were not favorably received ; and Dr. Luys observed that he
must be allowed to make his experiments in his own way. At
these sittings Dr. Sajous, Dr. Lutaud, M. Cremiere, of St. Peters-
burg, and others, were present. To end this part of the matter, I
should state that I took successively three other subjects of dem-
onstration whom Dr. Luys has presented to his classes, and tested
still more decisively their pretended powers of distinguishing
emanations from the north and south poles of the magnet and see-
ing the colored flames of Reichenbach. These subjects were a
person named Jeanne, an accomplished impostor, and the most
distinguished and highly trained of M. Luys's subjects, whose
portrait occurs repeatedly in the illustrations of his lectures, and
who describes herself as his premier sujet ; a person named
Clarice, whose marvelous powers are also much described in the
publications of Dr. Luys ; and a patient now in the wards named
Marguerite. I tested these subjects repeatedly in the presence
sometimes of the gentlemen above named, sometimes of Dr. Oli-
vier, of Dr. Meurice, and of others whom I need not at present
name. The results were that Mervel, whether sent to sleep by Dr.
Luys, or by myself, or by the wardsman, was never really asleep
to the extent of not being able to gather verbal and visual sugges-
tions as to his course of action, as to what he ought to do and
what he ought to see, and that his hysterical or hypnotic slumber
did not prevent him from simultaneously carrying on a course
of elaborate imposture. When I rapidly displaced the magnetic
photographs of Dr. Luys or my own, he blundered over them, but
immediately he understood that he was blundering he corrected

THE REVIVAL OF WITCHCRAFT. 211

his mistake and saw what he ought to have seen. He was quite
unable to distinguish an inert piece of iron from a true magnet,
and unless he were guided by words let fall by the bystanders, or
by the adoption of a systematic proceeding to which he was accus-
tomed, he was quite at sea. Clarice and Jeanne, in their lucid
somnambulistic state, never knew whether the current was on or
off ; unless they had a clew to the answers they ought to give,
they were ludicrously wrong. They saw enormous flames issuing
from the powerful magnet which I used. When I told the assist-
ant to .put on the current, acting on my previous instructions, he
always did exactly the opposite of what I said, and they always
fell into the trap. The culminating absurdity of this phase of
the performance was the famous show for which this clinique has
become famous, known as the magnetic skullcap, with its thera-
peutic and physical influences. " In this magnetic circlet," said
Dr. Luys (speaking in the presence of his somnambulistic patient,
who was supposed not to hear), " are stored up the thoughts and
mental characteristics of an individual who suffered from melan-
cholia and hallucinations of persecution. I will now put it on
Mervel's head, and you will see what follows " ; whereupon Mervel
showed dramatic signs of the hallucination of persecution, suffer-
ing apparently great pain of mind and body. Possibly it was too
cleverly acted to be wholly simulation, but it afforded a good ex-
ample of the mixture of hysterical readiness to accept any sugges-
tion with unlimited powers of deception ; for this took place at
the same sitting, and in the same state in which he pretended to
see red flames and blue flames at random, accordingly as he sup-
posed the magnet, or the photographs which I showed him, or the
prints, or the pins, to be of the north pole or of the south pole. I
repeated the experiment, always with the like results. Dr. Olivier,
the editor of the Revue des Sciences Physiques, writes to me that
the exposure was complete.

There was no correspondence between the phenomena manifested by the hyp-
notized person and the production of the current of magnetization, etc. You
repeated the experiments of Dr. Luys and those of M. de Rochas, avoiding all
suggestion, whether involuntary or unconscious, capable of vitiating the results,
and you were careful to conceal from the subjects of experiment the moment at
which the opening or the closing of the current of the magnet took place.

At any rate, therefore, we may exclude from the positive re-
sults which I attained in the presence of many witnesses the pos-
sibility of the electrical or magnetic current having any real rela-
tion whatever to the phenomena shown, and, as far as the utmost
care could go, we may exclude also the influence of suggestion in
any occult sense. Where the subjects thought they knew what
was expected of them in their state of lucid somnambulism, they
did it or saw it, whether I operated, or Dr. Luys, or his ward

212 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

assistant. Where they did not know they tried to guess, and with
ludicrous results. Habitually they produced results exactly oppo-
site to those which should have occurred, had the magnetic cur-
rent had any influence whatever as a causal agent. I will now go
further, and will affirm that there never was, any more than there
now is, the slightest ground for believing that the most powerful
magnets are capable of exercising any such influence as Dr. Luys
and others are in the habit of assuming that they can exert over
the animal organism. Opportunely enough, I find in the New
York Medical Journal of the 31st of December a report of the ex-
periments made by F. Peterson and A. E. Kennelly, with the most
powerful magnets in the Edison laboratory, of which Mr. Ken-
nelly is the chief electrician. Very powerful electro-magnets of
2,000 to 5,000 C. G. S. units to the square centimetre were em-
ployed. Not only was no visible effect produced in the polariza-
tion within the magnetic field of the haemoglobin of blood, or in
the circulation in the web of the frog's foot, but when a dog was
placed for five hours under the influence of a magnetic field with
an intensity of from 1,000 to 2,000 C. G. S. units to the square cen-
timetre the dog was in no way affected and was very lively when
liberated. A photograph is given of a boy sitting in a cylinder
two feet in diameter and seven inches deep, upon which a set of
field magnets converged : he was in no way affected. The next
experiments were made by introducing the head into the field of
a very powerful electro-magnet (2,000 C. G. S. units). The current
could be turned on or off the coils of the electro-magnet without
the knowledge of the subject. No effect on consciousness, sensa-
tion, circulation, respiration, or tendon reflex could be perceived.
The subject was quite unable to say when the current was turned
on or off. The last series of experiments were made with an elec-
tro-magnet in which the current was reversed two hundred and
eighty times a second. No effect whatever was perceived when
the head was introduced within the magnetic field of this potent
instrument. The authors conclude that the human organism is
in no wise appreciably affected by the most powerful magnets
known to modern science ; that neither direct nor reversed mag-
netism exerts any perceptible influence upon the iron contained in
the blood, upon the circulation, upon ciliary or protoplasmic move-
ments, upon sensory or motor nerves, or upon the brain. The
authors further observe that they find it difficult to understand
why magnetism appears to have no influence whatever upon the
human organism. The experiments of like kind recorded by Sir
William Thomson and in Pfliiger's Archiv gave equally negative
results.

The complete exposure which the results of my experiments
effected of the valuelessness of the so-called magnetic effects on

THE REVIVAL OF WITCHCRAFT. 213

the patients of Dr. Luys tallies with the negative results of Peter-
son and Kennelly, but it is perhaps too much to hope that it will
put an end to the habitual exploitation of magnetic superstitions
in this connection.

I come now to another series of phenomena which various emi-
nent journalists have noted as illustrations of what the Times cor-
respondent described as a perfectly genuine exhibition, and one
which, as he said, in concluding his description of it, " proved that
suggestions and impressions can be conveyed from one person to
another by mere contact, and even across an intervening space."
As he professes to be an impartial and guarded observer, I will
quote his report, which, so far as some obvious occurrences are
concerned, describes accurately what appears to go on in the ex-
travagant folly which they have described so seriously, known as
" 1'envou.tement." This is a title taken from the practices of the
middle ages, when the magicians of France and Italy exercised
(as the magicians of the far East do now) their powers of sorcery
upon a wax image, which, being duly endowed with mystical rela-
tionship to a human subject, was pinched, tortured, wasted, or de-
stroyed, with corresponding results to the unhappy individual in
whose effigy it was made. Here is the modern counterpart in the
new mesmerism of which the modern historian gives the explana-
tion which I have just quoted :

There remains, however, one set of recent experiments, which, from their
novel and startling character, deserve special attention. I refer to the transfer-
ence of sensibility from a hypnotic subject to inanimate objects. I have been for-
tunate enough to witness some of these experiments, and will describe what I
saw. They were not carried out by Dr. Luys, but by an amateur who attends his
clinique. This gentleman had a roughly constructed figure, about a foot high,
resembling the human form, and made of gutta percha or some such material, and
he experimented with it on a hysterical young woman, one of the hospital pa-
tients, and an extremely sensitive subject. She was placed in an arm-chair and
hypnotized, and he seated himself immediately opposite in close contact with her,
their legs touching, and her hands upon his knees. After some preliminary busi-
ness of stroking her arms and so forth, he produced the figure and held it up in
front of her, presumably to be charged with her magnetism, for these experiments
rest on the magnetic theory. Then he placed it out of her sight and pinched it.
Sometimes she appeared to feel it and sometimes she did not, but he was all the
time in actual contact with her. Then he held it where she could see it, and this
time she obviously suffered acutely whenever he touched the figure and in the
place where he touched it, although she did not look at it or seem to observe it.
Especially when he touched the sole of the foot, it evidently tickled her beyond
endurance. Then the figure was placed aside on a table out of the sight both of
the girl and of the operator, while another put one hand on the operator's back
and the other on the image. I was in such a position as to see them all, and
whenever the second gentleman touched the figure the girl felt it. Then she was
told that she was to feel it just the same after being woke up, and an attempt was
made to wake her, but she was by this time very profoundly affected, and the

2i4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

statement was only partially successful. In this state— that is», still somnambu-
listic— she stood up and moved from her place, the operator did the same, and,
being separated from her by some feet, he turned his back to her and held the
figure in such a position that she could not possibly see it. Then he pinched at
the back of the neck, and she felt it at the same moment, but at the wrong place.
The place where she did feel it caused her some embarrassment, though harmless
enough, as she informed him of the locality in a whisper, which I overheard. /
can answer for it that she felt something at the moment when he touched the
image, but that she could not see it and was not in contact with him, because I
was standing almost between them. But she felt it far more acutely when he
pinched his own wrist under the same circumstances. That brought the experi-
ments to a conclusion. They occupied at least half an hour, and included a num-
ber of interesting details which I have been obliged to omit.

Thus Ms exhibition, which was " perfectly genuine," proved
that suggestions and impressions can be " conveyed across space."
The fact is that it did not prove the one any more than the other ;
and if the writer had instituted a few control experiments such as
those which I forthwith carried out on the same subject, he would
have saved himself from having been the medium of introducing
thus impressively to the English reading public, through the
pages of a great newspaper, a solemn description of what was
easily proved to be a common imposture of a vulgar kind, by
which the good faith and unquestionable sincerity and honor of
the amateur of whom he speaks, and of Dr. Luys, had been sur-
prised. There is no secret about the name of the amateur, for he
has published much about the matter in great detail, with an
abundance of highly technical and scientific nomenclature, and
the performances had already been described, under his name, in
the Pall Mall Gazette in this country, and in La Justice and
L'Echo de Paris, and other journals in France. Colonel de Rochas
d'Aiglun, who was the operator in this case in the ward of La
Charite*, gave a similar demonstration for my benefit at the in-
vitation of Dr. Luys in the ward of La Charite* in the presence of
several witnesses. Subsequently he gave me and Dr. Sajous a like
demonstration with fuller developments at the Ecole Poly tech-
nique, of which he is the administrateur ; and I gave him a
counter-demonstration in the rooms of Dr. Sajous before leaving
Paris. To appreciate all the details of these performances one
should read his book, entitled Les Etats profonds de THypnose.*

To the subject, Madame Vix, being plunged into "profound
hypnosis," as it was alleged, was handed a glass of water. To
this she transferred by contact her sensitiveness ; the atmosphere

* Les fitats profonds de 1'Hypnose. Par le Lieutenant-Colonel de Rochas d'Aiglun, Ad-
ministrateur de 1'Ecole Polytechnique. Paris : Chamuel, 29 Rue de Trevise ; and G. Carre,
68 Rue St. Andr6-des-Arts, 1892. See also Les Limites de PInconnu, by Georges Vitoux.
Chamuel, 29 Rue de Trevise, Paris, 1892 ; and Le Figaro, January 10, 1893, p. 2.

THE REVIVAL OF WITCHCRAFT. 215

surrounding her was also similarly charged with her sensibility ;
she herself becoming anaesthetic. When pinches were made in the
air at given distances, which were supposed to represent points of
contact and lines of cleavage of the atmospheric planes, such
pinches at these given points were always felt by her and gave
what is above described as " evident pain." I was shown draw-
ings of these planes. When the water was removed to a distance
and the glass was stroked or imaginary pinches made in the air
just above the water, or the water itself was touched, she gave
similar manifestations. This water, we were told, was charged
with her vitality, and terrible consequences might ensue if the
water were maltreated, either then or subsequently. Fantastic
stories are related by Colonel de Rochas of the terrible effects fol-
lowing from the throwing away of this water and from people
stepping on it, or from watering the flowers with it. In one case,
where some one incautiously drank the water, the patient fell into
a swoon which lasted for a fortnight; The only correct proceed-
ing was to allow the subject herself to drink the water at the
close of the seance, and thus enable her to protect herself from
the sad effects which might follow any careless treatment of it.
She herself was supposed to be insensitive while under operation,
and her sensibilities were externalized and communicated to others
either by " contact" directly to the operator, or in another hypno-
tized patient who was placed in contact with her, or, as the re-
porter solemnly describes, "across space." Whenever her mag-
netizer was touched she felt it in the same place.

Now, Madame Vix furnishes seances for a fixed consideration.
On page 28 of his book on the profound stages of hypnosis, Colo-
nel de Rochas refers to her as being a subject " well known in
Paris," " very distinctly polarized," and " who passes with extreme
regularity " through all the phases described at length in his first
chapter, and, besides, " through some phases of an indeterminate
character up to the point of syncope." She presented indeed,
" when the left hand was placed on her head instead of the right,
general paralysis so closely resembling death in appearance," that
he did not dare to continue his experiments. She did the wax-
image business, the state of sympathy by contact, and the rest,
with such perfection before me under the manipulations of Colo-
nel de Rochas at the Charitd and at the Polytechnique School,
that I asked her to favor me with some professional sittings,
which she readily consented to do. She had an extensive reper-
toire, and on three separate occasions she went through her per-
formances with great precision and completeness in the presence
of a variety of witnesses, some of whose names I have already
cited. I determined, however, to do everything en faux. On the
first occasion I solemnly went through all the series of passes and

216 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

strokings and head pressure with the right hand, which Colonel
de Rochas considers so essential, and we had all the correct success-
ive stages of credulity (or credivite), of lethargy, catalepsy, again
lethargy, somnambulism, lethargy, and rapport, and I then tested
the statements of Colonel de Rochas. In the first place I found
that in all the phases of the stage of rapport the subject perceived
other objects and other persons quite as well as the individual,
my humble self, who was supposed to be "the magnetizer."
When any one pretended to be in contact with me, it had the
same effect upon her as if he were really in contact, and it was evi-
dent that she guessed at what we were doing. Visions were as
easily produced by pressure with the left hand as with the right,
and, as to the seeing of colored odic flames from the magnet, she
saw them " six yards long " ; but, in fact, when proper tests were
applied, she was found to be absolutely incapable of distinguish-
ing a true magnet from a false one. She never knew whether the
current was on or off my electro-magnet ; and her whole perform-
ance in this respect, although she was not made aware of it, was so
manifest and ludicrous an imposture that the bystanders had great
difficulty in retaining their gravity. I tested now the phenomena
to which the sham scientific terms of " externalization of sensation,"
"communication by contact," and "transference across space,"
are pretentiously applied. Behind a little pile of books on the
writing table I concealed a tumbler containing some water. In
duly solemn fashion I poured out from a carafe a little water into
a similar glass and placed it in her hands. I then quickly substi-
tuted, without her perceiving it, the hidden glass of water, which
she had neither seen nor touched. We had then a full-dress re-
hearsal of all the performances which I had previously witnessed.
She showed the same " obvious " marks of pleasure or of pain
when the water was caressed or pinched as were witnessed by the
Times correspondent or the Pall Mall Gazette reporter. When one
of the spectators was placed in imaginary contact with me, she
became equally sensible of his actions ; she writhed, she smiled,
she was tickled, she was hurt, she was pleased, and she was " ex-
hausted " in the orthodox manner. I now introduced the " wax
figure." Skeptic as I was, but willing to be convinced, I had pur-
chased two rather pretty little sailor dolls, twin brothers of the
navy, at a neighboring toy shop. One of these she held until
it was sufficiently " charged with her sensitiveness " by contact.
I then rapidly substituted the twin doll from my pocket, and put
away the sensitivized doll for future service. To make the per-
formance quite regular, I cut off a minute lock of her hair and
pretended to affix it to the doll. To this proceeding, which I had
seen Colonel de Rochas gravely go through, she rather objected
in her profound sleep, much to our quiet amusement. " C'est trop,

THE REVIVAL OF WITCHCRAFT. 217

c'est trop," she murmured, apparently thinking that I was taking
too much hair for the money. I need not say that I did not affix
it to the head of the doll, although I went through the motions of
doing so. I have now, and shall preserve, the two little doll " wit-
nesses " and the valuable tress of hair as mementos of this inter-
esting performance. It may take its place by the side of the fa-
mous tress cut from the locks of the spirit form of Katie King.
We then produced, with the aid of the untouched doll, just un-
rolled from the tissue paper of the toy shop, all the phenomena of
the envoutement of the sorcerers, of which so much has been heard
lately and which have figured so largely in the pages of the great
newspapers of England and France. She felt acutely when its
imaginary lock was touched and pulled, whether by myself or by
Dr. Sajous, by M. Cremiere, or by any one else in the room. She
greatly resented its being pricked ; she felt all sorts of indescriba-
ble and generalized heats and pains when the doll was touched in
places of which she could not well make out the locality owing to
our backs being turned to her, and she was duly suffocated when
we pretended to sit down on the doll. I am ashamed to say that
the real doll was lying there all the time, cruelly stabbed by me
to the heart with a stout pin, of which she was unconscious. Its
maltreatment, which ought theoretically to have been fatal to her,
produced no visible effect. These performances she went through
three times. On the third occasion Colonel de Rochas was him-
self present, and assisted to put her into a complete state of
hypnosis, for by this time I had become a little indifferent to the
stages of preliminary mummery, and, as there were three subjects
on hand at the final sitting, I rather abbreviated the proceeding.
Colonel de Rochas was a little astonished when I produced my
toy-shop doll, clothed in woolen trousers and jacket, for demon-
strating the envoutement ; but he explained that he was not so
surprised as he should have been at an earlier date, for he had
only that week observed that in a classic author, where these
magical proceedings were described, it was noted that woolen
stuff was a very good conductor ; and he quoted a passage from
a Latin author — of which I am sorry that I do not retain the ex-
act recollection — in evidence of the fact that the woolen dress
might prove an effective medium; otherwise, he observed, he
should have been doubtful of securing good results, as the doll
was of composition and not of wax. It did prove a very good con-
ductor. In the course of the experiment, however, he skeptically
tweaked the nose of the little composition doll face (of the doll
which had not been " sensitivized "), and we had all of us the sat-
isfaction of observing that the material made no difference to
Madame Vix, and that the result was as perfectly satisfactory as
if it had been made of real wax, for she immediately exclaimed

2i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that somebody was pulling her nose, and resented it accordingly.
At the close of this final seance, at which I had invited the pres-
ence of Colonel de Rochas, I explained to him the extent of the
imposture, and showed him the false glass of water and the twin
doll, the sham magnet, and the method which we had pursued in
working the electro-magnet under a system of contradictory direc-
tions. I may venture to repeat that Colonel de Rochas acted in
this, as throughout, as a gentleman of the most perfect good faith.
He was duly and adequately impressed with this new order of
facts. It is of course impossible to say what may be the conclu-
sions at which he will ultimately arrive, but I understood him to
incline to the vague belief that " it was all suggestion." — Nine-
teenth Century.

(To be continued.)

ADAPTATIONS OF SEEDS AND FRUITS.

BY J. W. FOLSOM.

IF we consider the great variety of seeds and fruits, we natu-
rally inquire its meaning ; and if we are sufficiently interested
to observe carefully the part which seeds play in Nature, we soon
find that in innumerable ways they are adapted to their surround-
ings. On the seed, primarily, rests the all-important responsi-
bility of perpetuating the species, and success or failure in this
duty depends upon the manner in which the seed is adapted to
encounter the dangers that threaten it.

The manifold adaptations of this kind which Nature exhibits
have been brought about chiefly by natural selection, resulting
from the co-operation of two laws : the law of heredity and the
law of variation. Under the former, characteristics of a parent
are transmitted to its offspring. In obedience to the latter, no
offspring is exactly like its parent, but differs from it more or less.
The variation being inherited by the succeeding generation will,
if of favorable nature, tend to be perpetuated indefinitely. Con-
trarily, variation in an unfavorable direction will conduce to
extermination of the species from the very nature of the case.
Thus it follows that the accumulation of advantageous variations,
however slight, and the necessary destruction of species possess-
ing unfriendly characteristics, results in producing kinds well
fitted for existence.

Bearing the above in mind as a general explanation, let us con-
sider some of its effects as displayed in seeds and fruits.

We usually find seeds in a seed vessel of some sort, the whole
affair constituting the " fruit." Common to all immature fruits
is their necessity for protection, and this is met in various ways.

ADAPTATIONS OF SEEDS AND FRUITS. 219

Winds which would break them off are effectually resisted by
their strong yet flexible footstalks ; and possible injury by bruis-
ing is averted by tough, elastic walls, often cushioned by prickles
or other appendages.

Sudden changes of temperature, before they can penetrate to
the unripe seeds, are rendered harmless by the blanketing effect
of pulp or other material.

For protection from the animal world, immature fruits have
developed a number of interesting devices. Almost universally
" green" fruits so harmonize with surrounding color as readily to
escape detection. In fact, the hazelnut is enveloped in a leafy
coat which renders it very inconspicuous. The nutritious albu-
men of the seed is often fortified by such impenetrable shells as
those of the cocoanut and others. Perhaps there is a formidable
armament of prickles, as in the chestnut ; or of stinging hairs, as
is the case with some pods. Characteristic of immature fruits are
disagreeable taste and consistence. Compare an unripe peach,
sour and stringy, with the same fruit in its luscious maturity.

But all these contrivances fail to repel certain enemies of
growing fruits. The apple's inconspicuousness, toughness, and
sourness are of little avail against the young progeny of the genus
Homo.

In many remarkable instances plants by their movements are
able to protect their precious seeds from injury. In our common
fall dandelion the whole flower closes up while the seeds are
ripening, but reopens at their maturity. Furthermore, the up-
right flower stalk sinks to the ground when the flowers fade, but
erects itself again when the seeds are ready to be scattered by the
wind. In one of our winter house plants, the common cyclamen,
the flower stalk coils up after flowering, bringing the pod to the
ground to ripen ; and our sweet white water lily, after expanding
and withering above water, sinks to mature its seeds in safety.
Other more remarkable but less common cases might be cited
to show the extreme care with which plants preserve their seeds
from possible destruction.

At maturity the one object of the seed is to secure the advan-
tages of wide dispersion, and to effect this purpose Nature uses all
means at hand. The agencies against which she so lately con-
trived are now most sedulously sought, and almost endless are the
modifications of structure which enable seeds to spread far and
wide.

" Dehiscence," the splitting open of a ripe pod, is manifestly a
provision for seed dispersion. In its simplest form dehiscence
merely exposes seeds to various conveying agencies : to the wind,
in the milkweed ; to birds, in the case of some brightly colored
beans. Other plants, however, do more than this. Our wild

220 . THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

columbine is particularly well adapted for having its seeds scat-
tered by the wind. They are held in open seed vessels surmount-
ing a slender stalk which, although nodding at flowering time,
has become upright. A slight breeze easily shakes this stalk,
causing the seeds to be thrown for quite a distance. The poppy
throws its seeds in a similar way, and the little eaves which stand
over the holes in the pod are even said to close in wet weather,
not allowing the seeds to escape.

In many wonderful instances the ripe pod projects its seeds
forcibly into the air. In some of our wild violets the pod, after
dehiscence, consists of three spreading valves, each shaped like a
boat, bearing within several seeds which are pear-shaped, hard,
and smooth. In drying, the valve walls contract, approach each
other, and squeeze out the seeds, which are thus thrown several
feet. Our wild witch-hazel throws its seeds often to the distance
of thirty feet. Many of us recollect the sudden bursting and coil-
ing up of the pods of the " touch-me-not," whose yellowish, spurred
flowers are so common in moist places. The object of this action
is to expel the seeds. Curious is the case of the squirting cucum-
ber of southern Europe. The ripe, cucumber-like fruit is greatly
distended by its contents. At a slight touch, as from a browsing
animal, it breaks from the stalk, and through the hole thus formed
the pressure of the elastic walls forces the seeds in a viscid liquid
for twenty or thirty feet.

Fruits that do not split open are invariably scattered by ex-
ternal means, inanimate and animate. Of inanimate agencies
the wind is far of tenest employed, and seeds have evidently found
it extremely efficient, judging from their many adaptations for
wind dispersion. The seeds of our elms, maples, pines, etc., are
surrounded, as we know, by thin expansions called "wings,"
whose purpose plainly is to present a large surface for the wind
to act upon. Wings are characteristic alone of trees or tall
shrubs, and never occur on low herbs, where they would clearly
be out of place. Instead of a wing, a tuft of hairs frequently
serves the same purpose. A common example is furnished by
the milkweed, whose seed is surrounded by a spreading " pappus "
of long, silky hairs. The dandelions and thistles have adopted
this means of distribution, and this explains their abundance
everywhere. In the smoke-bush of our gardens only a few
flower stalks bear fruit, the rest become slender and feathery,
forming a light network which is borne along in the wind, carry-
ing the few small fruits which have formed.

Flowing water transports many large nuts, some depending
upon it almost exclusively. Drifting along in our fresh-water
streams one may often see the " key fruits " of the red maple, and
the soaking they thus receive must further germination. The

ADAPTATIONS OF SEEDS AND FRUITS. 221

prevalence on our river banks of oaks, hickories, and maples is
also very noticeable. Again, ocean currents are of great impor-
tance in distributing plants. The cocoanut, buoyed by its loose
husk and protected by an impenetrable shell, floats in the sea
until it is brought often to some coral island where it may grow.
Many small seeds are also conveyed by ocean currents, and it is
very probable that they retain their vitality, for Mr. Darwin has
recorded some interesting experiments showing that a good pro-
portion of seeds can withstand injury from salt water for a con-
siderable length of time. The action of freezing water, as mani-
fested in frost, has the well-known effect of freeing nuts from
their protecting envelopes; and frozen water, in the shape of
glaciers and icebergs, is of a little importance in transporting
seeds. It is possible that during the Glacial period seeds were
conveyed from place to place incased in ice.

Of all devices for dispersion the most remarkable are those by
which the aid of animals is secured, and this aid is so valuable
that plants spare no expense to obtain it. Usually animals are
well paid for their services, but many plants, however, do not
hesitate to deceive their benefactors by all sorts of trickery.
This latter class, though, has not been nearly as successful as the
others in the struggle for existence.

It is now well known that what are popularly called " fruits "
exist for the mutual benefit of plants and the lower animals — not
for man. And it is generally believed that these fruits have
developed their attractive qualities through natural selection.
The results reached by man in selecting and propagating the best
varieties of fruits are the strongest grounds for thinking that
these fruits were once evolved from very crude conditions through
similar selection by the lower animals, particularly birds. Such
fruits, for instance, as by natural variation became at all agree-
able to birds would be sought out by them, to the exclusion of
less attractive fruits. In consequence, the favored fruits would
stand better chances of setting seeds than would their less favored
companions. Variations being transmitted from parent to off-
spring, it is reasonable to suppose that favorable variations would
become still more favorable by further selection, until, by the
accumulation of even slight variations through geologic ages,
there would result fruits highly attractive to certain animals by
their color, perfume, and taste. In the mean time, fruits possess-
ing unfavorable characteristics have for this very reason been
exterminated, or else have attained a less degree of success than
the others.

Insects are the lowest animals known to assist in seed dissem-
ination. Mr. Darwin tells us of locust excrement containing
seeds which grew when planted. Considering that locusts often

222 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

occur in vast swarms, they can hardly fail to be highly effective
agents in seed dissemination, thus repaying to some extent for
the immense damage they often do.

Fishes are known to swallow seeds of many kinds, and must
transport them from place to place; but the value of fishes as
seed conveyers is hard to estimate.

We have just said that our edible fruits are really contriv-
ances for securing seed dissemination, especially through the
agency of birds. Take, for example, some of our common fruits
— the currant, grape, plum, peach, apple, etc. All these are con-
structed with this end in view. When ripe, they are colored
brightly to attract animals; some possess agreeable odors, and
most have a delicious taste and consistence. In short, they are
highly adapted to become the food of animals. While swallow-
ing such food animals can hardly help swallowing seeds as well,
and such seeds are finally emitted under conditions admirably
conducive to germination. Why our most delicious fruits are
often offset by their disagreeable seeds may have occurred to
many of us. The fact is, by this means seeds are protected from
possible injury in the alimentary canals of animals. Take, for
example, the small, hard seeds of the grape or fig, and the similar
so-called seeds of the strawberry, blackberry, and others. Far
from being destroyed by the digestive juices, the seeds are prob-
ably facilitated in their germination by the warmth and moisture
received.

The rapid ripening of fruits doubtless prevents their prema-
ture destruction. The accompanying change in color is remark-
able. Whereas young fruits harmonize completely with sur-
rounding color, mature fruits are extremely conspicuous. Recall
the barberry, rose, sumach, mountain ash, and many more. In
some honeysuckles each cluster of scarlet berries stands in violent
contrast against a green leaf. In the blackberry lily of our gar-
dens the sides of the pod roll back and display their white linings,
conspicuously relieving the black, berry-like seeds. The burning-
bush is a brilliant example with its flaming scarlet. In the West
Indies is a plant whose pods are red within, containing seeds that
are blue. Other instances might be named, but they are indefi-
nitely numerous and easily observed by any one.

Many of our fruits are covered with a waxy " bloom " as it is
called. This is plainly a protection, for it is commonly known that
fruits will long resist decay provided this coating is uninjured.
Its probable effect is to resist decomposition by moisture and fungi.

The edible portion, however, is of most interest to us, not only
scientifically, but also in a practical way. How highly it is es-
teemed by some animals may be judged from the expense we
often incur in buying fruits out of season.

ADAPTATIONS OF SEEDS AND FRUITS. 223

The use of poisonous fruits is an interesting subject for con-
sideration. How is a plant benefited by producing them ?

Mr. Grant Allen suggests with regard to a near relative of our
Jack-in-the-pulpit that its brilliant scarlet berries are readily de-
tected and eaten by birds ; that such birds are consequently poi-
soned, and by decaying provide abundant nourishment for the
germinating seeds. He adds that birds can not profit by experi-
ence and avoid the berries, as no bird ever lives to tell the tale.

At first this explanation seems very reasonable, and perhaps
it is ; but we have reason for doubting it, for we find that many
fruits poisonous to mammals are eaten by birds without the
slightest injury. The beautiful apple-like manchineel, which is
most virulently poisonous, is eaten by tropical birds with the
greatest impunity.

On the whole it seems very likely that some fruits are fatal to
other animals but not to birds, and under all explanations poisons
are doubtless a protection, at least, to the fruits which possess
them.

Many fruits have been so highly cultivated by man that they
can no longer set their seeds as originally. Our wild red cherry
is a convenient morsel for even small birds ; but its highly cul-
tured relatives of the garden must submit their flesh to birds who
can not eat stones as well. The case of the strawberry is differ-
ent, however, for birds can scarcely take a morsel that does not
contain numbers of the small, hard "straws/' which are really
the most essential parts of the plant, for each one incloses a
seed.

In many cases Nature economically develops as little sweet
pulp as will serve her purpose. In the wild red cherry, for in-
stance, the stone occupies almost the entire fruit, there being only
a thin layer of food substance. Often there is none whatever,
and instead the fruit attains its ends by simulated attractiveness.
The rosary bean temptingly displays its brilliant red seeds,
which are in reality of stony hardness. Yet it does not wholly
rely upon this artifice, for it is very probable that part of the
seeds are scattered by the twisting dehiscence of the tough pod.

In some instances the deception is really wonderful. Some
pods and seeds mimic insects so closely as probably to entice in-
sectivorous birds to carry them, at least until the birds find out
their mistake. It may be also that this appearance protects them
from graminivorous birds. There are pods which curiously re-
semble worms and spiders and caterpillars. Our common castor-
oil bean bears a superficial likeness to a beetle. Yet there are
some most remarkable cases of mimicry where beetles are coun-
terfeited in the minutest detail.

Fruits are also disseminated by mammals as well as birds.

224 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Berries are the favorite food of many of our native mammals, the
woodchuck and others. Wild apples are frequently carried off
by squirrels, and it is well known that squirrels store up large
quantities of nuts which oftentimes are never eaten. Fruits too
large to be swallowed by most birds are easily devoured by the
larger mammals, the apple, for instance, whose seeds are protected
by tight husks well adapted to slip through the alimentary canal
of an animal without receiving the least injury.

The gourd fruits, so much liked by man here, are equally at-
tractive to his quadrumanal brothers in the tropics.

For utilizing the services particularly of mammals many
fruits have developed hooks or horns to catch in the fleece of
passing creatures, who thus transport the seeds from place to
place. An autumn tramp through our pastures will soon con-
vince one of the efficiency of this mode of dissemination.

A very familiar example of this kind we find in the common
burdock ; but the hooks of the burdock are insignificant affairs
compared with some which exist. In the Southern States grows a
fruit, Martynia proboscidea, having two recurving horns several
inches long. The appearance of the fruit would justify its having
an even more formidable name. Another fruit, HarpagopJiyton
by name, is a bristling mass of powerful hooks. It is said that
lions trying to free themselves from its clutches get it into the
mouth and die in torture. Instead of hooks, seeds sometimes
effect the same purpose by being sticky.

It is a suggestive fact that hooked fruits occur on low plants,
never on trees ; also that in geologic time hooks appeared simul-
taneously with land mammals.

Lastly, we must recollect that man himself disseminates seeds
in a thousand ways. War often introduces new plants into a
region. Commerce is of vast importance in this respect. In the
vicinity of our woolen mills a strange flora, from seeds intro-
duced with the raw wool, is struggling with native plants. Agri-
culture is certainly of unbounded effect in the way we are consid-
ering. In short, human will has almost limitless control over the
circumstances of plant life.

After dispersion most seeds simply rest on the ground to await
germination, perhaps protected by color resemblance, as in nuts,
or by mimicry, sometimes mimicking a dry twig to perfection.
Some seeds, though, do more than this. The parasitic seeds of
the mistletoe, dropped by birds on the boughs of trees, would soon
fall to the ground and die were they were not very sticky. The
seed of Mysodendron has three long, flexible appendages which
twine round any suitable branch to which it is blown.

There are a few seeds which literally corkscrew themselves into
the ground. One of our natives — Erodium, or cranesbill — has

ADAPTATIONS OF SEEDS AND FRUITS. 225

seeds which are small, pointed, and covered with hairs. The poste-
rior end is prolonged into a hairy, corkscrew-like awn, which twists
or untwists, according to the amount of moisture. This awn ends
in a feather-like affair with backward-pointed hairs. On moist
ground the seed-hairs stand out so as to place the seed-point down-
ward, and the awn untwists ; but the barbed feather preventing
upward movement, because it catches in the herbage, the seed is
forced into the soil. However, if the awn dries and contracts, the
feather is easily drawn down while the seed is not drawn up. By
successive moistenings and dryings the seed is ultimately driven
completely into the earth.

As to vitality, seeds present widest differences. Very short-
lived seeds are those of the coffee and magnolia. On the other
hand, under abnormal conditions, some seeds have retained vital-
ity for many centuries, apparently. Raspberry seeds, found in a
Celtic tumulus along with coins of the Emperor Hadrian, germi-
nated, according to good authority, after a possible interval of
several centuries. Other seeds from old Roman tombs grew after
a lapse of many hundred years, but these are exceptional in-
stances. Accurate experiments show that a few kinds live for
fifteen years, or thereabouts, while the majority are much shorter
lived. Stories of wheat raised from seed found in mummy wrap-
pings are founded upon no trustworthy evidence whatever.

When a forest has been removed by fire, or otherwise, it com-
monly happens that a fresh growth of entirely new plants im-
mediately springs up. This may be partly due to the unusual
opportunity for growth thus given to foreign seeds ; but the usu-
ally accepted explanation is that the new growth is from seeds
which have long lain dormant.

Finally, as regards germination, seeds accommodate themselves
to surrounding conditions with considerable readiness. Some
seeds are so tenacious of life as to germinate, not only when old,
but also when a large share of their food substance has been
destroyed, provided, of course, that the germ itself is uninjured.
No seed, however, will germinate without the proper amount of
moisture, free oxygen, and warmth, although other disadvantages
are often withstood successfully.

We have now described some of the more evident adaptations
to surroundings displayed in seeds and fruits, but by no means
all ; for here, as everywhere else, Nature presents a variety which
is almost infinite. Although endless differences in structure are
still unexplained, we must believe that they are adaptations to
circumstances present or past, and our knowledge leads us con-
fidently to expect that future discovery will reveal in increased
vastness the complexity of the relations by which everything in
Nature is adapted, more or less perfectly, to everything else.

VOL. XLIII. — 16

226 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

i
WHY GROW OLD?

BY DR. N. E. YORKE-DAVIES.

IT may seem a curious assertion to make, but it is nevertheless
an absolutely true one, namely, that a man's life is not meas-
ured by the years that he has lived, but by the way in which he
has spent them. Many a person may be as young and active at
seventy as another at twenty-five, and the length of his life, his
health, and his ability to enjoy green old age, depend in a great
measure on what the surroundings have been in the earlier years
of existence. It is perfectly true that every one may not be born
with a strong and healthy constitution. There are certain consti-
tutional defects that are hereditary in certain families, and these
under certain circumstances may influence length of life. For
instance, we may inherit the scrofulous taint and fall victims, if
not careful, in early life to consumption. We may inherit the
gouty taint, and be subject to all the ills that this disease entails
in middle age in those who do not learn how to diet themselves.
We may be born of families in whom the tendency to obesity is
more than usually developed, and this in advancing life may be a
serious drawback to comfort, and will undoubtedly tend to shorten
existence. But all these weaknesses and idiosyncrasies of in-
herited constitution may be wonderfully improved, and even,
eventually, entirely remedied, if in early life proper care in re-
gard to exercise, food, fresh air, and those surroundings which
tend to strengthen the system and improve constitutional stam-
ina, are made a part of the daily routine.

A boy or a girl should be trained to indulge in athletic exer-
cises of some kind, so that the habit of taking exercise may be-
come established, and this, once acquired, is seldom neglected even
as years advance. The boy who is fond of football, cricket, ten-
nis, and other athletic games will, from the simple love of emula-
tion, always keep up his muscular and nervous strength, and this
will stand him in good stead in middle age, and even in a greater
degree in old age.

In a former article in this magazine I gave some statistics
with regard to the after career of university men, and those
statistics proved that their lives were longer than those of others
who in college life were of a more sedentary habit. That is, they
lived and are living to beyond the average duration of life at any
given age. Some who have come to me of late, to remedy by
dietetic means — the only means I adopt — the tendency to obesity
or gout, have been fine specimens of physique.

We all know that a seed planted, whether it be a grain of
wheat or an acorn, depends for its proper development upon care-

WHY GROW OLD? 227

ful manuring and proper attention in its early existence, as to
whether it becomes a strong plant or dies in its infancy. If it is
planted in congenial soil, and is properly watered and cared for,
it will live and grow luxuriantly ; but if in improper soil, and left
to take care of itself, it will possibly soon die. It is the same
with a human being, and however weakly it may be as an infant,
if it is properly nursed and taken care of, the foundation is often
laid of a mature and sound constitution.

The law of the survival of the fittest may, in some instances,
be a cruel one; but it is a beneficent one, for it does not seem
right that those entering the world should be handicapped with
the weaknesses of their ancestors, and those who have the well-
being of the race at heart hold the opinion that constitutions that
inherit any strongly marked hereditary weakness should not be
allowed to contract obligations that may and will entail suffering
upon a future generation.

We do not attempt to rear plants and flowers from imperfect
specimens, nor does the agriculturist breed his stock from any
but the best and healthiest in any class that he may wish to
propagate, and surely the same amount of care and selection
should be used with regard to our own species. In the higher
ranks of life we see better specimens of the English race than in
the lower ones, for more care is exercised in this respect. Some-
thing more, of course, must be allowed for this greater care and
attention bestowed up to adolescence. Whereas it is estimated
that out of every million people born, only ninety thousand reach
the age of eighty, eleven thousand that of ninety, and two thou-
sand the age of ninety-five — really, treble that number should
reach these respective ages ; in fact, if all the surroundings of life
in every way were as they should be, there is no reason why six
times the number should not reach these ages.

Much of the comfort of middle and old age depends upon early
training and early feeding, and I refer here more particularly to
school life. Neither mind nor body should be forced. While the
intellectual faculties are being trained, the bodily requirements
should be attended to. The constitution is being built up during
the years that a boy is being educated for his pursuits in after
life. I can remember my own life at a well-known school in a
fashionable town five-and-thirty years ago, and I often wonder I
survived it when I recall many circumstances. No proper care
was taken of us; hunger, thirst, badly cooked meat and vege-
tables, sanitary defects, were the rule. Many a time, hungry as a
schoolboy should be, have I had put before me for dinner meat
that was scarcely warmed outside, and this or nothing had to be
my meal. Had it not been for an old man who used to come to
the playground selling buns and cakes, I do not know how at

228 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

times we should have endured the pangs of hunger, or subsisted
on the scanty fare allowed, even had it been properly cooked,
which it seldom was. Fortunately, nowadays, I believe, the cui-
sine in public schools is much improved, and more care is taken
that growing boys should have a sufficiency of those foods that
lay the foundations of a sound constitution in after life. A parent
would do well, before sending his progeny to school, to see that
the ventilation of the rooms, the sanitary arrangements of the
school, and the diet and the capabilities for gymnastics and out-
door exercise are adequate. These things are of as much, if not
of more, importance than the knowledge of Greek and dead lan-
guages, etc. There is every reason why, while the intellectual
faculties are being trained, proper care should be taken of the
material part ; in fact, a boy's mind can not be stored with in-
formation which may be useful to him in after life and the health
maintained at a standard to resist disease, if, at the same time, the
brain is not fed by proper food, and the constitutional stamina
kept up by exercise and fresh air.

There are some diseases due to carelessness in early life that
leave traces that may handicap their possessor throughout exist-
ence, and possibly the worst of all is rheumatic fever. In this
case, mischief may be done to the heart that can never be reme-
died, and therefore it is necessary in the days of adolescence,
when the individual is careless of consequences, that a boy or a
girl should be properly clad, and more especially that the cover-
ing next the skin should be flannel. The tendency that rapid
changes of temperature have to induce this disease where an indi-
vidual inherits the gouty and rheumatic diathesis, should make
its prevention a matter of great importance, and much may be
done by forethought and care to obviate the risk. Another result
of school life that may bear bitter fruit in after life, that never
seems to have attracted the attention it should do, is that the
weak and the strong are allotted the same amount of intellectual
work. This should not be. " The wind should be tempered to
the shorn lamb," and the amount of intellectual work of each boy
should bear some proportion to his physical and mental power.

Of course, it would be useless to expect the young to apply to
themselves rules that bear fruit when they get to middle and old
age. They are too young to have forethought and to understand
that, like a bottle of new port, they ought to carefully mature,
so as to improve as time goes on. It is a melancholy circum-
stance, as I have seen even recently, a lad, unfortunately left with
boundless wealth and a great name, beginning life at seventeen
years of age, and becoming a prematurely old man at twenty-four,
and there are few medical men of large experience who can not
recall numerous instances of men who have overdrawn their con-

WHY GROW OLD? 229

stitutional bank before the age of twenty to such an extent that
the account can never be placed on the right side on this side the
grave.

If I were asked what factors would conduce to green old age,
and the ability to enjoy life to past the eighties, I should say it
was a matter of plenty of good food, fresh air, and exercise in
early life. But, alas ! how few people take the trouble to consider
for one moment what food would be most suitable for their par-
ticular requirements, or the requirements of their children, at a
time when this is all-important ! We can not put old heads on
young shoulders, but we can suggest to those who have young
lives in their charge that they have a serious trust, and what their
duty is in this respect.

We know that meat and bread furnish all that is necessary to
sustain life, but, of course, we do not live on meat and bread
alone. The ordinary living is made up of thousands of different
articles in daily use. Still, there are certain rules that particu-
larly apply in this way, that certain constitutions require a larger
proportion of one particular class of food than other constitutions,
and the man who does a large amount of physical labor requires
a different mode of dieting from one who is sedentary. It would
be impossible to enter into a subject of this kind at length in a
short article. Diet, however, undoubtedly has much to do with
long life, and this more especially applies in its application to the
particular calling of each individual. The engine of an express
train is coaled differently from that of a slow one. A race-horse
is fed and exercised differently from a cart-horse, etc.

A man brought up in an active occupation that entails a cer-
tain amount of muscular exercise can take an amount of food
that a man of sedentary habits would not stand, and therefore a
certain difference should be made in the composition of the diet
taken by the two. Food is simply fuel, and in a general way an-
swers the same purpose.

As Dr. B. W. Richardson, in his interesting work, Diseases of
Modern Life, observes : " The English middle class, who may be
exhibited as types of comfortable people, moderately provided for,
take on an average twelve ounces of mixed solid food for break-
fast, twelve ounces for midday meal, or luncheon, and from twenty
to thirty ounces for their late modern dinner or ancient supper.
A total of from forty-fiye to fifty ounces of solid sustenance is in
fact taken, to which is added from fifty to sixty ounces of fluid in
the way of tea, coffee, water, beer, wine. This excess is at least
double the quantity required for the sustainment of their mental
and bodily labor."

He then gives a good illustration of this, and says : " I was
once consulted in respect to the symptoms with which the idle in-

23o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

mates of a large and wealthy establishment suffered. I was told
that an affection very much like dysentery had become developed,
and was unusually obstinate of cure. The water supply of the
establishment, the drainage, the ventilation, had all in turn been
blamed, and altered to no effect. I found the unfortunate suffer-
ers were sitting down regularly to four heavy meals a day, with
animal food at each meal ; that they took between meals no exer-
cise adequate for utilizing a little of the potential energy that was
stowed up in their tightly packed organisms.

" This one fact seemed to me sufficient to account for the phe-
nomenon, and the instant relief that followed the cruel prescrip-
tion of e double the work and halve the food ' was proof direct
that the process of cure was immediate."

This quotation I reproduce as illustrating what I have pointed
out, that the amount of food should be adapted to the require-
ments of the system, and to the amount of physical or intellectual
work done, if it is not to be harmful in some way. If these indi-
viduals had been huntsmen or whippers-in to a pack of hounds,
the food would probably have been just sufficient for the require-
ments of the system. If we want to see good illustrations of green
old age, we must look for it in men who are noted for their physi-
cal and intellectual vigor ; and a man who takes active exercise,
whether in cutting down trees or in brisk walking and other
physical pursuits, and in addition to this does plenty of brain
work, lives carefully, and drinks but very moderately, may, long
after he is an octogenarian, control the destinies of a mighty na-
tion, and give indications of mental and bodily vigor that would
shame many half his age. The wiry frame of such a man will be
vigorous when the obese and sedentary individual of the same
age has drifted into senility and second childhood.

There is no more fatal barrier to long life than obtains in the
case of a man who has until middle age been used to active occu-
pation, and been employed in business pursuits that have en-
grossed his time and energies, and then suddenly retires to a life
of ease, luxury, and enjoyment. The revulsion that such a change
entails seems to throw the whole human machine out of gear.
The surroundings in the way of diet and exercise are seldom con-
sidered and adapted to the altered circumstances, and the result
is that the different organs that looked to the stimulation of active
occupation to keep them in working order, become clogged with
waste ; and those diseases that depend upon such a state of affairs,
such as congested liver, indigestion, obesity, gout, bronchial trou-
bles, etc., soon manifest themselves. Does not this equally apply
to any piece of mechanism ? Even take a clock, for instance ; if
dust, rust, and dirt are allowed to accumulate in its working parts,
how soon (be its steel ever so highly tempered) does the friction

WHY GROW OLD? 231

of adventitious matter throw its harmony of movement out of
order !

Work of some kind or another seems essential to the well-being
of the human organism. Even a machine keeps in better order
when it is worked, looked after, and oiled, than when it is neg-
lected and allowed to rust. Up to middle age persons may in-
dulge in any amount of hard physical exercise — that is, if they
are wiry and of proper physical proportion ; but if a tendency to
corpulency supervenes, certain changes in the blood-vessels and
other organs, on whose healthy action robust health depends, take
place. These become weakened and altered in texture, so that
any attempt at undue exercise is attended with a certain amount
of risk. Hence, any one who wishes to live to old age, and enjoy
it, should look with anxiety at the first indication of corpulency.
How many patients have consulted me to whom I have pointed
out personally, or by correspondence, that they have carried for
years an unnecessary burden in the way of surplus weight ; and
after, by proper dietic treatment, they have been relieved of it,
with improvement in health and condition, they have regretted
that for so many years they should have been weighted with a
useless and uncomfortable load.

Of course, the tendency to corpulency is a very common one,
and I know of no condition that tends to shorten life and to make
it more of a misery, especially as years advance. The extra work
of carrying unnecessary fat entailed on the heart alone is quite
sufficient to shorten life ; but, worse than this even, it lays the
system more open to congestive diseases, and less able to bear
treatment for their cure. It is the greatest bar to enjoyable old
age. I suppose my experience of this condition is exceptional, as
I devote the whole of my professional time to remedying it and a
few other diseases of malnutrition, by a system of scientific diet-
ing now well known. As this condition is the result of taking
certain foods in undue proportions, its remedy lies in properly
apportioning these ; and as soon as those who unduly increase in
weight are taught what the injurious ingredients of their daily
diet are, and advised to curtail them for a time, the result is that
they lose unnecessary tissue rapidly and safely, with improvement
in every way.

For a month or two the daily intake of food and its constitu-
ents must be carefully adjusted. No purgative or other medicine
is necessary for the purpose ; indeed, violent purgative medicines
are absolutely injurious, as they simply wash the food through,
without giving it time to nourish the system, and debility, palpi-
tation of the heart, and loss of condition result. Of course, a
little mild aperient, in the shape of some natural mineral water,
such as the Franz Josef, is always harmless, and most people,

232 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

from errors in diet, require something of this kind occasionally.
Electrical appliances and electric baths are quite useless as fat-
reducing agents. Quack remedies of all descriptions should be
avoided like poison ; if they reduce weight they do it at the ex-
pense of health. Of this I have seen repeated examples, and this
induces me more particularly to make these observations.

The meager diet and quantity of water drunk at some of the
spas abroad, of course, clears the system of waste ; but this is only
a temporary benefit, as the individual is not taught what little
alteration he should permanently make in his diet. He comes
home to his luxurious surroundings, and rapidly recharges the
system with fat, gout poison, and other injurious products that
form the elements of certain food which he takes in too great
excess.

Exercise, proper selection in diet, and a little abstinence are
better means of warding off an attack of gout than all the spas in
existence, and the symptoms of an impending attack are well
known to sufferers. As soon as the system is overcharged with
the poison, an acute attack comes on. How much better to pre-
vent the system being charged at all with an unnecessary poison,
and this is only to be done by a proper selection in diet ! Hard-
worked laborers and the poor never suffer from gout, and the
Scotch are entirely free. It is a disease of overfeeding — more
especially in certain articles of food and drink — and underwork-
ing, and entails on its victim much misery, if not worse, and his
progeny inherit the curse for generations after.

The evils that arise from errors in diet are properly remedied
by diet. An excess of fat invariably depends upon the individual
indulging to too great an extent in sweets and farinaceous food,
and in not taking sufficient exercise to work it off. The surplus
in such a case becomes stored in the system as fat, and can easily,
as previously pointed out, be got rid of by a properly constructed
dietary. This may be very liberal indeed, but all fat-forming in-
gredients must be carefully cut off. I have known twenty-five
pounds of fat lost in a month by dietetic means alone, with vast
improvement in the general health and condition. Indeed, a loss
of surplus fat always means a great improvement in condition as
well as in activity and vigor.*

Different constitutions have peculiarities in regard to the way
in which they assimilate food, and the old adage that what is one
man's meat is another's poison is a very true one. There is no ail-
ment more common in middle life and in old age than indigestion.
This, of course, depends upon improper food taken too frequently

* See Foods for the Fat : the Dietetic Cure of Corpulency, by Dr. Yorke-Davies. Lon-
don : Chatto & Windus.

WHY GROW OLD?

233

and in undue quantity. As a rule, the victim of indigestion flies
to medicines for relief, or to one of the thousand-and-one quack
remedies that are advertised to cure everything.

How much more rational would it not be to alter the diet, and
to give the stomach the food for which it is craving! If the
stomach could talk, I can imagine it, after pills, and gin and bit-
ters, and quack remedies of every description have been poured
into it, begging to be relieved of such horrors, and saying, " Give
me a little rest, and a cup of beef tea and a biscuit, and go and
take a little fresh air and exercise yourself." Instead of this, the
miserable organ has to be dosed with all sorts of horrible concoc-
tions in the way of drugs, brandies and sodas, and champagne, to
endeavor to stimulate it into action. There is no doubt that the
stomach that requires stimulants and potions to enable it to act
efficiently, can hardly be said to be in a healthy state, or can long
continue to do its work properly.

The digestive organs, unfortunately, are the first to sympathize
with any mental worry. They are like a barometer, and indicate
the errors of malnutrition and their consequences. The healthy
action of every organ depends upon the proper assimilation of
the food taken. As soon as the digestive process fails, every-
thing fails, and ill-health results with all its disastrous con-
comitants.

Indigestion is more particularly the ailment of those engaged
in sedentary pursuits, and if a person who is frequently the victim
of it would, instead of flying to drugs, try such a diet as the fol-
lowing for a few days, he would not regret doing so. At least,
this is my experience :

He should begin the day at 7 A. M. with a tumbler of milk and
soda water, or a cup of Liebig's beef tea, or of bovril. At half
past seven he should take a tepid or cold sponge bath and rub the
skin thoroughly with a coarse towel or, better still, before the
bath, with a massage rubber. At half past eight for his break-
fast, one or two cups of weak tea, with a little milk and no sugar.
A little stale bread or dry toast. A grilled sole or whiting, or the
lean of an underdone mutton chop, or a newly laid egg lightly
boiled. For luncheon at one, a few oysters and a cut of a loin of
mutton, some chicken or game, or any other light digestible meat.
A little stale bread and a glass of dry sherry or moselle. Such a
one should avoid afternoon tea as he would poison, and at six or
seven have his dinner, which should consist of plainly cooked fish,
mutton, venison, chicken, grouse, partridge, hare, pheasant, tripe
boiled in milk, sweetbread, lamb, roast beef, and stale bread.
French beans, cauliflower, asparagus, vegetable marrow, or sea
kale, may be used as vegetable, and half a wineglassful of cognac
in water may be drunk. If he takes wine, one or two glasses of

234 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

dry sherry after dinner, and before retiring to bed a cup of Lie-
big's beef tea and a biscuit may be taken.

During the day brisk walking exercise to an extent short of
fatigue should be indulged in, or riding or cycling, as the case
may be.

Such an individual in a few days would find himself a differ-
ent person. Slight ailments of this kind, and errors of malnutri-
tion, are much better treated by diet than by medicine. Of
course, there are certain habits that are not conducive to long
life, such as immoderate indulgence in the passions, whatever
they may be, and the abuse of alcohol. There is no reason why a
man should not enjoy, in moderation, all the good things of this
life, and really the enjoyment of them means taking them in
moderation. The man who enjoys wine is the man who takes just
sufficient to do him good, and the man who drinks wine to excess,
and suffers the next morning from headache as a consequence,
can not be said to do so. Excess in alcoholic stimulants in early
life means sowing seeds that will bear bitter fruit in mature age
— if the individual lives to see it. The habit of " nipping " is con-
ducive to shortening life more than any other habit. It stimu-
lates the different organs of the body into unnatural activity, and
the result is that certain of them, such as the liver and the heart,
by the work thrown upon them, become, through the enlargement
and engorgement of their tissues with blood, diseased after a
time. This leads to their being useless as organs of elimination
or of healthy structure, with the result that, when middle age is
just over, the individual becomes prone to such complaints as
Bright's disease, dropsy, cirrhosis of the liver, and other vital in-
dications of decay. These habits are acquired in early life. The
wind is sown then and the whirlwind is reaped later on. It is
seldom that the young will learn the importance of, if I may so
express it, training for old age, but there are exceptions to this
rule. Only a few days ago a man came to consult me ; he be-
longed to the luxurious classes, and, though only twenty-three
years of age, seemed to have the forethought of a man of sixty.
A fine, handsome young fellow of nearly six feet, he said to me :
" Doctor, as most of my family have died young through becom-
ing excessively fat, I want to know what I am to do to avoid this.
I am already heavier than I should be." Now, a man in the full
enjoyment of health and bodily vigor, who had so much fore-
sight, and who wished to learn the means of attaining green old
age, which he saw would be sapped by a hereditary tendency to
obesity, undoubtedly deserves to do so, especially as the particu-
lar condition that he dreads can be so easily benefited without
debarring him almost every luxury within his reach.

If more people followed this example, how many years longer

WHY GROW OLD? 235

would the average life be, and how much more pleasant would
life become! One of the greatest barriers to the enjoyment of
life in old age is the condition that this young man dreaded ; and
my experience is that the food of old people is by no means
always what it is wise for them to take. It seems to be the gen-
eral opinion that old people should be always eating, that they
should be stuffed, and that farinaceous food is what they should
principally take. This, every one knows, tends to develop corpu-
lency, which is, as I have explained, a most undesirable con-
dition.

I find that if old people are put on a good meat diet in the way
of strong soup, beef tea, and animal food, and only just sufficient
farinaceous food and fats and sugar to maintain the heat of the
body, they increase wonderfully in energy and, as they often ex-
press it, feel twenty years younger. This is only natural ; it is a
food of energy ; the food that builds up muscle, nerve, and con-
stitutional stamina.

The requirements of the system in old age, as a rule, are not
very great, and more harm is done by taking too much food than
by taking too little. I have known people considerably over
seventy derive the greatest benefit from a thorough change in
diet. It seems to rejuvenate them. Of course, in old age care
should be taken that the body is not subjected to rapid changes
of temperature. When the nervous power is decreasing as the
result of age, and the system is losing the power of combating
cold and strain upon its energy, a stimulating diet invigorates,
and is conducive to maintaining constitutional stamina better
than any other.

Any natural death but from old age and general decay is an
accidental death; that is, it is due to causes which might, and
even perhaps could, have been entirely avoided and remedied in
earlier years. But, of course, all the secrets of attaining extreme
age are not even now within our reach, and the few that I have
pointed out are but a very few, and those of the commonest. It
is the inevitable law of Nature that we must die. The vital en-
ergy that is implanted in the body at birth is only meant to sus-
tain it for a certain number of years. It may be husbanded or
wasted, made to burn slowly or rapidly. It is like the oil in a
lamp, and may be burned out to little effect in a little time, or
carefully husbanded and preserved, and thus made to last longer
and burn brighter. It is a moot question whether every indi-
vidual is not at birth gifted with the same amount of vital energy
and of life-sustaining power. The probability is that each is.
The circumstances of the environment from the cradle to the
grave determine its future destiny.

It is a well-known fact that half of the infants born in certain

236 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

crowded streets in Liverpool die before they arrive at the age of
one year, whereas, under ordinary or healthy surroundings, a half
would not die within the first five years of life. Why is this so?
Simply because the surroundings are so detrimental to healthy
development. Again, consumption is fatal to sixty thousand
people in England alone, annually, and this is a disease born of
hereditary taint, due to unhealthy surroundings and other health-
depressing influences. In fact, as I have before said, most of the
diseases which destroy in early life are due to causes which ought
not to exist, and in time, as sanitary science advances, will not
exist. We know that already the improved sanitation of the
country is bearing fruit, that the average life is lengthening year
by year, that many diseases that carried off tens of thousands in
the days of our grandfathers are almost harmless now.

Smallpox has lost its terrors. The causes of such fatal diseases
as typhoid, diphtheria, etc., are well established, and doubtless, in
time, these plagues will be rooted out.

Last year we escaped an epidemic that might have carried off
hundreds of thousands, and why ? Because we know its ways,
and have not allowed it to spread in the country. The highest
duty of the state is to guard the health of the people, and public
opinion of recent years is waking up to this fact. An epidemic is
no respecter of persons ; it may have its origin in the hovel of a
pauper, but its baneful influence reaches the lordly palace of the
noble, and it ingulfs all classes in its deadly embrace. The aris-
tocrat and the plebeian are socially separated by a very wide gulf,
but as far as epidemic disease goes they are conterminous. Social
distinctions are no barrier when the angel of death is following in
the wake of those plagues that destroy life before its natural ter-
mination in old age and general decay.

To sum up, if old age is to be put off to its furthest limits, the
individual who wishes to attain it should live carefully up to
middle age, taking plenty of exercise, and so adapting the diet
that corpulency, gout, and other diseases due to taking too much
and improper food without doing sufficient physical work to con-
sume it, can not be developed. Mental and physical occupation
are an absolute necessity, if the constitution is to be kept in
healthy working order, and this applies equally to both sexes.
The human economy will rust out before it will wear out, and
there are more killed by idleness than by hard work. Human
energy must have some outlet, and if that outlet is not work of
some kind, habits are acquired that are not always conducive to
long life.

Old age is the proper termination of human life, and, as Cicero
says : " The happiest ending is when, with intellect unimpaired,
and the other senses uninjured, the same Nature which put to-

WHY GROW OLD? 237

gether the several parts of the machine takes her own work to
pieces. As the person who has built a ship or a house likewise
takes it down with the greatest ease, so the same Nature which
glued together the human machine takes it asunder most skill-
fully."

Death by extreme old age may be considered the desirable end
of a long-continued and at times weary journey. The pilgrim be-
gins it in infancy, full of hope and lifej continues it through
adolescence in its roseate hue ; and onward until middle age, with
its cares and anxieties, begins to dispel the illusion. Then comes
the time of life when vitality begins to decline, and the body to
lose its capacity for enjoyment ; then comes the desire for rest,
the feeling that foreshadows the great change ; and if this occurs
in extreme age, the sufferer seems to fall asleep, as he might do
after severe fatigue.

So the long and, in many cases, the weary pilgrimage of life is
brought to a close with little apparent derangement of mental
powers ; the final scene may be short and painless, and the phe-
nomena of dying almost imperceptible. The senses fail as if sleep
were about to intervene, the perception becomes gradually more
and more obtuse, and by degrees the aged man seems to pass into
his final slumber.

In such an end the stock of nerve-power is exhausted — the
marvelous and unseen essence, that hidden mystery, that man
with all his powers of reasoning, that physiology with all the aid
that science has lent it, and the genius of six thousand years, has
failed to fathom. In that hour is solved that secret, the mystery
of which is only revealed when the Book of Life is closed forever.
Then, we may hope, when Nature draws the veil over the eye that
is glazing on this world, at that same moment she is opening to
some unseen but spiritual eye a vista, the confines of which are
only wrapped by the everlasting and immeasurable bounds of
eternity. — The Gentleman's Magazine.

G. A. LEBORET, writing of the late disaster at St. Gervais, Switzerland, from
the breaking of a glacial dam, and recalling other stupendous calamities of like
character, charges British geologists, living in a country where Nature's moods
are mild, with being too averse to admitting cataclysmal phenomena and of being
disposed unconsciously to belittle and almost ignore the occasional violent action
of the various rock-destroyers. With such catastrophes in mind as have occurred
several times in the Alps, of which that of St. Gervais is only one specimen ;
with the flood in the Indus in 1835, beside which these sink into insignificance —
and not forgetting our Johnstown flood — one must hesitate before assigning too
uniform a degree of intensity to the various agents of denudation; nor can one
easily avoid the conclusion that, as regards some of them, their rate of work was
occasionally far greater in past than in present times.

238 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

CHILDREN'S QUESTIONS.

MY little daughter is sitting very quietly on the floor beside
me, busily engaged in arranging her colored house blocks
in streets and lanes. She seems so completely absorbed in her play
that I am careful not to speak to her, or even to look at her, lest I
should disturb her. Suddenly, however, she drops her little houses
and, looking earnestly at me with her blue eyes, she asks :

" Mother, does everybody die ? "

" Yes, dear ; everybody," I answer, struck by her question.

" The very good ones too ? " she questions on timidly.

" Yes, the good ones too. God takes them to him because he
loves them, and wants them to be with him in his beautiful
heaven."

For a while the little one remains quiet ; then again, coming
up and nestling at my side, she says :

" Mother, wouldn't it be all the same to the loving God if he
didn't take me into heaven, but left me always here with you ? "

Drawing her closer to me, I try by caresses and loving words
to calm all the doubts of her little heart. She is in an inquiring
mood, however, and shortly begins anew :

" Mother, does the angel who brings the little babies carry them
in a box or just in his hand ? "

Unprepared for this question, I answer hesitatingly, " No, not
in a box."

" But they have dresses on, haven't they ? "

" No, darling, the little babies come naked into this world."

" But then, mother, how can the parents tell whether it is a girl
or a boy ?"

Once more I am at a loss, but make out to say, " Oh, we see
that in their faces."

The little one is satisfied for the moment, for she turns again
to her toys. Suddenly an idea strikes her. " Mother, father said
the other day that I had the face of a boy. Perhaps I am not a
girl at all." This time I can answer without hesitation: "No,
dear, you are certainly mother's own dear little girl. But now
don't ask any more questions, but come and help me to bake in
the kitchen."

The child is quite content to do as I say, and, following me, de-
votes her mind with as much seriousness to the cooking, or rather
to watching it, as she had before shown in trying to arrive at the
origin of mankind. Truly, there is something wonderful in the
growing mind of a child. The world and life are full of insoluble
problems for the adult understanding, but to the mind of a child
every new phase of things comes as a riddle and a mystery. What

CHILDREN'S QUESTIONS. 239

wonder, therefore, if in their struggle for knowledge, and the
efforts they make to leari| from the experience of their elders, their
whole being becomes, as it were, one big, interminable question !

At times, of course, it can not be denied, the questions become
irksome, but who would wish a child to ask no questions ? Julius
Sturm tells, in one of his pretty fairy tales, how a grandfather,
driven into impatience by the constant questionings of his grand-
child, exclaimed, " I wish your tongue were out of joint ! " but
when, unexpectedly, his wish was fulfilled, and the child became
dumb, how he joyfully exchanged one of the two years which an
angel had prophesied he was yet to live for the privilege of hear-
ing the little one's prattle again.

A child whose questions are not answered by its parents will
either turn to others who are willing to gratify its desire for knowl-
edge, but who perhaps are unable to distinguish between what
is good for a child to know and what is not, or else it will lose its
fine natural susceptibility, and learn to look upon life in a dull,
spiritless way, without interest or curiosity. Worse, however,
than not answering a child's questions is to ridicule them. Noth-
ing wounds a child so deeply as finding its inexperience abused
and its earnestly-meant questions made the subject of mockery.
How common a thing it is to hear a child's question impatiently
and even contemptuously condemned as " silly " I Yet, in most
cases of the kind, the silliness is not with the child, but with the
older person who fails to understand how a child's mind works.
Every child has involuntarily a feeling of distrust for grown-up
people, which is only expelled through trust in the love of its
parents. This trust once thoughtlessly abused and shaken may
perhaps never be restored to its original purity and strength ; and
who could have the heart deliberately to impair such sweet con-
fidence ?

It is true children sometimes ask questions which it is not easy
to answer, at least not in the short, simple form suited to the
mind of the questioner. For example :

"Do the little sparrows know they are sparrows ? "

" Do animals go to heaven, too ? "

" Can God do everything ? »

" Can he make my birthday come twice in one year ? "

Or, again :

" Why does the fire burn ? "

"Why is ice cold?"

To answer such questions may baffle our knowledge, but we
should at least make an honest and patient effort to say something
helpful. If we can not give all the light we could wish, we can at
least give sympathy and encouragement. — Translated for The Pop-
ular Science Monthly from the German, by F. M. J.

24o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

EAST CENTRAL AFRICAN CUSTOMS.

BY JAMES MACDONALD.
PART II.

AN institution peculiar to Central Africa is the prophetess,*
who combines with her prophetic functions the office of
witch detective. As she is the most terrible character met with in
village life, a detailed account of her office and method of pro-
cedure may be interesting. It is to the prophetess the gods or
ancestral spirits make known their will. This they do by direct
appearance, and in dreams or visions. The prophetess, who is
frequently the chief's free wife, dreams her dreams and then gives
forth oracles at intervals, according to the exigencies of the case.
These are generally delivered in a kind of hysterical frenzy.
When she sees the gods face to face, which always happens at the
dead hour of night, she begins by raving and screaming. This
she continues till the whole village is astir, and she herself utterly
prostrated by her exertions. She then throws herself on the
ground, and remains in a state of catalepsy for some time, while
the villagers gather round her, awe-stricken, waiting for her rev-
elations. At last she speaks, and her words are accepted without
question as the oracles of God. Has she not seen the ancestors
face to face ? Has she not heard their voice sending a message
to their children ? Is she not their friend, to whom they have
shown favor ? Must not all hear the words of those who have
gone before ?

After these revelations, the prophetess may impose impossible
tasks on men, and they will be attempted without question. She
may order human sacrifices, and no one will deny her victims.
Suppose she, for any reason, declares that a person must be offered
in sacrifice to a mountain deity — for there are gods of the valleys
and gods of the hills, deities of the rivers and of the forests — the
victim is conducted to a spot indicated by her, and bound hand
and foot to a tree. If during the first night he is killed by beasts
of prey, the gods have accepted the sacrifice, and feast " on his
fat/7 which is "as the smell of spices in their nostrils." Should
the victim not be devoured, he is left to die of starvation, or is
thrown into lake or river with a sinker attached. " The slave was
not worthy of the god's acceptance. He is worth nothing to any
one." Fowls and other animals killed in sacrifice are not burned ;
they are simply left near the " prayer tree," and when devoured
during the night the sacrifice is accepted. Among the tribes

* Walolo tribe and Lake Shirwa district generally.

EAST CENTRAL AFRICAN CUSTOMS. 241

farther south, animals sacrificed are cooked and eaten, with the
exception of the sacred portions, which are burned with fire.

As a detective of wizards and witches, the prophetess is in con-
stant demand. When traveling on official duty in this capacity,
she goes accompanied by a strong guard, and when she orders a
meeting of a clan or tribe, attendance is compulsory on pain of
confessed guilt. When all are assembled, our friend, who is clad
with a scanty loin-cloth of leopard skin, and literally covered from
head to foot with rattles and fantasies, rushes about among the
crowd. She shouts and rants and raves in the most frantic man-
ner, after which, assuming a calm, judicial aspect, she goes from
one to another, touching each person's hand. As she touches the
hand of the bewitcher she starts back with a loud shriek, and
yells : " This is he, the murderer ; blood is in his hand ! " I am not
certain if the accused has a right to demand the mwai, but it ap-
pears this may be allowed. My impression is that the law does
not require it, and that the prophetess's verdict is absolute and
final. The condemned man is put to death, witchcraft being a
capital crime in all parts of Africa. But the accuser is not con-
tent with simply discovering the culprit. She proves his guilt.
This she does by "smelling out" — finding — the " horns " he used
in the prosecution of the unlawful art. These are generally the
horns of a small species of antelope, and which are par excellence
" witch's horns." The prophetess " smells out " the horns by going
along the bank of a stream, carrying a water vessel and an ordinary
hoe. At intervals she lifts water from the stream, which she pours
upon the ground, and then stoops to listen. She hears subter-
ranean voices directing her to the wizard's hiding place, at which,
when she arrives, she begins to dig with her hoe, muttering incan-
tations the while, and there she finds the horns deposited near the
stream to poison the water drunk by the person to be bewitched.
As they are dug from the ground, should any one, not a magician,
touch them, even accidentally, the result would be instant death.

Now, how does the detective find the horns? By what devil's
art does she hit upon the spot where they are concealed ? The ex-
planation is very simple. Wherever she is employed she must
spend a night in the village before commencing operations. She
does not retire to rest like the other villagers, but wanders about
the live-long night, listening to spirit voices. If she sees a poor
wight outside his house after the usual hour for retiring, she
brings that up against him next day as evidence of guilty inten-
tion, and that, either on his own account, or on account of his
friend the wizard, he meant to steal away to dig up the horns.
The dread of such dire consequences keeps the villagers within
doors, leaving the sorceress the whole night to arrange for the
tableau of the following day.

VOL. XLIII. — 17

242 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

In addition to the horns, arms and pieces of human flesh may
be dug up in suspicious places, and this is the carrion on which
witches and wizards feed. Any one tasting a morsel of such food
is himself thereby converted into a wizard. Witches and wizards
have midnight feasts, so says the legend, at which they gorge
themselves with human carrion. Hence it is that in many parts
the dead are not buried till putrefaction sets in, and graves are
watched a considerable period after interment. The detective
may not be known as such to a wizard, and may pretend to follow
the same art in order to gain his confidence. If, then, the wizard
offers the detective human carrion, no further proof of guilt is
needed. Whether such food is ever offered to these rogues it is
difficult to say, as their word is accepted without question or
inquiry.

Witches can cause milk to flow down through a straw from the
roof of a house,* and by this means rob their neighbors of the
milk of their goats and cows. When I read of this superstition
for the first time it reminded me of an incident, connected with a
similar Celtic superstition, which happened in Sutherlandshire
about twelve years ago. In that region a superstition still lingers
that witches can " steal the feet " of cows by walking through the
fields while the dew is on the grass, dragging a rope made of cow-
hair after them. A Thurso mason, well acquainted with north
country superstitions, was employed in the district at the time re-
ferred to, and got a quantity of new milk daily from a crofter's
wife. At the beginning of August she sent to say she could no
longer let him have new milk, as that went to the shooting lodge,
but he could have milk from which the cream had been taken.
The wily rogue sent her the following message : " Tell your moth-
er I do not wish to be nasty, but I must have new milk, if not
by fair means, then otherwise. I shall take it from the rafters of
the house rather than want." Next morning the girl appeared
with skimmed milk, thin and blue. Malcolm had meantime made
his preparations. He had bored one of the roof couples, and fixed
a bladder filled with milk in the thatch so as to empty its contents
through the hole when required. He then carefully plugged the
hole. When he saw the quality of the milk sent, he asked the
girl into the house that she might see what happened there. He
next took an auger and bored the plug away, when down came a
stream of rich milk and cream. After that he had but to ask
what he required. No one dared refuse his most extravagant de-
mands. His reputation as a wizard spread far and near over the
country side, and still lingers there among the superstitious.

Wizards visit their victims while asleep, and " instill " a power-

* This is pretty general in East Central and South Africa.

EAST CENTRAL AFRICAN CUSTOMS. 243

f ul poison, known only to themselves, into the ear.* For this there
is no cure ; the patient withers away, and dies " when all the flesh
has melted off the bones." They bewitch fowls, cattle, crops,
everything a man possesses. They make his wives barren, and
himself incapable of begetting children. They put enmity be-
tween him and his friends. In one word, there is no evil but they
practice, and a great deal of the legislation of the country is de-
signed to put down this crime, and punish those who are found
guilty of it.

In South Africa war resolves itself into a cattle hunt ; in the
lake region of East Central Africa it is largely a slave hunt. A
dangerous neighbor or rival can be effectually curbed by carrying
away a large number of his subjects and sending them to mar-
ket. This resolves war largely into raiding by means of a sudden
and unexpected descent. The elaborate preparation of the South
would warn the whole country, and while the doctor was engaged
" charming " the army, and distributing magic tokens to render
the braves invulnerable, the enemy would have put " seven hills "
between himself and the advance column. All the same, there is
a close resemblance between the war usages of the South and
what we find in Central Africa. There we find, especially among
the Angoni, the Basuto habit of cutting out an enemy's heart and
liver, and eating them on the spot. We also find the habit of
mutilation, for the purpose of reducing the parts to ashes, to be
stirred into a broth or gruel, which must be " lapped "up with the
hand and thrown into the mouth, but not eaten as ordinary food
is taken, to give the soldiers courage, perseverance, fortitude,
strategy, patience, and wisdom. Should a brave leader retire to
a mountain, and die there unconquered, his spirit becomes, accord-
ing to Yao tradition, the guardian of the rain clouds that gather
there, and to him offerings and prayers are presented at the great
national gatherings for rain. Mantanga inhabits Mangohi, the
mountain the Yao remember as their home, and to him they pray
and sacrifice for rain. He is liberal to his children, and bestows
great plenty. Chitowe, on the other hand, is surly, and is associ-
ated with drought, famine, and leanness. He sometimes appears
as an emaciated child or a young woman. These, and many others,
are the spirits of warriors who perished centuries before the white
man came to bring a new and terrible implement of destruction,
and to introduce strange customs and stranger gods to people
whose ways have been uniform since before the Flood.

Death is largely caused by wizards. The very introduction of
death into the world has a suspicious look of witchcraft about it ;
in any case, it was caused by a woman who taught two men to go

* Manganga, Angoni, Yao, Walolo.

244 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to sleep. One day while they slumbered, she, more cruel than
Jael, held the nostrils of one till his breath ceased and he died.*
So it happens that " death and sleep are one word." When a man
dies, if his death was caused by witchcraft, there is no safety for
any one till the suspected person drinks the poison bowl. How
such are discovered has been already indicated ; the poor wretch
who must drink the poison may be the man's most intimate
friend, his nearest relative, or perhaps his wife. There are even
occasions when a large quantity of mwai is prepared and num-
bers take it together. In this case wizards and witches are
" cleaned out " wholesale. The practice is not uncommon on the
Shire and the Zambesi.

Apart from the discovery of the culprit, the dead are mourned
for by a persistent beating of drums by night and by day,f and
also by a continued howling kept up by relatives and others, of
whom many may be hired for the occasion. The louder the drum-
ming, the greater the grief. Relatives shave their heads, and in
the case of a chief this is done by all his tribesmen. At the grave
offerings are made, and the same is continued for a varying period
at the votive pot placed on the site of the deceased's house.

At times, in the case of persons of social importance, as gen-
erals in the army and councilors, mourning is prolonged for many
days before sepulture takes place, and in that case the body is in-
cased in bark and placed in a suitable position, with a hole dug in
the floor underneath to receive the decomposed and putrefied mat-
ter which exudes from it. The body is ultimately buried in the
house, which is razed, and the materials carried away, that the
spot may be leveled and a votive pot placed there. A slave is
frequently killed and put in the same grave with his deceased
master, that the latter may not have " to go alone." Enemies
killed in war are not buried.

When sepulture is to occur in the usual place, and according
to the general custom of the country, the body is wrapped in a
mat, usually the person's bed, and a curious custom observed by
Yao and Wayisa, who perform this office, is washing their hands
as a ceremonial act. This is quite distinct from the idea of un-
cleanness after handling a dead body, which requires bathing
in running water before eating or associating with their fellow-
men. After the ceremonial act of washing is performed, the body
is carried to the grave suspended along its length to a bamboo
pole. When the grave is dug, it is carefully lined with palisades
and green branches. At either end a forked stick is driven se-

* Yao tradition, told also by Wayisa.

f Macdonald, Description of Funeral and Mourning Customs in Nyassa Regions. Mock
funerals are most common among the Angoni.

EAST CENTRAL AFRICAN CUSTOMS. 245

curely into the ground at the bottom of the grave, and the body
suspended to the bamboo pole is placed in position, the ends of
the bamboo resting on the forked sticks, and preventing its touch-
ing the ground. A canopy of boughs is then placed over it to
prevent the earth falling down on the body, and the grave is filled
in as is usual. A slave may be killed to accompany the deceased,
but not necessarily. The house occupied by him is burned, and a
votive pot placed on its site. Similar pots are also placed on the
grave. When the chief of a tribe dies, he is buried in his house,
which is not taken down nor burned, and in this case the votive
pot is placed outside the door, under the veranda. The personal
articles of the deceased — pipes, broken spear, walking-sticks, orna-
ments, badges of office, charms, and wallet — are placed in the
grave, and this seems to be common among all, or almost all,
African tribes. When mourning for the dead is concluded, which
is after a varying period, there are feasting, drinking, revelry, and
a second shaving, after which the dead is forgotten, or at all events
seldom or never mentioned except as an ancestor to be worshiped,
and then not by name, but by relation — " my father/' " my broth-
er," " my chief," " my chiefs son," etc.

A man worships the spirits of his own ancestors ; a village,
those of its departed heads; a tribe, those of its chiefs. The
names of great warriors are kept long in remembrance, and we
meet with many such whose history, exploits, and country are
quite lost, but whose memory tradition preserves as great spirits
who are high in rank above ordinary ancestral gods, and on whose
will depends the destiny of peoples and the conditions of life as
regards plenty or scarcity. This is common to almost all Bantu
tribes. Worship takes the form of prayer, offering, and sacrifice.
Reference has been made to the manner of human sacrifice, and
its frequency among certain tribes is appalling. When the gods
are offended, men must die ; when hungry, cattle or fowls serve
their turn ; and when only to be propitiated, as in view of a favor
desired, flour or corn is acceptable to them. At great national
gatherings — as for rain — the magician, in the priestly character,
conducts the sacrifice and the prayers, as also in cases of disaster
and national mourning. In connection with rain-making, the
chief supplicates his own special god or guardian ancestor. A
dance is held in his honor, and the chief throws up water to indi-
cate that he prostrates himself and his people at the spirit's feet,
who has the giving or withholding of that for which they pant
and die. At times Mpambe (lightning), in the form of a deity of
the clouds, is invoked for rain by Yao and Shirwa tribes, but Mu-
lunga, the great spirit — or more properly great ancestor — is the
deity to whom men look for help in times of distress and drought.
This worship of Mulunga leads to a kind of tribal pantheism in

246 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the lake region, for, after all, is not the Earth the mother of us
all, Mulunga himself included? In the more private devotions of
the people of the Nyassa region Mulunga does not appear, but a
man may not only pray and sacrifice to his own ancestors, but
also to the old inhabitants who occupied the country before his
forefathers took possession of it. The people are gone, all dead,
but their spirits live, and dwell in the old place, and see all that
goes on in which they take an interest. There do not seem to be
family and tribal distinctions as such among spirits ; in any case,
they do not fight about territory as men do. No Milton has yet
appeared in Central Africa to set the spirits by the ears.

The dead, however, may reappear in the form of animals, but
only for pure mischief.* Widows are often held in bondage and
terror by their lords returning in the guise of a serpent. This
brute will enter the house, hide in the thatch, and look at its vic-
tim from between the rafters. It will coil itself by the fire and
steal into the beds ; it will glide over articles of food and explore
the interior of cooking utensils. For this persistent persecution
there is but one remedy, and that is to kill the serpent, when there
is nothing left but " pure spirit," which can not appear in material
form any more.

A Yao spirit appearing in material form is different from a
spirit's messenger, which also appears in animal guise. The lat-
ter may be a bird, a form which a spirit can not assume, but which
can be sent as a messenger, to make known the spirit's will, some-
what after the manner of those sacred chickens which the stout
old Roman threw over the side when they refused to eat. The
African, too, can deal somewhat summarily with bird messages
when his interests and inclination lie in that way, but this im-
plies a degree of courage which is phenomenal.

Among the Angoni and the people dwelling on the western
side of Lake Nyassa there is a common belief that demons hover
about the dying and dead before burial, to snatch away their souls
to join their own evil order. By the beating of drums and firing
of guns such evil spirits are driven away, but a more certain
method of avoiding their machinations is to have a mock funeral,
and so mislead and confound them. When it is determined to
have such a funeral, an artificial body is manufactured of any
convenient substance, and treated exactly as is done with the
bodies of the dead. This lay figure is carried a considerable dis-
tance to a grave, followed by a great crowd, weeping and wailing
as if their hearts would break. Drums are beaten, guns fired, and
every species of noise made. Meantime the real corpse is interred
near the dwelling as quietly and stealthily as possible. The evil

* Angoni, Mauganga, Waomba, Anyasa, etc.

EAST CENTRAL AFRICAN CUSTOMS. 247

spirits are effectually deceived ; when the mourners retire, there
is nothing in the mock grave but a bundle of rushes, while the
true grave they do not know and can not find. Traces of this
still linger in the South.

As the African must account for the origin of death, so, too,
he has a theory regarding the first appearance of man on the earth.
Both he and all other animals came out of a hole in the ground,
after which Mulunga— the great ancestor — closed up the opening.
The place is now desert, no man dwells there, and the spot is
Known to none. The gods refuse to reveal it. Whether this is
that it may not be opened, and other creatures be allowed to es-
cape from it, their philosophy does not very clearly explain, but
what is very certain is, that monkeys were men at the time of
their exit from the earth,* but having quarreled with their friends,
went to " dwell in the bush." To vex and harass those whom they
left, they began to pick the seed from the ground after it was
sown, and this habit having grown to be hereditary, monkeys can
not grow corn, as they te could not leave their own seed in the
ground," which is perhaps as good a definition of the difference
between men and monkeys as any given by scientists.

Reference to monkeys reminds one of that wonderful proces-
sion seen by the pasha, where each carried a torch to light him in
his depredations among the corn-fields — a story which one man
explains by referring it to Ernin's defective eyesight, another to a
possibility of monkeys being able to produce fire by friction.
Without giving any opinion regarding the accuracy of the ob-
server, a statement made to me by a South African native, a
Pondonusi, may throw as much light upon it as all our science.
At the time I paid little attention to it, and indeed it passed quite
from my mind till I came across the pasha's story in Mr. Stanley's
book. It was, so far as I can recollect, in the following words —
the connection in which it was told is of no importance : " The
master is surprised. There are monkeys in the mountains " (the
gorges of the Drakensberg) " that go to the fires men leave in the
bush, and carry away burning sticks ; they even go up the trees
with them, and then throw them down. I have not seen it myself,
but I have heard say that when women leave a fire near the edge
of the bush, they come out to the grass openly with burning
pieces of wood, and play with them — some say they carry them
back to the fire to make them burn better." If this is a true and
sober version of what is not uncommon, a little less science and a
little more ordinary intercourse might have saved the eminent if
erratic German a good deal of idle speculation. One can quite
fancy monkeys playing with fire-brands found near the edge of

* This tradition Mr. Macdonald found common in the Shirwa and Nyassa regions.

248 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the forest, carrying them off in their march to the corn-fields, to
cast them aside when the work of depredation began.

If man's origin can be satisfactorily accounted for, his destiny
is shrouded in impenetrable gloom. All spirits live, nor can they
be killed ; but how employed or what country they inhabit is
known to no one. It is true a man's ancestors watch over his life,
and the chiefs ancestors guard the honor of the tribe, but beyond
this all is uncertainty and doubt.* A man's spirit is not at his
grave, though it maybe met there; it is not at his old home, but
still it sees the offerings placed in the votive pot. It does not in-
habit his son's house, though he can not cut his nails or trim his
hair without his father's eye being upon him ; and should he fail
to bury the clippings of his nails or to burn the produce of the
barber's shears, he may expect to be reminded of it in the most
unpleasant manner. Nor is it a man's own actions alone that come
under the cognizance and censorship of his father's ghost. Should
his wife, while he is on a journey, anoint herself with the oil or
fat in daily use, she will not only suffer herself, but bring calamity
upon her husband ; should she dream during his absence, she must
offer a private gift for herself and the absent one. So far the
wishes of spirits are known, but how they employ themselves in
the spirit land, and what are the mutual relations between them,
has never been told. A chief remains such in virtue of his office,
but as to the relations between rival chiefs and old enemies, " the
people who are here do not know ; it never was known, for they
never told."

Turning from speculations regarding creation, life, and death
to the daily concerns of this world, we meet with a number of very
curious minor customs and institutions among the Yao and allied
tribes. One of these is that of surety, or what we might call God-
parent. Every girl has a surety, and when her hand is sought in
marriage it is this official who is approached, and not her parents.
He makes the necessary arrangements, and sees what provision is
to be made for her and her children, should she have any ; and
also, in the event of her being sent away without just cause, how
she is to be supported and cared for. When a free wife — for this
institution applies only to free women — is dismissed, she returns
to her surety, and he redresses her wrongs, and makes such ad-
justments as the circumstances admit of.

In the ordinary conduct of affairs, domestic and public, women
have no voice ; everything is regulated by the men, who may be
said to sit perpetually in council. A Yao woman, asked if the

* The following customs are gleaned from notes and references by missionaries in the
Nyassa and Tanganyika Lake regions, no particular tribes being named. The customs seem
common.

EAST CENTRAL AFRICAN CUSTOMS. 249

child she is carrying is a boy or girl, frequently replies, " My child
is of the sex that does not speak." The position of woman is prac-
tically that of a chattel. Women kneel when addressing men,
and go off the public path into the grass or bush when they meet
any of the opposite sex as a sign of subordination and subjection.
Young girls do not take milk ; if they did it would make them
barren. Women, especially Makololo, wear a lip-ring the size of
a small table napkin-ring in the lip, not suspended, as earrings
are, but inserted into the lip as the " eyes " through which " reef
points " pass are inserted between the canvas of the sail and its
" bolt-rope." It causes the lip to project an inch and a half in
front of its natural position, and at right angles to the teeth and
gums. A small brass or lead ornament is suspended from the side
of the nose, which is pierced for the purpose as the lobe of the ear
is for earrings. Some of the front teeth are knocked out as a
beauty mark, and the arms, cheeks, breast, and shoulders are tat-
tooed with strange and fantastic devices. Necklets of teeth, shells,
or bits of wood are common, and brass wire is in great demand
for bracelets and anklets. The dress consists of a loin-cloth of
skin, cotton, or bark. The latter is made by stripping a piece of
bark from a tree, and then beating it with an ebony hammer till
soft and pliant. It is easily torn, and even when treated with the
greatest care does not last long. On the Shire and round Lake
Nyassa the people have hardly any stock except fowls and a few
goats, and are thus precluded from having the comfortable sheep-
skin garments so common among the Kaffirs. Domestic animals
are precious in Central Africa, so when chickens are hatched the
abandoned egg-shells are collected and hung up in the house to
protect the brood from hawks and accidents of all kinds.

The principal industries among the tribes whose customs I am
considering consist of pottery and working in iron.* They manu-
facture clay pots of beautiful design, and burn them with consid-
erable skill. There is a tradition lingering in odd corners that
once upon a time their ancestors used hollow stones as pots before
the art of pottery was discovered. If this is true — of which there
is no adequate proof, however — it effectually disposes of Don San-
tos's idea that the East Central African had gradually degenerated
from a higher civilization, and points rather to a record of prog-
ress. And there seems to be beyond question steady, if slow,
progress in their skill in working metal and fashioning imple-
ments of war and husbandry. There is no question that within a
comparatively recent period they tilled the ground with wooden

* The Angoni own a tribe of inner Africa which they have reduced to the position of
domestic slaves. They are the best smiths in the lake region. Whence they came I do
not know, but they were not natives of that region originally.

250 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

implements, for the memory of it lives in universal tradition
among them. At no very remote date a Tubal-Cain appeared,
and since his day the iron-headed hoe has found its way into the
remotest hamlet, and the national ingenuity has found exercise in
fashioning and ornamenting weapons of war. The improvements
made in the manufacture of implements of husbandry and tools
for the craftsman are insignificant compared with the advance in
the manufacture of spear and battle-axe. The iron they smelt
from its native ore by a primitive process of blast furnace, and
then work and temper it much as was done by our country smiths
two or three hundred years ago. I have seen spears of African
manufacture, made by Baralong smiths, tempered so finely that
it required a good Sheffield blade to turn their edge. This is,
however, exceptional, and the vast majority of articles made are
soft, and the iron coarse in texture when broken. In woodwork
their progress has been slower, and beyond polishing spear-han-
dles and the manufacture of musical instruments, pillows — a regu-
lar article of commerce — pipes, walking-sticks, and mallets, not
much is done, the manufacture of canoes, their greatest triumph,
being always excepted. — Journal of the Anthropological Institute.

[Concluded. ]

THE BAY OF FUNDY TIDES AND MARSHES.

BY FRANK H. EATON.

/CONCERNING the Bay of Fundy the school-books generally
^-J note the single fact that " here the tides rise higher than any-
where else in the world." But so meager a reference to what is in
itself an imposing exhibition of gravitational energy, helpful as it
may be in a mnemonic way to the learner of geographical cata-
logues, gives no hint either of the extraordinary series of physio-
graphical conditions which are the cause of this phenomenon or
of those which it creates. The Bay of Fundy is remarkable not
only for the grandeur of its tidal phenomena, but equally so for
the exquisitely picturesque sculpturing of its coast line, and the
diversity, range, and richness of geological evidence thereby re-
vealed ; for the unique character of the extensive alluvial tracts
that skirt its head waters, and for the wealth of legend, tradition,
and romantic incident embodied in the early history of the people
that dwell about it.

What is the cause of the extraordinary height of the Bay of
Fundy tides ? What part have they played in the creation of the
Acadian marshes ? Whence have been derived the materials for
this enormous alluvial deposit ? And what is the source of its ex-

THE BAY OF FUNDY TIDES AND MARSHES. 251

haustless fertility ? These are questions often asked by tourists,
and which are answered, imperfectly no doubt, in the following
pages.

North of Cape Cod the continental coast line recedes abruptly
westward, and then sweeps in a long curve northeastwardly till
the head waters of the Bay of Fundy are reached. Turning again
on itself, its course is westward to Cape Sable, from which it again
stretches away toward the east as the southern shore of Nova
Scotia. Thus, between Capes Cod and Sable lies the long, narrow*
open Bay of Maine, which terminates toward the north and east
in the landlocked Bay of Fundy. In the shallow waters of this
larger open bay the tidal impulse, which over ocean depths moves
only as a wave of vertical oscillation, is changed into one of trans-
lation. As the effect of this transformation the whole body of
water moves first landward, and then, sweeping round with the
curving coast line, skirts the southern shores of Maine and New
Brunswick, till it reaches the narrow strait between Briar Island
and Grand Manan. Compressed between these closer limits the
water is forced onward with increasing velocity into the Bay of
Fundy. Part finds its way into the Annapolis Basin and its
tributary rivers, while the main current moves onward till it
meets the tongue of land which terminates in Cape d'Or. Here it
divides, the northern portion filling Shepody and Cumberland
Basins ; while the southern half rushes onward through the nar-
row entrance to the Basin of Minas. As it passes Cape Blomi-
don this swirling, eddying, foaming torrent reaches its greatest
velocity — a rate of ten or twelve miles an hour.

Thus it is that the long, sickle-curved Maine coast gradually
gathers up the water rolled upon it twice a day by the rhythmic
ocean movements, and, throwing it backward, presses it at last
into the funnel-shaped Bay of Fundy and its adjacent basins,
covering with a semidaily flood the low and unprotected marsh-
lined shores and filling the channels of the tributary rivers for
many miles inland to a height of ten, twenty, or thirty feet above
their fresh-water levels. Such, in a general way, is the set of con-
ditions under which the spectacular and physiographical effects
of ordinary tidal phenomena are exaggerated in the Fundy tides
far beyond their normal limits. At some points the extreme eleva-
tion of the flood tide above low- water mark is as great as seventy
feet. In some of the rivers, particularly in the Peticodiac of New
Brunswick and in the Shubenacadie of Nova Scotia, the upward
flow against the fresh-water current forms a rapidly moving wall
or bore several feet in height, the rushing sound of which can
be heard at a considerable distance, while in others the two cur-
rents meet and mingle so quietly that an observer can hardly tell
where the backward flow begins.

252 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Lining the shores of the head waters of the bay and spreading
far inland up the valleys of its river tributaries are extensive
tracts of alluvial marsh land of remarkable fertility, and differ-
ing in their origin from other so-called marshes. In general,
alluvial deposits are formed in river basins, by materials washed
down from higher levels by fresh- water floods; but here the
whole deposit is of tidal origin, the result of a landward rather
than a seaward transportation. Every incoming tide is freighted
with a finely comminuted sediment, the product of the wearing
action of the currents upon the sides and bottom of the bay.
During the interval between the flood that covers the undiked
river and basin margins and the ebb that leaves them bare again,
the sediment is deposited as a film of soft and glistening mud
upon the somewhat hardened material left by previous tides.
Thus layer after layer accumulates, until the flat becomes too
high for any but extraordinary tides to cover.

Instructive illustration these marsh flats often give of Na-
ture's methods in the preservation of the records by which the
geologist reads the physical history of the earth. So plastic and
impressionable is the mud which an outgoing tide has left that
it easily takes and holds the tracings of any disturbing contact.
A wind-blown leaf, a resting insect, a drop of rain, may make
in it a tiny mold which, hardened somewhat before the next
incoming flood, receives thereafter successive linings to which it
gives its form and markings. In this way even the rain-prints
of a passing shower have been fixed, and then completely cov-
ered up ; and yet when subsequently exposed, so perfectly were
the spatter marks preserved, that one could tell in which direction
the wind was blowing when the shower fell.

It is obvious that the deposition of tidal sediment can, in gen-
eral, be made only between the lower and the higher limit levels
of the ebb and flow. The accumulation of greater depths of mud
than such a range permits can only be accounted for by the sup-
position of a gradual subsidence ' of the littoral areas — a move-
ment which would also widen the area of tidal inundations. That
such a steady and prolonged subsidence of the Fundy marsh-lined
shores has been in progress since the marsh began to form is at-
tested to not only by the surprising depths of mud accumulated,
but also by the occurrence in many places, especially along the
shores of the Cumberland Basin, of deeply buried forests which
were clearly once above the coexistent tidal levels.

A general idea of the geological features of the great depres-
sion in which the Bay of Fundy lies is necessary to a fuller
understanding of the nature of these Acadian marshes, and
especially of the sources of their wonderful fertility. In early
geological times, and until long after the close of the Carbonifer-

THE BAY OF FUNDY TIDES AND MARSHES. 253

ous period, the bay was much, wider and somewhat longer than it
is now. The long ridge of trap rock, known as the North Moun-
tain, which stretches as a huge wall between the Annapolis Val-
ley along its southern, and the waters of the bay along its north-
ern base, did not then exist, and the waters of the bay extended
uninterruptedly over the whole of the Annapolis Valley to the
base of the Silurian hills which, under the name of the South
Mountain, now form the southern inclosure of the valley. East-
wardly the head waters of the ancient bay washed the Devonian
and Carboniferous rocks of the Cobequid Hills, while the north-
ern shore line of the present bay, skirting the southern limit of
the Palaeozoic rocks of New Brunswick, is substantially identical
with that of the original bay.

In general character the tidal movements of this larger Atlan-
tic inlet were the same as in the smaller modern bay. And the
semidaily ebb and flow of the waters produced, by their incessant
attrition with the carboniferous limestones, shales, and sand-
stones, and the other ancient rocks that formed the bed and mar-
gins of the bay, immense quantities of sand and mud — sediment
that was redistributed over the greater part of the Fundy Valley.
Subsequent changes of level caused a recession of the waters to
within their present limits, and brought to view, as the Triassic,
or new red sandstone, extensive areas of these deposits. These
red sandstone strata are still to be seen in shreds and patches at
various points in the Annapolis Valley and on the shores of the
Minas and Annapolis Basins. Their general dip toward the
north indicates that the epoch-closing movement which nar-
rowed the Bay of Fundy within its present confines was a sinking
of the bed along its northern or New Brunswick border.

Following this subsidence, and as the concluding events in the
series of seismic convulsions by which the region gained its pres-
ent topographical features, occurred the volcanic eruptions in
which the North Mountain had its origin. This long, trappean
wall forms the southern boundary of the bay from Cape Split to
the extremity of Digby Neck, a distance of one hundred and
twenty-five miles, the only interruption to its continuity being
the singular gap called Digby Gut, which gives an entrance into
the beautiful Annapolis Basin. Though there were probably
many volcanic vents along this extended line of fracture, yet the
scene of greatest activity was undoubtedly near Cape Split, at the
entrance to Minas Basin, scattered along the shores of which on
either side are isolated patches of amygdaloidal trap. Transverse
ridges of the same volcanic rock run at intervals, also, across the
bottom of the bay.

It is the grinding action of the Fundy waters upon these two
Triassic rocks, the trap and its underlying sandstone, that provides

254 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the tidal currents with an unfailing supply of muddy sediment.
It is mainly in the erosion, transportation, and reprecipitation of
these two rocks, and especially of the latter, that the process of
marsh formation consists. The incessantly destructive tide-work
may be seen at many points along the shore line, perhaps most
conspicuously at the base of Blomidon. Here the sandstone
foundation is continuously being cut away from under the super-
incumbent columnar trap ; and at intervals, especially in the
spring time, large masses of the igneous rock are loosened from
the precipitous mountain side and crushed upon the beach below,
where the solvent and abrading action of the waters can reach
them. It is after one of these spring slides that the richest har-
vests of amethystine and zeolitic crystals, for the beauty and
abundance of which the Minas shores are noted, can be secured.
But it is along the bottom of the bay that the destructive tidal
work is most extensive and effective. Here exist great troughs,
furrowed out of the soft sandstone, many fathoms deep along the
channel bed, with here and there the interruption of the trans-
verse trappean dikes already spoken of.

The sandstone yields, of course, the greater part of the marsh-
creating sediment. Its detritus consists of a large percentage of
silica, a little clay, the iron which mainly determines its reddish
color, and the calcareous matter which served as cement in the
parent rock. This material, in the extremely comminuted form
in which it occurs in marsh-land soil, would itself afford condi-
tions highly favorable to the support of vegetable life. But an
additional cause of the wonderful fertility of the Acadian marshes
is the richness of the trap rock in various salts of potash, lime,
and alumina which the action of the water mingles freely with
the sandstone mud. The plant-supporting power of this complex
soil is increased still further by contributions from the upland
soils through the medium of the streams and rivers flowing
toward the bay.

The great fertility of this alluvium may be inferred from the
fact that portions of the Annapolis, Cornwallis, Grand Prd, and
Cumberland marshes have been producing annually for nearly
two centuries from two to four tons per acre of the finest hay.
Besides, it is a common practice, after the hay has been removed,
to convert the marshes into autumn pastures, on the luxuriant
tender after-growth of which cattle fatten more rapidly than on
any other kind of food. Thus, virtually, two crops are annually
taken from the land, to which no fertilizing return is ever made.
The only portions of the Acadian marshes that have as yet
shown signs of exhaustion are those about the Chiegnecto branch
of the bay, on the cliffs and bed of which the Triassic rocks do
not occur, but in their stead a series of blue and gray "grind-

THE BAY OF FUNDY TIDES AND MARSHES. 255

stone grits " of an earlier formation. In this region the marshes
situated well up toward the head of the tide, where the red soil
of the uplands has been mingled with the gray tidal mud, are
good, while those lower down are of inferior quality and less
enduring. Efforts are being made to renew and improve these
inferior tracts by admitting the tide upon them.

In general, however, the necessity for periodic inundations by
the muddy waters of the bay in order to maintain the productive-
ness of the marshes, as implied in the passage from Evangeline —

" Dikes that the hand of the farmer had raised with labor incessant,
Shut out the turbulent tides ; but at stated seasons the flood-gates
Opened and welcomed the sea to wander at will o'er the meadows " —

not only does not exist, but, on the contrary, some two or three
years are required for the grass roots to recover from the injury
done them by the salt water, when, as occasionally happens, an
accident to the protecting dikes admits the imwelcome flood.

The exceedingly fine texture of the soil, and its consequent
compactness and retentiveness of moisture, render it for the most
part quite unsuitable for the production of root crops, and at the
same time adapt it admirably for the growth of hay and of
cereals, especially oats, barley, and wheat. As a rule, however,
the succession of grass crops is interrupted only at intervals of
from five to ten or more years by a single crop of grain. The re-
productive power of the grass roots declines perceptibly with
long-continued cropping, so that a renewal of the stock by re-
seeding is occasionally necessary. For this purpose the marsh is
plowed in the autumn or spring and new seed sown ; but to avoid
the loss of a season, since grass does not mature for harvesting
the first year, grain is also sown and a large yield usually ob-
tained. This plowing and reseeding at intervals often of many
years is the only cultivation the soil receives or requires. There
is no reason to suppose that abundant harvests of grain might not
be obtained annually for an indefinite period, but, as this would
involve annual tilling, the hay crop is more profitable.

Along the river estuaries the encroachment of the land upon
the sea is in continual progress, so that there are always consider-
able areas of unreclaimed salt marsh, the lower portions of which
are flooded every day, while the higher portions are covered only
by the highest tides. The reclamation of such new marsh is
effected by building around its seaward margin a wall or dike of
mud to prevent all tidal overflow. After two or three years the
salt will have sufficiently disappeared to permit the growth of a
crop of wheat, and in a year or two more the best quality of Eng-
lish grass will grow.

At the head of Cumberland Basin an interesting experiment in

256 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the reclamation of worthless land has been successfully tried.
Large areas of swamp and in some instances shallow lakes have
been connected with the tidal waters of the neighboring rivers by
channels cut through intervening ridges of upland, thus effecting
the double purpose of draining and of admitting the mud-laden
tides. In this way, in five or ten years, many acres of worthless
swamp have been converted into valuable dike-land.

The use of marsh mud as a fertilizer is very general among
farmers to whom it is accessible. It is taken in the autumn or
winter from the bank of some tidal creek or river, where the daily
depositions can soon replace it, and spread directly on the upland.
Its effects are twofold : it enriches with valuable supplies of plant
food the soil to which it is applied, and it greatly improves the
texture of all light and open soils, making them more compact
and firm, and so more retentive of moisture and of those ingredi-
ents which are otherwise easily washed away. This permanent
effect upon the physical character of the soil which the marsh
mud produces renders undesirable its application to clayey soils
already compact and firm and moist enough ; for it makes them
more difficult to work, and more impervious to atmospheric influ-
ences. To well-drained hay fields, however, which need but little
cultivation, the mud may be advantageously applied, even though
the soil be naturally stiff and heavy.

The French settlers were the first Acadian dike-builders.
They brought the art from the Netherlands; and to this day
no other class of provincial workmen is as skillful in the often
difficult work of dike construction as the Acadian French. It
was no doubt the existence of these vast areas of marsh land, whose
potential value was even then clearly seen, that induced the first
New World immigrants to settle about the Bay of Fundy shores ;
and it was these same broad, fertile marshes left unoccupied by the
expulsion of the Acadian French that attracted the New England
settlers, whose descendants now derive from them an income
aggregating not less than a million dollars annually.

As described by B. F. S. Baden-Powell, in his In Savage Isles and Settled
Lands, the aboriginals of Australia are an extraordinary people — to look at,
u quite unlike any other human beings I ever saw. A thick, tangled mass of
black hair covers their heads ; their features are of the coarsest ; very large, broad,
and flattened noses; small, sharp, bead-like eyes and heavy eyebrows. They
generally have a coarse, tangled bit of beard ; skin very dark, and limbs extraordi-
narily attenuated like mere bones. But they always carry themselves very erect.
. . . They wander about stark naked over the less settled districts, and live en-
tirely on what they can pick up. ... If not the lowest type of humanity, they
would be hard to beat. They show but few signs of human instinct, and in their
ways seem to be more like beasts."

SKETCH OF SIR ARCHIBALD OEIKIE. 257

SKETCH OF SIR ARCHIBALD GEIKIE.

THE most prominent features in Sir Archibald Geikie's geo-
logical work are his studies of the effects of volcanic force,
beginning in Scotland and extending to many countries ; and his
explanations of the fundamental part which geological processes
have played in shaping the topographical features of the land,
and in the origin of natural scenery.

Prof. Geikie was born in Edinburgh in 1835 ; was educated at
the high school and the university in that city ; was appointed an
assistant on the Geological Survey of Scotland in 1855 ; acquitted
himself so well in that capacity that when the Scottish branch of
the survey was made a separate establishment in 1867, Sir Roderick
Murchison appointed him its director. In December, 1870, he was
appointed to the new professorship in the University of Edin-
burgh of Geology and Mineralogy, founded by Sir Roderick
Murchison, with a concurrent endowment by the crown. He held
this position till the beginning of 1881, when he resigned it, to
take the place of Sir Andrew C. Ramsay as Director-General of
the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom, and Director of
the Museum of Practical Geology in London.

The published record of Prof. Geikie's life relates exclusively
to his investigations, papers, addresses, and books on subjects re-
lating to geology. In this field he has labored with unceasing
diligence, and to it he seems to have devoted the whole energy of
his active career. Complicated problems presented themselves to
him when he entered upon the surveys, of which he was called
upon to work out the solutions. One of the first to attract his
attention was the relation of the crystalline rocks of the High-
lands to the Silurian strata on which they rest, which Murchison
had accepted as normal ; an assumption from which logically fol-
lowed the hypothesis that these gneisses were altered sediments.
Mr. Geikie gradually became dissatisfied with this view, and com-
missioned two assistants to review the fields in which the most
decisive evidence was to be obtained, instructing them " to divest
themselves of any prepossession in favor of published views, and
to map existing facts in entire disregard of theory." From the
evidence afforded by this survey, Murchison's view was proved to
be a mistaken one ; and for it was substituted the theory that the
elevation of the mountains and the metamorphism of the gneisses
were the effect of enormous pressure resulting in the folding and
breaking of the whole border of the dry land. The mountains
have been reduced to their present shape by denudation, by which
also much of the evidence of plication has been washed away,
while the remains of the disturbed rocks occupy the position

TOL. XLIII. — 18

258 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

which suggested Murchison's view. The displacements were ac-
companied by modifications of the rocks, of which Geikie wrote
that " in exchange for this (Murchison's) abandoned belief we are
presented with startling new evidence of original metamorphism
on a colossal scale, and are admitted some way into the secret of
the processes whereby it has been produced."

Sir Archibald Geikie's chief geological work, according to the
estimate of Nature, seems to be his exhaustive review of the vol-
canic history of the British Isles. The northwestern part of Great
Britain is marked, like the Snake River region in our own coun-
try, by the evidences of the outpouring over the land of immense
sheets of lava, which in the present instance took place in Tertiary
times. Sir Archibald made it his task in the investigation of this
phenomenon " to discern the site of the centers of eruption, and
determine the old chimneys, the remnants of which give a glimpse
into the lowest parts of ascending lavas ; to discriminate the vol-
canic necks, the intrusive sheets and dikes, the bedded lavas and
the tuffs." Evidences of still earlier volcanic activity were also
found in the Old Red Sandstone of Scotland, and in the oldest
formations of England and Wales. In order to prepare himself
more thoroughly for the investigation of this phenomenon, Mr.
Geikie traveled over much of Europe, from northern Norway to
the Lipari Islands; then came over to Canada and the United
States, and followed the course of our geological surveys, particu-
larly in the Western States and Territories and the lava-covered
regions. In another department of the same investigation he gave
more attention to petrological studies than any Englishman had
done before him. Besides giving rise to many valuable memoirs
relating directly to what he had seen and observed, these studies
contributed greatly to the enlargement of Prof. Geikie's views
and to the increase of the breadth of his work ; and some of their
results may be seen in the greater richness of illustration appar-
ent in his subsequent writings. Their mature fruit is presented
as a whole in his presidential addresses of 1891 and 1892. He was
especially interested, they being exactly in the line of his princi-
pal study, in the lava*beds of Snake River ; and in his essay on
the Lava Fields of Northwestern Europe refers to them as the site
which first enabled him to realize the conditions of volcanic action
described by Richtofen — the emission of vast floods of lava with-
out formation of cones and craters — and, without acquiescing in
all that author's theoretical conclusions, to judge of the reality of
the distinction " which he rightly drew " between massive erup-
tions and ordinary volcanoes with cones and craters.

We have referred to Prof. Geikie's work in tracing the origin
of the present shaping of land surfaces and of natural scenery to
its geological factors as constituting one of his special titles to

SKETCH OF SIR ARCHIBALD GEIKIE. 259

fame. To his aptitude in this application Nature largely ascribes
the success of his more popular works, which, it says, " will be
easily understood if we remember that in Sir Archibald's works
the traditional barrenness of geology is always smoothed and
adorned by a deep and intense feeling for Nature. Nobody has
done more than he to associate geological science with the appre-
ciation of scenery." Mr. G. K. Gilbert, in a review of his Text-
Book of Geology, remarks as a single departure in the volume
the elevation of physiographical geology to the rank of a major
division. " The same title, it is true, has been placed by Dana at
the head of a primary division of the subject, but it was used by
him in a different sense. With Dana it is a synonym for physical
geology; with Geikie it is 'that branch of geological inquiry
which deals with the evolution of the existing contours of the
dry land/ So far as the subject has had place in earlier treatises,
it has been regarded as a subdivision of dynamical geology, and
the classification which placed it there was certainly logical. In
dynamical geology, as formulated by Geikie, the changes which
have their origin beneath the surface of the earth (volcanic action,
upheaval, and metamorphism) and the changes which belong ex-
clusively to the surface (denudation and deposition) are separately
treated. In physiographical geology the conjoint action of these
factors of change is considered with reference to its topographical
results. Starting from geological agencies as data, we may pro-
ceed in one direction to the development of geological history, or
in another direction to the explanation of terrestrial scenery and
topography, and if the development of the earth's history is the
peculiar theme of geology, it follows that the explanation of to-
pography, or physiographical geology, is of the nature of an inci-
dental result — a sort of corollary to dynamical geology. The sys-
tematic rank assigned to it by Geikie is an explicit recognition of
what has long been implicitly admitted — that geology is con-
cerned quite as really with the explanation of the existing fea-
tures of the earth as with its past history."

The subject was first formally presented from this point of
view in the Lectures on the Scenery of Scotland viewed in Con-
nection with its Physical Geology, which were delivered in 1865.
At this time, as Mr. A. H. Green remarks in his review of a new
edition of the lectures in 1887, the controversy respecting Hut-
ton's theory of denudation as the main and most efficient agency
in shaping the earth's surface was at its height. The author ac-
knowledged in the preface to his second edition that his views
when first published ran directly counter to the prevailing im-
pressions on the subject ; but now, after a lapse of twenty-two
years, they were accepted as part of the general stock of geologi-
cal knowledge. " How largely," Mr. Green says, " this result is

260 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

due to his own steady and powerful advocacy all geologists are
aware ; but he gracefully reminds us that we also owe much to
the labors of those American geologists who have found in the
Western Territories such convincing instances of the work of
denudation in shaping the surface." The first part of the book,
comprising the lectures, deals with land-sculpture in general, and
describes the working of Nature's sculpturing tools. The reader
is then taken in succession to the different characteristic regions
in the country and shown in detail, with much wealth of illustra-
tion, how the hills and valleys and salient features have been
wrought out. The subject could very well be treated in such a
manner as to make the presentation of it formal and dry in the
extreme ; but, says Mr. Green, the 'author " knows and loves his
fatherland too well to look upon it merely as the object of geo-
logical research. Legend and history, old ballads and modern
poetry, have all been pressed into his service, and he interweaves
into his narrative allusion and quotation in a way that enlivens
even the most technical parts of the volume. The chapter on
The Influence of the Physical Features of Scotland upon the
People shows well what a vast amount of human interest attaches
even to so special a science as geology."

Prof. Geikie himself predicted in an address before the Geo-
logical Society of Edinburgh, in 1873, for the future of his theory :
" Of one thing I feel surely confident : When the din of strife has
ceased and men come to weigh opinions in the dispassionate light
of history, the profound influence of the Huttonian doctrines of
the present time on the future course of geology will be abun-
dantly recognized. By their guidance it will be possible to recon-
struct the physical geography of the continents in successive ages
back into some of the earliest periods of geological history."

Prof. Geikie's theory is further elaborated and applied in his
five lectures, delivered at the Royal Institution, in 1884, on The
Origin of the Scenery of the British Isles. In these lectures the
author held that " the present surface of Britain is the result of
long, complicated processes in which underground movements,
though sometimes potent, have only operated occasionally, while
superficial erosion has been continuous so long as any land has
remained above the sea. The order of appearance of the existing
features is not necessarily that of the chronological sequence of
the rocks. The oldest formations have all been buried under
later accumulations, and their re-emergence at the surface has
only been brought about after enormous denudation." The lect-
ures conclude with an indication of the connection between the
scenery of a country and the history and temperament of its peo-
ple. This subject was considered from four points of view, the
influence of landscape and geological structure being traced in the

SKETCH OF SIR ARCHIBALD GEIKIE. 261

distribution of races, national history, industrial and commercial
progress, and national temperament and character. Prof. Geikie
found in the United States an emphatic confirmation of his theory
in one of the most impressive features of our geology, which he
records, in 1887, in a review of Newberry and Macomb's Survey
of the Upper Colorado. "The whole of this Colorado basin or
plateau is justly regarded as the most magnificent example on
the face of the globe of how much the land may have its features
altered by the action of running water."

The method based upon this theory prevails in Prof. Geikie's
Physical Geology, which is described by Dr. Jukes as " an ex-
ample of the treatment of geographical questions from the point
of view of the geologist." The author is actuated, the reviewer
continues, " by the conviction of the necessity for a broader and
more vivid presentation of the action and reaction upon one an-
other of the various forces acting and reacting upon the surface
of the globe than is usually found in works on physical geogra-
phy, in order to convey a just idea of the character and signifi-
cance of the features which it presents."

The subject is again presented in the presidential address at
the Edinburgh meeting of the British Association in 1892, the spe-
cial topic of which was the commemoration of the centenary of
Button's theory and unif ormitarianism, and in which special stress
is laid on Hutton and Playfair's recognition of the fact that exist-
ing inequalities in topographical detail " are only varying and
local accidents in the progress of the one great process of the
degradation of the land."

This breadth of view concerning the methods and purposes of
geological study marks those of the author's addresses of which
that was the principal subject. In the opening lecture before the
class in geology of the University of Edinburgh, delivered in 1871,
he advises his hearers, " Let us turn from the lessons of the lec-
ture-room to the lessons of the crags and ravines, appealing con-
stantly to Nature for the explanation and verification of what is
taught."

The introduction to his Class Book of Geology, published in
1886, concludes with the words : " Geology is essentially a science
of observation. The facts with which it deals should, as far as
possible, be verified by our own personal examination. We should
lose no opportunity of seeing with our own eyes the actual prog-
ress of the changes which it investigates, and the proofs which
it adduces of similar changes in the far past. To do this will
lead us to the banks of rivers and lakes, and to the shores of the
sea. We can hardly take any country walk, indeed, in which,
with duly observant eye, we may not detect either some geological
operation in actual progress, or the evidence of one which has now

262 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

been completed. Having learned what to look for and how to in-
terpret it when seen, we are as it were gifted with a new sense.
Every landscape comes to possess a fresh interest and charm, for
we carry about with us everywhere an added power of enjoyment,
whether the scenery has been long familiar or presents itself for
the first time. I would therefore seek at the outset to impress
upon those who propose to read the following pages that one of
the main objects with which this book is written is to foster a
habit of observation and to serve as a guide to what they are
themselves to look for, rather than merely to relate what has
been seen and determined by others." At the very outset in this
work, geology is regarded, " not as an amusement for the collector
and a means of learning where he will get pretty and curious
objects for his cabinet ; not as a field where the ingenuity or per-
versity of the classifying mind may delight itself with grouping
natural products as reason prompts ; not in any other of those
limited aspects beyond which it is feared the wisdom of some
geologists never reaches; but as a history — the history of the
earth in ages long gone by."

Believing that no branch of the study should be overlooked,
we find him lamenting, in 1871, that while in all that relates to
stratigraphic geology the British had kept ahead of other nations,
they had allowed petrography, or the study of rock species, to
fall into disuse. Matters had improved, partly perhaps under his
own influence, in 1880, when, writing of the Mineralogical Society
of Great Britain, he remarked upon a revival of interest in min-
eralogy, which had before been neglected for fossil-hunting.

In one of the reviews of Prof. Geikie's Science Primer of
Geology, in 1874, a curious omission is remarked, in that the
author had not referred to Darwin's theory of coral islands as
a " proof that a part of the crust of the earth has sunk down "
— the reviewer suggesting that to lead pupils up to this theory,
and then test it as Darwin had tested it, was " an excellent exer-
cise in that peculiar kind of reasoning about past causation which
is of the essence of geology." Prof. Geikie appears to have built,
as the saying is, better than he knew ; for in 1884 he confessed
himself reluctantly compelled, in view of Mr. Murray's observa-
tions in the Challenger Expedition, to admit that Mr. Darwin's
theory could no longer be accepted as a complete solution of the
problem of coral reefs.

Prof. Geikie has long taken an intense interest in the Ameri-
can geological surveys, and has followed them up with the
closest attention for many years ; and his notices of their reports
and summaries of their results constitute a very considerable
part of his frequent contributions to Nature. He was fully im-
pressed with the magnitude and extent of the geological phe-

SKETCH OF SIR ARCHIBALD GEIKIE. 263

nomena of the United States, and of the value of the study of
them for the contributions it affords to our general knowledge
of the subject and the explanations it furnishes of phenomena
in other countries.

Writing on the subject in 1875, he said the United States had
certainly done noble work in the exploration and mapping of its
vast empire. Having spoken commendatorily of the style in which
the reports were prepared and distributed, he added, " But what-
ever be their external guise, these narratives are pervaded by an
earnestness and enthusiasm, a consciousness of the magnitude of
the scale on which the phenomena have been produced, and yet a
sustained style of quiet description, which can not but strike the
reader." In reviewing Hay den's Report at the end of 1883, he
ascribes a singular fascination to American geology. " Its fea-
tures are as a whole so massive and colossal, their infinite detail so
subordinated to breadth of effect, their presentation of the great
elements of geological structure so grand, yet so simple and so
clearly legible, that they may serve as types for elucidating the
rest of the world. The progress of sound geology would assuredly
have been more rapid had the science made its first start in the
far West of America, rather than among the crumpled and broken
rocks of western Europe. Truths that have been gained on this
side of the Atlantic by the laborious gathering together of a
broken chain of evidence would have proclaimed themselves from
thousands of plateaux, canons, and mountain ranges, in language
too plain to be mistaken. No European geologist can visit these
Western regions without realizing more or less distinctly what an
amount of time has been wasted over questions about which there
should never have been any discussion at all. This impression is
renewed by every new geological memoir which brings to us
fresh revelations of the scenery and structure of the Western
Territories."

On the occasion of his appointment as Director-General of the
Geological Survey of Great Britain and Ireland, Prof. Geikie was
presented in March, 1882, by past and present students of the
geology class in the University of Edinburgh with an illumi-
nated address, recording their sense of loss on his leaving the uni-
versity ; referring to the distinguished services he had rendered
the science; recognizing the signal success with which he had
maintained the reputation of the Scottish school of geology, and
of Edinburgh ; and expressing the sympathy and affection with
which they regarded him. Prof. Geikie responded in similar
spirit, and said that he believed he was the first in Scotland, if not
in Britain, to organize a practical class for the study of miner-
alogy and the microscopic investigation of rocks. He had tried
always to make the cultivation of field geology a prominent part

264 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of the work of the class ; and some of their pleasantest associa-
tions had been among the glens of the Highlands and the hills and
shores of the Lowlands.

Prof. Geikie is a prolific writer on all subjects relating to geol-
ogy. When he was appointed in 1871 to the chair in Edinburgh he
had the whole department to organize — a difficult task, but also
an educating one — and to that, says Nature, we are indebted for
the undisputed superiority which he has displayed in his Text-
Book, as well as in his other educational writings, " such as the
Class Book, a very model of clearness, whereby it has been once
more demonstrated that those only are qualified for writing ele-
mentary books who are in the fullest possession of the whole mat-
ter." Likewise he is the author of small books or primers on
Physical Geology and Physical Geography, of which some hun-
dreds of thousands of copies have been sold, and which have been
translated into most European languages, as well as several Asi-
atic tongues. He is also author of numerous memoirs in the
Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, the Transactions of
the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the memoirs of the Geological
Survey, the Quarterly and North British Reviews, Nature, etc. ; of
the Story of a Boulder, 1858; in conjunction with the late Dr.
George Wilson, of The Life of Prof. Edward Forbes, 1861 ; of the
Phenomena of the Glacial Drift of Scotland, 1863 ; The Scenery of
Scotland viewed in Connection with its Physical Geology, 1865,
and a new edition, largely rewritten, in 1887 ; in conjunction with
the late J. B. Jukes, of a Student's Manual of Geology, 1871 ; of
the Science Primers of Physical Geography, and Geology, 1873 ;
Memoir of Sir Roderick I. Murchison, with notices of his Scien-
tific Contemporaries, and of the Rise and Progress of Palaeozoic
Geology in Britain, 2 vols., 1874 ; of the Geological Map of Scot-
land, 1876 ; of the Class Book of Physical Geography, 1877 ; of
Outlines of Field Geology, 1879 ; of Geological Sketches at Home
and Abroad, 1882 ; of A Text-Book of Geology, 1882 ; of A Class
Book of Geology, 1886. Prof. Geikie was associated with Sir
Roderick Murchison, in the Scottish Highlands, in the prepara-
tion of a memoir of that district, and of a new Geological Map of
Scotland, both published in 1861. He was elected to the Royal
Society before reaching the age of thirty years, and is now its
foreign secretary. He is past President of the Geological Soci-
ety. He received the Murchison Medal of the Geological Society
in 1881, and has been twice awarded the McDougal Brisbane medal
of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He is an associate of the
Berlin Academy, of the Royal Society of Sciences at Gottingen,
of the Imperial Leopold Caroline Academy, of the Imperial Soci-
ety of Naturalists at Moscow, and a correspondent of the French
Academy of Sciences.

CORRESP ONDENCE.

265

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE FIRST TRANSATLANTIC STEAMER.

Editor Popular Science Monthly :

SIR : On page 424 of the January number
(1893) of The Popular Science Monthly
is given a precis of the log of the ship Savan-
nah, which is correct ; but the heading, The
First Transatlantic Steamer, is totally wrong.

The Savannah was not the first trans-
atlantic steamer, but a sailer, with propelling
contrivances to be used in smooth water;
moreover, she did not carry fuel enough to
take her across to England by steam, and
she proved a failure as far as transatlantic
steam navigation was concerned. All this is
proved by her log. The transportation of a
steam engine and paddles by a sailing ship
does not constitute her a steamer in the true
sense of the word.

The first genuine pioneer steamship to
cross the Atlantic Ocean by steam alone, and
the first complete success in steam naviga-
tion, was the steamship Royal William, built
at Quebec, Canada, through the enterprise
of Canadian merchants, by Canadian ship-
builders, and with Canadian money. It was
sent across the Atlantic Ocean in 1833, and
proved to be the origin of the Cunard line of
steamers. It was sold to the Spanish Gov-
ernment for a man-of-war and called the
Isabela Segunda, being the first war steamer
in the world, and was engaged in action
against the Carlists. Some years later she
went to Bordeaux, France, for repairs, but
her hull was condemned and a new vessel
was built on her model, in which the old
engines were placed. This vessel went into
service under the same name, but was
wrecked in 1860 on the coast of Algeria,
where no doubt the Royal William's engines
may now be found.

I send you our Transaction, No. 20, con-
taining the whole attested account of the
Royal William, which is incontrovertible
proof of what I say, and proves that the
honor of first transatlantic steam navigation
belongs to Canada and Quebec city, and not
to the United States at all.

The Savannah was a fraud, a veritable
sailing ship, built as such, subsequently took
on an engine and propelling contrivances
which could only be used in smooth water ;
with these she steamed out of port, then
sailed to England, steaming only eighty hours,
not consecutively, out of a passage of twenty-
nine days and a half, but took good care to
let down her paddles on coming into port,
making believe that she steamed the whole
way across the Atlantic, and, moreover, re-
peated this performance at every port she

visited. The Royal William was the first
veritable transatlantic ocean steamship.

F. C. WURTELE,

Librarian of the Literary and Historical
Society of Quebec.

QUEBEC, March 23, 1893.

[All that Mr. Wurtele says of the defects
of the Savannah appears on the face of the
article we published. The title, if not strict-
ly accurate, reflects current speech on the
subject. We are glad to give our Canadian
neighbors the credit that is their due in the
matter of the Royal William. — ED.]

FOOD OF THE GARTER SNAKE.

Editor Popular Science Monthly.

SIR : In your February number, Mr. Alfred
G. Mayer, in speaking of the habits of the
garter snake, says that he is not aware of
their eating birds or mice. They will, when
kept in captivity, at least, eat the latter ani-
mals. I once kept one under observation for
a considerable time, and its only food was
mice. These it ate with apparent relish and
in greater numbers than I supposed at first
would be eaten. Its mode of capturing and
killing a mouse was also different from that
by which the snakes secure frogs. It lay
quietly coiled, with its head slightly elevated,
for a little time after the mouse was put into
the box. The latter ran to and fro over the
coils of the snake, as though utterly unaware
of the presence of an enemy. Presently the
snake darted forward, seized the mouse in
its jaws, and with lightning-like rapidity
coiled itself around its body — the head of
the snake and the mouse being invisible
from without the coil. The quickness of
the movement was decidedly startling. After
about one minute the coils began to slacken,
and the mouse rolled out, completely crushed
and quite dead. The snake moved away,
but within an hour devoured it. This snake
was Eutcenia sirtalis. I have not found any
one else who has seen it take its food in this
way, and can not account for the actions of
this particular specimen. A full-grown cop-
perhead, under similar conditions, behaves
very differently. With marvelous rapidity
it would shoot its head forward, apparently
merely touching its victim. The mouse would
give a faint squeak, and in thirty seconds
would be dead and perfectly stiff. His
snakeship then devoured it at his leisure.

WILBUR S. JACKMAN.
COOK COUNTY NORMAL SCHOOL, CHICAGO, ILL.

266

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

SOCIAL PROBLEMS.
"TTTE have read with considerable
V V interest a book by Mr. Henry M.
Boies, elsewhere notdced in this num-
ber, having for its title Prisoners and
Paupers. We have read it not only
with interest but with sympathy, for Mr.
Boies is much in earnest, and his aim is
the noble one of serving the community
by checking the evils of criminality,
pauperism, and mental and physical de-
generation, which in these latter years
have been assuming so threatening pro-
portions. With much that the author
says we entirely agree, and many of his
suggestions seem to be of a very prac-
tical and useful kind. Here and there
is perhaps a touch of undue national
vaingloriousness which does not harmo-
nize very well with the fact that the
book is in the main a revelation of the
weaknesses of American society. Here
and there, too, the author seems to con-
tradict himself, as where, on page 95,
he speaks of the upward tendencies in
this country being more powerful than
the downward ones, and afterward (page
258) says that, while "we are listening
to the delusive enchantments of physical
prosperity and national growth, millions
of remorseless teredos from the lower
depths are honeycombing the hull of
our ship of state " ; and again (page 259)
that "the condition politically is desper-
ate, but not hopeless " ; and again (page
278) that tk signs of a general degeneracy
are attracting public attention." The
important thing, however, is that, in the
statements and observations he makes,
Mr. Boies gives us plenty to think about,
and makes it very plain that something
more than thinking is called for — that
prompt, strenuous, and intelligent action
is an urgent necessity of the moment.

It all amounts to this, that, while the
men of this generation are eating and

drinking and taking their ease, marry-
ing and giving in marriage, running po-
litical machines, and blowing hot or cold,
as the case may be, upon the stock mar-
ket ; while luxury is on the increase,
and practical Science is recording her
most magnificent triumphs, the founda-
tions of society are being sapped by the
incessant growth of unsound social ele-
ments. In early ages mankind, in only
less degree than the lower animal tribes,
had the benefit of the rude but effect-
ive surgery of Nature to keep them
up to a certain level of physical effi-
ciency; and in a later period the ex-
treme severity of the laws had the effect
of removing from the community large
numbers of those who were least adapt-
ed for citizenship. As a result of these
processes the civilization of to-day, with
its more humane and philanthropic
spirit, became possible ; but it is now
beginning to be found out that philan-
thropy, as heretofore practiced, is no
match, so far as the physical purification
of society is concerned, for the methods
of Nature, as described by Malthus and
Darwin, or even for the penal discipline
of our forefathers. Mr. Boies fully ac-
cepts this view of the matter, as the
following extract from his book will
show:

" The civilized man is the product ot
the survival through all the ages of the
strongest, most stalwart, and capable
savages. In the progress of his civiliza-
tion the development of the sentiment
of human brotherhood and the princi-
ples of Christianity has caused an inter-
ference with the natural law provided
for the extinction of the unfit by impel-
ling the strong to maintain and care for
the weak and defective. At the same
time, advances in the sciences of hygiene,
medicine, and surgery enable many of
the unfit to survive the tests of child-

EDITOR'S TABLE.

267

hood and disease which, in a state of
nature, would be fatal. It is necessary,
when humanity thus restrains the op-
eration of the laws of Nature, that it
should supply a correlative supplement
to prevent disastrous consequences. If
civilization and philanthropy can not
permit Nature to accomplish its inexo-
rable decrees in its own way, they must
provide some other way, or finally be
overwhelmed."

The practical question may therefore
be very simply stated : Can a sufficient
amount of public attention be concen-
trated on the evils that threaten us,
through the disproportionate multipli-
cation of criminals', paupers, and phys-
ically defective persons, to cause effect-
ive measures to be taken to combat those
evils, and, as far as possible, extirpate
their cause or causes? Mr. Boies shows
clearly enough the measures to be taken,
and, on the whole, we must say that we
find very little to dissent from in his sug-
gestions. He pours just denunciation on
our present method of turning criminals
loose upon the community after a cer-
tain term of imprisonment without the
slightest guarantee, moral or other, for
their future good behavior. He calls at-
tention for the thousandth time to the
evils wrought by our unwholesome meth-
ods of jail administration. "It is the
unanimous testimony," he says, "of
every one who is conversant with the
management of county jails that they
are nothing more or less than breeders
of criminals, where they are, as is gen-
erally the case, committed to the super-
intendence of political sheriffs." Of the
jails of the State of Pennsylvania — and
here the author professes to speak from
personal knowledge — he says : " These
jails permit a promiscuous and unre-
strained commingling of the most de-
praved and vilest professional convicts
with children, accused persons, and de-
tained witnesses, without let or hin-
drance. In many cases even sexes are
not separated." Upon a recent visit to
the jail of Sunbury, Northumberland

County, the author found, among fifty-
four inmates of all classes," two bright,
nice-looking boys, one thirteen and the
other fourteen years old, who had been
incarcerated already two months and
would have to remain two months
longer before trial. They were accused
of stealing four bottles of ginger beer ! "
Along with them was a depraved and
vicious-looking boy charged with at-
tempted rape. There are, we are told,
in the United States, seventeen hundred
and fifty-eight county jails and only
forty- four j u venile reformatories. Great
Britain, on the other hand, supports
over four hundred reformatories and in-
dustrial schools, and has in consequence
been able to close fifty-six out of one
hundred and thirteen prisons and jails
within ten years. In this country dur-
ing the same period there has been a
constantly increasing expenditure for
prisons and jails, as might be supposed
from the fact stated by the author at
the outset, that our criminal population
has increased in almost double ratio to
the general population.

The most important suggestion made
by the author is, that incorrigible crimi-
nals and all the hopelessly defective
members of the community who are
thrown upon the public care should be
segregated under conditions that shall
absolutely prevent them from propagat-
ing their kind. He proposes, indeed,
that the problem shall be simplified by
calling in the aid of surgery " to remove
or sterilize the organs of reproduction,"
an operation, he adds, which if " be-
stowed upon the abnormal inmates of
our prisons, reformatories, jails, asy-
lums, and public institutions, would en-
tirely eradicate those unspeakable evil
practices which are so terribly preva-
lent, debasing, destructive, and uncon-
trollable in them." The proposed ap-
plication of this remedy will be consid-
ered by most too sweeping; but as
regards incorrigible criminals, particu-
larly those whose crimes take the form
of violence and lust, it will not be

z68

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

long, we believe, before public opinion
will sanction its employment in their
case.

The conclusion of the matter for the
present is, that society is taking far too
little interest in the questions which Mr.
Boies so ably and earnestly discusses.
It must be aroused from its easy-going
indifference, or our boasted civilization
will not be worth many generations'
purchase. Philanthropy has taken the
job of keeping up the standard of the
human race out of the hands of natural
selection ; and it now devolves upon it
to show that, aided by science, it is equal
to its self-imposed task, and can indeed
accomplish results that never could have
been accomplished by the operation of
unconscious laws.

LITERARY NOTICES,

PRISONERS AND PAUPERS. A Study of the
Abnormal Increase of Criminals, and the
Public Burden of Pauperism in the United
States ; the Causes and Remedies. By
HENRY M. BOIES, M. A. New York : G.
P. Putnam's Sons, 1893. Pp. 318. Price,
$1.50.

MR. BOIES had peculiar facilities for the
production of such a work as this and he has
used them ably. In his preface he says that
he has in this work not only endeavored to
give a general view of the subject as it ap-
pears in this country, " to emphasize the
waste of human sympathy and public funds
which results from what appears to be incon-
siderate and misdirected methods of treat-
ment," but he proposes a most feasible —
he says, " positive remedy."

The eleventh census of the United States,
which is now being published, " furnishes
statistics of a national growth in numbers,
wealth, and general prosperity unparalleled
in the history of civilization." Nevertheless,
this census, says the author, makes some dis-
closures which are " appalling in the highest
degree to our confidence in the future." One
of these is the extraordinary increase in the
criminal classes ; and he shows that while in
1850 the proportion of criminals was 1 in
3,500 of the population, it increased in 1890
to 1 in 786'5, or 445 per cent ; while the in-

crease of population in the same period was
only 170 per cent.

Mr. Boies claims that " such a dispropor-
tion can not continue indefinitely without a
relapse into barbarism and social ruin." And
he explains his statement by telling that such
a condition of affairs does not exist in any
other civilized nation. He attributes the first
cause for crime and pauperism to the unnatu-
ral increase of intemperance ; the second,
" the crowding of the people to the centers."

The third cause lies in the existing laws for
the punishment of criminals and the unintel-
ligent manner in which they are administered.
And having thus briefly summarized the con-
ditions of paupers and prisoners generally and
the causes for their existence, the author re-
views the awful criminal condition of Penn-
sylvania, and in the sixth chapter begins an
examination of the classes which form the
prison and pauper population of the country.

In this part of the work it is stated that
that portion of the population which is for-
eign-born, or having one or both parents for-
eign-born, furnishes over one third of the
criminals and three fifths of the paupers of
the country, whereas they constitute only one
fifth of the whole number. From this the
author concludes that to avert the danger
" which has become imminent, and threatens
our very existence, . . . Congress must regu-
late immigration as the initial remedy."

The excessive increase of criminals from
the negro population occupies the next chap-
ter, and the anomalous proportion of crimi-
nals among the population of African descent
is so startling that Mr. Boies analyzes the
causes very minutely. It appears, he says,
that although " they constitute less than 13-51
per cent of the total population, yet they con-
tribute one third of our convicts, though only
8'8 per cent of our paupers." Further on he
says that this alarming increase " is quite as
important and threatening as the foreign ele-
ment," which has been considered. The
cause for this disparity of criminals and pau-
pers he claims is that " a ruling white minor-
ity (in the South), possessing the wealth,
stands over a black majority which is paid
for their labor actually less than the fairly
comfortable subsistence which they received
as slaves, and denies to them every right of
equality. . . . This is as hostile to true Amer-
icanism as was slavery." And he continues,

LITERARY NOTICES.

269

that as a remedial measure, " Congress must
therefore enforce ... the protection of the
colored race in the enjoyment of the rights
it has conferred upon it in the face of the
world."

In the chapter, Intemperance as a Cause,
Mr. Boies claims that alcoholic drink is the
direct or indirect cause of 75 per cent of all
the crimes committed, and of at least 50 per
cent of all the sufferings endured on account
of poverty, and that " the terrible effects of
this curse of humanity are displayed to all
the elements of our population, the native,
the foreign, the colored, and the urban alike."
As one of the remedies against intemper-
ance he suggests the establishment of cheap
coffee and tea houses and social halls, after
the fashion of those established by the Sal-
vation Army in England ; and he adds that
" as the way to a man's heart is through his
stomach," give him good, cheap food, and his
desire for stimulants will cease.

The author entirely disapproves of the
present general conditions of the arrest, prose-
cution, and imprisonment, or rather the man-
ner of imprisonment, of criminals. He claims
that the penal code should be reorganized,
and that more consideration should be shown
to " youthful delinquents ; " for " county jails
are nurseries of crime," and he attributes this
to the "wrong management of the prisoners."
"No State," he says, "should tolerate" "the
infamous jails as they at present exist in
county towns." And, "until the whole penal
system is reorganized upon the basis of com-
mon sense," he offers some excellent sugges-
tions as to the segregation of the different
types of prisoners — the one from the other,
as well as to how the number of prisons could
be and should be lessened.

The work is illustrated with fourteen
plates, and is a most valuable addition to the
social and economic literature of the nation.

THE GREAT COMMANDERS SERIES. Edited by
General JAMES GRANT WILSON. New
York : D. Appleton & Co.

ADMIRAL FARRAGUT. By Captain A. T.
MAHAN, U. S. N. Pp. 333. Price, $1.25.
— GENERAL TAYLOR. By General 0. 0.
HOWARD. Pp. 386. Price, $1.50. — GEN-
ERAL JACKSON. By JAMES PARTON. Pp.
332. Price, $1.60.

THE issue of what gives promise of being
a very attractive series of biographies has

been begun under the above general title.
The first volume is a life of Admiral Farra-
gut. The career of the most celebrated of
America's naval heroes is sufficiently pic-
turesque to warrant its being given the lead-
ing place. Captain Mahan's account of it is
of a popular character, being neither a mono-
graph on naval warfare on the one hand nor
a juvenile story on the other. A few pages
suffice to tell of Farragut's parentage, birth,
and his meeting with Commander Porter,
which determined the course of his life. His
boyhood, before the beginning of his naval
career, was too brief for much incident, for
his warrant as midshipman dates from the
middle of his tenth year. The record pro-
ceeds with Farragut's first cruise on board
the Essex during the War of 1812. A dozen
somewhat eventful years followed, bringing
the young man to the rank of lieutenant.
The years from 1825 to 1860 take compara-
tively little space, for they represent mostly
the routine service of a naval officer in time
of peace. Then come his grand achieve-
ments in the civil war — the New Orleans ex-
pedition, the operations at Vicksburg and
Port Hudson, and the entrance of Mobile
Bay. These events are described with much
detail and vividness, and the several opera-
tions are illustrated by charts. A short
chapter is devoted to the admiral's five years
of life after the war, and a sympathetic esti-
mate of his character closes the volume.

In the life of Zachary Taylor is given a
record rich in those details which often re-
veal more of the subject's character than his
most formal and deliberate acts. We have
a glimpse at his early life in the frontier ter-
ritory near Louisville, Ky., then an account
of his first few years in the army, his service
in the Northwest Territory during the War of
1812, his campaigns against the Indians in
Florida and elsewhere, all leading up to his
magnificent achievements in the Mexican
War. His part in this contest is described
in a sympathetic and picturesque manner.
Close upon the heels of it comes his election
to the presidency, and a sketch of his ad-
ministration, of little over a year, brings his
life to a close.

In James Parton's biography of Jackson
is seen the hand of a master historian. Vig-
orous, as befits the history of such a strong
personality, it is everywhere judicious, faith-

270

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ful, and conscientious. Jackson's faults and
autocratic acts are not concealed, Avhile his
sterling qualities and remarkable achieve-
ments are set forth in due prominence. The
account of Jackson's campaign in defense of
New Orleans is given large space in the vol-
ume. It is told with much vivid detail, and
has the fascination of a tale of brave and
forceful deeds, which it is. This book is
notable, too, as being the last literary labor
of its author, who passed away two months
after it was completed.

The series is to be continued with lives
of Washington, Greene, Sherman, Grant,
Lee, and many others.

THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS OP THE ANGLO-SAX-
ONS. By the Baron J. DE BATE. Trans-
lated by T. B. HARBOTTLE. London :
Swan, Sonnenschein & Co. New York :
Macmillan & Co. 1893. Pp. 135, 4to.
Price, $7.

THIS work, which is illustrated with thir-
ty-one cuts in the text and seventeen full-
page engravings, although of considerable
value to archaeological students, does not
shed much ethnographic light. As a mat-
ter of fact, all attempts at an arrangement
of antique arts and industries must to a cer-
tain extent be arbitrary and artificial, as
chronological classification can not be fully
carried out in the present condition of ar-
chaeological research. Baron de Baye claims
that the Jutes occupy the first place, chrono-
logically, among the invading barbarians of
Great Britain. The Saxons and Angles fol-
lowed soon afterward, and, according to the
author, they all settled in Kent, in which
county the most perfect archaeological speci-
mens of the ancient Anglo-Saxon industries
are found. The baron uses Eutropius,
Ptolemy, and Tacitus very freely in his
proofs of the German ancestry of the early
Britons ; but it is an incontestable fact that
long before the advent of the Anglo-Saxon
barbarians, the Kelts, who were settled in
Ireland, had made incursions into England.
The archaeological specimens of Anglo-Saxon
industries which are illustrated in the beau-
tiful volume we have under observation
clearly resemble the accepted evidences of
an earlier industrial condition among the
Irish Kelts, and, more distinctly than the
authorities quoted by Baron de Baye, assert
their parentage as Keltic and not Germanic.

Apart from this too frequent error of
the ethnographer, the author has compiled a
very valuable addition to the archaeological
literature of England. The chapters on
Anglo-Saxon fibulae are not alone interest-
ing but important, although they stamp the
evidence of origin as Scandinavian rather
than German. In these chapters the author
proves with tolerable clearness an archaeo-
logical point which has occupied the atten-
tion of savants for centuries, for he shows
that the fibulae which have been discovered
in Kent and the Isle of Wight are of conti-
nental origin, and precisely similar in con-
struction to the ornaments of Gothic manu-
facture which have been found in the bar-
barian cemeteries of the continent. This dis-
covery at once establishes a proof of niter-
course, and illustrates the artistic influence
exerted over that part of Britain which was
near to France ; while in other parts of the
work we have, upon comparison with the
catalogue of the Museum of the Royal Irish
Academy, distinct evidences of a Keltic ori-
gin for the industrial arts of the early Brit-
ons.

The author's analysis of the uses of the
beads and crystal balls which have been
found in the graves of the Anglo-Saxons is
very interesting. In Nenia Britannica it is
claimed that they were used for occult pur-
poses, whereas Mr. Roach Smith is of opin-
ion that " all the objects exhumed are ca-
pable of a perfectly simple explanation."
Baron de Baye, however, asserts with some-
what of authority that they were used as
talismans against sickness and " to neutral-
ize the force of the enemy's blows." The
work is excellently printed and got up, and
the plates and references will be found to
be of exceeding interest to ethnographical
students.

FAITH-HEALING, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE, AND KIN-
DRED PHENOMENA. By J. M. BUCKLEY,
LL. D. New York: The Century Com-
pany. Pp. 308.

BESIDES the subjects named in the title,
those of Astrology, Divination, and Coinci-
dences; Dreams, Nightmare, and Somnam-
bulism ; Presentiments, Visions, and Appari-
tions ; and Witchcraft, are treated of in this
volume. In his discussions the author has
adopted certain principles as working laws,

LITERARY NOTICES.

271

namely : " That before endeavoring to explain
how phenomena exist it is necessary to de-
termine precisely what exists; and that so
long as it is possible to find a rational ex-
planation of what unquestionably is, there is
no reason to suspect, and it is superstition to
assume, the operation of supernatural causes."
His course, therefore, is to ascertain the facts
and find a common-sense explanation for
them. In investigating phenomena, some of
which it is claimed are connected with re-
ligion and others with occult forces, it is
necessary to proceed without regard to the
question of religion. We look more closely
at the chapters on Faith-healing and Chris-
tian Science and the Mind Cure as re-
lating to the most vital subjects. In questions
of faith-healing allowances must be made for
the operation of natural causes, unobserved
or concealed, for the excited minds of wit-
nesses, and for other circumstances that
mask the real facts ; but, after all deduc-
tions have been made, the author believes
it must be admitted that "most extraor-
dinary recoveries have been produced, some
of them instantaneously, from diseases in
general considered incurable by ordinary
treatment, in others known to be curable in
the ordinary process of medicine and sur-
gery." The cases remaining to be accounted
for are those hi which the effect is unques-
tionably produced by a natural mental cause,
and those in which the operation of occult
causes is claimed. In these cases, of both
classes, subjective mental states are impor-
tant factors. With or without belief they
can produce effects either of the nature of
disease or cure. Active incredulity is often
more favorable to sudden effects than mere
stupid, acquiescent credulity. Surprise at
seeing an unexpected effect may lead the
mind to succumb to the dominant idea. Con-
centrated attention, with faith, can produce
powerful effects; may operate efficiently in
acute diseases, with instantaneous rapidity
upon nervous diseases, or upon any condition
capable of being modified by direct action
through the nervous or circulatory system.
Cures may be wrought in diseases of accu-
mulation with surprising rapidity where the
increased action of the various excretory
functions can eliminate morbid growth. Cer-
tain inflammatory conditions may suddenly
disappear under similar mental states, so as

to admit of helpful exercise; which exercise,
by its effect upon the circulation, and through
it upon the nutrition of diseased parts, may
produce a permanent cure. The mind cure,
apart from the absurdities associated with it,
and from its repudiation of medicine, has a
basis in the laws of Nature. The pretense of
mystery, however, is either honest ignorance
or consummate quackery. All the practi-
tioners are unable to dispense with surgery
where the case is at all complex and mechan-
ical adjustments are necessary, and they can
not restore a lost member; but in certain
displacements of internal organs the conse-
quence of nervous debility, which are some-
times aided by surgery, they sometimes suc-
ceed by developing latent energv through
mental stimulus. The claims of Christian
faith-healers to supernatural powers are dis-
credited by facts which are cited ; and faith
cure, technically so called, as now held by
many Protestants, is pronounced " a pitiable
superstition, dangerous in its final effect."
It is harmful because it tends to produce an
effeminate type of character which shrinks
from pain, and to concentrate attention upon
self and its sensations. It sets up false
grounds for determining whether a person is
or is not in favor with God ; it opens the
door to every superstition. Practically it
gives support to other delusions which claim
a supernatural element. It diminishes the
influence of Christianity by subjecting it to
a false and incon elusive test ; diverts atten-
tion from the moral and spiritual transforma-
tion which Christianity professes to work;
destroys the ascendency of reason ; and irre-
sistibly tends, in some minds, to mental de-
rangement. "Little hope exists of freeing
those already entangled, but it is highly im-
portant to prevent others from falling into
so plausible and luxurious a snare, and to
show that Christianity is not to be held re-
sponsible for aberrations of the imagination,
which belong exclusively to no race, clime,
age, party, or creed." The relation of the
mind -cure movement to ordinary medical
practice, Dr. Buckley concludes, is im-
portant. " It emphasizes what the most
philosophical physicians of all schools have
always deemed of the first importance,
though many have neglected it. It teaches
that medicine is but occasionally necessary.
It hastens the time when patients of dis-

2/2

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

crimination will rather pay more for advice
how to live and for frank declarations that
they do not need medicine than for drugs.
It promotes general reliance upon those pro-
cesses which go on equally in health and dis-
ease. But these ethereal practitioners have
no new force to oif er ; there is no causal con-
nection between their cures and their theo-
ries. . . . Recoveries as remarkable have
been occurring through all the ages as the
results of mental states and Nature's own
powers."

A DICTIONARY OF TERMS USED IN MEDICINE
AND THE COLLATERAL SCIENCES. By the
late RICHARD D. HOBLYN, M. A. Oxon.
Twelfth edition. Revised throughout,
with numerous Additions, by JOHN A. B.
PRICE, B. A., M. D., Oxon. New York :
Macmillan & Co. Pp. 822. Price, $2.25.

THE appearance of the twelfth edition of
this dictionary, with revisions and additions,
which include even the terms used in the
very modern science of bacteriology and bring
the book fully up to date, places a use-
ful work at the disposal of physicians and
students. It is, of course, not exhaustive;
but it contains descriptions of all the ordi-
nary terms relating to medicine, and these,
although necessarily brief, are full enough
for all practical purposes. Under the head
of poisons, eight or nine pages are devoted
to a classification of the commoner ones, in
which the symptoms and most approved
methods of treatment are given.

Its small size and good print make the
contents of the volume readily accessible,
and the names on the title-page are suffi-
cient guarantees of accuracy.

A MANUAL OF PRACTICAL MEDICAL AND PHYSI-
OLOGICAL CHEMISTRY. By CHARLES E.
PELLEW, E. M. New York : D. Appleton
& Co. Pp. 314. Price, $2.50.

WITH the recent attempts to regulate the
conferring of medical degrees by means of
State legislation has come a tendency in the
more prosperous medical schools to make
their curriculums even more extended than
the law requires. One of the most important
innovations hi this line has been the incor-
poration into the regular courses of a system
of laboratory work, by means of which each
student is given facilities for the actual
chemical and microscopic study of the proxi-

mate principles, the elements entering into
the composition of the human body and its
secretions, and the reactions and histological
characteristics produced by various patho-
logical conditions, which are of value in
diagnosis. The study of these subjects, in a
practical way, has until quite recently been
confined, in this country at any rate, to a few
physiologists and post-graduate workers, so
that an elementary text-book suited to less
practiced students became a necessity. Mr.
Pellew's book was designed to fill this need.
Its treatment of the subject is neither origi-
nal nor exhaustive, but it is very well adapt-
ed to the use of elementary students. It is
printed on heavy paper, and contains several
well-prepared plates and numerous line draw-

ETHNOGRAPHISCHE BESCHRIJVING VAN DE
WEST EN NOORDKUST VAN NEDERLANDSCH
NIEUW-GUINEA (Ethnographical Descrip-
tion of the Western and Northwestern
Coasts of Dutch New Guinea). By F. S.
A. DE CLERCQ and J. D. E. SCHUELTZ.
One vol., 4to, pp. 300, plates xlii. Ley-
den : P. W. M. Trap.

THIS magnificent work describes the col-
lections made by Mr. F. S. A. de Clercq in
New Guinea in the years 1887 and 1888,
which are now in the Royal Ethnographic
Museum at Leyden, Holland. The descrip-
tive portion of the work is mainly by Dr. J.
D. E. Schmeltz, conservator of the museum.
The book is a model of its kind. It is fur-
nished with a full list of all authorities
quoted, a list of all places mentioned, an
excellent map, and admirable indices — all
necessary, but, unfortunately, often omitted
in ethnographic writings.

The main portion of the work is divided
into three parts. In the first we have a de-
scription of each object — size, form, mate-
rial, details, and provenance — with references
to passages in any author where similar ob-
jects have been described or illustrated.
Where necessary for comparison or illustra-
tion, sketches are introduced into the text.
The objects described are divided into five
groups: a, dress and adornment; 6, houses
and domestic utensils; c, objects used in
trade, fishing, etc. ; <Z, weapons ; e, objects
used on festal occasions, ceremonies, etc.
The plates, more than forty in number and
mostly colored, represent the objects de-

LITERARY NOTICES.

273

scribed admirably. Among some of the
more striking and interesting may be men-
tioned handsome headdresses of feathers,
ear decorations of tortoiseshell, boar-tusk
and red-bean breastplates, stone pounders
for sago, paddles, drums, spears barbed along
both edges, narrow shields elaborately deco-
rated with carving and color, quaint carved
figures, and wooden headrests or pillows.
Two plates are devoted to portraits showing
hairdressing, tattooing, and face ornaments.
The coloring of the plates is done in Trap's
best style. The second part of the work is a
study in geographical distribution of the ob-
jects. A brief ethnographic sketch of New
Guinea (based on Serrurier's classification) is
presented. Four tables are then given in
which the distribution of each type of ob-
jects is shown, and the fact is made plain
that there are distinct areas of culture in the
great island. A study of some ten pages
follows upon the relationships shown by the
ornamentation of the various objects. In
1884 Van Rye prepared a complete bibli-
ography of New Guinea ; in Part III of this
work Dr. Schmeltz completes this to the
present date.

Messrs, de Clercq and Schmeltz are to be
congratulated upon their work. The Nether-
lands Government is also to be greatly com-
mended for the encouragement and aid
which it has given to its publication. Pub-
lic interest in ethnography is keen and intel-
ligent in Holland.

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF MISSOURI. Vol. II :
A Report on the Iron Ores of Missouri.
Pp. 365. By FRANK L. NASON, Assistant
Geologist. Also Vol. Ill : A Report on
the Mineral Waters of Missouri. Pp. 256.
By PAUL SCHWEITZER, Assistant Geologist.
Published by the Geological Survey,
Jefferson City, 1892.

THESE volumes, which are issued by
Arthur Winslow, State Geologist, are ex-
haustive treatises upon the subjects of their
titles. Mr. Nason complains in his preface
that the lack of railroads and good public
roads made the survey difficult ; but, never-
theless, his patient work, assisted by the co-
operation of the intelligent citizens of the
iron-ore districts, enabled him to compile a
most interesting as well as valuable report

In Chapter X of the Report on the Min-
eral Waters of Missouri Prof. Schweitzer
VOL. XLIII. — 19

makes some very interesting comparisons
between the domestic waters and the mineral
waters of Europe, which will be read with
profit by those engaged in the merchandising
of the Missouri waters. In these compari-
sons, the author was largely assisted by the
observations of Prof. Arthur Winslow. Both
volumes are elaborately illustrated. Em-
bodied with Vol. Ill is a very useful ap-
pendix, containing a bibliography of mineral
waters, chronologically arranged.

THE MOUND-BUILDERS : THEIR WORKS AND
RELICS. By Rev. STEPHEN D. PEET, Ph. D.
Vol. I, illustrated. Chicago: Office of
the American Antiquarian. Pp. 370.

DR. PEET claims that man's first appear-
ance on the American continent was not con-
temporaneous with but toward the close of
the Glacial period — about ten thousand years
ago. As to the appearance of this prehis-
toric individual he quotes other students of
the subject to prove that the great French
archaeologist is hi error when he claims that
man, immediately after the Glacial period,
was "of great stature." His research en-
ables him to corroborate Dr. Thomas Wil-
son's summing up of the characteristics of
palaeolithic man, viz., "He was of short
stature and strong of limb."

The author says, in his first chapter, that
" In Great Britain ... we go back of the
Celts and Saxons to find the Britons and the
Basques, who were comparatively modern."
This is an error. Authentic records prove
that not only were the Celts pre-Briton, but
that the nomenclature of England was de-
rived from the Celts of Ireland and Scotland,
and was, at that time, precisely similar.

The chapter entitled The Stone Grave
People is of important interest. In this the
author devotes several pages to an analysis
of the mound-building theory as it applies to
America ; and from the specimens of pottery
that have been taken from the stone graves
he builds a probable and interesting pre-
sumption of the facial characteristics of the
prehistoric dwellers on this continent In
another chapter he seems to recede from his
contention that the first appearance of man
in America was after the Glacial period;
for he accounts for the scarcity of images,
etc., in the South by the assumption that
during the dissolution of the glacial forma-

274

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tion the mastodon retreated northward, and
man — " the hunters " — followed.

The chapters on the Migrations, Village
Life, and Defensive Works of the Mound-
builders will be read with considerable pleas-
ure and benefit by archaeological students.
Dr. Peet has given the results of his research
in a style that will be acceptable even to
non-students. The work is profusely illus-
trated.

PRACTICAL POCKET-BOOK OF PHOTOGRAPHY.
By Dr. E. VOGEL. Translated by E. C.
CONRAD, F. C. S. London: Swan, Son-
nenschein & Co. New York : Macmillan
& Co. 1893. Pp. 202. Price, $1.

PHOTOGRAPHY now exerts such an influ-
ence upon current literature and general
events that a handbook such as that which
Dr. Vogel has produced is not alone timely,
but useful. One of the great difficulties un-
der which beginners in the art of photogra-
phy labor is the fact that the foamulas and
instructions in most guides are too many, too
complex, and too incomplete. In this little
volume the author has selected only the sim-
plest and best formulas for developers, in-
tensifiers, etc., all of which have been ac-
cepted and are used by the professors of the
Royal Technical High School of Berlin.

The first chapter is devoted to an exami-
nation of the different photographic appara-
tus in vogue among German experts, and
contains also some very useful information
on photographic objectives, or the combina-
tions of lenses that are capable of giving an
optical image. Instantaneous photography
is also treated in this chapter, and some
simple rules by which exposures should
be determined will be read with profit by
both amateur and professional photogra-
phers. Among the formulas for developers,
the author draws attention to a new and con-
centrated para-amidophenol developer, which,
under the name of " rodinal," has been intro-
duced by the Aktiengesellschaft fiir Anilin-
fabrikation. This developer only needs dilu-
tion with water to be ready for use, and " is
especially excellent for instantaneous photo-
graphs."

In the fifth part of Chapter IY, Dr. Vogel
gives some very simple instructions for the
recovery of silver from residues, which will
be useful for those who use developers, in-

tensifying baths, etc., in large quantities.
The fifth chapter is devoted to the positive
processes, which are examined in brief detail.
The book is illustrated fully, and the se-
lection of cuts and diagrams is admirably
suited to the subject matter. The translator
has added some important foot-notes to the
general text, which was evidently written for
the use of German students by Dr. Vogel.

MINERAL SPRINGS AND HEALTH RESORTS OP
CALIFORNIA. By WINSLOW ANDERSON,
M. D. San Francisco: The Bancroft
Company. 1892. Pp. 384.

HAVING regard to the value of the inves-
tigation of balneotherapy and the scientific
internal administration of mineral waters,
which has gone on with great benefit in
Europe for centuries, Dr. Anderson, believ-
ing that California possessed valuable min-
eral springs, spent several years examining
and comparing the waters of that State,
and gives the result of his labors in this
work. It is a perfect revelation of the min-
eral waters of California, and apparently
leaves nothing unsaid either as to their effi-
cacy as health restorers or of their compara-
tive value against well-known European min-
eral waters. Although the greater part of
the work is devoted to an exhaustive ana-
lytical examination of the waters, a fund of
useful information is added on the ancient
uses of mineral springs, their classification,
and the theory of their origin, with the
therapeutics or medicinal uses of the differ-
ent waters. The book is profusely illustrated
with cuts of the mineral springs and of Cali-
fornia's most famous health resorts.

ELEMENTARY TEXT-BOOK OF ENTOMOLOGY. By
W. F. KIRBY, T. L. S. Second edition.
London : Swan, Sonnenschein & Co. New
York : Macmillan & Co. 1892. Pp.281.
Price, $3.

THIS work is elaborately got up, contain-
ing eighty-seven plates and over six hundred
and fifty figures, representing a pictorial li-
brary of the insect world. In his introduction
Mr. Kirby gives an unusually lucid explana-
tion of the structures and zoological nomen-
clature of the insect tribe, which he divides
into four classes of animals having bodies
composed of a number of joints or segments.
He pays reverent tribute to the researches
of Linne, who divided all the insects known

LITERARY NOTICES.

275

to him into seven orders in his work Sys-
tema Naturae (1735). Fabricius (a pupil of
Linne) prepared a new classification of in-
sects, founded on the structure of the mouth,
and he renamed all the Linnaean orders, even
where they coincided with his own.

From these and other sources Mr. Kirby
selects only the nomenclature that is modern-
ly accepted, and he gives a most interesting
study in this volume. The chapters on the
Hymenoplera class will be found to be of
more zoological value than any account of
the habits of bees, wasps, ants, etc., that has
yet been published ; and as this family is,
industrially, of more consequence to the pub-
lic than any other of the insect class, the se-
lection of the Hymenoptera species for his
most elaborate history is well chosen.

The analysis of the Lepidoptera family is
treated very exhaustively. It comprises espe-
cially butterflies and moths, and the plates
at the end of the book very fully illustrate
the principal members of the species.

THE STUDENT'S HANDBOOK OF PHYSICAL GE-
OLOGY. By A. J. JUKES-BROWN, B. A.,
F. G. S. Second edition, revised. Lon-
don: George Bell & Sons. 1892. Pp.
666. Price, $2.25.

THIS is a recast of Mr. Jukes-Browne's
Handbook of Geology, to which he has added
over one hundred pages, chiefly dealing with
physiographical geology and the substructure
of the earth's crust. He shows pretty clearly
that, although physiographical geology is in
the nature of an incidental study, it is nev-
ertheless the most perfect basis upon which
to form accurate geological beliefs, and he
places this part of the work, very properly,
immediately following the chapters on Dy-
namic and Structural Geology.

Perhaps the most interesting section of
the work is that devoted to the underground
circulation of waters. The mechanical ef-
fects of this subterranean water circulation
are very important in geological research.
In England and in many parts of the Conti-
nent and America they usually consist of
landslips and cave formations; whereas in
Ireland and in southern Germany the shell
of land above the water is oftentimes
" cracked," and, becoming detached from its
moorings, travels a mile or two from its
original location.

In the chapter on Igneous Rocks as Rock
Masses, Mr. Jukes-Browne has given some
highly interesting examinations of the por-
phyritic deposits of Wales, Scotland, and
Ireland, clearly indicating the volcanic struc-
ture of these countries. In dealing with the
influence of earth movements, the author
quotes Prof. Powell in connection with the
probable system and time of the bed forma-
tion of Colorado, and he says : " All the
facts concerning the relation of the water-
ways of this region to the mountains, hills,
canons, etc., lead to the inevitable conclu-
sion that the system of drainage was de-
termined antecedently ... to the formation
of the eruptive beds (lavas) and (volcanic)
cones." The work is profusely illustrated.

THE EARTH'S HISTORY. An Introduction to
Modern Geology. By R. D. ROBERTS, N. A.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
1893. Pp. 270. Price, $1.50.

THIS is a useful little volume, giving an
interesting sketch of the methods and chief
results of geological inquiry ; but the author
errs, in the same manner that do most Eng-
lish scientists and writers of scientific Eng-
lish bibliology, inasmuch as that he assumes
that " the geology of Great Britain is indeed,
in epitome, the geology of the world." In
his preface he says that although individual
groups of rocks may be found developed on
a grander scale hi one or other of the con-
tinental areas, and that " particular scenic
features, more majestic and impressive, may
be found elsewhere ; in no part of the world
can so great a variety of geological phenom-
ena (no doubt often in miniature), and so
complete a system of natural agencies, either
in active operation or displayed in their re-
sults, be observed than in Great Britain."
The recent geological surveys of Arizona,
California, and other American States had
not apparently reached London when Mr.
Roberts wrote his book, for in the ascer-
tained stratigraphical conditions of these
States we have a far more generous field for
geological research than the well-ventilated
analysis of British geological conditions can
ever display. Nevertheless, the author has
compiled a valuable text-book of preliminary
examination of the study of geology, and in
the chapters upon Aqueous Rocks and the
Deposition in Past Times, and the Volcanic

276

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Action in Past Times, he has materially
added to the existing literature upon geo-
logical research.

Three books in the series of English
Classics for Schools, by the American Book
Company, well illustrate the excellent idea
on which the issue is based — which is that
of presenting the best English books, of suit-
able size, with the accompaniment of full
prefatory information concerning the sub-
jects, environments, and authors of the
works. The Sir Roger de Coverley Papers
from the Spectator is introduced with an
account of the Tatler, of which the Spectator
was the direct outcome, and its characteris-
tics, and biographical sketches of Addison,
Steele, and Budgell, the authors of the Sir
Roger de Coverley papers. To a similar edi-
tion of Sir Walter Scott's Marmion are pre-
fixed a characterization of Scott's work in
the poem, a description of the Scottish peo-
ple of the time of the action, their customs
and distinctions, an account of the signifi-
cance of the battle of Flodden Field, and
maps of the region and of the battle-ground.
The Second Essay on the Earl of Chatham,
by Lord Macaulay, is furnished with bio-
graphical sketches of the author and of
William Pitt. These volumes are neat in
appearance, moderate in price, and are suit-
able for the modest library as well as for the
schoolroom.

Robinsons Arithmetics (American Book
Company) have for many years had a wide
use among the best American schools. In
preparing new and revised editions, the ob-
ject has been kept in view of retaining all
the features which have contributed to their
usefulness and popularity, and making only
such changes as would add to their value
and bring them up to date. In the Primary
work, stress is laid upon teaching pupils to
recognize numbers of objects before they are
required to represent numbers by words or
by figures. A valuable feature of the re-
vision of the Rudiments consists in the addi-
tion of about forty pages of introductory
exercises, of a general character, which adapt
the book for use in a two-book series, in con-
nection with the Practical Arithmetic, or it
may be used without the introductory exer-
cises, in a three-book series. The scheme of
revision of the Practical Arithmetic has been

rather one of judicious addition than of
omission, and yet by an economical adjust-
ment and by an occasional dropping out of
useless matter it has been possible to add
many valuable features and much new matter
without materially increasing the size of the
book. In the arrangement of subjects atten-
tion has been paid to placing those in se-
quence which run naturally and by easy
stages into one another, and to giving early
places to the most important and useful ap-
plications.

^Edeology, by Dr. Sydney Barrington
Elliot, is devoted to the physiology, hygiene,
etc., of the generative life of man. The
volume is compiled from a great variety of
sources, and is characterized by that vague
generality of statement which appeals to a
prurient curiosity without doing much for
the enlightenment of the reader. Full and
explicit instruction in the physiology of the
generative system, suitably timed and adapt-
ed in the education of the young, would be
of great service to society, and there is noth-
ing in this class of publications that will take
the place of it or approach it in value. (New
York, St. Clair Publishing Co., 260 pages ;
price, $1.50.)

In the sixth edition of M. Foster's Text-
book of Physiology, the appendix by Dr. A.
Sheridan Lea, on The Chemical Basis of the
Animal Body, is bound by itself as Part V
(Macmillan, $1.75). It has been enlarged,
and now constitutes a treatise on the chem-
ical substances occurring in the animal body.
The several classes of proteids are first de-
scribed, after which the chemistry of the
enzymes, or soluble unorganized ferments, is
given. Certain amorphous bodies allied to
proteids — mucin, gelatin, keratin, etc. — and
the few carbohydrates found in the human
body then receive attention. Other groups
are the fatty acids and their allies, the
amides and amido acids, the uric-acid group,
the ptomaines, and the various coloring mat-
ters. Cuts showing the appearance of crys-
tals of many of the substances described are
scattered through the text, and the volume
has a separate index and a list of authorities
quoted.

A treatise on Varicocele and its Treat-
ment has been prepared by Prof. G. Frank
Lydston, M. D. (Keener). After a description
of the disorder, its causes are reviewed, and

LITERARY NOTICES.

277

various modes of treatment, palliative and
radical, are set forth. The volume has an
index and a bibliography. A number of cuts
illustrate the appearance of diseased parts
and methods of operation.

Studies in American History, by Prof.
Mary Sheldon Barnes (Heath, 60 cents), is a
teachers' manual, consisting of a series of
outlines' for lessons. It is designed to direct
pupils in studying history from the original
materials, and to that end gives lists of au-
thorities, with critical comments, summaries
of points to be made under each head, notes,
suggestions, and references for the teacher's
reading. The studies are divided into seven
groups, one being introductory and the
others covering the history of the territory
occupied by the United States from Colum-
bus to 1892. Machine teachers had better
let this book alone ; it is a tool they can not
handle.

An Elementary Treatise on Trigonometry,
by E. W. Hobson and C. M. Jessop, has been
issued from the press of Cambridge University
(Macmillan, $1.25). It is a book for beginners
in its subject, and parts are indicated which
students are advised to pass over until they
have been once through it. A large number
of problems are given, many of them practi-
cal, and the answers are put at the end of
the volume.

Having received from Prof. Kiikenthal
for examination some specimens of Apus
brought from Spitsbergen, Mr. Henry Mey-
ners Bernard has made a study of the species
and come to the conclusion that it is a vari-
ety of Lepidurus gladalis, which he pro-
poses to call L. Spitzbergensis. His observa-
tions of this Apus form Part I of a book,
The Apodidce, which he has contributed to
the Nature Series (Macmillan, $2). In Part
I, also, he undertakes to prove that Apus is
an original crustacean easily derivable from
an annelid. Going on, in Part II, the author
maintains that Apus is, moreover, the origi-
nal of all the modern crustaceans.

The Heredity of Acquired Characters is
the title of a paper by Dr. Manly Miles, Lan-
sing, Mich., which was published in The Pro-
ceedings of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science. The inheritance of
acquired character has been denied by Weiss-
man, who claims the "continuity of the
germ plasma as originally formulated, and all

inheritable variations are assumed to be the
result of fortuitous changes in the reproduc-
tive germs." Dr. Miles claims that it is im-
possible that a living substance, undergoing
constant changes, can be "a substance of
extreme stability" to "grow enormously
without the least change in its molecular
structure," as advanced in Weissman's the-
ory, and he adds that the fact of the germ
plasma being brought into intimate relations
with the metabolism of the body plasma, the
habits of the organism in modifying the gen-
eral metabolism of the body must also exert
an influence on the system of the germ cells,
and, through their constantly changing sub-
stance, on the forms of activity that are
transmitted from one generation to another.
From Dr. Miles's standpoint it is an almost
impossible supposition that from two germs
of identical qualities and tendencies, two
adult forms could be evolved, precisely alike
in every detail. To arrive at such a perfect
reproduction it would be necessary to have
the same series of anastates in the construc-
tive processes of every organ, and the same
destructive metabolism throughout the entire
period of growth, which, of course, could
very rarely occur in the surrounding condi-
tions of two individuals ; but he admits that
the repetition of an acquired habit for
several generations, uniformly transmitted,
might establish a dominant, inherited family
characteristic.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Baldwin, C. C. Review Extraordinary of
" Man and the Glacial Period." Pp. 22.

Balfour, Henry. Evolution of Decorative Art.
New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 181. $1.25.

Bell, Clark. Bulletin. Psychological Section
of the Medico-legal Society. New York. Pp.8.

Blackwell, Antoinette Brown. The Philoso-
phy of Individuality. New York: G. P. Putnam's
Sons. Pp. 593. $3.

Bolles, Frank. At the North of Bear Camp
Water. Boston and New York: Houghton,
Mifflin & Co. Pp. 293. $1.25.— Students' Ex-
penses. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University.
Pp. 45.

Browning, W. W. Modern Homoeopathy.
Philadelphia. W. J. Dornan, Printer. Pp. 82.

Bnrnham, W. P. Three Roads to a Commis-
sion in the United States Army. New York: D.
Appleton & Co. Pp. 160. $1.

Bulletin, U. 8. Pish Commission. Volume X.
1890. Government Printing Office. Pp. 450.
With Maps and Plates.

Catalogue, Michigan Mining School. Hough-
ton. Pp. 175.

Clute, O. Sparry. Flat Pea. Michigan Aeri-
cultural Experiment Station Bulletin. Pp. 18.

Conn, H. W. Bacteria in the Dairy. Pp. 20.
Reprint.

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Dana, Mrs. W. S. How to know the Wild
Flowers. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
Pp. 298. $1.50.

Day, David T. Mineral Resources of the
United States. Washington: Government Print-
ing Office. Pp.630.

Denizen, El Dr. G., and Delano, Manuel A.
(translator). Esposizi6n elemental de los Prinzi-
pos fundamentals de la Teorfa Atomiqa (Ele-
mentary Exposition of the Fundamental Princi-
ples of the Atomic Theory). Paris. Pp. 35.

Drummond, A. T. Colors of Flowers in Rela-
tion to Time of Flowering. Pp. 5. Reprint.

Everett, Charles Carroll. The Gospel of Paul.
Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
Pp.307. $1.50.

Extermination of the Gypsy Moth. Report of
the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture.
Boston. Pp. 93.

Frazer. Persifor. Thomas Sterry Hunt. Pp.
13. Reprint.

Gilman, N. P. Socialism and the American
Spirit. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Pp. 376. $1.50.

Gladden, Washington. Tools and the Man.
Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Pp. 308. $1.25.

Glazebrook, R. T. Laws and Properties of
Matter. D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 184.

Gould, George M., M. D. The Meaning and
the Method of Life. G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp.
297. $1.75.

Greppo, C. L'Esprit Humain (The Human
Mind). Paris. Pp.73.

Halsted, B. D. A Study of Solanaceous An-
thracnosis. Pp. 3. Reprint.

Hopkins, W.J. Telephone Lines. New York:
Longmans, Green & Co. Pp. 258. $1.50.

Houston, E. J. Electrical Measurements.
New York: W. J. Johnson. Pp. 429. $1.— Out
lines of Forestry. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott
Co. Pp.254. $1.

Journal of Physiology. Volume XIV, Nos.
2 and 3. March, 1893. Michael Foster, editor.
Cambridge, England. Pp. 100. With Plates.

Keen, W. W. Tumor of the Hard Palate :
Acute Appendicitis; Perinephritic Abscess. Pp.
7. Reprint.

Keenan, W. J., and Riley, James. The Trans-
mitted Word. Dorchester Press Company, Bos-
ton. Pp. 113. 75 cents.

Laurie, S. S. John Amos Comenius. Syra-
cuse, N. Y.: C. W. Bardeen. Pp. 272.

Lecky, W. E. H. The Political Value of His-
tory. D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 57. 75 cents.

Lloyd, J. H. A Case of Syringo-myelia. Pp.
12. With Plates. Reprint.

Marine Biological Laboratory. Report of the
Trustees. Boston. Pp. 61.

Morse. Edward S. A Curious Aino Toy. Pp.
7.— Latrines of the East. Pp. 16. Reprints.

Michelson, A. A. Spectroscopic Measure-
ments. Smithsonian Institution. Pp. 24. With
Plates.

Mivart, St. George. American Types of Ani-
mal Life. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. Pp.
374. $2.

Orchardson. Charles. Light of the Ages.
Quincy, 111. Pp. 304.

Orser, Levi. The Natural Method of writing
Music. Boston: Eastern Publishing Company.
Pp.67.

Outdoors. Boston: Pope Manufacturing Co.
Pp. 76.

Palmberg, Albert. A Treatise on Public
Health. Macmillan & Co. Pp.539. $5.

Pettee, Rev. J. T. Annual Address before the
Meriden (Conn.) Scientific Association. Pp. 31.

Proctor, R. A. The Old and New Astronomy.
Longmans, Green & Co. Pp. 816. With Plates.

Sabine, W. C. Physical Measurements. Boe-
ton: Ginn & Co. Pp. 126.

Salter, W. M. America's Compact with Des-
potism in Russia. J. B. Lippincott Co. Pp. 22.

Sharp, F. C. The ^Esthetic Element in Mo-
rality. Macmillan & Co. Pp. 131. 75 cents.

Smith, L. H. The New Education. Roches-
ter, N. Y. : Wilson & Young. Pp. 24.

Shufeldt, R. W. The Chionididae. Pp. 7.—
Ridgeway on the Anatomy of the Humming-Birds
and Swifts. A Rejoinder. Pp. 5.

Stephen, Leslie. An Agnostic's Apology. G.
P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 380.

Stevenson, J. J. Southeastern Alaska and its
People. Pp. 18. With Map. Reprint.

Taft, L. R., Gladden, H. P., and Coriell, R.
J. Vegetable Tests. Pp. 30.— Spraying Small
Fruits. Pp. 20. Michigan Agricultural College
Bulletins.

The First Millennial Faith. By the Author of
Not on Calvary. New York: Saalfield & Fitch.
Pp. 84. 50 cents.

The New Education. Monthly. W. N. and
E. L. Hailmann, editors. New York: Simpson
& Co. Pp. 24. $1 a year.

Transactions of the American Institute of Elec-
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50. $5 a year.

Tucker, Benjamin R. Instead of a Book. New
York: B. R. Tucker. Pp. 512. $1.

Waldo, Frank. Modern Meteorology. Charles
Scribner's Sons. Pp. 400.

Williams, S. G. The Natural Sciences in Ele-
mentary Education. Pp. 10. Reprint.

Wright, J. Horticulture. Macmillan & Co.
Pp. 154. 35 cents.

Youmans, Leroy F. Columbus Day Address.
Columbia, S. C. Pp. 37.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

The Telautograph. — A new system of
electric transmission was recently exhibited
in New York and Chicago which promises to
rival in commercial importance the telephone.
This is the writing telegraph of Prof. Elisha
Gray. By means of it any one can with an
ordinary lead pencil on ordinary paper write
a message or make a sketch and have it re-
produced with exactness, in its minutest de-
tail, in the receiving instrument, which may
be hundreds of miles away. As this method
of communication necessarily provides a rec-
ord, and as the mistakes so easily possible
in any system of oral communication can
not occur, it should find a wide field of use-
fulness in the business world. Facsimile
telegraphs are almost as old as the art of
telegraphy itself, but no such system has
heretofore come into extended use, as they
have proved unreliable in practice and have
lacked the simplicity essential in any appa-
ratus designed for general use. Nearly all
previous attempts to provide autographic re-
production have depended upon synchronism

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

279

in the movement of the transmitting and re-
ceiving instruments, a condition practically
impossible of realization. Unlike these ear-
lier devices, the system of Prof. Gray does
not depend at all upon the timed movements
of the instruments at each end of the line,
but like the telephone the transmitter posi-
tively actuates the distant receiver. The
fundamental principle of the apparatus is
that first applied to this purpose by Mr. E.
A. Cowper, of England, some fifteen years
ago; but Prof. Gray has greatly simplified
the construction and given a range and flexi-
bility to the instruments which practically
constitutes a new departure in this method
of transmission. The principle involved is
the familiar geometric one that any plain
curve, no matter how intricate, may be de-
composed into component parts along two
lines at right angles to each other. If, then,
a point be affixed at the junction of these
lines, all that is necessary to reproduce its
movements is to cause two other similar
lines to reproduce the movements of the
first two. A point at the junction of the
second lines will then travel in exact con-
formity with the first point. This principle
is made use of in the familiar draughtsman s
instrument, the pantograph, used for pro-
ducing enlarged or reduced copies of an origi-
nal drawing. In Prof. Gray's apparatus the
transmitting instrument consists of a box
provided with a leaf or table, upon which
the paper, which is fed from a roll mounted
upon the instrument, rests. The pencil is
placed at the junction of two silk threads at
right angles to each other, the farther ends of
which are wound upon drums in such a way
that the motion of the pencil serves to ro-
tate them backward and forward in exact ac-
cordance with the linear components of the
curves described by it. These drums have
each an arm which sweeps over a series of
electrical contacts, thereby sending a suc-
cession of electrical impulses into its line
wire proportional to its movement. A con-
tact playing between stops serves to reverse
the current with the reversal of the motion
of the drums. The receiving instrument con-
sists of a pen mounted at the junction of
two light metal arms, the movements of
which are controlled by the electrical im-
pulses sent to line by the transmitting mech-
anism. This control is effected by means of

a gear-wheel—one for each metal arm —
which is actuated by clutch-weights, which
weights are in turn controlled by the current
through the medium of an electro-magnet
The gear-wheels, therefore, move in one di-
rection or the other in exact accordance with
the currents sent over the line wires and give
motion to the arms carrying the transcribing
pen. The pen is of the ordinary form in
such instruments, namely, a glass tube drawn
out to a capillary bore near the point and
supplied with a free-flowing ink.

Relations of Leaves and Roots. — As a re-
sult of investigations of the influence of ma-
nure on the development of roots, M. Deherain
has found that roots in unmanured ground
have a larger growth than in manured, having
to spread more in search of the scanty nutri-
ment. It having been previously found that
transpiration largely depends on the activity
of the roots as well as on the evaporative
surface, and is not, therefore, strictly pro-
portional to leafy development, it follows
that if a plant with small leafy growth evap-
orates relatively more water than one with
more abundant foliage, it is probably due to
large root-growth procuring more water.
Volkens has observed that desert plants have
extraordinarily long roots. M. Deherain
further points out that solar rays falling on
a plant have the twofold work of assimila-
tion and transpiration to perform, and that
these are complementary. In strong, leafy
plants, assimilation is vigorous, so that trans-
piration is limited ; while in the leaves of an
" anaemic " plant a large fraction of the solar
energy is given to transpiration.

Folk Lore of the Kootenay Indians.—

Among the Kootenay Indians of southeast-
ern British Columbia there exist some
strange ideas of mythology. Their folk lore
is extremely picturesque, and bears strong
resemblance to that of the earlier European
and Asiatic races. The moon is regarded
by them as a man, and the sun (ncUd-nik) as
a woman. There was no sun in the begin-
ning (according to the Kootenay-Indian
mythology), but after the Indians had vainly
endeavored to discover it, the coyote was
successful in making it rise above the moun-
tains. Another version makes the chicken-
hawk cause the sun to rise, and the coyote,

280

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

getting angry, shoots an arrow which misses
the sun, and causes the prairie to take fire.
The man in the moon is an Indian, who
chopped wood every day, including Sunday,
whereupon the moon came down and seized
him, and he has been up there ever since.
In the same manner the stars are supposed
to be Indians, who have " got up into the
sky " from time to time ; thunder is caused
by a great bird, and the lightning by the
arrows which it shoots. Their version of the
flood is a very quaint piece of folk lore, and
apparently entirely original with them. In
a report of the British Association for the
Advancement of Science, on the Northwest-
ern Tribes of Canada, Mr. A. F. Chamberlain
describes this legend very interestingly, and
in his pamphlet, which covers almost every
trait and characteristic of the Kootenays, as
well as statistics of the development of their
language and customs, he relates the strange
history of their sociology, folk lore, physical
characteristics, etc. The monograph is pub-
lished at the offices of the association at
Burlington House, London.

Animals for Pets. — What is required for
an every-day pet, says the London Spectator,
is that it shall be beautiful and intelligent ;
that it shall neither be too large nor too deli-
cate ; and, if a bird, that it shall sing or talk
— preferably both. The limits set by size
and constitution are the main consideration
hi the choice of pets. Yet even so, the pos-
sible range is very great, and might well ex-
tend far beyond the species which form the
main body of those usually seen at home.
Tame rabbits are plenty, but tame hares are
rare. A charming little foreign pet for the
house is the suricate, " an active and viva-
cious little fellow, some ten inches long, with
greenish-brown fur, large bright eyes, a short
pointed nose, and dainty paws, which, like the
squirrel's or the raccoon's, are used as hands,
to hold, to handle, and to ask for more. . . .
The creature is made for a pet, and is so af-
fectionate to its master that it can undergo
any degree of 'spoiling' without injury to
its temper." A larger and more beautiful
creature is the brown opossum from Tasmania
— the " sooty phalangist " — with fur of the
richest dark brown covering its prehensile
tail like a fur boa. " Its head is small, with
a pink nose and very large brown eyes ; and

it has a ' compound ' hand, with claws on its
fingers, and an almost human and clawless
thumb, with the aid of which it can hold a
wineglass, or eat jam out of a teaspoon.
That owned by the writer was, without ex-
ception, the most fearless and affectionate
pet he has ever known. In the evening,
when it was most lively, it would climb on
to the shoulder of any of its visitors, and
take any food given it. It had a mania for
cleanliness, always ' washing ' its hands after
taking food, or even after running across the
room, and was always anxious to do the same
office by the hands of any one who fed it.
It made friends with the dogs, and would
' wash ' their faces for them, catching hold
of an old setter's nose with its sharp little
claws, to hold it steady while it licked its
face. The staircase and banisters furnished
a gymnasium for exercise in winter, and in
summer it could be trusted among the trees
in the garden." The American gray squir-
rel, the coati, the mongoose, the marmot,
and the prairie dog are commended as pleas-
ant pets in their various ways ; but only one
monkey — the capuchin — is thoroughly recom-
mended as an indoor pet. No other monkey
approaches it in good temper and pretty, win-
ning ways. They all have good, round heads,
with black fur on the top and light brown on
the cheeks. Their faces are most expressive
and seldom still, for they take deep and abid-
ing interest in everything in or about their
cages. One is mentioned which had learned
to put out burning paper by beating it with
its hands or knocking it against the floor.
Another, if it got a match, would collect a
heap of straw, strike the match, light its bon-
fire, and dance around it. " The capuchin is
so small, so pretty, and so clever that it seems
to embody all the good and none of the bad
points of monkey nature."

Spinal CnrYatnre in Schools. — The re-
sult was recently presented by Dr. Scudder,
of Boston, of an investigation into the seat-
ing of thirty-five hundred schoolgirls, with
especial reference to its effect on the spine.
Lateral curvature of the spine, the author
said, is probably due to several factors, among
which are the weight of the body falling upon
a weakened spine ; weakness of the spine in
bone, muscle, or ligament; and a position
persistently out of the median antero-poste-

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

281

rior plane of the body. The author had made
a careful examination of the seating in schools,
and found that faulty positions are certainly
induced because of the lack of adaptation of
seat to pupil and of pupil to seat. It was not
possible to say how much of a factor poor
seating is in causing lateral curvature, but
there could no longer be any doubt that it
plays an important part. He favored as a
counteractive measure the introduction of
general neutral movements tending to de-
velop the whole child along the lines of
his natural muscular evolution, or exercises
iike those of the Swedish gymnastic system.
Some of the participants in the discussion of
the reading of the paper suggested that faulty
school attitudes might be less potent in pro-
ducing curvature than bad habits acquired
independently of them. All agreed upon the
utility of suitable exercise as a counteractive.

Contrasts in Mountain Scenery. — Writing
in Appalachia from the New Hampshire
mountains of his visit to the Sierra Madre
Mountains, Mr. Charles E. Fay begins by
describing the contrast between the two
scenes, than which, he says, there can hard-
ly be a greater one. "The cool, balsamic
air, the morning sky already piled with
cumulus cloud prophetic of showers in mid-
afternoon, the green fields cut by teeming
brooks undulating away to meet the darker
forest green that drapes the varied shapes of
Whiteface, Passaconaway, Paugus, and the
lower slopes of Chocorua, are a striking an-
tithesis to what we looked on there. These
mountains woo you, and there is an anticipated
satisfaction in the promise made yourself to
stand on every one of the peaks within your
range of vision, attaining them by pleasant
journeys through ferny, mossy, pathless
woods. But in southern California the
mountains do not invite one — at least, not
for their own sakes. The conditions of climb-
ing are most unfavorable. The summer heat
is intense. They lie beyond an unattractive
stretch ; for the grass and flowers that in
spring cover in wonderful profusion the
ground that slopes upward to the sudden be-
ginning of the steep foothills have withered,
and in July all is parched and barren. The
scattered live-oaks in the foreground, domi-
neered by the will of the prevailing wind,
have a half-frightened air; nothing of the

repose of our maples, oaks, and white pines.
The mountains themselves, rising with an
almost monotonous uniformity of grade, are
also burned as dry as a cinder, their dead-
white rocks pallidly reflecting the remorse-
less sunlight. Not until near the summits or
deep in the canons do you find forest trees.
The dull vegetation of the slopes of lesser
altitude is of a shrubbery hard to penetrate,
the most common sorts being a so-called
greasewood (not the plant known in Colorado
by that name) and a disagreeable thorn-bush,
which, however slightly broken as you force
your way through it, gives forth a sticky,
milk-white juice ; less frequent is the rnan-
zanita, its smooth, reddish brown being pret-
tier to the eye than yielding to the push."
These slopes abound in rattlesnakes, and
there are myriads of lizards or " swifts."

Amenities of Scientific Controversy.—

Says the Independent, April 20, 1893 : "Not
on the ground of incompetency, but on the
ground of courtesy and decency, we will say
that there ought to be a certain overhauling
of the United States Geological Survey. Our
attention has been called to articles in the
American Anthropologist and the Literary
Northwest by William J McGee, member of
the Geological Survey, criticising a geological
work recently written by a competent gentle-
man not connected with the Survey, but who
has given great attention for many years to
surface geology. This review is sprinkled
with such words, applied to the author of
this volume, as ' idlers,' ' pitiable paupers,'
'swindle,' 'harpies,' 'parasites,' 'shyster,'
' gull,' ' mlture,' and ' betinseled charlatan.'
It is a long while since we have seen so inde-
cent an article."

The Channels of Mars. — A new explana-
tion of the channels of Mars is offered by
Mr. T. W. Kingsmill, of Shanghai, China, as
follows: As Mars revolves round the sun,
under the rule of gravitation, it must have
tides on its surface ; and since its moons are
not suflSciently large to cause any sensible
rise, its tides must be mostly solar. Now, the
best views we have of this planet are when
it is in opposition — that is, when we are in-
terposed between it and the sun, so that we
should always see it best at high tide. The
writer then makes rather a strong point of

282

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the great eccentricity of the orbit of Mars,
and the consequent heavy fall it makes when
plunging toward the sun. Situated farther
from the sun than we are, Mars must be re-
garded as an older member of our system ;
and since it is smaller than the earth, it is
only natural that its surface crust should be
thicker than that of our planet. Granting
this, then the internal pulp would not have
such a power to compensate for the rapid fall
as the earth does internally, for there would
not be so much of it, so that an external com-
pensation, assuming the crust to be too thick
to alter its form, would have to take place at
the surface. On the surface, of course, the
water is the only power ; therefore we should
expect, to put it in Mr. Kingsmill's own
words, " that the water in the ocean would
be projected into the Martial hemispheres,
and as the planet approached the sun, tides
would sweep round the planet ; that the ca-
nals should sometimes appear and sometimes
be duplicated ... is only, a priori, what
might be anticipated."

Factors of a River's Character.— Where

a river shall go, what kind of a channel it
will cut, how much work it will do, says A.
P. Brigham, in his paper on Rivers and the
Evolution of Geographic Forms, are matters
determined, in an infinite number of ways,
by the underlying strata. A river flowing on
horizontally bedded rocks will tend to have,
in its youth, a narrow canon. Alternations
of hard and soft strata give, in early stages
of river life, alternations of rock benches and
talus slopes ; and many terrace-like horizons
on the sides of the valley mantled commonly
by soil, have this origin. Thus a terrace may
be built up or carved out, and it may consist
of alluvium, glacial rubbish, or bed rock.
Tilted rocks give different types of river val-
leys in infinite variety. These types may be
said to be just now beginning to attract a fair
share of the interest of geographers and ge-
ologists. They will, in years to come, afford
some of the most intricate as well as most
fascinating problems which are open to in-
quiry.

The Critical Point in a Thunderstorm. —
The belief that danger from lightning ceases
as soon as the rain begins to fall heavily —
expressed in the words of a mother reassur-

ing her children, " Don't cry any more, God
is sprinkling the earth with holy water " —
prevails extensively among the Flemish peas-
ants. Usually, according to M. P. J. De Rid-
der, lightning flashes from storm-clouds at
the line between the heavy rain of large
drops and the finer rain — or from the edge
of the heavy rain. This is always the case
in cumulo-nimbus storms, and as the number
of storms of that kind exceeds all others, the
belief of the peasants is at least worthy of
attention. In nimbus storms, on the other
hand, the critical point is at the latter end.
In those of them which are developed in the
veil of strato-cirrus, as when the sky is slow-
ly covered, the rain falls at first without in-
tensity and increases gradually, with distant
thunder, while the storm itself does not seem
to make much headway. But suddenly the
rain falls more rapidly, and the dangerous
moment has come. The roar of the thunder
becomes terrible, the storm ceases, and the
sky is cleared.

The Agaves. — The name of aloes is com-
monly given to plants of peculiar appearance
which have long, fleshy leaves, with spines
on their tips and sides ; but this does not ex-
plain why the name has been given to species
to which it does not belong, such as the agave,
which do not resemble them. In Central Amer-
ica, their real country, where they have been
cultivated on a large scale from the most re-
mote times, they are called pitu, ozal, istle,
metl, maguey, etc. Probably, soon after the
discovery of America, a species of agave was
introduced in the south of Europe, and be-
came quite at home there. Linnaeus, not
realizing that all the agaves are American,
gave it the specific name of Agave ameri-
cana. Now there are more than a hundred
species on horticulturists' catalogues, but
many of these are only varieties. The uses
to which these plants are found applicable
are constantly increasing. In the United
States and Europe they are only garden orna-
ments. In Mexico they hold the first place
as wine plants and as textile plants. The
filamentous substance obtained from their
leaves is known all over the world as aloes
fibers. These fibers, of length and thickness
depending on the variety and locality, are so
elastic and durable as to be in great demand
for ropes, brushes, harness, and coarse woven

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

283

goods. The national drink of the country —
its wine and cider, there called pulque — is pro-
duced from this plant. When pulque not
yet wholly fermented — then called agua miel
or maguey juice — is properly distilled, an al-
coholic drink called mescal is obtained. The
plants are cultivated on a large scale in the
lower and middle lands of which the agave
is native, and the consumption and exporta-
tion have attained a great development. The
maguey enjoys the advantage of flourishing
where nothing else can grow ; and immense
tracts of sterile soil on the seacoast have
been, under the stimulus of profit, made to
produce remunerative crops. Yet the plant
does not reject fertilizers, and those contain-
ing potash have been found very good. The
elevation and climates of the several prov-
inces varying considerably, many kinds of
agave are cultivated, according to their adap-
tations, and have been given as many local
names, which are Aztec or Spanish. Some
ten varieties are adapted to produce fibers of
henequen, or Sisal hemp — long, silky, elastic,
and durable fibers suitable for rope-making
or for coarse woven fabrics. Other varieties
called lechuguilla in Mexico, having shorter
and coarser fibers, furnish acceptable sub-
stitutes for hog's bristles in brush-making.
These fibers are called istle or tampico. The
thick and fleshy part of the root of some of
these agaves — called amole — is used for soap,
and when roasted furnishes what is consid-
ered a " savory food." The Agave ameri-
cana is planted in Algeria for hedges. The
dry flower stalks furnish materials for light
buildings ; and the pliant pith is made into
insect paste and dressing for razor strops.

The Danger of the Celluloid Button.—
An instance is related in England in which
a lady was put in great danger while stand-
ing before a bright but not blazing fire by
the burning of one of the fancy celluloid but-
tons of her dress. Experiments made by
Prof. C. Vernon Boys prove that articles
composed of this material are very suscepti-
ble to heat and take fire very readily. Prof.
Boys advises the public to guard themselves
from what is likely to be a grave source of
harm, even to the extent of fatal issues, by
taking the precaution of submitting to a very
simple test that resembling tortoiseshell, hair-
pins, combs, and other ornaments, and toys.

On briskly rubbing the button on cloth a
strong smell of camphor is evolved. If this
ready test fails, a small portion may be ig-
nited ; it will burn energetically with a flar-
ing noise, and the fumes of camphor given
off can not be mistaken. If the article is
composed of other material, the smell will
probably bring to remembrance that pro-
duced on burning feathers. Celluloid, it is
said, may be made uninflammable and safe
by mixing with it certain metallic salts —
among them the chloride of tin.

Evolution of the Color of Birds — Mr.

Charles A. Keeler, of the California Academy
of Sciences, has published a volume of 336
pages on The Evolution of the Colors of
North American Land Birds. In explana-
tion of how he arrives at the theories which
he advances he quotes the experiments and
researches of many celebrated scientists on
the evolution of the colors of butterflies,
goldfish, spiders, etc., and dwells particularly
on the effects of climate and the laws of
heredity — uninterrupted transmission, sexual
transmission, and mixed or mutual transmis-
sion— as the chief elements in the evolution
of the coloring of birds' plumage. Remark-
ing, en passant, that the plumage of birds,
confined or diseased, loses its brilliancy, and
that, should the confined wild bird breed, the
plumage of the offspring would be of less
beautiful colors than the parent, Mr. Keeler
cites Mr. Darwin, who says : " Each of the
endless variations which we see in the plu-
mage of our fowls must have had some effi-
cient cause ; and if the same causes were to
act uniformly during the lo^g series of gen-
erations on many individuals, all probably
would be modified in the same manner."
And in relation to the fact that there is a
general constancy of coloration in the wild
birds, he remarks that this uniformity of col-
oration is preserved by free intercrossing,
and where this is prevented by isolation or
migration, variations of color very frequently
take place. Young birds of various species,
after the autumn molt, continue through the
winter to assume, by degrees, the more in-
tense colors characteristic of the adults, with-
out changing feather ; and Mr. Yarrell says
that many birds appear to become more bril-
liant in color as the breeding season ap-
proaches, without either molting or the

284

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

wearing away of the tips of the feathers.
Of the effect of food and environment upon
the colors of bird plumage, Mr. Keeler be-
lieves that the direct influence of the envi-
ronment plays an important part in the evolu-
tion of colors, and regarding food he quotes
Mr. Frank Beddard, who says in Animal
Coloration : " If the nature of animal colors
is borne in mind, it seems impossible to
doubt the modifying action of food; those
that are due to structural peculiarities of the
parts colored (e. g., feathers of many birds),
may be altered just as much as those that
are caused by the deposition of pigment ; for
the ' structural ' colors depend largely upon
pigment for their manifestation. . . . When
there is an obvious relation between waste
matter and the skin pigments, it can not be
doubted that variation only in the amount of
the food may lead to color changes." Some
interesting color evolutions are given in the
chapter entitled The Direct Influences of
the Environment ; for instance, if a yellow
canary is fed with cayenne pepper, it will
cause the feathers to turn red ; carmine was
given to some canaries and the yellow feath-
ers became white ; while Amazon parrots
change from green to yellow when fed upon
the fat of certain fishes. Notwithstanding
the exhaustive manner in which Mr. Keeler
has treated the subject, he says that " the
paper is written more with the hope of
stimulating thought, and inciting in a new
and as yet almost untrodden field of ornitho-
logical inquiry, than with the expectation of
reaching definite results."

BehaYior of Young Snakes.— One of the

most curious matters connected with the
breeding habits of certain snakes is the
"egg-tooth," a small tooth fixed to the
united premaxillary bones, and projecting
slightly forward, beyond the edge of the up-
per lip. It is present only in the embryo,
and is shed very shortly after the escape of
the young snake from the egg. This tooth
is employed by the little snake in ripping
open the tough egg-covering in its efforts to
escape from its prison. The young of the
Heterodon (a snake closely allied to the cop-
perhead) are perhaps the most amusing
youngsters of the snake family. In Volume
XV of the United States National Museum,
0. P. Hay, hi a paper entitled On the Breed-

ing Habits, Eggs, and Young of Certain
Snakes, gives a very interesting account of
the singular habits of the young Heterodon
from personal observation. Having received
a consignment of twenty-seven eggs, which
were supposed to be those of the copper-
head snake, he watched the bursting from
the tough, parchment-like egg-covering of
the young snakes, and exactly eight days
after the receipt they were all hatched, the
length varying from seven to eight inches.
" From the moment of escape from the egg
all were quite active and manifested the
characteristics of the adults. ... A faint
hiss was uttered, but that may not have been
voluntary. One would sometimes flatten its
head and body and rear up with the anterior
third of its length from the ground. If one
did not know well their inoffensive natures,
one would be excused for fearing to handle
them. An exceedingly singular habit pos-
sessed by the adults (which is also practiced
by the young) is that of feigning death." On
being struck or teased, they will roll over
as if in the intensest agony, and then throw
themselves on the back and lie there as if
dead. If left undisturbed for a little while
they would turn over and creep slyly away.
In this paper Mr. Hay treats the peculiar
appearance of the eggs of snakes, which
bring forth their young alive, very interest-
ingly, and it would seem that even in these
also there is present the singular egg-tooth.

Precautions against the Lizard.— A su-
perstition prevails among the Shuswap In-
dians of British Columbia that a man who
sees a small lizard of a particular species
is followed by it wherever he may go during
the day, till at length, when he is asleep dur-
ing the following night, it finds him, and, en-
tering his body, proceeds to tear out his
heart, so that he quickly dies. The late Mr.
Bennett, of Spallumsheen, told Dr. Dawson
in 1877 that the Indians employed by him in
making a ditch for purposes of irrigation, on
coming into camp in the evening, would
jump several times over the fire in order to
lead the possibly pursuing lizard to enter the
fire and be destroyed in attempting to cross.
He also noticed that they carefully tied up
the legs of their trousers when retiring.
If, while at work during the day, they saw
one of these little lizards, which appeared to

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

285

be abundant in that locality, it would be
caught in a forked twig, the ends of which
were then tied together with a wisp of grass,
and the butt end of the twig afterward
planted in the soil. Thus treated, the lizard
soon died and became a natural mummy.
If, during the progress of the work, any one
found and carelessly tossed aside one of
these lizards, the Indians would throw down
their tools and search diligently until they
found it and secured it in this manner. A
similar belief to the one here recorded is
noticed in Nature by Mr. C. Bushe, as pre-
vailing in Ireland, with reference to water-
newts, which are there called man-eaters.
One woman to whom a specimen was shown,
said they were known to jump down peo-
ple's throats, to their certain destruction.

Life in Morocco. — The present popula-
tion of Morocco, says Nature, is a puzzle al-
most as difficult, although on a smaller scale,
as that of China. The authors, Lieutenant-
Colonel Sir Lambert Playfair and Dr. Rob-
ert Brown, of the Bibliography of the coun-
try, give 4,000,000 as an estimate, but the
guesses of various authorities vary between
1,500,000 and 15,000,000. The roads shown
on the map are merely mule and camel tracks
made by the feet of the pack animals, un-
aided by any engineer. Ferries are rare, and,
of course, bridges are unknown in the inte-
rior. The distribution of towns and villages
is often at variance with the rules holding
for civilized countries. The villages are
built out of the way of the main tracks, be-
cause people never travel in Morocco for
the good of the inhabitants, and it is safer
to live off the path of the tax collector and
the government official, who demand free
food and quarters. The great number of
place-names on the map of so thinly peopled
a country is due to the fact that the tombs
of saints are such important landmarks that
they must be indicated, even if only a few
persons live beside them. All the places
beginning with Sidi (Lord, Master) are either
actually tombs, or the tomb has formed the
nucleus of the town or village. " Sok," an-
other affix of frequent occurrence, means
market-place, and many of the established
sites for periodical fairs are uninhabited be-
tween the gatherings of people from far and
near. Many of the place-names on the coast

exist in two forms at least — the native word
and its Portuguese or Spanish translation ;
Casabianca and Dar-el-beida (both meaning
white house), for example.

Sirius and its Companion. — The slight
periodical displacements of Sirius, first ob-
served about seventy years ago, were found
by Bessell in 1851 to be due to its revolution
in an ellipse, the largest diameter of which
is 2-4", which is accomplished in about fifty
years. Sirius was therefore concluded to be
a double star, with a satellite of considerable
relative importance, which, as it was not
seen, was supposed to be dark. The satellite,
which is not quite dark, was seen for the
first time in 1862 ; and can now, by taking
proper precautions, be found at will. The
period of revolution of the group has been
determined by M. Auwers at forty-nine years
and between four and five months, and the
orbit an ellipse, the greater axis of which is
2 '42". Hence, according to the estimated
distance of Sirius, the two stars are about
twenty times as far apart as the distance of
the earth from the sun, or equal to the dis-
tance of Uranus. The mass of the whole
system has been computed to be 5 '24 tunes
that of the sun, of which Sirius has 2*20
times and the companion T04 time. The
orbit of the companion is larger than that of
Sirius. The distance apart of the two stars,
now less than 4", will diminish for two years
longer, after which it will begin to increase
again, till in twenty-six or twenty-seven years
it will exceed 11". The discovery of the
system and of the rate of its revolutions af-
fords proof of the operation of the force of
gravity beyond the limits of the solar system.

Origin of Cholera. — All the theories of
the origin of cholera, Mr. C. Egerton Fitz-
gerald suggests, may be right. The disease
will eventually be found to be a miasmatic
one, of which the hitherto undiscovered germ
can be conveyed through the air, by water,
excreta, infected bodies, and clothing. What
the special germ may be we as yet know not ;
but that it multiplies with enormous rapidity
under favorable conditions of heat, moisture,
and dirt there can be no doubt. Each indi-
vidual as he is attacked becomes a fresh
nidus, a hotbed for disease germs, which
seek and require only a suitable soil or cul-

286

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tivating medium for their propagation ; but
a suitable condition of the atmosphere exists
only under certain exceptional circumstances.
This accounts for the rapid spread of cholera
among large masses, especially dirty masses,
of men. Each unit of infection acts on suit-
able media exactly as would a particle of
yeast if introduced into a mass of fermenti-
ble fluid under the requisite conditions of
temperature, etc. This is the explanation
of the fact that, although cholera may arise
sporadically anywhere, under favorable but
exceptional circumstances, it is endemic only
in India, where, presumably, these requisite
conditions constantly prevail. That cholera
does spread principally along the lines of
human intercourse, that it may be conveyed
by man, by water, by fomites, may be
readily conceded without affecting the con-
tention as to its miasmatic and aerial charac-
ter and method of propagation. That chol-
era is caused by Koch's vibrio is to the last
degree improbable, and certainly unproved,
and the presence of that microbe in the de-
jecta of cholera patients may be due simply
to its finding a congenial soil there.

Progress in Practical Electricity.— The

recent inaugural address of Mr. W. H. Preece,
as President of the English Institution of
Electrical Engineers, was devoted to a review
of the progress of the practical applications
of electricity during the forty years of the
speaker's service in developing them. He
spoke first of the extension of the telegraph ;
then of the oceanic service of the Eastern
Telegraph Company, the greatest cable cor-
poration in the world, whose system of 25,370
miles stretched from Cornwall to Bombay,
connected the northern and southern shores
of the Mediterranean with Malta, and joined
the various other islands of the Mediterra-
nean and the Levant. This company, in con-
junction with the Eastern Extension and the
Eastern and South African Companies, also
gained access to Australia and New Zealand
on the one hand, and the Cape of Good Hope
on the other, the combined mileage reaching
a total of 47,151 miles. There was no more
perfect apparatus in existence, the speaker
said, than the lightning protector, and if it
ever failed to do its duty it failed from man's
neglect of some simple rule or his failure to
keep it in proper order. In 1892 not an ac-

cident was recorded in any high-class tele-
graph instrument in the whole United King-
dom. To railways, electricity had proved an
invaluable adjunct — in the repetition of sig-
nals obscured fr6m the view of the signal-
man, and in night signals. The number of
telephones hi actual use might be put down
at a million. The speaker had recently de-
vised a new form of cable which would prob-
ably quadruple the rate of telegraphic cable
working to America. There was no theoret-
ical reason why we should not converse be-
tween London and every capital in Europe,
while it was not impossible to speak even
across the Atlantic. Heating and cooking
apparatus worked by electricity had not at
present a very favorable outlook, though
many appliances had been shown in opera-
tion. The electric light was essentially the
poor man's light. Many efforts were being
made to utilize the waste forces of Nature in
producing electric currents for the econom-
ical supply of the light. There were many
towns whose streets could be brilliantly il-
luminated by the streams running past them.
The range of power transmission had been
enormously extended since much higher
voltages than were possible with continuous
currents could be employed. Meanwhile,
power transmission by single-phase alternat-
ing current had also been developed. The
use of electrically transmitted power in mines
had been greatly extended within the last few
years, especially hi America, and the use of
electrical energy for working railways was
making gigantic progress in the United States,
while it had begun to make a serious move
in the United Kingdom.

NOTES.

IN his article in the April number of The
Popular Science Monthly entitled Science
and the Colleges, President D. S. Jordan
made the statement that "it is not many
years since the faculty of one of our State
universities spent a whole afternoon discuss-
ing the proposition to abolish laboratory
work hi science." He now writes us that al-
though the statement was given on what he
regarded as good authority, he has been in-
formed by a member of the faculty of the
institution in question, who took part in the
discussion, that the question was not whether
laboratory work should be abolished, but
simply whether, in the course leading to the
degree of B. A., laboratory work should not

NOTES.

287

be made optional rather than obligatory. In
other words, the movement was not in the
direction of opposing laboratory work in sci-
ence, but in the direction of the extension of
the elective system. He therefore desires
this correction to be made.

THE entertainments called the Urania
Spectacles that have been given in New York
and Boston during the past two winters are
very successful efforts to exhibit some of the
wonders of science to large audiences. They
consist of numerous photo-opticon views, in
which coloring and motion as well as form
are shown, accompanied by an explanatory
lecture. The lecturer is Mr. Garrett P. Ser-
viss, whose ability to make the facts of as-
tronomy interesting is well known to the
readers of the Monthly. The spectacles are
now three in number : A Trip to the Moon,
The Seven Ages of our World, and The
Wonders of America. Among the more
striking pictures in the first of these are an
eclipse of the sun, close views of lunar
craters and canons, and the rotating earth
as it would be seen from the moon. In the
second the progress of a world from a nebula
to a burned-out cinder is traced ; and in the
last the marvelous scenery of our own land
is depicted.

A SPECIMEN of volcanic dust from near
Omaha, Nebraska, is described by Prof. J. E.
Todd. It was from a stratum of whitish
aspect, about eighteen inches in thickness,
found in the bluffs facing the Missouri River.
It has the same general characteristics as the
volcanic dust which has been found in quanti-
ty along the Republican River, in southern Ne-
braska, and in Knox, Gumming, and Seward
Counties in the same State ; but it differs in
being stained with oxide of iron and the
sharp angular grains coated with carbonate
of lime. This locality is the most eastern
exposure of the volcanic dust stratum which
is found scattered over the most of Nebraska.

THE summer school has now been made
an integral part of the university at Cornell,
and will be open for 1893 with courses con-
siderably enlarged in scope. Without ex-
cluding others qualified to take up the work,
these courses are offered for the special bene-
fit of teachers. They are open to women as
well as to men, and the same facilities for
work are afforded to those students as to the
regular students of the university. Every
opportunity will also be afforded for original
research. Addresses will be delivered similar
to those given in 1892 by President Schur-
mann and ex-President White. The session
will continue from July 6th till August 16th.

THE sixth session of the Marine Biologi-
cal Laboratory, Woods Holl, Massachusetts,
will begin June 1st and continue till August
80th. The Laboratory for Investigators will
be open during the whole time, and in it
twenty special tables will be provided for

those who are prepared to begin original
work. An elementary course in vertebrate
embryology will be introduced, with studies
mainly of the fish-egg, conducted by Mr.
Lillie and Prof. Whitman, to open July 5th
and continue six weeks. The Zoological Lab-
oratory for Teachers and Students will be
open during the same time, with regular
courses in zoology and microscopical tech-
nique, in which students will be permitted,
under special conditions, to begin their indi-
vidual work as early as June 15th. The Bo-
tanical Laboratory will be opened July 5th
for study of the structure and development
of types of the various orders of cryptogamic
plants, giving special attention to the marine
algae. A department of laboratory supply
has been established, to fill orders from a dis-
tance, in which a considerable number of
species are kept in stock. The laboratory
is under the general direction of Prof. C. 0.
Whitman, with whom are eleven professors
in special branches, and other assistants.

THE opinion expressed by Mr. Alfred G.
Mayer, in his article on the Habits of the
Garter Snake, published in the Monthly for
February, that snakes, as feeders on frogs
and toads, are therefore friends of insects and
indirectly enemies of leaves, is criticised by
Garden and Forest as a dangerous generali-
zation, "for, although the snakes will eat
frogs and toads, as well as anything else in
the line of small animals that they can mas-
ter, they also eat a great many insects, and
they could not, under any circumstances, in
justice, be called protectors of insects."

THE valuable memoirs of T. A. Conrad
on the Tertiary fossils of the United States
have become very rare, and are practically
out of the market. Yet the work is of great
importance to students. The idea of reprint-
ing the work has accordingly found favor.
A reprint of the volume on the Eocene is
contemplated by Mr. Gilbert D. Harris, of
the Smithsonian Institution ; and the Wag-
ner Free Institute of Science, of Philadel-
phia, proposes to reprint the volume on the
Miocene — the Medial Tertiary — with photo-
gravure reproductions of the original plates
and an introductory chapter and a table show-
ing the present state of the nomenclature of
the species; the whole forming an octavo
volume of about 150 pages, with 49 plates.
Subscriptions are asked for 150 copies, at
$3.50 each.

MR. JOSEPH E. CARNE, Curator of the Min-
ing and Geological Museum at Sydney, Aus-
tralia, has been appointed a geological sur-
veyor.

RESEARCHES into the conditions of the lif e
of micro-organisms have shown them to be
variously adapted to considerable diversities
of temperature, and some of them to be
adapted to great ranges. Forster and Bleek-
rode have found a few species containing

288

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

immense numbers of individuals, and living
in various media, capable of developing at
the freezing point. One of them, a sea-water
species, produces phosphorescence at that
temperature. It is well known that to pre-
serve meat and other articles of food success-
fully it is necessary to employ a much lower
temperature than that of the melting of ice,
and experience has further shown that this
is best done when the atmosphere is deprived
of moisture.

ELECTRIC currents were proved many years
ago to exist in plants ; and Kunkel was led
to think, by his experiments, that they were
caused by the mechanical process of water-
motion, set up on application of the moist
electrode. A new investigation of the sub-
ject has been made by Herr Haaske, and he
concludes that it is unquestionable that
changes of matter of various kinds are con-
cerned in the production of the electric cur-
rents, especially oxygen-respiration and car-
bonic-acid assimilation ; and that while water
movements may possibly share in their pro-
duction, their share is certainly only a small
one.

MR. KEDAMATH BASTJ has observed that
under the influence of enlarged education
and refinement, tattooing and the use of red
paint on the forehead and crown are dimin-
ishing among the women of Bengal. These
fashions still persist in the Northwest Prov-
inces, along with the insertion of thick and
heavy wooden plugs in the lower lobes of
their ears.

A SPECIMEN of ruthenium, weighing two
kilogrammes, prepared by M. Joly, was re-
cently exhibited in the French Academy of
Sciences. The metal is very hard and brittle,
having a specific gravity of 12, and melts at
the temperature of the electric arc. It is
usually found associated with iridium, palla-
dium, rhodium, and osmium, in platinum ores.

HERR Du BOIS-REYMOND has shown, in a
communication to the Physiological Society
of Berlin, that a sensation of heat follows
the immersion of the hand in a receiver
containing gaseous carbonic acid. A like
effect is produced by other gases which do
not enter into the composition of the air.
The heat sensation may be compared with
that produced by a temperature of 68° Fahr.
in the air. The phenomenon results from a
stimulation of the nerves sensitive to heat.

EXPERIMENTS are described by Herr We-
sendonck, the object of which was to deter-
mine whether electrification is produced by
the friction of gases. While ordinary air gave
considerable charges, negative or positive,
according to the adjustment of the apparatus,
no electrification was produced when the air
had been previously freed from dust and
moisture. Oxygen behaved in the same way.
Carbonic acid, evaporated from the liquid
state, imparted a strong positive charge,

which was, however, reversed as soon as the
cold led to the precipitation of watery vapor.
Ordinary atmospheric dust was found to elec-
trify the brass negatively, and the charge
was increased by previous drying. It seems,
therefore, that pure gases are incapable of
producing electrification by friction, and that
the effects observed are conditioned by the
presence of solid or liquid particles.

AN account of a thunderstorm in which
the rain was mixed with live land mussels,
which is said to have occurred at Paderborn,
Germany, in August, 1892, is published in
Das Wetter. A yellowish cloud attracted the
attention of several people, both from its
color and the rapidity of its motion, when
suddenly it burst. A torrential rain fell with
a rattling sound, and immediately afterward
the pavement was found to be covered with
hundreds of the mussels.

DR. E. LEWIS STTTRTEVANT has presented
to the Missouri Botanic Garden, St. Louis,
his entire botanical library, which is particu-
larly rich in pre-Linnsean works.

THE question of evaporation from the sur-
face of snow is discussed in a Russian mete-
orological journal by M. A. Muller, of the
Observatory of Ekaterinberg. Authors who
have prexiously written on this subject, in-
cluding Nuckner, Woeikoff, and others, have
not been agreed as to whether the evapora-
tion exceeds the condensation from the air
in contact with the snow. The method usu-
ally adopted has been to compare the temper-
ature at the surface of the snow with the
dew point, and assume that if it is superior,
evaporation, if inferior, condensation, takes
place. M. Miiller's observations were made
from December 21, 1890, to February 28,
1891. His conclusion is that, according to
the method adopted, evaporation is superior
to condensation in the proportion of 73 to 27,

THE report of a parliamentary committee
on the plague of voles in Scotland shows, on
the authority of early Celtic chroniclers, that
as early as the year 895 Ireland was devas-
tated by a plague of " vermin of a mole-like
form, each having two teeth," which "fell
down from heaven," and were driven out only
" by prayer and fasting." There is also a
plague of voles in Thessaly (a Grecian land),
and the Mohammedans there have sent to
Mecca for some holy water.

OBITUARY NOTE.

THE Rev. F. 0. Morris, of Yorkshire,
England, a well-known popular writer on
natural history, died April 10th, aged eighty-
two years. Among his many books were A
History of British Birds, in six volumes, and
Natural History of the Nests and Eggs of
British Birds.

CHARLES A. JOY.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

JULY, 1893.

THE SPANISH INQUISITION AS AN ALIENIST.

BY HENRY CHARLES LEA.

THE degree of responsibility attaching to insane criminals has
in all ages been a difficult problem for the dispenser of jus-
tice. I am not aware that the contributions made to its eluci-
dation by the Spanish Inquisition have ever received attention,
and the history of a few cases which throw light upon this phase
of the subject may not be without interest.*

On September 20, 1621, Madrid was startled by the report of
a shocking sacrilege committed in the chapel of the archiepis-
copal prison. A vagrant Catalan, named Benito Ferrer, had been
arrested as an impostor for begging in clerical garments without
being in orders. The offense was not serious, and after a month's
detention he was about to be discharged, when, at the morning
mass, as the bell tinkled to announce the elevation of the Host,
Benito, who was praying with a rosary in an upper chamber,
rushed down like a madman to the chapel, seized the Host, which
had been deposited on the communion cloth, broke it, flung the
fragments on the floor and trampled on them, exclaiming, "O
traitor God of darkness, now you shall pay me!" He was
promptly seized and carried to the courtyard, where he was
stripped of his cassock, and when some fragments which had
lodged in it fell to the ground he endeavored to stamp on them
with similar ejaculations. The first care of those present was to
gather reverently the pieces of the body of the Lord ; the soles
of Benito's shoes were carefully scraped, and the dust and sand

* I am indebted to the custodians of the Konigliche Bibliothek of the University of
Halle for the opportunity of consulting the records of these cases.
VOL. XLIII. — 20

29o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of the courtyard were swept up into a white cloth. He was
chained hand and foot, maintaining a sullen silence and refusing
to answer questions.

The affair, of course, excited the utmost horror. The young
king, Philip IV, then only five months on the throne, sent his
favorite, Count Olivares, to ascertain for him the facts, and the
papal nuncio eagerly sought the details to report them to Rome.
The archiepiscopal vicar, Diego Vela, was at first disposed to take
a rationalistic view of the matter : he asserted the insanity of
his prisoner, and proposed to discharge him, doubtless thinking
it wiser to assume that no Spaniard in his senses could be ca-
pable of an offence so heinous. He was soon, however, made to
understand that this would not be allowed, and it came near
bringing him into trouble. The Holy Office asserted its jurisdic-
tion over a case of heresy so flagrant ; on the 23d Vela surren-
dered Benito to the Supreme Council of the Inquisition, and he
was sent to the tribunal of Toledo (for as yet there was none in
Madrid), with orders that his trial should be pushed with all ex-
pedition— an urgency that was soon after twice repeated, with
the significant addition that the king took special interest in the
matter and desired to know its progress.

The Toledan inquisitors were prompt and zealous. The dila-
tory and cumbersome forms of procedure were hurried as rapidly
as the traditions of the tribunal would permit, and in exactly
two months, on November 23d, they were ready to pronounce sen-
tence. Yet the end was still far off. In his examinations Benito
had been made to give the details of his life. He was forty -three
years old, born at Camprodon of an Old Christian father and a
mother who had Jewish blood in her veins — a fact which told
heavily against him. His father, who was a cloth- shearer, took
him, at the age of thirteen, to Montserrat and placed him with
an uncle, a chaplain in the monastery, who in six months sent
him back to his father in Barcelona. For some time he served
as page to persons of quality, and finally Don Bernardo Terres
took him to Flanders, when the Cardinal Archduke, Albert of
Austria, went thither in 1595. There he had a succession of
masters, with one of whom he returned through France to
Catalonia. Filled with desire for a religious life, in 1603 he en-
tered the Barefooted Carmelite convent of Mataron as a novice,
but was expelled in about six months. After vainly seeking to
join the Carthusians of Monte Alegre and the Jeronymites of
Murta, at last the Observantine Franciscans of Barcelona gave
him the habit, but deprived him of it in about eight months.
Then two years were spent in study at Tarragona, which he left
in 1606, and since then he had led a wandering life in pious pil-
grimages. He had offered his devotions at the shrine of his

THE SPANISH INQUISITION AS AN ALIENIST. 291

namesake, San Vicente Ferrer, at Vannes ; twice he had been to
Rome and once to Monte Cassino and Sicily, besides traversing
Spain and Portugal in all directions. About 1609 came the
shadow which darkened his subsequent life. Fray Francisco de la
Virgen, the master of the novices at Mataron, was Antichrist,
and had bewitched him, since when all men whom he met were
demons. He had ceased to attend mass or to confess and take
communion, for he could find no priest who was not a demon.
When, in the upper room of the prison, he was praying and heard
the bell that told of the elevation of the Host, it was revealed
to him that the officiating priest was a demon and the Host was
another. In doing what he did he performed a service to God,
and he would repeat it fifty millions of times if the occasion
required. This Carmelite Antichrist, moreover, had in 1606 killed
Philip III and his three children, and their places had since then
been filled by demons. There was also some wild talk about
Toledo being no longer Toledo, nor Madrid Madrid, for Saint
Joseph had changed them all. Barcelona is now La Imperial
de Santa Ana, and is on the Straits of Gibraltar, for Catalonia
has grown so that it is now larger than all Spain was formerly.
The emperor of La Imperial is Don Dalman de Queralt, who
daily sends him food in prison, so that he has not to accept it from
the demon alcaide and his attendants. The inquisitors have no
power to burn him, for they are all demons and he is in the hands
of God. With all this he was strictly orthodox in his replies to
the searching questions of the inquisitors as to his belief in tran-
substantiation and other points, except that he attributed five per-
sons to the Godhead — Michael and Gabriel being added to the
Trinity. Throughout the course of his prolonged trial nothing
could make him swerve from these hallucinations or modify his
story. He defied the inquisitors, for he had a revelation in prison
that they were demons and had no power to harm him.

Anxious as were the inquisitors to push the trial to a conclu-
sion, they felt that evidence of his sanity was necessary. For this
they examined the alcaide of the prison and his assistant and
three fellow-prisoners confined in the same celL All testified to
Benito's soundness of mind as evinced in his daily actions, though
he was silent and reserved and spent most of his time in prayer or
in reading his breviary. Then three physicians were made to
visit him several times, who reported that he talked sanely on
most subjects but wildly on others ; the insanity seemed feigned,
and according to the rules of the medical art he was sane. Thus
fortified, on November 23d, the inquisitors called together the
regular consulta, an assembly of experts, to decide on the case.
There were nine of them in all — the three inquisitors, the Vicar
General as representative of the Archbishop of Toledo, and five

292 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

consultores or assessors. Opinions were not harmonious. Four
voted to put Benito to the torture to verify his sanity, and if this
failed then to make inquiry into his antecedents, Three voted to
relax him to the secular arm for burning, first employing learned
theologians to convince him of his heresy. Two were in favor
of the common-sense plan of endeavoring to ascertain his sanity
without torturing him.

When, in the customary routine, these diverse views were sub-
mitted to the Inquisitor General and Supreme Council, that body
considered the case maturely. Statements of the leading points
involved were laid before three skilled theologians, two of whom
pronounced Benito to be a sacrilegious heretic whose delusions
were feigned. The third opined that he might be subject to de-
moniacal possession, for which he should be exorcised and subse-
quently tortured to ascertain the truth. On January 12, 1622, the
Council sent these calificaciones or opinions to Toledo, with in-
structions to get similar ones from learned men there ; also, to ex-
amine more carefully into Benito's sanity and to investigate the
causes of his expulsion from the convents which he had sought to
enter. Accordingly, on January 15th, the Toledo tribunal assem-
bled four Dominican masters of theology, who unanimously pro-
nounced Benito a heretic and an impostor. To ascertain details
about an insignificant novice who some twenty years before had
passed a few months in a convent might seem impossible, but the
perfected organization of the Inquisition was equal to it. The
tribunals of Barcelona and Valencia were called upon ; ihefrailes
who had been novices in Benito's time were hunted up in the con-
vents to which they had scattered, and four were found who en-
tertained some recollection of him. Three of these described him
as mentally deficient, and one of these remembered his having
revelations ; the fourth spoke of him as " melancholy " and like
one possessed by the devil.

May was drawing to an end when the result of these investiga-
tions reached Toledo, and the summer was spent in fresh examina-
tions of those in the prison who had access to Benito, and in get-
ting opinions from theologians and physicians. That he showed
signs of insanity was evident, but the experts held that the proof
of soundness of mind was infallible and the madness feigned. So
when, on September 10th, another consulta was held, the vote to
burn him was unanimous — the two assessors who had previously
advocated simple investigation having been discreetly omitted
from the meeting. On this decision being submitted to the
Supreme Council, it met with no greater acceptance than the
former one, and it was sent back September 17th, with orders to
torture Benito to ascertain his intention in the sacrilege and the
fiction of his insanity.

THE SPANISH INQUISITION AS AN ALIENIST. 293

In the proceedings of the Inquisition torture was so universal
a resource in cases of doubt, that its use for the diagnosis of insan-
ity need not be a matter of surprise. On October 13th it was duly
applied. Benito was brought in and told that if he would not con-
fess the truth he would be tortured, to which he replied quietly
and earnestly that he had told the truth and was not mad ; he had
acted only as a faithful Christian and at the command of the
Eternal Father. In the administration of torture the nerve of the
patient was tested at every step with adjurations to tell the truth
and with promises of mercy — lying promises, for confession would
only secure the boon of being garroted before burning. So in
this case, at the making out of the sentence of torture, its formal
signing, the adjournment to the torture chamber, the stripping of
the prisoner, the tying him to the banquillo or trestle, the adjust-
ing of the cordeles or sharp cords around each thigh and each
upper arm — at every stage he was entreated affectionately (con
mucho amor) to tell the truth and save his soul. Benito's resolu-
tion was immovable ; to every adjuration his reply was the same
—he had told the truth, and the inquisitors were demons. Then
the torture began, scientifically graduated, and at every interval
came the adjuration and the response. First a single cord around
each member, successively tightened and twisted into the flesh,
then another and another, until there were six on each limb and
the blood was dripping from them all — in spite of the universal
rule that torture was never to be carried so far as to cause effusion
of blood. The official report of the examination minutely records
his shrieks and groans and writhings? his fruitless prayer for
water, his despairing appeals to Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, his cries
that he is dying, and through it all his unvarying response that
he had told the truth and that the inquisitors were demons — an
assertion which he once offered to prove if they would give him a
Bible. When the capacity of the cordeles to inflict increased tor-
ment was exhausted he was threatened with the rack, but to no
purpose. It was made ready and he was stretched on it, but this
augmentation of agony was fruitless. His resolution was uncon-
querable, and at last his wearied judges ordered him to be untied,
still threatening him with a continuation of the infliction if he
would not tell the truth. Exhausted nature could do no more ;
with a final ejaculation that he had told the truth, for they were
demons, he sank motionless and remained silent.

For three unbroken hours the torture had lasted, and the in-
quisitors said that it was too late for more that day, so 'they sus-
pended it, warning him that they were not satisfied, and that it
would be resumed if he did not tell the truth. He was carried
back to his cell, and two days later was brought before the tribu-
nal again. Even in the pitiless secular criminal legislation of the

294 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

period the endurance of torture without confession was held to
purge away the evidence against the accused and to entitle him to
an acquittal, but it was otherwise in the Inquisition. The torture
had been merely to gratify the curiosity of the judges and to
justify the foregone conclusion of his burning. Therefore, when
they now examined him and adjured him to tell the truth, and he
answered by referring to his previous statements as the truth,
they had him carried back to his cell, and coolly assembled their
consultores to pronounce on him a second sentence of relaxation
to the secular arm for burning. This was duly submitted to the
Supreme Council, which postponed its answer until November
24th. Then it said that it held him to be insufficiently tortured,
but that for the present he should be kept in prison and carefully
watched to determine his sanity. He was to be confined with per-
sons who could be relied upon and sworn to secrecy, who should
observe him and report.

Another cell was accordingly selected for him, in which were
two friars and a physician awaiting trial, who were duly sworn
and instructed. So matters continued for a year, with occasional
examinations of his fellow-prisoners. The friars pronounced him
a heretic and an impostor ; the physician a sane man subject to
delusions. Finally, in November, 1623, another consultation was
held to vote upon his case, and he was unanimously sentenced to
burning. To this at last the Supreme Council assented, but desired
the execution to take place in Madrid, where the sacrilege had
been committed. He was to be sedulously kept in ignorance, and
to be secretly conveyed to the capital. There, on the Plaza
Mayor, January 21, 1624, there was a solemn auto dafe celebrated,
and he was burned alive as an impenitente negative.

If this was expected to strike salutary terror into the hearts of
sacrilegious heretics and to instill respect for the Venerable Sacra-
ment, it signally failed of its purpose. In less than six months, on
Friday, July 5, 1624, Madrid was again thrown into excitement
by a double sacrilege that had every appearance of organized
premeditation. During the celebration of morning mass in the
church of Sam Felipe, a man named Rend Perrault, who was
kneeling near the altar, suddenly leaped forward at the elevation
of the Host, and crying out, " Why do you elevate this idol of
Christ, so that the people commit idolatry and offend God ? "
he snatched it from the hand of the priest and scattered it in
fragments on the floor,' while with a sweep of his arm he over-
turned the cup that was standing on the altar. At the same mo-
ment a similar scene was enacted at the church of Santa Bar-
bara, by a man named Gabriel de Guevara. It was with diffi-
culty that the offenders were rescued from the summary venge-

THE SPANISH INQUISITION AS AN ALIENIST. 295

ance of the worshipers, and they were forthwith brought before
the Inquisitor General, Andre's Pacheco. Apparently his experi-
ence of the Toledo Inquisition in the previous affair had not been
satisfactory, for he at once himself undertook the preliminaries
of the case, and hastily organized for its trial in Madrid a tri-
bunal which sat in extemporized quarters in the convent of the
Barefooted Carmelites. The documents concerning Guevara are
not accessible, but those of the trial of Perrault present to us an-
other aspect of the dealings of the Inquisition with insanity.

Friday was busily occupied with the examination of witnesses,
and at 10 P. M. Perrault was brought before the inquisitor. He
was still defiant, and told his story without hesitation or conceal-
ment. He was about forty years old, born at Angers, of Catholic
parents. Brought up in strict orthodoxy, he had, until within a
fortnight, always been a good Catholic, regular in his attendance
on confession, communion, and mass. For twelve years he had
wandered around Spain as a peddler of needles, thimbles, and
such small wares, till a fortnight before at Talavera, while in the
street seeking customers, a sudden revelation from God showed
him that there was only one God, the Creator ; that Christ was
an impostor, who had properly expiated on the cross the blas-
phemy of calling himself the Son of God, and that what the peo-
ple adored was idolatry and an offence to the Almighty. From
that time this idea was ever present to him, on the road and in
the house. God impelled him to do what he had done, and to
come to Madrid for the purpose, so that the act should be more
conspicuous. He had left his saddle-bags at Getafd, a village a
few leagues distant, on Tuesday, July 2d, and had come with his
mule to Madrid. There he first looked up a French paper and
fruit seller named Domingo Diaz, of whom he inquired the address
of his brother, Pierre Perrault, an embroiderer living in Madrid.
He found him, and told him of the revelation and his consequent
intention, when Pierre earnestly reasoned with him, telling him
that it was a suggestion of the devil, and that he would denounce
him to the Inquisition if he were not his brother. The next morn-
ing Pierre came to him with an Italian, a tailor ; they bought
some food, crossed the bridge of Toledo, breakfasted by the road-
side, and Rene' agreed to return to Getaf 4. After parting he trav-
eled half a league on his mule ; he chanced to overtake a man
going thither, by whom he sent word to his host to forward his
saddle-bags to Madrid, and he turned back to the city. To render
his act more symbolical, he resolved to postpone it until Friday,
so he had a day and a half on his hands. These he spent in seeing
the sights of the capital, and he mentioned his disappointment on
going to the theatre and finding there was no performance. On
Friday morning, at breakfast, he abstained from his customary

296 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

flask of wine, in order that it might not be said that he was drunk.
He went to San Felipe and committed the sacrilege.

The next day, when brought again before the tribunal, his en-
thusiasm had evaporated. Excitement had been followed by re-
action ; he realized the terrible fate in store for him, and was
eager to avert it in any way he could. He had been drunk, he
said, the day before, and had stumbled against the priest ; he was
crazy ; people had given him food which rendered him insane,
and the ill-treatment to which he had been exposed habitually on
the road had driven him mad. At Consuegra he had been beaten ;
at Medellin, beaten, imprisoned, and his goods confiscated ; he
was a good Catholic, and believed all that the Church believed,
and he remembered nothing of the confession of yesterday ; or, if
he had said such things, he must have been out of his senses.
When, later in the day, his formal defense was drawn up and
presented by his advocate, it was that he had been drunk, and he
now supplicated mercy and penance.

Probably no trial before the Inquisition, since the abounding
harvest of its early days, was ever conducted so speedily. Though
all the formalities were observed, on Sunday, July 7th, the con-
sultation was held to determine the sentence. The opinion was
unanimous that he should be relaxed to the secular arm for burn-
ing, but on the question of preliminary torture a difference arose.
The Inquisition was naturally desirous to know whether he had
accomplices; the simultaneous crime of Gabriel de Guevara
pointed to concerted action ; besides, one of the witnesses had
testified that Rene' entered San Felipe with two men clad in the
French fashion, who departed at the commencement of the mass.
'Rene' had consistently denied this, asserting his independence of
action and sole responsibility ; but heretic plots were always float-
ing before the inquisitorial imagination, and it was manifestly
impolitic to burn Rend without utilizing him for the conviction
of his possible confederates. While, therefore, all the consulters
agreed that he should be subjected to unlimited torture, some
held that it should be in caput alienum, to discover his associates ;
while others, in view of his varying confessions, humanely urged
that it should be employed for the benefit of his soul, and to con-
firm him in the faith. The next day the Supreme Council, in
approving the sentence, decided that the torture should be in
caput alienum.

At ten o'clock that night Rend was brought before his judges
and questioned as to accomplices, but he only repeated his story,
with a few additional details. In the torture which followed he
manifested a curious mingling of strength and weakness. Before
it commenced he flung himself on his knees and begged piteously
for mercy, but refused to forfeit his soul by perjury, for he had

THE SPANISH INQUISITION AS AN ALIENIST. 297

no associates, and no Frenchmen entered San Felipe with him.
During all the stages of graduated torment he screamed and
struggled desperately, but he adhered resolutely to this, and re-
fused to incriminate any one ; he had never breathed his inten-
tion to any save his brother, who threatened to denounce him to
the Inquisition. This continued till half past one o'clock, when
the inquisitors, finding the torture fruitless, announced its dis-
continuance; but next morning they commenced proceedings
against Pierre Perrault and Domingo Diaz. What was the re-
sult of these we do not know ; but had anything been extracted
from them further compromising Rend, it would have appeared
in the records of his trial.

If the torture thus was useless in caput alienum, it at all
events served the more humane purpose of confirming the suf-
ferer in the faith. On July 12th word was brought to the inquis-
itor Chacon that Rend desired to return to the Church : he has-
tened to the temporary prison where the culprit was confined and
found this to be the case. Now that he had nothing further to
hope, Rend said that his first statement was true. He had been
misled and tempted by Satan for fifteen days before the crime,
and had believed that he was rendering a service to God ; but now
God had enlightened him, and he reverted to his former belief in
the Trinity, in the passion of Christ, and the transubstantiation
of the sacrament, and he desired to be reconciled to the Church.

On the following Sunday, July 14th, Madrid enjoyed the re-
ligious spectacle of an auto da fe, in which Rend Perrault was
burned, but doubtless his recantation obtained for him the priv-
ilege of being garroted before the pile was lighted. Thus, if
Spain furnished to Geneva the Unitarian Miguel Servet, France
returned the favor with Rend Perrault.

Another case, less tragic in its issue, illustrates a different
phase of the subject. At Cobena, a village not far from Alcala
de Henares, a poor carpenter of plows named Benito Penas, or de
Valdepeiias, created scandal by denying that Christ had died on
the cross. He was wholly illiterate but devout, and once, when
visiting Madrid with a load of corn, he had heard in the church
of San Felipe a sermon by &J raile , who spoke of the passion and
resurrection as metaphorical.* The idea took possession of his

* The Spanish preachers of the period allowed themselves the largest license in the
effort to attract attention, and shrank from no grotesqueness of irreverence. In the trial
in 1592, of Fray Joseph de Sigiienza, a distinguished Jeronymite friar and favorite of Philip
II, there is a description of a sermon preached before the king by Fray Cristobal de Lafra,
another Jeronymite, on the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin. He said the Minotaur was
Christ and the Labyrinth the gospel liber generationis ; Ariadne was Our Lady, and the
child she bore to Theseus was Faith ; and that if any one desired to enter the Labyrinth

298 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

brain and played havoc with the anthropomorphic conceptions of
orthodox theology, including the humanity of Christ. This had
been going on for several years, when early in 1640 the attention
of the archiepiscopal visitor, Bernardo Garcia de San Pedro, was
called to it on his reaching Cobena. He promptly threw Benito
into the village jail, where many priests and friars visited him
and labored fruitlessly to convince him of his error. Then, in
July, Dr. Buendia, the physician of Cobena, denounced him to
the nearest commissioner of the Inquisition, Juan Burgalez Diaz,
at Fuente el Saz. The affair was now fully in train. Diaz has-
tened to Cobena, took testimony of some of the chief inhabitants,
and forwarded the papers to the tribunal of Toledo. The inquis-
itors submitted to calificadores the propositions contained in the
reports of Benito's talk, and they were duly condemned as heret-
ical and Manicheean. The Inquisition, however, appears to have
thought little of the matter, and it would probably have gone no
further, had not a zealous cleric of Cobena, toward the end of the
year, written that the people were scandalized at the delay in act-
ing in an affair so notorious. Thus stimulated, on January 25,
1641, the inquisitors issued an order to bring Benito to Toledo,
and to sequestrate his property — the latter being the customary
precaution for the event of a sentence of confiscation.

It was the invariable practice of the Inquisition, whenever
possible, to make the accused, whether innocent or guilty, pay all
the expenses attending his trial. The familiar to whom the order
was sent was therefore required, in sequestrating Benito's prop-
erty and placing it in the hands of a receiver, to keep thirty ducats
for expenses ; if there was no money or grain, then he was to sell
at auction enough to realize this amount, and he was also to
reserve a bed and bring it with him for Benito's use in prison.
These customary instructions were rigidly carried out as far as
practicable. A reversionary interest in some money left by a dead
brother was garnisheed, and security taken to await the result of
the trial. The only ready money in Benito's possession amounted
to nineteen copper coins or cuartos, worth in all about two reales
and a half ; so on Sunday, February 10th, his pitiful store of furni-
ture, tools, and clothing was sold by auction in the public square
after high mass, reserving only the garments on his back and one
of two old shirts for him to wear ; even the rosary in his hands

he must pray to the Virgin for her child. He also said that God was the heifer lo, who
converted Jews ; that wherever God trod he left his footprints, which are his works ; ask-
ing who made these admirable works of the sun, the moon, etc., the answer, Yo Yo, gave
the name, which is God — the name impressed by the steps of the heifer. It is therefore
by no means improbable that Benito Penas may have heard a sermon which conveyed to
him the impression he described and led to his misfortunes.

THE SPANISH INQUISITION AS AN ALIENIST. 299

was taken and sold. The total proceeds amounted only to two hun-
dred and forty and a half reales, or less than twenty-two ducats,
and, after deducting costs, the commissioner handed over to the
familiar twenty ducats. The expenses of guards and the journey
to Toledo consumed more than half of this ; and when Benito was
delivered on February 16th at the carceles secretas, there were but
one hundred and five and a half reales left, which were duly en-
tered on the prison books. The timid suggestion of the familiar
of some remuneration for his time was left unnoticed.

When on February 18th Benito was examined, he willingly re-
peated all the articles of the creed except " suffered under Pontius
Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried, and on the third day arose
from the dead," which he obstinately refused to utter. It was
easy to entangle him in a theological discussion in which he was
led to deny the incarnation and conception by virtue of the Holy
Ghost, the birth and. death, and the second advent. The efforts
made to convince him of his error of course only hardened him
in his belief, and he resolutely accepted the inferences drawn from
it until he came virtually to deny the Trinity — the three names were
but three different designations for the one God. He was ready,
he declared, to die in defense of his belief, and all the theologians
in France and Spain could not convert him. When the counsel
assigned to him by the Inquisition found him immovable, he
formally withdrew from the defense in order not to incur the
penalties decreed against advocates who undertook to defend her-
etics.

In March the inquisitors began to entertain doubts as to
Benito's sanity, and sent to Cobena to obtain testimony respecting
it. The evidence was emphatic as to his soundness of mind. The
euro, had known him for forty years, and had never entertained a
doubt of it ; the alcalde and others who knew him said the same.
It was true that for a year or more prior to his arrest he had
grown very devout, praying much and frequenting the church ;
moreover, on one occasion he had remained shut up in his house
for some days, until the alcalde and cur a broke in and found him
lying with a rosary in his hand in a trance, from which they
aroused him with a rope's end, and he had repeated this in a her-
mitage near the town, but in all the relations of life he had shown
himself in full posession of his faculties.

Thus the case went on with the deliberation customary in the
Inquisition, until in July it was resolved to make a more thorough
investigation as to his sanity. Two learned theologians were de-
puted to examine him, who reported him to be crazy : his answers
bore no relation to the questions put to him ; he talked of the om-
nipotent God and the sweet name of Jesus ; the Virgin was cre-
ated without father and mother, and was anterior to Eve ; when

300 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

we die our bodies are not converted into dust ; in fine, lie was not
a case for the Inquisition, but for a madhouse. Then two more
theologians were called in, and their opinions were the same.
Evidently under the paternal care of the Inquisition his insanity
was developing rapidly.

In August the three physicians of the Holy Office were sum-
moned to examine him. Two of them questioned and cross-ques-
tioned him, and were prepared to pronounce him sane when the
third arrived, and in the course of examination chanced to ask him
what signs he had of his own salvation, to which he replied that
when he commended himself to God he saw lights like stars de-
scend from heaven to him. This convinced them, and they re-
ported that he was insane or was subject to diabolic illusions.
The alcaide of the prison and his assistant were then interro-
gated ; they had no doubt of his insanity from his disordered talk
and from the fact that they always found him kneeling in prayer.
Then as a last effort two more distinguished theologians were de-
puted to convince him of his errors, but they found their labors
hopeless, and declared that he was crazy.

It was impossible to resist this cumulative evidence, and when,
on August 29th, the customary consultation was held to decide
upon his fate, the opinion was unanimous that he was irresponsi-
ble. It was agreed to write to the authorities of Cobena to that
effect ; his relatives must send for him and take care of him ; he was
never to be allowed to leave the town, and must henceforth wear
a doublet half gray and half green. To this the response was that
he had no kindred, but Juan de San Pedro was sent to bring him
home, while a plaintive allusion to the expense of the journey
and the absence of all property from which to defray it received
no attention.

Thus the poor wretch was beggared, deprived of all means of
livelihood, and condemned to the disgrace of exhibiting his shame
in a party-colored garment at a time when such insignia had a pe-
culiarly sinister significance. According to the convictions of the
period, it was all for the greater glory of God ; but as an alienist,
the Inquisition was clearly not a success.

IN his ascent of Mount Dulit in Borneo, 5,090 feet high, Mr. Charles Hose
found a cave above four thousand feet, with wild tobacco growing at its mouth
and several remarkable ferns, of one of which the fronds were fourteen feet long.
The fauna illustrated the widespread distribution in the highlands of Borneo of
Himalayan forms. A magnificent view was had from the moss-clad summit of
the mountain of distant ranges. Some natives reported having heard a tiger
roaring in the neighborhood, but Mr. Hose found that the sound proceeded from
a gigantic toad, which measured fourteen inches and a half round the body.

FOSSIL FORESTS OF THE YELLOWSTONE. 301

FOSSIL FORESTS OF THE YELLOWSTONE.

BY PROF. SAMUEL E. TILLMAN.

THE fossil forests of the Yellowstone Park are among its most
interesting features, but they are as yet not within ready
reach of the tourist, and so little has been published about them
that only a few have definite knowledge of them. It is accord-
ingly believed that the accompanying notes in regard to them will
be of general interest.

The locality to which the term fossil forest has especial refer-
ence is along the west rim wall of the valley of the Lamar River,

FIG. 1. — POINT OF SPECIMEN KIDGE : a, 6, c, PETRIFIED STUMPS.

or East Fork of the Yellowstone, opposite the mouth of Soda Butte
Creek. The same arrangement of petrified stumps and trees is,
however, found at many other places in this region separated by
considerable distances — as much as thirty miles. The general
physical conditions that brought about the existing state of affairs
is so plainly shown by the present exposures that they can not be
mistaken.

The petrifactions were visited at several places, but the descrip-
tion appended refers to a part of the ridge designated on the map
of the Geological Survey as Specimen Ridge, at a point about six
miles east of the junction of the Lamar and Yellowstone Rivers.

302 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The fossil trees exposed at this point are along the upper slope
of the southern wall of Lamar Valley. The slope here makes an
angle of about thirty-three degrees with the horizon, and is about
nine hundred feet long. The petrifactions are standing all the
way up this slope, interspersed with the living conifers of to-day,
represented at Fig. 1. At first sight it appears that either these
ancient trees grew upon the slope now exposed, and that there had
been no change in the slope from that day to this, or that the
present had brought back exactly the same surface conditions as
existed when the now silicified trees were alive. Such an appar-
ently simple conclusion would, however, involve more remarkable
phenomena than are yielded by the true explanation.

A little consideration, taken in connection with the formation
of the bluffs that connect Lamar Valley with the higher lands to

± ____ * ____ Jf ___ J: _____ --- ^t ____ X. __

---- * ____ t. -- _jr ____ ±— -X ____ v ,

-*.__*M. > ^

t --- ± ____ X --- — ± ___ t. ___ * ___ -*__

T AHC/ENT fonesT T*EES. I PETRIFIED REMAINS. A LIVING TREES.

the south and west, shows clearly the action that has placed the
living and petrified trees upon the same slope at this and at many
other points in the region.

A series of forests has grown upon successive levels, each
level having been produced by an accumulation of volcanic mate-
rial which destroyed the then existing forest. This explanation
will be readily understood from Fig. 2. The level upon which the
first forest grew is indicated by 1. The level of the volcanic
accumulation which destroyed this growth of trees is shown at 2.
Upon this second level came another growth of trees, which in
turn was destroyed by the accumulation extending to the level 3.
Still another forest grew upon 3, which in course of time was
destroyed. This alternate growth and destruction was repeated

FOSSIL FORESTS OF THE YELLOWSTONE. 303

until at this place (Specimen Ridge) there grew and were destroyed
certainly nine successive forests and very probably twelve. This
is all indicated in Fig. 2.

The number of growths was determined in two ways : first,
where the roots of the petrified trees are shown at different
heights in the same vertical plane the horizons of growth may be
counted directly ; second, when the roots do not show, a sufficient
vertical distance must be allowed between horizons to insure that
the projecting body at one level does not have its roots in the hori-
zon next below.

In the second method it was sometimes possible to settle the
point by following the volcanic ledges to the right or left until
a petrifaction with roots exposed, decided the question.

In later times, when the volcanic accumulations had ceased
and the agents of denudation began their work, the layers of lava
and the great sheets of volcanic conglomerate were gradually
eaten away, and a valley formed extending in the figure from e
to/. Along the southern slope of this valley are growing the
conifers of to-day, and on the same slope also stand the petrified
stumps, the relics of many successive forest growths. Thus,
though the living and the petrified trees now stand on a com-,
mon slope, the latter did not, like the former, all grow at the
same time, but succeeded each other at intervals of considerable
length.

These standing silicified stumps and fallen trees were found
varying in diameter from one to seven feet. Two sections of trees
were found so perfect that the rings of annual growth throughout
could be counted, except a few, perhaps fifteen or twenty, near the
heart and bark. One tree, measuring three feet in diameter, had
two hundred and twenty-two rings of growth ; and another, of three
feet five inches diameter, had two hundred and forty-three — this
without any allowance for a few missing rings at the center and
toward the bark. The larger of these trees was only about half
the size of the largest seen. Many were found varying in diame-
ter from five to seven feet, but none of this size were seen exposing
the rings throughout the entire section. Judging from the close-
ness of the rings in certain well-preserved portions of these larger
trees, many of them must have been at least five hundred years
in attaining their growth, if the rings were truly annual. Tak-
ing one half this number, two hundred and fifty years, as the more
probable age of the successive forests at this point, it is seen that
the earliest of these trees were living more than two thousand
years before the latest, during which time there were alternating
conditions of growth and accumulation of volcanic material.

This estimate makes no allowance for the time necessary for
the formation of a soil upon the volcanic material, which at first

3°4

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sight would seem necessary for the support of such a vigorous
vegetation. It is not probable, however, that any considerable
time was necessary for this purpose, for, with rare exceptions,
each succeeding forest took root and began to grow very prompt-
ly after the destruction of its predecessor. In most cases the
destroying flood consisted largely of mud, ashes, conglomerate,
and other volcanic material, which formed an excellent base for
vegetation, and it was doubtless covered with a luxuriant growth
as soon as it was dried or cooled sufficiently, and this would re-
quire only a short time.

In some cases the trees grew upon a true lava base ; but even
then the growth began very promptly after the flow; for the
upper surface of the lava soon weathered sufficiently for vegeta-

FIG. 3. — A, B, PETRIFIED STUMPS NEA.B

TWENTY MILES EAST OF THE MAMMOTH

SPRINGS.

tion to gain a footing. The growing trees then too, as at present,
were frequently supported by very shallow and wide-spreading
roots. We now often see large trees with such roots standing
over rocks barely covered with soil ; the petrified trees exhibit the
same phenomena.

Besides the standing stumps, the fossil forests contain many
specimens lying upon the ground. Some of these were petrified
standing and then fell, and others were down before the petrifying
action began. It is frequently possible to distinguish between the
two by position : the first lie upon the present slope of the ground ;
the second often show the original surface and consequently pro-

FOSSIL FORESTS OF THE YELLOWSTONE. 305

ject at different levels from the bluff and making angles with, the
present slope.

It is rather remarkable that only one standing stump was
seen with a limb in position. This is probably explained by the
fact that the living trees were generally covered by the volcanic
material to a less height than that of their lowest limb, and con-
sequently the upper portions of the trees were not preserved, but
suffered aerial decomposition. In general, the silicified tree
would crumble down as rapidly as the rock material surround-
ing it would wear away, so that only short stumps would now
be found, though greater lengths were petrified. The absence
of limbs in position is, however, mainly due to the fact first
named. In the cases of trees that were petrified after they had
fallen, both limbs and roots projecting upward were seen in
position.

Specimens of rotten wood far progressed toward complete de-
composition were found perfectly preserved in stone. Petrifac-
tions of bark were of frequent occurrence, and the channeling and
borings of worms or insects were beautifully preserved in some
of the specimens, so that we literally have petrified wormholes.

In some of the finer water-collected debris were found beau-
tifully preserved impressions of leaves, showing two kinds of
deciduous trees, of course entirely different from any trees now
growing in the region. The impressions of conifer leaves and
the petrified part of the same wood were also found.

These fossil tree remains are found over a wide area in the
park region. Along Soda Butte Creek they stand up the slope
from each bank, but along the Lamar River, below the mouth
of this creek, they exist on the left bank only, the imbedding
material having been entirely removed from the right bank by
erosion. The lowest level at which a petrified tree was seen
in position was on the left bank of the Yellowstone, opposite
the mouth of Hell-roaring Creek, at an approximate altitude of
6,100 feet. The highest was seen opposite the mouth of Soda
Butte Creek at an altitude of about 8,180 feet. These trees are
twelve or fifteen miles apart, and the original slope of the ground
between them is not known, so that they can not be taken to fix
the highest and lowest levels of the original forest growths in
this area.

At Specimen Ridge, where the closest examination was made,
the lowest stump seen in position was at an altitude of about
7,000 feet, and the highest a little over 7,500 feet. There were
here between these limiting growths certainly nine successive
forests, and of course an equal or greater number of incursions
of imbedding materials.

In what has gone before I have not attempted to designate

YOL, XLIII.— 21

306 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

definitely the imbedding material which ingulfed and destroyed
the living trees, and in which the petrifactions are now preserved.
It is, as a rule, a volcanic conglomerate, or more properly a vol-
canic agglomerate. Both the matrix and the imbedded particles
are truly volcanic, the latter varying from dust particles through
all sizes up to those of a ton or more in weight. That the ma-
terial has been accumulated under the partial influence of water
or liquid conditions is evident from the more or less perfect
stratification which generally pervades it. But the fragments are
too angular, brecciated, to have suffered transportation and de-
position as subaqueous or as ordinary river deposits. The at-
tractive and satisfactory explanation of conglomerate formation
in the Utah plateau region, as given by Captain Dutton, I do not
think is here applicable.

From what is said in regard to the series of forest growths, and
also from the evident thinness of the layers of debris, it is seen
that there have been many successive sheets of the material laid
down at the same place. In some cases and at certain places a
true lava flow has spread over the surface, but the lava ledges can
at points be seen to shade into the brecciated layers. While not
believing that the great mass of breccia, covering perhaps hun-
dreds of square miles, has been literally ejected from volcanoes,
as has been held in regard to such formations, I am of the opin-
ion that the accumulation of it is the direct and immediate result
of such eruption.

Extruded lava from any source, not being perfectly liquid,
would cool with an irregular surface, and terminate in precipitous
ledges. This unevenness of surface, combined with the original
slope that must have existed to permit any flow, would soon cause
the whole area involved to be abundantly floored with volcanic
fragments of all sizes. During subsequent eruptions these frag-
ments would be swept along by and with the liquid matter, com-
mingled with dense showers of ejected material, amid heavy flows
of water from accompanying rains and perhaps melting snows, to
be deposited in layers at varying distances from the centers of
eruption, the condition in which it is now found. Most of the
material of which the agglomerate is composed I believe to have
come by the ordinary process of weathering of previously erupted
rocks, and then to have been commingled with finer ejected ma-
terial and distributed by the floods which accompanied some if
not all the outflows. The interstratified beds of varying degrees
of fineness are the results of less tumultuous periods.

Such explanation involves the necessity for many centers of
eruption in the park region, for the agglomerate is of wide ex-
tent, and it could not be formed at great distances from these
centers.

PRIVATE RELIEF OF THE POOR. 307

The above facts and conclusions are from personal observa-
tions begun by me in the summer of 1891, and continued in the
summer of 1892 in connection with Prof. James Mercur, of the
United States Military Academy. Not until we had embodied
our conclusions in an official report to the War Department did
I become aware that anything had been published in relation to
these forests. I then learned that Mr. W. H. Holmes, formerly of
the Hayden Survey, had made reference to them in his report on
The Geology of the Yellowstone Park; also that Mr. W. H.
Weed, of the present Geological Survey, had contributed an arti-
cle upon the subject to the School of Mines Quarterly for April,
1892. It is believed that nothing else of an explanatory or de-
scriptive nature has been published in regard to these interesting
objects.

PRIVATE BELIEF OF THE POOR.*

BY HERBERT SPENCER.

T" ESS objectionable than administration of poor relief by a law-
-L^ established and coercive organization, is its administration by
privately established and voluntary organizations — benevolent
societies, mendicity societies, etc. " Less objectionable " I say, but
still, objectionable : in some ways even more objectionable. For
though the vitiating influences of coercion are now avoided the
vitiating influences of proxy-distribution remain. If we have not
a machinery so rigid as that set up by the Poor Law, yet we have
a machinery. The beneficiary is not brought in direct relation
with the benefactor, but in relation with an agent appointed by a
number of benefactors. The transaction, instead of being one
which advantageously cultivates the moral nature on both sides,
excludes culture of the moral nature as much as is practicable,
and introduces a number of bad motives. Note the ill workings
of the system.

As with the Poor Law (especially the old Poor Law), those
who were distressed but thrifty and well conducted got no help,
while help came to the improvident and ill-conducted ; so with
philanthropic societies in general. The worthy suffer rather than
ask assistance ; while the worthless press for assistance and get it.
The Mansion House Fund of 1885-'S6, for instance, was proved to
have gone largely for the support of " idlers, spendthrifts, and
drunkards." " They did not see why they should not have some
of the money going as well as their neighbors." In some cases
applicants " demanded their share." Where, as in another case,

* From the author's Principles of Ethics, vol. ii, just published by D. Appleton & Co.

3o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

employment was offered, less than one fifth proved to be good for
anything ; showing that the unemployed, so generally pitied as
ill-used by society, are unemployed because they either can not
or will not work ; and showing, by implication, that charitable
agencies enable them to evade the harsh but salutary discipline
of Nature.

The encouragement of hypocrisy, which goes along with this
neglect of the good poor who do not complain and attention to
the bad poor who do, becomes conspicuous when religious pro-
fessions are found instrumental to obtainment of alms. Clergy
and pious women, easily deluded by sanctimonious talk, favor
those who are most skilled in utterance of spiritual experiences,
and in benedictions after receiving gifts. Hence a penalty on
sincerity and a premium on lying ; with resulting demoralization.

This evil is intensified by sectarian competition. There are
competing missions which collect and distribute money to push
their respective creeds, and bribe by farthing breakfasts and
penny dinners. Nearly half the revenue of one mission is dis-
tributed in credit tickets, and " if the recipient wishes to cash his
ticket, he can not do so until after the evening service": this
vicious system being carried even to the extent that the visitors
try " to force its tickets on the most respectable and independent
people" — pauperizing them to make hypocritical converts of
them. Said one woman, poor but clean and tidy, who saw how
the emissaries of the Church favored the good-f or,-nothings : " I
didn't want any of the good lady's tickets . . . but it's very 'urt-
ful to the feelings to see that careless drinking people living like
7ogs gets all, and them as struggles and strives may go without."
And not only does there result a discouragement of virtue and an
encouragement of vice, but there results a subsidizing of super-
stitions. Unless all the conflicting beliefs thus aided are right,
which is impossible, there must be a propagation of untruth as
well as a rewarding of insincerity.

Another evil is that easy-going people are exploite by cunning
fellows who want to make places for themselves and get salaries.
A crying need is found; prospectuses are widely distributed;
canvassers press those on whom they call ; and all because A, B, C,
etc., who have failed in their careers, have discovered that they
can get money by playing the parts of manager, secretary, and
collector. Then, if the institution vehemently urged is estab-
lished, it is worked in their interest. But it is not always estab-
lished. As there are bubble mercantile companies, so there are
bubble philanthropic societies — societies kept up for a time merely
for the purpose of getting subscriptions. Nay, on good authority
I learn that there are gangs of men who make it their business to
float bogus charities solely to serve their private ends.

PRIVATE RELIEF OF THE POOR. 309

Not even now have we reached the end of the evils. There is
the insincerity of those who furnish the funds distributed : flun-
kyism and the desire to display being often larger motives than
beneficent feeling. These swindling promoters when writing to
wealthy men for contributions, take care to request the honor of
their names as vice-presidents. Even where the institutions are
genuine, the giving of handsome subscriptions or donations, is
largely prompted by the wish to figure before the world as gen-
erous, and as filling posts of distinction and authority. A still
meaner motive co-operates. One of the nouveaux riches, or even
one whose business is tolerably prosperous, takes an active part
in getting up, or in carrying on, one of these societies supposed to
be originated purely by benevolence, because he likes the pros-
pect of sitting on a committee presided over by a peer, and per-
haps side by side with the son of one. He and his wife and his
daughters enjoy the thought of seeing his name annually thus
associated in the list of officers ; and they contemplate this result
more than the benefits to be given.

There are kindred vitiations of other organizations having
beneficent aims — orphanages, provisions for unfortunate and aged
tradesmen, etc. Here again, the least necessitous, who have many
friends, are usually those to benefit, and the most necessitous, who
have no friends, are neglected. Then there is the costliness and
corruption of the selecting process — expensive and laborious can-
vassing, exchange of votes, philanthropic log-rolling. Evidently
the outlay for working the system, in money and effort, is such as
would be equivalent to a maintenance for many more beneficiaries,
were it not thus wasted in machinery.

Nor is it otherwise with institutions thought by most people
to be indisputably beneficial — hospitals and dispensaries. The
first significant fact is that thirty per cent of the people of London
are frequenters of them; and the largeness of this proportion
makes it clear that most of them, not to be ranked as indigent, are
able to pay their doctors. Gratis medical relief tends to pauperize
in more definite ways. The out-patients begin by getting physic
and presently get food ; and the system " leads them afterward
openly to solicit pecuniary aid." This vitiating effect is proved
by the fact that during the forty years from 1830 to 18G9, the in-
crease in the number of hospital patients has been five times
greater than the increase of population ; and as there has not been
more disease, the implication is obvious. Moreover, the promise
of advice for nothing attracts the mean-spirited to the extent that
" the poor are now being gradually ousted out of the consulting
room by well-to-do persons." People of several hundreds a year,
even up to a thousand, apply as out-patients, going in disguise :
twenty per cent of the out-patients in one large hospital having

3io THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

" given false addresses " for the purpose of concealing their iden-
tity. Swarming as patients thus do, it results that each gets but
little attention : a minute being the average for each, sometimes
diminished to forty-five seconds. Thus those for whom the gratis
advice is intended get but little. Often " the assistance given is
merely nominal " ; and " is both a deception on the public and a
fraud upon the poor." These gratuitous medical benefits, such as
they are, " are conferred chiefly by the members of the unpaid
professional staffs " of these charities. Some of them prescribe at
the rate of three hundred and eighteen patients in three hours
and twenty minutes — a process sufficiently exhausting for men
already hard-worked in their private practice, and sufficiently
disheartening to men with little private practice, who thus give
without payment aid which otherwise they would get payment
for, very much needed by them. So that the six hundred thou-
sand pounds a year of the metropolitan hospitals, which, if the
annual value of the lands and buildings occupied were added
would reach very nearly a million, has largely the effect of de-
moralizing the patients, taking medical care from those it was
intended for and giving it to those for whom it was not, and
obliging many impecunious doctors and surgeons to work hard
for nothing.*

These various experiences, then, furnished by societies and in-
stitutions supported by voluntary gifts and subscriptions, unite
to show that whatever benefits flow from them are accompanied
by grave evils — evils sometimes greater than the benefits. They
force on us the truth that, be it compulsory or non-compulsory,
social machinery wastes power, and works other effects than those
intended. In proportion as beneficence operates indirectly instead
of directly, it fails in its end.

Alike in the foregoing sections and in the foregoing parts of
this work, there has been implied the conclusion that the benefi-
cence which takes the form of giving material aid to those in dis-
tress, has the best effects when individually exercised. If, like
mercy, it " blesses him that gives and him that takes/' it can do
this in full measure only when the benefactor and beneficiary
stand in direct relation. It is true, however, that individual
beneficence often falls far short of the requirements, often runs
into excesses, and is often wrongly directed. Let us look at its
imperfections and corruptions.

* The evidence here summarized will be found in Medical Charity : Its Abuses, and how
to remedy them, by John Chapman, M. D. Some of the sums and numbers given should-
be greatly increased; for since 1874, when the work was published, much hospital exten-
sion has taken place.

PRIVATE RELIEF OF THE POOR. 311

The most familiar of these is the careless squandering of pence
to beggars, and the consequent fostering of idleness and vice.
Sometimes because their sympathies are so quick that they can
not tolerate the sight of real or apparent misery ; sometimes be-
cause they quiet their consciences and think they compound for
misdeeds by occasional largesse; sometimes because they are
moved by that other-worldliness which hopes to obtain large gifts
hereafter by small gifts here; sometimes because, though con-
scious of mischief likely to be done, they have not the patience
needed to make inquiries, and are tempted to end the matter
with a sixpence or something less ; men help the bad to become
worse. Doubtless the evil is great, and weighs much against
the individual exercise of beneficence — practically if not theo-
retically.

The same causes initiate and maintain the begging-letter im-
postures. Occasional exposures of these in daily papers might
serve as warnings ; but always there is a new crop of credulous
people who believe what they are told by cunning dissemblers,
and yield rather than take the trouble of verification ; thinking,
many of them, that they are virtuous in thus doing the thing
which seems kind, instead of being, as they are, vicious in taking
no care to prevent evil. That the doings of such keep alive num-
bers of scamps and swindlers, every one knows ; and doubtless a
considerable set-off to the advantages of individual beneficence
hence arises.

Then, again, there meets us the objection that if there is no
compulsory raising of funds to relieve distress, and everything is
left to the promptings of sympathy, people who have little or no
sympathy, forming a large part of the community, will contribute
nothing ; and will leave undue burdens to be borne by the more
sympathetic. Either the requirements will be inadequately met
or the kind-hearted will have to make excessive sacrifices. Much
force though there is in this objection, it is not so forcible as at
first appears. In this case, as in many cases, wrong inferences are
drawn respecting the effects of a new cause, because it is supposed
that while one thing is changed all other things remain the same.
It is forgotten that in the absence of a coercive law there often
exists a coercive public opinion. There is no legal penalty on a
lie, if not uttered after taking an oath ; and yet the social disgrace
which follows a convicted liar has a strong effect in maintaining
a general truthfulness. There is no prescribed punishment for
breaking social observances ; and yet these are by many conformed
to more carefully than are moral precepts or legal enactments.
Most people dread far more the social frown which follows the
doing of something conventionally wrong, than they do the
qualms of conscience which follow the doing of something intrin-

3i2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sically wrong.* Hence it may reasonably be concluded that if
private voluntary relief of the poor replaced public compulsory
relief, the diffused sentiment which enforces the one would go a
long way toward maintaining the other. The general feeling
would become such that few, even of the unsympathetic, would
dare to face the scorn which would result did they shirk all share
of the common responsibility ; and while there would probably be
thus insured something like due contributions from the indiffer-
ent or the callous, there would, in some of them, be initiated, by
the formal practice of beneficence, a feeling which in course of
time would render the beneficence genuine and pleasurable.

A further difficulty presents itself. "I am too much occu-
pied/' says the man of business when exhorted to exercise private
beneficence. " I have a family to bring up ; and my whole time
is absorbed in discharging my responsibilities, parental and
other. It is impossible for me, therefore, to make such inquiries
as are needful to avoid giving misdirected assistance. I must
make my contribution and leave others to distribute." That
there is force in the reply can not be denied. But when we call
to mind the common remark that if you want anything done you
must apply to the busy man rather than to the man of leisure, we
may reasonably question whether the busy man may not occa-
sionally find time enough to investigate cases of distress which
are forced on his attention. Sometimes there may even result,
from a due amount of altruistic action, a mental gain conducive
to efficiency in the conduct of affairs.

At any rate it must be admitted that individual ministration
to the poor is the normal form of ministration ; and that, made
more thoughtful and careful, as it would be if the entire responsi-
bility of caring for the poor devolved upon it, it would go a long
way toward meeting the needs : especially as the needs would be
greatly diminished when there had been excluded the artificially
generated poverty with which we are surrounded.

But now, from this general advocacy of individual giving ver-
sus giving by public and quasi-public agencies, I pass to the spe-
cial advocacy of the natural form of individual giving — a form
which exists and which simply needs development.

Within the intricate plexus of social relations surrounding

* A most instructive and remarkable fact, which illustrates this general truth at the
same time that it illustrates a more special truth, is that respecting the rudest of the
Musheras of India, who have no form of marriage, but among whom " unchastity, or a
change of lovers on either side, when once mutual appropriation has been made, is a thing
of rare occurrence"; and, when it does occur, causes excommunication. So that among
these simple people, public opinion in respect of the marital relation is more potent than
law is among ourselves. (For account of the Musheras see Calcutta Review, April, 1888.)

PRIVATE RELIEF OF THE POOR. 313

each, citizen, there is a special plexus more familiar to him than
any other, and which has established greater claims on him than
any other. Every one who can afford to give assistance, is brought
by his daily activities into immediate contact with a cluster of
those who by illness, by loss of work, by a death, or by other ca-
lamity, are severally liable to fall into a state calling for aid ; and
there should be recognized a claim possessed by each member of
this particular cluster.

In early societies, organized on the system of status, there
went, along with the dependence of inferiors, a certain kind of
responsibility for their welfare. The simple or compound family
group, formed of relatives standing in degrees of subordination,
and usually possessing slaves, was a group so regulated that while
the inferiors were obliged to do what they were told, and receive
what was given to them, they usually had a sufficiency given to
them. They were much in the position of domestic animals in
respect of their subjection, and they were in a kindred position in
respect of due ministration to their needs. Alike in the primitive
patriarchal system and in the developed feudal system, we see
that the system of status presented the general trait, that while
dependents were in large measure denied their liberty, they were
in large measure supplied with the means of living. Either they
were directly fed and housed, or they were allowed such fixed
proportion of produce as enabled them to feed and house them-
selves. Possession of them unavoidably brought with it care for
them.

Along with gradual substitution of the system of contract for
the system of status, this relation has been changed in such man-
ner that while the benefits of independence have been gained the
benefits of dependence have been lost. The poorer citizen has no
longer any one to control him ; but he has no longer any one to
provide for him. So much service for so much money, has be-
come the universal principle of co-operation; and the money
having been paid for the service rendered, no further claim is
recognized. The requirements of justice having been fulfilled,
it is supposed that all requirements have been fulfilled. The
ancient regime of protection and fealty has ceased, while the
modern regime of beneficence and gratitude has but partially
replaced it.

May we not infer, with tolerable certainty, that there has to
be re-instituted something akin to the old order in a new form ?
May we not expect that without re-establishment of the ancient
power of superiors over inferiors, there may be resumed some-
thing like the ancient care for them ? May we not hope that
without the formation of any legal ties between individuals of
the regulating class, and those groups whose work they severally

3i4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

regulate in one or other way, there may come to be formed
stronger moral ties ? Already such moral ties are in some meas-
ure recognized. Already all householders moderately endowed
with sympathy, feel bound to care for their servants during ill-
ness ; already they help those living out of the house who in less
direct ways labor for them; already from time to time small
traders, porters, errand-boys, and the like, benefit by their kind
offices 011 occasions of misfortune. The sole requisite seems to be
that the usage which thus shows itself here and there irregularly,
should be called into general activity by the gradual disappear-
ance of artificial agencies for distributing aid. As before im-
plied, the sympathetic feelings which have originated and sup-
port these artificial agencies, would, in their absence, vitalize and
develop the natural agencies. And if with each citizen there re-
mained the amount now taken from him in rates and subscrip-
tions, he would be enabled to meet these private demands : if not
by as large a disbursement, yet by a disbursement probably as
large as is desirable.

Besides re-establishing these closer relationships between su-
perior and inferior, which during our transition from ancient
slavery to modern freedom have lapsed ; and besides bringing
beneficence back to its normal form of direct relation between
benefactor and beneficiary ; this personal administration of relief
would be guided by immediate knowledge of the recipients, and
the relief would be adjusted in kind and amount to their needs
and their deserts. When, instead of the responsibility indirectly
discharged through poor-law officers and mendicity societies, the
responsibility fell directly on each of those having some spare
means, each would see the necessity for inquiry and criticism and
supervision : so increasing the aid given to the worthy and re-
stricting that given to the unworthy.

And here we are brought face to face with the greatest of the
difficulties attendant on all methods of mitigating distress. May
we not by frequent aid to the worthy render them unworthy ; and
are we not almost certain by helping those who are already un-
worthy to make them more unworthy still ? How shall we so
regulate our pecuniary beneficence as to avoid assisting the in-
capables and the degraded to multiply ?

I have in so many places commented on the impolicy, and in-
deed the cruelty, of bequeathing to posterity an increasing popu-
lation of criminals and incapables,' that I need not here insist
that true beneficence will be so restrained as to avoid fostering
the inferior at the expense of the superior — or, at any rate, so
restrained as to minimize the mischief which fostering the in-
ferior entails.

PRIVATE RELIEF OF THE POOR. 315

Under present circumstances the difficulty seems almost insur-
mountable. By the law-established and privately established
agencies, coercive and voluntary, which save the bad from the
extreme results of their badness, there have been produced un-
manageable multitudes of them, and to prevent further multipli-
cation appears next to impossible. The yearly accumulating
appliances for keeping alive those who will not do enough work
to keep themselves alive, continually increase the evil. Each
new effort to mitigate the penalties on improvidence, has the
inevitable effect of adding to the number of the improvident.
Whether assistance is given through State-machinery, or by
charitable societies, or privately, it is difficult to see how it can
be restricted in such manner as to prevent the inferior from be-
getting more of the inferior.

If left to operate in all its sternness, the principle of the sur-
vival of the fittest, which, as ethically considered, we have seen to
imply that each individual shall be left to experience the effects
of his own nature and consequent conduct, would quickly clear
away the degraded. But it is impracticable with our present sen-
timents to let it operate in all its sternness. No serious evil
would result from relaxing its operation, if the degraded were
to leave no progeny. A short-sighted beneficence might be al-
lowed to save them from suffering, were a long-sighted bene-
ficence assured that there would be born no more such. But
how can it be thus assured? If, either by public action or by
private action, aid were given to the feeble, the unhealthy, the
deformed, the stupid, on condition that they did not marry, the
result would manifestly be a great increase of illegitimacy;
which, implying a still more unfavorable nurture of children,
would result in still worse men and women. If instead of a
"submerged tenth" there existed only a submerged fiftieth, it
might be possible to deal with it effectually by private industrial
institutions, or some kindred appliances. But the mass of effete
humanity to be dealt with is so large as to make one despair ; the
problem seems insoluble.

Certainly, if solvable, it is to be solved only through suffering.
Having, by unwise institutions, brought into existence large num-
bers who are unadapted to the requirements of social life, and are
consequently sources of misery to themselves and others, we can
not repress and gradually diminish this body of relatively worth-
less people without inflicting much pain. Evil has been done
and the penalty must be paid. Cure can come only through afflic-
tion. The artificial assuaging of distress by State-appliances, is
a kind of social opium-eating, yielding temporary mitigation at
the eventual cost of intenser misery. Increase of the anodyne
dose inevitably leads by and by to increase of the evil ; and the

316 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

only rational course is that of bearing the misery which must be
entailed for a time by desistance. The transition from State-
beneficence to a healthy condition of self-help and private be-
neficence, must be like the transition from an opium-eating life
to a normal life — painful but remedial.

ARE THERE EVIDENCES OF MAN IN THE GLACIAL

GRAVELS ?

BY MAJOR J. W. POWELL.

ri THE geologist studying in the Rocky Mountains is ever aston-
-*- ished at the rapid degradation of mountain forms. Cliffs,
peaks, crags, and rocky scaurs are forever tumbling down. The
rocks break asunder above and roll down in great slides on the
flanks and about the feet of the mountains. As the slopes are thus
diminished, gradually the slides are covered with soil, in part
through the decay of the rocks themselves, in part by wind-drifted
sands, but perhaps in chief part by the washing of the soils above.
In this manner a great mountain is ultimately buried by over-
placement. This overplacement gradually washes down, to be
distributed on still lower grounds, but it is replaced from above
from the newly formed soils. The process goes on until the
mountain is degraded into hills and the streams have carried
away the greater part of the material of the ancient mountain.
Now, in studying these mountains, the geologist is always 011 his
guard to distinguish overplacement from foundation structure.
When the mountains are all gone the hills are degraded in the
same manner, and the process continues until a grand base-level
is established, below which degradation can not take place ; then
the mountains and hills have all been carried away by rivers to
the sea. As mountains and hills are degraded, so valley slopes
are brought down. The river, meandering now on this side and
now on that, increases the length of its course, as every bend
throughout the valley is cut back ; but ultimately bend works
back against bend, until shorter channels are produced. By cut-
off channels the course of the river is diminished ; by increasing
its meanders the course of the river is lengthened; but in the
grand operation the one about compensates for the other. In this
manner the river is forever rearranging the flood plain. The
banks of the stream, left dry by the vicissitudes of river cutting,
tumble down, and a bank goes through a process much like that
of the mountain slope ; and the geologist is ever on the lookout to
distinguish overplacement from the rocks of the foundation struc-
ture. There are many conditions where this distinction is plain,

ARE THERE EVIDENCES OF MAN IN THE DRIFT? 317

but there are many other conditions where it is obscure. Let us
see how some of these obscurities arise.

In the United States and in British America there is a vast
district of country covered with glacial drift. In a period known
to geologists as the Glacial epoch deep snows and gigantic accu-
mulations of ice extended from a region far to the northward
down into the United States, nearly to the mouth of the Ohio
Kiver. The margin of this great ice field stretched from this cen-
tral point eastward and northward to the Atlantic Ocean, and
westward and northward to the Great Plains, while the Rocky
Mountains were covered with great ice fields. This enormous ice
sheet was ever working southward, and ever melting along its
southern boundary. As it moved southward it plowed the
mountains, dug down the hills, and generally filled the valleys
with the debris ; and it spread over much of the great area a vast
sheet of rounded gravels, sands, and clays ; and it fed the streams
from the border of the ice sheet with fine silt that was distributed
along the valleys to the Gulf of Mexico. This glacial flour is now
recognized as the loess of the South. Since the disappearance of
the great ice sheet the glacial formations that were made by it
cover much of the dry land. Now, these glacial formations, being
composed of incoherent bowlders, gravels, sands, and clays, are
pretty easily distinguished from the underlying, more indurated
rocks ; but rains, brooks, creeks, and rivers have been at work
carving new valleys, and remodeling the bluffs, hills, cliffs, and
mountains of all the country, and in the process have distributed
over the land formed by the glacial ice extensive bodies of over-
placement. This overplacement is incoherent, like the glacial
formations. There is no diniculty in distinguishing the overplace-
ment from the primeval foundation, but there is great diniculty
in distinguishing it from the glacial formations, and it requires
nice powers of observation to always make the distinction with
certainty. The criteria for distinguishing overplacement from
the original glacial formations have been gradually discovered
and formulated in the last few years.

In 1882, by act of Congress, the Geological Survey was author-
ized and directed to make a geological map of the United States.
The survey entered upon this work in different parts of the coun-
try. Among many problems before it, one of the more important
was that of mapping the glacial formations, and in order to do it
two things were necessary : First, it was necessary to distinguish
the glacial formations from modern overplacement ; second, it was
necessary to study the history of the glacial action and the vari-
ous structures which the ice produced, for there are many — such
as moraines, osars, kames, and bodies of till, sand, gravel, and
bowlders ; and it was sought to discover the history of their forma-

3i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tion, and especially the history of the entire Glacial epoch. The
members of the Geological Survey engaged upon the general work
were only to a limited extent occupied with this problem. In the
special fields where they were engaged in studying the primeval
foundation rocks they also studied the glacial formations and the
modern overplacements. But the field was very large, and many
geologists in the country had already made observations and en-
gaged in researches of this character. Most of these geologists
were professors in the various colleges of the country, and it was
decided by the director to enlist these professorial geologists as
far as possible to continue the work and solve these problems for
the general survey of the United States upon the foundation of
observation already begun by them. For this purpose Prof.
Chamberlin, then of Beloit College, with Prof. Salisbury, his asso-
ciate, and many other professorial assistants, were engaged upon
the work. Prof. Shaler, of Harvard University, was also enlisted,
with a large corps of assistants. Prof. Emerson, of Arnherst Col-
lege, was likewise enlisted, with his assistants ; and Prof. Davis,
of Harvard University, with his assistants, also took a part. Mr.
Gilbert, of the Geological Survey, with his assistants, was study-
ing the lake basins of the far West, but, as their history was in-
volved in the history of the glacial formations, he incidentally
took part in this work. Mr. McGee, permanently employed upon
the survey, with his assistants, was engaged in studying the
estuarine and coastal-plain formations of the Atlantic slope, and
he soon discovered that they were involved with the glacial de-
posits that had come down from the Appalachian Mountains.
Besides the men thus occupied, many other volunteers, as pro-
fessors and students, took part in the work, now here, now there ;
so that altogether more than fifty different men engaged in the
solving of these great problems. Nearly all the men who engaged
in this work soon discovered that the preliminary problem was to
formulate the criteria by which modern overplacement is to be
distinguished from original glacial formation. As this proceeded
it was further discovered that much of the confusion in the study
of the glacial rocks themselves was cleared away, and that it was
possible to read the record of the old Glacial epoch in such a
manner as to discover its history.

So the work went on year after year, in small part by the regu-
lar employees of the survey, in chief part by a professorial corps,
aided by many volunteers, often university students. Then many
of the State geologists were enlisted, and the work proceeded,
until at last a vast body of facts has been collected. The men
often conferred with one another and visited doubtful points to-
gether. The officers of the Geological Survey, the professorial
geologists, and the State geologists thus associated themselves

ARE THERE EVIDENCES OF MAN IN THE DRIFT? 319

voluntarily, and made many excursions together. For example,
Mr. McGee believed that he had made some discoveries in Ala-
bama and Mississippi which were inconsistent with conclusions
reached by State geologists. Thereupon he conferred with Messrs.
Hilgard, formerly of Mississippi, now of the University of Cali-
fornia; Smith, of Alabama; Holmes, of North Carolina; Safford,
of Tennessee; Hill, of Texas; and Ward, paleobotanist of the
Geological Survey; and they visited the region together, all
having distinct views somewhat differing from one another.
They examined the problems concerning which differences of
opinion had arisen, and they all united in a common conclusion.
Subsequently Messrs. Chamberlin and Salisbury visited the same
region in company with Mr. McGee, and came to substantial
agreement with the first party. Such instances of harmonious
co-operation have occurred again and again in all portions of the
glaciated area. The whole body of men engaged in the research
worked together for a common purpose, and were unwilling to
publish material conclusions until the facts could be submitted
to many minds. They worked with a harmony and a patience
for dissenting opinion worthy of such a body of scientific men.
Mr. Chamberlin, first the Professor of Geology at Beloit College,
afterward President of the University of Wisconsin, and now in
charge of the geological department of the new University of
Chicago, had the largest share in all this work; he gave more
time to it himself and he employed more assistants than any one
else ; in fact, he was considered the Nestor of the work. He had
long before been the State Geologist of Wisconsin, where glacial
formations are highly developed, and had made a special study of
the subject, and all the workers in the field deferred largely to
his judgment in suggesting methods of research.

Occasionally some observer failed to make the necessary dis-
criminations, and dropped out of the work. Among others whom
Prof. Chamberlin enlisted was Prof. G. F. Wright, of Oberlin
College, who devoted some summer months to these investiga-
tions. Now, some of the observations made by Prof. Wright were
of value, but he seemed to fail to distinguish overplacement from
glacial formation ; and, after trying him for two or three seasons,
his labors were dispensed with. Thereupon Prof. Wright com-
menced the preparation of a popular work upon the history of
the Ice period. When this came to the knowledge of Prof. Cham-
berlin, he demurred. Still, Prof. Wright continued his work, and
ultimately published his book. On its appearance it was found
that he had ignored the conclusions of his co-workers — had prac-
tically denied the accuracy of their observations — and had pub-
lished a work on the history of the Ice period which they believed
to be erroneous and misleading. But they let the subject pass

32o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

with, no unfavorable criticism, believing that ultimately the
grand results of the combined labors of so many men, when
published, would correct all errors.

There is another phase to this question, connected with the
science of archaeology. I have already set forth the distinction
which geologists recognize between overplacement formations and
fundamental formations. Certain archaeologic problems which
have sprung up in late years in the United States are profoundly
affected by the discovery and formulation of these distinctions.
Many years ago a local observer at Natchez, Miss., claimed to
have discovered a human skeleton in the loess of a bluff on the
Mississippi River. The loess is a formation contemporaneous
with the glacial formation of the North, as previously explained.
The discovery of a human skeleton in this situation was believed
to prove that man dwelt in the valley of the Mississippi during
the loess-forming epoch. The discovery seemed to be of so much
importance that the site was visited by Sir Charles Lyell, who on
examination at once affirmed that the skeleton was not found in
the loess itself, but in the overplacement or modified loess — that
is, in the talus of the bluff ; and all geologists and archaeologists
have accepted the decision.

From time to time other supposed discoveries were made in
this country ; but one after another was abandoned, until a series
of discoveries were made along the line of hills which stretch
from the Hudson to the James River. This line of hills marks
an interesting geological displacement. The country to the sea-
ward of the line has been differentially displaced from the coun-
try mountainward by an uplift on the Appalachian side or a
downthrow on the ocean side, or both. The displacement has
given rise to many rapids and falls in the streams. Above this
line of displacement the waters are not navigable, the declivity
of the streams being too great ; below, tidewater always flows to
the foot of the hills. Now, along this line of hills, back and forth
from the upper country to the lower, are many glacial gravels,
many hills of ancient river gravels, and many hills of estuarine
gravels, all of Glacial age. But there are other gravels of still
greater age intimately associated with them, and in making the
geological survey of the country it became necessary to distin-
guish the older gravels of Neocene and Cretaceous age from the
younger gravels of the Ice period, and it also became necessary
to distinguish the overplacement of modern times. In these same
gravels certain archaeologists had discovered what they believed
to be palaeolithic implements ; and as some of the gravels were
known to be of Glacial age, they supposed them all to be Glacial,
and that they thus had evidence that man inhabited the coun-
try during the Glacial epoch. These implements were gathered

ARE THERE EVIDENCES OF MAN IN THE DRIFT? 321

in very great numbers and collected in various museums in the
United States, and many collections were sent abroad to the great
museums of the world. Several different collectors engaged in
this enterprise for some years, and acquired great reputation
for their proof of the antiquity of man on this continent, and for
their zeal in discovering the evidence ; and to recompense them
for this work they were made members of many scientific societies
throughout the world, and decorated with ribbons, and some were
knighted. Geologists, however, held the question more or less in
abeyance, not feeling sure of the geological evidence for the age
of the formations in which the supposed stone implements were
found. Then other discoveries were made in Minnesota and else-
where; and finally geologists, with some misgivings and many
ifs and perchances, accepted the conclusion that Glacial man in
America was a reality.

But now the problem of these formations had to be studied
geologically in making the map of the United States, for they had
to be represented thereon. They were soon found to be of dif-
ferent ages, but had been confused by reason of the overplacement
which is so abundant everywhere. At the same time a new class
of archseologic investigations began. The first new work of the
character was undertaken in the neighborhood of Washington, on
Piny Branch. It had been discovered that the gravels of this
locality were of Cretaceous age, and if the flaked stones supposed
to be found therein were really deposited in situ, then man in
America was not only of Glacial age but of Cretaceous age, for the
very same class of implements which the Indians made two cen-
turies ago in the valley of the Potomac were also supposed to be
found in the Cretaceous gravels as well as in the gravels of the
Glacial epoch. Thereupon Mr. Holmes, of the Bureau of Ethnol-
ogy in the Smithsonian Institution — not a member of the Geo-
logical Survey — undertook the investigation, and he commenced
by trenching the hills, and worked patiently for months at the
problem. He proved that all the supposed stone implements be-
longed, not in the foundation rocks of Cretaceous age, but in the
overplacement. Man, then, was not of Cretaceous age. While
these investigations were in progress the American Association
and the International Geologic Congress met in Washington, and
many of the scientific men visited the ground. Most of the as-
sistants of the Geological Survey visited it, and other geologists,
attracted by the problem, came to Washington for the purpose ;
so that the whole field was surveyed and the evidence weighed by
very many of the geologists of the country and of the world, and
they all agreed that the stone implements belonged to the over-
placement, and might possibly have been deposited within the last
three hundred years.

VOL. XL1II. — 22 .

322 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

But there were many like finds in Neocene gravels and gravels
of Glacial age stretching down into Virginia and northward
through Pennsylvania and New Jersey. One after another these
gravel sites were explored by Mr. Holmes and his assistants in
the same manner, and in every instance it was revealed that the
stone objects were found in the overplacement, that in no case
could they be found in the underlying rocks. Objects of the same
character have been observed all over the United States. Within
the last twenty years the writer of this article has seen them made
by Indians in the Rocky Mountain region, and they are scattered
far and wide over nearly all the gravel hills of this country. This
creates a presumption that, where there are so many of mod-
ern origin, all may be modern. It has already been mentioned
that certain implements of this kind had been found in gravels,
supposed to be of Glacial age, in Minnesota. This is known as the
Babbitt find. Finally, Mr. Holmes, together with Prof. Winchell,
the State Geologist of Minnesota, visited the locality. They made
careful examinations, and were entirely satisfied with the evi-
dence that the stone objects of that site were found in overplace-
ment.

Up to this stage one locality had not been examined with care
by the new methods — the locality in Trenton, which had espe-
cially become historic by reason of the many collections made
therefrom for sundry museums ; and this Mr. Holmes finally vis-
ited. The implements collected had been found mainly, perhaps
not wholly, along old banks of streams, and two localities of this
nature had furnished many of the objects of the museums. When
visited by Mr. Holmes and other geologists, implements could not
be found save in the overplacement. The principal of these sites
was a low bluff of gravel in the city of Trenton, and property con-
ditions prevented thorough examination of the site by trenching ;
thus it seemed that final observation by the new methods was no
longer possible. But at this stage the authorities of the city of
Trenton commenced to dig a sewer parallel to the bluff and but a
few steps back from its face — a deep trench to carry a large body
of sewage to a distance where it would no longer be noxious to the
inhabitants. Shortly after this work began Mr. Holmes again
visited the place, and returned from time to time during its prog-
ress, and for upward of a month kept an expert assistant watch-
ing the progress of the digging. With all the examination made
no stone implement was ever found. This led him to the conclu-
sion that the flaked stones originally found on the bank really
belonged to the overplacement and not to the foundation forma-
tion of Glacial age.

In the fall of 1889 the writer visited Boise City, in Idaho.
While stopping at a hotel some gentlemen called on him to show

ARE THERE EVIDENCES OF MAN IN THE DRIFT? 323

him a figurine which they said they had found in sinking an arte-
sian well in the neighborhood at a depth, if I remember rightly,
of more than three hundred feet. The figurine is a little image of
a man or woman done in clay and baked. It is not more than an
inch and a half in length, and is slender and delicate, more delicate
than an ordinary clay pipestem, and altogether exceedingly fra-
gile. Hold the figurine at the height of your eye and let it fall on
the hearth at your feet, and it would be shivered into fragments.
It was claimed that this figurine had been brought up from the
bottom of an artesian well while the men were working, or about
the time that they were working at the well, and that as it came
out it was discovered. When this story was told the writer, he
simply jested with those who claimed to have found it. He had
known the Indians that live in the neighborhood, had seen their
children play with just such figurines, and had no doubt that the
little image had lately belonged to some Indian child, and said the
same. While stopping at the hotel different persons spoke about
it, and it was always passed off as a jest ; and various comments
were made about it by various people, some of them claiming that
it had given them much sport, and that a good many " tenderf eet "
had looked at it and believed it to be genuine; and they seemed
rather pleased that I had detected the hoax. When I returned to
Washington I related the jest at a dinner table, and afterward it
passed out of my mind. In reading Prof. Wright's second book I
had many surprises, but none of them greater than when I dis-
covered that this figurine had fallen into his hands, and that he
had actually published it as evidence of the great antiquity of
man in the valley of the Snake River.

Consider the circumstances. A fragile toy is buried in the
sands and gravels and bowlders of a torrential stream. Three
hundred feet of materials are accumulated over it from the floods
of thousands of years. Then volcanoes burst forth and pour floods
of lava over all ; and under more than three hundred feet of sands,
gravels, clays, and volcanic rocks the fragile figurine remains for
centuries, under such magical conditions that the very color of
the burning is preserved. Then well-diggers, with a pump drill,
hammer and abrade the rocks, and bore a six-inch hole down to
this figurine without destroying it, and with a sand-pump bring
it to the surface, to be caught by the well-digger; and Prof.
Wright believes the story of the figurine, and places it 011 record
in his book !

There are some other cases that ought to be considered, but
none of them differs greatly from those given, and enough has
already been said.

Now it must here be confessed that a large number of geolo-
gists some years ago were willing to acknowledge the validity of

324 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the evidence of Glacial man. Many of them had committed them-
selves to it, and yet when better evidence was brought they were
willing to withdraw opinions previously affirmed. The writer
himself has entertained a belief in the existence of Glacial man,
and there is still some evidence in California that has not yet
been examined by the new methods, and it may be that this evi-
dence is good. The writer has much linguistic material that
points to the high antiquity of man on this continent. So we will
all withhold final judgment until the evidence is in, being per-
fectly willing to believe in Glacial man, or Tertiary man, or Cre-
taceous man, if the evidence demands it, and being just as willing
to believe that man was introduced on this continent within the
last two thousand years, if the evidence demands it. What care
we what the truth is, if it is the truth ?

Some years ago Mr. McGee found in a lake formation of the
West a stone implement, like those still made by the Indians of
that country, in beds of an age not greatly differing from those
of the gravels of the Eastern shore ; and he published his find. In
after years he had learned to distinguish overplacement from
foundation formation, and he questioned his own conclusions.
This was before the present controversy arose, before Mr. Holmes
had so skillfully trenched the hills and shown the true age of the
stone implements of the Atlantic slope; but still Mr. McGee,
warned by his own observations of the difference between over-
placement and under-formation, concluded that he might have
been too hasty, and published a long article on the subject, from
which the following extract is made :

" It is a fair presumption that any unusual object found with-
in, or apparently within, an unconsolidated deposit is an adven-
titious inclusion. Every cautious field geologist accustomed to
the study of unconsolidated superficial deposits quickly learns to
question the verity of apparently original inclusions ; he may, it
is true, exhaust the entire range of hypothesis at his command
without satisfying himself that the inclusion is adventitious ; yet
he is seldom satisfied that he has exhausted the range of possible
hypothesis as to the character of the inclusion, and hesitates long
before accepting any unusual association as veritable. His case
is not that of the invertebrate paleontologist at work in the
Palaeozoic rocks, to whom a single fossil may carry conviction ;
for not only are the possibilities of adventitious inclusion indefi-
nitely less in solid strata, but the mineral character of the fossil
is commonly identical with that of its matrix, and so affords in-
herent evidence of the verity of the association. Nowhere, indeed,,
in the entire range of the complex and sometimes obscure and
elusive phenomena of geology is there more reason for withhold-
ing final judgment based upon unusual association than in the

ARE THERE EVIDENCES OF MAN IN THE DRIFT? 325

unconsolidated superficial deposits of the earth; and it is only
where there is collateral evidence that such testimony is accept-
able to the cautious student. Now, the sediments of Lake Lahon-
tan are generally, and in Walker River canon almost wholly,
unconsolidated, and so the probabilities are against the verity of
the association." '

When Prof. Wright's second book, Man and the Glacial Period,
appeared, the subject was one of popular interest, and it was
thought that the book would do harm. Thereupon his fellow-
workers criticised the book in various scientific journals, and
sometimes spoke very disparagingly of it, as being unworthy of
acceptance — all intended to warn the public against a book widely
advertised and circulated as the greatest contribution that had
ever been made to glacial geology. The fact that in support of
his pretensions the author, Prof. Wright, signed his name as a
member of the United States Geological Survey, was especially
offensive to the others who had been engaged under the auspices
of the survey, whether as volunteers, professorial assistants, or
permanent employees.

When Prof. Wright found his book thus attacked, he skill-
fully evaded the real issue — the truth or error of his conclusions
— and he or certain of his personal friends raised the cry of per-
secution by the official geologists of the United States. Most of
those who criticised him were professorial geologists, like him-
self, who had aided the Geological Survey with their work. Prof.
Wright was thus attacking his fellow-workers in the field, not
deigning to make scientific reply to scientific objections, but
making only general statements in relation thereto, and turning
the issue on the right of geologists to criticise his work, which
he assumed was not official, though he had placed his name on
his book with an official title.

All this required no reply from me, until at last Mr. Wright
enlisted the championship of The Popular Science Monthly. An
article by Mr. Clay pole, of Ohio, was published in the April num-
ber of the journal, making a bitter attack upon the professorial
geologists and upon the regular employees of the United States
Geological Survey, and in no covert way attacking the admin-
istration of the survey itself. This attack, based as it was on
error in every paragraph, would still have called for no response
from myself, but would have been passed by, had not the editor
of the journal attempted to draw a lesson therefrom in con-
demnation of the work of the Geological Survey and of that of
the professorial geologists and volunteer assistants connected
with the universities, colleges, and State surveys of the entire

* American Anthropologist, vol. ii, 1889, pp. 301-312.

326 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

country. It seems now to be incumbent upon me to make a
simple explanation of the facts. This I have done briefly, with
confidence that the editor of The Popular Science Monthly, find-
ing that he has been misled in the matter, will cheerfully correct
the impression that his editorial will naturally make upon those
unacquainted with the circumstances.

For more than twenty years the writer of this article has
been engaged in conducting and supervising scientific research
in various portions of the United States. During the history of
this work there have been published under his auspices about
two hundred volumes, as annual reports, monographs, bulletins,
and other miscellaneous works. In all this body of literature
there is very little of controversy. The hundreds of men em-
ployed have worked together in practical harmony. They have
not always agreed, but agreement has been singularly common,
and when disagreements have arisen they have been stated
courteously and with little exhibition of temper. It is believed
that no other publications of the same magnitude can be found
in the world where so little controversy is shown and where dis-
agreement is so uniformly courteous. There have been some con-
troversies, but they have been confined to the journals, and have
not found their way into the official publications. And the jour-
nalistic controversies have been very few; and in only two in-
stances within my knowledge have they been bitter, the case of
this book being one of them. The controversy on this subject
has not appeared in the official publications, but only in the jour-
nals. It has been wholly unofficial.

Prof. Wright stands almost alone in his advocacy of a sci-
entific doctrine. He has a few sympathizers, and some defenders
of portions of his theory, but the great body of his work is
repudiated by nearly every geologist in America, and especially
by the professorial corps. The controversy which broke out in
the journals was at the time unknown to the Director of the Geo-
logical Survey. He was away from home and an invalid. He
had never by word or circumstance directed or suggested it. and
knew nothing of it until after it had occurred. Most of the
gentlemen who engaged in it and expressed their indignation at
what they believed to be a pseudo-scientific work, were connected
with universities and colleges, and were wholly out of the juris-
diction of the Geological Survey. Nor are they men accustomed
to brook such dictation. Only one of the controversialists was
a permanent member of the Geological Survey.

After the above statement, it only remains for the editor of
The Popular Science Monthly to render that judgment which the
facts demand.

MORAL LIFE OF THE JAPANESE. 327

MORAL LIFE OF THE JAPANESE.

BY DR. W. DELANO EASTLAKE.

A MONG the many interesting features that a close acquaint-
•£^- ance with Japan and its people reveals to foreigners, the
ethics of the Japanese will surely claim the paramount attention
of the ethnologist. The people are unlike any other ; and we find
that this strong national individuality — so fascinating to visitors
to Japan — reaches far beyond the quaint homes, graceful costumes,
obsequious courtesy of both rich and poor, and the picturesque
beauty of the country itself ; finding its origin in the very heart
of the people, inculcated by the lives and precepts of generation
upon generation of warriors, poets, and statesmen.

The moral life of the Japanese has found many exponents in
the literature of the Occident, and, on account of the contradic-
tory character of many of the writings on the subject, the ideas
gained by the reading public can not be other than confusing and
vague. Any just consideration of the ethics of the Japanese
admits of no equivocation, and conventional prudery must in all
cases be replaced by simple, ungarnished facts. I would neither
seek to confirm nor deny the varied statements of other observers,
believing that a clearer insight may be gained from a brief por-
trayal of the various ethical influences — either domestic, social, or
religious— that touch the life of the people from early childhood
until, after life is done, their mortal remains are packed into a
square pine box, not unlike an ordinary dry-goods case, and con-
signed to the keeping of Mother Earth.

Japan has been frequently referred to as the " Children's Para-
dise," and with considerable justice, for in no other country is child-
hood made so much of, and are children surrounded by so many
devices for their amusement. In every town there are numbers
of street venders and hawkers whose sole customers are children.
One class of these venders carry two charcoal stoves, or furnaces,
swung in the conventional manner of the country from the ends
of a pole which rests across the shoulder. Arriving at a conven-
ient corner, the load is put down, and a group of eager children
quickly gather. For the moderate sum of one or two rin * the
children are each supplied with a tiny cup of sweetened batter
and a spoon. Thus equipped, they proceed to bake their own
cookies on the smooth iron top of the stoves, fashioning the dain-
ties into whatever shape they please, and when they are crisp and
brown, devouring them. The ame vender also devotes his skill to

* The Japanese rin is the tenth part of one sen, or cent; 1,000 rin, therefore, equal one
yen, or dollar.

328

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

children. His "stock in trade" consists of dried reeds and a
quantity of midzu ame, a sort of malt paste. Some of the ame

THE MIDZI:-AME ARTIST. An amuser of children, seen in every Japanese city.

is put on the end of a reed, and is molded or blown into some
fantastic shape by the vender. The young customers dictate as to

MORAL LIFE OF THE JAPANESE.

329

the figures, and butterflies, flowers, gourds, or what not are shaped
from the sweet paste. The children, after having satisfied their
tastes for artistic design, eat the finished work, the reed handle
preventing their fingers from becoming sticky. There is another
of the child amusers that can be seen in the streets of Tokyo or
any other Japanese city. This artisan molds fruits, flowers, and

S**k

A BUDDHIST PRIEST IN FULL CANONICALS.

vegetables from colored rice-flour dough, and does his work so
deftly that it is really difficult to distinguish the artificial from
the real fruit.

This universal love and regard for children is also displayed at
every temple festival, where numerous booths, gay with toys, flags,
and games, form always a prominent feature.

And what of the life of and influences surrounding these little
folks ? Well, the first event of importance after they have been
ushered into this world occurs when they are one hundred days
old. This is a feast day for the family, in which the baby plays
the chief role. Toys, money, gowns, and sweets are lavished upon
him by admiring friends and relatives. Among the poorer classes
the baby is then considered old enough to be strapped on the back

330 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of its brother or sister (usually the latter) and to go about with
them during the greater part of the day, and from that time spend
at least half the day in the open air. As soon as the child is old
enough and strong enough to run about, a small doll-like bundle
is strapped to its back, the weight of which is frequently increased
as the child grows stronger ; so, by the time the next arrival in the
family has put in an appearance, a well-broken and docile little
human " pack-horse " will be found ready for him. The newcomer
is put through a similar course of training in due time; and so
on, and so on — but let us trust not ad infinitum !

The relations between parents and children are entirely natural,
free, and unrestrained. The truths of life and Nature are unfolded
to them as soon as the children are old enough to inquire about
them. Nothing is left for them to learn from outside sources.
The result of this perfect candor, so far from developing any un-
due precocity in the children, serves to preserve that indefinable,
unconscious grace, so beautiful in childhood, which, by the secret
acquisition of some hidden knowledge, is so apt to be replaced by
that glance of definable conscious disgrace seen in the faces of so
many prematurely " old " children of the Occident.

There are two national children's festivals during the year :
Sekku, for boys, and Ohinasama, for girls. Sekku, or " boys' day,"
is celebrated on the 5th of May. At this time gifts are made to
the boys of the home, and for every male child in the family a
huge paper carp (koi), of some brilliant hue, is hung out on a pole
above the house-top. During this festival a Japanese town looks
like a great aerial fish-pond. Ohinasama, "the honorable goddess
of maidenhood," rules Japanese homes on the 3d of March, pro-
vided there are any daughters in the household. It is virtually
" dolls' day," for all the dolls hold high carnival, and are brought
forth with all their belongings — such as miniature ceremonial tea-
sets, ornaments, and utensils — and set out in state ; while in the
tokonoma, or alcove, hangs a silken picture of Ohinasama her-
self ; and a vase filled with odorous blossoms is placed before her.
Presents to the daughters of the household, of flowers, cakes, and
sweets, are also in order.

The school education of Japanese children begins at the age of
six years ; and in the primary departments the boys and girls are
taught together, although occupying different parts of the school-
room. It would be impossible, in this article, to discuss the
present status of education in Japan ; suffice it to say that there
are business colleges, mining and engineering schools, law schools,
universities, and even musical conservatories — all of which rank
most high. Regarding the education of women, this usually con-
sists in an eight years' grammar-school course, and frequently two
or three additional years in the shihan-gakko , or normal school.

MORAL LIFE OF THE JAPANESE. 331

The moral education of Japanese children is conducted partly at
home and partly in school, and is based largely upon the teachings
of the history of the country. Intrepid valor, zeal, sobriety, direct-
ness of speech, extreme courtesy, implicit obedience to parents
and superiors, and deferential reverence and regard for old age —

THE INNER GATE LEADING TO THE TOMB OF THE SHOGUN TOKUGAWA, SHIBA, TOKYO.

these are among the chief characteristics looked for in boys ; while
industry, gentleness, faithfulness, and cheerful demeanor are re-
quired of girls.

Little or no importance is attached to the religious training
of children. Whether the parents be Buddhists or Shintoists it

332

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

matters not, for in either case the children rarely take any part
in the religious life of their parents or elders, and indeed usually
grow up in blissful ignorance as to what it is all about. True,
they may be occasionally taken to the temple, and taught to rub
their palms together, clap thrice, and incline their heads toward
the shrine, as they toss their offering of rin through the wooden
grating of the huge money- till. They may have some vague
notion that there is something meritorious in all this, but noth-
ing more, although every Japanese home has a latticed niche,
or kamidana, dedicated to the service of the household Lares and

INTEBIOB OF THE SHRINE AT THE TOMB OF THE TOKUGAWA SHOGUNS AT SHIBA, TOKYO.
Relics of the hero are preserved in the rear.

Penates, or Daikoku and Ebisu as they appear in Japan. These
quaint figures — Daikoku with his bag of rice, and Ebisu with his
wise smile and accompanying fish — are regarded more as symbols
of good luck than supreme beings, and are retained, in many
homes at least, in the same spirit as we Occidentals would fasten
a horseshoe over a doorway.

The entire absence of demonstrative affection in Japanese fam-
ilies seems almost incompatible with the deep feeling of parental
and filial love and tenderness that exists. Petting and caressing
are dispensed with as soon as babyhood is over ; and even during
this time the mother but rarely presses her lips to the child's

334 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

face, although the ministering love and tender care of the parent
are not lessened one whit with the advancing maturity of the
child. Again, while the relationship between brothers and sisters
is most sincere and cordial, embracing, kissing, or any other caress
is never thought of. An old Japanese precept goes so far as to
command that, after the age of seven, brothers and sisters should
not even sit together ; and up to the present dynasty this rule was
strictly adhered to. So, when the father of the family would read
aloud to the assembled children, the daughters would always sit
apart, half hidden by a screen. In contradistinction to these
apparently formal relations, brother or sister, even after having
attained the age of puberty, will have no hesitation in disrobing
or bathing before one another; while the utmost freedom in con-
versation is admissible. This formality between the sexes, even
in the same family, may be briefly summed up in the words,
" Hands off ! " and apart from this the closest intimacy and affec-
tion may exist.

The word " kiss " finds no exact equivalent in the Japanese
language ; the nearest approach to it being ~kuchi-su, literally " to
suck the mouth " — a caress only admissible in conjugal relations.
The principal years of a girl's life that are specially celebrated
are the third, seventh, and fifteenth, at which latter age she is re-
garded as a woman, and no longer a child. The most important
years of a boy's life are the third, fifth, and fifteenth, and at this
last age he is supposed to put off childishness, and is regarded as
a man and of age. Besides the two children's festivals already
referred to, there are four other minor boys' festivals and four
girls' festivals in the year, so that practically every month has its
" children's day."

So much for the ethics of child life in Japan ; and much that
has been said concerning the same holds good also during later
years, in so far as the family relationships are concerned. We
now can turn to a consideration of the various relationships be-
tween the sexes.

Engagements for marriage are either arranged by the parents
of both families, while the principals are yet children, or else
through the mediumship of a nakodo, or go-between, who must
be a friend of both families. In the former case, it is usually
with the desire of uniting the houses, and the engagement is
arranged by the parents while the contracting parties are only
infants ; or even — conditionally, of course — before the birth of
either child. The children thus engaged are brought up to re-
gard each other as affianced, although their relationship toward
each other is no more than playmate or friend, until the consum-
mation of the marriage.

When a youth chooses a wife for himself, and has settled upon

MORAL LIFE OF THE JAPANESE.

335

his choice, he summons a mutual friend to act as nakodo. In
this case the engagement is usually of very short duration ; fre-
quently not more than a few days or weeks. The nakodo arranges

everything — the dower, the wedding itself, and the subsequent
entertainment. The engaged couple may see each other, but
never alone. Their previous acquaintance may have been a long
one, and the young people themselves may have come to a
mutual understanding ; but to all intents and purposes the groom
elect, prior to the betrothal, has merely been a friend of the
family in general. The Occidental custom, or rather usage, which

MORAL LIFE OF THE JAPANESE. 337

permits the daughters of the home to entertain their male guests
alone, would be regarded as unpardonable in Japan.

As I have said, the engagement is either the matter of a life-
time or else of a few days or weeks. The date of the wedding
having been fixed upon, and finally arriving, the first step is taken
by the ceremonious removal of the bride's effects to the home of
the groom elect. Apart from a nominal civic marriage, which
practically only consists in registration, the ceremony is purely
of a domestic nature.

The wedding invariably takes place in the groom's house.
The bride elect is escorted to her future home by her parents, and
is received by a young girl, who acts as the machi-joro, " waiting
lady/' by whom she is conducted to the dressing-room. In the
mean time the parents of both parties have assembled in the
guests' chamber, with a few intimate friends and the inevitable
nakodo. Before the tokonoma, or alcove, is a lacquered table, in
the center of which is a miniature pine tree — the symbol of good
fortune and prosperity ; and beneath the tree are two miniature
figures of an old man and woman, each with a broom — symbols
of household thrift and long life ; while at the root of the tree is
an ancient turtle of bronze, also symbolic of longevity and good
fortune. This odd ornament is known as the takasago, and is
always placed between the bride and groom during the ceremony.
There are also in readiness the me-o-chocho (male and female
butterflies), a boy and a girl of about eight years old, who wait
upon the bridal couple and take the place of our " best man " and
" maid of honor." The nakodo is also present with a nest of three
sake cups of different sizes, and a supply of hot sake, a rice spirit.
The bride and groom having taken their places on either side of
the takasago, the ceremony proper, or san-san-ku-do} or " three
times three toasts," is next performed. The nakodo takes one of
the cups and passes it to the groom. It is then filled with sake
by the " best man," and then the groom drinks and returns the
cup to the nakodo, who passes it to the bride. It is now filled by
the " maid of honor " and emptied by the bride, and again re-
turned via the nakodo to the groom, and again emptied. This
same form is gone through with the two remaining cups, after
which the couple are regarded as man and wife. Then the na-
^do, or parent of the bride, chants the takasago, or nuptial ode,
as follows :

"Takasagoya, kono ura bune ni,

Ho-o-aget6 tsuki morotomo ni, ideshi-o no,

Narai no awaji no shima kageya,

To-oku naruo-no oki sugite,

Haya suminoye ni

Tsuki ni ken."
vw . XLIU. — 23

338 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

I will not attempt to render this in verse ; approximately it
may be Englished as follows :

Takasago, ye married ones, have sailed now

From the bay of lone estate,
The moon of love has risen with the tide of joy
And casts its silver beams upon the waters of your lives.
The shadow of Awaji's Island steals across the rippling bay,
And now the waters are all enshadowed, e'en to Saminoy6 —
Let peace and joy remain, for ye are one!

I have endeavored to ingraft the hidden meaning, or imi, into
the above. Literally the ode would signify but little to us. The
chant being finished, the few friends and relatives now offer their
congratulations. In the evening there are a general reception
and congratulations and good wishes all around. Among the
merchant classes it is customary for the nakodo to take the bride
around among her new neighbors the day after the wedding. The
costume of both bride and groom at the wedding is ordinary
" full dress," of a somber hue, but it must bear the family crest.
Naturally, the details of marriage etiquette differ somewhat ac-
cording to the social standing of the contracting parties, but the
wedding itself always remains the same.

An interesting description of a sumptuous marriage and feast
is contained in the following story, which also goes to show that
the Japanese fox — that wary beast — also takes a keen interest in
weddings :

THE REVENGE OF THE FOX.*

About fifty years ago, when the Shogun Tokugawa was at the
head of the feudal chiefs, there was a prince in the province of
Mikawa, whose prime minister was a man of great renown for
his wisdom. This minister had lost his wife in the early years of
wedlock, after the birth of a little daughter. The child grew to
maidenhood, and often wandered far into the woods that sur-
rounded the grounds adjoining the homestead, searching for wild
flower's. The thousand sweet odors and the graceful blossoming
plants filled her with intense enjoyment. One day she strolled
deeper into the odorous shade of the thick forest than was her
custom, and discovered a large hole, which she knew was the den
of a fox. With childlike whim and thoughtlessness she began to
throw little stones into the opening ; but when the shadows of the
great trees grew longer and longer, she suddenly remembered
that the hour was late, and with a flutter of the heart hastened
homeward to her father.

* Originally translated into German by F. Wanington Eastlake, Ph. D., and read before
the Gesellschaft fiir Volkerkunde in Ost-Asien.

MORAL LIFE OF THE JAPANESE.

339

Full twelve months passed without any noteworthy occur-
rence. The minister's daughter grew more subtly beautiful day
by day, and many noble lovers sought to win her favor. But the

BHONZE BELL IN UYENO PARK, TOKYO.
About the bell are hung the straw sandals of devout pilgrims.

maiden's heart was not unlocked ; her eyelids closed upon dream-
less slumbers, anther gentle soul knew no dawning thought of love.
Then one morning came, when a gold-bedecked rider with a
dazzling retinue drew up before the door of the mansion, and a

34o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

servant with low prostrations made known that the son of the
prime minister of a neighboring prince had arrived. So soon as
the handsome youth had dismounted, he was ceremoniously wel-
comed, and the cause of his visit inquired into. He answered
that the fame of the young girl's beauty had reached his province,
and he had hastened hither to ask for her hand in marriage.
Greatly overjoyed, the proud father at once gave his consent, and
ordered the attendants to summon his daughter ; but the young
knight interposed, saying that he must return without delay, and
wished his bride to accompany him. With courteous mien he
added that all necessary arrangements could be equally well
carried out upon arriving at his father's house — such as the
dower, wedding gifts, and everything relating to the marriage
ceremony. No pomp or pageant would lack in fit magnificence
by being postponed a little later, and the bride should be heralded
by flowers, torches, and the marriage song ; but their immediate
departure was inevitable.

For a moment the lordly father was silent and embarrassed
by doubts ; but fearing that he might lose so brilliant a fortune
for his only child, he gave his full consent. Within an hour
the blushing girl, in bridal robes and splendid draperies, came
through the outspread inner doors, and stood in all the " alarm
of beauty and troubled pride," ready for the journey. Her wait-
ing maids and servants, who were to accompany her, clustered
around her, wondering whence sprang all this blaze of wealth in
so short a space of time.

In a moment the kago (palanquin) for the bride was brought
forth, and before she and her maids could realize the fact, the
kagp, the horsemen, and the courtly suite were in motion. This
time the palanquins of the bride and retinue of women took the
precedence and headed the rest, as with joyous music, and heralded
by the blare of trumpets and roll of drums, the procession left the
minister's door. It seemed not long before the bridal cavalcade
drew up before a palatial building. The young groom sprang
from his saddle, and, hastening to the kago of his bride, softly
announced that this was his dwelling, and requested her to step
out and enter the guest-chamber. She did so, while shadowy
servitors bowed low within the halls as they entered. The bride
said nothing, but opened her soft eyes half in fright, and then
with wonder and admiration, at the beauty of the palace. Stately
halls opened into still statelier chambers. Such unrivaled mag-
nificence!— carved cedar, gold lacquer, and vessels of solid gold.
In one fairy room, a mimic glade and shady forest with branching
stems interlaced, recalled to her the woodland walks at home,
while the very air seemed laden with the sweet odor of blossoms
and wild flowers she used to gather.

342

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Upon reaching the largest room a regal feast was spread.
Here, too, small woodland intricacies and miniature trees were in
each nook and niche. The rich luster of the banquet-room, so
filled with perfume and brilliancy, with mirrors on the walls,
making twin pictures of all this loveliness, utterly bewildered the
young bride. Then the groom reassuringly pressed her hand and
told her that this feast had been prepared for her and her at-
tendants. Happiness stole over her, and her rosy cheeks seemed
to absorb the delight of her lover as he gazed upon her. Joy and
gladness pervaded the guests, and the youthful bride tasted with
delight the dainty dishes set before her.

Then, suddenly, a war cry resounded through the halls, and
clearly could be heard the neighing of excited steeds and the

THE TOMB OF OGURIHANGUAN. A typical Japanese grave. The body is buried in a square
casket, and is placed in a crouching position.

clash of drawn swords. The bride sprang up in terror, and her
trembling maidens surrounded her as they beheld a full-armed
knight, with threatening aspect, ride toward her. She turned
quickly to her bridegrom for protection — but where was he ?
She shrieked, but nothing but the shriek and its echo were heard.
Where was the gorgeous palace with all its new-born delights ?
All had vanished. The stately music and the soft- voiced lutes
had ceased. A deadly silence, that seemed like a horrid presence,
was all that remained. Bridegroom and friends, paintings and

MORAL LIFE OF THE JAPANESE. 343

carvings, vases and embroideries, palace and court were all gone.
All was blighted. She and her maidens were standing in the
middle of a shady recess in the woods ; before her gaped only the
dark opening of a fox's hole; and around them, instead of the
splendors of the feast table, were refuse, offal, and all manner of
offensive things. At this moment a horse and rider galloped up
hurriedly beside them, and told the weeping maiden that he was
the real son of the neighboring prime minister. He had heard
that a deceiver had made use of his name, and had carried off the
lovely daughter of the minister of Mikawa. He had come to find
the wretch and avenge the dishonor, but had met no one but this
little group of weeping girls in the wood.

Good counsel was dearly purchased. Heart-struck, the young
bride, with weak hand, motioned him to be silent, for she knew
now that she had been enchanted by the cruel fox, and that all
that had occurred was a wizard's revenge. Sad and ashamed,
with one beseeching glance, she turned away ; and with her maids
and servants entered her father's house again, and recounted all
that had befallen her with browbeaten air, her fair form trem-
bling with apprehension.

The minister was shocked and overcome with emotion, but
carefully commanded that the affair should be kept a profound
secret ; as it was considered an entailed disgrace when a samurai,
or high noble, or his children, allowed themselves to be bewitched
by a fox.

Despite all warnings and every precaution on the part of his
minister and his retainers, the rumor of the disgraceful enchant-
ment reached the ears of the prince. He was terribly angry.
" Surely, it must be a weak-minded fool/' thought he, " who could
so easily fall a victim to the intrigues of a fox," and he at once
determined to banish the minister and his family from his king-
dom. The honorable minister w*aited upon his princely master,
and entreated a milder punishment, but without any success ;
leave he must with his daughter and servants. He journeyed to a
distant province and died soon after, heartbroken by the dis-
grace. His daughter never married. It is true, her hand was
sought by other men of rank, but she had had more than enough
experience with her first bridegroom, and refused all others.

This was the revenge of the fox !

The system of legalized concubinage, still existing in Japan,
is far from being akin to polygamy in a social sense. In taking
up this question, I am forcibly reminded of Pierre Loti's " Madame
Chrysantheme." This story, while in many respects faulty in its
portrayal of Japanese life, and at best revealing a rather degrad-
ing and unfortunate view, by no means typical except in seaport

344

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

towns where the foreign element is strong, nevertheless serves to
reflect with considerable truth the attitude of so many — so very
many — foreigners toward the women of Japan.

In Japanese households the concubine or mekake occupies a
position similar to that of a servant, so far as her rights are con-
cerned. The wife is always the mistress of the house, and looks
upon her husband's mekake in the light of a maid. Should the
concubine become a mother, she has no claim upon the child, who
belongs to her master and mistress, and who is taught to regard
them only as his natural parents. Indeed, most frequently a

THE GKBA.T TEMPLE GATE OF YENGAKUJI.

mekake is employed in a family for the sole purpose of securing
an heir ; and no sooner has the child been born and weaned, than
the concubine is discharged.

The mekake has no prerogatives above the other servants of
the house, and is subject to immediate dismissal whenever the
master of the house desires it. No pseudo-marriage, such as sug-
gested by Pierre Loti, ever exists between the master of the house
and the mekake. She is simply a convenience, and has been se-
cured from some employment bureau, just as any other servant,
and receives regular wages.

MORAL LIFE OF THE JAPANESE. 345

Concubines are rarely, if ever, employed by unmarried men—
at least among the Japanese ; I do not refer to the foreign element

it being regarded as a grave breach of social laws. Where the

mekakes mostly find a place is in the home of a long-married or
childless couple. How does the wife tolerate the presence of the
concubine ? In the majority of cases, very well ; for but few Jap-
anese wives expect absolute loyalty on the part of their husbands.

THE DAI Bursu AT KAMAKURA. This is the second largest figure of Buddha in Japan. It
was formerly inclosed in a temple, but the latter was destroyed by an earthquake sev-
eral centuries ago.

Although, as a rule, the husband remains true to his wife, he nev-
ertheless is not bound to do so by any legal or moral obligation.

There have been several efforts made by reformers to discoun-
tenance the system of concubinage, and to make it illegal. But
it would be decidedly a case of " people in glass houses," should
the present Emperor of Japan enforce any such law, or allow it to
be enacted. For not only is the Emperor himself the child of a
mekake, but so is also the present heir apparent to the throne,

346 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

both the Empress Dowager and the present Empress being child-
less. Then, besides this, the Emperor's household includes sev-
eral mekakes chosen from noble families.

Regarding divorces, up to the present time the husband has
always had the privilege of divorcing his wife at will, and send-
ing her back to her parents' home for apparently trivial reasons.
But, as easy as it is to sever the nuptial bonds, this privilege is
rarely taken advantage of, except in extreme cases, for divorces
are looked upon with anything but tolerance by the Japanese.
On the other hand, the only thing which warrants a wife in leav-
ing her husband is cruel treatment, in which case she may return
to her father's house, and the marriage may be annulled.

There are two other classes of Japanese women that I would
make mention of : geisha, or professional entertainers, and joro,
or prostitutes. The geisha is a time-honored institution, and may
be seen at almost any public dinner or entertainment. They are
professional musicians, dancers, and entertainers in general, and
are licensed as such. Frequently the geisha will take out a pros-
titute's license as well. From this it will be understood that
what has been said concerning the reserved nature of social and
domestic relationships in Japanese society is entirely absent with
geisha. The women of the Japanese household rarely if ever
take part in the public social life of their husbands, and there-
fore all social or official dinners among men are held at some
restaurant or tea-house, and geishas employed to furnish music
and entertainment. They frequently are accompanied by two or
three dancers (oshakku), girls between twelve and fifteen years of
age, who dance while the geishas furnish music and song. The
moral instincts of the geisha are crude, to say the least, and many
progressive Japanese look eagerly forward to the day when the
geisha will not be an inevitable feature of entertainments.

Prostitution is under strict government control and supervis-
ion, and all houses of ill fame relegated to certain portions of the
town known as the yoshiwara. A prostitute's license is only for
three years, for which period of time she sells herself to the keeper
of one of these houses for a lump sum. • Not infrequently among
the poorer families, one of the daughters of the home is thus
practically sold to a life of dishonor by her parents, in order to
keep the wolf from the door. I know of many sad cases of this
kind; and while this heartless procedure is legal, yet it is re-
garded with equal repugnance and abhorrence by the Japanese
public as it would be with us, and is as loudly condemned. After
the three years' service is over, the daughter may again return to
the parental roof.

Regarding the moral life of women of the poorer classes, it is
in the main similar to that of the higher. The maids employed

348 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

by the second-rate hotels and tea-houses bother themselves but
little about any moral obligation ; but, 011 the whole, the immo-
rality laid at the door of Japanese women is unjust and mislead-
ing.

Regarding the religious life of women as affecting the ethics
of the country, little remains to be said. The enamored maiden
may write the name of her lover and herself on two strips of pa-
per, and, twisting them together, tie the spell to the lattice work
of the temple of Kwannon, the goddess of love, trusting that her
offering and prayers may be of avail, and unite their lives and
hearts.

Religion enters mostly into the lives of the Japanese people
when the sands of life are nearly run out. It is then that the
people, and more especially the old women, turn to Buddhism or
Shintoism with great avidity, and if wealthy will make lavish
gifts to the temples, or cause votive stone lanterns to be erected
at their expense along the approach to the temples, and will
readily yield themselves to the commands of the astute priests, so
that they may be assured of future peace and happiness. The
Buddhist faith undoubtedly offers the greatest inducements to
believers and condemnation to heretics. The Shinto faith, which
is the present court religion, is practically a hero worship, and the
Shinto priests are not celibates. Some of the more popular saints
or deities have been adopted by both creeds — as a matter of policy
— notably the " Seven Wise Ones," Sichi Fuku Jin, among whom
are Daikoku and Ebisu, the household Lares and Penates. In
the Shinto temples there are no idols, but relics of the deified hero
are preserved ; and before the shrine stands a huge mirror of pol-
ished metal, into which the worshiper gazes, seeking to place
himself face to face with his own soul. In the Buddhist temples
there are idols and superstitions galore.

Such are briefly the most salient features of the ethics of the
Japanese, in the account of which I have unavoidably been com-
pelled to omit much that is interesting and novel. As I have said,
on the whole the Japanese people have been done a great injustice
to, when a lack of moral instinct has been charged to them. In
no other country, and surely in no other language, has love found
an apter exponent. Filial piety, connubial affection, parental ten-
derness, fraternal fondness — all these have been sung about in
Japanese poetry in a thousand dainty ways, and may be daily
witnessed in the lives of the people, and above all this is that
ardent spirit of patriotism and love for home that so preserves
the unity of the Japanese people ; and should we seek for the key-
note of the wondrous ancient heroism and present rapid advance
of the country we will surely find it in the words MiJcune no tame,
" For my country's sake."

EDUCATION AND SELECTION. 349

EDUCATION AND SELECTION.

BY M. ALFRED FOUILLKK.

MOST of the controversies which are rife in reference to the
vital question of education appear to have originated in
failure to rise to a sufficiently general point of view of the subject
—to a national, international or perhaps an ethnic view. M. M.
Guyau, who, in his Education et I'Heredite, has discussed prob-
lems relative to morals, religion, aesthetics, and education, from
the sociological point of view, has put the question into a really
scientific form : Given the hereditary merits and faults of a race,
to what extent can we by education modify the existing heritage
to the advantage of a new heritage ? For nothing less is involved ;
we have not only individuals to instruct, but a race to preserve and
increase. Education, therefore, must rest on the physiological and
moral laws of the cultivation of races. We do not overlook this
in breeding useful animals, but in dealing with human beings we
forget it — as if the education of men was concerned only with in-
dividuals.

The ethnic point of view is the correct one. We need, by edu-
cation, to create hereditary qualities physically and intellectually
useful to the race; besides cerebral and physiological heredity,
we should assure such social hereditary forms as traditions, cus-
toms, social conscience, and public opinion. Society is, in fact,
an organism endowed with a certain collective consciousness, al-
though it is not concentrated in a self. We should, therefore,
regard as a form of heredity and organic identity through ages,
everything that maintains among a people continuity of charac-
ter, spirit, habits, and aptitudes ; in short, a national conscious-
ness and a national will.

It being admitted that the ultimate aim of education is to in-
sure the development of the race, the question arises as to the best
means of insuring it. There is one which we desire to set promi-
nently in the light— selection. The history of mankind shows us
the struggles of races, nationalities, and individuals — not for life
only, but for the progress of life under all its forms, including in-
tellectual, sesthetic, and moral life. In our talk about the struggle
for existence we forget the metamorphosis which selection under-
goes in passing from the domain of brutal into that of intellec-
tual and moral forces. We have, therefore, to reach a comprehen-
sion of the analogies and the differences between natural and
social selection. As a first step toward this, we should ask to
what extent ideas rule the world, and how a selection of ideas is
first induced in the brain by education. We might call this psy-
chological selection. The power of instruction and education,

350 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

which some exaggerate and others deny, is simply the force of
ideas and feelings. We can not bring too much scientific exact-
ness to the determination of the extent and limitations of this
force. We start from the principle that every idea tends to real-
ize itself; and it does so in fact, if it is not counterbalanced by a
superior force. The principle of the struggle for existence and of
selection is applicable, therefore, to ideas not less than to living
individuals and species. A selection is produced in the brain in
favor of the strongest and most exclusive idea, which carries the
whole organism. The child's brain is a battlefield of ideas and
the impulses they generate ; every new idea is an additional force
encountering ideas already installed and impulses already devel-
oped. Education is, then, a work of intellectual selection. Let us
suppose a mind still void, into which is abruptly introduced the
representation of movement, the idea of some action, as of raising
the arm. The idea being solitary and without any counterpoise,
the disturbance begun in the brain takes the direction of the arm,
because the nerves abutting in the arm have been disturbed by
the representation of it; consequently the arm rises. To think
of a movement is to begin it. A movement once existing can not
be lost, but is communicated as of necessity from the brain to the
organs — unless it is arrested by some other representation or im-
pulsion. This propagation of motion is assured physiologically
by the symmetry of the limbs, which tend to execute the same
movement in succession. The brain provides the theme and the
limbs reproduce it, and we have sympathy and synergy of the
organs. The contagion of the idea to the limbs is infallible if the
idea is solitary or predominant. We call this the law of idea-
forces.

Chevreul's well-known experiments with the exploratory
pendulum and the divining rod show that, if we represent to our-
selves a motion in any direction, the hand will unconsciously
realize it and communicate it to the pendulum. The tipping table
realizes a movement we are anticipating, through the interven-
tion of a real movement of the hands, of which we are not con-
scious. Mind-reading, by those who divine by taking your hand
where you have hidden anything, is a reading of imperceptible
motions by which your thought is translated without your being
conscious of them. In cases of fascination and vertigo, which are
more visible among children than among adults, a movement is
begun the suspension of which is prevented by a paralysis of the
will, and it carries us on to suffering and death. When a child, I
was navigating a plank on the river without a thought that I
might fall. All at once the idea came like a diverging force, pro-
jecting itself across the rectilinear thought which had alone
previously directed my action. It was as if an invisible arm

EDUCATION AND SELECTION. 351

seized me and drew me down. I cried out, and continued stagger-
ing over the whirling waters, till help came to me. The mere
thought of vertigo provoked it. The board lying on the ground
suggests no thought of a fall when you walk over it ; but when it
is over a precipice and the eye takes the measure of the distance
to the bottom, the representation of a falling motion becomes in-
tense, and the impulse to fall correspondingly so. Even if you
are safe, there may still be what is called the attraction of the
abyss. The vision of the gulf as a fixed idea, having produced an
" inhibition " on all your ideas and forces, nothing is left but the
figure of the great hole, with the intoxication of the rapid move-
ment that begins in your brain and tends to turn the scales of the
mental balance. Temptation, which is continual in children be-
cause everything is new to them, is nothing else than the force of
an idea and the motive impulse that accompanies it.

The force of an idea is greater as the thought is more distinctly
selected than others in the consciousness. This selection of an
idea that becomes so exclusive that the whole consciousness is
absorbed in it has been called monideism. The state is like that
of a hypnotized person. The hypnotizer creates an intellectual
void in the brain by inducing artificial sleep, and suggests a
thought which, being alone and unhampered, is at once realized
in movements ; and hypnotic suggestion is nothing else than this
artificial selection of a single idea to the exclusion of others. The
same force of the idea prevails in natural somnambulism. The
somnambulist no sooner thinks of anything than he performs it,
with his hands and feet as well as with his brain. The movement
of the overexcited brain is so lively and the resistance offered by
the sleeping organs is so weak that the impulse is communicated
to the limbs by the mere fact that it has been conceived. The
kind of dream in which children sometimes live is not without
some analogy with somnambulism. The fixed idea is another ex-
ample of the same phenomenon which is produced in the waking
state, and increasing may go on to monomania — a kind of un-
healthy monideism. Children, having few thoughts, would be
likely to have fixed ones, except for the mobility which perpetual
novelty causes in them. In this way all the facts may be ex-
plained that are grouped under the name of auto-suggestion.
Generalizing the law, we might say that every conceived idea is
an auto-suggestion, the suggestive effect of which is counterbal-
anced only by other ideas producing a different auto-suggestion.
This fact is especially exemplified in children, who execute very
quickly what passes in their heads.

The force of example is likewise brought back to the commu-
nicative and selective force of all representation. In the same
manner is explained the form of suggestion in which the idea

352 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

suggesting the act occurs not to one's self, but is introduced by
another. In this line M. Guyau has pointed out a possible appli-
cation of suggestion in moral therapeutics " as a corrective of ab-
normal instincts or as a stimulant of too weak normal instincts."
He looks upon suggestion as an instinct in the nascent state cre-
ated by the hypnotizer. Many and important results have been
realized from suggestion since his remark was made. Of course,
M. Guyau does not advise, but expressly condemns the introduc-
tion of hypnotism into normal education. He cites these patho-
logical facts in order to deduce from them consequences relative
to the normal condition. He considers hypnotic suggestion as
simply the unhealthy and grossly artificial exaggeration of sug-
gestive phenomena which are produced in a state of perfect
health. Normal suggestion, which alone should find a place in
education, is psychological, moral, and social ; it consists in the
transmission of ideas or impulsive feelings from one person to an-
other, and in the possibility of fixing them. While in the normal
condition we are not under the power of a determined magnetizer,
it does not follow that we are not " accessible to an infinity of lit-
tle suggestions ; now acting contrary to one another, now acting
cumulatively and producing a very sensible average effect/'
Children in particular are open to all the suggestions of the me-
dium. The state of an infant on coming into the world is com-
pared by M. Guyau to that of a hypnotized person. There is the
same absence of thoughts of its own or the same predominance of
a single thought. " Everything that the infant will hear or see
will therefore be a suggestion. This suggestion may be the foun-
dation of a habit which may be developing during the child's
whole life, as impressions of terror inculcated in children by
nurses often do." If the introduction of new feelings is possible
by a wholly physiological means, it should be equally possible by
psychological and moral means.

Suggestion, which creates artificial instincts capable of balanc-
ing hereditary instincts, constitutes a new power comparable with
heredity. Education, says M. Guyau, being a collection of co-or-
dinated and reasoned suggestions, we can understand the impor-
tance, the efficiency which it may acquire in both a psychological
and a physiological respect. In our own view, suggestion is only
a particular instance of the more fundamental law of idea-forces
which rules in all pedagogic science.

Ideas have been sometimes despised and treated as having
hardly any influence on the conduct. The philosophers of the
eighteenth century, with Descartes and Pascal, on the contrary,
regarded the feelings and passions as confused thoughts, as " pre-
cipitations " of thoughts. There is truth in this. Under all our
feelings there is a collection of imperfectly analyzed ideas, a flood

EDUCATION AND SELECTION. 353

of hasty and confused reasons, on the mass of which we are lifted
up and borne off. On the other hand, there are feelings under all
our ideas which breed even under the cooling cinders of abstrac-
tions. The mind itself has a force, because it arouses all the
feelings which it summarizes. Thus the simple words " honor "
and " duty " resound through our consciousness in infinite echoes,
giving rise to legions of images.

We talk of dead formulas, but they are few. The idea and the
word are formulas of possible actions and of feelings ready to pass
into acts ; they are " verbs." Every feeling, every impulse that
comes to the point of formulating itself into a kind of fiat, ac-
quires by that fact a new and in some sort creative force. It
finds itself cleared up, defined, specified, and squared with the rest,
and thus directed. It is this that renders formulas relating to
actions powerful for good or evil. A child has a vague tempta-
tion, an inclination he can not account for. Pronounce the for-
mula to him, change the blind impulse into a clear idea, and you
give him a new suggestion, which will, perhaps, cause him to fall
on the side to which he is inclining. On the other hand, there are
formulas and generous suggestions that need only to be pro-
nounced to carry entire masses. It sometimes falls to the man of
genius to translate the aspirations of his epoch into ideas; he
pronounces the word and a whole people follow. Great moral,
religious, and social revolutions occur when feelings, long re-
strained or hardly recognized, come to be formulated into ideas or
words. The way is then opened, the object is revealed with the
means, selection takes place, and all the desires are turned at once
in the same direction, like a torrent that finds a point where pas-
sage is possible.

Conduct depends, therefore, to a large extent on the circle of
the ideas which one has received under the influence of experi-
ence, social relations, and aesthetic and intellectual cultivation.
Every man possesses at the bottom a collection of general notions
and maxims which becomes the source of his resolutions and
actions, because the aggregate is fused into a sentiment and a
habit. The tendency to translate everything into maxims is
manifested even in children, because the maxim is a generaliza-
tion that satisfies the thought. If, then, the circle of ideas proves
incomplete at any important point, if false notions or immoral
maxims insinuate themselves, we are condemned to incurable
weakness or to vice, like a nation whose code contains bad funda-
mental laws.

The mental faculties, like the physical faculties, develop in the
individual into a relation of reciprocal action ; but mental activity
is more dependent than the other. If you have false ideas on a
point of fact or reasoning, it is possible for me in a little while to

VOL. XLIII. — 24

354 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

enable you to put your finger on your error, or by a demonstration
to convince you of it. But it will take months or years to modify
a feeling, an inclination, or a habit. Intelligence is, therefore,
more flexible, more movable, more progressive, than the rest of
our constitution, and for that reason we can act upon it with more
facility. Put over the eye of a near-sighted man glasses that will
make things visible to him, and he will be obliged to agree that he
sees them ; show an ignorant man a drop of water in the micro-
scopic field, and he will have to recognize that it is inhabited.
Intelligence is to the other faculties of our mind what the eyes are
to the organs of our body — a touch at a distance. Hence intellec-
tual activity has a superior power to direct and transform the
other kinds of activity. As it discovers new sides in things, it
thereby produces a double effect. It excites new feelings and
opens new ways to action. Every new idea tends thus to become
a sentiment and an impulse, and consequently an idea-force. The
intelligence is the great instrument of voluntary selection. It is a
shortening means of evolution ; it accelerates and accomplishes in a
few years selections that might otherwise have required centuries.

If, instead of the individual, we regard the social organism, we
shall find that here, too, the diverse activities and the diverse
products of civilization are conditioned upon one another, while
the products of intelligence and knowledge stimulate or direct all
the social functions. Religious, moral, sesthetic, political, and
economical creations are determined by the progress made by
mankind, whether in the real knowledge of things or in the dis-
covery of new ideals. Instruction is a motor of prime importance
in the social mechanism ; but on condition that it is brought to
bear on truly directive and selective ideas, on those which, by
their intimate relation with feeling and will, conspicuously merit
the name of idea-forces.

There is, therefore, a medium between prepossessions for and
against education. If education does not manifest all the power
of which it is capable, it is because it is rarely directed toward its
true end and by means adapted to that end. From this results a
loss of living forces by the mutual neutralization and disorder of
ideas. We sow ideas, as it were, at haphazard in the mind. They
germinate in like manner according to the chances of circum-
stances, of internal predispositions and of the external medium.
This is fortuitous selection, as in the domain of material forces.
It is not sufficient to instruct ; instruction itself must become an
education, a process of reflected and methodical selection between
ideas that tend to assume reality in acts. We say continually,
instruction ; other peoples say cultivation, and they are right. The
former word leads us to consider the material bearing of what is
acquired ; the latter the degree of fertility gained by the mind.

EDUCATION AND SELECTION. 355

Education should not be a simple acquisition of knowledge, but a
cultivation of living powers for the purpose of assuring the pref-
erence of the highest idea-forces.

After psychological selection, internal to the individual, we
have to consider social selection, which takes place between dif-
ferent individuals, or between races or peoples. There are, for any
race, physiological and psychological essential conditions of supe-
riority. The race must first of all be physiologically strong, and
here only are the ordinary laws of selection applicable, because we
are in the domain of life. The sound mind can not exist except in
the sound body ; all the delicacies of mind are not worth as much
to a race as health, vigor, and fertility. Even geniuses can not be
born except of a strong race ; the intellectual faculties can not be
kept up long and advance, except among a vigorous people, and
selection can not be efficient and produce the best by nature — a
necessary condition of all progress — except in a fruitful and nu-
merous and consequently strong race. Whenever, therefore, we
overwork the mind at the expense of the body, we lower the phys-
iological, and therefore the intellectual, level of the race ; for gen-
erations physiologically weakened will sooner or later suffer the
weakening, with their cerebral power, of their mental capacity.
The laws of heredity are fatal : to bequeath impoverished organs
to children is to prepare for what Pascal would call the stultifica-
tion of the race at a more or less distant epoch. In the struggle
and selection of peoples as recorded in history, when young and
perhaps barbarian blood has not been infused with the aged body
of a nation, it has fallen steadily, become sterilized, and disap-
peared or declined, while other peoples were ascending.

Instruction may, we think, lead to two kinds of results : either
in dynamic effects — that is, augmentation of cerebral force — or in
purely mechanical effects ; like scientific and literary routine. In
the former case, it acts upon heredity and can produce a hereditary
transmission of cerebral force ; in the second case, it does not act,
or it acts mischievously to the exhaustion of the nervous system.
It is intellectual force, not acquired knowledge, that is transmitted
by heredity from one generation to another. Hence the criterion
which we propose for estimating methods of education and teach-
ing ; if there is an augmentation of mental, moral, and aesthetic
force, the method is good ; if a simple storing up in the memory,
the method is bad, for the brain is not a storehouse to be filled,
but an organ to be fortified.

The physical and mental inconveniences of overwork may,
therefore, very properly occupy attention at this time. Good
scholars — those who wish to succeed in an examination or enter
certain schools — are the ones who are overworked under our pres-
ent systems ; for the majority of pupils there is no overwork, but

356 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

simply almost complete loss of time, years passed in wearing out
the benches of the school. Of all that is paraded before their
minds they retain nothing but a few vague and confused notions;
they attend, as idlers, the excursions of their successive professors
through all kinds of sciences, and what is overwork for the others
is for them only intellectual vagabondage. If all children were
overworked, the race would soon be lost. The idle, says M.
Guyau, save it physically. On the other hand, unfortunately,
they contribute to keep it in intellectual and moral mediocrity,
and to give a false direction to public affairs. The advantages of
their idleness might have been preserved without suffering its in-
conveniences if instead of requiring from all so much knowledge,
most of which is useless, we had required strictly necessary knowl-
edge and such moderate number of the finer branches as would
lift up the mind while interesting it. In this way we could sup-
press a large number of the idlers without falling into overwork
and without depreciating the race under pretense of elevating it.
We need not concern ourselves about the number of things a child
knows, but about the way he knows and has learned them, and
about the general vigor he derives from his exercises, which alone
gives a net profit to the species. How does the earth recreate it-
self ? In the sun, the air, and the rain, by the free action of forces
which work upon it incessantly. Quiet on the surface, it works
and buds beneath. So with the mind. We should at certain times
let Nature act, and not interrupt the unconscious and spontaneous
work of organization that is going on in the depth of the brain,
as we let the force which is germinating grass and oaks work in
the depth of the soil, in solitude.— Translated for The Popular
Science Monthly from the Eevue des Deux Mondes.

PEOF. W. FLINDERS PETEIE is quoted as having said that the Egypt of the
early monuments was a mere strip a few miles wide of green, amid boundless
deserts, and beneath a sky of the greatest brilliancy ; a land of extreme contrasts
of light and shadow, of life and death. These conditions were reflected in the
art. On the one hand was the most massive and overwhelming construction,
and on the other, the most delicate and detailed reliefs; on the one hand, the
most sublime and solid statuary ; on the other, the course and accidents of daily
life freely treated ; on the one hand, masses of smooth buildings that far outdo
the native hills on which they stand, gaunt and bare; and on the other, the
vivid and rich coloring in the interiors. In consequence of the climate also Egypt
is a land of great simplicity of life, and simplicity is the characteristic of the oldest
Egyptian buildings.

FROM the ages of persons who have died in France during the last thirty-two
years, M. Turquan computes that the average length of life in that country has
been about thirty-eight years for women, thirty-six years for men, and thirty-
seven years for the whole. This is now exceeded, and the average has risen to
more than forty years.

EVIL SPIRITS. 357

EVIL SPIRITS.

BY J. H. LONG.

OF all the dark chapters in the history of the world none is
more terrible than that which deals with sorcery and demo-
niacal possession. To-day this belief has almost entirely disap-
peared in civilized lands : it lingers only in some remote hamlet
in "lucky and unlucky days," good and bad signs, and similar
harmless idiosyncrasies; although most grown persons can re-
member that in their childhood certain uncanny individuals were
regarded as "witches," just as certain houses were said to be
" haunted." But, after all, the belief was only vague and nebu-
lous ; while now among even the children ghosts and fairies and
witches are regarded with profound skepticism. It is extremely
difficult, then, for us to grasp the idea that " for fifteen hundred
years it was universally believed that the Bible established in the
clearest manner the reality of witchcraft, and that an amount of
evidence so varied and so ample as to preclude every possibility
of doubt attested its continuance and prevalence. The clergy de-
nounced it with all the emphasis of authority. The legislators of
almost every land enacted laws for its punishment. Acute judges,
whose lives were spent in sifting evidence, investigated the ques-
tion on countless occasions, and (as a result) condemned the ac-
cused. Nations that were completely separated by position, by
interest, by character, were united on this question." More than
this. In the city of Treves alone seven thousand witches were
burned. At Toulouse, the seat of the Inquisition, four hundred
persons perished in one single execution. Re'my, the judge of
Nancy, in France, boasted that he had put to death eight hun-
dred witches. In the little Italian district of Como one thousand
perished in one year. The Judge Voss of Fulda burned seven
hundred, and said that he hoped to make it one thousand. Bene-
dict Karpzow boasted .that he had signed twenty thousand death-
warrants for witchcraft. In Sweden in 1690 seventy persons were
condemned, and most of them burned. In Great Britain, chiefly
in Scotland, in twenty years alone between three and four thou-
sand were put to death. The executions in Paris in a few months
were, a contemporary writer says, " almost infinite." Indeed, not
to mention imprisonment and torture — torture beyond the wildest
flight of modern fancy — the number of persons who perished,
chiefly by fire, in Christian Europe and America has been cal-
culated as from one million to nine million. Probably four mill-
ion is a correct estimate. The annals of the world may be
searched through and through, and nothing can be found, I be-
lieve, to compare in tragic interest with the chapter on witch-

358 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

craft and sorcery. It seems a dreadful thing to say, but I believe
it is true : all the heathen persecutions of Christians put together
are nothing in comparison with the horrors of the crusade against
witches set on foot by members of the Christian Church and by
civil rulers in sympathy therewith.

Nor is any single church entirely exempt from this charge.
" The Roman Church proclaimed in every way in her power the
reality and the continued existence of the crime. She taught, by
all her organs, that to spare a witch was a direct insult to the
Almighty ; and to her ceaseless exertions is to be attributed by far
the greatest part of the blood that was shed." Bulls were issued
by Pope Innocent VIII, who commissioned the inquisitor Spren-
ger, whose book was long the standard authority on witchcraft,
and who (Sprenger) condemned to death hundreds every year.
Bulls were issued also by Pope John II, by Adrian VI, and by
many another occupant of the chair of St. Peter. " The universal
practice was at service to declare magicians and sorcerers to be ex-
communicated, and a form of exorcism was inserted in the ritual
of the church. . . . Ecclesiastical tribunals condemned thousands
to death ; and countless bishops exerted all their influence to mul-
tiply the victims." The same was the case — although not to so
great an extent — with the non-Roman churches. Luther said:
" I would have no compassion on these witches : I would burn
them all." In England the Reformation was marked by a large
increase in the number of persecutions; the prominent theolo-
gians, both within and without the established Church, holding
firmly to the belief in witchcraft. In Scotland persecution was
carried on with peculiar atrocity, while the executions in Puritan
Massachusetts form one of the darkest pages in the history of
America.

Now, the remarkable thing about witchcraft is that it was be-
lieved in not only by the ignorant, but also by the learned ; not
only by the clergy, but also by the laity. " The defenders of the
belief maintained that no historical fact was more clearly attest-
ed. ... The subject was examined in every European land by tri-
bunals which included the acutest lawyers and ecclesiastics of the
age, on the scene and at the time of the alleged acts, and with the
assistance of innumerable sworn witnesses. The judges had no mo-
tive whatever to desire the condemnation of the accused ; indeed,
they generally had the strongest motive to proceed with caution
and deliberation," in view of the awful penalties attached to con-
viction. Cudworth, one of the most learned theologians the An-
glican Church has ever produced ; Bacon, one of the acutest law-
yers and philosophers of the age ; Sir Matthew Hale, chief justice
toward the end of the seventeenth century — these are only three
from a host of names that might be cited of those who believed in

EVIL SPIRITS. 359

witchcraft. Sir Matthew Hale lays it down in one of his rulings
that it is an undoubted fact that there is such a thing as witch-
craft, and that witches ought to be punished. Even Shakespeare
shared in the general belief ; the witches in Macbeth were to him,
not poetic creations, stern realities.

The question is, then : How did this marvelous delusion arise ?
Three causes, I believe, produced it. 1. To quote Lecky, the his-
torian : " A religion that rests largely on terrorism will engender
the belief in witches or magic ; for the panic which its teachings
create overbalances the faculties of the multitude." This is true:
a cruel religion, as Christianity became when it began to rest
more and more on the basis of eternal punishment and the wrath
of God, will inevitably be haunted by the fear of evil spirits.
Therefore it is that the religion of Zoroaster and that of Brahma
have been free from the reproach of the persecution of witches
and sorcerers, 2. The support from the Bible. Now, there is no
doubt at all that the Bible does support the doctrine of evil spirits
and witchcraft. And this fact alone is sufficient to destroy the
orthodox theory of what Dr. Briggs calls " biblical inerrancy," or
freedom from error, for not one person out of one hundred now
believes in the reality of possession by evil spirits. There is, I
say, no doubt that the Bible does teach this doctrine. "Thou
shalt not suffer a witch to live," was the repeated command in
the Levitical law ; this command was the foundation stone upon
which the putting to death of witches rested. We all know the
story of the witch of Endor, as told in the twenty-eighth chapter
of the First Book of Samuel. Again, the devil afflicted Job in
various ways, one way being the sending of a tempest which de-
stroyed Job's sons. Great atmospheric disturbances were always
ascribed to Satanic agency, although a nice distinction prevailed :
when the destruction was great, it was ascribed directly to Satan ;
when small, to angels, the word angels being used in a double
sense, as messengers of evil and messengers of good. To come to
the New Testament. Philip baptizes Simon the sorcerer ; and
Saul of Tarsus finds in Paphos a certain sorcerer, a false phophet,
a Jew named Bar- Jesus.

Whatever view we may take of the Bible, one thing is certain,
it abounds with references to evil spirits, the Bible characters
believed implicitly in the existence of such spirits, and there is no
intimation given that the reign of such evil spirits should cease
to exist until the end of all things. We are expressly told, indeed,
that "when Christ had called unto him his disciples, he gave
them power against unclean spirits to cast them out"; and
again: "And these signs shall follow them that believe: in my
name shall they cast out devils."

The third cause of the growth of this delusion, and the most

360 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

important of all, was the belief that natural phenomena of a
hurtful type are the result of the action of evil spirits. As a
writer has said : " The phenomena which impress themselves most
firmly on the mind of the savage are not those which are mani-
festly the operation of natural laws and which are productive of
beneficial effects. They are, on the contrarj7, those results which
are disastrous and apparently abnormal. Gratitude is less vivid
than fear, and the smallest apparent infraction of a natural law
produces a deeper impression than the most sublime of its ordi-
nary operations. When, therefore, the more startling and terrible
aspects of Nature are presented to his mind, when the more deadly
forms of disease or natural convulsion desolate his land, the sav-
age derives from these .things an intensely realized perception of
diabolical presence. In the darkness of the night, amid the
yawning chasms and the wild echoes of the mountain gorge,
under the blaze of the comet or the solemn gloom of the eclipse,
when famine has blasted his land, when the earthquake and the
pestilence have slaughtered their thousands, in every form of dis-
ease which refracts and distorts the reason, in all that is strange,
portentous, and deadly, he feels and cowers before the supernatu-
ral. Completely exposed to all the influences of Nature, and com-
pletely ignorant of the chain of sequence that unites its various
parts, he lives in continual dread of what he deems the direct and
isolated acts of evil spirits/'

These three causes, then, combined to produce a belief in witch-
craft and Satanic possession.

Let us now trace its growth as far as Christianity is concerned.
But to understand this we must go back for a moment to the
classic nations among whom Christianity was planted. Magic
or sorcery prevailed among the Greeks and Romans, all sects
accepting its existence except one sect, that of the Epicureans. It
is true, occasional laws were enacted against its practice ; in some
instances magicians were condemned to death ; but the persecution
in general was only occasional and was not severe, as magic was
regarded as an offense not against God or the gods, but as against
the state or the individual. The magician was punished because
he injured man, not God. And punishments for injuries to men
have always been less severe than punishments for supposed in-
juries to God. This is the rule of history : punishments for reli-
gious offenses have been much greater than those for civil or
criminal offenses, the greatness of the crime being measured by the
greatness of the being injured. At times it was found that the
prognostications of the soothsayers from the flight of birds, the
positions of the stars, and other data, tended to produce conspira-
cies against the emperor ; and so punishments were inflicted and
repressive laws passed. But, in general, magic and soothsaying

EVIL SPIRITS. 361

were not regarded with disfavor, the augur, the haruspex, and the
keeper of the sibyl's books being considered as part of the regular
state life of Greece and Rome.

With the advent of Christianity, however, there came a great
change. In the matter which we are considering, as in many an-
other, old things had passed away and all things had become new.
Before very long after the death of Jesus the Christians were
filled with a sense of the awful presence — in fact, the omnipres-
ence— of Satan, which colored their every thought and act. This,
added to the idea of eternal punishment — a fate reserved for all
those about them who were not of the new faith — gave to the early
Christians an intensely realistic sense of evil and an eager readi-
ness to believe in agents of evil of a supernatural order. To their
minds the world about them, with its imperial government and
especially its non-Christian church ritual, was simply a great
object-lesson of Satan's unbridled sway. Everywhere they saw
the finger of Beelzebub, the prince of devils. These facts, or
rather supposed facts, together with various philosophical sys-
tems, such as the system of Plato and that of the Gnostics, made
the early Christians believe the earth, the sea, the very air, to be
full of evil spirits, the emissaries and agents of Satan. Some of
these were the spirits which had rebelled against God and had
been hurled "sheer o'er the crystal battlements of heaven."
Others were spirits which had gone hither and thither, deluding
man in the antediluvian world. Others were heathen deities —
Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and so on — all of whom, whether they were
of good or of evil report among the Greeks or Romans, were equal-
ly evil spirits to the Christians. The spirits who, by these Greeks
or Romans, were worshiped under the names of departed heroes —
heroes who had achieved so many acts of splendid and philan-
thropic heroism — these were to the Christians not the real spirits
of the dead, but merely devils who had answered the name and
assumed the honors of the dead. No relation of life was free from
this scourge of evil spirits; they even became the husbands or
wives of the Christians themselves. Like the locusts of Pharaoh
of old, they were over all the land. It is very hard for us now to
imagine what all this means — it seems so laughable, these trans-
formations and artifices and disguises to which the spirits resort-
ed to do their master's bidding ! But to these Christians of the
second and succeeding centuries it was all stern reality — a matter
of eternal life and death.

Now, what followed from all this ? Simply that no truce was
to be kept with, no mercy shown to, the sorcerer or magician ; he
it was who could send forth and summon back these spirits ; he
it was whom they must obey. He was worse, far worse, then,
than the evil spirits, for the latter only followed the instincts of

362 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

their nature, the former went outside the realm of his human na-
ture to blight by supernatural means the happiness of others and
to destroy the peace of the Church. He was therefore held in ex-
ecration— the enemy of God and man. And after a time — i. e., in
the fourth century — the Church obtained secular power, Chris-
tianity became the state religion. Then began those awful perse-
cutions that have left an indelible stain upon the Christian name.
Constantino, the first Christian emperor, had been reared a pagan.
He was inclined, therefore, to be lenient. But Constantius and his
successors enacted the severest laws. "All who attempted to fore-
tell the future were emphatically condemned. Magicians who
were captured in Rome were to be thrown to the wild beasts, and
those who were seized in the provinces to be put to excruciating
torments and at last crucified. If they persisted in denying their
crime, their flesh was to be torn from their bones with hooks of
iron. These fearful penalties were directed against rites which
had long been universal ; and which, if they were not regarded as
among the obligations, were at least among the highest privileges
of paganism." Of course, the sufferings produced by these laws
may have been exaggerated — the laws are plain, they are still pre-
served in the official Latin — and of course a large part of the bar-
barity is to be laid not to the Christian priests or to the better
classes of the Christians, but to fanatical mobs and cruel officers.
But still two things are plain : the Christians believed in magic
and witchcraft as the results of Satanic agency ; and, again, they
indulged in very severe persecution against suspected persons.
These laws, however, proved ineffective; they but showed two
things which the world has not quite learned even yet : First, that
the mere passing of a law does not change human nature ; and,
second, that a law that is not sustained very strongly by public
opinion is worse than useless. It was thus found impossible by
law to suppress the old pagan magic handed down from genera-
tion to generation among those who had not become Christians.
And so, by a very natural process, there grew up in the Church
a counter-system, a sort of rival, the talismans of which were
holy water, crucifixes, and other signs and symbols, which became
in the succeeding centuries the visible means wherewith the de-
signs of the evil spirits were thwarted.

Gradually paganism grew weaker, but it did not entirely dis-
appear. It merged itself into Christianity, a fact never to lose
sight of, for it explains so many apparent mysteries. Just as
the Roman Catholic Church to-day in various lands — e. g., in
Spanish America — has accepted old heathen customs and festivals,
and has changed them into Christian customs and festivals ; just
as, to take another group of examples, the Druidical May day and
Harvest Home, and the Oriental Christmas were adopted by the

EVIL SPIRITS. 363

Christian Church ; so at the time of which I am now speaking —
i. e., the sixth century after Christ — the Church adopted, under
somewhat changed aspects, many of the beliefs and customs of
paganism. The mantle of the ancient faith fell upon the shoul-
ders of the new Church.

In the sixth century the dark ages began, and lasted, roughly
speaking, until the beginning of the twelfth century. And dark
indeed they were. The old light of classic learning and letters
had died away ; the new light had not yet dawned. The world
was sunk in ignorance and superstition. Evil spirits and sorcery
held unquestioned sway. As a writer says : " There had never
been a time when the minds of men were more completely mold-
ed by supernatural conceptions, or when the sense of Satanic
power and presence was more profound and universal. Many
thousands of cases of possession, exorcism, miracles, and appa-
ritions of the evil one were recorded which were accepted with-
out the faintest doubt. There was scarcely a great saint who
had not on some occasion encountered a visible manifestation of
an evil spirit. Sometimes the devil appeared as a grotesque and
hideous animal ; sometimes as a black man ; sometimes as a beauti-
ful woman ; sometimes as a priest haranguing in the pulpit ; some-
times as an angel of light; sometimes actually in the form of
Christ. But the sign of the cross or a few drops of holy water, or
the name of Mary, could put him to an ignominious flight. The
Gospel of St. John around the neck, a rosary, a relic of Christ or
of a saint, any one of the thousand talismans distributed to the
faithful, sufficed to baffle the utmost efforts of diabolical malice."

In the twelfth century, however, a new idea appeared, that of
the witch proper. Up to this time the idea of a formal compact
with the evil one had not taken definite form ; but in the twelfth
century the conception of a witch, as we now conceive it — that is
to say, of a woman who had entered into a deliberate compact with
Satan, and who was endowed with the power of working miracles
whenever she pleased, and who was transported through the air to
pay her homage to the evil one — this idea first appeared. The panic
created by this belief advanced at first slowly, but after a time
with fearfully accelerated rapidity. Thousands of victims were
sometimes burned alive in a few years, and every country of Eu-
rope was stricken with the wildest panic. But this very twelfth
century has been called the turning point of the European intel-
lect. It began to awaken from its sleep of centuries; foreign
lands were visited by travelers ; Arabian learning began to per-
meate Europe ; and gradually the people became just a little skep-
tical. Men learned to doubt, but there was as yet no science, as
we understand that word ; there was no independent inquiry ;
men began to doubt — but to doubt was still a crime. The Church

364 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

saw the change ; and, as was her custom, proceeded to crush the
new movement, for rebellion against authority was, in her eyes,
the one unpardonable sin. The church teaching began to assume,
therefore, a more somber cast ; the people became more gloomy
and fanatical. This is clearly seen in art, which, before the in-
vention of printing, served as an index to the spirit of the age.
For example, up to the end of the tenth century Christ was always
represented in painting as having a peaceful, gentle face, and as
being engaged in works of mercy. The parable of the Good
Shepherd was the favorite subject for the artist. But in the elev-
enth century this began to change: the painters deal with the
death of Christ and with the last judgment. Moreover, Christ's
face becomes sterner and mournful. In the twelfth century the
change is complete : Christ appears stern and unyielding, like the
God of old, whom it repented that he had made man. In this age
and the succeeding ages occurred also a succession of physical,
social, and political events, all tending to heighten and deepen the
gloom which seemed to have settled upon men's minds. Chief
among these was that awful scourge, " the Black Death," in all
probability the greatest calamity that has ever visited the world,
by which in six years twenty-five millions of persons, or one quar-
ter the population of Europe, were swept away. Then began a
veritable reign of terrorism : men's minds were paralyzed with
dread, uncertain fear. They knew not whither to look; they
abandoned themselves to the anguish of despair. Then it was
that reappeared the Flagellants, scourging themselves and crying
aloud like the prophets of old. Then it was that there wandered
from land to land those bands of monks whose bodies were ever
bleeding with self-inflicted torture ; and then there loomed upon
the horizon of a startled world the dread figure of the Inquisition,
to whose autos da fe had been given the task of crushing out
heresy and witchcraft. The trials for witchcraft increased ten-
fold, and in the fifteenth and the sixteenth century the persecu-
tion reached its climax. And truly the aspect which Europe pre-
sented at that time was in many ways full of discouragement for
those who believed in the ultimate progress of humanity. As a
great writer has said : " The Church, which had been all in all to
Christendom, was heaving in what seemed the last throes of dis-
solution. The boundaries of religious thought were all obscured.
Conflicting tendencies and passions were raging with a tempestu-
ous violence, . . . and each of the opposing sects proclaimed its
distinctive doctrines essential to salvation. Yet over all this
chaos there were two great conceptions dominating unchanged.
They were the sense of sin and of Satan, and the absolute ne-
cessity of a correct dogmatic system to save men from the agonies
of hell." This was the state of Europe at the time of the Protest-

EVIL SPIRITS. 365

ant Reformation, a seething mass of conflicting theological parties
and opinions : the old Church, acknowledged even by its defenders
to be corrupt, making what seemed to many its death-stand
against Protestantism ; and Protestantism divided into number-
less hostile camps, each only with difficulty united against the
common foe.

In these matters of history our minds ought to be espe-
cially free from prejudice. For example, the Reformation in the
end undoubtedly accomplished a vast amount of good. It fos-
tered among the Protestant churches a spirit of liberty and of
free inquiry. It rejected multitudes of superstitions and of worn-
out theologic dogmas, it simplified the ritual, it encouraged the
reading of the Scriptures, it curtailed the power of the clergy.
The good effects of the Reformation were felt also after a time by
the Roman Church itself — in greater definiteness of statement, in
purified morals, in increased zeal. The Protestant Reformation,
in fact, produced the reaction in favor of Roman Catholicism, and
ushered in that brilliant era of Roman Catholic missionary effort
which still, like an aureole of glory, crowns that ancient Church.
But, although this is undoubtedly true, yet it can not be denied
that the immediate effects of the Reformation were not entirely
beneficial. It unsettled men's minds, it increased the doubt and
uncertainty that weighed down upon men, and it in no wise
lightened the gloom in which they groped their way. Moreover,
" it was for a time only an exchange of masters. . . . The Protest-
ant believed in his own infallibility quite as firmly as his oppo-
nent believed in the infallibility of the Pope. ' Faith ' still meant
an unreserved acceptance of the opinions of others. As long as
such a conception existed a period of religious convulsion was
necessarily a period of extreme suffering and terror."

As far, then, as the belief in evil spirits and other agents of
Satan is concerned, the Protestant churches stood upon the same
ground as that upon which stood the Roman Church. By both
sections of the Christian world Satan and his angels were believed
to be almost omnipresent. For example, Luther, courageous, full
of common sense as he was, tells us that in the cloisters at Wit-
tenberg he used to hear the devil talking to him ; in fact, he was
so accustomed to this that he naively relates that once, upon be-
ing awakened by the noise, he looked, and seeing that it was only
the devil, he went to sleep again. The black stain on the wall of
the cell at Wartburg still remains : Luther had thrown an ink-
bottle at Satan. He ascribed all his ailments except earache — I
do not know why he made an exception of that — to the agency of
evil spirits. He tells us that the devil frequently caught travelers
and strangled them, and transported persons through the air. He
had known Satan to appear in court as an innocent barrister;

3 56 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and, although Luther was extremely fond of children, yet he ad-
vised with great earnestness the family of a boy to throw him into
the river because he was possessed with a devil.

And thus, by Protestants as well as by Romanists, witches were
tortured and put to death in numbers so vast as to seem to us now
utterly incredible, the total number of persons who suffered death
in Europe and America being at least four millions. In most cases
there was a regular judicial trial ; in many cases, however, there
were various processes for testing the reality of the witchcraft.
These methods resembled the ordeals of the olden time. A favor-
ite method was to throw the accused into water. Then, if she did
not drown, that was a sign of possession. For how could she be
saved except by Satan's aid ? if she did drown, that was not
conclusive proof of innocence, because God might have taken
the punishment into His own hands. However, at that stage of
the case, the trial did not possess any further interest to the ac-
cused : it was simply a question of clearing her memory.

I have used the feminine pronouns she and her. This brings
up the question why it was that women were supposed to be al-
most always the ones who entered into this compact with Satan.
The answer is, not so much because of the sensibility of their
nervous constitution and their consequent liability to religious
monomania, as because, from various causes (for example, that
Eve tempted Adam, and that women in olden times held an in-
ferior position as to legal rights), women were considered as in-
her.ently more wicked than men. In Roman times Cato had said,
" If the world were only free from women, men would not be with-
out the converse of the gods." And Chrysostom, the great father,
the golden-mouthed orator, had declared woman to be " a natu-
ral temptation, a desirable calamity, a domestic peril, a deadly fas-
cination." When celibacy was introduced into the Church, it was
regarded as the highest form of virtue, and theologians exhausted
all the resources of their eloquence in describing the iniquity of
that sex whose charms had rendered celibacy so rare. So it came
to pass that women were believed to be especially prone to enter
into compacts with the Evil One. These and hundreds of other
matters connected with witchcraft are to be found in the litera-
ture of the subject which has come down to us from those far-off
days. • Endless discussions upon all phases and aspects of the
question, the volumes stand now in the great libraries of Europe
a monument to human credulity and superstition. All phases and
aspects of the question, I have said. For example, there was the
point whether a witch felt torture or not. The general belief
was that she did feel it, but not so acutely as do others, and that
therefore the torture ought to be more severe. Then there was an-
other point, that of self-confession. As all know, a confession of

EVIL SPIRITS. 367

a crime now is not looked upon as conclusive in law, and the ac-
cused is not obliged to confess. But in these trials for witchcraft
the whole aim of the court seemed to be to extort a confession.
For this object torture was resorted to, with the results that mul-
titudes confessed that they were witches and persisted in their
confessions until death relieved them. For the confession meant
death, its object not being to spare the accused, but to justify the
accuser. As a writer has said, " Madness is always particularly
prevalent during great religious and political revolutions " — many
therefore confessed through madness. Others, of a timid, doubting
mind, made themselves believe that, unknown to themselves, they
were witches. While " very often the terrors of the trial, the pros-
pect of the most agonizing of deaths, and the frightful tortures
that were applied to the weak frame of an old and feeble woman,
overpowered her understanding ; her brain reeled beneath the ac-
cumulated suffering, the consciousness of innocence disappeared,
and the wretched victim went raging to the flames, convinced that
she was about to sink forever into perdition/'

Another very interesting point discussed at great length in
these old books was whether the same body could be in two places
at once. That the body might be in one place and the mind in
another — this was agreed upon ; but whether the body might be
in two places — that was a harder question. However, it was de-
cided eventually that this was quite possible, and thereafter the
fact that wives were at home with their husbands was not accept-
ed as proof that they were not elsewhere in the same form as
witches. Indeed, several early saints had this same gift. St. Am-
brose celebrated mass in France and Italy at the same time, and St.
Clement is well known to have consecrated a church at Pisa while
performing mass at Rome. There is no doubt as to this latter
point, for there is blood as a proof upon the altar at Pisa ; and if
this is not his blood, whose is it ? Closely allied to this was what is
called " lycanthropy " — i. e., the taking of the form of an animal
by Satan or one of his angels. There are some most wonderful
stories of transformation to be found in the old records, all of
which are very ludicrous to us in this nineteenth century, but
when, three hundred years ago, it was a question of the stake here
and everlasting fire hereafter, they did not appear so full of humor.
A French judge named Boguet devoted himself especially to this
branch of witchcraft, wrote a book upon it, and burned multitudes
of these lycanthropes, his rule being to strangle other witches first,
but to burn these without strangling.

So it came to pass that in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
the skies of continental Europe were lurid with the flames of
burning women, and every market place had its fagot and its
stake.

368 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

But after a time men's hearts and minds revolted from this
hideous slaughter. The first book on the Continent that made
an effective attack upon the system was by John Wier, a learned
doctor of Cleves. In this book Wier took the ground that, al-
though devils are everywhere about us, and although many per-
sons are possessed with devils, yet there are no such beings as
witches, and therefore no one ought to be punished as a witch.
He said further that, in his humble opinion, a good many persons
supposed to be possessed with devils simply had some disease or
other which doctors ought to try to cure. This Dr. Wier was a
strange sort of man. He published another book, giving various
particulars about the lower regions. He was very exact in his
figures ; and he ascertained that at that time these regions were
ruled by seventy-two princes, and the number of devils was
7,405,926. This book of Wier's brought out the ablest defense
ever made of witchcraft — a volume by Bodin, esteemed the most
learned of all Frenchmen. This book was not answered ; and as
far as authorities and figures and biblical texts and judicial rul-
ings go, it can not be answered. Still, it did not stem the rising
tide against the belief in witchcraft. Humanity and common
sense were asserting their sway, and persecution was doomed.
In 1588, the very year of the Armada, Montaigne, the great
Frenchman, published the first really skeptical work in the French
language. This work ushered in the new treatment, the modern
treatment of all such questions. He calmly ignored the mass of
authority. "I do not attempt," he said, "to untie the knot: I
simply cut it. It is more probable that we are deceived, or that
men should tell falsehoods, than that witches should exist. And
further, it is setting too high a value on our opinions to roast
people if they will not accept these opinions." Montaigne had
calmly risen above the mists of superstition into the clear realm
of common sense and reason. The last witch in France was burned
in 1718. After that there were one or two trials, but the prisoners
were acquitted; for "the star of Voltaire had risen above the
horizon, and the unsparing ridicule which his followers cast upon
every anecdote of witches intimidated those who did not share in
the credulity."

In Great Britain the first regular enactment against sorcery
was in 1541 — i. e., at the beginning of the Reformation — although
it had been known before that time. In fact, Joan of Arc had
been put to death by the command of the English, although on
the soil of France and under the sentence of a French judge.
Great Britain, indeed, was not so violently affected by this de-
lusion as was the Continent. This for various reasons, her in-
sular position and greater freedom being the chief. So, although
Cranmer, the great churchman, he to whom is so largely owing the

EVIL SPIRITS. 369

Book of Common Prayer, directed his clergy to seek out witches
and sorcerers; and although in the reigns of Henry VIII and
Elizabeth there were a few executions, it was not until the time
of James I that really severe measures were taken ; for James I
had been reared in Scotland under Puritan influences, and the
Puritans were always especially severe upon witchcraft. The
king, in fact, had written a pamphlet on the subject; had pre-
sided at the excessively cruel torture of a person who had, it
was alleged, caused a storm at sea ; and was particularly fond of
boasting that Satan considered him, the king, as by far the ablest
opponent he (Satan) had as yet encountered in this world. And
thus in this reign — the era of Bacon and Coke and Shakespeare-
England became, like the Continent, the theater of persecution.
But all this was as nothing compared to that carried on in the
time of the Commonwealth, when the Puritans held sway. Crom-
well himself was not inclined to be cruel ; but the whole teaching
of Puritanism tended toward the belief in witchcraft and the per-
secution of witches. It forbade amusements, and had thus a tend-
ency to make the people somber and gloomy. It was intensely
earnest: the finger of God and the finger of Satan were seen
everywhere. Moreover, it developed especially a taste for the
reading of the Old Testament, which abounds with references to
supernatural events, and the characteristic of which is severity
toward those who are not the Lord's people. And the Puritans
were the Lord's people, to whom had gone forth the command " to
bind the kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron."
So, notwithstanding all their many good qualities, the Puritans
did not err on the side of leniency toward the unfortunate
witches. Indeed, in the county of Suffolk alone sixty persons
were hanged in a single year. But the Puritan regime came to an
end, the Cavaliers returned; and these, being of a more light-
hearted although less earnest mind, and also being full of dislike
for everything that savored of Puritanism, allowed the laws
against witchcraft in great part to remain unenforced. Further,
the people were becoming more intelligent and humane, and the
Royal Society for the study of science had just been established,
and French philosophy became the fashion ; and gradually Eng-
land forgot her witchcraft and her persecution. The last execu-
tions were in 1712, in which same year the judge on the bench at
another trial charged the jury against the belief in witchcraft.

Scotland, however, was not so fortunate. As a writer has said :
"The misery of man, the anger of the Almighty, the fearful
power and the continual presence of Satan, the agonies of hell —
these were the constant subjects of the preaching. All the most
ghastly forms of human suffering were accumulated as faint
images of the eternal doom of the immense majority of mankind.

VOL. XLIII. — 25

37o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Countless miracles were represented as taking place within the
land, but they were almost always miracles of terror. Disease,
storm, famine, every awful calamity that fell upon mankind or
blasted the produce of the soil was attributed to the direct inter-
vention of spirits ; and Satan himself is represented as constantly
appearing in a visible form upon the earth. . . . Such teachings
necessarily created the superstition of witchcraft ; it was the re-
flection by a diseased imagination of the popular theology. More-
over, it was produced by the teaching of the clergy, and was
everywhere fostered by their persecution." Thus it is that the
annals of Puritanism and Calvinism in Scotland are red with
tales of the thumbscrew and the boot and the witches' bridle and
the axe and the stake. While the clergy of the Established Church
in England were comparatively free from any desire to persecute,
while torture was only very rarely resorted to ; while, in a word,
persecution was carried on by the people in a very half-hearted
way, in Scotland there were being enacted, at the express com-
mand of the clergy, scenes which rivaled those in Roman Catho-
lic Europe. " And yet these Presbyterian clergymen of Scotland
were men who had often shown, in the most trying circumstances,
the highest and most heroic virtues. They were men whose
courage had never flinched when persecution was raging ; men
who had never paltered with their conscience to attain the favors
of a king ; men whose self-devotion and zeal in their sacred call-
ing had seldom been surpassed ; men who in all the private rela-
tions of life were doubtless amiable and affectionate. They were
but illustrations of the great truth that when men have come to
regard a certain class of their fellow-creatures as doomed by the
Almighty to eternal and excruciating agonies, and when their the-
ology directs their minds with intense and realizing earnestness
to the contemplation of such agonies, the result will be an indiffer-
ence to the suffering of those whom they deem the enemies of
their God, as absolute as it is perhaps possible for human nature
to attain."

But Scotland also became sick of blood and fire. The last
execution for witchcraft was held in 1722, although in 1773 the
divines of the associated Presbytery passed a resolution declar-
ing their belief in witchcraft and deploring the general skep-
ticism.

It is not necessary to enter upon the history of witchcraft in
America. Its details are known to all. Nothing so clearly brings
to one's mind the reality of this delusion and the persecution it
entailed as the court papers, preserved as they are in the archives
of Essex County, Massachusetts. As one looks upon those faded
records and reads of question and cross-question, of plea for
mercy and stern refusal, he can again see those awful trials ; he

EVIL SPIRITS. 371

can once more behold the dread procession wending its way amid
jeers and scoffs and pitiless execration to what is still " The Gal-
lows-hill of Salem."

It is, in fact, impossible to exaggerate the sufferings produced
throughout Christendom by this superstition. "It is probable
that no class of victims endured sufferings so unalloyed and so
intense. Not for them the wild fanaticism that nerves the soul
against danger and almost steels the body against torments. Not
for them the assurance of a glorious eternity that has made the
martyr look with exultation upon the rising flame as on Elijah's
chariot that is to bear his soul to heaven. Not for them the sol-
ace of lamenting friends or the consciousness that their memories
would be cherished and honored by posterity. They died alone,
hated and unpitied; their very kinsmen shrank from them as
tainted and accursed. The superstitions they had imbibed in
childhood, blending with the illusions of age and with the horrors
of their position, persuaded them in many cases that they were
indeed the bond-slaves of Satan, and were about to exchange
their torments on earth for an agony that was as excruciating, but
was eternal/' And it is wonderful how long this delusion lasted
after judicial punishment in most countries had ceased. In Spain
a witch was burned in 1780 ; in 1807 a beggar was tortured and
burned in France ; in 1850, in France, a man and wife tortured
and killed a woman suspected of witchcraft, and it was with some
difficulty that they were punished at all, on account of the linger-
ing belief in sorcery ; in 1860 a woman was burned in Mexico, as
was the case with several persons in 1874; in 1879 and 1880
witches were burned in Russia ; while up to that date, and possi-
bly later, regular judicial trials were held in Austria and Prussia.
It is needless to say that almost up to the present, even in Eng-
land and the United States, persons have been attacked by mobs
and private individuals, because it was believed that they were
in league with Satan.

But, roughly speaking, this superstition has entirely disap-
peared ; and it has disappeared, not so much through religion as
through enlightenment and rationalism. The crushing of this
hydra-headed monster of superstition is one small part of the
debt the world owes to science.

SOME drawings recently found by Ilerr J. Naue at a prehistoric station near
Schaff hausen, Germany, comprise, on one side of a piece of limestone, a horse, a
foal, and a reindeer, and on the other side several horses. The style is not so
fine as that of the Thayngen drawings of France, but the pictures, according to
the finder, display a power of keen observation. Herr Naue also remarks that it
was more difficult to work on stone than on a bone still fresh.

372 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

STRUCTURAL PLAN OF THE HUMAN BRAIN.

BY PKOF. CHAELES SEDGWICK M1NOT,

OF THE HARVARD MBDICAL SCHOOL.

THE human brain is the most complicated organ known, and
although its anatomy has been the object of innumerable in-
vestigations, often by observers of the highest ability, we are still
far from understanding its organization. Within recent years,
however, embryologists have turned to the study of the develop-
ment of the brain, and have succeeded in elucidating many of the
obscure features. Here, as in so many other cases, embryology
has furnished the master-key to unlock the mystery of the adult
anatomy. The series of conceptions which we have derived from
our present knowledge of the development of the brain are so
clearly established that I regard them as impregnable. They are
so far in advance of all previous achievements in the study of the
brain that they may be called almost revolutionary, and they are
of so fundamental a character that the entire anatomy of the
brain and the entire physiology of the brain must be recast to
agree with our embryological results.

The present article is an attempt to summarize, as simply as
possible, the principal conclusions of recent researches on the
nervous system.

Physiologists have long been accustomed to divide nerve fibers
into two classes : efferent, or those which carry out impulses ; and
afferent, or those which carry in nerve impulses to the nervous
system. Not infrequently the less accurate terms sensory and
motor are used as synonymous with afferent and efferent respect-
ively. The nerves are bundles of nerve fibers, and each nerve is
supposed to have typically two roots — one sensory, by which all
the sensory fibers enter, and the other motor, by which all the
efferent fibers leave, the nervous system. It was supposed that
every nerve fiber was connected with a nerve cell in the central
nervous system, and that the nerve fibers grew out from the cen-
tral nervous system. It has long been known that various nerves
have thickenings at certain points; the thickenings are the so-
called ganglia and they contain nerve cells. The cells in these
ganglia were supposed to have migrated from the central parts
along the nerves.

The preceding recapitulation of familiar elementary facts will
serve to emphasize the following new conclusions : 1. The nerv-
ous system consists of two parts, which differ so markedly in their
origin and differentiation that it would be hardly an exaggera-
tion to say that there are two nervous systems, for the original
duality is never obliterated. The two parts I shall term the

STRUCTURAL PLAN OF THE HUMAN BRAIN. 373

medullary and the ganglionic respectively. Each part has its
special typical cells and nerve fibers. It is further probable that
there is still a third class of nerve fibers — namely, those connected
with the sensory apparatus of the special sense cells. 2. There
are three sets of nerve roots — namely, the true dorsal roots, which
are formed solely by ganglionic nerve fibers ; and the lateral and
the ventral roots, which are formed solely of medullary nerve
fibers; the lateral roots have been hitherto generally confused
with the dorsal roots ; they have been traced heretofore only in
the brain and in the cervical nerves, but I consider it more than
possible that the posterior roots of the spinal nerves will be found
to represent both dorsal and lateral roots. 3. Nerve fibers grow
out from a cell and the end of each fiber branches ; but, so far as
observed, none of the branches become materially continuous,
either with other nerves or nerve cells or with any other cells or
other protoplasmatic structures. 4. The entire brain and spinal
cord is divided into four principal longitudinal divisions, which I
have named after their discoverer the zones of His. The zones
are in pairs — that is to say, on each side there is a dorsal (i. e., in
the spinal cord " posterior ") and a ventral (i. e., in the spinal cord
" anterior ") zone. These zones are of fundamental importance,
because all the fibers which belong to the ganglionic portion of
the nervous system ramify in the dorsal zone, while all the fibers
belonging to the medullary portion leave the spinal cord (or
brain) through the ventral zone. Both zones persist throughout
life, and preserve their fundamental relations to the two kinds of
nerve fibers.

Let us now attempt to acquire fuller and more exact concep-
tions in regard to the four discoveries above enumerated. We
may hope to do this without entering into technical details and
with the use only of terms readily understood. At the same time
we shall learn wherein the significance of the four discoveries lies.

THE FIRST DISCOVERY. — The division of the nervous system
into a medullary portion and a ganglionic portion has to be ex-
plained. The division has long been a familiar fact to anatomists,
but its true character and fundamental significance have been
known a short time only, because it is owing to very recent em-
bryological discoveries that the independent development of the
ganglionic portion has been elucidated. The existence of the gan-
glia has long been known, but their development independently
of the rest of the nervous system is a new conception. Their in-
dependence is, of course, not absolute but relative, for every part
of the body develops in intimate relations with, and in depend-
ence upon, the neighboring parts.

By the medullary portion we understand the brain proper
plus the spinal cord or marrow and the nerve fibers, which grow

374

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

out from the brain and spinal cord. The brain and spinal cord,
since the days of the celebrated investigations of Karl Ernst von
Baer, have been identified as modifications of a single long tube,
the so-called medullary tube of embryology. This tube, as the
embryo advances, gradually increases in complexity, especially in
the region of the head, until it is converted into the brain and
spinal cord. The complications which occur may be conveniently
grouped under four heads — namely, the flexures, the widening of
the cavity or its obliteration in a way varying for each region,
changes in the thickness of walls, and lastly an extreme differ-
entiation of the microscopic organization. Without detailed ex-
planation it may be readily conceived that by the varying co-

Dorsal zone white
Ventral zone shaded

Olfactory Lobe

Infundibulum.

operation of these factors great differences arise in the sundry
parts of the originally simple medullary tube. On the other hand,
in the most fundamental characteristic, the production of nerve
fibers, the same principle governs brain and spinal cord alike.
There appear very early certain cells, which soon become recog-
nizable as young nerve cells (neuroblasts) because of their size
and pointed shape; the pointed end now elongates into a very
delicate thread, the nerve fiber, which is at first very short but
rapidly lengthens almost like a growing root ; the growing fiber
takes its course for a certain distance, varying according to cir-
cumstances, within the wall of the medullary tube, but ultimately
passes outside the tube into the neighboring tissues together with
other nerve fibers of similar origin. It must be added that some

STRUCTURAL PLAN OF THE HUMAN BRAIN. 375

of the nerve fibers are of the Golgi type — that is to say, they end
as well as begin within the central nervous system. The bundle
of nerve fibers which pass out together constitute a nerve, or, to
speak more correctly, a nerve root. So far as yet observed no ex-
ception occurs ; therefore we may safely assert that every nerve
cell of the brain or spinal cord produces one nerve fiber and only
one, and this fiber grows out from the nervous system into the
tissues of the body. The fiber is single at its origin, but since we
always find the peripheral fibers branching, we may add that the
fiber is multiple at its termination. The nerve cells acquire also
other secondary branches — the so-called protoplasmatic processes
or dendrites — which grow out from the cells, but are not nerve
fibers and are confined in their growth to the nervous tissue itself.
The secondary branches present highly characteristic variations in
the different regions of the brain, as described in the text-books.

By the ganglionic portion we now understand the nerve cells
which lie in little groups outside of the medullary tube. These
cells produce fibers, which grow in two directions — on the one
side into the brain or spinal cord, on the other away from the
brain and cord into other tissues and organs. It has been ob-
served that the ganglionic nerve cells elongate and become spin-
dle-shaped ; each pointed end of the cell grows out into a nerve
fiber ; as the nerve cell connects the two fibers, we may describe
the actual condition accurately as resulting in a single nerve fiber,
which has a nerve cell interpolated in its course. Each group of
nerve cells forms a bundle of nerve fibers, which constitute the
posterior (or so-called dorsal or sensory) root of the anatomists.
If we follow a ganglionic fiber into the spinal cord or brain, we
find that it forms two branches, as first recorded by Ramon y
Cajal, a distinguished Spanish histologist ; of these two branches,
one runs upward, or in the brain forward, and the other runs
downward, or in the brain backward ; each fork gives off second-
ary branches (collaterals), that ramify still further, and are all
situated within the central nervous system proper. If we study
the termination of the ganglionic fiber at its other end — that is to
say, in the tissues or organs — we find that there also there occur
several ramifications. These fibers, like the medullary fibers, have
each a single origin, but, unlike the medullary fibers, have two
sets of multiple terminations. Although both the peripheral and
central terminations have been carefully studied, they have never
been found connected with other structures or cells, but only to
be in contact with them.

The true history of the ganglia and their nerve fibers has been
elucidated chiefly through the masterly researches of Wilhelm
His, Professor of Anatomy at Leipsic, who is the recognized high-
est living authority on the development of man. This addition

376 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to our knowledge of the nervous system is perhaps the most im-
portant which has been made during the last generation. It
teaches us that the nervous system comprises two sets of nerve
cells and fibers, which differ not only in their situation, but also
in their development and distribution. We are already in a posi-
tion to say that the entire physiology of the brain must hence-
forth be based upon this discovery of the independence of the
ganglionic system, because the same laws can not apply without
change to structures so differently organized as are the two por-
tions which we have briefly characterized, and there can be no
doubt that the functions are as fundamentally divergent as is the
organization. It is, however, still too soon for cerebral physiology
to have remodeled itself, but that remodeling must follow, since
physiology always bases itself on the anatomical facts.

Besides the two classes of nerve fibers, the medullary and gan-
glionic, we may have to add a third. In the organs of special sense
(sight, hearing, smell, and taste) there are found the peculiar sen-
sory cells, which all present two special features : First, they have
characteristic modifications of cellular structure, by which they
are adapted to receive sensory impressions; second, they are each
united with a single nerve fiber. It has long been, and indeed
still is, the prevalent theory that the nerve fiber arose from the
brain, grew to the cell, and united with it. Merkel was, I think,
the first to suggest that the sensory cells are also true nerve cells,
the nerve fiber springing from them and growing to the brain.
This view has been brought into fresh prominence by the discov-
ery made by Michael von Lenhosse'k that Merkel's supposition is
true in the case of the earthworm, which has cells scattered in its
skin, each cell giving rise to a nerve fiber, which must arise from
the sensory cell since it is connected with no other cell, although
it enters the central nervous system and there ramifies.

THE SECOND DISCOVERY. — For the recognition of the three
sets of nerve roots also we are indebted to the researches of His,
published in 1888. Previous to that time anatomists recognized
two roots only — the posterior or dorsal roots, and the anterior or
ventral roots. In the spinal cord it was easy to maintain Bell's
law, that the posterior roots are sensory ; the anterior, motor or
efferent. The cephalic nerves, however, could not be brought into
accord with this law, because of numerous difficulties, of which
one may be mentioned as an example. The nerve called the facial
was found physiologically to be both sensory and motor, and yet
was shown embryologically to correspond to a posterior root.
Through His we learned that the cephalic nerves corresponding to
the posterior roots have in reality compound roots, being double.
In fact, the nerves of the class referred to consist each of a bundle
of ganglionic fibers which enter the brain and branch in its dor-

378 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sal regions, and of a bundle of medullary fibers, which arise in
the ventral portions of the brain and pass out from it immediate-
ly below the entrance of the ganglionic fibers. Evidently there
are two roots, which, from their close juxtaposition, have been
hitherto unrecognized ; the ganglionic bundle is the true dorsal
root, the medullary bundle the lateral root. If, now, we modify
Bell's law by saying that all medullary fibers are efferent or mo-
tor, and all ganglionic fibers afferent or sensory, we can under-
stand the double function of the facial nerves and of the other
nerves resembling it — to wit, the trigeminal, glosso-pharyngeal,
and vagus.

The recognition of the lateral root as distinct from, though
joined with, the dorsal sensory root, removes many obscurities in
the anatomy of the nervous system. We know that lateral roots
are not confined to the nerves of the head, but they also occur in
the upper cervical nerves, and I regard it as highly probable that
with the progress of research they will be found sharing in the
formation of other spinal nerves. Should this expectation be ful-
filled, the long-established conception of the posterior roots as
purely sensory will have to be modified, although it has reigned
for three quarters of a century as one of the fundamental concep-
tions of physiology.

THE THIRD DISCOVERY. — The third discovery is that neither
the nerve cells nor nerve fibers are directly continuous either with
other nerve cells or with the cells or structures of other tissues
and organs. Every nerve cell, together with its fiber, is an entity,
and is not organically continuous with anything else. It is cer-
tainly premature to affirm this discovery positively, for we can
say at present only that the consensus of the best opinion, of such
men, for instance, as His and Kolliker, is in favor of the concep-
tion that every nerve cell plus its nerve fiber is an isolated ele-
ment. Until recently the hypothesis was received with favor that
the cells of brain and spinal cord were connected by threads of
protoplasm, or, to speak more precisely, by branches of the pro-
cesses of the cells ; according to this hypothesis, there would be a
direct protoplasmatic continuity between the different parts of
the nervous system, and therefore a nerve impulse brought by a
sensory fiber to the brain could be conceived as traveling along
an uninterrupted pathway of living matter until it produced its
final action. In many text-books of physiology there are dia-
grams to illustrate the theory of a continuous pathway. It is evi-
dent that if there is no such connection between nerve cells as
assumed, then we must radically alter our conceptions of the
process of the transmission of nerve force through the brain.

In the question before us, Camillo Golgi and his followers
must lead the way. Golgi, whom the world will probably rank

STRUCTURAL PLAN OF THE HUMAN BRAIN. 379

among men of genius, has unquestionably done more than any
other man living to enlarge our knowledge of the minute struc-
ture of the brain, for we owe to him, besides invaluable re-
searches, the invention of an entirely novel method of study, by
which a few of the cells of the brain are marked out with the ut-
most distinctness by a deep deposit of color, while most of the cells
and tissues of the brain are left translucent and lightly tinged.
The finest ramifications of these cells can be followed in such
preparations under the microscope, yet they* have never been
proved to unite with the ramifications of other cells. Another
method is that which consists in treatment by chloride of gold, as
long employed in histology for tracing the finest thread of nerv-
ous substance, yet with this also it has hitherto been impossible
to demonstrate any actual continuity of cell with cell. There are,
however, certain authorities who still uphold the older view.
Thus Adam Sedgwick, guided by certain general theoretical con-
siderations as to the laws of cell connection, expects to find the
continuity hypothesis re-established. Recently Prof. Dogiel, of
the Siberian University at Tomsk, has published an article in
Russian, in which he apparently seeks to verify the same hypo-
thesis by actual observation, but unfortunately his results are
not yet fully accessible to me. The settling of the problem is
beset with the greatest difficulties.

The physiological consequences of the theory of non-continuity
reach very far. Thus, if the sensory fibers simply branch within
the brain, then there must occur a leap from those fibers to the
cells which are to send out the reflex response to the sensation.
So in other cases there must be a leap from one cell to another.
Perhaps the leap or transfer is comparable to an electric induc-
tion. But it is obviously useless to ramble into sheer speculation.

THE FOURTH DISCOVERY.— The zones of His were vaguely
recognized by Lowe, but to His belongs the honor of having first
clearly recognized them and established their morphological im-
portance. There are four zones of His — two on each side ; they
run the entire length of the brain and spinal cord, except that in
the partially aborted end of the latter the zones are imperfectly
developed. Each zone is a thickening of the wall of the medullary
tube. We distinguish the dorsal and ventral zones. The dorsal
zone was termed by His the Fliigelplatte (wing plate) and the
ventral zone the Grundplatte (basilar plate), but the new names
proposed appear to me preferable. At an early stage of develop-
ment the two zones are very clearly marked off from one another ;
but after a more advanced stage is reached, although they pre-
serve their characteristic differences, their delimitation is far less
conspicuous. They persist throughout life, and can be identified
in the adult. Thus, for example, in the cerebral region proper, or,

380 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

as commonly termed, the region of the third ventricle, is a groove
known as the sulcus of Munro, which runs from the opening
which is termed the foramen of Munro, along the lateral wall of
the ventricle, backward to the narrow continuation of the ventri-
cle which has received the fanciful name of the aqueduct of Syl-
vius. This groove, the exact position of which I have thus indi-
cated for the sake of possible anatomical readers, is the boundary
between the dorsal and ventral zones. The superficial character
of our previous knowledge of the brain is emphasized by the fact
that the sulcus of Munro is usually not mentioned or figured in
anatomical text-books, and yet we can say now that it is the most
important landmark to be found in the part of the brain in which
it occurs. It will suffice to give one other example : In the spinal
cord the structure known by the name of the posterior fissure — a
singular misnomer, since it is not a fissure — arises by the growing
together of the two dorsal zones ; a line drawn from the bottom of
the so-called posterior fissure to the entrance of the posterior
nerve roots would represent approximately the boundary between
the dorsal and ventral zones. These two examples can, of course,
be clear only to anatomists, but they demonstrate the permanency
of the zonal divisions.

We have already learned that the fibers which arise from the
nerve cells of the ganglia outside the nervous system proper enter
the dorsal zone of His and there fork, the forks running longitu-
dinally within the zone but in opposite directions. Gradually the
number of fibers running in the zone increases until they form a
fibrous tract of considerable size. The tract is originally situated
next the outer surface of the nervous system ; in the case of the
spinal cord it remains permanently upon the outside, and there-
fore, as the nerve fibers ultimately become white in color, there is
the so-called " white substance " covering the outer portion of the
dorsal zone of the spinal cord, and it is this covering, which is
known anatomically as the posterior columns,* and which over-
lies all the medullary nerve cells that form part of the interior
or " gray matter." In the brain also there enter several nerves,
the ganglionic fibers which are distributed in precisely the same
way as those just described — that is, they produce a superficial
layer in the dorsal zone ; they may be seen in this position during
early stages in the part of the brain (medulla oblongata) adjoining
the spinal cord. By secondary processes there follows a spread-
ing of the nervous tissues over the outside of this white matter.
We then have a white matter buried and isolated, but it remains,
what it was primitively, the direct continuation of the superficial

* Including the postero-lateral columns, the columns of Burdach, and perhaps also the
columns of Gol.

STRUCTURAL PLAN OF THE HUMAN BRAIN. 381

layer of the spinal cord. The bundle of nerve fibers is known as
the solitary tract. Although the relations are complicated and
not easily rendered clear, I hope enough has been said to demon-
strate that the dorsal zone always remains what it is at first — the
zone into which the ganglionic fibers enter and in which they
chiefly ramify.

As every one knows, the two largest divisions or parts of the
human brain are the cerebrum or hemispheres and the cerebel-
lum. These, we have now learned, are both structures developed
exclusively from the dorsal zones of His, and have therefore a
very different morphological value from what has hitherto been
assumed — not being modifications of the whole brain, but only
local developments of the dorsal half of the brain. Just as primi-
tively the medullary fibers which arise in the dorsal zone pass
into the ventral zone, so in the specialized cerebral hemispheres
and in the cerebellum there arise very numerous nerve fibers,
but these still obey the primal law and take their courses into the
portions of the brain representing the ventral zones, and thence
the fibers are distributed to their various destinations. Until the
relations of the zones to the nerve fibers, on the one hand, and to
the hemispheres and cerebellum on the other, had been embryo-
logically determined, it could not be known that the course of
the cerebral and cerebellar fibers is in accordance with a funda-
mental law of nervous organization. We can foresee, though
somewhat vaguely, that essential physiological deductions will
follow the application of the law to the study of the functions of
the brain.

The relations of the zones in the entire brain are indicated by
the diagram 011 page 374, which scarcely calls for comment,
since it sufficiently explains itself. I need only add that the posi-
tion of the dividing line of the zones in the region of the corpora
quadrigemina is somewhat uncertain. In the embryo this region
is known as the mid-brain, and shows the primary division very
clearly ; but as the further development has not been worked out
properly yet, we can not decide positively as to the exact demar-
cation of the zones in the adult.*

The ventral zone of the brain may be defined, as we have al-
ready learned, as the territory of the medullary fibers, for it fur-
nishes the pathway for those fibers to collect in bundles, which
may either form nerve roots (ventral or lateral), or may cross, as
so-called commissural fibers, from one side to the other in order to
establish the nervous connection between the two halves of the

* I am led to suppose that the dorsal zones of the mid-brain unite, but that the ventral
zones do not, and that therefore the aqueduct of Sylvius lies entirely between the ventral
zones, the dorsal portion of the original cavity in that region of the brain being obliterated.
It is very possible that this supposition is incorrect.

382 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

brain or spinal cord. Most all the nerve fibers produced within
the brain enter the ventral territory, for in this territory we observe
not only the fibers which it obviously must include — namely,
those which are produced by the nerve cells of the ventral zone —
but also the nerve fibers produced by the nerve cells of the dorsal
zone. So far as at present known, the nerve cells of the dorsal
zone all produce nerve fibers, but these fibers always pass into the
ventral division of the nervous system. These fibers of dorsal
origin are the chief, perhaps the only ones, which are commis-
sural — that is to say, which pass to the opposite side of the brain ;
others of these fibers take longitudinal courses within the ven-
tral zone ; while still others participate in the formation of the
nearest ventral (or anterior) nerve roots. If, therefore, we as-
sume that the sensory nerve impulses are carried into the dorsal
zone and there transferred to the medullary nerve cells, we must
conclude that from those cells the impulse may be sent along me-
dullary fibers either into the opposite side, or up and down the
ventral zone, or into a neighboring nerve root. The center of
divergence is the dorsal zone, but the actual divergence of the
fibers takes place in the ventral zone.

Although the ventral zone receives medullary fibers and itself
produces nerve fibers, it sends, so far as yet observed, no fiber into
the dorsal zone, but all the fibers which leave the ventral zone
form nerve roots and leave the nervous system altogether. These
roots, as we have already learned, are in two sets — the lateral and
ventral.

SUMMARY. — The numerous facts which we have marshaled in
hasty review so greatly widen our knowledge of the nervous sys-
tem that it is important to render them as clear as possible. If
what has been presented be critically considered, it will be found
that what we have gained is an enormous accession of knowledge
in regard to the nature, origin, distribution, and connections of
nerve fibers. In order to make the typical variations of nerve
fibers as evident as possible, I have constructed the accompanying
diagram, which is, I think, correct for all which it attempts to
give. We notice : First, that the central nervous system is a med-
ullary tube, the walls of which form two dorsal zones and two
ventral zones. Second, that every nerve fiber arises from a single
cell only, and is nowhere united with any other cell. Third, that
every nerve fiber has a branching termination. Fourth, there are
three kinds of nerve fibers : (1) Medullary, which arise from the
nerve cells of the central nervous system proper ; of the medul-
lary fibers three kinds are distinguished — namely, those which
pass out to form the ventral root, those which pass out to form
the lateral root, and those which pass as commissures to the oppo-
site side of the tube ; there are also medullary fibers which run

THE AMERICAN WOMAN. 383

lengthwise of the nervous system, but these are not represented
in the diagram ; second, ganglionic fibers, which run from the bi-
polar ganglionic nerve cells in two directions, and have two ter-
minations, one branching within the medullary tube, the other
branching to form peripheral sense organs ; third, peripheral sen-
sory fibers, which spring from the nerve-sense cells ; that fibers of
such origin exist is well known, but that they enter the central
nervous system and there ramify, as here depicted, has as yet been
actually demonstrated only in the earthworm. Fifth, that all the
ganglionic and peripheral sensory fibers enter the dorsal zone only,
while all the medullary fibers make their exit from the ventral
zone only.

If we can reason from the structure, we must conclude that
all the complicated functions of the brain depend upon four pri-
mary sets of functions — namely, 1, 2, and 3, the functions of the
three classes of nerve cells, together with their connected fibers ;
and 4, the function of transferring nerve impulse from one fiber
to another. Until physiologists and psychologists shall have
learned to differentiate the four sets of functions, and have in-
vented successful means for their separate investigation, cerebral
physiology is, in my opinion, likely to remain, what it has so long
been, a science of unsolved problems.

THE AMERICAN WOMAN.

BY M. C. DE VAKIGNY.

IN essential characteristics — by tradition, by nature, and by
education — the American woman is the direct antithesis of the
woman of the East, of her of whom the HitopadeVa says, "A
woman should be under the watch of her father during infancy, of
her husband in middle age, of her sons in old age, and never inde-
pendent." In the United States she is under the watch of no one,
but under the protection of all.

If by the aid of historical documents we reconstitute the colo-
nial situation in America as it was in the beginning, we find the
man absorbed in daily work out of doors and the woman in her
tasks within, and equality of the sexes resulting from equality of
burdens and responsibilities ; then, as prosperity increases, the
task of the woman diminishes while the burden of the man re-
mains the same, and the leisure of the former contrasts with the
severe labor of the other. Woman's intelligence develops and
extends ; man's becomes concentrated and specialized, his education
is limited, and remunerative labor awaits him and takes him away
early in life. She, the equal and companion of man at the begin-

384 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ning, becomes gradually superior to him, by the leisure which he
creates for her and the use she makes of it, in intellectual culti-
vation, in the variety and extent of her knowledge, and by the
lead which she is able to take and keep. She is the resultant of
a concurrence of circumstances which have not yet been found
united in a like degree anywhere else, and which have all con-
tributed to make her a superior type of the race. In her are
combined and fused the characteristic traits which, more special-
ized in the man, appear accentuated, magnified, exaggerated, as
well by the free play of natural instincts as^ by the necessity of
furnishing himself with arms in the struggle for existence and of
demanding from them the maximum of force and of practical
utility. In the woman these characteristics persist, but they are
tempered and held in ; she smooths their angles and polishes
their facets, and of a dull pebble makes a precious stone. The
constituent parts remain the same, but a judicious cutting sets
the luster and beauty of the stone in clear relief.

Those who find more to blame than to approve in the Ameri-
can young woman, who are shocked at the freedom of her ways,
at her independence, at her scorn of social conventions, at her
luxurious tastes and her fondness for admiration, have often made
those traits the text of their accusations against the democratic
institutions of the United States. According to their reasoning,
the result could not be otherwise, given the same premises as a
point of departure, namely, the customary association of young
women and young men, equality of the sexes raised to an axiom^
abdication of parental dictatorship, independence of children, and
freedom of matrimonial choice. The eccentricities noticed by
them are, in their view, the inevitable consequences of a democ-
racy hostile by instinct to the principle of authority, endeavoring
to reduce it everywhere to its minimum of action and control, ex-
tolling equality with an apostolic zeal and practicing it with the
fervor of a neophyte. And now these pretended apostles of equal-
ity, these self-styled levelers of privilege, have ended with re-estab-
lishing inequality with the advantage on the woman's side, with
making her the eminently privileged person, and, reversing the
Asiatic conception, of elevating her into a despot and converting
the man into a subject. It seems to us, however, that the influ-
ence of political institutions on social habits has been very much
exaggerated. Unstable and mobile, the former change at the
caprice or the passions or the necessities of the moment. Not so
with, that aggregation of usages and customs which rests upon
uninterrupted traditions, upon a long transmission. They un-
dergo modification, but slowly ; they are the results of the experi-
ence of centuries, and never proceed by jumps in their evolution.
More of the fundamentally primitive than is usually believed re-

THE AMERICAN WOMAN. 385

mains common to the Americans and the English in their rela-
tions to women; and the large place given to woman in the
United States, and the greater independence she enjoys, flow as
much from the change of medium as from the advanced intel-
lectual position which she was able to take at the beginning and
has long held.

But as the United States grows and becomes more refined,
the difference between the sexes in this respect is diminishing.
Yet while man has to a large extent recovered possession of the
vantage-ground in mental cultivation occupied by woman, and
while his stronger faculties, more robust organization, and more
sustained will give him the superiority everywhere else, there is
a social domain from which he could not and would not dispossess
her — a domain hers by tradition and by concessions which he has
made and she has accepted and extended. At this poii!t becomes
manifest the contrast between the Anglo-Saxon and the Latin
races, the antithesis between the conception of the East and that
of the West, the two poles of which are Asia and the United
States, while its mean term is found in central and southern Eu-
rope. To these two poles correspond, in effect, a maximum and a
minimum of human personality. This personality is nowhere so
intense as in the United States, and nowhere less so than in the
extreme East. England transmitted to the United States, with
that basis of personality peculiar to the English race and more
accentuated there than anywhere else in Europe, that respect for
individuality which made itself manifest at an early period in
British laws and institutions.

Cantoned in her family and social domain, the American
woman has till this time made only rare and timid incursions into
the field of politics. But in the field in which she usually moves,
we are struck, on a close examination of the various phases and
details of life in the United States, with the important place she
occupies. This is true to a higher degree in modest conditions, in
the agricultural districts, in the farms and settlements and in
populations of working people, than in the large cities. Not that
these, too, do not contain curious types for study, essentially
original, and tending in a high degree to reconcile the exigencies
of the external features of modern life with lofty aspirations and
an active philanthropy.

Given, as the points of departure for woman's position in the
United States, equality with man, intellectual and social predomi-
nance, with the charms of her sex refined and developed by
natural selection, by unions between young women free to choose
and a race of colonists energetic, vigorous, deeply imbued with
religious convictions, and respecting the conjugal bond, woman
must necessarily appear, at any given moment, as the definite ex-

VOL. XLIII. — 26

386 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

pression, the superior type of the race and the medium. She is
to-day, what the American exhibits her in Europe with a legiti-
mate pride, the most finished work of the country's two centuries
of civilization.

It seems as if on the American soil, essentially democratic,
Nature showed herself, in what concerns woman, more aristocratic
than elsewhere, and that the genius of natural selection was work-
ing perpetually for the advancement of its elect. Of all these
gifts which it has lavished upon her, one of the most character-
istic is certainly adaptability. Few women in Europe possess in
the same degree as the American woman the faculty of identify-
ing themselves with their medium, of changing country, climate,
and surroundings with so wonderful suppleness. More perfectly
than others, she accommodates herself to circumstances, while she
preserves her individuality in a strange surrounding.

Wherever we meet the American women — and we meet her
everywhere, in the ranks of the English peerage and of the
highest European aristocracy, as well as in more modest con-
ditions— we are struck with that marvelous adaptability in
which wise men see the sign of the superiority of a race or of a
species. It is revealed notably by that good humor with which
she accepts the numerous petty annoyances that every change
of medium implies and which put the best characters on trial.
She submits to them without effort, and criticises them without
bitterness ; she is, further, prepared for them by her education,
and does not expect to find everything easy. Then the necessity
of manual labor does not seem to her like a degrading condition ;
at most only one or two generations separate her from the time
when her grandmother kneaded the family bread in the primitive
settlements. These stories are familiar to her, and the lessons
deduced from them are not discouraging or humiliating. She is
the (laughter of a race of emigrants who have become a great
people through work, energy, and determination. She has in
this at her command a whole treasury of traditions from which
she draws, not without pride. We might say, in listening to
these stories, that we were hearing one of those grandes dames
of the past century, emigrants and poor, telling with pride in
their memoirs how, to supply their wants, they worked in Lon-
don or in Germany, utilizing their accomplishments and their
correct taste, and making trimmings and embroidering robes with
their own aristocratic hands.

The American woman has no more false shame and silly con-
ceit than they had. We can observe her at Paris, Nice, Pau, or
in Switzerland, everywhere at ease, the first to laugh at her mis-
takes in language, or at her ignorance of continental usages.
Wherever she may be she seems to be at home ; and the country

THE AMERICAN WOMAN. 387

that pleases her is, during the time she lives in it, her adopted
country. The thought never occurs to her that she may be
ridiculous or may appear so ; or that a woman can be ridiculous
or a man think it of her. Such is the confidence, justified by ex-
perience, which the privileges of her sex give her, that she has
neither timorous reserve nor sickly timidity. Homage paid to
her as a woman does not embarrass her, attention does not dis-
concert her. She is accustomed to them, and freely confesses the
pleasure they cause her.

She is the resultant of a mode of education, of a kind of life
that differs profoundly from ours. She has been taught to rely
upon herself, to judge for herself. In her relations with men she
has always been free but responsible, guardian of her own honor,
and artisan of her future. She has seen and observed ; she is not
ignorant of the duties of life, or of the perils of independence. If
the objection is made that this too premature knowledge is often
liable to render her under a brilliant and sportive exterior coldly
calculating and too early cautious, we may answer that she will
sooner or later have to deduce her own conclusions from what
surrounds her, of the world in which she lives, and that it may
be better for her eyes to be opened to evidence and her judgment
to be formed before making the decisive choice of her life.

It is hard in examining such a question to abstract one's self
sufficiently from the usages and the ideas of the medium in which
one lives — to be absolutely impartial. By instinct we are inclined
toward accepted ideas, usual customs, and current axioms. Our
own ideas are still too far away from those of the people across the
sea for strong contradictions not to arise between them. In such
a matter experience only is of value, and we can judge equitably
only by results. Here experience is conclusive and the results
are satisfactory.

If the American Union is to-day one of the first countries in
the world, it owes the fact to a large extent to the American
woman, who was and still is an important factor in its astonish-
ing prosperity. The United States owes it to her that it has pre-
served the religious faith, the principle of vitality, imported by the
Pilgrim fathers to the American shores. She has been the effica-
cious artisan of the work. She has maintained it, extended and
enlarged it in the church and the school. In hours of difficulty,
as during the war of independence and the war of secession, the
patriotism of the woman sustained the courage of the man. Under
all circumstances she was his companion and his equal. As such
he respected her, and that respect which she inspired in him by her
self-denial and her courage in the beginning, by her intelligence and
good breeding afterward, by her charms and her confidence in his
protection, has fashioned American manners, and has strongly

388 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

impregnated them with the idea that respect for his companion
was for the man one of the prime conditions of moral life. This
moral life is her own work. She created and she maintains it. In
the cult of which she is the object, in the homage which man ren-
ders to her, there is more than the mysterious attraction which
sex inspires : there is the instinctive recognition of a great and
salutary influence nobly exercised. — Selected and translated for
The Popular Science Monthly from the author's article in the
Revue des Deux Monde s.

TEACHING PHYSICS.

BY PROF. FEEDEEICK GUTHEIE, F. E S.

is 110 physical science without exactness, and there is
- no exactness without measurement. Far as we are still from
understanding the mystery of life, it is not to be denied that the
greatest advances in biology have been due to exactness in ob-
servation and quantitative comparison. This is more markedly
the case with the sciences of geology and astronomy. Still more
is this to be insisted on in the study of the forces of inanimate
Nature. I have always, for instance, tried to persuade those of
my friends who are engaged in teaching chemistry that they
would do well to begin at once with quantitative methods and
determinations in the laboratory, synthetic as well as analytic.

This quantitative element is still more essential in physics.
There everything should be quantitative and exact. But there
are different degrees of exactness. No one would expect from the
average student of chemistry that all his analyses should be of
the same degree of refinement as though he were determining the
atomic weight of an element. Let his analyses be sufficiently
exact to convince him of the faithfulness of Nature and the trust-
worthiness of the statements of the science.

Now, in bringing before you to-night a short account of the
system of teaching practical or laboratory physics which has been
adopted at the Government Science Schools with which I am con-
nected, I must speak a few words as to the origin of that system.

The problem was briefly this. Given a class of students of
various ages, from sixteen to sixty, and of various degrees of gen-
eral knowledge and ability. Assume that they are all anxious to
learn, and that none of them have worked systematically before
in a physical laboratory, and let the instruction be limited to a
few months — say four.

The problem is to give them a sound but necessarily element-
ary training in the science, so that all shall have an opportunity of
acquiring such a knowledge of physics as no educated man should

TEACHING PHYSICS. 389

be without, and no scientific man dare to be without, and to those
who have the ability, the opportunity, and the desire, a trust-
worthy foundation on which to base their further studies.

The scheme almost necessarily formed itself into the follow-
ing : The student attends a lecture every morning, except Satur-
day, at ten o'clock. These lectures, in the present case, are about
seventy in number. At eleven o'clock he goes into the laboratory,
provided with a few tools ; there he finds the necessary material
for making apparatus relating to the lecture. He has also printed
instructions directing him how to make and how to use the appa-
ratus when made. He finds also working models of such appa-
ratus for his guidance. These instructions he carries out under
the supervision and advice of a skilled assistant.

The instruments the student of average skill can and does
make under proper instruction with these means are far more
accurate than those he is at all likely to be able to buy. I do not
say that his divided circles will be as accurate as those of Trough-
ton and Sims, nor will his spectroscope compare with one of Hil-
ger's, nor his resistance coils with those of Elliott, nor his ba-
rometer with the one at Kew ; but I do say that his barometer is
a far more exact instrument than one for which he would have to
give several pounds ; that his spectroscope will divide the sodium
line ; that his coils are true to the thousandth of their nominal
value ; that he can determine the wave-length of light to within
YoVo- of the truth, the specific heat of a metal to Tfo > and the length
of a sound-wave to ^^-g- of the truth. The only bought instrument
of precision which the student uses in the elementary course
is the balance. He has generally, however, acquired some skill
with this, and in the manipulation of glass, in the chemical labo-
ratory.

Starting with a tuning fork which is given to him, and the
monochord which he makes, the student is able to verify the in-
tervals of the gamut as dependent on length of string. He then
examines the effects of variation of diameter, of tension, and of
weight of the string.

Tuning forks are, however, seldom exact. The actual pitch of
the fork is found by the method of sinuosities. A smoked glass
plate is dropped in front of a style on the fork, and so the fork
writes its own number. Hence, by means of the length of the
resonant cavity, the velocity of sound in air is obtained with some
accuracy, and by the method of longitudinal vibrations the ve-
locity in wood, glass, and brass, etc., follows. The rule of the
transverse vibrations of rods is examined. The production of
harmonics on strings, rods, and in tubes is shown, and a number
of experiments follow concerning the velocity of sound in differ-
ent gases as determined by dust figures.

390 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Having made and graduated both a direct alcohol and a differ-
ential air thermometer, the absolute expansions of water and alco-
hol are determined. Very accurate results may easily be got as
to the latent heats of water and steam. Then the student, having
made his calorimeter, determines the specific heats of iron, copper,
zinc, tin, and lead. The specific heats of a few liquids are deter-
mined either by direct comparison with water or indirectly with
the metals.

In light, the chief work consists of the following : The making
and use of the diaphanous and shadow photometers ; the making
of an instrument for examining the rules of reflection and refrac-
tion, and the verification of these rules ; the determination of
refractive indices of liquids and their dispersive powers; the
images from curved mirrors, the measurement of focal lengths,
and the curvative and refractive indices of lenses. A few experi-
ments concerning plane polarized light are followed by the de-
termination of the wave-length by a grating, and the construction
and use of the spectroscope.

The principal pieces of apparatus constructed for work in elec-
tricity are : A gold leaf electroscope ; a differential condenser ; a
sand-dropping accumulator ; a Leyden jar ; an electrophorus ; a
dry pile ; a voltaic cell ; a differential galvanometer ; a resistance
bridge ; a set of resistance coils ; a tangent galvanometer ; a po-
tentiometer ; a thermo-element ; a thermopile. And by these ap-
paratus typical experiments and measurements, of which the fol-
lowing are a few, are made : The study of magnetic curves ; the
action of the current on the needle ; the relation between length,
weight, and resistance in wires ; the effect of temperature on re-
sistance ; the law of divided circuits ; specific resistance ; electro-
motive force ; internal resistance of cells, and so on.

Electricity, especially voltaic, lends itself perhaps more abun-
dantly to exact measurements in the elementary laboratory than
the other branches, and it is on this account, and because it is the
last subject treated of, and so claims any spare time at the end of
the term, that it occupies a rather prominent part. I do not hold
that it has really any greater educational value than the other
branches, and certainly in a general educational course it is not
for me to give it prominence, because just now it has a consider-
able technical development. I trust the time may never come
when any branch of physics will be considered as of compara-
tively little importance in general education.

To-day I have particularized the method of teaching one
branch of science. I have had to use strong language, for I feel
strongly, and I have been addressing strong people. Of this, at
least, you and all men may be well assured, that I will not cease
to proclaim, as long as strength is given to me, that the hope of

RECENT SCIENCE. 391

science is the hope of the world ; that while I yield to none in
my love of imagination, of literature, and of all the fine arts, they
are as the gracious flowers of the mind-plant whose leaves and
roots are the truths of science. True that the living plant is most
beautiful when it is in blossom. He who plucks off the flower,
while marring the beauty of the plant, destroys the fruit forever.
— Abridged from the Journal of the Society of Arts.

RECENT SCIENCE.

By PEINCE KROPOTKIN.

T^vURING the last thirty years the data of meteorology have
L' been accumulated with a very great rapidity, and the chief
desideratum of the moment is, to construct with these data such
a general theory of the circulation of the atmosphere as would
embody the distribution of heat, pressure, moisture, and winds
over the surface of the earth, and represent them as consequences
of well-established mechanical laws. The old provisory hypothe-
sis of atmospheric circulation, advocated by Hadley in 1735, and
further elaborated by Dove in our century, can be held no more,
and a new theory has become of absolute necessity.

We all have learned Dove's theory at school, even though we
often found it difficult to understand. The air, greatly heated
on or near the equator, rises in the same way as it rises in the
summer over a sunburned plain. On reaching the higher strata of
the atmosphere it flows toward the poles, but, owing to the speed
of rotation which it has acquired in the lower latitudes, it is de-
flected— to consider the northern hemisphere only — to the right,
and blows in the upper strata as a current from the southwest.
To compensate this flow, air rushes on the earth's surface toward
the equator, and as it also is deflected from its course by the same
inertia of rotation, it appears in the tropics as a trade wind blow-
ing from the northeast. However, the upper warm current does
not flow all the way to the pole in the upper regions ; it is grad-
ually cooled down, and in about the thirtieth degree of latitude it
begins to descend to the earth's surface, where it meets with the
cold polar current. A struggle between the two winds ensues, and
it lasts until they make a temporary peace by blowing side by
side, or one above the other, the struggle giving origin to storms
and to changes of wind which are fully analyzed in Dove's theory.
A rope without end rolling over two pulleys, one of which lies
horizontally near the equator, and the other stands upright in

392 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

higher latitudes — such was the simplest expression of Dove's the-
ory given in text-books.*

Under this provisory hypothesis meteorology made an im-
mense progress, and some five-and-thirty years ago, Leverrier in
France, and Fitzroy in England, ventured for the first time to
foretell weather twenty-four hours in advance, or at least to send
out warnings as to the coming storms. This bold step brought
meteorologists face to face with a quite new problem. From the
air pressure, the temperature, the moisture, and the winds ob-
served at a certain hour of the day at various spots and tele-
graphed to a central station, they had to infer the next probable
state of weather. So, leaving aside the great problems of atmos-
pheric circulation, they directed their attention to the changes of
weather rather than to the causes of the changes, f For this pur-
pose purely empirical laws were of great value. When the me-
teorologist saw on a weather chart a region of low atmospheric
pressure, with winds blowing in spirals round and toward its
center, he named it, by analogy with real cyclones, a " cyclonic
disturbance " or a " cyclone," giving the name of " anticyclone "
to the region of high atmospheric pressure — and he studied the
tracks of both disturbances in their advance across the oceans and
the continents. He did not inquire for the moment into the causes
of the disturbances ; he took them as facts, and, following Buys
Ballot's law, he said that the wind will blow as a rule from the
region of high barometic pressure (the anticyclone) to the region
of low pressure (the cyclone), with a certain deflection to the right
or to the left. Immense researches were made to study the routes
followed by the centers of barometrical minima, and we now have
splendid atlases showing the normal tracks of cyclones across the
Atlantic Ocean, over Europe and the States, in Japan, in the In-
dian Ocean, and so on, at various seasons of the year.J With these
empirical data meteorologists attained such a perfection in their
weather forecasts that in five cases out of six their previsions are
now correct, while the coming gales are even foretold with a still
greater accuracy.

*E. E.'Schmid, Lehrbuch der Meteorologie, Leipsic, 1860, p. 568.

f See W. Bezold's short sketch of meteorological progress in Sitzungsberichte der Ber-
liner Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1890, ii, 1295, sq.

\ Besides the earlier works of Ley (Laws of the Winds prevailing in Western Europe,
Part I, 1872) and Koppen (Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse aus der monatlichen Uebersichten
des Wetters, l«73-'78), we have now the splendid work of W. J. Van Bebber, which em-
bodies the tracks of all cyclones in Europe for the last fifteen years (Die Zugstrassen der
barometrischen Minima, fiir 1875-'90), the researches of Blanford, S. E. Hill, and Elliot in
the Indian Meteorological Memoirs and Cyclone Memoirs, Part IV (published by the Mete-
orological Department of India), the work of E. Knipping for Japan, in Annual Meteoro-
logical Report for 1890, Part II, Appendix, and several excellent works for Russia.

RECENT SCIENCE. 393

However, the very progress achieved demonstrated the neces-
sity of a more thorough knowledge of the too much neglected up-
per currents of the atmosphere. In Dove's scheme, the upper
equatorial current, after part of it had been sent back to the equa-
tor, was entirely abandoned to itself, to make its way as best it
could against the opposed polar winds; but the existence of a
strong, nearly permanent, and relatively warm upper wind blow-
ing toward the east in our latitudes — which was only probable
thirty years ago* — became more and more evident, especially
since the movements of clouds began to be systematically studied
and observatories were erected on high mountains ; and this wind
remained unexplained in Dove's theory, while in Maury's scheme
of atmospheric circulation, which is still in great vogue in our
schools, there was even substituted for it a current in an opposite
direction, which does not exist, and which Maury himself could
ndt account for.f An entire revision of the subject was thus ne-
cessary, and this revision has been done by the American meteor-
ologist Ferrel, in a series of elaborate works which are only now
beginning to receive from meteorologists the attention they fully
deserve.

FerrePs theory is based upon considerations as to the laws of
motion of liquids and gases of different densities. If the whole
atmosphere were equally heated in all its parts, and at full rest,
the air would be disposed in horizontal layers, of greater density
at the bottom, and of decreasing density toward the top. Consid-
ering some part only of the atmosphere, from pole to equator, and
neglecting the curved surface of the earth, we should thus have
something analogous to a trough filled with layers of different
liquids. If one end of the trough were now warmed, and the
other end were cooled, the layers would be horizontal no more.

* Observations in Siberia — namely, at the graphite works on Mount Alibert, at a height
of eight thousand feet (52° north latitude) — were especially conclusive. Alibert's observa-
tions, buried in the Russian Trudy of the Siberian expedition, proved the existence of a
nearly permanent west and west-northwest wind on the top of the peak, and they showed
at the same time that the average yearly temperature on the top of the peak was by some
fourteen to eighteen Fahrenheit degrees higher than it otherwise ought to be. When I
visited the then abandoned mine in 1864, and saw the peak dominating all surrounding
mountains, and could judge of the force of the west wind from the immense works accom-
plished to protect the road which was traced on the western side of the peak, I could not
refrain from explaining the extraordinary great height of the snow-line in east Siberia by the
existence of a relatively warm equatorial current blowing with a great force at a height of
from eight to ten thousand feet in the latitude of 52° north. Later on the observations
which I brought from the Voznesensk mine (60° north, altitude twenty-six hundred and
twenty feet) induced my friend Ferd. Miiller, who calculated those observations, to conclude
that in higher latitudes the same current descends still lower to the earth's surface, and still
maintains some of its initial warmth.

f See James Thomson's paper On the Grand Currents of the Atmosphere, in Philosoph-
ical Transactions, A. 1892, p. 671.

394 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

They would be inclined, but in two different ways : the lower ones
would be inclined toward the warm part, while in the upper layers
the inclination would be the reverse. A full circuit of the lighter
liquids flowing one way on the surface, and of. heavier liquids
flowing the other way on the bottom, would thus be established.
The same would happen in our atmosphere with the lighter warm
currents and the heavier cold currents if the earth had no rota-
tion on its axis. But it rotates — the solid globe as well as its
gaseous envelope — and this modifies the whole circulation. The
air which flows from the equator to the poles maintains, not its
velocity of rotation, as has been hitherto taught, but its energy of
rotation, which means that it obeys the law of preservation of
areas ; therefore, when it is transported from the equator to a
higher latitude it is endowed (in the northern hemisphere) with a
much greater easterly velocity than if it simply maintained its
speed of rotation. On the other side, the air which is flowing
from the higher latitudes toward the equator also obeys the same
law and acquires a westward velocity, but much smaller than the
eastward velocity of the former ; this is why the west winds have
such a preponderance in our latitudes.* Moreover, in virtue of
the centrifugal force, all. masses of air moving in any direction —
not only north or south, but also due west or east — are also de-
flected to the right in the northern hemisphere, and to the left in
the southern hemisphere.! Consequently the air flows in great
spirals toward the poles, both in the upper strata of the atmosphere
and on the earth's surface beyond the thirtieth degree of latitude ;
while the return current blows at nearly right angles to the above
spirals, in the middle strata as also on the earth's surface, in a
zone comprised between the parallels 30° north and 30° south.];

Such are, very briefly stated, the leading features of the theory
which Ferrel laboriously worked out during the last thirty years,
submitting all its parts to the test of both observation and mathe-
matical analysis. By the end of his life (he died in 1891) he em-
bodied his theory in a well-written and suggestive popular work,

* Full tables giving the eastward (or westward) velocities for each latitude, under the two
different hypotheses, have been calculated for the Meteorologische Zeitung, 1890, pp. 399
and 420.

f Ferrel seems not to have been aware that the same had been demonstrated by R. Lenz
for rivers (about the year 1870), in a discussion of Baer's law, applied to the Amu River, in
the Me'moires of the St. Petersburg Academy.

\ William Ferrel, A Popular Treatise on Winds, comprising the General Motion of the
Atmosphere, Monsoons, Cyclones, Tornadoes, Waterspouts, Hailstorms, etc. New York :
Wiley, 1889. See also analysis of it by W. M. Davis (in Science, xv, p. 142 ; translated in
Meteorologische Zeitung, 1890; Literaturbericht, p. 41), who gave the best diagram of cir-
culation according to Ferrel' s theory, and by H. F. Blanford in Nature, xli, 124. A full
bibliography of Ferrel's works was given after his death in the American Meteorological
Journal, October, 1891.

RECENT SCIENCE. 395

wliich fully deserves being widely known. All taken, his views
so well agree with the facts relative to the movements of the at-
mosphere, and they give such a sound method for further investi-
gation, that they are sure to become for some years to come the
leading theory of meteorology. They already have given a strong
impulse to theoretical research, and have created a whole litera-
ture in Austria and Germany.*

Another theory of the general circulation of the atmosphere
which is also awakening a good deal of interest among physical
geographers was propounded in 1886 by Werner Siemens, and
further developed by him in 1890. f Siemens did not consider
that air might flow down the density surfaces, as supposed by
Ferrel and Helmholtz, and admitted by many meteorologists, and
he maintained that the source of the energy required for all dis-
turbances of equilibrium in the atmosphere must be looked for in
the unequal heating of its different strata by the sun, and in the
unequal loss of heat through radiation in space. From these
considerations he inferred the existence of an ascending current
in the equatorial belt, an upper warm current, and a cold polar
current. As to the eastward and westward directions of these
currents, he made the very just remark that the energy of rota-
tion of the whole atmosphere must remain constant and un-
changed, even though masses of air move from one latitude to

* Roth has already abandoned the mathematical objections he had raised against Fer-
rel's theory in the Wochenschrift fur Astronomie, 1888. The objections raised by Teis-
serenc du Bort and Supan against the " density surfaces " have been answered by Prof.
Davis in Science, and are not shared by the most prominent meteorologists. And the
mathematical analysis of Prof. Waldo, Sprung (the author of the well-known Treatise of
Meteorology), M. Moller, and Pernter has further confirmed the accuracy of the theory.
So also Hildebrandsson's observations of upper clouds (Annuaire de la Societe meteoro-
logique de France, xxxix, 338), Teisserenc du Bort's high-level isobar?, and Guaran de
Trommelin's researches relative to coast winds. The transport of the Krakatoa dust and
Abercromby's observations of clouds having rendered the existence of an upper east cur-
rent very probable on the equator, Pernter has mathematically deduced from Ferrel's the-
ory the existence of such a current in a belt 4° 45' wide on both sides of the equator, and
he therefore has withdrawn the restrictions he had previously made in a lecture (published
in Nature, 1892, xlv, 593) in favor of Siemens's views. It must be added that the idea of
three superposed currents blowing in spirals may have been suggested to Ferrel by a com-
munication of James Thomson to the British Association in 1857. Such was, at least, the
claim raised and developed at some length by the Glasgow professor before the Royal
Society in a Bakerian lecture, now published in the Transactions (A. 1892, pp. 653-685).
Though Thomson's paper was never published, and only given in a very short abstract with-
out a diagram (the diagram in the Transactions is now published for the first time), the few
lines in which his theory was stated (British Association Reports, Dublin, 1857, pp. 38, 39)
contained the idea clearly expressed. It is certainly a matter of great regret that James
Thomson has not returned to this subject.

f Ueber die Erhaltung der Kraft im Luf tmeere, in Sitzungsberichte der Berliner Aka-
demie der Wissenschaften, March, 1886, p. 261 ; Ueber das allgemeine Windsystem der
Erde, in same publication, 1890, ii, p. 629.

396 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

another. The velocity of rotation of the atmosphere in tropical
latitudes must therefore lag behind the rotation of the earth, and
it must outstrip it in higher latitudes, mathematical calculation
proving that the thirty-fifth parallel is, in both hemispheres, the
line of division between the two. The general system of air cir-
culation deduced from these principles is very similar in its re-
sults to the system of Ferrel ; but the interest and importance of
Siemens^ views lie elsewhere. His memoirs were an appeal and
an attempt to apply the principles of thermodynamics to the
aerial currents, and they have opened the way for a series of im-
portant researches, which, however, are not yet sufficiently ad-
vanced to be discussed in these pages.

And, finally, a third new point of view has been introduced
into the same discussions by Helmholtz. Sitting one day by the
seaside, and observing how wind blows on the surface of the sea
by sudden gushes, how it originates waves, and how they grow
when wind blows with an increasing force, Helmholtz came to
consider what would happen with two air currents blowing one
above the other in different directions. A system of air waves,
he concluded, must arise in this case, in the same way as they are
formed on the sea. The upper current, if it is inclined toward
the earth's surface (as is often the case), must originate in the
lower current immense aerial waves rolling at a great speed.
We do not generally see them, but when the lower current is so
much saturated with moisture that clouds are formed in it, we do
see a system of wavelike parallel clouds, which often extend over
wide parts of the sky. To calculate the sizes of the waves in
different cases is extremely difficult, if not impossible; but by
taking some simpler cases Helmholtz and Oberbeck showed that
when the waves on the sea attain lengths of from sixteen to thirty-
three feet, the air waves must attain lengths of from ten to twenty
miles, and a proportional depth. Such waves would make the
wind blow on the earth's surface in rhythmical gushes, which we
all know, and they also would more thoroughly mix together the
superposed strata, dissipating the energy stored in strong cur-
rents. These views are so correct that they undoubtedly will
throw some new light, as they already begin to do, upon the
theory of cyclones.*

At the same time, Bezold is now endeavoring to reconstruct
meteorology from the point of view of thermodynamics ; f and
the well-known Austrian meteorologist, J. Hann, whose work is

* H. Helmholtz, Zur Theorie von Wind und Wetter, and Die Energie der Wogen und
des Windes, in the Sitzungsberichte of the Berlin Academy, 1889, ii, and 1890, ii. Ober-
beck's calculations of the waves are given in the Meteorologische Zeitung, 1890, p. 81.

f Zur Thermodynamik der Atmosphare, in Sitzungsberichte of the Berlin Academy of
Sciences, 1888, p. 485; same year, p. 1189; 1890, p. 355; and 1892, p. 279.

RECENT SCIENCE. 397

exciting just now a great deal of interest, has openly broken with
the old theory as regards the origin of cyclones and anticyclones.*
From observations made for several years in succession on the
top of the Sonnblick — a peak twelve thousand feet high, of the
Tyrolese Alps — as well as from observations made on several
high-level stations, he has concluded that a cyclone can not be due
to a local heating of the earth's surface and to an ascending cur-
rent of warm air provoked by this cause, just as an anticyclone
can not be due to a local cooling of the earth's surface, and to a
consequent condensation of the air. Contrary to the previsions
of the meteorologists, the ascending column of air within a cy-
clone, up to a height of some ten thousand feet, is not warmer
than the surrounding air ; it is cooler within the cyclone, and its
upward motion thus can not be due to its temperature. So also in
an anticyclone the descending current of air is warmer than it is
under normal conditions, and its downward motion must be due
to some other cause than an increase of density resulting from a
lowering of its temperature. The decrease of pressure in the one
case, and its increase in the other, thus can not be caused by dif-
ferences of heating or cooling of the lower strata ; and both cy-
clones and anticyclones must be considered as parts of the general
circulation of the atmosphere, such as it was conceived by Ferrel.f

Such a deep modification of the current views, though sup-
ported to a great extent by weighty evidence, will obviously not
be accepted without opposition; but it is already making its way,
and certainly will exercise a deep influence on the further devel-
opment of meteorology.

Abandoning now the domain of theoretical investigation, I
must mention a work — also a life's work — which may safely be
placed side by side with the best achievements in theory. I mean
the beautiful charts of Mr. Buchan, representing the distribution
of pressure, temperature, and winds over the surface of the globe,
embodied in the last volume of the Challenger Expedition Re-
ports. When Mr. Buchan published twenty-three years ago his
first maps of monthly isobars and prevailing winds, they were
quite a revelation, even though the data upon which they were
based were very incomplete at that time.J: But better data have

* Das Luftdruckmaximum vom November 1889, in Denkschrift der Wiener Akademie
der Wissenschaften, 1890, Bd. Ivii, p. 401. Bemerkungen iiber die Temperatur der Cyclonen
und Anticyclonen, in Meteorologische Zeitschrift, 1890, p. 328.

f See the discussion of this subject between Hazen and J. Hann in Science, 1890, xv,
382-384, and Meteorologische Zeitschrift, 1890, p. 328.

\ To trace the isobars, or lines of equal atmospheric pressure, reduced to the sea-level,
the real altitude of each meteorological observatory must be known from direct geometrical
levelings; but in 1869 the altitude of not one single station in Siberia, .central Asia, or
even the Urals was known. A leveling across Siberia, as far as Lake Baikal, has been

398 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

been collected since, and in the hands of Mr. Buchan they have
undergone such a careful and able analysis that the Challenger
Reports charts may be taken as the best reliable representation of
the winds, the temperatures, and the pressure in the lowest strata
of the atmosphere, a£ well as the surest basis for further generali-
zations.* The theories which have been mentioned in the preced-
ing pages give the grand lines of atmospheric circulation; on
Buchan's maps we see how the grand lines are modified in the
lowest strata by the distribution of land and sea, and the unequal
heating or cooling of continents and oceans. The leading features
indicated by theory are still maintained, and they become even
still more apparent if we consult isobars traced for a certain
height, like those of Teisserenc de Bort ; but the immense plateaus
of East Asia and North America act in winter as colossal refriger-
ators, where cold and heavy air accumulates, to flow down in all
directions toward the lowlands. We see also how in 'July the air
is heated in the lower lands of northwest India, in the corner be-
tween the Afghanistan and the Thibet plateau, how pressure is
lowered there by the ascending current, and how winds blow
toward this region of lowered pressure. We see more than that :
on looking on the maps it strikes the eye how the moisture or the
dryness of the climate is dependent upon the distribution of press-
ure, and how the dry anticyclonic winds make barren deserts of
parts of North and South America, of Africa, and central Asia,
and how they will continue to dry the lakes and the rivers of
these regions and occasion total failures of crops so long as that
distribution of pressure lasts on the globe, and man has not yet
learned to eschew its effects by getting water from the depths of
the earth. The life of the globe\ during the present period is
written on these splendid charts. — Nineteenth Century.

M. THOEADDSEN, in the narrative of his travels in Iceland, observes a peculiar
feature of the oases at the foot of Mount Hecla. These oases are subject to con-
stant displacement by the violent sandstorms which are common. On the wind-
ward side all vegetation is gradually destroyed, while on the other side grass takes
root, and in a wonderfully short time the level and sterile surfaces are converted
into good pasture lands.

made since, Mr. Buchan's isobars having been one of our best arguments to press the neces-
sity of the leveling. But Mr. Buchan may not be aware that the leveling beyond the
ninetieth degree of longitude is now considered by Russian geodesists as utterly unreliable;
it is supposed to contain some substantial error, so that a new leveling between Krasno-
yarsk and Lake Baikal is insisted upon. The incertitude in the isobars on an immense space
in northeast Asia resulting from this cause may attain as much as one or, perhaps, even
three tenths of an inch.

* An excellent resume of the whole work and its results in a popular form has been
published by Buchan himself in the Proceedings of the Geographical Society, March, 1891.

IS CRIME INCREASING? 399

IS CRIME INCREASING?

THE question whether crime is increasing or decreasing in
England and Wales has been the subject of an interesting
discussion in The Nineteenth Century between the Rev. William
Douglas Morrison, chaplain to the prison at Wandsworth, and
Sir Edmund F. Du Cane. Mr. Morrison remarks upon the incer-
titude and diversity of opinion prevailing on the subject as
something which it is desirable to clear away, and attributes the
perplexity of the public mind in the matter, in the main, to the
erratic and haphazard manner in which criminal statistics are
frequently handled. One of the most obvious mistakes, and yet
one which is frequently committed in dealing with questions of
crime, is to draw sweeping inferences from the criminal statistics
of a single year, or even of a short series of years. " It has to be
remembered that criminal returns are largely affected by the
fluctuating conditions of social existence, some of the more im-
portant of these being the rise or decay of political or industrial
agitation, the ebb and flow of commercial prosperity, and, more
rarely, the emotions aroused among the population by a state of
war. In order as much as possible to neutralize the disturbing
effect of these inconstant social factors, it is essential that all sta-
tistics relating to crime on which it is proposed to build any gen-
eral conclusions should cover a decade at the least, and unless this
principle is adhered to misleading ideas are almost certain to
arise." Sir Edmund Du Cane thinks that even ten years are
hardly a long enough period on which to base correct conclusions.

In Mr. Morrison's investigation of the subject three methods
of treatment present themselves for consideration. The total
number of offenses as reported to the police may be taken as a
criterion ; or the number of cases tried, both summarily and by
indictment ; or the total number of convictions. In order to ap-
preciate the movement of crime in all its various aspects, each of
these three methods is more or less necessary.

The returns of the yearly average of trials in the three decades
1868 to 1889 reveal an increase from 466,087 in the first decade to
701,060 in the third, satisfying Mr. Morrison that the total volume
of crime has increased very materially within the period. Among
the causes which have fostered this growth, he assigns an impor-
tant place to the development of social legislation. Offenses
against the Elementary Education Acts alone, he says, " have fur-
nished considerably more than half a million cases, and other
acts of a like character have produced similar results. But the
growth of offenses arising from a continuous widening of the
sphere of legislative effort is to some extent counterbalanced by

400 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the abolition in recent years of several old penal laws, as well as
by the greater reluctance of the police to set the law in motion
against trivial offenders. . . . Offenses may be growing, but the
population may be increasing still faster ; the question, therefore,
requires to be considered, to what extent the total number of
cases tried is keeping pace with the general growth of the com-
munity. Basing our calculations upon the estimated population
at each decade, it comes out that in 1S60-'G9 one case was tried
annually for every forty- four of the inhabitants of England and
Wales; in 1870-'79, one for every thirty-seven inhabitants; and
in 1880-'89, one for every thirty-eight. According to these statis-
tics, the proportion of crime to the population has remained al-
most the same for the last two decades ; but, if the last two decades
are compared with the first, the growth of crime has outstripped
the growth of population."

The question whether crime is increasing in seriousness along
with its expansion in volume may be answered best by an analysis
of the number and nature of the indictable offenses brought up
for trial during the three decades. The figures disclose a continu-
ous decrease; but opposed to this is the fact that the cases of
offenses against property without violence, constituting two thirds
of the whole number tried in the first decade, were more usually
dealt with summarily during the two subsequent decades. For
arriving at a more accurate estimate of the serious crimes com-
mitted in the first decade, Mr. Morrison selects as a type murder,
concerning which no material change in public feeling or judicial
procedure has taken place within the last thirty years. The fig-
ures— 12G in the first decade to 153 in the third — show that this,
the most serious of all crimes, has steadily increased within the
last three decades, and that in proportion to the growth of popu-
lation it was nearly as common in the last decade as in the first.
The author believes, therefore, that the apparent decrease in in-
dictable offenses is attributable to a change of criminal procedure
rather than to an actual decrease of serious crime. Even after the
Summary Jurisdiction Act was passed, by which a large number
of cases were taken out of the indictable list, every form of serious
crime appears to have relatively increased. Large increases in the
average of commitments to prison, the extension of juvenile and
reformatory schools, and the rapid and uninterrupted augmenta-
tion of the police force, are further adduced as pointing to the con-
clusion that " crime during the last thirty years, for which we
possess official returns, has not decreased in gravity, and has been
steadily developing in magnitude."

The explanation of this supposed increase is sought in the con-
centration of men in large cities and industrial centers.

Sir Edmund Du Cane criticises Mr. Morrison's methods, fig-

IS CRIME INCREASING? 401

ures, and conclusions unsparingly, and declares as the best opinion
he has been able to form on a review of all the facts, and from the
expressions of persons whose practical connection with the subject
gives weight to their views, that crime is decreasing. He cites
the returns of the prison population since 1877 as showing a con-
tinuous annual decrease, which none of the explanations offered
adequately account for except those which ascribe it to the de-
pression of trade cutting off the supply of money for drinking
with, or to the growing dislike of a certain class of criminals for
life in prison — both of which imply a decrease of crime. He as-
cribes the decrease to Christian philanthropy, which he says has
never attained a higher development than now, when it is per-
haps one of the principal features of the present stage of civiliza-
tion. It " has led to an entirely new way of dealing with crime —
namely, by prevention instead of by punishment ; and one of the
principal results of this philanthropic idea is the establishment
of industrial schools, in which young persons who seem likely to
fall into crime and to develop into adult criminals may be trained
into a better way and made into useful members of society.

" It has led to those movements for providing better dwellings,
and otherwise raising the condition of those who are sometimes
called ' the disinherited/ sometimes ' the submerged/ which help
to remove temptations to crime, and purify the atmosphere in
which those who may develop into criminals have been compelled
to live.

" It is perhaps one of the most curious features in the proof
offered of the increase of crime that the adoption and develop-
ment of the very means by which it is diminished are cited as
corroborations of the doctrine that it has increased — among them
being the increase in the number of juveniles committed to in-
dustrial schools. To show this we are given the number of those
committed to 'reformatories and industrial schools' added to-
gether. The reformatories are penal and reformatory institu-
tions for young persons convicted of crime, and correspond,
therefore, to prisons. The industrial schools, on the other hand,
are preventive institutions for children who have not been con-
victed, but might fall into crime for want of proper care and
training. To mix the two together obviously obscures the facts,
and the more thoroughly because the committals to reformatories
have decreased during the last ten years, so that the increase in
the united numbers is solely due to the development of the dis-
tinctly preventive institutions, to which there is little doubt the
decrease in crime and criminals is largely due, and which are the
product of the Christian civilization of which Rousseau thought
so little. In fact, mixing the two together is as if an increased
prevalence of small-pox was proved by adding together the num-

VOL. XLIII. — 27

402 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ber of people who developed the disease and the number who
were vaccinated to guard against it. Further than this, the fig-
ures given in the article [Mr. Morrison's] compare the three de-
cades beginning in 1860, 1870, and 1880, and show, what is true
enough, that the number of inmates of these two classes of insti-
tutions has increased in each ten years ; but this does not show
an increase of convicted or even of potential criminals, but only
reminds us that there were comparatively few such schools until
the great development of these institutions took place after the
Eeformatory and Industrial Schools Acts were passed, in 1866,
for the purpose of encouraging them, and that advantage has
been taken of them with still greater vigor in connection with
the Education Acts passed in and since 1870.

" In a similar way the increase in the police force is cited as a
proof of the increase of crime. If this view were sound, we should
expect to find that when there was no police force at all it
was because there was no crime — a paradox which, perhaps, it is
not necessary to spend time in refuting. Many years ago 110
traveler could cross Hounslow Heath, Wimbledon Common, or
similar desolate approaches to the metropolis, without a good
chance of being robbed. Hanging those who were caught did not
check this inconvenience ; but at last Sir John Fielding hit upon
the idea that it might be prevented, and established the armed
horse patrol, which soon put a check on the highwaymen. Their
appointment was no sign that highway robbing had increased ; it
was only a better mode of preventing it. Another most potent mode
of preventing crime is by making detection more certain. . . . An
increase in the police force, with a view to their greater prevent-
ive efficiency, is no more a sign that crime has increased than an
increase in the amount spent in drainage and water supply, when
towns and localities become alive to their advantage, is a proof of
increased unhealthiness in places which have adopted such pre-
ventive precautions. If an inquiry into the health of a town was
to assume that the increased activity of drainage was a sign of
increasing bad health, and was altogether to ignore and pass over
the evidence afforded by the improved death-rate and the opinion
of the medical men of the town, it would be precisely similar to
taking the increased activity in progressive development of these
preventive institutions as a sign of increase of crime, omitting
altogether any investigation into their effect on the number of
the criminal classes or disorderly houses, and ignoring the direct
testimony of the police, who must know how these matters stand."

A large proportion of the duties of the police, moreover, have
nothing to do with crime. The mere collection of large numbers
of people together makes a police necessary without any reference
to the crime they actually commit.

IS CRIME INCREASING? 403

The police every year furnish a return of the number of the
criminal classes. A comparison of the numbers given in these
returns affords what seems to be irresistible testimony of an im-
mense improvement. Since the year 1867-'68 the decrease in their
number has been practically continuous. Is it conceivable that,
while the criminal classes have diminished in this manner, crime
has increased ?

The direct testimony of the police themselves may be cited.
The commissioner of police of the metropolis adduces facts and
figures from which it " appears that there was greater security for
person and property in the metropolis during 1890 than in any
previous year included in the statistical returns " ; and this, not-
withstanding the increasing growth of the city at the rate of a
million a decade, makes it continually more difficult for the police
to deal with crime. The chief constable of Liverpool says that
" never since the first publication of returns of crime in Liverpool
(i. e., since 1857) have the statistics disclosed so small an amount
of crime or so large a success in making criminals amenable to
justice as those for the year ended the 29th of September, 1891."
The report for 1892 is to the same effect, except that crimes of
violence had slightly increased.

Mr. Grosvenor, of the Home Office, in a paper on The Abate-
ment of Crime, read to the Statistical Society in 1890, spoke of
the abatement having taken place in nearly all classes of crime
during the last twenty years ; of the " reduction in the number of
known thieves and other suspected persons at large, as well as of
houses of bad character which they frequent/" and of the extraor-
dinary diminution in the number of receivers of stolen goods.
Adding to this the fact of the great increase in the population of
the country, " we must admit," he says, " that the many agencies
enlisted for the purpose of diminishing the number of criminals
have been most successfully applied, and the result can not fail to
afford the utmost satisfaction and encouragement to all who are
anxious for the improved moral and physical advancement of our
nation."

Before considering the figures that measure the fluctuation in
the actual crimes, Sir- Edmund Du Cane tries to define what is
meant by the word crime as used in the discussion. One studying
the tables with a view to ascertaining the fluctuations in crime,
looking merely at the total number at the foot of them, would
probably conclude that the total volume of crime has increased
very materially, for the tables show apparently a very consider-
able increase ; " but if we look a little more closely at these totals
of which the figures are made up, we see that a very large propor-
tion of these offenses are not ' crimes ' at all, as the word is or-
dinarily understood. For instance, offenses against the Education

4o4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Acts could not be committed before 1870, but they count for 96,601
in the latter year. Few people, however, would say that ' crime '
was increasing and civilization demoralizing us because we now
compel parents to send their children to school, and hale before
the magistrates those who fail to do so, not having yet been accus-
tomed to accept the new law. Offenses against local acts and
borough by-laws, which are not ' crimes/ have in the same time
increased from 35,681 to 59,108 ; begging and other offenses against
the vagrant acts, from 41,780 to 46,019 ; offenses against the high-
way and similar acts, from 29,837 to 32,889. If the efforts that are
being made to make it a penal offense to work more than eight
hours a day are successful, we might expect to find several hun-
dred thousand added to the number of offenses brought before the
magistrates, but nobody would consider this a proof of increase of
' crime/ To find out, therefore, whether crime has increased or
decreased, it is necessary to extract from the mass of figures those
which really illustrate this point. The judicial statistics have
provided an excellent classified analysis of the offenses in which
those that consist of breaches of the laws for the protection of the
person or property are set forth in five classes, which constitute
substantially what people have in their minds when they speak of
an increase or decrease of crime. The tables distinguish between
offenses summarily dealt with and those not so treated as indict-
able offenses. Offenses of the latter class only are included in the
classification. These consist of offenses against the person, includ-
ing assaults; offenses against property, with violence; offenses
against property, without violence; malicious offenses against
property ; and forgery and offenses against the currency." The
tables, as summarized by the author, afford clear evidence of a
continuous decrease in the number of crimes committed both in-
dictable and summary, which is fatal to the theory of an inevi-
table increase.

Such results, Sir Edmund Du Cane observes, should be no mat-
ter of surprise, as they have, to all appearances, followed the pre-
ventive measures taken in order to effect them, among which are
particularly specified the establishment of institutions to guard
young people from falling into crime. This is further corrobo-
rated by the decrease in the number of first convictions, and the
diminution in the number of young persons (under sixteen years
of age) committed to prison (which includes all those sent to re-
formatories).

The author makes no reference in his review to punishment as
in any degree the cause of the decrease in crime which he sets
forth, " though," he says in his concluding paragraph, " I well
remember that, when crime was increasing, it was at once set
down to the prison system. I will not endeavor to appraise the

SKETCH OF CHARLES A. JOY. 405

share which punishment has in the decrease of crime, but will
repeat that in my opinion prevention is far and away better
than any possible cure, and that next to prevention stands cer-
tainty of detection and of bringing to justice. Punishment, then,
naturally comes into operation to serve as a warning and a deter-
rent to the wavering, and to the detected culprit a chastening ex-
perience, that should always be accompanied by influences calcu-
lated to reform/'

SKETCH OF CHARLES A. JOY.

BY MARCUS BENJAMIN, PH, D.

IN tracing the growth of science in this country it is interesting
to observe how its development may be followed in the biog-
raphies of its leaders ; thus, many of our scientists received their
first inspiration from the elder Silliman, while those of a later
date acquired their great fondness for the life-work to which they
devoted themselves from Louis Agassiz. From the leaders the
growth of science passed to the institutions with which originally
they were connected; then broadening, it located itself perma-
nently with those having the best instruction. In a less degree,
but equally true, is such the case in our cities. The story of the
development of science in New York city can be acquired almost
entirely by reading the lives of such men as Samuel Latham
Mitchell, James Renwick, John Torrey, John William Draper,
and John Strong Newberry. From these men its growth passed
in time to such institutions as Columbia College, the New York
Academy of Science, the University of the City of New York,
and the Columbia College School of Mines.

In the development of chemistry in this city CHARLES ARAB
JOY took a prominent part ; and if, perhaps, his name is not as
well known as some others, it must be attributed to the long
years of retirement — many of which were years of suffering —
that he passed in Europe and in his country home prior to his
recent death.

Prof. Joy was born in Ludlowville, Tompkins Coiinty, New
York, on October 8, 1823. His father was a well-known merchant,
but a fondness for literary pursuits seems to have been the habit
of the family. An elder brother became distinguished as an able
physician, and a sister married an eminent clergyman. With his
brother he studied at excellent preparatory schools in Ovid, N. Y.,
and in Lenox, Mass., and then was sent to Union College, where
he was graduated in 1844. Choosing law as his profession, he en-
tered Harvard, where he graduated in course at its law depart-
ment in 1847, receiving the degree of LL. B. Meanwhile he had

4o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

acquired a fondness for science. The beginnings of the applica-
tion of electricity to e very-day life were manifesting themselves
in the development of telegraphy under the direction of Samuel
Finley Breese Morse. The wonderful richness of the Lake Supe-
rior region in mineral wealth had just been made known and the
first copper mines opened, revealing almost pure metallic copper
to the astounded world. It was also while Joy was a student at
Harvard that Louis Agassiz gave his first course of lectures be-
fore the Lowell Institute in Boston, and it may have been, indeed
perhaps was, these lectures that led him to abandon the following
of a legal career in order to become a scientist. Moreover, he was
happy at this time in meeting Charles T. Jackson, one of the most
interesting characters in the history of American chemistry, in
whose laboratory, which was early opened to private students,
the original researches on the anaesthetic properties of ether are
said to have been made.

In 1847 Dr. Jackson was commissioned by Congress to survey
the mineral lands of Michigan, and promptly on finishing his
course at the law school Joy was invited to become a member of
the party, and continued with this expedition until the comple-
tion of its work. He then studied for a time in Dr. Jackson's
laboratory ; but realizing the impossibility of acquiring a thor-
ough training in chemistry in this country, he turned his steps
toward the Mecca of that science, and for two years studied in
Germany, first under Heinrich Rose in Berlin and then under
Friedrich Wohler in Gottingen, where in 1852 he took the degree
of Doctor of Philosophy. For an inaugural thesis the difficult
subject of the combination of alcohol radicals with selenium was
assigned to him, while at an adjoining desk a similar research
pertaining to the tellurium compounds was being carried on by
Prof. John W. Mallett, now of the University of Virginia. In
after years Prof. Joy frequently related to his classes how that,
owing to the offensive odors generated in the preparation of the
selenium and tellurium compounds, he and his fellow-student,
Mallett, were often the only two who remained at work. These
researches were among the earliest contributions to a class of
alcohol radicals combined with a metallic base that appeared in
chemical literature. After receiving his degree at Gottingen he
spent some time at the Sorbonne in Paris, where the brilliant
Dumas, then in his prime, lectured on chemistry.

With a scientific training seldom equaled by any young man
he returned to America, and was promptly called to the chair of
Chemistry in Union College. This place he then held for four
years, during part of which time he was assisted by Charles F.
Chandler, who later became Professor of Analytical and Applied
Chemistry in the School of Mines of Columbia College, and, sub-

SKETCH OF CHARLES A. JOY. 407

sequent to the resignation of Prof. Joy, his successor in the chair
of Chemistry in Union.

In 1857 Columbia College moved to its present site in Madison
Avenue, between Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Streets, and the chair
of Natural and Experimental Philosophy and Chemistry, then held
by Prof. Richard McCulloh, was divided so as to form the chair
of Mechanics and Physics, which was retained by Prof. McCulloh,
while a call to that of Chemistry was given to Prof. Joy. It is
perhaps worth recording that the only other candidate suggested
for the new chair was Dr. Wolcott Gibbs, an alumnus of Columbia,
in the class of 1841, then Professor of Physics and Chemistry at
the College of the City of New York, whence, in 1863, he was called
to the Rumf ord chair in the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard.

With the prestige of a splendid education, a successful career
at Union, and with fine social qualities, Prof. Joy was indeed well
fitted to advance the course of chemistry in Columbia. Almost
at once he founded in connection with his department a School of
Chemistry, designed to give a complete professional education in
chemistry to such as desired it. In the prospectus he wrote,
" The laboratory is furnished with the best modern appliances for
acquiring a thorough knowledge of chemistry and the applications
of the science to agriculture and the arts." Among those who
availed themselves of this instruction were Major Clarence S.
Brown, Captain William Jay, and other officers of the United
States army ; also such mining engineers as George William May-
nard, Edward M. Pell, and others ; while classed as chemists were
Julius H. Tieman, Peter C. Tieman, and William J. Youmans.
The success of this experiment made it easily possible, in 1863, to
interest the trustees of Columbia College in accepting the plan
proposed by Thomas Egleston, Jr., for the establishment of a
School of Mines. Prof. Joy was a pronounced advocate of this un-
dertaking from the outset. He was urged to assume charge of the
department of chemistry in the new school, but this he declined,
and recommended that his assistant at Union, Prof. Charles
F. Chandler, be called to organize the department. This advice
was at once favorably acted on by the trustees of Columbia Col-
lege, and Prof. Chandler was given the chair of Analytical and
Applied Chemistry, with charge of the laboratories. Although
his duties in the academic department were already quite onerous,
Prof. Joy promptly volunteered his services as lecturer, and in
the first catalogue of the School of Mines his name appears as
in charge of organic chemistry. Later, when the regular fac-
ulty was organized, he was made Professor of General Chemis-
try, and so continued until his retirement in 1877; also in the
meanwhile he remained at the head of the chemical department
of the college proper.

4o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The atmosphere of a large city is not conducive to much origi-
nal work in science, and especially is this the case in New York
city. Things of a more practical nature force themselves upon
the attention of a scientist, and his opinion is in constant demand.
In consequence, we find in the American Contributions to Chem-
istry but two papers devoted to original research contributed by
Prof. Joy during the time of his connection with Columbia Col-
lege. They are On Glucinum and its Compounds (1863), and
Analysis of a Meteorite from Chili (1864), both of which were
published in the American Journal of Science. Several of the
analyses of minerals that appeared in Dana's System of Miner-
alogy by him were also made at this time. This meager record is
readily explained by the fact that Prof. Joy's literary inclination
was promptly taken advantage of by the editors of prominent
periodicals, and articles from his skillful pen were constantly in
demand. He was a frequent contributor to the Scientific Ameri-
can, and every week prepared columns of notes for Frank Leslie's
periodicals, reviewing all of their foreign scientific exchanges for
them. For many years he edited the Journal of Applied Chem-
istry, published in New York, and also wrote most of the articles
on chemistry in Appletons' American Cyclopaedia.

Prof. Joy was naturally prominent in numerous organizations,
chiefly, however, in those of a scientific character. He held the
chairmanship of the Polytechnic Association of the American In-
stitute; he was also President of the American Photographic
Society. During 1866-'67 he was President of the Lyceum of
Natural History, now the Academy of Science, from which place
he gracefully and generously retired after a brief service in order
to afford an opportunity to Dr. John S. Newberry to be introduced
to the scientific circles of the metropolis. In 1874, when the
American chemists gathered at the grave of Priestley, in North-
umberland, Pa., and an organization was effected to celebrate the
Centennial of Chemistry, Prof. Joy was chosen one of the vice-
presidents. He was a Fellow of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science, and for a time was Foreign Secretary of
the American Geographical Society ; he was likewise an enthu-
siastic member of the Century Association. It is but fair also to
record his active interest in various charitable societies, and he
was a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church.

Among the many interesting experiences of his life none per-
haps gave him more delight than his connections with the various
World's Fairs. He served on juries of those held in London, Paris,
Vienna, and Philadelphia. During the terrible heat in 1876,
while actively engaged in his duties at the Centennial Fair
in Philadelphia, he was prostrated by sunstroke. He was
promptly brought to his city home, but a cruel illness of many

SKETCH OF CHARLES A. JOY. 409

months followed, and at last, when he was able to again consider
the resumption of his work, strength was lacking. In considera-
tion of his years of faithful service, the college trustees retired
him with a pension, and he returned to the scenes of his student
days. For a time he was in Hanover, then in Switzerland, also
in France, and in Munich. The World's Fair in Paris during
1889 attracted him there ; but finally, after an absence of nearly
ten years, he turned his steps homeward, and spent the winter of
1890-'91 at his own country home in Stockbridge, Mass. When
the spring came he was already making plans to visit the great
World's Fair, to be held in Chicago, but suddenly and with
scarcely any warning a trifling indisposition seized him, and he
died on May 29, 1891.

As has been shown, Prof. Joy filled many places of high honor
with distinction. His associates and pupils held him in worthy
esteem, and from the scientific world at large he deserves a more
than passing notice, for it may be said it was his efforts that in-
directly brought about that recognition of science in this city that
culminated in the organization of the greatest School of Mines in
the United States.

THE ice scenery of the mountains of New Zealand was first brought to notice
by the Rev. W. S. Green in 1882, who that year explored the glacier region of
Aorangi, or Mount Cook. Since then visitors have been attracted to the mount-
ain region in increasing numbers ; a hotel has been built in a convenient situation
near the foot of one of the glaciers ; surveys have been undertaken ; and a series
of exploratory expeditions has been begun by Mr. G. E. Mannering and his coad-
jutors. The southern Alps proper of New Zealand run from northeast to south-
west for about a hundred miles, nearer to the western than to the eastern coast of
the South Island. Hence the valleys fall more rapidly toward the west than toward
the east ; and on the latter side a wide tract of plain separates the sea from the foot
of the hills. Being pierced more deeply by the lowlands, although the New Zea-
land peaks are considerably lower than those of the European Alps — the summit
of Aorangi, the highest of them, being only 12,349 feet high — they tower as high
and as steep above their actual bases. Aorangi, according to Mr. Mannering, rises
"for nearly 10,000 feet from the Hooker Glacier, and Mount Sef ten 8,500 feet
from the Mueller Glacier, while the western precipices of Mount Tasman (11,475
feet) are stupendous." The^ snow-line in these mountains lies much lower than in
Switzerland, being only about 5,000 feet above the sea. Thus the glaciers are
greater and descend lower than those of Switzerland. The Tasman glacier is eight-
een or twenty miles long, and terminates at a height of 2,456 feet above the sea.
On the western side the ice approaches occasionally to within 600 feet. Thus in
the New Zealand Alps, says Mr. T. G. Bonney, renewing Mr. Mannering's book in
Nature, "the Alpine climber meets with the same difficulties and is surrounded
by the same class of scenery as he finds in the Old World amid peaks and passes
3,000 feet higher." But, great as are these glaciers, Mr. Bonney adds, they are,
like those of Europe, attenuated representatives of their predecessors, for New
Zealand also has had its Ice age.

4io

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

CORRESPONDENCE.

AN AUTHOR'S PROTEST.
Editor Popular Science Monthly :

MY attention has just been called to the
notice you have given, in the May
number of The Popular Science Monthly, of
the second volume of the report upon which I
am engaged (see pages 131 and 132 of the May
number). I am gratified by the approval ex-
pressed of the " report proper," " five hun-
dred pages of well-digested matter," etc., as
that is in an especial sense my own work ; but
it seems to me the writer would have been
more just if he had stated that the work was
avowedly largely a work of reference, and
also that every device had been availed of
to facilitate such reference.

This book is made for the use of educa-
tors and teachers, and its purpose is to record
what has already been done in this country
in introducing " Manual Training in Public
Schools," and also to furnish those con-
sidering the wisdom of making any changes
in this direction, with the experience, opin-
ions, and plans of educators who have seri-
ously considered or undertaken the work. All
the literature on these topics is ephemeral and
not within reach of the ordinary teacher nor
to be found in ordinary libraries. It largely
consists of speeches, papers, addresses, and
local reports. The movement is a live one,
progressing by rapid strides, and the material
grows rapidly. My purpose has been to get
together and put in the hands of the teach-
ers all the material and the latest material
possible. Now, the work of planning, collat-
ing, preparing, arranging, proof-reading^ and
indexing this big book falls upon myself alone,
with aid, part of the time, of a single copy-
ist. As fast as the matter is proof-read it is
stereotyped ; so the only way in which I could
add later matter was to turn the " Introduc-
tion " into an extra appendix. I know, as
well as the wise reviewer, that if I could have
had all the material in those appendices spread
before me in clean printed pages as he finds
it in this volume, I also could have made a
smaller and a better-proportioned book ; but
my aim was to be of most use to the educa-
tors and teachers, and my reward has been,
much as it may surprise our critical friend, to
meet with the hearty approval of all classes
of educators, including the Presidents of Yale,
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Johns Hopkins, Tulane ; the superintendents
of education throughout the country, educa-
tional authorities like Newell and MacAlister,
and countless teachers ; while the National
Education Association in convention at Sara-
toga last summer took occasion to pass a spe-
cial resolution of approval.

Now to consider the special features criti-

cised for a moment. The contemptuous
treatment given to my first volume by The
Popular Science Monthly, and especially by
the New York Nation and the Evening Post,
was such as to lead me to think that it might
be well for me to put on record the approv-
ing judgment of such educational and liter-
ary authorities as the veteran educators Henry
Barnard and George Bancroft, the poet Whit-
tier for his appreciation of Philbrick, and
John Sparkes, the head of the Kensington
Art Schools. The press of the United States
and also of Great Britain and France gave
generous and intelligent approval of the first
volume of this report ; but in the Cosmos Club,
of this city, of which I chance to be one of
the founder members, The Popular Science
Monthly, and the twin sheets over which Mr.
Godkin presides, are largely read ; and, of
course, my standing, in the opinion of those
who accept these as divine oracles, suffered !
I proposed that this abuse — for the Nation-
Post article was largely abuse — should be off-
set, so that in case any of the Cosmos follow-
ers of Godkin chanced to open my second vol-
ume, they might find that there were other
views !

Your reviewer criticises the fact that the
tributes were paid to Philbrick, Smith, and
Perkins ; but surely, if anywhere it was prop-
er to have printed tributes to these three great
teachers, it was in this report, the first vol-
ume of which was but a record of their great
experiment, as this second volume is a his-
tory of what has been the immediate outcome
of their endeavor. I should have felt con-
demned had I failed to pay such poor tribute
to them as was in my power. Those three
citizens did more for their country than
hundreds of ordinary citizens are enabled
to do.

One hundred pages of the " Introduction "
it was plainly stated were made use of as an
extra " appendix," since that part of the book
is printed last; but your reviewer suppresses
that fact, and implies that this " Introduc-
tion " is all a mere mass of useless verbiage.

It is the easiest of all things to sneer, as
your reviewer has done ; but is it very manly
in a journal, professing to be respectable and
scientific, to treat a serious work in such a
flippant vein ? If other books are reviewed
with as little of the spirit of fairness, or with
the effect of so plainly seeking to belittle
them, as is shown by the treatment accorded
to this volume, I shall hardly look to the
Monthly as giving any very valuable informa-
tion about the works it assumes to notice. I
have thought it due to the work to write this
much of protest against the attitude assumed
toward it by the writer in the Monthly ; but

CORRESP ONDENCE.

yet it seems hardly worth while, for the ver-
dict of approval by those for whom the re-
port was undertaken had been given long be-
fore this notice appeared ; indeed, the de-
mand by teachers and educators for this
" overgrown volume " and for its predeces-
sor is so much greater than the supply that
the closing reference to " so many copies
going back unread to the paper vat " falls
rather flat to those who know the facts ; of
course, however, the falsehood, which is there
implied as a truth applicable to this particu-
lar publication, helps to damn book and au-
thor in the opinion of the ingenuous and gul-
lible reader. I. EDWARDS CLARKE.

DEPARTMENT or THE INTERIOR, BUREAU OF
EDUCATION, WASHINGTON, April 29, 1893.

[We have never received a protest which
furnished us quite so much evidence in sup-
port of our own position as does this letter
of Mr. I. Edwards Clarke. In his first para-
graph he shows that we discriminated be-
tween the well-digested part of his second
volume and the gatherings of his drag-net.
In his second paragraph he states that his
purpose has been to get together "all the
material" on his subject, which involved
the reprinting of much " ephemeral " litera-
ture, such as " speeches, papers, addresses,
and local reports." He does not show that
the purposes of a " work of reference," as he
calls his report, necessitate the reprinting
of these speeches, etc., in full, nor does he
seem to see that the reason why such com-
positions are ephemeral is that they are not
sufficiently condensed to be suitable for per-
manent preservation. We are gratified to
learn that our reviewers of Mr. Clarke's two
volumes arrived independently at the same
opinion of his work, for we find that the
person who noticed the second volume did
not know what another writer had said of
the first in the Monthly seven years ago.
We are also gratified to "find ourselves in ac-
cord with such an able critical authority as
The Nation. It is not surprising that a
great many teachers and educators have
wanted the book enough to ask for it. We
stated in our notices that it contains much
valuable material, and complained only of
the quantity of chaff among the wheat. Mr.
Clarke has evidently done his work consci-
entiously, but he needs the wholesome,
bracing atmosphere which surrounds the
writers of books that must pay their own
expenses, and which the Government book-
maker is protected from. Finally, if any
more evidence of his tendency to diffuseness
were needed, it would be afforded by the
length of the letter above. — EDITOR.]

tPHE TRACING OF THE PENNSYLVANIA
GLACIAL MORAINE.
;

WE have received the following letter
from Mrs. H. Carvill Lewis, in reference to
some remarks recently made in The Popular

Science Monthly concerning the work of the
late Prof. Lewis and Prof. G. F. Wright in trac-
ing the glacial moraine across Pennsylvania.
Having given our authority in the editorial
(Correspondence Department) in the April
number for the statements made in the arti-
cle Recent Glacial Discoveries in England, in
the December number, we publish the letter
without further comment :

HOTEL LANG, HEIDELBERG, April 16, 18 3.
Editor Popular Science MonMy.

DEAR SIR: In reference to your editorial
on Recent Glacial Researches in England,
Popular Science Monthly, March, 1893, and
to my statement that " it was only over the
last third of the work (i. e., in the tracing of
the terminal moraine across Pennsylvania
from June to October, 1881) that Prof. Car-
vill Lewis had the pleasure and benefit of
Prof. Wright's companionship," may I take
the liberty of calling your attention to the in-
closed letters, which will explain themselves ?
The question as to whether Prof. Wright
has on one or more occasions seen the whole
or " three fourths " of the moraine in Penn-
sylvania does not seem to me the point at
issue. It is simply this :

Is the statement in Mr. Warren Upham's
sketch of Prof. H. Carvill Lewis's life and
work, as quoted by yourself, that in "the
following year (1881) Profs. Lewis and Wright
together traversed the southern border of
the drift from Belvidere on . the Delaware"
etc., " to the line dividing Pennsylvania and
Ohio," correct?

To this question an exact knowledge of
the facts of the case compels me to answer
" No," and in support of this opinion I in-
close you two letters, the latter of which was
published by Prof. Wright himself.

The matter itself is of little consequence,
but as the accuracy of my statement is for
the general reader of the Monthly apparent-
ly controverted by the abstract you have
given from Mr. Upham's article, I feel it
best to produce proof of its correctness.

With regard to the map of the glacia-
tion of England, which prefaced your arti-
cle in the December number of The Popular
Science Monthly, I regret to say that it does
not " represent Prof. Lewis's work as com-
pleted in England by Prof. Kendall." I
most heartily wish that it did !

The map in question has in its main fea-
tures been copied from some of the leading
~ glish authorities — possibly from one of the
maps in Geikie's Great Ice Age, to which it
jears a strong resemblance.

Over this older map, which is quite at vari-
ance with my husband's leading conclusions,
the tracks followed by Scotch and Lake Dis-
,rict erratics, as traced by Prof. Kendall, and
the moraine line across England and Wales
only, as traced by my husband, have been
drawn. The moraine line is tolerably accu-
rate.

412

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The points of agreement between Prof.
Kendall and my husband, and the proofs
more recently found by Prof. Kendall in
northwest England (a part of the country
with which he is thoroughly familiar) of the
correctness of my husband's views with re-
gard to the origin of the interbedded marine
and glacial deposits of Lancashire and Chesh-
ire, will appear in full in the first appendix
of the memoir on my husband's observations
in Great Britain, which is now in the hands
of the printer. I am, with respect,

Faithfully yours, JULIA F. LEWIS.

The following letter, inclosed in Mrs.
Lewis's letter, was copied by her from the
work on The Terminal Moraine in Pennsyl-
vania, by H. Carvill Lewis, introduction,
p.li.

(Letter of TransmittaL)
PROF. J. P. LESLEY, State Geologist.

DEAR SIR : In transmitting to you the fol-
lowing notes on the terminal moraine, I de-
sire to express my thanks to the Second Geo-
logical Survey, which has afforded me the
opportunity to undertake an exploration

which to me has been of the greatest in-
terest.

I desire also to express my thanks to
those citizens and railroad companies which
have rendered assistance in the prosecution
of my field work. Especially I am indebted
to my friend Prof. George Frederick Wright,
of Oberlin, Ohio, who for six weeks — about
one third of the time employed in field work
in 1881 — gave me valuable assistance.*
While we were together over a great part of
the field, portions of the moraine in central
Lycoming and southern Venango Counties
were traced by him alone, and his experience
in the glacial phenomena of New England
has been of great value in correlating similar
deposits in Pennsylvania.

Hoping the inclosed report will meet with
your approval,

I remain, very respectfully yours,

(Signed) H. CARVILL LEWIS.

GERMAN-TOWN, October 15, 1882.

The other letter referred to by Mrs.
Lewis is a letter from her published by Prof.
Wright, to whom it was written, in Science
of May 27, 1892.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

THE ATTACK ON PROF. WRIGHT.
"TTTE publish in this number an ar-
VV tide by Major J. W. Powell, Di-
rector of the Geological Survey of the
United States, in which much interest-
ing information is given as to the prob-
lems, or some of them, which the Sur-
vey has taken in hand to solve, and as
to the methods of investigation which
have been employed. Major Powell's
primary object is, however, to clear the
Survey of the charge of having made a
concerted and most bitter attack upon
Prof. G. F. Wright's recently published
book on Man and the Glacial Period,
and in this respect we are compelled to
say that we think his article a failure.
We accept without the slightest reser-
vation his disclaimer of any personal
responsibility in the matter ; but with
the evidence before us we find it impos-
sible to believe that a number of indi-
viduals, directly or indirectly connected
with the Survey, did not, in a concerted

manner, set themselves to attack Prof.
Wright's book, and that in a spirit of
personal hostility and spite far more
than of zeal for scientific accuracy. Con-
sidering the nature of the language in-
dulged in by Mr. W J McGee in regard
not only to Prof. Wright's hook, hut to
Prof. Wright himself, we think the di-
rector of the Survey might have spared
a few words in which to express his per-
sonal disapprobation of it ; but we look
in vain in his article for anything ot the
kind. He admits that upon the publica-
tion of the work in question "his (Prof.
Wright's) fellow-workers (on the survey)
criticised the book in various scientific
periodicals and sometimes spoke very dis-
paragingly of it, as being unworthy of ac-
ceptance ; " but he does not say that so
prominent a member of the Survey as Mr.
McGee penned and published an article

* I. e., in tracing the terminal moraine across
Pennsylvania. — J. F. LEWIS.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

413

breathing from the first page to the last
the spirit of personal insult, and so far
tried to set the key for the criticisms of
other "fellow-workers." If the direct-
or had gone on and made this state-
ment, which would have been quite rele-
vant to the subject and purpose of his
article, we think he would have felt it
incumbent on him to express some opin-
ion as to the expediency and propriety
of his coadjutor's method of vindicating
scientific orthodoxy as established at
Washington. There is a manifest les-
son to be learned from the incident.
The Geological Survey is a body with
wide ramifications, and whether it has
already done so or not, it is in dan-
ger, from the very nature of its organi-
zation, of becoming a kind of scientific
hierarchy, and, as such, of exercising an
influence unfavorable rather than favor-
able to the increase of scientific knowl-
edge. We learn from the director that
when Prof. Wright proposed to publish
his first book, The Ice Age in North
America, Prof. Chamberlin, under whose
direction he had worked as an assistant
in the Survey, " demurred." It is really
hard to see why Prof. Chamberlin should
have taken upon himself to demur.
Prof. Wright was not seeking to com-
promise any one but himself, and it was
known that his work, of whatever char-
acter it might prove to be, would be fully
open to criticism. If some scientific
gentlemen could get it into their heads
that science is not a personal matter,
but a simple question of the establish-
ment of general truths, and that every
man is free to labor toward that end by
the aid of such lights as he possesses,
subject to correction by those whose
lights are stronger and clearer, things
would go more smoothly than they do
in the scienti6c world, and the laity
would not so often have to exclaim
(with sarcasm), u See how these men
of science love one another ! " The
services of Prof. Wright were dispensed
with from the Survey — so the director
tells us— because he failed to distin-

guish "overplacement" from original
glacial deposit. We are not in a posi-
tion to judge of the adequacy of the
reason; but admitting that it was a
sound one, might we suggest to the di-
rector that the writing of so discredit-
able an article as that which proceeded
from the pen of Mr. W J McGee might
perhaps be at least as serious a reason
for removal from the Survey as even
the non-recognition now and then of
" overplacement " ? As our readers are
aware, the general soundness of Prof.
Wright's observations was defended in
a carefully written article by Prof. E.
W. Claypole, which appeared in the
April number of this magazine. It is
not our part to enter into the con-
troversy, but we can not help remarking
upon the magisterial manner in which
the Director of the Survey dismisses
Prof. Claypole's article as being " based
upon error in every paragraph." Let
us hope that, if such is the case, some
one will come forward and prove it
otherwise than with a lofty wave of the
hand.

A BACKWARD MOVEMENT.
WE have often had occasion to notice
the valiant struggles of our contempora-
ry, The Nation, in the cause of rational
journalism, and we earnestly trust it may
not grow weary in well-doing, however
potent the opposing forces may appear
to be. We particularly wish it success
— some measure of success, for there is
no use in wishing too much — in its cru-
sade against the fashion lately intro-
duced by many of the daily papers of
disfiguring their columns with wood-
cuts, far less for purposes of illustration
in the true sense than as mere distrac-
tions for idle readers (save the mark !),
who can not bear the stress of a score
of lines of unbroken print. These cuts,
the Nation says, with a measure of
truth, are a natural sequence of the very
childish editorial and news matter which
many papers have for years past been
serving up to the public. As our con-

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

temporary puts it, "The printed mat-
ter of some of them has for a good
while been doing all that printed matter
can to reduce the popular intelligence
to that early stage which makes the life
of nursery governesses and mistresses of
kindergartens so hard, in which all the
resources of pedagogy have to be ex-
hausted to keep the child's attention
fixed on anything." In a later article
the Nation remarks that, for the pur-
pose for which they are now employed,
the "cuts" do not in the least need to
be accurate. Their whole and sole pur-
pose is to give a grown-up child some-
thing to look at, and whether or not
they represent correctly the things or
persons they are supposed to represent
has simply "nothing to do with the
case." The mind exhausted by the pe-
rusal of a dozen lines of letterpress finds
refreshment and repose in gazing at a
picture of any object, however common,
connected in any way, however insignifi-
cant, with any incident, however trivial
that may form part of the gossip of the
day. As the Nation sarcastically ob-
serves : " The great question of cabmen's
beards might have been discussed indefi-
nitely without the thorough elucidation
given by a picture of a cabman with a
beard, a cabman without a beard, and
two or three cabmen prominent in the
agitation."

Our contemporary fears that the
end is not yet, that there is perhaps
some lower depth of mental degradation
to be sounded. A silly letter press pre-
pared the way for yet sillier pictures,
and the question now is what these are
likely to bring forth as an ulterior result.
If it is any comfort, we may reflect that
the complaint of a growing childishness
of the public mind is a somewhat an-
cient one. Without going further back,
we recall Cowper's lines published in
1782:

"Habits of close attention, thinking heads,
Become more rare as dissipation spreads ;
Till authors hear at length one general cry,
' Tickle and entertain us, or we die ! ' "

Nearly fifty years ago we find the
poet Wordsworth inveighing against
"illustrated books and newspapers" in
a sonnet which, judging by later devel-
opments, does not appear to have had
much effect, but which seems to express
our contemporary's views exactly:

" Discourse was deemed Man's noblest attri-
bute,

And written words the glory of his hand ;
Then followed Printing, with enlarged com-
mand

For thought— dominion vast and absolute
For spreading truth, and making love ex-
pand.

Now prose and verse, sunk into disrepute,
Must lacquey a dumb Art that best can suit
The taste of this once intellectual land.
A backward movement surely we have here,
For manhood— back to childhood ; for the

age-
Back towards caverned life's first rude ca-
reer.

Avaunt this vile abuse of pictured page !
Must eyes be all in all, the tongue and ear
Nothing? Heaven keep us from a lower
stage ! "

If the poet found so much to object
to in the scanty attempts at so-called
illustration made at the date at which
this sonnet was penned (1846), what
would he say to the present day devel-
opment of the illustration business? He
could have seen, had he lived to the
present t me, a picture, in a leading
English paper, of the hide taken off the
cow that ran down Mr. Gladstone ; the
cow itself was unfortunately killed and
cut up before her likeness had been
taken, but why that should have pre-
vented the image of some other cow, of
any cow, being offered to an intelligent
public in her stead, or why the joints
into which she was dissected should not
have been severally photographed, and
so exhibited as well as the hide, we have
never quite understood.

It was a dictum of Auguste Comte,
delivered about the time that Words-
worth was uttering his unavailing and,
we must say, too undiscriminating pro-
test against " illustrated books and news-
papers," that the specific weakness of

LITERARY NOTICES.

415

the present age was a tendency to idio-
cy, which he defined as a condition in
which mere sensations dominate and
suppress mental activity ; or, in other
words, a life of excessive objectivity and
defective subjectivity — insanity, accord-
ing to him, being the exactly opposite
condition. If The Nation is right in
its diagnosis of present day tendencies,
Comte was not very far wrong ; and as
that journal is certainly right in part,
the question arises, What are we going
to do about it ? The first thing to do is
clearly to recognize the nature. and pro-
portions of the evil. Illustrations in
books and papers are useful when they
either serve an aesthetic purpose or con-
vey information of value which could
not otherwise be as effectively con-
veyed. In scientific works they are, of
course, indispensable. On the other
hand, they do harm and not good when
they minister to simple intellectual in-
dolence, or help to gratify an aimless
and idle curiosity. We are inclined to
think that in children's books, even
good illustrations (from an artistic point
of view) may have the specific disadvan-
tageous result of checking the exercise
of imagination. The mind in childhood
can make its own pictures, and will do so
if nobody steps in with a picture ready
made. With pictures illustrating every
phase and turn of a story, there is little
left for imagination to do and the fac-
ulty is apt to remain undeveloped for
want of exercise. And an undeveloped
imagination means an undeveloped, or
at least ill-developed, individuality.
There has been, we believe, a great
deal of misunderstanding on this point
in the past. It has been assumed that
the more pictures children could be
shown the more their minds would be
stimulated ; but, for the reason stated
we believe this to be a great mistake.
We can not further discuss the subject
to-day, but it is manifestly one of much
importance for old and young. Idiocy, or
anything approaching to it, is not a con-
dition of mind to be lightly cultivated.

THE "SAVAGERY" OF BELIEVING IN
GHOSTS.

IT is a good rule that a scientific
writer, before castigating the expres-
sions of another, should acquire a right
comprehension of what is meant by
them. The Popular Science News seems
to have forgotten this rule. Referring
to our article in the March number on
The Everlasting Ghost, that periodical
says that, just like "any superstitious
savage," we had assumed that the ap-
pearances described by the Rev. Mr.
Haweis as having developed themselves
on certain photographic plates were
"ghost photographs." If our contem-
porary had read the papers in the case
more carefully — Mr. Haweis's article,
for instance, or even only the heading
of it, or had even read our article with
closer attention to its bearing — it would
have observed that the precise thing we
were ridiculing was the assumption that
the appearances on the plate were
"ghost photographs," and would then
have been able to direct its shafts to-
ward the right quarter. We do not
underrate the value of research in this
domain, or in any part of the field of
unexplained phenomena styled psychi-
cal; but we do condemn the spirit that
enters upon the investigation occupied
with the idea that a certain thing — as,
for example, the ghosts in this case — is
to be found. The savagery in the pres-
ent instance, if there be any, appears to
be illustrated in the uncontrolled impul-
siveness that prompted an attack where
there was no offense.

LITERARY NOTICES.

EDUCATION FROM A NATIONAL STANDPOINT.
By ALFRED FOUILLEE. International Edu-
cation Series. Vol. XXIII. New York :
D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 332. Price,
$1.60.

VIVE la r6publique ! — the welfare of the
nation — is the keynote of this book. Edu-
cators who would have a complete and well-
balanced understanding of their own field
should not omit to study the relation of edu-

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

cation to national interests. Dr. Harris has
chosen an excellent tutor for them in M.
Fouill6e, an eminent scholar and one of the
race in which the national spirit is notably
strong. Assuming that each nation has a
continuity of character, mind, habits, and
aptitudes which forms an organic heredity
and identity persisting from age to age, the
author inquires how education can be made
to assist in perfecting this national nature.
After a word on the importance of physical
education he states that the chief objects of
intellectual education should be — first, the
moral; second, the beautiful; and last, the
true. The reader should be cautioned against
accepting fully M. Fouillee's representation of
the effects of the study of science. In various
places, and especially in the chapters on the
Scientific Humanities, he denounces the pres-
ent teaching of science as if it actually rep-
resented this field of knowledge at its best,
and declares that science has been weighed
and found wanting. He ignores the fact
that science has been taught often by un-
sympathetic teachers, without suitable mate-
rials, and for a very short period at all. In
his chapters on the Classical Humanities he
is much more sympathetic, recommending
these subjects as the very best means of fos-
tering a national spirit. He criticises se-
verely what is known in France as a modern
education, and proposes a reformed system
of secondary training which should embrace
these studies : 1, the literature of the mother
country ; 2, Latin literature ; 3, general his-
tory; 4, the elements of mathematics and
physics. Where diversity arises, it should
be in only the following special subjects :
Greek, secondary science subjects with ap-
plied science, and modern languages. In
conclusion, he maintains that all education
will prove defective from the national stand-
point unless it includes moral and social sci-
ence, and unless its several parts are unified
by philosophy. Programmes illustrating the
author's views are given in an appendix.

A CONTRIBUTION TO OUR KNOWLEDGE OF
SEEDLINGS. By the Right Hon. Sir JOHN
LUBBOCK, Bart. New York : D. Apple-
ton & Co. In two volumes. Price, $10.

THE results of a wide-reaching botanical
research are embodied in these two substan-
tial and copiously illustrated volumes. The

subject of this research is the forms of coty-
ledons, which not only differ greatly in dif-
ferent plants but are generally much differ-
ent from the forms of the ordinary leaves in
the same plant. Some cotyledons are broad,
others narrow; those of the mustard are
kidney-shaped, of the cress three-lobed, of
the beech fan-shaped, of the sycamore shaped
almost like a knife-blade, of Eschscholtzia
divided like a hay-fork, of the bean or acorn
thick and fleshy. The shape of the seed
seems to have an influence on the shape of
the cotyledons. Where the cotyledons are
narrow and lie straight in a long, narrow
seed, the relation is simple, but such cases
are few. Often narrow cotyledons are found
coiled in orbicular seeds. In many broad
seeds we find two fleshy cotyledons laid face
to face, and occupying almost the whole of
the seed. In the nearly spherical radish
seed the cotyledons are laid face to face and
then folded along the middle. In other spe-
cies one cotyledon is larger than the other,
or the halves of each cotyledon are unequal ;
still other cotyledons are lobed, emarginate,
auricled, etc., and for all of these features
the author has found probable causes in the
shape of the seed or the way in which the
cotyledons are packed within it. A general
statement of these points occupies the early
part of the first volume, while the rest of the
work is devoted to descriptions of the seed-
lings in a large number of genera. In pro-
curing the seedlings for these descriptions
the author has been permitted to make large
use of the resources of Kew Gardens. A
valuable feature of the work is the carefully
drawn illustrations of seedlings, sections of
seeds, etc., of which there are six hundred
and eighty-four. An index and a bibliogra-
phy are appended.

THE THEORY OP WAGES AND ITS APPLICATION.
By HERBERT M. THOMPSON. London and
New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 140.
Price, $1.

THIS is a piece of close and clearly ex-
pressed reasoning upon one of the great prob-
lems of political economy. The author says
that his economic statements are, for the
most part, those accepted by the economists
of to-day. These statements' he sets forth
in the first chapter, and upon them he bases
the proposition that " the universal product

LITERARY NOTICES.

417

of industry and abstinence " (the " universal
dividend," as it might be called) " is a mass
of wealth varying in amount, and divided in
varying proportions among the agents to its
production." Holding this view, the author
obviously can not accept the wage-fund
theory nor the theory that labor is the re-
sidual claimant to the product of industry,
nor the doctrine that " rent does not enter
into the expenses of production," and his
next three chapters are devoted to criticisms
of these doctrines. In his criticism of the
first-named theory he comes in conflict with
Mill, Fawcett, and Cairns ; he takes Walker
as a representative of the second, and Mar-
shall and Sorley as supporting the last. In
his fifth and final chapter he applies his
theory of wages to the eight-hour movement,
trades-unionism, profit-sharing, etc.

How NATURE CURES, COMPRISING A NEW
SYSTEM OF HYGIENE ; also, THE NATURAL
FOOD OF MAN. By EMMET DENSMORE,
M. D. London : Swan, Sonnenschein &
Co. New York: Stillman & Co. Pp.
405.

IN this work Dr. Densmore makes a bold
effort to shatter all existing and accepted
systems of dietary, and ominously warns
his readers of the dangers of seeking the
assistance of the medical profession in cases
of sickness. The book is divided into three
parts : How to Doctor, How to Get Well and
Keep Well, and The Natural Food of Man.
In the first chapter of Part I the author
gives an example of the process of natural
healing, or, as he terms it, "Nature's en-
gineering." He says: "A sliver becomes
imbedded in the flesh — a frequent accident.
... If the sliver is permitted to remain,
Nature at once sets about a bit of engineer-
ing. First, there is pain and inflammation ;
then follows a formation of pus ; this in due
time breaks down the tissues immediately
surrounding the sliver, especially toward the
surface of the limb ; the pus increases, breaks
through, runs out, and sooner or later carries
the sliver with it." And he claims that
" these and like processes of Nature are all
the healing force there is."

Further on, he asserts that the deaths of
both George Washington and President Gar-
field were either hastened or directly caused
by the drugs of the physicians in the first in-
stance, and in the second by the daily prob-
TOL. XLIII. — 28

ing for the bullet, which, if left undisturbed,
would not have been fatal. All through the
early part of the work the author advances
argument after argument against the uses of
drugs for healing purposes, and in the fifth
chapter he makes the announcement that,
although surgery can be classed as a science,
" medicine is not a science ; it is empiricism
founded on a network of blunders."

The second part of the book treats of
Ho\v to Get Well and Keep Well, and em-
braces a series of chapters upon the uses
and abuses of certain foods and their relative
values for promoting health. In the first
chapter of this part, while admitting that
" bread, cereals, pulses, and vegetables are
the bases of the food of civilization," he
denies the urgency of their forming the bases
of food, and in fact distinctly states that
these and all other starch foods are not bene-
ficial to the system ; and he urges the use of
ripe sweet fruits in their place. This con-
tention he bases upon the fact that starchy
foods such as bread, cereals, etc., are not
digested in the first stomach, but have to
pass into the intestines, which they overtax
during the process of digestion.

Considerable space is devoted to argu-
ments against the use of tea, coffee, tobacco,
and alcoholic beverages ; and the author
scathingly attacks the use, or rather the
abuse of the use of opium by "orthodox
physicians." In the third part are repeated
his ideas upon the curative powers of Nature,
and the evils of using starchy foods. In this
part, also, he attacks the accepted theory
that varying the diet is beneficial to the
digestive organs, and advises a similar meal
of meat and fruit every day. The book con-
cludes with a number of " Conf ormatory
Chapters," in which Dr. Densmore seeks to
defend his theories.

SPEECHES OF SIR HENRY MAINE. With a
Memoir of his Life, by the Right Hon. Sir
M. E. GRANT DUFF. New York : Henry
Holt & Co. Pp. 451. Price, $3.50.

THE man who is here portrayed in his
public utterances and official writings was
one of the leading lights of the century in the
field of jurisprudence. In 1847, at the early
age of twenty-five, he was made Regius Pro-
fessor of Civil Law at Trinity College, Cam
bridge. Three years after he betook himself

418

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to legal practice in London, which, together
with lecturing and literary work, occupied his
energies for twelve years. In 1861 he pub-
lished his Ancient Law, which at once be-
came an authority and a text-book. The fol-
lowing year he accepted the Law Member-
ship in the Council of the Governor-General
of India. He held this position until 1869,
and during this period two hundred and nine
acts were passed. The speeches and minutes
that make up the body of the present vol-
ume relate to matters of East Indian legisla-
tion which demanded his attention during
these years. Some of these matters concern
the government of provinces — i. e., Judicial
Taxation, The Bengal Legislature, and Over-
Legislation ; others, such as Divorce, Emigra-
tion, and Whipping, concern the daily life
of the people. In all may be seen Maine's
breadth of view and his temperate and con-
vincing style of argument. Besides their
biographical interest these documents have
also a sociological value from the glimpses
they give into the life and thought of the
East Indian peoples. Sir Grant Duff's mem-
oir tells much about Maine's university days,
his writing for the Saturday Review and
other journals, and recounts, also, the ap-
pointments and honors of his later life.

In Volume III of the Journal of Ameri-
can Ethnology and Archceology, A. E. Ban-
delier gives a most interesting outline of the
documentary history of the Zuni tribe, which
will serve as an important link in the chain
of evidences of prehistoric civilization on the
northern portion of this continent.

At no time in our history has there been
such an influx of speculative literature con-
cerning prehistoric man in America as is
now offered to ethnological students; con-
siderable discussion existing as to the condi-
tions of prehistoric man, his period of advent
here, and probable characteristics and civil-
ization. From among the many works upon
this interesting subject it is still difficult to
accept as satisfactory and conclusive evi-
dence the consequential conclusions of the
writers. Their researches are of decided
speculative value to science; but they ad-
vance their theories and make their conclu-
sions solely upon the vague probabilities of
certain conditions and appearances of archae-
ological discoveries.

The material used in this monograph is ex-
clusively derived from Spanish documents,
which the author was enabled to study in the
archives of the Mexican Republic, and of the
Indies, at Seville, Spain, and chiefly concerns
the discoveries of certain Spanish monks be-
tween 1538 A. D. and the end of the seven-
teenth century. From these documents it
is evident that a high degree of civilization
existed among the Zuni people early hi the
fifteenth century, and must have existed
there for hundreds of years prior to the
discovery of the country by the Spaniards.
Here is an extract concerning the expedition
of Fray Marcos, of Nissa, in 1538 : "... About
a month and a half ago there came a monk,
lately arriving from some newly discov-
ered land which, they say, is five hundred
leagues from Mexico, . . . and toward the
north. Of this country it is said that it is
rich in gold and other valuable products, and
has large villages. The houses are of stone
and earth, the people use weights and meas-
ures, they are civilized, marry only once,
dress in woolen goods, and ride on certain
unknown animals." Another witness testi-
fies that " there were many cities and towns
well peopled; that the cities were walled
and the gates guarded ; that the people were
very wealthy ; that there were silversmiths ;
that the women wore jewels of gold, and
the men girdles of gold and white woolen
dresses ; that they had sheep, cows, and
quails, and that there were butchers and
smithies." It is therefore evident that the
Zuni Indians possessed a civilization long
prior to the advent of European explorers ;
and as the authenticity of these documents
is unquestioned, we have, in the researches
of Mr. Bandelier, some very important matter
upon which to build further and reliable in-
quiry into the prehistoric conditions of man
on this continent. Unfortunately, the almost
total destruction of the archives in New
Mexico by the Indians, in 1680, renders it
difficult to secure a complete history of the
past of New Mexico, and of the discoveries
in Arizona which were made by explorers
from New Spain in the early part of the six-
teenth century. Nevertheless, in this mono-
graph considerable light is thrown upon the
conditions, civilization, and characteristics of
the early dwellers of North America.

In a report on the Relations of Soil to

LITERARY NOTICES.

419

Climate, by E. W. Hilgard, Professor of
Agricultural Chemistry in the University of
California, which was published by authority
of the Secretary of Agriculture, there are a
great many suggestions concerning the ef-
fects of temperature and climate upon un-
developed soil and upon its physical charac-
ter. It does not enter into the remedial pos-
sibilities of the question; but at the very
opening of the paper Prof. Hilgard makes
the interesting and valuable statement that
" since soils are the residual product of the
action of meteorological agencies upon rocks,
it is obvious that there must exist a more or
less intimate relation between the soils of a
region and the climatic conditions that pre-
vail." From this standpoint he discusses
the effect of the phenomena.

At the Marine Biological Laboratory,
Woods Holl, Mass., according to the Fifth
Annual Report, some important biological
discoveries have been made; among them,
for the first time in history, the embryologi-
cal "feat of tracing the annelid larvae
through every stage of development cell by
cell" The report explains the purpose and
work of the laboratory, and gives schedules
of the different courses of instruction, inves-
tigation, etc. Several memoirs on amphibian
development are in progress by the members
of the laboratory, one of which is completed.
It covers the whole period of development
up to the establishment of the fundamental
features of the embryo, including the forma-
tion of the egg and the phenomena of fecun-
dation. Director Whitman closes his report
with an appeal to American lovers of science
to assist the managers of the laboratory by
providing funds to enable them to extend
their space and operations in giving instruc-
tion in marine biology.

In a paper entitled Twenty Years of Prog-
ress in the Manufacture of Iron and Steel in
the United States, James M. Swank makes an
interesting examination of these industries.
He gives some statistical comparisons be-
tween the productions of Great Britain and
the United States, which point to the fact
that this country has not only passed her
great rival in the production of pig iron, but
also in that of steel. In the manufacture of
Bessemer steel, ingots, and rails the United
States has more than doubled the production
of Great Britain, while the latter country still

holds first place in the manufacture of open-
hearth steel. His account of the change
from iron to steel in the manufacture of rails
is interesting, and shows that iron rails prac-
tically ceased to be manufactured in 1892.
In a paragraph on the United States tin-plate
industry he says, " The new tin-plate industry
has made remarkable progress since the new
duty went into effect ; " and this he illus-
trates by some statistics of its growth. In
the summary of his statistical statement?
Mr. Swank shows that the United States is
now the first of all iron and steel manufac-
turing countries. The paper is an extract
from the Mineral Resources of the United
States, and is published by the Department
of the Interior — United States Geological
Survey.

Horace V. Winchell, State Geologist of
Minnesota, makes a valuable report on the
Iron Ores of the Mesabi Range of Lake Su-
perior. He claims that the iron mines of
this district are the richest " known in the
world to-day," and he gives some interesting
statistics of the output and probabilities of
the Mesabi iron range since its discovery in
1890. The report embraces a history of the
mining of the district, a list and approxima-
tion of the outputs of the mines now opened
up, tables of analyses of the Lake Superior
ores, and comparisons with those of other
States and of Europe. The information con-
cerning the methods of prospecting, sam-
pling, testing, transportation, etc., in use at
this range will be read with interest.

Mr. William Bowker contributes a very
useful paper on the relation of fisheries to
agriculture. It is entitled The Harvest of
the Sea, and was read by him at the winter
meeting of the Massachusetts Board of Agri-
culture. He makes a strong argument in
favor of utilizing the non-edible and un-
wholesome fishes that abound in our water?
— as well as fish refuse — for agricultural
purposes. He gives some interesting ex-
tracts from the " History of Plimoth Planta-
tion," showing that as early as 1621 the In-
dians were aware of the value of fish as a
fertilizer, and he calls attention to the re-
markable fact that the word menhaden was
applied to the fish of that name by the In-
dians because it means " fertilizer, that which
manures." Mr. Bowker pooh-poohs the idea
that the supply of fish can be measurably

420

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

diminished, no matter what methods man
may use for their capture ; and he suggests
the establishment of experiment stations for
developing fish and other plant-food indus-
tries. (Boston: Wright & Potter, 1892.)

In pamphlets 202 and 203 of the United
States Fish Commission Bashford Dean con-
tributes some important data concerning the
science of oyster culture. The first of these
reports deals with the Physical and Biologi-
cal Characteristics of the Natural Oyster
Grounds of South Carolina. He draws at-
tention to the appearance of immense natural
but partly obsolete oyster beds on the coast
of this State, and explains how oyster culture
might be again profitably developed there.
In the chapter on the Absence of Oyster
Spat in Deep Water, Mr. Dean calls atten-
tion to the extraordinary silt suspension along
the coast, and points out that this matter is,
de facto, one of the causes why oysters do not
thrive in the deeper waters. He claims that
" to plant in deep waters clean shells as spat
collectors would in this region be futile";
but that an abundance of both oyster seed
and oyster food exist in South Carolinian
waters, and that in the marginal waters,
" from the level of low tide to about a fathom
in depth," oyster culture could be very ad-
vantageously developed.

The second pamphlet is entitled A Report
on the Present Methods of Oyster Culture in
France. This subject is very interestingly
discussed, and the result of Mr. Dean's obser-
vations will, by comparison, be of pertinent
value to those who are interested in the con-
ditions, industry, and culture of the oyster in
American waters. He tells the entire process
of oyster-raising in France, from the time the
swimming fry becomes attached to the col-
lectors until the grown oyster is shipped for
consumption. He also defines the difference
between the American oyster and the French
"flat" oyster, which is akin to the English
"native." The American and Portuguese
are monosexual, whereas the "flats" are bi-
sexual ; so that, as says Mr. Dean, it is diffi-
cult to reconcile the relationship between
both species. Both reports are profusely
illustrated with photographs of the localities
and processes of collection and general cul-
ture. (Washington, 1892.)

Edwin T. Dumble, State -Geologist of
Texas, in a report of 243 pages, gives an ex-

haustive treatise on the " character, forma-
tion, occurrence, and fuel uses " of the brown
coal and lignite of his State. These coals
are widely distributed throughout Texas, the
coal measures of the " northern central por-
tion of the State " occupying an area of sev-
eral thousand square miles. Recapitulating
the results of his investigations — some of
which were made in Europe, for the purpose
of comparison — Mr. Dumble claims that
" brown coal and lignite, of good quality and
under certain conditions, are fully capable of
replacing bituminous coal for any and all
household, industrial, and metallurgical pur-
poses."

There are instructive chapters on arti-
ficial fuel, the composition of Texan coal,
and its utilization and formation. And the
State Geologist adds that as Texas has an
abundant supply of brown coal " equal to the
best which has been utilized, and far supe-
rior to much that has been used satisfacto-
rily in other countries," there is no economic
reason why the wonderful coal measures of
Texas should not be more fully developed.
(Austin: Ben Jones & Co., 1892.)

Barton W. Everman, Assistant Commis-
sioner of Fish and Fisheries, has made inter-
esting reports on the advisability of estab-
lishing fish-hatching stations in the Rocky
Mountain region and Gulf States. In making
such an investigation several considerations
have to be taken into account. The chief
requirement is a constant supply of pure
water, " not less than a thousand gallons per
minute," at a temperature not exceeding 50° ;
but of equal importance is the selection of a
stream or spring free from contamination and
containing as few as possible of such enemies
of the Salmonidce family and their spawn as
the blob, etc. The first part of the report is
devoted to his investigations in Montana and
Wyoming. In some of the mountain streams
no trout were found, and in many of those
streams there was a marked absence of algae,
chara, and other suitable water vegetation.
All the tributaries of the Columbia and Mis-
souri Rivers were investigated — fifty-nin'e
streams in all — and finally Dr. Everman con-
sidered that the most advantageous places to
select as a hatchery are Horsethief Springs,
Botteler Springs, and Davies Springs. All
of these are close to Yellowstone National
Park, in Montana, but he prefers Horsethief

LITERARY NOTICES.

421

Springs, which flows into the Madison River.
He says that this stream " most nearly fills
all the natural requirements." It abounds in
suitable water vegetation, as well as in small
mollusks and insect larvae ; it is already used
as a natural hatchery and spawning ground
by trout, whitefish, and grayling ; the water
never freezes, and, says the assistant commis-
sioner, in making his recommendation, " they
are among the most remarkable springs that
are to be found in the United States." In
the second part of the book Dr. Everman
gives a report on his investigations made in
Texas for a similar purpose. During this
investigation thirty new species of fish were
discovered, descriptions of which are given.
Many excellent locations for a fresh-water
station were found in the interior, but Dr.
Everman says that " no point on the coast
offers entirely satisfactory conditions for the
establishment of a combined fresh and salt
water station ; but the Swan Lake site, near
Galveston, might prove fairly suitable." The
reports are illustrated with photographs of
the localities investigated and of the fishes
inhabiting each locality.

Coals and Cokes in West Virginia is the
title of a pamphlet compiled by William Sey-
mour Edwards, which gives, "in a handy
form," a more precise knowledge of the coal
measures and industry of West Virginia. It
consists of a general review of the coal fields,
and a series of chapters on their geological,
stratigraphical, chemical, and physical con-
dition. The greater portion of the work is
devoted to tables of the chemical and physi-
cal analyses of the coals and cokes of the
State "in comparison with those of other
States in America and Europe."

Third Annual Report of the Geological
Survey of Texas. E. T. Dumble, F. G. S. A.,
State Geologist. Austin : Henry Hutchings,
1892. Pp. 410, with maps and illustrations.
This report embraces not only the geological
and mineralogical conditions of Texas, but
also gives some interesting historical facts
connected with the development of the State.
Accompanying the report are papers on ge-
ological investigations in Houston County,
by W. Kennedy; Section from Terrell to
Sabine Pass; Llano Estacado, or Staked
Plains, by W. F. Cummins, notes on the
geology of the country west of the plains ;
Stratigraphy of the Triassic Formation in

Northwest Texas, by N. F. Drake ; and sev-
eral other reports dealing with the paleon-
tology of the vertebrata and the cretaceous
area, and Trans-Pecos, Texas. A consider-
able portion of the mineralogical part of the
report is devoted to Prof. Dumble's investi-
gations of the coal measures of the State ;
and in the chapter on Agriculture he explodes
the idea that the Staked Plains was a wide
expanse of desert sand. They were marked
so on all " the old maps as the Great Ameri-
can Desert " ; but the State Geologist says,
" This has been proved to be utterly untrue,
for there are no spots on this wide expanse
upon which there was not formerly a luxuri-
ant growth of natural grasses."

In Brochure I of Volume II of the Pro-
ceedings of the Rochester Academy of Science,
Mr. John Walton contributes a paper on the
Mollusca of Monroe County. He gives some
useful advice to collectors of mollusca, and
illustrates his paper with one hundred and
thirty-five cuts of as many different varieties
and species. Mr. Charles S. Prosser's paper
on The Thickness of the Devonian and
Silurian Rocks of Western New York, ap-
proximately along the Line of the Genesee
River, minutely analyses the stratification
of the Genesee section. The brochure also
contains an article on the Guelph Formation
in Rochester, and an interesting synopsis of
the proceedings of the botanical section of
the academy. (Edited by P. Max Foshay,
secretary, Rochester, N. Y., 1892.)

The seventeenth year book of New York
State Reformatory at Elmira, January, 1893,
is a very exhaustive report of the condition,
financial, educational, industrial, etc., of the
institution. It was entirely produced by the
inmates engaged on the institutional journal,
The Summary, and is from the Reformatory
press. It is beautifully printed on super-
calendered paper and is profusely illustrated.
The report of the general superintendent
contains a plea for the establishment of
" well organized and managed reformatory
prisons," and he draws attention to the fact
that most of the criminals are the product
of "civilization" and "emigration to our
shores from the degenerated populations of
crowded European marts." In that portion
of the book entitled Results there is a very
interesting examination into the causes of
criminality of certain prisoners, their prog-

422

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ress during imprisonment, and their condi-
tions, socially and industrially, after liber-
ation.

In a volume of 194 pages Mr. Nathan
Cree contributes a useful argument for Di-
rect Legislation by the People, which is the
title of his work. He does not claim that
such a form of government would be a
" remedy for all the political ills of society,"
but he points to many errors in the existing
systems, and argues that at least an epoch of
direct legislation would tend to better and
more economic government. He says that
" popular power in this country stands in no
need of a vindication, either of its rightfulness
or practicability," but he adds that the
"power-holders do not govern directly, al-
though elected by a widely extended suffrage."
The author charges that the electoral bodies,
which are the ultimate power in the United
States, " delegate their powers to agents," and
he seeks to prove that a modification of the
present system combined with the primitive
direct government would not alone be better
and more interesting, but that the adoption
of it is within the natural order of modern
political evolution. (A. C. McClurg & Co.,
Chicago. Price, 75 cents.)

Bulletin No. 7 (Part I) of the Geological
and Natural History Survey, Minnesota, N.
H. Winchetl, State Geologist, consists of a
descriptive and popular account of the fea-
tures and habits of the Mammals of Min-
nesota, by C. L. HerricJc. In consequence
of the delay in the publication of the re-
ports, which were handed over in 1885,
this portion of the work contains only the
descriptive and popular portion of the sur-
vey. The scientific part, which embraces the
materials collected on the anatomy, espe-
cially the myology and osteology of the
Minnesota mammals, will form the second
part. Part I is clearly written, and will be
welcomed by all lovers of natural history.
It is illustrated with twenty-three figures and
seven plates, and is published by Harrison &
Smith, State Printers, Minneapolis.

In a volume of 128 pages, Elizabeth E.
Evans offers to the public a peculiar theo-
logical discussion, which she describes as " a
condensed statement of the results of scien-
tific research and philosophical critcism, as
applied to the history of religion." In her
argument the authoress assails every Chris-

tian belief, and in the preface she declares
that " all creeds are alike false." She scoffs
at the idea of a Trinity as accepted by all
Christians ; says that Jesus was a myth or
simply a pure man and a fanatic; and that
" the idea of a God originated from the fears
of man in the presence of the natural forces
which he is unable to control." She seems
to lean toward the doctrine of metempsycho-
sis ; and, while scoring the Roman Catholics
and Protestants, pays tribute to the purity of
intention of the Buddhist faith. (New York :
Commonwealth Company.)

/. E. Usher, M. D., has given to the world
an interesting and useful treatise on Alcohol-
ism and its Treatment. Comparing the dis-
ease with insanity, he says that although the
latter is a deplorable thing in any form, " no
phase of mental breakdown is more far-
reaching in its influence " than alcoholism.
Tracing the disease through its " inherited "
and " acquired " forms, he brings his reader
to the fourth chapter, which is entitled Insan-
ity and Alcoholism. Here, in four pages, he
lays bare, with admirable skill, the awful re-
sultant danger to chronic drunkards from the
condition of insanity into which their over-
indulgence has plunged or may at any mo-
ment plunge them.

The chapters on Alcoholic Trance and
Crime and Cerebral Automatism or Trance
are the most interesting parts of the work.
They are devoted to the examinations of cases
of murder, forgery, manslaughter, robbery?
etc., committed while the automatic action of
the brain continues from the action of al-
cohol. The last two chapters are devoted to
the best means of treating those suffering
from alcoholism, embracing a number of use-
ful prescriptions as well as a ringing denun-
ciation of all patent nostrums sold for this
purpose. (New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons,
1892. Pp. 151. Price, $1.25.)

In a book of 184 pages, Mr. Arthur Wil-
ling, in order that a more easily comprehen-
sive idea of God — whom he designates the
Unseen — may be attained, says that his ob-
ject is to submit as a proposition that " it is
in higher space that we are to look for the
understanding of the unseen." He carries
us by a rather difficult but ingenious road
through what he supposes to be the first,
second, and third directions or dimensions of
space to the " fourth dimension "or " high-

LITERARY NOTICES.

423

pace" ; and here is where he locates the
presence of God and also that of the depart-
ed souls. This invention he apologizes for by
saying that it is " a terribly hard thing to real-
ize." Nevertheless he assumes its existence
and the conditions referred to for the pur-
pose of penetrating, without irreverence, into
the secrets of the unseen, for he says : " Seek-
ing for the truth there is neither presump-
tion nor irreverence, nor intrusion into for-
bidden ground, always provided that the
search is prosecuted in a right spirit." Not-
withstanding the ultra-scientific style of Mr.
Willink in this work, and although it will
not be understood by many, there can be no
doubt but that his motive is excellent, and
that the book will be read with pleasure by
many of those interested in the higher theo-
logical subjects. (The World of the Unseen.
New York : Macmillan & Co. Price, $1.25.)
In issuing a second edition of his work
on the Geographical Distribution of Disease
in Great Britain, Dr. Alfred Haviland has
divided it, making Part I, now published,
cover Cumberland, Westmoreland, and the
Lake District (Macmillan, $4.50). In this
part the geology and physical geography of
the region are fully described, and the dis-
tribution of different diseases is set forth.
There are several colored maps showing geo-
logical formations, contours, and the distri-
bution of phthisis, cancer, and heart disease.
In this edition the statistics of deaths from
1861 to 1870 are added to those from 1851
to 1860, used in the first edition. An ap-
pendix contains a list of plants growing in
limestone districts, tables of population, etc.
In The Dynamic Theory of Life and
Mind an attempt is made by James B. Alex-
ander, of Minneapolis, " to show that all or-
ganic beings are both constructed and oper-
ated by the dynamic agencies of their re-
spective environments." The author has
gathered into his thousand octavo pages a
great number of accepted facts in biology, pa-
leontology, physiology, acoustics, optics, elec-
tricity, and psychology. Scattered through
this mass of material is a limited amount of
argument in support of his contention that
" organisms, instead of being hand-made and
purposive, are machine-built machines, and
operated when built by forces outside of
themselves." That is to say, that organs are
shaped by the influence of functions upon

parts not yet adapted to those functions,
and that the activity of the organism is de-
termined by stimuli from without. The data
are drawn from competent sources, and all
the author's statements are made in a clear
and temperate style. Over four hundred fig-
ures illustrate the text.

The Geological Survey has issued a mono-
graph on the Geology of the Eureka District,
Nevada, by Arnold Hague, with an atlas.
The area covered by the survey here recorded
is about twenty miles square, and lies in the
central part of Nevada. The monograph is
a quarto volume of four hundred and nine-
teen pages, embracing a general description
and a geological sketch of the district, with
discussions of the rocks of the several epochs
that are represented within the area in ques-
tion, and an account of the ore-deposits found
there. A Systematic List of Fossils, by C.
D. Walcott, and a paper on the Microscopical
Petrography of the Eruptive Rocks, by J. P.
Iddings, are appended. Eight plates illus-
trate the text. The atlas contains eleven
folio sheets, one covering the whole district,
and the others representing the several di-
visions of it on a larger scale.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Abbe, Cleveland. The Mechanics of the Earth's
Atmosphere. Washington : Smithsonian Institu-
tion. Pp. 324.

Agricultural Experiment Stations: Connecticut.
Annual Report. Pp. 168.— University of Illinois.
Variations in Milk. Pp. 36.— Massachusetts, Tenth
Annual Report of the Board of Control. Pp. 354.
—Commercial Fertilizers. Pp. 8.— New York.
Manufacture of Cheese. Pp. 16.— Some Celery
Diseases. Pp. 16.

Bedell, F., and Crehore, A. C. Alternating Cur-
rents. New York: The W. J. Johnston Co., Lim-
ited. Pp.325.

Bolton, Prof. H. Carrington. A Modern Oracle
and its Prototypes: A Study in Catoptromancy.
New York. Pp. 38.

Bonar, James. Philosophy of Political Econ-
omy. New York : Macmillan & Co. Pp. 410.
$2.75.

Bradford, E. F., and Lewis, Louis, M. D.
Handbook of Emergencies and Common Ailments.
Sold by subscription. Boston: B. B. Russell.
Pp.448.

Brewer, City of, Maine. Mayor's Address and
the Annual Reports. Pp. 81.

Brinton, Daniel G. The Pursuit of Happiness.
Philadelphia: David McKay. Pp. 292. $1.

Bruner, Lawrence. The More Destructive Lo-
custs of America North of Mexico. Washington:
Government Printing Office. Pp. 40.

Burbank's Experimental Grounds, Santa Rosa,
Cal. New Creations in Fruits and Flowers. Pp.
52.

Cassell Publishing Company, New York. Por-
trait Catalogue. Pp. 112.

424

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Cazin, F. M. F., Hoboken, N. J. Resistance
to Ship's Motion, Natural Law newly discovered.
Pp. 39

Clark University, Worcester, Mass. Report of
the President and Departments. Pp. 168.

Columbia College, New York. School of Pure
Science, Circular of Information. Pp. 49.

Cope, E. D. The Genealogy of Man. Pp. 14.

Cross, Anson K. Drawingin the Public Schools.
A Manual for Teachers. Boston: The Author.
Pp.92. With Ten Plates. $1.

Cuadrado, Gaston Alonzo. Recuerdos de los
Estados Unidos. Un Viaje al Niagara (A Trip to
Niagara). Pp. 32.— Constituci6n Quimica e In-
yestigaciones del Acido Urico en la Orino (Chem-
ical Constitution" and Investigations of Uric Acid
in the Urine). Habana. Pp.25.

Dement, R. S. Napoleon: a Drama. Chicago:
Knight, Leonard & Co. Pp. 183.

Dibble, F. L., M. D. Vagaries of Sanitary Sci-
ence. Philadelphia : J. B. Lippincott Co. Pp.
462. $2.

Doliey, C. S., M. D. Thyrsos of Dionysos, etc.
Pp.8. '

Dunscomb, S.W., Jr. Bankruptcy. New York:
Columbia College. Pp. 167.

Easton, A. Mortal Man (Verse). Chicago: The
Easton Company. Pp. 47.

Fisher, A. K., M. D. The Hawks and Owls of
the United States and their Relation to Agricul-
ture. Washington : Department of Agriculture.
Pp. 209.

Freyer, John, LL. D. IlluPtrated Account of
the World's Columbian Exposition (in Chinese).
Shanghai, China.

Frink, Henry C. Tax the Railroads, thereby
indirectly Taxing the People. Pp. 16.

Funk & Wagnalls. Standard Dictionary of
the English Language. Prospectus.

Gadd, W. L. Soap Manufacture. New York:
Macmillan & Co. Pp. 222. SI -50.

Gilbert, G. K. The Morris Face. Washington:
Philosophical Society. Pp. 50.

Goldsmith, E. Notes on some Minerals and
Rocks. Philadelphia: Academy of Natural Sci-
ences.

Hessler, Robert, M. D. An Extreme Case of
Parasitism. Pp. 6.

Hill, Robert T. Notes on the Texas-New Mex-
ican Region. Pp. 16.— Non-Mountainous Topog-
raphy of the Texas Region. Pp. 10.— The Creta-
ceous Formations of Mexico. Pp. 15.— -Occurrence
of Hematite, etc., in Mexico. (With Notes by W.
Cross.) Pp.10.

Hogeboom, Charles L., M. D. The Vis Medi-
catrix Naturae. Pp. 8.

Homes in City and Country. New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp.214. $2.

Hourwitch, I. A. Economics of the Russian
Village. New York: Columbia College. Pp.183.

Hubbard, Gardner G. Discoverers of America.
Washington. Pp. 20. With Two Maps.

Hulme, F. E. The Birth and Development of
Ornament. New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp.
340. $1.25.

Kapp, Gilbert. Alternating Currents of Elec-
tricity. New York: W. J. Johnston & Co. Pp.
155.

Kron, Prof. William O. Laboratory of the
Physiological Institution of GOttingen. Pp. 2.—
Studies of Touch. Pp. 16.

Lachlan, R. Modern Pure Geometry. New
York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 228. $2.25.

Lake, Philip. Kayser's Text-book of Com-
parative Geology. (Translation.) New York: M.c-
millan&Co. Pp.426. $4.50.

Laurie A. P. The Food of Plants. New York:
Macmillan & Co. Pp. 77. 35 cents.

Lecky, W. E. H. History of Ireland in the
Eighteenth Century. Five Volumes. New York-
D. Appleton & Co.

Leslie, Mrs. Frank. Are Men Gay Deceivers ?
Chicago: F. T. Neely. Pp. 304.

Leverett, Frank. Glacial Succession in Ohio.
Chicago: University Press. Pp. 16.

Lewis, B. B. Cosmic Ether and its Problems.
Bridgeport, Conn. Pp. 159.

McDonald. Marshall. Report of the United
States Commissioner of Fisheries, 1891-'92. Pp.
204.

Mally, F. W. Report on the Boll Worm of Cot-
ton. Washington : Government Printing Office.
Pp. 73.

Manson, Marsden. Geological and Solar Cli-
mates. University of California. Pp. 49.

Marshall, A. Milnes, M.D. Vertebrate Em-
bryology. New York: G.P.Putnam's Sons. Pp.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. An-
nual Catalogue, 1892-'93. Pp. 256.

Maycock, W. P. Electric Lighting and Power.
Distribution. Part II. New York: Whittaker &
Co. Pp. 130. 75 cents.

Michigan Mining School. Catalogue, 1891-'92-
Houghton, Mich. Pp. 175.

Mitchell, Rev. Thomas. Conflict of the Nine-
teenth Century. New York: Universal Book Co.
Pp. 456.

Missouri Botanical Garden. Fourth Annual
Report. Pp.266. With Plates. St. Louis.

Minnesota. Vital Statistics, 1890-'91. Minne-
apolis. Pp. 146.

New York Academy of Sciences. Transactions.
Table of Contents. Volume II. Pp. 16.

Omaha, City of, Report of the City Engineer.
1892. Pp. 60. With Maps.

Outerbridge, A. E., Jr. Model Traveling Cranes,
Pp. 11.

Queensland, Letters from. By the Times Spe-
cial Correspondent. New York: Macmillan & Co.
Pp. 110. 80 cents.

Pickering, E. C. Researches on the Zodiacal
Light. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard Observatory.
Pp. 166.

Riggs, S. R. A Dakota-English Dictionary.
Washington : Bureau of Ethnology. Pp. 665.

Ripley, F. J., Ephianism. Atlanta, Ga. Pp.

Rockwell, R. P. The Mineral Industry. New
York: Scientific Publishing Co. Pp. 628.

Rugby Academy, Philadelphia. Tusculum,
Periodicum Latiuum Graecum. 10 cents. $2 a
year.

Russell, J. W. Elementary Treatise on Pure
Geometry. New York: MacrnLlan & Co. Pp.
323. $2.60.

Saltus, Edgar. Madame Sapphire. Chicago
and New York: F. T. Neely. Pp. 251.

Sanborn, G. B. Cause of Ocean Currents, Pp.
34.

Shakespeare, William. The Comedy of the
Merchant of Venice. New York : American Book
Co. Pp. 103. 20 cents.

Shufeldt, Dr. R. W. Comparative Ornitholog-
ical Notes on Ichthyornis. Pp. 7.

Smithsonian Meteorological Tables. Washing-
ton: Smithsonian Institution. Pp. 262.

Stern, Dr. Heinrich. Die Zersetzung anima-
lischen Materie (The Decomposition of Animal
Matters). Pp. 32'— Vom Thur zn Babel (From
the Tower of Babel). Pp. 6. Milwaukee, Wis.:
Freidenker Publishing Company.

Tariff Reform. Semi-monthly. Pp. 24. 5 cents.
Treat, E. B. & Co., Publishers. The Disease
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POPULAR MISCELLANY.

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University of Pennsylvania. Report of De-
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35.

Van Nostrand, D., & Co. Catalogues, Books
on Steam. Steam Engines, etc. Pp. 30.— Books
on Electricity, Electric Light, Telephone, etc.
Pp.18.

Van Rensselaer, Mrs. Schuyler. Art out of
Doors. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp.
897. $1.50.

Whittemore, Henry. The Past and Present of
Steam Navigation on Long Island Sound. Pp. 71.

Whitman, C. O., and Allis, E. P., Editors.
Journal of Morphology. Boston : Ginn & Co.
Pp.184.

Wilson, Andrew. Science Stories. London:
J. R. Osgood & Co. Pp. 269.

Winchell, N. H. Geological and Natural His-
tory Survey of Minnesota. Pp. 344.

Wolff, A. R. Heating of Large Buildings. Pp.
16. 85 cents.

Yale University. Graduate Instruction, 1893-
'94. Pp.56.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

Copper in the United States.— Each of
the main geographical subdivisions of the
United States, according to Mr. James Doug-
las, possesses a distinct group of copper de-
posits. The Appalachian chain of mountains
carries throughout its entire extent, from far
beyond the northern limits of the United
States to near the Gulf of Mexico, copper,
which is chiefly but not exclusively con-
tained in masses of iron pyrites imbedded in
crystalline slates. Copper mines were worked
before the Revolution in Connecticut, New
Jersey, and Pennsylvania. More recently
mines have been worked in nearly all the
Eastern, Middle, and Southern States from
Maine to Alabama, but most extensively in
Vermont and Tennessee. From the great
trough between the Appalachian and Rocky
Mountain chains, drained by the Great Lakes
and the Mississippi, but little copper has
been extracted except from the State of
Michigan. There have been small workings
in other places, but not important. The
copper-bearing beds of the Keweenaw series
in Michigan, extending, but not in profitable
veins, into Wisconsin and Minnesota, consist
of beds of trap, sandstone, and conglomerate
of doubtful age. Everywhere in Michigan
the copper of this series exists exclusively in
the metallic state. Three classes of deposits
are worked in the Keweenaw promontory :
the veins that yielded those extraordinary
masses, stray blocks of which were reverenced
by the Indians, which attracted the attention
of the Jesuit fathers, and which have appealed

to the popular fancy ; copper beds of amyg-
daloid diabase, locally called ash beds, and
amygdaloid traps ; and beds of conglomerate,
of which the cementing material consists in
part of copper. There are sulphureted ores
of copper in Michigan and Wisconsin outside
of the Keweenaw series, but mines of notable
productiveness have not been opened on any
of them. The Rocky Mountain mines may be
subdivided into two groups — those of south-
ern Arizona and those of northern Montana.
With insignificant exceptions, all Arizona
copper comes from three groups of deposits :
those near Clifton, at Bisbee, and near Globe.
The ores heretofore yielded by these mines
have been naturally oxidized, and with the
elimination of the sulphur have been purified
from certain other obnoxious elements which
are commonly associated with sulphur. The
Butte mines in Montana came into produc-
tive existence almost simultaneously with the
mines of Arizona ; but, instead of maintain-
ing an almost stationary production, their
record has shown an extraordinary augmen-
tation of yield from year to year. Outside of
Butte, no district promises in the near future
to be largely productive. Promising indica-
tions of copper wealth exist in the Seven
Devils' district in Idaho, but they have not
been exploited. Nevada, Utah, and Wyo-
ming have all yielded more or less copper, and
all contain ores which under more favorable
circumstances than now exist will be utilized.
Colorado stands in the list as a producing
State of growing importance. New Mexico
does not produce much. On the Pacific
coast, California alone has been notable in
production.

Coal-tar Perfumes. — The revolution
which chemistry has brought about hi the
manufacture of colors is now becoming
apparent in the perfumery industry. As
vegetable colors are being giadually replaced
by the colors derived from coal tar, so artifi-
cial perfumes are gradually taking the place
of the natural ones; and these derivatives
from coal tar promise to give the best results
in the future. Artificial perfumes are ob-
tained by means of the ethers, liquids re-
markable for their characteristic odors ; by
suitably composed mixtures by which imita-
tions are obtained of the perfumes of fruits
and of the principal alcoholic drinks ; and

426

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

fixed formulas are given for each flavor and
for each liquor. These artificial perfumes
are much used for the preparation of con-
fections into the composition of which neither
fruit nor sugar enters, but only algae, potato
glucose, and artificial flavors, and of bonbons,
jellies, liquors, etc. The essences of cognac
and rum are also much used in the prepara-
tion of drinks with alcohols of grain, sugar
beet, or potato. The perfumes of flowers
are harder to imitate. Eecourse was at first
had to mixtures of other cheaper or more
easily obtainable natural perfumes. An ad-
vance has now been made, and chemistry has
succeeded in imitating these odors with sub-
stances derived from plants by complex re-
actions. The first perfume derived from
combinations with the derivatives of coal tar
was nitrobenzine, which was obtained by
Mitscherlich in 1834, but is manufactured on
a large scale only by Collas, in Paris, under
the name of essence of mirbane. It has an
odor like that of bitter almonds, and is used
for perfuming soaps. Perfumes of similar
origin have multiplied very much in recent
years ; and we now have among them artifi-
cial wintergreen, artificial musk, etc.

Floral Festivals. — In the arrangement in
the Arsenal Garden, Tokio, Japan, of special
collections of plants selected for the purpose
of producing a display of flowers at different
seasons of the year, Garden and Forest per-
ceives an idea which can perhaps be adopted
advantageously in other parts of the world.
It is the expression, it says, of the love of the
Japanese for particular flowers and of the
popularity of the flower festivals held in
spring, when the apricot trees and the cherry
trees bloom ; in summer, when the wis-
taria, the irises, and the morning-glories are
in flower ; and in the autumn, at the sea-
son of the chrysanthemum, and when the
leaves of the maple trees assume their bril-
liant coloring. Every public garden in Japan
contains collections of these plants, at least of
the apricots, the cherries, and the maples,
and they are visited by the greatest number
of people when these plants are in flower.
Their flowering is the excuse for parties of
pleasure, and the intelligence of millions of
people has in this way been quickened by
their interest in the unfolding of petals of
cherry trees or wistaria. Similar arrangements

might be made in our own parks. " As our
cities grow large and absorb the surrounding
country, many of their inhabitants must pass
their lives in ignorance of some of the most
beautiful things in Nature, without behold-
ing, for example, the glory of an apple tree
in flower. In some corner of any one of our
large parks, or better, in different parks of a
series or system, a number of permanent out-
door flower shows might be arranged which
would add immensely to their value as places
of resort, and would have a powerful influ-
ence in directing and educating the public
taste. There are many trees, for example,
with showy and beautiful flowers, which dis-
play their greatest beauty only when massed
together in considerable numbers ; and if the
people of our cities had the opportunity to
see such collections, they would very soon
make holidays for the purpose, and flower
festivals before many years would become as
much a part of our life in cities as they have
in Japan."

Superstitions concerning the "Black
Devil."— While the Dara Deil (Forficula
oleus), or " black devil," a kind of earwig,
used to be an object of almost universal ab-
horrence in the folk lore of Ireland. Its serv-
ices were sometimes invoked in labor that
demanded extraordinary physical exertion.
In creeping along, whenever it hears any
noise it halts, cocks up its tail, and jerks out
its sting, which is similar to that of a bee.
No reptile has been so much feared and
dreaded by the peasantry as this insect, and
it used to be commonly believed that it be-
trayed to his Jewish enemies the way the
Saviour went when leaving the city of Jeru-
salem. It was nc smaP gain to destroy this
insect, for seven sins, it was said, were taken
off the soul of the slayer. The people be-
lieved that the sting of the Dara Deil was
very poisonous, if not mortal, and that it
possessed a demoniac spirit. Under this
impression, whenever it was seen in a house
by the peasantry they always destroyed it by
placing a coal of fire over it, and when it was
burned the ashes were carefully swept out.
It was not trodden on by foot, as a less for-
midable insect would be, nor was it killed by
a stick, for it was believed that the poisonous
or demoniac essence would be conveyed to
the body of the slayer through leather or

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

427

wood. It has often been related that labor-
ers have been enabled to perform extraordi-
nary feats through the agency of the black
devil, which they inserted in some part of
their implements of labor ; but the few who
were so daring as to have recourse to such
means were regarded as dabblers in the black
art, and were looked upon as reckless, as
" utterly left to themselves," and almost be-
yond the pale of salvation. This insect is
still considered extremely dangerous; it is
thought to be a kind of scorpion ; but very
few, indeed, are now disposed to lift it to the
dignity of preternatural influence.

Growth of Willow Trees. — Garden and
Forest has received a photograph of a wil-
low tree standing in Waterbury Centre, Vt.,
the trunk of which measures twenty-four
and a half feet in circumference, and whose
symmetrical top shades an eighth of an acre
of ground. A person who knows the early
history of the willow testifies that in 1840 it
was a tree about six inches in diameter,
which had grown from a walking-stick driven
into the ground a few years before by some
children. In that year it was cut down deep
into the ground in the hope of killing it, but
it started a new growth, and has reached its
present dimensions in fifty years. The rapid
growth of the willow in favorable localities
is well known, and Dr. Hoskins (from whom
the photograph was received) writes of another
near his home, which sprang from a cane car-
ried by a returning soldier in 1866, and thrust
into the soil in his dooryard. It is now more
than four feet in diameter, with an immense
top, and bids fair, at an equal age, to reach
the dimensions of the one spoken of.
i i

The Jagir Dnseens of North Borneo.—
The Governor of British North Borneo, vis-
iting the island of Banguey, found there a
tribe of Duseens, differing in language, re-
ligion, and customs from other tribes bear-
ing that name. Among one of these people,
called Jagir, spirits are believed in, and also
the power of a priestess to keep them in or-
der ; " for she is acquainted with their ways,
and knows the future as well as the past."
She nominates and trains her successors, but
they must wear black robes and carry wooden
knives. The priestess thanks the chief spirit,
on behalf of the tribe, at the harvest festi-

val when the paddy crop has been successful ;
but the people never appeal to the spirits or
practice any religious ceremony in connection
with births, deaths, sickness, or marriages.
Marriages are performed, without public gath-
ering or feast, in the forest in the presence
of the two families. The rite consists in trans-
ferring a drop of blood from a small incision
made with a wooden knife in the calf of the
man's leg to a similar cut in the woman's leg.
After marriage the man takes the bride to
her home, where he resides in future as a
member of the family. These people have
long hair, secured with a wooden pin at the
back of the head, and cut short on the fore-
head. Their only covering consists of a
scanty fragment of bark. They use for fire-
making both flints and a pointed friction-
stick, which differs slightly from the- one
generally used in the archipelago. The
tribesmen are honest, trustworthy, and ' in-
dustrious.

A Chinese Naial College.— The Imperial
Naval College at Nankin, China, according
to Dr. Fryer's report, was opened about two
years ago for the purpose of educating young
men of talent for official positions in the
southern fleet of the Chinese navy, the
northern fleet having been already provided
for. It has now eighty students between
seventeen and twenty-five years of age, about
equally divided between the branches of
navigation and engineering. Two English
teachers are engaged, with several Chinese
teachers who have been graduated from the
Tientsin Naval College and are employed as
instructors in drilling, rifle practice, tor-
pedo work, and other branches. The second
classes of both the navigation and the en-
gineering branches are also taught by quali-
fied natives. The Chinese studies are di-
rected by literary graduates, who teach the
classics and other subjects of the usual
course. With the good beginning it has
had, and ample room for expansion, there
can be little doubt, says the report, that the
college, under its present administration, will
eventually grow into a permanent institution
that will bear comparison with some of those
of foreign countries. The Chinese mind
seems to be able to undergo a severe amount
of study and discipline that is simply aston-
ishing. Handicapped by having to keep up

428

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

their own classics and literary style, while all
they learn of foreign subjects is through the
medium of a new and difficult language,
these youths must be made of the finest ma-
terial to make any progress at all. The
learning capacity and memory of a good
Chinese student are almost beyond credi-
bility. It is only in the invention or origi-
nating of new ideas or in making deductions
that they are weak. .Those subjects which
depend chiefly on the use of mathematics
have received the most particular care and
attention.

Sound Economics. — Judging from the
summary in the London Spectator, some
sound economics are embodied in the utter-
ances in a recent speech by Mr. Balfour
touching upon questions of labor and social
relations. The speaker animadverted on the
unhappy consequences that might ensue from
admitting that every one who wants work
has a right to get it from the municipality
or the state if he can not find a private em-
ployer. The admission of such a principle
means municipal or state bankruptcy as the
not distant consequence of works begun only
in order to find employment for the unem-
ployed without any guarantee that they will
pay those who set them on foot. When pri-
vate employment becomes hard to obtain, it
is generally because the conditions of the
time are unfavorable for effective labor.
Now, if just at this crisis the public em-
ployer comes in, does it not mean that either
the municipality or the state will pay as
much for ineffective and ill-supervised labor
as private employers have been paying for
effective and well-supervised labor? That
is only saying, in other words, that they will
be paying high for bad labor. Mr. Balfour
also gave a warning against attempting so to
improve the distribution of wealth as to pre-
vent its production where it is now success-
fully accumulated. The worst of the new
combinations against the present rate of wages
is that the rate of profits, already low, must
fall lower if higher wages are to be paid, and
the consequence of that must be the retire-
ment of a good deal of capital from produc-
tive enterprises altogether. The rich manu-
facturers say to themselves: "We are as
rich now as we really care to be. We would
go on if we could secure our former profits ;

but as we can not, we may as well wind up
business and retire." The consequence, of
course, is that a great deal of wealth which
was lately employed in reproductive opera-
tions is no longer so employed, and the rais-
ing of the general rate of wages becomes
more and more impossible.

Solid Air. — At the meeting of the Royal
Society, March 9th, Prof. Dewar communi-
cated the results of his experiments upon air
at very low temperatures. Having liquefied
air at ordinary atmospheric pressure, the au-
thor has since succeeded in freezing it into a
clear, transparent solid. The precise nature
of this solid is at present doubtful, and it can
be settled only by further research. It may
be a jelly of solid nitrogen containing liquid
oxygen, much as calves'-foot jelly-etai tains
water diffused in solid gelatin. Or it may be
a true ice of liquid air in which both oxygen
and nitrogen exist in the solid form. The
doubt arises from the fact that Prof. Dewar
has not yet been able by his utmost efforts
to solidify pure oxygen, which, unlike other
gases, resists the cold produced by its own
evaporation under the air-pump. Nitrogen,
on the other hand, can be frozen with com-
parative ease. It has already been proved
that in the evaporation of liquid air nitrogen
boils off first. Consequently the liquid is
continually becoming richer in that constitu-
ent which has hitherto resisted solidification.
It thus becomes a question whether the cold
produced is sufficiently great to solidify oxy-
gen, or whether its mixture with nitrogen
raises its freezing point, or whether it is not
really frozen at all, but merely entangled
among the particles of solid nitrogen, like the
rose-water in cold cream.

Psychology of some Words. — In his essay
on The Language of the Mississaga Indians
of Skugog (a tribe remnant of less than fifty
members living on Skugog Lake, opposite
Port Perry, Ontario), Mr. A. F. Chamberlain
touches upon some questions connected with
what may be called the psychology of lan-
guage. Only a few of the words appear to
have an onomatopoetic origin. Neither the
theory of Dr. Carl Abel of the designation by
primitive man of the " A " and the " not A "
by the same word — no trace of this combina-
tory process being perceived — nor that of

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

429

Wundt, that words referring to things or ac-
tions in the immediate surrounding of the
speaker were shorter than those relating to
more distant objects or actions, is confirmed.
A few specimen words of various classes are
given to illustrate the peculiar nature of some
of the names : The word for the proper name of
man signifies " chief bird " ; that for woman,
" sun in center of sky " ; those for rainbow,
" he covers the rain " ; for milky way, " the
sturgeon stirs up the lake of heaven with his
nose and makes the water roily " ; eclipse is
" dead sun " ; moon, " night sun " ; spring (the
season) is " good water " ; Sunday, " worship
day " ; the toes are " they run in rotation " ;
corn is " grain of mysterious origin " ; cran-
berry, " marsh fruit " ; hammer, " the strik-
er " ; shot, " little duck ball " ; horse, " it has
one hoof " ; cat, " little glutton " ; blanket,
" white skin " ; and shirt, " thin skin." The
method of procedure in forming words by com-
bination varies from simple juxtaposition of
words to complicated agglutination or word de-
capitation. The language has a large number
of radical suffixes and affixes, or words that
have no independent existence as words, but
take the place of real words in composition.
Some of the animal myths and beast fables
of the tribe quoted by Mr. Chamberlain re-
mind us of Uncle Remus.

Origin of Fashions. — The question of the
origin of fashions has been much discussed
of late, without any fully satisfactory answer
having been found for it. Perhaps as nearly
correct a theory as any is that of the London
Spectator, which believes that there is no rul-
ing mind in the matter, " no system of de-
liberate invention or choice at all. The lead-
ing dressmakers of London and Paris find
their advantage in varying their designs as
frequently as possible ; and wherever a nov-
elty achieves any success, whether it be in
London or in Paris, it is immediate copied
by other dressmakers, and its general adop-
tion is as rapid as that of a slang word.
Equally rapid is its course toward exaggera-
tion ; its salient features are further and fur-
ther enlarged until the exaggeration becomes
grotesque, the reaction sets in, and fashion
swings back to the other extreme. Take, for
example, those peculiar sleeves which are now
worn. They began quite modestly in the
shape of a little puff upon the shoulder;

these excrescences grew and grew until they
developed into the enormous and unsightly
humps which almost eclipse the wearer's head
when viewed from one side. The next stage
will be the gradual retreat back from this
monstrosity to the perfectly plain sleeve. The
plain sleeve will begin to pall again ; some
one will invent a swelling at the elbow, and
a swollen elbow will become fashionable, un-
til exaggeration has caused it to swell beyond
all bounds, and then back it will go to its
primitive simplicity, until the whole opera-
tion begins again da capo. The whole work-
ing of fashion may be divided into three sep-
arate processes — genuine improvements with
an idea either to beauty or comfort, which
happen to hit the popular taste ; exaggera-
tion of these improvements ; reaction from
the exaggeration. That, at least, is how it
appears to us. As to the originators of the
improvements, we believe that they may be
counted by hundreds."

Excessive Schooling. — The status and
prospects of education were recently dis-
cussed by Lord Justice Bowen, of England,
in an address at the London Workingmen'a
College. The speaker's view is described as
one of "subdued hope." While education
has within our day undergone changes that
are hardly less than revolutionary, he admits
that they have not been wholly for good.
" The stream of knowledge has spread far
and wide beyond its accustomed banks ; it
does not flow everywhere at its old depth.
The first result of the flood is to fill the land
with what seems to be a mighty river ; the
next is to hide to all but practiced eyes the
course of the true stream. There is a wide
expanse of waters, but they are almost every-
where shallow and very often muddy." Our
modern education has been too largely vul-
garized. The quality of the supply is inevi-
tably affected by the quantity of the demand.
The half-trained multitude can not distin-
guish between the best and the second best ;
and prolific mediocrity is at a premium. Yet
we must not be too sadly disappointed that
our overwrought expectations have not been
wholly fulfilled. The more prudent advo-
cates of popular education never pretended
to present it as a cure-all. They never
thought that it was designed to supersede
morality and religion. They never expected

43°

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that it would at once remove all social dis-
tinctions or polish intellectual pewter into
sterling silver. They have confined them-
selves to a modest trust that it may do some-
thing. It has done something already, and
they humbly believe it will do more. Time
is needed to measure the consequences of so
great a social change. The new leaven has
been spread among large classes of the na-
tion hardly touched by it until yesterday. As
one great benefit it has rendered the com-
petitive system possible in the public service,
and has saved the country from the evils of
nepotism, and from the worse evils of a po-
litical scramble for the spoils. But compe-
tition is not a good thing in itself — only a
" sad necessity." " The cultivation for mar-
ket purposes of brute brain power " may, in-
deed, have its uses. It probably saves a large
number of fairly able men from their innate
inclination to sheer idleness, and it probably
provides the public services with a regular
supply of fairly competent recruits. But it
can never, except by accident, breed a com-
petent scholar. Its direct tendency is to di-
vert the thoughts of those engaged in it from
all that the real lover of learning and litera-
ture seeks with a constant love. But even
the diffusion of " mediocre culture " gives the
average masses a better chance of fulfilling
their vocation than did the reign of general
ignorance that prevailed among them not
many years ago.

Paradoxes of Animal Courage. — Having
mentioned a supposed hostility of wild dogs
against tigers, a writer in the London Spec-
tator goes on to remark that the fierceness of
the wild dogs' attack seems to have affected
the tiger — a clever and " reflecting " animal
— with a kind of nervousness which extends
to all dogs ; and enforces his remark with
the story of a tiger which ran away from the
bark and spring of a domestic spaniel. " It
is, of course, just possible that the tiger was
4 nervous,' and that the little dog merely ex-
hibited the impudence habitual to little dogs
who know that they can worry a horse or a
bullock into beating a retreat when quietly
lying down in a field. Extreme nervousness
is often the accompaniment of great courage
hi certain animals, especially of the larger
kinds. Indian rhinoceroses, kept by a rajah
for fighting in the arena, where they could

exhibit the most obstinate courage in com-
bats with elephant or buffalo, would tremble
and lie down at the unusual sight of a horse
outside their pen ; and the elephant is more
liable to sudden panics and alarms than any
other animal. It is strange to think of the
same animal advancing boldly to face a
wounded tiger and receiving its charge upon
its tusks, and running away in uncontrollable
panic from a piece of newspaper blown across
the road. It is said that the scent or roar of
a bear in the jungle will often scare elephants
beyond control ; and they have the same in-
tense nervousness shown by the horse at the
sight of things unusual or out of place. A
big elephant which was employed to drag
away the carcass of a dead bullock, and had
allowed the burden to be attached by ropes
without observing what it was, happened to
look round, and instantly bolted, its fright
increasing every moment as the unknown ob-
ject jumped and bumped at its heels. After
running some miles, like a dog with a tin can
tied to its tail, the elephant stopped and al-
lowed itself to be turned round, and drew the
bullock back again without protest. Yet an
elephant, with a good mahout, gives, perhaps,
the best instance of disciplined courage —
courage, that is, which persists, hi the face
of knowledge and disinclination — to be seen
in the animal world."

A Whipping Game. — The whipping game
of the Arawacks of British Guiana, as de-
scribed by Mr. E. F. Im Thurn, is played by
any number of persons, but generally only by
men and boys, for one, two, or three days and
nights — as long, that is, as the supply of pai-
wari, the native beer, holds out. The play-
ere, with but brief intervals, range themselves
in two lines opposite each other. Every now
and then a pair of players, one from each line,
separate from the rest. One of these puts
forward his leg and stands firm ; the other
carefully measures the most effective distance
with a powerful and special whip with which
each player is provided, and then lashes with
all his force the calf of the other. The crack
is like a pistol shot, and the result is a gash
across the skin of the patient's calf. Some-
times a second similar blow is given and
borne. Next the position of the pair of play-
ers is reversed, and the flogged man flogs the
other. Then the pair retire, drink good-tern-

NOTES.

peredly together, and rejoin the line, to let
another pair take their turn of activity, but
presently, and again and again at intervals,
to repeat their own performance. It has been
said that the most active players of this ex-
traordinary game are the men and boys. But
occasionally the women take a part also. And
it is noteworthy that when this is the case a
wooden figure of a bird, a heron, is substi-
tuted for each of the whips, and a gentle
peck with this bird is substituted for the far
more serious lash of the whip. " I do not
know," says Mr. Im Thurn, "that any equiva-
lent example of the fact that the germ of the
idea of courtesy to the weaker sex exists
among people even in this stage of civiliza-
tion is on record."

€leansing Function of the Hair.— Dr.

Henry Sewell calls attention, in Science, to
an example of the subservience of form to
function afforded by the arrangement of the
epidermic scales constituting the outermost
layer of animal hairs. The buried edges of
the scales point toward the root of the hair,
while the free edges project obliquely to-
ward the tip; and a hair glides between
the thumb and finger far more easily when
pulled from root to tip than when pulled in
the opposite direction. When rolled between
the fingers it will gradually move parallel to
its length in the direction of the root. It
follows that foreign particles may be easily
moved outward toward the tip of the hair
and away from the body, while it would be
hard to push them in the opposite direction.
Every movement of the hair, especially f ric-
tional disturbance, must set up a current of
foreign particles toward the hair tip.' The
value of this property as a cleansing factor
is evident.

Telephotography. — Telephotography is
the name of an art the purpose of which is
the production of photographs of objects at
considerable distances from the operator, of
such quality and scale that they can be ex-
amined and interpreted in a manner that
would be impossible to the naked eye. The
terra is parallel in meaning with telescopy,
and the art has as its aim the recording on a
photographic plate of a combination of a
number of distinct and separate telescopic
impressions that can be obtained by sweep-

ing a telescope over a greater field than that
included in its own field of view, in the same
manner, but to a less degree, that ordinary
photographs record a number of distinct and
separate visual images or impressions ob-
tained by passing the eyes rapidly and al-
most unconsciously through the " wide " and
u deep " fields of view, as they are termed.
The apparatus consists of a combination of
the telescope and photographic apparatus,
with special supplementary lenses for magni-
fying the image and obtaining a flat field,
the descriptions of which, by Thomas R.
Dallmeyer, the inventor, are too technical
for available use here. By it magnified and
clearly depicted views are obtained of objects
that are situated at such distances from the
photographer that ordinary photographic
means have hitherto rendered so small and
insignificant as to be useless — views that are
superior beyond comparison to enlargements
of ordinary negatives.

NOTES.

JAPANESE jugglers have exhibited a trick
which consists in throwing knives at a person
extended against a structure of boards, in-
to which the knives appear to stick alarm-
ingly close to the subject. The trick has
been copied or imitated by European presti-
digitateurs ; but instead of real knife throw-
ing and sticking, an illusion is arranged.
Knives are hidden in recesses in the board
structure, skillfully concealed by shutters,
which open by a spring controlled by the
target-subject. When a knife is thrown he
moves one of these springs, and causes the
hidden knife to emerge and appear as if
stuck in the board, while the shutters in-
stantly close; or the same is effected by
means of wires controlled by persons behind
the scene. The operator who throws the
knife either casts it skillfully behind himself,
among the scene-slides, or else throws it so
that it shall strike, not into the boards, but
on one side, where it falls noiselessly upon
the carpet. The latter method is the best,
because it enables the spectator to see the
knife pass across the stage.

A FULL account of the Polynesian canoe
is in preparation by Dr. N. B. Emerson, of
Honolulu. The author points out in an arti-
cle on the subject that the various migrations
of the ancient Polynesians and their progen-
itors, from whatever sources derived, must
have been accomplished in canoes or other
craft, and that the waa, the pahi, etc., of
to-day, however modified they may be under
the operation of modern arts and appliances,

432

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

are the lineal descendants of the seagoing
craft in which the early ancestors of the
Polynesians made their voyages generations
ago. He holds, therefore, that a comparative
study of the canoes can not fail to shed light
on the problems of Polynesian migrations and
relationships.

THE presidents of sections of the British
Association for its meeting at Nottingham in
September are : Section A, Prof. R. B. Clif-
ton ; Section B, Prof. Emerson Reynolds ;
Section C, Mr. J. H. Teal ; Section D, Canon
Tristram; Section E, Mr. Henry Seebohm;
Section F, Prof. J. S. Nicholson ; Section G,
Mr. Jeremiah Head ; Section H, Dr. Robert
Munro.

THE summer course in botany of the Tor-
rey Botanical Club and the College of Phar-
macy of the City of New York includes an
annual course of ten lectures delivered be-
tween the last of April and July 1st, with
ten conducted excursions — having the nature
of extended out-of-door lectures — into the
woods and fields. The course is provided as
a means of instruction for business and pro-
fessional men and women desiring to become
practically acquainted with the chief princi-
ples of the science and with the local flora,
but who have not the ordinary means of
study provided by the schools and colleges.

A MEMORIAL volume is announced to be
published by Wilhelm Engelmann, Leipsic,
in honor of the seventieth birthday of Ru-
dolf Leuckhart. It will include numerous
contributions in the lines of their work by
grateful pupils of Leuckhart, and will be illus-
trated by a portrait in heliogravure, forty
plates, and forty-three figures in the text. In
the list of contributors we observe the Eng-
lish names of Charles W. Stiles, C. L. Her-
rick, G. Herbert Fowler, Edward Laurens
Mark, and C. 0. Whitman, editor of the
American Journal of Morphology.

A DISCOVERT made by Mrs. Zelia Nuttall
and a reconstruction of the calendar system
of the ancient Mexicans are described in the
Report of the Peabody Museum of American
Archaeology and Ethnology as showing from
astronomical data that the Mexican calendar
has an antiquity of at least four thousand
years.

AN interesting testimonial was recently
presented by Italian men of science to Prof.
Maurice Schiff, of Geneva, on the occasion
of his seventieth birthday. Prof. Schiff was
from 1863 to 1876 Professor of Comparative
Physiology in the Istituto dei Studi Superiori
in Florence, where he introduced valuable
improvements in teaching. He retired from
that chair in consequence of the agitation
excited against him by the anti-vivisection-
ists. He went to the school at Geneva,
where he has acquired great fame and popu-
larity. During his career he has enriched
medical literature with many valuable con-

tributions. The testimonial to him is an illu-
minated text on parchment, conveying the
esteem and admiration in which his charac-
ter and career are held, composed in Latin
by Prof. Cavazza, and signed by an impos-
ing number of surgeons, physicians, and
medical teachers.

INVESTIGATIONS of the fermentation of to-
bacco by Suchsland have resulted in the dis-
covery of different kinds of micro-organisms
as active agents in the operation in the sev-
eral varieties. Pure cultures of bacteria ob-
tained from one kind of tobacco and inocu-
lated upon another kind generated in the lat-
ter a taste and aroma resembling those of
the tobacco from which they were taken. The
discovery is greatly calculated to simplify the
imitation of the finer varieties of tobacco.

AN immunity against cholera is claimed
for habitual users of vinegar, which is at-
tributed by Mr. Hashimodo to the acetic
acid contained in the best vinegar — a sub-
stance deadly to the comma bacillus. These
bacilli were killed in fifteen minutes in an
experiment in which they were treated with
a vinegar containing only from three to four
per cent of acetic acid.

THE latest application of aluminum is to
visiting cards, which are described as being
thin, flexible, brilliant with a metallic luster,
light, and admitting an impression of the
names as distinct as it is made on paper.
They can be made at a cost of about a dollar
a hundred.

THE results of experiments by Prof. Mar-
shall Ward tend to prove that the action of
sunlight is a far more powerful agent in the
purification of the atmosphere than has hith-
erto been recognized. The author has dis-
covered, for instance, that the anthrax bacil-
lus, while it will withstand the greatest ex-
tremes of temperature, is killed by direct
sunlight. Water is also thus purified.

OBITUARY NOTES.

LUDWIG LINDENSCHMIT, a distinguished
German archaeologist, who died at Mainz,
February 14th, in his eighty-fourth year,
was director and one of the founders of the
Central Romano German Museum of Mainz ;
one of the editors of the Archiv fiir Anthro-
pologie; and author of works on German
archaeology. He began a general handbook
on the subject, but completed only the vol-
ume relating to the Merovingian period. He
was an advocate of the theory that the Aryan
race is of European origin.

M. ALPHONSE Louis PIERRE PYRAMUS DE
CANDOLLE, the famous botanist, died hi Ge-
neva, Switzerland, April 9th. He was born
in Paris in 1806, but spent most of his life
in Geneva, where he became famous as an
author and authority hi his special branch.

PAOLO MONTEGAZZA,

V

•' ;-• ,
".Vs

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

AUGUST, 1893,
STUDIES OF ANIMAL SPEECH.

BY PROF. E. P. EVANS.

rpHE enthusiasm with which Mr. Garner has devoted himself
JL to the study of simian speech, and the general interest ex-
cited by his discoveries, naturally suggest a comparison of his in-
vestigations with those of his predecessors in this department of
linguistic research. Perhaps the most serious and scientific at-
tempt of this kind was made nearly a century ago by Gottfried
Immanuel Wenzel, who published at Vienna, in 1808, a volume of
216 pages entitled Neue auf Yernunft und Erfahrung gegrun-
dete Entdeckungen iiber die Sprache der Thiere (New Discoveries
concerning the Language of Animals, based on Reason and Ex-
perience), in which he maintained that the lower animals are ca-
pable of expressing their thoughts and emotions by means of ar-
ticulate sounds, and that these utterances are not only intelligible
to their kind, but may also be understood by man, indicated by
alphabetical signs, and thus reduced to writing. He made a list
of the sounds uttered by thirty different birds and beasts, and pre-
pared a dictionary of more than twenty pages, to which he added
a number of translations from animal into human speech. These
so-called translations are very free, and give merely a paraphras-
tic statement of what he supposes to be the significance of certain
canine and feline tones, the versions being confined to his inter-
pretations of the colloquies of cats and dogs. As an illustration
of his proficiency in this language and the practical value of such
knowledge, he relates an incident, which sounds as though it
might belong to the ancient and fabulous literature known to the
Germans as Jcigerlatein, or hunters' Latin. He once went to
visit a friend, who was a great huntsman, but on learning that he

VOL. XLIII. — 29

434 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

had gone out with his gun waited for him to return ; meanwhile
he took a book and sat down under a tree near a pen in which
some foxes were confined. Suddenly he heard them utter certain
sounds which according to his vocabulary were expressive of sur-
prise and joy, and after listening for a time came to the conclusion
that the foxes had discovered some means of escape and were ex-
ulting over the prospect of regaining their freedom. When the
hunter returned, Wenzel informed him of what he had heard and
advised him to look into the matter, but was only laughed at for
his credulity and assured that the pen was perfectly secure. They
went into the house, where they were taking some refreshments
and talking about other affairs, when a servant rushed in greatly
excited and announced that the foxes had escaped.

Wenzel admits that the language of animals is extremely sim-
ple and limited, and consequently monotonously repetitious ; the
same combination of sounds uttered with a stronger or weaker in-
tonation serves to denote a variety of mental states and must be
largely supplemented by lively pantomime. In conclusion, he has
eighteen pages of what he calls an " animal pathognomic-mimetic
alphabet," showing the value and function of each part of the
physical organism, from the teeth to the tail, as a vehicle of ex-
pression. Dogs and cats fairly bristle with strong emotions, and
birds show their ruffled feelings in their feathers and wax eloquent
with their wings. Wenzel is convinced that every species of ani-
mal has its own dialect, which is to be regarded as a modification
of the common or generic language of the race to which it belongs.
Thus he seems to think that the zebra would understand the ass
more readily than the horse, because the first two are more closely
affiliated, although all three are endowed with equine speech. The
same principle applies to the different varieties of the domestic
hog in relation to other suilline quadrupeds.

As an example of the extent to which animals may acquire a
knowledge of human speech he prints a communication from a
clergyman who had taught his dog to fetch books from his library
in an adjoining room. " Fido," he would say, " on the table near
the window are a quarto, an octavo, and a duodecimo ; go and get
the quarto." Fido never failed to bring the volume designated.
He had trained the dog to perform this service by showing him a
book and saying very distinctly and repeatedly quarto, octavo, or
duodecimo, and then laying it down in the library and making
him fetch it. In the same manner the dog was taught to bring
many other objects, the names of which he seldom confounded or
misunderstood. The clever animal could also be sent on errands.
" Fido," the clergyman would say, " go to Mr. B. and tell him that
I shall call upon him to-day." Thereupon Fido ran to Mr. B/s
house and on finding him gave three short barks, which were per-

STUDIES OF ANIMAL SPEECH. 435

f ectly intelligible to the person thus addressed. If any one called
when the clergyman was out, Fido barked once ; and he did the
same if his master did not wish to be disturbed and bade him tell
the caller that he was not at home. He announced a visitor by
scratching on the door and barking twice. A Bavarian family at
Munich has a dog that deems it highly improper for gentlemen
to wear their hats in the house, but is sufficiently gallant not to
find fault with ladies for doing so. An American, who wished to
test the animal's discriminating sense of the fitness of things in
this respect, entered the room and sat down with his hat on. The
dog looked at him disapprovingly for a moment and then began
to bark, with eyes intently fixed upon the hat. As the unmannerly
visitor continued the conversation without paying any attention
to these admonitions, the dog sprang up and, seizing the hat by
the brim, pulled it off and quietly laid it on a chair.

Wenzel also tells the story of a dog whom his master used to
send to the market for meat, and who would stand before the kind
of meat he was instructed to get, beef, mutton, or veal, and bark
once, twice, or thrice, according to the number of pounds desired.
The butcher filled the order, and the dog trotted home with his
purchase and the cheerful consciousness of having done his duty.
Wenzel's little book is full of interesting anecdotes illustrating
his subject, and has a frontispiece representing a landscape, re-
sembling the traditional pictures of the garden of Eden found in
old Bibles, with an ape, a dog, a horse, and a bull in the fore-
ground, and the legend underneath: "They do not lie; their
speech is truth."

The French physicist, R. Radeau, in a work on acoustics, pub-
lished in 1869, treats incidentally of the language of animals,
which he thinks one could, by careful observation, learn to under-
stand and even to speak with fluency. Mersenne, in his Harmonie
Universelle, asserts that men speak from a volitional impulse and
utter vocal sounds in the exercise of a power of the mind which
they are free not to exercise unless they choose to do so, whereas
the lower animals use their voices under the influence of natural
necessity, howling, shrieking, singing, etc., because under the cir-
cumstances they can not do otherwise, being subject to forces
which they are absolutely unable to resist. The vexed question
of the freedom or necessity of the will in human action, which
metaphysics has vainly endeavored to solve, has been reopened
by natural science and evolutionary biology and is now discussed
on a broader basis and with the prospect of positive result. What-
ever may be the final issue of these investigations, it is certain
that the old Cartesian distinction between man and brute in this
respect can no longer be maintained. Radeau is right in reject-
ing Mersenne's theory as involving a too subtile psychological

436 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

distinction and in declaring that his doctrine of natural necessity
might be applied with equal force to many an inveterate gabbler
who can not hold his tongue.

In this connection he relates the following anecdote on the
authority of Jules Richard : In 1857 this gentleman had occasion
to visit a sick friend in a hospital, where he made the acquaint-
ance of an old official of the institution from the south of France,
who was exceedingly fond of animals, his love of them being
equaled only by his hatred of priests ; he claimed also to be per-
fectly familiar with the languages of cats and dogs, and to speak
the language of apes even better than the apes themselves. Jules
Richard received this statement with an incredulous smile, where-
upon the old man, whose pride was evidently touched by such
skepticism, invited him to come the next morning to the zoologi-
cal garden. " I met him at the appointed time and place," says
Mr. Richard, " and we went together to the monkeys' cage, where
he leaned on the outer railing and began to utter a succession of
guttural sounds, which alphabetical signs are scarcely adequate
to represent — ' Kirruu, kirrikiu, kuruki, kirikiu ' — repeated with
slight variations and differences of accentuation. In a few min-
utes the whole company of monkeys, a dozen in number, assem-
bled and sat in rows before him with their hands crossed in their
laps or resting on their knees, laughing, gesticulating, and answer-
ing." The conversation continued for a full quarter of an hour,
to the intense delight of the monkeys, who took a lively part in it.
As their interlocutor was about to go away, they all became in-
tensely excited, climbing up on the balustrade and uttering cries
of lamentation ; when he finally departed and disappeared more
and more from their view, they ran up to the top of the cage and
clinging to the frieze made motions as if they were bidding him
good-by. It seemed, adds Mr. Richard, as though they wished
to say, " We are sorry to part and hope to meet again, and if you
can't come, do drop us a line ! "

No one who has observed the actions and listened to the utter-
ances of a clever parrot will accept Mersenne's assertion that the
exercise of the vocal organs of animals is not free, but subject to
natural and irresistible necessity, or that speech is in a greater de-
gree the product of inevitable causation in the mouth of the cock-
atoo than in that of the cockney. Humboldt states that, after the
Aturians on the Orinoco had become extinct, the only creature
that could speak their language was a very aged parrot, con-
demned by adverse fortune to spend the remnant of its days in
comparative solitude as the sad survivor of a once powerful tribe.
From a philological point of view, the venerable bird was as
interesting a character as the old Cornish woman with whose
decease, some years ago, the dialect of her people ceased to be a

STUDIES OF ANIMAL SPEECH. 437

spoken tongue. It is also a historical fact that when, in 1509,
the Spanish freebooters Nicuesa and Ojeda wished to surprise the
village of Yurbaco, on the Isthmus of Darien, in order to capture
a cargo of slaves, the vigilant parrots in the tops of the trees an-
nounced the approach of the enemy, and thus enabled the inhab-
itants to escape.

Perhaps the most cultivated and certainly the most celebrated
parrot of which we have any record belonged from 1830 to 1840
to a canon of the cathedral of Salzburg, named Hanikl, who gave
the bird regular instruction twice a day, from nine to ten in the
morning and from ten to eleven in the evening. The parrot made
rapid progress in the development of its mental faculties, and
soon showed what a remarkable degree of intelligence it is pos-
sible for such a creature to attain under systematic tuition. The
sayings and doings of this parrot which lived fourteen years after
Hanikrs death and died in 1854, have been reported by a num-
ber of careful and competent observers and are unquestionably
authentic. One day, as some one entered the room, it cried out in
a harsh tone, " Where do you come from ? " On seeing that the
person was an ecclesiastical dignitary, it added, apologetically:
" Oh, I beg pardon of your Grace ; I thought it was a bird." It took
part in general conversation, and was sometimes so loquacious
that it had to be told to stop ; it was also fond of talking to itself,
and imagining all sorts of exciting scenes : " Beat me, will you ?
Beat me, will you ? Oh, you rascal ! Yes, yes, that's the way of
the world." It whistled tunes and sang various popular songs,
and even learned an entire aria from Flotow's opera of Martha.

A parrot of the same species (Psittacus eriihacus), ash-gray,
with scarlet-red tail, is now in the possession of M. Nicaise, a mem-
ber of the Anthropological Society of Paris. This bird is nearly
fifty years of age, and endowed with wonderful versatility of
intellect. It imitates to perfection all the calls and cries of the
street, and when in 1870 it was sent aw,ay from the beleaguered
city into the country, it came back with its repertory immensely
enlarged, having learned to reproduce the whistle of the quail, the
hoot of the owl, the merry scream of the magpie, the crow of the
cock, the cluck of the hen, and the tones of a great variety of
wild birds and domestic fowls and quadrupeds. One of its his-
trionic masterpieces is the phonetic representation of the killing
of a pig which it witnessed nearly a quarter of a century ago,
but of which it has not forgotten a single characteristic grunt or
squeal. Nothing is omitted, from the deep gutturals, alternating
with piercing shrieks, as the porker is dragged to the place of
slaughter, to the last faint groan of the dying animal. Indeed, the
reproduction of the scene is so intolerably realistic, that the per-
sons present are fain to stop their ears and to bid the bird keep si-

438 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

lence. It listens attentively to any conversation that is going on,
and expresses its approval or astonjshment by exclaiming " Oh ! "
or "Ah ! " and always at the appropriate time or place. If any one
tells a funny story or gets off a joke, it laughs with the rest of
the company, although this outburst of merriment is doubtless
due, not so much to a humorous appreciation of what is said, as
to the contagion of the general hilarity. When it wants some-
thing, it calls its mistress by her Christian name, Marie, and,
if she does not come at once, calls her again with a sharp tone
of impatience. Once, when a firebrand fell on the hearth and
filled the room with smoke, it cried, "Marie! Marie!" in a
voice indicating extreme anxiety and alarm. This parrot is
a provident creature, and when taking its dinner always lays
aside a piece of bread and jam for its supper, thus showing
that it has the power of looking before and after, which
Shakespeare deems a peculiarly human attribute. It not only
sings songs correctly, but also inprovises musical compositions,
which it renders each time with new variations, and performs,
as M. Nicaise assures us, " with a taste and style and spirit that
might excite the envy of any pupil of the conservatory." The
fact that these pieces invariably close on the tonic or keynote
proves that all the modulations are referred to the fundamental
tone of the chord, and gives evidence of a musical feeling and
sense of harmony such as only human beings are usually supposed
to possess. These improvisations are whistled, and sound as
though they were played by a flute, the performance being uni-
formly preluded with runs and trills and other vocalizations.

The parrot is an exception to the rule that the period of infancy
is longest in the most intelligent creatures. Its babyhood is, in
fact, very short, although its average life seems to be somewhat
longer than that of a man. It attains the full splendor of its
plumage and is pubescent at the early age of two, and often sur-
vives all the members of the human family in which it has been
reared, outliving even the children much younger than itself.
During all this time it retains its mental plasticity and progress-
iveness, never ceases to learn, and goes on developing its inborn
capacities from the beginning to the end of its prolonged exist-
ence. It is quite as inquisitive as the monkey, and quite as ca-
pable of close and continued observation. Merely through its
association with man it is constantly making new acquisitions of
knowledge, and there is no telling what might not be accom-
plished in this direction by systematic instruction carried on
through successive generations.

If Mr. Garner's object had been to ascertain how far anfmals
can acquire the use of human speech and what effect such dis-
cipline would have in enlarging their intellectual faculties, he

STUDIES OF ANIMAL SPEECH. 439

would have done better to choose parrots instead of monkeys for
his experiments ; but as his purpose is to learn the language of
animals, and not to teach them his own, he has done well to select
apes as the objects of his study. It must be confessed, however,
that the results of his investigations, embodied in his volume
recently published, are rather disappointing, and are, in fact, less
comprehensive, although doubtless more accurate, than the
observations made by Wenzel at the beginning of the present
century. He is prone to lay great stress upon matters that are
really of no importance whatever, as, for example, when he dis-
covers that " No," accompanied by a shake of the heads is the sign
of negation, and adds, "The fact that this sign is common to
both man and simian I regard as more than a mere coincidence,
and I believe that in this sign I have found the psycho-physical
basis of expression/' It is difficult to perceive how a logical
thinker could draw such a sweeping conclusion from so slight
premises. If he finds that gorillas and chimpanzees in their
native wilds, unaffected by human associations, express dissent by
shaking their heads and shouting " No ! " it will be a fact well
worth recording.

Mr. Garner's superiority to his predecesssors in this depart-
ment of linguistic research consists in the greater excellence of
his material rather than of his mental equipment. The possession
of the phonograph alone gives him an immense advantage in this
respect, by enabling him to record and to repeat the utterances of
monkeys with perfect accuracy. Armed with this scientific
weapon of phonetic precision and all the instruments and appli-
ances which modern invention has placed at his disposal, he may
perhaps completely conquer a province of investigation hitherto
but partially explored, and, by making important contributions
to zooglottology and working out a system of alphabetical signs
for the language of the anthropoid race, become the Cadmus
of the simian world.

A BENGALI in India has made & contribution toward the expenses of a " snake
laboratory " which it is proposed to establish in Calcutta. The work of the estab-
lishment will include the scientific examination of supposed cures for snake-bite,
and the investigation of the properties of the snake poison. The laboratory will
be the only institution of its kind in the world.

THE expedition of Sir William Macgregor to Mount Owen Stanley in New
Guinea found a remarkable native bridge spanning the Vanapa River. It is a
woven bridge, suspended from trees on each bank, and is similar in every respect
to the bridges built by the Malays of Sumatra and the Dyaks of Borneo. The
view of it given in Mr. J. P. Thomson's British New Guinea shows it to be an
elegant and picturesque structure.

440 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

LEARN AND SEARCH.*

BY PBOF. RUD.OLPH VIRCHOW.

OUR university has during its existence, now for more than
eighty-two years, celebrated the beginning of a new univer-
sity year in a peculiarly solemn manner. This October day is the
one among the festivals it observes which invites it to enter into
self -contemplation, to a review of its acquired results, to a testing
of the ways it has struck out, and again to the consideration of
new problems and to a look into the future. Have we solved
the problems that are set before us ? Have we made a faithful
use of the means for training youth for the highest objects of the
state and of manhood ? Can we surely expect that the hopes
which we and the Fatherland have built on our work will be
realized ? It is incumbent on the new rector to be the interpreter
of these problems. But whose mouth is eloquent enough to give
common expression to the often widely diversified thoughts of his
associates ? How few of us succeed in obtaining even only a gen-
eral view of the ever newly changing phases of single special
branches ! None of us, we often confess, is a bearer of all knowl-
edge. Each of us can do no more, with the best will, than judge
from the point of view of his own branch, of his own single experi-
ence out of the whole course of studies at the university. Hence
the temptation is pressing to make his own branch rather than
the generality of the studies the subject of his review. I shall en-
deavor to avoid this rock.

The confidence of my associates has called me to this high
position forty-six years after I entered this faculty as a privat
docent, and after I have been active forty-three years as an ordi-
narius in a foreign university and here. Great changes have
taken place, not only in public affairs, but also in knowledge —
greater than in hundreds of years before. All the single fields
of human activity have been transformed, many fundamentally,
or at least subjected to the incisive attacks of criticism. How
could one who has participated busily in public life have passed
through so great experiences without realizing it and with-
out disturbance ? Yet university life is not isolated amid tbe
general intellectual life of the people. We are obliged to look
around from our instruction upon instruction in general, the ele-
mentary and preparatory instruction which youth eager to learn
bring to us, as well as upon the instruction in the various higher
or technical schools, one after another of which has developed the
intelligible effort to be, or at least to be called, a high school. To

* Rector's address at the Friedrich Wilhelm's University, Berlin, October 15, 1892.

LEARN AND SEARCH. 441 ,

the lower institutions the university is a perpetual association to
prepare their pupils so that they shall receive our instruction
with full understanding; for the higher schools, it is a model
after which they may shape their methods and regulations. On
the other hand, the university is called upon to introduce to the
state and society successive new generations of young, well-pre-
pared men, who, filled with arranged knowledge, impelled by
moral earnestness, preserve and bear the sacred flame of learning
through all the perplexities and dark passages of daily life.

There was a time when this sublime position of the university
was not only generally recognized, but was also distinguished by
great prerogatives. Many of them have since been lost. We have,
perhaps, only temporarily, but still happily, passed the days when
the strongest attacks were made against the universities and the
narrowest limitations were imposed on their freedom. But we
will not forget that even this university, which was founded in
the most difficult period, in order, according to the word of its
founder, King Friedrich Wilhelm III, to be "the nursery of a
better future," was subjected to a suspicious and close watch.
Various motives worked together to bring about this unhappy
condition. One of them, and one which you, dear fellow-laborers,
may contemplate with advantage, lay in the behavior of many of
the students, and consisted in a widespread misunderstanding of
the purpose of the study and the position of the student.

No less a person than Johann Gottlieb Fichte first occupied
the position from which I speak to-day. In the memorable ad-
dress " On the One Possible Disadvantage of Academic Freedom "
(Ueber die einzig mogliche Storung der akademischen Freiheit),
which he delivered as the first chosen rector of our university on
October 19, 1811, he spoke the significant words, worthy of being
taken to heart : " He only is a student who just studies." With
prophetic mind he described whither the course tends, when the
student, instead of making it his chief purpose to learn, instead
of " sinking, as he ought, his whole thought and mind in learn-
ing," spends his time in nursing antiquated traditions of a special
privileged condition of students and in maintaining supposed pre-
rogatives. It is sufficient to refer to this address, which every stu-
dent may be advised to read. Fichte at that time expressly dis-
claimed speaking of conditions which existed at this university,
but referred to the cases of other universities ; and the earnestness
of his admonitions reveals that he regarded the danger as menac-
ing, and, in fact, as so menacing, that he saw in it the " one possi-
ble disadvantage of academical freedom."

The severe crisis which came on a few years later and in-
volved all the German universities has at last passed away,
and it has, as we recognize with thanks, left unscathed the two

442 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

chief features for which, we have every reason to be proud in a
comparison with other nations of Europe — freedom in teaching
and freedom in learning. Teachers and pupils have still that in-
dependence and self-reliance which promote vigilant responsi-
bility and exclude strange control. The freedom in teaching in
particular, which was preserved till the dissolution of the Ger-
man Empire through the special concessions of the emperor and
the nobles, has in our time become a constitutional right. The
free choice of the rector by the regular professors has also re-
mained to us, and the corporate character of the university has
not been attacked.

Several other privileges, indeed, which originated in the time
when the student body was almost sovereign and the customs of
the middle ages determined the form of the student's life, exist no
more. The academical jurisdiction has been reduced to a few
disciplinary rights ; our scepters, which were conspicuous on days
like this, are more ornaments than real insignia of power. The
student is now in full sense subject to the civil law. He is a citi-
zen like the others, and he knows that he has no other privilege
than the right of freedom to learn preserved to him on the ground
of what he represents, and the .right won by proficiency in uni-
versity studies of obtaining money and a part of the highest posi-
tions in the state. In other respects we have no academical free-
dom different from general civic freedom. The student has no
special right. The academical citizen like the citizen of the state
looks for the source of his right in the constitution of the state.
But this constitution has given him more rights than he formerly
had ; especially the right, under limitations prescribed by the con-
stitution and the law, to participate in political life without being
subjected to any exceptional rule.

Therefore, dear fellow-students, take the sincere counsel to
pursue learning as your first and most important object, with full
knowledge of all its results and with devoted earnestness. Self-
evident as this advice may seem to be, experience teaches that it
can not be repeated too often and too impressively. This is true
as well for the later semesters as for the first. The more difficult
and comprehensive the branch the entering student selects, the
earlier should the methodical study begin, for the instruction of
the later semesters is comprehended only on the basis of the ear-
lier instruction. The temptation to the young student first to
enjoy academical freedom in not-learning is certainly very great.
To one who passes from the constraint of the gymnasium into the
golden freedom of the university it is a privilege to stretch his
limbs and to conduct himself without regard to later things. We
all know this, and are accustomed to exercise " academical indul-
gence " toward this way of using academical freedom. But there

LEARN AND SEARCH. 443

must be limits to this indulgence, for it is not really academical
freedom as we understand it and as the state should understand
it. " Academical freedom " does not mean " freedom in not-doing "
or " freedom in pleasure, or in the gratification of the passions,"
but " freedom to learn." This is real academic freedom, and the
university has been opened to students for its exercise.

Neither teachers nor scholars should forget that the object of
the university is a very high one, namely, general scientific and
ethical cultivation and full knowledge of the special branch pur-
sued. Once at least in his life, at the close of his university ca-
reer, the cultivated young man should be so far advanced that his
knowledge, especially in his own branch, should correspond with
the average condition of scientific research. If he does not suc-
ceed in that, there is little hope that he will ever become an hon-
ored specialist in the circle of his associates. He has every pros-
pect of continuing a bungler all his life. Let no one, therefore, be
deceived : only in exceptional cases does a period of freedom to
learn like that normally possessed by the academical citizen re-
turn in later life.

To the exercise of this freedom the desire to learn is essential
before everything else. Whoever desires to learn at the univer-
sity will have to decide at once what and how he will learn. The
indifferent pupil shirks this decision. His choice does not really
concern the kind of learning ; it wavers principally between learn-
ing and not-learning. The university possesses no means of com-
pulsion to enforce learning. The means of discipline and regula-
tion at its command are not adequate to secure participation in
instruction; only the medical faculty has in its examinations
obligatory provisions which are adapted to secure a certain order
in the succession of lectures and exercises. Yet experience
teaches that complete success can not be reached without the de-
sire to learn. How can this desire be aroused ?

In so large a university as ours the personal influence of the
teacher on individual students is naturally very limited; only
special conditions can enable him to form close relations with
a smaller circle of hearers, or exceptionally with single hearers.
His influence is, therefore, chiefly exercised upon the mass of
students, and he often first learns from a later examination how
little of this influence the individual has received. We can de-
clare with pleasure that the number of hearers who followed the
instruction with ardor and success, even with distinguished suc-
cess, is not small. But it would be a mistake to conceal the fact
that the complaint of the teacher very often is that his trouble
has been in vain. Many go further, and assert that a progressive
diminution in the work accomplished by the students may be
remarked.

444 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

This is especially the case in those branches the substance of
which is all strange to the newly entered student, and is endowed
with an oppressive copiousness of new ideas, as, for example, in
jurisprudence and medicine. Precisely in these branches is the
course of the student in the first semester often decisive for his
whole development, and indeed for his whole after life. For in
them one lecture is built methodically on another, and no one can
properly understand the superstructure without having become
acquainted with the substructure in all its parts. Else there
arises a piece-work of fragmentary knowledge without proper
foundation. All the teacher's later influence can not fill up the
gaps.

Doubtless the difficulty of the matter contributes to make be-
ginners waver in their zeal ; and yet it is the beginners on the
gaining of whom all depends. Does the responsibility for a pause
in learning occurring so often in the first semester rest upon the
university teaching ? Such a reproach can not be raised, even on
the strictest investigation, and it has not been raised to my
knowledge, at least not in a corresponding generality. On the
contrary, all the considerations lead to the question of preparatory
training. This point is at this instant engaging most extensive
consideration. The attention of all cultivated persons, and no less
of the Government, is directed to the question of what changes
in the instruction in the higher schools are demanded in order to
reach that measure of preparatory training which can assure a
wholesome progress in the studies of the universities. It would
far pass the scope of my address to discuss this highly important
question in all its parts. The debate goes on concerning the sub-
jects of instruction, the amount of time which should be given to
each, the method of teaching, and finally the amount of work to
be laid upon the students, and also upon the teacher. The experi-
ence of the university teacher has been large enough to enable
him to form a judgment upon the majority of these' questions.
It will be sufficient for the present discussion to touch upon only
a few of the less frequently mentioned points.

The university teacher has before everything else two demands
to make upon the higher schools, which are in close connection
with each other. He should require that the abiturients bring
with them the desire to learn and the capacity for independent
work. The proof of positive knowledge of any particular sort
should give way to these demands. Individual faculties will
make various requisitions with reference to them ; but it will be
hard to show a serious difference concerning the main point.

The desire to learn is originally present in every normally en-
dowed child. We daily witness the joy of the infant when he
succeeds in comprehending a new thing or perceives some new

LEARN AND SEARCH. 445

action of his organs. His pleasure increases with every advance
that he makes. This property is innate. How it is exercised is in
the first place dependent on the condition of his organs. Many
diversities of behavior appear among children early, according as
they are limited by inborn, and often inherited, differences in
their faculties.

Is this property peculiar to children alone ? Surely not. It
abides in the man till his mature age, provided his organs are nor-
mal, and as long as no disturbance or interruption by outer influ-
ences intervenes. "What pleasure does even the learned man ex-
perience when a new field of knowledge is unlocked to him ; even
in his old age, how enlivened is his thirst for learning when he
succeeds in getting a glance into new series of phenomena of Na-
ture or of the human mind which had been previously incompre-
hensible or inaccessible to him ! How does it happen that young,
cultivated men, under training to become academical freemen,
escape this general human property ? It is in them without
doubt, but has not rarely been repressed by some objectless treat-
ment. Then the thing to be done is not to call it out for the first
time, but to revivify it.

From the desire to learn, when well directed, is developed the
desire for knowledge. Not satisfied with the knowledge of a fact,
with the perception of a phenomenon, the desire to learn urges
on to the understanding of it. It searches for the connection of
phenomena and processes, their history and causes, and is never
quite satisfied till it has grasped their genetic and causal rela-
tions. This is the mark of a real desire for knowledge. With it
comes the beginning of research. A disposition to investigate
can be recognized in the child to the extent that it divides the
object it has in hand into its parts and tries to put them together
again into a whole ; or it imitates a movement, to learn what it
must do to bring it about. Training thus finds all the elements
present ; it has only to use them and direct them in methodical
ways. This comes to pass when attention is fixed on the connec-
tions, interest is stimulated, the study is directed to the principal
fact and diverted from the subsidiary ones.

We can now raise the question, Does this take place in our
schools ? Even in the lower schools the desire for learning is so
greatly perverted that with no small portion of our people, not
the love of knowledge, but only its lowest form, curiosity, is cul-
tivated— that disposition which is satisfied with a superficial and
therefore incomplete comprehension, following which attention is
directed to new objects. Thus, an innate and naturally worthy
property is misdirected and brought to a form of expression which
is at least purposeless and not rarely injurious.

When the love of knowledge is awakened in the childish mind

446 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and the child is also led to a consideration of genetic and causal
relations, attention should be directed to historical events. With
right that instruction which points at most to a more formal
transmission of precepts — religious instruction — is not limited to
mere dogmatic teaching, but seeks in sacred history a means of
learning. But nothing is so highly adapted to such teaching as
what is called natural history, in which real objects are dealt
with, and genetic processes may be immediately demonstrated.
Our Folk schools are making daily progress in observational in-
struction, and it is only to be desired that the application of mere
pictures may be supported by illustrations from real objects.

In the higher schools teaching of the languages has had the
lion's share from the beginning. As the gymnasia grew out of
the Latin schools of the middle ages, the preference of Latin has
remained their constant inheritance. The Greek, the introduc-
tion of which is due to the humanists, has taken a place by its
side. This circumstance has had the happy result, we thankfully
recognize, for enlightened Europe, of gaining for all those peoples
who have had a part in it a common basis of cultivation which
has contributed more than anything else to promote mutual un-
derstanding and the feeling of fellowship. During a long time
the general use of the Latin language by the learned has in the
most opportune manner facilitated the intercourse of all literary
men.

The condition has now become different, very different ; and
even those who, fully recognizing the highly beneficial influence
of the classical languages upon European civilization, desire a
continuance of their study, must grant that it is impossible to
restore the old relations. The national languages have come into
their natural right, and much as we may deplore the increasing
polyglot character of learned works, and evidently as it concerns
us that we are not qualified to read a multitude of excellent trea-
tises in the original, we must still recognize that no power in the
world is competent to produce a change within a conceivable
time. Our literary schools only exceptionally furnish graduates
who can speak Latin or write a fluent Latin essay ; and the uni-
versities have been forced, contrary to their inclination, to re-
move the Latin language from their courses of instruction and
from practical use. The confusion of tongues has entered the
learned world and secured its sanction.

It was from the beginning on the weak side of the humanistic
institutions that they preferred Latin. It must be conceded that
they could not do otherwise. They found the Latin the univer-
sal language of the Church and the land. They were Latin
schools. They simply continued what had been the general praxis
through a thousand years of exercise. But they received with it

LEARN AND SEARCH. 447

an element of weakness. For the classical writers of Rome were
far behind those of Greece in their achievements ; indeed, the best
among them owed their culture to Greek predecessors, and the
schools of Athens always held the first rank in the esteem of men.
Their teachings constitute the background of all literary achieve-
ment. Our Western civilization has received its most peculiar
moving thoughts, its current forms, from Grecian literature.
Homer, Aristotle, and Plato have continued to be the teachers
of the peoples till our days.

The balance of decision in this conflict is now swinging hither
and thither. Professional interest in the Latin has declined since
the Greek writers have been read again in the original, yet the
Latin language has remained the principal subject of instruction.
Its reach, however, has constantly become less. Since the use of
language as such has steadily diminished, we have let rhetoric
drop and have limited ourselves more and more to grammar.
Indeed, grammatical teaching has gradually become so predomi-
nant that even the Latin essay has been reduced to a pious desire.
We have thus reached a turning point with the classical lan-
guages. Schooling in grammar is not that aid to continuous
growth which our youth need. It does not produce that desire to
learn which is an essential preliminary to independent advance-
ment ; on the other hand, it is evident that it has become an
object of aversion to many pupils, and perhaps for more parents.
Greek has already been half surrendered. No one expects any
longer that the mass of the pupils coming from the schools shall
be so far advanced as to be qualified to take up the independent
reading and explanation of the Greek writers. Medical men had
apparently the most reason for regret, for their science is the only
one which has grown up during more than two thousand years
uninterruptedly on the basis of the Greek writings. But it can
not be denied that Hippocrates and Galen offer so few points of
touch with present doctors, although these piously adhere to the
Greek terminology, that the study of them is of the least signifi-
cance to the understanding of pathological processes. The real
value of Greek literature, moreover, lies not in its technical parts,
but rather in the philosophical and poetical departments, the influ-
ence of which in cultivation is for the moment underestimated.

An important innovation has meanwhile taken form in the
philological department, which we may proudly praise as emi-
nently a German achievement : I mean the study of comparative
linguistics. With it a properly genetic element became valid
even in philology. Wonderful results, of inestimable value in the
history of human civilization, are now in prospect. Ever new re-
searches keep the probability in view that comparative linguistics
will continue to be a regular constituent of the higher education.

448 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

But it will evidently be attainable in its details only to university
students. The decision of what shall be prescribed to the higher
schools concerns, therefore, only the two classical and the modern
languages. The university teacher has, in respect to this deci-
sion, to insist that, whatever language is prescribed, it shall be so
taught that the pupil shall learn to work independently in it, and
that he preserve his pleasure in the work. It remains to be seen
whether new methods of teaching will promote this object.

We can now show upon this subject that there.are other fields
of teaching, the methods of which have been so well shaped out
that they are in a condition completely to carry out what is
needed. They are mathematics, philosophy, and the natural
sciences. They have, on the one hand, so rich and diversified a
content that they ever stimulate the love of knowledge anew, and
on the other hand they are so well adapted to an ever more ex-
tensive cultivation as to afford a rich opportunity for genuine
research. It is thus made clear that occupation with them affords
the young mind so sure a preparatory training that it can make
itself at home with peculiar ease in every faculty.

Instruction in the branches we have named, at least in their
elements, was introduced long ago in our higher schools. Only
the measure of the knowledge which should be prescribed as the
purpose of this instruction has been variously fixed at different
times. The opinions of teachers as well as of the controlling state
officers have frequently changed ; and the excessive tendency of
these men toward the philological course at last always borne
against the extension of the designated branches. Only the ex-
treme necessity of satisfying the demands of the rapidly advanc-
ing technical interest and the industries gaining strength evenly
with it, irresistibly forced concessions, and when it was believed
that these could not be carried in the humanistic institutions,
a separation was decided upon. Hence arose the polytechnic
schools and the gymnasia, and as a further result the technical
high schools.

A final peace has not been reached in this way. Our age is in
the midst of the fight over the claims of particular kinds of high
schools. The call is ever anew rising for specially organized
schools, and before everything for a far-reaching reform of
gymnasial teaching. Not all these demands can be justified. The
universities have in most cases not sustained the claims of the
real schools for a general admission of their graduates. As we
have already observed, the interests of the individual faculties in
the kind of preparation of their students are not identical. Those
faculties which look in their teachings for immediate support in
philological aids can not declare themselves satisfied with a prepa-
ration which has pushed the ancient languages more or less into

LEARN AND SEARCH. 449

the background. Those to the understanding of whose branches
the ancient languages as such contribute directly no essential part
have to consider how far a full training in mathematics and sci-
ence can furnish for their branches and for general cultivation as
well an adequate substitute for the want of classical training.
Experience has not supplied a decision on this point. It can be
remarked only that among the foreigners who have been admitted
to our classes are many who have not enjoyed a gymnasial
training in our sense, and who yet attend the lectures with com-
mendable interest and with evident good results.

There undeniably exists an essential difference in respect to
the demands which individual faculties have to make on the
preparation of those coming to them from the schools. The fu-
ture must teach us whether a single kind of higher schools can
satisfy these various demands. But a definite answer can already
be given respecting one of them. If the classical languages are
no longer competent to supply the unifying bond that formerly
connected all the different directions of learned culture, a substi-
tute for them can be found only in that golden triad of mathe-
matics, philosophy, and science on the development of which all
modern civilization touches.

It is a matter of secondary importance for this discussion
whether the roots of this culture should be sought still further in
the East, in Egypt or in Babylonia. The continuity of Western
civilization actually begins for us on the western coasts of Asia
Minor with those Ionian Greeks who first laid mathematical study
of the heavenly bodies at the base of their discussions concerning
the universe, and who produced the first natural philosophy, in
which all that man knew about Nature was reduced to a harmoni-
ous picture. In this philosophy lies the actual beginning of that
universal consideration of the world which has been significantly
called " world wisdom/' and which has gradually led to a funda-
mental transformation of the old conceptions of the heavens and
the earth and of man himself. That is the imperishable title of
the Grecian philosophy to be held in honor.

The full comprehension of this fact arose very late among the
Western peoples. When, after the fall of Constantinople, Greek
scholars fled to Italy, and Greek literature spread rapidly at that
time, when the humanists arose in Germany, and one university
after another was founded, then the independent spirit of investi-
gation first lifted itself up in all nations. Mathematicians and
naturalists abounding in original strength appeared, and philoso-
phers were soon active in adapting the conceptions of men to the
new views and in grasping the fundamentals of intellectual life.

Right in the beginning of this memorable period appeared the
man whose great achievement mankind has just been festively

VOL. XLIII. — 30

450 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

celebrating. Day before yesterday it was four hundred years
since Christopher Columbus descried the first land of that New
World in which now many millions are joyously engaged in com-
memorating him. For him was the enviable fortune reserved
of demonstrating at a stroke, by a bold experiment, the truth of
the theory that the earth is round, and of opening at the same
time to human enterprise the widest field that had ever been un-
locked to it. Let us at this place bring the deserved offering to
his genius and his energy. Let us not forget that with him, not-
withstanding his mistakes, which have been perhaps made for the
moment too prominent, a new era began — an era of new thought
and new traffic.

Then mental activity prevailed everywhere; great mathema-
ticians and physical astronomers of the first rank arose ; the great
reformation in the Church began, and the foundations of modern
medicine were laid. We are still in the midst of the movement,
but it is victorious everywhere. Our age has been called the sci-
. entific age. None of the humanities have escaped this influence.
Even the Roman Catholic Church, which endeavored so earnestly
to restrain it, has joined it ; and an appointed representative of
the Evangelical Church, our honored colleague Dillmann, a few
years ago spoke in his rectoral address the strong words, "A
church which can not bear the light of science, or which has to
temper it with colored glasses, should be laid with the dead." In
fact, the modern doctrine of the universe is wholly built up on
the ground of natural science, and nobody can seriously deny that
it must be so.

The question is therefore permissible, whether the youth of
our learned schools should not be advanced further than they are
now in this new knowledge. It can be readily granted that there
are still questions that have not yet been determined among the
learned concerning the instruction that should be excluded from
the schools and the instruction in specialties that should be re-
served for the universities. But we may ask that a young man,
credited with self-reliance enough to make good use of academical
freedom, shall be in a condition to absorb without danger the
leading facts of astronomy and biology. Can he be regarded as
really mature when the whole world around him is to a certain
extent closed to him ? And how can university instruction effect-
ively influence the young man if he is deprived of the instrument
he needs in order to carry on his hard work ?

He needs mathematics, not for its own sake, and not merely
in order that he may understand the motions of the heavenly
bodies ; even physics has gradually become a mathematical sci-
ence ; and in chemistry and physiology it is becoming more and
more necessary to carry out minute calculations. By their aid

LEARN AND SEARCH. 451

the student presses into the comprehension of the inner processes,
and learns not only to estimate the measure of the living forces
but also to calculate them in advance, in order afterward to ad-
just the practical using of them.

Arithmetic alone is not enough ; thought is also necessary to
comprehension. Many conceive that it is not necessary to make
thought itself an object of learning ; but there can not be success
without methodical thinking. Unfortunately, logic is one of the
studies that has almost been forgotten. At most of the schools
one is supposed to have done enough if he occasionally expresses
a logical theorem. How can one pursue psychology who has
never become acquainted with the laws of thought ? How can
the complicated conditions of mental life be made perceptible to
the outward view ? The young doctor is a little more favorably
situated in respect to this matter ; but what can be expected of
the jurist, the theologian, and the pedagogue ? Respect for phi-
losophy is already, at least, cultivated ; that is much. The dis-
position to learn to think philosophically will then easily be
yielded to.

And now, finally, the natural sciences. What profitable objects
for learning and teaching do the descriptive sciences — botany,
geology, and mineralogy — afford ! It is a mistake to suppose that
university teachers lay most weight on systematic knowledge.
Not at all. The systematic method, it is true, is learned at the
universities. It does no one harm to be able to learn and distin-
guish a certain number of plants, animals, or stones. But the
instruction proper should consist in the training of the senses,
especially of the sight and feeling. At present we have to lament
that a large part of our students have 110 exact knowledge of
colors, that they make false estimates of the forms of the objects
they see, and they manifest no comprehension of the consistence
and exterior constitution of bodies. Nothing should be easier
than to cultivate an accurate judgment concerning color and
form, if besides the comprehension of the body the representation
of it by a simple or colored drawing, though it were only a sketch,
were learned. Every one can make such knowledge useful. It is
of great value to medical men, for diagnoses of the most impor-
tant conditions are not rarely dependent upon it.

The experimental sciences, especially physics and chemistry,
are also indispensable in school instruction, because more than all
other branches they lead to the knowledge of the genetic and
causal connection of the processes, and prepare for the methodical
consideration of the more difficult problems of biology. It is evi-
dent that so long as general preparation for academical studies
alone is considered/only the simpler and more easily understood
experiments can be dealt with in them. But every pupil who

452 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

goes out from the school should still, at least, have been intro-
duced to these methods of studying Nature, in order to obtain a
proper faculty of observation.

This enumeration of what belongs to a good preparation has
been carried out to a considerable length, not because so many
subjects have to be brought forward, but because in the present
stage of the discussion of the relation of the university to the
preparatory schools, the question of the measure of preparation
that should be required for university instruction occupies the
first place. In order to avoid mistakes, it may be added that to
one who would limit himself to the study of his specialty, much
of what has been named above may appear superfluous. But if
the purpose was merely to secure a professional training, the uni-
versities would be superfluous. Then we might establish, as in
France, separate ecoles, or as in England, special colleges, or as in
the Roman Catholic Church, isolated convents. If we regard the
university, as is our pride, to be more than an auxiliary to the
professional schools, we must also demand an effective interwork-
ing of the faculties, a general scientific course by the side of the
professional course. If this, to our great regret, does not exist to
the extent it ought and might, the blame for it lies in that want
of preparation which I have tried to sketch, and the remedy for
which I expect to follow a more exact exposition of the actual
conditions.

So long as this help is not found there will be nothing left but
to take up in the universities much more elementary or, at least,
preparatory teaching, which burdens and degrades the instruction,
and which, though sufficient in a very few cases, fails to supply
the defects of preparation. The university professor has the less
time for such teaching, because the university is not merely an
institution for learning, but also for investigation. It is that
likewise in a double sense : first, because our nation is accustomed
to see scientific investigators in the university professors ; and,
secondly, because the state and science expect us to train at least
a certain portion of the students to be investigators. In this
sense we call the attendants as well as the institutions of the uni-
versity academical.

The ancient name of the academy, which has received from
Plato the meaning of a school working for the highest objects of
mental exertion, has been applied since the times of the Medici to
designate, as against the professional schools and the teaching
schools, unions of prominent thinkers and investigators for co-
operative work. From them have proceeded the academies of
sciences. A more recent age has produced besides these all pos-
sible sorts of academies which do not concern us here. The contin-
uous investigation of scientific problems is the appointed chief

PROTECTION FROM LIGHTNING. 453

purpose of only academies of sciences. But there are in Germany
only three, at most four such academies, and they are far from
sufficient to assure general progress over all the wide fields of
science. A part of their function has thus fallen upon the uni-
versities, and they have performed it valiantly, sometimes glori-
ously. This is the reason why German university teachers de-
mand more time than is required for the teaching in itself.

The universities have also an important function in the second
direction, as I have said, in the training of new investigators and
teachers. This is a very near duty, for only thus can that indis-
pensable constituent of the teaching body, the position of privat
docent, the nursery for future professors, be maintained and repro-
duced. Therefore, we should begin early to train independent
workers from among the students. — Translated for The Popular
Science Monthly.

PROTECTION FROM LIGHTNING.

BY ALEXANDER McADIE.

DURING the year 1891 two hundred and five lives were lost
(that we know of) in the United States, east of the Rocky
Mountains, directly through the action of lightning. How many
were lost indirectly, and how many cases there were of shattered
health and more or less permanent injury, we can only surmise.
The financial loss due directly to lightning was certainly not
below one and a half million dollars. To get at something like a
commercial estimate of the damage done by lightning in thfc past
few years, in this country, I have made use of the Chronicle Fire
Tables for the six years 1885-1890, and find that some twenty-two
hundred and twenty-three fires, or 1*3 per cent of the whole num-
ber, were caused by lightning, and the total loss was $3,386,826, or
1'25 per cent of the whole amount lost by fire. During 1892 we
have a record of two hundred and ninety-two lives lost. The
damage may be estimated at as high a figure as in 1891. These
losses are the more appalling when we recall that the year is vir-
tually less than six months. Over ninety-five per cent of the
casualties due to lightning occur between the months of April
and September. It is therefore qutie pertinent at this time to dis-
cuss the question whether or not we are able to protect ourselves
from lightning. Some five years ago the question would have
been answered readily and with all sincerity, " Yes, a good elec-
trical connection with the earth — a stout, continuous copper rod,
for example — will suffice." To-day no such answer can pass un-
challenged, for reasons which we shall see.

In 1888, after years of dispute, we had just settled down to the

VOL. XLIII. 31

454 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

calm enjoyment of the belief that rods did protect. The Light-
ning-rod Conference had shown, in quite an exhaustive report,
that Faraday's position (as opposed to the opinions of Harris)
was correct, viz., that the problem was one of simple conductiv-
ity ; that a solid rod was better than a tube or tape (which would
give greater surface with less copper) ; that solid volume was
everything, superficial area nothing ; and that, provided the me-
tallic passage afforded the flash was continuous, any flash might
be successfully carried off and harmlessly conducted to the
ground.

This conference, while not strictly an official body, was one
that, from the character of its members, carried great weight. It
was a joint committee of representative members of the Institute
of British Architects, the Physical Society, the Society of Tele-
graph Engineers and Electricians, the Meteorological Society,
and two co-opted members.

In 1888 came Dr. Oliver J. Lodge's remarkable course of
lectures before the Society of Arts upon the oscillatory character
of the lightning flash. Then followed the famous dicussion
at the meeting of the British Association. As this debate was
one in which quarter was neither asked nor given, and the ques-
tion at issue was clearly understood by all to be whether a light-
ning conductor, when constructed in accordance with the direc-
tions of the conference, would absolutely protect, it may not be
out of place to give here a synopsis of the arguments advanced.
Mr. Preece, who opened the discussion, defined the functions of a
lightning conductor as twofold. " It facilitates the discharge of
the electricity to the earth, so as to carry it off harmlessly, and it
tends to prevent disruptive discharges by silently neutralizing
the conditions which determine such discharges in the neighbor-
hood of the conductor. To effect the first object, a lightning con-
ductor should offer a line of discharge more nearly perfect and
more accessible than any other offered by the materials or con-
tents of the edifice we wish to protect. To effect the second ob-
ject, the conductor should be surmounted by a point or points ;
fine points and flames have the property of slowly and silently
dissipating the electrical charges; they, in fact, act as safety
valves. If all those conditions be fulfilled, if the points be high
enough to be the most salient features of the building, no mat-
ter from what direction the storm cloud may come, be of ample
dimensions and in thoroughly perfect electrical connection with
the earth, the edifice, with all that it contains, will be safe, and the
conductor might even be surrounded by gunpowder in the heavi-
est storm without risk of danger. All accidents may be said to
be due to a neglect of these simple elementary principles. The
most frequent sources of failure are conductors deficient either in

PROTECTION FROM LIGHTNING. 455

number, height, or conductivity, bad points or bad earth connec-
tions ; . . . and there was no authentic case on record where a
properly constructed conductor failed to do its duty. . . . He per-
sonally had under his supervision at that present moment 500,000
lightning conductors, and, fixed throughout the offices (post-office

LIGHTNING CLOUDS, MULTIPLE FLASH.

and telegraph), had apparatus, protected by about 30,000 or 40,000
lightning protectors."

Dr. Lodge said that " if his views were correct, very few build-
ings are effectively and thoroughly protected at the present time.
. . . He had read carefully the Conference Report, and found a
large number of entire failures ; . . . one noteworthy one, a brass
rod an inch thick on a steeple which was smashed to pieces and
the spire destroyed. Again, the best protected building in the
world, the Hotel de Ville at Brussels, on which M. Melsens had

456 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

spent so much time and trouble. It was elaborately protected ;
protected by innumerable conductors with admirable earths made
in a variety of ways, bristling with points all over the top — every-
thing carried out in the most approved style, regardless of ex-
pense. Yet in the month of June the building was struck and
set on fire. ... If a lightning conductor can prevent a flash from
occurring by its repellent action, well and good ; but he had

MULTIPLE FLASH.

shown in his lectures that there are cases where a point has no
protective action whatever, when a point could be struck by a
thick and heavy flash. There were other cases where the point
acts with a brush or fizz and neutralizes the electric charge with-
out a flash. They could not always do it. And so the lightning-
rod has two functions ; one is to be repellent if it can, and the
other is to carry off a flash when it can not help receiving it.

PROTECTION FROM LIGHTNING. 457

There was a certain amount of energy which they must dissipate
somehow, and they could not expect to hocus pocus it out of exist-
ence by saying they could conduct it to the earth. The quicker
they tried to conduct it down to the earth the more searching
and ramifying disturbances they were likely to get. It might be
better to let it trickle down slowly by using a moderately bad
conductor than to rush it with extreme vehemence down a good
conductor, just as it would be safer to let a heavy weight sus-
pended in a dangerous position down slowly rather than let it
drop as quickly as possible. ... If a man holds a lightning con-
ductor when a flash passes down it, he will most likely be killed.
... It did not matter about the earth ; . . . a spark was likely to
occur ... he had made experiments in the laboratory with a
rod very thick and a yard long, in circuit with a Ley den- jar dis-
charge. He took a platinum wire as fine as possible to make the
contrast greater, and arranged it so as to make a kind of tapping
circuit ; if, then, the bottom end was arranged so as to be in con-
tact with the rod and then let the top end be an eighth of an inch
away, then they would have a splendid conductor, better than any
lightning conductor ever was. They would have no trouble about
earth. It seemed absurd for any portion of the discharge to leave
this conductor to jump across and make for the little strip of
wire. Nevertheless, a portion of it did, and from every spark that
went to the conductor, a side branch went to that little wire. . . .
What are the conditions of a flash ? He assumed that a flash be-
haved like experiments in the laboratory, but it was a ques-
tion whether a cloud discharge was of this kind. A cloud is not
like a conductor ; it consists of globules of water separated from
one another by interspaces of air ; it may be compared to a span-
gle jar : when a spangle jar discharges, you have no guarantee
that the whole of it discharges — it discharges in a slowish manner.
It might be that there was with a cloud first a bit of a discharge
and then another bit, and so on, so that there might be a kind of
dribbling of the charge out of it, and they might therefore fail to
get these sudden and oscillatory rushes. . . . But we must pro-
vide for the possibility of a sudden discharge."

Hon. Ralph Abercromby contributed to the discussion facts
brought out by an examination of some ninety photographs of
lightning flashes in different parts of the world. In one in-
stance the whole air was filled with threads of lightning coming
down like the roots of a tree from the sky. He thought it was
very much a question where the area of protection would be when
the whole air seemed to be pouring lightning down upon you.
He would also like to find out whether buildings were struck
during rain or when it was not raining. In connection with the
fact that thunderstorms were confined to the lower ten thousand

458 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

feet of the air, he mentioned the fact that in Norway there were
two kinds of thunderstorms : one occurred in the summer, he be-
lieved, when the lightning clouds were high, and very little dam-
age was done ; on the contrary, in winter time the clouds were
very low, and the churches were frequently struck.

Lord Rayleigh, Sir William Thomson, and Prof. Rowland dis-
cussed the questions whether or not the experiments actually rep-
resented the actual conditions. M. de Fonveille called attention
to the most extraordinary lightning conductor in existence, the
Eiffel Tower, and the fact that Paris was practically free from
calamities produced by lightning, because a sufficient number of
lightning rods had been erected according to the principles advo-
cated by the many official boards, substantially the same as the
conference. Prof. George Forbes thought a copper alternative
path better than an iron one. Sir James Douglas, speaking from
an experience of forty years with a large number of conductors,
was of the opinion that the rods, when properly constructed, were
entirely adequate. In the matter of copper versus iron he pointed
out the practical consideration that iron corroded rapidly com-
pared with copper. Mr. Walker further pointed out that this
corrosion of iron was not a question of weather alone, but, as in
the case of the top of the chimney of a factory, there would be
some chemical action. Mr. Symons brought out with respect to
iron conductors that galvanizing would not entirely overcome the
difficulty.

We now come to Lodge's book upon Lightning Conductors
and Lightning Guards, and shall get from it a more satisfactory
understanding of his experiments and deductions. He believes
that the current ideas on the character of the lightning dis-
charge were not altogether correct, because the momentum of an
electric current and the energy of an electrostatic charge had
both been more or less overlooked. The application of the
known fact of electrokinetic momentum revolutionized the treat-
ment of certain phenomena. The old drain-pipe idea of convey-
ing electricity gently from cloud to earth was thus proved falla-
cious, and the problem of protection became at the same time
more complex and more interesting. His position, therefore, is
not that lightning rods are useless, but that few or none of the
present types are absolute and complete safeguards ; and he be-
lieves it possible to so modify existing protective systems as to
afford more certain protection. The problem is one, he very
clearly shows, far removed from the old idea of conduction.

To-day we know from the experiments of Hertz, Lodge, and
others that when an electric current flows steadily in one direction
in a conductor, its intensity is the same in all parts of the wire ;
but if it be of an oscillatory character — i. e., a current revers-

PROTECTION FROM LIGHTNING.

459

ing rapidly in direction — the interior of the conductor may carry
far less than the surface carries.

All of which goes to prove the correctness of Snow Harris's
opinion (and he probably studied the effects of lightning more
exhaustively than any one else) that surface was more of a con-
sideration in the form of a protector than solid section. In this
matter of the form of a conductor we follow Lodge, and prefer

IMPULSIVE RUSH DISCHARGE, SO-CALLED DARK FLASHES.

the tape to the solid rod. Increase of surface diminishes imped-
ance ; and as impedance is probably at the bottom of side flashes
and spittings, that conductor is to be prefered which offers less
impedance, and hence tape appears to be preferable to rod. It is
also more convenient, and it has also the advantage of being made
either continuous or in very long lengths. The tape must be of
dimensions sufficient to withstand melting or deflagration.

46o

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

" Think now," says Lodge, " of a cloud and of the earth under
it as forming the two coats of a Leyden jar, in the dielectric of
which houses and people exist ; we now
have to consider what determines a dis-
•• charge, and what happens when a dis-
charge occurs. The maximum tension
which air can stand is one half gramme
weight per square centimetre. At what-
ever point the electric tension rises to this
value, smash goes the air. The breakage
need not amount to a flash, it must give
way along a great length to cause a flash ;
if the break is only local, nothing more
than a brush or fizz need be seen. But
g when a flash does occur it must be the
= weakest spot which gives way first — the
I place of maximum tension — and this is
<i commonly on the smallest knob or surface
= which rears itself into the space between
-* the dielectrics. If there be a number of

O

3 small knobs or points, the glows and brushes
£ become so numerous that the tension is
g greatly relieved and the whole of a mod-
^ erate thunder-cloud might be discharged
s in this way without the least violence. . . .
But sometimes a flash will descend so quick-
a ly or it will have such a tremendous store
£ of energy to get rid of that no points are
I sufficiently rapid for the work, and crash it
all comes at once. One specially note-
s' worthy case is when one cloud sparks into
^ £ another and thence to the ground; or in
| general whenever electric strain is thrown
k>^ quite suddenly upon a layer of air."

Thus, then, we begin to see that much
^ ^ will depend upon the character of the flash.
| * There are many flashes, I believe, that the
^ body could experience without very seri-

ous consequences ; and there are many
^ that will rive solid granite and shatter in

s splinters the heaviest masonry. The im-

^ pulsive rush discharge shown on the pre-

ceding page was doubtless a flash of the
latter character; and on the other hand,
with a kite in air during thunderstorms with a wire connection
to the ground I have experienced sharp shocks with lightning

PROTECTION FROM LIGHTNING. 461

flashes, which were perhaps sicle branches or minor spitting-off
discharges.

The risk, then, will vary with the discharge, and this is influ-
enced somewhat by locality, and therefore the methods of protec-
tion to be employed in the Mississippi Valley would be somewhat
different in character from the methods appropriate for, say, the
New England coast ; the frequency of thunderstorms in the one
place compared with the other being about four to one. The
character of the storm is also somewhat different. Then again the
liability for places comparatively near is not the same. " If I
urge on Glasgow manufacturers/' said Sir William Thomson, " to
put up lightning conductors, they say that it is cheaper to in-
sure." These manufacturers answered the man of science more
wisely perhaps than they themselves knew. Thanks to the inves-
tigations of the Prussian Bureau of Statistics, we know now that
in the main in thickly settled communities the risk is small. We
can state with some certainty that there is but little need for the
erection of expensive or elaborate lightning rods upon buildings
standing among others in city blocks. We do not say that such
buildings are never struck. As we have seen above, under some
conditions, "exposure" seems to have little to do with the
determination of the path of discharge. The case is somewhat
analogous to that of the trees and rocks upon a mountain side.
However much they may determine the course of small streams
and " trickles " down the mountain side, they are powerless to in-
fluence the course of an avalanche or land-slide. Sometimes, there-
fore, such buildings are struck and severely injured (and as might
be expected, with seemingly good protectors, do not entirely es-
cape) ; but these cases are rare, and it may, we think, be safely
set down that rods upon city houses are not (as hitherto insisted
upon by some) necessary. With country houses the conditions
are different.

Our next question is, In flashes of ordinary intensity how
much confidence may be placed in the protection afforded by a
good conductor, rod or tape ? Few questions have been so thor-
oughly discussed from a practical standpoint, and the verdict
may be given in Sir William Thomson's words : " There is a
very comfortable degree of security, if not of absolute safety,
given to us by lightning conductors made according to ortho-
dox rules."

If the reader is contemplating the erection of a lightning pro-
tector, these points may be of service to him :

1. Get a good iron or copper conductor of rod or tape form,
preferably the latter. If copper, have it weigh about six ounces
to the foot ; if iron, about two pounds to the foot.

2. The nature of the locality will determine to a great degree

462 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the need of a rod. In some localities rods are imperative; in
others, needless.

3. The very best ground you can get is, after all, for some
flashes, none too good ; therefore do not imagine that you can
overdo it in making a good ground. For most flashes ordinary
" grounds " suffice ; but the small resistance of even one ohm may
be dangerous with an intense flash.

4. " If the conductor at any part of its course goes near water
or gas mains it is best to connect it to them. Wherever one metal
ramification approaches another it is best to connect them metal-
lically. The neighborhood of small-bore fusible pipes and indoor
gas pipes in general should be avoided." — Lodge.

5. The top of the rod should be plated, or in some way pro-
tected from corrosion and rust.

6. Independent grounds are preferable to water and gas mains.

7. Clusters of points or groups of two or three along the ridge
rod are recommended.

8. Chain or link conductors are of little use.

9. Area of protection. Very little faith is to be placed in the
so-called area of protection.

10. Indifference of lightning to the path of least resistance.
Nearly every one who has written in late years has taken it for
granted that lightning always follows the path of least resistance.
This is not true. " It is simply hopeless to pretend to be able to
make the lightning conductor so much the easier path, that all
others are out of the question," says Lodge. This, however, re-
quires modification. For the path will depend largely upon the
character of the flash ; and without doubt, for almost all flashes,
a good lightning rod well earthed is the most appropriate path to
earth.

11. Any part of a building, under certain conditions, may be
struck, whether there is a protector on it or not. There are cases
on record where edifices seemingly amply protected have been
struck below the rods (not cases of defective connection), and it is
now beginning to dawn upon us that (paradox of paradoxes) a
building may be seriously damaged by lightning without having
been struck at all. The Hotel de Yille, at Brussels, perhaps the
best protected building in the world against lightning, was dam-
aged by fire, caused by a small induced spark near escaping gas.
During the thunderstorm some one flash started up " surgings "
in a piece of metal not connected in any way with the protective
train of metal. " The building probably did not receive," says Dr.
Lodge, "even a side flash, yet the induced surgings set up in it
were so violent as to ignite some gas and cause a small fire." In
other words, we had the condition of an " oscillator " in the cloud-
flash-earth and a " resonator " that responded with its little spark.

SUCCESS WITH SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS. 463

In some experiments which we made last summer, simultaneously
with some flashes, we got little sparks from a wire in the air.

12. So many people suffer so keenly from a kind of nervous
alarm during thunderstorms that it is a great pleasure to be able
to point out that the danger is vastly overestimated. " Heaven
has more thunders to alarm than thunderbolts to punish," was
the old irreverent way of putting it. One who lives to see light-
ning need not worry about the results.

13. The notion that lightning never strikes twice in the same
place is erroneous. We have numerous cases disproving this.

14. If you are near a person who has been struck by lightning,
go to work at once to try and restore consciousness. Try to stim-
ulate the respiration and circulation, and do not cease in the
effort to restore animation for at least one hour.

SUCCESS WITH SCIENTIFIC AND OTHER MEETINGS.

BY GEOKGE ILES.

tendency of these times is more marked than that toward
organization. It manifests itself as plainly in scientific
inquiry, literary investigation, or the cultivation of art as in the
sphere of industry or finance. Let chemistry, folk lore, or mu-
sical education engage the minds of a group of people, and forth-
with they unite themselves to further the interest they have at
heart. The societies thus created have often manifold utility;
they provide rallying centers for men and women of kindred
aims, whether these aims are of popular acceptance or not ; they
make possible a co-operation which economizes the labor of obser-
vation or research ; they furnish agencies for the spread of infor-
mation accessible nowhere else ; in their " proceedings " or " trans-
actions" they publish valuable papers which otherwise would
never see the light of day, and often these volumes are the sole
registry of progress in important branches of inquiry or revolu-
tionary reform. The public mind may be profoundly exercised
joncerning a wrong or a grievance, but its discontent is powerless
until, let us say, a Free-trade League is born to serve as a nucleus
>und which public opinion can crystallize, which will gather
id clarify argument to be echoed by a thousand friendly voices,
and which will press its fight at every opportunity. Only in this
way can an interest which concerns everybody only a little tell in
legislation against a much smaller interest which concerns a few
plunderers a great deal.

Of course, the meeting of a league or a society, whatever its
objects, is determined in character by that of the organization

464 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

itself. If a purpose really worthy has prompted to union, if,
avoiding faction, the best men have been put at the head, there is
no reason why attractive and profitable meetings should not be
held. On success here largely turns the success of the organi-
zation, for meetings should not only interest the membership,
but also the general public from whom support is sought, from
among whom recruits for active service must come. The judi-
cious management of such gatherings is therefore a matter of
some moment, and it well deserves more attention than it com-
monly receives.

Of scientific bodies in the United States, one of the oldest and
in many respects the most typical is the American Association
for the Advancement of Science, whose meetings in the main
have been the most popular scientific assemblies held in this
country. The association has suffered severely, and inevitably,
by the establishment of many societies for the prosecution of
branches of science, electrical, engineering, and what not, which
scarcely had a name at the time of the association's nativity, fifty-
three years ago. Then, too, the formation of the National Acad-
emy of Sciences has drawn off certain of the veterans who fail to
recognize the claims of the association on their allegiance, who
neglect the opportunity the association affords to repeat the last
word of discovery to the people. A wide variety of societies for
the promotion of this aim or the suppression of that evil have
done well to follow the association's lead in one or two directions.
First, in hospitality to all in sympathy with the object sought to
be furthered, without asking the candidate for membership what
he knows or what he has done. Of course, societies for advanced
study, such as the Societies of Morphologists and Anatomists, can
not set before everybody this open door, but bodies for work less
specialized find their account in creating honorary or associate
memberships which broaden their foundations in public sym-
pathy and support; especially is this result desirable where the
research promoted is, let us say, astronomical, and bears in the
market-place no price.

The American Association, too, has set a good example in mi
grating from place to place year by year, so as to kindle the
widest possible interest. To cite a case where visits of this kind
have borne fruit, Montreal has within the past ten years been
enriched by benefactions for education which give her rank with
the most highly favored cities of the continent. These founda-
tions, and the local response to the opportunities they offer, are in
no small measure traceable to the important scientific meetings
held since 1881 in the Canadian metropolis. In Canada, as in the
United States, there is much sound sentiment regarding the fast-
disappearing woodland wealth. This sentiment is largely to be

SUCCESS WITH SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS. 465

credited to the American Forestry Association, a comparatively
small body, which, in its peregrinations north and south, and east
and west, has brought many thousands of people to its way of
thinking, and with them not a few of their lawmakers. In 1891
Congress authorized the President to set apart as a reservation
any public land wholly or in part covered with trees; in two
years this law has recovered tracts aggregating twelve million
acres. For the proper forestry administration of these and other
lands of the Federal Government the association is the only or-
ganized means of agitation in the country. Perhaps one reason
why the American Social Science Association does not exert the
influence it merits is that its gatherings always take place in
Saratoga ; this, too, while its British prototype observes the rule
of itineracy. Even the National Academy of Sciences, whose in-
vestigations are of the most recondite order, migrates for one of
its semi-annual meetings. To take the example of an industrial
organization that keeps to the road let the National Electric Light
Association be named: its tours throughout the land serve to
refresh men devoted to an arduous profession ; in their examina-
tion, on these tours, of all kinds of electrical installations practice
everywhere tends to rise to the level of the best ; and wherever
the association goes it gives a local stimulus to the interest in
Nature's master force in all that it means for the relief of toil and
the refinement of life. When an organization to promote science
pure or applied is put on wheels another advantage arises : its
visits to a chain of towns and cities rarely fail to bring out a good
deal of amateur talent — confirming tastes and talents which do
much to cheer their possessors amid the drudgery of office or
shop. The trained inquirer may look askance at the amateur, but
it is well to remember that Dr. William Huggins, the President
of the British Association in 1891, an astronomer who has notably
furthered the science and art of stellar spectroscopy, calls him-
self but an amateur ; Mr. Thomas D. Anderson, of Edinburgh,
another amateur, last year discovered the new star in Auriga so
earnestly discussed as probably confirming the meteoritic hy-
pothesis of stellar accretions ; an amateur, too, it was who, in the
person of James Prescott Joule, first ascertained the mechanical
equivalent of heat, the basis of the doctrine of the conservation of
energy. In no infrequent case an intellectual man of leisure, who
has not yet formed habits of idleness, has had a genuine and last-
ing interest aroused by the advent of a learned or scientific society
in his neighborhood.

While the advancement of science is the stated purpose of the
American Association, it has accomplished much else that could
ill have been spared. It has periodically brought together old
friends whom the exigencies of professional or business careers

VOL. XLIII. 32

466 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

have separated by the breadth of great States or even by the
width of America. Its social meetings have often been as gain-
ful as delightful. Here the youth just across the threshold of
geology or astronomy has met the veteran explorer or observer,
and thenceforward his work has known the ardor of disciple-
ship ; there are men now eminent in American science who recall
as among their first inspirations the noble and kindly faces of
Henry, Gray, Guyot, and Agassiz at association meetings. There
is always a good deal in the mind of a man of science that he does
not care to commit to a formal report or a dignified text-book ;
his appraisals of the current literature of his special field, his sug-
gestive criticisms of the latest audacities of theory, his shrewd
guesses as to what next awaits the discoverer, are only for those
who meet him face to face. Not seldom a thinker or an experi-
menter in a remote corner of the country cherishes a hypothesis
or proposes an apparatus intended to solve an old difficulty in a
new way. At an association meeting he finds the mechanician or
the chemist, who of all men can best disabuse his mind of its har-
bored fallacy, or point out how for success his project must be
modified. And many men prosecute masterly work at lonely
outposts, or, worse still, in populous centers of uninterested peo-
ple ; they are spared a withering sense of isolation in finding at
the yearly muster that it is after all a goodly army in which they
are enlisted. In so far, too, as the association has managed to
keep specialists of eminence in its ranks, they receive at the an-
nual assemblies not less benefit than the tyros. The observer
with microscopic slides or test-tubes constantly at his eye is re-
freshed when he meets at the council table and the general session
his peer of the geologic hammer or the telescope. Nor must the
benefits be forgotten which the association has conferred upon
men of affairs drawn into its audiences and interested in its work.
They have seen somewhat of the unselfish labor in breaking new
ground which must go before the sowing and reaping we know
as industry and business. Hence have arisen generous gifts for
research — which might well be multiplied ; and, apart from any
question into which gain or gift can enter, the association has
done noble work in bringing to the people a glimpse, at least, of
that inspiring ray which ever gilds truth as it emerges from the
unknown.

Much that can be said of the good born of this association's
meetings is true of those of many societies for research, educa-
tion, or reform, which year by year and almost month by month
spring into existence. Let us glance at one or two cases where a
small band of earnest men have been able to do great things, not
for science, but for righteousness. The Civil-service Eeform
Association, founded by George William Curtis and his friends

SUCCESS WITH SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS. 467

in 1881, has in its agitation of twelve years been the chief agency
at work in combating the claim that " to the victor belong the
spoils." To-day one fourth the offices in the gift of the Federal
Government are subject to reform rules, with promise that at no
distant day "the aristocracy of 'pull' shall make way for the
democracy of merit." Mr. Curtis and Mr. Schurz, in their stirring
addresses from the chair of the association, have reached audi-
ences a thousandfold greater than those within sound of their
voices ; the press has made the Rocky Mountains their back
benches. Against another iniquity battle was waged, in 1883,
when the Copyright League took form. The league began as a
handful of men, few of them rich or influential, attacking a com-
pact and well-armed pirate crew and a solid mass of unsound
public sentiment. Within eight years the people were brought
to preferring to a cheap book a book honestly come by, Congress
passing a bill declaring that literary property is property still,
even when a foreigner creates it. The league in its series of au-
thors' readings given in the principal cities of the Union had a
magnet of uncommon power, evoking vastly more interest in
the cause of international justice than any set arguments could
have done. It is only fair to say that the agitation which the
league inherited dated back to 1837 ; it may be worth while to add
that the money cost of the league's work was but ten thousand
dollars.

Not the least of the attractions which Chicago offers her vis-
itors this year is her programme of congresses. Associations
educational, industrial, scientific, and philosophical are assem-
bling in the Western metropolis in rapid succession and under
circumstances in which the art of their management can easily
be carried a step further than in any past achievement in Amer-
ica. The local committees for the reception of visiting bodies
will have more or less permanence, and will therefore through
experience grow proficient, an exceptionally large number of the
well informed and inquiring can be drawn upon from the throngs
attending the fair, and the manifold departments of the exhibi-
tion will furnish in profusion illustrative material of rare qual-
ity. Hon. C. C. Bonney, chairman of the World's Congress Aux-
iliary, is in permanent charge of the congresses convened during
the Columbian Exposition. He supervises the working details
of each special committee ; and his chief aim in his work is that
relations among the leaders of thought and action which hitherto
have been only local, shall henceforth become international.

To those whose duty it is to attend meetings, scientific and
other, remarkable contrasts in their management are familiar.
The success of a meeting is earned only by a business-like con-
trol, which makes thorough preparation months beforehand. The

468 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

executive board, by whatever name it may be called, should be a
body of competent, resourceful, and hard-working men. Their
main task is to insure good addresses and papers ; however little
of a speechmaker a man may be, he always talks willingly and
acceptably on a subject he has mastered and which is dear to his
heart ; for papers a selection is usually feasible from manuscripts
voluntarily offered, but it is ever found that the one way to have
interesting themes treated by the busy people who have a first-
hand knowledge of them is by tactful and timely solicitation.

How grievously have audiences, learned and unlearned, suf-
fered from the coarseness of the sieve through which papers are
commonly sifted ! At the Toronto meeting of the American As-
sociation, in 1889, I heard a paper which, admittedly, had been
published five years before. It is a case all too frequent that a
paper is prolix or trivial, or covers ground thoroughly familiar,
or that its writer imagines dilution to be simplification. A very
ordinary offense is the technical description or argument which
wears its bones outside and spares its victims no jot of anatom-
ical detail. In securing contributions of high value the American
Economical Association sets a shining example. Jointly with
the International Statistical Institute it will hold sessions in Chi-
cago from September 9th to 16th ; all the principal papers were
arranged for months ago by the committee in charge. When a
writer is in this way given abundant time to prepare his manu-
script he can do justice to the public and to himself ; he has op-
portunity to secure publication in an appropriate journal or re-
view, an important point to people who have only their pens to
live by. The presidents of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science are chosen two years and the presidents
of. its sections one year before the delivery of their addresses;
with this ample time for elaboration and revision contributions
to scientific literature of the highest rank have been secured. At
the Boston meeting of 1880, the most interesting ever held by
the association, Prof. George F. Barker gave his address on Mod-
ern Aspects of the Life Question, a luminous summary of prog-
ress in physical, physiological, and psychological science, which,
enriched with its numerous references, can still serve the student
as a guide post. Prof. S. P. Langley, at Cleveland in 1888, out-
lined in masterly fashion the history of the doctrine of radiant
energy. Two years later, at Indianapolis, Dr. Frank Baker traced
The Ascent of Man in an address which is a model scientific
statement made plain and clear. While its addresses from the
chair have usually been excellent, in providing popular lectures
the association has left much to be desired. Here it has a good
deal to learn from its British namesake, which well understands
how a discourse, by interesting the community visited as well as

SUCCESS WITH SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS. 469

the visitors, can in some degree requite the debt of hospitality.
In their main outlines the conquests of science, in the hands of a
skilled exponent, never fail to awaken the enthusiasm of popular
audiences. To the essential democracy of the sympathies of re-
search, conceived on broad lines, let the thousands testify who
have seen Prof. E. S. Morse at the blackboard busy with both
hands tracing the development of birds from reptilian forms, or
Prof. E. E. Barnard, of Lick Observatory, as he has thrown on
the screen images of myriad stars seized in new spheres of space
only through the exquisitely sensitive and tireless eye of the
camera.

There is sound policy as well as justice in the sedulous culti-
vation of points of contact between e very-day interests and the
highly specialized work which only remotely may issue in a util-
ity. A chemist may be enabled to experiment on di-nitro-sulpho-
phenol, and publish his results, because an intelligent manu-
facturer has through the labor of chemists found a market for
coal-tar products, or furnace slag, once thrown away. The links
between science pure and applied might well receive more illustra-
tion at scientific gatherings than they commonly do. In carefully
maintaining its features of popular instruction in this and other
respects, the British Association has done much to win its long-
sustained pre-eminence. To what else can that primacy be attrib-
uted ? To its continuity of work and supervision the year round.
Its committees, some fifty in number, are charged with investi-
gations, botanical, zoological, and other ; they confer as to stand-
ards of measurement and establish them; they ascertain the
properties of solutions, or consider electrolysis in its physical and
chemical bearings. All this labor is constantly enrolling new
workers, and enabling the officers to appraise the talents and
availability of workers new and old. At the meetings he must
be a specialist indeed who does not find his particular study illu-
minated in the committee reports.

Be the object of a society what it may, on the programme of a
meeting the main items, of course, are the addresses and papers.
When by seasonable solicitation these latter are in hand, printed
copies of them, subject to revision, can be distributed prior to
their being formally offered. This plan, adopted by the Ameri-
can Institute of Mining Engineers and a few other organizations,
should become general. It saves time at a session, where only
abstracts need be presented ; or, where the writer of a paper can
instead of an abstract, give in an extemporaneous word the gist
of his manuscript, the printing a paper in advance gives those
who are interested in its subject the information needful for
comment and criticism. Discussion is of the very essence of a
meeting's value, and the institute just named always endeavors

470 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that engineers of mark shall offer their opinions on the papers
presented. In the planning of such discussion lies a way of
escape from the narrowness and sterility which ever threaten
specialization in its modern extremes.

It has often been suggested that some broad question, as the
probable age of the earth, be considered at a joint meeting of all
the sections of the American Association. Physicists, geologists,
and naturalists vary by millions of years in their estimates Of the
length of our planet's life. The surveys of the special sciences
into which, for convenience' sake, inquiry here is parceled out,
plainly do not fit together as the parts of an accordant map.
Clearly there is need of more light, of exploration of intervening
and debatable territory, of new and reconciling generalization.
It is in its untra versed border lands, rather than in its measured
and cultivated areas, that science has promise and inspiration for
the investigator. Discussions are difficult to arrange, and in the
ordinary case are unsatisfactory, but in overcoming the obstacles
to assigning the specialist a part in the orchestration of high
inquiry is rescue from the danger that in the minute study of
details their value in constructive thought, in mutual illumina-
tion, may be forgotten. At this point re-enters, too, the ever
desirable feasibility of interesting the general public, of making
the people feel that here and there stand open doors between the
questions which come home to them and the fields tilled by men
of research.

This matter of interesting the public can at times find its op-
portunity when the programme is elastic enough to admit the
treatment of a question of moment which springs up after the
programme has taken form. Last August the American Eco-
nomic Association met at Chautauqua ; most of those who took
part in its sessions passed at Buffalo through files of State militia
guarding the trains against strikers and rioters. The programme,
an excellent one, from the inevitable absence of men expected to
read papers, could not be fully carried out. Here was a chance
for leading teachers in politics and economics to express them-
selves regarding a battle between capital and labor pitched in the
very neighborhood ; outside the session hall, scarcely anything
else was talked about ; within the hall, Buffalo might have been
in Asia for all the attention it received. Can men of science of
the academic type wonder at their lack of popular influence when
they thus ignore the world of action and passion they live in ;
when they speak and write mainly at one another, and usually
in a language hardly comprehensible to common people when
they happen to overhear it ? It strikes observers in New York
that the power of its corrupt rulers has arisen in no small degree
because the leaders among them have been fortunate or shrewd

SUCCESS WITH SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS. 471

enough to share the e very-day interests of every- day people.
Whether from limitation or choice, no sachem of Tammany is
ever so far ahead of his followers as to be hidden from them by
the curvature of the earth. A teacher of political economy in a
leading American university declares that the man politically
most influential in this country is the bar-tender ; if so, what polit-
ical text-book or society for political instruction has ever reck-
oned with him ?

A few of the more noteworthy organizations which meet
statedly, publish their discussions as well as their papers — a
praiseworthy and useful thing to do. This plan is adopted by
the American Library Association, a body which renders invalu-
able service to public libraries, and hence to popular education.
The papers to be read at its next meeting, at Chicago, July 13th
to 22d, have been assigned to representative men and women in
such wise that published as a volume they will form a complete
handbook of library economy. This introduction of a compre-
hensive purpose in gathering contributions that otherwise might
be disconnected and desultory is an idea well worth transplanting
wherever admissible. The Library Association owes its origin and
success in large measure to a secretary of uncommon ability and
energy, fertile in ideas and indefatigable in giving them effect.
This year he is president. An efficient executive officer is indis-
pensable in arranging the details for a successful meeting. With
the principal papers and discussions arranged for, he pays a pre-
liminary visit to the place of meeting. He makes sure that the
sessional halls are convenient, ample, and suitably furnished and
served ; that, if need be, stereopticon views can be properly shown,
and that hotel and other quarters are in readiness. He confers
with the reception committee, whom he finds not only willing but
anxious that out of the fullness of his experience of shortcomings
he shall freely speak. He sees that the printed matter of his asso-
ciation is put where people can get it. If, as the civil-service
reformers do, he distributes a " primer," it does not fail to say
how one can join the organization that sent it forth. He co-
operates with the local press in telling the community what peo-
ple of eminence or note are coming, what they are eminent or
notable for, and what they mean to read and discuss. Aided by
having the principal papers in print, when the meeting takes
place he is enabled to insure fullness, or at least correctness, in
the press reports of sessions, remembering that many more will
read these reports than can come to session halls. Each day, as
early as he can, he takes pains to send to the newspapers the next
day's programme. He engages a stenographer to take down the
discussions; they may not be published, but they are worth
keeping on record, if for no other reason than that they show

472 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

how hard it is to get a new idea into people's heads. In brief,
this officer is as zealous in attracting audiences, in arousing com-
munities, in promoting the aims of his society, as if he were a
man of business creating a market for profitable wares, or a mis-
sionary spreading gospel light. Let us note a case or two where
the lack of such an officer in the receiving or visiting body has
been felt. At Rochester, last August, the American Association
was tendered a reception in an art gallery on the upper floors of
an office building. Its owner was in Europe, which doubtless
accounted for the catalogues of the collection being not lent but
sold to his guests, while a staring sign announcing, " To the steel
tower — ten cents/' was permitted to remain uncovered. At Roch-
ester, too, a city famous for its nurseries, it never occurred to the
local committee that visitors would be glad to see these nurseries.
Their gates, of course, stood open, yet a very little trouble taken
to provide informed guides at a stated time would have added
much to the profit and pleasure of a visit. During the week of
last Christmas the American Psychological Association met at
the University of Pennsylvania. Its first session was held in an
upper room of the main building, the second took place in an-
other building some distance off. Because there was no public
notification of this change of place, a score of members, teachers,
and reporters wasted an afternoon, and missed the presidential
address which three of them had come a hundred miles to hear.
A few years ago the American Institute of Mining Engineers met
at Lookout Mountain. One of the party was the late Thomas
Sterry Hunt, an ex-president. In an address which could only
come from a master in both chemistry and geology, he described
the history of the region at his feet. As he spoke, the conclu-
sions of many thoughtful years were compressed into his pithy
sentences. Because he had prepared no notes, and because no
stenographer was engaged, that masterly discourse is now only a
fading memory.

M. LIONEL DECLE, who has lately returned from the Zambesi region in Central
Africa, recently visited the underground lake of Sinoie. He describes it as pre-
senting one of the most wonderful specimens which can be given to man to con-
template on the globe. The water is remarkably blue, far more so than that of
the blue grottoes of Capri.

GIVING his personal and political reminiscences in a recent address, Sir John
Lubbock said that he took the first photograph (rather daguerreotype) ever taken
in England. Daguerre was a great friend of his father's, and, when he had com-
pleted the invention, sent him over a lens with complete apparatus. Sir John,
who was then a very small child, was told to remove the cap, and, doing so,
achieved the feat.

PROFESSOR WEISMANN'S THEORIES. 473

PROFESSOR WEISMANN'S THEORIES.*

BY HEKBEKT SPENCER.

A PART from those more special theories of Prof. Weismann I
-^>- lately dealt with, the wide acceptance of which by the bio-
logical world greatly surprises me, there are certain more general
theories of his — fundamental theories — the acceptance of which
surprises me still more. Of the two on which rests the vast super-
structure of his speculation, the first concerns the distinction be-
tween the reproductive elements of each organism and the non-
reproductive elements. He says :

" Let us now consider how it happened that the multicellular animals and
plants, which arose from unicellular forms of life, came to lose this power of living
forever.

"The answer to this question is closely bound up with the principle of divi-
sion of labor which appeared among multicellular organisms at a very early
stage. . . .

"The first multicellular organism was probably a cluster of similar cell?, but
these units soon lost their original homogeneity. As the result of mere relative
position, some of the cells were especially fitted to provide for the nutrition of the
colony, while others undertook the work of reproduction " (Essays upon Heredity,
p. 27).

Here, then, we have the great principle of the division of labor,
which is the principle of all organization, taken as primarily illus-
trated in the division between the reproductive cells and the non-
reproductive or somatic cells — the cells devoted to the continuance
of the species, and the cells which subserve the life of the indi-
vidual. And the early separation of reproductive cells from
somatic cells, is alleged on the ground that this primary division
of labor is that which arises between elements devoted to species-
life and elements devoted to individual life. Let us not be content
with words but look at the facts.

When Milne-Edwards first used the phrase "physiological
division of labor," he was obviously led to do so by perceiving the
analogy between the division of labor in a society, as described by
political economists, and the division of labor in an organism.
Every one who reads has been familiarized with the first as illus-
trated in the early stages, when men were warriors while the cul-
tivation and drudgery were done by slaves and women ; and as
illustrated in the later stages, when not only are agriculture and
manufactures carried on by separate classes, but agriculture is
carried on by landlords, farmers, and laborers, while manufac-
tures, multitudinous in their kinds, severally involve the actions

* A postscript to the essay on The Inadequacy of " Natural Selection."

474 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of capitalists, overseers, workers, etc., and while the great function
of distribution is carried on by wholesale and retail dealers in dif-
ferent commodities. Meanwhile students of biology, led by Milne-
Edwards's phrase, have come to recognize a parallel arrangement
in a living creature ; shown, primarily, in the devoting of the outer
parts to the general business of obtaining food and escaping from
enemies, while the inner parts are devoted to the utilization of
food and supporting themselves and the outer parts ; and shown,
secondarily, by the subdivision of these great functions into those
of various limbs and senses in the one case, and in the other case
into those of organs for digestion, respiration, circulation, excre-
tion, etc. But now let us ask what is the essential nature of this
division of labor. In both cases it is an exchange of services — an
arrangement under which, while one part devotes itself to one
kind of action and yields benefit to all the rest, all the rest, jointly
and severally performing their special actions, yield benefits to it
in exchange. Otherwise described, it is a system of mutual de-
pendence : A depends for its welfare upon B, C, and D ; B upon A,
C, and D, and so with the rest : all depend upon each and each
upon all. Now let us apply this true conception of the division of
labor to that which Prof. Weismann calls a division of labor.
Where is the exchange of services between somatic cells and
reproductive cells ? There is none. The somatic cells render
great services to the reproductive cells, by furnishing them with
materials for growth and multiplication ; but the reproductive cells
render no services at all to the somatic cells. If we look for the
mutual dependence we look in vain. We find entire dependence
on the one side and none on the other. Between the parts devoted
to individual life and the part devoted to species-life, there is no
division of labor whatever. The individual works for the species ;
but the species works not for the individual. Whether at the
stage when the species is represented by reproductive cells, or at
the stage when it is represented by eggs, or at the stage when it
is represented by young, the parent does everything for it, and it
does nothing for the parent. The essential part of the conception
is gone : there is no giving and receiving, no exchange, no mutu-
ality.

But now suppose we pass over this fallacious interpretation,
and grant Prof. Weismann his fundamental assumption and
his fundamental corollary. Suppose we grant that because the
primary division of labor is that between somatic cells and repro-
ductive cells, these two groups are the first to be differentiated.
Having granted this corollary, let us compare it with the facts.
As the alleged primary division of labor is universal, so the
alleged primary differentiation should be universal too. Let us
see whether it is so. Already, in the paragraph from which I

PROFESSOR WEISMANWS THEORIES. 475

have quoted above, a crack in the doctrine is admitted : it is said
that " this differentiation was not at first absolute, and indeed it
is not always so to-day." And then, on turning to page 74, we
find that the crack has become a chasm. Of the reproductive
cells it is stated that—" In Vertebrata they do not become distinct
from the other cells of the body until the embryo is completely
formed." That is to say, in this large and most important division
of the animal kingdom, the implied universal law does not hold.
Much more than this is confessed. Lower down the page we read
— " There may be in fact cases in which such separation does not
take place until after the animal is completely formed, and others,
as I believe that I have shown, in which it first arises one or more
generations later, viz., in the buds produced by the parent."

So that in other great divisions of the animal kingdom the
alleged law is broken ; as among the Codenterata by the Hydrozoa,
as among the Mollusca by the Ascidians, and as among the An-
nuloida by the Trematode worms.

Even in ordinary life, a man whose supposition proves to be
flatly contradicted by observation, is expected to hesitate ; though,
unhappily, he very often does not. But in the world of science,
one who finds his hypothesis at variance with large parts of the
evidence, forthwith abandons it. Not so Prof. Weismann. If he
does not say with the speculative Frenchman, " tant pis pour les
faits" he practically says something equivalent : — Propound your
hypothesis ; compare it with the facts ; and if the facts do not
agree with it, then assume potential fulfillment where you see no
actual fulfillment. For this is what he does. Following his ad-
mission above quoted, concerning the Vertebrata, come certain
sentences which I partially italicize :

"Thus, as their development shows, a marked antithesis exists between the
substance of the undying reproductive cells and that of the perishable body-cells.
We can not explain this fact except J>y the supposition that each reproductive cell
potentially contains two kinds of substance, which at a variable time after the
commencement of embryonic development, separate from one another, and finally
produce two sharply contrasted groups of cells" (p. 74).

And a little lower down the page we meet with the lines :

" It is therefore quite conceivable that the reproductive cells might separate
from the somatic cells much later than in the examples mentioned above, without
changing the hereditary tendencies of which they are the bearers."

That is to say, it is "quite conceivable" that after sexless
CercaricR have gone on multiplying by internal gemmation for
generations, the " two kinds of substance " have, notwithstanding
innumerable cell-divisions, preserved their respective natures, and
finally separate in such ways as to produce reproductive cells.
Here Prof. Weismann does not, as in a case before noted, assume

4;6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

something which it is " easy to imagine," but he assumes some-
thing which it is difficult to imagine ; and apparently thinks that
a scientific conclusion may be thereupon safely based.

But now to what end are we asked to make a gratuitous " sup-
position," to accept as true something strange which is "quite
conceivable," and to strain our imaginations without the slight-
est aid from the evidence ? Simply to save Prof. Weismann's
hypothesis — to shelter it against a great body of adverse facts.
When we have recognized the truth that what he regards as a
primary division of labor is no division of labor at all — when we
see that the corollary he draws respecting the implied primary
differentiation of reproductive cells from somatic cells is conse-
quently without warrant ; we have no occasion to feel troubled
that his deductive conclusion is inductively disproved. We are
not dismayed on finding that throughout vast groups of organ-
isms there is shown no such antithesis as his theory requires.
And we need not do violence to our thoughts in explaining away
the contradictions.

Associated with the assertion that the primary division of
labor is between the somatic cells and the reproductive cells, and
associated with the corollary that the primary differentiation is
that which arises between them, there goes another corollary. It
is alleged that there exists a fundamental distinction of nature
between these two classes of cells. They are described as respect-
ively mortal and immortal, in the sense that those of the one class
are limited in their powers of multiplication, while those of the
other class are unlimited. And it is contended that this is due to
inherent unlikeness of nature.

Before inquiring into the truth of this proposition, I may fitly
remark upon a preliminary proposition set down by Prof. Weis-
mann. Referring to the hypothesis that death depends "upon
causes which lie in the nature of life itself," he says :

*'I do not however believe in the validity of this explanation; I consider that
death is not a primary necessity, hut that it has been secondarily acquired as an
adaptation. I believe that life is endowed with a fixed duration, not because it
is contrary to its nature to be unlimited, but because the unlimited existence of
individuals would be a luxury without any corresponding advantage " (p. 24).

This last sentence has a teleological sound which would be
appropriate did it come from a theologian, but which seems
strange as coming from a man of science. Assuming, however,
that the implication was not intended, I go on to remark that
Prof. Weismann has apparently overlooked a universal law of
evolution — not organic only, but inorganic and super organic —
which implies the necessity of death. The changes of every aggre-

PROFESSOR WEISMANN'S THEORIES. 477

gate, no matter of what kind, inevitably end in a state of equi-
librium. Suns and planets die, as well as organisms. The process
of integration, which constitutes the fundamental trait of all evo-
lution, continues until it has brought about a state which nega-
tives further alterations, molar or molecular — a state of balance
among the forces of the aggregate and the forces which oppose
them.* In so far, therefore, as Prof. Weismann's conclusions
imply the non-necessity of death, they can not be sustained.

But now let us consider the above-described antithesis between
the immortal Protozoa and the mortal Metazoa. An essential part
of the theory is that the Protozoa can go on dividing and subdi-
viding without limit, so long as the fit external conditions are
maintained. But what is the evidence for this ? Even by Prof.
Weismann's own admission there is no proof. On page 285 he says :

" I could only consent to adopt the hypothesis of rejuvenescence [achieved by
conjugation] if it were rendered absolutely certain that reproduction by division
could never under any circumstances persist indefinitely. But this can not be
proved with any greater certainty than fehe converse proposition, and hence, as far
as direct proof is concerned, the facts are equally uncertain on both sides."

But this is an admission which seems to be entirely ignored when
there is alleged the contrast between the immortal Protozoa and
the mortal Metazoa. Following Prof. Weismann's method, it
would be " easy to imagine " that occasional conjugation is in all
cases essential ; and this easily imagined conclusion might fitly be
used to bar out his own. Indeed, considering how commonly con-
jugation is observed, it may be held difficult to imagine that it
can in any cases be dispensed with. Apart from imaginations of
either kind, however, here is an acknowledgment that the immor-
tality of Protozoa is not proved ; that the allegation has no better
basis than the failure to observe cessation of fission; and that
thus one term of the above antithesis is not a fact, it is only an
assumption.

But now what about the other term of the antithesis — the
alleged inherent mortality of the somatic cells ? This we shall, I
think, find is no more defensible than the other. Such plausi-
bility as it possesses disappears when, instead of contemplating
the vast assemblage of familiar cases which animals present, we
contemplate certain less familiar and unfamiliar cases. By these
we are shown that the usual ending of multiplication among so-
matic cells is due not to an intrinsic cause, but to extrinsic causes.
Let us, however, first look at Prof. Weismann's own statements :

" I have endeavored to explain death as the result of restriction in the powers
of reproduction possessed by the somatic cells, and I have suggested that such

* See First Principles, part ii, chap, xxii, Equilibration.

473 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

restriction may conceivably follow from a limitation in the number of cell-genera-
tions possible for the cells of each organ and tissue " (p. 28).

" The above-mentioned considerations show us that the degree of reproductive
activity present in the tissues is regulated by internal causes while the natural
death of an organism is the termination — the hereditary limitation — of the process
of cell-division, which began in the segmentation of the ovum " (p. 30).

Now though, in the above extracts there is mention of " inter-
nal causes " determining " the degree of reproductive activity " of
tissue cells, and though, on page 28, the tf causes of the loss " of the
power of unlimited cell-production " must be sought outside the
organism, that is to say, in the external conditions of life " ; yet
the doctrine is that somatic cells have become constitutionally
unfitted for continued cell-multiplication.

" The somatic cells have lost this power to a gradually increasing extent, so
that at length they became restricted to a fixed, though perhaps very large, num-
ber of cell-generations " (p. 28).

Examination will soon disclose good reasons for denying this
inherent restriction. We will look at the various causes which
affect their multiplication and usually put a stop to increase after
a certain point is reached.

There is first the amount of vital capital given by the parent ;
partly in the shape of a more or less developed structure, and
partly in the shape of bequeathed nutriment. Where this vital
capital is small, and the young creature, forthwith obliged to
carry on physiological business for itself, has to expend effort in
obtaining materials for daily consumption as well as for growth,
a rigid restraint is put on that cell-multiplication required for a
large size. Clearly the young elephant, starting with a big and
well-organized body, and supplied gratis with milk during early
stages of growth, can begin physiological business on his own
account on a great scale ; and by its large transactions his system
is enabled to supply nutriment to its multiplying somatic cells
until they have formed a vast aggregate — an aggregate such as
it is impossible for a young mouse to reach, obliged as it is to
begin physiological business in a small way. Then there is the
character of the food in respect of its digestibility and its nutri-
tiveness. Here, that which the creature takes in requires much
grinding-up, or, when duly prepared, contains but a small amount
of available matter in comparison with the matter that has to be
thrown away ; while there, the prey seized is almost pure nutri-
ment, and requires but little trituration. Hence, in some cases, an
unprofitable physiological business, and in other cases a profitable
one; resulting in small or large supplies to the multiplying
somatic cells. Further, there has to be noted the grade of vis-
ceral development, which, if low, yields only crude nutriment
slowly distributed, but which, if high, serves by its good appli-

PROFESSOR WEISMANN'S THEORIES. 479

ances for solution, depuration, absorption, and circulation, to
yield to the multiplying somatic cells a rich and pure blood.
Then we come to an all-important factor, the cost of securing
food. Here large expenditure of energy in locomotion is neces-
sitated, and there but little — here great efforts for small portions
of food, and there small efforts for great portions : again result-
ing in physiological poverty or physiological wealth. Next, be-
yond the cost of nervo-muscular activities in foraging, there is
the cost of maintaining bodily heat. So much heat implies so
much consumed nutriment, and the loss by radiation or conduc-
tion, which has perpetually to be made good, varies according
to many circumstances — climate, medium (as air or water), cover-
ing, size of body (small cooling relatively faster than large) ; and
in proportion to the cost of maintaining heat is the abstraction
from the supplies for cell-formation. Finally, there are three all-
important co-operative factors, or rather laws of factors, the ef-
fects of which vary with the size of the animal. The first is that,
while the mass of the body varies as the cubes of its dimensions
(proportions being supposed constant), the absorbing surface va-
ries as the squares of its dimensions ; whence it results that, other
things equal, increase of size implies relative decrease of nutri-
tion, and therefore increased obstacles to cell-multiplication.*
The second is a further sequence from these laws — namely, that
while the weight of the body increases as the cubes of the dimen-
sions, the sectional areas of its muscles and bones increase as their
squares ; whence follows a decreasing power of resisting strains,
and a relative weakness of structure. This is implied in the abil-
ity of a small animal to leap many times its own length, while a
great animal, like the elephant, can not leap at all : its bones and
muscles being unable to bear the stress which would be required
to propel its body through the air. What increasing cost of keep-
ing together the bodily fabric is thus entailed, we can not say ; but
that there is an increasing cost, which diminishes the available
materials for increase of size, in beyond question, f And then, in
the third place, we have augmented expense of distribution of
nutriment. The greater the size becomes, the more force must be
exerted to send blood to the periphery ; and this once more entails
deduction from the cell-forming matters.

* Principles of Biology, § 46 (No. 8, April, 1863).

f Ibid. This must not be understood as implying that while the mass increases as the
cubes, the quantity of motion which can be generated increases only as the squares ; for this
would not be true. The quantity of motion is obviously measured, not by the sectioned
areas of the muscles alone, but by these multiplied into their lengths, and therefore increases
as the cubes. But this admission leaves untouched the conclusion that the ability to bear
strcM increases only as the squares, and thus limits the ability to generate motion, by rela-
tive incoherence of materials.

480 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Here, then, we have nine factors, several of them involving
subdivisions, which co-operate in aiding or restraining cell-multi-
plication. They occur in endlessly varied proportions and com-
binations ; so that every species differs more or less from every
other in respect of their effects. But in all of them the co-opera-
tion is such as eventually arrests that multiplication of cells which
causes further growth ; continues thereafter to entail slow decrease
in cell-multiplication, accompanying decline of vital activities;
and eventually brings cell-multiplication to an end. Now a rec-
ognized principle of reasoning — the Law of Parsimony — forbids
the assumption of more causes than are needful for explanation of
phenomena ; and since, in all such living aggregates as those above
supposed, the causes named inevitably bring about arrest of cell-
multiplication, it is illegitimate to ascribe this arrest to some in-
herent property in the cells. Inadequacy of the other causes must
be shown before an inherent property can be rightly assumed.

For this conclusion we find ample justification when we con-
template types of animals which lead lives that do not put such
decided restraints on cell-multiplication. First let us take an in-
stance of the extent to which (irrespective of the natures of cells
as reproductive or somatic) cell-multiplication may go where the
conditions render nutrition easy and reduce expenditure to a
minimum. I refer to the case of the Aphides. Though it is early
in the season (March), the hothouses at Kew have furnished a suf-
ficient number of these to show that twelve of them weigh a grain
— a larger number than would be required were they full-sized.
Citing Prof. Owen, who adopts the calculations of Tougard to the
effect that by agamic multiplication " a single impregnated ovum
of Aphis may give rise, without fecundation, to a quintillion of
Aphides" Prof. Huxley says :

"I will assume that an Aphis weighs Y^Vo of a grain, which is certainly vastly
under the mark. A quintillion of Aphides will, on this estimate, weigh a quatril-
lion of grains. He is a very stout man who weighs two million grains ; conse-
quently the tenth brood alone, if all its members survive the perils to which they
are exposed, contains more substance than 500,000,000 stout men — to say the
least, more than the whole population of China! "*

And had Prof. Huxley taken the actual weight, one twelfth of a
grain, the quintillion of Aphides would evidently far outweigh
the whole human population of the globe : five billions of tons
being the weight as brought out by my own calculation! Of
course I do not cite this in proof of the extent to which multipli-

* The Transactions of the Linnaean Society of London, vol. xxii, p. 215. The estimate
of Reaumur, cited by Kirby and Spence, is still higher — " In five generations one Aphis
may be the progenitor of 5,904,900,000 descendants; and it is supposed that in one year
there may be twenty generations " (Introduction to Entomology, vol. i, p. 175).

PROFESSOR WEISMANN'S THEORIES. 481

cation of somatic cells, descending from a single ovum, may go ;
because it will be contended, with some reason, that each of the
sexless Aphides, viviparously produced, arose by fission of a cell
which had descended from the original reproductive cell. I cite
it merely to show that when the cell-products of a fertilized ovum
are perpetually divided and subdivided into small groups distrib-
uted over an unlimited nutritive area, so that they can get materi-
als for growth at no cost, and expend nothing appreciable in mo-
tion or maintenance of temperature, cell-production may go on
without limit. For the agamic multiplication of Aphides has
been shown to continue for four years, and to all appearance
would be ceaseless were the temperature and supply of food con-
tinued without break. But now let us pass to analogous illustra-
tions of cause and consequence open to no criticism of the kind
just indicated. They are furnished by various kinds of Entozoa,
of which take the Trematoda infesting mollusks and fishes. Of
one of them we read : " Gyrodactylus multiplies agamically by the
development of a young Trematode within the body, as a sort of
internal bud. A second generation appears within the first, and
even a third within the second, before the young Gyrodactylus is
born." * And the drawings of Steenstrup, in his Alternation of
Generations, show us, among creatures of this group, a sexless
individual, the whole interior of which is transformed into smaller
sexless individuals, which severally, before or after their emer-
gence, undergo similar transformations — a multiplication of so-
matic cells without any sign of reproductive cells. Under what
circumstances do such modes of agamic multiplication, variously
modified among parasites, occur ? They occur where there is no
expenditure whatever in motion or maintenance of temperature,
and where nutriment surrounds the body on all sides. Other in-
stances are furnished by groups in which, though the nutrition is
not abundant, the cost of living is almost unappreciable. Among
the Ccelenterata there are the Hydroid Polyps, simple and com-
pound ; and among the Mollusca we have various types of Ascidi-
ans, fixed and floating, Sotryllidce- and Salpce,.

But now from these low animals, in which sexless reproduction,
and continued multiplication of somatic cells, is common, and one
class of which is named "zoophytes," because its form of life
simulates that of plants, let us pass to plants themselves. In these
there is no expenditure in effort, there is no expenditure in main-
taining temperature, and the food, some of it supplied by the
earth, is the rest of it supplied by a medium which everywhere
bathes the outer surface : the utilization of its contained material
being effected gratis by the sun's rays. Just as was to be ex-

* A Manual of the Anatomy of Invertebrated Animals, by T. H. Huxley, p. 206.
TOL. XLIII. — 33

482 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

pected, we here find that agamogenesis may go on without end.
Numerous plants and trees are propagated to an unlimited extent
by cuttings and buds ; and we have sundry plants which can not
be otherwise propagated. The most familiar are the double roses
of our gardens : these do not seed, and yet have been distributed
everywhere by grafts and buds. Hothouses furnish many cases,
as I learn from an authority second to none. Of " the whole host
of tropical orchids, for instance, not one per cent has ever seeded,
and some have been a century under cultivation." Again, we have
the Acorus calamus, " that has hardly been known to seed any-
where, though it is found wild all over the north temperate hemi-
sphere/' And then there is the conspicuous and conclusive case
of Eloidea Canadensis (alias Anacharis) introduced no one knows
how (probably with timber), and first observed in 1847, in several
places ; and which, having since spread over nearly all England,
now everywhere infests ponds, canals, and small slow rivers. The
plant is dioecious, and only the female exists here. Beyond all
question, therefore, this vast progeny of the first slip or fragment
introduced, now sufficient to cover many square miles were it put
together, is constituted entirely of somatic cells; and this cell-
multiplication, and consequent plant-growth, show no signs of de-
crease. Hence, as far as we can judge, these somatic cells are
immortal in the sense given to the word by Prof. Weismann ; and
the evidence that they are so is immeasurably stronger than the
evidence which leads him to assert immortality for the fissipa-
rously-multiplying Protozoa. This endless multiplication of so-
matic cells has been going on under the eyes of numerous ob-
servers for forty odd years. What observer has watched for forty
years to see whether the fissiparous multiplication of Protozoa
does not cease ? What observer has watched for one year, or one
month, or one week ?

Even were not Prof. Weismann's theory disposed of by this
evidence, it might be disposed of by a critical examination of his
own evidence, using his own tests. Clearly, if we are to measure
relative mortalities, we must assume the conditions the same and
must use the same measure. Let us do this with some appropriate
animal — say Man, as the most open to observation. The mortality
of the somatic cells constituting the mass of the human body is,
according to Prof. Weismann, shown by the decline and final ces-
sation of cell-multiplication in its various organs. Suppose we
apply this test to all the organs : not to those only in which there
continually arise bile-cells, epithelium-cells, etc., but to those also
in which there arise reproductive cells. What do we find ? That
the multiplication of these last comes to an end long before the
multiplication of the first. In a healthy woman, the cells which
constitute the various active tissues of the body continue to grow

PROFESSOR WEISMANN1 S THEORIES. 483

and multiply for many years after germ-cells have died out. If
similarly measured, then, these cells of the last class prove to be
more mortal than those of the first. But Prof. Weismann uses a
different measure for the two classes of cells. Passing over the
illegitimacy of this proceeding, let us accept his other mode of
measurement, and see what comes of it. As described by him,
absence of death among the Protozoa is implied by that unceasing
division and subdivision of which they are said to be capable.
Fission continued without end, is the definition of the immortality
he speaks of. Apply this conception to the reproductive cells in
a Metazoon. That the immense majority of them do not multiply
without end we have already seen : with very rare exceptions they
die and disappear without result, and they cease their multiplica-
tion while the body as a whole still lives. But what of those ex-
tremely exceptional ones which, as being actually instrumental to
the maintenance of the species, are alone contemplated by Prof.
Weismann ? Do these continue their fissiparous multiplications
without end ? By no means. The condition under which alone
they preserve a qualified form of existence, is that, instead of one
becoming two, two become one. A member of series A and a
member of series B coalesce, and so lose their individualities.
Now, obviously, if the immortality of a series is shown if its mem-
bers divide and subdivide perpetually, then the opposite of im-
mortality is shown when, instead of division, there is union. Each
series ends, and there is initiated a new series, differing more or
less from both. Thus the assertion that the reproductive cells are
immortal, can be defended only by changing the conception of
immortality otherwise implied.

Even apart from these last criticisms, however, we have clear
disproof of the alleged inherent difference between the two classes
of cells. Among animals the multiplication of somatic cells is
brought to an end by sundry restraining conditions ; but in vari-
ous plants, where these restraining conditions are absent, the
multiplication is unlimited. It may, indeed, be said that the
alleged distinction should be reversed ; since the fissiparous mul-
tiplication of reproductive cells is necessarily interrupted from
time to time by coalescence, while that of the somatic cells may
go on for a century without being interrupted.

In the essay to which this is a postscript, conclusions were
drawn from the remarkable case of the horse and quagga there
narrated, along with an analogous case observed among pigs.
These conclusions have since been confirmed. I am much indebted
to a distinguished correspondent who has drawn my attention to
verifying facts furnished by the offspring of whites and negroes
in the United States. Referring to information given him many

484 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

years ago, he says: "It was to the effect that the children of
white women by a white father had been repeatedly observed to
show traces of black blood, in cases when the woman had previous
connection with [i. e., a child by] a negro." At the time I received
this information, an American was visiting me ; and, on being
appealed to, answered that in the United States there was an es-
tablished belief to this effect. Not wishing, however, to depend
upon hearsay, I at once wrote to America to make inquiries-
Prof. Cope, of Philadelphia, has written to friends in the South,
but has not yet sent me the results. Prof. Marsh, the distin-
guished paleontologist, of Yale, New Haven, who is also collect-
ing evidence, sends a preliminary letter in which he says : " I do
not myself know of such a case, but have heard many statements
that make their existence probable. One instance, in Connecticut,
is vouched for so strongly by an acquaintance of mine, that I have
good reason to believe it to be authentic."

That cases of the kind should not be frequently seen in the
North, especially nowadays, is of course to be expected. The first
of the above quotations refers to facts observed in the South dur-
ing slavery days; and even then, the implied conditions were
naturally very infrequent. Dr. W. J. Youmans, of New York, has,
on my behalf, interviewed several medical professors, who, though
they have not themselves met with instances, say that the alleged
result, described above, " is generally accepted as a fact." But he
gives me what I think must be regarded as authoritative testi-
mony. It is a quotation from the standard work of Prof. Austin
Flint, and runs as follows :

" A peculiar and, it seems to be, an inexplicable fact is, that previous preg-
nancies have an influence upon offspring. This is well known to breeders of
animals. If pure-blooded mares or bitches have been once covered by an inferior
male, in subsequent fecundations the young are likely to partake of the character
of the first male, even if they be afterward bred with males of unimpeachable
pedigree. What the mechanism of the influence of the first conception is, it is
impossible to say ; but the fact is incontestable. The same influence is observed
in the human subject. A woman may have, by a second husband, children who
resemble a former husband, and this is particularly well marked in certain in-
stances by the color of the hair and eyes. A white woman who has had children
by a negro may subsequently bear children to a white man, these children present-
ing some of the unmistakable peculiarities of the negro race." *

Dr. Youmans called on Prof. Flint, who remembered "investi-
gating the subject at the time his larger work was written [the
above is from an abridgment], and said that he had never heard
the statement questioned."

Some days before I received this letter and its contained quo-

* A Text-Book of Human Physiology. By Austin Flint, M. D., LL. D. Fourth edition-
New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1888, p. 797.

PROFESSOR WEISMANN'S THEORIES. 485

tation, the remembrance of a remark I heard many years ago
concerning dogs, led to the inquiry whether they furnished analo-
gous evidence. It occurred to me that a friend who is frequently
appointed judge of animals at agricultural shows, Mr. Fookes, of
Fairfield, Pewsey, Wiltshire, might know something about the
matter. A letter to him brought various confirmatory statements.
From one " who had bred dogs for many years " he learned that —

" It is a well-known and admitted fact that if a bitch has two litters by two
different dogs, the character of the first father is sure to be perpetuated in any
litters she may afterward have, no matter how pure-bred a dog may be the be-
getter."

After citing this testimony, Mr. Fookes goes on to give illustra-
tions known to himself.

" A friend of mine near this had a very valuable Dachshund bitch, which most
unfortunately had a litter by a stray sheep-dog. The next year her owner sent her
on a visit to a pure Dachshund dog, but the produce took quite as much of the
first father as the second, and the next year he sent her to another Dachshund
with the same result. Another case : A friend of mine in Devizes had a litter of
puppies, unsought for, by a setter from a favorite pointer bitch, and after this
she never bred any true pointers, no matter of what the paternity was."

These further evidences, to which Mr. Fookes has since added
others, render the general conclusion incontestable. Coming from
remote places, from those who have no theory to support, and who
are some of them astonished by the unexpected phenomena, the
agreement dissipates all doubt. In four kinds of mammals, widely
divergent in their natures — man, horse, dog, and pig — we have
this same seemingly anomalous kind of heredity made visible
under analogous conditions. We must take it as a demonstrated
fact that, during gestation, traits of constitution inherited from
the father produce effects upon the constitution of the mother;
and that these communicated effects are transmitted by her to
subsequent offspring. We are supplied with an absolute disproof
of Prof. Weismann's doctrine that the reproductive cells are in-
dependent of, and uninfluenced by, the somatic cells ; and there
disappears absolutely the alleged obstacle to the transmission of
acquired characters.

Notwithstanding experiences showing the futility of contro-
versy for the establishment of truth, I am tempted here to answer
opponents at some length. But even could the editor allow me
the needful space, I should be compelled both by lack of time and
by ill health to be brief. I must content myself with noticing a
few points which most nearly concern me.

Referring to my argument respecting tactual discriminative-
ness, Mr. Wallace thinks that I—

486 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

"afford a glaring example of taking the unessential in place of the essential, and
drawing conclusions from a partial and altogether insufficient survey of the phe-
nomena. For this ' tactual discriminativeness,' which is alone dealt with by Mr.
Spencer, forms the least important, and probably only an incidental portion of the
great vital phenomenon of skin-sensitiveness, which is at once the watchman and
the shield of the organism against imminent external dangers " (Fortnightly Re-
view, April, 1893, p. 497).

Here Mr. Wallace assumes it to be self-evident that skin-sensi-
tiveness is due to natural selection, and assumes that this must be
admitted by me. He supposes it is only the unequal distribution
of skin-discriminativeness which I contend is not thus accounted
for. But I deny that either the general sensitiveness or the special
sensitiveness results from natural selection ; and I have years ago
justified the first disbelief, as I have recently the second. In The
Factors of Organic Evolution, pp. 66-70, I have given various
reasons for inferring that the genesis of the nervous system can
not be due to survival of the fittest ; but that it is due to the direct
effects of converse between the surface and the environment ; and
that thus only is to be explained the strange fact that the nervous
centers are originally superficial, and migrate inward during de-
velopment. These conclusions I have, in the essay Mr. Wallace
criticises, upheld by the evidence which blind boys and skilled
compositors furnish ; proving, as this does, that increased nervous
development is peripherally initiated. Mr. Wallace's belief that
skin-sensitiveness arose by natural selection is unsupported by a
single fact. He assumes that it must have been so produced be-
cause it is all-important to self-preservation. My belief that it is
directly initiated by converse with the environment is supported
by facts ; and I have given proof that the assigned cause is now
in operation. Am I called upon to abandon my own supported
belief and accept Mr. Wallace's unsupported belief ? I think not.
Referring to my argument concerning blind cave animals,
Prof. Lankester, in Nature of February 3, 1893, writes :

" Mr. Spencer shows that the saving of ponderable material in the suppression
of an eye is but a small economy : he loses sight ot the fact, however, that pos-
sibly, or even probably, the saving of the organism in the reduction of an eye to a
rudimentary state is not to be measured by mere bulk, but by the non-expenditure
of special materials and special activities which are concerned in the production
of an organ so peculiar and elaborate as is the vertebrate eye."

It seems to me that a supposition is here made to do duty as a
fact ; and that I might with equal propriety say that " possibly, or
even probably/' the vertebrate eye is physiologically cheap : its
optical part, constituting nearly its whole bulk, consisting of a low
order of tissue. There is, indeed, strong reason for considering it
physiologically cheap. If any one remembers how relatively
enormous are the eyes of a fish just out of the egg — a pair of eyes

PROFESSOR WEISMANN'S THEORIES. 487

with a body and head attached ; and if he then remembers that
every egg contains material for such a pair of eyes ; he will see
that eye-material constitutes a very considerable part of the fish's
roe ; and that, since the female fish provides this quantity every
year, it can not be expensive. My argument against Weismann
is strengthened rather than weakened by contemplation of these
facts.

Prof. Lankester asks my attention to a hypothesis of his own,
published in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, concerning the pro-
duction of blind cave-animals. He thinks it can —

u be fully explained by natural selection acting on congenital fortuitous varia-
tions. Many animals are thus born with distorted or defective eyes whose
parents have not had their eyes submitted to any peculiar conditions. Supposing
a number of some species of Arthropod or Fish to be swept into a cavern or to
be carried from less to greater depths in the sea, those individuals with perfect
eyes would follow the glimmer of light and eventually escape to the outer air or
the shallower depths, leaving behind those with imperfect eyes to breed in the
dark place. A natural selection would thus be effected " in successive genera-
tions.

First of all, I demur to the words "many animals." Under
the abnormal conditions of domestication, congenitally defective
eyes may be not very uncommon; but their occurrence under
natural conditions is, I fancy, extremely rare. Supposing, how-
ever, that in a shoal of young fish, there occur some with eyes
seriously defective. What will happen ? Vision is all-important
to the young fish, both for obtaining food and for escaping from
enemies. This is implied by the immense development of eyes
just referred to. Considering that out of the enormous number
of young fish hatched with perfect eyes, not one in a hundred
reaches maturity, what chance of surviving would there be for
those with imperfect eyes ? Inevitably they would be starved
or be snapped up. Hence the chances that a matured or partially
matured semi-blind fish, or rather two such, male and female,
would be swept into a cave and left behind are extremely remote.
Still more remote must the chances be in the case of crayfish.
Sheltering themselves as these do under stones, in crevices, and
in burrows which they make in the banks, and able quickly to
anchor themselves to weeds or sticks by their claws, it seems
scarcely supposable that any of them could be carried into a cave
by a flood. What, then, is the probability that there will be two
nearly blind ones, and that these will be thus carried ? Then
after this first extreme improbability, there comes a second, which
we may, I think, rather call an impossibility. How would it be
possible for creatures subject to so violent a change of habitat to
survive ? Surely death would quickly follow the subjection to
such utterly unlike conditions and modes of life. The existence

488 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of these blind cave-animals can be accounted for only by suppos-
ing that their remote ancestors began making excursions into
the cave, and, finding it profitable, extended them, generation
after generation, further in : undergoing the required adaptations
little by little.

I turn now to Dr. Romanes. He says that I do not under-
stand Weismann ; and that the cause of degeneration to which
he gives the name of " Panmixia " is not the continued selection
of the smaller variations. Let us see what are Weismann's
words.

"The complete disappearance of a rudimentary organ can only take place by
the operation of natural selection; this principle will lead to its elimination, inas-
much as the disappearing structure takes the place and the nutriment of other
useful and important organs" (Essays upon Heredity, p. 88).

" Those fluctuations on either side of the average which we call myopia and
hypermetropia, occur in the same manner, and are due to the same causes, as
those which operate in producing degeneration in the eyes of cave-dwelling ani-
mals" (Ib., p. 89).

Here, then, are two propositions : (1) " Fluctuations 011 either
side of the average " " operate in producing degeneration in the
eyes of cave-dwelling animals." (2) " A rudimentary organ " is
removed "by the operation of natural selection." Why are
" fluctuations on either side of the average " named, unless it is
that natural selection takes advantage of them by preserving the
smaller variations ? If this is not meant the use of the expres-
sion is meaningless. Yet Dr. Romanes agrees with Weismann in
regarding the " degenerated eye of the Proteus as a good example
of the disappearance of a complex and useless structure by Pan-
mixia." * So that Panmixia is clearly identified with the selec-
tion of the smaller variations ; and for the reason that economy
of nutrition is so achieved. Where, then, is the misunderstand-
ing ? That my interpretation is correct I have further reason for
holding ; namely, that it is the one given by Weismann's adher-
ent, Prof. Lankester, in Nature, March 27, 1890 (pp. 487, 488). But
while I can not admit my failure to understand Weismann, I con-
fess that I do not understand Dr. Romanes. How, when natural
selection, direct or reversed, is set aside, the mere cessation of
selection should cause decrease of an organ irrespective of the
direct effects of disuse, I am unable to see. Clearer conceptions
of these matters would be reached if, instead of thinking in ab-
stract terms, the physiological processes concerned were brought
into the foreground. Beyond the production of changes in the
sizes of parts by the selection of fortuitously arising variations,
I can see but one other cause for the production of them — the

* Contemporary Review, April, 1893, p. 509.

PROFESSOR WEISMANWS THEORIES. 489

competition among the parts for nutriment. This has the effect
that active parts are well supplied and grow, while inactive parts
are ill supplied and dwindle.* This competition is the cause of
" economy of growth " ; this is the cause of decrease from disuse ;
and this is the only conceivable cause of that decrease which Dr.
Romanes contends follows the cessation of selection. The three
things are aspects of the same thing. And now, before leaving
this question, let me remark on the strange proposition which has
to be defended by those who deny the dwindling of organs from
disuse. Their proposition amounts to this : — that for a hundred
generations an inactive organ may be partially denuded of blood
all through life, and yet in the hundredth generation will be pro-
duced of just the same size as in the first !

There is one other passage in Dr. Romanes7 criticism — that
concerning the influence of a previous sire on progeny— which
calls for comment. He sets down what he supposes Weismann
will say in response to my argument. " First, he may question
the fact/7 Well, after the additional evidence given above, I
think he is not likely to do that ; unless, indeed, it be that along
with readiness to base conclusions on things " it is easy to im-
agine " there goes reluctance to accept testimony which it is diffi-
cult to doubt. Second, he is supposed to reply that " the germ-
plasm of the first sire has in some way or another become partly
commingled with that of the immature ova " ; and Dr. Romanes
goes on to describe how there may be millions of spermatozoa and
" thousands of millions " of their contained " ids " around the ova-
ries, to which these secondary effects are due. But, on the one
hand, he does not explain why in such case each subsequent ovum,
as it becomes matured, is not fertilized by the sperm-cells pres-
ent, or their contained germ-plasm, rendering all subsequent
fecundations needless ; and, on the other hand, he does not ex-
plain why, if this does not happen, the potency of this remaining
germ-plasm is nevertheless such as to affect not only the next
succeeding offspring, but all subsequent offspring. The irrecon-
cilability of these two implications would, I think, sufficiently
dispose of the supposition, even had we not daily multitudinous
proofs that the surface of a mammalian ovarium is not a sperma-
theca. The third difficulty Dr. Romanes urges is the inconceiva-
bility of the process by which the germ -plasm of a preceding male
parent affects the constitution of the female and her subsequent
offspring. In response, I have to ask why he piles up a mountain
of difficulties based on the assumption that Mr. Darwin's expla-
nation of heredity by " Pangenesis " is the only available explana-

* See Social Organism in Westminster Review for January, 1860 ; also Principles of
Sociology, § 247.

VOL. XLIII. — 34

490 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tion preceding that of Weismann ? and why he presents these
difficulties to me more especially, deliberately ignoring my own
hypothesis of physiological units ? It can not be that he is igno-
rant of this hypothesis, since the work in which it is variously
set forth (Principles of Biology, §§ 66-97) is one with which he
is well acquainted: witness his Scientific Evidences of Organic
Evolution ; and he has had recent reminders of it in Weismann's
Germ-plasm, where it is repeatedly referred to. Why, then, does
he assume that I abandon my own hypothesis and adopt that of
Darwin, thereby entangling myself in difficulties which my own
hypothesis avoids ? If, as I have argued, the germ-plasm con-
sists of substantially similar units (having only those minute
differences expressive of individual and ancestral differences of
structure), none of the complicated requirements which Dr.
Romanes emphasizes exist, and the alleged inconceivability dis-
appears.

Here I must end : not intending to say more, unless for some
very urgent reason, and leaving others to carry on the discussion.
I have, indeed, been led to suspend for a short time my proper
work only by consciousness of the transcendent importance of the
question at issue. As I have before contended, a right answer to
the question whether acquired characters are or are not inherited,
underlies right beliefs not only in Biology and Psychology, but
also in Education, Ethics, and Politics. — Contemporary Review.

THE COLOR CHANGES OF FROGS.

BY PROF. CLARENCE M. WEED.

ONE who, with observant eye, leisurely paddles among the
water lilies of an inland lake must often notice how closely
the colors of the various frogs resting upon or among the lily
pads resemble their environment. In the open sunshine, where
light green is the prevailing tint, the colors of the frogs closely
approximate it, but in the dark and shady recesses of the forest-
bordered banks the batrachians are dull, deep brown, with darker
spots scattered over their bodies. These are the effects as seen
from above. If one were to dive beneath the water and look up-
ward, he would see in either case only the whitish undersides of
their bodies and legs — if, indeed, these were visible against the
general lightness of the upper world.

It is evident that this resemblance to environment might re-
sult in either of two ways: first, the light-colored frogs might
seek the light surroundings and the dark ones the dark surround-
ings; or, second, the frogs, provided they had the power, might

THE COLOR CHANGES OF FROGS. 491

change their color to agree with the environment. The latter
method would, of course, from the frog's point of view, be decid-
edly the more desirable, saving him much exertion in seeking
safe retreats ; and recent researches have shown that this is in
fact the method adopted.

The ability of the tree frogs, or "tree toads" (Hylidce), to
change their color has long been known, but precise studies of
the color changes of the common ground frogs (Ranidce) have
only been made com-
paratively recently,
and as yet the record
is far from complete.
A few years ago Dr.
Fickert, of Tubingen,
experimented with the
color adaptability of
the common European
frog (Rana tempora-
ria) : " Three frogs ap-
proximately similar in
color were placed in
three glass vessels, of
which the first stood

on a black, the second FlG I._WOOD FROG. Adult.

on a green, and the

third on a white surface, being surrounded up to a height of some
five centimetres with the same color. After about an hour and
a half the frog a on the black surface was the darkest, b on the
white the lightest, while the frog c surrounded by green was in-
termediate in color between the two. Hereupon the frog a was
transferred to the glass on the white, frog b into the one on the
black surface. After three quarters of an hour they were again
examined, and a was the lightest, b the darkest. Then c and b
were interchanged, and in a quarter of an hour c was the darkest,
while b was intermediate in color between c and a. When, final-
ly, b and a were interchanged, a change of coloring appeared im-
mediately ; b became light again, and a took the intermediate tint
between b and c." *

A similar but less complete experiment with the same species
of frog was made many years previously by Sir Joseph Lister,
who found that " a frog caught in a recess in a black rock was it-
self almost black, but after it had been kept for about an hour on
white flagstones in the sun was found to be dusky yellow, with
dark spots here and there. It was then placed again in the hol-

* Eimer, Organic Evolution, Cunningham's translation, p. 148.

492

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

low of the rock, and in a quarter of an hour had resumed its for-
mer darkness/' *

I have recently made a number of observations upon the com-
moner New England frogs which show that our species possess
the power of color adaptation to a large extent. The prettiest of
our frogs is the common wood frog (Rana sylvatica), a pale, red-
dish-brown species, nearly an inch and a half long when adult
(Fig. 1), but very often found in the smaller immature condition
(Fig. 2). It is most commonly seen on the carpets of pine needles
in the woods, where its color is precisely like that of the bed of
needles on which it lives. When found in fields and meadows
away from the woods it is seldom reddish brown, being usually
either light fawn color or dark brown.

A fine large wood frog was brought to my laboratory August
8th, and placed in a glass vivarium near a window. I began to
study its color changes August llth, at noon, adopting as a color
standard the plates in Ridgway's admirable Nomenclature of
Colors,f and the figures in parentheses hereafter refer to those
plates. At the time mentioned the frog was light fawn color
(III, 22) on the back. That night it escaped from the vivarium
and wandered about the laboratory, being found the next day at
1 P. M. It was then much darker than before, the fawn color hav-
ing changed to Van Dyke brown (III, 5), and the sides being dark
clove brown (III, 2). Mr. Sylvatica was next placed in a dry glass

jar, and put in a corner of the

room with a white wall on
two sides of it. Three days
later (August 15th, 11 A. M.) it
was an extremely light fawn
color on the back (III, 22, but
lighter), with the sides very
light drab, approaching e'cru
drab (III, 21).

A little water was next
placed in the bottom of the
jar, and it was put beside a
blackboard, where it was left
until August 23d. The frog

was then cinnamon color (III, 20), with sides dark drab. I then
placed it in an open window on a whitish bottom, and the next
day it was light brown. At 2 P. M., August 24th, I put it on a jet-
black shelf, with black surroundings. Forty-five minutes later
it was very dark, nearly mummy brown (III, 10), but darker. At

FIG. 2. — WOOD FROG. Immature.

* Poulton, Colors of Animals, p. 83.

f A Nomenclature of Colors for Naturalists, by Robert Ridgway, Boston, 1886.

THE COLOR CHANGES OF FROGS. 493

3 P. M., while it was still so dark, I put it back in the window with
white surroundings; at 3.05 it was considerably lighter brown,
at 3.10 much lighter, and at 3.15 it had become cinnamon-colored
— a very marked change thus occurring in fifteen minutes.

These experiments were repeated a number of times with sev-
eral different individuals, and similar results were obtained.

The common green frog (Eana clamata) has the power of
changing its color to a considerable extent. Specimens kept for
some time amid light surroundings became of a very light green
color — even lighter than apple green — while if placed amid a black
environment they become very dark. The leopard frog, or spotted
frog (E. virescens), is not able to change its appearance so com-
pletely, the permanent color markings preventing ; but the green
ground color varies somewhat. The few observations I have
been able to make on the bullfrog (R. catesbiana) indicate that
its ability in this direction is very similar to that of the green
frog.

The power of color change is also present to a decided extent
in our common toad (Bufo lentiginosus). A very large specimen
of this species was found in wet grass June 1st, at 11 p. M. It was
then of a light wax-yellow color. It was brought to the labora-
tory and put in a glass jar on a black shelf. Twenty-four hours
later it was very much darker, being tawny olive brown. Three
days later it had become still darker, being almost clove brown.
A similar power has been observed in the European toad.

It is conceivable that these color changes might occur in either
of two ways : First, by the direct action of the light reflected
from the surroundings upon the pigment cells of the skins, and
second, by an indirect action through the eye of the animal. The
second method is the one involved. Experiments have shown
that, when blinded, a frog does not change its - color to agree with
the environment. Mr. Poulton describes the process of change
by saying that " certain kinds of light act as specific stimuli to
the eye of the animal, and differing nervous impulses pass from
this organ along the optic nerve to the brain. The brain being
thus indirectly stimulated in a peculiar manner by various kinds
of reflected light, originates different impulses, which pass from
it along the nerves distributed to the skin, and cause varying
states of concentration of the pigment in the cells. . . . The pig-
ment cells in the skin are often of various colors, and are ar-
ranged in layers, so that very different effects may be produced
by concentration in certain cells, leading to the appearance of
those of another color, or to a combined effect due to the colors
of two or more kinds of cells." *

* Loc. cit., p. 85.
VOL. XLIII. — 35

494 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Probably the most important advantage derived by the frogs
from their power of color change is that of concealment from
birds and other enemies. Many of the larger waders devour these
animals whenever opportunity offers, and a protective resem-
blance would help greatly in escaping detection. In the case of
the wood frog, I suspect that the resemblance to the carpet of
pine needles helps to preserve them from birds of other kinds —
the hawks and owls. Last summer I placed a wood frog in a
cage containing a red-tailed hawk (Buteo borealis), and it was
immediately gobbled up by the bird.

It also seems likely that the resemblance to the environment
may be of benefit to the species in enabling it more readily to ob-
tain its insect food, but in the present state of our knowledge of
the vision of insects one can not place very much stress upon this
phase of the subject.

WHY A FILM OF OIL CAN CALM THE SEA.

BY G. W. LITTLEHALES,

CHIEF OF DIVISION OF CHART CONSTRUCTION, UNITED STATES HYDROORAPHIC OFFICE.

"VTEXT to the oil which is used in the beacons of the world to
JJN give light to save life, that which is most effective in fore-
stalling the loss of life and the destruction of property is the
quantity that is expended by mariners in forming a film around
their vessels to subdue the violence of breaking waves. The ex-
tensive practice of using oil for this purpose is the outgrowth of
an age of quick ocean passages which has impelled seamen to
crowd on every foot of canvas and every pound of steam in the
attempt to run through storm and calm alike. In any large sea-
port a visit to the docks where mariners tell the experiences of
their voyages will afford evidence of the extent and efficacy of
this practice ; but, before proceeding to point out the principles
involved, it will be of interest to give extracts from the log-books
of a few vessels, to show the manner and effect of the use of oil.
From the official notes of Captain Tregarthen, of the British
steamship Marmanhense, the following extract has been made :
" On March 3d, off Cape Hatteras, in a very strong northwest hur-
ricane, finding the ship could make no headway, I hove to. The
wind was blowing in hurricane force from the northwest, and the
tremendous sea which was running broke on board and did great
damage. The vessel was very unsteady, coming up and falling
off several points, so that I could not steer her nor keep her head
to the sea, although the engines were working well. I filled the
water-closet bowls with oakum and poured fish oil over it, keep-
ing men stationed by them to replenish the supply. I also filled a

WHY A FILM OF OIL CAN CALM THE SEA. 495

small canvas bag with, oakum, saturated with the same kind of
oil, and towed it by a line from the weather bow of the vessel so
that it would drift several fathoms to windward. The vessel now
rode much more easily and could be kept head to sea. Moreover,
no water came on board, and the sea was without breaking crests
for thirty yards to windward of her. I feel no hesitancy in stat-
ing that, with the proper use of oil, I shall be perfectly willing to
encounter the hardest gale that ever blew ; and intend at the first
opportunity, to stop the engines, place several oil bags to wind-
ward, and let the vessel drift as she will. I feel sure that the
vessel will be safe under these conditions."

Captain Bower, while on a voyage from New York to the Medi-
terranean last December in the steamship Ponca, encountered a
strong gale with very high seas. He says: "The vessel was
deeply laden with grain and became unmanageable. We were
running before the seas and shipping large quantities of water,
until two small bags filled with colza oil were put over on each
side of the bridge. This oil was found to be too light and of little
use ; but after olive oil was put in the bags no more water was
shipped and the decks became almost as dry as in fine weather,
although the gale continued for two days. The vessel was draw-
ing twenty-six and a half feet of water, and, if we had not used
oil, I do not think she could have withstood the storm."

Captain William Peake, master of the schooner J. F. Krantz,
while making a passage from Port Spain, Trinidad, to Boston, met
a terrific gale off Cape Hatteras and had the following experience :
" The sails were blown away, men washed from the pumps, and
boats and other things above the deck wrecked by the heavy seas.
I was compelled to head southward and scud under bare poles.
Then I thought of oil, and determined to see what effect it would
have on the sea. Two wooden, ten-gallon kegs, containing boiled
linseed oil, were lashed to the quarters of the vessel. The oil was
allowed to ooze out through two small holes in the heads of the
kegs. The effect was all that could be desired. After the oil had
spread, no water came on board, the men returned to the pumps,
the vessel was pumped out, and the decks were cleaned up. Dur-
ing the sixteen hours in which oil was used eight gallons were
expended."

An examination of thousands of reports like the preceding
ones demonstrates that a small quantity, say two quarts per hour,
of the thick and heavy oils, especially those of animal and vege-
table origin, when allowed to drop into the sea soon spreads over
its surface, forming an oily layer within the area of which the
waves, instead of breaking, become huge rollers upon which the
vessels rise and fall without shocks and without shipping any
water.

496 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

So much for the practical effects of oil on broken water. Now
let us proceed to examine the reasons why so small a quantity of
oil can produce these effects. In order to understand the methods
for opposing the violence of waves, it is essential that the phe-
nomena which constitute wave motion be understood. It can be
said with some degree of confidence that there is no instance in
Nature of a perfectly quiescent surface of water. Air and water
are both mediums of extreme mobility, and the individual mole-
cules of both, and of all other substances, are continually in a state
of motion, with different velocities, in paths different in direction
and length. There is thus a continual interlacing of particles.
When air covers water, some of the particles of air, in their ex-
cursions, strike the surface of the water, producing unequal press-
ures upon it, and giving rise to ripples which the vision is not
acute enough to detect. If the original surface of the water were
perfectly smooth, and if all parts of it continued equally exposed
to an equal wind, waves could not be produced. But with the mi-
nute corrugations which are always present upon the smoothest
water it is to be observed that it does not occur that water is all
equally exposed to equal winds. The pressure of moving air upon
the crests and posterior portions of the minute corrugations is
greater than that on the hollows and anterior portions. There is
thus a tendency to heap up the water at the places of greatest
pressure, which is augmented by the rotational or vortex motion
produced by the viscosity of the air. These actions produce new
forms and inequalities, which, exposed to the wind, generate new
modifications of its force and give rise to further deviations from
the primitive condition of the fluid. Imagine an isolated example
in which the water has been suddenly heaped up by a gust of
wind. The action of gravity causes the particles of water in the
he.ap to push forward the particles immediately in front of them
out of their former place to another place farther on, and they
repose in their new place at rest as before the original heaping up.
Thus in succession volume after volume continues to carry on a
process of displacement which only ends with the exhaustion of
the displacing force originally impressed and communicated from
one to another successive mass of water. As the particles of
water crowd upon one another in the act of going out of their old
places into the new, the crowd forms a temporary heap visible on
the surface of the water, and as each successive mass is displacing
its successor there is always one such heap, and this heap travels
apparently at that point where the process of displacement is go-
ing on ; and although there may be only one crowd, yet it consists
of always another and another set of migrating particles. This
moving crowd constitutes a true wave. The velocity of the wave
is the velocity with which the heap is seen to move. Its form is

WHY' A FILM OF OIL CAN CALM THE SEA. 497

FIG. 1.

the form of the heap. Its length is the distance from crest to
crest, and its height is the distance from the crest to the surface
of the water before the disturbance.

The motions of the individual particles of water are different
from the motion of translation which the wave has. Consider a
particle in a mass of
water about to be
traversed by a wave
form. The action of
gravity on the heap
behind it tends to
press *.. it forward,
where it is confront-
ed by a solid wall of
water. Under the ac-
tion of these two op-
posite forces the par-
ticle is driven up-
ward and forward

until the particles which have displaced it have made room for
themselves ; then it sinks, and finally comes to rest a little in ad-
vance of 'the place from which it started. The motion of migra-
tion of each individual particle is thus in a closed orbit. The
propagation of the wave is the advancement of a mere form. The
actual translation of water in the propagation of unbroken waves
is small. The motion of each particle takes place in a vertical
plane parallel to the direction of propagation of the wave. The
path of orbit described by each particle is approximately elliptic,
and in water of nearly uniform depth the longer axis of the ellip-
tic orbit is horizontal and the shorter vertical. When at the top
of its path, the particle moves forward as regards the direction of
propagation; when at the bottom, backward, as shown by the

curved arrows in Fig. 1. The
straight arrow denotes the di-
rection of propagation.

The particles at the sur-
face describe the largest or-
bits. The extent of the mo-
tion horizontally and vertically diminishes with the depth below
the surface. A particle in contact with the bottom of water of
moderate depth moves backward and forward in a horizontal
straight line, as at D. On the ocean, where the water is deep as
compared with the length of a wave, the paths of the particles are
nearly circular, and the motion is insensible at great depths.

When waves are first raised at sea their crests are smooth and
rounded, as represented in Fig. 2. As the wind freshens the crests

VOL. XLIII.— 36

FIG. 2.

498 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

rise higher and become more acuminate. Rankine has investi-
gated the limiting forms which waves assume before breaking,
and has concluded that in the steepest possible oscillatory waves
of the irrotational kind, the crests become .curved at the vertex in
such a manner that a section of the crest by the plane of motion
presents two branches of a curve which meet at an angle of ninety
degrees.

After the prolonged action of the wind, when the crests of the
waves rise to a considerable height and become sharper and
sharper, the passage of the air over them with
high velocity tends to impart its velocity to
them. Owing to the inertia of the lower masses
of water, the imparting of this velocity is re-
3. sisted. The paths of the particles become dis-

torted, as shown in Fig. 3, the front of each
wave gradually becomes steeper than the back, and the crests
seem to advance faster than the troughs, until at length the front
of the wave curls over and breaks, as shown in Fig. 4.

Large sea- waves seem to be the result of a building-up process
carried on by the joint action of large and small waves. If, for
any cause, there be one wave larger than those surrounding it, its
size will be continually increased at the expense of the smaller
ones. For these smaller waves, in passing over the tops of the
larger, offer increased obstruction to the wind and cause the for-
mation of cusps when the waves coincide. The delicate equilib-
rium incident to a cusped form is easily destroyed by the action
of the wind, and the crests of the waves break into fragments
which go to increase the volume of large waves, leaving the small
ones yet smaller. Therefore, whatever influence prevents the
breaking of waves acts also as an agency to
prevent their increase in size. No fact of ob-
servation and no method of sound reasoning
has yet led to the conclusion that the spread-
ing of oil on the surface of water agitated by F™. 4.
waves can exercise any sensible effect in less-
ening the size or velocity of the waves themselves. It is in the
breaking of the waves that the oil finds its field of action.

Having reviewed the structure of sea waves, the next step is
to show why oil spreads over the surface of water. There is an
attraction of one particle of water for another, and there is an
attraction of one particle of oil for another, but there is a repulsion
between a particle of water and a particle of oil. If we attempt
to mix oil and water, the two liquids separate from each other of
themselves, and in the act of separation sufficient force is brought
into play to set in motion considerable masses of the fluids.

Imagine an individual particle of water within a mass of water.

WHY A FILM OF OIL CAN CALM THE SEA. 499

The particles on every side of the individual particle attract it,
and the attraction of opposite particles on every side tends to neu-
tralize each other, so that the individual particle has almost per-
fect mobility. The surface particles, however, inasmuch as all the
rest of the fluid is below them, are drawn inward toward the mass
of the fluid, and a certain tension is produced. This tension
is potential energy,
and is inherent in
the surface particles
in virtue of their
position. If we con-
sider an oily film to

Taw

Tow

be spread over the
surface of a body of
water, it will appear
that the particles
near the surfaces
which separate the FIG. 5.

oil from the water

and from the air must have greater energy than those in the in-
terior of the film. The excess of energy due to this cause will be
proportional to the area of the surface of separation. When this
area is increased in any way, work must be done ; and when it is
allowed to contract, it does work upon other bodies. Hence it
acts like a stretched sheet of India rubber, and exerts a tension of
the same kind.

In the above figure, which represents an exaggerated picture of
a layer of oil on the surface of a body of water, let Taw represent
the superficial tension of the surface separating air from water ;
let Tao represent the superficial tension of the surface separating
air from oil ; let Tow represent the superficial tension of the sur-
face separating oil from water ; and let P be a point
of the line forming the common intersection of the
surfaces separating the air, oil, and water. For the
equilibrium of these three media, the three tensions
Taw, Tao, and Tow must be in equilibrium along the
line of common intersection, and since these tensions
PIO 6 have been measured and are known, the angles which
their directions make with one another can be easily
determined ; for, by constructing a triangle, ABC, having sides
proportional to these tensions, the exterior angles will be equal to
the angles formed by the three surfaces of separation which meet
in a line. But it is not always possible to construct a triangle
with three given lines as its sides. If one of the lines is greater in
length than the sum of the lengths of the other two, the triangle
is impossible. For the same reason, if any one of the superficial

500

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tensions is greater than the sum of the other two, the three fluids
can not be in equilibrium in contact.

If, therefore, the tension of the surface separating air from
water is greater than the sum of the tensions of the surfaces sepa-
rating air from oil and oil from water, then a drop of oil can not
be in equilibrium on the surface of water. The edge of the drop
where the air meets the oil and the water becomes thinner and
thinner, till it covers a vast expanse of water.

M. Quinke has determined the superficial tensions of different
liquids in contact with one another and with air, and the follow-
ing is an extract from his table of results. The tension is measured
in grammes per linear centimetre at twenty degrees centigrade :

LIQUID.

Specific gravity.

Tension of surface
separating liquid
from air.

Tension of surface
separating liquid
from water.

Water ...

1 ' 0000

•08235

•ooooo

Olive oil

0-9136

•03760

•02096

Although olive oil is here taken as the representative of oils, it
is not considered so well adapted for use at sea as some of the
others.. Whale oil has given the best results, but its surface ten-
sions do not seem to have been determined. It may be presumed
that they do not differ greatly from the values given for olive oil.

An inspection of the above table will show that the tension of
the surface separating air from water is greater than the sum of
the tensions of the surfaces separating air from oil and oil from
water, which explains why a film of oil will spread over the sur-
face of a body of water.

Through the operation of surface tensions much of the force
which breakers have is lost. Let us imagine a "break" to occur
after the surface of the water is covered by the oily film.* For

* Above it has been assumed that the superficial tension per unit of length has the same

numerical value as the superficial energy per unit of area, which can be proved as follows :

Y Let the equation to the curve B C A

be y =f(x). Take any ordinate, as
C D, whose length is y, and let the
whole tension exerted across the line
be represented by <J>, then the super-
ficial tension is measured by the ten-
sion across a unit length of y, or,
since <£ is the tension across the
whole ordinate y, if T, which is con-
stant, is the superficial tension per
unit of length, <f> = Ty = T.f (x).
Suppose that the variable ordinate #
is originally in contact with the axis
~x 0 B, and that the surface included

WHY A FILM OF OIL CAN CALM THE SEA. 501

every square centimetre of film torn asunder there will be destroyed
•05856 centigrammetre of potential energy, being the sum of
"03760 and '02096, the potential or surface energies, in centigram-
metres per square centimetre, of the surfaces separating air from
oil and oil from water ; and there will be generated for every
square centimetre of free surface of water formed, "08235 centi-
grammetre of potential energy. The mere fact of breaking the
film of oil causes an expenditure of energy, because it lays bare a
surface having a tension greater than the sum of the tensions of
the surfaces separating air from oil and oil from water. But
there is a further loss of energy in these circumstances. Suppose
after a " break " has occurred, a layer of water glides over a layer
of oil. The superficial energy in the surface separating the oil
from the air, amounting to '03760 centigrammetres per square
centimetre, is replaced by '10331 centigrammetre per square cen-
timetre, being the sum of '08235 and '02096, the superficial ener-
gies per square centimetre of the surfaces separating air from
water and water from oil respectively. Therefore, when water
breaks over an oily film, there is required for the formation of
each square centimetre of a layer of water on the oily film, '10331
minus '03760, or '06571 centigrammetre of work.

The film of oil also acts as a shield to prevent the derange-
ment of the wave mechanism and to prevent the growth of waves
and the formation of sharp crests. It has been pointed out that,
when waves are propagated across any body of liquid, the indi-
vidual particles of the liquid, having their centrifugal and cen-
tripetal forces in equilibrium, describe closed orbits. At the
highest points of these orbits, or in the crests of the waves, the
particles are moving in the direction of propagation of the waves.

When the wind is blowing over the waves with a velocity
greater than the velocity of propagation, and in the same direction
with it, the moving air tends to impart to the particles of water a
velocity additional to the normal velocity of revolution in their
orbits, causing the distortion of the orbits and the disintegration
of the crests of the waves. The force which the moving air exerts
to draw the water along with it is due to the viscosity of air.

between the curve and the two axes is produced by drawing the ordinate y away from the
axis 0 B toward the right by the action of the force <p. If we consider 0 B and D C, which
is equal to y, to be two rods wet with oil and placed between the curve and the axis of X,
and then drawn asunder, the oily film B C A D 0 will be formed. Let E represent the
superficial energy per unit of area. Then the work done in forming the film will be =
Eff(x) dx. But if <J> is the variable force required to draw the ordinate y from the axis
0 B, the same work may be written =/<£ dx. Therefore, work —f^ dx =Eff(x] dx (1).
Substituting the value <f> = Tf(x) in (1), we have Tff(x)dx= Eff(x) dx, or T = E, or that
the numerical value of the superficial tension per unit' of length is equal to the superficial
energy per unit of area.

502 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

When wind blows over water, all the air does not pass over the
surface of the water. On account of the high degree of adhesion
between air and water, a thin stratum of air remains in contact
with the water, and it is the action of the internal friction or vis-
cosity of air tending to draw this stratum along which causes the
tractive effect of wind on water.

When a film of oil is spread over the surface, this tractive
force is not brought to bear on the surface of the water as long as
the film remains unbroken, but acts upon the surface of the film,
whose particles, being entirely separate from the particles of
water, do not share their motion. The surface of the water is
thus shielded from the action of the wind in the same manner as
if a skin of India rubber were spread over it, and the only action
of the wind in such a case is to move the film over the surface of
the water.

It is calculated that a wind moving at the rate of twenty-five
miles per hour or one hundred and twelve centimetres per sec-
ond, relatively to the surface of the water, exercises a tractive
effect of about two thousandths of a gramme upon each square
centimetre of surface ; and, when we consider that this force is
brought to bear upon a system of particles moving in their orbits,
in the direction in which the wind blows, with a speed of about
eighty centimetres per second, it will be apparent that the inter-
position of a film of oil between the air and water must have a
powerful effect in preventing breaking crests.

Observation has shown that, in the generation of oscillatory
waves, ripples or capillary waves are first formed, and that it is
to the union of conterminal ripples and to their more abundant
formation with the increased force of the wind that the growth of
waves is due. The existence of a certain definite tension, equal to
'08235 gramme per lineal centimetre, at the common surface of air
and water has been pointed out. The water surface under this
tension is in perfect equilibrium.

When wind blows over the surface of a body of water, the tan-
gential force which the air, in virtue of its viscosity, exerts on the
surface of the water, is of different degrees of intensity at different
places, owing to the minute corrugations which are always pres-
ent on the surface of a body of water, and to the eddying motion
of the air. At the places where the tangential force is greatest,
the surface film of water is drawn along and the portions of the
surface immediately in front of them, destroying their surface
tension or energy of position, and, by laying bare new surface in
places from which they are moved, generating a like amount of
surface tension. Through this action heaps or ripples are formed,
and surface tension is being constantly generated and destroyed.
The formation of ripples takes place on waves already in exist-

HOW PLANTS AND ANIMALS GROW. 503

ence in the same manner as upon a surface of water originally at
rest, and by continually uniting with, the larger waves they
impart those dangerous qualities to the wave which result from
high and acuminate crests.

When a film of oil is spread over the surface of the water,
this heaping-up action, which in the case of the water film results
in the formation of ripples, can not take place. In the figure, let
A represent the crest of a wave covered by
the film of oil B C, and let P be a point of
greatest action of the tangential force of
the wind, which is supposed to move in the
direction of the arrow. The tendency of FIG. 7.

this action is to drive the film into a heap

immediately in front of P. By this action a greater tension is
generated in the film at b and a lesser tension at a. The greater
tension at b tends to draw the portion at b' ahead, and the lesser
tension at a allows the tension at a' to draw the portion at a
ahead ; so that, instead of a tendency toward heaping up, there is
a tendency to move the entire surface film along at a uniform
rate. The formation of ripples is therefore stopped, and the
growth of waves and the formation of breaking crests, as far as
they result from this cause, are prevented.

HOW PLANTS AND ANIMALS GROW.

BY DR. MANLY MILES.

TOO little is known in regard to the chemistry of foods, or the
specific use made of their proximate constituents in the pro-
cesses of nutrition, to serve as a rational guide in formulating
diets, or estimating the relative nutritive value of different arti-
cles of food. Our methods of chemical investigation are not as
yet sufficiently delicate and refined to enable us to trace the un-
obtrusive transformations of matter and energy involved in the
nutrition of living being's.

Liebig's chemical theories of nutrition are now discarded by
physiologists as fallacious and misleading, but they are, neverthe-
less, confidently adopted by popular writers on the economy of
foods and diets, who are not aware of the progress made in a
more consistent knowledge of physiological processes. The his-
tory of biological science furnishes numerous instances of error
arising from the undue prominence given to non-essential details
which are readily observed, while the dominant factors in the
phenomena under investigation, which are not so obvious, are
overlooked or assigned a subordinate position.

5o4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,

The progressive development of the cell theory of organic
structure, and the several steps which have led to a recognition of
protoplasm as a factor in evolution and in the processes of vege-
table and animal nutrition, may be profitably reviewed to illus-
trate the erroneous inferences made from superficial and defective
observation. In 1755 Rosenhoff described the Proteus animal-
cule, now familiarly known as the Amoeba, without being aware
of the importance of the discovery in furnishing a type of the
form or conditions of matter required for the manifestations of
life.

Bichat laid the foundation for the study of the minute struc-
ture of animals in his work on anatomy, published in 1801, in
which the different organs of the body were described as made
up of tissues, to each of which was assigned a special function,
and the attention of anatomists was then given to the distribu-
tion and arrangement of these structural elements, while their in-
timate relations, arising from a common origin, were not detected.

The next step of real progress was made in 1838 by Schleiden,
who traced all vegetable tissues to the common form of nucleated
cells from which they had their origin, and in 1839 Schwann per-
fected the cell theory of organization by extending the same con-
ception to animal tissues. Cells were then recognized as the ulti-
mate units of organic structure, which were variously modified to
adapt them to diverse special purposes. This cell theory of or-
ganized structure was generally adopted, and cells were defined
as closed membranes or sacs, containing a more or less fluid sub-
stance which served to nourish them. The cells were looked upon
as independent units, which multiplied by a process of budding
or by self-division, and a new factor was introduced in the discus-
sion of the mooted question as to what constitutes the individual
in plants. Schwann " regarded the plant as a cell community in
which the separate elements were like the bees in a swarm," and
this appeared to be a logical inference from the accepted cell
theory of organization.

This view was, however, based on an erroneous assumption as
to the essential constituents of the cell, and the progress of dis-
covery gradually led to the demonstration of a material and
physiological bond of union in the various tissues of plants. In
1835 Dujardin made the discovery that the bodies of Foraminifera,
a group of animals of simple organization, including the Amoeba,
were composed of a glairy contractile substance, which he called
sarcode (rudimentary flesh), and in 1846 Von Mohl called atten-
tion to the importance of the inner lining of the cell wall of
plants, which he designated the primordial utricle, with its in-
closed contents, to which he gave the name of protoplasm (primi-
tive plastic or organizable matter), and these, he claimed, repre-

HOW PLANTS AND ANIMALS GROW. 505

sented the essential constituents of the cell and active elements in
plant nutrition.

The identity in essential features of Dujardin's sarcode and
Von Mohl's protoplasm was pointed out by Cohn in 1850, and
fully demonstrated by Max Schultze in 1858, who, adopting the
term protoplasm, defined the cell as "a unit-mass of nucleated
protoplasm, with or without a cell wall," and vegetable and ani-
mal physiology were thus placed on a common correlated basis.
The original cell theory was materially modified and, in fact, su-
perseded by the conception that the units of organized structure
are masses of protoplasm, more or less intimately related, from
and by which organic matters, including the cells and various tis-
sues, were formed.

In 1868 Prof. Huxley translated protoplasm into the significant
phrase, " the physical basis of life," and all vital activities were
assumed to be the result of its inherent properties. While ad-
mitting the general pertinence of this assumption, we should not
fail to notice that many of the inferences from the facts then
known have not been verified in the progress of knowledge, and
recent investigations have materially modified our views as to the
real composition and constitution of protoplasm.

From what was known in regard to protoplasm twenty years
ago, it appeared to be reasonable to assume with Huxley that
there is " one kind of matter which is common to all living beings,
and that their endless diversities are bound together by a phys-
ical as well as an ideal unity " ; that vegetable and animal proto-
plasm are strictly identical ; that " an animal can not make proto-
plasm, but must take it ready made from some other animal or
some plant " ; or, in other words, that the protoplasm made by
plants from mineral matters is, in fact, the physical basis of ani-
mal life.

At the present time we may look upon protoplasm as the phys-
ical basis of life in the sense that some form of it is the essential
and active constituent of every living cell or tissue, whether vege-
table or animal, and that it is only formed through the physio-
logical activities of living organisms. In the absence of life, pro-
toplasm can not be formed, and, so far as we can perceive, there are
no manifestations of life without it ; but we can no longer assume
that it is a substance of the same chemical composition and con-
stitution in all the varied conditions under which it appears in
the different groups of plants and animals, or even in the differ-
ent organs of the same individual. Protoplasm is a convenient
name for living substance, but we must bear in mind that it is the
most complex and unstable of organic substances, and varies
widely in structure, specific properties, and probably in chemical
composition.

5o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The general properties of protoplasm may be readily observed
in the simplest organic forms, like the Amoeba, that are usually
described as simple masses of protoplasm without structure or
any distinction of parts. It should be remarked, however, that nu-
merous species of Amoeba have been described, differing in form
and to some extent in habits, and there may also be differences in
their protoplasm which we are unable to detect with our present
means of investigation.

Under the low powers of the microscope an Amoeba appears as
a semi-transparent, jelly-like mass, which glides along with a
flowing movement of its apparently homogeneous substance, send-
ing out armlike projections from any part of its body to close
around substances which it can feed upon, and rejecting other ma-
terials unsuitable for its nutrition. The processes of prehension,
digestion, assimilation, respiration, excretion, and reproduction
are carried on by the entire body, or by any part of it indifferent-
ly. The body of an Amoeba, as we observe it, is not, however, a
simple mass of protoplasm, as it evidently contains particles of
undigested food, with particles representing the various stages
the elements of the food pass through in being built up into pro-
toplasm, together with the various waste products on the way to
be excreted, so that what we call protoplasm, as represented in an
Amoeba, contains many extraneous substances ; and substantially
the same statement may also be made in regard to the differen-
tiated protoplasm of the higher plants and animals.

From this it must be seen that it is practically impossible to
obtain samples of pure protoplasm for analysis, and, even if this
could be done, a chemical analysis of living protoplasm can not be
made ; but there is, however, evidence to show that there must be
a wide difference in the chemical properties of living and of dead
protoplasm. Carmine and other coloring matters, for example,
do not color living protoplasm, but give a brilliant stain to dead
protoplasm ; and other observations show that living substance has
properties that interfere with or limit the ordinary chemical and
physical reactions of dead matter.

There are other considerations in regard to the composition of
protoplasm which require a reference to the food of the higher
animals, which is usually said to consist of the so-called proteids,
fats, and carbohydrates, to which should be added certain mineral
constituents or salts, with oxygen introduced by the lungs. These
groups of food-stuffs have not the physiological significance that
was formerly attached to them, and they do not represent definite
chemical compounds which have a specific role in the processes of
nutrition, as each group includes a great variety of complex com-
pounds. The proteids or albuminoids, as they are sometimes
called, are a group of organic substances containing carbon, hy-

HOW PLANTS AND ANIMALS GROW. 507

drogen, and oxygen, with from fifteen to eighteen per cent of
nitrogen and a variable quantity of ash constituents, and they
present marked differences in their general appearance and prop-
erties. The white of an egg, the casein of cheese, the glutin of
wheat, and the legumin of peas and beans are often referred to
as typical proteids, but they in fact represent several kinds of
proteids which differ in many properties, and can not be assumed
to have precisely the same physiological significance and value as
nutrients.

The group of fats includes a great variety of compounds com-
posed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, without nitrogen, and
their properties are various. The carbohydrates are likewise
composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, without nitrogen, and
they include starch, sugar, cellulose, woody fiber, and allied sub-
stances, differing in form and various properties, so that their
physiological value can not be the same. Oxygen is the most
abundant element of the animal body as a whole, and it stands
next to carbon in the percentage composition of the proximate
constituents of the tissues. Its significance as a food element is
too often overlooked, but it is undoubtedly as important a factor
in tissue-building as any other food constituent.

Protoplasm was formerly looked upon as a proteid, but it is now
generally admitted that its composition and structure are very
much more complex than any form of proteid. The chemical
composition of living protoplasm, as already pointed out, can not
be determined, but there is evidence that proteids, fats, and carbo-
hydrates enter into the composition of its complex molecules, and
it gives rise to all three of these groups of nutrients in the pro-
cesses of destructive metabolism, and it should also be noted that
several varieties of proteid matter have been detected in dead
protoplasm.

Energy has been defined as the power of doing work, and it is
expended in the work involved in building protoplasm out of the
simpler proteids, fats, and carbohydrates from which it is formed.
An essential constituent of the complex molecules of protoplasm
which is neglected in chemical analysis is the potential energy
stored up as a result of the constructive process, which is liberated
in the form of heat in destructive metabolism. The properties of
living protoplasm, and its role in the vital activities of plants and
animals, have been more definitely determined than its chemical
constitution, and although it is generally admitted to be the domi-
nant factor in nutrition, there is yet much to learn in regard to
its properties and specific action in its diverse forms.

Living protoplasm, or, in other words, living substance, must
be looked upon as constantly undergoing changes that vary with
the function required of it. These changes, without attempting

5o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

to distinguish between them as chemical, physical, or more strictly
biological, are conveniently expressed by the general term metab-
olism.

Dr. M. Foster says : " We may picture to ourselves this total
change which we denote by the term ' metabolism ' as consisting,
on the one hand, of a downward series of changes (katabolic
changes), a stair of many steps, in which more complex bodies
are broken down into simpler and simpler waste bodies, and, on
the other hand, of an upward series of changes (anabolic changes),
also a stair of many steps, by which the dead food, of varying
simplicity or complexity, is, with the further assumption of energy,
built up into more and more complex bodies. The summit of this
double stair we call ' protoplasm/ Whether we have the right to
speak of it as a single body in the chemical sense of that word, or
as a mixture in some way of several bodies ; whether we should
regard it as the very summit of the double stair, or as embracing
as well the topmost steps on either side, we can not at present
tell. Even if there be a single substance forming the summit, its
existence is absolutely temporary : at one instant it is made, at
the next it is unmade. Matter which is passing through the
phase of life rolls up the ascending steps to the top, and forth-
with rolls down on the other side."

The greater activity of the nutritive processes in young and
growing animals, with a gradual decline to maturity and old age,
are matters of common observation. Dr. Minot has, however,
shown that "with the increasing development of the organism
and its advance in age we find an increase in the amount of
protoplasm.* This seems to indicate that katabolism is relatively
more active in young organisms, and that they use protoplasm in
tissue-building as fast as it is formed. In old age, on the other
hand, the anabolic processes resulting in the formation of proto-
plasm are not diminished as rapidly as the katabolic transforma-
tions of protoplasm into new tissues, to replace the waste arising
from the wear and tear of the system, and a general decline of
the bodily powers follows.

As we pass from the simpler to the higher forms of life we
find a gradual transition from the comparatively homogeneous
protoplasm of the lowest, to the highly differentiated protoplasm
of the Jtiighest forms which provide for a division of labor in the
physiological activities of the different organs. In the highest
organisms the functions of prehension, digestion, assimilation,
respiration, etc., as in the Amoeba, are still carried on through the
agency of protoplasm, but it is distributed to various organs, each
of which has a special function.

* Trans. A. A. A. S., 1890, p. 283.

HOW PLANTS AND ANIMALS GROW. 509

Plant cells are not independent units as -assumed in the cell
theory of organic structure, as recent investigations, with im-
proved microscopes and more exact methods of research, have
shown that the protoplasm of adjacent cells is connected by slen-
der threads which pass through minute openings in the cell walls,
and this has been observed in so many cases that the continuity
of their protoplasm is believed to be the rule in the structure of
plants. The various tissues and cells of the higher plants have,
therefore, a common bond of union in the connecting threads of
protoplasm which determine their harmonious action.

The higher powers of the microscope likewise show that the
protoplasm of plants is not homogeneous, but contains numerous
granules which repeat themselves indefinitely by a process of
self -division, each granule having a genetic relation to pre-exist-
ing granules of the same kind. Besides the granules, each proto-
plasmic cell has a nucleus which in the same manner is formed
by the self -division of a pre-existing nucleus. The granules, and
especially the nucleus, may prove to be important factors in the
perpetuation of ancestral characters, and consequently more inti-
mately involved than other elements in the grand mystery of life.

The chlorophyll granules which constitute the green coloring
matter of plants were supposed to be formed from the proto-
plasm in which they appear ; but they are now known to arise
from the pre-existing self -propagating granules of protoplasm.

The conception of ascending steps of constructive metabolism
resulting in the formation of protoplasm and the storing of
energy, with correlated descending steps, by which protoplasm is
transformed into less complex compounds (destructive metabo-
lism), with a liberation of energy, serves as a key to the complex
processes of nutrition which enables us to trace their conformity
to general laws that are readily recognized, and clears up the ob-
scurity arising from the multiplicity of details which from other
points of view could not be brought into consistent relations.

In the light of these principles the relations of protoplasm to
the leading features of vegetable nutrition may be traced in brief
outlines, as a prelude to the more highly differentiated processes
of animal nutrition. The latest discoveries in physiology all tend
to verify the conclusion that the simple chemical elements and
binary compounds, which constitute the food of plants, are built
up by successive steps of gradually increasing complexity into
protoplasm, or living substance, the ultimate product of construc-
tive metabolism, and that the energy expended in the work per-
formed is stored in the form of potential energy as an essential
element or condition of its constitution. From the instability of
the exceedingly complex molecules of protoplasm, destructive
metabolism immediately follows, and the proximate constituents

s 10 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of plants known as proteids, starch, cellulose, etc., are formed in
the downward steps of its progress with a liberation of a portion
of the stored energy in the form of heat. The heat liberated in
these first steps of destructive metabolism is not, however, suffi-
cient to maintain an independent temperature in plants, as it is
used in vaporizing the water exhaled in the processes of growth,
or lost by radiation from the extended surface of foliage. The
energy expended in vaporizing water must be considerable, as ex-
periments show that for each pound of dry organic substance
formed by the plant about three hundred pounds of water are ex-
haled in the form of vapor.*

The products of the downward steps of metabolism are numer-
ous, some of which, as waste matters, are either excreted, as in the
case of carbonic acid and water, or deposited in the more stable
tissues ; while others called plastic products, including proteids,
starch, fats, etc., are stored as reserve materials to be used in con-
structive metabolism when needed by the plant. These reserve
materials are not as a general rule stored in the place where they
are formed, and they can only be transported when changed to a
soluble form, which is brought about by certain " soluble fer-
ments," which are also products of the destructive metabolism of
protoplasm. Starch formed in the leaves is changed to glucose
and transported to other parts of the plants where it is recon-
verted into starch and stored for use, sooner or later, in construc-
tive metabolism. Some of these reserve materials are apparently
built up again into protoplasm before they are resolved into their
ultimate products. This is seen in the starch deposited in oily
seeds which is used in forming protoplasm, and the oil is then
formed as a product of its metabolism.

The many forms of organic acids — as the malic, tartaric, oxalic,
citric, etc. — and a variety of alkaloids and other bodies are also
products of destructive metabolism, which may be deposited in
the various tissues as waste materials, or some of them may be
changed by soluble ferments into forms which may be again util-
ized in the economy of the plant. The organic acids and tannin
of green fruits, for example, are converted into sugar in the pro-
cess of ripening by ferments formed from the protoplasm of the
fruit cells.

In general terms the processes of nutrition in plants may, then,
be said to consist in the construction of protoplasm from the ele-
ments of their food, with a storing of energy, and the conversion
of this protoplasm into the various organic substances entering
into the composition of their tissues (starch, cellulose, etc.), with
a liberation of energy, and all vital activities are included in

* Popular Science Monthly, May, 1892, p. 92.

HOW PLANTS AND ANIMALS GROW. 511

these upward and downward transformations of matter and
energy.

In the higher animals the various functions are more highly
specialized, but we still find that protoplasm is the essential liv-
ing substance of every tissue and the dominant factor in nutri-
tion. It differs, however, from vegetable protoplasm in many of
its properties, and it can not, as formerly assumed, be formed by
plants, or built up from the simpler elements that plants feed on,
and from which they construct vegetable protoplasm.

The proteids, fats, and carbohydrates which constitute the food
of animals are, as we have seen, products of the destructive me-
tabolism of the protoplasm of plants, and it was formerly sup-
posed that they are transformed into animal proteids and fats,
without any marked change in their chemical constitution. This
assumption is, in fact, the basis of the fallacious theory of nutri-
tive ratios, but it can not be reconciled with the known facts of
animal nutrition. There appears to be conclusive evidence that
the proteids, fats, and carbohydrates of the food can not be con-
verted into the proteids and fats of the animal body without un-
dergoing profound disruption and reconstruction through the
agency of animal protoplasm ; or, in other words, the products
of vegetable protoplasm can not be made available in the con-
struction of animal tissues without being resolved into sim-
pler compounds and formed anew in the laboratory of ani-
mal life.

Without noticing the many details that would only tend to
divert the attention of the general reader from the significance
of the results produced, the essential or fundamental processes in
the nutrition of the higher animals may be broadly stated as fol-
lows : In the first place, the proteids, fats, and carbohydrates of
their food undergo a series of changes in the processes of diges-
tion (using this word in its widest sense) that reduces them to
simpler compounds and, in fact, almost to their elements, with
a liberation of energy which is made available in the reconstruc-
tion of the disintegrated food constituents.

The activities of the various organs of nutrition are primarily
directed to the elaboration of a nutritive fluid, the blood, which
is distributed to all of the tissues through the circulatory appara-
tus provided for that purpose, funishing them the pabulum for
their nutrition, and receiving the excretory and other products
arising from their metabolism. " An average uniform composi-
tion of the blood " is maintained through the action of numerous
glandular organs, and the drafts made upon it in the constant re-
pair of the different tissues. The various ferments required in
the disintegration or digestion of the food elements that are being
transformed into blood are products of the destructive metabo-

5i2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

lism of the protoplasm of the special secreting organs and of the
general tissues.

From the common nutritive fluid, the blood, protoplasm is
formed in all the tissues of the body, and we must look upon the
characteristic elements and products of these tissues as the result
of its destructive metabolism. In each organ of the body the
protoplasm appears to have special endowments adapted to their
specific functions, but these diverse activities are correlated to serve
a common purpose in the life of the individual. The contraction
of muscles, the specific secretions of the glandular organs, includ-
ing the salivary glands, the liver, the pancreas, the mammary
glands, etc., and, in fact, the products of all the metabolic tissues,
as well as their characteristic structural elements, must be consid-
ered as the resulting products of the downward steps of the me-
tabolism of protoplasm.

As in plants the food elements are built up into protoplasm
before they are converted into the proximate constituents of plant
tissues (proteids, fats, starch, etc.), so in animal nutrition it ap-
pears that the proteids, fats, and carbohydrates, together with
oxygen introduced by the lungs, which constitute their food, must
pass through the intermediate phases of blood and protoplasm be-
fore they appear as animal proteids and fats, or enter into the
composition of the different tissues of the animal body, so that a
genetic or specific relation of particular tissues to special food
constituents can not be traced.

For example, the muscles, from their comparative bulk, con-
tain a large proportion of the nitrogen of the body, and they are
spoken of as nitrogenous tissues, but they are not formed directly
from the proteid or nitrogenous constituents of the food. Like
all other tissues, they have their origin in protoplasm that is built
up from the common nutritive fluid, the blood, which is elabo-
rated, as we have seen, from the disintegrated elements of fats and
carbohydrates as well as proteids. Moreover, nitrogen is no more
essential to the formation of muscle than carbon or oxygen, or
even water, which are more abundant constituents of all living
tissues.

It must then be evident that we can not formulate the propor-
tions of the proximate principles of foods that will serve the best
purpose in animal nutrition. The extended and profound series
of changes that intervene between the food constituents on the
one hand and the resulting animal tissues on the other are too
complex to enable us to trace any direct chemical relations be-
tween the initial elements and their final products. Aside from
these physiological considerations there are insuperable obstacles
in the way of prescribing diets that are even approximately suit-
ed to the requirements of any particular individual, or group of

HOW PLANTS AND ANIMALS GROW. 513

animals, arising from individual peculiarities and inherited an-
cestral habits. Experiments have not as yet been made with a
sufficient number of individuals or with a sufficient variety of
foods to warrant any generalizations as to what constitutes a
normal diet for either man or beast under even average condi-
tions.

The recent recognition of energy as one of the most important
factors in physiology has led to the rejection of the purely chem-
ical theories that were formerly quite generally accepted in regard
to the role of particular food constituents in the processes of nu-
trition. An assumed combustion of food constituents is no longer
required to explain the phenomena of animal heat, which is noV
known to be but a phase in the transformations of energy in the
processes of nutrition.

Energy is expended in building organic substance, or, in other
words, in converting food-stuffs of any kind into protoplasm, the
summit of the double stair of life, and its potential energy is the
transformed or stored energy of the constructive process. This
combined energy, in accordance with the law of conservation,
may be liberated in the form of heat to a greater or less extent in
various ways by the more or less complete disintegration of the
organic substance in which it is stored. If the process of disin-
tegration is carried on until the organic substance is resolved into
its original elements, the heat liberated is the exact equivalent of
the energy expended in its construction.

In living organisms the descending steps of metabolism are
but successive phases of normal vital activities, resulting in the
formation of a definite series of organic substances which contain
less potential energy than the protoplasm from which they are
formed, and heat must therefore be liberated as they are elabo-
rated. Dead organic matters may be torn apart by microbes and
resolved by a widely different series of descending steps into their
original elements, as in the processes of fermentation and putre-
faction, with a complete transformation of their potential energy
into heat. The same ultimate result may likewise be obtained by
burning organic substances, but the intervening steps and prod-
ucts of the destructive process are less numerous and of a dif-
ferent character than those produced by vital activities, while the
heat liberated is still the transformed energy of the constructive
process.

Plants derive the energy required to convert simple chemical
elements into the complex molecules of protoplasm from the heat
and light of the sun, while on the other hand the energy expend-
ed in the constructive processes of animals is exclusively derived
from the potential energy of their food (stored energy of plants),
and a disintegration and apparent waste of the material, or chem-

VOL. XLIII. — 37

5 14 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ical constituents of foods, become necessary to liberate their need-
ed supplies of energy.

As all the food constituents contribute to the blood-making
processes, they all in like manner through digestive disintegration
contribute to the supplies of energy required in the animal econ-
omy. The energy provided in foods in the potential form is quite
as important in building animal tissues as the chemical elements
entering into their composition, as when liberated in the form of
heat it is utilized in constructive metabolism and stored again as
potential energy in the animal tissues formed. The destructive
metabolism taking place in these tissues, as an essential concomi-
tant of their vital activities, again liberates energy in the form of
heat, which, with that derived from the digestion of foods, is used,
so far as needed, in the reconstructive process, and the balance
appears as animal heat.

We have noticed the recently discovered continuity of the
protoplasm of plants, but we can not fairly infer that there is a
similar continuity of the protoplasm of the higher animals that
have a highly specialized nervous system which brings the dif-
ferent organs and functions into harmonious action more com-
pletely and efficiently than they could be by simple threads of
protoplasm like those which unite the cells of plants. The widely
different products of destructive metabolism in the various tissues
of plants and animals, aside from other considerations, furnish
conclusive evidence that while the general role of protoplasm is
everywhere the same, it must differ materially in composition and
constitution in the different conditions in which it is found. As
stated by Dr. Foster, " It is obvious that the varieties of proto-
plasm are numerous, indeed almost innumerable. The muscular
protoplasm which brings forth a contractile katastate must differ
in nature, in composition — that is, in construction — from glandu-
lar protoplasm whose katastate is a mother of ferment. Further,
the protoplasm of the swiftly contracting striped muscular fiber
must differ from that of the torpid, smooth, unstriated fiber ; the
protoplasm of human muscle must differ from that of a sheep or
frog ; the protoplasm of one muscle must differ from that of an-
other muscle in the same kind of animal, and the protoplasm of
Smith's biceps must differ from that of Jones's."

What determines these differences and gives direction to such
diverse metabolic activities? Chemical and physical considera-
tions fail to clear up the mystery of life and its varied manifesta-
tions. We may look upon protoplasm as the physical basis of
life, and consider vital activities as resulting from its inherent
properties ; but this does not aid us in gaining a better knowledge
of the mysterious endowments of living matter. What gives rise
to these diverse properties in different species and in different

HOW PLANTS AND ANIMALS GROW. 515

organs of the same individual? We can not attribute them to
organization or structure, as so far as we know these are the result
of vital activities, and can not, therefore, be the cause. As forci-
bly stated by Prof. Huxley in his paper on the cell theory (1852),
cells " are no more the producers of the vital phenomena than the
shells scattered in orderly lines along the sea-beach are the in-
struments by which the gravitative force of the moon acts upon
the ocean. Like these, the cells mark only where the vital tides
have been and how they have acted."

It has been suggested that the various factors in nutrition, in-
cluding even " structure " and " composition," must be looked upon
as modes of motion in accordance with the concepts of modern
physics, and from this point of view the body of a man has been
mipared to a fountain. " As the figure of the fountain remains
the same, though fresh water is continuously rising and falling, so
the body seems the same, though fresh food is always replacing
the old man, which in turn is always falling back to dust. And
the conception which we are urging now is one which carries an
analogous idea into the study of all molecular phenomena of the
body."

The pertinence and significance of these physical considera-
tions should not, however, lead us to assume that life is but a
form of energy. We can not doubt that energy is the motive
power in living beings, and that its transformations and activities
which are evident in all organic processes are properly considered
as modes of motion, but we must discriminate between the motive
power that does the work and the directing force which guides it
in the lines along which it acts and determines the results pro-
duced. We are unable to detect any difference in the potential
energy of living and of dead protoplasm, but we recognize an im-
mense difference in their significant properties — a difference so
wide that life can not be defined as a form of energy.

The manifestations of energy in organic processes are readily
perceived, and there are definite standards with which to measure
them, but our most delicate means of research throw no light on
the purely vital endowments of protoplasm, which not only direct
and control its activities, but are transmitted in well-defined char-
acters from parent to offspring. There is no life without pre-
existing life from which it is derived, and the physical basis
through which it acts, or is made manifest, furnishes no satisfac-
tory explanation as to its real essence and constitution.

In discussing the economies of foods and diets, if we keep in
mind the significant facts that vital activities direct and deter-
mine the transformations of energy and the collocations of matter
in plants and animals, in accordance with the nutritive require-
ments of every organ and tissue, and that in the higher animals

5i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the food supplies of the various tissues that differ so widely in
composition and function are derived from the same common
pabulum, the blood, which under the varying conditions of supply
and demand maintains a comparatively uniform composition — the
futility of assigning to each or any element of the food a specific
role in the processes of nutrition must be obvious.

THE REVIVAL OF WITCHCRAFT.

BY EKNEST HAKT.
II.

FINALLY, I must refer to another set of experiments which
Dr. Luys conducted before us at La Charite* on two of the
patients there (on whom I subsequently performed counter-experi-
ments). Having thrown these patients into the state of artificial
sleep, he took from his pocket some sealed glass tubes. " This
tube," he said, " contains alcohol." He placed the tube in contact
with the skin of the patient inside the collar of her dress. After
a minute she began to complain of feeling giddy and oppressed.
Presently she manifested all the signs of incipient drunkenness —
she was gay and disposed to sing. A little later she fell from the
chair on to the floor in a state of complete inebriety, and with a
simulation of the various stages of drunkenness so effectively
dramatic that I doubt if any woman so uneducated could go
through such a performance, except an hysteric of this class, when
" sleep-waking " and freed from the restraint of the fully conscious
action of the upper brain. It is this mixture of hysteria, partial!}'
numbed consciousness, trained automatism, and imposture, which
so often takes in either the wholly credulous or ignorantly skep-
tical spectator. Of the imposture there was, as I shall presently
show, pace the intelligent reporters, no doubt whatever. Nor do
I doubt at any rate that this girl was a thorough-paced hysteric
and trained hypnotic, and that she was in an artificially induced
and pathological condition when she went through these elaborate
and brilliantly performed antics. She was lifted into the chair
and another hypnotized person placed alongside her in another
chair. Their hands were clasped together. " We will now see/'
said Dr. Luys, whether " the vibrations will be communicated
from one to the other/' and the state of drunkenness transferred.
So said, so done ; and a similar performance, not, however, so skill-
fully executed, was gone through by the second and less experi-
enced subject. On the following day we had yet a more pictur-
esque performance. I was told beforehand that this was "the day
of the cat/' and that I might expect to see a highly trained sub-

THE REVIVAL OF WITCHCRAFT. 517

ject who usually presented herself at the clinique on that day for
what was commonly spoken of as " the cat performance." This
was a Mile. V., much described by Dr. Luys in his Legons Cli-
nique s sur les Phenomenes de V Hypnotisme.

Of her Dr. Luys speaks as follows in his lectures to his pupils,
to whom he presents her in set phrase as " an example of the de-
gree of exaltation which memory and imagination may acquire in
certain somnambulic subjects when other regions of the brain are
in the condition of functional inhibition."

Here is Mile. V., a professor of foreign languages, who is endowed with ex-
quisite sensibility for hypnotic phenomena. For her, hypnotization has become
an actual necessity, like morphine for morphinomaniacs. She is interested in all
questions of this kind, for some time she followed punctually all the lectures
which I gave here, and, as you will see, when I ask her if it interests her, she
replies that she comes with pleasure, but she understands nothing about it; it is
too technical. She only comes, she says, to assist in the experimental part of my
lectures, and now when I question her she will tell you that she has not retained
anything in her mind; that she lias a very bad memory, and that she is incapable
of giving the least account of the matter. That is what she is in the normal state,
as you see, and you can accept the sincerity of her words. Now I will throw her
into somnambulism, and you will see that the picture will change altogether. I
say to her : " You are no longer Mile. V., you are M. Luys, you are at the Charite,
in his amphitheatre, and you are going to give his lecture on suggestion in his
place." You see, she accepts my words with docility; she incarnates herself in
my person; she takes my habits of language and of gesture, and, once started,
you see with what facility, although a foreigner, she talks French, and with what
correct sequence of ideas her explanations are given. She is never wrong ; she
finds the correct technical word; she varies her intonations, and presents really
the innate qualities of a professor. More than that, you will now see a curious
scene. I have a subject brought in and, placed in this arrn-chair in front of her,
tell her, " Here is a hypnotizable subject, whom you will send to sleep," and yofl
will be surprised to see her repeat point by point the various proceedings for pro-
ducing hypnosis; she explains to you accurately the symptomatic characters of
lethargy, those of catalepsy, of somnambulism, in which state she is herself at this
moment actually plunged, the different peculiarities belonging to these various
states, details of the habits and manners peculiar to hypnotics, and, if I were not
to interrupt her, she would go on talking thus for whole hours, until her strength
was completely exhausted, and she would fall back again into lethargy.

This account of this remarkable person, which I had read be-
forehand, so much interested me that I was desirous to see her,
and very sorry that she was not there on the usual day to play
the cat. But not to disappoint us, the male patient, of whom I
have spoken, was introduced in her place. He was rapidly hyp-
notized by holding a finger in front of his eyes, and when he had
arrived at the proper stage Dr. Luys took out a tube and said,
" We will try the valerian on him, but I am not sure it will suc-
ceed." The tube was, however, put inside his coat-collar in con-
tact with his skin. Presently he became very uneasy, disturbed

5i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in countenance, and moving awkwardly about in the chair. I
asked him what was the matter. " He can not answer you," said
Dr. Luys ; " he is dumb, he can not speak ; he is transformed ; he
is no longer a man and can not use the speech of men ; he is as-
suming the nature of a cat." And, sure enough, presently the un-
happy creature threw himself on to the ground with every sign
of excitement and congestion ; he began scratching about the floor
on all fours, and presently mewing like a cat — a disagreeable but
striking imitation — and when the valerian tube was taken from
his neck and held in front of him he came scratching and spitting
along the floor on all fours, as though irresistibly attracted, as a
cat might be, to the person who held it. This astonishing gym-
nastic lasted for some minutes and seemed to fatigue him, as well
it might. On the following day I secured the presence in my
apartments of Mile. V. above mentioned. On calling on her with
M. Cremiere I found her installed as a hypnotizer as well as a
hypnotic subject, and with a plate on her door accordingly. We
arranged for a seance on her usual terms. She insisted, however,
on bringing "her subject" with her, for she apparently now finds
the passive and performing state rather fatiguing and not suffi-
ciently profitable, and prefers the double emploi. When she ar-
rived a very amusing scene followed. Acting Dr. Luys to the
life, she proceeded to place her subject before her, and began to
give us the magistral demonstration based on his lectures on sug-
gestion, which he describes above as the peculiar endowment of
her somnambulistic condition, and of which, as he observes art-
lessly, he believes her to be quite incapable in her waking state,
thinking it only possible when her faculties are peculiarly "ex-
alted " by his manipulation. I have no doubt that, as he says, she
would have gone on indefinitely and until she was exhausted ; but
we were very soon tired of her glib impudence, and stopped the
performance after she had shown us how she had trained this new
subject in three weeks to a number of the required manifesta-
tions. We had the " passional attitudes," " fascination," the prise
du regard, etc. The eyelids were duly opened by order for fur-
ther performances, for she intelligently observed :

The eyelids, gentlemen, are the windows of the soul, are they not? and in
order that her heightened faculties may acquire their full perception, the light
must penetrate; but she sees only me, she knows nothing of what goes on around
her, she thinks my thoughts, she is en rapport with me alone.

Here we stopped her, for we were beginning to be fatigued, al-
though she was not. We now requested herself to become the
subject, and duly regretted her absence at the dinique of Dr.
Luys on the previous day.

Oh (she said), I am very sorry I was not there, hut I did not come because it
is the off season. At the New Year every one is making holiday ; very few peo-

THE REVIVAL OF WITCHCRAFT. 519

pie come to the clinique, and there are not many strangers, and so I was told that
it was not worth while my coming for the next week or two, and Dr. Luys did
not expect me.

She then gave us a long list of her capacities, which run
through the whole gamut of the phenomena described in the vol-
umes of the professor at La Charite'. She was duly put to sleep,
and then I produced my tube. I had on the mantelpiece a num-
ber of tubes which I had taken at random from the laboratory of
my brother-in-law, M. Vignal, containing a great variety of crys-
talline substances. These, however, she had already spied on the
mantelpiece on coming in, and she said, " Oh, I must warn you
that I am not at all susceptible to dry powders in tubes, only to
fluids, and you won't get any effects with those." Respecting her
scientific prudery and affected hypnotic exclusiveness, I humored
her by immediately sending to the neighboring chemist for some
tubes containing alcohol, valerian, cherry -laurel water, distilled
water, and solution of burned sugar. One of the medical frequent-
ers of the Charite' was kind enough to go and get them, and he
was good enough to see also that all the tubes were incorrectly
labeled. A private mark on the corks indicated the true con-
tents, which were duly entered in the notes of the sitting. I now
said to him, " Kindly give me the valerian," in a low voice which
she was supposed not to hear. This was duly placed in contact
with the skin of the neck, the actual contents of the tube being
alcohol. Then came the cat performance to perfection. I will do
Jeanne (the other name under which this lady will be found spoken
of in the lectures of Dr. Luys) the justice to say that she was by
far the most accomplished performer of the three of his subjects
whom I saw go through this performance at my rooms and at the
Charitd under similar circumstances. She scratched, she mewed
to perfection, she washed imaginary whiskers, she spat, she licked
her hands, she lapped milk from a saucer ; and when you " pressed
the button " at her back she sat up rigid as on hind quarters and
caressed her face with her paws with a truly feline grace. She
came back to her chair, or was supported back, for she was still
supposed to be in deep somnambulism, and we brought into use
the tube which was labeled cherry-laurel water, but which really
contained valerian. Now commenced another performance, which
among the trained subjects of the Charite' is supposed to be iden-
tified with the " effect at a distance " of the fluid described on the
label. After a decent period of waiting she fell slowly on her
knees, her face assumed the characters of ecstasy, her eyes were
fixed on space, and her features composed with great art to an
affected expression of pious rapture ; the hands were held up im-
ploringly, then her head dropped and her arms folded across her
breast as in prayer. Her hands presently were extended and her

52o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

face upturned as toward a vision of beauty, and she exclaimed in
low and broken tones of rapturous emotion: "She comes, she
comes ; she is all in white ! " and as this sacred vision died away
her head dropped in solemn resignation, and after a short interval
of resignation and grief the play was over, and she was brought
back once more to her chair in a state of well-simulated lethargy.
This same performance she repeated under similar conditions at
the final seance at Dr. Sajous's rooms, where I organized a con-
tinued representation before a number of spectators by Jeanne, by
Madame Vix, and Clarice, in all cases with tubes containing any-
thing else but valerians. Clarice was a third subject who figures
largely in the writings of Dr. Luys, and whom I met at his clinique.
She also was for a long time a patient ; she is a thorough hysteric
and trained hypnotic, and she goes through some of these perform-
ances with even better grace and more seductive accomplishment
than Madame Jeanne. We repeated with her twice all these per-
formances, and also some others. For Clarice is now also a " pro-
fessional" ; she is younger and prettier, and charges a higher fee
than that of the others ; she has hypnotic specialties of her own.
She requested that for the final seance she might be permitted to
bring " her pianiste" for she told us that what she was particu-
larly celebrated for were the beauty and grace of her attitudes
passionnelles, which were best performed when the person who
hypnotized her could play to her appropriate music, gay or mel-
ancholy. Accordingly, on the final occasion, she came with a
pianist, who duly made a few customary passes, to put her
into the somnambulistic state, then put her in the middle of the
room and began playing suitable music. He supplied her with
castanets, and she danced a gay and lively measure ; he rose
from the piano and took them from her, and then sad music
threw her into attitudes of picturesque despair and delicately
acted grief. We had no time to go through the whole perform-
ance, or I have no doubt it would have been well worth the money.
I need not go through the entire category of proceedings. Prof.
Luys told us that he had had as many as three of these people at
once engaged in their cat performance, licking their paws, mew-
ing, jumping, and scratching about the place ; as he said, " un
veritable Sabbat"— a true witches' Sabbath. He dwelt upon the
importance of these manifestations (which he takes quite seri-
ously) as opening up new realms of psychological inquiry. I
quote from my notes :

Here (he said) is a new domain for psychical researches. It will enable us,
at any rate, to catch glimpses of the animal mind, and perhaps to learn what they
feel and think. I had a patient who in the somnambulistic stage was trans-
formed into a cock and entered into the cock nature. I tried to make him
remember when he awoke what he had been thinking of when he was thus trans-

THE REVIVAL OF WITCHCRAFT. 521

formed, by ordering him to do so when still somnambulistic. I asked him what
he had been doing. He said he had been crowing. I asked him why he
crowed. He said he did not know, he crowed because he conld not help it. I
asked him what he had been thinking of, and his answer was, '• Je pensais a mes
poules" ("I was thinking of my hens").

This, however, appeared to be as far as we have yet got in this
new excursion into psychical research of animals ; it is not very
instructive or edifying. So far as all these persons went they
must be pronounced impudent impostors, and it is difficult to con-
ceive how they can have succeeded in duping serious people, or
how they can be permitted to have carried on the fraud for so
many years. So also with the imaginary effects of the various
medicinal substances in sealed tubes. I repeated this perform-
ance on every one of these five subjects of M. Luys, on whom he
has for years been lecturing, whom he has photographed, and of
whose good faith he gives so many assurances. We made notes
(sometimes written by myself, sometimes by Dr. Sajous, some-
times by M. Cremiere) of the results. The subjects were never
once right, even by accident. When Mervel at the hospital sup-
posed the tube to contain mercury although it really contained
diabetic sugar, he suffered agonies of the kind which he supposed
mercury to produce. He had gnawing pains ; his limbs were be-
ing eaten away, and he was in dire agony from the worst effects
which a prolonged mercurial course used often to produce, and of
which the repute is still a tradition in the hospitals. Madame Vix,
at my rooms, had another opinion of the effect of mercury, gath-
ered apparently from its use in infantile ailments ; for she was a
mother. When she thought the tube contained mercury she be-
gan to suffer acute pains — " colique d'enfants," she said ; and to
stop the comedy I had to apply to her neck what was supposed to
be a tube of cinnamon water, but which was really charged with
bisulphide of mercury. This quickly calmed her pains, which
were beginning to be indecorous. With Mervel at the hospital,
when I had him to myself and hypnotized by the ward attendant,
all the effects supposed to be due to valerian were produced with
burned sugar. He was duly and quickly transformed into a cat,
and the whole drama was enacted in the ward, but this time under
the influence of a tube of sugar- water, with vivid feline effects.
Strychnine, of which I was warned that the effects were most dan-
gerous, for, as Dr. Luys observed to me, " You might kill a patient
with it through incautiously applying the tube," I used repeatedly
and most incautiously without producing any effects, for I was
careful never to mention its name. I may emphasize that on this
occasion it was not I who hypnotized Mervel, but a person who
was well accustomed to do so.

Leaving now the detail of the various scenes of this tragi-

5 22 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

comedy, let us consider for a moment the interpretation of it and
the lesson it teaches. It was not, I think, always and in all its
stages wholly an imposture, although generally it was. Two at
least of the subjects, Mervel and Marguerite, and, I think, per-
haps Clarice, were pronounced hysterics and thoroughly trained
hypnotics ; they mingled pathological conditions and an artificial-
ly induced state of partial automatism with their abundant frauds.
They were at once, as Voltaire puts it, speaking of like impostors,
" duped and dupers, deceived and deceivers." Jeanne and Vix ap-
peared to me from first to last to be acting a part with full con-
sciousness of all their frauds. They were, moreover, anxious to
accomplish them to my satisfaction, and in such a way, as they
both openly stated, to procure from me what Jeanne called " a
reclame " and Vix " the favor of my recommendation." After I
was gone, Jeanne, the " professor of languages," and " sincere sub-
ject " of Dr. Luys's lectures, sent after me the following letter,
which I think too interesting a document not to put upon record.
I omit the address and the final paragraph, but I preserve the origi-
nal spelling :

Monsieur le Docteur — Ayant eu 1'honneur Sarnedie dernier de servir de Sujet
a une Seance d'hypnotisin chez vous, Monsieur le Docteur, j'espere que vous vou-
drez Men m'excuser, Monsieur le Docteur, la liberte qne je prends de vous f;iire
parvenir une petite nomenclature — des experiences et des phenomenes — que Mr.
le Dr. Luys obtien, depuis bien tot 7 ans, sur moi.

1. On obtien sur moi tres faoilement —

Les trois £tats classiqaes,
Lethargie, Catalepsie, Somnainbulisme.

En Lethargie
Anestesie complete.
Tous les differents effects et contracture — au ccntacte — des differents

Metaux.

Les Contractures Neuro-Musculaires.
Le jeu du Diaphragm.

En Catalepsie

Pri^e du regard — le point fixe — autometisme — les attitudes — Effets des

Couleurs.

Suggestions par gestes.
Effets des Aimants.
Cessation du battement du poux.
Eaideur cadaverique.

Somnambulisme

Tous les pbenomenes de 1'hyperestesie de la peau.

Les attractions.

Effects de medicaments a distance.

Suggestion — instantan^e et a 6cheance.

Changement de personality.

Mneumonie.

THE REVIVAL OF WITCHCRAFT. 523

Vision.

Vue absolue a travers tous les corps oppaques sans aucun secour des yewx.

Double vue — transmission des pens6es.

Voila Mr. le Docteur les phenomenes qu'on obtien tres facilement sur moi —
mmjamais les rdter. Mr. Le Docteur Luys n'hesitera pas a le confirmer — d'ail-
leurs j'offre de le prouver — quand on voudra.

Je travail en ce moment comme Sujet (passif) a la Charit6 avec Mr. le Dr.
Louys — et comrne Sujet active avec mes sujets — chez raoi tous les jours de "2
heures a 6 heures — et dans tous les Salons de la haute Aristocratic Parisienne en
soiree bypnotique ou Spirite.

Anciennements Mdlle. . . . que Samedi Mr. le Docteur j'avais apercue dans
votre Salon * — a 6te employee par moi — pendant 8 mois comme mon sujet. J'ai
ete" force de la conjedier pour un fait— assez serieux. Cette petite dont les apti-
tudes sont absolument aussi nules que le Cabotinage, est grand profite des visites
chez moi de quelqnes toutes jeunes dames du plus grand monde qui dans 1'apres
midi venaient me conpulter et naturellement en cachette de moi, pour grossire ces
gages de sujet, cette petite fille sans conscience vendai de la morphine an morpbi-
nomane et de 1'opiome aux opiomanes, une de mes cliente, Mme. la Vicomtesse
de . . . devenue absolument opiomane par 1'opiom procurai en secret par ... a
manque payer cela de sa vie. Par un hasard ayant decouvert la verite j'ai raise
. . . immediatement d la porte. Voila pourquoi j'ai 6t6 desagreablement impres-
sionee voyant cette triste personne singer avec aplond dans le salon de Mr. le
Docteur tous ce qu'elle m'avais vu faire etant chez moi.

This document is perfect ; its spelling, its jargon, its revelation
of the under side of the genuine " marvels " of the new and old
mesmerism, will make it historic.

We see here to what excesses this so-called science of hypno-
tism may lead, and we catch a glimpse, and only a glimpse, of
some of its evil connections. The rest remain to be followed out,
and ought to be followed out, by the Paris police, and no doubt
the administrative council which presides over the hospital sys-
tem of Paris will take some steps in the matter. It is hardly
possible (except under a system of highly concentrated centrali-
zation, in which the true central governing body is so far removed
from its peripheral members as to take little notice of what is
going on there) that such things should happen or should continue.
In any English hospital in which the controlling governors are on
the spot, and the staff in habitual communication with them,
such proceedings would long before have attracted inquiry, and
would have been controlled. That is by the way. How much
harm they can do in some directions, M. Luys knows very well
and expresses very clearly, for he says in his lectures : f

* This is another favorite subject of the Charite.

f Lesons cliniques sur les principaux Phenomenes de 1'Hypnotisme dans leurs Rapports
avec la Pathologic mentale. Par J. Luys. Paris : Georges Carre, Editeur, 58 Rue St.
Andr6- des- Arts, 1890.

524 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

From the social point of view these new states of instantaneous loss of con-
sciousness into which hypnotic or merely fascinated subjects may be made to ]>;iss
deserve to be considered with lively interest. As I shall have to explain to you
later, the individual in these novel conditions no longer belongs to himself; he is
surrendered, an inert being, to the enterprise of those who surround him. At one
moment, in the passive stage in this condition of lethargy or of catalepsy, he is ab-
solutely defenseless and exposed to any criminal attempt on the part of those who
surround him. He can be poisoned and mutilated. Where a woman is concerned,
she may be violated and even infected with syphilis, of which I have recently ob-
served a painful example in my practice. She may become a mother without any
trace existing of a criminal assault, and without the patient having the smallest
recollection of what has passed after she has awakened. Sometimes, in the active
condition, the state of lucid somnambulism, and even in the condition of simple
fascination, the subject may be exposed to the influence of suggestions of the most
varied kind on the part of the person directing his actions. He may be induced
to become a homicide, an incendiary, or suicide, and all these impulses deposited
in his brain during sleep become forces stored up silently, which will burst forth
at a given moment with the precision, accuracy of performance, and automatic
impetuosity of acts performed by the really insane. Gentlemen, bear this well in
mind; all these acts, all these phenomena unconsciously accomplished are no mere
vague apprehensions and vain suppositions; they are real facts which you may
meet with this very day in ordinary life. They are apt to develop, and to appear
around you and before you in the most inexplicable manner.

Of course the question will be asked, Are the practical uses or
the applications of the artificial sleep (the induction of which is
the residuum of this psychological puddle) of such value as to
counterbalance its evils ? As to its surgical uses, which at first
sight are the most obvious, Luys himself says :

At the fir.-t appearance of hypnotism, when Braid had shown that hypnotized
subjects are insensitive to external stimuli, surgeons conceived the idea of using
this method for the performance of certain operations. In fact, some among
them had the opportunity of testing it with a certain amount of advantage. But
since the wonderful discovery of chloroform (and, it might be added, of local
ansestbesia by cocaine, the vaporization of ether, etc.) these attempts, so far as
concern surgical anaesthesia, have been justly abandoned. At the present time
the application of hypnotism to surgical therapeutics is of absolutely no account,
since it concerns only a small number of persons — namely, the class of hypnotiz-
able subjects.*

In the domain of medicine M. Luys is naturally more hopeful
and more affirmative; but obviously inspires less confidence
than his calmer and more critical colleagues at the Salpetriere,
who have abstained from following him in these new develop-
ments and who regard them with disfavor and distrust. To me,
the so-called medical cures by hypnotism seem to rank in pre-
cisely the same class as those of the faith-curer.

* Applications therapeutiques de 1'Hypnotisme. Par le Dr. J. Luys. Paris : Imprirue-
rie F. Leve, 17 Rue Cassette, 1889.

THE REVIVAL OF WITCHCRAFT. 525

The hypnotic endormeur is very well able to explain the mira-
cles of faith-cure and pilgrimage by the light of his own expe-
rience. They result, as he explains accurately, from the reaction
of mind on body, the effects of imagination, of self-suggestion, or
of suggestion from without. Those who benefit by them are es-
pecially the fervent and the enthusiastic, the vividly imaginative,
the mentally dependent, and, above all, the hysterical — male or
female. But clearly, the faith-curer may retort upon the hypno-
tizer that they are brothers in their therapeutic results, if not in
their faith and philosophy. The one can work about the same
percentage of cures as the other — and no more ; and the interven-
ing apparatus, whether of magnets, mirrors, or of grottoes, only
serve to affect the imagination, and to supply " the external stimu-
lus " which is necessary.

To this category belong also the long series of thousands of
asserted cures of people who wear what they are pleased to call
magnetic belts, or who used to wear magnetic rings, who were
cured by the Perkins tractors, whether of wood or of iron — they
are the prey of the quacks of all ages and countries.

One essential part is, however, I conceive, that 110 new faculty
was ever yet developed in any of these hypnotics. The frauds of
clairvoyance, of spirit perceptions, of gifts of language, of slate-
writing, of spirit-writing, of far-sight, of "communication across
space," of " transfer of mental impressions/' of the development
of any new sense or ghost of a new sense, remain now as ever, for
the most part, demonstrable frauds or perhaps in a few cases self-
deceptions. At the Salpetriere, at Nancy, wherever the facts have
been impartially and critically examined, this has been the result.
It results once more now from my test of the subjects of the
Charite' and the Ecole Polytechnique. It will, I suppose, be too
much to expect that we shall hear no more of the " New Mesmer-
ism," but it will be easy for any one thus experimentally to re-
duce it to its true dimensions.

Finally, as to the practical question, which has perhaps a
greater interest for the sociologist than any which have suggested
themselves up to this point. Since the hypnotist faith-curer of
the hospital ward and the priestly faith-curer of the grotto are in
truth utilizing the same human elements and employing cognate
resources, although masked by a different outward garb, we may
ask ourselves which can approximate to the greater successes and
which does the least harm.

So far as I can see, the balance is in favor of the faith-curer of
the chapel and the grotto. The results at least are proportion-
ately as numerous, and they are more rapid. Numerically there
are, I incline to think, more faith-cures at Lourdes than there are
"suggestion-cures" in the Salpetriere or the Charite'. So far as

526 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

hypnotism is good for anything as a curative agent, its sphere is
limited, by Charcot, Fe're', Babinski, and all the most trustworthy
medical observers of Paris, to the relief of functional disorder and
symptoms in hysterical patients. The Nancy school put their
pretensions higher ; but any one who will analyze for himself, or
who will study Babinski's able analysis of the Nancy reputed
cases of cure, will easily satisfy himself that such claims are not
valid. As to the use of " suggestion " as an anaesthetic substitute
of chloroform for operation purposes, that " sugges ion " dates
back now beyond the ages of Esdaile and of Elliotson. It has
been given up and fallen into disuse because of its unreliability
and limited application. It is now sagely proposed to use hyp-
notism for " tooth-drawing/7 for the treatment of drunkards and
a-\f school children. The proposition is self-condemned. To enable
is, by \tist to draw a tooth painlessly, the average man or woman
automatoisries of sittings, to be reduced to the state of a trained
The criminal but happily only a very small proportion can be.
to the " suggestairts have seen enough of hypnotic dentists. As
ment of backward! " cure of drunkards or the " suggestion " treat-
gent suggestion is w. or naughty children, systematic and intelli-
schoolmaster tries to &at every clergyman, every doctor, and every
cessfully — and in a bett&rry out in such cases and often does suc-
notism. Moreover, for druiform than the degrading shape of hyp-
go, a failure. ^»ess it is, so far as my inquiries

If a striking effect is to be produced

powerfully to affect the imagination, the faY. an apparatus destined
has this advantage over the endormeur of tiitecurer °f tne grotto
hospital. He does not intrude his own personalitp^a^orrn or ^ne
patient to subject his mental ego to that of his " opei,an(^ train his
"mesmerizer " seeks to dominate his subject ; he weakeiator-" The
power, which it is desirable to strengthen. He aims at bls the wil1
the master of a slave. I do not need to emphasize the danpcoming
this practice. I need not even relate them. I have briefly q5ers of
the warnings of one of its apostles, or at least so much of thenloted
it is seemly here to relate. Cyi as

The faith-curer of the grotto strengthens the weaker indivic
uality. He plays upon the spring of self-suggestion. The patient^'
is told to believe that he will be cured, to wish it fervently, and ^
he shall be cured. So far as he is cured, he returns perhaps a
better and a stronger man, and his cure is quite as real and likely
to be quite as lasting as if he had become the puppet of a hyp-
notizer. The experiments of the Salpetriere have served to en-
able us to analyze more clearly the nature of faith-cures gen-
erally, and they have thrown a ray of light on a series of phe-
nomena of human automatism never before studied so clearly or

SOME REMARKABLE INSECTS. 527

philosophically, but they have added practically little, if any-
thing, to our curative resources. It is hardly to be set down to
their discredit that they have incidentally favored the reign of
the platform hypnotizer or the vagaries of the subjects at La
Charite' ; that is their misfortune rather than their fault, but it is
a grave misfortune. But the intervention of authority might at
the present, in respect to the latter, cut short these absurdities
and put an end to some social mischiefs which have fastened on
to them and hang to their skirts. Thus much as to the socio-
logical question. To the student of " psychological phenomena "
it has a great interest to note how successive functions may be
separately abolished as the brain is partially set to sleep, and in
what exaggerated forms the remaining activities may be brought
upon the stage when restraining self-consciousness is stilled. The
vulgar, too, may find an ignoble amusement in the antics of these
drinkers of petroleum and vinegar, in the semi-idiotic postures
and proceedings of the hypnotized manikin, as they do in afan-
tocchini show or a puppet play. But against such philosophic
satisfactions and vulgar amusements must be set the avowed and
the unconfessed mischiefs, and who can doubt that these outbal-
ance any good result which can be discerned ? — Nineteenth Cen-
tury.

[Concluded.]

SOME REMARKABLE INSECTS.

BY WILLIAM J. FOX.

THE great majority of persons have no idea of the numerous
and singular forms of insects. They are all called " bugs " by
most people, yet not one tenth of their number are really bugs.
These latter are classed by themselves and are called Hemiptera.
Beetles are not bugs, being totally different things, and form what
are known as the Coleoptera, which means sheath-wing, because
of the two large plates on the back that cover the true wings,
which consist of thin membrane. These covers are called elytra.
The butterflies and moths form another one of these orders, being
called Lepidoptera, or scale- wing, on account of the tiny scales
with which the wings are covered. No doubt many of the readers
of this article have noticed the powdery substance which comes
off a butterfly or moth on handling it. These are the scales, and,
should any reader possess a microscope and place the wing or
part of one under it, I think he will be repaid for his trouble.
The " dragon flies " and " devil's needles " form the order Neurop-
tera, which means vein-winged. So it is with the flies and the

528

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

bees, wasps, and ants, the flies being called Diptera, i. e., two-
winged, and the bees, wasps, and ants, Hymenoptera, or mem-
brane-wing. It will probably be said by some that ants have

no wings ; but this is
only the case with
what are called neu-
ters or workers, the
males and females be-
ing provided with
wings. The total
number of different
kinds of insects that
are known at present
is over two hundred
thousand, of which
beetles alone num-
ber one hundred and
twenty thousand —
this being about twice

as many as all the other known animals together. It is estimated
that the actual number of different kinds of insects in the world
is over one million.

The Orthoptera, to which grasshoppers and roaches belong,
present many oddities ; foremost among them, in the United

FIG. 1. — PRAYING MANTIS.

FIG. 2.— THE WALKING LEAF.

States, is the mantis or " praying mantis." It is very common
throughout the South. It will be seen that the fore legs are armed

SOME REMARKABLE INSECTS.

529

FIG. 3. — NEMOPIERA COA.

with strong spines or teeth, used for securely holding any insect

that may fall into its clutches. I have seen this insect leisurely

devouring flies held between these legs. From it there was no

chance of escape. A

specimen observed in

captivity washed itself

in the same manner as

a cat, rubbing its head

and face with its fore

legs. In South Ameri-
ca a species of mantis is

said to seize and devour

small birds.

Another strange or-

thopter is known as the

" walking stick," which

so closely resembles the

stems of plants upon

which it lives that it

is very difficult to find

them. One species (Di-

apheromera femorata)

is abundant in the Middle States. This species is green when the

foliage upon which it lives is of that color, but when this changes

in the autumn the color of the walking stick changes also. It is

said to do great injury to oak and other trees.

In the East Indies is found an insect that greatly resembles a

leaf, both in form and color, as will be seen by the figure on page

528. It is very appropri-
ately called the "walking
leaf," and is known to scien-
tists as Phyllium siccifoli-
um. There are about a doz-
en species of these insects
known, all of which are from
the Oriental regions.

In southern Europe there
is found a peculiar insect
that belongs to the Neurop-
tera, the same order as do
the " dragon flies," " devil's

needles," " snake doctors," etc. The scientific name of this insect

is Xemoptera coca. It will be seen that the first pairs of wings are

very broad, but this is not the peculiar part of it ; it is the hind

pair that are remarkable, being extremely long and narrow and

a little broader toward the end, which gives them the appearance

FlO. 4.— DlACTOR BILINEATU9.

VOL. XLIII. i

53°

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of paddles. There is nothing more in this group of insects that
is very striking.

We will now take up the Hemiptera, of which the well-known
bedbug is an example. One species from tropical America (the
Diactor bilineatus) has very slender legs,
except the tibiae of the hind pair, these be-
ing broadly expanded. What use these ex-
pansions are to this insect is not known.

Another singular species, one that is
found throughout most parts of the Unit-
ed States, namely, Eanatra fusca, inhabits
ponds and other streams. It is known to de-
stroy the eggs of fishes and to attack young
fish. It is when they attack fish that their
stout fore legs come into play, being used
for grasping and holding any unfortunate
fish that should fall within their reach. It
will be seen how well adapted these legs are
for the purpose.

Among the beetles, or Coleoptera, there
are many curious forms, of which I will
only mention a few of the most prominent.
Acrocinus longimanus, the " long-armed "
beetle, as it is called, has the fore legs greatly
elongated, being twice as long as the body
and about three times as long as either of
the other legs. It inhabits tropical Ameri-
ca, where it is said to be quite abundant.

The giants among insects belong to the genus Dynastes, and
to several allied genera. Of Dynastes, one (D. hercules) found in

FIG. 5. — RANATRA FUSCA.

FIG. 6. — DYNASTES HERCULES.

Africa attains a length of six inches, and is remarkable, not only
for its great size, but for the long, curved horn which projects
out from the thorax ; beneath this horn there is another much

SOME REMARKABLE INSECTS.

FIG. 7.— STAG BEETLE.

shorter one, which projects from the head, being armed with sev-
eral huge teeth. Insects of the male sex only are provided with
these immense horns, those of the opposite sex being quite a dif-
ferent-looking beetle, be-
ing without any trace of
these projections. There
is a species that inhab-
its the southern United
States that also belongs to
this genus, but it is much
smaller, being about two
and a half inches long.

The "stag beetle" of
Europe is another strange

form, the mandibles of the male being greatly enlarged. From
the shape and size of the jaws one would suppose that this insect
is predaceous; but it is on the contrary a vegetable feeder, using
its great jaws to wound the plant, which causes the sap or juices
to flow, upon which it feeds. The jaws of the females are in no
way conspicuous. There is also a closely allied species found in
the United States, but it is a smaller insect. Many other curious

forms are found among the bee-
tles, but they are too many to
mention.

The Lepidoptera, or butter-
flies and moths, have a few odd
forms among them. One of
the most interesting is what is
known as the " dead-leaf " but-
terfly, found in the Malay Ar-
chipelago. The under side of
this butterfly greatly resembles
a dead or dried leaf, so much so
that it is next to an impossibil-
ity to detect it when it alights
among withered bushes. Wal-
lace, in his book The Malay
Archipelago, says of this in-
sect : " Its upper surface is of a
rich purple, variously tinged
with ash color, and across the

fore wings there is a broad bar of deep orange, so that when on
the wing it is very conspicuous. ... I often tried to capture it,
without success, for, after flying a short distance, it would enter a
bush among dead or dried leaves, and, however carefully I crept
up to the spot, I could never discover it until it would suddenly

FIG. 8. — DEAD-LEAF BUTTERFLY.

532

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

FIG. 9. — UMBBELLA ANT.

start out again and then disappear in a similar place. At length
I was fortunate 'enough to see the exact spot where the butterfly
settled, and, though I lost sight of it for some time, I at length
discovered that it was close before my eyes, but that in its posi-
tion of repose it so resembled a dead leaf at-
tached to a twig as almost certainly to deceive
the eye when gazing full upon it." In trop-
ical America there are a number of species
that have wings so transparent that it is
possible to read small print through them.
Among the moths the " death's head " of Eu-
rope is remarkable for having on the top of
the thorax the figure of a skull and cross-
bones. It is an object of great terror to the
ignorant classes, and it is said "has more
than once thrown a whole province into con-
sternation, the people thinking it was some infranatural being
sent upon the earth as a messenger of pestilence and woe."

The Hymenoptera, which include the bees, wasps, and ants,
contain a number of interesting forms, especially among the ants.
The " umbrella ant " of Brazil has a tremendous head in propor-
tion to its body, as will be seen by the figure. It has received the
name of the umbrella-ant because of its habit of cutting out
round pieces of the leaves of orange and coffee trees, which it car-
ries by its jaws in an upright posi-
tion, so that it looks as though it
were utilizing its burden to keep off
the heat of the sun.

The "driver ant" of Africa, the
sting of which is compared to the
thrust of a red-hot needle, is another
interesting subject. These ants are
totally blind, and, when an army of
them gets on the march, all animal
life in their path gets into activity,
for woe to any living creature of
small and even large size that should
fall into their power ! They also en-
ter houses, driving the inhabitants
from them, but on the return of the

latter, after the ants have left, they find their place of abode
cleared of all vermin ; rats, mice, and all other pests of the house
are destroyed by these scavengers. The largest serpents, if gorged,
will fall a victim to these remorseless creatures. They have been
known, when a stream interrupts their journey, to actually link
themselves together and form a floating bridge, over which the

FIG. 10. — DRIVER ANT.

THE MATERIAL VIEW OF LIFE. 533

rest of the army passes. When a stream is too rapid for such a
bridge, they form a suspension bridge by hanging from a friendly
branch, and when wafted across by a breeze, they firmly anchor
on the opposite shore, thus allowing the rest to cross in safety,
and swing over themselves when the others have all crossed.

THE MATERIAL VIEW OF LIFE AND ITS RELATION
TO THE SPIRITUAL.

BY PROF. GRAHAM LUSK,

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY, YALE MEDICAL SCHOOL.

WE live in a material age. Old beliefs are being supplanted
by what seem to be new truths. The student finds on every
hand vast volumes of learning bequeathed to him by those
who have labored before him ; and he who plunges deeply into
this onward-rushing tide of material truths is often startled to
find there an undertow sucking away the spiritual foundation.
Skeptics, in scorn of latter-day religion, refer to the middle ages
as the ages of faith. Christians, half dismayed, ask themselves,
Is mankind to be swallowed up in the abyss of materialism ?

It is the purpose of this paper to discuss life from a strictly
material standpoint, and afterward to show that belief in the
material interpretation does not cut one off from belief in the
spiritual.

My own ideas have been largely influenced by German
thought. Those who have had the privilege of listening to the
lectures of Prof. Carl Voit in Munich will recognize in this paper
many traces of his teaching. Through him I received instruction
in the material view of life.

The idea of the world held by Aristotle was that all things
were made up of certain elementary matter, qualified by four
properties— hot, cold, wet, and dry. Matter, with the properties
cold and dry, was earth ; with cold and wet, water ; with hot and
wet, air; and with hot and dry, fire. Different bodies varied
from each other as they contained different proportions of the
properties. These properties could be driven off from matter —
that is to say, were separable from matter. Thus, the alchemists
of the middle ages thought if they could drive a certain property
out of mercury, or put a new one into it, clearly they would pro-
duce gold.

In like manner these same principles came into use for the ex-
planation of life. During life there was a property present which
departed at death — a living principle, a " vital force."

Galen, who was born at Troy, and who died at Rome A. D. 200,

534

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

applied the learning of Aristotle to his practice of medicine.
Man, he said, is but matter containing certain properties. If
these properties be in correct proportion, well and good ; but if
the balance be upset, sickness results. The therapeutics of Galen
consisted, therefore, in restoring the lost property. If the patient
had a chill, he put him in a warm bath ; if he had a fever, he put
him in a cold bath.

Van Helmont, whose work belongs chiefly to the first half of
the seventeenth century, tells us of the existence of an Archeeus,
and in this theory he was supported by Paracelsus. The Archseus
was a spirit which had its abode in the stomach of man. If the
Archseus were well nourished, he was pleased and happy ; but if
anything disagreeable reached him, he made his displeasure pain-
fully evident, and if something were not done to appease his
anger, he betook himself off, arid the man was dead.

Our present views are entirely different. Properties are not
separable from matter. Properties are inherent in matter. Upon
this knowledge our modern opinions are based. We have spoken
of a belief that life depended on a property — a "vital force."
A "force" may be defined as something that can not be ex-
plained. The laws of gravitation stand as Newton left them, but
what the force of gravitation is no man can say. Hence, the
expression " vital force " was but a confession of ignorance. No,
there is no such thing as a " vital force." There are in living Na-
ture and in the inanimate world the same materials, ruled in both
cases by the same natural chemical and physical laws, only the
conditions in living Nature are different from the conditions in
the inanimate, and consequently the phenomena observed are like-
wise different.

Let us now look at some of the discoveries which have caused
us to accept this material view of life.

Harvey, in 1616, first taught the true doctrine regarding the
circulation of the blood, and compared the heart to a pump.

Scheiner, a Jesuit priest, declared the action of the eye to be
like that of a camera obscura, the lens of the eye acting to form a
picture on a background.

Keppler developed the theory of spectacles.

Borelli explained how the mechanism of breathing was due to
the elasticity of the lungs and to the muscles acting as power
upon levers — the ribs.

Lavoisier showed that animal heat was due to the decomposi-
tion of higher chemical compounds of the food eaten, just as the
heat of the candle is produced by the combustion of its constitu-
ents.

All these facts are easily seen to be but followings after Na-
ture's laws. Chemistry brings many proofs confirming the doc

THE MATERIAL VIEW OF LIFE. 535

trine that there is no fundamental difference whether of proper-
ties or of governing laws between the animate and the inaminate.
The chemist turns starch into sugar in the laboratory ; the intes-
tines do the same.

We find at the beginning of this century a theory supported
by Lavoisier which declared that, to form an organic compound,
life was necessary. The organic compounds had properties essen-
tially different from the inorganic or mineral, and were formed
under different influences — under the influence of a " vital force."

The greatest blow to this theory was the discovery by Wohler,
in 1828, that he could make urea in the laboratory. Here, then,
was a characteristic animal substance, which was actually formed
in the laboratory without the intervention of any " vital force "
whatever. Since Wohler's discovery an overwhelming number of
similar bodies have been formed in like manner. Sugar may be
made from its elements — carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. There
is little doubt that at some future time the method of making all
the materials of any organization will be known to the chemist.

It has been said that organic materials are more easily decom-
posable than inorganic ; but albumen, if dried, will keep for years,
whereas silver iodide on the sensitive photographic plate is
changed by light in the hundred-thousandth part of a second.

Hence, it is not difference in materials that can distinguish the
organized from the unorganized. Indeed, every organization con-
sists in major part of water, which is inorganic, and every organi-
zation must contain salts. In both organic and inorganic we find
crystals ; white of egg has already been crystallized. In fact, there
is no boundary to be drawn. Over the organic and inorganic rule
the same natural laws. The distinction is merely conventional.

The difference between the organized and the unorganized
does not lie in the materials represented, only in the arrangement
of the materials. The element of life is the minute cell. All life
in the organization is dependent upon the activity of the cells.
I have said that the conditions in the organized were different
from those in the unorganized. The cell furnishes the conditions
for life. Now, the arrangement of the materials in the cell is dif-
ferent from that in unorganized matter. In the piece of copper or
crystal of sugar the smallest particles are everywhere the same.
In the living organized cell the smallest particles are everywhere
different. Such arrangement of materials that the conditions for
life are present is the so-called protoplasm.

The yeast cell is a microscopic sausage-shaped organization
which, under proper conditions, changes sugar into alcohol and
carbonic acid. This is a characteristic function. In the same
manner the cells in the body have their characteristic functions
in decomposing the materials furnished by the blood.

536 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The living cell is made up of organic and inorganic constitu-
ents. It contains carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur,
phosphorus, chlorine, sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium,
fluorine, silicon, and iron. All these are necessary to life. Ab-
straction of one of these elements means death to the organization.

We have traced life down to the cell. The lowest forms of
life, both animal and vegetable, are single cells, and from these
single cells, according to the theory of evolution, all life has been
produced. But how about the origin of the first cell ? We do
not believe in spontaneous generation — that is to say, no case of
the spontaneous generation of life from its elements has ever
been recorded by man. But we may reason thus : All substances,
even the simplest, require certain conditions for their production.
The conditions required to produce a living cell must of necessity
be extremely complicated. We do not know of such conditions,
but for the sake of argument we may imagine that at some
former period of the world's history conditions may have existed
favorable to the production of the first life.

When we seek to define life we uncover a difficult problem.
But who can define the steam engine ? There is no satisfactory
definition for either. We can merely say that life is the result of
the activity of the cells.

It follows from this that it is useless to seek for a seat of life.
The seat of life has been placed in the blood, but this is the nour-
ishing fluid ; in the heart, which is merely the pump for the blood ;
in the medulla oblongata, but this contains the nervous center for
breathing. There is no such thing as a seat of life. Life is the
result of the activity of all the organs of the body.

To every living thing there at last must come an end, and in
this fact of death the advocates of a " vital force " saw the neces-
sity for their theory. But this is explicable in a material man-
ner. In life, as in death, decompositions are continually going on.
These decompositions are in kind not different, only during life
the products of decomposition are removed, and at death these
products remain in the body and poison the individual cells — that
is, so alter them that their conditions no longer fulfill the require-
ments of life.

The uneducated Indian when first shown a watch thought that
it was alive ; we, on the contrary, have come to regard the living
organization as a machine. Upon this basis alone can physiology
endure as a science, and physiology is, as the reader knows, noth-
ing but the study of the phenomena of life.

I have endeavored, up to this point, to give an exposition of
the material view of life as complete as the most exacting mate-
rialist could desire. Many men reach this point and refuse to see
further ; they make materialism their creed, and cast religion to

THE MATERIAL VIEW OF LIFE. 537

the winds. Now, is this rational ? Is it impossible for the scien-
tific mind to conceive of the existence of the soul ? Certainly not.

When we seek for explanation of intellectual activity we find
two views advanced — one, the purely material view that all
thought comes uncontrolled from the decomposition of matter,
from motion in the molecules ; the other, the spiritual view that
mental activity is under the domination of a soul. Under no cir-
cumstances can the soul be in a position to produce something
out of nothing; it must rather, in the production of thought,
utilize the materials furnished to the brain by the blood. The
existence of the soul has never been scientifically proved ; on the
other hand, no material thinker can pretend that the purely mate-
rial view explains the phenomena of intellectual activity. Let us
see, therefore, if we can not employ some reasoning in support of
the spiritual view, which declares the existence of the soul.

Matter is divided into ponderable and imponderable — ponder-
able, that which can be weighed ; imponderable, that which can
not be weighed. We place a body under the bell jar of an air
pump and exhaust the air ; all the ponderable air is thus removed.
There still remains the imponderable ether. On this ether light-
waves travel, and the object in the vacuum therefore continues
visible. Here, then, is a something in the vacuum which is in-
visible, imponderable, and yet whose existence is scientifically
acknowledged as pervading all space. This ether is set in motion
by the vibrating object we have under consideration ; this motion
is communicated to the nerve endings on the background of the
eye, travels thence along the nerve, and produces in the visual
sensorium of the brain the sensation of what we call light. The
existence of this ether has never been scientifically proved, but it
gives an explanation to something otherwise inexplicable.

A man dies ; the spirit passes from him ; the flesh is left. The
man has not lost in weight ; the spirit is imponderable. Now, as
there is a connection between the luminiferous ether and the
nerve endings for sight, why can not there be a connection be-
tween the spirit and the countless mass of cells and fibers where
is what we call the intellect ? And, likewise, may there not be a
spiritual ether surrounding us, a medium through which impulses
may come to the spirit from on high, and from the spirit be trans-
mitted to the intellect ? Such influences come to us strongly at
times, as at the communion-table. The existence of the soul, I
have said, has not been scientifically proved, but it is the explana-
tion of something otherwise inexplicable.

We gain our experience of the world through our senses.
Man is born with intellect, and through the senses that intellect
is trained. The newborn baby possesses already some knowledge
of touch acquired before birth, and this knowledge he afterward

538 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

rapidly expands by constantly feeling his body over and over, as
if in exploration of unknown territory. Later he acquires the
faculties of hearing and seeing, and likewise of tasting and smell-
ing. Now, these senses, five in number, are they which train the
intellect. They are all very imperfect. Sight : but the greater
part of the solar spectrum is invisible — that is to say, more rays
which come to us from the sun are invisible than those which our
eye can see. Hearing : but there are sounds so low and sounds
so high that they are inaudible. Taste and smell : very imperfect.
Touch : but there are millions of particles of dust to the square
inch of the hand which we can not feel. Yet, even with these
imperfect means of education, many men have reached the con-
clusion satisfactory to themselves that they are clever ; but the
wisest man knows nothing in comparison with perfect wisdom.

The whole of the known universe consists of matter in mo-
tion. All sensation, everything we know of the outside world,
comes to us through motion. The motion sets up a movement
in the nerve ending, on the skin, on the retina of the eye, or
wherever the proper ending capable of receiving the particular
motion may be situated. This motion is carried from the nerve
ending along the nerve to the special central organ of the brain
where it is interpreted. Light, sound, touch, taste, and smell are
the only forms of motion we are capable of appreciating, because
for each of these forms of motion we have a special apparatus
which can receive, transmit, and interpret. There are other forms
of motion which we can not appreciate — magnetism, for example
— and this simply because we have no nervous mechanism which
responds to that kind of motion. In like manner there can exist
around us forces in infinite variety of which we have absolutely
no knowledge whatsoever.

Now, is it not conceivable that, in the spirit after its severance
from the flesh, our present imperfect senses may become perfect,
and the influence of other now unthought-of sensations become
possible ? What the new sensations and the new life will be
are unknown, unknowable. A man is born blind. He attains
through touch, hearing, and the minor senses a certain amount of
knowledge of the outside world, but his ideas of what really is
must of necessity be absolutely and entirely different from our
own. The operation for cataract is performed ; the man can see,
and is shown a familiar object — a book for example ; but he can not
say what it is ; he must touch it first. His ideas of things undergo
an immediate and radical change. So it will be at death with our
ideas of heaven. The blind spirit, released from the influence of
the flesh, passes into perfect understanding of infinite knowledge.

To my mind, the material view of life should have no terrors
to believers in religion.

SEALING IN THE ANTARCTIC. 539

SEALING IN THE ANTARCTIC.

BY A MEMBER OF THE KECENT BRITISH WHALING EXPEDITION.

A LAPSE of nine months has brought back the Antarctic
Whaling Expedition. It will be remembered that in Sep-
tember last four ships — the Balsena, the Diana, the Active, and
the Polar Star — set out from Dundee to try their fortunes in the
south polar seas, since of late the Davis Strait and Greenland
fishing has not met with entire success. The expedition was to
try to obtain a whale which Sir James Ross described as " greatly
resembling and by some said to be identical to the Greenland
whale/7 and was to restrict its researches to that region visited by
Ross in his third voyage to the Antarctic in the summer 1842-'43.
At the request of the Royal Geographical Society and of the
Royal Meteorological Society, it was arranged that the medical
officers accompanying the expedition should, under the guidance
of the masters and with the assistance of the other officers, make
such scientific observations as were compatible with an expedi-
tion so purely commercial in character. With this understand-
ing these two societies gave a grant of instruments which Mr.
Leigh Smith and others liberally supplemented with other scien-
tific outfit. Naturally, therefore, among scientific circles a certain
amount of chance scientific work is being looked for. The ex-
pedition has added considerably to our knowledge of the meteor-
ology of the southern end of the globe and has noted geograph-
ical and other features. But, on account of the overwhelming
commercialism of the expedition, opportunities, which might
have been taken advantage of, have been allowed to pass.

Owing greatly to the hurried departure of the expedition,
much setting in order of material and seeking out of information
regarding these scarcely known parts employed a considerable
amount of time on the passage out, and systematic meteorological
observations were commenced from the outset ; tow netting and
other collecting was reserved for latitudes south of 40° south, and
for the homeward voyage, for it was deemed unwise to occupy
space and make use of preservatives which might be required for
material obtained in high southern latitudes. Nevertheless, on
the passage out, it was thought advisable on a few occasions to
take a cast of the net. For the whole outward passage, with the
exception of a few days in the southeast trades, the ships were
baffled by head winds, for nearly three weeks we wished our
native shores more distant, and for fifteen days the Roaring For-
ties racked us with southwest gales. We experienced heavy
squally weather, with frequent lightning and heavy rain. The
maximum temperature of the air was 83° Fahr. on the 23d and

54o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

24th of October, in 3° 56' north, 25° 15' 15" west, and 2° 33' north,
25° 37' west respectively, and from the 17th to 22d, 25th, and 31st
October and the 2d November the thermometer registered 80'8°
to 83°.

On the 8th of December the rising sun dispersed a dense fog
and revealed the rugged shores of West Falkland, the first land
we had seen for three months, and in its likeness recalling the
last glimpses we had of Cape Wrath. By noon we had dropped
anchor, and during the next few days, while the ship was being
stocked with a supply of fresh meat and water, the surgeons of
the vessels were able to make one or two short excursions. These
excursions, however, had to be extremely brief, for not knowing
when the ships would depart it was necessary to remain in sight
of them the whole time. A few plants, stones, and insects were
hastily gathered together, and several birds shot. Among the lat-
ter were the notable steamer duck and the upland goose. A strik-
ing feature of the Falkland Islands is the great absence of trees ;
the camp, as the open country is termed, is clothed with a short
scrub called diddle-dee (Empetrum rubrum), growing upon and
indeed chiefly forming the enormous peat-beds that this country
is so rich in ; the largest bush native to the country is the gigantic
woolly ragweed, which grows to a height of three or four feet ;
but there are few flowering plants. The gorse or furze has been
introduced and seems to thrive well, but a few trees that have
been planted about Stanley present a meager appearance. Mosses
and lichens abound everywhere and many of the lichens are very
beautiful. Besides the above-mentioned, one must note the ever-
famous balsam bogs and tussock grass, and the enormous banks
of kelp that fringe the coast, the stems of which vary in length
from five to forty feet. Among birds, the penguins and albatross
must not be forgotten. Insects are rare. The famous wolf-like
fox is almost extinct; Darwin's prophecy is coming true — the
wild horses and cattle now no longer roam the plains, their place
having been taken by the more remunerative sheep. The fur-seal
is still found, but so eagerly have they been hunted that their
numbers have been greatly reduced. A solitary lizard and a few
insects almost complete the list of animals found in these islands.
One must ever remember the world-renowned streams of stones
and the characteristic quartz rocks cutting their way through the
quilt of peat. But Darwin, Hooker, and others have so ably pic-
tured the natural features of the Falkland Islands that it would
be out of place to describe them again after so short a visit.
There is a great change, however, since Darwin's time — he found
it a settlement of thieves and murderers, now it is a peaceful
British colony, for, after a disputed possession of the islands by
Britain, Spain, France, and Buenos Ayres, Britain finally took

SEALING IN THE ANTARCTIC. 541

possession of them in 1833 and formed a colony which is now
ruled by a governor and is also the see of a colonial bishopric.
The colony at first was far from prosperous, but since 1885 the
revenue has considerably exceeded the expenditure. During our
stay at Port Stanley his Excellency the Governor honored our
ships with a visit, as well as several of the residents of the settle-
ment, and we are greatly indebted to his Excellency and Lady
Goldsworthy for the hospitality they showed us.

Early on Sunday morning we took leave of the Falkland Is-
lands and steered for the ice, and on December 16th, in latitude
59° 18' south, longitude 51° 01' west, met the first iceberg— it was
of enormous dimensions and tabular; a second was sighted in
the evening. The same day we met myriads of cape pigeons, also
many blue petrel and molly-hawks. The sea was literally swarm-
ing with whales of the finner kind, and their resounding blasts
could be seen on all sides. So numerous were the cape pigeons,
and so eager were they for any scraps thrown over the ship's side,
that any number of them could have been caught with small
hand-nets only large enough to contain one at a time, and many
of them were thus captured by the crew. That night it became
overcast and rainy, and at midnight a fog came on ; fogs contin-
ued, with shorter intervals of clearer weather, during which in-
tervals we were able to push southward for the next few days,
and the weather was squally, the wind being from northeast^
north, and northwest, varying in force from a light air to a mod-
erate gale. After six days of this inhospitable weather, the wind
on the afternoon of December 22d shifted more to the south, and
the fog quickly lifted. On December 17th we met with the first
seal — it was one of the larger kind which Ross described, nearly
twelve feet long, having a bearlike head, with formidable canine
teeth ; it was curled up and asleep, and it was drifting by as we
lay in the fog. It was promptly shot and brought aboard by a
boat lowered away for the purpose. Several pieces of drift ice
were seen on the 17th of December, and several bergs, nearly all
flat-topped. On the evening of the 22d we first met with a flock
of ten or a dozen of the beautiful sheathbill, and on the morning
of the 23d sighted and passed the group of Danger Islets, lying
off the extreme west of Joinville Land, which was lying behind
them. The sea in the evening became of an olive-brown color,
and we met with the snowy petrel, two indications which Ross
noticed of the main pack being at hand. On the following even-
ing three of the Dundee ships made fast to a very large floe. On
Christmas day observations were taken, and it was found that
we were a little south of Ross's position on New- Year's eve of the
summer of 1842-'43— viz., latitude 64° 13' south, longitude 55° 52
west, and where he says " great numbers of the largest-sized black

542 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

whales were lying upon the water in all directions ; their enor-
mous breadth quite astonished us. The color of the sea was a
dirty brown, probably occasioned by minute ferruginous infuso-
ria, which were found in the greenish-colored mud that was
brought up by the deep-sea clams from a depth of two hundred
and seven fathoms." The sea was as Ross describes it, and sound-
ings were obtained at 8 P. M. in one hundred and ninety-four fath-
oms, but no black whale did we see, only whales with fins'on their
backs, but be it noted that several grampuses or killers were seen
from the masthead, and they are noted persecutors of the black
whale in the north.

Up to this time several seals had been obtained — the large
seal, the white antarctic seal, and the sea leopard ; also four dif-
ferent kinds of penguins, including a few of the large emperor
penguins, and one seen in the neighborhood of the Falklands.
Besides these, we had met with a good many sheathbills, several
snowy petrel, the blue petrel, the giant petrel, the stormy petrel,
the cape pigeon, a gray gull, and later with many terns and a few
great petrel. Christmas eve and Christmas day, when we were
fast to the floe, will long be remembered by the members of the
expedition. There was a perfect calm; the sky, except at the
horizon, had a dense canopy of cumulus rolls, which rested on the
summits of the western hills, and when the sun was just below
the horizon the soft grays and blues of the clouds and the spot-
less whiteness of the ice as it floated in the black and glossy sea
were tinted with the most delicate of colors — rich purples and
rosy hues, blues, and greens, passing into translucent yellows. At
midnight the solitude of the vacant deck was grand and impress-
ive, and perhaps more so since we had, for well-nigh a week,
been drifting among bergs with dense fog and very squally
weather. Nothing broke the calm peacefulness ; now a flock of
the beautiful sheathbills would hover round the vessel, fanning
the limpid air with their wings of creamy whiteness, and over
yonder was a foul carrion bird with outstretched wings feeding
upon the gory corpse of a slaughtered seal. All was in such uni-
son, all in such perfect harmony ; but it was a passing charm.
Soon we had to think of more prosaic things, and reluctantly we
turned our thoughts to the cargo we were to seek. It was with
the produce of seals that we were destined to fill our ship, and till
February 17th we were literally up to the neck in blood. All the
sails are stowed ; the captain sits in the crow's nest from early
morning till late in the evening ; the two engineers, relieving one
another, take charge of the engines ; the cook or the steward is on
the lookout on deck or on the bridge ; and the doctor takes the
helm, unless he can manage to get away in the boats, in which
case some other .noncombatant has to take his place — all the rest

SEALING IN THE ANTARCTIC. 543

are away after plunder. Now a full boat is making its way to the
ship. We steam toward her. As we near, the engines are stopped
and she glides alongside. The cook or the steward rushes from
the lookout, the doctor from the wheel, one working the steam
winch and the other unswitching the skins, while the boat's crew
swallow a hasty meal. The boat being unloaded, they are off
again, for another fill. The greatest rivalry exists between the
boats7 crews, each endeavoring to get the greatest load for the
day. Another boat is seen approaching, and away we go again,
dodging this piece of ice, charging that piece with our sturdy
bows, boring away where the ice lies closely packed, rounding
this berg, and on to the next until we reach the boat, which is
down to the gunwale in the water, with its crew cautious, plying
their oars as they lie crouched upon their bloody load. So it goes
on from day to day ; hay is made while the sun shines, and the
pile of skins and blubber rises high upon the ship's deck. Then
comes a gale of wind, accompanied by fog, sleet, and snow, and
we lay to under the lee of a stream of ice or a berg. The deck
becomes busy with life, the blubber is "made off" and put into
the tanks, and the skins are salted. When the gale is over, at the
end of two or three days, the next few days of calm weather are
again taken advantage of in the boats. Thus the periods of gales
and calms which alternate in this part of the world come in quite
conveniently for sealing, the produce obtained in the calm weath-
er being "made off" during the gales. We never experienced
much swell, being sheltered by the land, our work lying only a
little east of Erebus and Terror Gulf. With " all hands and the
cook " so incessantly occupied in the calm weather, all scientific
observations were at a standstill, but in the evening, and some-
times during the night, a few chance readings could be obtained,
and during gales fairly copious meteorological notes were ob-
tained.

The seals are very foolish beasts. The present generation
have never seen man, and they survey him open-mouthed and
fearful, during which process they are laid low with club or bul-
let. Sometimes they are so lazy with sleep that a man may dig
them in the ribs with the muzzle of his gun, and, wondering what
is disturbing their slumbers, they raise their head, which quickly
falls pierced with a bullet. There may only be one seal on a
piece of ice, which is usually the case with the larger kind ; but
the smaller kinds lie in half-dozens and tens, and as many as
forty-seven were seen on one piece. Seldom do any escape — one
cartridge means one seal. Besides the three seals mentioned we
came across a fourth, a large kind with a small head, small fore
flippers, very thickly blubbered, and a more woolly skin. The
last day of our sealing we were among a great host of the largest

544 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

big-headed seals, and as we were returning to our ship they were
moaning loudly. This was said to be a sign that they were about
to start upon a long journey, but was it not rather a sigh of relief
when they saw their slaughterers7 craft run up her bunting and
announce to all that she was a full ship, that her thirst for blood
was quenched ? Penguins are the strangest creatures ever seen.
They are supremely funny as they quack and strut about with
their padded feet over the snow, or, coming to a slope, glide
swiftly downward toboggan-fashion upon their breasts. If one
lands on the piece of ice they are resting upon, they approach
fearlessly with a threatening " Quack ! quack ! " For their in-
quisitiveness they, too, often received the handle of the club, for it
was soon found that their flesh greatly resembled that of the hare,
and upon them we had many a tasty and substantial meal. The
emperor penguin is very difficult to kill ; he will live after his
skull has been most hopelessly smashed ; the best way to put an
end to them is to pith them. Six of us one day set out to capture
one alive, and so strong was the bird that five with difficulty kept
their hold, and, after he was bound with strong cords and nautical
knots, he flapped his flippers and released himself.

The drift ice we came across was not heavier than that of
Davis Strait, but the bergs were of very different character,
nearly all flat, not pinnacled and not so lofty as those of the
north, but of huge length, frequently being four miles in length,
sometimes eight or ten, and one we met with was no less than
thirty miles long, taking us six hours to steam from end to end at
five knots. These are valuable when one can lie under their lee
in a gale, but, when they are to leeward, form a dangerous lee
shore, and more especially so for sailing ships.

One of the doctors had the good fortune to effect a landing in
Erebus and Terror Gulf, obtaining specimens of plants, eggs, and
rocks.

The lowest temperature recorded in the ice was +21'!° Fahr.,
or nearly 11° of frost; this was on the 17th of February, but usu-
ally it was about +32° Fahr., more or less.

On the 17th of February we steered for the Falklands, and
thence homeward. Our homeward passage has been one con-
tinued spell of fine weather ; the winds were mostly light, and too
frequently head winds. The highest temperature recorded was
84'4° Fahr., in latitude 1° 10' north, longitude 25° 21' west, on the
13th of April ; for the previous eight days 80° Fahr. and over are
recorded, and also on the 3d of April, as well as five days follow-
ing the 13th of April. From the ice to some degrees north of the
line floats were thrown over to record the currents, and the tow-
net was over frequently.

While in the ice we met the Jason, a Norwegian bark with

HONEY AND HONEY PLANTS. 545

auxiliary steam power, under the command of Captain Larsen,
and with her we kept company most of the time. He reached the
ice about a month earlier than ourselves, and surveyed the pack
edge as far as 30° west. Captain Larsen also landed on the South
Orkneys and on Cockburn Island, where he obtained several
geological specimens. — London Times.

HONEY AND HONEY PLANTS.

BY DE. G. G. GEOFF.

THE popular idea is that all flowers alike produce honey, and
that bees pass from blossom to blossom indiscriminately
collecting the sweet fluid. This, however, like many other popu-
lar notions, is incorrect. By no means all flowers yield honey,
and most of them yield it very scantily. Indeed, those plants vis-
ited by honeybees which yield any considerable amount above
that consumed by the bees from day to day are, in any one section
of the country, limited to a very small number, and usually not
more than one, or at most two, of these plants are in blossom at
one time. There are, however, a good many flowers that yield
some honey, yet are for various reasons not visited by honeybees,
among which we may name the honeysuckle (visited, however,
sometimes for the pollen), and plants of the buttercup family. In
some cases the honeybees can not reach the honey, in others it is
probably not palatable to them.

It is also true that there is a great difference in the amount of
honey produced in different years by the same species of plants.
Sometimes there seems to be almost no honey at all in white
clover, one of the best honey plants in our Northern States,
while at other times honey is in the blossoms for a few days, and
then it suddenly disappears, or in other seasons there is honey
so long as blossoms of clover are to be found. The secretion of
honey does not depend upon the season being moist, for usually
the honey "flow" is greatest in dry seasons. There does seem
to be some connection between the amount of honey produced
and the character of the soil upon which the plants grow. Thus
clover growing on clayey ground seems to yield more honey than
that growing on hillsides where there is but little clay. The same
is true of other plants. Often there is honey in one district and
none in another not far distant.

The plants which yield " surplus " honey in the North Atlan-
tic States in ordinary seasons are the red and black raspberries,
the white clover, the basswood, and the buckwheat. Some other
plants may yield small additional quantities, but are hardly of

TOL. XLIII. — 39

546 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

practical importance. There are, however, some early spring
flowers giving honey which is useful in stimulating brood-rearing
in the hives, without which there is no hope of any surplus. We
will first name some of these plants.

The practical bee-keeper knows that his hopes of obtaining
honey all depend upon his having his hives full of bees when the
"flow" comes. Brood is produced in quantity only when some
honey can be obtained from flowers then in bloom. Hence the
importance to the apiarist of the early blooming flowers.

The willows of several species, and the silver and red maples,
blossom in March and April, depending upon the season. They
yield both honey and pollen, and whenever the days are warm
enough the bees constantly visit them. If one is about his apiary
on warm days in March and April, he will notice the bees coming
in with pollen even at times when no flowers have been observed.
At such times they doubtless have found blossoms on some warm
bank and are making good use of them. The poplar trees also
bloom in April, a little later than the willows. Reference is here
had to the true aspen poplars, not the tulip poplar. The dande-
lion and strawberry blossoms are much visited by bees. Later,
about the first of May, we have the sugar maple and the blossoms
of the fruit trees — the peach, cherry, plum, apple, pear, quince,
etc. These all yield honey and pollen. During some warm and
early springs, in very strong colonies, honey may possibly be
stored which has been gathered from the fruit blossoms, but, as
our seasons average, the honey from our fruit trees goes altogether
to stimulate brood-rearing. The locust trees (both the honey and
the black locust) blossom after the fruit trees and before the white
clover. Surplus is seldom stored from these blossoms, though
they are good honey producers. Their honey goes to produce
more brood or to feed the colony until the clover comes. We
next consider plants which produce surplus honey. These for the
Atlantic States are few in number.

Of the plants which produce surplus honey the white clover is
first named. TMs plant grows spontaneously throughout the
whole region. In the well-cultivated sections it is almost the only
honey-producing plant left on which the apiarist can any longer
depend. It begins to blossom in June and continues on into July.
The honey from this plant is the whitest and finest produced. It
is entirely free from any peculiar or offensive taste or odor, and is
a general favorite.

In the more northern States the red raspberry commences to
blossom a little later than the white clover. This is a valuable
honey plant of which bee-keepers in the South are deprived. This
honey is considered by many to be fully equal to that of the
white clover. In July the basswood blossoms. This tree yields

HONEY AND HONEY PLANTS. 547

a great amount of honey, but unfortunately there are no longer
many trees to furnish blossoms and nectar. This honey is darker
than that from clover, and has also a peculiar odor, which is un-
pleasant to many persons.

The last plant of value as a honey producer is buckwheat,
which begins to blossom in August and continues until frost.
The honey from buckwheat is dark and has a taste of its own
which is not offensive. This honey is very rich, and a taste for it
is speedily acquired. The cultivation of this plant is becoming,
year by year, more restricted, and is now confined to the newer
and more mountainous sections.

Those regions where the land is all under cultivation have
only the white clover to depend upon for honey, unless there are
a few basswood trees along the streams, while in the mountainous
areas will be found clover, basswood, raspberries, and buckwheat
It takes but a moment, then, to decide where one could best h'ope
to succeed in bee-keeping.

We place among the plants which produce a small or variable
amount of honey the mint and figwort families ; also the asters and
golden rods. Of the first family, the mints, we have the hore-
hound, the sage, bergamot, the catnip, and the motherwort, all
producing considerable honey. Of this group, the most remark-
able is the motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca), which is constantly
visited by bees while it is in blossom. The supply of honey is
limited only by the number of plants, which at present in most
places is small. It has been suggested that this plant be culti-
vated for the honey it yields. It is now a rather unsightly weed.
The figwort (Scrophularia nodosa) is an excellent honey plant.
It has a square stem, and exteriorly a good deal resembles the
mints. It is a worthless weed except for its honey-producing
flowers. It is not very abundant. The wild mustard, the teasel,
the boneset, the wild sunflowers, the Spanish needles, and the snap-
dragons, as also the smartweeds, produce some honey, though in
most places the total is of little value. In Michigan, Prof. A. J.
Cooke holds the golden-rods in high esteem as honey producers.
In Pennsylvania the writer can not find that they are of any value
at all. On newly cleared land the sumac springs up, and it is held
by some to be a valuable source of honey, and that considerable
amounts are some years collected from it.

The tulip poplar, popularly called "poplar," also produces
honey in its beautiful large blossoms, but the tree is too scarce to
be of much value to the bee-keeper. The blossoms of the black-
berry, like their near relatives, the raspberries, are honey pro-
ducers. The milkweeds are also secreters of honey. Curiously,
the pollen of these plants often sticks to the heads of the bees
and disables them so much that they perish. Prof. A. J. Cooke

548 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

says that at times the blossoms of the Indian corn yield both honey
and pollen to the bees, but we think to no great extent. We have
never observed the bees working on these blossoms.

The laurel (Kalmia) yields honey which is poisonous. Gener-
ally the bees do not work on these blossoms, but in some localities
they do, and we frequently read of persons poisoned by honey
which probably comes from this plant. It is thought that the
poisoning of the Greek soldiers under Xenophon was by honey
from this family of plants in this case from rhododendrons.

The plant lice (aphides) which infest many plants secrete a
sweetish fluid of which bees, ants, and other insects are very fond.
In seasons when real nectar is scarce or altogether lacking, bees will
collect and store this material, which is generally known as honey-
dew or manna. There is, however, another variety of honeydew
which seems to be secreted by the leaves of plants and is gathered
by the bees. This material is hardly fit for human food, nor is it
for bees either, and it is doubtless a principal cause of winter loss
of colonies, for it produces in the bees a diarrhoea from which
they perish if the winter is one of continuous cold, so that they
can not take an occasional cleansing flight. Cider, juices of
grapes, and all other sweet fluids are collected and stored by bees
in seasons of scarcity. The general bad effects of all these are the
same as of the honeydew — they produce intestinal disorders of
which the bees die.

The profitable cultivation of plants, otherwise useless, for honey
alone has never yet been demonstrated, and the low price of sugar
will probably preclude any such efforts in the near future. Honey
will remain a luxury, and as such will be produced in favorable
locations — that is, on poor soil, where the honey plants grow natu-
rally, and where the land can be utilized for nothing else. How-
ever, in the planting of shade trees it would be well to plant those
which will produce honey as well as shade.

The effort is made by practical bee-keepers to find some plant,
like the buckwheat, which may make a useful farm crop and at
the same time produce honey. Many think alsike clover will do
this. Prof. Cooke thus speaks of it : " Alsike or Swedish clover
(Trifolium hybridum) seems to resemble both the red and the
white clover. It is a stronger grower than the white, and has a
whitish blossom tinged with pink. This forms excellent pasture
and hay for cattle, sheep, etc., and may well be sown by the
apiarist. It will often pay apiarists to furnish neighbor farmers
with seed as an inducement to grow this par excellent honey plant.
Like white clover, it blooms all through June into July. It should
be sown early in spring with timothy, five or six pounds to the
acre, in the same manner that clover is sown."

SKETCH OF PAOLO MANTEGAZZA. 549

SKETCH OF PAOLO MANTEGAZZA.

BY PROF. FKEDERTCK STARR.

AS a nation we know far too little of what is being accom-
plished in the world outside. We do in some degree keep
track of the work of our English brothers, and occasionally some
French or German worker compels our recognition. But there
are many intelligent readers who do not know that Italy is to-day
a veritable center of scientific work. Yet such is the case, and in
such sciences as astronomy, zoology, and botany great progress is
making there. Nor are they at all behind in anthropology ; and
the man who leads in Italian anthropology is Paolo Mantegazza.

No doubt to many American readers his Physiognomy and
Expression, lately put into an English dress, is the only work of
Mantegazza's known. It is a remarkable book — not only on ac-
count of its matter, which is of great value, but also on account of
its style. There is scarcely a scientific book in any language that
so plainly reflects its author, in his individual and ethnic charac-
teristics. To read it is to gain a wonderful insight into the Italian
mind and into the Italian mode of thought and expression.

PAOLO MANTEGAZZA was born at Monza, near Milan, Italy, on
October 31, 1831. His mother was a remarkable woman — Laura
Solera — well known for philanthropy and patriotism. No small
part of the force of character, the strength of purpose, and the
clearness which Mantegazza shows in his work seems to be in-
herited from this woman. She established the first creche and
founded the first professional school for women in Italy. During
the wars of 1848 and 1859 she cared for the wounded soldiers.
There appears to have been an unusual love between this mother
and son, and Mantegazza refers to her at times in his writings.
He always deferred much to her opinion ; and in 1883, when some
question had arisen as to the propriety of his famous book upon
the Physiology of Love, the author submitted the book to her for
judgment. Her letter of approval is presented in full in the intro-
ductory chapter of the work, and ends thus : " When I shall have
the happiness of having you near me, I shall point out to you the
passages which most please me. Meantime receive the enthusi-
astic greetings of your affectionate mama."

Mantegazza studied medicine in the Universities of Pisa and
Pa via. Having become a physician, he spent several months in
Paris and then journeyed over a large part of Europe. At the
age of nineteen years he published a memoir upon Spontaneous
Generation, and was appointed Acting Professor of Chemistry in
the Technical School at Milan. The first of the remarkable series
of anthropological works which has rendered his name famous —

55o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The Physiology of Pleasure — appeared when he was only twenty-
two years of age. It has been published and republished, trans-
lated and retranslated, and, although forty years have passed
since its appearance, it is still issued in new editions in Italy. In
1854 Dr. Mantegazza removed to South America, and for four
years practiced medicine at Buenos Ayres and Entrerios in the Ar-
gentine Republic and also in Paraguay. Returning to Italy in
1858, he practiced medicine and surgery in the military hospital
during the war of 1859. In 1860 he secured, by competitive exami-
nation, the chair of General Pathology at the University of Pavia,
and established in connection with that institution the first labo-
ratory in experimental pathology, from which such eminent
physiologists as Bizzazzero and Golgi have gone forth. In 1870
he removed to Florence to take the first chair of Anthropology.
Here he has remained, constantly busying himself in every way
that could extend the science to which he is so entirely devoted.
Here he has founded the National Museum of Anthropology and
Ethnology, the Italian Society of Anthropology, and the journal
Archivio per TAntropologia e la Etnologia. What Broca was to
Paris and to France, Mantegazza is to Italy. The parallel is a
strong one, for not only is Mantegazza, like Broca, a leader in
anthropological science, but he is a leader of the most liberal
portion of the workers in that field.

Of all sciences anthropology is the one which most keeps a
man in touch with men and affairs. Every one knows the slap
that the German emperor gave to Virchow recently at Berlin.
The occasion was the birthday celebration of the two great scien-
tists— Helmholtz the physicist, and Yirchow the anthropologist.
His Majesty congratulated Helmholtz upon having devoted him-
self so closely to his science that he had never meddled in
political matters. It is easy for the physicist to do so. But how
can a man who stupes mankind hold himself aloof from human
interests ? Mantegazza has long been in public life. In 1845 he
was sent from Monza as representative and was re-elected four
times; while in 1876 he was elected senator of the kingdom of
Italy. He has never been a political leader, but has always been
clearly identified with the Liberal party.

Mantegazza's writings are exceedingly numerous and varied.
He has written anthropological memoirs, works on medicine, vol-
umes of travel, monographs upon special races, biographical stud-
ies, and romances. Among his more important anthropological
works are Physiology of Pleasure, Physiology of Pain, Physi-
ology of Love, Physiology of Hate, Love in Humanity, Hygiene
of Love, and Physiognomy and Expression. All these have
been translated into the leading languages of Europe and have
exerted an immense influence. One or other of his books have

SKETCH OF PAOLO MANTEGAZZA. 551

been translated into fourteen distinct tongues. His three works
on Love — Physiology, Hygiene, and Ethnology — have sold by
thousands in Germany and France. Perhaps the only one of his
more important works which has appeared in America is his
Fisionomia e Mimica — Physiognomy and Expression. This has
been issued in at least two forms within the last three years and
has sold largely. Although we have already referred to it briefly,
it deserves especial mention. It is an excellent example of Mante-
gazza's nervous, impetuous style. Nothing that has been written
elsewhere upon expression can approach it. Every great emotion
of mankind is taken up, and the form of expression by which it
makes itself known is exhaustively analyzed. The subject itself
is so attractive and the treatment so interesting that the book —
unlike most scientific books — will bear reading and re-reading for
pleasure. No one but an Italian could have written it. Expres-
sion is at its best where the blood is hot and vigorous, and where
people feel as they live ; in such a country as Italy, and among a
people like the Italians, only could such a study be so well made.

Analysis is the word which describes all of Mantegazza's work.
Analysis shows itself in his writings ; it shows itself also in his
museum, one of the most remarkable in the world. It is the
National Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology. Fair in eth-
nography, good in general anthropology, it is remarkable in
somatology, and unique in psychology. Who but the writer of
Fisionomia e Mimica could analyze so cleverly the material in
Physical Anthropology ? Who but so good an analyst could fail
so utterly in combining the material into a symmetrical whole ?
Mantegazza's Museum of Psychological Anthropology is his latest
hobby. Here he plans to show by material objects the operations
of the mind — the development of religiosity, the expression of
love, of fear, of cruelty — of every emotion of our kind.

As an editor Mantegazza has done vast service. His Archivio
per TAntropologia e la Etnologia is a standard journal in the
science, but of course reaches only a select circle of fellow-workers.
The Hygienic Almanacs, however, which have appeared under his
direction for a quarter of a century, in editions of many thou-
sands, have not only done much to improve sanitary conditions
among his own people, but in their German and Hebrew transla-
tions have reached thousands outside of the land of his birth.
While speaking of this service, we may mention that Mante-
gazza's contributions to medicine have been neither few nor unim-
portant. It was he who introduced coca into Europe, and his
monograph upon this valuable plant was " crowned."

Mantegazza is to visit America in September, and it is to be
hoped that he may meet that hearty kindness from us which he
has always extended to American men of science in Italy.

552

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

A GREAT WORK CONCLUDED.

A LT HOUGH there still lacks a vol-
J-JL- ume of the ten originally planned
by Mr. Herbert Spencer for the exposi-
tion of his Synthetic Philosophy, the
publication of the tenth volume of the
series (the second and concluding one
of the Principles of Ethics) gives very
legitimate occasion for rejoicing to all
who, like ourselves, regarding the Syn-
thetic Philosophy as the most important
contribution yet made to an understand-
ing of the laws of the organic world in
their special bearing on human life, con-
sider the portion dealing with ethics as
the most important of the whole work.
Mr. Spencer, we understand, having
thus crowned the edifice of his philoso-
phy, will proceed at once to complete it
by writing the one volume still out-
standing— namely, the third of the Prin-
ciples of Sociology, or the eighth of the
series.

It is, indeed, a long road on which
the distinguished author looks back
when his thoughts revert to the pub-
lication in the year 1855 of the first
edition of his Principles of Psychology.
For forty years very nearly has he been
toiling over one of the most arduous
tasks that any man ever set himself;
and with what perseverance, unflagging
resolution, and high spirit he has car-
ried that task through its successive
stages the world at large has been a
witness. "You who write," says Hor-
ace, " consider well and long what your
shoulders will bear and what they will
not bear." It has seemed at different
times as if Mr. Spencer had taken on
his shoulders a burden too great for his
physical strength. His health, as every
one is aware, has for years together
been such as greatly to limit his power

of work, and at times to condemn him
to complete inactivity. Still, he has
persevered, making the most of all op-
portunities, and to-day his great under-
taking is so nearly accomplished that
its entire completion may be reasonably
counted on. At one time this was more
than the author himself hoped for, and
more, we have little doubt, than any
will less resolute than his own would
have realized. We believe, and take
pleasure in believing, that Mr. Spencer
has been largely sustained in his severe
and exhausting labors by the thought
that he was working for his generation
and for subsequent generations. His
philosophy is meant for guidance. He
has aimed at making men understand
the kind of world they live in and the
kind of laws with which they have to
reckon. Theology has in general placed
its most impressive sanctions in a super-
natural order of things and in a future
state of existence. Mr. Spencer con-
tents himself with showing the springs,
conditions, and consequences of human
action in the present order of things,
leaving those who are so disposed to find
necessary admonition therein, and those
who are otherwise minded to take their
own course, whatever it may be. The
question has often been raised whether
philosophy can constrain men to right
conduct. The answer we should be
disposed to give is, that a true philoso-
phy, one resting on the facts and laws
of life, if duly blended with early educa-
tion, would powerfully incline the young
to virtue. It does not profess to be a
stimulus for jaded appetites or exhaust-
ed moral vitality, and can not be count-
ed upon as an agent for sudden conver-
sions ; but, given as the daily bread of
life, it can nourish and strengthen the
moral and intellectual natures of men.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

553

" Give strong drink to him that is ready
to perish ; " but do not cast any reflec-
tions upon bread because, at such a mo-
ment, it might rather choke than aid the
sufferer.

The volume which Mr. Spencer has
just given to the world is one of great
value and interest. In our book notices
will be found a summary of its contents ;
but we desire here to add our commen-
dation of it as an eminently practical
treatise on the two important themes of
Justice and Beneficence. The portion
dealing with Justice was published sep-
arately two years ago, and was noticed
in these columns at the time. Much of
the matter which it contains is, how-
ever, of such urgent importance in the
present day that we hope the publica-
tion of the complete volume will have
the effect of calling attention anew to
its analysis of rights and its trenchant
discussion of the nature and functions
of the state. The portions dealing with
Beneficence under the two heads of
Negative and Positive bring out in a
striking manner the large element of
sympathy in the writer's disposition.
Careless critics have heretofore been in
the habit of asserting that the evolution
philosophy, as expounded by Mr. Spen-
cer, enjoined pure selfishness. There
was quite sufficient in earlier portions
of Mr. Spencer's writings — particularly
in the Data of Ethics, published in 1879
— to disprove this assertion; but not
even a careless critic could make it after
reading, however cursorily, the volume
before us. Here is a noble passage from
the chapter on Succor to the HI - used
and the Endangered: "Doubtless it is
well for humanity at large to maintain
the tradition of heroism. One whose
altruistic promptings are so strong that
he loses his own life in an almost hope-
less effort to save another's life, affords
an example of nobility which in a meas-
ure redeems the innumerable cruelties,
brutalities, and meannesses prevailing
among men, and serves to keep alive

hope of a higher humanity hereafter.
The good done in occasionally putting
egoism to the blush may be counted as
a set-off against the loss of one whose
altruistic nature should have been trans-
mitted."

Mr. Spencer has himself anticipated
the criticism that much of what he says
in regard to beneficence will not seem
to have any very clear connection with
the doctrine of evolution; and so far
he professes himself disappointed in the
outcome of the work. We do not feel
called upon to share in his disappoint-
ment. The doctrine of evolution has
served in the earlier volumes to inter-
pret the world for us, to enable us to
understand our environment, and know
both how it has come to be what it is,
and how we have come to be what we
are. That it should also serve as a guide
through the complexities of human ac-
tion is more than we ever expected.
Knowing ourselves and our environ-
ment, the conduct we ought to pursue
as being likely to result in the greatest
amount of happiness to ourselves and
others may be arrived at by reflection
and experience. Mr. Spencer, in the
last two sections of the present volume,
analyzes the principal situations in which
individuals are liable to find themselves,
and shows in an instructive manner the
conduct, negative and positive, appro-
priate to each. We do not see how
much fault can be found with any of
his conclusions. To us it appears that
he lays down many of the most impor-
tant principles of correct and useful
social behavior, and that his treatise as
a whole, but particularly the sections
dealing with beneficence, would make
the best kind of household reading for
a large class of families. Philosophy
here puts on a homely garb and walks
hand in hand with the wisdom that
every day's experience teaches. Un-
til Philosophy does this, her work is
not finished. Mr. Spencer's last words
seem to us his best.

554

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

LITERARY NOTICES.

THE PRINCIPLES OF ETHICS. By HERBERT
SPENCER. Vol. II. New York : D. Ap-
pleton & Co.

OF the three portions into which Mr.
Spencer's new volume is divided, the first
was published separately two years ago, un-
der the title of Justice, and dealt with those
things which human beings may claim as
rights. The two latter portions now appear
for the first time, and deal respectively with
Negative Beneficence and Positive Benefi-
cence. Mr. Spencer recognizes the senti-
ment of justice no less than the sentiment of
beneficence as altruistic, the first implying a
voluntary concession of the claims of others
to free activity and the products or results
of free activity, and the second a disposition
to aid others in obtaining the objects of their
legitimate desires. In the preface to the
present volume the author acknowledges
that the new parts fall short of his expecta-
tions. He has not been able to affiliate them
to the extent that he hoped to the doctrine
of evolution. " Most of the conclusions," he
says, " drawn empirically, are such as right
feelings enlightened by cultivated intelligence
have already sufficed to establish." It is in
ethics very much the same as in purely
scientific theory. Specially gifted individuals
will, by their deeper intuitions, anticipate the
results of later experience or reasoning, and
will thus succeed in formulating principles
in advance of their definitive establishment.
That the principal conclusions of ethics should
not stand in very direct relation to the theory
of evolution is not, however, surprising, inas-
much as these conclusions would in all proba-
bility be the same even if the history of hu-
man development had been materially differ-
ent in its earlier stages from what it has been.
What the evolutionist philosopher has to
show, as it seems to us, is that there is no
conflict between the principles of ethics and
any of the deductions from the doctrine of
evolution. If that doctrine were fundament-
ally unsound, the proof of its unsoundness
might lie in the region of ethics, but the at-
tentive reader of Mr. Spencer's last volume
will at least be convinced that this is not so.

The warrant for beneficence as distin-
guished from justice lies hi the fact that like

justice it tends, if properly regulated, to
promote life and happiness; but being in
excess of justice, and therefore a more or
less indefinite thing, the need for its proper
regulation is very obvious. Mr. Spencer, as
we have seen, deals with it under the two
heads of Negative and Positive. A man is
negatively beneficent if he abstains from
actions which might promote his private in-
terests, because he sees that such abstinence
will promote the interests of another, his
own being already sufficiently secured. Some
of the examples which Mr. Spencer gives
under this head may seem a little trite ; but
there are different ways of being familiar
with a principle or rule of action, as John
Stuart Mill once remarked. It is one thing
to assent to a truth in a general way, and an-
other to accept it with a full perception of
all that it either presupposes or involves.
Some of Mr. Spencer's counsels under the
head of Negative Beneficence seem to resolve
themselves into the familiar formula, "Live
and let live " ; but how many carry out that
formula as fully as they should ? It is an
easy thing to repeat such a motto as " Live
and let live " ; but when it comes to fore-
going a business advantage clearly within
reach, in order that another individual may
not unduly or undeservedly suffer, the motto
is very apt to go to the wall, which, as every
one knows, is a favorite place for mottoes.
The question, therefore, is not whether the
specific counsels given by Mr. Spencer have
previously been given by others — Mr. Spen-
cer admits that to a large extent they have
been — but whether they are severally sound,
and whether they are in harmony with his
general system of philosophy. A motto or
maxim floating in a kind of disengaged
way in the moral atmosphere of the age
does not carry at all the same authority
as a rule of action forming part of a well-
established system of thought ; and the hope
may therefore be indulged that an attentive
reading of Mr. Spencer's new volume will
lead many to see that maxims of conduct
which heretofore they have felt themselves
free to act upon or set aside according to the
humor of the moment have a sanction which
can not rightly be disregarded. Under the
several heads of Restraints on Free Competi-
tion, Restraints on Free Contract, Restraints
on Undeserved Payments, Restraints on Dis-

LITERARY NOTICES.

555

plays of Ability, Restraints on Blame, and
Restraints on Praise, Mr. Spencer makes
many excellent remarks bearing on every-day
conduct. We regard these chapters, indeed,
as moral discourses of the highest value, and
commend them to the earnest attention of
all whose duty it is to give moral instruction
to old or young. Many a Christian minister
might, we are convinced, infuse new life into
his teaching by simply assimilating the con-
tents of this volume and thus acquiring a
fresh sense of the truth, the authority, and
the interdependence of moral precepts which
have heretofore had the warrant only of dog-
ma or of sentiment.

To illustrate the class of matters with
which Mr. Spencer here deals, we may quote
the following from the chapter on Re-
straints on Displays of Ability :

" In nearly all cases the intrusion of per-
sonal feeling makes controversy of small
value for its ostensible purpose — the estab-
lishment of truth. Desire for the eclat which
victory brings often causes a mercilessness
and a dishonesty which hinder the arrival
at right conclusions. Negative beneficence
here conduces to public benefit while it miti-
gates private injury. Usually the evidence
may be marshaled, and a valid argument set
forth, without discrediting an opponent hi
too conspicuous a manner. Small slips of
statement and reasoning, which do not affect
the general issue, may be generously passed
over. A due negative beneficence will re-
spect an antagonist's amour propre ; save,
perhaps, in cases where his dishonesty and
his consequent endeavor to obscure the truth
demand exposure. Lack of right feeling in
this sphere has disastrous public effects. It
needs but to glance around at the courses of
political and of theological controversy to see
how extreme are the perversions of men's
beliefs caused by absence of that sympa-
thetic interpretation which negative benefi-
cence enjoins."

If any have heretofore supposed that the
evolution philosophy leaves but a very re-
stricted field, if any, for the exercise of prac-
tical benevolence, the volume before us should
suffice to banish the idea. There is a wide
scope, as Mr. Spencer shows, for negative
beneficence, or self-restraint in the interest
of weaker individuals, and there is also a
wide scope for the exercise of positive benefi-

cence or the active assistance to those less
favorably circumstanced than ourselves. The
one condition to be kept in view is that our
assistance be not of a nature to cause subse-
quently more serious trouble or suffering
than it alleviates in the present. The sub-
divisions of Positive Beneficence treated by
Mr. Spencer are Marital Beneficence, Pa-
rental Beneficence, Filial Beneficence, Aid-
ing the Sick and Injured, Succor to the Ill-
used and the Endangered, Pecuniary Aid to
Relatives and Friends, Relief of the Poor,
Social Beneficence, and Political Beneficence.
Here and there in reading these chapters, as
also indeed in the section on Negative Be-
neficence, we find the line of demarcation be-
tween Beneficence and Justice a little shad-
owy. Both, of course, are subdivisions of
Ethical Conduct in general, and that the two
aspects, which Mr. Spencer for convenience
of exposition tries to keep separate, should
now and then seem to merge in a higher
unity is not surprising. The man who has
it in his power to be just or unjust, and who
decides, against his own immediate inter-
est, in favor of justice, must in general be
moved by a sentiment of beneficence ; and,
on the other hand, the man who exercises a
wise, rational, and restrained beneficence will
probably regard his own conduct as, on a
broad view of the matter, scarcely going be-
yond the limits of justice.

It might possibly puzzle some fairly in-
formed readers to understand in advance
what Mr. Spencer means by " political benefi-
cence " : the virtue is certainly one not much
understood in political circles. Let the fol-
lowing sentence give the key to the puzzle :
" Under a political regime like that into which
we have grown, taking a share in political
life is the duty of every citizen ; and not to
do so is at once short-sighted, ungrateful, and
mean: short-sighted, because abstention, if
general, must bring decay of any good insti-
tutions which exist ; ungrateful, because to
leave uncared for these good institutions
which patriotic ancestors established is to
ignore our indebtedness to them ; mean, be-
cause to benefit by such institutions and de-
volve the maintenance and improvement of
them entirely upon others implies a readiness
to receive an advantage and give nothing hi
return." A passage which has special appli-
cation to this country is the following : "In

556

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

America, where party organization is more
developed than here, whoever declines to sur-
render his convictions and follow in the mob
which is led by a 'boss' to the polls, is
labeled with the contemptuous name of
' Mugwump,' and is condemned as pharisaic
and of an unsocial disposition. In the ' land
of liberty ' it has become a political crime to
act on your own judgment."

Mr. Spencer has not for a long time given
us a book from which a greater number of
striking and helpful quotations could be made
than from this ; but our notice has already
exceeded the limits usual in these columns,
and we close by renewing the expression of
our hope that the admirably practical teach-
ings which the book contains may be widely
diffused and bring forth fruit abundantly.

DARWIN ET SES PRECURSEURS FRAN^AIS.
ETUDE SUR LE TRANSFORMISME (Darwin
and his French Precursors. A Study of
Transformism). By A. DE QUATREFAGES.
Paris: Felix Alcan. Pp. 294. Price,
6 francs.

THE purpose of this work, as defined by
the author, is, looking at the subject from
the point of view of natural science, to de-
termine exactly what is Darwin's, find what
is true in it as well as what can not be ac-
cepted of it, and to try and assign to each its
value and the deductions which are drawn
from it. Reduced to the terms of a descent
of all animal and vegetable species by suc-
cessive transformations from three or four
original types and probably from a primitive
archetype, it is found to offer little wholly
new. Darwin himself has given a list of
twenty-six naturalists of various nationalities
who had published views more or less simi-
lar to his before him. Of these, M. Quatre-
fages has compared the expressions of the
French naturalists, including Benoist de
Maillet (or Telliamed), Robinet, Buffon, La-
marck, Etienne and Isidore Geoffroy-Saint-
Hilaire, Bory de Saint- Vincent, and M.
Charles Naudin. Suggestions of these ideas
may be found further back still, even among
the alchemists of the middle ages and the
Greek sophists ; but the question of the
formation of species could not present itself
to those thinkers with the same significance
that it has done with us. Beginning with the
seventeenth century, the proposed solutions
multiplied rapidly. The author, not appre-

ciating, perhaps, the patience which English
philosophers have cultivated in the matter,
thinks the process described by the term
evolution too slow to account for the changes
of species, and prefers transformism, with
transformists as the appellation of the advo-
cates of the theory. After the accounts of
Darwin's French precursors, a general ex-
position of Darwinism and a review of its
agreement with certain general facts are
given; following which the Darwinian sys-
tem is subjected to a full discussion in eight
chapters. As every one knows, M. Quatre-
fages is not a Darwinian ; but differences of
opinion concerning heretofore unexplained
phenomena, he says, never make him unjust
toward eminent men. While he contests
their doctrines he desires to render a sincere
and cordial homage to their works. In Dar-
win he admires the almost chivalric good
faith which enables him, even when his
mind is most preoccupied with his hypoth-
eses, to be still calm enough to see in his
own labors reasons and facts that militate in
favor of his adversaries and sincerity enough
to point them out. " There is a real charm
in following such a mind in its excursions."
In the preface to a second edition of the
work he dwells upon the neutrality of the
Darwinian theory as concerns religious ques-
tions, and the impartiality with which it is
sustained by orthodox and by agnostic sup-
porters, or opposed alike by adversaries of
either school.

EXTINCT MONSTERS. A Popular Account of
some of the Larger Forms of Ancient
Animal Life. By the Rev. H. N. HUTCH-
INSON. New York: D. Appleton & Co.
Pp. 254.

THE object of this book is twofold: to
describe some of the larger and more mon-
strous forms of the past, and endeavor by
pen and pencil to present them as they were
in life ; and to illustrate how in animal life
the past has grown into the present without
the long and abrupt leaps which we are too
liable to regard as one of the chief features
of the transition. Stress is laid upon the
quality of the illustrations. They are still to
a certain extent conjectural, but they rest
upon larger and more accurate information
than any portraits of the giants and dragons
of old that have previously appeared. Many

LITERARY NOTICES.

557

of the former pictures of these creatures
were highly sensational ; in some of the later
ones neither art nor Nature had fair play,
and we had to put up with awkward-looking
creatures that could not get along at all in
life, or with animals in attitudes which later
researches have shown were not theirs.
Hence our ideas upon these points need to
be revised. The discoveries of later years
have shown, as Dr. Henry Woodward ob-
serves in the preface he furnishes, "that
the dicynodon and labyrinthodon, instead
of being toadlike in form, were lacertilian
or salamander-like reptiles, with elongated
bodies and moderately long tails; that the
iguanodon did not usually stand upon 'all
fours,' but more frequently sat up like some
huge kangaroo with short fore limbs." The
discoveries of Marsh, Cope, Leidy, and others
in America have added vastly to our knowl-
edge of the real structure of these animals.
We have now almost complete skeletons and
details of the flying membranes of long and
short tailed pterodactyles ; the archaeopte-
ryx and Marsh's hesperornis and ichthyornis
have given more definite shape to our knowl-
edge of primitive birds ; and the discovery
by Prof. Fraas of the outlines of the skin
and fins of ichthyosaurus have established
the pertinency of the term fish-lizard as ap-
plied to it. These and other discoveries
have been applied in the text and illustra-
tions of this book ; and we have, according-
ly, the saurians of the sea and the land, the
real dragons and sea-serpents of old, the
monsters of America and of India — mega-
theriums, glyptodons, mastodon, mammoth,
giant birds, Irish elk, and Steller's sea cow
— represented with a clearer approach to ac-
curacy than ever before, but still subject to
correction by future discoveries.

BIBLE STUDIES. By HENRY WARD BEECHER.
New York : Ford, Howards, & Hulbert.
Pp.438. Price, $1.50.

THIS is a volume of lectures on the early
Old Testament books which were delivered
in Plymouth Church on Sunday evenings in
1878-'79, as part of an unrealized design
eventually to cover the whole Old Testament
with the course. The lectures were taken
down by Mr. T. J. Ellinwood, according to his
custom of stenographically reporting all Mr.
Beecher's public addresses, and are now pub-

lished under the editorial supervision of Mr.
John R. Howard. The whole force of them,
Mr. Howard says, " goes to throw off all the
cramping theory of ' inspiration ' which makes
God responsible for all the evil that was
done by the inchoate Hebrew people in his
name. Thus the student is left free to fol-
low this master expositor in rediscovering
and newly appreciating the wisdom, the
goodness, the grand foundation-work of
Moses under the divine impulse, which both
served to build up the Israelitish nation, and
has entered into many of the soundest ele-
ments of modern civilization. . . . The at-
tentive reader of these Bible studies will
lose no living belief in the ancient Scriptures
as containing the word of God to men, while
he will gain new and larger views of their
worth for Christian life to-day — and that not
in spite of the new philosophy of growth, but
in full harmony with its irresistible advance."
Of special interest, as bearing upon the sub-
ject in its generality, are the first three lec-
tures, on The Inspiration of the Bible, How
to read the Bible, and The Book of Begin-
nings.

REPRESENTATIVE ENGLISH LITERATURE FROM
CHAUCER TO TENNYSON. Selected and
supplemented with Historical Connec-
tions and a Map. By HENRY S. PAN-
COAST. New York : Henry Holt & Co.
Pp. 514. Price, $1.60.

THE author's attempt has been to write a
book which should answer the needs of those
who are beginning to teach the subject ac-
cording to new methods. The tendency
formerly was to study the history of litera-
ture without coming into real contact with
the literature itself ; now, in our anxiety to
avoid this error, we are in danger of rushing
into the opposite one, and of studying the
literature torn from its living historic and
human relations. In the present work the
attempt is made to put the student in direct
contact with some representative master-
pieces, without ignoring the study of litera-
ture from its historical side. The sketches
and selections are therefore presented in the
order of their time by sequence, with a distinct
historical thread running through the whole.
The authors mentioned and quoted are pre-
sented in direct connection with the ages and
surroundings in which they lived and wrote.
The history and the surroundings are described

558

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in four periods — the period of preparation,
ending about A. D. 1400, of which Chaucer is
the principal representative ; the period of
Italian influence (The Revival of Learning
and the Puritan in Literature), 1400 to 1600,
represented by Spenser, Bacon, Milton, the
Elizabethans and the Puritans ; the period of
French influence, 1 660 to about 1750, of which
Dryden, Addison and the eighteenth century
essays, and Pope are the most conspicuous
examples : and the modern English period,
including the earlier writers of this century
and recent writers to Browning and Tenny-
son. In the appendix are a Literary Map of
England, a list of authors to accompany the
map, a Chaucer glossary, and an index.

THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS.
By HENRY WALTER BATES, with a Mem-
oir of the Author by EDWARD CLODD.
New York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 396.

WE have already, in our biographical
sketch of Mr. Bates, borne testimony to the
value of his work on the Amazons, and to
the value and interest of this book, and now
speak of the peculiar features of the present
edition. It is a reprint of the original una-
bridged edition, with a map and illustrations,
including a double colored plate of butterflies
to illustrate the theory of mimicry. The de-
scription of the book in the subtitle as A
Record of Adventures, Habits of Animals,
Sketches of Brazilian and Indian Life, and
Aspects of Nature under the Equator, during
Eleven Years of Travel, shows how compre-
hensive and varied it is. The memoir, by Mr.
Edward Clodd, a near personal friend, who
had more than an editor's interest in com-
posing the tribute, has been enriched by let-
ters furnished by Sir Joseph Hooker and Mr.
Francis Darwin, with letters from Sir Joseph
Hooker and the elder Darwin to Mr. Bates.

A TREATISE ON PUBLIC HEALTH AND ITS AP-
PLICATIONS IN DIFFERENT EUROPEAN COUN-
TRIES. By ALBERT PALMBERG. New York:
Macraillan & Co. Pp. 539. Price, $5.

THE author is a health officer, and is ac-
tive in movements in behalf of public health
in Finland. The present edition of his work
is a translation from the French original,
made at his request by Dr. Arthur News-
holme, of Brighton, who has also brought
up to date and completed the chapter on
England, and summarized the recent legisla-

tion. The treatise is based on the practice
in different countries. An analysis of the
part relating to England will illustrate the
plan and scope of the whole. The first
chapter gives a general review of the sani-
tary administration, with accounts of the
local government board, local sanitary dis-
tricts, and local boards of health, duties of
the several health officers, statistical tables,
and the daily progress in an urban sanitary
office. The next chapter comprises a sum-
mary of sanitary legislation as embodied in
the Public Health Act of 1875 — referring to
drainage, utilization of sewage, privies and
water-closets, sweeping and cleansing of
streets, courts, and houses, water supply,
common lodging houses, nuisances, offensive
trades, etc., through many particulars pro-
vided for in the law named and in other sani-
tary laws. In a third chapter sanitary regula-
tions are described with similar detail. The
two following chapters are given to the sani-
tary conditions, administration, and regula-
tions of London. The account is there ex-
tended to include other countries and their
principal cities — Scotland and Edinburgh,
Belgium and Brussels, Austria and Vienna,
Sweden and Stockholm, and Finland and
Helsingfors. These extracts are followed
by statistics showing the importance of pub-
lic hygiene. The book is rich in descriptions
and illustrations of sanitary appliances mod-
ern and practical. The author has confined
his accounts to countries whose methods he
has seen and studied personally on the spot.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF INDIVIDUALITY. By AN-
TOINETTE BROWN BLACKWELL. New York :
G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 517. Price,

$3.

THIS work or essay is characterized by the
author as " a revised, a broadened, a more full
attempt at verification of a system of thoughts
less matured in the author's former works,
Studies in General Science, and the Physical
Basis of Immortality." Its position is that
" the character of every perception and of
every cognition, and of every mental act of all
kinds is dependent in definite degrees upon
each and all of the co-operating factors, psy-
chical and physical, which together make up
the entire process of every act in which the
sensibility is consciously concerned. In other
words, all change, all action (change and

LITERARY NOTICES.

559

action include both feeling and motion) is so
entirely under the control of definite law
that the sequence of every thought is fully
determined by its correlatives of all kinds,
in the sense that it must obey the associated
laws of thought and of things. The mind
must perceive objects, must know them, and
must reason about them legitimately in true
accord with its own mental attitude working
in correspondence with the organism and the
extra-organic world." We have found noth-
ing in it clearer than this.

AN ELEMENTARY MANUAL ON APPLIED ME-
CHANICS. By ANDREW JAMIESON. Lon-
don : Charles Griffin & Co. 1892. Pp.
268. Price, $1.25.

THIS manual is intended especially for
students beginning the subject, and forms a
companion to the author's other elementary
manuals on Steam and the Steam Engine and
Magnetism and Electricity. The subject is
treated under four general divisions, the first
being devoted to statics or forces in equi-
librium, the second to hydraulics and hy-
draulic machines, the third to the laws of
motion, and the fourth to the properties and
strength of materials.

The book consists of twenty-four lectures
delivered by Prof. Jaraieson, to his students
and the method of treatment and the or-
der of arrangement of the subject matter
are based upon the author's experience in
teaching. In conformity with this, he has
placed the consideration of the laws of mo-
tion after that of hydraulics and hydraulic
machines, as he finds that it is much better
for the student to have some knowledge of
simple mechanism before trying to under-
stand the abstract laws of motion. Illustra-
tive examples are given in each lecture, and
a list of suitable questions at the end.

PRACTICAL ELECTRIC-LIGHT FITTING. By F.
C. ALLSOP. London : Whittaker & Co. ;
New York : Macmillan & Co. Pp. 275.
Price, $1.50.

THIS handbook should prove of interest
and value not only to the practical electric-
light fitter, to whom it is primarily addressed,
but to the householder using the electric
light who desires to take an intelligent inter-
est hi the subject as well. The author be-
gins his exposition with a brief but clear
statement of the meaning and relation of

current, electromotive force, and resistance,
which is quite free from technicalities and
understandable by any one without previous
knowledge of the subject, and then passes
to a consideration of the various appliances
and details of construction essential to a
complete electric-light outfit. Among the
subjects considered are systems of central-
station supply, switches, cutouts, incandes-
cent and arc lamps and their accessories,
electroliers, running of wires, arrangement of
circuits in a house, sizes of wires for a given
number of lamps, and meters. All these
subjects are treated briefly but clearly, so
that the ordinary householder can readily un-
derstand them. A full statement is given of
the rules of the London underwriters, and
the work closes with a chapter upon private
installations.

MAGNETISM AND ELECTRICITY. By ARTHUR
WILLIAM POYSER, M. A. London and New
York: Longmans, Green & Co. 1892.
Pp. 382. Price, $1.50.

THIS very excellent manual is designed for
advanced students, and the subject is treated
so as to give the student an experimental
knowledge, the text being intended to be an
aid to the experimental study and not a sub-
stitute for it, as is so often the case.

The main experimental facts of the sci-
ence of magnetism and electricity, are set
forth by the author, and simple experiments
suggested which the student can perform
without the use of elaborate apparatus. A
chapter is devoted at the close of the book
to some of the applications of the principles
of the science, in which the telephone, mi-
crophone, electric lamps, and the dynamo are
briefly described, and a short but instructive
account is given of the recent researches of
Hertz in proof of the electro-magnetic theory
of light of Clerk Maxwell, and those of Tesla
with currents of great frequency.

HEREDITARY GENIUS. By FRANCIS GALTON.
London and New York : Macmillan & Co.
1892. Pp. 379. Price, $2.50.

IN republishing this inquiry into the ques-
tion whether natural ability is hereditary, Dr
Galton has chosen to leave it in much the
same form in which it first appeared more
than twenty years ago, as to recast it and in-
corporate data now accessible would have in-
involved greater labor than he could well

56o

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

undertake. The inquiry was originally un-
dertaken at a time when it was believed that
the individual mind was capable of almost
indefinite development, if only it was proper-
ly trained and had coupled with it the neces-
sary will power to urge it on. The outcome
of the researches was, however, to show that
the mental faculties of the individual are as
rigorously limited by ancestral conditions as
are those of the body. In support of his
conclusions Dr. Galton has examined the kin-
ship of a number of men who have attained
eminence in various fields of labor, and has
shown that the number of relatives who
have been above the average are greatly in
excess of the number of such relatives that
would exist if there were no causal relation.
The classes of eminent men passed in review
comprise the English judges, statesmen,
great commanders, literary men, men of sci-
ence, poets, musicians, painters, divines,
senior classics of Cambridge, oarsmen, and
wrestlers. While the range of Dr. Galton's
inquiries is necessarily limited, his main posi-
tion seems to be established and all our later
knowledge is in the direction of its support.
The important bearing of this research is
upon the future of the race, and Dr. Galton
therefore discusses the relation of fertility to
ability, and sees reason to believe that in the
course of evolution the race may attain a
level as high above the highest now existing
as this is above the lowest at the present time.

ELECTRICAL PAPERS. By OLIVER HEAVISIDE.
Two volumes. London and New York:
Macmillan & Co., 1892. Pp. 560, 587.
Price, 80s.

THESE volumes contain the contributions
of the author during the past ten years to
the mathematical development of electrical
theory. The papers have been contributed
to various scientific periodicals without any
intention originally of making them the basis
of a systematic treatise, but aside from a
few miscellaneous ones at the beginning of
the first volume they are of sufficient conti-
nuity to present the subject in an orderly,
logical development. The papers cover the
mathematical treatment of the relations be-
tween magnetic force and electric current,
the energy of the electric current, induction
of currents in cores, electro-magnetic induc-
tion and its propagation, and electro-mag-

netic waves. The views of electrical action
and the propagation of electric disturbances
here worked out are those first propounded
by Clerk Maxwell, and which have in the
last decade come to be widely accepted by
scientific men, and are forming the basis of
all further research. Mr. Heaviside's discus-
sions are addressed only to the mathematical
physicist, and are quite beyond the lay
reader. They have been recognized as of a
high order of merit by scientific men, and
have taken their place as a valuable con-
tribution to the scientific literature of the
subject.

ALTERNATING CURRENTS. By FREDERICK BE-
DELL, Ph. D., and ALBERT GUSHING CRE-
HORE, Ph. D. New York : W. J. Johnston
Co.; London: Whittaker & Co. 1893.
Pp. 325. Price,

IN this work Drs. Bedell and Crehore, of
Cornell University, have undertaken to de-
velop the theory of the alternating current
in a more complete and logical form than
has hitherto been done. The work is mathe-
matical, and appeals only to the scientific
student of physics. The authors divide their
treatment into two main divisions, in the first
of which the problems of an alternating cir-
cuit are treated analytically, and in the sec-
ond graphically. In each mode of treatment
the simpler cases of circuits containing re-
sistance and self-induction only, and resist-
ance and capacity only, are first taken up,
and then the more complex cases "of circuits
containing resistance, self-induction and ca-
pacity, and resistance and distributed capaci-
ty are considered. The solutions obtained are
of universal application, though for the sake
of clearness the authors give numerous ex-
amples of the application of the general
formulas. Parts of the work have appeared
as separate papers in various scientific peri-
odicals, and have met with very favorable
reception from scientific men.

AN ATLAS OF ASTRONOMY. By Sir ROBERT
STAWELL BALL. A Series of Seventy-two
Plates, with Introduction and Index. New
York : D. Appleton & Co. Price, $4.

HAVING received an invitation to prepare
a new astronomical atlas, Prof. Ball under-
took the work with the view of supplying an
elementary series of maps, such as had been
asked for by the readers of his Starland.

LITERARY NOTICES.

561

The scheme gradually developed, however,
so that while suitably supplying the wants
of beginners in astronomical study, the atlas
has taken on a scope which makes it more
widely serviceable. The plates comprise a
general star map in twenty sections, a series
of twelve monthly star maps, and several
other important single maps and groups. The
moon is represented in charts of the four
quadrants, and there are also telescopic
views of the moon of each day's age from
the third to the fourteenth. Each of these
pictures is furnished with a key and index
of names, and it is believed that students of
our satellite will find these plates of much
service in identifying the various lunar ob-
jects. Other plates represent phases and
orbits of the planets, solar phenomena, com-
ets, nebulae, systems of satellites, eclipses,
etc. An introduction of fifty-seven pages
describes the plates and gives a list of select
telescopic objects suitable for observation
with small instruments. Another feature of
the present work is an index to planets. The
identification of these bodies is difficult for
a beginner, on account of their shifting po-
sitions. The author has removed this diffi-
culty for the next decade by providing a
simple method of learning in a few seconds
the approximate position of every important
planet. It should be noted that the me-
chanical execution of the volume is of a high
grade.

LIFE AND LABOR OP THE PEOPLE IN LONDON.
Edited by CHARLES BOOTH. Vol. III.
Blocks of Buildings, Schools, and Immi-
gration. Vol. IV. The Trades of East
London. London and New York : Mac-
millan & Co. Price, $1.50 each.

THESE volumes consist of correlated es-
says on various features of its subject by
a number of special writers. They form a
uniformly straightforward account, abun-
dantly fortified by statistics, of how the poor-
er classes of London work and live, and how
their children are educated. There is no
sentiment and few comments or suggestions
in these volumes ; they are crowded so full
of facts that no room is left for such matter.
Compact tables of figures are introduced fre-
quently, and in Volume III colored maps
show the proportions of native and foreign-
born population in London and in England.
The information which the work contains is
VOL. XLIII. — 40

of the highest value to the sociologist and
deeply interesting to any one who wishes to
know " how the other half lives " in a great
city. The essays are far from dry, in spite of
their meatiness. Thus, one of those devoted
to model buildings is a sketch of life in
buildings, which is notably graphic. In the
chapter on the Jewish Community is a vivid
account of the progress of a " greener " from
the time he enters the Thames on board an
immigrant steamer until he is established in
a little business, perhaps two or three years
later. The accounts of elementary educa-
tion and of the secondary education of boys
and of girls are also very readable. The
trades that receive attention in Volume IV are
tailoring, bootmaking, dock labor, furniture-
making, tobacco-working, silk manufacture,
and women's work ; there is also a special
chapter on Sweating by the editor. A thor-
ough insight is given into the conditions of
work in these trades, and some idea of how
both male workers and factory girls spend
their leisure is also afforded. These vol-
umes are an excellent example of what sort
of investigation is necessary as a basis for
any intelligent efforts toward bettering the
condition of the poor in a large city.

The Handbook of Emergencies and Com-
mon Ailments of E, F. Bradford, M. D., as-
sisted by Louis Lewis, M. D. (B. B. Russell,
publisher, Boston), is a really valuable work,
larger and fuller than most of the books of
similar title, but less bulky and diffuse, and
therefore more valuable and practical than
ordinary books of household medicine. The
author's purpose in preparing it was to pre-
sent to non-professional readers directions
for the diagnosis and treatment of the class
of cases described in the title. The author's
plan has been to treat the subjects more
fully and extensively than is done in the nu-
merous handbooks already in circulation, and
to describe in sufficient detail the latest
remedies and methods of treatment, or such
as are available and easily understood. The
object has been kept in view, too, besides
pointing out specific remedies for different
ailments, to discuss and explain some of the
general principles upon which a sensible
practice of medicine is founded. The book
is divided into five parts. Part I presents
some general introductory remarks on symp-

562

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

toms and the signs of disease and of death,
and on the use of medicines ; Part II re-
lates to injuries and wounds and their treat-
ment; Part III, to sudden attacks, painful
attacks, pain in the chest, and pain in the
stomach ; Part IV, to some common ailments
and diseases of the skin ; and Part V, to dis-
eases of infancy and childhood; numerous
particular forms of attack being described
under each heading.

A Manual of Physics for university stu-
dents, prepared by Prof. William Peddie, of
Edinburgh, has been issued by G. P. Putnam's
Sons (price, $2.50). It is a treatise of a high
grade, and is confined to pure science. It
makes large use of mathematics, but the au-
thor states that the student may assume the
results of the mathematical portions, and use
the remainder, which is much the larger part,
of the text in his study of experimental
physics. The volume has an index, and there
are over two hundred diagrams in the text.

The ejection of blood from the eyes of
the lizards of the genus Phrynosoma — popu-
larly called horned toads — is now attracting
considerable attention. In the Proceedings
of the United States National Museum, 0. P.
Hay gives a very interesting account of his
experiments with this lizard. It appears that
upon irritating the animal blood spurts from
just above the eye. For what purpose the
horned toad thus besprinkles an enemy with
his own blood, what is the source of the blood,
and how is it expelled with such force, are
the questions that are puzzling biologists. It
is suggested that the purpose of the ejection
is to defend the animal from the attacks of
enemies, although it seems improbable that
the discharge would seriously pain or affect
an enemy ; however, Mr. Hay thinks it like-
ly that this is the purpose of the habit, and
he says: "A discharge of blood into the
eyes of some pursuing bird or snake might
so seriously interfere with its clearness of vi-
sion that the lizard might make its escape
while its enemy was wiping its eyes."

The determination of the source of the
blood has offered serious difficulties to the
investigations of biologists, the most proba-
ble theory being that the blood or matter is
lodged in a blood sinus upon each side of the
head, a portion of the wall lying on the inner
surface of the eyelid. This sinus is supposed
to be surrounded with muscular tissue of

sufficient force to cause the thin wall in the
lid to be ruptured and the blood to be eject-
ed to a considerable distance. These toads
are found in nearly all parts of California,
and are called by the Mexicans " sacred
toads," " because they wept tears of blood."

In the Contemporary Review Prof. A. H.
Sayce contributes a valuable paper to philo-
logical literature, which he entitles The Primi-
tive Home of the Aryans. Until recent years
the accepted belief was that the parent
speech had its home in Asia, probably on the
slopes of the Hindu Koosh. The parent
speech of the Indo-European languages was
entitled the Ursprache, or "primeval lan-
guage " ; but, as linguistic history developed,
this supposition was abandoned, for it was
found to differ from Sanskrit or Greek only
in its fuller inflectional character. Sanskrit
then became the parent, and its home was
determined to be in Asia, the choice being
fixed upon two arguments, the first of which
is linguistic, the second being historical.
" On one hand it has been laid down by emi-
nent philologists that the less one of the de-
rived languages has deflected from the parent
speech the more likely it is to be geograph-
ically nearer to its earliest home " ; . . . and,
" as Sanskrit was held to be the most primi-
tive of the Indo-European languages to re-
flect clearly the features of the parent speech,
the conclusion was drawn that that parent
speech had been spoken at no great distance
from the country where the hymns of Rig-
Veda were first composed." Prof. Sayce,
however, draws attention to the fact that the
result of recent discoveries has been a com-
plete revolution in the study of Indo-Euro-
pean etymology ; and that whereas, ten years
ago, Sanskrit was invoked to explain Greek,
" it is to the Greek that the new school now
turns to explain Sanskrit." He claims, with
Dr. Penka, that " southern Scandinavia was
the primitive ' Aryan home,' " and he adds
that " a more profound examination of Teu-
tonic and Keltic mythology, a more exact
knowledge of the words in the several Indo-
European languages which are not of Indo-
European origin, and the progress of archaao-
logical discovery will furnish the verification
we need " to establish that in Europe and not
Asia was the home of the parent speech.

The Birth of Invention is a most interest-
ing pamphlet, by Otis T. Mason, Ph. D., Cu-

LITERARY NOTICES.

563

rator of the Department of Ethnology, United
States National Museum. He brings his read-
er to " the day when the first being worthy
to be called a man " stood upon the earth,
and he describes his utter poverty of cloth-
ing, tools, experience, language, etc. " All
Nature laughed at him." But " the one en-
dowment that this creature possessed, hav-
ing in it the promise and potency of all future
achievements, was the creative spark called
invention." From this beginning Mr. Mason
evolves an interesting narrative of the prog-
ress of invention, using "five guides upon
his interesting journey." The first is history,
the second philology, the third folk lore, the
fourth is archaeology, and the fifth ethnol-
ogy. And, as a result of the assistance of
these mediums, he claims that we now have
on earth types of every sort of culture it has
ever known.

The second part of the pamphlet is de-
voted to a treatise on American inventions
and discoveries in medicine, surgery, and
practical sanitation, by John S. Billings, M. D.,
Curator of the United States Medical Mu-
seum. Dr. Billings draws attention to the
enormous number of applicants for license to
prepare and sell patent and secret medicines,
and, while denying the benefits derivable
from such nostrums, he claims that their ex-
istence is solely due to advertising ; that he
knows of only four valuable secret remedies,
and that proprietary and secret remedies
are largely responsible for the establish-
ment and support of some of our newspapers
and journals. To give an idea of how far
the patent-medicine craze has gone, he tells
of a " patent automatic doctor," on the prin-
ciple of " put a quarter in the slot and take
out the pill that suits your case." In 1880
there were in the United States five hundred
and ninety-two establishments devoted to the
manufacture of drugs and chemicals, the
capital invested being $28,598,458, while
there were five hundred and ninety-three es-
tablishments devoted to the manufacture of
patent medicines and compounds, the capital
invested being $10,620,880.

As a pleasure resort and a reminiscence,
the White Mountains never tire. As a field
for scientific exploration they are likewise
perennial. That their powers of literary
suggestiveness have not yet been fully drawn
upon is proved by a collection of out-of-door

sketches of Mr. Frank Bolles, entitled At
the North of Bearcamp Water (Houghton,
Mifflin & Co., $1.25). Bearcamp Water is a
little river that flows from Sandwich into
the Ossipee Lakes. " At the north " of it
are the Chocorua Lakes and the mountains
Chocorua and Passaconaway and their less
imposing companions — Mr. Bolles's home,
where he lives when he is not drudging at
Harvard University, nearly equally related
to the base of Chocorua — famous as the
most characteristic and picturesque peak in
New England, and the lakes. His " strolling
chronicles," as he calls them, give vivid
photographs of this most interesting region,
the lakes, rivers, valleys, and mountains,
and the life there in summer and winter.
Mr. Bolles roams around them at will ; regard-
less of season or weather, pushes boldly into
the obscure recesses of the untrodden wil-
derness ; spends an August night in a thun-
der-shower alone on the narrow ledge of
Chocorua's precipitous peak; essays climb-
ing the mountain through the snow ; carves
his own way up Paugus ; and accomplishes
as a matter of course that which the ama-
teur mountaineer of two weeks a year shrinks
from as a kind of modified suicide. He
knows the birds, the bears, and the squir-
rels, and has an Orphean way of calling the
birds around him in flocks at will ; and he
tells of all these things with the air of one
who is occupied with them for the love of
them ; and in telling of them has added an-
other to the most valuable and attractive of
our outdoor Nature books.

An excellent United States belief Map,
published by the Geological Survey, is of
convenient size and shows clearly and dis-
tinctly the elevations of all the parts of the
country — including coast lands, valleys, pla-
teaus, and mountains regions, at convenient
intervals. The elevations are designated by
a series of nine distinct shades of color,
from white to dark brown, showing depres-
sions below sea level and elevations from
sea level to 100 feet ; from 100 to 500, 500
to 1,000, 1,000 to 2,000, 2,000 to 5,000,
5,000 to 8,000, 8,000 to 11,000, and above
11,000 feet.

Who ? When ? and What? (Parmake &
Chaffee, publishers, New York) is a chart of
the famous men and events of the six centu-
ries, 1250 to 1850. It shows the centuries

564

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in vertical columns; and in horizontal red
lines within the columns the lives of the
persons whose names the lines respectively
bear, with arrowheads pointing out the
years of their birth and death. The chart
is otherwise arranged in three grand divi-
sions, viz., literature, thought, discovery, in-
vention, etc. ; second, fine arts ; and, third,
music ; while prominent movements and
events marking the progress in each division
are duly and plainly noticed. Attached to
the chart is an index, by the aid of which
each name recorded may be easily found.

A series of seventy-two Normal Tem-
perature Charts, by Decades, for the United
States and the Dominion of Canada, com-
piled by Mr. A. J. Henry, and published
by the Signal Department under General
Greely, comprises reductions of observa-
tions from about sixty stations, selected so
as to represent the entire area of the coun-
try. These charts, it is observed, have be-
come a necessary aid in the work of the
Forest Division, and have been published in
the expectation that they will also become
valuable adjuncts in the duties of local ob-
servers, with reference to forecasting the
weather and furnishing information ; as well
as to observers charged with the preparation
of weekly or monthly crop bulletins.

Prof. Adolphe Dreyspring's method of
teaching the French and German languages
is conformed to the maxim Repetitio mater
stitdiorum, or the rule of constant repetition.
He uses only a limited vocabulary and en-
larges it slowly ; and exercises the pupil in
all possible changes hi the use and order of
these words, and hi a great variety of adap-
tations. Then he tries to make his lessons
interesting and amusing by casting them in
the form of a story, and illustrating them
with pictures which, while pleasing to the
eye, suggest the translation. The French
Reader, on the Cumulative Method, is intend-
ed to follow the Easy Lessons in French, as a
first attempt at more extended reading. In
it the pupil will find a vocabulary familiar
from the Easy Lessons, to which much has
been added that is new. The book recites
the story of Rodolph and Coco the chimpan-
zee, which has been composed with consider-
able knowledge of what children like, and is
adapted to instruct them and amuse them at
,once. (American Book Company.)

A Report on the Higgimville Sheet, La-
fayette County, is the first of a series of
similar reports which are to be issued by the
Geological Survey of Missouri, Arthur Wins-
low, State Geologist, containing the results of
detailed examination in the respective areas.
The localities selected for such work are
those which are of prominent economic im-
portance or of great geological and scientific
interest. The form of publication is novel,
and is intended to bring forward the map
and section sheet as the prominent features,
subordinating the report to them. Hence,
the form of the modern small map sheet is
adopted, with a scale of an inch to the
mile, each map representing a quarter of a
degree on each side, or one sixteenth of a
square degree. The map is geological and
topographical, and is accompanied with a
section sheet containing cross-sections of
profiles and underground structure and num-
bered columnar sections showing details of
geological formations.

Truth in Fiction, by Paul Carus (Open
Court Publishing Company, Chicago), in-
cludes Twelve Tales with a Moral, or rather
allegories, for only the first one, The Chiefs
Daughter, is a real story, and in that the
allegorical significance is as prominent as are
the incidents. The lesson taught by it is that
while we may throw away ordinances and
ceremonies, we need not forget the princi-
ples and the truths which they cover, and
which they are intended to symbolize or
suggest. In the second story, After the
Distribution of the Type, the doctrine is sug-
gested that, while the man passes away, his
work, that which he taught and gave to
mankind, lives on eternally ; and in that is
the real immortality. In like manner the
particular forms of doctrine and philosophy
which Mr. Carus upholds are presented,
and agnostic principles are defended, or
those features which he regards as absurd
are satirized, in the other stories.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Agricultural Experiment Stations, Bulletins.
Iowa, Massachusetts: Analysis of Commercial
Fertilizers. Ohio: Bulletin and Eleventh Annual
Report.

Agriculture, United States Department of.
North American Fauna of the Death Valley Ex-
pedition. Pp. 394. With Plates.

Bishop, Cortlandt F. History of Elections in
the American Colonies. New York: Columbia
College. Pp.297.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

565

Bonrdeau, Louis. Conquete du Monde Ve'ge'tal
(Conquest of the Vegetable World). Paris: FSlix
Alcan. Pp.371.

Brooks, W. K. Salpa in its Relation to the
Evolution of Life. Johns Hopkins University.
Pp.85.

Brown, A. J. Jukes. Geology. New York:
Macmillan & Co. Pp. 248. $1.

Bryant, William M. Possibilities of a Peda-
gogical Society. St. Louie Society of Pedagogy.
Pp. 31.

Carter, O. C. S. Artesian Wells as a Water
Supply for Philadelphia. Pp. 4.— Other Papers
on Artesian Wells. Pp.7.

Chicago Manual Training School. Tenth An-
nual Catalogue, 1892-'93.

Durable. Edwin T. Report on the Brown
Coal and Lignite of Texas. Texas Geological Sur-
vey. Pp.243.

Ebers, Georg. The Story of My Life. D.
Appleton & Co. Pp. 382. $1.25.

Eureka Newspaper Guide, 1893. Eureka Ad-
vertising Agency, Binghamton, N. Y. Pp. 578.
$2.

Geldard, C. Statics and Dynamics. New
York: Longmans, Green & Co. Pp. 308. $1.50.

Gould, F. J. History of Religion. Vol. I.
London: Watts & Co. Pp. 154. 2*. 6rf.

Greene. F. V. General Greene. D. Appleton
& Co. Pp. 332. $1.50.

Hart, Ernest. Hypnotism, Mesmerism, and
the New Witchcraft. D. Appleton & Co. Pp.
182. $1.25.

Hill, Robert T. Clay Materials of the United
States. Pp. 56.— Paleontology of the Cretaceous
Formations of Texas, etc. Pp. 40. With Plates.

Juglar, Clement. History of Panics. G. P.
Putnam's Sons. Pp. 150.

Krohn, W. O. Psychological Laboratory at
GOttingen. Pp. 2. — Simultaneous Stimulations of
the Sense of Touch. Pp. 16.

Lamb, D. S., Washington. The Meckel Di-
verticulum. Pp. 8.

Mclivaine, Charles. The Poisons of Toad-
stools. Reprint. Pp. 14.

McKendrick, John G., and Snodgrass, William.
The Physiology of the Senses. New York: Charles
Scribner's Sous. Pp. 318. $1.50.

Marshall, A. Milnes. Vertebrate Embryology.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 640.

Merrill, F. J. H. Salt and Gypsum in Industries
of New York. Albany: University of the State
of New York. Pp.89.

Miers, H. A., and Crosskey, R. The Soil in
Relation to Health. New York: Macmillan &
Co. Pp. 135. $1.10.

Newell, Jane H. A Reader in Botany. Bos-
ton: Ginn & Co. Pp. 179.

Newhall, C. S. The Shrubs of Northeastern
America. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp.
249.

Newman, Dr. Robert Cremation and its Im-
portance in Cholera. Pp. 10.

Orum, Julia A. Voice Education. Philadel-
phia. Pp. 184.

Pope, Albert A., Boston. Errors in School
Books. Pp.40.

Public Reservations (Massachusetts). Trus-
tees' Second Annual Report. Boston: G. H. Ellis.
Pp. 73.

Putnam, S. P. Religion a Curse, a Disease, a
Lie. New York: Truthseeker Library. Pp. 96.

Richard, Ernest. The German School System.
New York University. Pp. 16.

Riley C. V. Reports of the Practical Work of
the Division of Entomology, United States De-
partment of Agriculture.

Ripley, W. S. The Financial History of Vir-
ginia. Columbia College. Pp. 170.

Rosewater, Victor. Special Assessments. Co-
lumbia College. Pp. 152.

Ryder, John A. Energy as a Factor in Or-
ganic Evolution. Pp. 10.— The Mechanical Gene-
sis of the Fowl's Egg. Pp. 6. Philadelphia:
American Philosophical Society.

Scudder, S. H. The Life of a Butterfly. Pp.
186.— The Commoner Butterflies of the North-
ern United States and Canada. New York: Henry
Holt & Co. Pp.206.

Smith, Henry. Religion of the Brain and
other Essays. London: Watts & Co. Pp. 88.
25. 6d.

Stebbinsr, Rev. T. R. R. A History of Crusta-
cea. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 466.
$2.

Studies from the Biological Laboratory of
Johns Hopkins University. Vol. V, No. 2. Pp.
50.

Swift, M. I. A Lesgue of Justice. Boston:
Commonwealth Society. Pp. 90. 50 cents.

Taussig, F. W. The Silver Situation in the
United States. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
Pp. 173. 75 cents.

Thomas, Cyrus. Are the Maya Hieroglyphs
Phonetic? Reprint. Pp.28.

Truthseeker, Editor of. Design Argument
Fallacies. Pp. 59. 15 cents.

Vogel, E. The Atomic Weights and Specific
Gravities.

Wast, Max. The Inheritance Tax. Columbia
College. Pp. 140.

Weichmann, F. G. Theoretical Chemistry.
New York: John Wiley & Sons. Pp. 222.

Williams, S. G. History of Modern Education.
Syracuse, N. Y.: C. W. Bardeen. Pp. 391. $1.50.

Wright, Carroll D. Seventh Annual Report of
the Commissioner of Labor. Vol. I. Pp. 841.

Zoological Society of Philadelphia. Twenty-
first Annual Report of the Directors. Pp. 18.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

The Scientific Meetings at Madison, Wis.

— The coming meeting of the American As-
sociation for the Advancement of Science
will be held in Madison, Wis., August 16th
to 23d inclusive. Previous to the former
date, the American Microscopical Society will
meet August 14th, 15th, and 16th, under
the presidency of the Hon. Jacob D. Cox;
the Geological Society of America, August
15th and 16th, Sir J. William Dawson, presi-
dent ; and on the same days the Association
for the Promotion of Agricultural Science,
Prof. J. P. Roberts, president ; the Associa-
tion of Economic Entomologists, Dr. S. A.
Forbes, president; and the Association of
State Weather Service, Major H. H. C. Dun-
woody, president ; and after the adjournment,
the International Botanical Congress. The
meetings of the Botanical and Entomological
Clubs will be sandwiched between those of
the association. Free excursions will be

566

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

given on the Saturday to Devil's Lake, about
forty miles from Madison, and the Dells of
the Wisconsin River, about eighty miles dis-
tant; besides three excursions of sections.
The International Botanical Congress will
consider questions of botanical interest, but
papers embodying the results of research
will be excluded, and the International
Standing Committee upon Nomenclature is
expected to make its report. Mr. William
Harkness will be president of this meeting
of the American Association ; and the sec-
tional vice-presidents will be: (A) Mathe-
matics and Astronomy, C. L. Doolittle ; (B)
Physics, E. L. Nichols ; (C) Chemistry, Ed-
ward Hart ; (D) Mechanical Science and En-
gineering, S. W. Robinson; (E) Geology and
Geography, Charles D. Walcott ; (F) Zoology,
Henry F. Osbora; (G) Botany, Charles E.
Bessey ; (H) Anthropology, J. Owen Dorsey ;
(I) Economic Science and Statistics, William
H. Brewer.

Large Game. — Among the animals de-
scribed in Mr. Rowland Ward's Measure-
ments and Weights of the Great Game of
the World, precedence is given to the hippo-
potamus of Africa. Not unlike him is the
manatee, now extinct in the West Indies, but
surviving in the upper Amazon. Both kinds
of marine cattle, observes the Saturday Re-
view, graze upon water weeds at the bottoms
of the streams ; but the manatee is harm-
less under all circumstances, while the hip-
popotamus sometimes plays the part of an
assailant. A very formidable enemy he can
be, for his massive tusks — all tusks are
measured at the root — are sometimes more
than nine inches in circumference. Still more
dangerous are the razor-like tushes of the
boar, and they are none the less dangerous
that they are short. The greatest length of
the outside curve is given at ten inches, and
yet the boar has been known to come off vic-
torious in a battle with the Bengal tiger. In
contrast with one another stand the muntjac,
a deer of India and the warm countries of the
southern Pacific, with a " sweep " of horns of
only six inches and a half, and the sambur,
which weighs six hundred pounds and has a
" magnificent " spread of antlers of two feet
and a half from tip to tip. The best of the
American wapiti is more than half as large
again as the Scottish red deer, and the

grand Carpathian species yields in size to the
extinct Irish elk. Generally speaking, we
find that the weight of deer depends partly
on the climate, but chiefly on the food. The
caribou, or reindeer, is an exception. The
farther north you find him, the better he
seems to thrive, and, like the musk ox, he
fattens on the arctic lichens; and the
moose, which haunts more southerly forests
and swamps, is decidedly smaller. There
are some remarkably graceful dwarfs of the
deer tribe. Kirk's antelope of East Africa
wears Lilliputian horns three inches long;
and Salt's antelope from Somali Land is still
more minute. The beautiful little gazelles
of Oriental poetry seem to do well anywhere ;
apparently they can dispense with water and
lay on flesh in a wilderness of sand and
stones. Naturally, they are always in high
condition, and it is no easy business to ride
them down. A very remarkable group are
the wild sheep and goats which have been
attracting so many adventurous rifles to the
Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada, to the
Himalayas and the plateaus of Kashmir and
Thibet. The horns of the finest Himalayan
ibex which was killed by Mr. Kennard had a
span of four feet and a quarter. Those of a
wild goat from southeastern Europe, which
fell to Colonel Marston's rifle, were a trifle
longer. These, again, are surpassed by the
curve of the best markhor, a denizen of the
higher Himalayas, resembling the goat.
When you cross the Indus into Afghanistan,
the curved horns of the markhor are curi-
ously straightened and fall away in length by
a fourth. The length of the longest tiger
skin after drying is said to be thirteen feet
six inches ; but it must be noted that skins
expand considerably in the curing. The
greatest length of a skin undressed is given
as ten feet two inches and a half.

The Company of the Dead. — In Mr.

Charles Hose's journeys in North Borneo, he
found one morning after his night's rest that
the remains of his host's last wife also occu-
pied the room, where they were kept in a large
box serving as a coffin. It is the custom of
these people to keep a corpse in the house
for three months before burying it. The
body is then removed from the house and
conveyed with much ceremony to the tomb.
Every one present sends one or more cigar-

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

567

ettes made of tobacco, wrapped in the dry
leaves of the wild banana, to his dead rela-
tives in " Apo Leggan " (hades). These
cigarettes are placed on the top of and
around the coffin ; and, should the body be
that of a man, his weapons, tools, and a small
quantity of rice, with his prioTc (cooking pot),
are deposited in the tomb with him that he
may be able to continue his daily pursuits
in the other world. But if of a woman, her
large sun-hat, her little hoe — used for weed-
ing in the paddy fields — her beads, earrings,
and other finery are placed with her body,
that she may not be found wanting on her
arrival the other side of the grave. Mr. Hose
was once present when the corpse of a boy was
being placed in the coffin, and he watched
the proceedings from a short distance. As
the lid of the coffin was being closed an
old man came out on the veranda of the
house with a large gong and solemnly beat it
for several seconds. The chief, who was
sitting near, informed him that this was al-
ways done before closing the lid, that the
relations of the deceased who had already
passed out of this world might know that
the spirit was coming to join them. There
was another strange ceremony at which he
was once present, called " Dayong Janoi," in
which the dead are supposed to send mes-
sages to the living, and which proved that
" spiritualism " was of very ancient practice
among the Kayans.

Heat Phenomena of the Diamond. — In

his experiments with the diamond Mr. Mois-
san has found that, in his thermo-electric ap-
paratus for burning in oxygen, when the tem-
perature was slowly raised the combustion
proceeded gradually without the production
of light ; but if the temperature was raised
40° or 50° C. above the point at which this
slow combustion begins, a* sudden incandes-
cence occurs, and the diamond becomes sur-
rounded by a brilliant flame. Various deep-
ly colored specimens of diamonds burned
with production of incandescence and flame
at temperatures of from 690° to 720° C., but
transparent Brazilian diamonds did not attain
the stage of slow combustion without incan-
descence till the temperature of from 760° to
770° C. was reached. A Cape diamond suf-
fered gradual combustion at from 780° to
790° C. Specimens of exceedingly hard

boort began to combine with oxygen at 790°,
and burned brilliantly at from 840° to 875°
C. When Cape diamonds were heated with
hydrogen to a temperature of 1,200° C., they
remained unchanged ; but if the stones had
previously been cut, they frequently lost their
brilliance and transparency. Dry chlorine
gas was found incapable of reacting with the
diamond until a temperature of from 1,100°
to 1,200° C. was attained. Hydrofluoric-acid
vapor likewise only reacted at about the
same high temperature. Vapor of sulphur
also requires to be heated to 1,000° C. before
reacting, but in the case of black diamonds
bisulphide of carbon is produced at about
900° C. Metallic iron, at its melting point,
combines with the diamond in the most ener-
getic manner ; and it is a point of consider-
able interest that crystals of graphite are
deposited as the fused mass cools ; hence the
experiment forms a striking method of con-
verting the allotropic form of carbon that
crystallizes in the cubic system into that
which crystallizes in the hexagonal system.
Melted platinum likewise combines with the
diamond with great energy.

Hurry, and the Chance of Life. — In a

paper on The Duration of Life of the Xerv-
ous American, Dr. Julius Pohlman asks, " Is
this so often quoted 'fearful nervousness'
and ' early death ' a fact or merely an asser-
tion? What proofs have we for it? It
seems very plausible, indeed, and apparently
correct physiological reasoning to say that
the individual's longevity is in inverse pro-
portion to his daily hurry, all other things
being equal. But not many years ago the
equally misleading but equally plausible state-
ment was accepted that the human race was
growing smaller with the advance of civiliza-
tion. " First of all," the author continues, " the
assumption that increased activity and greater
hurry mean more rapid wearing away of the
body ignores the fact that the human body
is a wonderful piece of machinery, which not
only renews itself constantly, but whose
strength and power of endurance and capaci-
ty for more work increase with increased
use up to the point at which use becomes
abuse. At what time and under what press-
ure this danger line is reached depends upon
the individual." The testimony of the ex-
ecutive officers of four of our largest life-

568

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

insurance companies is quoted to show that
" from the material standpoint of dollars and
cents the life of the American is at least as
good as, if not better than, that of the Euro-
pean, all other conditions being the same.
And if we remember that probably the ma-
jority of the holders of policies of life insur-
ances in this country is made up from those
same active, pushing, and rushing men, a
class among which death from overwork
would naturally occur most frequently, then
the figures mentioned acquire additional
force. A compilation drawn from every
available source regarding the estimated du-
ration of life at different years of age in
America and in Europe gives figures that show
that the chances of the American, from early
manhood to a good old age, are, all through,
a little better than those of his English
brother, and a good deal better than those of
the Germans.

Funeral Customs of tbe Haida Indians
(Qneen Charlotte Islands). — According to the
Kev. C. Harrison, all men, and particularly
the chiefs among these Indians, are greatly
honored on their departure from this world.
When the man dies, the next to succeed
him (generally his nephew) is presented with
blankets, dishes, beads, guns, canoes, prints,
pottery, dogs, axes, and furniture. They are
not, however, for his own benefit, but for
the benefit of the deceased, and those who
take part in the burial ceremony. In fact,
nothing seems to be too valuable for the
funeral. Christians are afraid to break the
news of a friend's death to his wife, father,
and mother. Not so, however, with the Hai-
das. The author has seen them make the
coffin and decorate it in the presence of the
sick person when they have come to the con-
clusion that he is about to die. They also
tell the sick man that he will not recover,
and urge him not to attempt to do so. The
members of his tribe and all the chiefs of
the other tribes come in to see him, and
talk of nothing else but of others who have
had the same sickness and died. When he
hears what they have determined that he
should do, he then refuses to eat and drink,
and so hastens the demise. When gasping
for breath, he is washed, and his shroud, made
of white cotton, is then put on ; white stock-
ings are put on his feet ; he is clad in a pair

of white woolen drawers, and a white hand-
kerchief is tied around his head. His neck
is encircled with beads, a spot of red paint
is put on either cheek, and a black spot on
his forehead. When thus arrayed, all his
friends enter the house and wait until he
dies. They think very little of each other
when in health and strength, but as soon as
they are dead they become valuable and are
called good Indians. When a person dies,
they arrange a bed in the corner of the
house and cover it with white cotton and
place the deceased thereon, and then they
cover him with a sheet of the same material.
In twenty-four hours' time the body is placed
in the coffin and arranged in the position in
which it is to be buried. Then the time of
mourning comes. All the old women of the
tribe and the friends and relatives of the
deceased begin to groan and sigh and cry.
After they have wept for one or two hours,
the greatest chief present calls for silence.
Then the smoking feast begins. During the
smoking entertainment the chiefs and friends
of the deceased, according to rank, will be-
gin to extol his virtues, and try to console
his relatives by reference to his disposition
toward the poor, his love for his friends, and
his kindness toward his wife and children ;
and they also are very careful to refer to his
liberality when making a free distribution of
his goods — namely, a potlatch. Everything
done in his past life passes under review,
and they then conclude by saying that his
time had come, and that the gods wanted
him, and he, being a good and wise man, had
obeyed their summons. When any one of
importance dies, the news is carried to all the
villages, and they at once come to see the
dead man and also consult with the relatives
regarding the funeral arrangements. If the
deceased person belonged to the Bears, the
funeral preparations are made and conducted
by the Eagle Crest, and vice versa. After
the funeral is over, all the people are feasted
by the deceased man's nephew, who then
assumes his uncle's title and property.

Self-purification. — The results of recent
discussions hi Europe, in which Prausnitz,
Prof. Pettenkofer, Prof. Buchner, and Prof.
Frankland have taken part, indicate that
" self -purification " of rivers by oxygena-
tion and sunlight, while it may be sufficient

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

569

for water applied to ordinary uses, can not
be relied upon for the perfect sanitation
of water intended for drinking. This con-
clusion is confirmed by the recent experi-
ence of some towns in Massachusetts. Con-
tinued outbreaks of typhoid fever in Lowell
and Lawrence were ascribed by the State
Board of Health in 1890-'91 to the admis-
sion of typhoid-fever excreta into the river
from towns higher up the stream, where it
was known to have existed. Newburyport
has for the past ten years, or since the in-
troduction of a public water supply, been
comparatively exempt from typhoid fever;
but recently, in consequence of a scarcity of
water, the water company began pumping a
part of its supply from the river and distrib-
uting it to the inhabitants in the face of ex-
pert warning against doing so. In January,
1893, the cases of typhoid fever, following
closely after a similar prevalence in Lowell,
suddenly rose from an average of less than
one a month to thirty-four in January, with
five deaths.

East African Snperstitions.— Mrs. French-
Sheldon, who traveled in Africa from Teita
to Kilimegalia and secured a propinquity to
the natives under natural conditions rarely
enjoyed by white travelers, became ac-
quainted with some very curious supersti-
tions among them. The people of Taveta
have an idea that the preservation of the
skull preserves the spirit -of the dead, and
that the congregation of the skulls of a fam-
ily or tribe guarantees a future reunion. They
avoid letting any stranger know of the death
of one of their tribe. If a familiar face is
missed, and an inquiry is made, some one
promptly says, " He has gone on a journey. '
They have a horror of having their pictures
or photographs taken. They wear certain
beads and bits of wood or iron as charms to
ward off evil, and as dama for various com-
plaints. They are loath to part with these
beads, beans, or bones. They will lend them
to one another when suffering, but always re-
claim them when their friend has been cured.
The fires in the village were never allowed to
go out ; a special family fire might go out, but
this could be resupplied or reignited by get-
ting a blazing fagot from some friend's fire.
But in the history of the tribe they had al-
ways preserved the fire, as doubtless did their

prehistoric ancestors. When the Wasombo
learned that Mrs. French-Sheldon intended
to descend to Devil's Water, as Lake Chala
was called by them, they speedily retreated
to their villages, with a feeling of horror
that the white woman would dare to venture
into the very mouth of the devil. She there-
fore made her visit free from annoyance. It
is believed that the Masai had a village
where the crater lake now swells and gur-
gles, and that during a volcanic eruption of
Kilimanjaro the people and their herds and
poultry were blown into mid-air, and that
their spirits still hang in space, without
home above or below, and that the moaning
and soughing of the wind through the trees
and the strange rustling and mysterious
noises caused by the reverberation of the
rocky cliffs surrounding the lake proceed
from the spirits of these poor people, their
cattle and poultry. Although fish are abun-
dant in this lake, the natives could not be
induced to taste them. The same people be-
lieve that their ancestors inhabit the bodies
of the Colobus monkeys, and will not under
any circumstances knowingly kill or permit
to be killed one of those animals ; and on
approaching the forest where the monkeys
abide in great numbers, they preserve an odd
silence, with furtive glances, and pick their
steps with a precaution and almost hesita-
tion that indicate an honest belief in their
superstition.

Prehistoric Jeweled Teeth. — Among the
interesting objects brought from Copan last
year by Messrs. Saville and Owens, of the
Peabody Museum of American Archaeology
and Ethnology, are several incisor teeth,
each of which contains a small piece of
green stone, presumably jadeite, set hi a
cavity drilled on the front surface of the
teeth. The museum had before received
from Yucatan human teeth filled in a pecul-
iar manner, and now it has teeth from Copan
filled in the same way. This is of particular
interest in adding one more to the several
facts pointing to Asiatic arts and customs as
the origin of those of the early peoples of
Central America. A most striking resem-
blance to Asiatic art is noticed in several of
the heads carved in stone ; one in particular,
if seen in any collection and not labeled as
to its origin, would probably pass almost uu-

570

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

challenged as from southern Asia. These
may prove to be simply coincidences of ex-
pression of peoples of corresponding mental
development brought about by correspond-
ing natural surroundings and conditions.

Photographing Savages. — A lively use
of the camera is recommended by Mr. E. F.
Im Thurn as a means of getting representa-
tions of savages in their real life. The usual
illustrations in works of anthropology and
travel, when they are not merely physio-
logical pictures, are pronounced by him al-
most universally bad. "Of old, the book
illustrator, if, as was usual, he was not
himself the traveler, drew as pictures of
primitive folk merely the men and women
that surrounded him, figures of men and
women of his own stage of civilization,
and merely added to these such salient fea-
tures as he was able, from the traveler's
tales, to fancy that his supposed primitive
subject had. . . . The modern anthropologi-
cal illustrator does indeed generally draw
from photographs, but almost always from
photographs taken under non-natural condi-
tions." They are either taken in town,
where the savage is away from his usual
haunts and in unaccustomed surroundings ;
or the mere thought that he is being photo-
graphed puts him under constraint. " That
to gain the confidence of uncivilized folk
whom you wish to photograph is one of
quite the most essential matters you will
easily understand. The first time I tried to
photograph a red man was among the man-
grove trees at the mouth of the Barima
River. My red-skinned subject was poised
high up on a mangrove root. He sat quite
still while focused and drew the shutter.
Then, as I took off the cap, with a moan he
fell backward off his perch on to the soft
sand below him. Nor could he by any
means be persuaded to prepare himself once
more to face the unknown terrors of the
camera. A very common thing to happen,
and to foil the efforts of the photographer
at the very moment when he has but to
withdraw and to replace the cap, is for the
timid subject suddenly to put up his hand
to conceal his face, a proceeding most an-
noying to the photographer, but interesting
to the anthropologist, as illustrating the very
widespread dread of primitive folk of hav-

ing their features put on paper, and thus be-
ing submitted spiritually to the power of any
possessing the picture. ... A curious in-
stance may be mentioned of the discovery,
thanks to the camera, of that rather rare
thing — a personal idiosyncrasy among red
men. Some time last year in photographing
a number of Carib lads I noticed that one
of them at the moment of the taking of the
picture suddenly put up his hands and put
them, not over his face, but one on each
shoulder. The attitude struck me at once
as an unusual one, but yet it seemed to me
in some way familiar. Some time after, in
looking through my old stock of negatives,
I found one which showed a much younger
Carib lad in the same unusual attitude, and
it was only after some inquiry that I realized
that this last-named negative was one which
I had taken some years before of the same
boy." There is a field here for the use of
some of the " snap " instruments.

The Reasons of Conventionalities. — Con-
ventionalities are treated by the London
Spectator as things which must grow up with
the growth of civilization, yet which, while
they are not to be despised, are no more to
be exalted into absolute and universal obli-
gations. Even on matters affecting merely
the external order and harmony of life, there
are conventions which, though not intended
to repress and exclude all overflow of in-
dividual genius, are still of great value in
controlling the arbitrary eccentricities of in-
dividual nature, and in reducing men's man-
ners and modes of expression to terms which
one might speak of as commensurable with
the manners and modes of expression of
those who live with them in the same moral
atmosphere. The mere beauty of any social
life depends on the conformity of all — within
variable but definite limits — to conventions,
which, though by no means of supreme obli-
gation, yet render the give-and-take of life
much more natural and gentle and easy than
if each man or woman were to blurt out the
feeling uppermost in the individual mind,
without any of that toning-down and soften-
ing which exclude abrup* and noisy explo-
sions of individual self-will. Not all social
conventions are beautiful. Sometimes the
artificiality of them exceeds whatever is
either necessary or advantageous for the pur-

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

pose of mutual understanding and mutual
forbearance ; yet some of them are in their
essence beautiful, because they are founded
on the principle of charity as well as truth.
They control jealousy and rivalry ; they re-
press vulgar competition ; they express dis-
interested sympathy. In fact, they trans-
form a selfish mob into an orderly society.
Still, though without these etiquettes and
courtesies of civilization social life could
hardly exist, yet it would be impossible to
speak of any of the conventions which render
it possible as if they were laws of intrinsic
and moral obligation to which there are no
exceptions. They are but principles which
govern the average or ordinary usages of
men, but none the less principles which give
way, and rightly give way, before any urgent
individual need, or even any moderate press-
ure of clear utility.

Chinese Newspapers. — The Chinese Gov-
ernment instituted an official journal at a
very early date, the Pekin Gazette having
existed since B. c. 740. It was at first printed
upon engraved wooden blocks, but now mov-
able characters cut in wood are used. There
are three editions of the paper, of which
only the official edition is printed in this
manner. The second edition is printed with
waxen plates on. which the characters are
cut, and, the work being done in haste, is
not very legible. The third edition is in
manuscript. The official edition is printed
on one side of ten or twelve very thin doubled
leaves, is eighteen centimetres high and ten
broad, and is divided by lines of violet ink
into seven columns, each containing fourteen
ordinary characters. It appears every morn-
ing. The manuscript edition is a little
smaller than the official edition, and appears
several days before it. Its price is many
times higher, and it is largely used by for-
eigners. The journal furnishes a real pano-
rama of the official and social life of the
Chinese. The reading of it is very enter-
taining ; for we may find in it, among other
documents, the day which the emperor has
decided upon for changing from the winter
hut to the summer hut ; that six of the can-
didates for the license were more than nine-
ty, and thirteen more than eighty years old,
illustrating the fact that one is never too
old to be examined in China. This Pekin

Gazette was the only journal published in
China till about twenty years ago. Since
then some five journals have arisen at Shang-
hai, Tien-Tsin, at Canton, at the instance of
the English, with the co-operation of Chi-
nese literati. The Chen Pai, of Shanghai,
which was started in 1885, is an illustrated
weekly journal, with eight doubled leaves
and a red cover, the engravings in which are
done in Chinese style in outline. In one of
the numbers of this journal the last conflict
between the French and the Chinese is rep-
resented, with the French commander Four-
nier in the costume of an English admiral.
All the journals together publish not more
than fifteen thousand copies. The attempts
made in them to transcribe European words
phonetically are* sometimes amusing, thus
ultimatum becomes " ou-ti-ma-toung " ; statti
quo, " sseu-ta-tou-ko " ; telephone, " to-li-
foung," etc.

The Fire of Incandescent Lamps.— An

active incandescent lamp may be broken in
the midst of cool combustibles, even of gun-
cotton, without setting them on fire, so rapid
is the destruction of the carbon filaments in
the open air. But a long continuance of the
lamp in immediate contact with a combus-
tible envelope may determine ignition, the
more readily the more slowly heat and air
pass through the envelope. Thus gummed
cotton or other goods will take fire more
rapidly than similar goods ungummed or
loose. Some interesting experiments in this
property have been made by an Austrian
engineer, Captain Exler. Having determined
the temperature produced by certain meas-
ured lamps in paraffin in which they were
plunged, he washed them with pulverin,
ecrasite, and powdered gun-cotton; no
change took place in their condition. In
thicker coatings ecrasite fused, and the
powder slowly lost its sulphur, but neither
took fire. The effects were more marked
when the substance was spread upon a sur-
face capable of wholly arresting calorific
radiation. It is therefore prudent to guard
against bringing naked lamps too close
to a combustible surface. When the lamp
was surrounded with an envelope, the tem-
perature between the two surfaces rose. In
fifty minutes it became sufficient to decom-
pose fulmicotton and carbonize wood. Black

572

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

powder lost all its sulphur, but did not take
fire. With a lamp inclosed in a bell glass
the three explosive substances were decom-
posed in twenty minutes. Water, with
which the interval was filled, came to the
boiling point in fifteen minutes. It was ob-
served even when the beginning of an igni-
tion of the explosives was determined, the
flame was not sure to be propagated, unless
the substance had been previously wanned.
On the other hand, a derivation of weak re-
sistance, produced between the two conduct-
ors of a lamp, determines a strong flame, ca-
pable of igniting all combustible substances.
A lamp may be broken by a shock, by
overheating, or by some unknown cause. If
only a crack is formed, the air getting with-
in causes the filament of incandescent carbon
to burn up in a very short time. If the lamp
bursts or has a hole made in it, the danger is
greater, and may cause the ignition of ex-
plosive gases, but not of fulmicotton or dry
powder. It is not safe, therefore, to con-
clude that an accident is absolutely impos-
sible.

The Whirlpools of Chary »dis and Scylla.

— Charybdis and Scylla, the whirlpools of
which much was fabled in classical antiquity,
are situated in the strait of Messina, between
Sicily and Italian Apulia. Although they
were a great terror to ancient navigators,
they are in reality rather small affairs, and
it is difficult to determine their exact posi-
tions. The whirlpool of Scylla is situated at
the foot of the cliffs on which is the little
city of that name, which are hollowed out
into caverns. The circulation of the waves
in these grottoes produces, in times of heavy
seas, a sound like the barking of a dog.
Charybdis is near the port of Messina, nine
marine miles from Scylla. Although it was
reported unfathomable, it is, according to
Spallanzani's measurements, not more than
five hundred feet deep, and is therefore far
from being the deepest spot in the Mediter-
ranean. It is difficult to comprehend why
the ancients should have had such a terror
of sailing between these two eddies so far
apart, but the task of explaining the riddle
has been undertaken by the engineer, M.
Keller. Observations made by him at Mes-
sina show that the currents of the strait de-
pend, first, on the tide, and, secondly, on the

wind. The currents are very strong, because
the tide is low in the Ionian Sea when it is
high in the Tyrrhenian ~Sea, and vice versa.
Hence, also, the formation of whirlpools at
different points in the strait. These whirl-
pools are energetic in proportion to the
strength of the current, and when at their
strongest may offer a serious danger to navi-
gation. At the syzygies, with the wind
from the southeast, the waters tumble from
the Ionian Sea into the strait and form
whirlpools north of the port of Messina;
they are likewise formed near Faro, where
ships at anchor are sometimes carried out to
sea and borne by the current upon the rocks
of Calabria, toward the point of Pezzo, a
little farther away than Scylla. We may
therefore suppose that the ancients meant by
Charybdis these casual whirlpools near the
port of Messina, and by Scylla those of
Point Pezzo. Between these two points the
currents are extremely rapid and strong and
variable besides. Under such circumstances
an inexperienced sailor might therefore have
difficulty in passing the strait of Messina
without falling from Charybdis into Scylla.
The danger is really serious for sailing ves-
sels, which were the best the ancients knew of.

Consumption at Davos Platz. — A case is
recorded by Dr. A. T. T. Wise, of Davos
Platz, Switzerland, of a consumptive mani-
festing serious symptoms ordered to that
place for the mountain air, who began to re-
gain lost ground in two weeks after his
arrival, near the end of October, 1891. Pro-
gression toward recovery, with gradual ex-
pansion of the chest and gain in weight, was
uninterrupted till February, 1892, when the
physician's examination showed improvement
near to recovery in every affected part. In
October, 1892, the patient, having gained
twenty-eight pounds in Davos, had resumed
his practice of medicine, was hi robust health,
and presented no sign of disease except a
faint, hardly perceptible expiratory harsh-
ness over the left apex. The climatic ad-
vantages at high altitudes in pulmonary dis-
ease, as summarized by Dr. Wise, are: Dry-
ness of the air and its comparative freedom
from micro-organisms and atmospheric dust,
entailing a lessened liability to catarrh and
irritation of the bronchial tract and drying
the lungs; profusion of sunlight; with the

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

573

low temperature, the heat of the sun is
easily borne, and the violet rays of the spec-
trum act chemically on the blood, increas-
ing the haemoglobin ; diminished barometric
pressure, which facilitates chemical action in
the blood and tissues, favors vaporization of
moist secretions in the lungs, and aids pul-
monary circulation and expansion ; and the
general stimulus of high levels, producing
exhilaration and an increase of nutrition.

Facts about the Growth of Boys and
girls. — A summary of the results of an in-
vestigation of the laws governing the growth
of various parts of the body, instituted in the
schools of Worcester, Mass., in 1891, is pub-
lished in Science. Some three thousand two
hundred and fifty individuals were examined,
of ages ranging from five to twenty-one years,
and comparisons were made in the growth of
boys and girls. The length of the head in
girls is shown to be less than that of boys
throughout the whole period of growth, and
consequently through life ; but the difference
in length, instead of remaining the same from
year to year, varies considerably, and the an-
nual increment is irregular in both sexes. In
girls the greatest length of head is reached
about the eighteenth year ; in boys, not be-
fore the age of twenty-one. The girls' heads
are narrower than those of the boys, while
the phenomena of breadth of head, hi pe-
riods of alternate growth and cessation of
growth, are similar to those of length of
head. The faces of the girls are broadest at
seventeen, those of the boys after the eight-
eenth year ; while the faces of the boys are
usually broader than those of the girls. In
stature, the boys, starting out at five years of
age, are apparently taller than the girls, but
the girls appear to catch them in the seventh
year, and continue at an even stature up to
and including the ninth year, after which
the boys again rise above the girls for two
years. About the twelfth year the girls
suddenly become taller than the boys, and
continue taller until the fifteenth year, when
the boys again and finally regain their supe-
riority in stature. After the age of seven
teen there seems to be very little if any in
crease in the stature of girls, while the boys
are still growing vigorously at eighteen, anc
probably continue to grow for several years
after that age. The curves of the sitting

eight present the same characteristics, some-
what more accentuated, as the curves of
tature. The curves of weight, while pre-
enting the general characteristics of the
curves of stature and sitting height, show
minor differences. The superiority of the
girls in respect to weight is for a much shorter
>eriod than in respect to total height or sit-
ting height. In weight also the girls seem
to reach their maximum average at seven-
;een, while the boys continue to increase in
iverage weight until a much later period in
ife. The movements of the curves of the
ndex of sitting height indicate that the
greater part of the growth in stature up to
;he twelfth year in girls and to the fifteenth
year in boys is made in the lower limbs, while
after these respective ages it is made in the
trunk. The results of the whole series of
measurements afford evidence, deemed con-

lusive, that women reach maturity before
men, and that, for all the measurements ex-
cept the weight, girls have completed their
growth by their eighteenth year.

Paradoxes of the Witch-hazel. — The

witch-hazel, according to a correspondent of
Garden and Forest, is a true witch among
shrubs. It has a wild way of growth, sev-
eral crooked, branching trunks growing from
the root ; smooth leaves ; four very long, lin-
ear petals, yellow and twisted or curled. So
far it is not unlike other shrubs. The name
" hamamelis " indicates its most striking pe-
culiarity, " flowers and fruit together on the
tree." It blossoms in October and Novem-
ber, and the flowers of this fall will be
the fruit of next fall, which hangs on the
bare boughs when it next blossoms. The
flowers, though small, are made noticeaJe
by blossoming in clusters on the stem. The
fruit is a woody capsule, nut-like, two-celled,
and the seeds, almost "black and shining, are
the prettiest seeds in the world. Another
peculiarity of this curious shrub is its explo-
sive seed-scattering. " Many years ago, wish-
big to secure a quantity of these seeds to
make a necklace like one I had seen, it be-
came a question how to get them. Before
the nut was ripe enough to open, it was
almost impossible to get at the seeds, and
when the capsule opened they were shot out
suddenly, scattered far and near, and lost.
A quantity of the almost ripe seed-pods were

574

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

gathered, put in paper bags, and hung up to
wait and see, or rather to wait and hear, what
would happen. For days these pods, as they
dried, kept popping in the bags, and the
seeds, small and polished, very like rice in
shape, were secured. . . . But when the seeds
were gathered there was another problem to
be solved — how to thread them. The finest,
sharpest needle would split them every time.
The friend who had threaded them told me
how it could be done. The seed was to be
cut off at each end with a very fine file. This
was a labor of love, and the necklace was
pretty enough to pay for the trouble."

Crystallization of Metallic Oxides.— M.

Moissan has succeeded, with the high temper-
ature obtained in a newly devised electrical
furnace, in fusing and crystallizing many of
the metallic oxides. At temperatures rang-
ing from 2,000° to 3,000° 0., magnesia, lime,
and strontia crystallize and then quickly
melt ; boric acid, protoxide of titanium, and
alumina are volatilized ; and the oxides of
the iron family, stable at high temperatures,
furnish melted masses bristling with little
crystals. These important results were only
the prelude to still more remarkable experi-
ments intended to lead up to the preparation
of carbon under high pressure, and the arti-
ficial production of the diamond. Having
studied the solubility of carbon in a certain
number of metals in fusion — such as alumi-
num, iron, manganese, chromium, uranium,
silver, and platinum — and in a metalloid, sili-
con, he succeeded in obtaining by fusion in
one of these metals new varieties of graph-
ite ; but he was able to produce crystallized
carbon, or diamond, only by performing his
experiments under high pressure. When iron
in fusion is saturated with carbon, different
results are obtained according to the temper-
ature to which the mass is raised. Between
1,100° and 1,200° C., a mixture of amorphous
carbon and graphite is obtained, and at 3,000°
C. graphite exclusively in beautiful crystals.
If a high pressure is introduced, the con-
ditions of crystallization are completely
changed. The process employed by the au-
thor resulted in the production of three kinds
of carbon — graphite in small quantity when
the cooling was quickly done, a carbon of a
chestnut color in very thin flakes, and a small
quantity of a dense carbon which was isolated

by treatment with the strongest acids. The
very minute fragments scratched rubies and
burned in oxygen at 1,000° C. They seem,
therefore, to be incontestably diamond. Some
of the fragments are black and others trans-
parent. M. Moissan's reporter speaks of his
having, in the production of these diamonds,
surprised one of the secrets of Nature — ig-
noring the diamonds obtained several years
ago, under a similar high pressure, from hy-
drocarbons by Mr. Hannay, of Edinburgh.

East African Finery. — Among the pres-
ents which Mrs. French-Sheldon received
from the Masai when passing through the
East African country called Kilimegalia,
were the characteristic articles, a vulture-
feather pannier, vulture-feather shoulder
capes, dancing masks of various kinds,
shields, swords, and a collarette made of
cropped ostrich feathers stuck through
leather, so that the quills make a rough sur-
face on the inner side. " This is worn only
by the warrior who has killed twelve persons,
and resembles in theory the robe of Janus, as
the roughness on the inner side produced by
the quills excoriates the surface of the neck of
the wearer. The warrior who gave me this
collar had the blood streaming from his
throat to his waist. One warrior presented
me with a wooden case filled with ostrich
feathers, which he carried with him to re-
place the feathers in his warrior mask and
for other decorations. I bought several of
the cow skins worn by the women as cloth-
ing and for bedding at night, for the cold is
extreme. They presented me also with a
dancing wand, and one of their nebana, or
cloths made of strips of white cotton and em-
bellished with red, of various designs, which
they sling from their shoulders ; also a colo-
bus monkey tail, which they wear under their
knees, over the long oval bells, and a hyena
tail decorated with a lion mane and colobus
monkey tails, which they suspend from their
shoulders as an emblem of war."

The Masais of East Africa. — The Masais
of East Africa, according to Mrs. French-
Sheldon, are true warriors and raiders. They
keep a subject tribe, the Wa-sombutta, who
do their hunting and what meager agricul-
ture they indulge in. The people of this
tribe are insignificant in appearance, and, al-

NOTES.

575

though servile and subject to the Masai, are
not slaves. They present almost the appear-
ance of dwarfs. "I saw no man among
them," she says, " who attained a height of
over four feet and a few inches; most of
them were very much smaller. The Masai
know no law but that of capture, and attack
the Taveta with much animosity. Their
custom of forbidding passage through their
territory is enforced by placing in the middle
of the path, over which an individual or a
caravan must pass, a bullet over which they
cross two twigs stripped of foliage, with the
exception of a tufted top ; the first person
crossing this barrier is usually speared or
shot. Not knowing of this custom, I inad-
vertently came to such a barrier and kicked it
aside, when I was seized by one of my head-
men, who held me back, informing me that
if I crossed that point I should most likely
be assassinated; and in a moment about
thirty young Masai warriors made their ap-
pearance in a great state of agitation, with
frantic gesticulations, announcing that I must
pay a certain amount of hongo for the depre-
dation I had committed." The author had
great difficulty in getting even instantaneous
photographs of any of the tribes. They re-
garded the camera as a species of witch-
craft, and were put to flight the moment
they saw a square box held up before them.
But they were greatly entertained by the
music-box; and the principal men of the
tribe would sit by the hour round the tent
while it was playing, waving themselves back-
ward and forward, and repeating " God ! god !
god ! give us rain ! god, give us clothes ! "
until Mrs. French-Sheldon began to feel that
her resources in the way of exerting influ-
ence with the supreme power were very much
overtaxed.

Platinum and its Sources,— Platinum is
used in the manufacture of incandescent
electric lamps, in the construction of stills
for the concentration of sulphuric acid, as
material for the wires by which artificial
teeth are fastened to plates, and in smaller
quantities for chemists' crucibles, jewelry,
etc. For all these purposes about 215,000
ounces are consumed every year. The Ural
region of Russia has for many years supplied
all the platinum used in the world. Other
mines of far less productiveness are in the

United States of Colombia, British Columbia,
and the United States. Colombia produces
about a hundred and twenty-five kilogrammes
of the metal, all from native washings. The
platiniferous area, although of low grade, is
very extensive, and in part suitable for hy-
draulic mining. A considerable quantity of
American capital, it is said, has been invested
there, and Colombia is expected to become
an important producer of the metal. The
only platinum deposits of importance in Brit-
ish Columbia are on the Talameen River.
The total production of this province is
about sixty-five kilogrammes. Much prospect-
ing for platinum has been done in the United
States, but so far without success in finding
paying quantities, and to the present tune
all the platinum produced has been inci-
dental to the production of gold from various
auriferous gravels in California and Oregon.

NOTES.

ACCORDING to a paper by Miss Millicent
"W. Shinn, the great refractor of the Lick
Observatory and the observatory itself may be
traced to Mr. Lick's desire to be immortalized
by leaving bequests for costly statues of him-
self and family. He was told by Mr. Staples
that "more likely we shall get into a war
with Russia or somebody, and they will come
round here with war ships and smash the
statues in pieces in bombarding the city."
Mr. Lick was so struck by this that he asked,
" What shall I do witlTthe money, then ? "
when the suggestion of the telescope was
made.

MANY of the allusions and much of the
science found in sixteenth century literature,
including the works of Jonson, Spenser, Mar-
lowe, Massinger, and Shakespeare, are derived
from the De Proprietatihus Rerum of Bar-
tholomew Anglicanus, a Franciscan monk,
which was written in Latin about the middle
of the thirteenth century, and was translated
into English by John of Trevisa in 1397.
The work affords a curious insight into the
ideas of our ancestors about natural phe-
nomena, and into their credulity in believing
the stories of wonders from far countries.
Much of it is derived from ancient authori-
ties. A budget of selections from this book
has recently been published hi London.

THE oscillation of projectiles is photo-
graphically recorded by Prof. Neesen, of
Berlin. He employed hollow projectiles, in
the interior of which was placed a sensitive
plate, illuminated by sunlight through a small
opening. During the rotatory flight of the
projectile the ray of light described curves

576

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

on the plate, from the position of which,
taken in conjunction with that of the sun,
the oscillations of the axis and point of the
projectile could be calculated. The results
obtained showed that both perform oscilla-
tory movements during flight very different
from those usually believed to take place.

Two Akka girls, representing the dwarf
race of Africa on exhibition in the European
cities and supposed to be between seventeen
and twenty years old, are described as being
well proportioned, and as tall as a boy eight
years of age. Their behavior is infantile,
wild, and shy, but without timidity. They are
very different in disposition ; the more pleas-
ant one laughs joyously, is pleased with
bead bracelets and other trinkets given to
her, and curiously expressed her appreciation
of some chocolate bonbons. They show no
wonder or admiration at persons and things,
and are not affected by artistic furnishings,
and their eyes are without expression.

A CORRESPONDENT of Nature tells of some
letters and papers on his desk which were set
on fire by a paper weight composed of four
glass balls. It concentrated the rays of the
sun upon them. The desk was scorched, and
the burning papers, falling upon the carpet,
burned that.

Two instances of what may be called
" dust photographs " are described in Nature
by W. B. Croft, of Winchester College. The
plate-glass window of a hotel in London has
on the inside a screen of ground glass, near
but not touching, on which are the words
" Coffee Room " in clear, unf rested letters.
One day, as Dr. Earle, the writer's informant,
was at breakfast, the screen was taken away,
but the words were left plainly visible on the
window, and no washing would remove them.
In another case the house had been a hotel,
and the windows had been dressed with brown
gauze blinds, bearing the words "Coffee
Room " in gilt letters. A succeeding tenant
on misty days saw these words on one of the
windows.

THE results of six months' observations
of Mars have led Mr. Schacherle, of the Lick
Observatory, to the conclusion — contrary to
the generally received view — that the d'ark
portions of the disk represent land, and the
light portions water. This is supported by
observations of San Francisco Bay from Mount
Hamilton, in which the bay appears brighter
than the neighboring valley and mountains
at the same distance. On this hypothesis the
" canals " would correspond to ridges of moun-
tains almost wholly immersed in water, while
their doubling may represent parallel ridges
of which our own earth furnishes examples.

THE dangers of poisoning in the manu-
facture of white lead are avoided in a process
introduced by Mr. J. B. Hannay, by which a
sulphate of lead is produced instead of a car-
bonate. The pigment is made direct from

the cheapest lead ore, which is crushed and
fed into coke furnaces. The heat combined
with an air-blast causes the lead to volatilize ;
the fumes are exposed to a current of steam,
and the resultant creamy-white liquid mass
is run off into settling tanks, whence it is
passed into filter presses, deprived of its
moisture, and dried and packed for market.

SOME oysters experimented upon by Prof.
R. C. Schiedt, under exposure, living, to light
with the right valve of the shell removed, in
the course of a fortnight developed pigment
over the whole of the epidermis of the ex-
posed right mantle and on the upper exposed
sides of the gills, so that they became dark-
brown all over that side. They also made a
partly successful effort to restore the right
valve. The inference is drawn from the
facts that the development of pigment in the
mantle and gills was wholly and directly due
to the abnormal and general stimulus of light
over their exposed surface, and that the man-
tle border, the only pigmented portion of the
animal, is pigmented because it is the only
portion which is normally and constantly sub-
jected to the stimulus of light.

ATTENTION has been called by Sir Henry
Mance to the damage inflicted on electric
telegraph cables by the teredo, which are de-
scribed as being really serious, and the sug-
gestion made by Mr. Preece several years ago
is approved by the author, that, besides sur-
veying the bottom of the sea for rocks and
shoals, the parts near the shore should be
examined to find whether they are infested
by this pest.

IN a paper published in Science, on Varia-
bility of Specific Characters in the Extinct
Genus Coryphodon, M. Charles Earle shows
that it is exceedingly difficult in this group
to find where one species ends and another
begins. In most cases the characters run
into each other insensibly. The author be-
lieves that there are about eight good
species, the characters of which show a
progression from the primitive to the more
specialized types. A later study by Mr.
Earle is on the comparative osteology of the
Malayan and the Brazilian tapirs.

DURING a residence in Tunisia, M. Ver-
coutre made a study of the tattoo marks with
which the natives cover their limbs and face.
He discovered that the most complete de-
signs represent a human figure — a kind of
doll, seen in front, with extended arms. In
this figure, for which no explanation had
been offered before, he perceives nothing
else than a representation, rigidly exact and
preserved by tradition without perceptible
alteration, of the manikin on the monuments
of Phoenicia and Carthage, which archaeolo-
gists have named the " Symbol of the Punic
Trinity " — which is found, for example, on
the Phoenician and Punic stelae, and on the
neo-Punic lamps of Carthage.

H. CARRINGTON BOLTON.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

SEPTEMBER, 1893.

WHY SILVER CEASES TO BE MONEY.

BY F. W. TAUSSIG, PH.D.,

PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY.

THE striking fall in the price of silver and the unmistakable
tendency among civilized countries to cease using it as a
basis for currency, suggest the inquiry whether these results are
accidental or flow from causes so regular and continuous in their
application as to be analogous to physical law. Thirty years ago
most economists would have hesitated little in seeking analogies
of this sort. The general conclusions on which economists were
then agreed were often stated to be natural laws, as certain
and immutable in their application as the laws of the physical
universe. The general rate of wages was governed by natural
laws ; prices were determined by natural laws, which combina-
tions and speculators could not violate with impunity ; monetary
phenomena were subject to similar unalterable conditions. The
value of the precious metals, like that of other commodities, was
determined only by their cost of production, and legislative action
seeking to regulate their value and bring about their concurrent
circulation must of necessity be futile.

Of late the language even of conservative economists has been
more guarded. The more ardent representatives of the new
movement in economic thought go further, and reject once for
all the notion of natural law in economic phenomena. Even
those who appeal with confidence to economic laws must admit
that their operation is in many ways unlike that of physical
law. They are stated to be tendencies ; they are conclusions
hypothetically true, or true only in the long run. Above all,
the play of human volition, and of legislation as reflecting

VOL. XLIII. 41

578 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

human volition, is admitted to be not the least of the forces
that affect economic phenomena. Wages and prices may be af-
fected by combinations on the one hand, and by legislation on
the other hand ; doubtless within limits, but within limits not so
narrow nor so easily denned as was formerly thought. So the
value of money is subject to legislation in no small degree.
Paper money, though of the purest fiat character, with no hope
or promise of redemption in specie, may yet perform with reason-
able efficiency the functions of a circulating medium. No doubt
the degree of effect is limited, and the expediency of particular
forms of legislative action is more than doubtful. But the possi-
bility of effect can not be denied. In granting so much, we may
give aid and comfort to those whose proposals on the currency
are mischievous ; but truth, fairly faced, compels the admission
that the value of money is not fixed by natural law in the sense
that it may not be seriously affected by legislation. Looking to
specie alone, it is clear that convention and legislation are at least
the immediate cause of their high value. If gold ceased to be
used as money, and if all the gold in the world were to be used in
the arts only, it is beyond question that its value would fall, and
would remain low for an indefinite time to come ; while a great
and sudden extension in the use of gold for monetary purposes,
such as legislation might conceivably bring about, would quickly
raise its value.

Coming now more closely to the subject in hand, and the
question whether silver is likely to continue in use side by side
with gold, we encounter the suggestion that silver is doomed
from the operation of great and permanent causes operating with
the force of natural law. Silver at best is bulky in proportion to
its value. For transactions on a large scale it is inconvenient ;
and as it gets cheaper, a given value becomes bulkier, and the
metal less available for the great transactions of modern com-
merce. Iron, copper, and other metals have been used in their
day for monetary purposes, and with the progress of civilization
have given way to the " precious " metals. As the further advance
in wealth and progress brings the need of a medium of exchange
by means of which large transactions can be conveniently carried
on, must silver meet with a similar fate, and gold become the only
standard monetary metal?

No doubt it is true that as coin, and for circulation in the form
of coin, obstacles of this sort are serious for silver. As copper can
be used only for very small payments, so silver can be used only
for moderate payments. A striking illustration of the impossi-
bility of using silver directly on a large scale is furnished by the
experience of the United States under the silver act of 1878. That
act provided for the monthly coinage and issue of a very large

WHY SILVER CEASES TO BE MONEY. 579

number of silver dollars — on the average, two and a half millions
a month — and the expectation of the legislature was, at the be-
ginning, that these bulky coins would find their way into circula-
tion and use. In fact, but a very small proportion of them ever
came into actual use. Notwithstanding every effort of the Treasury
to get the coins into circulation, the community stubbornly re-
fused to make use of more than a small proportion of them. Some
sixty millions were got into circulation ; but the remainder of the
four hundred millions which were coined lie unused in the vaults
of the Treasury, and when issued by it flow back with a regularity
and persistence not unlike the operation of natural law.

But the experience of the United States under this same act of
1878 suggests a very easy mode of surmounting this difficulty and
of securing the actual and effective use of silver in indefinite
quantity. The printing press and the engraver's art have revolu-
tionized the situation. The silver certificates, which now form the
largest single constituent in our every-day money, were issued, at
first sparingly, later more generously, to "represent the coined
dollars and to circulate in their place. They are printed in any
desired denomination ; they are easy to carry ; they circulate more
freely even than gold coin. It is curious that this simple device
should not have been thought of at the outset, and should have
been evolved only after an experience, running through several
years, of the impossibility of securing the circulation of the actual
coins. But the lesson has been learned, and in the schemes for
the free and unlimited coinage of silver dollars it is now always
proposed that the silver shall indeed be freely coined, but that its
actual circulation shall take place through certificates represent-
ing the deposit of the coined metal in the Government's hands.
By a machinery of this sort any durable commodity may indeed
become the basis of the monetary circulation, and the crucial
question becomes not one of the possibility of the use of a com-
modity, but one of its expediency.

This leads us to another phase of the question, the inquiry
whether silver possesses that stability in value which is admitted
on all hands to be essential for money. If the price of silver, like
that of copper and iron, is subject to great and rapid variations
from changes in the conditions of production, it is inexpedient,
even though possible, to make it the basis of the circulating
medium. If the great decline in the price of silver in the last
twenty years is due to causes like those which have brought down
the price of copper and the price of iron, we have strong ground
for refusing to use it further, except for subsidiary purposes like
those for which copper continues to be used. But here it may be
answered, and certainly with much show of reason, that the decline
in the price of silver has been due largely to legislation. The civ-

58o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ilized countries one after another have given up the use of silver,
and by so narrowing the field for its use have caused a fall in price
to take place which otherwise would have been averted. Germany
gave up the use of silver, except for subsidiary purposes, in 1873.
The United States dropped silver from her list of coins in the same
year. France and the Latin Union virtually closed their mints
to the free coinage of silver in 1874. Italy and Austria, in resum-
ing specie payments — the one in 1883, the other in 1893 — refused to
adopt any but a gold standard. If in all these countries silver had
been freely coined ; if in Germany, France, the United States, and
Austria, silver had retained the footing before the law which it
had twenty-five years ago, the price undoubtedly would not have
fallen so much, and the objection to its use from the fall in its
price would certainly be much less strong than it is. Unquestion-
ably, the great increase in the production of silver has contributed
to bring down its price ; but it is at least probable that the fall
would have been less, and indeed that there would have been
little fall, if any, in the gold price of silver if the mints of all
those countries had remained open to silver as they were in 1870.
Whether such a state of things would have been conducive to the
general prosperity of these countries is another question. Looking
merely at the point now under consideration — the cause and mean-
ing of the lower price of silver — we must admit that legislation has
been an important cause among those that brought it about.

We may go further with this line of thought, and consider
how far it is possible that legislation might affect the price of
silver in the future. If at the present time an effective interna-
tional agreement were adopted for the wide use of silver as
money in civilized countries, the price of silver undoubtedly
would be raised for some considerable time. An agreement of
the great countries, such as England, France, Germany, and the
United States, for the free coinage of silver at a fixed ratio with
gold would undoubtedly absorb much silver, would clear the
market of heavy stocks, and would raise the price of silver in
terms of gold to the point fixed by the international ratio. Such
an agreement could hardly fail to bring about the concurrent cir-
culation of silver and gold in the contracting countries, and to
establish a real and effective bimetallism. How long this con-
current legislation would continue, and how long, even if the
legislation continued, silver and gold would remain equal in rela-
tive value at the agreed ratio, are different questions. The future
production of silver, the possible extended use of gold for other
than monetary purposes, the probable increased use of gold in
countries outside the international agreement, would very likely
cause gold to disappear in the end from the contracting coun-
tries, and so would make silver the sole basis of their circulating

WHY SILVER CEASES TO BE MONEY. 581

medium. But this result would not be brought about for a long
time, measured by generations rather than by years. Certainly
for a series of years international bimetallism, if adopted, would
at least be not ineffective. No doubt all this is idle speculation,
so far as any political probabilities are concerned. International
jealousy, and a sufficient satisfaction in most countries with the
existing state of things, make such an agreement impracticable.
But this does not answer the question of principle, or show that
the wider use of silver is restricted by any natural law. Doubts
as to the expediency of the change and unwillingness to enter on
hazardous legislation are the serious sources of difficulty for those
who demand a free use of silver for currency.

The real question for the future of silver, then, is one of the
expediency and possibility of legislation. It may be freely ad-
mitted that if legislation were different, the silver situation would
be essentially different. And ultimately legislation will doubt-
less respond to the pressure of expediency. If it should appear
that the exclusive use of gold works ill, that the failure to use
silver causes mischief, and that the wider use of silver would
make things better, we may expect that eventually the civilized
countries, either by international agreement or by separate legis-
lation, will retrace their steps and endeavor to secure the use of
both metals. The fundamental question of expediency, again, is
one as to the stability of prices and incomes. If under the gold
standard there is a steady tendency toward lower prices and lower
money incomes, and if such a decline works evil, there is ground
for demanding a change. If, on the whole, the disuse of silver is
accompanied by no mischievous changes, things may remain, and
in all probability will remain, as they are.

So far as the experience of the past is concerned, it is not to
be questioned that in fact there has been a general decline in
prices since the date, roughly speaking, when silver began to be
discarded and gold became the sole basis of the medium of ex-
change. The year 1873 brings at once the high-water mark of
general prices and the beginning of the demonetization of silver.
During the last twenty years wholesale prices and retail prices
have steadily pressed downward. So far there is a prima-facie
case for the proposition that it is gold that has appreciated rather
than silver that has depreciated. But another equally striking
and unquestionable phenomenon of the last twenty years has
been that the money incomes of all classes of society have not
gone down, but have rather tended upward. Such a movement,
combined with the movement for lower prices, simply means
that material "prosperity has increased on all hands, that our
income in terms of commodities is growing, and that men are
getting more in return for their labor. Moreover, it is not to be

582 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

denied that on the whole and in the long run general prosperity
has been great and wide during the last generation. The usual
cycles of speculative activity and industrial depression have ap-
peared, and at the successive periods of surface depression the
cry has been raised that some unusual cause, like the demoneti-
zation of silver, was leading to general calamity. But the up-
ward turn of the wave soon reappeared, and the growth of ma-
terial prosperity, good years and bad years taken together, has
not been interrupted.

Looking, too, at the relations of debtors and creditors, we find
on the whole little to complain of. No doubt a period of simple
rise or fall in general prices operates unjustly. When prices and
money incomes rise, creditors do not get their dues ; when they
fall, debtors are subjected to a painful burden. But where we
have the phenomenon of money wages and money incomes which
are steady and on the whole probably increasing — and this is
what the world has seen during the last generation — the situation
approaches as near justice as is possible in things human. A
debtor who borrowed five, ten, or twenty years ago has an undi-
minished money income, and can not be said to feel special hard-
ship when he repays his debt, even though the prices of commod-
ities may have decreased. That individual debtors and classes
of debtors may have suffered is beyond question ; but in the mass
the situation has not given rise to general hardship.

Hitherto, therefore, the adoption of the gold standard, the
drift toward restricting silver to use as a gwcm-subsidiary coin,
have not worked ill. Indeed, it may be said to have prevented ill,
since the use of silver side by side with gold, in view of the
enormous increase of the production of silver, in all probability
would have disturbed seriously the stability of the monetary
medium. What, now, of the future ? Are the same tendencies
likely to appear in years to come, and is the gold standard likely
to work well in the future as it has in the past ?

In answering these questions we must not refuse to face cer-
tain facts in the situation insisted upon by the bimetallists. The
supply of gold available for monetary use is not likely to in-
crease rapidly in the future. The production of gold has been
nearly stationary for the past twenty years. In the last two or
three years an upward movement has appeared; it remains to
be seen, however, whether any permanent advance will be main-
tained. The use of gold in the arts is apparently increasing, and
is likely to continue to increase ; and it absorbs a growing part
of the annual supply. Meanwhile the wealth and population of
civilized countries are advancing rapidly. If stability in money
affairs is to be secured, some steady increase in their circulating
medium must be provided for. If we regard gold coin alone, and

WHY SILVER CEASES TO BE MONEY. 583

consider the development of the currency to be limited to the
coin or to be in exact proportion to the coin, the situation may
be fairly described as ominous. There would be ground for say-
ing, as men of science have recently done,* that eventually the
gold standard will become untenable, and that silver will force
its way into use side by side with gold, if not to the exclusion of
gold.

But the situation is modified, if not transformed, by another
factor in present and in future industrial history : that develop-
ment of credit machinery which forms the most striking phenom-
enon in the monetary history of modern times. In the develop-
ment of credit as a substitute for money we have something like
a natural law, which will put to naught the predictions of those
who predict disaster from the failure to make wider use of silver.
If, indeed, coin money were the sole or the most important constit-
uent in the medium of exchange in civilized communities, silver
or some other metal must certainly be brought in to supplement
the scanty growth of the supply of the gold. In fact, however, the
actual currency of civilized countries tends to consist less and less
of specie, more and more of credit substitutes for specie. Bank
notes, government notes, and above all bank checks, actually per-
form the commercial transactions of civilized countries. Specie
is the basis of exchange ; it is the measure in terms of which the
value of commodities is expressed ; but it is only to an insignifi-
cant extent the medium by which exchanges are actually con-
ducted. The use of credit is of course most highly developed in
countries like the United States and England, which lead the
world in general industrial development. It is growing steadily
and surely in continental Europe, and, beyond question, will con-
tinue to grow. Each individual, each financial institution, each
government, is tempted to enlarge the scope of credit operations
and to diminish the use of actual coin ; and the steady pressure
of these motives makes the tendency as sure and unalterable as
physical law.

That this tendency brings its dangers can not be denied. An
ever-increasing volume of credit is based upon a relatively smaller
foundation of specie, and the evils of a sudden impairment of
credit become more and more serious. It has been attempted to
obviate the dangers by enlarging the basis of specie ; and the
wider use of silver is advocated as one method of broadening the
substructure. But efforts in this direction are likely to have but
temporary results. A broader basis of specie is likely, under the
influence of the same forces which now lead to an extended use of
credit, to bring about in due time an expansion of credit machin-

* See Die Zukunft des Silbers, by Eduard Suess, Vienna, 1892.

584 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ery in som6 way proportionate to the enlarged foundation on
which it rests. After a brief respite the difficulties which it was
proposed thus to obviate will reappear with undiminished inten-
sity. The surer method, and that which is developing under the
stress of need and the growth of experience, is to strengthen the
foundation rather than to enlarge it. The specie which serves as
the basis of the swelling volume of credit transactions is massed
in fewer hands, and so is made more effective in sustaining the
superstructure. The great public banks of European countries
are guardians of the treasure which gives tone to their currency
and serves as the standard for transactions in which it is used to
less and less extent in bodily shape. The central stock which
serves the same purpose in the United States is held, not by a
semi-public institution to whom the duty has been delegated, but
by the Federal Treasury directly. Its amount has been seriously
lessened of late, and may be subject to further drain in the imme-
diate future. But there are no indications that the supply of
gold obtainable for this purpose is inadequate, in the United
States or in the world at large, to serve the uses likely to be made
of it in the future. Our own reserve should be enlarged ; and
there can be little doubt that the community, once aroused to the
situation, will not permit it to shrink to the point of real danger.
So far as the visible future is concerned, we may therefore look
to the maintenance of the gold standard by all the great civil-
ized countries. Silver will be used for subsidiary purposes to
some extent in all advanced countries, and apparently to a very
large extent in the United States. But silver will not again be-
come standard money, freely coined for all holders. It will have
to seek its market, partly for use in the arts, partly for subsidiary
purposes as money in the countries of advanced civilization, part-
ly for more or less complete monetary use in regions like India,
China, and South America. Within the last two months the Brit-
ish Government in India has taken a step of far-reaching conse-
quence, in suspending the free coinage of silver in that country.
The step is not definitive, and it remains to be seen what policy
will finally be adopted. Whatever may be done, a considerable
flow of silver to India is likely to continue in the future; the
market for the metal there has by no means been wiped out. But
the conditions under which silver can be disposed of must be
seriously affected by the cessation of unlimited coinage in the
country in which alone very large quantities found their way
into permanent monetary use through a free mint. The new
move, moreover, whatever its effect may be on the quantity of
silver which will actually find its way to India, must in any case
have an important effect on the future of silver in its political
aspects. It wipes out the possibility of free coinage of silver in

WHY SILVER CEASES TO BE MONEY. 585

the United States ; it makes highly probable the diminution or
cessation of large silver purchases by the United States. The
grounds of expediency against making silver the standard of
value, or so legislating that it may possibly become the standard
of value, have become stronger than ever.

What the price of silver will be in the future must depend on
the volume of the annual production as compared with the occa-
sion for its employment in the several ways just mentioned. The
crucial question is that of production. During the last twenty
years the world's production of silver has more than doubled.
Geologists tell us that this great increase has been due to an ex-
traordinary succession of lucky finds, not likely to be repeated ;
and they predicted, even before the collapse in the price due to
the action of British India, that silver would be produced in
smaller quantity in the future. Predictions on this subject, even
from the most competent men of science, are to be accepted with
caution, and it remains to be seen what the future will bring.
Those old mines or newly discovered bonanzas which can produce
silver at very low cost will continue to turn it out, even though a
mixed feeling of panic and bluster may have caused them for the
moment to stop operations. Mines which have been working at
a moderate profit or none at all will one by one cease, now that
the prospect of a rise or even maintenance of the price of silver
has become so desperate. The gambling character of the busi-
ness makes it difficult to use the reasoning which would apply to
most industrial operations ; but apparently we may look for some
diminution of production. If this occurs, silver may maintain
something like its present value, and the commercial relations
between gold-using and silver-using parts of the world will gradu-
ally adapt themselves to the new basis. If production continues
at anything like its present rate, still more if it augments, no one
can tell what may happen to silver. Its price may fall indefi-
nitely, and in the end it may disappear from monetary use as
completely as copper has done. But a diminution of production
and of the quantity of silver finding its way to the market seems
the more probable outcome ; and with this a price at a perma-
nently lower level than ever in the history of the world until
within the last twenty years. In either case silver ceases to be
the basis on which the countries of advanced civilization rest
their monetary systems: not so much from its physical mifitness,
as from the increasing use of a more refined and highly developed
medium of exchange, needing for its foundation a moderate sup-
ply of specie having a stable and uniform value.

VOL. XLIII. 42

586 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

FOLK-LORE STUDY IN AMERICA.

BY LEE J. VANCE.

IN the summer of 1887 a circular letter containing a proposal
for the formation of a Folk-lore Society in America was
quietly, perhaps timidly, sent to a faithful few. Again, in October
of the same year was issued a second letter, subscribed with a
hundred and four names, representing different parts of the United
States and Canada. Briefly stated, it was proposed to form a so-
ciety for the study of folk lore, of which the principal object shall
be to establish a journal of a scientific character designed —

1. For the collection of the fast- vanishing remains of folk lore
in America — namely, (a) relics of old English folk lore (ballads,
tales, superstitions, etc.) ; (&) lore of negroes in the Southern
States ; (c) lore of the Indian tribes in North America (myths,
tales, etc.) ; (d) lore of French Canada, Mexico, etc.

2. For the study of the general subject and publication of the
results of special students in this department.

The outcome was that, on the 4th of January, 1888, a goodly
number of persons interested in folk-lore study assembled in
University Hall, Harvard University. Then and there The
American Folk-lore Society was born and baptized. Prof.
Francis J. Child was chosen president, an honor merited by his
long and splendid service in the field. Fourteen persons were
named as a council to conduct the affairs of the new society. Mr.
William Wells Newell was elected secretary. At the same time
a committee, consisting of Prof. T. Frederick Crane, Dr. Franz
Boas, Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, and the secretary, was appointed to
make arrangements for the publication of a journal.

The first number of the Journal of American Folk Lore made
its appearance in April, 1888. The five volumes already issued are
ample evidences of the wealth of popular traditions in this coun-
try. They form a perfect mine of information for the study of folk
lore. The contributions which have been printed in the Journal
touch on almost every side of the subject. They include myths and
tales of the Indians, negroes, and Creoles, strange and curious cus-
toms, superstitions of all kinds and all shades, beliefs in witches
and goblins, queer practices, magic and divination, songs, dances,
games, nursery rhymes, riddles, wise saws, and dialect words.

Few persons, even those who were directly interested in the
study, had any adequate idea of the body and bulk of folk-lore
materials extant in North America. First in quantity and quality
come the collections of the lore of the Indian tribes. This, of
course, was to be expected. The contributions by Prof. Hale, Dr.
Boas, Mr. Beauchamp, Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, Mr. Chamberlain, Dr.

FOLK-LORE STUDY IN AMERICA.

587

Mathews, Captain Bourke, Dr. Fewkes, Mr. Mooney, Dr. Brinton,
Miss Fletcher, and others have been noticed by Prof. Frederick
Starr in his article on Anthropological Study in America.*

Perhaps the most striking results have been obtained in fields
heretofore unvisited and unworked. We refer particularly to the
lore found within the past four or five years among foreign-born
and English-speaking peo-
ples, both in thickly settled
districts and in out-of-the-
way places. Dr. Hoffman's
collection of the folk lore of
the Pennsylvania Germans ;
Prof. Fortier's account of
creole customs and super-
stitions, together with his
versions of creole nursery
tales ; Mr. Mooneyes and Miss
Hoke's articles on the folk
lore of the North Caro-
lina mountain region; Mr.
Culin's paper on Chinese
customs and superstitions
in Philadelphia and New
York ; Mr. Henry Lang's ac-
count of the Portuguese ele-
ment in New England ; Mrs.
Bergen's and Mr. Newell's PKOF- FRANCIS J. CHILD.

studies of current supersti-
tions in different sections of the United States — these contribu-
tions, to name no others, show that emigrants to America, if they
did not bring much material wealth, certainly carried with them
what Carlyle calls " old clothes philosophy." Every number of
the Folk-lore Journal has been a revelation to its many readers.
We predict that greater surprises than those already given are in
store for us.

The greatest progress in folk-lore study in this country has
been made within the past six years, and it is significant to note
that the Folk-lore Society has grown during the same time. Prior
to 1887 the study of popular tradition in America was unorgan-
ized. Since then the investigations of special students in different
fields have been collated and systematized, and, above all, those in-
terested in the subject have been brought together. Thus to-day
there is a certain esprit de corps among American folk-lorists that
was unknown some six or eight years ago.

* In The Popular Science Monthly for July, 1892.

588

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Naturally the new society has had to do quite an amount of
missionary work. What our folk-lore scholars are " driving at,"
the importance of the study of unwritten traditions, the value of
Indian myths and rude customs, of negro fables, or of old super-
stitions, the great necessity of gathering the lore of American
folk while there are time and opportunity — these are matters that
the general public do not yet fully understand or appreciate.
Folk lore is a study to which every one can add his or her mite,
from the farmer to the stock broker, from the servant girl to the
mistress. We find many quaint and curious items of superstition
or traditionary lore in the parlor, in the kitchen, and in Wall
Street. Indeed, we need only to read the daily newspaper reports
of clairvoyants, mediums, fortune-telling, haunted houses, etc., to
be reminded of those low forms of thought that characterize rude
and uncivilized communities.

The American Folk-lore Society has continued to increase in
numbers from the very beginning. It now has a membership of

five hundred, which exceeds
that of any similar organi-
zation in Europe. The in-
fluence of the society has
been strengthened and ex-
tended principally by the
formation of branch socie-
ties in different sections of
the country. There are now
folk-lore societies in six large
cities — in Boston, Philadel-
phia, New Orleans, Mont-
real, Chicago, and New
York. The Chicago Folk-
lore Society is an independ-
ent body; the others are
affiliated with the national
society.

The effect of these local
societies on the future study
of folk lore in America can
not be estimated at the pres-
ent time. Already their influence has been felt in many quarters.
The meetings bring people together for an interchange of views
and for pleasant entertainment. Although these societies have a
social side and function, they are in fact working societies, as the
following will show :

The first local branch of the American Folk-lore Society was
established in November, 1889, at Philadelphia— a city noted for

MR. W. W. NEWELL.

FOLK-LORE STUDY IN AMERICA.

589

the number of persons interested in the study.* The stated meet-
ings of the chapter are held on the second Wednesday of the
month from November to June. Many carefully prepared papers

have been read at the meet-

ings, and some of them have
been printed in the Journal.
Among these we may men-
tion Miss Alice C. Fletcher's
able address on Child Life
among the American Indi-
ans ; Mrs. de Guerrero's pa-
per on Games and Popular
Superstitions of Nicaragua ;
and Mr. Stewart Culin's in-
teresting remarks on Chil-
dren's Street Games.

The Folk-lore Museum
established in connection
with the Philadelphia chap-
ter is unique. Many rare
and valuable objects have
been collected and are de-
posited in the Museum of
the University of Pennsyl-
vania. These objects serve

to illustrate myth, religion, custom, and superstition the world
over. The collection includes idols and ceremonial objects from
China, Japan, India, Thibet, Egypt, Polynesia, Africa, North and
South America. Prominent in this exhibit are amulets and
charms of paper and wood and metal. Very interesting are those
implements used for divination and fortune-telling and those
manipulated in games. Thus, the evolution of the playing card is
shown ; so too the games of chess and backgammon are displayed
in their various forms or types. Nor have the games and toys
and dolls of children been overlooked. They are all there — even
Noah's ark, with its beasts and birds, two and two. Such a mu-
seum is an "object lesson" in folk lore.f

Several informal meetings of persons living in Boston and its

PROF. ALCEE FORTIER.

* The following officers were chosen : President, Mr. Victor Guillou ; secretary, Mr.
Stewart Culin ; treasurer, Mr. J. Granville Leach ; librarian, Mr. John W. Jordan, Jr. ;
committee, Messrs. Richard L. Ashurst and Francis C. Macaulay, and Mrs. Cornelius
Stevenson.

f It may not be amiss to call attention to the exhibition of folk-lore objects at the
Columbian Exposition in Chicago. It forms part of a section of the Department of Eth-
nology and Archaeology of the Exposition. There will be also an anthropological library
and a display of the current numbers of folk-lore journals throughout the world.

59o

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

vicinity were held during 1888-'89. But it was not until March,
1890, that "The Boston Association" of the American Folk-lore
Society was organized.* The meetings are held once a month, from
November to June, in the rooms of the Boston Natural History
Society or at private houses.

The activity of the Boston Association has been considerable.
Some pleasant features have been introduced into the proceedings

in order to give variety to
the study in which the mem-
bers are interested. In 1891
a performance was held, un-
der the auspices of the asso-
ciation, at the Chinese thea-
ter. Last winter an enter-
tainment was given under
the name of " The Japanese
Dance." The dances pre-
sented histories or the phe-
nomena of Nature, displayed
by gesture and motion ;
thus, Harusame (the Dew
of Spring) showed the fall-
ing of dew on flowers ; Sedo-
gahataki (the Vegetable
Garden), a humorous dance,
illustrating the gathering
of pumpkins and the trip-
PROF. D. P. PENHALLOW. ping over the vines ; GrO-

shorasuma illustrated how
a maiden received her first love-letter, and so on.

The Louisiana Association of the American Folk-lore Society
was organized in December, 1891, at New Orleans, j The number
of members is fifty. The meetings of the association are held in
the library of Tulane University and at private residences, and
they have been exceedingly profitable and agreeable.

The members of the Louisiana Association have a grand chance
to make their work known and felt. They are at home in one of

* The following officers were chosen : President, Mr. Frederick W. Putnam ; vice-presi-
dents, Miss Abby L. Alger, department of Algonkin folk lore ; Clarence J. Blake, folk music ;
Prof. Francis J. Child, English folk lore ; Dana Estes, literature and publication ; Miss Mary
Hemenway, Zuni folk lore ; Colonel Thomas W. Higginson, Southern folk lore ; secretary,
W. W. Newell ; treasurer, Arthur G. Everett.

f The officers of the association are : President, Prof. Alcee Fortier ; vice-president, Mrs.
Mary A. Townsend ; secretary and treasurer, Mr. William Beer ; assistant secretary, Edward
Forster ; executive board, Mrs. Francis Blake, Mrs. M. E. Davis, Mrs. George Howe, and
Colonel William Preston Johnston.

FOLK-LORE STUDY IN AMERICA.

59l

the most promising fields of folk-lore exploration in the United
States. There has been a strange mingling of races in Louisiana.
The result is that relics of the voodoo or obi rites, conjurings,
magic, medical superstitions, fables, plantation songs, and religious
notions of the negroes linger on side by side with the superstitions,
ghost stories, omens, charms, nursery tales, and rhymes brought
by the whites from Europe. The quaint dialects of these settlers
offer an inviting field of study which should not be overlooked.

The Louisiana Association has given an impulse to folk-lore
study in the State, and it has resulted in the collection of many
stories and superstitions current among the Creoles and negroes
"before the war." The ladies have contributed many items of
traditionary lore. Mrs. Pres-
ton Johnston, Mrs. Mason
Cooke, Mrs. C. V. Jamison,
and Mrs. M. E. Davis have
written out stories told to
them in childhood by their
negro nurses. The folk lore
of French Louisiana has
been collected by Prof. For-
tier during the past twenty
years. Some of this valu-
able material has appeared
in the Folk-lore Journal, and
some of it, entitled Bits of
Louisiana Folk Lore, was
printed in the Transactions
of the Modern Language As-
sociation for 1887. Thanks
to American scholar ship, not
to American liberality, the

Complete WOrk Of Prof. For- Miss ALICE C. FLETCHER.

tier will be issued shortly,

as the second of a series of monographs of the American Folk-
lore Society.*

It is with pleasure that we record the establishment of a so-
ciety for the study of folk lore in Canada. The formation of the
Montreal branch was due largely to the diplomatic efforts of Prof.
D. P. Penhallow and Mr. John Reade, who soon had the cordial
sympathy and support of many Canadian students, among whom

* The American Folk-lore Society is about to begin a series of Memoirs. The first of
these will consist of a collection of Folk Tales of Angola (Africa) by Mr. Heli Chatelain.
The connection of West African folk lore with that of American negroes brings the material
within the field covered by the society, and should excite much interest.

592 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

we may name Hon. H. Beaugrand (ex-Mayor of Montreal), Dr.
Louis Frechette (laureat of the French Academy), Mr. W. J.
White, Mr. Henry Carter, Dr. Robert Bell, F. G. S., Dr. Beers,
Dr. Le May, Dr. Kingsford, F. R S. Can., and Dr. S. E. Dawson,
Queen's printer. Several informal meetings were held during the
winter of 1892, and in April of that year a permanent organiza-
tion was effected.* The membership roll shows a list of about
sixty names. Many interesting papers have been read at the
meetings, and the social element has been combined with serious
study in a most delightful manner.

It is hardly necessary to call attention to the opportunities for
the study of folk lore in Canada. This has been done by Mr.
Reade in a very suggestive paper read before the Montreal so-
ciety, f We need only refer to the mingling of races in Canada.
The Indian tribes of the Northwest ; the descendants of the pio-
neers of French Canada, of the loyalists, and of the Scotch, Irish,
English, and Germans; the scattered settlements of Russians,
Hungarians, Norsemen, Chinese, etc., in western Canada — these
folk afford as rich field for inquiries of the f olk-lorist as he or she
would desire. Some curious items of superstition, or traditionary
lore, found in the provinces, have been collected, but much re-
mains in the mouths of the folk, the plain people in country
towns and districts. Meanwhile a series of investigations relat-
ing to the Indian tribes of the Northwest are going on under the
auspices of the British Association for the Advancement of Sci-
ence, aided by the Canadian Government.

The New York branch of the American Folk-lore Society was
organized in February of this year. J The membership at the
first meeting was about forty ; it is now double that number. The
metropolis has become the stamping-ground for representatives of
all the nations of the earth. There are old-fashioned people as
well as Huns and Vandals in New York. The right person will
find plenty of folk lore in the " quarters " of the Italians, Poles,
Jews, Czechs, Hungarians, Chinese, etc. Within a radius of one
hundred miles around the city there are settlements that would
furnish the material eagerly wanted by the Folk-lore Society.

* The officers of the Montreal branch of the American Folk-lore Society for 1893 are
as follows : President, Prof. D. P. Penhallow, McGill University ; vice-presidents, M. Louis
Frechette and Mr. John Reade ; secretary, Mr. F. E. Came ; treasurer, Mr. W. J. White ;
ladies' committee, Mrs. Robert Reid, Mrs. L. Frechette, Mrs. H. B. Ames, Mrs. K. Boisse-
vain, Miss Macdonnell, and Miss Van Home.

f Published in the Dominion Illustrated Monthly for June, 1892.

$ The officers of this branch are as follows : President, Dr. H. Carrington Bolton ; first
vice-president, Mr. George Bird Grinnell ; second vice-president, Mr. Richard Watson
Gilder ; secretary, Mr. William B. Tuthill ; treasurer, Mr. Sydney A. Smith ; ladies' com-
mittee, Mrs. Henry Draper, Mrs. Harriet M. Converse, and Mrs. Mary J. Field.

FOLK-LORE STUDY IN AMERICA.

593

The other day Dr. Bolton found an intelligent, skilled work-
man in the metropolis, who used the magic mirror (the Urim and
Thummim of the ancient Jews) for the purposes of divination.
The seer made use of the
Urim to guide his daily life,
and to consult with the spir-
its of many distinguished
persons from whom he re-
ceived communications. Dr.
Bolton found also a fruitful
field of inquiry in the count-
ing-out rhymes of children.*
Another member of the New
York branch who has con-
tributed to our slender stock
of knowledge concerning the
Pawnee and Blackfeet Indi-
ans is Mr. George Bird Grin-
nell. He is at home with
these " prairie people," as
they are called. He has
lived, slept, camped, hunted,
and " swapped stories " with
them. His collection of Paw-
nee Hero Stories and Folk

Tales showed what other travelers had missed. Mr. Grinnell is
by adoption a member of the Blackfeet tribe, and his book of
Blackfoot Lodge Tales tells the life of a Blackfoot brave from
infancy to his departure at death to the Sandhills — the happy
hunting ground of the tribe. Among other members of the New
York branch we may mention the work of Mrs. Harriett Maxwell
Converse, who is by adoption a member of the Seneca tribe, and
Mr. De Cost Smith, who has written and sketched cleverly the
ceremonies of the Onondagas.

The Chicago Folk-lore Society is an independent organiza-
tion, not a branch of the American Folk-lore Society. This
society was organized in December, 1891. f The membership of
the society numbers now about eighty persons, with about twenty

MR. GEORGE B. GRINNELL.

* The Counting-out Rhymes of Children : their Antiquity, Origin, and Distribution. A
Study in Folk Lore. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1888.

f The officers for the year 1 893-'94 are as follows : President, Prof. William I. Knapp ;
vice-presidents, Captain E. L. Huggins, United States Navy, department of Sioux and cog-
nate tribes ; Rabbi E. G. Hirsch, Semitic folk lore ; Prof. Frederick Starr, Dr. Washington
Mathews, Indian tribes of the Southwest ; Mr. George W. Cable, Southern folk songs ; secre-
tary, Lieutenant Fletcher S. Bassett, United States Navy ; treasurer, Miss Elizabeth Head ;
directors, Mrs. Fletcher S. Bassett, Mrs. Potter Palmer, and Mrs. Edward E. Ayer.

594

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

non-resident members. A manual for the use of members has
been prepared by Lieutenant F. S. Bassett, and it contains many
practical observations and suggestions for collectors. The Chi-
cago society publishes a quarterly journal called The Folk-lorist,
edited by Lieutenant Bassett and Mrs. Bassett, both of whom de-
serve credit for promoting the organized study of folk lore in
Chicago. The contribution on Illinois Folk Lore, by Miss Helen
M. Wheeler, shows what the right person can do in the State out-
side of the cities. Many of the superstitions of the pioneers of
the Western country have disappeared, but the traditional cus-
toms and beliefs of their descendants, if closely studied as they

have been noted by some
American novelists, should
yield unexpected results.

The meetings of the Chi-
cago Folk-lore Society are
held once a month at the
Woman's Club Rooms. They
have been very interesting
and well attended. Some
idea of the useful work done
may be gained from the pro-
gramme presented at the
meeting in April last. The
guests of the evening were
Mrs. French - Sheldon, the
African explorer, and Cap-
tain John G. Bourke. There
were contributions by Mrs.
Molly Eliot Seawell, Miss
Mary A. Owen (the author
of a book of Voodoo Tales),
Mrs. Eva Wigstroem, of

Sweden, Mr. A. M. Stephen, and Prof. H. Hurlburt. The readers
were Major Joseph Kirkland, Mr. Franklin H. Head, Captain E.
L. Huggins, and Mrs. Wilmarth.*

This completes the list of local folk-lore societies in America.
It is expected that one or two new branches will be established
before another year. There should be folk-lore societies in fields

COLONEL CHARLKS C. JONES, JK.

* The Chicago Folk-lore Society has adopted a seal and motto — an idea which might
be used by the other societies. The figure in the seal represents the meal-sprinkler of the
Navajos — the courier sent out by the priest during the ceremonies of the "Mountain
Chant." The motto on the seal is the well-known line from Hiawatha — " Whence these
legends and traditions." (Dr. Mathews's account of the ceremonies in Report of the Bureau
of Ethnology for 1883-'84.)

FOLK-LORE STUDY IN AMERICA. 595

in which opportunities to gather valuable material are found :
for example, in the Pennsylvania coal fields, where Hungarians
congregate; in the Southwest, where the negroes and "poor
whites " touch elbows ; in the Northwest, where the Scandina-
vians are numerous; and on the Pacific coast, where Indians,
Chinese, and half-breeds mingle.

A few words as to the work of the officers and leaders of the
national Folk-lore Society.* The honor of holding the presi-
dency rightfully belongs to Prof. Horatio Hale, whose studies
date back to a time when the term " folk lore " could not be found
in Webster's Dictionary. His first important contribution was
to the volume of Ethnography and Philology of the United States
Exploring Expedition under Wilkes (Volume VII). Then Prof.
Hale increased his reputation by editing The Iroquois Book of
Rites, f This Iroquois book is almost pure folk lore, and has a
special interest, as showing how authentic history can be derived
from popular tradition where this has been handed down in pub-
lic and solemn recitations. To this evidence alone we owe the es-
tablishment of the fact that Hiawatha was not a mythical hero,
but an actual Onondaga chief, who lived between four and five
centuries ago, and helped to form the great Iroquois Confedera-
tion. For further information on the story of Hiawatha, see Mr.
Beauchamp's scholarly paper entitled Hi-a-wat-ha, in the Journal
of American Folk Lore (for 1891, p. 295).

The man who is responsible for the very existence of such an
organization as The American Folk-lore Society is William Wells
Newell. He it was who issued the call to arms, who drafted the
circular letter already referred to, who put the new organization
in line with the great anthropological movement in America, who
has generously given his time and services to the cause of folk
lore ; who, in short, has been the general executive officer of the
society from the beginning. All this has been a labor of love
with our honored permanent secretary. Mr. Newell won his repu-
tation as a folk-lorist by his book of Games and Songs of Amer-
ican Children (1883). Since then he has contributed to the Jour-
nal of American Folk Lore a large number of valuable papers,
which we all hope to see some day within the covers of a book.

* The officers of the American Folk-Lore Society for the year 1893 are as follows:
President, Horatio Hale, Clinton, Ontario ; first vice-president, Alcee Fortier ; second vice-
president, D. P. Penhallow. Council, Franz Boas, H. Carrington Bolton, D. G. Brinton,
A. F. Chamberlain, J. Owen Dorsey, Alice C. Fletcher, George Bird Grinnell, Otis T.
Mason, and Frederick W. Putnam. Permanent secretary, William Wells Newell, Cam-
bridge, Mass. ; corresponding secretary, J. Walter Fewkes ; treasurer, John H. Hinton,
M. D. ; curator, Stewart Culin.

f It forms No. 2 of Brinton's Library of Aboriginal American Literature, Philadelphia,
1883.

596 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

A clever writer in The Saturday Review (whom we siispect to
be none other than Andrew Lang) begins his book review with
two sentences which deserve to be quoted at this place.* He says :
" (1) It is not very much to our national credit that an American,
Prof. Child, is making far the best edition of our ballads. (2)
Nor is it very much to the credit of Ireland that an American
has made much the most interesting collections of her old popu-
lar tales." Prof. Child's monumental edition of English and
Scottish Popular Ballads represents the best years of his life. It
is a veritable mine of comparative folk lore, to which scholars
will go again and again, and all will come away richer and wiser
after their visit.

The American referred to in the second sentence above quoted
is Mr. Jeremiah Curtin, a member of the Folk-lore Society. His
collection of the Myths and Folk Lore of Ireland should make
every lover of old Ireland his friend. Mr. Curtin gained his
training and experience in collection of our Indian myths. He
has published recently a collection of Myths and Folk Tales of
the Russians, Western Slavs, and Magyars (1890), in which his
singular ability as a collector and interpreter of popular tradition
is again displayed. Another member of the Folk-lore Society, Mr.
James Mooney, went over to Ireland with the purpose of study-
ing the traditions of his ancestral county. His account of The
Holiday Customs of Ireland is a remarkably fine bit of work.f
Mr. Mooneyes special work has been under the auspices of the
Bureau of Ethnology. His examination of the theory and prac-
tice of medicine among the Cherokee Indians is a masterly presen-
tation of an obscure and complicated folk practice.!

The study of negro lore has been the means of making the
reputation of at least one American writer. We refer of course
to Mr. Joel Chandler Harris, to whom will always be given the
credit of making the lore of the plantation interesting alike to
the student and the general reader. His Uncle Remus Tales have
a scientific worth, aside from a literary value. In his Negro
Myths, Colonel Charles C. Jones has done for the dialect and folk
lore of the negroes of the Georgia coast what Mr. Harris did so
wonderfully well for the legends of the old plantation of middle
Georgia. The stories of Daddy Jack and Daddy Sandy are on a
par with the tales of Uncle Remus. But there is a difference in
the lingo of the negroes ; the darkies of the Georgia rice-fields
and swamp region have almost a different language from that of
the colored folk of Maryland or of Tennessee.

* For April 12, 1890.

•f Published in the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 1889.

\ In the Journal of American Folk Lore, 1890 ; also Bureau of Ethnology, 1885-'86.

FOLK-LORE STUDY IN AMERICA.

597

It did not take Prof. Crane long to make the interesting dis-
covery that the fables and " yarns " of Uncle Remus were parallel
to stories Prof. Hartt heard from his guide on the Amazon River,
to stories collected by Dr. Bleek in South Africa, and to popular
tales in Europe. He was able to trace the majority of the Legends
of the Old Plantation to their foreign variants.* Prof. Crane is
our acknowledged authority in the field of storiology. He first
published a charming collection of Italian Popular Tales, with a
scholarly introduction and elaborate notes. His able paper on
Mediaeval Sermons, Books, and Stories was followed by a criti-
cal edition of The Exempla,
or Illustrative Stories from
the Sermones Vulgares of
Jacques de Vitry, published
by the English Folk-lore So-
ciety in its series of memoirs
(1890). Jacques de Vitry
was an eloquent and popu-
lar bishop of the thirteenth
century, who made great use
of apologues, or exempla, in
his sermons, with the ex-
press purpose of instructing
and sometimes of amusing
his audiences. These illus-
trative stories were diffused
over all Europe, and some
of them have won their way
into literature — have reap-
peared now in the fables of
La Fontaine, and then in
the plays of Moliere and

Shakespeare. Prof. Crane has published recently an edition of
Chansons Populaires de la France, a selection from French popu-
lar ballads.

Thus far the work of American folk-lorists has been directed
almost entirely to the collection of material to be collated and
examined afterward according to scientific methods. American
students think that the time has not yet come for theoretical dis-
cussions, such as English and Continental scholars have waged so
sharply at times and without good cause. Nor are they ready yet
to favor the establishment of a separate science of folk lore. In
the Handbook, issued by the authority of the English Society, it
is stated that " the definition of the science of folk lore, as the so-

FBOF. T. FREDERICK CRANE.

* Prof. Crane's study appeared in The Popular Science Monthly, April, 1881.

598 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ciety will in future study it, may be taken to be as follows : the
comparison and identification of the survivals of archaic beliefs,
customs, and traditions in modern ages." So far, so good.

But the truth is that the exact definition of the term " folk
lore " is still a matter in dispute. The proper place of the " sci-
ence of folk lore " remains to be settled. Thus there will be two
folk-lore congresses at the World's Columbian Exposition : one
congress to be held in the month of July, in connection with the
Department of Literature ; the other Folk-lore Congress to be
held in August, with the Congress of Anthropology. There is no
department of comparative folk-lore in any college or university.

Finally, we attribute the rapid progress and popularity of folk-
lore study in America and in Europe to three reasons : (1) Folk
lore is a study to which almost every one can contribute some-
thing ; (2) folk lore is a study which throws a flood of light on
man's past mental evolution and culture-history, as the Germans
call the study; (3) folk lore is a study in which the student of re-
ligions, the student of morals, the ethnologist, the antiquarian,
the psychologist, the historian, the poet, and the litterateur, each
finds a different interest and a different value.

REFORMATORY PRISONS AND LOMBROSO'S THEORIES.

BY Miss HELEN ZIMMEEN.

IN no branch of social science has so much progress been made
of recent years as in the treatment of the criminal. Mankind
in general has at last come to recognize what Sir Thomas Moore
knew long ago, that the end of punishment is " nothing else but
the destruction of vices and the saving of men." The prison has
become, and rightly, a moral hospital. Whether, however, we
are not now inclining to err a little too much on the other side in
our latter methods of prison treatment is a question that is exer-
cising the general public as well as criminal anthropologists and
professors of legal medicine. Are we not perhaps encouraging
rather than deterring crime by our present tendency to prison
philanthropy ? Do we not tend to make prison too pleasant a
place, so that those who have been there are apt to sing in an
irreverent spirit the words of the hymn that telleth —

" I have been there, and fain would go ;
It is a little heaven below " ?

Is it no longer good, as the gospel teaches, that the transgressor's
way be made hard lest a worse evil befall ?

On all these points there is unquestionably no greater author-
ity in the world to consult than Prof. Cesare Lombroso, Professor

REFORMATORY PRISONS. 599

of Forensic Medicine at the University of Turin, who may be re-
garded as the inaugurator of the modern science of criminal an-
thropology, the thinker whose work on Criminal Man (L'Uomo
Delinquente) had, on its appearance in 1889, an influence as de-
cisive as had in its day the publication of Darwin's Origin of
Species. In the vexed question that is now waging as to the
treatment of criminals, in which we find ranged on one side men
like W. Z. Brockway, of the Elmira Reformatory, and on the other
an authority such as Mr. William Tallack, of the Howard Asso-
ciation, a society that bears the name of the great English prison
philanthropist and exists for the purpose of alleviating the male-
factor's pain, it is well to go to the fountain head and hear what
Lombroso has to say on the point.

Now, Lombroso starts from the premise that a reason must
exist why certain men are impelled by their very nature to com-
mit crimes, and that hence there must be a difference in their
very organism sufficiently marked to distinguish normal men from
those morally or mentally mad. In the various medical clinics
numerous and minute psychiatric observations, calculations of the
most insignificant abnormities in the eurythmia of the human
body, confrontation and establishment of mathematical data, have
all combined to advance the science of criminal anthropology, so
that it has become possible to divide mankind into three great
principal classes — normal men, criminal men, and madmen. Now,
Prof. Lombroso, from his own experience and that of the scholars
who work under his direction — many of whom, like Prof. Enrico
Ferri, have become almost as prominent as himself — had come
some while ago to the conclusion that an absolute reform is re-
quired in the old methods of criminal punishment, and the first
thing to do was to distinguish with great care the congenital
criminal from the madman. The professor condemns rigorously
the carelessness with which the legal tribunals pronounce sen-
tences, and points out with much acumen that inconvenience, not
to say irreparable harm, is thus done, mischief that always ac-
crues to the detriment of those who perform their duty, and who
surely have a right to be protected by the state. Hence, says
Lombroso, it is above all others the magistrate who should pur-
sue the study of criminal anthropology, because while every one
of those who have had contact with malefactors, such as the
members of their own family and prison directors, regard them
as men different from others — that is, persons of weak mind or al-
most insane, and never, or at least hardly ever, susceptible of im-
provement ; while the psychiatrist finds it impossible in most cases
to distinguish clearly between madness and guilt, the legislator,
on his part, rarely gives heed to the acute criticisms of the alien-
ist, to the timid objections of the prison officials. As a rule,

6oo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

magistrates hold that the cases are rare, nay, indeed exceptional,
in which the criminal is subject to distorted volition, and but too
frequently deem a jurist's highest earthly mission to consist in
laying down his legal judgments, which start from hard and fast
rules and admit of no gradations between the sane, the alienated,
and the criminal mind. Hence this type of lawgiver has one sole
idea, one single starting point, in assigning his verdicts. He has
but one regime of punishment to bestow on each individual crime,
and this is pronounced without preoccupying himself concerning
the divergences of climate, region, and habit whence the crime
has sprung. He judges the minds of others by his own, which
has probably been nourished on the most sublime speculations of
human wisdom. Hence, legal philosophers and legislators will
not, and perchance can not, descend from the proud heights of
metaphysics to the humble and arid territory of penal establish-
ments. Their opinions on these points are, therefore, almost
valueless.

In a letter recently addressed to me, in reply to my query of
how he would treat the criminal, and what he thought of the
Elmira system, Prof. Lombroso replied :

" To put it briefly, my idea is that so far all we have done is
mistaken, not excluding from this condemnation the American
reformatories. I hold that for women, for instance, except in
quite a few cases (perhaps twenty or thirty, speaking of Italy),
there is no need for prisons. A species of convent would suffice.
For young men it is necessary first of all to distinguish the con-
genital criminals from those who are sons of parents affected by
syphilis, or alcohol, or typhus. Then, accordingly, they should be
submitted to treatment, but not a commonplace one like that of
Elmira, but be dosed with homoeopathic sulphur, nux vornica, or
submitted to electricity. If, after such a cure, they show no signs
of improvement, then detain them for life in wide islands, where,
with the exception of bread and water, if they would not die, they
must gain the rest of their fare by working. If, after this, they
transgress repeatedly, sentence them to death. The educational
reformatories, with all those precautions practiced at Elmira, I
would reserve exclusively for young criminals guilty of crimes of
occasion or of passion, and to these I would accord conditional
liberty. The suspension of punishment, the study of the individ-
ual character, will help us to know them as much as the history
of their case. Adults under judgment I would keep in prison
cells whenever life in common does not facilitate the reciprocal
tale-bearing which renders detection easy. But here, too, if the
crime be one of occasion or passion, I would favor short-term
punishments, fines, floggings, fasts, douches, etc. If, instead, the
delinquency is instinctive, or recidivist, I would mostly inflict

REFORMATORY PRISONS.

601

perpetual punishment or even death, or, if the criminal be mad
or a mattoid, put him into the criminal lunatic asylum. If his
offense be political or religious, his punishment must last as long
as public opinion is opposed to this form of crime."

Such, in a nutshell, are the theories which Prof. Lombroso has
spent his life in expounding in writing and in speech, for when-
ever a specially complex case is brought before the law courts of
Italy he is called in to give his scientific opinion, and his acute,
shrewd, original, and penetrating judgments would, if collected,
form a volume of most interesting and instructive reading, that
should cause many a judge, and many a private person too, to
hesitate ere pronouncing judgment. Not unfrequently he has
found those to be innocent who to all appearances seemed guilty,
and those to be guilty who seemed the flower of virtue. His theo-
ries are deduced from the most careful and minute observations
of criminals and madmen, and it is only by studying these at-
tentively and analyzing them that we can discover how and why
Prof. Lombroso is convinced of the defects met with in all re-
formatories and penal houses, and by what process of selection he
has arrived at his conclusions with regard to the evil and its
remedies. Unfortunately, the professor, while a lucid and bril-
liant speaker, is a somewhat involved and arid writer, and it is no
easy task to disentangle his ideas from among his voluminous
and multifarious writings. Still, the study of criminal therapeu-
tics is too interesting and too important to be neglected.

Now, Lombroso's cardinal point is, that rather than study
crime when it is already mature, we should try to forestall it, if
not by removing the cause, which might be impossible, at least
by lessening its influence. Of course, we can not minimize such
influences as the action of warm climates, the result of race, but
we must adapt our laws so as to mitigate their effects by various
methods, such as the more careful regulation of prostitution ; the
more speedy execution of justice, so that it may better impose on
impressionable minds which are apt to forget the cause of the
punishment if it follows the deed only after a long lapse of time ;
the care not to extend northward the laws which are proper to
the south, and vice versa, and this latter especially in regard to all
offenses committed against persons. Where conditions are still
savage these can be much diminished by thinning the forests, the
natural houses and fortresses of malefactors, by the opening up
of roads, by the founding of cities and villages on sites of ill
fame, as has been done in Italy to extirpate the brigands that in-
fested certain districts ; by dissolving all such societies as tend to
be secret and are usually nurseries of crime (witness some of the
Irish-American so-called patriotic associations), and by helping
and encouraging the denunciation of evil-doers. Prof. Lombroso

VOL. XLIII. 43

602 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

also condemns very strongly and very properly the foolish habit
that obtains on the European continent of extending full pardons
to prisoners because a private event has taken place in a royal
family, such as the birth of an heir, or the marriage of a prince.
Punishment must be steady, equal, and not liable to such acci-
dents on which the criminal, generally a fatalist, is apt tq count.
Further, it is always well, if it can be hindered, that a released
prisoner should not return to his native place or habitual abode.
A most special watch ought to be kept over the houses of receiv-
ers of stolen goods. These persons, who might be called the capi-
talists of crime, almost always go unpunished, and it is just they
who should be smitten. The professor has great praise to bestow
on the American vigilance committee, an institution he regards
as wise in the extreme. He also lauds the English detection sys-
tem and the Austrian Vertraute, who render splendid services
by giving such persevering chase to criminals. He also proposes
the alliance of all nations for the arrest of delinquents, as well as
the sequestration of a person who boasts that he has committed a
crime.

Alcoholism is a fruitful source of evil-doing. It is therefore
desirable to prevent by all available means the diffusion of the
liquor trade, either by exorbitant taxes or by a limitation in pro-
duction. The statistics of Switzerland, Sweden, Holland, and
certain parts of the United States and England show a very sen-
sible diminution of crime since severe laws were enacted against
the manufacture and sale of intoxicating drinks. Feasts, fairs,
and markets should be diminished, when they are not called for
by special and real commercial reasons. The mass should be
educated not only by means of the alphabet, but should be taught
elevated ideas with regard to work and personal dignity. Prizes
should be instituted for the virtuous, and every aid should be
given to extend the helpful labor of postal banks and co-operative
stores. Yet another powerful incitement to crime is the public
spectacle afforded by courts of jus-tice. Entrance to these should
be limited to well-known persons, and the mass be rigorously
excluded. The modern tendency, fostered by the press, to make
of a malefactor a hero, is greatly to be deprecated, and leads to
crimes due to pure imitation, from a desire for notoriety, no mat-
ter at what cost. There should positively be forbidden those
extended judicial reports in the newspapers, fruitful sources of
eventual crime, which the people read with so much avidity. The
State ought to promote and protect work in every way it can, for
only by work can idleness be conquered, that too potent counselor
of crime.

Lombroso holds that there are certain establishments where
the notion of evil is first inculcated, and these, according to him,

REFORMATORY PRISONS. 6c3

are above all to be found in reformatories, to be commended in
initial idea but to be condemned in the manner this idea is usually
executed. Here, he holds, the young get to know vagabonds and
idlers, whom they are drawn to copy by that instinct for imitation
that exists in the youthful mind. The children associated in
such places are often foundlings or the offspring of immoral fami-
lies, or of parents incapable or unable to educate them. When
these are brought together with children of good, honest families
the latter are too frequently pushed into vice by bad example, by
acquaintances made in undesirable places. It is undoubtedly our
duty to care for the orphan and the foundling, but we must be
careful above all to prevent their being dragged into guilt as well
as to lift up those that may have fallen into it. It is from this
very aim, as Lombroso knows, that has arisen the idea of reform-
atories and houses of custody for the young, which in France re-
ceive annually 7,685, in Italy 3,770, in Belgium 1,473, in Holland
161, and in America 2,400 individuals. But their utility, the pro-
fessor holds, is not apparent. They have been founded in a frame
of mind more benevolent than well informed as to the criminal
nature. Too many and too complex are the causes, multiplied
by mutual contact, of the evil they would cure, and this too at
an age not tender enough to model, yet young enough to be ex-
pansive and inclined to imitation, especially of evil.

The over-agglomeration for economical reasons of individuals,
and the admission into public reformatories of the worst subjects
expelled from private establishments, annul every attempt at
reform. Statistics show but too plainly the falling back into evil
courses of the inmates of such institutions. The diminution in
England of twenty-six per cent, which is attributed to the one
hundred and seventy-two reformatories which she owns, Lom-
broso would assign instead rather to the diffusion of the twenty-
three thousand so-called " ragged schools " that take care of mil-
lions of young people during the most dangerous age. In Italy,
says Lombroso, it is too easy for fathers and guardians to place
sons and wards in reformatories under pretext that they are
wicked ; and certainly it is not there that they will amend, since
in such places there can not be carried into effect the nightly
cellular system and the enforced silence which are an absolute
necessity for rigid discipline, and to counteract the worst vices of
the young criminal. From his own observations Prof. Lom-
broso is convinced that even in the so-called best-managed re-
formatories there prevail the worst sexual vices, not to mention
theft, the camorra, such as is carried on in the penal hulks, the
learning of the criminal jargon, the tricks of the trade, tattooing,
and all other distinctive vices of criminal men. What remedy lies
to hand ? Prof. Lombroso writes, in his Uomo Delinquente,

6o4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

" Charity, or rather foresight, must assume new forms, leave the
ways of alms and the violence of prisons, and substitute spontane-
ous asylums and industrial schools."

Lombroso explains in detail what admirable work the New
York " Society for the Reform of Youth " has done since 1853, by
founding industrial schools and lodging houses ; implanting the
love for work in bad boys, giving them the knowledge of personal
liberty, and the healthy desire to better their state by employing
them in factories and workshops. He holds that Italy might
advantageously copy and imitate such a reform, particularly in
Piedmont, Sardinia, and the Valtellina, where sheep-tending util-
izes the children.

When offenses in youths pass a certain limit so as to require
heavier punishments, Lombroso contends that above all things
the so frequent method of often-repeated and short-term imprison-
ments should be avoided with the greatest care. Instead, a grad-
uated punishment should be substituted, like fasting, douches,
forced labor, and isolation in their domicile ; or, if it is preferred,
fines might be imposed, thereby lightening the cost of mainte-
nance. A money fine has also the great advantage of touching
the modern culprit in his most vulnerable point.

If the crime be serious, then, according to Lombroso, prison
cells are necessary in order to isolate the culprit from his compan-
ions. But our chief and primal aim should ever be education.
We should strive to inoculate the delinquent with more than mere
alphabetical instruction, we should teach him the practical knowl-
edge of useful trades, and instead of futile preaching and moral
teaching we should give him good or bad marks ; passing him
into privileged categories where he would have the right, for
example, to wear a beard, receive visits, work for his own bene-
fit, and so on. Thus, through those very passions which left
alone would lead him on to greater wickedness, we must seek
to inspire him with the need of honesty. Ferri tells of a thief
who became an honest man when the Sister of Charity, with
that very end in view, intrusted him with the care of the prison
wardrobe.

Overstrictness is always harmful. It is far better to tickle
the vanity of the prisoners — a feature highly pronounced in the
criminal type — by permitting them to elect among themselves
wardens and teachers, as well as arbitrators who shall decide con-
cerning the misdeeds of their companions. This would help to
awaken a spirit of comradeship, which is always beneficial. Lom-
broso inclines somewhat to Bespine's method of not inflicting
punishment until a little time has elapsed after the committal of
the offense, to allow passion to cool down, if the offense be due to
this cause.

REFORMATORY PRISONS. 605

With regard to employment for prisoners, all outdoor work is
to be preferred; next come the works in straw, cord-making,
broom-binding, typography, tailoring, terra-cotta molding, then
last of all shoemaking and carpentering. To be absolutely
avoided, because they open the way to new crimes, are such
trades as blacksmiths, photographers, lithographers, and such
like, wherever iron implements or chemicals must be utilized.
Work must be proportioned to the strength of the prisoner;
prison work should on no account be farmed out to contractors
et pour cause, because these would naturally always protect the
ablest men and not the most morally deserving. "Never impose
work," says Lombroso ; " let it be desired. The delinquent should
ask for it, and having obtained it, it should never become for him
a pretext for receiving greater privileges." The Elmira Reform-
atory, of which Lombroso speaks in the letter I have quoted, has,
we know, served as a pattern to all penitentiaries in the United
States, and has modified their methods. Mr. Brockway, its found-
er, who states that he imbibed all his ideas from Lombroso's
Uomo Delinquente, started from this premise that the introduc-
tion of indefinite and unlimited punishment is necessary as the
basis of a logical and efficacious moral system; that it is not
enough to separate the congenital criminal and the occasional, the
passionate, and instinctive, that to each one must be applied the
cure that best suits him, as in a hospital each patient is treated
in a particular manner. The physical treatment is directed to-
ward the development of muscle, by means of douches, massage,
gymnastics, and good diet. In the moral it aims at the strength-
ening of the will, teaching the prisoner self-control, and thus
enabling him to hasten on his own liberation, which is granted as
soon as he has proved himself to be worthy. Mr. Brockway
divides the prisoners into three classes — good, moderate, and per-
verse ; but from the last they can pass into the first through good
behavior, love of work, and respect for the guardians. The work
taught in Elmira is practical ; the prisoner, as soon as he is liber-
ated— and this, according to statistics, is very soon — will always
find lucrative occupations. Self-respect once born within him, will
go on increasing, unless he is a delinquent born, and here it is
that Lombroso departs from Mr. Brockway ; in that case he insists
that every remedy will be vain. The criminal will eventually
fall back, and only complete exile or death can save society from
his disastrous operations. But in spite of this objection Lombroso
holds that Mr. Brockway's system, subject to a few modifications,
which would take us too long to examine in detail, is useful as far
as it goes in the present incomplete and chaotic state of equity in
which scientific laws and legal justice do not correspond in their
actions. He holds that it is particularly to be commended for

6o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

juvenile delinquents, whom a gentle, loving care will rehabilitate
better than a severe prison regime conducted on the old lines.
Lombroso is greatly in favor of the Irish graduated cellular sys-
tem, by which the culprit regains little by little an almost com-
plete liberty. In this wise there results to the state a sensible
economy — a fact not to be despised, seeing the large cost to soci-
ety of these useless members of the body politic. He also lauds
the Danish system, another graduated method founded on repaid
labor, and provisional and conditional liberty. Nor does he for-
get Saxony, where the system which he calls " of individualiza-
tion " has given such excellent results.

He strongly urges that on quitting prison the interest only of
the capital he has acquired by his labor should be accorded to the
prisoner. This will help to keep him straight, and retain him
under a moral control. The professor is absolutely opposed to
deportation to colonies. For the incorrigible delinquent, Lom-
broso counsels, as the only way of supplanting capital punishment,
to which in extreme cases he is not opposed, a perpetual exile
from society, into which the criminal will not be able to return
unless he gives irrefutable proofs of amendment.

" No matter that their criminality springs from infirmity," he
writes, " they are equally dangerous to themselves, to us, and to
their offspring ; and their rigid isolation is more useful and less
unjust than that of lunatics."

And this brings him by a natural transition to the very im-
portant question of criminal lunatic asylums, institutions coun-
seled by humanity as well as by social security. Among delin-
quents, and those believed to be so, there are many who are and
always were demented, and whom to imprison would be to treat
unjustly. In Italy such persons are as yet provided for only by
half measures which violate both morality and security. In
England they have attempted for a century, and for sixty years
have almost succeeded, in settling this question by instituting
criminal madhouses. In 1786 this species of lunatics were con-
fined in a certain part of Bedlam ; in 1844 the state undertook to
maintain two hundred and thirty-five in a private establishment
in Fisherton House, but as the sad bands of those unhapy ones
grew it ended by erecting special madhouses. In 1850 one was
opened in Dundrum for Ireland, followed by one in Perth for
Scotland, and in Broadmoor for England. In these houses, regu-
lated by suitable decrees, admission is given not only to those
that have committed crime in an access of madness or who have
become mad during their trial, but there are also shut up those
that on account of lunacy or idiocy are incapable of under-
going prison discipline. In America this reform has already
brought about the criminal asylums of Auburn, in Pennsylvania,

REFORMATORY PRISONS. 607

and in Massachusetts. In Italy most of these unhappy creatures
are held to be lazy, riotous, perverse, or deceitful, and when their
lunacy is admitted it is difficult to obtain their admission into
asylums, and this because this special class of lunatics are dan-
gerous inmates for ordinary madhouses. They steadfastly resist
all discipline, they permit themselves obscene and violent acts ;
they are discontented with everybody and they evince themselves
indifferent to punishment ; in a word, they carry into the mad-
house the habits and vices of the immoral class from which they
spring, and thus become apostles of sodomy, rebellion, robbery,
and desertion, to the detriment of the establishment and of the
other lunatics. Often, too often Prof. Lombroso says, such men
are allowed to wander free in the midst of society, and are the
more dangerous because under an apparent calmness and lucid
intelligence they retain their diseased impulses, giving proof of
this when least expected. The professor cites several examples,
and holds that to men thus mentally afflicted are due the epidem-
ical madnesses that show themselves in the form of Nihilism,
Mormonism, Anabaptists, the incendiaries in Normandy of 1830,
and the Parisian Commune.

He insists rigidly on the point that this institution of criminal
lunatic asylums is not due to sentimental pity, but is a pure meas-
ure rather of social precaution than of humanity. And against
the objection that might be raised that real madmen may be con-
founded with dissimulators, Lombroso sets the development of
modern anthropologic studies, which rarely, when the diagnosis
is carefully made, falls into error on this point. By the institu-
tion of criminal lunatic asylums we obviate the transmission of
the disease to offspring, we hinder recidivism and its consequences,
which at best lead to the heavy cost of a new trial -for the crimi-
nal. And that the theory is proved by practice to be correct is
evinced by the fact that gradually the objections of adversaries
are being overcome, so that criminal madhouses, under different
forms, are being established in Denmark, Sweden, and France,
where, since 1876, there exists one at Gaillon annexed to the cen-
tral prison. The other civilized peoples of Europe, if they have
not real criminal madhouses, have certain laws and institutions
that in part answer the same purpose, as in Belgium, at Berlin,
Hamburg, Halle, and Bruchsal. In Italy not only are there no
such special establishments, but there is not even a line in the
codex admitting the possible necessity for any such institution.
Prof. Lombroso invokes these salutary provisions in ardent terms.
He writes : " The orbit of crime is too deeply engraved in the book
of our destiny for us to delude ourselves that we can suppress its
course. But if other undisputed laws do not fail us, like those
concerning the selection of species, we may hope by such prevent-

6o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ives to moderate the effects of crime and to hinder its widespread
diffusion."

Deterrents, preventions — these two words may be said to be
the keynote to Lombroso's system. If he have a favorite prov-
erb, it is certainly that "prevention is better than cure." On
this account he would segregate from society the adult criminal,
in order to deter him from exercising his pernicious instincts, and
he would direct his chief and best energies to the rising genera-
tion.

Can we make it possible for a child that has criminal tenden-
cies not to become a criminal ? This is his chief problem, and
this question he answers with a decided affirmative.

So long as the criminal acts are not repeated to excess, and
when they are not accompanied by all the anthropometrical char-
acteristics of criminality, there is hope to be found even in this
dismal science. The evolution of good takes place in a sound
man in spite of a bad education. Anticriminal education must,
therefore, begin as soon as the first pernicious symptoms show
themselves ; on the other hand, excessive severity must be avoided,
and more must not be asked of the child than it can do. The
more gentle the corrections, the more efficacious will they prove.
For example, if the child has spoiled a favorite object, buy it
again at your own expense, but deprive him of some sweetmeat,
some amusement. If he dirties the house with his games, let him
repair this evil ; never mind if it draws down on him some scalds
and scratches ; only let him have been advised beforehand to avoid
the deed, and told what consequences would follow disobedience.
When he does not obey orders, show him less sympathy, but never
fall into a rage, for anger is as harmful to the parent or guardian
as to the child. A useful reaction only follows when the punish-
ment is given in a calm spirit. Above all, endeavor to get the
child to correct itself rather than to depend on the violence of a
monitor. One should prevent rather than encourage in children,
as is done by the majority, the constant association of the idea of
punishment with a bad action. In consequence, when the time
has come to liberate him from the leading strings of master or
parents, he is no longer afraid of committing offenses, thinking
they will now cease to carry judgment in their train. This con-
stantly happens to children of overstrict parents, who when
grown up and independent are apt to commit great misdeeds and
even crimes.

These reasons are doubly applicable to young criminals, who
can not be properly watched and educated in reformatories on ac-
count of the large number of their inmates. The divisions and
subdivisions admitted of in such places are not sufficient to cover
all the varieties of bad tendencies a child with criminal instincts

REFORMATORY PRISONS. 609

will develop. This is one of the most salient points of the prob-
lem. Lombroso cites an experiment made by a naturalist who
placed together in an aquarium, divided only by a piece of glass,
some carps and some of the little fishes they eat. At first the
carps knocked violently against the glass to catch their prey, but
after a while, seeing that their attempts were vain, they abandoned
them, and when after a while the glass was removed they lived to-
gether in harmony. By habit they became innocuous if not in-
nocent. So also the dog by custom and education ceases to steal.
It is by such methods that Lombroso holds that congenital crimi-
nals must be cured, and not by baths and gymnastics or " colle-
giate prisons/7 which are powerless to affect moral habits.

These new theories and systems have ardent followers, but
obviously also encounter violent opposition.

To Italy, to her honor be it said, belongs the due that she was
the first in Europe to instigate and propagate the study of crimi-
nal anthropology. It may indeed be claimed for her that in that
fair land the positive method is of ancient origin and that it
sprang up in the Renaissance with Galileo. It attracted less
attention as long as it was limited to the physical and natural
sciences ; but when it was carried into the moral and social field
it awakened diffidence, and of this diffidence the effects were felt
by men like Claude Bernard and Comte, in France ; by Spencer, in
England ; by Lombroso and Garofalo, in Italy ; and by Wundt, in
Germany. But all the men, nevertheless, pursued their course
undaunted. Indeed, most of them hold, and Lombroso above all
others, that all this opposition on the part of their adversaries is
desirable, as it spurs on to new exertions and helps to emphasize
the deductions of the positive school, based as they are on minute
anthropological researches.

Lombroso's firmness of purpose in the pursuit of his studies
may best be estimated by quoting his own words with regard to
his life's work :

"... me rallier sans convictions au jugements du public
moyen, en venir au moindre compromis pour Pamour de la paix,
m'arreter un seul instant dans le travail incessant de renouvelle-
ment juridique et psychiatrique, auquel je me suis voud; ce serait
non seulement m'avouer vaincu, mais ensevelir avec moi tout le
travail de ma vie. Jusque-la n'irait pas meme Tabne'gation . . .
la plus chre'tienne."

Surely he is a worthy successor and compatriot of Galileo.
Even that great blind scientist spoke no prouder words when, tor-
tured by rack and priests, he muttered, " Eppur simuove"

VOL. XLIII. 44

610 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ANTHROPOLOGY AT THE WORLD'S FAIR.

BY PROF. FREDERICK STARR.

EVERY great international exposition is, in a certain sense,
a practical study in anthropology. Recent world's fairs
have, however, shown more and more a tendency to make an
especial exhibit in anthropology and kindred sciences. This was
very noticeable in 1889 at Paris, and in our own World's Colum-
bian Exposition there is an especial department — Department M
— of Anthropology, under the directorship of Prof. Frederick W.
Putnam. A building has been erected for its purposes, and the
larger part of it is occupied in illustrating " man and his works."
Naturally, to this building the student in anthropology will first
turn in looking up the matter of anthropology at the fair.

In this building he will find collections in ethnography, in
archaeology, and in physical anthropology. As one passes through
the main entrance he sees reproductions of Assyrian sculptures ;
to the right are collections in North American ethnography ; to
the left series illustrating North American prehistoric archaeology.
Among the notable private collections illustrating the ethnog-
raphy of our American Indians are those of D. B. Dyer and Ed-
ward E. Ayer. Mr. Dyer's collection is mainly representative of
plains tribes, and is rich in cradles or papoose-boards and in im-
plements for gambling. Mr. Ayer's collection is from a larger
range of peoples and represents quite fully the dress, imple-
ments, and arts not only of the plains tribes, but also of the peo-
ples of the Northwest coast and of the Southwest. His collection
of modern Pueblo pottery, the straw dresses of the California In-
dians, the carved work from the Northwest coast, are of special
interest. Near these collections is the large series from the North-
west coast gathered by Dr. Franz Boas and his helpers, particu-
larly rich in dancing paraphernalia, masks, bark necklets, and
the like. On a raised platform, extending for many feet, near
this, Dr. Boas has set up a reconstruction of the village of Skid-
gate, one of the most important villages of the Haidah Indians.
The models of houses and totem posts which make up this recon-
struction are of native workmanship.

Among the archaeological collections are some of unusual inter-
est. Pro f . George Frederick Wright, of Oberlin, illustrates the ma-
terial and structure of the terminal moraine of the United States
by specimens of bowlders, striated surfaces, photographs, and dia-
grams. The exhibit is made with reference to the question of
palaeolithic man in America, and in the collection are pictures rep-
resenting localities where claimed " palaeoliths " have been found.
The largest collection of implements from glacial gravels in this

ANTHROPOLOGY AT THE WORLD'S FAIR. 611

country is that of the Peabody Museum at Cambridge, and a series
is here shown from that institution illustrating the finds from the
now famous localities in New Jersey, Ohio, Delaware, etc. Of con-
siderable importance is the small, carefully selected, and neatly
displayed collection from the Canadian Institute of Toronto, which
is rich in rare forms of bird amulets, gorgets of striped slate,
pipes of stone, and bone implements. The State Historical So-
ciety of Missouri exhibits a handsome series of the white chert
implements so characteristic of that district, as also hematite ob-
jects and fine mound potteries. In cases near by is a magnificent
series of Wisconsin copper implements — spear-points, knives, ar-
rowheads, etc. — partly displayed by the State Historical Society
and partly private property. Colorado sends a considerable dis-
play of cliff-dwelling relics. Of prime importance is Mr. Warren
K. Moorhead's gathering from the mounds of Ohio. Mr. Moor-
head was sent by the Exposition management to the district ren-
dered classical for American archaeology by the work of Squier
and Davis. He was successful beyond all expectation, and here
are gathered the results of his excavations — hundreds of spool-
shaped ear ornaments of copper, mica ornaments, wonderful
blades of obsidian from altar mounds, stone pipes, thousands of
chert disks from one mound, a find of copper ornaments surpass-
ing any ever found before in American mounds, an antler-form
headdress unique in shape and character. Besides these, Mr. Moor-
head has made a reconstruction of one of the very interesting stone
graves of Fort Ancient, with the skeleton in its proper position.
In connection with this important series it should be mentioned
that Prof. Putnam has near it several models of important mounds,
the most interesting representing the famous serpent mound of
Adams County, the preservation of which is due to an interest
aroused by Prof. Putnam in the ladies of Boston. The model
aims to reproduce not only the mound itself, but also the topog-
raphy and conditions of the surrounding country.

Of foreign countries, several are represented in this building
by collections, ethnographic or archaeological. The explorations
of Charnay, of the Peabody Museum, and others in Yucatan,
Honduras, etc., are illustrated by a magnificent series of direct
reproductions in plaster. The wonderful wall carvings of Loril-
lard City, the zapote wood carvings of Tikal, the strange mono-
liths of Copan, are all here to be seen, true to life ; elegant photo-
graphs and fine enlargements, the result of Mr. Saville's recent
work in those districts, represent Uxmal, Labnah, and Chichen-
Itza accurately. With this wonderful series from Yucatan and
its neighborhood is Mrs. Nuttall's interesting exhibit of Aztec
shields. It will be remembered that this lady recently discovered
in the old castle of Am bras an ancient Mexican feather-covered

612

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

shield. These objects are exceedingly rare, and the discovery led
Mrs. Nuttall to make a careful study of the whole subject of Mex-
ican feather shields. The exhibit consists of a copy of the shield
at Ambras, and the reproduction of a considerable number of
others from pictures in the old pictographic books of the Aztecs.
Near this section is an exhibition of the archaeology of Peru.
Mr. Dorsey was sent out by the Exposition management to make

RESTOKATION OF MAYA RUINS (YALE). World's Columbian Exposition.

collections in the land of the Incas. A considerable number of
graves were opened and much material was secured. Several table
cases contain the results, and in two inclosed spaces Mr. Dorsey
aims to show the old Peruvian method of burial. Mummies in their
original wrapping are set in their proper position, together with
all the funereal furniture — the face-mask, the square cloth- covered
tablet, the articles of daily use, the pottery and ornaments. Mr.
Dorsey exhibits in one table case a very interesting little col-
lection of broken pottery and engraved stones from a new local-
ity, La Plata Island, in Ecuador, which bids fair to be a spot of
importance to future investigators. Besides these interesting
series secured by the efforts of the management of the Exposition,
there are exhibits by Costa Rica, Mexico, Paraguay, and New
South Wales. Costa Rica's display deserves more than a passing
word. A neat pavilion, with walls adorned with oil paintings
illustrating natives of the country and points of archaeological

ANTHROPOLOGY AT THE WORLD'S FAIR. 613

interest, contains several cases in which a series of specimens
selected from the National Museum illustrates the ancient pottery,
stone implements, and carvings of the country. Mexico gives a
display neither full nor satisfactory, in part ethnographic, in part
archseologic. Here are trophies composed of reproductions of
ancient shields, spears, and battle clubs ; here are models of old
buildings of the Mexico of Cortes ; here are a few original speci-
mens in arch geology and many plates from a work on Mexican
antiquities. So much might have been done ; so little really is
done! Paraguay sends a considerable ethnographic display, par-
ticularly rich in feather work, in nettings, and in spears. New
South Wales sends carved work from the south seas, especially
the characteristic black, shell-inlaid work from the Solomon
Islands, boomerangs from Australia, spears, bark cloth, etc., from
various localities. Most important of all, however, are the mag-
nificent great photographs representing natives, wild life, and arts
of the south sea islands and Australia. Mr. Culin, on his own be-
half and for the American Folk-lore Society and the University
of Pennsylvania, displays a collection of games and some objects
connected with worship. The series of games is particularly in-
teresting, and represents the indoor pastimes of all peoples and
all times.

In the north gallery of the Anthropological Building is a most
important laboratory and exhibit in physical anthropology. The
laboratory itself- falls into three subdivisions : Physical anthro-
pology (somatology), neurology, and psychology. Dr. Franz
Boas has general charge of the whole, while Prof. Donaldson
(Chicago) has charge of the subdivision of neurology and Prof.
Jastrow (Wisconsin) directs the work in psychology. There are
a number of rooms devoted to these laboratories. First thore is
presented a series of instruments used in anthropological investi-
gation— anthropometric machines, craniometric instruments, in-
struments for drawing skulls, outlines of the body, etc. The
types of mankind as found in Europe, the south sea islands,
America, etc., are shown by portraits, masks, diagrams, maps, and
other material. Composite photography, as applied to finding
types and in the study of crania, is illustrated. Francis Galton's
method of taking finger prints j.s illustrated and a considerable
series of impressions taken from the finger tips of Indians of
North America by Frederick Starr and Mr. David Barrows is
displayed. Here also are the results of Dr. Boas's recent investi-
gation into the physical structure of the North American Indian.
A number of observers were sent to take measurements among
our native tribes. Many thousand sets of measures were taken.
Each set comprised a dozen measurements and descriptive matter
covering about thirty points. This mass of material has been

614 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

studied carefully, tabulated, and reduced, at least in part, to
graphic form. Diagrams show the distinctive characters of tribes
and the effect of environment, the influence of crossing, and the
like. Maps instructively show the variation of stature and other
characters with changes in physical geography. In neurology
Prof. Donaldson, by a series of models and casts, represents the
brain form in man and lower animals, the structure of the brain,
localization of function, and modes of brain preservation for

-za ft&

HOUSE OF KWAKIOOLS (VANCOUVER ISLAND). World's Columbian Exposition.

study. Prof. Jastrow's two rooms are of great interest : in one,
arrangements are made for conducting the various tests of so
much importance in modern psychological study ; in the other, in
a series of cases, is a full representation of the instruments and
apparatus used in experimental psychology — instruments for in-
vestigating the senses of touch, light (color), hearing, etc., as well
as for recording, timing, and the like. All these laboratories are
expected to be in operation, and observations and experiments
will be conducted by a corps of student assistants.

ANTHROPOLOGY AT THE WORLD'S FAIR. 615

Near the Anthropological Building are several outdoor dis-
plays of more than usual interest. The party sent out by Prof.
Putnam to the ruins of Yucatan and Copan secured at Uxmal,
Chichen-Itza, and Labnah "squeezes" of some doorways, corners,
arches, etc., showing every detail of ornament and symbolical
carving. From these molds casts have been made exactly repro-
ducing the structures. A group of five of these lies north from
the Anthropological Building. North from this is an interesting
series of homes of various American Indians. The palm-thatched
hut of the Arawaks of Guiana ; the long house of the Iroquois,
constructed of bark, and divided into six spaces within, one for
each of the Six Nations ; the birch-bark tent of the Penobscot In-
dians of Maine ; the skin-covered tepee of the plains tribes ; the
dome-shaped framework of poles, covered with rush matting, of
the Algonkins; the plank-covered houses of the Kwakiool of
Vancouver Island, and the Haidah of Queen Charlotte Islands
with their symbolical paintings and totem posts; these range
along the edge of the lagoon on whose waters float various
canoes and boats of the natives. These houses have been built
from proper materials by the Indians themselves, and most of
them are inhabited by families of Indians, some of whom carry
on their native arts and industries. Very interesting in this con-
nection will be the series of dances of the Kwakiools, for which
Dr. Boas has arranged, which will take place at intervals through
the season.

Most interesting material is found in the United States Gov-
ernment Building. The National Museum, through Prof. Mason,
has set up a suggestive series illustrating the groups of In-
dian tribes. A great copy of Powell's Linguistic Map of North
America upon the walls represents the groups of tribes as classi-
fied by language. In alcoves below, cases full of objects illustrate
the arts and industries of these groups. It is most interesting to
notice how clearly the influence of environment and the gifts of
Nature is shown in the arts and industries. Tribes speaking lan-
guages of one stock may show marked diversity in arts if living
in unlike surroundings, while tribes widely differing in language
may show industrial unity if subjected to similar environments.
Very interesting to the crowd are the cases wherein are displayed
life-size figures dressed in costumes. Some of these are particu-
larly pleasing : the Xivaro, with his feather belt and crown ; the
Chippewa blanket painter ; two plains Indian women dressing a
buffalo hide — one kneeling before a hide hung upon poles scrapes
it, while the other pounds a second hide with a stone maul ; a
Moki man drilling a turquoise bead with a pump-drill ; a Sioux
squaw and children on a pony dragging the travois ; a Mojave
man with apron of bark strips, head feathers, and a shell orna-

6i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ment ; a Hupa woman and girl in straw caps and dresses, with a
papoose in its pretty basket cradle — these and other carefully
chosen and usually well-executed groups give life, reality, and
meaning to the objects in the cases around.

In a large alcove near by, occupied in great part by models of
cliff-ruins, pueblos, and other monuments of the Southwest, are
two interesting exhibits from Mr. Thomas Wilson, of the Smith-
sonian Institution, and Mr. William H. Holmes, of the Bureau of
Ethnology. Mr. Wilson aims to present a synopsis of prehistoric
archaeology. The relics of palaeolithic man from France, Eng-
land, Egypt, and India are fairly represented. Next to them are
placed some of the claimed palseoliths of New Jersey and Minne-
sota. Rude implements of forms akin to palseoliths but of uncer-
tain or negative geological relations from all parts of the United
States follow. A good neolithic series from the Swiss lake dwell-
ings and the tumuli of Denmark is shown. Fine specimens illus-
trate work in polished stone in America. The bronze age in
Europe, illustrated by objects from Switzerland, France, etc., is
set alongside of objects of copper from American mounds and
bronzes from Mexico. Some of the finer objects in jade, quartz,
crystal, and obsidian from Mexico, and stone collars and mammi-
form stones from Porto Rico, complete the exhibit. Mr. Holmes's
series is intended to illustrate Indian quarrying and mining. It
is altogether a model display. The now famous quarry at Piney
Branch, near Washington, is first illustrated. On this site the
Indians formerly quarried pebbles, from the gravel deposits, for
making into implements. These pebbles were worked up into
" blanks " — oval or leaf-shaped — from which, later and elsewhere,
spear-points, arrowheads, and the like were made. In making these
blanks many pebbles would be found to be worthless and would
be rejected. These rejects and the blanks themselves closely re-
semble our American " palseoliths," and Mr. Holmes believes that
some at least of our American palseolith localities are old quarry
sites, and that the palseoliths themselves are rejects. There can
be little doubt that the showing of this idea has much to do with
the making of this display. The exhibit, however, is so complete
and excellently worked out that it has profound value apart from
any theoretical interest. In regard to Piney Branch Mr. Holmes
displays in table cases a series of pebbles, rejects of every stage,
and blanks ; along the wall above are specimens showing every
stage from the pebble, through the blank, to the arrowhead or
spear-point. Above this series are framed diagrams, sections of
the quarry, and maps, also a fine series of photographs. Clear,
explanatory labels accompany all. In exactly the same way Mr.
Holmes illustrates an interesting quarry of chert in Peoria Reser-
vation, Indian Territory ; the novaculite quarry of Arkansas ; the

618 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

chert diggings of Flint Ridge, Ohio ; the rhyolite quarry of Penn-
sylvania ; and the quarry of flint nodules in Texas. These all dif-
fer from Piney Branch in that the material is quarried from solid
rock ledges, not from soft gravels. The quarrying of soapstone
in the District of Columbia and the making of it into bowls, the
mining of copper in the Lake Superior district, and the taking out
of the famous red pipestone from the quarry in Minnesota are all
illustrated in the same complete fashion. As a representation of
an important and interesting aboriginal industry nothing could
be better.

The anthropologist finds two collections of interest in the
Woman's Building. In a dozen cases Prof. Mason shows "wom-
an's work in savagery." The development of personal decoration,
the preparation and serving of food, the making of basketry and
matting, embroidery and needlework, beating of bark cloths, weav-
ing by hand frames and looms, dressing of leather, and pottery-
making are the chief points represented. The fact that woman
has been the chief actor in originating and developing every peace-
ful art is impressively shown. By the side of this series is Mrs.
French-Sheldon's collection. Every one knows of this woman's
exploration of East Africa. With no white companions, with an
escort of hired porters and guides under no command but her
own, she penetrated a thousand miles into Africa, among tribes
some of which, like the Masai, were on a war footing. She has
brought out from the dark continent thousands of objects illus-
trative of the daily life, the arts, and culture of the natives, and
here one may see them displayed as a monument of a remarkable-
undertaking. Fine shields, carefully leaf-shaped spear-heads of
iron, objects of personal adornment, native dress, wood carving —
these are but a few of the many objects. Mrs. French-Sheldon
herself is frequently in attendance, and proves as much of an at-
traction as the collection.

The student of culture-history must find objects of interest
everywhere, frequently where one would scarcely expect them.
Thus the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad makes a wonderful exhibit,
under the title of The World's Railway. A magnificent series
of pictures, models, and original specimens illustrate the whole
history of the development of the locomotive, the cars, and the
tracking. In the Shoe and Leather Building colored pictures and
many wall cases full of specimens show the footwear of all ages
and all peoples.

At Paris one of the most attractive features was the repre-
sentation of outlandish peoples. At Chicago the Midway Plai-
sance supplies the opportunity to see many strange sights. The
German village and Old Vienna are true architectural reproduc-
tions. The Chinese theater and its temple annex, with the native*

ANTHROPOLOGY AT THE WORLD'S FAIR. 619

music and the long plays, give an opportunity, rare east of Cali-
fornia, to see the dramatic art and religious rites of the Celestials.
The Dahomey village, with mud-daubed huts, on which are
scraped queer animal and bird figures, and its war-dance on a
central platform, gives a real glimpse of negro Africa. The street
of Cairo, narrow, crooked, with its bazaars, shops, and booths
along both sides, its donkeys and camels, its school with children
crying the Koran aloud, and its juggler plying his mystic trade,
attracts great crowds. The Egyptian temple with its dancing
dervishes, a Lapland village, Javanese village, Polynesian settle-
ment, Algerian and Turkish theaters are among the other attrac-
tions on the Midway Plaisance where one may study ethnogra-

ESKIMOS FROM LABRADOR. World's Columbian Exposition.

phy practically. Two concessions of unusual interest are not on
the Plaisance, but in the main Exposition grounds. These are the
Eskimo village and the cliff dwellings. The Eskimo village has
been located for a long time ; and last winter, when snow filled the
air and the pond was ice-covered, its inhabitants were a happy
crowd. They amused themselves and their visitors by sledding
with dogs, skating on old wooden runners, and whipping pennies
with their long-lashed dog- whips. Several babies were born in the
village, and some died. One little fellow, Christopher Columbus,
was an especial pet with visitors, and managed to live despite the
many attentions he received. Dressed in their furs these people
looked truly polar, but we are assured that as spring came on

620 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

they rebelled against wearing these heavy garments, which were
unlike anything they ever wore before. It seems they came from
a part of Labrador often visited by vessels, and are used to cloth-
ing made of white men's cloth. The cliff dwellings are located
near the Maya ruins, and are the work of Mr. H. Jay Smith. They
appear externally like an irregular mass of reddish-brown rock,
with mule tracks winding up its sides. Entering it, we find our-
selves in a great cavern, lighted from above, in which are excel-
lent reproductions of the cliff dwellings of the Southwest. Sev-
eral of the more famous ruins are here presented, made to scale
sufficiently large to be truly impressive. Further in are single
rooms, or small clusters of them, with fireplaces, T-windows, and
other details reproduced in full size. A great hall cased along
the walls is devoted to an excellent collection of objects from the
ruins — stone implements, fire-sticks, fabrics, feather clothing,
sandals of yucca fiber, dried bodies (mummies), some still in their
original wrappings, pottery in many fine and rare pieces, food
materials, etc. The idea is a good one and the execution credit-
able.

Comparatively few governments can be said to present in their
exhibit a complete picture of their life and thought. One land,
however, makes an exhibit most full and interesting — Japan.
Early in the history of the Exposition the Land of Sunrise showed
its interest. It is represented in nearly every department. Its
fine-arts display includes choicest treasures; in the liberal arts
are marvels of work in lacquer, bronze, porcelain, and silk ; in the
Horticultural Building is one of the marvelous gardens of Japan,
with its elements grouped to form a miniature landscape — a fish-
pond, rustic bridge, pretty wreaths of fern roots clothed with
green, stone lanterns, and wonderful dwarfed aged evergreen
trees ; the agricultural display, showing not only the products
themselves, but the tasteful packing and preparation of them for
use — tea boxes (beautiful whether plain or elaborately decorated),
tea in jars with silk covers and finely tasseled cord ; sake, or rice
wine, in elaborately lacquered jars ; fibers, cloths, vegetable wax,
barley honey, candies, mattings, silks ; in the Forestry Building
are the various woods used for all purposes, and a set of curious
native pictures representing scenes in the lumber camps. Besides
all these beautifully complete and daintily arranged displays, the
Japanese have erected on the wooded island a group of three
buildings called collectively the Hooden. They are copies of three
famous buildings — a monastery of the Zen Sect, at Kioto, erected
in 1397 ; a structure dating from 1052, representing the phoenix ;
and the main building, a palace of about the time of Columbus.
These are of Japanese material, built by Japanese carpenters, and
are of exquisite workmanship. They have been presented by the

ANTHROPOLOGY AT THE WORLD'S FAIR. 621

Government of Japan to the city of Chicago, and are to be kept
filled with interesting collections, which will be changed from
time to time. To visit these various exhibits of Japan is to gain
an insight into most delightful features of Japanese art, life, and
character.

Although results of great importance to anthropology in
America must result from all this display of material, it is be-
lieved that other permanent results must come from the congress
and the library. In August an International Congress of An-
thropology is planned. To it are invited the world's workers in
the science, and before it are to be read important papers. The
American Association for the Advancement of Science, the
American Folk-lore Society, and the American Psychical Society
unite in seeking the interests of this congress, and from it should
come decided impulse to our anthropological work. As to the
library, Prof. Putnam has issued an appeal to anthropologists
asking contributions of all they have written in the science as a
donation to a permanent library of that subject, to be located in
Chicago, in connection with the Memorial Museum. The collec-
tion is to be catalogued and the catalogue published. Should this
plan be carried out, the catalogue would be the best reference list
to anthropological literature ever prepared.

It must be plain that in the Chicago Exposition we have a
great object lesson in anthropology: a museum of somatology,
archseology, and ethnology ; a picture of ethnography ; a labora-
tory of unusual completeness ; a great meeting of workers ; and
the publication of new material.

A NOTE presented in the French Academy of Sciences from Dora D. D4mondin
relates to the manifestation of sudden variations of temperature at fixed times in
the latter half of January, as observed during more than six hundred years past.
The author lias examined with regard to this subject meteorological notes re-
corded between 1582 ?md 1879, or during about three hundred years; and for the
preceding three centuries he has consulted various public documents, particularly
the Ann ales des Dominicnins dc Colmar, from 1211 to 1305. He has thus veri-
fied, as for the centuries included, alternations of temperature marked by a depres-
sion about the 18th and an elevation toward the 23d and 29th of January, the
temperature continuing low during the intervening days.

IT has been suggested by Colonel R. W. Feilden that the musk ox might with
gre .t advantage be introduced into Great Britain ; and the author sees no reason
why it should not thrive on the mountains of the Highlands in Scotland. It is
covered in the winter season, beside? its cost of hair, with a long-stapled fine
wool, of a light yellow color, and as fine as silk. Sir John Richardson savs that
stockings made from this wool are handsomer than those from silk. Young
musk oxen are easily reared and tamed, and could probably be procured from the
arctic regions without great difficulty.

622 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

RECENT SCIENCE.

BY PRINCE KROPOTKIN.
II.

AT one of the recent sittings of the French Academy of
Sciences, Henri Moissan, whose name has lately been promi-
nent in chemistry in connection with several important discov-
eries, read a communication to the effect that he had finally suc-
ceeded in obtaining in his laboratory minute crystals of dia-
monds.* His communication was followed by a paper by Friedel,
who has been working for some time past in the same direction,
and has attained similar though not yet quite definite results;
and, finally, Berthelot, who also was working in the same field,
but followed a different track, announced that, in view of the
excellent results obtained by Moissan, he abandons his own
researches and congratulates his colleague upon his remarkable
discovery.

The discovery is not absolutely new, and the French chemist
himself mentions two of his English predecessors. Mr. Hannay
obtained in 1880 some diamondlike crystals by heating in an iron
tube, under high pressure, a mixture of paraffin oil with lamp-
black, bone oil, and some lithium ; f and in the same year Mr. Sid-
ney Marsden, by heating some silver with sugar charcoal, obtained
black carbon crystals with curved edges. \ Besides, it was gen-
erally known that a black powder, composed of transparent micro-
scopical crystals having the hardness of diamond, is deposited on
the negative electrode when a weak galvanic current is passed
through liquid chloride of carbon. But these crystals, like those
of Mr. Marsden, belong to the easily obtained variety of black
diamonds known as carbonados ; while some of the crystals ob-
tained by Moissan are real colorless and crystallized diamonds —
the gem we all know and admire.

For industry and every-day life the infinitesimal quantities of
diamond dust obtained by the French chemist may have no im-
mediate value, and some time will probably be required before a
modest-sized jewel is made in a laboratory. But the discovery
has a great scientific interest, inasmuch as it is the outcome of a
whole series of researches which have recently been made with
the view of artificially reproducing all sorts of minerals and
rocks, and which are admirably chosen for iiltimately throwing
new light upon the intimate structure of physical bodies.

* Comptes Rendus de 1'Academie des Sciences, February 6, 1893, tome cxvi, p. 218.

f Proceedings of the Royal Society, xxx, 188 ; quoted by Moissan.

\ Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1880, ii, 20 (Moissan's quotation).

RECENT SCIENCE. 623

Moissan's method is based upon the capacity of iron of absorb-
ing carbon at a high temperature and of giving it back in the
shape of grains and crystals while the iron mass is cooling.
When iron has been saturated with carbon at a temperature of
.about 2,000° Fahr., a mixture of amorphous carbon and graphite
is discovered in the iron mass. At higher temperatures the fused
iron dissolves more and more carbon, and the cast iron of our
blasting furnaces, after having been heated to about 3,000° and
slowly cooled down, contains, as known, an abundance of graphite
•crystals. It was thus natural to see whether a still higher tem-
perature, and cooling under high pressure, might not give the
still denser form of carbon — that is, the diamonds.

In order to thoroughly saturate iron with carbon at a high
temperature, and to cool it under a high pressure, Moissan re-
sorted to a very simple and effective means. He took a hollow
-cylinder of soft iron, filled it with some purified sugar charcoal,
-and corked the cylinder with an iron screw. Then about half a
pound of soft iron was molten in a crucible in Moissan's new elec-
tric furnace, which readily gives a temperature of about 3,000°
•C. (5,400° Fahr.), and the cylinder was plunged into the molten
metal ; iron was thus thoroughly saturated with carbon. The
•crucible was then taken out of the furnace and plunged into a
pail of cold water until the surface of the iron mass was cooled to
& dull red temperature, whereupon it was taken out and left to
•cool in the air. This was the ingenious means of obtaining a
high pressure. It is known that water when it becomes ice
increases in volume, and that if it freezes in a strong shell the
interior pressure of the crystallizing water often bursts the shell ;
but if it can not burst the shell it necessarily solidifies under an
immense pressure, due to the molecular forces. The same was
•done by Moissan with the liquid iron, which also has the property
of increasing in volume while it solidifies. An outer solid crust
having been formed by a sudden immersion into cold water, the
•crust prevents the further expansion of the irori mass, which is
thus bound to solidify under an immense pressure, like the water
in the shell.

The next step was to separate the iron from the carbon crystals
which it might contain. This was done by dissolving the iron in
hydrochloric acid, and three different varieties of carbon crystals
*( which are not attacked by the acid) were received as a residue.
Some graphite, some chestnut-colored, curved needles of carbon,
°nd diamond dust could be seen ; and they were separated from
.oh other by several complex operations indicated by Berthelot
in one of his previous works. A few grains of diamond dust were
finally obtained — most of them belonging to the carbonado va-
riety, while a few of them proved to be real diamonds ; they were

624 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

translucent, they scratched a ruby, and they distinctly showed
under the microscope the crystalline structure and cleavage of
the diamond ; their density was that of the precious gem, and
they were completely consumed in oxygen at a temperature of
1,890°.*

Mr. Marsden's experiment with silver was also repeated ; but
silver being a bad dissolvent for carbon, even at a high tempera-
ture, it was boiled for some time with sugar charcoal in the fur-
nace, the cooling being operated in the same way as with iron.
The result was extremely interesting. No diamonds were ob-
tained, but a series of carbonados of different densities (from 2*5
to 3'5 times heavier than water) were discovered, some of them
in grains, some others in needles, or in conchoidal masses, the
densest ones also scratching ruby and burning in oxygen at
1,800°. This is perhaps the most interesting part of Moissan's re-
searches, as it confirms the long-since suspected fact that there is
a whole series of carbon molecules each of which is composed of
a different number of atoms, and some of which must be very
complex.

As to the quantities of diamond dust obtained in this way,
they were extremely small. Several cylinders gave no diamonds
at all, and from all his experiments Moissan could not collect
even a few milligrammes (a few hundredth parts of a grain) of
the precious dust, although the black carbonados were quite com-
mon. But a sure method is now indicated, and its further devel-
opment is only a matter of time and perseverance.

The scientific value of these researches is undoubtedly very
great. Diamond, like graphite and simple charcoal, is pure car-
bon, but all attempts at fusing carbon or dissolving it have hith-
erto failed ; it could not be brought into a liquid condition out of
which it afterward might crystallize. However, the investiga-
tions recently made into the carburization of iron, especially by
Roberts Austen, tended to prove that in steel and cast iron the
carbon is not simply diffused through the iron, but enters with it
into some of those combinations in definite proportions which,
like all solutions, occupy an intermediate position between real
chemical compounds and purely physical mixtures, f It was
reasonable, therefore, to presume that carbon is brought into a
liquid condition in molten iron, and that under certain conditions
it may crystallize in the shape of diamonds within an iron mass.
Moissan's discovery confirms this view. On the other side, the
researches of Moissan and Friedel must also throw some light

* From a subsequent communication by Moissan we learn that the same varieties are
found in the diamond-bearing earth at the Cape.

f See Recent Science, in Popular Science Monthly, October, 1892.

RECENT SCIENCE. 625

upon the great questions raised by Mendele'eff as regards the prob-
able presence and prevalence of iron and carbon compounds in
the interior of the globe, the formation of naphtha out of these
compounds, and other extremely interesting geological questions.*

The artificial reproduction of the diamond must also be viewed
as a further step in a long succession of researches which have
been lately pursued for artificially reproducing all sorts of min-
erals, the formation of which had long remained a puzzle for
mineralogists. The silicates which were formerly considered as
impossible to reproduce in the laboratory have yielded within the
last few years before the efforts of the chemists. Sarrasin, Haute-
feuille, and especially Friedel, have reproduced different varieties
of the chief constituent mineral of our crystalline rocks — feldspar
— and the artificial crystals are absolutely identical with those
found in Nature. Hornblende, which had long defied the efforts
of the explorers, has been finally obtained in 1891 by K. Chrust-
choff, after he had spent seven years in unsuccessful attempts ; f
but in order to reproduce it he had to heat its constituent ele-
ments for three months at a temperature of nearly 1,000°. The
importance of a high temperature for further achievements was
rendered still more evident in Freiny's successful reproduction
of the ruby. The ruby is, of course, quite different from the
diamond. Like the sapphire and the corundum, it is nothing but
alumina — that is, a compound of two atoms of aluminium with
three atoms of oxygen, colored by some impurities in red, in blue,
or in brown. But for a long time alumina would not crystallize
in our laboratories. Later on, Fre'my obtained a very fine dust of
rubies ; but when he submitted the constituent parts of the ruby
to a temperature of 2,700°, and maintained the same temperature
for one hundred consecutive hours, he was rewarded by full-sized
crystals of the precious stone, big enough and in sufficient num-
bers to have a collar made of them. And, finally, the investiga-
tion of Friedel, Le Chatelier, and especially F. Fouque' and
Michel Levy, who reproduced a micaceous trachyte containing
feldspar, spinel, and mica, demonstrated the necessity of resorting
to a high pressure in addition to a high temperature.

To extend the range of high temperatures hitherto obtained,
and to devise a means of measuring them, was thus the first con-
dition for further progress in the reproduction of minerals and
gems. But the measurement of high temperatures is a very diffi-
cult problem which has much occupied of late several prominent
physicists and chemists. A thermo-electric thermometer, made
of two, very resistant metals (platinum and an alloy of platinum

* See, in Mendel6effs Principles of Chemistry, the footnotes to the chapters on carbon
and iron. f Comptes Rendus, 1891, tome cxii.

VOL. XLIII. — 45

626 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

with rhodium), and graduated with the aid of the air ther-
mometer, finally came into general use, and it proved to be quite
reliable — but only up to 3,000° Fahr.,* which temperature was
soon surpassed. Then, Le Chatelier devised a pyrometer based
on the variations of intensity of light of fused metals at different
temperatures, and this instrument again proved to be sufficiently
accurate up to 3,600° ; but this last temperature, too, is now sur-
passed by Moissan, by means of his new electric furnace, which
is a real model of efficiency and simplicity.! It consists of two
superposed bricks, made of quicklime, or of an especially pure
calcinated magnesia. A groove with a small cavity in its middle
(large enough to receive a small crucible) is made on the upper
face of the lower brick in the sense of its length, and two carbon
electrodes are introduced from both sides into the groove. As
soon as they are connected with a dynamo machine the electric
arc appears between their extremities, and an immensely high
temperature is produced in the cavity. Thus, a small Edison
machine, worked by a gas engine of eight horse power, gave a
temperature estimated at about 4,500° Fahr., and with a fifty-
horse-power engine the enormous temperature of about 5,400°
(3,000° C.) was reached.

The effects of this little furnace are simply wonderful. At
about 4,500° lime, strontia, and magnesia are crystallized in a few
minutes. At 5,400° the very substance of the bricks is fused and
flows like water. Oxides of various metals which were considered
as quite irreducible are deprived of their oxygen in no time;
nickel, cobalt, manganese, and chrome oxides can be reduced at a
lecture experiment, and a piece of 120 grammes of pure uranium
is obtained at once from the uranium oxide. At about 4,050° pure
alumina is fused and little rubies are formed ; true, they are less
beautiful than those of Fre'my, but the whole experiment lasts less
than a quarter of an hour. At a higher temperature alumina is
even volatilized, and nothing is left of it in the crucible. In short,
the results are as interesting and as promising as those which
Pictet and Dewar have witnessed when they went to the other
end of the thermometric scale and produced the extremely low
temperatures of about 200° C. below the freezing point.

And, finally, Moissan's discovery establishes a new link be-
tween the processes which we obtain in our laboratories and
those which are going on in the celestial spaces, in the formation
of meteorites. It was known long since that these masses of
silicates and nickeled iron which travel in' the interplanetary

* C. Barus in Philosophical Magazine, fifth series, xxxiv, 376 ; L. Holborn and W. Wien
n Wiedemann's Annalen, xlvii, 10Y.

f Comptes Rendus, December 12, 1892, tome cxv.

RECENT SCIENCE. 627

spaces and, entering occasionally into the sphere of attraction of
the earth, fall upon its surface, sometimes contain charcoal or -a
special variety of graphite ; but later on, in 1887, the St. Peters-
burg Professors Latchinoff and Erofdeff went a step further
and proved that the charcoal is occasionally transformed into
diamonds; thus they extracted some diamond dust from the
meteorite fallen during the previous year at Novo Urei, in the
province of Penza. Some doubts were, however, entertained as
regards their discovery, but the fact has been fully confirmed
since by Friedel and Le Bel, who found in a meteorite from
Canon Diablo minute diamonds and carbonados exactly similar
to those of Moissan.*

It is thus evident that the artificial reproduction of the
diamond is not one of those accidental discoveries which may be
made without leaving an impression upon science for many years
to come. It is only one of the many advances made in a certain
direction, and is the outcome of the whole drift of modern research
which endeavors immensely to widen the means at our disposal
for effecting physical and chemical transformations of matter.
It is one step more into a new domain where chemistry, metal-
lurgy, and mineralogy join hands together for revealing by joint
efforts the secrets of the constructive forces of matter.

The study of the direct action of environment upon organisms,
and of the mechanism of its action, becomes a favorite study
among biologists — the " transf ormists " being no more a few ex-
ceptions in science, but already constituting a school which has
several brilliant representatives in America, France, and Germany,
as well as in this country. It is evident that almost none of the
biologists engaged in this kind of research maintains any doubts
as to the importance of natural selection as a factor of evolution.
To use the words of one of the leading American transf ormists, f
"the law of natural selection is well established, and no more
under discussion." For many adaptations it offers the best and
the only possible explanation. But biology would have been
brought to a standstill if the idea had prevailed that, after a more
or less plausible explanation of some adaptation has been given
under the hypothesis of natural selection, nothing more is left to
be done to explain this same adaptation. For many animals whose
manners of life we hardly know at all — the study of animal life
having been deplorably neglected for the last fifty years — the ex-
planation would often be little better than a mere hypothesis ; but

* Comptes Rendus, December 12, 1892, tome cxv, p. 1039 ; also February 18, 1893.
f H. F. Osborn, whose admirable essays, mentioned in a previous review, are now pub-
lished in book form.

628 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

even in the best cases the very origin of each variation would still
remain to be found. Darwin fully understood this necessity ; and
the physiological and mechanical origin of variations is what so
many biologists are now working at. Several such investigations
are already well known to English readers through the works of
Cope, Semper, Lloyd Morgan, J. T. Cunningham, and P. Geddes.
Many others ought to be analyzed and discussed ; but for the time
being I can only mention a few recent works relative to the origin
of animal colors.

Wherever we go we see animals colored in accordance with
their surroundings. White and light gray colors predominate in
the arctic regions ; tawny and yellow colors in the deserts ; gor-
geous colors in tropical lands. The striped tiger in the jungle is
hardly recognizable among the shadows of the tall grasses. Insects
resemble the flowers which they usually visit ; caterpillars have
the colors and often the forms of the twigs and the leaves they
feed upon. Dusty-colored nocturnal insects; moths which take
autumnal tints if they begin life in autumn ; dark squirrels in the
dark larch forests, and red squirrels in the Scotch-fir groves;
animals changing their color with the season — all these are famil-
iar instances. But are they all due to natural selection alone ?
Does, not environment take some part in itself producing these
colors ?

In a very suggestive work*, Alfred Tylor has shown in how
far the different markings and the diversified coloration of animals
follow the chief lines of structure ; and A. R. Wallace has readily
admitted that, while the fundamental or ground colors of animals
are due to natural selection, the markings are probably due to
internal physiological causes. \ Coloration responds to function ;
and there is a law in the distribution of colors and the develop-
ment of the markings, while there ought to be none under the
hypothesis of selected accidental variations. Wallace goes even a
step further, and shows that those birds possess the most brilliant
colors which have developed frills, chests, and elongated tails, or
immense tail-coverts, or immensely expanded wing feathers, all
appearing near to where the activities of the most powerful
muscle of the body would be at a maximum. He considers " a
surplus of vital energy," increased at certain periods, as a vera
causa for the origin of ornamental appendages of birds and other
animals. And it is difficult to examine these and like facts with-
out coming to the same conclusion.

But if partial vigorous coloration is so much dependent upon
vital energy, is it not possible to suppose that the decoloration of
animals with the approach of the winter is in some way connected

* Coloration in Animals and Plants. London, 1886. f Darwinism, p. 288 et seq.

RECENT SCIENCE. 629

with a decrease of vital energy, especially if we take into account
the permanent white colors of domesticated animals in arctic
regions (such as the Yakutsk horse), which can not be dependent
upon natural selection ? Some recent observations give a certain
support to this supposition. Thus we now learn that rabbits
which have been taken to the Pic du Midi Observatory (9,500 feet
above the sea level) have given in seven years a race somewhat
different from their congeners in the surrounding plains. They
are a little smaller, have less developed ears, and their fur coats
are of a lighter color and very thick. Moreover, the very consist-
ence of their blood has undergone a notable change. It contains
more iron, and possesses a greater power of absorption for oxygen.*
An anatomical change is thus produced by the environment ; and
no naturalist will doubt that, if the race continues to multiply for
a great number of years in the same conditions, it will maintain
its present characters or develop new ones on the same lines, the
more rapidly so if natural selection eliminates the less adapted
individuals.

A few more additions in the same direction may be found in a
valuable work recently published by F. E. Beddard. f Thus, he
mentions the researches of Dr. Eisig, J who has endeavored to
explain the ground colors of some animals as dependent upon
their food, and has shown, for instance, that the yellow color of
an annelid which is living on a yellow marine sponge (a color
which might be explained as protective for the parasite) depends
upon the yellow pigment of the sponge absorbed by the annelid.
The prevalence of crimson colors among some fishes in a certain
part of the New England coast, which is covered with scarlet and
crimson seaweeds, is explained by J. Browne Goode by the red
pigment derived by the crustaceans from the algse with which
their stomachs are full, the crustaceans being devoured by the
fishes. And the experiments of Mr. Guyson relative to the effects
of different food plants upon a number of species of moths,
as well as those of Mr. J. Tawell upon important modifications
produced by food in the larvae of the large tortoise-shell butterfly,
both mentioned in the same work, are attempts in a most im-
portant but very young branch of experimental morphology.

Another series of researches is now being made with the view
of more deeply penetrating into the physiological causes of animal
coloration. Thus, it is a fact well known to fishermen, and now

* Comptcs Rendus, January 2, 1891, tome cxii.

\ F. E. Beddard, Animal Coloration ; an Account of the Principal Facts and Theories
relating to the Colors and Markings of Animals, London, 1892.

\ Fauna und Flora des Golfes von Xeapel : die Capitelliden, quoted by Mr. Beddard,
loc. cit., p. 101.

630 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

confirmed by direct experiment, namely, by Westhoff, that several
fresh- water and marine fishes change their color from white to
dark as soon as they have been transferred from a medium with
a light-colored bottom to another medium the bottom of which is
dark. Fishermen, we are told by Mr. Poulton, even keep their
bait in white-colored vessels in order to make it assume a lighter
color. The common frog also can change its color to some extent
in harmony with its surroundings, while the green tree-frog of
southern Europe was long since known for this capacity. It is
bright green among green leaves, and dark green when seated on
the earth or among brown leaves.* Like changes are also known
in the chameleon and in some South American Jizards. The
causes of these changes have already been investigated by Pouchet
in 1848 and Briicke in 1852, but now we have a more elaborate
research by JSiedermann f upon the same subject. He has dis-
covered three different layers of cells which contribute to give
the frog its varying colors. There is first, deeply seated in the
skin, a layer of pigment-cells which contain black pigment both
in their interior and in their ramified processes, spreading within
the skin. These cells are covered by a second layer of " interfer-
ence-cells " containing bright yellow granules as well as granules
of a pigment which sometimes appear blue or purple, and some-
times gray — the whole being covered with a transparent outer
skin. The normal green color of the frog is produced by a com-
bination of blue and yellow interference-cells appearing on a
black background ; but if the black pigment of the deepest layer
is protruded into its ramifications, the color of the animal becomes
darker ; and if it retires deeper, the yellow granules of the middle
layer become more apparent, and the frog assumes its lemon-
yellow color. Finally, when the yellow pigment gathers into
round drops between the bluish interference-cells — not above
them — the skin acquires a whitish-gray tint. The same arrange-
ments exist in other reptiles and amphibia.

Now, how is it that the cells change their position in various
lights ? Is it some reflex action in the nervous system, as it
appears in fishes, which cease to change their color when they
become blind ? Or have we to .deal with some direct action of
light ? Facts are in favor of the second explanation. The slight-
est change of temperature affects the mutual disposition of the
pigment- cells, and consequently the color of the frog ; it is enough
to keep the animal in the hand to provoke a contraction of its
black cells. The amount of blood-supply also has a definite effect ;

* E. B. Poulton, Colors of Animals, London, 1890, p. 82 et seq.

f W. Biedermann, Ueber den Farbenwechsel der Frosche, in Pfluger's Archiv fur Physi-
ologie, 1892, Bd. li, p. 455.

RECENT SCIENCE. 631

as soon as a certain part of the skin receives no more blood, the
color-cells receive less oxygen, the black cells contract, and the
animal assumes a lighter color. But the effects of light are even
more interesting. Pouchet had shown that those fishes which
usually adapt their color to their dark or light surroundings cease
to do so when they have lost sight ; they remain dark even in
light surroundings.* The indirect effects of light through the
intermediary of the visual organs are thus certain. But Steinachf
has proved that light acts in a direct way as well — perhaps, we
may add, in the same way as it acts upon the chlorophyll grains
of the leaves. He glued strips of black paper to the skin of frogs
which were kept in the dark, and when these animals were
exposed to light, only the open parts of their skin returned to a
lighter color, while the covered parts remained dark. To avoid
all doubts, the experiments were repeated on skin separated from
the body, and photograms of letters and flowers, cut out of black
paper and glued to the skin, were reproduced upon it. Besides,
blind tree-frogs do not darken as the fishes do, and Biedermann
has proved that the chief agency of their changes of color is not
in the sensations derived from the eye, but in those derived from
the skin. Frogs, whether blind or not, become dark green, or
black, if they are kept in a dark vessel in a sparingly lighted
room. But when a larger branch with green leaves is introduced
into the vessel, they all recover their bright-green color, whether
blind or not. In some way unknown, the reflected green light
acts either upon the nerves of the skin, or, what seems more prob-
able, if Steinach/s experiments are taken into account, directly
upon the pigment-cells. Moreover, the sensations derived from
the toes have also an influence upon the changes of color. When
the bottom of the vessel is covered with felt, or with a thin wire
net, the frogs also become black, recovering their green color
when a green branch is introduced in the vessel.

We have here temporary changes of color produced by the
surroundings ; but various gradations may be traced between the
temporary and the permanent changes. Thus Lode provoked local
contractions of the pigment-cells in fishes by electrical irritations
applied locally. And Franz Wef ner's researches upon the color-
ing of snakes, recently embodied in a separate work, I show that
the temporary and irregular spots which appear in fishes and
frogs under the influence of artificial irritations are of the same

* Direct observations have been made also by Alois Lode (Sitzungsberichte of the Vienna
Academy, 1890, vol. xcix, 3te Abtheilung).

f Ueber Farbenwechsel bei niederen Wirbelthieren, bedingt durch directe Wirkung des
Lichtes auf die Pigmentzellen, Centralblatt fttr Physiologic, 1891, Bd. v, p. 326.

\ Franz Werner, Ueber die Zeichnungen der Schlangen, Wien, 1890.

632 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

character, and have the same origin, as the also temporary and
irregular spots which appear in other fishes, as well as in several
tritons and many Gekonides, without the interference of man.
Some of the provoked changes of color do not entirely vanish
after the irritation is over, and they belong to the same category
as the spots which appear in many animals in youth, and disap-
pear with growing age. Moreover, it is maintained that a series
of slow gradations may be established between the irregular spots,
the spots arranged in rays, and finally the stripes, such as we see
them in higher mammals like the zebra or the tiger ; and if these
generalizations prove to be correct, we shall thus have an un-
broken series, from the temporary spots provoked by light or
electricity to the permanent markings of animals.*

And, finally, attempts are being made to explain some of the
wonderful so-called adaptive colors of insects as a direct product
of environment. Some time ago (in 1867) TV W. Wood published
experiments upon the larvae and pupae of both the small and the
large cabbage butterfly. He kept the larvae during their meta-
morphoses in boxes lined with paper of different colors, and he
found that the colors assumed by the pupae more or less corre-
sponded to their surroundings. Later on E. B. Poulton made a
wider series of analogous experiments, and he saw that the change
of color is accomplished during the first hours when the larva
spins its web ; he came to the conclusion that it depends upon a
certain physiological action which is transmitted to the nervous
system, not only through the visual organs, but through the
whole surface of the skin. These facts have now been fully con-
firmed again by W. Petersen, f but his explanation is of a more
mechanical character. He maintains that the color of the pupa
depends upon the pigment contained in both its cuticle and
hypodermis. The pigment of the latter is green in the larva, and
sometimes it remains green during the pupal stage ; but it may
be visible or not, according to the amount of dark pigment which
is formed in the cuticle, and the amount of this dark pigment
entirely depends upon the color of the light. Yellow and orange
light prevents the formation of the dark pigment, and in such
cases the cuticle, which remains transparent, shows the green
pigment of the hypodermis. But the less bright parts of the
spectrum have not the same power, and if we trace a curve rep-
resenting the powers of the various parts of the spectrum for
preventing the formation of a dark pigment, the curve has its

* See the polemics engaged upon this subject in Biologisches Centralblatt, December
15, 1890, and July 15, 1891 ; as also the Zoologische Jahrbiicher, 1891.

f Zur Frage der Chromophotographie bei Schmetterlingen, in Sitzungsberichte der Dor-
pater Naturforscher-Gesellschaft, 1890, vol. x, p. 232.

RECENT SCIENCE. 633

culminating point in the yellow, and descends toward both ends
of the spectrum ; it exactly corresponds with the curve of assimi-
lation of carbon by plants under variously colored light. It is
also remarkable that the green color of the pupa is only obtained
by yellow light, or by such green as contains yellow ; such is, as
known, the average color of leaves. We thus have a case where en-
vironment itself makes the color which approximately matches it.
The meaning of these researches is self-evident. No naturalist
will probably attempt to explain the animal colors and markings
without the aid of natural selection. But it becomes less and less
probable to admit that the animal colors are a result of a selection
of accidental variations only. The food of the organism, and
especially the amount of salt in it, the dryness or moisture of the
air, the amount of sunshine, and so on, undoubtedly exercise a
direct effect on the color of the skin, on the fur, and on the very
intimate anatomical structure of the animal. As to the relative
parts which must be attributed in the origin of each separate
variation to natural selection on the one side, and to the direct
action of environment on the other side, it would simply be un-
scientific to trench upon such questions in a broadcast way, so
long as we are only making our first steps in discriminating the
action of the latter agency. The first steps already indicate how
complicated such questions are, especially in those cases where
natural selection must act in an indirect way — not as a mere
selection of already modeled forms, but as a selection of forms
best capable to respond to the requirements of new conditions —
in which case the intimate organization of the living being comes
in the first place. All we may say at the present moment is that
the direct modifying action of environment is very great, and
that no theory can claim to be scientific unless it takes it into
consideration to its full amount. — Nineteenth Century.

MR. W. ROE, of the Cape Colony, has pointed out a disadvantage connected
with irrigation. Most water used for the purpose contains variable quantities of
soluble salts, some of which are not taken up largely by plants. Every applica-
tion of water, therefore, adds to the saline ingredients of the soil — a very differ-
ent effect from that of excess of rain water, which, so far as there is open subsoil
for it to drain away, would be likely to take out rather than add to the soluble
salines in the soil. The mischief of the accumulation of salts in the soil is aggra-
vated in a dry-air land where evaporation is great. The air, acting like a sponge
OQ a surface, takes up the water, leaving the accumulated salts in the surface soil.
But this surface soil is as the sponge to the layer beneath. Constantly after each
water-leading, the water is drawn to the surface and evaporated, leaving the ac-
cumulated salts in the surface soil. The harm done by this accumulated salt will
depend on the nature and quantity of the salines in the water used, as also upon
the quantity of water supplied.
VOL. XLIII. — 46

634- THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

THE PILGRIM PATH OF CHOLERA.

BY ERNEST HART, F. R. C. S.,

EDITOR OF THE BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL; CHAIRMAN OF THE ENGLISH HEALTH SOCIETY.

WITH cholera steadily creeping toward our shores, and all
Europe standing armed against the invader, it becomes a
matter of the extremest interest to inquire how the disease escapes
from its home in India, under what influences it becomes able to
break its bounds, invade the outer world, and carry death and
devastation into countries where not only has it no natural home,
but where it is so far an exotic that even after repeated attempts
it fails to become acclimatized.

India is the endemic home of cholera, and from some parts of
that great country it is seldom entirely absent. In 1881 there
were in India 161,000 deaths from cholera; in 1887, 488,000; in
1888, 270,000. The heat, the moisture, the necessity of drinking
stored water, and the habits of the people which make that water
foul, all combine to plant firmly in the district a contagium like
that of cholera. For the living infection, the contagium vivum of
this disease, enters man's body in the water which he drinks,
while in return it enters the water by means of the sick man's
discharges. A vicious circle is thus set up. Given a temperature
and perhaps a condition of water in which this contagium can
retain its vitality outside man's body, and a state of society in
which the fouling of the water and the drinking of it when foul
are daily habits, and we have before us the essentials necessary to
render the disease endemic.

Whether this living contagious matter be a bacillus or a
spirocheete is almost beside the present question, and under what
circumstances of water and soil it grows and propagates, or mere-
ly rests, is again for our present purpose not of much impor-
tance. What is certain and what is of extreme importance is
that incontestably within the human body it grows enormously ;
that every individual sufferer from cholera is constantly discharg-
ing an untold multitude of contagious particles, which are capa-
ble of again setting up the disease afresh in any one by whom
they are swallowed ; and therefore that if these contagious par-
ticles are swept by rain showers into streams or wells, or if the
water in which linen soiled by them is washed percolates into
tanks or ponds, the water so fouled is specifically poisonous and
will produce cholera in those who drink it, just as arsenic mixed
in water will produce arsenical poisoning.

It is a matter of surprise to many, who have the proofs of this
vicious circle nakedly before them, that the truth so long lay
hidden, and that even yet men who have lived much among chol-

THE PILGRIM PATH OF CHOLERA. 635

era, and who have had large experience of it, should hesitate to
admit the fact that the way in which the infection parted with
by the one sufferer gets round to another is by the water which
the one man fouls and which the other drinks. But, as a fact,
those who dwell in the midst of an endemic area, although they
may have exceptional opportunities for studying the disease
itself, its symptoms, its treatment, and its pathology, are not
always so well placed for the investigation of its mode of dis-
semination as those whose lot is cast in places where the disease
is but of exceptional occurrence. In an endemic area the chances
of infection are so various and complicated, the difficulty of elimi-
nating other modes of access so enormous, that it is often hard
in the extreme to prove the particular route by which the malady
has reached its billet. In non-endemic areas, however, things
are very different. The disease may not have appeared in the
district for months or years ; the source of the infection, the first
in-carrier of the disease, may usually be known at once, and all
his previous doings may be ascertained. With patience every
mode of contact or communication between the first and subse-
quent sufferers may be traced out, free from the interfering influ-
ence of possible infection from other sources covert and concealed
all around. Thus it happens that much of our most useful knowl-
edge on the subject comes from the investigation of the disease
as it has appeared in isolated epidemics rather than in endemic
areas.

For Dr. Snow, of London, I must once more claim the great
honor of being the first to recognize water as a medium of dis-
seminating cholera. His deductions to this effect, from his ob-
servations of cholera in England between 1848 and 1854, were, as
I have elsewhere shown, confirmed by the elaborate investigation
of Farr and Simon ; and in 1866, following in the same footsteps,
I placed the corner stone of the edifice by tracing the disastrous
cholera epidemic of that year in East London to the distribution
of polluted and partially filtered water from the river Lee, by
the East London Water Company — the poisonous sewage of one
family distributed unfiltered for forty-eight miles. Since that
startling experience, I have been convinced that specifically pol-
luted water is not merely an occasional or adjuvant cause, but the
causa causans of almost every great epidemic of Asiatic cholera.

The earliest important instance in which the agency of water
as a disseminator of cholera was clearly demonstrated was that
of the Broad Street pump in St. James's, Westminster. The first
death in the parish was recorded early in August, 1854, and
throughout that month a few deaths occurred each week, but
during the week ending September 2d, seventy-eight deaths were
registered, in the next week there were two hundred and eighty-

636 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

seven deaths, in the following week there were sixty-seven, and
then the mortality as quickly subsided as it had arisen. No satis-
factory solution of this mysterious outbreak presented itself until
Dr. Snow was called in to examine the water supplies. His pub-
lished report shows the clearly marked incidence of the disease on
those who drank from the parish pump. The workers in one par-
ticular factory where the water was always used suffered severely
from cholera, while those in an adjoining brewery, where the
water was never touched, escaped, and numerous instances of
fatal attacks of cholera following the use of the treacherously
sparkling water from this pump are detailed. On the drains of
the house adjoining the well being opened, it was found that
there was a cesspool under a common privy, within three feet of
the well, and at a higher level than that of the water in it ; that
the walls of the cesspool being rotten, the contents leaked into
the surrounding soil ; that the walls of the well were also rotten,
and that there was distinct evidence of the cesspool contents hav-
ing for a long time leaked into the well. Then came the startling
fact that in the house itself a child aged five months had died on
September 3d, of so-called " diarrhoea," but with distinctly chole-
raic symptoms.

In 1866 England was again invaded by cholera, and that epi-
demic is memorable for the terrible experiment which was un-
consciously carried oiit by a water company at the expense
of some four thousand lives in East London. Early in the
outbreak I was struck by its incidence on the area supplied by
the East London Water Company, and I felt confident that it
could only be due to a sudden specific pollution of the water sup-
ply. Acting on behalf of a great medical journal, I dispatched
the late Mr. J. Netten Radcliffe — who had not then become
attached to the Medical Department of the Privy Council — to
investigate the matter. After much trouble, the result showed
that owing to changes having been made in their filtering appa-
ratus, the company had sent out for a few days unfiltered water,
or water in a very partially filtered state, direct from the river
Lee, which had just at that moment become infected with chol-
eraic discharges from a cottage, the sewers of which were con-
nected with the river, and in which a family had come to reside
who had reached Southampton infected with cholera and had
been allowed to pass on after they were supposed to have re-
covered.

These things are now ancient history, and are only here re-
peated as an illustration of the fact that wherever a single out-
break can be isolated and examined separately, without the intru-
sion of cases of cholera from round about, the disease is seen to
be obviously carried to the patients' mouths by the water which

638 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

they drink. The same was shown in Egypt in 1883, in France
in 1884, and again in the department of Finistere almost at the
present time.

In Italy, Naples has afforded one of the most striking examples
of the same thing. Commencing in August, 1884, the epidemic
spread by rapid strides until September llth, and then rapidly
fell. Between August 23d and November 9th some 12,345 cases
and 7,086 deaths occurred among a population of 492,908. At that
period the water supply of Naples was mainly derived from
trenches running from house to house underground, and was ex-
posed to direct contamination not only by soakage of filth, but
by the reckless practice of washing in the trenches linen soiled
by choleraic discharges.

In the following year Naples was supplied with pure water
from a distant mountain stream (the Serino), and there followed
a marked immunity of the city from cholera, notwithstanding the
presence of the disease in the neighborhood. In 1887, however,
an injury to the Serino water conduit led to a temporary return
to the old system, and two sharp explosions of cholera at once en-
sued, but ceased on the resumption of the purer supply. Even
more demonstrative was the case of Genoa, a city provided by
means of three aqueducts with an excellent supply of a naturally
good water. After a few scattered cases a sudden and widespread
explosion of cholera occurred between September 21st and 24th,
the rich and the poor being indiscriminately attacked. It was
soon found that of the first three hundred cases ninety-three per
cent were in houses supplied by one of those aqueducts (the Nico-
lay), and on following that watercourse to its commencement
near the village of Busalla, thirteen miles distant, a colony of
workmen was found encamped. Cholera had broken out in
Busalla on September 14th, and inquiry disclosed the fact that
the clothing of the workmen, both of the sick and the healthy,
was washed in the river Scrivia, which feeds the Nicolay aque-
duct. The supply of this water to Genoa was promptly stopped
on September 28th, and the epidemic at once rapidly declined.

Everywhere the same tale is told, but my present immediate
object is to insist that also in India, the " home of cholera," it is
now clear — to me at least — that water is the agent by which the
infection is carried from one human being to another.

The experiences of Calcutta, as observed by Dr. W. J. Simpson,
the able health officer of that city, show that those persons who
have an abundant and pure water supply — namely, the Europeans
and better-class natives — escape cholera epidemics, except in iso-
lated instances which can generally be accounted for ; while the
natives who depend on tank water suffer severely when a tank
becomes polluted by the excreta of a cholera patient.

THE PILGRIM PATH OF CHOLERA. 639

I think it capable of proof that it is on the scarcity of water,
and on the habits and customs which have grown up during
centuries of suffering from that scarcity, that the existence even of
the " endemic area," the natural " home of cholera," depends. If
this be admitted — and I think it can no longer be denied — the fact
and necessary inferences from it are of vast and world-wide impor-
tance. The natives bathe and wash their utensils and clothes in
the tank, because it is the only available place in which to do so,
and they use the water of the tank, contaminated as it is in addi-
tion by soakage and sewage, for cooking and drinking, because it
is the only water supply available for domestic purposes.

With these facts before us, and reading them in the light of
our European experience, it can no longer be doubted by thought-
ful and reasonable persons that the reason why, in India as in
other places, some classes escape and others suffer, is that some
drink pure water and others drink water contaminated with chol-
eraic discharges.

Nor can we shut our eyes to the probability, growing stronger
every year, that the true meaning of the term " endemic area," in
regard to cholera, is a district in which the customs of the people
sanction the drinking of fecally polluted water, and in which
from temperature, and perhaps from other causes incompletely
known, the cholera germ or contagium can easily keep alive and
propagate itself in soil or water in the interval between its exit
from one host and its entry into another.

Nothing seems more certain than that people can touch chol-
era patients, and rub them, handle them, and live with them, even
in the midst of an endemic area, and not catch the disease so long
as they take precautions not to swallow it.

This is the key to the position, the horrid truth, the dirty fact,
that the bacillus, the contagium of cholera, lives two lives : one,
in the human body, causing the disease, multiplying within the
patient, and poured forth by him in abundance ; the other, outside
the body, waiting in damp ground, on soiled linen, in dirty water
— waiting to be swallowed by some one else and to start again on
its destructive course. How, then, does it get round ? We know
well enough that the outside of a cholera patient is not infectious ;
the infection comes from within, with the discharges ; how, then,
does it get into the alimentary canal ? How can it get round
except in what we drink ?

This is what I mean by speaking emphatically of cholera being
a water-borne disease. It is not that cholera is a disease of rivers
and watercourses alone, but that, whether it is a matter of rivers
or tanks or water supplies, or merely of wash-basins, jugs, and
water-bottles, the water which the patient drinks is the vehicle
by which the poison enters, and is the final step in the course of

THE PILGRIM PATH OF CHOLERA. 641

the infection from its previous breeding ground within the body
of a previous patient. We now can understand why, when cholera
spreads and breaks its bounds, it follows the lines of human traffic
and communication. Man, in fact, is the porter by whom the
cholera is carried from place to place, and so the rate of diffusion
depends upon the rate of travel. But, as no one porter can carry
the malady further than he can go between the time of being
infected and being struck down, the wide spread of the disease
depends not only on the speed of the porter, but on the sanitary
condition and social habits of the place where he is taken ill ; for,
if these are such that he can transfer his load to others, that the
infection he deposits can take root and grow in the bodies of fresh
patients, some of whom may travel to fresh places and set up
fresh foci of disease, the epidemic spreads; but if, from cleanly
habits or clean surroundings, or from plentiful supply of pure
water, the infection fails to pass from body to body, the mal-
ady dies out, and there is an end of the matter. King Chol-
era is, in truth, a lazy and voluptuous potentate; unless he is
carried by quick steamers, he will not travel far without a rest,
and when he reaches his destination he declines either to ad-
vance or show his power unless he is nourished and pampered
with his beloved luxuries of dirt and filth and fecally contami-
nated water.

The inhabitants of the Indian " endemic area " are a conserva-
tive race — the son lives like the father ; one generation passes on
like another, and centuries of intermittent pestilence and famine
have till lately kept down the population to exactly tally with
the means of sustenance. The village community has been for
ages the unit which, multiplied by thousands, has made up the
population. Each village has mostly kept to itself, and, except
for the wars of their rulers, the passage of their traders, and their
occasional pilgrimages, they have for time immemorial lived an
isolated life. At times of pilgrimage, however, all this isolation
is cast aside, and pilgrims from widely scattered districts rub
shoulders in the bathing places, wash and cleanse their bodies
and their clothes in the same water, which in turn they drink in
an unsavory fellowship.

Disease may remain for long tied up in a single village ; nay,
a whole village may die of cholera, and do but little damage to
their neighbors ; but in times of pilgrimage cholera travels with
the pilgrims, and, after the festival is over, is scattered broadcast
through the land. Such fairs as that at Hurdwar, at the junction
of the hills and plains, outside the endemic area, but attended
largely by those who dwell within, have beyond doubt been the
great gateways by which cholera has periodically escaped from
its confines to ravage the world at large. Of this the historic

642 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

records give abundant evidence, especially in the epidemics of
1867 and 1879.

But, spread all over the country, especially in its northern
parts, there is a large Mohammedan population, from among
whom there pours out an annual pilgrimage which wends its way
to Mecca, the holy place which every faithful Moslem strives to
reach — a pilgrimage which of late years has been a recurring
danger to the Western world, having been the means of introduc-
ing to Egypt in 1866 that outbreak of cholera which carried off
sixty thousand of its inhabitants in the course of three months ;
and of sending on to England the infection, which destroyed six
thousand people in London ; besides being the origin of the vari-
ous epidemics which have fallen so heavily on the south of
Europe, although they have not done great harm to our own more
favored land.

The fairs and pilgrimages of the East constitute the danger of
the West, and it is now recognized in every land that this danger
is vastly aggravated by the greater rapidity of communication in
these latter days. When by weary marches, or sailing in small
boats, tacking day after day against opposing winds, months, nay
sometimes years, were spent in the journey, those who were taken
ill died in the transit; whole caravans melted away, and ships
with cholera-stricken crews were lost, together with their crowded
cargo of holy pilgrims, and thus the outer world was saved. But
with quicker means of communication, with railways and steam-
boats, and the general hurry of modern life, pilgrims also have
quickened their pace, and, what is most important, have length-
ened the stages and lightened the labor of their journey, so that
the infected ones have lived through hundreds instead of tens of
miles before they dropped, and have thus surmounted the barrier
of desert and of sea by which Europe was formerly protected.
No longer does cholera necessarily sneak round by Russia and
the Caucasus, infecting the various resting places on its way, and
setting out again as opportunity arises and as caravans and trav-
elers may serve. At one bound it is in Jiddah. Mecca becomes
a center of infection, and Red Sea ports distribute the disease to
Egypt and the south of Europe.

Ordinary traffic can be watched, and by medical inspection
cases of disease can be picked out and isolated ; but with a sudden
crowding of sixty thousand people devoid of all sanitary knowl-
edge into a country ill equipped with sanitary appliances, gov-
erned by rulers whose chief principle and guide is a fatalistic
trust in the will of Allah, the problem is complicated in a high
degree.

It must not be forgotten that the spread of cholera is not en-
tirely due to the infection carried by those who are attacked. No

THE PILGRIM PATH OF CHOLERA. 643

man can carry it more than one stage, and whether or not it starts
again from the place where he deposits the infection depends on
the sanitary conditions of the locality and the customs of the peo-
ple. There is but little doubt that the danger caused by the
Mecca pilgrimage to the health of Europe depends largely on the
fact that from the recklessness of the people and the absence of
adequate sanitary arrangements in the district, Mecca has become
a great central fair for the exchange and distribution of the chol-
era infection.

In 1886 thirty thousand pilgrims died of cholera at Mecca.
Nor can we wonder. Everything seems to be done to destroy
their tone and their resisting power; everything seems to be
arranged to spread the disease when the infection is once planted
amid the host of pilgrims.

From seventy to a hundred thousand seems to be the ordinary
average number of those who visit Mecca during the festival, and
who are present at Mount Arafat on the 9th of Zu'l Hij jah. They
come from every quarter of the compass — inland by caravan
from Syria and Persia, Turkey and Afghanistan; by sea from
Red Sea ports ; from Africa, across the whole width of which
many of the weary pilgrims have walked ; and from every part of
the world where the standard of Islam has been raised. With no
provision for decency or comfort they camp around or crowd into
lodgings in the sacred city. They make excursions, clamber up
the mountains, spend hours in the blazing sun, are sickened with
rotting smells arising from the thousands of animals which are
sacrificed ; crush and stifle in the Ka'ba ; and, finally, as if they
had not already run sufficient risk of catching every possible
complaint, they drink the water of Zem Zem. This is the well
from which Hagar is said to have drawn water for her son
Ishmael, and the drinking of the water is a most holy rite. The
supply, however, is not as great as could be desired for so large a
crowd of pilgrims, and the manner of dealing with it at the well
goes far to explain the intensity of the poison and the fearful
mortality which attends any outbreak of cholera among the
Meccan pilgrims. At a given period the pilgrims stand naked in
turn at the place appointed; a bucket of water is poured over
each man ; he drinks what he can of it, and the rest falls back into
the holy well. The water from this well has been analyzed by
Dr. Frankland, F. R. S., of the Royal College of Science, London,
who describes it as fearfully polluted with abominable contamina-
tions. Imagine, then, one single member of this enormous crowd
to be suffering from the early stage of cholera ; to be struggling, as
struggle he would with his last strength, to get through the holy
rite, and to be allowing the choleraic discharges with which his
body would be soiled to be washed back into this foul well.

THE PILGRIM PATH OF CHOLERA. 645

What is to happen to the crowd of pilgrims who close in on the
spot that he has left, and who, each in turn, swallow in rapt fer-
vor the fetid draught in which these thousands have been
washed ? Can we wonder,^ then, knowing the history of the Broad
Street pump, that in 1866, within a few days of the ceremony, the
road leading from Mecca was for twelve miles thickly strewn
with dead bodies — a holocaust to be added to the account of per-
verted religious rites which has already so deadly a record ?

Gradually England is undertaking the gigantic task of not
only ruling India — a thing to which India has been accustomed
for untold centuries — but of reforming and remodeling her habits
and her customs, a thing hitherto quite unknown, untried, and
thought by many to be impossible. A stolid mass of conservatism
of habit and even of thought has to be moved, and has to be so
moved as not to drift into anarchy and reaction. This is a long,
slow, tedious process. The existence of the " endemic area," the
" home of cholera," depends largely on the persistence of habits
and modes of life which can hardly be rooted out. If they are to
cease, they must probably die away or be slowly crushed out
rather than be swiftly overturned. We may at once make up
our minds that if the safety of Europe can only be attained by
abolishing cholera in India, Europe will for long remain in dan-
ger. It is hard to say how long : the object of this essay is to
abridge the period to the utmost. To those, again, who know
best the condition of the towns in the south of Europe it seems an
almost equally far-off hope to expect them within any reasonable
time to reach such a condition of cleanliness and sanitary prepared-
ness as to be able to look calmly on the approach of the dread
disease. But this is a much less formidable and more hopeful task,
when once it is courageously and persistently faced. Are we
meantime to stand helpless ? Can nothing be done to stop the in-
fection on the way ? Not so. In the matter of ordinary travelers
isolation of the infected need not be insuperably difficult. The
individual attacked may be sent to a properly equipped hospital,
be surrounded by a true cordon sanitaire in the modern sense —
not a ring of gendarmes or a circle of quarantine as of old, but an
area of sanitation, within which cholera can not spread. Within
this area the disease may expend its force with injury to no one
and the crisis pass without danger to the country. But the case
of the pilgrims is different. Fairs and pilgrimages of India differ
from other means of spreading the disease in this, that not only
do they draw people from all parts and thus increase the chances
of receiving the infection, but the people attend them in such
numbers that they support each other in carrying on their own
customs, the very customs which have for centuries conduced to
the spread of the disease in cholera's home. It is as if the fair or

646 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the pilgrimage were not only supplied with a proper dose of the
infection, but were provided with a plot of the " endemic area "
on which it could be grown. In bedding out a plant we do not
put its naked roots into the new inhospitable soil, but we place in
the new ground a portion of the mold in which it hitherto has
grown, so that its tender rootlets may gradually get accustomed
to their new surroundings. And the fairs and pilgrimages of
India do much the same to plant the cholera in the new localities.
The infection carried from the endemic area can not die out,
even although it be but an exotic in a strange land, because the
people carry with them also the habits and customs which are
conducive to its growth, the willingness to use the same water for
every purpose, the readiness to drink it when in its foulest state.

In a report in June, 1891, Dr. W. J. Simpson, of Calcutta,
gave a picturesque and startling account of two large pilgrimages
which he personally witnessed in that year — one in the endemic
area of Bengal, and another in the non-endemic area, or north
part of India. A pictorial presentation of one of their chief fea-
tures, which I am able to give from private photographic plates
that he has furnished me, will show the condition more effectively
than merely verbal discussion.

The first of these was the Ardhodoya Jog, which comes round
at rare intervals, happening only when the moon is in conjunc-
tion with the sun in a certain latitude of the Indian zodiac. This
event, it appears, only occurs once in twenty-seven or twenty-
eight years, and is then made the occasion for a great bathing
festival. The purity to be obtained by bathing in the Ganges
during this festival is exceptionally great, and therefore the gath-
ering of pilgrims at the several bathing grounds was a very large
one.

Kalighat, where the gathering in question took place, is the
suburban area of Calcutta, on Tolly's Nullah, a small tidal creek
which is held to be more sacred than the Hooghly, because it is
believed to be one of the original beds of the Ganges which has
gradually silted up. Sanctity, however, in these parts is no assur-
ance of decency. Along its banks on both sides houses and huts
are built, the drainage from the latrines of which finds an easy
and convenient outlet into the streamlet. Soiled clothes of the
sick and healthy are washed here ; oxen, buffaloes, horses, goats,
and other animals take their bath in the water ; and as the nullah
has frequently passing through it many country boats, the boat-
men add to the general pollution.

Kalighat, like the other suburbs of Calcutta, also possesses a
large number of tanks or ponds, round which the huts or houses of
the inhabitants are built, and which are the drainage cesspools of
the locality. Much has been said concerning the filthiness of

THE PILGRIM PATH OF CHOLERA. 647

these tanks. Their contents more or less resemble pea-soup in
color, and their composition has been officially reported as similar
to concentrated London sewage. Those conversant with the uses
to which these tanks are put will not be surprised at this state-
ment. And yet these ponds of filth are constantly resorted to for
the cleansing of utensils and the soaking, maceration, and wash-
ing of the rice and dahl, and in the preparation of sweetmeats.

The nullah can be waded across at low tide, but it is the recepta-
cle of unspeakable filth of all kinds. After describing the insani-
tary arrangements of the neighborhood, Dr. Simpson remarks that
" without a good water supply, or drainage, or proper means of
disposal of the excreta and sulliage, with crowding together of
huts and houses irregularly placed, and with the filthy tidal nullah,
which is practically the sewer of the district, and with numerous
polluted tanks, Kalighat, it may be surmised, is at no time a
healthy spot, and at all times a danger to pilgrims." On the oc-
casion in question at least 150,000 people came into Calcutta in the
first and second weeks in February. Great throngs came on foot
whose numbers were not noted, 25,000 came by boat up the nullah,
90,000 came by the Eastern Bengal State Railway, and 32,000 by
the East Indian Railway. Obviously the influence of railways in
intensifying the danger of quick and wide diffusion of cholera
after great festivals must not be neglected.

To describe the crowding which occurred in the nullah on the
festival day is difficult. Perhaps the accompanying photographs
will give some idea of the scene, and of the recklessness with which
the filthy water was being bathed in and splashed over the head
and even drunk. A large proportion of the pilgrims would not
drink filtered water. They had come, they said, to bathe in and
drink Ganges water, and they would have none from the stand-
posts or the carts. Happily, the tube-well near the police station
was not considered unholy, and was in lively requisition. The
picture shows the crush to be very great, and it is marvelous that
no accidents happened.

Among the large number assembled there it was not likely
that cholera would be entirely absent, and if present it was certain
to be spread by the customs of the festival, and thus it happened
that in the second week in February nearly two hundred of the
pilgrims died from cholera. The pilgrims soon had to be dis-
persed, and though their dispersal checked a larger outbreak at
Kalighat, which would only have widened its circle afterward, it
could not prevent those already infected from suffering on their
way home. Consequently, at some of the railway stations sick
people had to be taken out of the trains ; passengers by boat died
on their voyage, their bodies, being thrown overboard ; while trav-
elers 011 foot were picked up dying or dead on the roads.

m

m y

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i ^

THE PILGRIM PATH OF CHOLERA. 649

To the pilgrims themselves the festival turned out a disastrous
affair, but later investigation showed that in many villages to
which they returned the residents also were affected, and that in
at least three districts widespread epidemics were set up.

Such is a pilgrimage within the " endemic area," where per-
haps it may be said that the danger in regard to cholera may be
measured by the deaths, the dissemination of the infection through
a population already charged with it not being of great impor-
tance.

But any Indian pilgrimage, even in a non-endemic area, has
much the same characteristics. Dr. Simpson's description of the
great Kumbh festival, which occurs once in twelve years at Kurd-
war, outside the endemic area, is also very graphic, and the photo-
graphs (Figs. 2, 3, and 4) show the sacred pool and the approaches
to it to be hidden by a mass of semi-naked human beings. The
pollutions to which the sacred pool is exposed on these occasions
are indescribable. There are not only the washing of the sacred
fakirs, who cover themselves with wood ashes as their only cloth-
ing, and the general bathing of the pilgrims, who are not all in
the cleanest of clothes — several, moreover, on the occasion in
question being seen bathing with skin diseases upon them — but
the ashes of deceased relatives brought from the different homes
of the pilgrims, and the hair of widows who have been shorn, are
also thrown into the water. The stream, usually so bright and
pure, soon became a muddy one, offensive to the senses, and, al-
though outside the endemic area, bacteriological examination of
this denied water showed it to contain the comma bacillus, which
is looked upon as the true contagium of cholera.

With these pictures in our minds of what an Eastern pilgrim-
age means, and of what is done at the great festivals, whether of
Hinduism or Mohammedanism, can we wonder that they are so
constantly the means of lifting cholera out of its ordinary en-
demic character and spreading it over the world at large ? In old
times when cholera marched overland its route could almost be
dotted out by the fairs which it infected. Now, with more rapid
means of communication, Mecca, with of course Jiddah its port,
is the half-way house, the halting place, the one spot at which it
must be caught and stopped if Europe is to be protected. Hither
tend pilgrims from all parts, including those from the infected
area ; here are performed rites which involve of necessity the wide
spread of the infection among the visitors, if even perchance but
one of them bring with him the disease ; hence in a fortnight's
time is scattered this great host, carrying with them the germs
of pestilence to their homes in distant lands. Mecca is a peril to
Europe, and at all cost Mecca must be made a sanitary area, in
which cholera if it should arrive can play itself out, and from

VOL. XLIII. 47

650 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

which no infection shall be allowed to be exported. It is, how-
ever, idle to expect a Government such as that of Turkey sponta-
neously to undertake the task. The affair is too expensive to be
undertaken by a ruler to whom ready cash is worth more 'than
prospective suffering. Nor would his people support him in such
a crusade. To them Allah is great, and cholera is his will ; nor
perhaps does the evil seem to them so grievous as it does to us.
To those who have to suffer Turkish rule a little cholera now and
then may seem but a flea-bite.

It seems probable that no single nation can effectually inter-
fere, although if any one nation could do so, it would be England
or Russia. The danger belongs, however, to Europe ; and if any-
thing is to be done, Europe collectively should take action with-
out delay, with the aim to cleanse the ports of the Red Sea, reor-
ganize Mecca and its greedy crew, and supervise the pilgrims in
all their course.* With the increasing care, and the increasing
intelligence with which that care is being exercised, in regard to
cholera in Europe, and with the facilities given by the telegraph
for watching the progress of cholera when it approaches ma
Russia, and the growing willingness shown by that great state to
block the way when it invades her vast dominions, the Red Sea
remains the route from which Europe and America have most to
fear, and Mecca with its insanitary surroundings, its filthy rites,
its crowds of devotees, stands as the half-way house between Eu-
rope and the home of cholera. Can we not for once think of the
good of man rather than of nations ? With railways and steamers
linking us so closely in one family, we can no longer afford to
fold our arms and look with indifference even at the strange

* There are many indications that such representations, made in a suitable manner and
by authoritative personages to the Sultan, would be warmly backed up, not only by his own
personal feelings and sentiments, but also by those of an enlightened and considerable por-
tion of his subjects. The Scotsman of January 6th says : " Queen Victoria having the largest
number of Mussulman subjects, the Government of Bombay was some years ago moved by
the hardships and mortality to which so many of them were exposed on the pilgrim voyage
to Mecca every year. A contract was accordingly made with Messrs. T. Cook and Sons,
under which the Hajjees are conveyed to and from the Red Sea ports in safety and comfort.
But that avails little if they are to perish from the filth of Mecca itself, and take from it
those cholera germs which they spread all over eastern Europe and Asia." Encouraged by
an article on the subject in the Nineteenth Century, written by Mr. Ernest Hart, the Moham-
medans of Madura, near Cape Comorm, have held a public meeting and memorialized his
Imperial Majesty the Sultan of Turkey " to adopt suitable measures for improving the sani-
tation of Mecca and other places of pilgrimage." They make the sensible suggestion that
every year during the Hajj the leading Hajjees from every country should meet and draw
up a report on the state of the city and shrine to the Sultan and ask for the needed reforms.
If the Sultan were not afraid of another war with the Shereef, who is the real master of
Mecca, he would insist on such a share of the pilgrim fees and offerings as would make
Mecca the healthiest place in his dominions.

GRANDFATHER THUNDER. 651

doings of poor fanatics of Mecca. Such is the solidarity of the
modern world that at the present moment it is the doings of these
people, who seem so far away (geographically thousands of miles,
socially and as regards their sympathies and interests quite in
another sphere), which threaten us now with a repetition of such
epidemics as that which not so many years ago carried off one in
every forty-seven residents in Whitechapel, one in fifty-seven in
Ratcliffe, one in sixty-seven in Rotherhithe, and which only last
year killed off people in Hamburg at the rate of two hundred to
three hundred per day for weeks together.

This is no fanciful speculation, applicable only to days gone
by. Last month five thousand pilgrims died in Mecca; their
infected and scattered companions are reaching Jiddah and El
Tor, and are spreading over the world to their various homes.
To them we may look with fear and doubt for the probable initia-
tion of an epidemic in Europe, to follow close upon the footsteps
of that which is now at our doors.

GRANDFATHER THUNDER.

BY ABBY L. ALGEK.

DURING the summer of 1892, at York Harbor, Me., I was in
daily communication with a party of Penobscot Indians
from Oldtown, among whom were an old man and woman, from
whom I got many curious legends. The day after a terrible thun-
derstorm I asked the old woman how they had weathered the
storm. She looked searchingly at me and said, " It was good."
After a moment she added, " You know the thunder is our grand-
father ? " I answered that I did not know it, and was startled
when she continued : " Yes, when we hear the first roll of the
thunder, especially the first thunder in the spring, we always go
out into the open air, build a fire, put a little tobacco on it, and
give grandfather a smoke. Ever since I can remember, my father
and my grandfather did this, and I shall always do it as long as
I live. I'll tell you the story of it and why we do so.

"Long time ago there were two Indian families living in a
very lonely place. This was before there were any white people
in the land. They lived far apart. Each family had a daughter,
and these girls were great friends. One sultry afternoon in the
late spring, one of them told her mother she wanted to go to see
her friend. The mother said : ' No, it is not right for you to go
alone, such a handsome girl as you ; you must wait till your
father or your brother are here to go with you/ But the girl in-
sisted, and at last her mother yielded and let her go. She had

652 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

not gone far when she met a tall, handsome young man, who
spoke to her. He joined her, and his words were so sweet that
she noticed nothing and knew not which way she went until at
last she looked up and found herself in a strange place where she
had never been befora In front of her was a great hole in the
face of a rock. The young man told her that this was his home,
and invited her to enter. She refused, but he urged until she said
that if he would go first she would follow after. He entered, but
when she looked after him she saw that he was changed to a fear-
ful wee-will-mecq — a loathly worm. She shrieked and turned to
run away, but at that instant a loud clap of thunder was heard, and
she knew no more until she opened her eyes in a vast room, where
sat an old man watching her. When he saw that she had awaked,
he said, ' I am your grandfather Thunder, and I have saved you/
Leading her to the door, he showed her the wee-will-mecq dead as
a log, and chopped into small bits like kindling wood. The old
man had three sons, one named ' M'dessun/ He is the baby, and
is very fierce and cruel. It is he who slays men and beasts and
destroys property. The other two are kind and gentle ; they cool
the hot air, revive the parched fields and the crops, and destroy
only that which is harmful to the earth. When you hear low,
distant mutterings, that is the old man. He told the girl that as
often as spring returned she must think of him, and show that
she was grateful by giving him a little smoke. He then took
leave of her and sent her home, where her family had mourned
her as one dead. Since then no Indian has ever feared thunder."
I said, "But how about the lightning?" "Oh," said the old
woman, " lightning is grandfather's wife."

Later in the summer, at Jackson in the White Mountains, I
met Louis Mitchell, for many years the Indian member of the
Maine Legislature, a Passamaquoddy, and asked him about this
story. He said it was perfectly true, although the custom was
now falling into disuse ; only the old people kept it up. The to-
bacco is cast upon the fire in a ring, and draws the electricity,
which plays above it in a beautiful blue circle of flickering flames.
He added that it is a well-known fact that no Indian and no In-
dian property were ever injured by lightning.

THE Council of the Eoyal Agricultural Society of England has instituted a
fund to be contributed by all interested in agriculture, for preparing a testimonial
to the invaluable services rendered to that art by Sir John Lawes and Dr. Gilbert.
Subscriptions are to be limited to two guineas. The testimonial will take the
form of a granite memorial, with a suitable inscription, to be erected at the head
of the field where the experiments were made ; and an address to Sir John Lawes
and Dr. Gilbert, accompanied (if the funds permit) by a commemorative piece
of plate.

SCIENTIFIC COOKING. 653

SCIENTIFIC COOKING.

A PLEA FOR EDUCATION IN HOUSEHOLD AFFAIRS.
BY Miss M. A. BOLAND,

INSTRUCTOR IN COOKING IN THE JOHNS HOPKINS TBAINING SCHOOL FOB NURSES.

E general interpretation of the colloquial use of the word
scientific as applied to cooking is that manner of making
dishes which is carried out according to some exact method,
which has been proved by experiment to be correct or satisfactory.
This is well as far as it goes ; but scientific cooking, in order to
justly merit the name, should also include : 1. A knowledge of the
chemical composition of food materials and food, that a woman
may know when she is supplying her family with a diet composed
of all those principles, in correct proportion, which are necessary
to perfectly nourish the body, and also that she may appreciate
that she is not always obliged to buy expensive materials in order
to obtain that which is needful and wholesome. 2. A knowledge
of the methods of preparing and preserving food, both cooked
and uncooked, under such conditions of cleanliness that it shall
be free from poisonous or noxious principles. 3. A knowledge of
the laws of health, that it may be possible in some measure to
determine what constituents and what eatables afford proper ma-
terial for the maintenance of the body, and under what circum-
stances of occupation, exercise, and living in general they are most
completely utilized.

Upon the subject of the composition of foods there is abun-
dance of valuable literature in English from which much can be
learned. Since the days of Baron von Liebig and Count Rum-
ford, who may be said to be the promoters of the "cooking
movement," a great deal of scientific investigation as to the
chemical composition, nutritive value, and methods of cooking
food has been done, and out of this study, in connection with
medical research, has sprung the modern school of hygiene, as yet,
however, in its infancy. In the works of Parkes, Pavy, Atwater,
Foster, Smith, Blythe, and Hassal most valuable information on
this subject may be found.

A well-grounded knowledge of the chemistry and physiology
of foods is the foundation upon which all good work in cooking
must be laid. Through it only can be known and appreciated
the reasons which underlie the various processes of preparing
food, which, once well understood, form the sure foundation upon
which all conscientious and worthy effort should rest. Such
knowledge embodies the principles of the subject, and without
principles no work can possess lasting educational value.

654 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The second suggestion, methods of preparing and preserving
food so that it shall be free from poisonous and harmful sub-
stances, indicates the necessity for some knowledge of bacteri-
ology. The various fermentative and putrefactive changes which
take place in food substances are caused principally by the growth
in them of microscopic forms of plant life known by the general
name of micro-organisms.

When micro-organisms grow in masses, as may be seen in the
green and yellow molds of bread and cake, they are plainly
visible to the naked eye, but to distinguish individuals a micro-
scope of high magnifying power is necessary. The common mil-
dew, the decay of apples, melons, and other fruits, the rot of vege-
tables, and the decomposition of eggs and meat are due to the
transforming power of these invisible agents. One of the most
common and best known is yeast, which has been more studied
and is probably better understood than any of the ferments. It
is frequently mentioned to illustrate the transforming power of
these infinitely tiny forms of life. A bit of yeast is like a little
mass of seeds, each a single cell ; these, when they are placed in a
proper medium — in other words, find the surroundings of food,
moisture, and warmth necessary for their life — multiply with
extraordinary rapidity, using what they require of the food in
which they find themselves, decomposing sugar and starch and
establishing changes which result in carbonic acid and alcohol as
the chief products. We take advantage of the production of car-
bonic acid by yeast to make our loaves of light and wholesome
bread.

Micro-organisms are everywhere : they exist in the earth and
the sea ; in plants and animals ; on the surface of our bodies and
in the digestive canal ; in cooked and uncooked food ; in refuse,
particularly animal waste ; on our clothing, books, furniture, and
in the dust of the atmosphere. Wherever they find suitable food,
warmth, and moisture they increase with wonderful rapidity, and,
if undisturbed would in time completely transform the object
upon which they fall. However, by removing any one of the fac-
tors necessary to their growth, they cease to multiply, and under
such conditions some species remain inert, some die.

Like other forms of life, micro-organisms by their growth
give rise to various products which may be either harmless or
harmful. Of the latter may be mentioned noxious gases which
pollute the air and poisonous substances which render our food
unwholesome. The souring of milk, and the putrefactive changes
which, in the presence of heat, so rapidly set in in eggs, meat,
oysters, lobsters, crabs, and other albumen-containing foods, are
among the results of their transforming power. Perhaps the
most important point for us to consider here is, that it is highly

SCIENTIFIC COOKING. 655

probable that these substances just mentioned and others of simi-
lar nature often, when apparently good, contain poisonous matter
in small quantities, which produces in human beings, when those
foods are eaten, grave digestive disturbances. Should the eating
of such food be continued for a length of time, or the amount of
poisonous matter be large, serious results of illness, or even death,
may follow. Instances are on record of fatal cases of poisoning
caused by eating oysters too long out of the shell, lobsters not
fresh, and other easily putrescible substances.

The object of the bacteriological study of food is not alone to
prevent the use of actually poisonous materials, but also to pre-
vent the use of those which are not absolutely good.

Perfect digestion, perfect assimilation, and as a consequence
healthful blood can not result from the use of questionable food.
If we attempt to consider what constitutes a healthy condition
of body we find a very complex subject before us : constitutional
peculiarities, manner of dress, surroundings, air, occupation, cli-
mate, etc., as well as food, all influence physical development.
We find the answer involves too many points to be given simply
and directly, but one very essential thing to do certainly lies in
the direction of food. The nutritive material for replenishing the
blood is made from the food we eat and the air we breathe; it,
therefore, is entirely reasonable to claim that the condition of the
air breathed and the preparation of the food eaten are of great
importance.

Food should be wholesome in itself, prepared in exquisitely
clean surroundings by neat hands, and cooked with intelligence.
Food prepared by slovenly cooks in slovenly places not only is
not eesthetically acceptable, but is neither palatable nor whole-
some, and often contains ptomaines, toxines,* or other poisonous
matter the results of changes of a dangerous character, or it may
be contaminated with the bacteria of disease. When we know
that micro-organisms are the primary cause of many kinds of fer-
mentation, that all forms of food are excellent material for them
upon which to thrive, that instances are on record in which poisons
have been isolated from food which has caused sickness, it may be
repeated that it is entirely possible that food kept in questionable
places and prepared in an uncleanly manner does often contain
that which is positively injurious to health.

It is evident that one of the first considerations of a thoughtful
and intelligent housekeeper toward securing one condition at
least of good health should be absolute cleanliness in all things —

* Ptomaines are certain crystallizable substances formed by the growth of bacteria.
They are often but not always poisonous. Toxines are substances also produced by the
growth of bacteria, but of a different nature from ptomaines ; they are always poisonous.

656 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

that cleanliness which excludes as much as possible all kinds of
extraneous ferments from food and its surroundings. We know
that micro-organisms are the agents of fermentation ; we know the
factors necessary to their life, namely, food, warmth, and moisture ;
deprived of any one of these, their growth is stopped and they
become inert, or die. To illustrate, a piece of meat deprived of
moisture — that is, dried — is proof against the growth of organisms
upon it so long as it remains dry, and it " keeps," as we say — that
is, it does not decay ; or, it may be hung in an ice-box or frozen as
in winter — that is, deprived of warmth — with the same result. It,
then, is a possibility to control the multiplication of these forms
of life when we understand their modes of existence.

Scientific cooking should include not only the proper construc-
tion, so to speak, of eatables, but a knowledge of their constituents
both inherent and extraneous, and some understanding of the
physical life of human beings. Heretofore, cooking has been done
for the most part upon what might be called " haphazard " lines,
without any special degree of exactness and with but little actual
information as to the nutritive value of the substances dealt with,
or of the processes which would render them most palatable and
digestible. This manner of conducting the cooking of a home
gives mainly two results : (1) a great deal of wretched food, which
directly or indirectly affects the health of the family, and (2) an
enormous amount of unnecessary waste. The primary considera-
tion is, of course, the one of health. When we recollect that hy-
gienists and medical men hold the opinion that disease does not
find lodgment in a sound body, that to be perfectly healthy means
no sickness, except from accidents and natural causes, is it not
enough to inspire all women to study and master the means which
conduce to health and the laws which govern healthy conditions ?
This point may be illustrated by the fact that pneumonia does not
attack healthy persons. Children, the old or enfeebled, and those
who are debilitated, are its victims. Pneumonia is a bacterial
disease, the germ of which is present in the mouths of about one
fifth of all well persons. Exposure to cold, the prolonged use of
poor food, or excessive fatigue, any of these may lower the tone
of the system to such an extent that its cells and fluids, being out
of their normal condition, can no longer resist or overpower the
germ of the disease, which, finding lodgment in the tissues of the
lungs, produces the malady known as pneumonia. It is on this
point, that the cells and fluids of a perfectly healthy body have the
power to protect the inner organs from the invasion of bacteria
and bacterial products, that we base our strongest argument for
more healthful ways of living.

The greatest necessity of life is air, which is supplied to us
pure (outside of large cities), without the necessity of effort on

SCIENTIFIC COOKING. 657

our part to procure it. We have only not to interfere with what
Nature has given by inclosing it in rooms, or by allowing it to be
contaminated with noxious gases or other impurities. The second
greatest necessity of life is food, which includes water. Food is
the raw material of the body from which it constructs its tissues
and repairs them as they wear. It furnishes the elements from
which are evolved the forces of the body, such as heat, muscular
and nervous energy and other powers ; of these, heat is the most
important, it being ever required that the constant temperature
which the body must always possess to be in a state of health
may be maintained. Food also furnishes material for a supply
which is stored away in the body for use in emergencies when
from accident or other cause nutriment is cut off.

Food is to the body what fuel is to the fire. It and the oxygen
of the air are the agents which maintain the life of the system.
What can be more worthy our attention than so important a
subject ?

We all know that some kinds of food are more easily digested
than others, and we also know that the same kind of food treated
in cooking by different methods varies in digestibility, according
to those methods. To illustrate, an egg cooked in such a way
that its albumen is coagulated, but tender and jelly-like, not
hardened, is a very easily digested food substance ; while an egg
cooked at a temperature so high that its albumen is rendered
tough and tenacious is very difficult of digestion, and it is known
that well persons have been made temporarily ill by eating eggs
so cooked.

What is true of the egg simply illustrates what is true of
nearly all food substances — that is, that the temperature at which
they are cooked and the manner in which they treated, as to the
time of exposure to heat and their combination with other things,
makes all the difference in their digestibility and flavor. This
constitutes our second argument for the study of cooking.

If only because we have at best but glimmerings of the com-
plex, intricate, and mysterious processes of the life of the phys-
ical human body, should we strive to maintain it in most perfect
condition, and endeavor in the clearest lights of modern science to
make it indeed a temple for the indwelling of the mind.

It is thought by some students of the subject that crime is a
disease ; that had the men, who are to-day criminals, been reared
under better conditions, of both nourishment for the body and
influence for the mind, they might have been worthy, even noble
citizens.

Missionaries, both at home and abroad, are beginning to realize
that it is of little use to pray with a man until they have fed him.
In fact, the^first work of the missionary of to-day is to provide

VOL. XLIII.-

658 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the object of his thought with necessary food, clothing, and
shelter, and care and relief in sickness. When these are adequate,
and not before, is the exercise of the " so-called " religious influ-
ences of any avail. This, of course, is nothing more than practical
common sense. A man reduced by lack of proper and sufficient
nourishment, and surrounded by all the depressing influences
of poverty, can not do wise thinking. There is not in his body
the blood to send to the brain for use. Where there is no fuel
there can be no fire.

It is safe to say, as a general rule, that when a man is well
nourished his natural leaning is toward industry. He must have
something to do. When a man is healthy and industrious he is
a safe citizen. Health and industry united often point the way
to ambition, and ambition directed in the right path may lead
into vast regions of power and influence.*

No richer endowment can be bestowed upon one than a healthy
and vigorous physical constitution. The possibility of starting
man on the journey of life so equipped rests largely with women.
The care of little children falls entirely to them during the time
when they most need the greatest amount of wise and intelligent
attention in order that they may be started in life with a sound
body, which shall be the temple for the sound mind which is to
be developed and cultivated later. Specialists of children's
diseases claim that the manner in which a child is fed and cared
for during the first five years of life determines what he shall be
ever after.

I listened last winter to a series of lectures on insanity by a
specialist of the subject. In speaking of the different forms of
the disease, hallucination, melancholia, acute mania, etc., he said
that those forms of disease almost always begin with the inability
of the individual to digest food well. He does not eat well, does
not sleep well, and after a time becomes what is called " nervous,"
which is usually nothing more than a malnourished condition of
the nervous system ; then he drifts into melancholia and finally
insanity.

The treatment by Weir Mitchell the noted specialist of such
diseases, is what might vulgarly but graphically be called
stuffing. His patients are put to bed under the pleasantest and
most comfortable conditions of absolute rest and freedom from
responsibility, and then they are fed with as much nutritious and
wholesome food as they can be made to eat. The results of this
treatment have been most gratifying.

What woman with the belief that it was within the bounds of

* By ambition here is not meant the worldly ambition of amassing a fortune, but the
noble ambition of doing some worthy and useful work in the world.

SCIENTIFIC COOKING. 659

the probable for her to save a member of her family from even
the possibility of any form of insanity, would not devote months,
even years, to the study of those principles and conditions of life
by which robust health may be maintained ? It should not be
understood that I would imply that bad food is the cause of in-
sanity, but it can be said that we have sufficient proof to lead
us to believe that many cases of insanity might have been pre-
vented had the individuals been properly nourished ; of course,
it must be borne in mind that this means not only the eating
of proper food, but its proper and normal assimilation in the
body.

It is woman's province to control and manage the household.
Whether she does it wisely or unwisely rests with herself. No
one else can absolutely fill her place. She should, therefore,
study the phases of home affairs with the same application and
assiduity that she would give to a difficult problem, which may
require weeks, months, even years, to work out, but which in the
end must be solved.

A man enters the arena of business with the full purpose of
being master of whatever he undertakes. He knows that he must
succeed. Reputation, social position, comfort, progress, the hap-
piness of his family, even life itself, may depend upon his efforts.
If woman would feel the same responsibility in regard to her
home — that she must succeed in making it a peaceable, health-
giving, moral-giving abode, and would never waver until she had
accomplished it — we should reach a state of advancement in the
understanding of life which, except among some in the cultured
classes, is not general to-day. I do not maintain that the study of
household science will enable woman to do all this, but such study
will help greatly, perhaps more than anything else, toward that
end. It is one of the important factors in that result, and if for
no other reason than that it will make life for women in the per-
formance of their household duties pleasanter, more satisfactory,
sweeter, easier, it is more than worth trying. To work in the
dark is ever perplexing ; to work in the light of intelligent under-
standing is one form of happiness.

The study of household science, taken in its full and broad
sense, leads into boundless fields of research. The phenomenon
of heat, the currents of the air, the life and chemical nature of the
products of the earth, the mysterious and complex processes of
nutrition, fall almost without mention into such work ; the sci-
ences of chemistry, physiology, and bacteriology are its founda-
tion stones ; in fact, whatever bears upon the physical life of man
is included in it.

Now let us consider by what means the women of to-day and
of the future may obtain a scientific education in household af-

66o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

fairs. I would suggest, first, schools of domestic science and
hygiene in which girls shall be taught the subject on the same
educational basis and along the same liberal lines that they are
taught other things.

A beginning in this line of work (though not in kind) has been
in progress for several years in some cities, notable among them
the city of Boston. The subject, however, has been taken up in
an elementary way and in one of its branches only — that is, cook-
ing. Cooking was introduced to that city by a woman of wealth
and benevolence, through whose influence several school-kitchens
were opened and maintained at private expense (borne chiefly by
her) for a year, to demonstrate to the school authorities and the
public what could be done in that line of education. At the end
of the time, in the autumn of 1885, the school board decided to
adopt the cooking schools as a part of the public educational sys-
tem, and now there are eleven such schools in that city. Cooking
is also taught at public expense in New York, Milwaukee, Des
Moines, Washington, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and in many
smaller cities throughout the land. These are for the most part
schools in which the making only of dishes is taught. They
should be extended to include the study of the sources, compo-
sition, and nutritive value of food materials, heat, ventilation,
cleaning, serving, and the laws which govern health and disease.

The second method which I would suggest for the extension of
our subject is by means of private schools, lectures, and demon-
stration lessons, by which any person may gain the information
which has been suggested should be taught in the public schools.
Third, by study and experiment at home, where there is always
opportunity for such work. There, by the aid of books and inves-
tigation, an educated woman may work out and perfect plans and
methods for the management of her home.

Educational and industrial unions, where the products of the
culinary skill of women are offered for sale ; diet-kitchens, in
which wholesome dishes are sold at small price ; cooking schools
like those in the city of Boston, in which the girls in the public
schools are taught methods of cooking ; private schools, such as
the Boston Cooking School and the New York Cooking School,
to which one may go and take one or many lessons in invalid,
family, or fancy cooking, and where demonstration lessons are
given throughout the year ; experimental stations, such as the
New England Kitchen in Boston, in which chemical and bacterio-
logical investigations are made upon both cooked and uncooked
food, under the supervision of an expert chemist ; the Storrs
experimental station, in Middletown, Conn., which is a purely
scientific school for the investigation of food products and the
study of dietaries ; Pratt Institute, in Brooklyn, in which an ad-

SCIENTIFIC COOKING. 661

mirable course in domestic science is offered to those intending to
teach — all these in their different lines are excellent, and all tend
toward the same thing, namely, better ways of living.

Mrs. Ellen H. Richards, of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech-
nology, is the inspirer of the New England Kitchen, and W. O.
Atwater, of the National Agricultural Department at Washing-
ton, D. C., is the director of the Storrs experimental station. A
series of articles written by him and published in the Century
Magazine, 1887-'88, are among some of the most valuable contri-
butions (in English) on the subject of food and dietaries that we
possess.

Society may be roughly separated into three divisions. In the
first are the wealthy and the well-to-do ; the second comprises the
great and powerful middle classes ; and the third is made up of
the poor. In the first, the household affairs, for the most part are
managed by servants ; in the second, by the wives and daughters
of the family ; and in the third we may say they are not man-
aged at all. If no other than the latter class — the poor — were to
be benefited, my plea for the cooking school would have more
than ample excuse for being written. Among them, alas ! who can
least afford it, do we find the greatest amount of waste in cooking,
much ignorance in the oaring for and buying of food, the most
unsanitary surroundings as to pure air and cleanliness, and the
greatest amount of sickness resulting from bad living.

The following item alone gives one a glimpse of the misery
among the poor: In the city of Baltimore, during the year 1891,
in a single hospital thirty-three thousand patients were treated
in its free dispensary, and in the same city for the same year
$1,250,000 spent in public charity through the various charitable
organizations and societies for the relief of the poor.

When we bear in mind that statistics of hygiene show that at
least seven tenths of all forms of illness and disease originate
directly or indirectly from bad food, bad air, and unsanitary sur-
roundings, and unhygienic ways of living in general, can any
one fail to see the infinite amount of good that it is possible to do
by establishing schools in which the people may be taught the
principles and practice hand in hand of household science ?

It is to the public school, not simply a school of methods, but
of principles as well, that we must look for the greatest and most
lasting good in this direction. There the children of all classes
may gain correct instruction in hygienic living ; there the subject
can be brought to their notice and presented in its true educa-
tional light ; and there, and there only, can the great middle and
lower classes be reached. Private schools may do locally much
good, but their influence is not widespread unless they are great.
It is only through the public school that this necessary and most

662 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

valuable information can be diffused throughout the land ; and
not the least of the benefit which will come from such work
will be the moral effect of intelligent study and the pleasure and
satisfaction of working out understandingly some of the many
perplexing problems of e very-day living.

PREHISTORIC JASPER MINES IN THE LEHIGH HILLS.

BY H. C. MERCER.

BEGINNING at Durham, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and
following the trend of the Lehigh hills toward the Schuylkill
near Reading, and generally in close connection with veins of he-
matite, occurs a series of outcrops of the hard homogeneous rock
known as jasper. This many-colored stone with its smooth, con-
choidal fracture stood somewhat in the same relation to the North
American Indian that iron stands to us. With it he fashioned his
best spears, perforators, knives, arrowheads, and scrapers. No less
diligently did he seek for it than does the man of the nineteenth
century search for that great lever of his power and progress,
iron ; and no less persistently did he quarry it, shape it to his
needs, and transport it to great distances.

So Indians in the West had been known to quarry jasper at
the now famous " Flint Ridge," in Ohio ; novaculite at their great
quarries in Garland County, Arkansas ; jasper, or hornstone, again
in the Indian Territory ; quartzite at Piney Branch, in the Dis-
trict of Columbia ; obsidian, or volcanic glass, in the Yellowstone
Park and Mexico, and other workable stones at other places. But
whence the jasper supply came from east of the Alleghanies has
long remained a mystery. Even the State geological surveys did
not seem to recognize the existence of jasper in the eastern Le-
high hills ; so that the recent series of discoveries, by expeditions
in the interest of the University of Pennsylvania, have thrown
an unexpected light upon the story of ancient man in the Dela-
ware Valley.

The thanks of the university are due to Mr. Charles Laubach,
of Durham, who first introduced the explorers, in 1891, to the
aboriginal jasper quarry on Rattlesnake Hill, at Durham, Bucks
County, Pennsylvania, and to Mr. A. F. Berlin, of Allentown, who,
by a series of valuable clews, greatly furthered the work of subse-
quent research.

How did the Indian, armed only with tools of wood, bone,
stone, or beaten native copper, make the excavations, sometimes
quite twenty feet in depth and one hundred in diameter ? Did he
use pickaxes made of deer antlers, as did the ancient flint-workers

PREHISTORIC JASPER MINES.

663

of " Grimes' Graves " near Brandon, in England ? Did he encoun-
ter the rock in solid ledges as in Arkansas, or in loose nodules ?
Did he reduce it by fire, splinter it with hafted stone hammers,
such as are found at the prehistoric copper mines on Isle Royale,
in Lake Superior, or by battering bowlder against bowlder ? Did
he finally chip the material into arrowheads at the quarry, or
carry away lumps of the stone to be worked up elsewhere ?

These and many other questions we asked ourselves on a first
glance at the bramble-grown pits and refuse heaps on the lonely
hilltop at Durham. And after a careful study of the place, several

Fio. 1 (|). — a, CAST OF POINTED WOODEN DIGGING IMPLEMENT; b, CAST OF LOG SHARP-
ENED BY STONE TOOLS. Jasper Mines, Macungie, Pa.

expeditions sent out on this and the preceding summer, resulted in
the discovery of eight new quarries lying in a continuous line
from the Delaware almost to the Schuylkill.*

All, though varying greatly in size and quality of material, tell
the same story.

In some, the excavations, filled with forest mold and over-
grown with trees, would escape the attention of the casual rambler
until the piles of flakes, yellow and rose-tinted, easily displayed
by scraping away the leaves that concealed them, revealed the
handiwork of the ancient quarryman.

But at others, as at Macungie and Vera Cruz, the passer-by
would halt in amazement. The appearance is too unusual, the
work too vast — one hundred to one hundred and fifty pits, some
of them fifteen and twenty feet deep and one hundred to one hun-
dred and fifty feet in diameter, is no every-day sight. Again, the
tinted flakes and refuse heaps tell the tale, and the neighboring

* At Coopersburg, Limeport, Saucon Creek, Vera Crux, nml M:u-migie, in Lehigh County
and at Long Swamp, Bowers, and Leimbai-h's Mills, in Berks.

664 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

wheat field glistens with fragments, yellow, blue, purple, red, lav-
ender, and veined in many hues. The forest, too, has set its stamp
of age upon the scene, and an old chestnut stump growing on the
side of one of the excavations, upon which we counted one hun-
dred and ninety-five rings, proves that the workman must have
abandoned his shaft to the growth of underbrush about the time
(1682) that William Penn bought his first tract of land from In-
dians on the Delaware.

And then, as, standing before the ancient works of the mound-
builders at Grave Creek, Marietta, and Newark, a strange feeling

FIG. 2. — PART OF or, FIG. 1, ENLARGED, SHOWING STONE TOOL MARKS.

born of awe steals over us, so here by degrees the scene assumes
its true hue of wonder. We have had a glance beyond the bound-
ary lines of history into the unillumined darkness of this conti-
nent's past, and for a moment heard the echoes of that vast forest
mysterious with the fate of lost races that for ages darkened the
New World before the coming of Columbus and De Soto.

It was important to learn that at Vera Cruz and Macungie,
farmers, believing the excavations to have been the work of early
Spanish gold-seekers, had dug deep trenches across several of
them to find that some, judging from traces of disturbance in the
soil, had reached a depth of forty feet ; that one was square rather
than round ; that in those examined there had been no tunneling
done, the lateral enlargements having been made from the surface
downward.

In the bottom of two pits it was alleged that charcoal was
found, and in one case, deep buried in clay at the very bottom, the
remains of a textile fabric, and several decayed billets of wood
about two feet and a half in length, with points at one end, black-
ened by charring. In all instances pure nodules of jasper were to
a great extent wanting in the pits, but were found imbedded in the
soil as soon as the un worked edges of the excavations were reached.

Our own preliminary work proved that in one of the diggings
at least the miners had not attacked a solid vein of jasper, but,
finding it in bowlders on the surface, had removed these, to work
out others imbedded beneath them ; and when in the undisturbed
bottom of our shaft, at a depth of nineteen feet, we dug out a
small, yellow-coated nodule, we were but continuing the long-sus-
pended process of the quarryman, who, prying out the masses one

PREHISTORIC JASPER MINES. 665

by one, must have scraped away the surrounding clay till the pits
were made.

That fire had been extensively used on the surface there was
no question, whether in the clearing away of underbrush for min-
ing at successive times, or, as seemed probable in one case, in re-
ducing the large fragments, and coloring yellow jasper red.

But far more interesting was it to find fifteen feet down in our
shaft an oven designedly made of large blocks of coarse jasper, in
the hollow of which rested a mass of charcoal and ashes. To be
satisfied that the bowlders had been thus cracked and splintered
by heat, it was but necessary to notice their reddened sides and
gather up the fire-fractured fragments of all sizes in their cavities.

Several holes in the clay near the bottom were no more nor
less than the perfect molds left by objects of wood long since
rotted to nothingness, and these enabled us by pouring in plaster
of Paris to recover the forms of a piece of sapling about two feet
in length, and the fragment of a larger tree, both pointed at one
end, and plainly showing the marks of the stone tools that had
sharpened them. (See Figs. 1, 2, and 3.)

That one at least of these billets (Fig. 1, a) was intended for use
in quarrying there could be no doubt ; still less that a large disk

FIG. 3. — PART OF 6, FIG. 1, ENLARGED, SHOWING STONE TOOL MARKS.

of bluish limestone, chipped into the form of a heavy hoe, and well
worn on its edges, if not a smaller fragment of quartzite, had been
used as rough digging tools. (See Fig. 4, a, b.)

But as the pickaxe struck fire on the stones and glanced often
impotently from the compact clay, our wonder at the ancient toil-
er's perseverance, challenged by this glimpse of his tools, increased.
Still, even granting all the pits a depth far beyond their appear-
ance, we little suspected the immense amount of work done, until
the arrangement of layers in our shaft, the scattered bits of char-
coal, the belts of stone-chippers' refuse, and the five distinct fire

666 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sites there encountered, proved beyond a doubt that our excava-
tion had not caved in, but had been deliberately filled up by the
prehistoric quarryman, who, realizing .the economy of keeping the
unworked ground free from excessive earth heaps, had evidently

carried (in baskets or
skins) the newly dug
soil from the fresh
diggings to the ex-
hausted pits.

Turning to the
surface refuse heaps,
and from the artifi-
cially flaked frag-
ments exhibiting no
succinct design that
strew the ground
FIG. 4 (A).— STONE DIGGING TOOLS. everywhere, we find

(a) a series of well-
battered quartzite hammer stones, not pitted on their sides, and
varying from an inch and a quarter to five and six inches in di-
ameter ; (b) a mass of very interesting, artificially shaped blocks,
that all tend in the direction of an ideal leaf -shaped form, and
which in their various stages resemble the famous implements
or objects from Trenton and Ohio known as " turtlebacks " and
"palseoliths."

Our attention is further called to the facts that there are few,
very few, arrowheads at these spots, and as yet no traces of pot-
tery, no banner stones, net sinkers, gorgets, or grooved axes ; that,
in a word, these remote places, buried in the forest inconveniently
far from water and arable land, were not fit for village sites. They
were quarries — nothing more, nothing less — whither the jasper-
using modern Indian, as known to Captain John Smith, Cam-
panius, and Kalm, resorted, must have resorted, to quarry his
material, knock it into portable shape, and carry it away to the
distant village.

By a few blows of the pebble hammer the weathered surface of
the nodule (Fig. 7) is chipped away and the thick block takes a
pointed shape. A series of further blows, more careful and proba-
bly struck with the small hammers, produce a serrated cutting
edge around the whole fragment, which now, well marked with
the chipping that unmistakably proclaims the handiwork of man
(Fig. 5), though still rude, clumsy, and an inch or two thick in the
middle, has become the typical " turtleback " of Trenton. It may
be that a final series of flakings, whether due still to the 'hammer
or to pressure, results in a quite symmetrical blade, lightened to
the desired weight and ready for transport (Fig. 6).

PREHISTORIC JASPER MINES.

667

There the quarry man's work seems to have stopped, if it al-
ways went so far, and the hoard of blank blades ready to be fin-
ished or specialized by some local arrowhead maker into perfora-
tors, arrowheads, spears, or knives, as the case may be, is carried
away. When for a time its owner is compelled to part company
with it, he buries it in the ground for safe keeping or to render
the material softer for future work,* and there for a dozen rea-

Fio. 5 (ABOUT i i. — II AMMEK STONES AND BLOCKED-OUT BLADES. Jasper Mines, Macungie, Pa

sons it may remain for long years, to be discovered at last by a
surprised plowman.

Such a cache of hitherto " inexplicable " leaf -shape implements,
consisting of one hundred and sixteen yellowish argillite blades,

* But the flint "knappers" at Mr. Robert Snaros's gun-Hint works at Brandon, Suffolk,
England, told me that they always dried the nodules by the fire or in the wind, as the ham-
mers would not " take hold " of flint wet from the mines. Argillite, on the other hand, so
say the quarry men at Point Pleasant on the Delaware, flakes better when wet, as, in my

i-xpnienre at Mai-imgu', jasper does also.

668

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

we found, in 1891, on Ridges Island, on the Delaware ; another of
one hundred and seven of blue argillite was obtained for us by
Mr. Doan, at Bridge Valley, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, last
May, and another of nine blanks of chert was found by us in June
of last year, on an island in the Susquehanna ; while on the other
hand that the material was sometimes carried away from the mines
in the rough, was proved to us by the discovery of a large nodule
partly chipped at the village site of Upper Blacks' Eddy, on the
Delaware, ten miles from Durham, and another smaller mass on
the river shore at Fry's Run.

The story of the Lehigh jasper quarries thus glanced at, but
soon to be fully and carefully studied, is thus far a corroboration
in main of the recent researches of Mr. W. H. Holmes at Piney

FIG. 6 (I).— CACHE BLADES. Bridge Valley, Pa.

Branch, in the Indian Territory, and in Garland County, Arkan-
sas. Is it the story of all jasper quarries in the United States ?
Is it the story as well of the argillite sandstone and quartzite
quarry sites and the obsidian workings not yet discovered and
studied ? In a word, are we right in supposing that this process
of passing from the shapeless block (Fig. 7) to the " turtleback/'
and from the " turtleback " to the thin, leaf -shaped blank, and
thence to the spear or finished implement, represents the necessary
steps through which all peoples in an age of stone have passed in
the fashioning of their rock-hewn tools ?

Thirty years ago Indians were chipping arrowheads of obsidian
and hornstone on the shores of the Sacramento. Many of them
still live in the United States and Canada who can doubtless ex-
plain the whole matter. Sometimes their opinion has been asked

PREHISTORIC JASPER MINES.

669

and their work described, but the accounts of their white ques-
tioners have been vague, contradictory, and unsystematic. None
of them explain the quarry, the turtleback, or the cache implement.

Caleb Lyon, who saw about 1860 a Shasta Indian arrowhead
maker at work, refers only to a slab of obsidian one fourth of an
inch thick, split from a pebble and flaked by blows. T. R. Peale
speaks only of hammering a mass of jasper, agate, or chert with a
round-faced stone and finish-
ing up the edges with a
notched bone, as a glazier
chips glass. School craft saw
an anvil of wood or some
hard substance placed on
the thigh, upon which a piece
of jasper was held at rest to
be hammered by something
undescribed. Captain John
Smith tells how the Indian
" quickly maketh an arrow-
head of splints of stone in
the form of a heart, with a
little bone, which he ever
weareth at his bracept."
Torquemada and Hernandez
briefly describe seeing Mexi-
cans sending off long flakes
of obsidian, with which certain Spaniards had their beards shaved,
by pressing a wooden punch on a nucleus of obsidian held between
the feet.

Admiral Sir E. Belcher (about 1858-'60) saw Eskimos, Califor-
nia Indians, and Sandwich Islanders fracturing chert blocks with
slight taps of nephrite hammers, and then flaking the splinters
wedged in a spoon-shaped cavity in a log, with a point of deer
horn.* And so on. Lieutenant E. J. Beckwith and Catlin tell of
flaking small pieces and thin slabs of quartz and obsidian, by
direct pressure and indirect pounding upon a bone punch ; and
certain white men have recently made arrowheads out of curiosity
or to palm them off upon collectors ; but neither the conflicting ac-
counts nor the amateur experiments explain the leaf-shaped hoards
(Fig. 6), or the inchoate forms (Fig. 5) that litter the quarry refuse.
Evidently some of the chief underlying features of the first and
greatest of man's primeval arts have not been grasped. The liv-
ing Indians who remember the process must be questioned again.

FIG. 7 (ABOUT i). — NATURAL NODULK OF JASPER
FLAKED ON ONE SIDE. Long Swamp, Le-
high, Pa.

* See for these narratives, except Beckwith (Pacific Railroad Survey, vol. ii, p. 43), E.
T. Stevens's Flint Chips, p. 67.

67o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Turning back to the quarries and refuse heaps, and passing by
the many problems of deep archseological interest that they sug-
gest, suffice it here to say that for one fact already mentioned
they claim attention among the foremost fields of American re-
search.

Here, at a distance of from forty to fifty miles from Trenton,
are scores of jasper specimens closely resembling the forms of
argillite found there buried fifteen and twenty feet in the glacial
gravels ; imitations, so to speak, of the so-called " palgeolith," or

FIG. 8 (T). — 1, FLINT PAL^OLITH FROM ST. ACHEUL, FRANCE ; 2, 3, 4, 5, TI-RTLEBACKS OF
ARGILLITE, DELAWARE VALLEY. (Found on the surface.)

implement of the savage ice man, who, seven thousand years ago,
chipped river pebbles on the freshet-swept banks of the Delaware.
We have been told that this object from Trenton, this " palseo-
lith," is a finished implement, a type of an epoch ; that the savage
who fashioned it was little better than an ape in culture, ignorant
even of the use of the bow, and a slayer of his prey with clubs
and stones. And science has willingly stolen into the by-paths of
wonder and speculation to suggest his origin and fate. Akin it
was said to the river-drift man of Europe, he crossed tne North
Atlantic on an isthmus that in preglacial times stretched from
Britain to Greenland to dwell on the cold shores of the Delaware
when the great glacier stretched its coping of ice from the Hud-

PREHISTORIC JASPER MINES. 671

son's mouth to Oregon, and while the Niagara River yet tumbled
its cataract into Lake Ontario at the site of Lewiston.

At first, as we take up these shapes from the quarry (Fig. 5),
rude as the rudest from Trenton, yet geologically an affair of yes-
terday, doubts assail us on all sides. What if the Trenton speci-
mens, after all, are modern too ? Did they slip downward into the
drift through the fissures of earthquakes, root-holes, the cavities
left by upheaved trees, or by the deceptive readjustments of strata
that sometimes puzzle geologists on the face of bluffs and banks ?
The supposed lapse of ages between them and the Trenton imple-
ments seems to fade awa^. We are almost startled. The doors of
archaeology's wonder chamber have been thrown open, its treasures
displaced, and the strange form of palaeolithic man, slipping out of
our grasp, seems ready to vanish into the limbo of chimeras.

But pondering long over the work of the quarries, and compar-
ing it diligently with the workshop refuse on the pebbly shores of
the Delaware and Susquehanna (see Fig. 8), where argillite "tur-
tlebacks " (Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 5) are often found at Indian village
sites, ideas suggest themselves that may well efface all bias from
our minds, and effectually disincline us for a premature conclusion.

What if these modern stones (Fig. 5) do resemble "palseoliths ?"
What if the Trenton forms like these were only steps in the pro-
cess of fashioning blades not yet found ? What if the Trenton
" palaeolith " were not a finished implement, as has been declared ?

What if glacial man, in a word, was not a " palaeolithic " man
at all, ignorant of the art of stone-polishing, but the equal in cul-
tivation of even the modern Indian ?

Is he any the less old ? Is he any the less interesting because
we can no longer pick up a stone, like the American specimens in
Fig. 8, on the surface and say, " This is a palseolith " ? Is he any
the less a glacial inhabitant because modern Indians have dupli-
cated one of his stone relics, and we are obliged to reform our
American definition of the word " palaeolithic " ? *

As we tread the rough, hilly roads and clamber the rocky
slopes that often lead to the jasper mines, nothing strikes us more
forcibly than that man must have been a long time a dweller in
the Delaware Valley before he discovered them, and that his first

* We speak in America of " palaeoliths " and " true palaeolithic implements," as if the
terms could mean nothing but the rude forms here discussed. But the cave men of France,
who, it is said, did not polish stone, though they polished bone and produced realistic ani-
mal carvings superior to anything done in the bronze age, were no less palaeolithic than the
drift savage who made Fig. 8, No. 1 . And if Sir John Lubbock's definition means anything,
the delicate blades of chipped flint from Solutr6 and the caves of Laugerie Haute, Gorge
d'Enfer, Grotte de TEglise, etc., skillfully worked as the beautiful obsidian knives of Cali-
fornia, Tennessee, and Mexico, are true " palaeoliths." (See De Mortillet, Musee Prehis-
torique, classification.)

672

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

stone implements would have been fashioned, not from jasper, but
from the material first at hand.

The shores of the large rivers, where no one denies that he
made his earliest habitation, are strewn with pebbles of conven-
ient size and conchoidal fracture, and from these (who can doubt
it ?) he made his first tools, whether already elsewhere taught the
value of jasper or not.

From Belvidere to Chester, from Beach Haven to Havre de
Grace, the river beaches may be looked upon as one great pre-

Fio. 9 (1). — Two VIEWS OF A SPECIMEN FROM THE TRENTON GRAVELS.
(See Abbott's Primitive Industry, page 500.)

historic quarry littered with the chips, the hammer stones, and
the refuse implements of vanished peoples ; and while the remote
jasper quarries were disassociated of necessity with abundant
traces of village life, here were quarry and village sites combined,
where the relics of the stone-chipper must needs lie within a few
feet or yards of those of the potter, the fisherman, and the hunter.
It is here rather than upon the hilltops of Durham and Macungie
that archaeology may look for man's earlier and intermediate
handiwork in stone, the telltale sites whose relics more or less
deeply buried shall carry us back to the morning of his first
coming.

Meanwhile, with eyes wider open, we are ready for another
ransacking of the gravel pits of Trenton and Madison ville. More

ORIGIN OF LITERARY FORMS. 673

sharply than ever shall we look for a bit of pottery seven thousand
years old, an arrowhead or grooved stone axe, and without unjust
doubt ask the questions : Have we been deceived ? Have the
classic stones slipped down into the gravel through Nature's chan-
nels ? Has a landslide tricked us with its mastodon's tooth and
human skull ? And then, where are the hammer stones, and the
chips, and the signs of use on the " turtlebacks," and the thinned-
down blades, which shall prove for what purpose glacial man
might have made these leaf-shaped forms — whether like the
modern Indian he treated them only as blocked-out types of more
specialized tools, or whether, still a child in the stone-chipper's
art, he halted at the second step in the process, and, unskilled to
go further, used the now famous " turtleback " as a finished im-
plement sufficient for his primitive needs ?

It is well that we have this new light from the jasper quarries
on the great art of arts that most concerned man's life and happi-
ness in the untold ages of his childhood. One source of error and
confusion has been cleared away from the subject, and we fully
realize that what shall in future determine the age and nature of
these stones is not their " type " or their form, or their resem-
blance to European specimens, but their geological position.

ORIGIN OF LITERARY FORMS.

BY M. CHAELES LETOURNEAU.

WHAT in current language we call literature, the literary
aesthetics of civilized peoples, poetry intelligently composed
and revised according to complicated metrical laws — written
works, made to be read, not sung, and addressed to a cultivated
public — only represent the last term of literary evolution. Prim-
itive literature is very different, and is everywhere the same. Its
origin is extremely distant, and it is probable that it even pre-
ceded, in our most ancient ancestors, the invention of articulate
language — that great step which sealed the transformation of the
anthropopithecus into man. That precious acquisition, however,
was not miraculous nor instantaneous. The first speech was cer-
tainly very rudimentary ; and before conquering it, the anthro-
poids from which man slowly issued possessed, like all other ani-
mals, a vocal language constituted solely of modulated cries re-
sulting from simple reflex actions, automatic, and corresponding
to the necessities, the desires, and the feelings of beings of little in-
telligence. In the brain of the anthropopithecus the passage from
the cry to speech marked the beginning of a complete psychical
revolution. It must have been effected with great slowness, and

TOL. XLIII. 49

6/4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

supposes a life in society of a cyclic duration, for the isolated in-
fant still does not speak. The first words were probably cried or
sung. Our very young children still sing before speaking, and
even begin with singing their first articulated sounds ; and not
till they are three or four years old is their speaking voice clearly
distinguished from their singing voice.

As in the human species the singing voice is much the most
ancient, it has also left very deep impressions on our mentality.
Certain cries, certain timbres or modulations of the voice, will to-
day awaken in the most civilized man latent and profound im-
pressions, and excite emotions that seize the hearer's very heart.
From this psychic basis bequeathed to us by our ancestors, from
this mental paleontology, are derived our taste for music and its
emotional power. Those cries, those passionate accents, have
more power over us than the most moving discourse, because
they have been, through the long chain of ancestral generations,
the expression of intense feeling of which we have not ceased to
be susceptible. At the bottom, traced back to its origin, music is
nothing more than the aesthetic imitation of particularly express-
ive vocal emissions; consequently its psychical roots go down
very deep into the past, to the time when man began to be differ-
entiated from the animal. It is, therefore, very much of course
that in all races song should constitute one of the principal ele-
ments of primitive aesthetics. This is a fact that we have been
able to verify everywhere, even among the most inferior types of
men, as among the Pe'cherais of Terra del Fuego, whose song con-
stitutes in itself alone all their aesthetic expression. Yet this is a
rare, an exceptional fact ; for usually, in primitive aesthetics, song
is closely associated with gestures and mimicry, which, from the
origin of our species, were probably secondary to the voice not yet
spoken, illustrating the significance of the cry ; for vocal sounds
and gestures are equally reflexive acts, and the voice is only the
result of muscular contractions, of laryngeal gestures.

The more rudimentary articulated language is, the more ne-
cessary to it is the aid of mimicry. Our children gesticulate long
before they have learned how to talk, and they continue to do so
long afterward ; and we first succeed in communicating with
them by means of gestures. Even the adult man, of the highest
civilization, rarely confines himself to articulate language alone.
Nearly always gestures are added automatically to the words, to
sustain them, as comment, or to moderate or intensify the expres-
sion. The refined rhetoric of artists in speech makes great use of
mimicry, and the ancient rhetors of Rome esteemed action very
highly. The literary aesthetics of all primitive peoples, therefore,
comprised at once song, speech, and gestures. Thus we have
seen the men of all countries and all races beginning in literary

ORIGIN OF LITERARY FORMS. 675

aesthetics by blending into an indissoluble trinity mimicry, music,
and poetry, or, in short, song and the scenic dance. In fact, as we
have often shown, articulate speech begins by being the least im-
portant member of that aesthetic trinity; a simple accessory of
the song — that is, of rhythmical, cadenced modulations — it defines
their sense, but can not separate itself from them, and often gives
place to simple modulated cries, to interjections, and to onomato-
poeias. In fact, with different primitive peoples, we have found
species of romances without words, traces of an ancient interjec-
tional poetry which probably preceded spoken poetry. The inter-
jectional refrains, frequent among primitive men and in our popu-
lar songs, are evidently survivals of this same aesthetics.

We have seen that in all the earth the object sought by the
primitive peoples in their dances and ballets is less the pleasure
of rhythmical motion, to which they are, however, very sensitive,
than significant, scenic mimicry, reproducing acts and adventures
fitted to excite a lively interest in the little social community of
which they form a part. What they want most of all is an ex-
pressive spectacle, giving the idea of a hunt, a battle, a cannibal
feast, and their incidents ; but such a dramatic ballet supposes the
existence of a close association, of that communal clan which we
meet in the origin of all societies, and which has everywhere mod-
eled primitive aesthetics. These choral dances, these opera-ballets
of savages, constitute in all races the collective rejoicings or cere-
monials of the clans. We have found them among the Tasma-
nians, the Papuans, the Kafirs, the Polynesians, the American In-
dians, the Hebrews, the Greeks, and other nations. These scenic
diversions always represent events of capital interest for the little
social unity; and the nature of the events differs according to
the degree of civilization. With the American Indians, they re-
fer to the hunt or to war ; with the Chinese, to different incidents
in rural life, labor, the harvest, etc.

These beginnings of literary aesthetics explain to us why, among
civilized peoples, music excites many persons to movement, to
action ; it is because the two were long associated in the ancient
clans. But it addresses itself to very intelligent persons, with
whom the necessity for muscular activity yields to that for mental
activity, to the feelings, to the thought, when music, instead of
exciting the muscular system, awakens the heart or stimulates the
mind. It, for example, inspires in a^ Stendhal the desire to co-
operate in the enfranchisement of Greece ; in an Alfieri, plans for
tragedy ; and in a John Stuart Mill, philosophical speculations. In
all these cases, in short, music plays the part of an excitant that
determines different reactions according to the various modes of
the mental organization.

The taste for measured, rhythmical musical sounds is, as we

676 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

have seen, both primitive and universal. From this very taste has
sprung the invention of meter, or the art of closely marrying the
words to the melody, and consequently of counting the words and
even the syllables of the words when they have more than one, of
regarding their accentuation in chanted poetry, the only form that
originally existed. In the primitive choirs the air was the most
important element ; the words were probably regulated by it. They
were fitted at first with much difficulty and very imperfectly, by re-
course to exclamations, to interjections void of sense, in order to
fill blanks and create rhymes. Sometimes among very inferior
races the rhyme and the pleasure of pronouncing it were obtained
by simply repeating a word or a short phrase, as the Fuegian and
the Australian do. Very commonly the essential element of the
meter is the more or less imperfect rhyme, the rhyme by asso-
nance. The verse without rhyme of some civilized peoples, like
the Greeks and Latins, which depends chiefly on the tonic accent
of the words, supposes a language developed and highly refined ;
but at bottom it also rests on combinations of assonances. The
primitive songs never being written, very imperfect rhymes suf-
ficed for them. It is only among civilized peoples that meter
becomes learned and complex, when poetry is almost entirely in
the hands of professionals.

Usually when meter becomes more rigorous the length of the
verse increases. Taken by themselves long verses indicate a re-
fined civilization and a perfected literary aesthetics. The primitive
verses are nearly always short, partly because they express short
ideas, and partly because the desire for the repetition of agreeable
sounds and the taste for rhymes or what represents them are more
lively as man is less developed.

In China, where metrical evolution can be followed step by
step, the verse in use has passed very slowly from four feet to
seven feet. Arabian verse has been expanded in another way—
by combining two short verses in one ; and in a like way in the
French Alexandrines the hemistich is a survival of a former
epoch when the verse was very short. In India, Sanskrit verse,
uneven but generally short in the Rig Veda, has been lengthened
in the epics to fifteen syllables, with a hemistich.

Poetic diction, with its music and its meter, enjoys everywhere
a peculiar prestige. It gives play to sesthetic impressionability,
and has a dignity unknown to common language. On the other
hand, verse easily engraves itself in the memory, and the ideas
which it expresses form a sort of mental fund to which a great
importance is attached, for the choral poetry of the primitive
peoples sang only of subjects especially interesting to the com-
munity. Hence it comes to pass in many countries that even in
the heart of old civilizations, far detached from their origin, the

ORIGIN OF LITERARY FORMS. 677

poetic form suffices to give any idea a great authority. " Among
the Indians/7 says an old missionary, " a verse, even when quoted
inappropriately, gives a great weight to reasoning, and if it con-
tains a comparison that seems to illustrate some circumstances of
the subject under discussion the very best reasoning can not have
equal force with the comparison." * In the same way Arabian
orators fancy they obtain great force for their speeches by lard-
ing them with citations in verse ; and the Greek writers believed
it necessary to give the poetic form to every elevated subject, even
to their philosophical systems.

During the primitive period of literary evolution abstract
literature does not come in question ; moreover, poetry in words
is never separated from song, and rarely from mimicry ; and this
becomes dancing when the motions are controlled by a musical
rhythm. Frequently, also, in these archaic festivals the words
sung are only an accessory.

The characteristic traits of the clan, the first social unity, are
now well known to us. The primitive clan is a small group, in
which the individual exists only as an integrant part of the whole,
where consequently all individual acts are subordinated to the
interests and needs of the social body, where no one is abandoned
but no one is free, where property is more or less common, and
where sexual unions are subject to regulations that seem to us
strange and even immoral, for they have usually a character of
restricted, regulated promiscuity. These narrow associations have
been real psychical laboratories to the human race, in which
languages, indispensable for mutual understanding and the con-
centration of efforts, and myths have been created, besides com-
mon feelings, and particularly altruistic feelings, without which
no society could endure.

In the communal clan there is little place for person and for
literature, and literary aesthetics necessarily takes the shape of a
collective spectacle — of those choral dances, those opera-ballets,
in which all the members of the clan are in turn actors and specta-
tors, and in which mimicry and song are associated to represent
scenes of common interest.

In these very rudimentary dances instrumental music figures
at first only as an accessory, but its function goes on increasing
in proportion as it is perfected. At first it is contented with a
stick, such as the Australians strike on the ground to mark the
measure ; then the stick is replaced by the tom-tom, which fills
the same office more perfectly. To the tom-tom are added in suc-
cession, first, wind instruments, then stringed instruments, both
becoming gradually less primitive and better constructed, and at

* Lettres 6difiantes, vol. xiii, p. 113.

678 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

least capable of accompanying the song, and, as a final achieve-
ment, of taking the place of the voice in the execution of any
given air. History witnessed the latter part of this musical evo-
lution in Greece, where music finally separated itself from vocal
song, of which it had for a long time been only an accessory.

As of necessity, poetry proper has strictly followed the trans-
formations of this aesthetics. For a long time the subjects
represented in the choral dances of the clan had an entirely im-
personal character. These subjects were mythological, warlike,
funereal, and nuptial scenes, in which the rhythmical words had
necessarily to express ideas and feeling in harmony with the scene
played. It is not necessary to say that these feelings and ideas
were extremely simple ; but in substance and form they were of a
nature to interest the whole of the little social groups.

The duration of the primitive age of the communal clan must
have been enormous, and it has marked its impression on the
larger and more and more individualist societies that came out
from it, but which did not free themselves in a day from the
hereditarily transmissible tastes and tendencies — the legacy of a
long ancestral education.

Nevertheless, literary aesthetics has suffered modifications with
the progress of social evolution ; for it has had to express feelings
and ideas more and more complex and varied. With the progress
of differentiation, or of social inequality, arose numerous conflicts
between the strong and the weak, the patrician and the plebeian,
the rich and the poor.

These vexations, these violences, suffered by some and exer-
cised by others, excited numerous new feelings, and often more
personal, than the ancient choirs could express and re-echo to
their hearers. The property thus became more and more individ-
ual, and there resulted from it a gradually increasing restriction
of the social relations which the communal clan had only loosely
regulated. The restricted promiscuousness of the early ages was
replaced almost everywhere by a marriage, sometimes polygamic,
sometimes monogamic, but legal, and making of women things
possessed. The ancient liberty of love was abolished, but the
genetic instinct is in its nature exacting and rebellious. When
we attempt to chain it we excite passionate desires, intense feel-
ings, that subjugate the whole mental life. The genetic fetters
resulting from the new social organization will therefore arouse
in the human brain new impressions and ideas of shades different
according to the individuals. But all these psychical elements, at
once new and intense, sought expression and reflection in a litera-
ture made in their image. Hence resulted the gradual blooming
out of a new lyric poetry, which gradually tended to substitute
itself for the choral lyric of the earlier ages.

ORIGIN OF LITERARY FORMS. 679

From this phase dates amorous poetry, which was destined to
take so large a development. There are good grounds for sup-
posing that women may have especially participated in the crea-
tion of this lyric of the erotic kind. This is still the case in some
Slavic countries and in Kabylia ; and it is possible that in Greece
Sappho only gave a brilliant personification to a more especially
feminine literature, of which few specimens have come down to,
us. The lyric poetry of men is less confined to the domain of the
amorous feelings. It touches more varied subjects and those of a
more general interest, notably mythical and historical legends,
capable of interesting a whole virile population, but possible to
be versified and sung by isolated artists.

To accompany these individual songs of every kind, suitable
instruments were needed, not noisy enough to drown the voice of
the singer, but of sufficiently extensive register to follow all the
shadings and modulations. Stringed instruments happily ful-
filled this purpose; and thus all the superior races have in-
Tented or adopted them, while in Greece, one of them, the lyre,
served to give a name to passionate and personal poetry.

By virtue of their improvement, literary arts, song, poetry
and instrumental music became difficult of practice. To perform
them required a special education, while in principle everybody
could participate in the execution of the primitive choruses.
Then appeared those popular artists, of whom the Hellenic rhap-
sodists, the Scandinavian skalds, and the Celtic bards are the best-
known types, but of whom we find a few everywhere, even in
tropical Africa, in Polynesia, and among the Tartar, Kabyle, Fin-
nish, and Slavic populations.

At first these barbaric songsters limited themselves to follow-
ing their own inspiration ; but they were not slowly subjected to
powerful influences. The priests on one side and the kings 011 the
other attached them to themselves, and required them to sing the
mythical legends or the achievements of their heroes and princes.
Outside of these official subjects the professional bards took for
the themes of their compositions everything of interest to their
fellow-citizens that presented itself, and became thus the poetic
annalists of all notable events. These poets, most frequently
wanderers, were the first to give precise form to the popular tra-
ditions current among the people, and their songs, transmitted
from generation to generation, constituted the material for the
epics composed much later by less inspired but more skillful
artists, at a period when epic customs were only a recollection.

We find many occasions showing how closely literature de-
pends on the social and political state. At the origin of societies,
during the age of the communistic clan, literature, always very
poor, is the exact expression of what might be called the collective

680 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

soul. When the sacerdotal castes, aristocracies, and despotic mon-
archies have been instituted, when power and wealth are concen-
trated in the hands of a minority of privileged persons, the great
revolution has an influence at once useful and injurious upon lit-
erature. Encouraged, corrupted, and exploited by the directing
classes, by the worldly fortunate, poetry gains much in form and
technics ; meter ceases to be simple ; the gross assonances of the
past no longer suffice to charm more refined audiences ; exact
rhymes are required, and a skillful adaptation of syllables to a
rigorously determined quantity. At the same time, poetical com-
positions cease to be only oral. They are written, and prosody
must at once satisfy the eye and the ear.

The substance is modified along with the form, and becomes
aristocratic like it. Certain gross features, which formerly shocked
no one, are expunged ; but with this the poem suffers a loss of its
naive grandeur, its sincerity of standard, its epic charm. When
they undertook to protect and reward poets, the powerful classes
ruled them always, even without desiring it ; whether they knew
it or not, they took them away from some subjects and imposed
others upon them. On the whole, the final result of this high
patronage is usually lamentable ; and by the single fact of its ex-
istence, sincere, elevated, independent literature, the only kind
that is of value, languished and expired under the rule of the
" grand monarch," Louis XIV. What was left was only a shadow,
an attenuated poetry, which chiseled out the form without caring
for the material ; which, having no ideas to express, juggled with
the words, and saw nothing but the melodic side in the verse ; in
short, an inferior poetry, which tended to confound itself anew
with its twin sister, music, which it had previously had to quit in
order to think better.

The evolution of the dramatic art was effected in a nearly
parallel line with that of lyric' poetry. Even more rigorously
than that, dramatic literature is the slave of the social state, be-
cause it has necessarily a collective character. In the course of
our studies we have found the general opinion, according to which
the theater is the literary expression of an advanced civilization,
to be false. On the contrary, the dramatic species goes back to
the very origin of literary aesthetics, for choral and mimic dances
constitute nearly all the literature of primitive peoples, and a
rudiment of scenic art has been found, even in Tasmania, among
an extremely inferior race. In reality scenic poetry preceded all
other kinds, and most frequently constituted their mold. By the
simultaneous employment of mimicry, song, speech, and instru-
mental music, the opera-ballet of the early ages was the form of
aesthetics most fitted strongly to impress spectators and actors,
and at the same time to satisfy a very lively psychical want, that

ORIGIN OF LITERARY FORMS. 681

of projecting mental images outward, of reproducing with all the
relief of reality what exists in the brain only in the state of recol-
lection or desire. The civilized theater is only the natural devel-
opment of this opera-ballet, and it preserves an equal attraction
and an equal power, even after losing the lyrical form, which
dated from its origin.

Dramatic art was even more than lyric poetry subjected by the
dominant classes ; and in Greece, in India, and in Europe of the
middle ages the clergy of the great religions seized such a pow-
erful means of expression, confiscated it for a longer or shorter
time, and even permitted it only with reluctance to become
laic. Dramatic art being an essentially collective sort of litera-
ture, addressing itself to the multitude, could not express more
than the average of the prevailing opinions, of the ideas current
in the surrounding social medium ; too original views, too special
feelings, were not in its domain ; in return it is, more than any
other kind of literature, the reflection of the mental and moral
condition of a class, accordingly as it is popular or aristocratic ;
and instead of correcting manners it continually confines itself to
depicting them. In the golden age of Greece the theater was
lyric and heroic ; with social and political decay, Hellenic tragedy
could not stand the competition of satirical comedy, which is a
social protestation. At Rome, where social iniquity was at a very
early period more crying than in Greece, the theater never had a
heroic age.

In all times and in all countries literature has declined mor-
ally, and has lost its nobility, its force, and its aesthetic beauty, in
periods of moral decomposition ; but the first of all kinds of liter-
ature to be debased and corrupted was dramatic, for societies
could not support any theater above their own standard. On the
contrary, lyric poetry, compositions entirely personal, might pro-
test as survivals for a longer or shorter time against the general
decadence by expressing the sentiments of the minority, which
will never bend to the new manners. In dramatic literature, or
in literature in general, for the observation is true for all kinds,
there is a sign of decadence no longer moral but intellectual,
which is constant and which I will now point out. When we fol-
low the evolution of literatures from their infancy to their old
age, we are struck at seeing how, during their period of growth
and vigor, they make little account of an sesthetic element, which
is highly esteemed, on the contrary, in periods of decline ; I mean
what is called " the feeling of the beautiful in Nature." In the
choral poetries this element is wholly wanting ; they are preoccu-
pied solely with mythical conceptions of subjects of social inter-
est. In general, during the virile age of literatures, descriptions of
landscapes hold only a very accessory place ; on the other hand,

682 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

descriptive literature develops beyond measure during the period
of decadence, as has been observed in China and India, where the
excess and often the insipidity of the word-paintings overwhelm
the chief subject of the poems. This belated taste for description
seems, therefore, to be a characteristic symptom. It indicates that
literary vigor is exhausted ; that the writer has few ideas, or is
restrained from expressing them ; or that political liberty is dead,
social sympathy is extinct, and intelligence is reduced.— Trans-
lated for The Popular Science Monthly from the Revue Mensuelle
de I'Ecole d} Anthropologie.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LIZARDS.

BY M. J. DELBOEUF.

I PUBLISHED two articles in February and October, 1891,
telling of two ocellated lizards which I had captured in
May, 1890 — one at Port Bon, on the borders of Spain, the other
on the banks of the Tarn, near Peyrdean, France. I described
their characteristic differences at length, telling how the former
lizard was bold, snappish, suspicious, and stupid ; and the latter
was timid, gentle, confiding, and straightforward. I told how
the French lizard having been lost for twenty-six* days in May
of the following year, the Spaniard refused all food; and how,
his companion having been found again, he went at once to
catching flies. I praised their good understanding with one an-
other, and their fellowship, which, however, did not extend to
self-denial ; and I related with great pleasure how, by forbear-
ance and kind attention, I finally established excellent relations
between myself and the Spaniard, while only a few delicate atten-
tions were needed to gain the heart of the French lizard from the
very first.

I concluded that the animals which we are accustomed to re-
gard as in the lowest degree of intelligence among vertebrates, and
which we are apt to suppose are all cast in a common mold, offer
notable differences in character and docility. Yet, since those
which are under consideration here are adults, they have neces-
sarily each received the share of force and cunning which was
indispensable to enable them to come safely out of the struggle
for existence. Whence do their peculiar qualities come, and what
use do they make of them ? In wild animals, whose mode of life
presupposes a well- determined combination of native qualities
which age can only develop and strengthen, should not differences
tend to disappear ?

What I have to relate now is not less curious than my former

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LIZARDS. 683

story. I do not even know — although like observations ought to
be made on domestic animals like the dog — that the bearing of
them as traits of animal psychology has been brought out. My
Spaniard is certainly a lizard apart. He is somebody.

But before going into individual details, I will add the final to
the incidents which I have already given concerning my lizards.
I have had them three years, and they have kept in admirable
health. They have not hibernated, for the house has been kept
warmed all the time, and their cage has been near a register.
They have therefore been all the time wide-awake and very
active. From this we conclude that hibernation is not organic
with them like the rest of plants, and that it is a consecutive of
cold weather, which causes besides the disappearance of the in-
sects on which they feed.

Their food, therefore, does not necessarily consist of living prey.
They eat with the same appetite the remains of beetles, such as
the skeletons of night borers, and all decayed or dried chrysalides.
Last year, the cabbage butterfly being extremely abundant, I col-
lected a stock of chrysalides which they devoured to the last one.
They always refused raw and bloody meat. Nevertheless, when
they were forced to swallow it, which was not easy, they di-
gested it.

They are said to be fond of grapes, and in vine-growing coun-
tries, I was told, hunt for the fruit. But with me they never
wanted grapes, not even the southern variety or the dried raisin.

On the other hand, they are fond of dates, and attacked them
with avidity the first time they saw them. I made them up some
balls of dates as large as a good-sized grape, of which they were
able to swallow three or four one after another I received other
ocellated lizards last year, and they all liked dates, one of them to
my surprise gulping down a whole one in a wink. It agreed with
him perfectly, his digestive powers, as I took pains to observe,
proving adequate to dispose of the stone in a proper manner, al-
though my friends feared that it would be caught in the sinuosi-
ties of the intestine, with perhaps fatal effects. It seems that this
animal estimated rightly the capacity of his digestive apparatus.
The preceding curious feature in the present case is that all the
lizards at once recognized an eatable fruit in the date, although
they had never seen or tasted dates or anything like them. They
may have eaten figs at home, but they refused dried figs.

All my lizards lived, I might say, in freedom. During our
summers in the country, they had a large room with latticed
windows, with sunshine on three sides. They had stones and
boxes of every sort, and for a gymnasium convenient scaffoldings
furnished with rags in which they climbed, hid, and chased one
another with evident amusement.

684 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

At Lidge they live in my office. They usually keep in their
cage, where there are also rags. When the sun is shining, they
come out and scramble among the books or over me. The Span-
iard looks at me when I am writing. They run over my person,
hide in my clothes ; and one day last year I had so completely
forgotten them that I went out to deliver my lecture with my two
animals on my back. I perceived them after I had been some
time on the lecture stand, and was in mortal terror during the
rest of the lesson, lest they might take a notion to perform their
untimely and undignified gambols.

As my children, too, are fond of playing with them, they are
always under observation. My articles have given them a Euro-
pean reputation. M. Tarde, the eminent sociologist and crimi-
nalogist, passed eight days with them. M. Forel, the celebrated
student of ants, found them after a few days as interesting as his
ants. They were intimate with a learned English psychologist,
M. Waller, and his wife, and had the honor of being presented to
eminent physiologists like M. Morat and great poets like M. Jean
Aicond. They have even been invited into society and caressed
by beautiful and noble ladies, whom they conquered by the grace
of their motions and the beauty of their dress. Thus they have
acquired gentle manners and are in safe and agreeable relations.
Man inspires no fear in them, and they play indiscriminately with
all visitors who encourage their familiarities.

When they play in the light and make turns in their gymna-
sium, going out, re-entering, putting their noses against the win-
dow, turning their pretty heads, or flattening their backs in the
sun so as to receive more of its rays, they really present a charm-
ing spectacle ; and I think, not without a shade of sadness, how
nearly some countries would resemble a terrestrial paradise if
man, instead of making himself the terror of everything living,
would become its protector and friend.

All my lizards but one come at my call, whistle, snapping of
the thumb, or psitt, to take flour worms or dates. They know
where their larder is. When we go to the worm keg, they divine
what it means, and are all on the alert, manifesting their expec-
tation with unequivocal signs. The Spaniard, at first the most
savage and stupid, became the most familiar and apparently on
the best understanding. Not only was he not afraid of being
taken, but he seemed to find pleasure in it, and suffered himself to
be caressed for hours without giving a sign of weariness. He
liked to be scratched under the jaw, however roughly.

The story of the way this transformation from wild to gentle
was brought about is long but suggestive. MM. Sabbatier and
Robert, of Montpellier, and M. Tarde had promised to send me
ocellated lizards, but had not been able to fulfill their promise.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LIZARDS. 685

I was regretting it, when M. Winssinger, an engineer of Brussels,
put me in communication with one of his friends, M. H. Dineur,
Director of the Mines of Fillols, near Prades. He sent me an
ocellated lizard on the 1st of October, 1891. This lizard died by
being inadvertently smothered, at the end of March in the next
year. The autopsy disclosed that it was a female ; it weighed
only fifty-six grammes, while the Spanish lizard weighed more
than one hundred and thirty grammes, and the one from the
Tarn more than ninety grammes. The Spanish lizard was a male.

It possibly came to pass that the young female disturbed the
harmony between the Spanish and the French lizards, for I ob-
served that they no longer lived on a footing of complete in-
timacy. I observed at first only scoldings between them, but
these were succeeded by bitings. In the beginning the quarrels
were transient, but they became more and more frequent, and the
acts of hostility were graver — the Spanish lizard, presuming on
his strength, pursuing his rival, driving him out of corners, biting
him, and at last rendering his existence so miserable that I was
obliged to separate them. After the tragic death of the lizard of
Prades, I hoped there would be a reconciliation, but there was
none. The French lizard, indeed, made several attempts to estab-
lish peace, but the Spaniard sprang upon him furiously as soon
as he perceived him and made him scamper his fastest.

M. Dineur sent me other consignments of lizards, six in all.
One very small one escaped into the field ; another died a little
while after its arrival. It was a very fine animal, but it had
sharply bitten a workman who picked it up, and the stupid and
cruel brute took his revenge upon it by making it bite a bar of
red-hot iron. Its mouth was all a sore when I received it, and it
survived its horrible burning only a few days.

Among the four new lizards that were left me was one for-
midable one, which, although it lost most of its tail when it was
captured, still weighed nearly two hundred grammes. They very
soon became familiar, except one, which, while it would eat from
the hand, persisted in running away if one tried to pick it up,
and bite when it was captured. The Spanish lizard received
them hospitably, but if I put the French animal among them he
would immediately recognize him and chase him.

But after some weeks of peaceful living together, the Span-
ish lizard began to tyrannize over his new companions too, the
largest at first and then the smaller ones. He is a decided teaser
and a bad bedfellow. Nothing can be more curious then the tac-
tics he employs to cut off their retreat. He turns himself cross-
wise, in such a way as to bar their passage. Then, when he has
driven them into a corner, he lifts up his paws, swells out his
neck, puts down his head, darts his great open mouth at them,

686 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and bites them on the head, the flanks, seldom on the paws or
tail. The large lizard in particular was the favorite object of his
attacks. The good-humored animal paid no attention to this, till
we were on the point of asking ourselves whether he did not re-
gard these bitings as marks of friendship. This lasted some two
or three months. But one fine day — we were present at the scene
—the large lizard became impatient. He seized the Spaniard with
his formidable mouth, shook it, let it go, and then set in chase of
it. The other ran off as fast as he could, giving all the signs of
terror. After this the large lizard became quiet, and even seemed
to have forgotten the matter.

The Spaniard took no notice of the generosity of its antagonist.
Only becoming more prudent, it devised other tactics. Pretend-
ing indifference, it approached the Hercules slyly and a step at
a time, and when it was near enough to him struck him with its
jaw and ran away. Finally, the large lizard concluded that the
Spaniard was too provoking; he sprang upon it anew, caught
it, and gave it a forcible blow. After that the Spaniard re-
garded itself as beaten, always fled at the approach of the large
one, and let him alone. After that, too, it prepared to make its
attacks and bitings on the smaller ones. Its bad character be-
came the cause of its being given a privileged position. It was
put in the cage only while the others were allowed to be at large.
If it sees us playing with them, it comes and goes into its cage
like a troubled soul, and vents its anger upon the trellis. It is
exceedingly jealous, and its jealousy blinds it so much that it
could not refrain from still taking its satisfaction out of the
large one if it saw him running over me. The rest of the time
it played freely, and did not abuse its liberty in any other way.
It usually perches on its cage by the side of the chest furnished
with rags, which serves as its sleeping-room. Toward three or
four o'clock in the afternoon it regularly goes to bed, and comes
from it habitually toward sunrise. Is not this a singular history ;
and does it not show that animals have passions, preferences,
and antipathies, differences of character and changing moods
which we have thought exclusively applied to men ?

We now come to traits of intelligence. The cover of the
Spanish lizard's chest slides. If it is pushed so as to leave a crack
not large enough for him to go through, he works perseveringly,
pushing his head into it till he has made it large enough. If the
opening is too small for that, he scratches at it and makes a great
noise with his paws, for the purpose, apparently, of making him-
self heard. In the same way sparrows knock on the windows of
houses where they are accustomed to being fed. This reminds
me of a story of a sparrow.

Several years ago I tamed one in the country. It was free in the

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LIZARDS. 687

garden and came at my call. If I did not call, it came all the same.
As I was accustomed to have hemp seed in my mouth, it would
peck at me, picking my beard and mustache furiously till I had
satisfied its appetite. It was satisfied that it had tamed me and
made me its slave. My lizard is nearly in the same condition.
It does not molest me, but when I take the box of worms it rises
and snaps them from my hand and even from the box. It is
well persuaded that man is the friend of the lizard. It has a
delicate ear. When it is called from the end of the room, it turns
its head to the right and the left, as if to get its bearings and find
the direction whence the sound comes. It can hear the walk
of an insect and a worm crawling on the ground. Its vision is
likewise good, and it recognizes a meal-worm from a considerable
distance.

. The other lizards like their cage ; and toward three or four
o'clock in the afternoon they will all, if they are, for example, on
the table, start to come down, using the chains to help their
descent to the ground, and then climbing back into their abode
and hiding by choice in their rag houses.

The Spaniard, notwithstanding his jealous, vindictive, and
vengeful character, is more petted than the others, because we
have him constantly in hand, and he is the easiest to take up and
exhibit. For this reason too he is best at the little tricks we teach
them. But, in view of the stupidity he manifested for several
months, there is no doubt that the others, which, as I have said,
with one exception became gentle and trustful in two or three
days, if they had been the objects of the same careful attention,
would have given still more marked proofs of capacity for edu-
cation. If I turn the Spaniard on his back and make a sign
to him with my finger, he will remain there for some time, but
not without showing some impatience and raising his head. The
animal is obedient to force, however mildly it may be exercised,
but such obedience is a sign of reasoning.

It can not be denied that all its ways have a perceptible re-
semblance to those of the dog, particularly if we take into the ac-
count its poverty of means of expression. I saw in the London
Zoological Gardens an Australian lizard, high on its legs, with
the bearing and head of a greyhound, and very pleasant large eyes.
I have forgotten its name. It impressed me as being easy to edu-
cate, so far as I could judge of lizards by the face. And what
might we not get from large lizards if we should succeed in form-
ing a domesticated race ? We should not forget that my animals
were captured adult. The conclusion of my long story is that the
enormous intellectual differences which we usually assume as be-
tween reptiles and the highest mammals probably do not exist, and
consequently that there is in the brain of reptiles sufficient avail-

688 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

able matter to permit them to adjust themselves to a certain de-
gree of domesticity or to sociability ; and it is the social state
which, other things being equal, is the highest product of animal
as well as of human intelligence. — Translated for The Popular Sci-
ence Monthly from the Revue Scientifique.

SKETCH OF HENRY CARRINGTON BOLTON.

THE New York Academy of Sciences, founded in 1817 as the
Lyceum of Natural History, is the oldest and most influen-
tial scientific society in the city. During a period of seventy-six
years it has had but six presidents, viz. : Dr. Samuel L. Mitchill,
who served seven years ; Prof. John Torrey, four years ; Major
Joseph Delafield, thirty-eight years; Prof. Charles A. Joy, two
years ; Prof. John S. Newberry, twenty-four years ; Prof. Oliver
P. Hubbard, one year. At the annual election held February,
1893, Prof. Henry Carrington Bolton, Ph.D., was elected the
seventh president.

HENRY CARRINGTON BOLTON was born in New York city,
January 28, 1843, being the son of Jackson Bolton, M. D., and
Anna Hinman, daughter of Elisha North, M. D., of New London,
Conn. From both his paternal and maternal ancestors Dr. Bolton
inherits traits that co-operate to give him scholarly tastes and
stability of character.

The family of Bolton is among the few English ones able to
show their descent from a period not far removed from the Con-
quest (1066). The extensive Yorkshire domain, from which the
family derived its name, is mentioned in Domesday, and in 1135
Oughtrede de Bolton appears as Lord of Bolton and Bowbearer of
Bowland Forest. From their estates in the charming Ribble Val-
ley, near the southern border of Lancashire, the family spread
through Yorkshire and adjoining counties, bestowing their name
on many a dale and infant vill, so that to-day there are seventeen
places in England known as Bolton, with or without distinguish-
ing suffixes. From earliest times the Boltons were yeomen and
tradesmen, but many of their sons entered the service of the
Church, and not a few of them became eminent for scholarship.

In 1530 the direct ancestors of Dr. Bolton were living on an
estate called Brookhouse, near the town of Blackburn, Lancashire,
and from them he traces his descent without a missing link in the
chain. In 1718 one of the family left England and settled in
Philadelphia ; his son and his grandson became prominent ship-
ping merchants in Savannah, Ga., the latter taking into partner-
ship his nephew Curtis, grandfather of the subject of this sketch.

SKETCH OF HENRY CARRINGTON BOLTON. 689

Curtis Bolton subsequently removed to New York and became
the head of the firm of Bolton, Fox and Livingston, owners of the
Havre line of packets. Curtis married his cousin, Ann Bolton,
daughter of Robert, of Savannah ; their third son, Jackson, was
graduated at Columbia College in 1833, and later at the Univer-
sity of Paris, where he received the degree of D. M. P. Dr. Jackson
Bolton practiced his profession with success for over twenty years
in New York city, and was also Vice- President of the New York
Academy of Medicine and President of the Pathological Society.

That branch of the North family into which Dr. Jackson
Bolton married had been residents of New England for two hun-
dred years ; the male ancestors of Dr. H. C. Bolton's mother for
three generations had been physicians, the last in the line being
Elish North, M. D., of Goshen, later of New London, Conn. Dr.
North is remembered as among the first in America to practice
vaccination, at Goshen, in 1800 ; as the first physician to open an
eye infirmary in the United States ; and as the author of works
on Spotted Fever (New York, 1811) and on physiology, 1829.

Henry Carrington, the only child of Jackson and Anna H.
Bolton, was born in his paternal grandfather's house, No. 58
Greenwich Street, New York city, at the date above given. The
vicinity was the court end of the town, and the boy's earliest play-
ground was the Battery. Later, his father moved up town, and
the Battery was replaced by Union Square. Dr. Bolton's primary
education was in private schools, and he has been heard to men-
tion with deep gratitude the excellent training and kind consid-
eration of Mr. George Stowe, who laid secure foundations in Eng-
lish studies. At the age of nineteen Dr. Bolton, in 1862, was
graduated at Columbia College; he took no distinguished place
in his class, but showed marked aptitude for mathematics, and for
chemistry when the latter study was reached in the curriculum.
Prof. Charles A. Joy, who held the chair of Chemistry at that
time, had been prohibited by the trustees of Columbia from ad-
mitting students to practical work in the small laboratory adjoin-
ing the lecture-room, and Dr. Bolton was debarred from studying
chemistry in a rational way ; to supply this deficiency, however,
his father provided him with simple apparatus and a few chem-
icals at home, where he attempted to apply the principles learned
from the lectures of Prof. Joy. Very different from this the
present methods at Columbia College.

Going to Europe immediately after graduation to continue his
study of chemistry in foreign universities, young Bolton spent
one year in Paris, first in the laboratory of the Sorbonne, then in
charge of J. B. Dumas, and afterward in the laboratory of the
Ecole de Me'decine under Adolphe Wurtz.

In 1863 to 1865 he continued his studies in Germany : at Heidel-

VOL. XLIII. — 50

690 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

berg lie worked in the university laboratory under the guidance
of Bunsen, and attended lectures by Kirchhoff, Kopp, and Von
Leonhard; during his sojourn in Heidelberg he took no part in
the objectionable practices of the " Studenten-Corps," yet became
so popular in the laboratory that at the beginning of the third
semester he was elected by the students their " Polizei."

After a summer semester in Gottingen under Friedrich
Wohler, where he began research for a thesis, he went to Berlin,
where he was admitted to the private laboratory of Prof. A. W.
von Hofmann, the university laboratory not being as yet con-
structed. His position under Hofmann was a most agreeable one,
and may be called that of pupil-assistant, as he worked at re-
searches for Hofmann without any pecuniary compensation either
to or from the university. For eix months he was the sole pupil
with Hofmann, but later he shared his table with the late Dr. Paul
Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. In 1866 he took the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy at Georgia Augusta University, Gottingen. Dr. Bol-
ton's residence in Berlin was saddened by the death of his father,
after a lingering illness, February, 1866.

During his five years' sojourn in Europe Dr. Bolton spent the
long summer vacations in travel, chiefly in Switzerland and the
Austrian Tyrol ; he visited every canton in Switzerland on foot,
and became an expert Alpine climber, ascending among other peaks
the Titlis, the Col du Ge'ant, the Cima di Jazzi, and Monte Rosa.

In the years 1866 and 1867 he made more extended journeys,
traveling leisurely in Italy, Spain, France, Holland, Russia, and
Scotland. In August, 1867, he returned to the United States, and, •
continuing his travels, went from Canada to Mexico. Settling in
New York the following year, he opened a laboratory for private
research, and eventually took a few pupils. In 1871 he spent five
months in travel, visiting California and Washington Territory.
In 1872 he was invited to the position of assistant in analytical
chemistry at the School of Mines, Columbia College, under Prof.
Charles F. Chandler. This position he accepted, and he had
charge of the laboratory of quantitative analysis for five years,
also giving lectures on the subject during the last year. Mean-
while, in 1875, he was elected to the chair of Chemistry in the
Woman's Medical College of the New York Infirmary, of which
Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell is dean ; here he discharged his duties
for three years, until he removed from New York city.

In 1877 he accepted the chair of Chemistry in Trinity College,
Hartford, Conn., a position which he held for ten years. At Trin-
ity he planned the interior of the chemical department and moved
the apparatus and museum to the new buildings. He had marked
influence in the organization of scientific courses, in which he had
the co-operation of the late Prof. Louis M. Cheesman, who held

SKETCH OF HENRY CARRINGTON BOLTON. 691

the chair of Physics at that time. As his duties in Trinity re-
quired him to teach mineralogy, he formed a collection of min-
erals, numbering about three thousand specimens, gathered large-
ly by his individual exertions in the field.

As a teacher he strove to impart knowledge in an attractive
way, believing that, by combining entertaining diversions with
serious instruction, students would both comprehend and retain
facts better than if presented in a dry, formal manner. Whenever
it was possible he availed himself of object teaching ; although
he allowed in the class-room temporary displays of humor, his
pupils understood that this was to be enjoyed and not abused, and
always showed their teacher sincere respect. The experience
gained in teaching analytical chemistry at the School of Mines he
combined with the methods in vogue when he was called to the
position of assistant, and the results he published in a volume
entitled Student's Guide in Quantitative Analysis (New York,
1882 ; third edition, 1889).

In 1885 the President of the United States appointed him an
assay commissioner.

While engaged in instruction Dr. Bolton carried on a number
of original researches in chemistry, of which the more important
are his investigations on the salts of the rare metal uranium, the
results of which he published in several papers, 1866-70. In
1872-J73 he assisted President Henry Morton, of the Stevens Insti-
tute of Technology, in researches on the fluorescent and absorp-
tion spectra of uranium salts, preparing a large number of com-
pounds, including several new to science ; the published results
are in their joint names (American Chemist, 1873).

Between 1877 and 1882 he published three memoirs on the
Application of Organic Acids to the Examination of Minerals
(Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences), in which he
showed the power of the organic acids in decomposing minerals,
as well as their utility in determining varieties based upon definite
reactions. He directed attention to the advantage of dry citric
acid over the liquid mineral acids in geological field-work, owing
to the perfect safety of transportation of the former. These
methods have been incorporated in the last edition of Elder-
horst's Manual of Blowpipe Analysis. The space at our disposal
precludes mention of several minor original observations.

Dr. Bolton early in his studies felt the need of those important
keys to knowledge, bibliographies, and has devoted much labor
to the preparation of special and general works of this nature.
His first effort in this direction was an Index to the Literature of
Uranium, published in the Annals of the New York Lyceum of
Natural History in 1870; this reached a second edition in 1885
(Smithsonian Annual Report), and has formed the model on which

692 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

a score of similar indexes to special topics have been produced.
In 1876 he published an Index to the Literature of Manganese.

At the Montreal meeting of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science (1882) he chose for his vice-presidential
address the subject Chemical Literature, and suggested the for-
mation of a committee on indexing chemical literature; as the
chairman of this committee he has prepared ten annual reports to
the association, and has done much to encourage the production
of special chemical bibliographies by American chemists.

One of the most important bibliographical works by Dr. Bol-
ton is his Catalogue of Scientific and Technical Periodicals, 1665-
1882, published as vol. xxix of the Smithsonian Miscellaneous
Collections in 1885. This comprises full titles of over five thou-
sand, scientific technical journals in about twenty languages, to-
gether with chronological tables showing the year of issue of
each volume of five hundred periodicals, and a library check-list
indicating in what American libraries sets of these journals are to
be found. This undertaking was a labor of love on the part of Dr.
Bolton, who, in the words of an eminent writer, acquired thereby
" a place in the foremost rank of those little-appreciated and hard-
worked men, bibliographers." Dr. Bolton has just completed a
still more extensive work of a kindred nature, A Select Bibliog-
raphy of Chemistry, 1492-1892. This general bibliography of
chemical science comprises over twelve thousand titles in twenty-
four languages, yet is a " select " catalogue, and makes no claim
to completeness. The titles are arranged under seven groups, as
follows : I, Bibliography ; II, Dictionaries ; III, History ; IV, Biog-
raphy ; V, Chemistry, pure and applied ; VI, Alchemy ; VII, Peri-
odicals. The volume contains 1212 pages, and forms No. xxxvi in
the series of Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections.

Parallel with his original researches and bibliographical com-
pilations Dr. Bolton has given much attention to the history of
chemistry, contributing many notes to current scientific journals,
of which the following is a partial list :

Contributions to the History of Chemistry. — Historical Notes
on the Defunct Elements, American Chemist, 1873. Views of
the Founders of the Atomic Philosophy, American Chemist, 1873.
Notes on the Early Literature of Chemistry, several papers in
American Chemist, 1873-79. Papyrus Ebers, the earliest medical
work extant, Quarterly Journal of Science, London, 1876. Ancient
Methods of Filtration, The Popular Science Monthly, 1879. Early
Practice of Medicine by Women, The Popular Science Monthly,
1880. History of Chemical Notation (two papers), Transactions
of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1883. Recent Progress in
Chemistry, Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences,
1886. The Lunar Society of Birmingham, Transactions of the

SKETCH OF HENRY CARRINGTON BOLTON. 693

New York Academy of Sciences, 1888. The Likenesses of Joseph
Priestley in Oil, Ink, Marble, and Metal, Transactions of the New
York Academy of Sciences, 1888. The Contributions of Alchemy
to Numismatics, American Journal of Numismatics, 1890. Prog-
ress of Chemistry as depicted in Apparatus and Laboratories,
Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1893. An
Account of the Progress of Chemistry for the Years 1882 to 1886,
prepared annually for the Smithsonian Institution, 1882-'87. The
last four contain bibliographies for their respective years.

Dr. Bolton's interest in the history of chemistry took practical
shape in 1874, when he originated and organized the Centennial
Celebration of the Discovery of Oxygen by Dr. Joseph Priestley,
held August 1st at Northumberland, Pa. ; on this occasion seventy
chemists from all parts of the United States and Canada assem-
bled around Priestley's grave to do him honor. The proceedings
at this memorable gathering were printed in full in the American
Chemist (1875). The acquaintances formed at this meeting with
the descendants of Dr. Priestley were continued by Dr. Bolton,
and through them he eventually secured a number of unpublished
letters of the distinguished chemist; these letters he edited and
published in a volume bearing the title : Scientific Correspondence
of Joseph Priestley ; New York, privately printed, 1892.

In 1882 a casual visit to the so-called "singing beach/' at
Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass., made him acquainted with the pe-
culiar natural phenomenon of musical sand, and, finding its study
had been almost wholly neglected, he began an investigation
which eventually led him to make journeys aggregating thirty-
three thousand miles in search of sand having musical properties.
Early in the research he secured the assistance of Dr. Alexis A.
Julien, of Columbia College, to whose skill with the microscope
he is greatly indebted. Jointly with Dr. Julien he has published
several abstracts of papers on Musical Sand (Proceedings of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Trans-
actions of the New York Academy of Sciences), which have been
widely noticed in current literature.

The following papers, on topics of very wide range, can not be
classified more narrowly.

Sundry Scientific and Literary. — Magic Squares, their History,
Preparation and Properties (six papers), Acta Columbiana, 1874.
The Log-book of the Savannah, Harper's Magazine, 1877. Le-
gends of Sepulchral and Perpetual Lamps, Monthly Journal of
Science, London, 1879. Microscopic Crystals in Vertebrae of
Toads, Proceedings of the American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science, 1880. A Handy Multiplication Table, American
Teacher, 1885. The Life and Writings of Elisha North, M. D.,
Transactions of the Connecticut Medical Society, 1887. Scientific

694 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Jottings on the Nile and in the Desert, Bulletin of the American
Geographical Society, 1890. Historical Notes on the Gold-Cure,
Popular Science Monthly, 1892. A Plea for a Library of Science
in New York City, 1893. Russian Transliteration, American Li-
brary Journal, 1893.

In 1886 Dr. Bolton became interested in folk-lore, and pub-
lished two years later a work bearing the title, Counting-out
Rhymes of Children (London, 1888), which brought him at once
into prominence as a folk-lorist. Since then he has contributed
occasional papers to the Journal of American Folk Lore, of which
the most notable are the two following : Some Hawaiian Pastimes
(1891) and A Modern Oracle and its Prototypes (1893). His work
on Counting-out Rhymes was awarded a bronze medal by the
Columbian Historical Exposition held at Madrid in 1892.

After the death of his mother in 1887, Dr. Bolton resigned
from Trinity College, retired from teaching, and resumed his resi-
dence in New York city. He has been able to indulge his love
of travel by frequent journeys abroad; besides the five years'
sojourn in Europe already named, he visited in 1873 the principal
libraries of England, France, and Germany, to collect material for
his Bibliography of Scientific Periodicals, the publication of which
was, however, from various causes delayed until 1885. In 1880
he visited Norway, Sweden, and Denmark ; in 1887 and 1888 he
made a second and a third bibliographical tour in Europe; in
1889 he visited Egypt, going as far as Mount Sinai ; in 1890 he
visited the Bermudas and the Hawaiian Islands. These distant
points were visited in search of " musical sand." In 1891 he again
crossed the Atlantic, chiefly for research in libraries. Dr. Bolton
has been heard to say he never travels to kill time or to satisfy
mere curiosity ; he always has some definite object in view and
works harder on his journeys than otherwise.

Dr. Bolton is often called upon to give illustrated lectures on
his travels and on popular science. Being an amateur photogra-
pher he brought back with him from Arabia Petraea and from
the Hawaiian Islands many excellent negatives with which he
illustrates his lectures. These include the following subjects:
Four Weeks in the Desert of Sinai, Life and Scenes in the Ha-
waiian Islands, Picturesque Scenes in Norway, Alchemy the
Cradle of Chemistry, The Counting-out Rhymes of Children, The
Glaciers of Switzerland, Musical Sand, etc.

In 1892 he was elected by the Trustees of Columbian Univer-
sity Non-resident Professor of the History of Chemistry, and in
the discharge of his duties gave in March, 1893, a course of nine
lectures on the history of chemistry. He treats this subject in a
graphic way, making it attractive to the general audience by
illustrating every step with the lantern.

SKETCH OF HENRY CARRINGTON BOLTON. 695

Dr. Bolton joined the Lyceum of Natural History of New York
City in 1867 and has been an active member for twenty-six years.
He was one of the committee (with the late Dr. John S. Newberry
and Prof. B. N. Martin) who accomplished in 1876 the change of
name to the New York Academy of Sciences by which it is now
known ; from 1876 to 1877 he held the office of corresponding sec-
retary; from 1887 to 1892, of recording secretary; from 1892 to
1893, vice-president; and in 1893 president. He has also been
prominent in the national society, the American Association for
the Advancement of Science, frequently serving on its council
and on committees, besides holding the office of Secretary of the
Chemical Section (1876), Secretary of the Council (1889), general
secretary (in 1878, 1879, and 1890), and vice-president (1882). Dr.
Bolton was one of the founders of the American Folk-lore Society
in 1887, and has been on the council of the society to date. He is
also president of the New York branch of the American Folk-lore
Society established in the spring of 1893. He has been a member
of the Executive Committee of the New York Section of the
American Chemical Society since its foundation.

To all these societies Dr. Bolton has frequently contributed
papers ; including communications of literary and general char-
acter printed in journals, they number more than a hundred and
fifty. He has been influential^in shaping the policy of the Council
of the Scientific Alliance of New York City, and was made its
treasurer in 1893.

Dr. Bolton is a member of many learned societies besides those
above named, the chief being as follows : German Chemical Soci-
ety of Berlin, Chemical Society of Paris, National Society of Nat-
ural and Mathematical Sciences of Cherbourg, American Society
of Naturalists, Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadel-
phia, American Metrological Society, Brooklyn Institute, corre-
sponding member of the Rochester Academy of Sciences, and
honorary member of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society of
Chapel Hill, N. C.

He founded the 'Ology Club in Hartford and the Lunar Soci-
ety in New York, social clubs for scientific discussions and mutual
admiration. He is a member of the University Club of New
York and of the Cosmos Club of Washington.

Dr. Bolton's private library, though numbering less than one
thousand volumes, is probably unique in the United States, being
devoted to the history of chemistry. It is rich in original works
on alchemy and early chemistry, besides containing a collection
of several hundred portraits of scientists of all countries and all
time. At the request of the Grolier Club of New York city, he
made an exhibit of a selection from his library in their club house
in January, 1891.

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

CORRESPONDENCE.

MAJOR POWELL ON "ARE THERE EVI-
DENCES OF MAN IN THE GLACIAL
GRAVELS ? "

Editor Popular Science Monthly.

SIR : The article by Major Powell, which
appeared in your July number, calls
for a few words of comment. It was written
apparently as an indirect reply to our own
paper in the April issue. But it contains
little more than a restatement of some ele-
mentary truths in geology, which, however
new they may be made to appear by the art
of the writer, are really somewhat ancient,
and form a part of the stock of every tyro
in the science.

To this, however, no one can properly
object. Major Powell is entitled to write
whatever he chooses. But bad logic and
misrepresentation of authorities are not
legitimate argument, and in a few points
where the distinguished head of the United
States Geological Survey touches upon topics
which we referred to in the former article we
may be allowed to criticise his statements.

In the first place, the major is in error in
misconstruing our words into an attack on
the United States Geological Survey. No
fair construction of the language will sup-
port this charge. Our chief purpose was to
expose and condemn the tone and spirit of
the reviewers whose assaults we criticised,
and especially the language in which one of
them had seen fit to express his opinions.
For this latter words too strong could hardly
be found. What sentiments have been awak-
ened by it in the minds of geologists, both in
America and abroad, we can imagine. They
must be both amused and amazed to see a
member of the Geological Survey of a great
and enlightened country so far forgetting
the dignity and responsibility of his office as to
indulge in invective and vituperation against
a fellow-worker in the scientific field.*

Major Powell's paper is in striking con-
trast to that of his subordinate in being per-
fectly courteous. We could expect nothing
else from him. Had all the critics of Prof.
Wright been equally dignified and gentle-
manly there would have been no ground for
objection.

We confess, however, to a feeling of re-
gret that the director stopped short of any

* It is deeply to be regretted that this same
official has seen fit to repeat and thus to exagger-
ate his offense by putting out, since our article was
written, a second paper of similar tenor. Though
a copy of this was in our possession at the time of
writing, we could not justly refer to it, as it had
not then appeared. We also hoped that the
author's good sense would lead him to acquiesce
in its suppression for the sake of American sci-
ence and his own reputation. This hope was,
however, disappointed.

remark indicating disapproval of the lan-
guage that had been used by a member of
riis staff. We can not bring ourselves to be-
iieve that he sanctions it, but his silence
lends it at least an indirect support. We
think that a word of this kind would have
done the Survey a greater service than any
attempt to defend it where it was not at-
tacked, or any discourse on the harmony and
courtesy which have, he tells us, character-
ized its discussions up to date.

Major Powell makes but little direct allu-
sion to us, though his paper was evidently
called out by our article. He contents him-
self with the general assertion, or rather im-
plication, that " every paragraph is based on
error." Such sweeping charges are easily
made, and are often as erroneous as easy.
Not a single error is adduced, and the infer-
ence from this omission is not difficult. At
all events, it will be soon enough to defend
the paragraphs when they are definitely at-
tacked.

Meanwhile, we propose to investigate a
few passages of Major Powell's article, in
order to see if the critic is himself above re-
proach, and to discover if any erroneousness
lurks concealed within his own paragraphs.
Space will not allow more than this. But
unless his arguments are better than those
of his comrades and subordinates, he will be
but a poor ally to aid them in their cause.

Major Powell refers to the Nampa image.
Now, it was and is no part of our plan to de-
fend this " find." It is no bantling of ours.
We leave it to the tender mercies of others
more competent. We merely pointed out in
the former paper the fallacy of the argu-
ments used by the writer to whom we re-
ferred in his attack upon it and on Prof.
Wright. Though Major Powell has failed,
probably for the very best of reasons, to
give the exact details for which we called,
yet his words sufficiently prove the inacuracy
of the story, as given in the American Archae-
ologist and in the Literary Northwest. It is
a pity also that Major Powell has allowed
himself to misrepresent the evidence for
want of reference to the original documents
in the Proceedings of the Boston Society of
Natural History. His language leads the
reader to infer that he was not even aware
of their existence, inasmuch as he says that
his greatest surprise on reading Prof. Wright's
second book was to find that the image had
fallen into his hands and was used as an ar-
gument in favor of the antiquity of man.
This was two years after the original publi-
cation by Prof. Wright, and his arguments
were by this time familiar to all students of
American archaeology.

CORRESPONDENCE.

697

But let this pass. Major Powell writes
on another page of a human skeleton alleged
to have been found in a bluff excavated by
the Mississippi River in the loess that bor-
ders its channel. He says :

" The loess is a formation contemporane-
ous with the glacial formation of the north.
The discovery of a human skeleton in this
situation was believed to prove that man
dwelt in the valley of the Mississippi during
the loess-forming period. The discovery
seemed of so much importance that the site
was visited by Sir C. Lyell, who, on examina-
tion, at once affirmed that the skeleton was
not found in the loess itself, but in the
' overplacement,' or modified loess — that is,
in the talus of the bluff — and all geologists
and archaeologists have accepted the deci-
sion."

We fear that this circumstantial story on
examination will prove to be similar to some
other evidence that has been brought for-
ward in the current discussion, and it is
with no little surprise that we see so promi-
nent a geologist advancing arguments so
weak and testimony so garbled. But we
will for a moment waive this objection.
Assuming that Sir C. Lyell did express the
opinion here maintained by Major Powell,
we may be allowed respectfully to remark in
passing that if that geologist was able so
easily and so long ago as 1846 to distinguish
between the bluff and the " overplacement,"
it is a little late to claim the criteria of this
distinction as a discovery of any geologist
or any body of geologists in the present day.
This is a discovery of the already discovered,
an appropriation of the " finds " of other
men, equal to any of the wonderful deeds
related in the travels of the renowned Cap-
tain Brazier. Sir Charles must have been
born too soon — at least forty years ahead of
his time. The geological world of America
has only just come up to him.

But returning to our main line, we can
not even at this point allow Major Powell's
argument to rest. A regard for logic com-
pels us to tax him with carelessness and in-
accuracy, if not with misrepresentation, in
his references to Sir Charles Lyell. He re-
fers as above to that author's Second Visit
to the United States. How correctly this
is done a comparison of his words with the
following extracts will show.

Lyell writes, hi the Antiquity of Man (p.
203):

"Mingled with the bones of mastodon,
megalonyx, equus, and others, the pelvic
bone of a man was obtained. It appeared
to be in the same state of preservation and
was of the same black color as the others,
and was believed to have come like them
from a depth of about thirty feet from the
surface."

"In my Second Visit to America in
1846 I suggested, as a possible explanation
of this association of a human bone with re-
mains of a mastodon and megalonyx, that

the former may possibly have been derived
from the vegetable soil at the top of the
cliff, whereas the remains of the extinct
mammalia were dislodged from a lower posi-
tion, and both may have fallen into the same
heap or talus at the bottom of the ravine.
Had the bone belonged to any recent mam-
mifer other than man, such a theory would
never have been resorted to."

Lyell's very words in the original work
read thus : " I could not ascertain that the
human pelvis had been actually dug out in
the presence of a geologist or any practiced
observer, and its position unequivocally as-
certained. Like most of the other fossils, it
was, I believe, picked up in the bed of the
stream, which would simply imply that it had
been washed out of the cliffs. But the evi-
dence of the antiquity of the bone depends
entirely on the part of the precipice from
which it was derived. It was stained black,
as if buried hi a peaty or vegetable soil, and
may have been dislodged from some old In-
dian grave near its top, in which case it may
have been only five, ten, or twenty centuries
old ; whereas if it was really found in situ at
the base of the precipice, its age would more
probably exceed a hundred thousand years."
— (Second Visit, chap, xxxi.)

The wide discrepancy between the lan-
guage of Lyell and its interpretation by Major
Powell is obvious. There is absolutely no
justification for the assertion that Lyell " at
once assigned the bone. to the talus." He
evidently resorted to this possible explana-
tion to avoid what was in 1846 a yet more
formidable difficulty — the admission of the
great antiquity of man. Lyell's so-called
evidence must therefore be thrown out of
court. His decision on the point is purely
fictitious, and the statement that " all geolo-
gists and archaeologists have accepted it " is
merely a fiction based on a fiction.

But the criticism must not in justice end
even here. It is not fair in so rapidly ad-
vancing a science as geology to quote the
words even of a leader published nearly fifty
years ago, without any intimation that he
afterward changed his opinion. Lyell was a
man who grew with the times in which he
h'ved. The palaeoliths from the gravels at
Amiens were cardinal evidence to him, and
supported as they then were by similar
though less conclusive testimony from other
places^ they worked his conversion to the
doctrine of the great antiquity of the human
race, a belief in which he never afterward
wavered. His belief found a place hi his
writings. He revised or even recanted his
former opinions wherever he thought them
erroneous, and his great work, The Antiquity
of Man, is at once a monument of his can-
dor and of his progress. Had Major Powell
taken the trouble to consult this volume,
with which we must suppose that he is fa-
miliar, he would scarcely have dared so com-
pletely to misrepresent its author as he has
done." He has laid himself open to at least

698

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the charge of gross carelessness in citation
of testimony, and his paragraph is "mani-
festly founded on errors" for which it is
hard to find any plausible excuse.

Lyell writes in the chapter already quoted,
when referring to this fossil (which, by the
way, was not, as Major Powell says, a human
skeleton, but merely a broken pelvic bone) :

" After visiting the spot in 1846, I de-
scribed the geological position of the bones
and discussed their probable age with a
stronger bias, I must confess, to the ante-
cedent improbability of the contemporaneous
entombment of man and the mastodon than
any geologist would now be justified in en-
tertaining" (p. 200). "My reluctance in
1846 to regard the fossil human bone as of
post-pliocene date arose in part from the re-
flection that the ancient loess of Natchez is
anterior in time to the whole modern delta
of the Mississippi .... If I was right in cal-
culating that this delta has required more
than one hundred thousand years for its
growth, it would follow, if the claims of the
Natchez man to have coexisted with the
mastodon are admitted, that North America
was peopled more than a thousand centuries
ago by the human race. But even were that
true we could not presume, reasoning from
ascertained geological data, that the Natchez
bone was anterior in date to the antique flint
hatchets of St. Acheul .... Changes of level
as great as that here implied have actually
occurred in Europe during the human epoch,
and may therefore have happened in Amer-
ica .... Should future researches, therefore,
confirm the opinion that the Natchez man
coexisted with the mastodon, it would not
enhance the value of the geological evidence
in favor of man's antiquity, but merely ren-
der the delta of the Mississippi available as
a chronometer."

The principles of exegesis which allow
the extraction from these words of an affir-
mation that the bone was not found in the
loess but in the " overplacement " are decid-
edly original and may be valuable in a case
of urgent need. They recall to one's mind
Prof. Huxley's satire on the Hebrew lan-
guage. A case that stands in need of logic
so bad and of quotation so erroneous must
indeed be in a sorry plight. Sir C. Lyell
evidently had no intention of denying the
antiquity of the human pelvis. With char-
acteristic caution he suspended judgment,
and no one has any right to wrest his lan-
guage in either direction. Whether ancient
or not ancient, whether fraud or forgery or
fact, matters not here. Testimony has been
misquoted and authority misapplied. We
plead not here for the genuineness or an-
tiquity of the Mississippi man, but for fair-
ness in logic and accuracy in statement.

We can not avoid the impression that in
another place Major Powell somewhat trans-
gresses the limits of accuracy where he says :

" Prof. Wright stands almost alone in his
advocacy of a scientific doctrine. He has

a few sympathizers and some defenders of
some portions of his theory, but the great
body of his work is repudiated by nearly
every geologist in America and especially by
the professorial corps."

The latter part of this extract may be
true, but so far as they have declared them-
selves the following may rightly be claimed
on his side: Dana, Hitchcock, Emerson,
Crosby, Upham, and Bell. Others, in view
of the pending discussion, await further evi-
dence. Abroad a longer list of names may
be drawn up, including that of the venerable
Prestwich, ex-Professor of Geology at Oxford,
Hughes, of Cambridge, Lamplugh, Crosskey,
Kendall, and Dugald Bell in Great Britain,
Falsan in France, Credner and Diener in
Germany, Hoist of Sweden, and Nitikin,
state geologist of Russia. Sir H. H. Howorth
says in a recent work,* " While the theory
of a plurality of glacial periods has found
several advocates in Germany, the French
geologists are virtually unanimous on the
other side." With such a list Prof. Wright
stands u alone " in good company.

The scientific imagination is a faculty of
the highest order and of great value so long
as it is held in check by reason and knowl-
edge. But when Pegasus runs or flies away
with his rider, the result is often disastrous
to the latter. We have already given proof
of Major Powell's great command over the
realm of fiction. He will excuse us if we
further illustrate his supremacy in this re-
gion by another equally striking quotation.
Writing of the so-called palaeolithic imple-
ments recently found in New Jersey and some
other places in the Eastern States, he says :

" These implements were gathered in
very great numbers and collected in various
museums in the United States and many col-
lections were sent abroad to the great mu-
seums of the world. Several different collect-
ors were engaged in this enterprise for some
years and acquired great reputation for their
proof of the antiquity of man on this conti-
nent and for their zeal in discovering the evi-
dence, and to recompense them for this work
they were made members of many scientific
societies throughout the world and decorated
with ribbons, and some were knighted."

We took the liberty in our last paper of
calling indirectly on Major Powell for exact
details regarding the Nampa image, but
without very great success. Will he allow
us respectfully to ask for some further par-
ticulars concerning this very startling para-
graph of his, in order to remove the suspicion
that spontaneously but irresistibly lurks in
our mind that it too is " based on error" ? It
would be deeply interesting to the archaeolo-
gists of this country and of others to learn
where are the " very great numbers " of
these palaeoliths from New Jersey, in what
" museums of the United States " they are
stored, and to what " foreign institutions

The Glacial Nightmare and the Flood, p. 469.

EDITORS TABLE.

699

many collections have been sent." We
should also like to know how many of these
collectors " have been made members of many
scientific societies," how many have " been
decorated with ribbons," and the color,
style, and significance of these same rib-
bons. But especially would it delight the
archaeological world to be favored with a
list of the Sir Knights who have received
the accolade as a reward of their great pow-
ers and magnificent achievements on the
hard-fought field of American archaeology,
and who are now Sir Somebody Something
and Sir Something Somebody among their
untitled scientific brethren of this demo-
cratic land. We are free to confess that in
our seclusion in " Ohio " we had not heard
of these decorations, and did not know that
the palaeolithic heretics had amassed so much
evidence in favor of their great archetype in
America, or that they had been so highly and
so widely honored for their discoveries. We
must infer, though we had not heard of the
fact, that our palaeolithic acquaintance, Dr.
Abbott, is now Sir C. C. Abbott, of Trenton,
X. J., and Bristol, Pa. We congratulate
him. Others will no doubt be heard from
in due time.

We sincerely trust that the Director of
the United States Geological Survey has not
been in this instance also drawing on his
imagination and clothing the creations of his
fancy with "local habitations and names."
But if not, we must express the fear that he
has been looking at the palaeoliths and their
finders through his most powerful multiply-
ing glass.

We write the above criticisms not with-
out regret. Major Powell's services to geol-
ogy as the head of the United States Geo-
logical Survey have been great. Not even
himself will claim that they have been fault-
less. But in entering the controversial field
it is needful first to make quite sure of the
facts and then to reason logically from them.
In the former respect some of Major Powell's
paragraphs are " based on error," as we have
shown, and his deductions from them are
consequently mere fallacies. If no stronger
argument can be found, the case for which he
has pleaded may almost as well be abandoned.

In the midst of so much that is open to
criticism it is refreshing and pleasing to find
Major Powell expressing a sentiment with
which all geologists and other scientists
should agree and with which we ourselves
are in full accord. We thank him for so
well wording what must be the rule of all
concerned who appreciate the present posi-
tion of the palaeolithic discussion in this
country. He writes :

" We will all withhold final judgment un-
til the evidence is in, being perfectly will-
ing to believe in Glacial man or Tertiary man
or Cretaceous man if the evidence demands
it, and being just as willing too to believe
that man was introduced on this continent
within the last two thousand years if the
evidence demands it. What care we what
the truth is if it is the truth ? "

Grant this, and courtesy in debate, and
the present controversy will not have been
useless. E. W. CLATPOLE.

AKRON, OHIO, June 29, 1893.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

CIVIC DUTY.

AMONG the hopeful signs of the
times we may reckon the in-
creased attention that is being given in
our higher schools to the study of
"civics," a term which includes the
general principles of government, the
Constitution of our own country in par-
ticular, and the duties of citizenship.
It is somewhat extraordinary that the
importance of instructing our youth in
these subjects was not earlier recog-
nized; but we may hope that, now that
they have been introduced pretty gen-
erally into our educational courses, they
will assume the prominence to which
they are entitled. If the State under-

takes to educate, it should be mainly
and primarily with a view to producing
good citizens : and the instruction which
specially pertains to this object should
in all public schools have an honored, if
not indeed the foremost, place.

What is government ? is a question
which must spontaneously occur to the
mind of every young person, and the
teacher is fortunate who has a subject
to deal with in regard to which his or
her pupils are already prepared to ask
questions. Government, it can be ex-
plained, in the first place is control.
Control may be exercised either for
good or for evil — either in excess of
requirements, or in due proportion to

700

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

requirements, or in measure inadequate
to requirements. Control exercised for
evil is tyranny, and should, wherever
possible, be ressted; control exercised
for good is government in the best sense
and deserves loyal acquiescence and
support. Control in excess of require-
ments again is tyranny, even though ex-
ercised not by a monarch but by a ma-
jority of the citizens ; control in due
proportion to requirements is govern-
ment in a good sense ; control inade-
quate to requirements means a greater
or less degree of anarchy. It should
not be difficult to interest the minds of
the young in deciding or trying to de-
cide for themselves certain practical
questions to which these definitions
would naturally give rise. Take the
government of a given country at a
given time : was it tyrannical or was
it reasonable government ? Did it de-
serve resistance or support ? Such and
such laws, are they in excess of require-
ments, or are they such as circumstances
demand? What are we to understand
by " requirements " ? Requirements for
what? Here is the opportunity for
pointing out how purely meddlesome
and intrusive a great deal of legislation
is — the mere mandates of majorities
who want to have their way in every-
thing, and are not content to win others
over by persuasion, but insist on forcing
them into conformity by legal measures.
The " requirements " it can be shown,
beyond which political control should
not go, are the requirements of national
cohesion. Whatever tends to enforce
uniformity of practice or habit or opin-
ion beyond the demands of national
unity partakes of the nature of tyranny,
whether the authority that imposes it
has one head or a million heads. The
necessity for government in the true
sense can be made evident to the weak-
est understanding, and from this will
obviously flow the duty of every citizen
to aid in the maintenance of law and
order. What kind of a society, it may
be asked, would that be the sole foun-

dations of which were force and fraud?
What would become of human industry
if the laborer could not depend on re-
ceiving his honest wages, or any worker
on protection in carrying on his employ-
ment? Law, it will be seen, is no re-
straint upon the good, but is their shield
against the aggressions of the evil ; to
the latter alone is it a terror, and they
alone can have any interest in weaken-
ing its authority. Yet even they would
suffer were there no law, and conse-
quently the ideal condition of things
for a bad man would be one in which
others obeyed the law while he suc-
ceeded in evading it. The habitual
criminal is thus no better than a beast
of prey or a parasite.

Teaching of this nature addressed to
a class in which some kind of public
opinion was capable of being evoked
would, we are persuaded, do much to
create in the minds of the young a sense
of the interest they have in upholding
the institutions of the country, both na-
tional and municipal. We incline to the
opinion that this interest should first be
awakened by means of general consid-
erations upon government before de-
tailed instruction is given in the national
Constitution. When the time has come
for the latter, the different purposes
which each power in the State is intend-
ed to serve should be carefully explained,
and the pupils should be invited to ex-
ercise their own independent judgment
upon the Constitution as a whole and
upon its several parts. They might be
freely asked whether they could suggest
anything better, and the whole subject
should be commended to them as one
in which they have an interest that can
not safely be neglected. It should be
impressed upon them that, if honest peo-
ple do not take an interest in politics^
dishonest people are sure to do so, and
that the only way to nullify the influ-
ence of the bad is for the good — those
who have the welfare of their country
at heart — to occupy the field in over-
whelming numbers themselves.

LITERARY NOTICES.

701

Modern writers note a decline in the
sentiment of patriotism; but we can
afford to let the old patriotism go, if we
can get a better patriotism in its place.
The old patriotism involved hardly less
of hostility and ill-will to other coun-
tries than of attachment to one's own.
The new patriotism calls upon us to
serve our own country first, and no less
in peace than in war, but to be desirous
that other countries should be equally
well served by their sons. The old pa-
triotism formed easy alliances with self-
ish and unworthy interests, so that the
trade of patriot became one of the most
suspected of vocations— so much so that
the sturdy old Tory, Dr. Johnson, de-
nounced it as "the last refuge of a
scoundrel " ; but the new patriotism
which can not commend itself by loud-
mouthed denunciation of other countries
can only make itself known and felt by
useful activity in the public interest at
home.

The complete instruction of our youth
in civics will have to embrace, we regret
to say, a description of the principal
evils which dog the steps of representa-
tive government. We have just glanced
at the evil of indifference in political
affairs, but in a course of instruction
it would merit much fuller treatment.
Then there is the opposite evil of ex-
cessive partisanship leading to the grav-
est abuses of administration, and through
the frauds which it introduces into the
working of the political machine threat-
ening even the stability of the State.
There is the evil of excessive taxation,
resorted to in order that the party in
power may have more money to dis-
tribute for political purposes. There is
the evil of corrupt understanding be-
tween the party in power and business
men whose pecuniary interests that
party can promote by legislation — so
much tariff (for example) meaning so
much money to be contributed at elec-

tion times. The celebrated letter in
which the chairman of a certain com-
mittee threatened to "fry the fat" out
of certain manufacturers who, after hav-
ing been put in the way of enriching
themselves at the expense of the public,
had failed to respond with due liberality
and gratitude when the hat was being
passed round for a great political cam-
paign, should be printed for an everlast-
ing remembrance and illustration of
" ho w it w orks." As regards the thieves
and pirates who obtain government con-
tracts and enrich themselves by furnish-
ing inferior articles, it would be easy to
rouse against them the fierce indignation
and reprobation of any class of ingenuous
youths; and it would not be hard to
show that many other frauds upon the
Government, such as charging undue
prices for things, obtaining by collusion
contracts at figures beyond what would
afford a fair profit, and so on, are all of
an infamous nature and utterly unworthy
of any man pretending to be a good cit-
izen. Great care should be taken not
to deal with any of these subjects in
a cynical spirit or to create the impres-
sion that the evils indicated are more
widespread than they really are. It
ought to be a paramount object to pro-
mote respect for the country in which
we live, and while the evils and dan-
gers which beset our system of govern-
ment should be plainly pointed out,
stress should also be laid upon the vast
amount of faithful service and un-
selfish devotion which the country re-
ceives from its worthier sons. The
spirit to cultivate is not one of despond-
ency, but one of hope, of confidence,
and of resolute endeavor. Let our
young people but have the right kind
of teaching, and they will respond to
it, and in less than ten years the effect
for good upon the public opinion and
public life of the country will be very
apparent.

702

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

LITEEARY NOTICES.

VERTEBRATE EMBRYOLOGY. A TEXT-BOOK FOR
STUDENTS AND PRACTITIONERS. By A.
MILNES MARSHALL, M. D., D. So., Profess-
or in the Victoria University, etc. New
York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. London:
Smith, Elder & Co., 1893. Price, $6.

As the author truly states in his preface,
most of the text-books of embryology aim
rather at explaining the general progress of
development within the several animal groups
than at supplying complete descriptions of
individual examples. Thus there have been
no reasonably complete accounts of the de-
velopment of the common frog or of the rab-
bit, while in human embryology so much
is yet unknown that the descriptions and
figures given in illustration of them are
those of embryonic rabbits, pigs, chickens,
or dogfish. As the results of recent investi-
gations have shown that marked differences,
both in the earlier and the later stages of de-
velopment, may occur between allied genera
and species, it may be perceived that this
practice of illustrating human embryology
by embryological types selected from the
lower animals may be the cause of much
confusion.

In preparing this volume the author has
selected a few types to each of which a sepa-
rate chapter is devoted. The first chapter
gives a general account of the development
of animals, including the structure, matura-
tion, and fertilization of the egg, and a de-
scription of the early stages of the develop-
ment of the embryo. We think the author
has made a slight lapsus calami in the state-
ment on page 13 that " after one spermato-
zoon has entered an egg others seem inca-
pable of making their way in " ; we judge
that he intended to write " yolk " instead of
egg, for spermatozoa have been found not only
in the zona but in the perivitelline space.
We believe that it is after the spermatozoon
gains entrance into the yolk instead of the
egg, as is stated, that the tail is lost. The
theory of sex is too meagerly presented to
afford the student any enlightenment, none
of the more important theories being men-
tioned.

The second chapter is devoted to the
amphioxus, giving a general account of the
early and late embryonic development of

this fish-like animal. In this chapter the
author has followed the descriptions of
Kowalevsky, Hatschek, Lankester, and Wil-
ley ; and this animal has been selected as an
introduction to vertebrate embryology be-
cause of the simplicity of its earlier develop-
mental history as well as on account of the
clew that this affords to the more compli-
cated conditions occurring in the higher ver-
tebrates.

The third chapter gives a general account
of the development of the frog, the descrip-
tion of the processes of maturation and
fertilization of the egg being based on 0.
Schultze's investigations, while the account
of the early stages of development of the
nervous, circulatory, digestive, and repro-
ductive organs is based on the observations
of the author and his pupils.

The fourth chapter gives a description of
the development of the chick that is so fa-
miliar from the accounts given in most of the
physiologies.

The fifth chapter gives an account of the
development of the rabbit, the author follow-
ing the accounts of Van Beneden, Kolliker,
and Duval in his description of the processes
of segmentation of the egg, of the formation
of the blastodermic vesicle, and of the pla-
centa. The descriptions of the later stages
of development are based on his own obser-
vations.

The sixth and final chapter describes the
development of the human embryo, and is,
of course, to a large extent, based on the re-
searches of His.

The author requests that human embryos
of any age, but more particularly those of
the first month or six weeks, be wrapped in
cotton, placed in a bottle of strong alcohol,
and sent to him at Owens College.

We note, especially in the earlier part
of the book, a duplication of illustrations:
thus Figures 1 and 45 ; 2 and 14 ; 3 and 46,
47, 48, 49, and 50 ; 4 and 97 ; 5 and 102 ;
6 and 103 ; 7 and 105 ; 8 and 25 ; and 9 and
26, are identical.

The book is clearly written in English
rather than Anglicized German, and there is
a most agreeable omission of German terms
that mar the harmony of some of the recent
works on embryology. Long quotations and
discussions of mooted points are avoided, the
author apparently seeking to present that

LITERARY NOTICES.

703

that will facilitate the work of the student.
We believe that the volume will become a
popular text-book on the subject.

A HISTORY OF CRUSTACEA. RECENT MALACOS-
TRACA. By Rev. THOMAS R. R. STEBBING,
M. A. With Numerous Illustrations.
New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1893.
Pp. 466. Price, $2. Being No. 71 of
the International Scientific Series.

IN the preface to this work the author
says that his ambition was to prepare a vol-
ume " to which beginners in the subject will
have recourse, and one which experienced
observers may willingly keep at hand for re-
freshment of the memory and ready refer-
ence." He has succeeded eminently well in
carrying out that project; for, besides giving
the classification, physiology, habits, and de-
scription of some thousands of Crustacea,
Mr. Stebbing has added several new species
to the already voluminous list of crustaceans,
and made interesting reading of what stu-
dents and beginners so often find dreary and
unentertaining.

The chapter entitled " Specimens " con-
tains some very useful information on the
collection of Crustacea for examination, and
the author rather humorously points out that
even at the breakfast table examples of three
very distinct orders can be obtained " in -a
dishful of prawns." In the same chapter he
explains the best methods of capturing crus-
tacea, and tells of some new genera which
are found at the enormous depth of three
thousand and fifty feet.

The chapters on the various tribes,
legions, and families of the suborders Ma-
crura and jBrachyura, . which contain among
them the edible crab, lobster, shrimp, etc.,
are full of interesting and valuable in-
formation, and the author has in many in-
stances corrected the errors of former natu-
ral historians who named certain mem-
bers of the smaller crustaceans before they
had properly developed from the larval
stage. Mr. Stebbing also bemoans "the
hard fate of natural historians," particu-
larly beginners, for he says that the con-
fusion of names would sometimes deter a
timid person from pursuing the study. He
believes in the simplest possible nomencla-
ture, and he has himself endeavored to sim-
plify his work by making it easily under-
stood by those who are inexperienced. The

chapters on the habits of the cocoanut crab
(Birgos) and of the various kinds of land
crabs will be read with very great interest
by all classes of people, apart from those
who are engaged in the study of the crus-
tacea. As a matter of fact, the entertaining
manner in which the author tells of the
curious habits of these most curious animals,
of their strangely developed instincts, and of
their general modes of living, makes more
interesting reading than is generally found
in such exhaustive scientific works.

The vexed question of the position and ex-
istence of eyes in some of the crustaceans ia
finally set at rest in this work. Mr. Stebbing
also proves beyond question that the crab uses
the bases of his walking legs as mandibles — a
fact which has heretofore been accepted only
in theory by a few scientists. In describing
the latter peculiarity of the edible and other
species of crab, the author humorously re-
marks that, although it may seem as strange
for a crab to use his feet for the purpose of
mastication as it would be for a human being
to have his teeth upon his elbow for a simi-
lar purpose, it is nevertheless a fact indispu-
tably proved. Over three thousand species of
crustaceans are defined in this volume, which
can not fail to interest the general reader, as
well as being of much importance to the
student and as a book of reference.

ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM. By EDWIN J.
HOUSTON. Pp. 306. — ELECTRICAL MEAS-
UREMENTS. By EDWIN J. HOUSTON. Pp.
429. Price, $1. New York : The W. J.
Johnston Co., 1893.

THERE are already so many elementary
books on electrical subjects, addressed either
to the student or the general public, that a
new book must needs have distinctive merit
to justify its publication. This is possessed
in an eminent degree by the above collection
of primers from the pen of Prof. Houston.
He has the gift of lucid exposition, and is,
moreover, thoroughly familiar with his sub-
ject. Not the least of the merit of his expo-
sition is his interpretation of the phenomena
in the light of more recent electric theory,
which has undergone marked changes hi the
past few years. Each book consists of a
collection of chapters complete in itself,
which the author terms a primer, the closing
chapter being a brief review of all the oth-

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ers, and termed a primer of primers. A fea-
ture of the work is the appending to each
primer of one or more extracts from current
electrical works on the subject matter of the
primer.

In electricity and magnetism the author
deals with the sources and phenomena of
static and current electricity and magnetism.
His statement of the theories of magnetism
is a particularly clear and concise summing
up of the present views of the subject, and
it is to be regretted that he did not under-
take to do the same with the theories of the
electric current. In the primer on atmos-
pheric electricity our quite limited knowledge
of the subject is presented concisely, though
it is to be noted that the author follows the
accepted views of lightning protection, and
gives no hint of the recent important experi-
ments and theories of Prof. Lodge on this
subject.

The second of the books takes its name
from the first three primers, which are de-
voted to the measurement of electric cur-
rents, electro-motive force and resistance, and
are concerned with an account of how these
measurements are made.

The voltaic cell forms the subject of one
primer, and thermo-electric batteries of an-
other. The distribution of electricity by con-
tinuous currents and the arc and the incan-
descent light are considered in three primers.
In the primer devoted to the alternating cur-
rent a brief account is given of the modern
theory of such a current ; and in a primer on
alternating currents of high frequency there
is an excellent summary of the remarkable
experiments of Tesla with such currents. A
primer is devoted to induction coils and
transformers, one to dynamos, another to the
electric motor, and another to the electric
transmission of power. Other primers are
on electro-dynamics, electro-dynamic induc-
tion, and alternating current distribution.
The books are printed on good paper, in
clear type, and are of convenient size.

ORIGINAL PAPERS ON DYNAMO MACHINERY
AND ALLIED SUBJECTS. By JOHN HOP-
KINSON, F. R. S. New York : The W. J.
Johnston Co., 1893. Pp.249. Price, $4.

THE researches of Dr. Hopkinson on
electro-technical subjects, more especially
those upon the dynamo, have long been

recognized as of the highest importance,
both for their theoretical interest and for
their value in the bearing they have upon
the work of the practical constructor. The
papers in which these researches have been
described have heretofore been accessible
only in the proceedings of scientific societies
and in the technical journals, and are now
for the first time collected in the present
volume. The collection consists of eleven
papers, five of which are devoted to the
dynamo, in which are developed the theory
and use of what has come to be known as
the " characteristic curve of the dynamo."
This curve expresses the relation between
the current and electro-motive force of a
dynamo at a given speed — the horizontal dis-
tances or abscissas representing the amount
of current, and the ordinates th6 electro-
motive forces — and in the hands of Dr. Hop-
kinson has been found capable of giving a
solution to all the complicated questions of
practical dynamo construction. Other papers
are : Some Points in Electric Lighting, the
Theory of Alternating Currents, the Theory
of the Alternate-Current Dynamos, and a re-
port upon the Westinghouse transformers.
In the first of these a very interesting me-
chanical illustration is given of the facts of
electrical induction by means of a model,
first suggested by the late Prof. Clerk Max-
well, and in the second the proper method of
coupling up alternating dynamos in a supply
circuit is pointed out, and the conditions for
the most efficient action determined. Alike
to the student and the practical dynamo de-
signer these papers will prove of the greatest
value, and will form a desirable if not essen-
tial addition to his technical library.

IDLE DAYS IN PATAGONIA. By W. H. HUD-
SON. New York: D. Appleton & Co.
Pp. 256. Price, $4.

THE author of The Naturalist in La Plata
gives us in this volume some further ac-
count of his wanderings hi South America.
He calls himself an "idler" here, being
made such by an accidental pistol-shot which
kept him for some time from active explora-
tion. Yet, though unable to go far afield,
Mr. Hudson gathered many curious observa-
tions and much store of entertaining anecdote
during his idle days. The reader will learn
from these chapters that Patagonia is not

LITERARY NOTICES.

7°5

wholly a wild, inhospitable tract, inhabited
by wandering savages, but that the northern
part, at least, is a grazing country, with set-
tlements and white inhabitants, much like
the adjoining districts of the Argentine Re-
public. He will learn also something about
the natural products of the land, its climate
life among the settlers, the Indians, the wild
animals, and most of all, for the author is an
ornithologist, about the birds. In the culti-
vated valley of the Rio Negro there are birds
in plenty — mocking-birds, several varieties of
finches, wood-hewers, swallows, and among
larger fowls the upland geese, owls, vultures,
condors, ostriches, swans, and flamingoes
Mr. Hudson does not write like a teacher nor
like a restless searcher after discoveries, but
rather like one telling of a pleasant vacation ;
hence it is safe to predict for him many de-
lighted readers. The book has been fully
and pleasingly illustrated by Alfred Hartley
and J. Smit.

EVOLUTION AND MAN'S PLACE IN NATURE. By
HENRY CALDERWOOD, LL. D., F. R. S. E.,
Professor of Moral Philosophy, Univer-
sity of Edinburgh. New York and Lon-
don: Macmillan & Co., 1893. Pp. 349.
Price, $2.

IN the opening chapter of this work Prof.
Calderwood says that " the general accept-
ance of Darwin's theory of evolution gives
force to the demand for discussion of this
problem." The author uses the sentence
just quoted as a reason for writing the book.
He accentuates that sentence by stating, on
page 2, that " whatever limitations are to be
assigned to the theory, we must at least
grant that a law of evolution has had con-
tinual application in the world's history";
and he adds that in the matter of elucidating
the phenomena "the researches of Charles
Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace have led
the way."

It is not easy to understand how such a
man as Prof. Calderwood could have fallen
into the too common error of attributing
priority to Darwin in connection with the
doctrine of evolution. Herbert Spencer pub-
lished his essay on the Development Hy-
pothesis in 1852; in 1855 the Principles of
Psychology, an application of the doctrine of
evolution to mental phenomena, followed
from the same pen; and, finally, in 1857, or
two years before the appearance of Darwin's
VOL. XLIII. — 51

Origin of Species, Mr. Spencer published
Progress : its Law and Causes, which was
devoted to the discussion of imiversal evolu-
tion.

Nevertheless, Prof. Calderwood's work is
an ably argued treatise on the subject, and
oddly enough, in the chapters on Sensory and
Rational Discrimination and Rational Life,
he quotes from the earlier works of Mr.
Spencer to substantiate his own attempted
refutation of the Darwinian theory. At the
outset he asks, " How has he (man) found
his place on the summit of existence, and
what has he done since coming to his herit-
age ? " Then follows a chapter on the char-
acteristics of human life, in which the con-
trasts between organic and rational life are
treated; the author asserting that intelli-
gence alone makes man the master in Na-
ture ; that in human activity " dualism of
function is complete''—!, e., both rational
and organic life — whereas "evidence fails
when we look for independent action of in-
telligence in animals." And he continues:
" We do not find that any of them " (animals)
" in their natural state rise above interpre-
tation of signs."

The chapter on Sensory and Rational
Discrimination presents forcible argument
demonstrative of this duality of function
culminating in man's possession of rational
power, by virtue of which "every member
of the race goes forth on his way as a free
man, taking possession of his inheritance in
the earth. For every man who does not lose
his way in darkness or through blinding
passion ... a rich possession is waiting,
quite above supply of the common require-
ments of organic life. Science is his serv-
ant, literature is his property, philosophy is
his guide in higher thought, revelation be-
comes his inspiration. Under warrant of
abundant evidence, we distinguish two worlds
in Nature — the world of matter and the
world of mind ; a world visible to the eye,
a world invisible to organism — visible only
to rational insight. . . . Thinkers of quite
opposite schools are agreed that there is no
possible science of Nature which does not
distinguish between the material and the
spiritual, between that which is known by
sense and that which is known in conscious-
ness. Nature's testimony admits of no doubt
as to the reality of these separate spheres."

706

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The chapter on Animal and Rational Intelli-
gence is a searching examination of the dif-
ference between the two kinds, or rather
three kinds, for a distinction is made be-
tween the intelligence of the higher and that
of lower animals. A weakness is found
in the argument for evolution of mind ; for
to prove it "we must open a road from
sensory impressions to ideas of objects, and
from these to general abstract ideas, and
this must be such a road as the higher mam-
mals could find for themselves before man's
appearance on the earth. Here is the es-
sential test of an all-embracing scheme of
evolution; to account for interpretation of
sensory experience . . . this problem sepa-
rates us from much that has been already
assured in natural history, strongly favoring
evolution." The argument, as to man, is con-
tinued in the chapter on Rational Life, where
the science of mind is found to outstretch
the science of biology, and man's life to be
superior to all animal life, possessing powers
which are not shared by the animals ; having
possibilities and a destiny peculiar to him-
self, impossible to organic life, even to the
organism which is part of his own being.
This conclusion as to the inability of biol-
ogy to present a science of human life " is
reached by all that biology has to offer by
way of explanation." All that has been
demonstrated as to the action of the nerve
system and of the brain is accepted and
turned to full use, but it " carries no ex-
planation of the activities of the rational
life."

The lines of investigation pursued do not
include any examination of Christianity as a
supernatural religion, but only as a spiritual
force contributing to the advance of the
race, certain of the characteristics of which
" have wielded a mighty influence in the
course of the ages."

Summing up his investigations of the the-
ories of Darwin, Wallace, and their followers,
the author claims that the origin of man is
completely severed from the scheme of or-
ganic evolution. " Man has his place in a
physical system within which all is subject to
decay and death ; he has his place in a spirit-
ual system, within which is no trace of death,
but promise of continuity beyond the present
state. Evolution has turned attention on
different phases of the origin of existence

on the earth. It helps us better to see how
varied these origins have been." But it is
insufficient to account for life itself. It
stands " before us an impressive reality in
the history of Nature. But this evolution is
only a limited cycle, within the greater cycle
of Being and its history," and all leads to
the conclusion that " there is a power oper-
ating continually in Nature, which does not
come within range of the observation possi-
ble to scientific modes and appliances, yet to
which science is ever indirectly bearing wit-

THE POLITICAL VALUE OF HISTORY. By W.
E. H. LECKY, LL. D., D. C. L. New
York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 57. Price,
75 cents.

THIS is a reprint of a lecture delivered
before the Birmingham and Midland Insti-
tute, of which the author is president. The
words of such a man as Mr. Lecky, on the
value of history as a precedent for guid-
ing political policy to-day, can not fail to be
of value. The question is one which has
by no means always been answered affirma-
tively, and one which in recent times has
been much argued.

Mr. Lecky first shows how history arose
and what was its original function, and then
briefly traces its development as a science
down to the present century. That he has
taken a judicial attitude is shown by the fol-
lowing passage : " Nor will any wise man
judge the merits of existing institutions
solely on historic grounds. Do not persuade
yourself that any institution, however great
may be its antiquity, however transcendent
may have been its uses in a remote past, can
permanently justify its existence, unless it
can be shown to exercise a really beneficial
influence over our own society and our age.
It is equally true that no institution which is
exercising such a beneficial influence should
be condemned because it can be shown
from history that under other conditions and
hi other times its influence was rather for
evil than for good." He dwells on the ne-
cessity for understanding the " dominant
idea or characteristic of the period " which
the student is investigating; "what forces
chiefly ruled it, what forces were then rising
into a dangerous ascendency, and what forces
were on the decline." He speaks of the im-

LITERARY NOTICES.

707

portance of the history of institutions, their
changes to meet new wants, and their inevi-
table fall, although, perhaps, by a process of
slow decay, upon failure to adapt themselves
to new requirements. He says : " There is
probably no better test of the political
genius of a nation than the power which it
possesses of adapting old institutions to new
wants." Next he considers the value of a
study of the great revolutions, discussing the
two theories extant as to their causes- and
possible avoidance. "My own view of this
question," he says, "is that although there
are certain streams of tendency, though there
is a certain steady and orderly evolution
that it is impossible in the long run to resist,
yet individual action and even mere accident
have borne a very great part in modifying
the direction of history." Having charac-
terized history as one of the best schools for
that kind of reasoning which is most useful
in practical life, teaching men to weigh con-
flicting probabilities, to estimate degrees of
evidence, to form a sound judgment of the
value of authorities, Mr. Lecky concludes
by observing that its most precious lessons
are moral ones. It expands the range of
our vision and teaches us, hi judging the
true interests of nations, to look beyond the
immediate future. A perusal of this little
book will well repay the general reader and
be especially valuable to those engaged in
the study or teaching of history.

THE INTERPRETATION OF NATURE. By NA-
THANIEL S. SHALER, Professor of Geology
in Harvard University. Boston and New
York : Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Pp. 305.
Price, $1.25.

HOWEVER widely apart the theologian and
naturalist may be at the present moment, the
time is not far distant, according to Prof.
Shaler, when they may stand upon common
ground. In the next century science may
even people the unknown with powers justly
inferred from their manifestations. There
will be no longer a natural and a supernatural
realm, but one universe " through which the
spirit of man ranges with ever-increasing
freedom."

We may trace the evolution of scientific
inquiry to the germ of curiosity evinced by
the lower animals. The early races of men
attributed the control of Nature to spirits like

themselves. These were gradually endowed
with greater powers until the idea of a hier-
archy of gods was reached, and among the
more intellectual nations this culminated in
monotheism. Theologic explanations, how-
ever, could not satisfy the interrogative im-
pulse possessed by the Aryan race, and espe-
cially by the Greeks. The want of scientific
interest shown by the Romans is ascribed by
the author to a different racial inheritance,
and the long period of unquestioning quiet
is not charged to the soporific influence of
Church authority so much as to a religious
bent derived from Semitic ancestors. With
the revival of learning came the resurrection
of inquiry, and to the system of Aristotle the
moderns added the method of verification by
experiment.

The naturalist is generally too apt to look
upon the course of Nature as invariable, since
he knows that any physical state is the re-
sultant of previous conditions, and that the
quantities of force and matter are unalter-
able. There are, however, phenomena which
can not be predicted, the outcome of revolu-
tionary changes that transcend experience.
The crises at which these .occur are termed
critical points, and are typified by the point
at which an orbit passes from the parabolic
to the hyperbolic form. Similar results fol-
low alterations in temperature and the mani-
festation of latent inheritances.

In considering the march of the genera-
tions it is seen that the psychic progress of
man is unparalleled by anything in the evo-
lution of species. The generations are also
bound together by vast stores of experience
and knowledge, which the human race accu-
mulates and transmits in various ways to the
young, so that great advance is made pos-
sible.

Man owes his moral development to the
exercise of altruistic motives — sympathy with
his kind, with animals, with God and Nature.
We can follow these to lowly beginnings, but
can not account for their growth by any the-
ory of selection. The determinative influ-
ences are hidden, " unless we assume a law
of moral advance."

As to the immortality of the soul, " it is
easier to suppose that an individual mind can
be perpetuated after death in a natural man-
ner than to explain the phenomena of inher-
itance." The naturalist thus finds that, in

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

order to interpret the latent powers of a
molecule, or the transmission of organic
tendencies, he must assume the intangible,
and endow matter with a sort of soul. He
also derives from his study of Nature motives
that are moral and a confidence akin to faith.
This is close upon religious territory, and the
preacher may utilize it.

The substance of this volume was first
presented in lecture form at Andover. It is
suggestive, and teaches a form of monism,
though scarcely such as Prof. Haeckel would
indorse.

HORTICULTURE. Ten Lectures delivered for
the Surrey County Council. By J.
WRIGHT, F. R. H. S. With Thirty-seven
Illustrations. Pp. 154. New York :
Macmillan & Co. Price, 35 cents.

THIS "Primer of Horticulture" is de-
signed as an introduction to a scientific and
practical study of gardening and fruit-grow-
ing, either for the small householder, who
enjoys the care of his seven-by-nine piece of
ground, or for the farmer to whom the best
and most economical methods are matters of
" dollars and cents."

The first lecture is devoted to the ques-
tion of land allotments, with which we in the
United States are not concerned. The sec-
ond lecture is headed The Soil, its Nature,
Preparation, and Improvement. This chap-
ter contains in clear and concise language
matter of the first importance to every
farmer — matter, in fact, without which the
tiller of the soil is as much handicapped as
was the compassless mariner — matter usually,
however, locked up in large, expensive, and
technical works, and therefore not at the
command of the working farmer. Lecture III
is devoted to the raising of " crops, plants,
and trees," and includes, among many other
important matters, a history of the seed from
its formation to the development into a new
plant ; a description of the various methods
of grafting, and the why and wherefore of
fertilization. Lecture IV treats of the
Food of Crops — Manuring the Soil, and,
like Lecture II, is full of practical instruc-
tion. The Enemies of Crops and Trees, in
the shape of weeds, birds, insects, fungi,
etc., are next considered. Lecture VI deals
with the very important part of the farmer's
work — planting. In Lectures VII and VIII

what are the most profitable crops is the
question answered. Lecture IX considers
the Preservation and Disposal of Garden
Produce, including Flowers and Fruit; and
Lecture X closes the book with a talk on
the desirability of exhibitions and fairs and
the necessity for high ideals in garden-
ing. The construction of the work is admi-
rable, and it might be read with profit by
many scientific men as a model for popular
scientific exposition. Great care has been
taken to select the most important aspects
of the topic discussed, the essential facts
being presented in clear and untechnical
language, while the subject is not overbur-
dened with detail.

HOW TO KNOW THE WlLD FLOWERS. By

Mrs. WILLIAM STARR DANA. New York :
Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 298. Price,
$1.50.

THIS title will attract the attention of
lovers of Nature, especially if they are able
to spend the summer months in the country.
An acquaintance with natural history, even
if it be slight, unquestionably adds very much
to the pleasure of out-of-door life, rendering
interesting, localities which but for their ani-
mal and vegetable forms would be quite the
reverse, and making doubly pleasurable a
sojourn in a region where scenic beauties are
also present. The author's purpose has been
to give the reader a " bowing acquaintance
with the common wild flowers of our woods
and fields " ; but, while the attempt is well
meant, we can not say that it is a success.
There are descriptions of most of the com-
mon wild flowers of the Middle States, with
the exception of " flowers so common as to
be generally recognized," " flowers so incon-
spicuous as generally to escape notice," and
" rare flowers and escapes from gardens."
But the descriptions, particularly of essential
parts, resemble those in Gray's Manual, and
are too short and technical for the unin-
structed observer. What remains is more of
a literary than a scientific character, there
being considerable poetry and more or less
sentimental comment. The illustrations, of
which there are one hundred and four, are
not at all satisfactory as an aid in identifica-
tion, the purpose for which they are intended.
A classification based on colors is introduced
which is necessarily of little value, as the

LITERARY NOTICES.

709

colors of flowers shade off so imperceptibly
into one another, and are at the same time
so variegated and inconstant, that they are
likely to mislead even the trained observer.

The book will do good, however, if it in-
cites to the study of a department of Nature
which more than any other is calculated to
stimulate the powers of observation.

THE SILVER SITUATION IN THE UNITED STATES.
By F. W. TAUSSIG, Ph. D., Professor of
Political Economy in Harvard University.
New York and London : G. P. Putnam's
Sons, 1893. Pp. 133. Price, 75 cents.

THIS work is divided into two parts. The
first discusses the history of the " silver legis-
lation " and the economic conditions which
have been brought about by the adoption of
a silver currency in 1878. The second por-
tion of the book considers the arguments in
favor of a silver standard. In the chapters
under the general title, The Economic Sit-
uation, Prof. Taussig closely analyzes the
movements of gold and silver during the
last fourteen years. He does not believe
that the gold reserve of $100,000,000, fixed
as the minimum by Congress, can very meas-
urably be increased, and he attributes the
decrease in the amount of gold held by the
Treasury— from $190,000,000 in 1890 to
$108,000,000 at the beginning of the present
year — to the fact that " the great sums due
the United States by foreign countries " are
not paid for by the return of gold, but by
"the transmission of American securities
held by foreign investors and sent by them
for sale in the United States." He claims
that the Treasury estimate of the stock of
gold in the United States is many millions
of dollars " in excess of the actual stock."
Having summarized the arguments in favor
of silver, quoting the very words of those
who present them, " as compared with com-
modities silver has been more steady in
value than gold," and that, "so far as the
attainment of the closest possible approach
to the ideal justice is concerned, a silver
standard would have served the purpose bet-
ter than a gold one " — the author offers as
a simple answer to them the facts he has
recited in his preceding pages, and says that
the silver men "have not made out their
case against the existing order of things.
There are no serious evils due to an insuffi-

cient supply of money." These and other
negative reasons apply to the arguments of
those who favor international bimetallism
and of those who favor the independent use
of silver by the United States. When we
consider the importance not only of stability
in the medium of exchange, but of general
confidence in that stability, these and other
negative names which are mentioned ought
to suffice for rejecting the proposals of the
silver advocates. But there are positive
reasons in addition. The eventual effect of
a silver standard must be to cause a rise in
prices — not immediate, but certain. This,
while the present tendency to falling in
prices, with stationary or rising incomes,
work no hardships to debtors, would be
fraught with real and serious inconveniences
to creditors. Other positive reasons lie in
the conditions of the production and use of
silver at the present time, which are in-
creasing with extraordinary rapidity. An-
other objection to a change to a silver stand-
ard is the immorality of the disposition to
tamper with the currency as a remedy for
real or fancied evils. Gold, on the other
hand, performs the functions of a measure
of value and a standard of value with as
close an approach to perfection as there is
any reasonable ground for expecting from
any monetary system. For these reasons
the schemes proposed for a tabular or mul-
tiple standard of value do not seem called
for by any serious exigency not met by the
gold standard. The book contains some
useful comparative statistics and a compre-
hensive chart of fluctuations in gold and
silver.

TELEPHONE LINES AND THEIR PROPERTIES. By
Prof. W. J. HOPKINS. New York : Long-
mans, Green & Co., 1893. Pp. 258.
Price, $1.50.

THIS is a work which has for its object a
more complete account than has yet been
given of the telephone line, not only its me-
chanical construction, but its electrical prop-
erties, and the way telephonic transmission
is affected by telegraphic and other electric
currents. The range of subjects comprise a
brief account of overhead construction in
city lines, and a somewhat full one of under-
ground work, in which the relative advan-
tages and disadvantages of various kinds of

7io

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

conduits are considered. Long-distance lines,
the various kinds of wire suitable for tele-
phone use, insulators, and the exchange sys-
tem are among the subjects treated of in the
part of the book devoted to the mechanical
construction of telephone lines. A chapter
upon the propagation of energy, in which a
brief account is given of the modern view of
electric currents, precedes the consideration
of the electrical properties of the telephone
line. Among the subjects discussed in this
portion of the work are self-induction, inter-
ference from outside sources — such as air
and earth currents — telegraphic induction
and induction from electric lighting and rail-
way circuits, properties of metallic circuits
and of cables. The work is written for the
practical telephone constructor and for stu-
dents, and will doubtless prove a valuable
work of reference.

HOW TO MANAGE THE DYNAMO. By S. R.

BOTTONE. New York and London : Hac-
millan & Co., 1893. Pp. 63. Price, 60
cents.

THIS little manual is addressed to those
who have the care of dynamos, and is clearly
and directly written and free from all techni-
calities. Instructions are given as to proper-
ly setting the machine so as to avoid vibra-
tion, and the different parts — the field mag-
nets, armature, and commutator — are briefly
described, and instruction given for their
proper care. Simple methods of determin-
ing and locating leaks are also given. The
book closes with a list of the chief electrical
terms, and is provided with an index.

THE TRANSMITTED WORD. By W. J. KEENAN
and JAMES RILEY. Boston: Dorchester
Printing Co., 1893i Pp. 113. Price, 75
cents.

THE authors of this essay state its pur-
pose in the preface as follows :

" To know somewhat of the application of
this great force, which man has discovered
and called electricity, these pages are writ-
ten. They are free of all technical terms.
Simplicity has been the constant aim. The
student's text-book on electricity has been
written. The public's book has not been
written. And, as we are taught to know
ourselves, so should we know the forces that
surround us. Especially so if we use these
forces. Every subscriber of the telephone

should know the rudiments of its action-
This is why this book is put forward. It is
intended as a primer in telephonic and other
kindred instruction. . . ."

This purpose of the authors is laudable
enough, and, if it had been adhered to, they
might possibly have produced a useful book.
Their real aim seems, however, to have been
to give an exhibition of what they probably
regard as fine writing, using the telephone as
an excuse for their literary effort. The book
is written throughout in the most approved
style of sophomoric composition, and con-
tains very little real information about the
telephone. The reader who had no previous
knowledge of the subject would have a hard
time indeed in trying to get any clear ideas
of the Blake transmitter or induction from
the description of the authors. The book
has, however, one great merit. It is short.

MAN AND THE STATE. Lectures and Discus-
sions before the Brooklyn Ethical Associa-
tion. New York : D. Appleton & Co.
1892. Pp. 558. Price, $2.

THIS volume of lectures and addresses
before the Brooklyn Ethical Society is de-
voted especially to subjects of current polit-
ical discussion, such as the tariff, the mone-
tary question, the negro problem, the gov-
ernment of cities, and kindred subjects. To
those who are familiar with the discussions
before the society, or who have become ac-
quainted with the character of the work
from its previous publications, no word of
commendation of the quality of these papers
is necessary. The addresses are thoughtful
and serious discussions of current political
and economic questions, and can not fail to
be welcomed by all who take an intelligent
interest in public affairs. It would be im-
practicable to attempt to give here either a
resumb or criticism of the dozen and a half
addresses which compose the volume, though
some features of interest may be briefly in-
dicated. The volume was published last
year, previous to the presidential election,
and the addresses were selected chiefly with
reference to the questions before the coun-
try during the campaign. We have there-
fore a discussion of the tariff from the side
of both protection and free trade, a plea
for sound money, and a defense of each
of the great political parties. The free-

LITERARY NOTICES.

711

trade side of the tariff question is presented
by Mr. Thomas G. Shearman, and calls for
no special comment, as he presents only the
well-known considerations in favor of indus-
trial freedom. His opponent, Prof. Gunton,
however, attempts to defend protection on
philosophic grounds and erect it into a per-
manent system instead of leaving it in the
position of a temporary expedient, applicable
only to the infancy of industries. He re-
gards protection a means of maintaining the
wage level of a country, by forcing a com-
peting country to pay in duties an amount
which will put it on the same basis as the
country of higher wages. The tariff can in
justice therefore be only sufficient to cover the
difference in wages of the competing coun-
tries— a condition, it need hardly be said,
that would not suit our tariff beneficiaries
at all. Dr. Lewis G. Janes contributes a
thoughtful paper upon the problem of city
government, which is concerned mainly with
pointing out the difficulties of the problem
rather than with suggestions as to the solu-
tion. He insists, however, that the proper
form of city government must be a matter of
growth, shaped and determined by our po-
litical life, and that the example of foreign
cities can be of but little use in helping us
to solve the problem of American city gov-
ernment. Other essays of interest are Mr.
John A. Taylor's defense of the independent
in politics, Prof. Le Conte's discussion of the
race problem hi the South, the monetary
problem by William Potts, and representa-
tive government by Edwin D. Mead.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Aber, Mary Ailing. Souls. Chicago : The au-
thor, 144 Monroe Street. Pp. 176. For distribu-
tion.

Alamo City Philatelic Society, San Antonio,
Texas. Annual Report. Pp. 54.

Allen, Harrison, M. D. North American Bats.
United States National Museum. Pp. 31 .

Allen, John A. Check List of the Plants in
Gray's Manual. Cambridge, Mass. : Herbarium
of Harvard University. Pp. 130.

American Chemical Society Journal, Vol. XV,
No. 2. Pp. 60.

American Philosophical Society. Proceedings,
April, May, June, 1893. Pp. 96.

Avalon Summer Assembly, Avalon, N. J. AT-
rtngement of Courses, Session of 1893.

Baker, Mr. Edward. Handbook of Publica-
tions, etc., connected with the Development of the
Railway System. Birmingham, England. Pp. 128.

Baker, M. N. Sewage Purification in Amer-
ica. New York : Engineering News Publishing
Co. Pp. 196, with Platee.

Blatchley, W. S. On a Collection of Batra-
chians and Reptiles from Mount Orizaba, Mexico.
United States National Museum. Pp. 6.

Blyth. J. Walter. Lectures on Sanitary Law.
Macmillan & Co. Pp. 287. $2.50.

Boehmer, George H. Prehistoric Naval Archi-
tecture of the North of Europe. United States
Naval Museum. Pp. 120.

Brigham, Albert P., Hamilton, N. Y. The Fin-
ger Lakes of New York. Pp. 21.

Conklin, Henry. Practical Lessons in Lan-
guage. American Book Co. Pp. 139. 85 cents.

Colgate University. Department of Geology
and Natural History. Circular of Information.
Pp. 12.

Cook, A. J. Birds of Michigan. Michigan
Agricultural Experiment Station. Pp. 148.

Cragin, F. W. A Contribution to the Inverte-
brate Paleontology of the Texas Cretaceous. Aus-
tin. Pp. 112, with Twenty -two Plates.

Cyclopaedic Review of Current History. Quar-
terly. Buffalo, N. Y. : Garretson, Cox & Co. Pp.
214. 40 cents; $1.50 a year.

The Drexel Institute, Philadelphia. Descrip-
tions, with Photographs.

La Educaci6n Moderna (Modern Education).
Semimonthly. Colima, Mexico. Pp. 16.

Edwords, Clarence E. Camp-fires of a Natu-
ralist. D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 304. $1.50.

Eigenmann, Carl H. . Catalogue of the Fresh-
water Fishes of Central America and Southwest-
ern Mexico. United States National Museum.
Pp.8.

Eiloart, Arnold. A Guide to Stereochemistry.
Announcement. New York : Alexander Wilson,
26 Delancey Street.

Electrical Engineering. Monthly. Chicago.
Pp. 90. 25 cents. $5 a year.

Excise Reform Association. Annual Report.
1893. Thomas A. Fulton, Secretary, 90 Walker
Street, New York. Pp. 18.

Fewkes, J. Walter. A Central American Cere-
mony. Washington, D. C. Pp. 20, with Plates.

Forest Influences. United States Department
of Agriculture, Forestry Division. Pp. 197.

Foster, Michael, and others. The Journal of
Physiology. Vol. XIV. Nos. 4, 5, and 6. Pp.
110 and 150. with Plates.

General Electric Company, New York. Pic-
torial Folder.

Gibson, A. M., Assistant Geologist. Report
on the Geological Structure of Murphree's Valley,
Alabama, etc. Geological Survey of Alabama.
Pp. 132.

Greene, Nanci Lewis. Nance. New York and
Chicago : F. Tennyson Neely. Pp. 257.

Howard, W. L., M. D., Baltimore. Hypnotism
as a Therapeutic Agent. Pp. 36.

How should the English Language be Taught ?
Boston : D. C. Heath & Co. Pp. 102.

The Humanitarian. Monthly. London: Swan.
Sonnenschein & Co. Pp. 80. 10 cents.

Hutchinson, G. W. C. Some Hints on Learn-
ing to Draw. Macmillan & Co. Pp. 199. $2.25.

Huxley, Thomas H., F. R. S. The Romanes
Lecture on Evolution and Ethics. Macmillan &
Co. Pp. 57. 60 cents.

Illinois Wesleyan University. First Annual
Report of the Museum. Pp. 19.

Jackson, S. Commercial Arithmetic. Mac-
millan & Co. Pp.371. $1.10.

Keen, W. W. The Real Rewards of Medicine.
Pp. 4. — Laparotomy for Intestinal Paralysis, etc.
Pp. 4.— A Remarkable Ovarian Tumor. Pp. 3.

Kennedy, W. Geological Survey of Texas.
Report on Grimes, Brazos, and Robertson Coun-
ties. Pp. 84, with Charts.

Logan, Walter S., New York. The Siege of
Cuatla, the Bunker Hill of Mexico. Pp. 27.

712

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Lowell, James Russell. Conversations on some
of the Old Poets. Philadelphia: David McKay.
Pp. 294.

Mcllvaine, Charles. The Deadly and Minor
Poisons of Toadstools. Detroit, Mich.: George
S. Davis. Pp. 14.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Bos-
ton. Department of Naval Architecture. Pp. 15.

Merton, H. W. Descriptive Mentality. Pp.
100.

Metropolitan Museum of Art. Schools. Pro-
spectus, 1893-'94. Pp. 17.

Migula, Dr. W. Introduction to Practical
Bacteriology. Macmillan & Co. Pp. 247. $1.60.

Montadon, A. L. Notes on American Hemip-
tera Heteroptera. United States National Mu-
seum. Pp. 8.

Murphy, J. J. Natural Selection and Spiritual
Freedom. Macmillan & Co. Pp. 241. $1.75.

The Niagara Book. Illustrated. Announce-
ment. Buffalo : Underbill & Nichols.

Nisbet, John. British Forest Trees. Mac-
inillan&Co. Pp.352. $2.50.

Osann, A., and Streeruwitz, W. Reports on
Transpecos, Texas. Geological Survey of Texas.
Austin. Pp. 56, with Plates.

Owen, "Francis Browning." Columbian and
other Poems. Ann Arbor, Mich. : The Register
Publishing Co. Pp. 141.

Parker, T. Jeffery. William Kitchen Parker.
A Biographical Sketch. Macmillan & Co. Pp.
145. $1.50.

Picturesque Chicago and Guide to the World's
Fair. Hartford, Conn. : The Religious Herald.
Pp. 318, with Map.

Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind. Annual
Register, etc., 1892-'93. Pp. 120.

Rathbun, Mary J. Two Monographs on Crabs.
United States National Museum, Washington.
Pp. 40 and 36, with Plates.

Ridgway, Robert. United States National Mu-
seum. Two Supposed New Species of Swifts.
Pp. 2.— Supposed New Species of Odontophorus
from Southern Mexico. Pp. 2.

Rockwell, J. E. Shorthand Instruction and
Practice. United States Bureau of Education.
Pp. 205, with Plates.

Pp. 16.

Scientific Alliance of New York. Proceed-
ings of the Second Joint Meeting, March 27, 1893.
Pp. 37.

Scollick, J. W. United States National Mu-
seum. On the Making of Gelatin Casts. P. 1.

Shipley, Arthur E. ZoClogy of the Inverte-
brata. London: Adam and Charles Black. Pp.
458. $6.25.

Shufeldt, Dr. R. W. Nesting Habits of Galeo-
scoptes Caroliniensis (the Catbird). Pp. 2.— Notes
on the Trunk Skeleton of a Hybrid Grouse. Pp. 5.

Singeley, J. A., and Harris, G. D. Preliminary
Notes on the Artesian Wells of the Gulf Coastal
Slope, etc. Geological Survey of Texas, Austin.
Pp.32.

Slater Fund, John F. Proceedings of the
Trustees, 1893. Pp. 44.

Smith, Eugene A. The Clays of Alabama.
Pp. 10.

State Reservation at Niagara. Ninth Annual
Report of the Commissioners, 1891-'92. Pp. 87,
with Map and Plates.

Stejneger, Leonhard. United States National
Museum. Diagnosis of a New Californian Lizard.
Pp.1.

Suppression of Vice, New York Society for
the. Nineteenth Annual Report, 1893. Pp. 24.

Technical Society of the Pacific Coast, San
Francisco. Transactions, May 5, 1893. Pp. 82.

United States National Museum. Report for
1891. Pp. 869.

Whitman, C. O., and Allis, E. P., Editors-
Journal of Morphology, May, 1893. Pp. 148.

Winslow, Arthur, State Geologist. The Geol-
ogy and Mineral Products of Missouri. Pp. 20.

Yale University Observatory. Report for
1892-'93.

Youth's Companion. World's Fair Number.
Pp. 36. Illustrated. Price, 10 cents.

Zoological Society of Philadelphia. Twenty-
first Annual Report, March 21, 1893. Pp. 18.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

Explosion of Kitchen Boilers.— The most
common cause of the explosion of kitchen-
range boilers is frost. If the pipes are frozen
so that the steam raised by the fire can not es-
cape, the danger of an explosion is very great.
This should be prevented, where there is a lia-
bility of the pipes being frozen, by protecting
the pipes and apparatus generally from the
effects of frost. Protection may be given
by covering the pipes with hair felt. Some
boilers are in danger of explosion from the
failure of water supply ; but in the modern
system of cylinder the hot-water tank is not
entirely emptied, and a sufficient supply of
water is usually left to carry the fire several
hours. Boilers in districts where the water
is " hard " may fail in consequence of the
accumulation of an incrusted deposit within
them and the pipes, whereby the pipes may
be in time stopped up. The pipes, however,
usually give warning of this danger long de-
fore it becomes imminent, in the shape of vio-
lent noises and vibrations proceeding from
the apparatus, which become unendurable
and have to be removed before the explosion
takes place. Finally, a safety-valve is a sov-
ereign preventive of explosions from what-
ever cause.

The Australasian Association. — The next
meeting of the Australasian Association for
the Advancement of Science will be held in
Adelaide, South Australia, beginning Sep-
tember 25th. The meeting will be presided
over by Prof. Ralph Tate, of the University
of Adelaide. The presidents of sections will
be : Astronomy, Mathematics, and Physics —
H. C. Russell, Government Astronomer of
New South Wales ; Chemistry — C. N. Hake,
of Victoria; Geology and Mineralogy — Sir
James Hector, Director of the Geological

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

713

Survey of New Zealand ; Biology — C. W. De
Vis, of Brisbane; Geography — A. C. Mac-
Donald, of Victoria ; Ethnology and Anthro-
pology— Rev. S. Ella, of New South Wales ;
Economic Science and Agriculture — H. C. L.
Anderson, of New South Wales; Engineer-
ing and Architecture — J. R. Scott, of Canter-
bury, New Zealand ; Sanitary Science and
Hygiene — A. Mault, of Tasmania ; Mental
Science and Education — Henry Laurie, of
the University of Melbourne. The associa-
tion has been in existence since 1888. The
four previous meetings have been held at
Sydney, Melbourne, Christchurch, and Ho-
bart. The association has grown steadily
since its beginning and now numbers about
nine hundred members. The season of the
meeting — when spring is passing into sum-
mer— is recommended as being one of the
most favorable to visit South Australia, and
particularly attractive to naturalists.

Derelicts on the Ocean. — We gave sev-
eral months ago an account Of the wander-
ings of the derelict schooner W. L. White,
which, after having been abandoned not far
from New York in the great blizzard of
March, 1888, went ashore ten months after-
ward near the Hebrides, after having drifted
five thousand miles back and forth on the
Atlantic Ocean. The history of several other
vessels pursuing a similar career may be
found in the bulletins of our Hydrographic
Office. The schooner Twenty-one Friends,
abandoned in March, 1885, one hundred and
sixty miles from Chesapeake Bay, drifted
two thousand miles in four months, and was
seen near Cape Finisterre at the end of eight
months. The Ethel M. Davis drifted four
thousand four hundred miles in three hun-
dred and seventy days, and the David W.
Hunt four thousand eight hundred miles in
three hundred and forty-seven days, during
which she was seen by forty-one passing
ships. According to the United States
Wreck Chart of the North Atlantic, there
were forty-five derelict vessels in that ocean,
and more than half of them were in the route
of the transatlantic line steamers. These
waifs are very dangerous, for their positions
and courses are unknown, they are under no
control, and may appear at any unexpected
moment, at night or in a fog, or in storms,
to crash into and sink whatever vessels they

may meet. Possibly some of the steamers
that have been lost and left no record have
gone down after meeting with them.

Indo-f liina. — The whole region of Indo-
China, as the Hon. G. N. Curzon, M. P.,
pointed out in a lecture before the Royal
Geographical Society, is dominated by its
great rivers, and may be divided into the
mountain districts of the north, cleft by vast
gorges; and the low plains of the south,
mainly composed of alluvial deposits, where
the coast lands are steadily encroaching on
the sea. In the seventh century, Tongking,
now sixty miles inland, was on the coast. A
very remarkable feature, which gives parts
of the coast a beauty comparable with that
of the Inland Sea of Japan, is a broken belt
of limestone cut into curious, flat-topped sec-
tions of all sizes, and perforated by the sea
or rivers with many fantastic caves and tun-
nels. The masses of caverned rock rise to a
height of from fifty to five hundred feet, and
are best seen in the Bay of Along in Tong-
king. In Annam Mr. Curzon traveled to Hue
by the " Mandarin's Road," a track which is
carried over several cols by some skillful
engineering in the form of rock staircases.
Hue is a city of great interest, is beautifully
situated, and is near a number of magnifi-
cent ancient tombs.

Mongol Waterworks. — The city of Au-
rungabad, India, is supplied with water by a
system constructed three hundred years ago
by Malik Umber, the Viceroy of Shah Jehan.
Though the water came regularly, no one in
recent times had determined the source of
the supply. All that was known was that
the water came from the stone image of a
bull situated seventy feet above the level of
the town, while further search was defeated
by the superstition of the natives. The mat-
ter has been recently investigated by Mr.
Beveridge, an engineer in the service of the
Nizam, who found that the Gya Mookh, as it
was called, was supplied by a pipe and a cov-
ered channel. This channel was traced up
for a considerable distance, but the work
was suspended on account of unhealthy ema-
nations and the difficulties interposed by
superstition. It was resumed by another
engineer, Mr. Massett, who found that the
channel crossed the Ursool River by a si-

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

phon made of cut stone pipes, and ended a
short distance thence in a large infiltration
gallery, the roof of which is arched over with
brick, supported by the natural sides of the
excavation formed of trap rock. This gal-
lery, which is 9,460 feet long, is twelve feet
below the bed of the river, and evidently ob-
tains its supply from subterranean stores from
the subsoil rock on its way to its natural
outlet, the river. The position of the gal-
lery has been chosen with great astuteness,
which shows that the engineer of Malik Um-
ber knew exactly what he was about. Be-
hind it stretch hills surrounded by table
land, having an area of twenty miles, with a
configuration that would argue that the col-
lecting area of the gallery must be at least
twelve square miles. The hills contract in
the direction of the river, till a semicircular
valley is formed bounded by the river TJr-
sool. The gallery has been so placed be-
tween the river and the hills as to form the
chord to the arc. The works are now dilapi-
dated, and do not furnish one third of the
supply of water for which they are calcu-
lated.

Hygienic Value of the Bicycle.— The bi-
cycle is highly commended as a hygienic in-
strument in a paper by Dr. Seneca Egbert on
that vehicle " in its relation to the physician "
— the relation, according to the author, being
apparently one of keeping the doctor away.
" In the first place," he says, " as an exercise
cycling is superior to most if not all others
at our command. It takes one into the out-
door air ; is entirely under control ; can be
made as gentle or as vigorous as one desires ;
is active and not passive ; takes the rider out
of himself and the thoughts and cares of his
daily work ; develops his will, his attention,
courage, and independence ; and makes pleas-
ant what is otherwise most irksome. More-
over, the exercise is well and equally distrib-
uted over almost the whole body, and, as
Parkes says, when all the muscles are exer-
cised no muscle is likely to be overexercised.
This general muscular exercise also has its
direct effect upon the other and vital organs
of the body, the heart, lungs, and digestive
organs especially ; and the improvement in
general health and digestion, after a few
weeks' riding, is by no means illusory or fleet-
ing. We all know that the trouble with

many of our patients is purely functional,
and that their maladies have been brought
on by lack of pure air, too little exercise,
and too much mental worry over their work
or business. For these the bicycle furnishes
an agreeable remedy." It is thus recom-
mended specifically for venous or anaemic
dyspepsia, torpor of the liver and intestines ;
for tuberculous diathesis, incipient consump-
tion, nervous troubles, rheumatic disorders ;
and " is destined to be of great benefit to
women. It gets them out of doors, gives
them a form of exercise adapted to their
needs, neither too violent not too passive, one
very pleasant withal that they may enjoy in
company with others or alone, and one that
goes to the root of their nervous troubles."
A correct position in bicycling is important ;
it is the upright one, and not " a posture re-
sembling a half-opened jackknife," which
cramps the chest and interferes with the flow
of blood. Excess either in quantity or in-
tensity of bicycle work must be avoided.

" Crocodile Tears."— The figure " croco-
dile tears " rests, it appears upon a real fact,
although the tears appertain more particu-
larly to the snake. According to the expla-
nation of the matter offered by Mr. R. H.
Burne, of the Royal College of Surgeons, the
eye of the snake is protected from dust, etc.,
by the eyelids, which are transparent and
joined to each other so as to form a layer of
skin between the eye and the outer lid ; in
other words, the snake always goes about
with its eyelids shut. Thus the real occupa-
tion of the tears is gone, there being no dust
on the surface of the eye to be washed off.
Instead, however, of the tear-gland being re-
duced in size, it is exceptionally large; in
some snakes, indeed, in which the eyes are
reduced and practically functionless, the
gland is some two or three times larger than
the whole eye. This peculiar state of affairs
was explained by the discovery that the gland
had lost its connection with the eye, and
opened through the mediation of the tear-
canal directly into the mouth, thus doubt-
less, by means of its secretion, making the
descent of Averuus smooth and easy to any
unfortunate creature that this snake may
have taken a fancy to. This is possibly not
quite what was meant by the fable of the
crocodile's tears, but it affords a curious

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

715

example of how very near a false popular
superstition may unwittingly come to the
truth.

The Limits of Parental Discipline.— The

point to which parental discipline may go
might be made a subject of fruitful study.
It is agreed, of course, that the child must
be trained and kept in a certain degree of
subjection for its own good and to prevent
its becoming a nuisance to society, and a
certain pliancy to the control of superiors
is, as a writer in an English journal well re-
marks, absolutely essential to the organization
of a household, a school, or a state. " Disci-
pline," this writer continues, " implies ready
obedience to orders of which the reason is
not understood ; but it should always rest
on the belief that these orders are given for
sufficient reasons, and not for the mere satis-
faction of those who give them in seeing
them obeyed." The theory of " breaking "
the will of the child, in which parents and
teachers indulge, is all wrong. The first
thing a superior has to learn " is that there
is no such thing as property in the character
of a human being ; that when the individu-
ality of a character has to be suppressed — and
of course the organization of society requires
that it must often be suppressed — it is sup-
pressed either for its own good or for the
good of others to whom consideration is due,
and that, beyond the limits of these obliga-
tions, individuality, far from being a hin-
drance and annoyance to be got rid of as
completely as possible, is a distinct gain to
the universe. The wish of some parents to
wield as much power over the wills and
characters of their children as they do over
the motions of the horses they ride or drive
is not only a foolish but an evil wish. To
get excellent instruments on which they can
perform as they would perform on a piano,
always eliciting exactly the particular vibra-
tion they desire and expect, is clearly not the
true object of family life. On the contrary,
character, far from being an instrument to
be performed on by others, should always be
a new source of life and originality, which no
one should be able to govern despotically
from the outside, and which, even from inside,
is in a great degree a mystery and a marvel to
him who has most power over it. The mere
notion of making character a kind of re-

peater, which responds by a given number
of strokes to the parent's touch, is a radi-
cally absurd one. What a parent ought to
wish for is, indeed, instant obedience to
orders given for the child's good, and an
eager intelligence in the child to trust its
parent; but beyond this, as much that is
distinct and individual, and that has a sep-
arate significance of its own, as the child's
nature can provide."

Vitality in Intellectual Work.— So far

from intellectual work diminishing vitality,
says a writer in the London Spectator, the
chiefs of all the intellectual professions are,
and in recent times have been, men who
have passed the ordinary term of years with
uudiminished powers. In politics the prin-
cipal leaders whom this generation has
known have been Earl Russell, Lord Palm-
erston, Lord Beaconsfield, and Mr. Gladstone,
and every one of them was at seventy in full
vigor, while the last, at eighty-three, is still
a mighty power in British politics. Prince
Bismarck remains at seventy-eight a force
with which his Government has to reckon ;
while the will of Leo XIII, an exceptionally
intellectual Pope, at eighty-three, is felt in
every corner of the world. " The most in-
tellectual and successful soldier of our time,
the man who had really thought out victo-
ries, Marshal von Moltke, was an unbroken
man at ninety and more years. No men
dare compare themselves in literary power
with Tennyson or Carlyle, Victor Hugo or
Von Ranke, and they all reached the age
which the author of Ecclesiastes declared to
be marked only by labor and sorrow ; as also
did Prof. Owen, whose life was one long
labor in scientific inquiry ; and so also has
Sir William Grove, one of the most strenuous
thinkers whom even this age of thinkers has
produced. We might lengthen the list in-
definitely ; but to what use, when we all know
that the most intellectual among lawyers, his-
torians, novelists, physicians, politicians, and
naturalists survive their contemporaries, usu-
ally with undiminished powers ? In all sta-
tistical accounts, the clergy, whose occupation
is wholly intellectual, rank first among the
long-lived. A little lower down hi the scale
the most hale men among us are those who
have been doing intellectual work, often ex-
tremely hard work, through all their lives,

7i6

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

and who are still so strong that all the pro-
fessions are affected by their resolution not
to retire, and the inability of younger men to
invent a reason for making their retirement
compulsory. To say that they are picked
lives is false, for they are so numerous that
the intense vitality of the old and intellectual
actually affects the organization of society ;
and to say that the unintellectual flourish
equally well ... is not probably true." The
stupid among the cultivated do not survive
in anything like the same proportion. Among
the ladies of the century, likewise, the old-
est have been the highest.

Science in Elementary Schools. — Re-
marking, in a paper, on the Place of Science
in Elementary Schools, Prof. Samuel G. Wil-
liams observes that all sciences of Nature
have their very foundation in correct and
definite observation of the facts which Na-
ture presents. It is therefore of the very
essence of science that the pupil should be
first of all taught to observe, to use his own
senses directly upon appropriate objects, and
thus to increase their delicacy and power by
repeated employment ; and, moreover, to give
an account of what he has in any way experi-
enced, that the fact observed may be assured
and that its results may be embodied in lan-
guage. When even the youngest child is
thus brought into direct contact with Nature,
he is quick to note the infinite variety which
it presents, to see that this object is similar
to that and quite unlike the other. Incipient
powers of comparing and judging emerge,
and should be appealed to in all possible
ways ; for ripeness of judgment results only
from repeated acts of judging. Rude and
then more perfect classifications result from
the grouping of the like and the separation
of the unlike; and the beginning of class
notions is made which future experience
shall fill with even clearer and more definite
meaning, until gradually and almost uncon-
sciously the pupil grows to a considerable
mastery of the general and abstract terms
which make so large a part of the language
of the more enlightened members of his race
Even those large operations called generali-
zation and induction from observed facts
and phenomena, should have their definite
beginnings in some part of the elementary
course, and especially in certain easy anc

natural observations of physical phenomena.
The youngster whose attention has a few
times been directed to the flash of a distant
gun and the report which more tardily
reaches his ear, can readily be brought to
nfer that sound travels more slowly than
ight, and to apply his generalization to
ightning and the resultant roll of thunder.
Thus, it is obvious that the aim which the
science teacher should keep ever clearly in
view is first of all to train the senses to ever-
growing accuracy and completeness in ob-
servation ; as accessory to this, to secure the
expression and interpretation of what is ob-
served ; to neglect no opportunities, how-
ever slight, for the exercise of judgment ;
and to advance, gradually indeed, but always
with definite purpose, toward the classifica-
tion and generalization of results secured by
direct personal observation. It will be ob-
served that the keynote of the whole matter
is direct contact with Nature, and diligent
study of what she has to teach through the
proper use of trained senses.

Fighting the Gypsy Moths.— The State
Board of Agriculture of Massachusetts,
through its agents, Prof. C. H. Fernald and
E. H. Forbush, appears to be carrying on an
effective campaign against the gypsy moth.
The work was begun systematically in 1890,
so that only the results of the first two
season's operations have yet been embraced
in the official report; yet, though the at-
tempt was the first on a large scale ever
made in the Commonwealth to destroy a spe-
cies of insect, and the operators were with-
out experience, a very perceptible reduction
in the number of the insects and in the dam-
age by them was realized ; and trees and or-
chards that were stripped in 1891 enjoyed
the full luxuriance of their foliage hi 1892 ;
and the members of the board are now con-
fident that it can be eradicated. Destruction
of the insect is found to be a most effectual
method of eradication. Another method is
to entrap the caterpillars within bands of
burlap fastened around the trees. They are
in the habit of seeking shelter during the
daytime, and if the holes in the trees are
stopped up they resort to the burlaps and
can then be easily destroyed. When the in-
sects get into the woodlands, dealing with
them is more difficult, on account of the un-

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

717

(lerbrush and the dead leaves on the ground.
In these cases the board suggests clearing
away the brush and the worthless trees and
careful burning over the ground. When the
work was first begun it was thought that the
moth occupied only a small part of one
town. It was, however, shown that it infested
thirty towns and cities. As the moth mul-
tiplies rapidly and eats everything that is
foliage, leaving nothing behind, the danger
arising from its presence is really a matter
of national importance.

Superstitions about Snakes.— In his refu-
tation of Some Superstitions about Snakes,
Dr. Arthur Stradling tells of a " weirdly hor-
rible " fancy of the Singhalese Tamils, that
every time the cobra di capello bites and
expends its venom after it has attained its
full length, it loses one joint of its spine.
The process of curtailment goes on until the
whole body has disappeared, with the ex-
ception of the head and hood, both of which
have undergone a sort of compensating en-
largement, while the mouth has widened
until the face of the reptile presents the as-
pect of a malignant toad. With increased
death-dealing powers, the exercise of which
subjects it to no further penalty, it now be-
takes itself to an aerial mode of life, flying
by the flapping of its extended sides after
the manner of a bat. A somewhat similar
fable is heard among the natives of Bengal,
who furthermore declare that this square-
winged fiend is the only snake that refuses
to be frightened away when the name of the
king of the birds (Garuda) is called aloud in
its hearing, and that the docking of the ver-
tebrae corresponds to the number of human
lives which the cobra has sacrificed in former
days. This superstition is curiously akin to
that held by the settlers in many parts of
America, to the effect that the rattlesnake
acquires a new thimble to its rattle for every
man it kills.

Cruelty to Children.— From the report of
the English National Society for the Preven.
tion of Cruelty to Children it appears that
poverty and large families are not a com.
mon cause of cruelty. On the contrary, the
worse the cruelty the better, on an average,
were the wages of the cruel parent and the
fewer the children to whom the cruelty was

displayed. The report further shows that
the effect of warnings and even of prosecu-
;ion and conviction on cruel parents is not to
nflame their passions against the children
who have been the occasions of their alarm
and punishment, but to increase the regard
of the cruel parent for the children, and for
those who interfered to protect them. The
cruel parent becomes less cruel when he
finds that the law concerns itself with his
hildren, and often seems to discover that
there is a good deal more to like and respect
in the children who had been cruelly treated,
and in those who took the children's part,
than he had perceived before. Summing up
the domestic effects of a visit of the society's
inspector, a mother said to one of the secre-
taries of the society, " It is like courting over
again." In other words, as an English jour-
nal views the case, the woman had risen in
the estimation of her husband as soon as he
found that the law and public opinion of
the neighborhood were on her side. Instead
of increased irritation against his wife for not
siding with him, he felt her to some extent
raised above him, and began to see her with
new eyes as a person whose approbation it
was worth while to gain. The prevalence of
cruelty among well-to-do parents rather than
among the lowly is, perhaps, to be explained
on the same principle. Cruelty is favored
by the sense of arbitrary power, and by the
absence of any feeling of responsibility to
others. Anything that stimulates the sense
of irresponsibility and independence in-
creases cruelty ; anything that diminishes that
sense, anything that brings home to the
heart the feeling of a social or physical
yoke, diminishes it.

Steamboats on Long Island Sound. —

From a Review of the Past and Present of
Steam Navigation on Long Island Sound,
published by the Providence and Stonington
Steamship Company, it appears that experi-
ments to move steamboats were made by sev-
eral persons toward the end of the last cen-
tury on the Hudson and the Delaware. John
Fitch's was the first, and his skiff, rowed by
oars or paddles on the sides, moved by cranka
worked by steam machinery, was publicly
tried on the Delaware, July 27, 1786. An
amazing contrast is presented between its
portrait and those of the Stonington line's

7i8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

latest masterpieces in steamboat architec-
ture, the Maine and New Hampshire. Fitch's
first boat for carrying passengers was com-
pleted in 1788. It was worked with oars
or paddles placed at the stern and pushed
against the water, and took thirty passengers
from Philadelphia to Burlington in three
hours and ten minutes, or over six miles an
hour. Fitch's third boat was advertised in
1790 as "the Steamboat" to run to Burling-,
ton, Bristol, Bordentown, and Trenton, and
return the next day. Congress adjourned
to see it start, and the Governor and Council
presented it with a flag. The Eructor Am-
phibolis of Oliver Evans was a combined
locomotive and steamboat — a scow on wheels
with modern axletrees and a paddle wheel
behind, to travel as a wagon on land and as
a boat in water. It was propelled by the
engine up Market Street in Philadelphia and
round the circle to the waterworks, where it
was launched into the Schuylkill. The pad-
dle wheel was then applied at its stern, and it
thus sailed down that river to the Delaware.
Then came Fulton's Clermont, steaming from
New York to Albany in thirty-six hours, the
pioneer in a fleet which numbered eight boats
in 1816. The first steamer on Long Island
Sound was the Fulton, a vessel with one
mast and sloop rigging, which depended on
its sails to accelerate its speed, and began
its trips to New Haven in 1815; and the
Fire Fly, one of Fulton's boats, first rounded
Point Judith and reached Newport in 1817.
The establishment of the packet line be-
tween Providence and New York was an im-
portant event in American travel, and the
departure and arrival of the boats presented
an imposing spectacle. The fare was ten
dollars, and the first advertisement of the
company appeared under the cut of a man-
of-war, with portholes open and every sail
set. In their painting, these boats, accord-
ing to the account, somewhat resembled a
barber's pole, being striped in curious de-
signs.

Unsolved Problems in Geology.— Rather
technical is Mr. G. K. Gilbert's review of the
continental problems that are before geolo-
gists for solution, made in his presidential
address before the Geological Society of
America; but he enumerates several such
problems and questions on whidh no clear

light has yet been thrown. As he summa-
rizes them, it appears that " the doctrine of
isostasy, though holding a leading position,
has not fully supplanted the doctrine of
rigidity. If it be accepted, there remains
the question whether heat or composition
determines the gravity of the ocean beds and
the levity of continents. For the origin of
continents we have a single hypothesis (that
laid down by Prof. Dana in his Manual of
Geology), which deserves to be more fully
compared with the body of modern data.
The newly determined configuration of the
continental mass has yielded no suggestion
as to its origin. The cause of differential ele-
vation and subsidence within the continental
plateau is unknown and has probably not
been suggested. The permanence of the
continental plateau, though highly probable,
is not yet fully established ; and the doctrine
of continental growth, though generally ac-
cepted, has not been placed beyond the field
of profitable discussion. Thus the subject
of continents affords no less than half a
dozen great problems, whose complete so-
lution belongs to the future. It is not alto-
gether pleasant to deal with a subject with
regard to which the domain of our ignorance
is so broad ; but, if we are optimists, we may
be comforted by the reflection that the geolo-
gists of this generation, at least, will have no
occasion, like Alexander, to lament a dearth
of worlds to conquer."

NOTES.

WOOD ashes are recommended in the
American Agriculturist, by Mr. J. M. Stahl,
as a valuable medicine for farm animals.
The author keeps them, with charcoal and
mixed with salt, accessible to his hogs, with
the best effects ; and he furnishes them to
his horses by putting an even teaspoonful
with the oats twice a week or by keeping
the ashes, with the salt mixture, constantly
before the animals.

THE most striking feature of Mr. A. T.
Drummond's examination of the colors and
times of flowering of five hundred and thirty-
nine of the plants of Ontario and Quebec is
the preponderance of white flowers, which
form rather more than one third of the
whole. Following them are the yellow flow-
ers, largely composites, which include about
one quarter; while the purples and blues
are much less numerous, and comprise about
one ninth and one tenth respectively of the
whole. In time of flowering April, May, and

NOTES.

719

June are remarkable for the prevalence of
white ; July, August, and September of yel-
low; and September and October of purple
and blue.

THE caves of Mount Elgonin, East Africa,
extend right round the mountain and occur
in the lava as well as in the agglomerate beds.
Mr. J. Thomson believes that they are old
excavations ; but a correspondent of the Lon-
don Times, who visited them in February,
1893, has come to the conclusion that they
are merely vast blow-holes in the mountain,
" which is a grand specimen of an extinct
volcano, the crater being some eight miles
in diameter and from fifteen hundred to two
thousand feet in depth." The mountain is
fourteen thousand feet high, with a base of
about one hundred and fifty miles in circum-
ference.

THE report of the Massachusetts State
Board of Health on the Geographical Distri-
bution of Certain Causes of Death in that
State presents the results of an inquiry re-
specting the relation of paper mills to small-
pox mortality. In eleven cities and towns
having extremely high ratios of smallpox
mortality, six contained one or more paper
mills in which rags were used ; and a list of
twenty-eight cities and towns in which there
are paper mills contains only four places in
which there were no smallpox deaths during
twenty years, and non-fatal cases are known
to have occurred in two of these towns. Fre-
quent investigations of the board have
shown that smallpox in Massachusetts is
very often due to infected rags. In many of
these cases it appeared probable that domes-
tic rags collected in the large cities of the
United States were the source of infection.

A SETTLEMENT of the silver question is
propounded by Mr. Roderick H. Smith, au-
thor of several works on business, which he
believes will be sovereign and permanent. It
is the enactment of a law, of which he sub-
mits a draft, the essential feature of which
is a provision for the issue by the Govern-
ment of certificates against deposits of silver,
which shall be redeemable, on demand, in an
equal value of silver to the amount of the
deposit. Thus, whatever may be the fluctua
tions in the value of silver, the certificates
can never command more than they are
actually worth.

THE Massachusetts State Board of Health,
inquiring into the distribution of cholera in-
f antum, finds the disease apparently promoted
by the employment of mothers away from
home. It also finds that a high mortality
rate from cholera infantum occasionally ex-
ists in a comparatively small town where
there are one or more densely populated
manufacturing villages in which the condi-
tions of living may resemble those of a large
city. Upon this point Dr. Haven says
" We may have all, or nearly all, of the most

icious conditions of city life in a single
tenement house in some small town of per-
laps only a thousand inhabitants ; we may
aave, that is, the heat, the dirt, the over-
crowding, the bad drainage, and the artificial
feeding which are the concomitants of city
life."

EXPERIMENTS by Grassi, Cattani, Tizzoni,
Simmonds, and Sawchenk, made under vari-
ous conditions and in great diversity of
forms, are confirmatory of one another, and
afford cumulative evidence of the compe-
tency of flies to convey cholera germs.
Sawchenk even suggests that the bacilli may
be able, under suitable conditions, to multi-
ply within the bodies of flies ; in which case,
besides being dangerous carriers of infection,
the flies would be a veritable hotbed for the
preservation and further multiplication of
cholera bacilli.

A REMARKABLE illustration of the perse-
verance shown by roots in seeking food is
related in Nature by the Rev. W. H. Oxley,
vicar of Peterham. The roots of a wistaria
entered the dining-room of Eden House,
Ham, by a very small chink in the side of
the window near the ceiling. On removing
from the walls the paper, which had not been
disturbed for many years, the whole of the
plaster beneath was found covered with a
fine network of roots spreading all round the
room. There was no appearance on the pa-
per to give rise to any suggestion of the pres-
ence of roots being there. Prof. Dyer re-
marks that the roots seemed to have behaved
more like the mycelium of a fungus than an
ordinary axial structure. The room was con-
stantly inhabited, with fires.

THE Italian Minister of Public Instruction,
Signor Martini, has called the attention of
the Chamber of Deputies to the evils of over-
pressure in the public schools, under which
the programmes have been enlarged without
corresponding enlargement of the cerebral
convolutions, and the pupils are " swallowing
much and digesting little." "While the
able-bodied artisan," he says, " demands the
restriction of his labor to eight hours, we
exact from our boys of ten a labor at once
more prolonged and more severe." The
minister has been quick to learn from the
lessons given him, and has already instituted
reformatory measures. The tasks to be un-
dertaken after school hours have been mini-
mized, inducements to prolong mental labor
beyond the just limits have been diminished,
and the overstrain due to excessive competi-
tion is discouraged ; the number of subjects
to be taken up at once is curtailed, the
schools have developed a "modern side,"
and happy results and improvement are al-
ready visible.

IN a recent " long-distance walk " between
Berlin and Vienna — some three hundred and
sixty miles — the winner among fifteen com-

720

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

petitors accomplished the distance in on
hundred and fifty-four hours and forty-fiv
minutes, and the one next behind him in
little more than one hundred and fifty-si
hours. The winner, however, came in ex
hausted, while his competitor seemed not t
have suffered at all. Both lost five pound
in weight. The remarkable fact about th
feat is that these two foremost men ar
called vegetarians, and were able to walk a:
average of eighteen hours a day for sevei
consecutive days on the kind of diet classe
under that designation.

FOUR sulphurets are named by M. Jacksh
of Triesch, Moravia, as becoming phospho
rescent after a brief exposure to daylight —
viz., the sulphurets of calcium, strontium, ba
rium, and zinc. The last compound has been
obtained in a luminous condition only recent-
ly by distillation in a vacuum. Prepared in
the usual way, by precipitating soluble salts
of zinc with sulphurets, it shows no signs oi
phosphorescence. Sulphuret of barium gives
a yellowish-orange glow, but only for a few
minutes after each exposure to the light, anc
is of as little use as the sulphurets of stron-
tium and of zinc, the greenish glow of which
disappears after about two hours. For prac-
tical uses the sulphuret of calcium of com-
merce is the only phosphorescent of value.
Pure, it gives a faint yellowish light; but
treated at a red heat, with the addition of a
small quantity of a salt of bismuth, it is
transformed into a substance giving a violet
light and retaining its luminous quality for
nearly forty hours after an exposure of only
a few seconds.

, RECORDS kept by Dr. Spengler at Davos
Platz for two years and a half, resting large-
ly on communications kept up with the pa-
tients after leaving, show that a permanent
cure (of consumptive diseases) is apparently
effected in 42'8 per cent of the cases. It is
noted that most of the patients were subject
to influenza in the epidemic of 1889-'90. In
the treatment, till acclimatization is com-
pleted and the patient has slept well one or
two weeks, he lies much in the open air, and
takes little exercise. Patients who come with
fever soon lose it.

ALCOHOL, although the most convenient
heretofore found, has proved an unreliable
fluid for low-temperature thermometers. It
is subject to the three vices of sticking in
the tube, irregular expansion, and defect
from impurities and variations in water con-
tent, which affect its expansion materially,
M. Chappuis has found toluol, the boiling
point of which is 110° C., a liquid well adapt-
ed to the purpose and free from these disad-
vantages.

THE Psychological Section of the Medico-
legal Society is interested in all that pertains
to psychology, and purposes, through com-
mittees appointed from among its members,

to make special studies in the departments
of animal magnetism, hypnotism, telepathy,
clairvoyance, supposed apparitions, and other
claims of "respectable" modern spiritual-
ism. It is intended to conduct these inqui-
ries and investigations with candor and fair-
ness, upon strictly scientific lines, and to
reach, in so far as possible, a valuable and
enlightening collection of facts incident to
these phenomena, from which important de-
ductions may be made.

EXPERIMENTS, pursued during two years
by himself and his associates, are recorded
by Prof. Chodat, of Geneva, concerning the
influence of static electricity on vegetation.
Beans, sorted into two equal lots, were simi-
larly planted in a vessel filled with sawdust
moistened with the same quantity of water,
and exposed to identical conditions of warmth
and light. One of the vessels was put under
electrical influence during a part of the day,
rising from forty minutes at the beginning to
three and four hours. Leaves began to ap-
pear in the electrified lot on the fourth day,
while the other lot as yet showed no signs of
them. The difference was plainer on the
fifth day, and still more so on the seventh,
when the electrified plants had grown to a
considerable size, while the non- electrified
ones were only just starting. The difference
was also apparent in the superior vigor of
;he stems and roots of the electrified plants.
The experiment confirmed the opinion that
electricity acts to promote germination and
growth in length ; but the leaves of the non-
electrified plants obtained a better develop-
ment than the others.

OBITUARY NOTES.

THE Rev. T. Wolle, pastor of the Mora-
vian church, Bethlehem, Pa., whose death
vas recently announced, was an ardent stu-
dent of fresh-water algae, and author of
hree important publications on the Fresh-
water Algae, the Desmids, and the Diatoms
f the United States.

CAVALIERE GIUSEPPE ANTONIO PASQUALE,
'rofessor of Botany at the University of
Naples, and Director of the Botanic Garden,
ho has recently died, was the author of
everal books, chiefly those on the flora of
/"esuvius and the flora of Capri.

THE death is announced of Dr. Karl
emper, author of the book in the Interna-
.onal Scientific Series on the Natural Con-
itions of Existence as they affect Animal
ife. He was born at Altona, in 1832;
tudied at Wiirzburg, chiefly in zoology;
ade a scientific journey in 1859-'62 through
le Philippine and Pelew Islands, the results
I which were published in several valuable
orks ; became Professor of Zoology at
Viirzburg in 1868, and a few years later Di-
ector of the Zoological Institute there.

WERNER SIEMENS.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

OCTOBER, 1893.
ELECTRICITY AT THE WORLD'S FAIR.

BY CHARLES M. LUNGEEN.
I.

A PERIOD of but seventeen years separates the first great
•^JL. American exhibition from the second, yet what a vast differ-
ence between the two in the display of electrical appliances ! The
Centennial was not indeed without its electrical wonders, but
these were unobtrusive and formed but isolated examples in an
industrial domain which yet remained to be cultivated. Elec-
tricity had not then been brought home to the attention and
interest of the thousands by multiplied daily use. It made no
appeal to the imagination, and the immediate future that was to
open for it was hardly dreamed of even by those in the vanguard
of electrical discovery. The telephone here made its debut ; the
quadruplex telegraph, but recently put into commercial service,
was here shown for the first time ; and the dynamos and arc lamps
of Wallace were on exhibition. The Gramme machine, which
was shortly to play such an important part in the commercial
development of the electric light, and to prove such a stimulus to
the inventors of electric apparatus, was also to be seen here, but
beyond these electricity was very little in evidence at the earlier
exposition. At the Columbian it is omnipresent. It is called upon
to do the lighting of the great buildings and grounds, to the exclu-
sion of all other means of illumination; to drive the trains of the
intramural railway which winds through the exposition inclosure ;
to propel the graceful launches which glide through its water-
ways ; to furnish the power distributed throughout the various
buildings, and to make itself known in innumerable decorative
effects. Grown too large to have a place merely, along with other

VOL. XL1II. — 52

722 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

industries, in a general building, it has a temple of its own, which
is filled with the manifold applications of this strange and sub-
tile agent to the arts and conveniences of life. And even this is
inadequate to the demands it has made upon the space of the ex-
position, for what may rightly be considered two of the main ex-
hibits— the great alternating lighting plant and the direct-current
plant of the intramural railway — are without the inclosure of the
Electricity Building, the one in Machinery Hall and the other in a
structure by itself.

Complete and varied as the Columbian electricity exhibit is, it
is not primarily an exhibition of novelties. It is rather a sum-
ming up of our progress to date — a slice taken from the far larger
exhibit which everywhere surrounds us and is helping to do the
daily work of the world in shop and factory and mine, on our
streets and in our homes. Much of that to be seen is already
familiar, but it is not on that account devoid of either interest or
instruction. In the actual industrial world the processes and
appliances of an art are scattered and not easily accessible, and it
can only be studied piecemeal and with difficulty. A great expo-
sition, on the other hand, gives an opportunity for studying an
art in its entirety, and thus enables an observer to gain a clear
conception both of the attained progress and the direction of
future development. This opportunity is afforded by the Colum-
bian in a marked degree. Illustrative examples are to be found
in it of all the more notable steps of progress, and many of the
exhibits are remarkably full and complete.

The visitor will find, for instance, an opportunity to study the
telephone from its earlier form up to the present standard instru-
ments, and to inspect and perhaps understand for the first time
the central station system, by means of which he is daily put into
communication with other subscribers. He will see in actual
working what he will have but little opportunity to see else-
where, and which, to judge by the crowds which throng about it,
appeals strongly to the curiosity and interest of the average
visitor — the delicate siphon recorder of Sir William Thomson, by
which all the cable messages of the world are received. And he
may perhaps wonder that any one should be able to interpret into
intelligible signals the curious zigzag scrawl which the siphon
leaves upon the moving band of paper. He will also see a set of
quadruplex instruments and be able to understand by actual in-
spection much better than by mere description this most impor-
tant of telegraphic appliances. He will also be able to see in the
Western Union exhibit the original receiving instrument of Morse,
made of a triangle of wood hinged at its apex to an artist's canvas
frame, and carrying at the center of its lower side a pencil, with
which a zigzag tracing can be made upon a moving band of paper

ELECTRICITY AT THE WORLDS FAIR. 723

beneath, as the triangle is swung to and fro under the impulses of
an electro-magnet. The visitor will also have an opportunity to
examine the new telautograph of Prof. Elisha Gray, by means of
which the written word, it is promised us, may be transmitted to
a distance with the same facility that the spoken word now is by
telephone. Turning from this lighter and more delicate form of
apparatus, the visitor will find a very complete display of the
class of applications that has brought electricity into such close
contact with the daily life of the masses in recent years. From
the great Westinghouse lighting installation and from the power
plant of the intramural he will get some adequate idea of a mod-
ern central-station equipment, while from the illustration of long-
distance power transmission he will be able to comprehend one of
the directions in which electricity holds oat the greatest promise
for the future. In the exhibits of electric welding and forging he
will learn of the help the electric current is giving to the metal
worker, and in that of cooking and heating the attempts that are
being made to displace with electrical appliances the kitchen
range and the hot-air furnace.

The most prominent exhibit of electricity at the fair is un-
doubtedly the lighting of the Exposition itself. This is carried out
along lines already well established, and is remarkable chiefly for
the great scale upon which it is planned and executed. Nearly five
thousand arc lamps and a hundred thousand incandescents have
been called into requisition for the illumination of the grounds
and buildings. The placing of these required, no doubt, a great
deal of detail work and called for nice discrimination in adapting
means to ends, but involved no electrical problems of especial
novelty. The lighting of the big Manufactures Building, with its
thirty acres of main floor space and ten acres of galleries, pre-
sented the most difficult problem to the Exposition authorities,
but this has been successfully solved by the use of the arc lamp
hung from immense coronas along the central line of the build-
ing, supplemented by individual lamps in the corridors, galleries,
and separate rooms. The coronas are hung a hundred and forty
feet from the floor and sixty feet from the crown of the great
arched roof which spans the structure, and are of colossal size, the
central one being seventy-five feet in diameter and the two which
flank it on either side sixty feet. Something over four hundred
lamps are disposed of in this way, while to these are added some
twelve hundred more to complete the lighting of this great in-
closure. The incandescent, so flexible in the hands of the deco-
rator, has been used very effectively to outline the buildings and
the waterways of the Exposition, in addition to their use in in-
terior illumination.

l_

ELECTRICITY AT THE WORLD'S FAIR. 725

The power and machinery which give vitality to this vast
array of lights are to be found in Machinery Hall, and constitute
one of the chief electrical exhibits. The most striking feature of
this exhibit is the great Westinghouse alternating plant, which
supplies the current for the incandescent lamps. It consists of
twelve enormous alternating-current generators, each having a
capacity of ten thousand sixteen candle-power lamps and requir-
ing a thousand horse power apiece to drive them. They are
arranged in two groups, the first six of which are coupled direct
to Westinghouse upright engines. Of the remaining six, four are
driven separately by different makes of engines, and two are belt-
driven in tandem fashion by an Allis-Corliss cross-compound en-
gine nominally rated at two thousand horse power, but which may
be worked up to three thousand horse power upon occasion. This
engine is one of two of the same type and by the same maker,
the other one being stationed in the power house of the intra-
mural railway, and is regarded as a very fine example of modern
steam engineering. The alternating generators themselves are of
a type only recently devised, in which there is a double row of
field poles, and a double set of armature coils, by means of which
the machines can supply two separate circuits for the require-
ments of incandescent lighting, or furnish what is known as a
two-phase current for use with alternating- current motors. The
current as generated has a pressure of two thousand volts, which
is reduced down, at the point of consumption by means of con-
verters, to fifty or a hundred volts.

Besides the " alternators," as these machines are technically
termed, there are a large number of direct-current machines in
this building supplying the currents to the arc lamps, and the
motors scattered through the various buildings. The plan
adopted by the Exposition authorities has been to confine the
engines and boilers to Machinery Hall, so that all the power re-
quired in the Exposition except that for the intramural railway,
is generated here and transmitted by electricity through under-
ground conduits to the place where it is to be used. The exhibi-
tion is therefore an illustration of the electric transmission of
power upon a large scale, and should furnish a basis for the col-
lection of instructive data.

The feature of the Exposition which will command the most
interest of any of those in which light plays a prominent part will
probably be the electric fountains. Fountains of this charac-
ter have been features of a number of exhibitions since 1884, when
the first one, designed by Sir Francis Bolton, was shown at the
Healtheries in London, but those at Chicago are upon a much
greater scale than any heretofore attempted. The principle of
operation is that of throwing a powerful beam of light from be-

726

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

low upward along the axis of the water jet, the lamps being
placed in a chamber under the fountain provided with a trans-
parent roof. Color effects are produced by the interposition of
glass screens in the path of the beam. In the present
fountains, which rise from basins sixty feet in diame-
ter, the underground chamber is built upon piling, a
construction rendered necessary by the shifting sand
foundation. The piling is of unequal length, the
shorter piles supporting the floor structure, and the
longer, which project through and are seen as pillars
in the room, the roof. The water nozzles are grouped
to form nineteen composite jets, and as many power-

FIG. 2. — ELECTRIC FOUNTAINS.

ful reflectors are arranged to throw a beam of light along the
axis of each group. It is estimated that the beam of these power-
ful lights has a luminous intensity of two hundred and fifty thou-
sand candles. The size of the fountains may be appreciated by
the fact that they require a twenty-four-inch supply main con-

ELECTRICITY AT THE WORLD'S FAIR. 727

veying water at a hundred pounds pressure, and have a consump-
tion of nearly twenty-one million gallons per twenty-four hours.
The central jet or grand geyser formed by a two-inch stream rises
to a height of a hundred and fifty feet. The color screens are in
the shape of fan blades arranged to rotate horizontally, and are
grouped so as to be capable of producing an almost unlimited
combination of color effects.

If any demonstration were needed of the capacity of the elec-
tric motor to take the place of steam on such roads as the ele-
vated in New York and Chicago, or of the enormous superiority
of electric traction in the matter of cleanliness, comfort, and
freedom from noise, the intramural would furnish it to the satis-
faction of any impartial observer. This road is a double-track
elevated structure something over three miles in length, which
forms the highway of communication between the different build-
ings. It is purposely laid out with many an unnecessary curve,
to accentuate the conditions of actual travel, and demonstrate the
ability of electric traction to do its work satisfactorily under
extreme conditions. The trains are made up of a motor car and
three trailers, all four cars being arranged to seat passengers, the
space occupied by the motorman at the extreme front end of the
motor car being no greater than that of the ordinary trolley car.
The cars are open, with the seats extending clear across the car
body, each pair facing upon the entrance aisles. These aisles are
closed by sliding gates, which are connected so that all those 011
one side of the car may be opened or closed at the same time by
the movement of a lever at the end of the car. This construction
might be very readily adapted to a closed car, and would seem
to be admirably suited to cars having the phenomenally heavy
traffic of those on the elevated roads of New York. A very
noticeable feature of the cars is the perfection of the lighting.
Too often, when electricity has been called upon for the light-
ing of public conveyances, there has been but little improvement
over former results, due both to the bad habit of placing the
lights in the aisle spaces and stinting in the candle power. In
the intramural cars particular attention has been paid to secur-
ing abundant light, the lamps being up to candle power and
placed in the most effective position along the sides near the car
roof.

The electrical equipment of the motor car consists of four
motors having a combined capacity of over five hundred horse
power. These are geared to the axles by a single reduction gear,
and take their current from side rails through the medium of slid-
ing shoes. The side rail was adopted in preference to a central
one on account of the greater simplicity of the switching arrange-
ments, the facility in getting at the contact shoes, and the very

7z8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

limited space between the motor and road bed in which to make
a satisfactory rail contact. The return path for the current is
through the traffic rails and iron girders of the elevated structure,
the rails being copper-banded at the joints and joined by bands
of the same material to the girders. Feeder rails extend from
the power house for three fifths of the length of the line and are
cross connected to the supply rails at every rail joint. The train
equipment of the road consists of eighteen trains, weighing when
loaded about ninety-six tons each, the motor car accounting for
thirty tons of this weight and the other cars for twenty-two
tons each.

The central figure of the power-house equipment is the great
two-thousand-horse-power generator from the shops of the Gen-
eral Electric Company, said to be the largest machine yet built.
It occupies the middle space of the power house and is driven by
an Allis-Corliss cross-compound engine, which is a duplicate of
the one in the Westinghouse plant in Machinery Hall. It is a
direct-current machine of what is known as the multipolar type.
This is a type of machine which has been developed in recent
years in response to the increasing demands of railway power and
central lighting stations for larger units of power. In machines
of the power desired slow speed becomes essential, and this re-
quirement has resulted in radically transforming the design of
the dynamos. The two-pole field magnet, common in all machines
a few years back, has given place to a multipolar one, generally
made in the form of a ring-shaped yoke with inwardly protrud-
ing pole pieces, though this construction has been reversed in
some large generators constructed by Siemens, in which the field
poles radiate from a central hub, and the armature, made in
the form of a flattened ring or band, is placed on the outside,
its outer surface constituting the commutator upon which the
brushes bear. A fine example of this machine coupled direct to
a thousand-horse-power triple-expansion upright engine is to be
seen in Machinery Hall. In the intramural generator the field
consists of two massive semicircles of cast steel, bolted together,
the lower of which is provided with supporting feet. This yoke is
fifteen feet in diameter and three broad and with its twelve poles
weighs over forty tons. The armature is what is known as the
ironclad type, and is ten feet and a half in diameter, and weighs
complete about thirty-five tons. The ironclad type of armature
now used upon all railway motors and large generators is a com-
paratively recent development, and possesses marked advantages
both mechanically and electrically. Its characteristic feature is
the imbedding of the coils in the laminated iron core, either by
forming tubular passages through this core near the edge or mak-
ing it with open slots narrowed at the mouth to securely hold the

— ~

73o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

coils in place. It has the mechanical advantage of presenting a
smooth exterior surface which can be turned true, and of holding
the winding in such a way that it can not become displaced, as is
possible with coils wound over the core and bound in place by a
wrapping of wire. Electrically it has the advantage of materially
diminishing the air gap — the space between the face of the arma-
ture and the field poles — and hence allowing the coils to move in
an intenser magnetic field. The armature core is carried by a
cast-iron spider weighing over fifteen tons which is keyed directly
to the shaft of the driving engine. The brush holders, of which
there are twelve sets, corresponding to the number of field poles,
are mounted upon a yoke supported at one side of the field mag-
net frame. They are moved into position by means of a shifting
gear operated by a hand wheel and are readily accessible from a
stairway passing over the shaft. The machine is designed to run
at seventy-five revolutions a minute and furnish a current under
a pressure of six hundred volts. It has an electrical capacity of
fifteen hundred kilowatts, and is claimed to have an efficiency of
ninety-six per cent. This ponderous machine was found to be
much too large and heavy to be shipped in its complete form, and
was accordingly forwarded from the factory in parts and assem-
bled upon its present foundation.

An appreciation of its size and capacity may be gained by re-
membering what the standards of size were only ten years ago
when the Edison "Jumbo" was put to work in the first New
York Central station. This machine, which created a veritable
sensation at the Paris Exposition of 1881 on account of its im-
mense size, required only a hundred and twenty-five horse power
to drive it when working at its normal load. It had a capacity
of less than one hundred kilowatts, which is but a fifteenth of
that of the present " Jumbo," and weighed very much more in
proportion to its output. It is to be seen in the exhibit of the
General Electric Company, where it is rightly given a place of
honor as the precursor of the race of modern direct-connected
dynamos.

While a motor car will answer admirably for the lighter forms
of electric traction, the invasion of the domain of the steam rail-
road, which electricians are already contemplating, will necessi-
tate the design and construction of special electric locomotives.
These have already been used quite largely in mine work, and a
number of electrical constructors have designed and built such
machines of moderate power, but the first one of any considerable
size and designed for high speed is one built at the Lynn shops
of the General Electric Company and shown in the Transporta-
tion Building at the Fair. It is a thirty-ton locomotive intended
for a normal speed of thirty miles per hour, and is of sufficient

ELECTRICITY AT THE WORLD'S FAIR.

731

power for light passenger and freight traffic. It is mounted on
four forty-four-inch wheels and is propelled by two gearless
motors suspended in such a way as to leave the wheels free to
adjust themselves to the irregularities of the roadbed. This
method of suspension consists in mounting the motors upon spiral
springs resting on the side frames of the locomotive truck, and
the armatures upon hollow shafts through which the axles of the
wheels pass, the connection between the two being made by uni-

Fio. 4. — GENERAL ELECTRIC THIRTY-TON ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE.

versal couplings. The commodious cab is constructed of sheet
iron, finished in the interior in hard woods, and is given a curved
shape to diminish as far as possible the air resistance. The brak-
ing power is furnished by compressed air supplied by a special
electrical air compressor, and the whistle is operated by the same
means. The use of the electric locomotive is not yet practicable
on long lines on account of the great cost of long feeders, but this
bar to its employment is certain to be overcome in time. Wher-

732 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ever traffic is dense and the distance to be traversed not too great,
the conditions are already present for the advent of this form of
locomotive ; and when we recall the rapidity with which city and
suburban railways have spread, we can not doubt that once the
problems of electric railway engineering are worked out, and the
necessary preliminary work of demonstration gone through with,
we will witness an equally rapid extension of electric traction to
the steam highways of the world.

Ever since Faure started electricians on the quest of an eco-
nomical storage battery, the peculiar fitness of such batteries as a
source of power for pleasure boats has been recognized, and they
have frequently been used for such purpose. The slow develop-

^*>^,

!

FIG. 5.— ELECTKIC LAUNCH.

ment of this type of battery into an efficient instrument, the
absence of any means of getting the batteries recharged, and the
much greater cost of this method of propulsion, have heretofore
acted to effectually prevent its adoption by the owners of such
craft. But after riding in the launches of the exhibition one can
not help but wish for the early dawn of the day in which this
ideal method of water propulsion becomes generally available.
The exhibition launches are of a very graceful model, about
thirty-six feet long and six feet breadth of beam. They are de-
signed to carry thirty passengers, and have motors capable of ex-
erting four horse power. The batteries are placed beneath the
seats and flooring, and as the motor is also beneath the flooring
the cockpit is clear of any obstruction. Each launch carries sev-
enty-eight battery cells, which, by appropriate connections, may

ELECTRICITY AT THE WORLD'S FAIR. 733

be grouped in various combinations. For the regular operation
of the boats the cells are grouped in three divisions containing
twenty-six cells each, arranged in series.

The batteries are charged for a run of ten to twelve hours, and
are then recharged at the power station of the fleet in from five
to seven hours. The launches run over a course of about three
miles, at a speed of six miles an hour, and make landings at the
principal buildings, all of which front upon the waterways.

To the engineer and to those who desire to know the trend of
electrical development, the most interesting exhibit at the Fair
will doubtless be the apparatus designed to show the long-dis-
tance transmission of power. Almost at the beginning of the
modern electrical era, dreams were indulged in of the command
which electricity was to give us of the natural sources of power.
Marcel Deprez, at the Paris Exposition of 1881, had in operation
a system of power transmission, and similar attempts have been
made at every important exposition since, the most elaborate hav-
ing been that at the Frankfort Exposition of two years ago. Of the
importance of the economic transmission of power over long dis-
tances there can not be two opinions. The modern world has
come to rest down upon an abundant and cheap supply of power
in such a measure that without it civilization itself would go by
the board. Statisticians have frequently shown that the coal sup-
ply, while large and ample for present needs, is not only exhaust-
ible, but is being encroached upon at such a rate as to make its
conservation a matter of grave concern. Electric transmission of
power, by opening up to civilization the enormous supply of
power of the waterfalls and running streams of the earth, will be
able to postpone indefinitely the evil day that would be ushered
in by the failure or material decrease of our fuel supply. To be
of avail, however, such transmission must be economical, not only
in the percentage of utilizable power sent through the line, but in
the investment which must be made to realize it. So long as we
were dependent upon the direct current, but little progress could
be expected in this important problem. It has only been, there-
fore, in the last few years that the art was ripe for the taking up
of this subject in a serious spirit, and with any hope of a real
solution. The direct-current dynamo, handicapped with the com-
mutator, is necessarily limited to supplying currents of relatively
low voltage; the economic transmission of power demands the
use of currents of small volume and very high pressure. This
means small line conductors, and hence a relatively small invest-
ment. It means also a small loss in heating the line, since the
heating power of the current varies as the square of the volume
transmitted.

734 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

It is only by the alternating system of distribution that we
can realize this essential condition of economy. We have here
no such limit to the electrical pressure in the generating appa-
ratus as in the direct-current system, and through the medium of
the converter it becomes possible to vary the two elements of elec-
trical energy — current volume and pressure — to suit the most wide-
ly differing applications. It is this latter feature of the system
which gives it its great range and flexibility, and its consequent
economic value. It enables us, for instance, to generate a current
of a certain voltage at the machine, then to raise this to ten, twenty,
or fifty times the original pressure for transmission through the
line, and then at the far end to step down to as low a pressure as
we may want — a pressure suitable for entering dwellings, offices,
and shops, and safe in the hands of the consumer. These suc-
cessive transformations and retransformations, it should be noted,
are effected in the simplest kind of a way. They involve no ma-
chinery with moving parts, but simply coils of wire placed in
such relation to each other that the currents passing in one in-
duce similar currents in the other. The practical value of this
system arose with the discovery that the induction coil, like the
dynamo, is reversible. This coil had long been used to transform
a current of considerable volume and low pressure into one of
very great pressure and small volume. The construction which
enabled this to be done consisted in making the primary coil with
a few turns of stout wire ; and the secondary — that on which the
induced current was produced — of a great many turns of fine
wire. It was presently discovered, however, that this mode of
operation might be reversed, and that, by passing a high-tension
current of small volume through many turns of wire, a current
of large volume and low pressure could be induced in a secondary
circuit of few turns, and that the pressure and volume of the in-
duced current in relation to that of the primary one depended
only on the relative number of wire turns in the two circuits.
If, for instance, the primary and secondary coils contained the
same number of turns, the pressure and volume of the induced
current would be precisely the same as the primary one. If, on
the other hand, the induced circuit contained ten times the num-
ber of coils of the primary, the current in it would have a tenth
of the volume and ten times the pressure of the primary one,
while if the relation of the two circuits were reversed the induced
current would have its volume increased to ten times and its
pressure reduced to one tenth of that flowing in the primary.

In the field of lighting this method of electric distribution has
taken a leading place, and it is no longer questioned that it is des-
tined to displace entirely all methods of direct-current supply.
It has heretofore found but little application to power transmis-

ELECTRICITY AT THE WORLD'S FAIR. 735

sion, because it has lacked the prime requisite for such a use — a
satisfactory motor. This missing link in the chain of appliances
necessary to render the system complete has in recent years been
supplied by the discoveries and inventions of Mr. Nikola Tesla,
whose remarkable experiments with alternating currents of great
tension and enormous frequencies have excited such widespread
interest among scientific men. To understand the solution given
to the alternating-current motor problem by Mr. Tesla it will be
necessary to consider briefly the principle of the electric motor
and the cause of the rotation of an armature in a magnetic field.
If we take a loop of wire forming a closed circuit and place it be-
tween the poles of a magnet it will tend, when a current is flow-
ing through it, to set itself so as to inclose the greatest number of
lines of force — that is, in a plane at right angles to the line joining
the magnetic poles. If the mechanical inertia of the moving loop
carry it slightly past its position of equilibrium, and at the same
moment the current through the loop be re versed, it will be pulled
around by the attraction of the magnetic poles to a new position
of equilibrium ; and if at each of these positions there takes place
a reversal of the current, continuous rotation of the loop will be
produced. Where there are many loops, as in actual machines,
the pull upon the moving system of coils tending to rotate it will
be continuous and equal at all points of the rotation, as, while
some coils are approaching and passing through the position of
equilibrium, others are in position to have exerted upon them the
maximum strain. The pull of the field magnets upon the moving
conductors is greatly increased if these be wound over an iron
center, as in this case each loop tends to set up magnetic poles in
this core in a position at right angles to its plane. Two magnetic
poles attract each other when of different polarity and repel each
other when of the same polarity. The poles of the iron core are
consequently repelled and attracted by the field poles with each
change of the direction of the current, and this occurs in exact
synchronism with the changing forces acting upon the wire cir-
cuits. It must, of course, be understood that with a continuous
current the direction of the current in space is always the same.
The alternating current impulses set up in the armature coils of
the direct-current dynamo are through the device of the commu-
tator made to follow each other in the same direction through the
line. Arriving at the motor, these impulses pursue a continuous
course through the armature always in the same direction, the
positive current always flowing in by one brush and the negative
out by the other. The armature coils, however, by reason of their
rotation, present their two ends in succession to the positive and
negative brushes, and hence are alternately traversed by the cur-
rent in reverse directions. If now the commutator be suppressed

736

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

on both generator and motor, it is evident that the armature coils
of the motor will be traversed by successive positive and negative
electrical impulses at just the right time, if the armature rotates
in unison with that of the generator, as both armatures then pass
through like portions of their magnetic fields during the same
current phase. If these alternating current impulses are not, how-
ever, properly timed, they will interfere with each other and the
motor armature will not rotate. It is possible, then, to utilize the
alternating-current dynamo as a motor, but only on the con-
dition that it runs synchronously with the generator. Evi-
dently it must first be brought up to the speed of the generator
before the conditions are realized that will keep it in motion.
As a practical motor it has therefore the fatal defect that it will
not start of itself, and it has the further one that it is readily
thrown out of synchronism by a slight excess of load, and is then
speedily brought to a standstill.

Clearly an apparatus so sensitive as this could not be relied
upon for commercial work nor expected to stand as a solution of

FIG. 6. — DIAGRAM ILLUSTRATING PRINCIPLE OF TESLA MOTOR.

the alternating-current motor problem. When Mr. Tesla took up
the question he sought for a new principle of action and found
it in what has since come to be known as the multiphase current.
He conceived that by providing the armature of his generator
and the field of his motor with two more sets of coils, connected
so as to form distinct circuits, he would be able to produce a pro-
gressive shifting of the magnetic poles of the motor field, and
thus drag around an armature capable of magnetic induction and
placed within the sphere of influence of his rotating field. This

ELECTRICITY AT THE WORLD'S FAIR.

737

method of operation will be clearly understood from the diagram-
matic sketch A (Fig. 6) and the illustration (Fig. 7) showing a
diagram of the connections of the motor and generator circuits.
Considering the latter first, M is the motor and G the generator.
The armature A of the generator is wound with two sets of coils,
B and B', brought out through the shaft and connected with the
contact rings 6 b and b' &'. The field magnet of the motor con-
sists of the iron ring R, also wound with two sets of coils, C C

FIG. 7. — DIAGRAM OF TESLA MOTOR CONNECTIONS.

and C' C', the diametrically opposite coils being connected to-
gether in series. The generator coils B and the motor coils C' C'
it will be seen are included in one circuit L, and the remaining
generator coils B' and the motor coils C C in another circuit L'.
The armature of the motor consists simply of a disk of iron cut
away at the sides, which becomes a magnet by induction when
the motor field is energized. Turning to Fig. 6, B and B' repre-
sent the coils of the generator armature and C and C' those of
the motor field as in Fig. 7. When the generator coils are in the
position shown in the first diagram the coil B is generating no
current and B' is generating its maximum amount. The coils C
of the motor field, which are included in the circuit of B', are
therefore traversed by their greatest current and produce mag-
netic poles in the iron ring R at N and S. As the generator arma-
ture revolves, B is brought to a position in which it is generating
current, and when this movement amounts to one eighth of a revo-
lution the circle will be in the position shown in the second dia-
gram of the figure. Each of the pair of coils C and C' will now tend
to set up poles in the ring R of the motor ninety degrees from each
other, and as their action is equal and opposite, the position of the
poles will be determined by the resultant of the magnetic forces
acting on the ring, and the poles will therefore be shifted around

VOL. XLIII. — 53

738 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the ring an eighth of a revolution. They will be shifted another
eighth when the generator armature reaches the position shown
in the last diagram, and will be successively displaced around the
ring R as this armature revolves until a complete revolution has
been made, when the parts are in their original position and ready
to repeat the same cycle of operations.

The principle of the rotation of the magnetic poles has been
applied by Mr. Tesla to a great variety of constructions. He has
designed machines in which the field magnetism remains fixed
and that of the armature is shifted, and others again in which
there is a progressive shifting of the magnetic poles of both
the field and armature in opposite directions. He has also found
that the motor armature may consist of sets of closed coils, cur-
rents being developed in them by induction, and by making the
induced portion of the generator stationary and the field revolv-
ing he has been able to produce apparatus free from all movable
electrical contacts. In operating motors of this character Mr.
Tesla usually employed a generator with multiple armature cir-
cuits as described above; but in the course of his experiments
he discovered that the ordinary continuous or direct current
machine could by slight alterations be made to furnish an alter-
nating multiphase current as well as and in addition to the
direct current. To accomplish this he found it was only neces-
sary to add to the machine a pair of collector rings for each
circuit of the multiphase current, and connect them with the
proper armature coils. If, for instance, he desired to produce
a two-phase current requiring two circuits from his generator
to his motor, one circuit would include a set of coils in the arma-
ture of the generator that were passing through the position in
which the maximum current was being produced, and the other a
set of coils in which at the same time the minimum current was
being generated. The phases of the current would then follow each
other in the same order as in the previous machines with distinct
circuits on the armature. With this form of machine a multiple-
phase alternating current, it will be seen, can be taken off from
the collector rings, while a direct current can be taken from the
commutator, and a part or the whole of this direct current be
sent through the field coils to energize them and then put to any
use for which such currents are suitable.

This machine was later developed into what has come to be
known as a rotary transformer. Instead of being driven by
power it is driven by one of the forms of current which it is
capable of furnishing, the other current being taken off and
utilized. For example, if a multiple-phase current is passed
into the machine by the collector rings it will be driven as a
motor and generate direct or continuous currents. If, on the

ELECTRICITY AT THE WORLD'S FAIR. 739

other hand, it be supplied with direct currents, it will also run
as a motor, and deliver multiphase alternating currents. This
apparatus promises to hold an important place, if not an in-
dispensable one, in any complete system of electric distribu-
tion. For many purposes, such as electroplating and electro-
typing and all forms of electro-decomposition, the continuous
current is essential, and for other uses, in the present state of the
art, it can not well be dispensed with. One of these uses is the
operation of electric railways. The alternating-current motor,
though answering many of the requirements of a commercial
motor, has one disadvantage in comparison with the motor driven
by direct or continuous currents. It has a less powerful starting
torque — that is, the pull upon the armature tending to rotate it is
much less at the start than in the direct-current machine. In
railway work a powerful starting torque is of the greatest impor-
tance, as a motor is frequently called upon to exert four or five
times the power in starting that is needed to keep the cars in mo-
tion. Whether the direct-current motor will continue to be essen-
tial for railway work or not, it is evident that a device which
enables either direct or alternating currents to be supplied to the
consumer at will must add much to the flexibility and complete-
ness of any system of distribution. With the apparatus as at
present worked out it is possible to place a generating dynamo at
the source of power, say a waterfall twenty miles away, produce
with this multiphase alternating currents, raise the potential of
these to any desired amount by means of a step-up converter,
pass them through the line, and then at the distribution end re-
duce them through the medium of a step-down converter to any
suitable pressure. These reduced currents may then be used
direct for operating alternating-current motors, for running in-
candescent or arc lamps, and, through the medium of the rotary
transformer, direct currents may be obtained for operating street
railways and other continuous-current motors, both classes of
lights, and all kinds of chemical decomposition apparatus. It
might be supposed that the multiphase system of alternating cur-
rents was a departure away from the direction of line economy,
so necessary a consideration in long-distance transmission, since
this system requires two or more circuits. This, however, is not
the case. It was early discovered by Mr. Tesla that the multiple
circuits could have a common return wire, and it appears that
the amount of copper in the combined circuits is actually less
than in the single circuit required for the ordinary single-phase
current.

The value of the departure in alternating apparatus made by
Mr. Tesla has been very generally appreciated in the electrical
world, and electric companies, both in this country and abroad,

74o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

have set themselves the task of working out complete systems of
apparatus along the lines laid down by him. The Westinghouse
Company, which early secured control in this country of Mr. Tes-
la's inventions, has developed a system using a two-phase current^
while the other considerable American company, the "General
Electric," has worked out a system employing a three-phase cur-
rent, which form of current has also been adopted by the Allge-
meine Elektricitats Gesellschaft of Berlin. All these companies
make an exhibit of this class of apparatus at the exposition, ar-
ranged to show the system in operation. The exhibits of the two
chief American companies are substantially the same, differing
mainly in the character of current used. Each shows the genera-
tion of multiphase currents, their transmission to the point of
distribution, and their utilization in alternating and direct current
apparatus.

How completely the problem of the distribution of electrical
power over long distances has been solved by this system, and to
what extent we may expect to see it pass into commercial use, ex-
perience alone can determine. Disregarding its future utility,
when we will perforce be driven to the utilization of natural
powers, and looking only to the immediate present, it is not diffi-
cult to see that its adoption will be primarily determined by the
cost of operating local steam plants. Where fuel is abundant,
and hence cheap, there will be little inducement to resort to
sources of power at a distance, but in all situations in which this
condition does not obtain, and water power is to be had within a
reasonable distance, electric power transmission will find a field,
and one which will constantly widen with experience. While
the utilization of water powers is the most obvious use for electric
power transmissions, and certainly its most immediate one, it is
quite possible that it will not prove to be the only one. As is
well known, a large part of the cost of coal to the consumer is the
expense of hauling it from the mines. It has been often pointed
out that if the coal could be burned at the pit's mouth and its
energy transmitted to the place of use there might result a great
saving, but any economical method of doing this has heretofore
been wanting. The suggestion has many times been made to
convert the coal into gas and distribute this, but the cost of pip-
ing has heretofore rendered this method of eliminating the cost of
railroad carriage impracticable. It would seem, however, to be
quite within the range of practical possibilities to find in electric
transmission an efficient and economic method.

[To be concluded,]

THE DUTY OF THE STATE TO THE INSANE. 741
THE DUTY OF THE STATE TO THE INSANE.

Br DR. ANDREW MACFARLANE.

~T UNACY legislation in the State of New York has been
J-^ marked by two recent acts which are among the noblest
monuments of the State's generosity, as well as witnesses of a
scientific appreciation of the needs of the unfortunate class who
are affected by them.
These acts are :

1. The change in the titles of these State institutions from
lunatic asylums to that of State hospitals.

2. The State care of the chronic insane.

The first is the natural outcome of modern ideas on the sub-
ject of insanity, which is now regarded not as a manifestation of
the evil one, but as a disease of the brain, affecting it in the same
way as pleurisy affects the pleura or peritonitis the peritoneum,
and that those suffering from mental disease should be treated
not as criminals or dangerous madmen but as very sick people.

The second is a grand philanthropic work, proving that the
State cares for even the most unfortunate of her children, and
seeks to soften as much as possible their sad lot.

The time is fortunately past when these measures required
advocates, and to-day it is necessary to keep in view only what
are the best means for carrying to a successful issue both of these
measures, and to consider if in any way the one tends to render
the other less successful.

The fact that it is thought the saddest affliction which can
befall mankind, that it affects all grades of society, that three out
of every thousand are its victims, makes the consideration of the
care of the insane, from the purely scientific, the philanthropic,
or the economic standpoint, a subject worthy of the most serious
thought and of the deepest interest to all. To-day (May, 1893)
there are in the State of New York 17,814 insane patients under
legal certificates of commitment in thirty -two public or private
asylums, whose buildings and equipments have cost $17,500,000,
where 2,900 people are employed, and which are maintained at
an annual cost of $3,500,000.

This huge creation is the work of less than fifty years, for in
1843 the Utica Asylum, the first State institution for the insane,
was opened for the reception of patients. Bloomingdale Asylum,
a private institution, had, however, been in successful operation
for many years, and was then in receipt of an annual grant from
the State, and the asylum on Blackwell's Island began in 1842 to
care for the insane in New York city.

The erection of the Utica Asylum marked the first decided step

742 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in the humanitarian care of the insane by the State and the recog-
nition of the obligation of the State to these unfortunates. It
was designed that the Utica Asylum should receive all the recent
cases of insanity. Those who, after a period of treatment, were
deemed incurable were to be returned to the county houses, thus
making room for all the recent cases. This condition lasted until
1865, when public opinion, shocked and horrified by the treatment
in almshouses of the chronic insane, who then numbered 1,300,
demanded that these, the most wretched of all God's creatures,
should receive at least kindly care. The Willard Asylum was
therefore established in 1865 for the care of the chronic insane,
who were to be there maintained at the lowest rate conformable
with a plain, simple diet and humane care. All the counties were
required to send their chronic insane to the Willard Asylum
except those which furnished suitable maintenance for them.
Twenty counties, largely because of inadequacy of accommoda-
tions in State institutions, were accordingly temporarily exempted
from the operation of this act. The State, however, continued to
build State asylums : at Poughkeepsie in 1870 ; at Middletown in
1874 ; at Buffalo in 1880 ; at Binghamton, the State Inebriate Asy-
lum, first used as a State asylum, in 1879 ; and the St. Lawrence
Asylum in 1890.

The State asylum for insane criminals, formerly at Auburn,
now at Matteawan, has not been considered in the following sta-
tistics, as the conditions there, on account of the character of the
patients, are peculiar to itself and different from the other State
hospitals.

The same general principle was carried into effect in their
design — that is, the Utica, Poughkeepsie, Buffalo, and Middle-
town asylums were for the recent cases, while the chronic incura-
ble cases were sent to the Willard and Binghamton asylums. The
reason for this was the recognition of the difference in the require-
ments of these two classes of patients — the acute and the chronic
insane. The acute insane are often dangerously sick, and should
receive all the strictly medical care and attention which the char-
acter of their mental disease demands, the custodial supervision
being here entirely secondary and kept as much as possible in the
background. The chronic insane are incapable of living at home,
and almost no hope of their recovery is entertained. These re-
quire custodial care, with incidental medical supervision. Their
care is purely a question of sociology, of interest to the philan-
thropist rather than the physician. The supervising spirit, how-
ever, must always be medical, as only a scientifically trained mind
can properly appreciate the influence of surroundings on their
welfare, and can wisely and humanely classify them as their
mental condition gradually changes.

THE DUTY OF THE STATE TO THE INSANE. 743

This difference, too, is most strikingly shown by the fact that
the average weekly cost per patient in the acute asylums was
$5.29, while in the Willard and Binghamton asylums for the
chronic insane it was less than half that amount, or about $2.60.
The ratio of physicians to patients in the acute asylums was 1 to
110, while in the chronic asylums it was 1 to 272. The recovery
rate on average daily population was twenty per cent in the acute
asylums, while in the chronic it was two per cent. The average
recovery rate on admissions was about thirty-three per cent in
acute asylums and about five per cent in chronic asylums.*

In spite of the fact that the State had built many new asylums,
the number of insane patients in the State increased more rapidly
than the accommodations provided for them. The counties also
found it more economical to abuse, under the guise of care, many
of their own chronic insane. The result, therefore, was that the
number of these unfortunates in county houses had in 1889 in-
creased to 2,200. Their condition was most pitiable, and the
recital of what they were subjected to carries one back to the
barbarities practiced in the middle ages and by savage tribes.
The Charities Aid Association, President Craig of the State
Board of Charities, and Dr. Stephen Smith, then State Commis-
sioner in Lunacy, kept for three years nobly at the work of mak-
ing public this disgrace and blot on our civilization. Finally, in
1890, the present State care act, the consummation of their en-
deavors and those of the present commission in lunacy created
in 1889, became a law. This State care act calls for the removal
of all the insane patients from county houses to State hospitals
and their care therein. New York and Kings (Brooklyn) Coun-
ties are exempted from this act, as they are considered to furnish
suitable accommodations distinct from their poorhouses for their
insane. The State has been divided into districts, and each hos-
pital has its own district, from which it draws all the patients,
both acute and chronic, thus making all the State hospitals of
the same character — that is, mixed hospitals for the care of both
the acute and chronic insane, instead of hospitals for the acute
cases and asylums for the chronic incurable cases.

In order to furnish accommodations for this large increase to
the State hospital population, it has been designed and is now be-
ing carried out to erect cheap buildings as annexes to the pres-
ent State hospitals on the hospital grounds at a cost of $550 per
patient. These buildings are intended for the more easily man-
aged chronic cases, and will enable the State to care for the 2,200
insane patients who were inmates of county houses before this

* Many of the recoveries in chronic asylums were of acute cases of insanity in persons
living in the immediate vicinity of the asylum.

744 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

act went into effect. Each hospital is allowed $4.25 per week for
the first three years of residence of each patient, and $2.50 per
week for any period beyond three years. It is also intended that
one assistant physician should be assigned 'to every two hundred
patients.

The thought now arises, What kind of medical care do insane
patients require, and what has and will be the effect of this huge
influx of chronic incurable insane upon the true object of a State
hospital, the cure of the insane ?

The demand for and the recognition of the need of a more dis-
tinctively medical care for the insane is shown by the change in
the titles of institutions for the insane from asylums, a place of
refuge, to hospital, a place of cure; a movement which is so gen-
eral as not to be due to any local cause or influence, and also in
the recent pleas of some prominent alienists that the acute insane
should receive the same kind of medical care as patients suffering
from any other acute ailment. The latter go so far as to advise
the establishment of a hospital for the acute insane on the same
lines as those of any general hospital,* with its visiting staff and
thorough attention to all physical disorders in addition to the
mental disease.

To-day the solution of this question lies either in a general
hospital for the acute insane or in the hospitalizing of the old
asylum or part of it. A general hospital for the acute insane
would not, I believe, be advisable, and could not be properly con-
ducted except in the large centers of population where there are
many specialists in insanity. The duration of the illness, the
need at certain stages of the disease of diversion or occupation,
because there comes a time when such influences are most power-
ful for good, the difficulty of determining at once whether the
disease is curable or not, thus tending to overcrowd such an insti-
tution or necessitating frequent changes ; all these would make
impracticable such an institution. Then, too, the fact that in our
present State hospitals most of the patients come from small cities
or the country, where there are poor or no hospital facilities and
certainly no specialists, would necessitate the erection of many
special small hospitals in these places or the transference of these
patients to large cities with all the attendant ill effects — noise, ex-
citement, and close quarters.

But that acute cases of insanity, however, need some kind of
hospital treatment is evident. No less an authority than Dr. J.
Batty Tuke has thus written : " The subjects of most of the insani-

* By general hospital in this connection is meant a hospital constructed on the same
lines as other hospitals for special diseases or the establishment of special wards in a large
general hospital.

THE DUTY OF THE STATE TO THE INSANE. 745

ties are very sick people indeed, for, in the first place, they are in
danger of their lives ; and, in a second, they are in imminent dan-
ger of lapsing into that living death, terminal dementia. Each
case, under circumstances of curative rest and calm, requires
special hospital treatment, conducted on identically the same
principles as those that regulate practice in our general infirm-
aries, and conducted under similar conditions as regards rest,
nursing, and therapeutic agents. The existing system of asylum
structure, management, and treatment makes this almost unat-
tainable. No class of cases requires the attention of trained
nurses more than subjects of recent insanity/'

Can the present State hospitals provide such accommodations
and give such care as Dr. Tuke claims the acute insane for their
proper treatment need ? I believe they can, and also that the ac-
commodation and care there provided could be made far better
than any that might be furnished in an institution established
exclusively on the lines of a general hospital.

Unfortunately, Dr. Tuke's charge that " the existing system of
asylum structure, management, and treatment makes the medical
care of the insane almost unattainable," is alas too true. The
erection of palatial buildings, which would be grand and magnifi-
cent monuments to an architect's skill, a State's pride, or a physi-
cian's ambition, has too often predominated over modest, simple
structures, which could be rendered homelike and natural to the
inmates. The fact is that though millions of dollars have been
appropriated for the care of the insane, and thousands of capable
men have spent their lives in this line of work, very little has
been discovered in America about the real nature of insanity, and
to-day the whole subject is a terra incognita whose shores have
scarcely been touched, and which furnishes a number of the most
difficult but yet the most intensely interesting problems to be
solved. This condition is the result not of a want of ability or
investigating spirit among asylum physicians, but is the natural
outcome of a system which so handicaps them with extraneous
duties as to render long-continued original medical work almost
impossible.

A physician has under his care on the average more than two
hundred patients, both acute and chronic. The desire to get as
many of these as possible engaged in suitable occupation, the
wish to make the unhappy lot of the chronic insane a little
brighter by entertainments of various kinds, the routine history-
writing, the correspondence, the attention to the visits of the
friends of this large number of patients — all of which, needful and
necessary in their way, make so many demands on the physician's
time that medical work becomes necessarily secondary and the
administrative duties the more important work.

746 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Though legislative enactment has made all asylums hospitals
in name, it has not accomplished this in fact. To-day the tend-
ency of the State care act, though noble and generous in its in-
ception, has been to make the hospital treatment of the curable
insane almost impossible, or at least most difficult. It has crowded
all the State hospitals with a mass of patients for whom nothing
medically can be done, thus essentially interfering with proper
classification. It compels the placing of recent, curable, mania-
cal, and suicidal cases with old chronic patients who are violent,
destructive, and filled with all kinds of delusions of persecution
and various hallucinations. These tend not only to strengthen
the newcomers in their own morbid ideas, but to implant many
new ones. Their influence on the terrified, depressed, and deluded
is especially pernicious. It is not necessary to paint a word-pic-
ture of the sad effect of such surroundings on these sufferers.
Every asylum physician has been deeply touched by the descrip-
tions by recovered patients of the shock upon them on admission
of their surroundings; the shouts of their neighbors, the inde-
scribable fear of other patients, the frightful thought, " This will
be my fate," the baneful remarks of mischievous patients present
in every institution who, with show of sympathy, say to the hy-
persensitive newcomer, " Such a one has been detained here these
many years, and doubtless you will be."

These are not argument-made examples, but exist in every
State hospital. They not only influence temporarily the imagina-
tion, but often do irremediable damage to the mind. The Penn-
sylvania State Lunacy Report, in considering this subject, says :
" The acute are often heard to allude with horror to the condition
of the chronic patients, dwelling most painfully upon the immi-
nent probability of soon becoming hopelessly lost to home, friends,
and society, and of passing the remainder of their lives in similar
seclusion. Like begets like, and as the population of any hospital
for the insane is chiefly chronic, there being relatively only a
limited number of acute cases scattered through the various
wards, this evil association must rob society of many a useful and
productive citizen by placing him in daily contact with those
who mar his chances for recovery." These are the mental and
moral effects of such intercourse.

The chronic insane by the mere force of numbers also influence
too much the character of the management of a State hospital and
turn it from its true work, the cure of the insane. They consti-
tute more than nine tenths of the entire number of patients in
every mixed asylum, and receive more attention and care than the
character of their condition demands, thus depriving the curable
insane, who are less than one tenth the number, of much of what
the hopefulness and acuteness of their sickness needs and requires.

THE DUTY OF THE STATE TO THE INSANE. 747

In justice, it must be said that every asylum physician seeks
to give the acute cases the larger part of his time, but the press of
other matters, non-medical, so encroach upon his time that he
usually finds that he has neglected, or at least has not done as
much for them as he might have accomplished under other cir-
cumstances. What, then, are these other circumstances, and how
can a State hospital take better care of acute cases than a general
hospital ?

Let us take, for example, a State hospital of one thousand pa-
tients. The staff would consist of a medical superintendent, five
assistant physicians, and a woman physician. In a hospital of
that capacity there would never be more than one hundred patients
who would be considered curable, and the number would probably
not exceed sixty. More than nine hundred patients would be
hopelessly incurable, for the most part the wrecks of past disease,
who practically need nothing but kindly custodial care with inci-
dental medical treatment. Two, or at most three, physicians
could easily do all that a humanitarian spirit might deem neces-
sary for such a number of this class of patients. Three or four
physicians would thus be left to devote themselves to the curable
patients. Instead of constructing annexes for the harmless
patients, let these be lodged and cared for in the huge barracks-
like main buildings, the creation and legacy of a former genera-
tion. Then erect at suitable distances from the main building
three or four houses for the treatment of the curable patients.
These should be built simply and comfortably, so constructed as
to do away with the huge institutional feeling and to give them
a homelike appearance, and so furnished as to take away as much
as possible all indications of confinement and restraint. They
should contain no wards, but plainly furnished single rooms with
sitting-rooms, thus permitting the utmost privacy, with the op-
portunity of intercourse when deemed beneficial.

Here the real medical work of the hospital should be done, and
no labor should be spared which would in any way tend to the
recovery of a patient or help to solve any of the unknown prob-
lems of insanity.

Electricity, massage, baths of all kinds, thorough examination
of the blood and the various excretions, the use of the sphygmo-
graph and ophthalmoscope, together with a very thorough phys-
ical examination would easily and most profitably keep employed
the number of physicians assigned to the acute cases. For it is in
this acute and presumably curable period that the case should
have everything that medical skill and unremitting attention
under the most favorable circumstances can confer. The disease
must be arrested in this beginning stage if it be in our power to
arrest it.

748 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The nurses, too, should be especially selected for this service
among the curable insane. Those who have, by work among the
chronic insane, shown that they possess the aptitude and tact neces-
sary to care intelligently for such patients could easily be select-
ed for this special work. Then with these nurses could be placed
several nurses who have had general hospital training and who
would therefore be more apt to regard insane patients from the
purely medical side. The number of nurses, too, should depend
upon the need of each case ; if necessary, a single nurse should be
assigned to a patient, though this, probably, would rarely be
required. The criterion, however, should be, What will be most
helpful in a curative way to the patient ? The nurses would thus
feel the great importance of the work they were doing, because
every case would be considered as a curable case, and there is no
greater incentive to good work than the feeling that the work is
of great value. By a slight increase in the wages in addition to
the importance attached to the work, the very best nurses em-
ployed in the hospital could be secured for this work, and easily
made most enthusiastic about it. The effect also upon the medi-
cal staff would be most beneficial. Any one who has seen the
tendency to the undermining of the medical spirit in talented,
brilliant, and ambitious physicians who have accepted State hos-
pital positions, will appreciate the importance of anything that
would increase the medical spirit in State hospitals.

In a discussion before the British Medico-Psychological Society
on the subject How can the medical spirit best be kept up in
asylums for the insane ? the following means were most strongly
dwelt upon :

1. Classification — that is, separation of the curable from the
incurable asylum population.

2. Necessity for hospital treatment for the curable.

3. Necessity for training the attendants.

4. Necessity for more physicians to asylums, and a rearrange-
ment of their duties.

Such purely medical treatment of the curable insane can be
best carried out in annexes to the present State hospitals and
under the same management. The State in each State hospital
has a most valuable plant, with large, handsome grounds, conven-
iently situated to the section of country from which it receives its
patients. They are in charge of well-equipped and competent
medical officers who have given their lives to this work, and es-
pecially appreciate the needs of this class of patients. Then, too,
there is the body of trained nurses from whom the special nurses
could be selected. There are also in existence various industries
and means of amusement, which, though hurtful in certain stages
for some, might be and are used with great advantage in the con-

THE DUTY OF THE STATE TO THE INSANE. 749

valescing period when the acute insane are not so susceptible to
morbid influences. But most important, because of the difficulty
of determining at once in some cases the curability of the disease,
is the possibility of keeping under observation doubtful cases
until the character of their disease can be determined and they
can be correctly classified. Transferences from the chronic to the
acute buildings could also easily be made if any supposed chronic
case should manifest signs of mental improvement.

The State has always recognized the principle that curable
patients required more and better care and attention than the
chronic cases. This was formerly shown by the greater sums per
patient given to the hospitals for the acute insane. The same
fact underlies the present allowance of $4.25 per week for the first
three years of hospital residence, the presumably curable period,
and $2.50 per week for the remaining time, when the patient
would be regarded as chronic. This is an exceedingly poor,
though probably under the circumstances the best, way to meet
this problem, the difference in the character of the care required
by the curable and the chronic patients. Only sixty per cent of
the admissions are curable cases ; the others can be diagnosed as
incurable at the first meeting, and require only the simple care
which chronic patients should receive. As the hospitals are now
constituted, the acute cases are placed among the chronic, and of
necessity can receive little more than the average care of tlje hos-
pital. We have here a double injustice : first, greater sums are
given for some patients (those whose recovery is hopeless from
admission) than the character of care for their disease demands ;
second, many (those who are curable at admission) do not receive
the extra care which their illness demands, and to which the in-
creased sum ($4.25) entitles them. It practically means, therefore,
that the increased sums received from the recent cases go to ele-
vate the general standard of care of all the patients rather than
to be expended exclusively on the acute cases for whom this in-
creased amount is given. Thus the chronic cases get more care
than it was designed that they should have, or than they really
need, and the acute patients are deprived of the better care and
attention which it was intended they should receive.

" The duty of the State is such provision as to accomplish the
largest result in the restoration to health of curable cases, the
element of expense being here a subordinate one, and for the re-
mainder such comfortable provision as shall insure safety to the
community and humane care to the sufferer." *

* Address of Dr. W. W. Godding, Superintendent of the Government Hospital for the
Insane, Washington, D. C., read before the National Conference of Charities and Corrections,
September 16, 1889.

75o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The medical superintendent could determine on the admission
of patients which were incurable and which gave hope of cure.
The State should then appropriate such moderate sum per person
for all incurable patients, whether of recent admission or of long-
standing disease, as to enable these sufferers to receive kindly
care and a few of the pleasures of life. For the curable cases in
the hospital annexes no reasonable expense should be spared.
This is true economy regarded either from the philanthropic,
economic, or scientific point of view. The curable patients come
entirely from the strong people who have earned their own liveli-
hood, and have done their part in the world until, loaded down by
ill-health, trouble, or care, they break down and go to a State hos-
pital for treatment. The mental weaklings, the victims of the de-
generacy of their ancestors, the last step before the extinction in
them of the species — these, who have always been a burden on the
community, are all to be found in the incurable class.

It has been estimated that the average duration of life of a
chronic insane person is twelve years. This represents in money
expended for care and in lost productiveness about five thousand
dollars. The economic importance, therefore, of saving every
patient possible from lapsing into chronic insanity becomes ap-
parent. It is reasonable also to suppose that with such hospital
care the duration of sickness in curable cases would be lessened,
and that many would more quickly resume their former occupa-
tions.

The moral effect, too, upon the general public would be marvel-
ous, and the strictly medical aspect of insanity would be appre-
ciated by the lay mind. It is an accepted scientific fact that in-
sanity, in curable cases, is curable directly in proportion to its
early medical treatment away from home associations. The public,
when the character of the hospital annex for recent cases and the
importance of early treatment were understood, would not regard
a State hospital as a place of living death, only to be resorted to
when all other means fail, and often after all hope of recovery or
possibility of accomplishing any curative measure is past.

The cost per patient in the hospital annex would not be more
than is now expended in any good general hospital, and would not
exceed nine or ten dollars per week for such patient. Such a
method would not be any more expensive than the present system,
and when the permanent effects are considered would give the best
results and would also be a positive saving. The average weekly
cost under the present conditions per patient is three dollars and a
half, or $3,500 for a State hospital of one thousand patients.
Under the separate plan of treatment, the curable patients, num-
bering not more that eighty, could be maintained at a weekly
cost of ten dollars per patient, or $800; the nine hundred and

THE DUTY OF THE STATE TO THE INSANE. 751

twenty chronic incurable patients could be humanely and kindly
cared for at three dollars per week for each person, or $2,760,
thus making the total cost of treatment, under probably the best
conditions, $3,560.

This mode of treatment of the insane, far from being Utopian,
is at present in successful operation in Strasburg and Heidelberg,
and is about to be carried into effect in some of the Scotch asy-
lums. The most eminent alienists in Great Britain and America
have strongly advocated it.

Lord Shaftesbury, before a select committee of the House of
Commons in 1887, thus explained the intention of the promoters of
the early lunacy laws : " The asylum was to be divided into two ;
there was to be the principal asylum, which was for the acute
cases; and there was to be a chronic asylum alongside of it,
which was for old, chronic, incurable cases. All the recent cases
were to be sent to the principal asylum, which was to have a full
medical staff, and everything which could be necessary for treat-
ment and cure/'

Dr. J. Wigglesworth, superintendent of an English asylum, in
the discussion on The Future Provision for the Chronic Insane
before the British Medico-Psychological Society, said : " A more
important question than the care of the chronic insane was
whether they could not make a more determined effort to do more
for the cure of the recent cases. To do this they must hospital-
ize asylums more. They must have small buildings properly
officered and equipped, to which all recent cases should first be
sent. The increased knowledge thus obtained would without
doubt in time bring about an increase of the recovery rate."

Dr. H. Hayes Newington, in his presidential address delivered
at the annual meeting of the Medico-Psychological Society of
Great Britain in 1890, advocated the hospital annex for curable
cases within easy distance of the main building. He stated that,
in a hospital of one thousand patients, not more than sixty on an
average would need such treatment.

Dr. D. Hack Tuke, in discussing the above address, said:
" There should be means of treating acute cases in a separate hos-
pital block, one in the construction of which no reasonable expense
should be spared ; or there should be a hospital at some distance
from the asylum, on the lines laid down by Dr. Newington."

Dr. E. B. Whitcomb, in his presidential address before the
British Medico-Psychological Society in 1891, stated : " The hos-
pital treatment of the acute insane would insure the separation
of acute from chronic insanity, sustain and encourage the more
rational treatment of insanity as a symptom of physical de-
rangement; but above these a well-constituted hospital would
be the means of promoting to a greater extent and in a more elab-

7 5 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

orate manner than at present exists a scientific and wider knowl-
edge of the disease. Such a hospital should be administered on
the most liberal principles, not as you see at the present time in a
competing spirit as to the smallest cost, but having a due regard
to frugality in its truest and most economical aspect — the cure of
the insane."

Mr. William P. Letchworth, formerly President of the New
York State Board of Charities, in a scholarly and careful resume
in his admirable work, The Insane in Foreign Countries, advo-
cates thorough remedial measures in small hospitals, no matter
how expensive, for the acute insane, as not only more humane, but
in the end more economical.

Dr. Chapin, Superintendent of the Pennsylvania Hospital for
the Insane, in his presidential address before the superintendents
of institutions for the insane, said : " Every hospital should have a
special organization for the medical treatment of its recent cur-
able cases. Is it the better way to continue our recent cases in
the wards of large hospitals in constant contact with hundreds of
chronics ? To this serious and important interrogatory I must
enter an emphatic negative answer, and believe it is not too soon
to sound a note of warning. The needs of the recent and acute
cases may be best met by the erection in connection with our
State asylums of small and well-appointed hospital wards for the
strictly medical treatment of such cases."

The late Dr. Bancroft, Superintendent of the New Hampshire
State Asylum, thus wrote on this subject : " I have little doubt
that moderate-sized hospitals constituted and operated either in-
dependently or as annexes would return increased ratios of recov-
ery while adding vastly to the comfort and happiness of patients
during hospital residence. Such adjustment would diminish rou-
tine, secure the largest degree of personal freedom and indulgence,
and guarantee to each individual the best remedial influences as
well as protection from such as are both distasteful and detri-
mental."

Dr. Godding, in an address before the National Conference of
Charities and Corrections, thus spoke on this question : "The pro-
vision, then, should include one building, or preferably one group
of buildings, designed especially for the acute and curable cases.
No detail in construction should be omitted, no liberality of ar-
rangement curtailed, that may be held to in any way assist in
the treatment and cure of these cases."

The last fifty years have witnessed a work of which we have
reason to be proud : the evolution of the care and treatment of the
insane out of the mist and darkness of superstition and ignorance,
when the insane were chained, beaten, and burned, to the present
kindly care which seeks to treat them as very sick people. The

LIP AND EAR ORNAMENTS OF THE EOTOCUDUS. 753

future, however, presents also a grand work to be accomplished :
the elevation of this specialty to the highest scientific and philan-
thropic plane.

The duty of the State to the insane may, therefore, be summed
up in —

1. The separate treatment of the curable and incurable insane
under the same medical executive.

2. True hospital treatment for the curable insane with all the
medical skill, nursing, and care, regardless of expense, which the
character of the disease demands.

3. Simple, humane, custodial care of the incurable insane, at a
moderate expense.

THE LIP AND EAR ORNAMENTS OF THE BOTOCUDUS.

BY JOHN C. BEANNER, PH. D.,

FORMERLY ASSISTANT ON THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF BRAZIL.

M ^HE Botocudus are a rapidly disappearing tribe of Brazilian
-L Indians. They inhabit the country along the upper portion
of the Rio Doce, about three hundred miles northeast of Rio de
Janeiro, and the region lying along the borders of the States of
Bahia, Espirito Santo, and Minas Geraes, especially between the
Rio Doce and Rio Pardo, and along the Sierra dos Aymore's. Al-
though they are now in contact with civilization and fast yield-
ing to and dying out before its gentle influences, it is not many
years since they and the various branches of their great family
occupied a large portion of southern Brazil, and were justly looked
upon as the most ferocious of all the wild tribes of that country.
But few travelers have seen anything of them, and these have ob-
served only the straggling outskirts as it were of their tribe. Even
to this day the latest and best maps of Brazil have written broadly
across the vast region referred to, " But little known, and inhab-
ited by Indians." In these dense and almost impenetrable forests
they spend their lives, seldom or never visiting either the campos
of the interior or the coast.

To judge of the stage of civilization of these Indians it is
worth while knowing that they can not count, and that their
reckoning is done by using the fingers and toes, and that even
this does not go beyond twenty. The children are dirt-eaters, and
are sold for slaves, often for the merest trifles. Formerly these
people wore no clothing at all ; nowadays they are coming more
and more to use it. Their straight, deep black hair, high cheek-
bones, flat noses, complexion, and stature are all suggestive of the
Mongolian race types.

It is not my purpose, however, to say much of the Botocudus

VOL. XLIII. — 64

754

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

except with reference to their custom of wearing the large and
broad lip and ear ornaments shown in the accompanying illustra-
tions. Several travelers in Bra-
zil have given figures of Indi-
ans using such ornaments, not-
ably Spix and Von Martius,
MaximiHen Wied - Neuwied,
Hartt, Jean de Lery, Bigg-
Wither, and Von Tschudi. It
may be said of the illustrations
given by those writers, how-
ever, that they, without excep-
tion, fail to give the character-
istic features and expressions
of the Botocudus, or, for that
matter, of any Indians. Those
used in the present article, on

FIG. 1. — BOTOCUDU WOMAN. The flesh band ot , -i , -i T_ j i_ i_

the lip has been broken and the ends tied the °ther hand> have been Care-

together with a piece of bark, that the lip fully drawn from photographs

ornament may be used. An opening has ^^p „ fpw VpaT,c, ao-o V>v M
been made in the ear lobe, but it is not of a I6W yearS a&° ™ 1V1«

the customary wze. Marc Ferrez, photographer to

the Imperial Geological Sur-
vey of Brazil, and may be relied upon for their accuracy. The
subjects chosen for the photo-
graphs were selected with a view
to securing the best types that
could be had, but it should be
remembered that the Botocudus
of to-day are rapidly approach-
ing extinction, and that their
customs are probably modified
to a considerable extent since
the visit of Spix and Von Mar-
tius, which was made in 1817 to
1820.*

The custom of wearing the
lip and ear ornaments is a very
ancient one among the Botocu-
dus, for the earliest travelers
found it in vogue when the con-
tinent was ^ discovered. Hans FlG. 2._BoTOCUDU WoMAN, with both

Stade, who lived among the Ay- and ear ornaments of average size.

lip

* Rum has much to do with the wiping out of the native Indians of Brazil. The
whites, especially the original settlers of the country, treated them without pity, enslaving
them and killing them upon the slightest provocation or with no provocation whatever.

LIP AND EAR ORNAMENTS OF THE BOTOCUDUS. 755

mor^s of southern Brazil in 1549, says of one of the chiefs, " Then
he arose, and strutted before me with proud conceit, and he had a
large round green stone sticking through the lips of his mouth as
their custom is." *

The opening in the lower lip is made when the person is quite
young by piercing it with a long, slender thorn that grows on a
kind of palm tree ; this is enlarged with the point of a deer's horn,
and a stick or small stone is inserted and the wound is greased
with some kind of salve. These openings are gradually enlarged
by forcing bigger and bigger plugs into them until the desired
size is reached. It was formerly the custom when the young men
were old enough to bear arms
that the openings were en-
larged and the green stone
labrets inserted, f

Jean de Lery says that
sometimes when these stones
are out, just for the fun of
it, they stick their tongues
through the holes in their
lips, to make people believe
they have two mouths. He
adds, "I leave you to judge
whether they look handsome
when they are doing this." \

The lip ornament is of two
very different forms, only one
of which — the broad and stop-
per-shaped one — is illustrated
in the accompanying cuts;

the other is long and rudely T-shaped. The shank or long cylin-
der is pushed through the opening from inside the lip and the
cross-piece at the top prevents its falling out. The openings for
ornaments of this kind are not nearly so large as those required
by the stopper-shaped ones. Several writers tell of the use of
stones for labrets. Jean de Lery* speaks of polished bone as
white as ivory used by the big boys, and replaced when they are
grown by green stones. I have seen many of them made of clay
and burned like pottery, while the ornaments in most common use
nowadays are made of wood.

There is a fair collection of Brazilian Indian lip and ear orna-

FIG. 3. — BOTOCUDU MAN. The ear ornament has
been removed and the distended lobe is al-
lowed to hang free.

* The Captivity of Hans Slide, of Hesse. The Hakluyt Society, No. li, p. 72.
f Hans Stade, p. 139.

\ Histoire d'vn Voyage faict en la Terre dv Bresil, par lean de Lery. Geneva, 1583,
p. 104. * Op. cit., p. 104.

756

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ments in the Museu Nacional at Rio de Janeiro. Many of the
examples in the collection are beautifully finished specimens of
jade, beryl, serpentine, and quartz, while others are but rudely
shaped ones of burned clay and wood.

However strange and in a certain sense fascinating such cus-
toms may be, these ornaments, when seen in the ghastly wounds
of the dusky, stolid faces of savages, are inexpressibly hideous.
They are rendered still more so by the fact that the South Amer-
ican Indians, so far at least as my observations go, lose their front
teeth early, and especially the lower ones, and the pulling down of
the lower lip almost invariably exposes the toothless gums or the
broken, decaying, discolored, and filthy teeth. Hunger is the
curse of savage life, and the savage is therefore always on the
alert for something to eat. For this reason the discharge of saliva
is much more marked with a savage than with a civilized man.
The effect of this free discharge of saliva on the personal appear-
ance of a man or woman,
whose lower lip is all the
time drawn so low that it
can not be retained, may be
imagined more readily than
described.

The stopper-shaped lip
ornaments are now made
of some light kind of
wood. They are usually
about three quarters of an
inch thick and two inches
in diameter, though some-
times they are much larger.
Prince Maximilian meas-
ured one four inches across.
Around the outside of the
plug a little groove is cut,
and when it is inserted the
flesh band of the lip fits in
this groove and thus holds
the plug in place. With

age the flesh bands relax considerably, and the plugs of old per-
sons are for this reason generally larger than those of younger
ones. When the ornament is removed the lip dangles in a most
ungraceful manner. In the accidents of savage life these open-
ings in the lips are often broken, but this does not prevent
the wearing of the customary ornament, for the broken ends
of the band are united by a string made of a. bit of bark, and
the plug thus held in place. One of the accompanying illus-

Fio. 4. — BOTOCUDU WOMAN. The ear ornament has
been lost and the distended lobe is looped above
the ear.

LIP AND EAR ORNAMENTS OF THE BOTOCUDUS. 757

trations (Fig. 1) was made to show this method of sticking to
the fashion.

The ear ornaments of the Botocudus are not essentially differ-
ent from those used in the lips (see Fig. 2). The plugs are of the
same materials, size, and appear-
ance ; they differ only in that they
are worn in the openings made in
the lobes of the ears instead of in
the lower lip. The bands of the
ears, when the plugs are not in
place, dangle upon the shoulders
when left to themselves (Fig. 3),
but they are generally thrown over
the top of the ear. This custom of
looping up the ear lobes is shown
in Fig. 4.

Many persons who have seen
these pictures have thought such
a fashion too inconvenient to last
long. But the inconvenience of a
fashion seems to have but little or
nothing to do with either its origin
or its perpetuity. Our own fashions
are often complained of as tyran-
nical, unreasonable, unbecoming,
inartistic, useless, whimsical, and everything else that is not down-
right wicked. But all people have fashions of one sort or an-
other, and we can only congratulate ourselves that, however bad
some of our fashions may be, they might have been worse than
they are.

FIG. 5. — YOUNG BOTOCUDU WOMAN, AGE
ABOUT SEVENTEEN. The ornaments
worn in the ears are the modern
pendants.

AMONG the reasons published by Count Paul von Honsbroch, of Germany, for
renouncing his allegiance to the order of the Jesuits, are the rigor and monotony
of the discipline enforced by its rules. From the first day of his novitiate the
young Jesuit, it might be said, is run into a mold from which he is ultimately to
emerge a mere passive instrument of the mission work of the order. The mes-
merized or hypnotized patient, according to the count, is not a more perfect tool
in the hands of the manipulator than is the well trained Jesuit in those of the
general of the order. He lives, moves, and has his being simply at the behest of
his superior, and responds to the demands from those above him with a fidelity
and an efficiency attainable under no other system. A similar confession is made
by Count Campello, of Rome, in his statement of reasons for having ceased to
serve as canon of St. Peter's. The daily monotonous exercises of the Basilica,
repeated morning and evening without break from year to year, were paralyzing
his mental and bodily powers and destroying all initiative. These facts point to a
fatal influence of monotony which deserves to be studied; for under the increas-
ing specialization of learning and occupation, life is tending daily to become more
monotonous and more destitute of true inspiration.

758 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

CRIMINAL FESTIVALS.

By M. GUILLAUME FEKRERO.

WHAT we now call crime is a normal fact of social life among
ruder peoples, who have not yet risen above the lowest
grades of manhood. Murder, theft, pillage, are glorious exploits
or rarely sought-out amusements among such ; and cannibalism
is a system of alimentation more prized than all others. Primi-
tive man in most regions has no repugnance against killing and
eating other men, but rather finds enjoyment in it. This being
the moral condition of most primitive peoples, we can compre-
hend without difficulty that their festivals had a cruel and crim-
inal character. As human flesh is the most exquisite viand for
cannibal savages, it was natural that when they met to celebrate
any welcome event in a festal way they should regale themselves
liberally with this precious food. The Fijians never failed in
their cannibal days to mark every public solemnity, like the dedi-
cation of a temple, with a grand feast of human flesh : and they
celebrated their victories in war by carving and roasting their
slain enemies on the field of battle. The Monbuttos celebrate
grand man-eating festivals on the field of battle after a victory.
The New-Zealanders carved up immediately after the battle their
vanquished and wounded enemies, while prisoners were reserved,
partly to be eaten by the braves, and partly for grand public fes-
tivals in which human flesh was the principal dish.

Murder is a pleasure to the primitive man, as with the Java-
nese, who tests the quality of his new dirk by plunging it into the
heart of the first man he meets. It is quite natural, therefore,
that there should be meetings among these people for the enjoy-
ment of this pleasure, at which they engage in murderous festivi-
ties at the expense of some unfortunate victim. The red Indians,
returning from an expedition, used to give themselves up to san-
guinary orgies upon their prisoners, binding them to a stake in
the midst of the village, when men, women, and children would
inflict petty tortures upon them till they died, killed by pin-
prickings.

We see, then, that in the beginning of civilization crime is in-
dividual and collective ; there are crimes which each man com-
mits on his own account, and criminal festivals, collective crimes,
perpetrated by a whole tribe, a people, etc.

The same rule prevails with those very numerous crimes which
are connected with religious ideas, such as human sacrifices in
honor of defunct ancestors and then of the gods, who are only
deified ancestors. Among so savage peoples, these ancestors would
have been fierce and cruel men, to whom human sacrifices, kill-

CRIMINAL FESTIVALS. 759

ings, and massacres would be supposed by their adorers to be
pleasing ; in fact, the Tahitians believed that their god Oro was
very well satisfied when wars were bloody; and the Chibchas
said that no sacrifice was so dear to the gods as sacrifices of human
blood. For this reason many were killed among the most savage
peoples in honor of ancestors and the gods. These religious
crimes, too, were individual and collective — that is, the sacrifice
was sometimes performed by one man, sometimes by a family, and
sometimes by a whole tribe, according as a personal, a family, or
a tribal concern was to be commended to the gods.

According to this view, we should be tempted to believe that
when crime began to be the object of legal repression and moral
repulsion, all these individual and collective crimes, festivals,
and human sacrifices would disappear. It is not so. By a curi-
ous contradiction, individual crime has disappeared sooner than
collective crime. The branding by the public opinion of peoples
who have become sufficiently civilized, of murder, theft, and can-
nibalism as offenses, may have prevented individuals from com-
mitting them, but did not prevent the whole people celebrating
the criminal festivals which their savage customs had engendered,
although they were contradictory of the changed condition of
public morality. In fact, we find among very civilized peoples
official festivals and ceremonies which are wholly worthy of the
most savage races.

It is a general belief among primitive peoples that human
blood, possessing marvelous qualities, assures fertility to the
fields and stability to houses, and on that account a large number
of homicides are committed among such peoples : for each man
tries to assure the benefits of bloodshed to his own fields or to his
house. Among the civilized Aryans of India this barbarous cus-
tom existed no longer ; whoever killed a man to use his blood for
such a purpose would have been condemned as a murderer ; but
the ancient usage still survived in public ceremonies.

War is often made by primitive peoples for the purpose of
eating the enemy who is slain, for the enemy is then only a
special kind of game. With some peoples who have advanced a
little, and who have abolished their cannibalistic customs, we find
that human flesh is the essential dish in certain banquets cele-
brated in honor of victories. In Dahomey, after fortunate wars,
there were public festivals in which banquets of human flesh
were a sacred custom, although the Dahomeyans were not can-
nibals; and it was the king's function to eat the heart of an
enemy's chief slain in war.

What is called juridical anthropophagy occasionally gives rise
to a peculiar species of criminal festivals. Among the Battas of
Sumatra, a numerous people, agricultural, peaceful, and law-

760 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

abiding, who have a regular system of laws, an alphabet and
a literature, and are not cannibals, the adulterer, the night-rob-
ber, and those who traitorously attacked a city or a village, were
condemned to be eaten by the people. They were tied to three
stakes, their arms and legs stretched out to form a cross, and
then, at a given signal, all those present would rush up to them
and hack them up with hatchets and knives, or simply with their
nails and teeth. The torn-off pieces of flesh were eaten at once,
raw and bleeding, being first only dipped in a mixture composed
of citron-juice, salt, etc., prepared in advance in a cocoanut shell.
In adultery cases the husband had the right to choose the first
piece.*

The Dyaks have a criminal festival associated with the pecul-
iar custom of head-hunting. Since in many tribes a young man
can not marry till he has presented a human head to his sweet-
heart, he hides himself in the shrubbery of the jungles and watches
for his victim for days at a time, till he kills him and cuts off his
head. Then he returns to his village and announces his triumph
by blowing upon the sea-shell that serves him as a hunting horn ;
the children and the women come out to meet him, give him an
ovation, and lavish upon him the most exaggerated and hyper-
bolical praises ; and the bleeding head is borne in great pomp to
the house of the chief. Before hanging it up in front of the
dwelling, children are caused to suck its blood, in order that they
may draw courage from it. Yet the Dyaks are a peaceful people,
for homicide is very rare within their tribes. " Not the thirst
for carnage, or the love of murder/' writes Temmink, " or any
spirit of vengeance, induces them to cut off heads. They are not
anthropophagic. A hereditary superstition, passed into a custom,
causes them to commit acts which they believe to be meritori-
ous." In fact, the Dyaks, like the Battas, have an undisputed
reputation for sincerity, frankness, and honesty. f

It is especially religion that gives its sanction and consecrates
these collective crimes, by preserving them in customs associated
with its dogmas and rites. The Phoenician race, even when it
had reached the highest degree of its civilization, still retained
human sacrifices at Tyre, Sidon, and Carthage. The festivals of
Moloch were real orgies of blood ; the priests burned children in
honor of the god, and the people, excited by the spectacle, were
seized with such an agitation that many men were injured by the
frenzied crowd. These horrors were repeated at Upsala by the
Scandinavians, and at Riigen and Roncova by the ancient Slavs ;
yet the Scandinavians and the Slavs, although they were not so

* Letourneau, La Sociologie d'apres 1'Ethnographie, Paris,
f Bertillon, Les Races sauvages, Paris.

CRIMINAL FESTIVALS. 761

civilized as the Phoenicians, were people who had made consider-
able advance. Still, this is not so astonishing as to find human
sacrifices in use even among the Greeks, with whom in the
period of their grandeur the throng, at the mysteries of Bacchus
Zagreus, cut up a goat, a sacrifice which was only a substitution ;
for anciently, according to Plutarch, it was a man that the throng
cut to pieces on the altar of Dionysos Omostes — Dionysos, the
flesh-eater. At the Thargelia, the Athenians gayly decorated a
man and a woman who had been entertained at the expense of
the state, escorted them in procession, and burned them at the
entrance to the plain. The Celts bought slaves, whom they
entertained liberally, and at the end of the year conducted in
great pomp to the sacrifice. Every twelve months the Scythian
tribe of the Albanians, according to Strabo, fattened a slave
whom the people then massacred with lance cuts before the
shrine of Artemis.

The great solemn popular festival of the Khonds included
the annual immolation of a victim. After three days of inde-
scribable orgies, in which women often participated dressed like
men and armed like warriors, the victim was bound to a stake
in the midst of the forest, and left there all night alone ; in the
morning the people returned, with a great noise of bells and
gongs, singing and shouting; when the multitude had become
well intoxicated with the uproar, and greatly excited by dis-
orderly dances, the grand priest would command silence and
recite a long prayer, and would then slay the victim, usually
with a single stroke of the knife. The multitude, which had
been waiting for that moment, rushed upon the quarry with
piercing cries, each one trying to tear off a piece of the palpitat-
ing flesh, to hack the body to pieces.

A criminal ceremony exists among the tribes of the interior
of Sumatra, which is without doubt the survival of an ancient
and very cruel custom, that has passed in the course of time into
a civil and religious duty. These people, although of rather gen-
tle disposition, piously and ceremoniously kill and eat their aged
parents, in the belief that they are performing a sacred duty. At
the appointed day the old man who is destined to be eaten goes
up into a tree, at the foot of which are gathered the relatives
and friends of the family. They strike the trunk of the tree in
cadence and sing a funeral hymn. Then the old man descends, his
nearest relatives deliberately kill him, and the attendants eat him.

With some peoples animals take the place of human victims ;
but what we have said is sufficient to show that even with these
peoples collective crime was formerly a solemn ceremony, al-
though individual crime was already regarded as something to be
condemned.

VOL. XLIII. — 55

76z THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Till very recent times the people of Ispahan celebrated what
they called the festival of the camel, or of the sacrifice of Abra-
ham. The high priest of Mecca sent his adopted son, mounted on
a blessed camel, which was led through the city with great pomp.
At a given moment the king shot an arrow into its flanks ; in a
wink the poor animal was thrown down, hacked to pieces, carried
off, and distributed widely. Every one wished for some of it, if
it were only the smallest fragment, to be put into a kettle of rice.
The Ghilicks and the Ainos adopted a bear, and fed it freely till the
day of the public festival, when the people struggled for pieces of it.

Sometimes, in these criminal festivals, the public only plays
the part of a spectator. It does not itself kill the victims, but
only witnesses the slaughter, the bloodshed, which executioners
are commissioned to perform. In Etruscan funerals the relatives
of the deceased caused a convict to be publicly tormented : some-
times they blindfolded him and gave him a stick ; then the execu-
tioners excited dogs against him, and the unfortunate victim had
to defend himself with his stick. Such spectacles, which seem to
have been amusing to the populace, are represented in many
Etruscan paintings. The shows of gladiators at Rome, fights of
gladiators with one another, and of gladiators with wild beasts,
were simply transformations of the funeral sacrifices of the Etrus-
cans, but more ferocious, for they generally ended in the death of
a large number of men. The passive Roman people had such a
passion for these games that they became a means of political
domination ; parties sought to secure the votes of the populace by
giving them spectacles in which large numbers of men and beasts
were killed.

In ancient Mexico, where crime was punished very severely,
and was pursued with much energy, an immense throng came to-
gether every year to witness the numerous and terrible human
sacrifices in honor of the god Huitzilopochtli. The spectacle, with
its atrocious cruelties, was a source of delight to a people among
whom intoxication, theft, and murder were punished with death,
and who possessed a remarkable political organization and civili-
zation. This transformation of the populace into spectators was,
without doubt, an advance ; but it is nevertheless surprising that
such ceremonies should have been tolerated among peoples so
civilized.

We see, therefore, that collective crime has opposed a greater
resistance than individual crime to the progress of civilization.
But why have these criminal festivals endured so long, while in-
dividual customs have been undergoing transformation ? " The
axiom, the whole is the sum of its parts, does not apply to multi-
tudes," writes M. Reclus. M. Sighele has brought a large number
of proofs to the demonstration of this precept — that is, that the

CRIMINAL FESTIVALS. 763

aggregate of many men presents some characteristics that are not
found in the unities that compose it.* The psychology of a multi-
tude of men is a special psychology ; for the passions, the inclina-
tions, and the thoughts of the individuals who compose it are com-
bined in such a way that the conduct of a man mixed with a crowd
will be quite different from that which he would observe if he
were alone. The phenomenon we are studying is the effect of a
similar difference between the characters of an aggregate of men
and the characters of its units. A crowd of men is always more
afraid of the new, more conservative, than are the men who com-
pose it. For that reason a usage is more stable and less subject
to variation in proportion to the number of men who observe it.
The larger the multitude grows the more intense does its misone-
ism (hatred of novelty) become.

Every one can observe that it is easy for a man to change his
individual habits, but that the habits of a family, being more
fixed, are changed with greater difficulty. In fact, in some fam-
ilies there are ways that are preserved for two or three gen-
erations. But fixed as family customs are, they are unstable
enough if we compare them to the usages of large aggregates,
to the whole population of a city, for example. In all Europe,
in Italy, France, and Germany some of the cities still cele-
brate the festivals of the middle ages, occasionally even Ro-
man festivals, which plunge a whole population every year into
the past again. The costumes, the banners, and the signals, every-
thing in these festivals is old, and no one would be satisfied to
use anything modern in them, for all their beauty would then
seem to vanish. We find yet more superannuated usages when
we consider still larger human aggregates ; for while in the usages
of a city we find survivals of its history, in the usages com-
mon to all civilized men we find survivals of the ancient primitive
life, customs which appertain to the savage period. Of such, for
example, is the worship of ancestors ; for that exists no longer
among peoples of high civilization, and rites relating to it have
been nearly entirely abandoned. Yet these rites, which exist no
longer in individual practice, still survive as a general usage
among all Roman Catholic peoples, for the ceremony of the day
of the dead is nothing else than a survival from the ancient
ancestral religion. On that day all turn back in a mass to
perform acts relating to that religion — visiting of the graves, re-
newing of the floral crowns, etc. — like those we find in use among
savage tribes, although no thought or notion of the worship of
ancestors is left among us. What does not exist as an individual
practice still survives as a general usage.

* La Foule criminelle, Paris, 1892.

764 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

A mass of men is thus always more afraid of novelty than the
men that compose it : these may change their feelings and their
ideas, but they come together ; the feelings and ideas acquired by
the individuals will have no influence, or but little, upon their
conduct. What is the cause of this contradiction ? Why is a
mass of men always more conservative than its components ?
Man, according to the law demonstrated by M. Lombroso, hates
all novelty and tries to preserve everything that exists — his ideas
and feelings — so long as he can, without changing them. Yet,
when very strong necessities urge him, man succeeds in disturb-
ing his inertia : he changes his habits and his ideas, and rebels
against institutions and laws which he had once venerated ; but
it is always a painful task, a disagreeable effort for every man,
even the best endowed, to carry this revolution into the system of
his ideas and habits. Difficult as this change may be for each
man, it is still more so when a collective usage is concerned ; for
then the opinion of all the other men to the same effect and imi-
tation re-enforce the neophoby (or fear of novelty) natural to
the man. The struggle is not only against one's own conserva-
tive instincts, but also against the fear of being alone in neglect-
ing a usage which all others observe. " Everybody does it," is
the answer most persons will give you when you ask them why
they practice some quite absurd and ridiculous ceremonies. Fur-
ther, no one has any particular interest in these collective usages,
and therefore no one has special reasons for abandoning them ;
for these usages to pass away there must, therefore, be causes act-
ing upon the whole mass of those who observe them, producing
gradual decadence. Now these causes would naturally act more
slowly than those which produce individual changes of manners,
ideas, etc. ; they will act more slowly, too, as the aggregate of
men subject to their influence is greater.

So the genesis of criminal festivals is explained. When crimes
become the object of legal repression and then of moral repulsion,
men begin, each on his own account, to abstain from commit-
ting them ; their views in relation to criminal actions gradually
change, and those acts which formerly appeared honorable and
glorious become gradually blamable. But these criminal festi-
vals, to which the ancient liberty and the ancient glory of crime
have given rise, being usages common to a whole tribe or people,
enjoy the advantage of the greater stability we have remarked in
collective usages. Each man removes himself slowly from crime
but to return to it, as a member of the tribe, when the time for
these civil or religious festivals of a criminal character returns.
Thus, the Dahomeyari, who is no longer a cannibal, becomes an
anthropophagist again in the great public festivals that are cele-
brated after a victory ; the East Indians slay men upon the

CRIMINAL FESTIVALS. 765

foundations of a palace, but only when great public edifices are
a-building; and the inhabitants of Sumatra, gentle enough in
their ordinary customs, solemnly eat their old men, in the belief
that they are thereby observing the most sacred of their duties as
sons.

There is a still more curious side in this strange phenomenon.
Everything old and superannuated — usages, customs, laws, etc. —
is the object of an extreme veneration, especially among primitive
peoples. The Tupis believed that if they should depart from the
customs of their ancestors they would be destroyed ; in some
clans of the Malagasy innovation and Qvil are inseparable ideas ;
the Araucanians have many very ancient usages which they hold
sacred and observe without any constraint ; the Hottentot-Kora-
mas are entirely free in their actions, except when ancient usages
are involved. Since these criminal festivals survive long after
crime has begun to be a morbid exception, they end by becoming
sacred, profiting by the veneration attached to all ancient things ;
to abolish them or neglect them would be for these peoples a
failure in the holiest duties. Consequently, the deed, which ap-
pears horrible and worthy of punishment when it is done by a
single man, is regarded as honorable when it is performed by the
whole tribe or the whole people in these festivals ; the crime of
the individual becomes the duty of the mass.

These sanguinary festivals have been able, by the effect of an-
other cause, to endure long, even among superior peoples, like
the Greeks and Romans. Unfortunately, crime, especially mur-
der and crimes of blood, is not an action of which man has an in-
nate horror ; horror of crime, when it exists, is only the effect of
a long training, of a painful education of civilization. Murder,
M. Taine writes, introduces two extraordinary emotions into the
moral and animal machine of man, which overturn it : on the one
hand, the sense of all-power exercised without control, obstacle,
or danger, on human life and on sensible flesh ; and, on the other
hand, the sense of bleeding death with its always novel accom-
paniment of contortions and shrieks. That is why all those who
can dispose at their caprice, without any danger, of the existence
of other men — kings, princes, and mobs — are usually inclined to
cruelty. This tendency to the sanguinary pleasures of murder
would be more lively among half -civilized peoples, who have been
only a little while accustomed to respect for human life; and
therefore criminal festivals, although contradictory to the state
of individual manners, would be a choice amusement for them ;
for all the ferocious instincts which usually slumber in the man
could give themselves free course in them. It explains to us, too,
why men have tried to preserve these festivals by ameliorating
them, when civilization would not tolerate their primitive feroci-

766 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ty ; when human sacrifices became impossible, animals were sub-
stituted ; when combats between men seemed too horrible, fights
of animals — of cocks, bulls, and fishes — were instituted. It has
been said that the minister who should try to abolish bull fights
in Spain would provoke a general revolt. In these cases the mul-
titude are only spectators of the carnage ; but when a people like
the Spanish loves these sanguine representations with so furious
a passion, can we be surprised that people less civilized ardently
lust after the pleasures of collective criminality, although their
manners may be in course of amelioration ?

Besides having a historical interest, the study of these crim-
inal festivals is very important for criminology, because it brings
numerous evidences in support of the atavistic theory of crime.
In discussing the questions whether crime is a phenomenon of
atavism, or whether at least atavism does not play a considerable
part in criminality, many criminologists have maintained that
while most savage peoples are thieves, cruel and dissolute, noth-
ing authorizes the affirmation that the ancestors of civilized peo-
ples resembled them. We have, indeed, no direct proof of this
fact ; but if, in default of proof, we examine the usages and insti-
tutions of these peoples, which are a kind of fossil remains of
their evolution, we may conclude that the primitive ancestor of
the Greek was no more moral than the Australian or the Java-
nese. These criminal festivals can be explained only by assuming
an ancient condition of moral disorder ; which admitted, every-
thing becomes clear, and is susceptible of a simple and logical
explanation. — Translated for The Popular Science Monthly from
the Revue Scientifique.

THE prevalence of lake basins in glaciated countries is accounted for by Mr. J.
C. Hawkshaw by assuming that whenever earth movements take place in limited
areas they will tend to form basins. Since such movements are as a rule gradual,
the basins will tend to fill up with -water-borne detritus, the growth of vegetation,
etc., as fast as they are formed. In glaciated countries, however, they are occupied
with ice, and that protects them from being filled up by such processes, and they
will be preserved to appear as lake basins when the ice melts. Such basins are
probably more numerous in rainless countries than we are aware of, for, not con-
taining water and not presenting a different appearance from the rest of the
country, they do not attract attention. An instance of them is presented in the
Raian basin of Egypt, which has been surveyed by Mr. Cope Whitehouse, with ;i
view to making use of it in works of irrigation.

A SERIES of Roman tools, more than sixty in number, discovered in a rubbish
pit during excavations at Silchester, England, in 1890, are described by Sir J.
Evans. Among them are anvils, hammers, chisels, gouges, adzes, axe?, and a car-
penter's plane. The find also included two plow-coulters, a sword-blade, a large
gridiron, a lamp, and a bronze steelyard.

THE URAL COSSACKS AND THEIR FISHERIES. 767

THE URAL COSSACKS AND THEIR FISHERIES.

BY DR. N. BOKODINE,

FISH COMMISSIONER OF URAL DISTRICT, RUSSIA.

THE Ural Cossacks, who live on the boundary between Euro-
pean Russia and Asia, along the middle and lower part of
the Ural River, have been known in Russia for a long time, not
only as brave soldiers in war time, but also as peaceful fishermen,
carrying on the fishing industry on a very large scale and in quite
a peculiar manner.

More than three hundred years ago the first band of the so-
called " free people " — Cossacks — appeared on the Yaik River, the
original name of the Ural River.*

Who were this people ? They were pioneers of liberty, peo-
ple tired of cruel serfdom and discontented with subordinate life
in Russian czardom, who tried to organize their life on a basis of
absolute freedom and after their own ideas in the vast steppes
of southeastern Russia.

The free colony grew rapidly, thanks to large additions of
discontented people from all neighboring provinces of Russia and
from foreign countries. A careful examination of an early census
of the Ural Cossacks made by order of Peter the Great (1723)
shows us that among the immigrants were Poles, Hungarians,
numbers of peasants from different parts of Russia, many dissent-
ers from the Russian Orthodox Church, prosecuted by govern-
ment, a great number of Don Cossacks, etc. Differing in nation-
ality as well as in language, one thing was common to all, the
ardent longing for freedom and independent life. Is it not a
counterpart of the earliest .period of immigration to this country,
when those who were persecuted in Europe sought freedom else-
where ? An old Cossack, when asked once about the origin of the
Ural Cossacks by a well-known folklorist, answered, "The bee
gathers from every flower its best, and what is the result ? "

" Honey," replied the astonished man.

" Well," said the Cossack, " in such a manner grew our com-
munity : from everywhere came the best and brightest men and
organized our society."

Do not you think that this simple and witty simile well illus-
trates the history of early colonization in this country as well as
the origin of the small community of which I speak ?

* The names of Yaik River and Yaik Cossacks were changed to Ural River and Ural
Cossacks by imperial order in 1775 after PugachefFs rebellion, in which the Yaik Cossacks
took a very active part, the order stating that the old name should be abolished and en-
tirely forgotten.

THE URAL COSSACKS AND THEIR FISHERIES. 769

In 1580, we read in a historical document, came to the lower
part of Yaik River a band of Cossacks and expelled from the
country the remainder of a once famous and strong Gold-Horda
of Tartars. They ruined Saraitchik, the chief residence of the
Tartars, and sailing up the river, founded a fortress near the place
where is now situated Uralsk, the chief city of the Ural Cossacks.

At first these warlike bands lived by a rather peculiar industry
—marauding of hostile neighbors (Tartars) and sometimes com-
mercial ships on the Caspian Sea en route from Khiva and

Persia.

" Ah, formerly we Cossack fellows

Sailed pretty well on thy waves,
In light hoats looking for prey,

For the prey from Khiva and Persia,"

says one Cossack song about this old time.

It is difficult to say when the Ural Cossacks changed this in-
dustry for the more peaceful one of fishing. Probably this was

Married woman. Old woman. Girl.

FIG. 2.— TYPES OF URAL COSSACK WOMEN.

very soon after the conclusion with the Muscovite Czar of a kind
of protectorate (1613), which is commemorated by a peculiar old
custom of presenting fish and caviar from the community to the
imperial court. This custom, sanctified by more than three centu-
ries, exists yet, and was doubtless a token of loyalty and hospital-
ity similar to the custom of the Russian agricultural population
of presenting bread and salt on like occasions. As the Russian
peasant poetizes his hard agricultural labor and surrounds it with

VOL. XLIII. 56

77o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

an aureole, so the Ural Cossacks poetize their fisheries and every-
thing in connection with them. In almost every popular song
of this country is mentioned, under all kinds of poetical names,
the Ural River with " its golden bottom " and its " silver banks,"
and one of the most favorite local songs is an ode or hymn in
honor of the Yaik River (the historical name remains in poetry),
the foster father of the population. The economical importance

FIG. 3. — KAILING ACROSS THE URAL RIVER.

of the fisheries for this people is so immense that it influences
their whole life, not excepting the military service. The right
of fishing in communal waters does not belong to any but mem-
bers of the community, who, on the other hand, are compelled to
undertake military service. The Ural Cossacks have ready for
the service every year about three thousand cavalry, and in case
of war every adult may be called on to serve as a soldier. The
entire population is about one hundred and ten thousand souls.

Thus, when one part of the men is engaged in military serv-
ice, the other part, which remains at home, is forced to procure
money to pay the expenses of equipment for the outgoing sol-
diers, and also to make their own living.

Only by bearing this heavy double burden have the Ural Cos-
sacks succeeded in acquiring exclusive rights to the land and
river colonized by them, and to preserve 4ntil the present time
some independence in their home affairs with a peculiar eco-
nomic organization of the community as an entire body. Much
struggling and fighting was done in the early existence of this
small community in order to gain this measure of independence
from the Muscovite Government, which has always had a strong
tendency to centralize different parts of Russian territory under

THE URAL COSSACKS AND THEIR FISHERIES. 771

one absolute power. From its early existence until 1723 the com-
munity was entirely independent in its interior home affairs. It
was a purely democratic republic, with an elected chief, or ataman,
representing the executive power. All governmental affairs were
transacted in a communal "circle" or general meeting of the
members of the entire community. In 1723 the Russian Govern-
ment first laid its hand on the independence of the community,
and since that time the election of the chief must be approved by
the Government in order that the appointment may be legal. In
1775 the communal "circle "was abolished and the community
entirely lost the right of electing its ataman, who since that time
has been appointed by imperial order. The only thing still re-
maining is the economic organization, where the independence is
very characteristic.

To return to the fisheries and their importance in the life of
the Ural Cossacks. I should mention that the Ural River is the

FIG. 4.— FALL FISHING ON THE UKAL RIVER. CARTING BOCDARAS.

only large river that is entirely given over to the fishing indus-
try, all sorts of commercial navigation being absolutely forbid-
den from Uralsk to the Caspian Sea (three hundred and thirty
miles) ; and more than that, in some places of the river, where
sturgeons collect for their winter sojourn, no one is permitted to
run a boat, to make any noise, build a fire on the shore, etc. By
the laws of the community summer fishing is almost entirely pro-
hibited, for the purpose of protecting the spawning, also for the
reason that fish caught in summer will not bring a good price.

772

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

They let fish enter the river from the sea and settle there quietly
for the winter sojourn. All possible means are used to secure for
the fish an unrestricted passage to the upper parts of the river,
but not beyond Uralsk, where a railing is constructed across
the river to prevent the larger fish going farther up. Owing
to this arrangement the lower part of the river from this rail-
ing to the mouth forms a large natural fish pond (three hun-
dred and thirty miles in length) where the fish are carefully
watched by a great many fishwardens until the regular time for

FIG. 5. — FALL FISHING ON THE URAL KIVER. WAITING FOR A CANNON-SHOT SIGNAL.

fishing, which is fixed by general consent of the community. It
is easy to understand what a thorough organization is necessary
to conduct successfully this complicated plan for the distance of
three hundred and thirty miles, and which has to deal with more
than ten thousand fishermen. It is indeed a complete organiza-
tion. The central administration, residing in Uralsk, controls
all this business, assisted by numbers of local agents through the
whole country. A steam cruiser, steam launch, and a number of
sailboats constantly watch the mouth of the river and the neigh-
boring banks and protect them from poachers. It should be
mentioned that the river, with its fishing grounds and part of
the Caspian Sea, belong to this entire community, consisting of
a hundred and ten thousand people. There is no private property
belonging to individuals or villages adjacent to the river, and an
elaborate and detailed general plan must exist to regulate all this
immense business in such a manner that the interest and rights
of every member of the community shall be properly protected.

774

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The community does not believe that these interests may be pro-
tected by free competition, as is the case elsewhere.

As a rule, one part of the river (the lower) is intended to be
fished out in the fall, the other (upper) portion in winter. The
fall fishing begins about the 17th of September. On a certain day
the " fishing army/7 as it is called, moves to the fishing places,
which are sometimes very far from home. The Cossack carts con-
tain not only nets and provisions, but also the boat used in this
fishing. These boats, known by the name of boudara, are so light
that two of them may be carried on one cart.

When the " fishing army " comes to the proper place, the bou-
daras are taken from the carts, and early in the morning appoint-
ed for commencing fishing they are placed at the edge of the
water, right along the river for a distance hardly compassed by
the eye. No less than three thousand boats, each containing two
men, meet here. To maintain discipline, a chief, or " fishing
ataman/' is appointed, and several representatives of the fisher-
men are elected to assist the chief. The ataman gives a signal to
commence fishing by a cannon shot, and then the crowd rush to
the boats, and in less time than you can realize what has hap-
pened all the fishermen are in their boats and a peculiar kind of
boat racing commences. They put forth their utmost strength
and ability to outrun each other, and to be first at the place where
the fish have gathered in shoals, these places being known by the
reports from the fish wardens. Once here, they throw out their
small seines and haul them from two boats. Various kinds of
sturgeon (from thirty to six hundred pounds weight), sander, carp,
bream, and silurus are the principal fish caught at this fishing.
The seines differ, of course, in the size of their meshes, according
to the fish for which they are intended ; but no one has the right
to use any but the regular size, large seines being admitted only
behind the " fishing army." Hence, as in a noble fight, the chances
of all combatants are as nearly equalized as possible by the regu-
lations above mentioned, fixed place and time, regulated tools, etc.
Success depends only on the ability and strength of the fishermen.

The total catch during the fall seining is from fifty-four mil-
lion to seventy-two million pounds, which includes two hundred
and sixteen thousand pounds sturgeon and about twenty-one
thousand six hundred pounds caviar.

When fishing, the fishing army always goes down the river,
covering from twelve to twenty-four miles a day, and in this
way moves after a time to the mouth of the river, which is
reached, as a rule, at the end of October. At this time the ice
begins to accumulate in the river and closes the fishing season.

Another army of equal magnitude, consisting of fish dealers
with a large number of carts, accompanies the fishing army.

THE URAL COSSACKS AND THEIR FISHERIES. 775

These carts are contracted to carry the catch to the city markets
(there is no railroad in this steppe). No less than ten thousand
carts are used here, and if you add ten thousand more carts be-
longing to fishermen, you may imagine how imposing must be the
sight of the peaceful armies.

The fishing in the upper part of the Ural River, as I men-
tioned before, is carried on in winter, under the ice, and that is
the most peculiar of all
fisheries. It is called
bagrenie, which means
"hooking/' because the
fishing is accomplished
by a peculiar kind of
hook. When the ice in
the river becomes firm
enough to support the
weight of the fishing
army, which generally
takes place in Decem-
ber, an order is given by
the communal adminis-
tration for the army to
meet at Uralsk, from
which point the fishing
is begun. On a fixed
day, thousands of people,
old and young, hasten
to the appointed place.

Let us now see how

IIG. 7. — URAL FISHERMAN READY FOR THROUGH-

the fishermen dress for IcE FlBHIHGi CALLED BAGRE™.

this winter fishing. One

of them ready for work is represented in the picture. Light and
comfortable garments, waterproof mittens and boots ; in one hand
a chisel, in the other two haft-hooks — the long one (with a haft
of seven or more fathoms) is used for catching fish, lying (as a
rule) in deep places on the bottom ; the short one is destined to
hold the fish when it is brought to the surface of the ice.

At about 9 A. M. the banks of the river, near the place where
the shoals of fish have gathered, are crowded with thousands of
horses and sledges, so that it becomes difficult to reach the river.
Fishermen go down to the ice and stand on it in endless lines on
both banks of the river, anxiously waiting for the signal — a can-
non shot.

The ataman has gone out in midstream ; every one is looking
for him impatiently. The signal having been given, two living
waves of people rush forward to the middle of the river, and the

THE URAL COSSACKS AND THEIR FISHERIES. 777

arduous work begins, every one trying to be the first to make a
hole in the ice with a chisel. In a few minutes an entire forest of
long hafts grows up over the river, as though some magic power
had been at work. The fisherman moves the haft up and down,
and listens intently that he may know when the fish touch the
hook. Once this has happened, he hooks the fish by an alert
movement, then hauls it immediately up to the surface of the ice,
calling in the mean time for help from his fellow fishermen.
They fish here, usually, in groups of from six to twenty men, for
it is not easy work to pull up a huge sturgeon of several hun-

FIG. 9.— FALL FISHING ON THE URAL RIVER. DRESSING FISH BY NATIVES.

dred pounds weight. In a very short time the surface becomes
marked with blood and covered with big fish.

The most important fish caught in winter are different kinds
of sturgeon, viz., the large sturgeon (Acipenser huso), Russian
sturgeon (A. Guldenstadtii) , star sturgeon (A. stellatus) and A.
Shypa. Each decidedly differs from the other and from species
caught in America. For the flesh and particularly the roe
(caviare) very high prices are obtained in the winter season ; one
single big female of the " large sturgeon " is sold for 100 to 200
rubles ($64.50 to $129).

Of course, not every one succeeds in catching such, a valuable
fish ; on the contrary, many, in spite of great efforts, do not catch
any, not even the smallest sturgeon. Nevertheless, this fishing
being an alluring lottery with winnings, everybody hopes to be
a lucky one, and this is the reason why so many of the Ural

778

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Cossacks attend this favorite winter fishing. Not less than ten
thousand people participate in it ; about a million and eighty
thousand pounds of sturgeon and the same amount of other fish
(sander and silurus) are caught and fifty-four thousand pounds of
caviare prepared. The average price for sturgeon is 13'8 cents a
pound, and for caviare about a dollar and a half a pound.

In addition to the fisheries described above, the Ural Cossacks
carry on important fishing in the Caspian Sea in spring and also
in winter ; the methods not being of an unusual character, I omit
a description.

The total amount of the local fishery business can be ex-
pressed in the following figures for 1891 : 5,817,464 pounds of

FIG. 10. — FALL FISHING ON THE URAL KIVER. MAKING CAVIARE.

sturgeon, 73,960,824 pounds of other fish, 1,076,076 pounds fish roe,
173,348 pounds dried sturgeon steak (batik), and 6,084 pounds
isinglass were exported from the territory of the Ural Cossacks.
The total amount of fish landed must have been larger than these
figures, owing to the local consumption, though in comparison
with that exported it is quite insignificant. Thanks to the duty
for every pound of fish exported from the Ural Cossacks' land, local
fish trade statistics are excellent, and we are in possession of very
valuable figures, similar to the above, for more than half a cen-
tury, which gives an exact idea of the direction, increase, and
decrease of this important industry in a very large and definite
region.*

* The diagram is to be seen in the Russian Department of the Fishery Building at the
World's Fair.

THE PROGRESS OF PSYCHOLOGY. 779

The revenue from the exported fish is used for different public
expenses, and among others for the improvement of local indus-
tries in general and the fisheries in particular. Thus, during the
last three or four years, a very fine agricultural school, with a
model farm, has been erected at a cost of more than one hundred
thousand dollars. They have several scholarships in the lead-
ing universities of the empire, and maintain a very large high
school. For the purpose of making improvements in local fish-
eries a person of suitable education and familiar with home fishery
affairs is sent to foreign countries to study the different branches
of fishing industry, including pisciculture. I have the honor of
being charged with this task. Two years are spent in these
studies in all places of fishing importance in the different coun-
tries of Europe and North America, and now I have completed
them by getting information at the World's Fair.

The Ural Cossacks' community is represented, although not
largely, at the World's Fair, in the Russian department in the
Fishery Building, and I should be much pleased if the foregoing
could call the attention of visitors to the peculiar fisheries of my
fellow Cossacks.

At the same time I would like to give some idea of the home
life of this strange race, who are known in foreign countries only
as a semi-barbarous, warlike people on horseback with formidable
lances, etc. The foregoing, I hope, will add something new to
their characteristics.

THE PROGRESS OF PSYCHOLOGY.

BY PROF. JAMES McKEEN CATTELL,

COLUMBIA COLLEGE.

FOUR hundred years ago it was possible for Columbus to dis-
cover a new world. The circle of the earth is long since
complete, but in the presence of each man is an unexplored world
—his own mind. There is no mental geography describing the
contents of the mind, still less is there a mental mechanics
demonstrating necessary relations of thought. Yet the mind is
the beginning and the end of science. Physical science is possi-
ble because the mind observes and arranges, and physical science
has worth because it satisfies mental needs. The mind being
thus the center from which we start and to which we return,
there is reason for wonder that we know so little concerning it.
Each of the physical and biological sciences includes a large
mass of facts admitted by all students, and many theories which
by general consent are accepted as working hypotheses. In
psychology, on the other hand, there seems to be no common

780 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ground continually increasing. The text-books contain specu-
lations which are unverifiable, and often have little to do with
psychology. They include descriptions of things which no one
could understand from the description, but which every one
understands without it. There are often anecdotes, which belong
to the nursery. Then, in more recent times, we find accounts of
the eye and brain, which are sometimes good physiology, but
which seldom increase our knowledge of sensation and thought.
It may be added that in the popular mind psychology consists
largely of ghosts and mesmeric exhibitions.

But in the midst of confusion there are signs of order.
Psychologies are now written which do not range at large
through metaphysics, logic, ethics, and aesthetics, or, if they do,
the writers at least know where they are wandering. Description
and analysis become of greater value as introspection is more
careful and words are more exactly defined. When works on
physics, physiology, and pathology are sifted, there is found to
be a considerable remnant which belongs to psychology. Even
"telepathy" and hypnotism contribute their modest quota of
facts. Comparative zoology, anthropology, philology, history,
and art discover interrelations with psychology. Lastly, the
attempt has recently been made to apply the methods of natural
science, and even the measurements of exact science, in the study
of the mind.

The backwardness of psychology is not indeed surprising.
Certain material needs must be satisfied before there is time for
self-observation. Even the lower animals are concerned with
the changes of day and night and the return of summer and
winter, with the growth of plants on which they feed and the
habits of beasts which prey upon them. Astronomy, physical
geography, botany, and zoology have their first foundation in
remote, prehuman times. When the savage appears, he needs
must attend to the external world, whereas self-observation
would profit him but little. If his life depend on killing a bird
with a stone, he must know the habits of the bird, and even
something of the course of projectiles. Should he stop to consider
the relation between sensation and movement, he would not sur-
vive to tell his thought. Even nowadays, when every one must
have exact knowledge of some part, however small, of the mate-
rial world, there are but few who have time to study their mental
life, which indeed goes on none the better for being watched.

The elements of physical science are not only more necessary
to life than knowledge of the mind — they are also more easily
obtained. The facts of the material world are comparatively
constant and accessible to observation. The stars return daily
in their courses, and the plants repeat yearly their monotonous

THE PROGRESS OF PSYCHOLOGY. 781

lives. Inert matter may be observed and measured more readily
than the living body ; physics consequently preceded biology in
its development. The changes of mental life are more fleeting
and obscure than those of the body. It is natural, therefore,
that, as biology is more backward than physics, so psychology
should be more backward than biology. There was a time when
all the sciences were nourished by philosophy. In Greece the
philosopher and the man of science were identical, and those who
most advanced mathematics and science in the revival of learn-
ing are called philosophers. With the increase of knowledge
division of labor became necessary, and the separate sciences
were defined. Those sciences were first developed which found
data ready in the common knowledge of daily life, and which
embraced subjects where experiment and measurement could be
most readily used. The close relation in which psychology still
stands to philosophy is thus explained by its comparative back-
wardness. This relation is not essentially different from that of
the other sciences. Philosophy is not the arithmetical sum of the
special sciences, but has a peculiar task. It seeks to investigate
the conditions of knowledge, and to form a theory of the ultimate
nature and meaning of things. Psychology is no more concerned
with these matters than is physics. Experimental and mathe-
matical physics need not and should not investigate the origin and
ultimate nature of matter, nor should psychology as a natural sci-
ence concern itself with the origin, destiny, and meaning of mind.
The subject-matter of psychology corresponds exactly to that
of any other natural science. As physiology studies the phe-
nomena of the living body, so psychology studies the phenomena
of mind. It is often urged as an objection to psychology that
the student can observe one mind only, but it is equally true that
the student of physics can observe with one mind only. Were
mental processes so irregular and idiosyncratic as is sometimes
assumed, there would be no science of psychology, but physics
would be equally out of the question. Psychology is not con-
cerned with individual peculiarities, but with the laws to which
all mental processes are subject. Its position is similar to that
of physiology, which studies individual organisms in order to
learn general truths concerning nutrition, movement, etc. The
problems of psychology are evidently complicated by the fact
that individual minds differ. But this difference is largely a
matter of comparatively unimportant detail. The position of
psychology is not very different from that of other sciences.
Should astronomy seek to determine the orbits of all the satellites,
of all the planets, of all the suns in the universe, it would have a
hopeless task ; but, if we understand one solar system, we have
an astronomy to a large extent universal.

7Sz THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The methods of psychology are the same as those of other
sciences. Science has its beginnings in common knowledge of
daily life collected for practical ends. This knowledge is sys-
tematized, often in an artificial manner, and facts, often fancies,
more remote from daily experience and usefulness are added.
Attempts are made to simplify and explain, usually by arbitrary
hypotheses. Thus it was thought by the early Greek physicists
that the earth is explained by saying that it all consists of water
or air or fire. Even in recent times it was thought an explana-
tion to say that water rises in the pump because Nature abhors a
vacuum, or that life is explained by the presence of a vital fluid.
But as science advances it depends more and more on experiment
and measurement. Data are seldom admitted which can not be
verified by any competent observer, and mere matters of fact take
av subordinate place. Exact science consists almost exclusively of
measurements and the relations of quantities.

Psychology until very recently was in the position of science
before experiment and measurement had been used. It consisted
largely of useless descriptions, artificial classifications, and verbal
explanations. A preference was given to matters which are ex-
traordinary and unverifiable. But in the progress of science it
has at last become possible to apply experiment and measurement
to the mind. We have to-day laboratories of psychology where
facts may be discovered, measurements made, and the results veri-
fied by every trained student.

To prevent misunderstanding, it may be worth while to notice
what is not done in laboratories of psychology. They are not in-
tended for the study of physiology. The functions of the nervous
system may throw light on the workings of the mind, but the
debt is reciprocal. We know, indeed, more concerning attention,
memory, and thought than concerning the cerebral processes
which may precede or accompany them. The commonly used
term physiological psychology is awkward. There is a science of
physiology and a science of psychology, and there are relations
between body and mind. But these relations are wider than this
— they are between matter and mind. Thus we know that vibra-
tions of a special sort may be accompanied by a sensation which
we call blue, but we know almost nothing concerning the corre-
sponding processes in the eye and brain. The world is one world,
and all science is interdependent, but the development of psychol-
ogy has drawn a sharper line between mental and physical
processes than was ever recognized before. The distinctions of
material science are comparatively artificial, resting on our igno-
rance rather than on our knowledge. Whether bodies be as large
as planets or as small as atoms is not a matter of great conse-
quence. If we but knew the laws of matter in motion, they would

THE PROGRESS OF PSYCHOLOGY. 783

obtain equally in astronomy and chemistry. The phenomena of
the living body must in the end be subject to the principles of
physics, and physics must in the end become mechanics. But
sensation, attention, and feeling can never be reduced to matter
in motion. A complete correlation between mental and physical
changes may be established, but the most perfect knowledge of
the processes of the brain would of itself throw no light on the
nature of thought. The blind man will not learn to see by study-
ing the changes taking place in the combustion of a candle. Psy-
chology can never be made a branch of physiology.

Laboratories of psychology are for the study of mental pro-
cesses. It would not be possible in a single article to give an
account of what has been accomplished by experimental psychol-
ogy, nor would tables, curves, and mathematical formulae prove
interesting reading. "The plain man," in Bishop Berkeley's
phrase, " undebauched by learning," is apt to ask, What is the good
of all this ? It may, therefore, be better to give several examples
of the practical application of the results of experimental psychol-
ogy. Pure science is not, indeed, an art whose end is to produce
changes in the course of Nature. Astronomy is commonly re-
garded as the noblest of the sciences, but we can not alter the
orbits of the planets, and the higher astronomy is not useful in
the affairs of daily life. Science is an end in itself, as are the fine
arts. It is good because it satisfies mental needs, and makes life
better worth the while. But material science, while searching for
truth, has not failed to contribute to the practical needs of society.
Its applications in the arts and manufactures have guided the
course of civilization. One man to-day can do the work which
required ten men a hundred years ago, and the poor have now
comforts and opportunities which were formerly not within the
reach of the rich. In like manner we shall probably find that
more exact knowledge of the mind will have many applications
in pedagogy, in political science, in medicine, in the fine arts, and,
indeed, in the whole conduct of life.

Let us consider pedagogy. Our methods of education have
been greatly altered in the past few years, and more changes will
follow. But we go forward blindly, not seeing the way, often
retracing our steps. The poor children contribute to the progress
of educational methods somewhat as the frog contributes to the
progress of physiology. But we may hope to replace vague sur-
mises with exact knowledge. In our laboratories of psychology
we can test the senses and faculties of children. We can deter-
mine whether the course of study is developing or stunting funda-
mental characteristics, such as accuracy of perception, quickness
of thought, memory, reasoning, etc. We can learn what methods
best strengthen each of these faculties without injuring the others.

784 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The overtasked teacher finds a child slow, and places it with more
backward children, which increases its slowness. A more exact
test of the child's mind may show that it is indeed slow, but that
the slowness is more than counterbalanced by intensity and range.
Methods must be applied which will shorten the time of thought,
and will not interfere with its force and extent. We can deter-
mine what size and composition of class, what length of lesson,
session, and term are most favorable. We can learn whether it is
better for the student to do a thing, to see it, to hear it, or to read
about it. We can never build a road to learning which need not
be traveled by the student, but we can build a royal road in the
sense that it is the shortest and best of roads. Above all, our
tests and measurements will demonstrate the value of learning
itself, and tell us whether under given circumstances it is secured
by the development or sacrifice of more essential qualities, such
as health of body, serenity of mind, common sense, honesty, and
kindliness.

In laboratories of psychology not only children but every one
can be tested, and small defects or changes in the senses and fac-
ulties can be discovered. Psychology may thus become an ally
of medicine. Degenerations which escape common observation,
and even the practiced eye of the physician, can be detected and
measured by scientific methods. The overstrained clergyman or
man of business can be told when a holiday is necessary, how
long it must last, whether rest or amusement be required. As
an example of the co-operation of psychology and medicine, sur-
gery of the brain can be given. The part of the brain which is
diseased is determined by psychophysical methods, the skull is
opened, the diseased part of the brain is removed, and the patient
may be cured. Psychological methods are useful not only in the
diagnosis but also in the cure of many diseases. We know much
better than formerly how the insane, the vicious, and the crim-
inal should be treated. We know, for example, that social work
is far better than solitary confinement. Even diseases not directly
dependent on the nervous system may be cured by psychophys-
ical methods — for example, suggesting to the patient in the hyp-
notic state that he will be cured.

Those in good health may also profit from an examination in
a laboratory of psychology. Valuable traits can be determined
as well as defects, and the profession and mode of life most suit-
able to the person can be indicated. As has been suggested by
Mr. Galton, such tests would be peculiarly useful in civil-service
examinations. They would determine the real qualities and fit-
ness of the candidate in addition to (or in place of) the super-
ficial knowledge temporarily acquired by " cram." While we have
but little power to alter the individual character, we could exert

THE PROGRESS OF PSYCHOLOGY. 785

great influence on the future of the race. If we determine what
traits are valuable, and how these can be developed by suitable
marriage, and made universal by early marriage, we may hope
for practical results of immense importance. By the development
of a code of honor, or by direct encouragement of the parents or
the State, degenerative tendencies could be eliminated, and valu-
able traits could be developed much more rapidly than occurs in
the slow course of natural selection. Mr. Galton has shown that
the offspring of early marriages will soon supplant the offspring
of later marriages. But as things go at present the thoughtless
and criminal are apt to have offspring early, while the reliant
and mentally endowed postpone marriage until a long course of
education is accomplished and a social position is secured.

It is not necessary to dwell on other applications of psychol-
ogy. Its relation to the fine arts is evident. The external form
of art is directly fitted to the senses and its inner essence to the
mind. In political economy we need to know more concerning
the interest, passions, and needs of the people. Ultimately, we
shall be able to determine what distribution of labor, wealth, and
power is the best. Indeed, the measurements and statistics of
psychology, which at first sight may seem remote from common
interests, may in the end become the most important factor in the
progress of society. The whole course of life will move forward
in straighter and broader channels when we no longer depend
on instincts developed by the beast and savage, but on knowledge
and reason guiding to an end.

I)E. BATJMANN, in his recent journey in countries north of Lake Tanganyika,
discovered the source of the Kagera or Ruvuvu River in about latitude 3° south,
in a lofty range of mountains known as the Mountains of the Moon. The Warun-
di — whose ancient kings bore the title of Mwezi (Moon), and who looked upon
Dr. Baumann as one of their descendants just returned from the moon, and con-
sequently received him with noisy demonstrations expressive of their joy— look
upon this spot as sacred. Within a wood close by they used to celebrate the
funeral rites of their kings, whom they buried on the top of a mountain rising
above the Mountains of the Moon.

DR. D. G. BBINTON has made a study of the Song of the Arval Brethren, a
priestly sodality of ancient Rome, of presumed Etruscan origin, which was sung
at their annual festival, and has found in it the name of a divinity which is also a
divine name among the Libyan tribes of northern Africa, and is perhaps the root
of the name of those (the Berber) tribes. This hint of connection between the
Etruscans and these peoples is supported by the discovery of the name of ua man
of the Tursha " at Gurob, near the Libyan boundary of Egypt, rnd of an Etruscan
ritual book in the same region. The stem Adur, equivalent with that of Tur in
Tursha, and with Etrur in Etruria, occurs also in the name Adurraachides— the
fighting Adurs— given by Herodotus to a tribe living in the same region."
VOL. XLIII. — 57

786

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

A CHARACTERISTIC SOUTHWESTERN PLANT GROUP.

BY HENRY L. CLARKE.

A CURIOUS fascination gathers round any type of plant life
that stands alone, as peculiarly characteristic of some one
region of the world ; and still greater does the interest become
when we find, instead of a single type, an extensive group of
closely related types holding a thus isolated position, and consti-
tuting a flora of themselves apart from surrounding plant realms.
But such instances are rare — their very fewness primarily accounts
for the impression they make upon both scientist and general

FIG. 1. — OPUNTIA, CEKEUS, AND YUCCAS.

observer. In one corner or another of every continent botanists
have found oddly specialized floras, distinct in aspect and purpose
from the general run of vegetable forms. Many of these cases
are of insignificant importance, save in their immediate interest
to the specialist ; some attract greater attention, as filling an espe-
cially noticeable gap in the series of plant relationships ; a few
become of widespread interest not only through unique special-
ization of structure, but also by virtue of their holding a really

A SOUTHWESTERN PLANT GROUP. 787

extensive and vitally important place in the economy of Nature.
Of these last few one instance rises up most prominently of all,
certainly without a full parallel elsewhere in the field of botanical
science — and do we realize that it stands almost at our doors ? It
is the great three-typed plant group that forms the major part of

FIG. 2. — CEREUS TRIANGTJLARIS.

the flora of the far Southwest, on the arid plateaus and plains and
rocky mountain heights of Arizona and New Mexico, western
Texas and southernmost California, and over the boundary line
far into northern Mexico. Here is the fatherland and here the
supreme province of those three marvels of plant life — the cacti,
with their strangely specialized vegetative body ; the agaves, to
which popular tradition has attached an epithet of fitting dignity
in the name of " century plants " ; and, thirdly, the yuccas, which
claim, in addition to their floral splendor, the distinction of mani-
festing the interdependence of the flower and insect worlds with

788 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

probably more striking force than obtains in any other single
instance throughout the range of flowering plants.

Only within the memory of men still in the prime of life has
the full significance of this Southwestern flora dawned upon the
world of science. Far back in the history of early explorations
travelers and naturalists had recognized the odd character of these
north-Mexican plant forms, but to realize their inward meaning
required the elaborate monographing of Engelmann and the broad
generalizing of Asa Gray. For, strange as it may seem, one in-
vestigator after another, enthusiastic over the rich flora spread in
such profusion from our Atlantic seaboard westward beyond the
Rockies, nevertheless shunned, because of the many difficulties
presented, this threefold group of Southwestern vegetation. Yet
this, above all else, was a flora peculiarly American — originating,
so far as we have yet been able to discover, on American soil, and
belonging to America alone. So here there was a prospect of
opening up to science a new aspect of plant life, and in due season
the men came with the opportunities and inclination to accomplish
the task. Foremost of all, and more than all the rest, stood forth
the St. Louis physician, Dr. George Engelmann, a skilled man of
medicine, with botanical inspiration. In him there seemed to be
an especially keen appreciation of the opportunity offered for
vastly aiding the cause of botanical science by the systematic
study of little-known groups of plants ; and through labors of this
nature, in addition to his note as a physician, he placed his name
among the greatest of monographers in the annals of botany.
And to him belongs the credit of turning the full light of science
upon the cacti, the agaves, and the yuccas, while through his in-
vestigations of these types the attention of our great American
systematist, Asa Gray, was first directly turned to the vegetation
of the Southwestern highlands. One of the absorbing problems
of Gray's life-work was what he once fitly termed "botanical
archaeology " — the study of the geographical sources of our wealth
of flora, and of the paths by which it had passed from one region
to another. Years of experience had enabled him to propound
the masterly theory of the great wave of ancient plant life sweep-
ing down from the north and giving to the Old World and the New
floras that have so many types in common. But later, largely in
the light of Engelmann's revelations, Gray was brought to fully
realize that a second great source of the peculiar elements in our
flora lay in the Southwest, down on to the Mexican plateau, and
beyond the reach of the influence of the Glacial age. Here was
the possible source of a vegetation strictly American, and to it
might be traced many now widely scattered tribes, but particu-
larly and most obviously the three unique types we are especially
considering. These have come down to us, in the land of the

A SOUTHWESTERN PLANT GROUP.

789

Aztec, as the descendants of an American flora whose traces are
lost in far-off geologic ages, even as the forefathers of the Aztec
are shrouded in the mist of prehistoric centuries. In truth, there
seems a striking fitness in associating these odd monarchs of the
soil with the barbaric majesty of the empire of Montezuma; a
John Ruskin might say, the cactus typified the Aztec's sturdy,
unwithering energy and stoic cruelty ; the agave, his lofty noble-
ness of mind ; and the yucca, the passionate beauty of his nature.
But let the sentiment stand — the Aztec has passed away, and yet

FIG. 3. — AGAVE BED. Tree Agave on the Right.

this plant group still holds its own over the rocky hills and moun-
tain sides and barren plateaus, withstanding drought and burning
sun, and thriving in the arid sand wastes. And out from their
native region many representatives have found their way south-
ward, over into the West Indies, down through Central America,
still further to the northern Andes, and almost to the Amazon ;
and others, though fewer, have come up into our Western plains
and mountains, scattered over the Mississippi Valley, and passed
through the Gulf States and far up the Atlantic coast. Thus
eastward and northward from Texas we can count perhaps a
dozen cacti, several yuccas, and one or two agaves, all luxuriating

790

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

in their adopted habitats. Such, then, is a general suggestion of
the position this plant group holds in our American flora. Let us
now outline the relations of its three members to each other and
to other flowering plants in general.

It is worthy of note that the three types referred to bear no
close relationship to one another ; on the contrary, they stand in
distinct and rather parallel classes, and each respectively among
the most perfect developments of its class. The cacti, on the one

J,

>

Hf»

FIG. 4. — AGAVE SALMIANA IN BLOSSOM, AND AGAVE AMERICAN A IN FOUEGKOUND.

hand, nold a place among the most highly organized of dicotyle-
dons ; while the agaves and yuccas belong in the other great class
of angiospermous flowering plants, nearly parallel, but lower
ranked — the monocotyledons. Further, the agaves and yuccas
stand in nearly parallel divisions among monocotyledons — the
agaves among the epigynous-flowered monocotyls, typified by the
amaryllis family ; the yuccas among the hypogynous-flowered

A SOUTHWESTERN PLANT GROUP. 791

congeners of the lily family. Both, moreover, are highly special-
ized representatives of their respective alliances, and of the two
the agaves represent the higher character of development. Thus
augmented interest is joined to all three when an outline of their
position in the vegetable kingdom shows us that they are to be
regarded as almost, if not quite, the highest products of the evo-
lution of that ancient Aztec-American flora whose descendants
they are.

And so we are brought to realize that they were worthy re-
cipients of all the attention Engelmann and his co-workers be-
stowed; and the history of their investigations becomes almost
as interesting as the plants themselves. Foremost of all, as has
been said, stand the labors of Engelmann ; but with him are asso-
ciated the names of many untiring explorers and enthusiastic
botanists, each of whom contributed some vital element to the
general outcome: Wislizenus, Emory, Torrey, Parry, Schott,
Palmer, Newberry — all were workers in the field, and their names
have gone down in the annals of botany appended to one species
or another of the genera they studied, fittingly commemorating
the aid they gave toward awakening scientific interest in this
Southwestern plant group. Engelmann gathered together the
work of all and compiled it in his masterly monographs, taking
up first the cacti, then the yuccas, and finally the agaves. From
time to time he published additional notes, as new store of infor-
mation came to him, presenting most of the matter to the St.
Louis Academy of Sciences, of which he was for years the lead-
ing support. Up to the month he died he was working over the
great mass of notes he had accumulated on the cacti, preparatory
to publishing a grand revision of his first monograph. That the
work could not be completed is a source of deepest regret to
living botanists ; but, nevertheless, the original monograph still
stands, and will continue to stand, as the backbone of our knowl-
edge of the family it treats. And as to the other two mono-
graphs, the past decade has been able to add little to them of vital
importance save in so far as more extended observations have
served to more fully develop Engelmann's views. With justice,
therefore, is Engelmann accorded a prominent place among sci-
entists ; but inseparably linked with his is the name of another
man, honored as a broad-spirited patron of science, Henry Shaw,
the founder of the Missouri Botanical Garden, on the outskirts of
St. Louis. This was the pride of Engelmann's heart, and it was
here that he constantly labored under the liberal patronage and
never-failing encouragement of Shaw. The two men worked and
planned together in their common interest, and as a result we find
in the Missouri Garden to-day species of cacti numbering in the
hundreds, of agaves more than half a hundred, and the better

FIG. 5. — AGAVE ENGELMANNI.*

* Figs. 5, 6, 10, 11, and 12 are from the Report of the Missouri Botanical Garden for
1892, and Fig. 8 is from the same report for 1893.

A SOUTHWESTERN PLANT GROUP. 793

part of all the known yuccas, altogether forming one of the most
complete collections in the world of these Southwestern types;
and he who carefully examines it will be ready to acknowledge it
one of the most fascinating of all plant collections. Surely it
could have no more fitting home than there in the city of Engel-
mann ; and we can not but cherish the hope that no pains will be
spared to make the collection even far more complete than it is,
and thus give the American botanist a still greater laboratory in
which to investigate so great a factor in American plant life. A
suggestion of this aspect of the Missouri Garden may be found in
the illustrations accompanying the present paper, most of which
are from photographs taken there in July, 1892. The magnificent
collection of cacti and the several flowering plants of agave in the
World's Fair are of the highest interest in this connection. Can
not these form a nucleus for a great permanent cactus garden ?

From the general discussion we may appropriately pass to a
more detailed sketch of each of the three groups before us, and in
taking them up it will be found most convenient to place them in
the order of their evolutionary rank : the cacti first, as represent-
ing the higher class of flowering plants; then the agaves; and
lastly the yuccas, as somewhat lower in station than the second.
This will have the merit, in addition to its logical virtue, of dis-
posing of the weightiest group first, and of leaving till the last an
amazing little entomological-botanical romance which gathers
round the yucca. And the stately agaves will be not inharmoni-
ously sandwiched between their two odd brethren. But let this
suffice for a prospectus ; the story will tell itself more satisfac-
torily.

Viewing the three members of our group together, the query
presents itself : Is there not some vital significance in the relative
extent and diversity of development in these three joint mon-
archs of the desert ? Two of them, those we shall consider later,
reach only the magnitude of genera, each constituting a moder-
ate-sized and not remarkably diversified genus ; while on the
other hand the cacti together form an immense family, the natu-
ral order Cactacece, aggregating over a thousand species, gath-
ered into a number of genera. It is but a grand example of
evolutionary principles, "natural selection and the survival of
the fittest," for the facts must be interpreted in the light of Dar-
win's immortal phrase. The yucca pushes its sturdy rootstock
through the sand and drinks up each available drop of water ;
the agave's succulent leaves store up a wealth of nutritious sap ;
but the cactus seems to be pre-eminently an invulnerable store-
house of life-giving moisture, and the veritable offspring of the
arid, rocky sand-wastes, while the others seem only adopted chil-
dren. Mark the peculiar characters of the typical cactus : The

79;4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

compact mass of the vegetative body, devoid of leaves or leaf-
like appendages, exposes the least possible evaporating surface to
the sun ; the thick skin, bearing only a few scattered stomata,
breathing pores, wraps an almost impermeable covering round
the internal moisture ; the long, wiry, fibrous roots run hither
and thither through the sand and into the finest crevices of rocks ;
and further, the bristling, spiny armor shields the plant from men
and beasts. All this and much more goes to make up the plant
of plants that is best fitted to fulfill the mission of vegetation in
the Southwestern borderlands. And so the problem solves itself,
and we come to realize why the progenitors of the Cactacece,
spread out and multiplied far and wide, and broke into a myriad
varied forms, all retaining amid their diversity the distinctive
characteristics of the primal type.

A standard British encyclopaedia of scarcely three quarters of
a century ago vouchsafes the statement that the order Cactacece
embraces "twenty-seven" species. Grasp the contrast between
this day of science and that ! The botanists of the Century Dic-
tionary estimate the species at far above the thousand mark.
For this vast stride we thank a host of indefatigable explorers,
and of these, a large share of credit goes to the scientists of the
Mexican Boundary and the Pacific Railway Surveys, whose dis-
coveries were the main foundations of the labors of Engelmann.
Thus duly recognizing the scope of the field before us, we may
with interest follow an outline sketch of the order. The general
character of the vegetative body may be passed over for the
present without further detail, that we may the more particu-
larly notice the floral structure on which the systematic study of
the order so largely depends. The inferior ovary, surmounted by
the sepals, petals, and stamens, places the order immediately
among the highest of the dicotyledonous CJioripetalce*. There is
a natural division into two suborders. In the first, the Rotatce,,
the rotate many-leaved calyx and corolla, with the stamens,
directly surmount the ovary. In the second there is a unique
and obviously progressive development: calyx and corolla are
united toward their bases and prolonged into a tube, with the
stamens inserted on its throat — whence the name of the sub-
order, the Tubuloscz. The typical Eotatcz are the widespread ge-
nus Opuntia, numbering about two hundred and fifty species.
The greater part of the genus are characterized by broad, thick-
ened, fleshy, jointed stems ; but a small subgenus, and this prob-
ably the less highly specialized, have cylindrical joints. Most of
the species are more or less spreading and prostrate, but a large
number are truly arborescent in growth. Several species are
thoroughly naturalized in the northeastern quarter of the United
States, and these are among the most brilliant acquisitions of our

A SOUTHWESTERN PLANT GROUP.

795

Northern flora. The gorgeous yellow of Opuntia Rafinesquii
and O. Missouriensis, flourishing on a sandy hillside beneath
the July sun, can well inspire the soul of botanist and flower-

Fio. 6. — YUCCA GLORIOSA.

lover. It is an interesting and significant fact that among the
Rotatm, as allies of the Opuntia, we find the two little genera that

796 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

nearest approach being missing links between other neighboring
orders and the Cactacecz, otherwise almost utterly isolated. One
is the genus Pereskia, in which, especially in Pereskia grandi-
folia, there are developed true leaves, succulent and veiny and with
spines in their axils. Most species of the genus are shrubs or
trees, and, still further remarkable, the flowers are borne in
nearly panicled clusters. The thirteen species belong mostly to
the West India region, and one produces the so-called "Barbados
gooseberry." A decided analogy may be recognized by close
comparison between these Pereskias and the Ribeseaeeoz, the
group of the saxifrage family which includes the currants and
spiny-stemmed gooseberries ; and this probably points to a dis-
tant connection between the progenitors of the Cactaceoz and
those of the modern genus Ribes. The other possible " missing
link " is the genus Rhipsalis, a curious group, mostly epiphytic,
and growing in long, pendent masses from the branches of trees,
in some instances resembling mistletoe. In these plants we see a
possible approach to the group of so-called " ice-plants," the or-
der MesembryanthemacecB. But most peculiar is the fact that
one species of Rhipsalis is indigenous to Sou.th Africa, Mada-
gascar, and Ceylon — the only instance of an Old World cactus.
This probably has its significance.

The other suborder, the Tubuloscz, are undoubtedly the more
highly specialized cacti, and further, significant fact, they are for
the most part Mexican, while the Opuntice are widely scattered
northward. Besides several minor genera of Tubulosce there are
three great and distinctive ones, which, as it is interesting to note,
mark successive steps in structural specialization — they are Ma-
millaria, Echinocactus, and Cereus. In mamillaria there is a
great departure, in the character of the vegetative body, from the
Opunticz. The plants are more or less globular or subcylindrical,
and the original joints of the stem are indicated only by the
conical spine-tipped tubercles which make up the surface of the
fleshy mass. Echinocactus, the "hedgehog cacti," has the gen-
eral appearance of mamillaria, but the tubercled surface is modi-
fied into a mere series of parallel vertical ribs, bearing clusters of
spines along their ridges at points corresponding to the tubercles
of mamillaria. Of the two genera, echinocactus is much the
more strictly Mexican, while mamillaria has a few representa-
tives spreading northeastward into Kansas and South Dakota.
The large genus Cereus is the crowning glory of the cacti. It
retains the ribbed structure of echinocactus, but its stems are
nearly always columnar and in many instances arborescent. With
echinocactus, this genus reaches its greatest development in
Mexico, or near the boundary line, where flourishes the monarch
of the Cactacece, the " giant cactus," Cereus giganteus. In cereus,

A SOUTHWESTERN PLANT GROUP.

797

furthermore, is the fullest development of the tubular floral
structure, much less evident in echinocactus and mamillaria.
Thus we find the cacti forming a little kingdom of their own, and
could we here go beyond the limits of an outline, a broadly inter-
esting study might be found in each division of the order. But
without further detail the vitally important observation may be
made, that there seems just reason to believe that what the Com-
posite?, are to modern plant life in general, the Cactacew were, and

FIG. 7. — YUCCA GROUP: 1, Yucca macrocarpa; 2, Yucca trsculeara ; 4, Yucca elata ; 3 and 5,

Yucca dasylirion.

probably are, to that ancient Southwestern flora — the climax of
its evolution.

Linnaeus vividly expressed the spirit of the " century plant "
in one Greek word, the very name he gave it — "Agave" so called,
he said, " because that word indicates something grand and de-
serving admiration"; and although he only knew a half-dozen
species, the many that subsequent research has brought to light
justify most fully the title he bestowed. The genus holds a sta-
tion of its own in the foremost ranks of monocotyledons, but, like
the cacti among dicotyledons, rather isolated. It certainly ap-
proaches the amaryllis family in many characteristics, and, if
really coming within the limits of this order at all, may perhaps

798 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

be considered a highly specialized offshoot. There is immense
variation in the foliage characters of agave, from the slender

FIG. 8. — YUCCA GUATKMALENSIS.

reed-like leaves of Agave geminifolia to the massive blades of
Agave Americana. The character of the inflorescence has been

A SOUTHWESTERN PLANT GROUP. 799

made the basis for the primary division of the genus into three
groups: the Singuliflorm, the Geminiflorce,, and the Paniculate?.
In all cases the flower-scape rises from the apex of the main axis
of the plant ; all the vital energy of often many years' growth is
centered there, and the plant throws up its blossom-stalk as the su-
preme effort of its existence, and, when the fruit has ripened, dies
— a strange phenomenon, and almost without parallel in any other
so extensive group. In the Singuliflorce, is the simplest type of in-
florescence. The flowers are loosely spiked, each one in the axil of
a bract. To this group belongs our one Northern agave, the little
Agave Virginica, which grows from Maryland and southern Indi-
ana southwest ward into Texas. The Geminiflorce, have the flowers
borne in pairs, and densely spiked along the scape. Variations
which show transition between both these simpler groups and the
third occur. The Paniculate have the scape more or less branch-
ing, often in the fashion of a candelabrum, each branch terminat-
ing in a dense cluster of flowers. These are the typical agaves,
the crowning glory of the genus. The familiar Agave Americana
is a representative of the Paniculate^, and so also the plant shown
in the accompanying photograph (Fig. 7), Agave Salmiana, a
magnificent species that blossomed in the Missouri Botanical
Garden in the summer of 1892. A splendid agave that commemo-
rates the founder of the Missouri Garden is the Agave Shawii,
dedicated by Engelmann to Henry Shaw ; and in turn the labors
of Engelmann have been fitly honored in the dedication to him of
a most striking type that he once presented to the Missouri Gar-
den. It blossomed there in the summer of 1891, and when it had
been clearly proved a new species it was duly christened by Di-
rector Trelease Agave Engelmanni (Fig. 5). The structure of
the agave flower is extremely unique in several particulars, but
further detail can not be entered into. Almost every step taken
in the investigation of the genus gives additional emphasis to the
first impression, that it is one of the master marvels of plant life.

It remains to add some passing notes on the wonderfully beau-
tiful genus which the lily family contributes to our group, the
yuccas. A glorious floral offering to the arid Southwest high-
lands they certainly are, and scientifically their structure is in
many ways scarcely less remarkable than that of the cacti and
agaves. But the consideration of these points will be passed over
here in order to call up more particularly the phenomenon that
makes the yucca an astounding mystery to naturalist and philoso-
pher, the manner of its cross-fertilization. For the fact is, we have
here an extensive genus entirely incapable, save under most rarely
extraordinary circumstances, of self-fertilization, and entirely de-
pendent on one moth that fertilizes the flowers in order to insure
food supply for its larvae in the ripening seeds. The problem of

8oo

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

yucca fertilization was for many years a vexed question ; Engel-
mann spent much, thought and observation in trying to learn its
secret, and finally, over twenty years ago, called the attention of
Prof. C. V. Eiley, the noted entomologist, to certain moths which
frequented the yucca flowers. After long and patient study and
various erroneous speculations the two scientists ultimately
brought the whole mystery to light ; and in a recent paper, pub-
lished in the Report of the Missouri Garden for 1892, Riley has
fully elaborated his work of the earlier years and the observations
made in the intervening time. The structure of the yucca flower

FIG. 9. — YUCCA ALOIFOLIA.

is plainly outlined in Fig. 10. Long experimentation has positively
shown that it is practically impossible for the sticky pollen to be
transferred from the little anthers on the tips of the short stamens
to the fine stigmatic tube opening only at the tip of the pistil, except
by external voluntary agency. As a matter of fact, the agency is

A SOUTHWESTERN PLANT GROUP. 801

always the little moths of the genus Pronuba — never any other in-
sect whatsoever. Several different species of Pronuba frequent re-
spectively several different species or groups of species of yuccas,*
but the most familiar one is the Pronuba yuccasella, always found
on our Yucca filamentosa, the most Northeastern type. Just about

FIG. 10. — FLOWER OF YCCCA GLORIOSA.

nightfall, as the flowers open, the moths are seen flitting about
the yucca panicles. Usually the male is most constantly on the
wing, while the female is found running about within the flowers.
She begins operations by mounting the top of a stamen, exactly
as shown in Fig. 11. There she scrapes with her two odd hook-
like maxillary palpi the pollen out of the anther, and rolls
it into a globular mass under her head. With this load, often
thrice the size of her head, she goes to another flower, runs about,
apparently examines every nook and corner of it, and then, if per-
chance satisfied, finally settles astride two of the stamens with her

* In the Report for 1893 of the Missouri Botanical Garden, Prof. William Trelease, Di-
rector of the Garden, publishes a paper on yuccas, from which the following notes are
made with reference to the Pronubas frequenting different species of the plant : Pronuba
yuccasella pollinates Y. jilamcntosci, Y. aloifolia, Y. glauca, Y. baccata, Y. gloriosa, Y. elata,
Y. glauca, var. stricta ; Pronuba synthetica pollinates Y. brcvifolia ; Pronuba macufata, Y.
Whipplei ; and Pronuba macnlata, var. aterrima (a new variety of Pronuba discovered by
Prof. Trelease in 1892), pollinates Y. Whipplei, var. graminifolta ; and, finally, Prof. Riley
predicts the discovery of distinct species of Pronuba on each of these yuccas, viz. : Y
tilif, >•«, Y. trcculeara, Y. Guatemalcnsis, and others. — H. L. C.

VOL. XLIII. — 58

802

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

abdomen pressed down between them. From the tip of the abdomen
the long, sharp-edged ovipositor, an organ of wonderful delicacy
and most remarkable structure, is thrust into the tissue of the
pistil, and the eggs are deposited among the ovules. This act
may occur several times on the same pistil. Then, still more re-
markable, the moth deliberately runs to the apex of the pistil and
with tongue and palpi crams a portion of the collected pollen
mass into the stigmatic tube, thereby fertilizing the flower. The
tongue is worked up and down for some time in the tube like a
piston rod, with evident intentness on the part of the moth. This

FIG. 11. — PRONUBA

YtJCCASELLA.

FIG. 12. — FKUIT or YUCCA GLORIOSA.

series of operations, always in the same order, may be repeated
again and again till late into the evening. The moth chooses only
the freshly opened flowers and those that have not been punctured
by another moth coming before. Only the flowers thus fertilized
can ever by any possibility produce fruit; and thus the yucca
fruit, as seen in Fig. 12, always bears several constrictions
where the scar was made by the puncture of the moth's oviposi-
tor. Inside the fruit the moth-larva develops with the seeds, de-
vouring sometimes a dozen of them ; and when the pod ripens
the larva eats its way out, and, in the night-time, drops to the
ground by a silken thread, burrows into the soil, and there wraps
itself in a strong cocoon. Sometimes the moth does not issue

HOUSEHOLD ARTS AT THE WORLD'S FAIR. 803

from the cocoon for several years, though, not so generally. It is
strangely true, however, that moth and yucca flower mature at
the selfsame season ; and strangest of all, it can not be shown
that the moth during its short existence in the perfect state takes
a particle of nutriment from the yucca flower — no pollen, no nec-
tar, no stigmatic fluid. This is practically certain. Here, then,
is a case of " instinct " that is utterly dazzling ; it bids defiance to
comparative psychology, philosophy, metaphysics — everything.
Here is a plant that can not perpetuate itself without one certain
strangely specialized moth ; and here is a moth that can not live
without that plant; and that moth deliberately cross-fertilizes
the flowers without receiving any nutriment from them ! Verily,
the botanist must rise up and say of the yucca moth what Cicero
said of the aged planter of orchards, "Serit arbores quse alteri
sseclo prosint!" and even with greater truth. This is interde-
pendence between the worlds of insect and plant life that baffles
understanding.

Cacti, agaves, yuccas, such is the three-typed group that stands
out as a great division of a flora distinctively American ; unique
in the phase of plant development it presents; peculiar to a
region of strange physical aspect ; sprung directly, for aught that
is known otherwise, from the mystery-shrouded soil of the Aztec
and the cliff-dweller. And this is the splendid tribute the land of
the far Southwest gives to the world of science.

HOUSEHOLD ARTS AT THE WORLD'S FAIR.

BY FREDERIK A. FERNALD.

THE visitor who wishes to learn what the World's Columbian
Exposition has to teach in regard to the domestic arts will
not find the exhibits in this field gathered in a separate building,
as are those relating to Transportation or Agriculture. He will
not find them entered as one class in the Official Catalogue, but
must search them out in nooks and corners, and will often stumble
upon them in the most unlikely places.

To begin with the house itself : two specimen dwellings of low
cost are exhibited. Away down near the southeastern corner of
the grounds is a neat wooden cottage, forming part of the New
York exhibit, and known as the Workingman's Model Home.
The house, with cellar, would cost ordinarily $1,000 ; it measures
20X28 feet, and is designed to stand on a lot of 25X40 feet. On
the first floor are a hallway, living room, kitchen, bath room, and
storeroom ; on the second floor are three bedrooms, each with a
closet, and a large closet at the front end of the upper hall. The

8o4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

house is furnished, and clothing for a family consisting of a man,
wife, and three children is hung in the closets. Posted in the sev-
eral rooms are lists giving the cost of the furniture, the clothing,
and the living expenses. The outfit of furniture amounts to $300.
The yearly expenses are estimated at $500, apportioned as follows:
Rent, $120 ; food, $200 ; clothing, $100 ; fuel, $30 ; miscellaneous,
$50. Experiments in feeding a family of five are carried on in the
house by Miss Katherine B. Davis, of Rochester, and the bill of
fare for each day since the beginning is posted in the living room.
The cost of food for the whole family has ranged between fifty
and sixty cents a day.

Just inside the Midway Plaisance stands the Philadelphia
Workingman's House. It is a two-story structure of brick, the
dimensions being 15X43 feet, and it was erected by the Social and
Economic Science Committee of the Woman's Auxiliary of Phila-
delphia. It contains six rooms and a bath room, has a furnace,
and the cellar is concreted. Such a house could be built in most
places for $2,300. Floor plans of both this and the New York
house can be had for a small charge.

The several exhibits of cooking processes and appliances would
make a very creditable display if brought together in one build-
ing. Opening from the gallery of the Woman's Building is a
large room, where a lecture on cooking is given daily, after which
the lecturer spends several hours in answering the questions of
interested listeners. This room is called a Model Kitchen in the
Official Catalogue, but it is fitted up as a lecture room, and not as
a kitchen. The National Columbian Household Economic Asso-
ciation, organized by the Committee on Household Economics of
the Board of Lady Managers, provides a lecturer, Mrs. Emma P.
Ewing, for two months of the season that the fair is open. She
lectured on bread-making during June, and is to return for the
month of October. During the whole six months Mrs. Sarah T.
Rorer lectures under the auspices of the Illinois Woman's Exposi-
tion Board. The board has assigned to her the special task of
making known the proper way of cooking corn products to Ameri-
can and foreign visitors, with the object of widening the too re-
stricted market for this product of our soil. Accordingly, Mrs.
Rorer describes only dishes into which corn enters in some form.
Her list is far from being so narrowly restricted as many might
suppose ; she has over two hundred recipes available, including
breads, puddings of cornmeal and cornstarch, griddle cakes,
mushes, hominy, blanc mange, and (not to be omitted) Philadel-
phia scrapple. A selection of these is included in the little recipe
book given away at the lectures. Mrs. Rorer also gives lessons to
a class of girls, the purpose of which is to show how cheaply in-
struction in cooking may be introduced into public schools.

HOUSEHOLD ARTS AT THE WORLD'S FAIR. 805

Returning now to the southeastern corner of the grounds, we
find close to the Anthropological Building a small structure de-
voted to demonstrations in cookery. Owing to various obstacles
it was not opened until about August 1st. These demonstrations
form part of the Massachusetts exhibit. They are conducted by
Miss Maria Daniell, under the general direction of Mrs. Ellen H.
Richards, Instructor in Sanitary Chemistry at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. The building is called the Rumford
Kitchen, after the scientist of Massachusetts birth who did so
much to advance the art of cooking just a century ago. Selec-
tions from three classes of dishes are prepared and served ; name-
ly, soups, luncheons for school children and students, and foods
for the sick. Leaflets containing instructive matter are distrib-
uted, but no set lectures are given.

Beside the Rumford Kitchen stands another small building,
also devoted to the teaching of cookery, and opened about the
same time as its neighbor. This is a part of the New York exhibit,
and is in charge of Miss Juliet Corson, the head of the New York
Cooking School.

Considerable evidence may be found that cooking is being made
a subject of school instruction in this and other countries. In the
educational exhibits of the several States, which are placed in the
gallery of the building of Manufactures and Liberal Arts, this
subject is included in the school programmes of many cities and
towns, and some pictures of classes at work are shown. From the
gentleman in attendance at the educational exhibit of Japan the
writer learned that domestic economy is taught in the schools of
that country. In the German section of the Woman's Building is
an alcove containing utensils, charts, and models of buildings used
by the people's kitchen schools, household schools, and homes and
schools for servants in Germany, with statistics concerning these
and related institutions. This exhibit was prepared by Frau Lina
Morgenstern, of Berlin. Near by may be found information con-
cerning the housekeeping and other schools maintained by the
Ladies' Societies of Baden, with pictures of the schoolrooms.

When we look to see what articles of home cookery have been
sent for exhibition we find that the catalogue of the Woman's
Building mentions fig preserves, other preserves, jams, jellies,
home-made wines, and catsups, sent by four exhibitors, as being
in the lecture room, but a diligent search in that room fails to re-
veal them. In the exhibit of woman's work in the Illinois Build-
ing, made under the management of the Illinois Woman's Expo-
sition Board, is a neat case in which the Chicago Exchange for
Woman's Work exhibits preserves, jams, jellies, and several kinds
of pickles, very attractively put up. Preserves and jellies put up
by women may also be found in the North Carolina section of

806 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the Agricultural Building and in the Florida and Colorado sec-
tions of the Horticultural Building. In the latter building also
is a large and varied assortment of apple jellies, each kind bear-
ing the name of the variety of apple from which it was made,
exhibited by a Maine woman. Across the avenue, outside the
fair grounds, is the interesting exhibit of Manitoba. Here may
be seen a large collection of preserved fruits and preserved and
pickled vegetables, all put up by women in their homes.

The food stuffs, and especially the partly prepared foods ex-
hibited by manufacturers, are numerous and varied. Most of
these are placed in the gallery of the Agricultural Building, but
there are a few important exceptions. Butter and cheese are to
be found in the Dairy Building, coffee and tea in the foreign
buildings or foreign sections of the large buildings. A great part
of the exhibit in the Brazil Building consists of coffee, and this
product is shown also by other countries of South and Central
America and the West Indies. In some of the buildings a cup of
the beverage may be had. Ceylon tea is served by Cingalese at-
tendants in the Ceylon Court and in three or four of the general
buildings. Four of the prominent chocolate manufacturers have
separate small buildings in various parts of the grounds, and an-
other has an attractive exhibit in the Agricultural Building. At
all of these chocolate and cocoa are served. In the main food
display the great packing houses exhibit canned, smoked, dried,
and salt meats, canned fish and shell fish, mince-meat, lard, extract
of beef, and canned soups. An English firm has gone one step
beyond the canned soups and sends desiccated soups. Butterine
or oleomargarine is shown by several manufacturers, and accom-
panied by clear and frank statements of how it is made and what
it may be used for. Mixtures of beef suet and cotton-seed oil,
under the names of vegetole, cotosuet, and cottolene, are offered
to take the place of lard. The value of rice and rice flour as food
is well shown in the Louisiana section of the Agricultural Build-
ing. Brands of salt which are declared to withstand the attacks
of " General Humidity " are exhibited in this building and in the
Mining Building. In the inventions room of the Woman's Build-
ing are evaporated vegetables and sweet-potato flour prepared by
a process which was invented by a St. Louis woman. Condensed
milk and evaporated cream, baking powders, gelatin, fruit but-
ters, pickles, and catsups are among the many other foods shown
by enterprising manufacturers. At many of the food booths
visitors are invited to taste the foods, and are requested to regis-
ter their own names or those of their grocers.

There is no lack of appliances and utensils for cooking. The
ranges are too numerous to mention, but a few unusual features
may be noticed. One make has a round iron plate on the floor of

HOUSEHOLD ARTS AT THE WORLD'S FAIR. 807

the oven which, revolves easily when it is desired to turn a pan
that is set upon it. Another has a round piece cut out of the
upper side of each cover and held in place by screws, its object
being to prevent cracking. Still another has one cover made up
of concentric rings so as to furnish five different-sized holes.
Mrs, Rorer exhibits at her lectures a range having a perforated
oven door lined with wire gauze. This, she says, enables meats
to be really roasted in an oven instead of being baked. A range
with which is combined a hot- water house-heating apparatus, the
invention of a Chicago woman, is also shown in the lecture room
and in the Manufactures Building. A long line of cooking
apparatus for gas is shown, at one end of which is a simple hot
plate and at the other a range with baking oven, broiling oven,
dish warmer, and water back. The larger ranges have a flue to
carry off the products of combustion. There is also a variety of
gasolene and kerosene stoves. One novelty in this line is the
parlor-lamp stove. It consists of an ornamental tripod supporting
a top on which the cooking is done, an ordinary large parlor
lamp being placed inside the base. When used for lighting, the
lamp is set on top of the tripod. Among the kitchen appliances
used in the New York Workingman's Home is the Aladdin oven,
invented by Mr. Edward Atkinson, and fully described in this
magazine about four years ago.

The greatest novelty in cooking appliances at the fair is un-
questionably the apparatus for cooking by electricity, shown in
operation in the gallery of the Electricity Building. The electric
current is conducted into plates of enamel, where it meets with
resistance and is converted into heat. These plates are attached
to specially constructed ovens, broilers, griddles, flatirons, etc.
An ordinary stewpan, coffee or tea pot, or steam cooker may be
heated on the " disk heater." An outfit of articles necessary for
a private house costs $60, or $77.50 if a heater for a kitchen boiler
is included. Electricity has the same advantages over coal that
gas has ; its advantages over gas depend upon the fact that com-
bustion, with its needs and limitations, is wholly done away with.
There are no products of complete or accidentally imperfect com-
bustion, there is not even a slight loss of heat into the room or
up the flue. The strongest points of electrical cooking are com-
fort and convenience, but claims are made for it also on the score
of economy. It is said that the cost of cooking by electricity is
less than the cost with coal and about the same as where fuel-gas
is used. This is on the supposition that the electricity is fur-
nished at half the price charged for lighting.

Kitchen utensils are no less well represented than are stoves
and ranges. The main exhibit of these is in the Manufactures
Building. Among them may be mentioned stamped ware enam-

8o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

eled in granite and other colors; spiders that will suit both
right-handed and left-handed cooks, having a lip on each side;
two forms of "self -basting" roasting pans, designed to prevent
meats from drying in the oven ; knife-edge, torsion, and spring
balances; and cast-iron ware polished and even nickel-plated.
Portable ovens for gas and kerosene stoves also steam cookers
jacketed with asbestos are shown. The jacket prevents the con-
duction of heat from the cooking food, thus utilizing a scientific
principle which is too commonly disregarded in cooking. Cylin-
drical tin receptacles for flour and meal are shown which may be
fastened against the wall at a convenient height. The flour is
made to pass through a sieve by turning a crank and comes out
by an outlet at the bottom. A measuring cup, which fits on to
the outlet when not in use, forms part of the apparatus. There
are quite a number of machines worked by a crank which, save a
great deal of tiresome and time-consuming hand work. One
company exhibits a meat chopper, a fruit press, a sausage stuffer,
and a cherry stoner. The same company makes a simple utensil,
like a saucepan in form, for shaving ice. Another exhibitor has
a little nutmeg-grater that is worked by a crank. A small room
in the Woman's Building is devoted to inventions by women.
Most of these are household articles, while some are of a wholly
different character. These inventions are generally modifications
of articles already in use, novel departures being rare. Among
the cooking utensils in this room are a metal kneading-board, a
kitchen knife especially adapted for slicing, a frying pan with a
hood and a flue to carry the smoke from the food down into the
fire, and an egg and cake beater with a new form of stirrer. An-
other cake beater invented by a woman, and resembling the tin
flour bin described above, is shown in the Agricultural Build-
ing. Inventions by women appear also in the Illinois Building,
among them being a funnel, a baking pan, and a kettle holder for
a stove. A fruit evaporator small enough for household use is
shown in the Horticultural Building. The capacity of the smallest
size is about half a bushel of apples. In the same building a Ger-
man exhibitor shows knives of peculiar shapes, for paring and
slicing vegetables and cutting them into ornamental shapes ; also
a cherry stoner. Household woodenware is to be found in the
Forestry Building ; one make has electrically welded flat hoops
set in grooves in the staves, instead of the common riveted hoops ;
another has welded wire hoops which are imbedded in the wood
at several points in the circumference. Near by are shown tubs,
pails, keelers, bowls, milkpans, measures, etc., of indurated fiber
(paper pulp), which are molded in one piece.

But few appliances are required for laundry work, hence the
exhibits in this line are not conspicuous. Of course, wringing

HOUSEHOLD ARTS AT THE WORLD'S FAIR. 809

machines are no novelty, but one whose good points are actively
exhibited by an attendant attracts considerable attention. It can
be put on or taken off the tub with wonderful ease, and adjusts
itself to any article from the thickness of a handkerchief up to
that of a door-mat. A washing machine for domestic use, shown
in the Forestry Building, consists of a round, covered tub with a
corrugated bottom and having an axle passing through the cover.
The axle carries a corrugated disk on the lower end and is turned
by a crank at the top. In the Machinery Building a German in-
vention may be seen. Its tub is three or four feet high and stands
on a low frame. It is worked by pushing a lever back and forth.
This action turns the drum containing the clothes, and rotates in
the opposite direction a stirrer shaped like a four-legged stool.
The " self-heating " washer has a box-shaped tub set on legs. In-
side is a washboard hung horizontally from a frame, which is
pushed back and forth upon another similar board by a long
handle. The tub has a metal bottom to which a flame can be ap-
plied by means of a gasolene attachment. This attachment can
also be swung out and used for making starch or heating a flat-
iron. One of the most creditable of women's inventions to be
seen is the well-known " cold-handled sadiron," with a detachable
handle. Another woman's invention for the laundry, shown in
the Woman's Building, is called a " convertible chair/' and is
described as a combination of clothes rack, ironing board, clothes
receptacle, and bosom board. Still another is a waist and sleeve
pressing board. Plain laundered articles are shown in the exhibit
of the London Board Schools, each piece being marked with the
name and age of the girl by whom it was done up. The Lette-
Verein, of Berlin, also exhibits laundered articles in the Woman's
Building.

One branch of domestic economy which is finely illustrated is
the care of children. In the western end of the Children's Build-
ing is a large room occupied by the Fitch Creche and Training
School for Nursery Maids. It is fitted up with bassinets and cribs
of various styles, one crib being suspended from the ceiling, while
on the floor is a square inclosure in which a baby may be safely
left to creep about without watching. Here a class of girls is
learning the proper care of infants under competent instruction,
and here mothers may leave their babies to be cared for through
the day while they are seeing the fair. The creche is an exhibit
of the Kindergarten Society of Buffalo. Let no one imagine that
sightseers are allowed to wander at will through the room ; they
can only look in through a glass partition. The middle of the
Children's Building is occupied by a gymnasium and there is a
playground on the roof, each being suitably fitted up. On the
second floor are several rooms in which kindergarten, sloyd, and

8 10 THE POP-ULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

other classes are taught. Children's books and papers are shown
in the library. In connection with the rearing of children it is
perhaps appropriate to mention a collection of photographs of
children whose mothers have gone through college, shown in the
British educational exhibit. This in refutation of the assertion
that college education unfits young women for motherhood.

Ornamental needlework occupies much space at the fair, but
useful articles made with the needle are few. In the woman's
room of the Illinois Building is a large and attractively arranged
case of children's clothing, called the Lilliputian bazaar. Here and
in the Woman's Building are a number of women's inventions to
facilitate needlework. The women of Manitoba, together with
their embroidery and fancy work, send a creditable display of
plain sewing and knitted articles. A similar exhibit comes from
Uruguay, and, strange to say, is placed in the Agricultural Build-
ing, in the space assigned to that country. It is evident that sew-
ing is being made a subject of school instruction in many parts of
the United States and also in other countries. The various edu-
cational exhibits contain many samples of sewing and mending
done by schoolgirls, and the subject is mentioned in a large num-
ber of school programmes. Samples of simple millinery, as well
as of sewing, appear in the exhibit of the Workingmen's School,
of New York. Plain needlework may be seen in the educational
exhibit of Japan ; also in that of the Board Schools of London.
The exhibit of the Lette-Verein, already mentioned, includes plain
and ornamental needlework, dressmaking, and millinery.

A few exhibits of a miscellaneous character remain to be men-
tioned. Three concerns show reversible window sashes, which
may be turned into the room, permitting the outside of the glass
to be cleaned without discomfort or danger. Among the women's
inventions is a wooden roller, covered with some rough material
like Turkish toweling, and designed to take up dust from carpets
or hard-wood floors. It may be attached to a carpet-sweeper or
trundled by a handle independently. With one of the exhibits of
domestic hardware in the Manufactures Building is a water
motor for driving sewing machines, fans, ice-cream freezers, etc.,
in any house that has a water supply. Small electric motors
adapted to the same purposes are shown in the Electricity Build-
ing. These can be used wherever electricity is supplied for light-
ing, and some are made to be run by a galvanic battery. The
water motor can be set in motion and stopped by turning a faucet,
and the electro-motors by turning a switch. An interesting appli-
cation of a scientific principle is seen in a cooler for food, beverages,
and provisions, which the agent of a Belgian inventor has placed
in the Machinery Building. It is in the form of a high dish cover,
is made of tin, and covered with a cloth jacket. The jacket is kept

HOUSEHOLD ARTS AT THE WORLD'S FAIR. 811

wet by dipping into a moat containing water, and the constant
evaporation from the cloth produces the cooling action of the ap-
paratus. One of the schoolrooms in the Children's Building is a
" Kitchen Garden," in which housework lessons with toys are given
to very young girls. Its aim, as stated on its placards, is " to take
the drudgery out of so-called menial work and elevate the home
duties of women by inspiring the pupils with the right way of
doing things at an age when life-long impressions and habits are
formed." The lessons include waiting on the door, passing a tray,
bedmaking, and a broom drill. There is an advanced course
for older girls which includes cooking and laundry work. The
originator of the Kitchen Garden is Miss Emily Huntington, of
New York, who may be consulted daily upon the organization of
industrial classes for girls.

Domestic economy has not been omitted from the list of con-
gresses held in connection with the fair. Its congress will be
held in the second week of October, under the direction of the
Woman's Committee on Household Economics, in the Woman's
Branch of the World's Congress Auxiliary. This committee has
also been charged with the duty of presenting its subject in the
agricultural, labor, sanitary, and other congresses. Unfortunately,
more than half the usefulness of all the congresses has been thrown
away by holding them seven miles from the center of attraction
and in noisy surroundings.

After everything relating to household management has been
sought out, the visitor can not resist the conviction that the
exhibits at the Columbian Exposition fall very far short of what
they might have been and should have been in justice to the im-
portance of the subject. Two of the excellent exhibits of cooking
processes are placed in an out-of-the-way spot. Few products of
home cookery are shown, and nothing except preserves. Domestic
laundry operations are not illustrated at all ; laundered articles
are sent from schools in England and Germany, but nothing from
any American school, and no American woman has shown her
skill in washing flannels without their shrinking, colored goods
and embroideries without the colors running, or in putting a gloss
upon starched linens. In needlework the ornamental has buried
the practical out of sight. The difference between the right and
the wrong way of making a bed, of sweeping and dusting a room,
of cleaning windows and woodwork, and of setting and decorating
a table, might all have been illustrated to the great profit of many
thousands of visitors. The difficulties in the way of such ex-
hibits are no greater than those that have been overcome in other
cases. According to the census, more than half the men of the
United States engaged in gainful occupations are occupied with
agriculture; and this industry is adequately represented in its

812 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

special building and in many of the Western State buildings. An
even larger portion of the women of this country are occupied in
home management, and it might have been expected that, under
the direction of the Board of Lady Managers and in the Woman's
Building, some systematic representation of this important occu-
pation would be found. But no; the women of America have
preferred to be represented by their painting, their books, their
embroidery, their societies for inducing other people to become
wiser and better, their work as hospital nurses, by paper lamp-
shades and indescribable things in cardboard and colored wools —
by anything, in fact, that is either pretty on the one hand or man-
nish on the other, or is remote from every-day affairs. This criti-
cism must not be taken as evidence of a wish to restrict women
to housework alone. The real feeling of the writer can not be
better expressed than by the following words from the preliminary
address of the Woman's Committee on Household Economics:
" It is not necessary to consider whether woman's sphere is limited
to her home — it concerns us to so improve the work done in the
home that out of it shall come a power so well trained, by careful
study of scientific and economic principles, that it will facilitate
and lighten, as well as dignify, household labor."

THE PROBLEM OF COLORED AUDITION.

BY M. ALFRED BINET.

MUCH attention has been given lately to the subject of colored
audition. It has been discussed in daily journals and in
literary and scientific reviews ; in medical theses, memoirs, and
didactic treatises ; it has figured in poetry and romance, and on
the stage ; it has been the occasion of many inquiries ; and physi-
ologists have occupied themselves with it and made laboratory ex-
periments on it.

Notwithstanding all investigation, the subject is still imper-
fectly known and understood. It has been studied mostly from
without. The details concerning the sounds and the associated
colors have been carefully noted, but no one has told what colored
audition is, or has made it intelligible to those who know of it only
from others. We can not hope to be much more fortunate than
our predecessors ; but we shall direct our attention to the points
they have overlooked, and shall try to describe a mental state in
colored audition. Let us point out first, in order to gain a com-
prehensive view upon these questions, the circumstances under
which a person first perceives that he has the faculty, as it has
been called, of coloring sounds.

TEE PROBLEM OF COLORED AUDITION. 813

Those who for the first time hear these perceptions spoken of
experience great astonishment. They can not gain a clear idea of
them; the comparison of a sound with a color seems to them
wholly destitute of intelligible character. Meyerbeer has said
somewhere that certain chords of von Weber's music are purple.
What does the phrase mean ? Each of the words, taken by itself,
has a meaning. We know what a chord is, and we know purple ;
but joining the terms with a verb and saying the chord is purple,
is something we do not understand. As well say virtue is blue
and vice is yellow ; one is ready to ask if the construction of such
phrases is not a trickery of words, which are brought into purely
technical associations corresponding to no real association of
thought.

Thus, to the immense majority of persons, colored audition is
a riddle. This is one of the reasons why the world for a long time
refused to believe in it, and treated as eccentrics those who con-
cerned themselves with it — a skepticism which was all the more
justified because the matter related to a subjective condition, the
existence of which has to be accepted on the simple word of the
person who experiences it.

We do not know whether we can make the true nature of this
phenomenon understood, or whether we can help those who have
not experienced it to conceive of it ; but we hope to be able to
demonstrate that it is real. Deception has generally an individual
character ; it is the work of one person and not of many ; it gives
no occasion for massed effects which are repeated from one gener-
ation to another, and in different countries. The number of per-
sons who say they have colored audition must be taken into con-
sideration. According to Bleuler and Lehmann, it is twelve per
cent. M. Claparede, of the University of Geneva, who is now in-
vestigating the subject, writes us that of four hundred and seventy
persons who answered his questions, two hundred and five, or
forty-three per cent, had colored audition. Of course, this propor-
tion can not be taken literally, for the immense majority of the
persons who do not experience the phenomenon will not answer
the queries for many motives, the chief of which is a kind of
contempt for studies they do not comprehend. It is nevertheless
true that M. Claparede has collected, without great effort, two
hundred and five observations, and that that number, added to the
old observations, gives a total of nearly five hundred cases. Such
a mass of observations may well inspire some confidence. It may
be added that each of the authors who have written on the ques-
tion often has by him the observation of some friend in whom he
has entire confidence ; so that resistance to so many accumulated
proofs becomes no longer wisdom, or even skepticism, but sim-
plicity.

814 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The first author who noticed the production of impressions of
color by sounds was an albino doctor of Erlangen, named Sach,
who in 1812 described in an inaugural thesis his own impressions
and those of his sister. His observation is very complete, and con-
tains a considerable proportion of the details which are found in
later works. He died at the age of twenty-eight years, and his re-
searches fell into oblivion. During the following years doctors
and oculists, like Comas, of Geneva, published isolated observa-
tions.

In 1873 appeared the important observations of the brothers
Nussbaumer, one of whom was a student at Vienna, and the other
a watchmaker; both of whom had from childhood experienced
sensations of color when they heard certain sounds. When chil-
dren they observed the ringing of spoons and knives tied to the
ends of strings, designated the colors produced by the sounds, and
communicated their impressions to each other ; biit they did not
always agree concerning the colors of the different sounds, and
long disputes ensued, of which their brothers, sisters, and friends
could understand nothing. The student afterward published,
under the direction of Prof. Briihl, a detailed memoir on the .cases.

Six years afterward, in 1879, Bleuler and Lehmann wrote their
memoir, the most complete one we possess. Both authors studied
medicine at the University of Zurich ; Bleuler writes concerning
the origin of this work that they were talking of chemistry, when
the subject of ketones coming up, Bleuler remarked that they
were yellow, because there was an o in the word. Thus by a curi-
ous illusion he attributed the colors suggested by the name of an
object to the object itself. His friend Lehmann, greatly astonished
and not understanding the answer, asked for an explanation of it.
This stimulated his curiosity, and they both proceeded to make
inquiries among their relatives and friends. They published
accounts of more than sixty cases.

From that time publications multiplied, and the present period
is marked by investigations pursued in every direction. It now
appears that colored audition belongs to a family of similar phe-
nomena, which are sometimes grouped in one person and some-
times scattered. Colored audition is still the most frequent and
best studied phenomenon, and is the single one which we intend
to discuss. But a word should be said of the other forms. They
differ chiefly in the nature of the impressions that are associated,
and which serve reciprocally as excitants. Thus, in some persons,
not sounds but sensations of taste and odor provoke the luminous
impressions. These may be called colored gustation and olfaction.
In others, psychical phenomena, like recollections or abstract
notions, produce the same effect. One person sees colors in the
months, in the days of the week, or in the hours of the day. In

THE PROBLEM OF COLORED AUDITION. 815

other persons the impression is not visual, but may belong to a
different sense. It may be sonorous ; in some persons the sight of
colors gives a musical impression ; or it may be tactile, and sight
and hearing may be accompanied by mechanical sensations. In
short, all imaginable combinations of different sensations may be
realized.

In colored audition the impressions of color are almost exclu-
sively provoked by speech ; the sounds and noises of Nature pro-
ducing the same effect only by a kind of analogy with the human
voice. Speech gives him who hears it an impression of color only
when the emission is full; a murmur has not the effect of the
singing voice or of a reading in public ; the height of the tone in-
fluences the shadings ; barytone and bass voices excite dark sensa-
tions and high voices light ones. On a closer examination of the
source of the phenomenon it is found that the color, while it may
borrow a general tint from the timbre of the voice, and con-
sequently from the individuality of the speaker, depends more
especially upon the words that are pronounced ; each word has its
peculiar color, or we might rather say colors, for some words have
five or six; pushing the analysis further, we perceive that the
color of words depends on that of the component letters, and that
it is therefore the alphabet which is colored ; and, finally, that the
consonants have only pale and washed-out tints, and the colora-
tion of language is derived directly from, the vowels. With a few
exceptions this is true for all the subjects.

By a curious complication produced by education, the appear-
ance of colors takes place in some persons not only when they
hear the word pronounced or when they think of it, but even when
they see it written. There are also persons who do not perceive
the color except while they are reading. Many facts, however,
seem to prove that reading is generally of no effect except as a
suggestion of the spoken word, and therefore constitutes a kind of
audition.

The observations on the colors of the vowels in detail are irreg-
ular and contradictory. Thus, a, red to one, is black to another,
white to a third, yellow to a fourth, and so on ; the whole spec-
trum passes through it ; but as the number of colors and of letters
is limited, we can, by analyzing a hundred observations, meet two
or three among them that will agree. Sometimes agreement is
manifested between members of the same family, or between per-
sons who live together ; but waiving the instances afforded by
chance, by heredity, and by suggestion, it remains evident that
disagreement is the general rule ; and from this curious practical
effects follow. Two persons having colored audition, when
brought together, are not able to understand one another ; each is
greatly surprised at the colors which the other perceives, and we

8i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

may witness, according to certain authors, some most amusing
disputes. Efforts have been made to trace a mean of designations
for the vowels, and to indicate the associations most frequently
perceived. It is very doubtful whether such statistics can give
important results, and whether the correct association can be got
from the majority ; for the probability must be recognized of the
existence of several types of colored audition, which have not yet
been clearly distinguished. Furthermore, persons are most fre-
quently incapable of exactly determining and denning the color
that appears to them. Their incapacity is associated with the facts
that the shading varies not only with the words, but with the eleva-
tion of the voice that pronounces them, its timbre, and its accent.
A word never has the same color from two different mouths. Con-
sequently there is no definite red for a or for any other vowel.
Some authors have nevertheless published colored diagrams in
which the subjects have tried to represent their colored alphabet.
These representations may hold good for colors, but not for shades ;
it is not that the subjects are lacking in good faith, but they can
not fix with precision a color that oscillates and is transformed
under the influence of a multitude of intangible causes. We can
not stop with describing the phenomena, but must explain as far
as we can what passes in the minds of the persons who experience
impressions of color in connection with sound. What do they
mean when they say, for instance, that a appears red to them ?

Persons affected with colored audition form a curious illusion
respecting their psychological condition. Till the moment, when
they are questioned respecting their impressions, they are satis-
fied that the faculty of coloring sounds is natural, normal, and
common to all ; and they learn the contrary not without uneasi-
ness. One is never satisfied if he knows that he possesses, deep
in his mind, an exceptional trait. All of this kind that is ex-
ceptional seems abnormal, and assumes the character of a disease.
This opinion is that of many doctors, who would often have much
difficulty in defining the condition of psychological health, but
imagine that whatever departs from that ideal and imperfectly
understood condition is in the domain of pathology. Numerous
authors who have written on colored audition have been laudably
zealous in comforting those who perceive these impressions.
Most — not all of them — have affirmed many times that it is a
purely physiological act. We believe they are fundamentally
right — but how far?

The phenomenon is often presented in an inexact light. It is
easily understood now that it is not a disease of the eyes or the
ears, but many authors continue to see in it a disorder of percep-
tion, or a double perception, or a confusion of the physiological
acts of seeing and hearing.

THE PROBLEM OF COLORED AUDITION. 817

In colored audition there is no double perception, nor what is
called a synsesthesia. All takes place in the imagination of the
subject ; the impressions of color of which he is conscious on the
hearing of certain vowels are not real sensations ; they are not
colors which one sees with the eyes, but mental images, notions, or
we might better compare them with the images which the natural
significance of the words excites in the mind. We must insist
upon this important and too often misinterpreted point. In order
to give a basis to our interpretation, we shall relate some of the
facts we have collected with Prof. Beaunis in the Laboratory of
Psychology of the Sorbonne ; we shall not introduce the detail of
the observations, but shall only take the general sense.

To a certain distinguished doctor a is red, and is the only
vowel which appears to him in color. He has colored it spon-
taneously from infancy, before having read what was written on
the question. The other vowels were not colored till a later age.
He is suspicious of the later colorations, and believes that they are
fictitious, suggested by reading. Now, what meaning shall we at-
tribute to his expression, so clear in itself, "A is red " ? Does he
mean that when he sees the letter a written with a pen on a white
sheet of paper, or with chalk on a black tablet, or when that vowel
is pronounced in his presence, he has the subjective impression of
a red spot which hovers before his eyes, on surrounding objects?
In other words, is there a hallucination of sight? In no wise.
Still less is there the pretended and incomprehensive seeing of the
sound in red. He has the idea of red, and nothing more. It is an
idea and not a sensation. According to his own expressions, he
receives the same suggestion when he meets in any phrase the
word red. Hear, for example, a person who is telling us of
some judicial ceremony. In the midst of his story appears the
phrase, "Then I saw the procurator rise in a red robe." We
have immediately an internal vision of something red — a vision
clear, detailed, vivid for some, confused for others. It is a like
impression that the letter a gives our subject ; in short, a simple
idea. Let us add that the idea is not very clear ; the subject can
not define the shade of red that appears to him, still less repre-
sent it in real colors, even if he knows how to mix colors and is
an amateur painter ; it is some kind of a red — unprecise.

If we suppose, now, that all the vowels give rise to suggestions
of a similar character, our description will be adapted to a major-
ity of subjects ; it will exactly represent their mental state. This
mental state is characterized by the direction of the thought
toward colors and shades. Each word that presents itself, whether
to the eyes in reading, or to the ear in listening, or in a mental
conception, gives complex ideas of color. These ideas serve as an
escort to the word, accompanying it constantly, and are a second-

VOL. XLI1I. 39

818 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ary signification with which the word is enriched. Instead of
provoking a single idea, each word provokes two — the idea of the
object named, and one or several colors ; likewise a phrase awak-
ens, besides a collection of images, a series of colors. On hearing
the simple words, " I am going into the country," a person with
colored audition has a complex image of a trip to the country,
and sees besides passing before the eyes of his imagination a suc-
cession of colors which in a subject taken at random might re-
solve itself into white, red, black, red, white, red, red, red, red,
white.

This description may lead us to suppose that useless suggestions
of color are an obstacle to the march of thought and might some-
times prevent persons from clearly comprehending the meaning
of words and of reading. This case, fortunately, has not as yet
presented itself ; for the bands of colors do not constantly hold the
first place in consciousness. When it is necessary to attend to the
meaning of the words we neglect the colorations, do not remark
them, and no longer perceive them. To perceive them clearly, and
particularly to describe them, special attention is usually requisite,
contemplation, a state of reverie, or a desire to enjoy the beautiful
subjective colors, the appearance of which is usually accompanied
by a vivid feeling of pleasure.

Besides the vague, undefined, and formless color-images which
are most frequently provoked, the color is perceived by many per-
sons in a form suggested by the vowel and corresponding with its
outline. The language commonly used by such persons to describe
their impressions does not always take note of this peculiarity.
They simply say, "A is red." This means, in the present case,
that when one thinks of the letter a he can not represent it other-
wise than under the form of a letter painted in red. This variety
of colored audition is more refined than the preceding, and also
more complex ; for it can not be found in an illiterate person, and
supposes that one knows how to read. Mr. Galton has published
five or six observations of this kind with figures.

Persons who have colored audition and who are cognizant of it
easily recognize the nature of their subjective impressions. They
regard them as personal associations with nothing mysterious
about them, and some even seek for their causes in the most com-
monplace and trivial circumstances. But if we cause them' to
describe their way of hearing, we perceive that they involuntarily
attribute to these associations much more importance than they
say they do. It appears that most frequently the idea of color
suggested by a word is referred, not to the word itself, but to the
external object designated by the word. There results from this
the interesting consequence that as there are words designating
some object of a red color which, on the other hand, provoke by

THE PROBLEM OF COLORED AUDITION. 819

their vowels the idea of a different color — for example, gray — the
discord appears shocking, and the subjects do not hesitate to de-
clare the word ill-formed. A doctor, a friend of ours, to whom a
(French) is red, finds also that the word feu (French for fire) is in-
correct, because fire is red and the word feu has no a. A corre-
spondent to whom colored audition is a multicolored palette makes
similar remarks on the contradictions or confirmations which he
finds between words and their colors. To him a's are red, as to
the doctor ; hence he finds that red (rouge) is ill-named, and that
the word fire (feu) is " that which is dullest " ; scarlet (ecarlate) is,
on the other hand, quite imitative. J is black and o is white ;
whence it results that the word noir (black) is white and black ;
to pronounce the words moire rouge is to think of a contradiction.
These plays with words, of which we might cite numerous ex-
amples, seem to us to indicate a tendency to give a real signifi-
cance to associations of sound and color, as if they expressed a
truth to which language ought to conform. But the subjects are
too intelligent to affirm this ; they simply yield to the sway of
thought, without being aware of it.

There are other persons in whom the same tendency is mani-
fested in a clearer and more simple way. They believe in good
faith that certain things they have never seen have precisely
the color of the word by which they are named. We have men-
tioned Bleuler, for example, who thought the ketones were yellow,
because of the o in the name, to which he attributed that color.
Observations of this kind need not be enlarged upon. For a per-
son to believe that a thing is red because there are red vowels in
its name, he must not be acquainted with its real color, and must
not be aware of his faculty of coloring the vowels ; for the illu-
sion will disappear as soon as he perceives that the supposed
color depends on the word. These are probably the conditions
of the following observation of which I have been informed by
M. Claparede. A person fifty-two years old wrote to him: "I
still remember the astonishment I felt at the age of sixteen years
when I saw sulphuric acid for the first time. I had previously
read an account of that substance in a work of popular science,
and had fancied it an opaque liquid, having the appearance of
tarnished lead. I was then not yet conscious of my colored vision
of the vowels. Later in life I explained my fancy as related to
the two u's in the word sulphuric." This person saw i as black,
and u as a lusterless metallic gray.

The same tendency, but with a very different effect, appears
in a lady observed by M. Suarez de Mendoza, who attributes a
special color to each piece of music and each score. The music
of Haydn appears to her of a disagreeable green ; that of Mozart,
generally blue; Chopin's is distinguished by much yellow;

820 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Wagner's gives the feeling of an atmosphere of light, changing
its colors in succession.

Having established the mental nature of the impressions of
color, we come now to seek the cause of their apparition. We
know pretty well what one means when he declares that a is
red ; but we have not explained how the idea or perception of a
sound can awaken the idea of a particular color. Our ideas have
generally a logical origin ; we are at least in the habit of believ-
ing this, and it often occurs, in analyzing our representations,
that we find the cause that brings them out and connects them.
If I hear a bell, and, without seeing it, conceive its roundish form,
its clapper, and its dark-green color, the connection of ideas is
understood to be natural, useful, and true; it is derived from
previous experiences. It is a piece of the outer world registered
in my mind. But these associations of colors with sounds are
factitious, have a purely individual character, and correspond
with nothing in the order of external facts. A sound is a sound,
and has nothing in common with a color. The human voice is
grave or sharp, and is not yellow or green. How has such an
association been created and developed in the face of good sense ?
It is evident that the act of establishing tenacious associations
between impressions that have nothing in common is the sign of
some intellectual form which is not everybody's. We are dis-
posed to attach some importance to the quality of the illusions
evoked. They are of a visual character, which seems to indicate
that there exists in colored audition an intense rush of visual
images and a tendency to think as well as to feel with them ;
in short, we suppose that those who have colored audition belong
to the category of visuals, or persons who, according to the classi-
fication of M. Charcot and many physiologists following him, have
visual memories. As the case of M. Inaudi enabled us to study
a high development of the auditive memory, another category in
this classification, colored audition, will perhaps permit us to study
visual memory. This is only a hypothesis ; for it is not abso-
lutely certain that colored audition always agrees with the type
of visual memory, and that there is a causal relation between the
two things, but we do not advance it without the support of good
reasons.

First, we have the testimony of the subjects whom we have had
opportunities to question. We addressing them in a tone of in-
difference and without trying to dictate their responses, they have
remarked that colors and forms are the things they remember
most easily. A young woman to whom I sent my requests in writ-
ing to avoid the unconscious suggestions of accent, answered me,
"You ask me if I more easily recollect things seen or things
heard ; things seen. When I recollect a conversation, the gestures

THE PROBLEM OF COLORED AUDITION. 821

and the attitudes of the participants recall to me what was said.
Successive pictures present themselves before my eyes, and those
pictures enable me to call back what I heard." That is a real
visual type. In determining the type, it is necessary also to
take account of the tastes of persons, their aptitudes, and their
favorite occupations. Most of those whom I have seen, practice
at painting or water colors, and some are painters by profession ;
others have been drawn by circumstances into different careers,
but nearly all of them love color and Nature and have a passion
for beautiful hues. Take notice also of their language. When-
ever they describe their mental condition they have a marvelous
abundance of picturesque expressions. Mr. Galton has justly
remarked that few of those who have colored audition are satis-
fied with laconically naming the colors of the vowels ; they must
exactly define the shade, even if they are talking of white — a
sensation so simple and apparently so easy to define without an
epithet. They do not say, " O is white," but rather " O is a shade
of white, the color of white plush, or of the under side of a fresh
white mushroon." Another will say, " White mingled with milky
and a little yellow" — or silver white, chalky white, etc. The
use of these expressions informs us concerning the chromatic
sense of these persons. They are colorists without doubt. We
who have dull imaginations have the same words at our disposal
as they, but we are unable to draw the same effects out of them.
Words are like the colors we use in painting. Give two identi-
cal palettes to two painters, one of whom is a colorist like De-
lacroix and the other a draughtsman like Ingres ; with the same
colors one will produce a brilliant and the other a subdued pic-
ture. What permits us to give color to the canvas, as well as
in the expression of our ideas, is, above everything else, the power
of mental vision.

Our hypothesis is confirmed by some facts that have been
brought out in M. Claparede's investigation of " visual schemes "
or such figures as Mr. Galton has found some persons associat-
ing with their groupings of numbers, and which M. Claparede
has found may be associated with other abstract conceptions,
like the months and the days of the week. The results of his
inquiry showed a frequent coincidence of colored audition with
the faculty of forming such visual schemes. Without employ-
ing visual schemes, many persons represent the figures mentally
to themselves as if they were written out — a method of repre-
sentation which is another good characteristic of their type of
memory. I have made an experiment on this point, instructive
to me, which repeated upon a number of persons has always
given concordant results. I pronounce five numbers to a person
and ask him to repeat them; then six, and then seven, till the

822 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

number pronounced is more than the person can repeat exactly.
I then ask him abruptly if he saw the numbers or heard them
in his memory. Remark that this experiment appeals by its
method wholly to the auditive memory. In nine cases out of ten,
taking the subjects as they come, they will answer that they
heard the numbers "in their ear," and had no idea of seeing
them ; or, if they saw them, it was by a confused, indirect mental
vision. But those persons who have colored audition will answer
that they saw the numbers. Although their auditive memory
was excited by hearing, they transformed the auditive image of
the number into a visual one; their attention was fixed on the
form, the color — an excellent example of that tendency to trans-
form everything into visions which seems to me to be the char-
acteristic of colored audition.

This mental organization agrees in many of its characteris-
tics, with that of the painter, the mark of whose vocation may be
found, as M. Arreat has indicated in his La Psychologie du
Peintre, in his sensitive eye and his aptitude in appreciating, ab-
stracting, and reproducing the brilliancy of colors and the har-
mony of forms, from which he acquires a habit of thinking with
visual images. The natural gifts of the painter are, however, not
all that is required for colored audition, but are only one of the
psychological conditions of the phenomenon. A person capable
of recollecting colors with their most delicate shadings might, by
giving free course to his poetic imagination, color all the sounds
that vibrate in his ear ; but he would only arrive at intentional
comparisons which he can make and unmake at will. The associa-
tion in colored audition is very different ; it is not sought for or
selected ; the subject does not invent it, he finds it already formed
in his mind. He has only to hear a voice to have almost instantly
the impression that that voice has a certain shade of color. Here
we touch upon the fundamental characteristic of colored audition.
Since it consists of an artificial and insurmountable association, it
can not be regarded as a strictly physiological condition ; it is a
deviation, however insignificant we may suppose it to be, from the
usual normal course of thought. Yet it generally coincides, ac-
cording to the observations of the best authors, with a perfect
state of physical and moral health, with perhaps a slight pre-
dominance of the nervous temperament in the majority of the sub-
jects. The influence of heredity has been noticed several times.
There have been as many as four or five cases in the same family,
and considerable resemblance between the colored alphabets of
relatives.

If the ultimate fundamental origin of colored audition is, as we
beieve, in the organization of the individual, it remains to find
the occasional cause that determines it and establishes a precise

TRAITS OF NORTHWESTERN INDIANS. 823

connection between each kind of sound and a color. We should
not suggest the problem if we thought it impossible to solve it by
some direct method, and we have a firm hope that well-conducted
personal investigations will at length discover the origin of the
association. It may be that some importance may be attached to
the picture reading books in which the letters are colored for the
pleasure of children. Possibly, too, the consonance of certain
words designating colored objects has been detached, by a kind of
abstraction, from the word itself, and has carried the reflection of
its color to other words in which it is found, although their mean-
ing is entirely different. This second opinion is supported by an
observation cited by Mr. Galton, of a lady who gave e the color of
red, and believed it was because there is an e in the English word
red.

We may summarize the knowledge we have concerning the
mechanism of colored audition as follows : It is certain that the
impressions of color suggested by certain acoustic sensations are
mental images ; it is probable that those persons who experience
these impressions belong to a visual type ; and it is possible that
the bond between the impressions is the result of associated per-
ceptions.— Translated for The Popular Science Monthly from the
Revue des Deux Mondes.

SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF NORTHWESTERN

INDIANS.

Kootenay Indians, who number between five hundred and
a thousand persons, inhabit a strip of country between the
Rocky and the Selkirk Mountains, partly in the United States
and partly in British Columbia. As a rule, their moral character
and behavior are good, and they are honest, kind, and hospitable ;
but a few incidents cited by Dr. A. F. Chamberlain, in his report
concerning them to the British Association, indicate that they are
sometimes moody and easily offended, especially when their de-
mands are refused. They have also a keen sense of the ludicrous,
and laugh at the misfortunes that befall their fellows. A favorite
Sunday amusement among the Lower Kootenays is horse-run-
ning. " All the horses are assembled in a large, open space near
the camp, and the Indians form a large circle round them, and,
provided with long whips, they drive the horses to and fro for an
hour or so, laughing and yelling to their hearts' content. Even
the little boys take part in this sport. They also take great de-
light in breaking stubborn horses, and the whole camp looks on
until the young man has succeeded in controlling his animal,
guying him unmercifully if he makes mistakes." Although no

824 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

picture-writing upon rocks has been attributed to them, they
have marked artistic ability, and exhibit their skill in ornamen-
tation upon articles of dress and the implements of the chase.
Indians who had had no instruction in drawing from the whites,
employed by Dr. Chamberlain to make a series of drawings,
drafted very good maps of their country, and seemed to have well
grasped the idea of their work. Some of them were also able to
recognize with ease the various physical features prominent in
the printed maps of the Kootenay district. Their drawings of
weapons, implements, etc., were excellent, and those of one of
them in particular would never be suspected of being the product
of aboriginal genius. "Pictures of houses, railway trains, etc.,
have a certain conventionality that is characteristic of savage
races. Several of the Indians were able to draw an excellent and
easily recognizable picture of the little steamboat that plied up
and down the Columbia River. In their drawings of human be-
ings, especial stress is laid upon the distinguishing features, and
any peculiarity or abnormity is brought out with full force.
Thus, a Stony Indian woman has no nose, a Chinaman has an im-
mense single braid of hair, a white man an enormous beard, a
certain Indian a colossal nose, and the like."

They have fourteen distinct names for colors, and their horses
may be white, black, half white and half black, roan, " buckskin,"
" blue," sorrel, or mouse-colored.

The social position of women is not greatly different from
that among the other surrounding tribes. Girls may be mar-
ried at fifteen and young men at twenty years of age. In the
olden times the young Indian wishing to marry " went at night
to the lodge where slept the object of his affections, and, quietly
lifting up the blankets to make sure, lay down beside her. The
girl's people soon found him there, and threats were made. The
young man's father meanwhile inquired where his son was, and,
on being told that he was in such-and-such a lodge, went thither
with his friends and discovered the young people together. The
girl then left and went with her husband to his own people. He
was at liberty to send his wife back to her relatives within a year
if she turned out to be bad or he was dissatisfied with her. When
guilty of adultery she was punished by having one of her braids
cut off by her husband." Descent seems to be traced through the
mother.

Private property in land was unknown, the country belonging
to the tribe collectively ; and demands for money are still made
by the Lower Kootenays from any stranger intruding upon their
domain. The hunter had no absolute right in his game, and it
was distributed among the camp in order that all might have
food. Women could hold property as well as men. The horses

TRAITS OF NORTHWESTERN INDIANS. 825

were the property of the grown-up male children, as well as of
the father, and could be gambled away by any one of them. The
lodge seems to have been secured to the widow and children on
the death of the father. The women inherited the kettles and
other utensils, besides their saddles, blankets, " parfleshes," etc.
The horses, canoes, weapons, etc., went to the male children if
they were of age. In early times the dead man's relatives would
swoop down upon the lodge soon after his death and appropriate
the property substantially at their will. If the dead man left no
relatives, the "strong man" of the tribe took possession of his
property.

The Kootenays paid a worship to the sun, and they believed
in the existence of spirits in everything animate and inanimate ;
even little stones, bits of rag, shavings of wood, have their spirits.
These spirits can go anywhere, through glass, wood, or any sub-
stance, as through air. The touch of them causes death and dis-
ease. At the death of Indians their spirits may enter into fishes,
bears, trees, etc.; in fact, into anything animate or inanimate.
When a man is alive his spirit may exist in the form of a tomtit,
a jay, a bear, a flower, etc. The spirits of the dead can return
and visit their friends. In olden times sacrifices appear to have
been made to the spirits of the mountains and of the forests to
secure success in hunting, and to appease them when they were
angered. Their language is supposed to differ from the ordinary
Kootenay. A great or strong man has many spirits. The spirits
were supposed to come often at the prayer of the medicine men,
in the form of birds or the like. A tree is pointed out in the
Kootenay region, in northern Idaho, from which Indians have
jumped off on two successive occasions, in obedience to the prom-
ise of the medicine men that they should be able to fly like birds
if they did so. Certain death, of course, awaited them. The
shamans treated the sick by pressure upon various parts of the
body, by pinching, etc. ; practiced bloodletting, and pretended to
extract the cause of the malady by suction with the mouth.

In the astronomy of the Kootenays the moon is regarded as a
man and the sun as a woman. There was no sun in the begin-
ning, and, after the Indians had vainly endeavored to discover it,
the coyote was successful in making it rise above the mountains.
Another version makes the chicken hawk cause the sun to rise.
The coyote, getting angry, shoots an arrow at the sun, but misses,
sets the prairie on fire, and has to run for dear life. The moon is
said to have been found by the chicken hawk. A legend about
the man in the moon may be of European origin. The stars are
mostly Indians, who from time to time have got up into the sky.
The Great Bear was an Indian woman, who sometimes was very
angry ; and the stars in her tail are Indians whom she has seized.

826 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The Milky Way is the dog's trail. The thunder is caused by a
great bird that lives far up in the sky. The lightning is made by
the shooting of its arrows. At first there were no clouds. The
daughter of the coyote married the thunder, and her father gave
the clouds for a blanket. The Kootenays believe that they came
from the East ; and one of their myths ascribes to them an origin
from a hole in the ground east of the Rocky Mountains. Another
account says they sprang from the hairs of the black bear, which
fell on the ground after he came out of the belly of the great fish
that had swallowed him. There were no women at first. By
and by an Indian went up into the mountains, and from a spirit
who lived there received the first Kootenay woman. The origin
of horses is ascribed to a medicine man who made a stick into the
shape of the animal and then threw it away, whereupon it became
a horse. The belief prevails that the white men get their cattle
from the sea. It is said that they go every year to the Pacific
Ocean to receive the cattle which come out of the waters. Many
of the animal myths remind one of Uncle Remus.

Some very interesting legends are related by Prof. George W.
Dawson as communicated to him by Mr. J. W. Mackay, Indian
agent at Kaniloops, from the stock of the Shuswap Indians. Like
most of the Indian people they have a culture or creation hero
with supernatural attributes, who with them figures as a coyote or
small wolf, and is named Skil-ap. In the old times the salmon
could not ascend the Fraser River 011 account of a dam which
two old witches had made at Hell-gate Canon. He told the peo-
ple he would go down the river and break the dam, so that
the salmon could come up, and instructed them that he would
make his approach known by a great smoke. He transformed
himself into a smooth, flat piece of board, floated down to the
dam, was picked up by the women, who undertook to use the
board as a plate, emerged from it as a child, and was cared for by
them, till one day when they were absent he put something on
his head that made him invulnerable, and destroyed the dam,
after which the salmon began to go up in great numbers. Then
he followed the bank of the river, keeping abreast of the van-
guard of the salmon, and making a great smoke by setting fire to
the woods as he proceeded, so that the people knew that he was
coming. Near the outlet of the Kamloops Lake he stopped to eat,
and made a fish weir at a spot where some high rocks may still
be seen. At the mouth of the Clearwater he completed a salmon
dam he found the people making ; and there are to tfee present
day steep rocks on either side of the river, and above them a large
pool or basin where he fished with his scoop-net and which is still
a noted salmon-fishing place. On the rocks may be seen the
prints of his feet where he stood to fish. Thus the salmon were

TRAITS OF NORTHWESTERN INDIANS. 827

enabled to ascend into all the rivers of the Shuswap country.
Skil-ap is expected to return at some distant period when " the
world turns " and the good old days come back.

There were in the early times of Skil-ap other supernatural
beings who roamed the world, the most important of whom was
named Knil-i-elt ; and it may be, Prof. Dawson suggests as a
point worthy of inquiry, that in the stories related of Knil-i-elt and
Skil-ap we find the mingling of mythological ideas derived from
two different sources. Knil-i-elt had no recognized father or any
relative but his mother, and was the offspring of the union of the
woman with a root which is eaten by the Indians. Learning the
mystery of his birth after he had become a great hunter, he re-
proached his mother concerning it, and said he would go away
and never return to her. She then told him of all the evil and
malignant monsters living in the country farther down the river,
and he resolved to extirpate them. Among his exploits was a trial
of strength with two friends, in which each should push his head
against a rock and see which could make the deepest impression.
Each of the friends made a shallow indentation, but Knil-i-elt
pressed his head in to the shoulders. Impressions in the rock are
still shown by the Indians, and Hat Creek, near the mouth of
which they were made, was named from the incident. A
conflict with the eagle monster resulted in the death of the eagle
and the capture of its eaglets, pulling out the tail feathers
from which, Knil-i-elt reduced them to common eagles, able to
harm no man. At the outlet of Kamloops Lake was an elk
monster that lived in the middle of the river and killed and ate
men. Knil-i-elt, having made a raft, embarked and floated down
the stream, when, before long, the elk seized and swallowed him.
His friends, who were looking on, thought they had seen the last
of him, but Knil-i-elt stabbed the elk to the heart with the weap-
on he carried, and then cut his way out of its belly and came to
shore, bringing the elk with him, and invited his friends to eat
some of the meat. He then reduced the elk to its present posi-
tion, saying to it : "You will no longer kill men ; they will in
future always kill you." The badger was also in this early time
a formidable monster, and had its lodge stored with dead men,
collected for food. Knil-i-elt caught the badger, and striking him
on the head said, " Hereafter you will be nothing but a common
badger, able only to fight with dogs when they attack you." He
further brought to life again all the people whom he found dead.
Knil-i-elt met his fate from four witches, whose supernatural
power was superior to his, and who turned him and the two
friends who had accompanied him in all his adventures into stone.

On the trail leading from Kamloops toward Trout Lake the
scanty remnant of an old stump protrudes from among a few

828 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

stones which are piled about it, in passing which the Indians al-
ways throw some little offering upon it — such as matches, a frag-
ment of tobacco, or a shred of clothing, which were seen by the
author. The story attached to it relates that a lonely woman
called Grizzly Bear made of pitch the figure of a girl to be a
companion to her, who became her daughter. She warned the
girl that when she bathed she must not afterward sit or lie in the
sun to get warm. The girl tried the forbidden experiment after
her fourth bath, and was melted away. Grizzly made another
daughter of clay, and told her that she must not rub herself when
in the water. This girl disobeyed likewise and was washed away.
The old woman than made another daughter of wood, on whom
it was not necessary to impose restrictions. This girl, after a
fourth bath, was accosted by a trout, which she said she would
like for a husband. On repeating her wish the fourth time the
trout appeared as a young man, became her husband, and took
her with four efforts, the first three of which were balked, to his
lower country. A boy and a girl were born to this couple. They
were taunted about having no grandmother, and, questioning
their mother on the subject, were told that they had a grand-
mother living in the upper country. They might go up there and
would find her as an old woman digging roots on the hillside, but
must not speak to her, though they might go to her house and
eat whatever food they might find there. The children acting
upon these instructions, the woman missed the food, and, ob-
serving the footprints of the children, concluded that none but
her daughter's children would visit her house in that way. She
therefore prepared some potent medicine, and, going to a stump in
the hillside where she was accustomed to work, told it that when
the children appeared it must move and seem to be a woman
digging. The woman then concealed herself in the house, while
the stump acted as it had been bidden. The children, after re-
garding the stump for a time with some doubt, ventured into the
house, when the woman threw her medicine upon them. The
medicine fell all over the boy, who was changed to an ordinary
human being, but only partly over the girl, and she became a
little dog. The boy and the dog, in whom he failed to recognize
his sister, had some carious adventures, in the course of which he
learned the truth. He went to his grandmother and questioned
her on the subject. She told him that if, when shooting, his
arrow should lodge in a tree, or anywhere above his reach, how-
ever little, he must not climb up to get it. Soon afterward he lost
three arrows in this way, but a fourth time his arrow stuck in a
tree not far up, and he climbed on a branch to get it ; but the
arrow continued to move further up and he had to climb after it,
and though he thought that he had not gone very far, he looked

TRAITS OF NORTHWESTERN INDIANS. 829

down after a time and found that he could not even see the earth.
So he went on climbing till at last he reached another country
above, which was very pleasant and populous, and there he re-
mained. The old stump by the wayside is the remnant of that
tree.

Another curious story relates to a mosquito gorged with
blood, which flew up where the thunder is. The thunder asked
the mosquito where it got the blood, and the insect falsely replied
that it was sucked from the buds at the very top of the trees be-
low. Hence the reason that the thunder (or lightning) strikes the
tops of the trees.

Some curious myths are associated with particular places. The
lakes are supposed to be occupied by peculiar beings called " water
people," who are alleged to have remarkable powers and to use
them in performing strange acts. It is dangerous for canoes to
pass Battle Bluff, on Kamloops Lake, because of the water peo-
ple, who in this instance are described as of human shape, but
hairy in the upper half, with fishlike tails below. It is also told
of this bluff that some hostile people, once coming by land to
attack the Kamloops Indians, looking down over the front of the
bluff as they passed, saw a woman or witch dancing in a niche
part way down the cliff. They sat down on the edge of the cliff
to watch the woman dance and were turned to stones. " Little
men "are reported to exist in several places, to hunt with bows
and arrows, to be only two feet high, and yet able to carry a deer
easily. In contrast to this, when a squirrel is killed, they skin it
and take only a part, as the whole is too heavy for them. The
Indians are very much afraid of them. The Indians aver that
unknown beings sometimes throw stones at them, particularly at
night, when stones may be noticed occasionally falling into the
fire. A Kamloops Indian, long since dead, once saw a white object
following him by night. He drew back from the trail and shot
an arrow at it as it passed. In the morning he returned and found
his arrow buried in a human shoulder-blade. It is believed that
burning wood from a tree which had been struck by lightning
brings on cold weather. This appears to be based on the fact
that cold follows a thunderstorm. Thus, in the spring, when In-
dians may be traveling over the snow on high ground, splinters
of such wood are thrown on the fire to reduce the temperature, in
order that the crust may remain unmelted on the snow. A small
splinter of such wood wrapped up with the bullet in loading a gun
is supposed to increase the deadly effect of the bullet. The plant
Parnassia fimbriata, worn in the hat or rubbed on it and on the
soles of the feet, is believed to make it certain for the deer-hunter
that the deer will be seen and caught. The rattle of a rattlesnake
is worn as a preventive against headache.

830 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

The Pleiades are called by the Shuswaps "the bunch/' and
also " people roasting." The latter name is given from a story of
their origin, which relates that a number of women who were
baking roots in a hole in the ground were changed into this group
of stars. The morning star has the names " coming with the day-
light " and " one with hair standing out round his head." The
four stars forming the bowl of the Great Dipper are known as the
bear stars, and the three following large stars are three brothers
in pursuit of the bear. The first hunter is brave and near the
bear ; the second leads a dog (the small companion star) ; and the
third is afraid and hangs far back. The stars of Orion's belt are
called " fishing," and the Milky Way is the road or path of the
dead. The months, beginning about March, are " spring," " grass
month," " root-digging month," " strawberry month," " berry
month," "salmon month," "month when the salmon get bad,"
"month when the deer travel," "month in which they return
from hunting," " midwinter month," and Pit-tshik-in-tin " (which
is not translated).

Several native roots still constitute notable items in the food
of the Shuswaps, though their importance has diminished since
the white man's preparations were introduced. Roots are always
dug and cooked or cured by the women. In digging the roots
a pointed stick, about four feet in length, with a crutch-shaped
handle, is used. The lily, Lilium columbianum, is much sought
after, and, like most of the roots, is cooked by baking in the
ground. The roots of balsamorhiza, cinquef oil, claytonia or spring
beauty, dog-tooth violet, and of other less familiar plants, are also
eaten. The camass is abundant, and forms an important article
of diet. No edible thing is ignored, and few edible substances of
any kind are passed by ; but the Indians never heard of any one
eating a mushroom. The cambium layer of the black or bull
pine (Pinus murrayana) is eaten when it is soft and gelatinous,
at the time the leaves are still growing, and is sometimes dried
and kept. The cambium of the subalpine spruce and of cotton-
wood is also sometimes eaten. The sappy arid still nearly white
parts of the large leaf-stalks and stems of the Heradeum lanatum
are eaten in the spring, and, when taken at the right stage, are
not much inferior to celery. The nutlets in the cones of Pinus
albicantes are gathered in large quantities and eaten from the
cones after having been roasted, or thrashed out and prepared.
They have a rather pleasant taste, flavored with turpentine, and
are nearly the size of small garden peas. Nutlets of yellow pine
and Douglas fir are also collected — generally by robbing the
mice and squirrels of their stores. The pith or inner bark of
Epilobium spicatum is eaten while still young and sappy. A
black, hairlike lichen, Alectoria jubata, is eaten roasted, and is

SKETCH OF WERNER VON SIEMENS. 831

said to taste very sweet. A yellow lichen furnishes a coloring
matter, and the root of a certain fern (Asplenium or Aspidium)
yields a black dye. The leaves of the syringa (Philadelphus lew-
isii) were formerly used as a soap in washing clothing. The fiber
plants are an Asclepias or milkweed, and the common nettle of
the country.

The sweat-houses of all the Northwestern Indians are very
much alike. They consist of a dome-shaped framework, formed
by bending willow sticks over one another, covered with blankets
or skins or earth, and a pile of hot stones in the center, or a hole
in which hot stones are thrown. The Indian takes his place in
the booth, and water is thrown upon the stones. The bathers sit
in a suffocating temperature till they have had enough of it, and
then rush out and plunge into the water, which they take care to
have always near.

SKETCH OF WERNER VON SIEMENS.

"TTTITH Werner Siemens, says a German biographer, died a
VV prince of science, a pathbreaker in the region of electro-
technics, a man whose activity extended far beyond his own
narrow district, bearing fruit in other branches of human
achievement; one of the greatest industrial characters, not of
Germany only, but of the whole world ; an industrial character,
however, to whom gain was never an object in itself, but who
rather found in it the incentive to new scientific studies.

ERNST WERNER SIEMENS was born at Lenthe, Hanover, De-
cember 13, 1816, and died in Berlin, December 6, 1892. He came of
a family very rich in offspring — while he was the eldest son among
ten children. His father, Christian Ferdinand Siemens, was a
tenant farmer and forester, who had qualified himself for his
profession by studying at the school at Ilfeld and the University
of Gottingen. He afterward went to learn practical agriculture
with Councilor Deichmann at Poggenhagen, where he married
the councilor's daughter, Eleanora Deichmann, preparatory to
settling upon his estate at Lenthe.

The English think they have a kind of birthright claim upon
Werner Siemens, because, at the time of his birth, the King of
England was Elector of Hanover. The connection is not entirely
nattering to them, for the elder Siemens fared hardly at the
hands of King George. He was arrested and fined for detaining
some royal deer which had trespassed upon his premises while
awaiting the answer of the gamekeeper to his inquiry as to the
disposition he should make of them. To escape such unpleasant
Incidents the elder Siemens removed, in 1823, to Menzendorf in

832 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Werner Siemens's earliest recollection of
his life at Lenthe was of what in his Reminiscences he calls an act
of heroism. When he was about five years old his sister came
crying into his father's room where he was playing. She had
been sent to the Pfarhaus to take her lesson, but found her way
obstructed at the gate by a gander, which snapped at her when-
ever she attempted to pass. The father gave Werner his staff
and told him to go with his sister and to cudgel the gander well
when it appeared. The boy did so, and the gander ran away in
panic. " It is remarkable," he says, " how deep and enduring an
impression this first victory made on my childish mind. Even
now, after nearly seventy years, all the persons and scenes con-
nected with this important event stand clearly before my eyes.
With it is also associated my only recollection of the appearance
of my parents in their younger days ; and many a time, in later
difficult experiences, has the victory over the gander unconscious-
ly incited me not to shun threatening dangers but to meet them
with vigorous resistance."

The Siemens children were taught by their grandmother
Deichmann, and then by their father, whose brilliant and original
sketches of history and ethnology, dictated to them, formed the
foundation, Siemens says, of his later views. He was next sent
to • the BiirgerscJiule, in the neighboring town of Schonberg,
whither he walked when the roads were not too bad, and where
he seems to have spent a year of battling with his mates, " to the
hardening of his powers, but with only the most insignificant
results in knowledge." Then he had tutors of opposite charac-
ters, and after them he was sent to the gymnasium at Liibeck.
Not satisfied with the progress he was making in mathematics
and in the ancient languages, he gave his attention to the only
technical branch taught in the school — engineering. To prepare
for entrance into the engineering school at Berlin, he took private
lessons in mathematics and surveying. Instead of entering this
school, which was expensive, his teacher advised him to go into
the Prussian engineering service, where he would be taught the
same things. His father fell in with this plan, and prophetically
gave as his reason that the pres'ent conditions could not last in
Germany, that in time everything must go down. The only firm
point in Germany was the state of Frederick the Great, with the
Prussian army ; and in the time of trouble that was coming it
would be better to be the hammer than the anvil. Fortune
favored him in the examinations, for which his preparation had
been very superficial, and in the fall of 1835 he was admitted
to the United Artillery and Engineers' School in Berlin. His
mother dying in July, 1839, and his father six months later, he
became the guardian of his younger brothers and sisters. Some

SKETCH OF WERNER VON SIEMENS. 833

experiments lie was making at this time with friction fuses ended
in an explosion, by which his hearing was permanently injured.

While Siemens was stationed, in 1840, at Wittenberg, he be-
came interested in the discovery, then recently made by Jacobi, of
the precipitation of metallic copper from the .sulphate by means
of the galvanic current. He repeated the experiments success-
fully, and applied the process — so far as his means would permit
—to other metals. His studies were interrupted by his arrest and
imprisonment for connection as second with a duel between two
of his brother-officers. Not relishing the idea of spending an
indefinite period in idleness, he managed on his way to the cita-
del to make arrangements to have the materials required in his
electroplating researches smuggled in to him. He set up a small
laboratory in his cell and made himself contented there. Recol-
lecting, from experiments he had made in the Daguerrean process,
that hyposulphite of soda would dissolve the insoluble salts of
gold and silver, he applied the principle to electrolysis with as-
tonishing success ; and he believes, he says, that it was one of the
greatest joys of his life when a newly silvered teaspoon which
he had immersed at the zinc pole of a Daniell cell into a cup filled
with a hyposulphite gold solution, while the copper pole was con-
nected with a louis d'or as an anode, " was converted in a few
minutes into a gilded spoon of the most beautiful, purest golden
luster." Galvano-plating was then new in Germany, and his dis-
covery made much talk. A jeweler of Magdeburg, visiting him
in prison to examine into its merits, he sold him the right to use
it for forty louis, and thus obtained means for continuing his
experiments. He counted upon enjoying still several months of
captivity, and the unmolested prosecution of his researches, when
the unwelcome message came to him of a royal pardon, and he
was obliged to leave the citadel at once, without house or other
spot in which to set up his apparatus. He asked leave from the
commandant to stay a little longer, but was denied, accused of
being ungrateful for the royal clemency, and was hurried out of
his quarters at midnight. He had gained by his experimenting
the reputation of not being well qualified for practical work, and
was assigned to the fireworks factory at Spandau. He had great
success in making pieces of unexampled brilliancy for the birth-
day celebration of the Emperor of Russia, and was invited to com-
pete in a sailboat race with Prince Frederick Karl — and beat him.
Then he was ordered to Berlin, to serve in the artillery arsenal ;
to his great delight — for this commission would give him time
and opportunity for carrying on his researches.

Wilhelm Siemens having completed his studies and con-
structed a steam engine, Werner furnished it with a differential
regulator. He made a profitable contract with a silver-ware

VOL. XLIII. — 60

834 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

house in Berlin for the use of his plating apparatus, and Wilhelm
was dispatched to England to introduce the inventions there.
Besides the galvano-plating patent, which was sold to Elkington
& Co. for £1,500, there were processes for nickel-plating and for
anastatic printing, etc. A journey to London to assist Wilhelm
in some financial difficulty, in which he visited Paris and Brussels
on his return, gave him new and higher views of his work, while
its results satisfied him that the road to wealth did not lie
through speculation in inventions. He entered upon a more
thorough course of study, formed associations with the young
naturalists of the time, some of whom have since become famous,
joined in the foundation of the Physical Society, interested him-
self in the Polytechnic Society, and sought to promote the tech-
nical applications of science. He became acquainted with manu-
facturers, and published articles in the scientific journals on "The
Application of Hot Air as a Motive Power/' in which he accepted
Mayer's and Helmholtz's doctrine of the conservation of force ;
describing his differential regulator ; and " On the Application of
the Electric Spark to the Measurement of Velocity/'

Werner Siemens became warmly interested in the experiments
which Leonhardt was making, at the instance of the general staff
of the army, in the substitution of an electrical apparatus for opti-
cal telegraphy. He had seen a model of Wheatstone's telegraph
in the house of one of his comrades, and had tried to establish a
communication between the house and a mineral-water establish-
ment across the garden. He devised an improvement in the ap-
paratus for generating and controlling the current, which at-
tracted the attention of the mechanician Halske, who eventually
gave up his business and associated himself with Siemens in teleg-
raphy.

Siemens's plans were again embarrassed by the results of his
and his companions' inconsiderately signing a paper connected
with the religious movement of John Ronge, which was consid-
ered seditious. His brigade, to punish the offenders, was ordered
to a retired post. It was important for him to remain in Berlin
to prosecute his researches, and he devised a means to induce the
Government to keep him there. Schonbein had made his first
discovery of gun-cotton, but the material he produced was poor
and unreliable. Siemens spent a day in experimenting upon it ;
added treatment with sulphuric acid, and obtained a certain and
really practicable explosive. He communicated his discovery to
the Minister of War, and was ordered to continue his experiments
at the Spandau Arsenal, while his punishment was forgotten.
Unfortunately, Prof. Otto, of Brunswick, who had independently
discovered the same method, anticipated him in publication, and
thus deprived him of the credit of priority.

SKETCH OF WERNER VON SIEMENS. 835

Having communicated with. General Oetzel, the chief of the
military telegraphic service, he was invited to assist in the sub-
stitution of electric for optical telegraphs. He gained the confi-
dence of the general and of his son-in-law, Prof. Dove, and was
commissioned to carry out his own plans. The lines were to be
put underground, and there was difficulty about finding satisfac-
tory insulating material. Wilhelm Siemens had sent him some
specimens of gutta percha from London as a curiosity. It was
found eminently adapted to the purpose of an insulator. With a
press supplied by Halske, the wires were successfully covered,
and the lines were established with Siemens's instruments. In Oc-
tober, 1847, the firm of Siemens and Halske was formed, which,
beginning in a rear building with a modest capital, was destined
to ramify till it had branches in several of the capitals of Europe,
and became prominent in the construction of Continental tele-
graphs and the world's cable lines.

The revolutionary movements of 1848 brought the extension
of telegraphic enterprises to a temporary halt. The Siemens-
Halske establishment, nevertheless, went on with its work, though
it had no orders. In a short time Siemens was commissioned to
lay submarine electric batteries in the harbor of Kiel for protec-
tion against an apprehended attack by Danish vessels. Having
assured the perfect working of his mines from the shore, he col-
lected a band of volunteers in the city and surprised the post of
Friedrichsort, at the entrance to the harbor, under the protection
of which, it being held by the Danes, the Danish fleet might have
approached alarmingly near to Kiel without being molested. As
commandant of Friedrichsort, he built the fortifications for the
protection of the harbor of Eckernforde, which became very
famous the next year in connection with the rout of the Danish
squadron.

Siemens was next commissioned to lay an underground tele-
graph from Berlin to Frankfort-on-the-Main where the German
National Assembly met. The transmission of the result of an
election in the winter of 1879 to Berlin, within the hour, gave the
line great repute, and Siemens was employed to construct another
line from Berlin to Cologne and Verviers, on the Prussian front-
ier. In this enterprise he had the assistance of William Meyer,
a man skilled in organization. Many difficulties incident to the
imperfections of an art still in a crude condition are described as
having been encountered in executing these works. The con-
structors were sorely embarrassed, in crossing the Elbe and the
.Rhine, to find means for protecting the wires against dragging
by ships' anchors. The wire across the Rhine was inclosed in a
wrought-iron tube so well that, when it was taken up several
years afterward, a number of anchors were found hanging from

836 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

it which, having been caught in it, the shipmasters had been
obliged to cast away. At Verviers the line was connected with
an overhead line to Brussels. One Herr Reuter, who had been
managing a carrier-pigeon post between Cologne and Brussels,
found his business ruined by the telegraph. Frau Reuter com-
plaining to Siemens of this, he advised the pair to go to London
and establish there a telegraphic news agency, as Herr Wolff had
succeeded in doing at Berlin. This was the origin of " Renter's."
These enterprises had been carried on under a furlough from
army service, which' was about to expire, and Herr Siemens, in
order to devote himself to scientific and technical work, resigned
his position in the army in June, 1849, left the telegraphic service
shortly afterward, and began a career of independent scientific
industry. His underground system was generally adopted in
Germany. To prevent the depredations of rats on the gutta-per-
cha coatings, he drew the wire through lead pipes. He recog-
nized the excellences of the Morse telegraphic instrument, and
sought to improve it. In April, 1850, he presented a memoir on
his experiments in telegraphy — Memoire sur la Telegraphie Elec-
trique — before the French Academy of Sciences, and received,
upon the report of the committee to which it was referred, the
acknowledgment of the Academy, thus fixing the stamp of that
authority upon his claims for originality and priority.

While Siemens's system was being extended and adopted in
foreign countries, particularly in Russia, the Prussian lines, under
official management, constructed in a slovenly manner and care-
lessly repaired, deteriorated. Siemens published a pamphlet crit-
icising these faults and pointing out the remedies, in consequence
of which unauthorized comment the Government discontinued
all connection with his house for several years. The loss of this
business was, however, more than compensated for by that which
accrued from railroad telegraphy, still free from official domina-
tion, and by contracts coming in from abroad.

The connection of Siemens with the Russian telegraph lines
began in 1849, when his instruments were adopted for the line
between St. Petersburg and Moscow. In the winter of 1852 he
went to Riga, on business connected with the construction of a
line to that point, and particularly with the crossing of the Dwina.
Other lines calling for visits to Russia, and in connection with
which the St. Petersburg branch of the house of Siemens and
Halske was built up, were those to Kronstadt — the first success-
ful submarine cable line— and Warsaw. The success of the last
line determined the Russian Government to cover the whole em-
pire with a telegraphic network, and lines were built in succes-
sion from Moscow to Kiev, Kiev to Odessa, St. Petersburg to Re-
vel, from Kovno to the Prussian borders, and from St. Peters-

SKETCH OF WERNER VON SIEMENS. 837

burg to Helsingfors. Then the Crimean War came on, and the
firm was kept busy with the special lines demanded for its prose-
cution.

After two failures by an English firm in trying to lay a
telegraphic cable between the island of Sardinia and Bona in
Algeria, the third attempt was successfully carried out in Sep-
tember, 1857, with material furnished by Herr Siemens's house
and in a method prescribed by him. This was the first of the
deep-sea cables, or of those which were laid in water more than
one thousand fathoms deep, and was followed by the laying of
many longer lines, in most of which enterprises Herr Siemens
had a part. In 1859 he was shipwrecked on the Alma in the Red
Sea; in 1863 he came very near losing his life while trying, with
his brother Wilhelm, to lay the cable between Oran and Carta-
gena. The brothers laid the line from Malta to Alexandria,
and, with the steamer Faraday, built especially for the purpose,
they laid six transatlantic lines. In its attempts to maintain
telegraphic communication with India the British Government
had found its lines through the Mediterranean Sea, Asia Minor,
and Persia too liable to interruption to be depended upon. To
take the lines through safer regions they would have to be car-
ried partly through Russian territory. Herr Siemens was applied
to, and he, through the good will he had won by his constructions
for the Russian Government, secured a concession from it for
building a line through Kiev, Odessa, Kertch, and the Black Sea
to Suchum Kale. The business of this line led him severalftimes
into the country of the Caucasus, concerning which and the pre-
historic copper mines at Kedabeg and the German colony at An-
nenfeld in the same region he gives, in his Reminiscences, some
very pleasant accounts.

As much as to his improvements in the electric telegraph, the
practical applications of electricity owe to Siemens's invention of
the dynamo-electric machine in the winter of 1866, which opened
to them entirely new fields in the development of power and light.
In claiming the credit due to himself in this field, he does not for-
get to acknowledge what he owes to the predecessors who laid the
foundations on which he built.

While thus busy with the development and practical applica-
tion of electrotechnics, as he called it, Siemens observed and par-
ticipated in the advancement of other branches of science ; and
we find him now busy in investigating the geological structure of
the earth ; now engaged, with his brother Wilhelm, in researches
concerning the cause of the sun's heat and the means by which it
is maintained, or studying with his brother Friedrich new prob-
lems of heat; now plunged in the most abstruse problems of
meteorology ; now sharply criticising the bacillus theories of Dr.

838 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Koch — all with the knowledge and consideration of one who had
made deep studies of the subjects.

Dr. Siemens's literary efforts were limited, he tells us, chiefly to
expositions of his scientific and technical labors and descriptions
of his mechanical constructions. He had sometimes occasion to
answer attacks upon his firm or upon himself personally. Besides
those of which we have already spoken, he mentions as among his
principal contributions to scientific literature a paper in Poggen-
dorfFs Annals, in 1857, on Electrostatic Induction and the Retar-
dation of the Current in Conducting Wires ; a communication
made conjointly with his brother Wilhelm to the British Associa-
tion in 1860 (Sketch of the Principles and of Practical Experi-
ence in the Testing of Submarine Telegraph Lines and their Con-
ductivity) ; his lecture, in 1879, on Electricity in the Service of
Life ; and his address before the Society of German Naturalists
and Physicians, in 1886, on The Scientific Age ; papers On the
Light of a Flame ; On the Admissibility of the Conception of an
Electric Sun-potential and its Significance in Explanation of Ter-
restrial Phenomena (called out by the discussion of his brother
Wilhelm's paper, On the Conservation of the Solar Energy) ;
Contributions to the Theory of Electromagnetism ; On the Main-
tenance of Force in the Atmosphere of the Earth, 1881 and 1884 ;
On the Question of Air Currents, 1887 ; On the General Wind
System of the Earth, 1890 ; and On the Question of the Cause of
Atmospheric Currents, 1891.

He elaborated the plans, and saw them adopted by the Prus-
sian Government and Parliament, of the Physical-technical Im-
perial Institute at Charlottenburg for scientific research, of
which Helmholtz is director. In 1874 he was made a member of
the Royal Academy of Sciences of Berlin. He received the degree
of Doctor of Philosophy, honoris causa, from the University of
Berlin ; was made a Knight of the Prussian Order for Merit ; and
received the patent of nobility in 1888. He was also a member of
many learned societies.

M. J. DYBOWSKI has transmitted to the French Academy of Sciences speci-
mens of a condiment prepared by the peoples living on the banks of the Oubangui
River, one of the affluents of the Congo. It is obtained by the incineration of
river plants, and is composed chiefly of chloride and sulphate of potassium, with
very little carbonate of potassium and no soda. This confirms former observa-
tions of the scarcity of soda in land plants. These usually contain considerable
quantities of a very alkaline carbonate of potassium, not suitable as a condiment.
The natives choose for incineration certain species containing only slight propor-
tions of the carbonate. Although the salts of potash are considered unwholesome,
these natives do not appear to suffer from using them.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

839

EDITOR'S TABLE.

AIDS TO MISERY.

AN" extremely instructive article
appears in the Fortnightly Re-
view for August, under the title of
The Poor of the World. The author,
Mr. Samuel A. Barnett, has been travel-
ing round the world in order to inform
himself by personal observation and in-
quiry as to the condition of the poor in
different countries. The result, so far
as presented in this article, is to show
that everywhere the great underlying
cause of poverty is lack of individuality
and the power of self-help, and that the
only ultimate remedy is the creation
through education — understanding the
word in its widest sense — of more per-
fect individuals. This is the doctrine
which Mr. Spencer has been preaching
directly and indirectly for many years
past, often at the cost of much contume-
ly and, in general, to unbelieving ears.
The reason for the unpopularity of this
view is not far to seek. Eager reform-
ers do not like to think that the evils
they combat are deep-seated and can
only be slowly worked out of human
nature ; they cherish the hope of ac-
complishing great things in a short time
and seeing the fruit of their labors in
a striking form. Sentimental persons,
again, always want to cast the blame of
what is wrong on somebody; and if
they can not see quite clearly who in
particular is to blame, they denounce
" society." It is pleasanter to feel our-
selves fighting the selfish, the indiffer-
ent, the grasping, or those whom we are
pleased to consider such, than to accept
the position of simply trying to repair
evils inherent in the condition of things
as molded by natural forces. All with-
in us that craves for the quick, the
short, the easy, the sensational, indis-
poses us to accept a theory that opens
up a vista of patient, prolonged, and

carefully revised effort, bringing with
it little of glory at any one time, and
calling for the exercise of no small
amount of scientific faith.

We have been hearing lately of the
sanguinary conflicts of Hindus and Mo-
hammedans in the streets of Bombay.
Different as the creeds may be which
the two races possess, Mr. Barnett found
that the temples of the one and the
mosques of the other were equally
centers of distribution of a large amount
of charity, the product of gifts gathered
from the rich, and that the effects of
this charity were most pernicious. " It
ever," he sajs, "one is inclined to doubt
the danger of priestcraft, a visit to India
ought to dispel such doubts. He will
find in the Brahinans a typical priest-
hood, and he will see how their un-
questioned rule has degraded the peo-
ple, until they seem without power of
clear thinking or wide feeling." How
charity serves the priesthood a double
turn is well explained: "The pious
give, not because their brothers have
need, but to please the god ; and it is
nothing to them if their gifts are con-
sumed by the priests or wasted on
worthless objects. The priests give as
priests — either to attract worshipers to
their temple or to deliver their own
souls." The charity thus d'spensed, far
from abating poverty increases and
extends it. In Hyderabad, where the
Mohammedans are in the ascendant, ten
per cent of the revenue, in addition to
large private gifts, is spent on keeping
armies of beggars who are descendants
of orthodox families, while it is quite a
common thing for wills to provide for
the feeding of idle multitudes on certain
holy days of the year. In India, more-
over, an obligation is laid upon all the
members of a family to support one
another. As a consequence, "the hard-

840

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

working and successful man is kept low
by weak and very often idle relatives."
The system, to quote Mr. Barnett again,
"checks enterprise and tends to make
a dead level of poverty in which there
are no richer people to act as barriers
against the flood of famine or bad
times." One is sometimes touched, he
confesses, by the way in which the
strong hold on to the weak, but it is
impossible not to notice that idlers
abound. Nowhere is there so little in-
dividuality, nowhere such feebleness in
prospect or in presence of calamity.

While family feeling is strong in In-
dia, the general feeling of humanity is
weak. The reason, our author says, is
"partly because the people think too
much of their gods. . . . The chief duty
of man seems to be to please his god ;
and when, by a gift, he has delivered
himself of this duty, he thinks no more
of his brother at the gate." Among
such people the task of a government
seeking to effect reforms becomes ex-
tremely difficult. "All measures," Mr.
Barnett well observes, "must be inef-
fectual "so long as the people themselves
are deficient in life-preserving qualities,
such as confidence, enterprise, and self-
control." Here we have the gist of the
whole matter. There are certain quali-
ties, moral, intellectual, physical, which
are life-preserving. They may be said
to qualify for life; and when they are
absent nothing but a constant strain
upon better qualified individuals will en-
able the defective ones to survive. By
" confidence," Mr. Barnett means in this
place confidence in others, and he illus-
trates his remark by stating that, for
want of confidence, any savings the poor
can make in India " are not invested or
even intrusted to a bank ; they are turned
into jewelry to burden the women's fin-
gers, toes, noses, and ears, and at last
sold to provide a marriage feast." He
cites the fact that there are in India four
hundred thousand jewelers and only three
hundred thousand smiths. As a life-pre-
serving quality, however, confidence in

self is at least as important as confidence
in others ; and confidence in self, or, in
other words, self-reliance, is just the
quality at which so much of the charity
of our day strikes. Charity is flowing
in an ever-broadening stream ; but it
does not qualify for life those whom it
enables to live ; on the contrary, it saps
what little energy they have, and so
hands on a magnified problem to be
dealt with by the chanty of the future.
The inhabitants of India are said to
be the most docile people in the world,
but on that very account they are more
difficult to govern, because their weak-
ness makes them look to the Government
for everything. As Mr. Barnett forcibly
remarks, "It is perhaps more difficult
to keep a weak man on his feet than to
prevent a strong man from rising." If
you have the strong man down you have
gravitation in your favor ; but in trying
to keep the weak man up you have
gravitation against you, and gravitation
is apt to win in the long run. The Gov-
ernment of India, Mr. Barnett testifies,
is doing a great deal of useful work in
the promotion of industries, the improve-
ment of the soil by irrigation, and the
enforcement, as far as possible with such
a population, of sanitary measures. But
all this costs money, and as one thing
leads to another, one abuse corrected
revealing a dozen others that need cor-
rection, the expense of government and
the burdens which the people have to
bear in the way of taxation are con-
stantly increasing. " Government," as
Mr. Barnett puts it, " does much to re-
lieve the people, but the conclusion of
the whole matter leaves one doubtful if
it would not be more helpful if it did
less for them and took less from them."
And he pithily adds, " A system un-
doubtedly good may be so costly as to
be bad." Surely there is much in all
this that we may reflect on with advan-
tage here. The advantage of such a
comparative study as Mr. Barnett is
making is that it shows various evils in
their fuller development, and puts com-

EDITOR'S TABLE.

841

munities in which they may exist only
in lesser degree on their guard.

Mr. Barnett has also made a few ob-
servations in this country. He found in
San Francisco a form of government " so
democratic as to leave hardly a griev-
ance for the most ardent demagogue."
And yet "the poor increase, and the
talk is as the talk of East London about
starvation cases and the inadequacy of
the poorhouse; the demand is for laws
to prevent vagrancy, to reduce rents
and limit immigration." There is abun-
dant charity ; the officer of the Associ-
ated Charities, we are told, "confessed
that it was impossible to control the
impulses of the rich men of the city ;
and if he complained that gifts did mis-
chief, the answer was, 'What is that
tome?'"

In Boston there is a very perfect
system for the organization of charity ;
but when Mr. Barnett inquired whether
the clergy and philanthropic persons
made use of the records kept in the cen-
tral office, the answer was, " No." Here,
as elsewhere, "private charity is way-
ward and willful; gifts go as passing
emotion directs, institutions are created
which represent the fancy rather than
the sympathy of the creators." Then,
when gifts are found to be of no avail,
repressive legislation is resorted to — laws
against drinking and even cigarette-
smoking. The drink must be taken in
a perpendicular position, and the cigar-
ette must not be smoked by any person
under a certain age. Mr. Barnett's ar-
ticle is good reading, and as a capital
appendix to it we recommend the chap-
ters on Negative and Positive Benefi-
cence Mr. Spencer's last volume. The
philosopher is justified by every wide
and impartial survey of the facts.

THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION
MEETING AT MADIbON.

EXPERIENCE shows the American As-
sociation that it can have a large at-
tendance at its meetings only by keep-

ing to the main highways of travel,
and by choosing large cities. With the
World's Fair as a magnet, drawing and
holding hundreds of its members, the
association was fortunate in assembling
as many as it did, some two hundred
and ninety, at Madison. Those who
attended were rewarded by good papers
and stimulating discussions, and if the
sectional meetings were smaller than
usual, they were uncommonly earnest
and interesting from the absence of the
distractions not to be avoided when a
multitude gathers together. Hospital-
ity was hearty ; the people of Madison —
a city, by the way, of singular beauty —
with the University of Wisconsin, re-
newed the best traditions of the Asso-
ciation in manifold opportunities for
bringing old friends together, for pre-
senting beginners in science to leaders
grown gray in the service of truth.

In his opening remarks President
William Harkness, of Washington,
touched on a practice of the Academy
of Sciences of France well worthy of
imitation in America — the conferring
membership upon those of its friends
who, while not themselves men of sci-
ence, provide financial aid for research.
At Nice, for example, an observatory of
world-wide repute has arisen as a gift
of Mr. Bischoffsheim, a banker, whose
name is rightfully enrolled beside those
of the astronomers whose labors he has
lightened and promoted.

Evolution was the keynote in the
addresses of the vice-presidents in the
Sections of Zoology, Botany, and Eco-
nomics. Prof. H. F. Osborn, in sketch-
ing the Ascent of the Mammalia, traced
the succession of typical species plainly
derived one from another. Exploration
within recent years, he said, has but
served to confirm Prof. O. C. Marsh's
demonstration of the horse't genealogy
through forms with which Prof. Hux-
ley in his American lectures has made
the world familiar.

Prof. Charles E. Bessey, in his ad-
dress on Evolution and Classification,

842

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

said that for nearly forty years the sys-
tem of Linnaeus stood in the way of the
better system of Jussieu and De Can-
dolle ; that system in its turn has for a
third of a century been a clog and a hin-
drance to the adoption of the vivifying
idea that genetic ties are the true basis
for classification. The botanist in giv-
ing this new and illuminating order to
plants must be careful to discriminate
between primitively simple forms and
those simple by derivation. Parasites
are far from being the only plants that
have undergone simplification of struc-
ture; in willows and poplars, for exam-
ple, a single ovary has resulted from the
union of two or three ovaries. For
flowering plants Prof. Bessey presented
in detail a revised arrangement of the
Benthamian series.

The Mutual Relations of Science and
Stock-breeding gave Prof. "W. H. Brew-
er, in his address to the Economic Sec-
tion, an opportunity of showing how an
art is broadened and bettered when it
flowers into a science. Until Darwin's
Origin of Species was published stock-
breeding followed the rule of thumb,
with results slow and uncertain ; to-
day, when heredity is understood as
due to influences largely calculable and
controllable, stock-breeding almost rises
to the assuredness of a plastic art. Prof.
Brewer spoke of a sheep-breeder of his
acquaintance who has all the ideality of
the true artist, who figures to himself
a perfect sheep with every good point
at its best, every defect eliminated ; in
striving to give substance to that form
as he imagines it, this man is as devot-
ed as any wielder of chisel or brush.
Breeding, said Prof. Brewer, can alone
decide whether acquired characteristics
are transmitted, and it may even throw
an important side light on vexed ques-
tions of education.

Prof. E. L. Nichols, in his address to
the physicists on Phenomena of the
Time Infinitesimal, showed a bullet in
flight photographed in an interval so
brief that the missile seemed at rest.

In another picture the bullet was shown
in the act of shattering a pane of glass,
with all the incidental perturbation of
the surrounding air. In giving rapid
motion to the sensitive plate Prof. Nich-
ols pointed out how its availability can
be vastly extended. In this field, he
maintained, there is abundant harvest
for the investigator, for when the time
interval is appreciable we do not get a
picture really instantaneous, but only
a composite photograph whose elements
we have to guess at. As to what hap-
pens in the first hundredths of a second
in the polarization of the voltaic cell, in
electrolysis, nothing is known, and here
possibilities of the highest interest await
the suitable application of the camera.

In reviewing twenty-five years' prog-
ress in analytical chemistry Prof. Ed-
ward Hart brought out its remarkable
stimulus from the exigencies of industry,
and the no less remarkable fashion in
which the debt had been repaid. In
1868 the determination of phosphorus
in steel required two to three days; to-
day twelve minutes suffice. At the fur-
naces of South Bethlehem, Pa., a sample
of molten metal is passed upon by the
analyst while the iron is still on its way
to the converter ; the manufacture can
thus be intelligently directed with the
utmost promptness. This is but one of
the important Avays in which the chem-
ist has borne a part in cheapening iron
and steel. The work of analysis, in this
and other departments, has been greatly
quickened by developing those methods
which allow the chemist to determine
in a single specimen one constituent
rapidly and accurately. It is preferable
to determine phosphorus in one sample
and sulphur in another than to deter-
mine each separately in the same sam-
ple. In closing his review Prof. Hart
mentioned the honored chemists of
America who have notably contributed
to the world's advance in their science
during the past quarter of a century —
men little known to a nation richer,
longer lived, and happier because of their

EDITOR'S TABLE.

843

unselfish labor. Prof. S. W. Robinson,
addressing the Mechanical Section on
the education of the engineer, made
incidental reference to invention as an
aim in class work. Admitting that in-
genuity of the highest order rests upon
an incommunicable somewhat, he ar-
gued that inventiveness of a valuable
kind was quite within the scope of
teaching. In the department of ma-
chine design he believed lay a field for
eliciting the originality of students ; the
several parts of a machine could be
studied with a view to their improve-
ment, and then the machine as a whole
could be redesigned. Time was when
it was considered artistic to give a ma-
chine or engineering structure the out-
lines of the Greek orders; to-day a
design which is seen to be strong, rigid,
and economical is found to lend itself
to a beauty of form impossible to bor-
rowed lines, however graceful in them-
selves.

Prof. 0. A. Walcott, in his discourse
on geological time as indicated by the
sedimentary rocks of North America,
prepared the hearer for the address of
Prof. Joseph Le Conte, as retiring presi-
dent, on the origin of mountain ranges.
This address in matter and spirit was
a master's lesson in scientific method.
Without the waste of a word Prof. Le
Conte lucidly explained the theory of
mountain birth which science owes to
him and to Prof. J. D. Dana. That sea
margins have everywhere been the seat
of mountain emergence was declared to
be a fact of observation ; that the phys-
ical cause for this fact is mainly the
shrinking of a cooling and practically
viscous planet, seeking equilibrium, was
argued with a judicious weighing of the
objections urged by T. Mellard Reade
and other critics. For all the natural
affection that a thinker must bear the
child of his brain, Prof. Le Conte claimed
no more than that the probabilities were
in its favor, leaving the last and unap-
pealable verdict to be uttered only when
all the evidence has been discovered and

upon. Contrasted with the sci-
entific erudition of this address was Dr.
D. G. Brinton's popular introduction to
The Earliest Men on the following even-
ing at the public session. Choosing apt
and simple illustrations, he showed how
the anthropologist, from remains which
seem rather scanty, is able to piece
together a picture of primitive men.
That they had compassion and skill
enough among them to nurse the helpless
for months together was, for example,
proved by adducing the bones of a man
who had suffered a compound, commi-
nuted fracture, and survived the mis-
fortune several years.

One of the liveliest sectional discus-
sions arose among the botanists on the
reading of Prof. C. R. Barnes's paper on
The Food of Green Plants, in which pa-
per it was maintained that the proto-
plasm of plants and animals is identical.
Prof. 1ST. L. Britton could not see how
the profound divergences between ani-
mals and plants, in their highest forms,
could have arisen, except through ele-
mental differences in protoplasm. Prof.
C. MacMillan also demurred to the dic-
tum of Prof. Barnes : animals are ana-
lytic, energy -producing ; plants are syn-
thetic, energy-absorbing; that plants
have a certain superiority over animals
comes out, he argued, in their compara-
tive superabundance. In this section
Prof. C. MacMillan also read a brief
paper, proving how seriously botany is
neglected as a study in American col-
leges and universities, many biological
laboratories being devoted chiefly to in-
struction in zoology. The section voted
that through the proper official channels
the Department of Agriculture, at Wash-
ington, be requested to print and circu-
late Prof. MacMi Han's paper.

To the chemists Prof. E. W. Morley
detailed the refined methods by which
he assigns to oxygen a specific gravity
of 15-882, as a result of twenty recent
determinations. An apparatus for as-
certaining expansions was exhibited by
Prof. Morley, its inventor, and Prof.

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

W. A. Rogers, its builder, with which a
millionth of an inch can be easily meas-
ured, and with careful adjustment even
one twenty-millionth of an inch. In
principle the apparatus is an application
of Prof. A. A. Michelson's interferential
refractometer, the interference of light-
waves from mirrors attached to a
standard and to a compared metallic
bar enabling the observer to determine
minute movements with a precision
hitherto impossible.

An inquiry into the properties of
paraldehyde and metaldehyde by Profs.
W. E. Orndorff and John White illus-
trated the inferences whereby the chem-
ist is able to body forth the respective
positions in a molecule of the atoms
which compose it. In the Anthropo-
logical Section the songs of sequence of
the Navajoes were rendered by a phono-
graph, an instrument which promises to
be as indispensable as the camera to the
serious traveler. A discussion of the
most animated kind took place in this
section between Rev. G. F. Wright and
Mr. W J McGee on certain evidences
adduced by the former of preglacial
man, Mr. McGee maintaining that the
evidence was merely probable and not
conclusive.

OUR NEW INDEX.

HALF a century ago science was an
affair of a few individuals, and a labora-
tory of any kind was to most people
only a curiosity. The man who devot-
ed himself to the study of Nature was
looked upon as a visionary having nei-
ther place nor function among the con-
tributors to human welfare; scientific
methods in the arts were rarely heard
of; natural knowledge had no part or
place in education ; and, besides an oc-
casional learned treatise, two or three
technical periodicals met all the needs
of scientific publication.

But all this has now been changed.
The last half of the nineteenth century
will long be memorable as the period
during which science achieved a promi-

nent if not a leading place in nearly
every department of human activity.
The wonderful advance of discovery,
closely followed as it has been by
numerous practical applications, has
wrought a revolution in many fields,
until in the arts, in commerce, in edu-
cation, and even in the professions,
science may justly claim to exercise a
controlling influence.

With all this there has come an enor-
mous increase in the volume of scientific
literature. Scores of scientific periodi-
cals are engaged in the work of dissemi-
nating the results of investigation and
books by the hundred are published
every year in which the methods and
conclusions of science are given more
permanent record. The accumulation of
material from this ceaseless and ever-
increasing activity is already so great
that ready means of access to it be-
comes an urgent need of the hour.

But it is only with a subdivision of
this great body of knowledge that we
are here specially concerned. In the
early days of the scientific awakening
just alluded to, it was only natural that
the results obtained by workers in sci-
ence should for the most part remain
the possession of the student and in-
vestigator. That science, however, had
a message for the people was not long
in being perceived. Side by side with
its many important industrial applica-
tions there had grown up a vast body
of scientific knowledge only needing
suitable interpretation to make it avail-
able for the masses. Under the stimu-
lus supplied by a few enthusiastic public
teachers there gradually arose a demand
for this new kind of knowledge that
would brook no refusal. In obedience
to this desire of the public we have
seen issuing from the press during the
last twenty-five or thirty years a steadi-
ly growing stream of popular scientific
literature embodying the ablest thought
of the time, and much of it the direct
product of our most distinguished scien-
tific men.

LITERARY NOTICES.

845

To this class of literature THE POP-
TJLAE SCIENCE MONTHLY belongs. Its
special work has been to spread cur-
rent scientific thought in simplified
form among the people, and we may
confidently claim that in no other pub-
lication can there be found a more useful,
more complete, or more interesting rec-
ord of the science of the last twenty
years available for the general reader
than is contained in the forty volumes
to which our new Index is intended as
the key.

To place this great store of infor-
mation at the command of the intelli-
gent reader so that he may inform him-
self on any given subject with the least
outlay of time and attention this Index
has been planned and compiled. It
groups the articles so that any one look-
ing up, for instance, Anthropology,
Evolution, Manual Training, Social Sci-
ence, Vivisection, can find what has ap-
peared in the MONTHLY on the subject
in question under that head. Practical
usefulness has been put before mere
logical accuracy in classification. As
the MONTHLY is a popular magazine,
popular names have been preferred to
technical ones as names of classes.
Thus, articles about Consumption are
put under that head with a cross-refer-
ence from Tuberculosis. Cross-refer-
ences from other synonyms have been
liberally used.

Large aggregations of titles have
been avoided by dividing subjects.
Any one wishing to know what the
magazine has contained on the question
"Are the Planets inhabited?" would
be more likely to look under planets
than under astronomy ; accordingly, all
articles dealing exclusively with the
planets, sun, moon, stars, or nebulae are
put under those respective heads, with
a cross-reference under astronomy.

This Index contains a new feature
that must prove of great value to users
— that is, it gives the number of pages
and illustrations in each article in its
subject entry. By this means the search-

er can see which are the most extended
and instructive articles in a long list.

The titles of all books noticed in the
MONTHLY have been entered under the
subjects of which they treat, these en-
tries being distinguished from the titles
of articles by Italics. As all important
books of a popular scientific character
published in the past twenty years have
been sent to this magazine for review,
a valuable classified bibliography of pop-
ular science for that period is thus fur-
nished.

Having adopted a new plan for the
present volume, we have thought best
to include in it the whole contents of
the magazine from its first number. The
Index of Volumes I to XX is thus super-
seded.

To any one who has a file of the
MONTHLY from the beginning, this In-
dex will be like a key to a treasure
house. To any one who has not a file,
but who depends upon a public library
for the use of the volumes when he has
occasion to read up a scientific subject,
the Index will be an even more valu-
able possession, for it will enable him
to call for the volumes he wants with-
out loss of time.

Finally, we wish to recognize the
ability of the compiler, Mr. F. A. Fer-
nald, who, bringing to the work a large
experience in indexing, has exercised
the utmost care to secure accuracy and
completeness, and has also suggested
and carried out several improvements
that will add greatly to the convenience
of readers.

LITERARY NOTICES.

HYPNOTISM, MESMERISM, AND THE NEW WITCH-
CRAFT. By ERNEST HART, formerly Sur-
geon to the West London Hospital.
With Twenty Illustrations. New York :
D. Appleton & Co., 1893.

THIS little volume consists of papers
that have recently appeared in the Nine-
teenth Century and the British Medical Jour-
nal, and it has been published to meet the
wishes of those desiring the latest informa-

846

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tion on topics that are of current interest.
Mr. Hart frankly states that he hopes the
volume will serve a useful purpose in dissi-
pating some popular errors and a good deal
of pseudo-scientific superstition, superim-
posed on a slender basis of physiological
and pathological phenomena.

His first chapter has the suggestive title
of Hypnotism and Humbug, and in it he re-
fers to the fact that hypnotism has come
down to us through the ages, the lineal de-
scendant of many ancient beliefs. He very
truly says that the term "animal magnet-
ism" applied to any of the phenomena of
induced sleep, human automatism, hypnotic
suggestions, or faith cures is a pure misno-
mer, being an example of that tendency
satirized by Voltaire when he speaks of the
custom of " mystics and charlatans to conse-
crate their ignorance and to impress its con-
clusions upon others by giving a name that
has no meaning to phenomena that they do not
understand." Briefly and lucidly the physio-
logical explanation of that more or less com-
plete suspension of the will, known as in-
duced sleep, is portrayed; and reference is
made to the various phenomena that may be
displayed by an individual under the influ-
ence of suggestion. But Mr. Hart empha-
sizes the fact that the allegation that an in-
dividual under the influence of suggestion
has powers of clairvoyance, can predict fu-
ture events, has insight into hidden things,
or, in a few words, has developed new pow-
ers, is, under any and all circumstances, im-
posture.

The second chapter briefly refers to the
ancient employment of the magnet in medi-
cine, to Mesmer and his methods, to the
" possessed " and the " demoniacs," and Mr.
Hart shows that all these influences are the
result of a condition of disturbed equilibrium
of the nervous system and brain apparatus
of the person operated on or affected there-
with. A number of illustrations of postures
and facial expressions of patients in the
Salpetriere Hospital in Paris are inserted
and lend force to the author's thesis that
most of the phenomena characteristic of the
extreme degrees of hypnotization and sug-
gestibility may occur in that condition of
disturbed equilibrium of the patient, male or
female, known as hysteria. In the latter
condition there is often an auto-suggestion

that, like the hetero-suggestion inducing hyp-
notism, abolishes the power of the will ; and
the brain losing its restraining and control-
ling powers, emotions may be excited, feelings
induced, and intellectual operations set in
motion, independently of the will of the in-
dividual as well as without individual con-
sciousness being alive to what is going on.
As to the treatment of disease by means of
what has been termed " suggestive therapeu-
tics," Mr. Hart cites Charcot, Ricker, Ba-
binski, and Dejerine, who agree that for
curative purposes hypnotism is very rarely
useful, generally entirely useless, and often
injurious.

The third chapter is one of the most in-
teresting in the volume, dealing as it does
with Luys's experiments at La Charite Hospi-
tal in Paris, that have been given wide pub-
licity in general literature and that have
served to originate many misconceptions re-
garding the phenomena of hypnotism.

Dr. Luys defines hypnotism as an extra-
physiological experimental state of the nerv-
ous system, or a pseudo-sleep which is im-
posed and during which the subject under
experiment loses the notion of his or her
own existence and of the external Avorld.
He professes to create experimentally many
of the disorders of mental pathology in
certain stages of hypnotism, and thus to
give a factitious representation of some of
the disorders of madness. He presented for
Mr. Hart's observation five patients that
were, Mr. Hart states, profoundly neuro-
pathic. These patients were extremely sen-
sitive, when hypnotized, to feeble magnetic
currents, to residual magnetic impressions,
to magnetic effluvia, to the perception of col-
ored luminous atmospheres radiating from
and playing around the poles of a magnet or
of a faradaic machine, and to flames and ef-
fluvia of like character proceeding from the
features, the fingers, and the hands of the
human subject. These subjects would caress
with various manifestations of delight the
"north pole" of the magnet, about which
they saw blue flames playing, while dread
and terror were produced by presenting the
" south pole," about which red flames played.
Even photograph paper having an impression
of the "north" or "south" pole produced
similar phenomena in these persons. Around
the head of one of the hypnotized persons a

LITERARY NOTICES.

847

circlet of magnetized iron was placed that
had been around the head of a person sub-
ject to hallucinations of persecution and of
black misery ; the patient's features became
haggard, his expression melancholic, and he
struggled, with evident horror and fright, to
escape from imaginary persecutors ; the re-
moval of the circlet restored him to calm-
ness. These ideas had remained stored in
the circlet, as Dr. Luys informed his audi-
ence, for six months, and were apparently
by no means exhausted notwithstanding fre-
quent use. Small sealed tubes containing
various medicinal substances applied to the
necks of these hypnotized individuals pro-
duced symptoms similar to those caused by
the administration of the substances inter-
nally. Another series of phenomena was
produced by having the hypnotized person
hold a glass of water or a wax doll in the
hands, and their sensation was transferred
to the object held so that if the glass of
water or the doll was stroked, pinched,
pricked, or tortured at a distance, and pre-
sumably where the subject could not see
what was done, the sensation was transferred
from the object to the person, who would ex-
press emotions conforming to what was done
to the supposed sensitized object.

Mr. Hart found that Dr. Luys was un-
willing to allow him to make certain tests
that would control these experiments and
determine whether the " subject " was dis-
sembling or unconscious. Accordingly, he
made arrangements to have Dr. Luys's " sub-
jects " come to his chambers, where he had
a nonmagnetic bar resembling the magnet-
ized bar that Luys had used, a demagnetized
magnet, a set of needles variously and in-
versely magnetized, sealed tubes containing
the medicinal substances used by Luys as
well as some containing water, two similar
glasses of water and two similar wax dolls.
In the presence of a number of credible wit-
nesses he repeated Luys's experiments, and
the "subjects" were delighted with the
north pole, although there was no current
turned on, and false phenomena were ob-
tained with all the magnets employed. The
doll or glass of water to which sensation
had been transferred from a " subject "
was surreptitiously exchanged for the un-
sensitized glass of water or doll, but that
made no difference in the phenomena elicited

by the stroking, pinching, etc. The sealed
glass tubes containing water produced the
tipsy scenes that arose when Luys applied to
the neck the tube containing brandy, while
one containing the latter produced any symp-
tom that was expected to be obtained from
whatever substance was mentioned. In
other words the " subjects " were artful and
efficient impostors and Dr. Luys was their
dupe, as one of the " subjects " herself stated.

We believe that this brief review of the
scope of the experiments justifies Mr. Hart's
assertion that Luys's experiments were con-
ducted with culpable looseness in his meth-
ods, and that there were incredible extrava-
gance and error in the deductions that he
allowed himself to make from the false phe-
nomena to which his mode of experimenta-
tion inevitably led.

Mr. Hart believes that the alleged advan-
tages of the therapeutic employment of hyp-
notism in certain neuroses, in alcoholism, and
in the cases of backward or naughty chil-
dren, are untenable, and that the effect of its
employment is to weaken the will power that
it is desirable to strengthen. In fact, com-
pared with the hypnotist faith-curer of the
hospital ward, the balance is in favor of the
faith-curer of the chapel and the grotto.
The latter strengthens the weaker individual-
ity by playing upon the theme of auto-sug-
gestion ; the patient is told to believe that
he will be cured, to wish it fervently and he
shall be cured. And his cure is quite as
real and likely to be quite as lasting as if he
had become the puppet of a hypnotizer.

The method in which the subject is pre-
sented serves to convince the reader that the
phenomena of hypnotism do not transcend
the confines of explicable fact, and that
those that believe that it contains much that
is occult are but the dupes of their own
credulity. The volume is written in a style
that will enable the lay reader to understand
the topic, and it is to be hoped that its wide
circulation will correct many of the popular
impressions regarding the possibilities as
well as the facts of hypnotism.

ELECTRICAL EXPERIMENTS. By G. E. BON-
NEY. London : Whittaker £ Co. Pp. 252.
Price, 75 cents.

THIS book has been prepared, Mr. Bon-
ney informs us in his preface, for the in-

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

structive amusement of young people in the
country whose time hangs heavily on their
hands in the winter evenings. It consists of
a collection of simple experiments in mag-
netism and electricity, requiring only such
apparatus as the experimenters can construct
for themselves. The first class of experi-
ments described are with permanent mag-
nets. These are followed with a number of
experiments with electro-magnets. A chap-
ter is devoted to experiments with induction
coils, in which various forms of Geissler tubes
are shown and described. Most of the sim-
pler experiments with static electricity com-
monly described in the text-books are given
in the chapter devoted to this form of elec-
tricity, and the electrolysis of water and oth-
er liquids and the method of electro-plating
in that on electrolytic experiments. Some
miscellaneous experiments in thermo-electri-
city and with the electric light complete the
book. The experiments are, on the whole,
well selected to illustrate the characteristic
phenomena, and are clearly described in sim-
ple terms suitable to the audience to whom
the book is addressed.

How TO MAKE INVENTIONS, OR INVENTING AS
A SCIENCE AND AN ART. By EDWARD P.
THOMPSON, M. E. Second edition, re-
vised and enlarged. New York: D.
Van Nostrand Co. Pp. 181. Price, $1.

IN his preface Mr. Thompson says that
his object is " to establish inventing as a
science." In the first chapter he advances
excellent reasons for his claim that this may
be done, but he does not carry out his rea-
soning logically. For instance, in the four-
teenth chapter the author says that although
" Coster was the first to conceive the idea of
replacing handwriting by printing," his dis-
covery was " knowledge, not an invention."
Science is knowledge, and the application of
it to a hitherto unknown art surely might be
construed an invention. Nevertheless, Mr.
Thompson has given to the world in this
book a fund of useful and interesting infor-
mation which can not fail to be of benefit.
It contains some very excellent advice to
those who " have ideas," and if only his sug-
gestions were adopted many a tyro inventor
would be saved a good deal of both worry
and useless expense.

The chapter entitled Suggestive Ideas is

full of valuable promptings and advice. So
is Chapter VII. In the latter the author
lays down four rules which should be ob-
served by inventors. The first rule says,
" Do not begin with intricate problems."
The others warn inventors against confining
themselves to single devices, and exhorts
them to "practice medium problems," and
study the analysis of the methods by which
they desire to accomplish new results.

In the chapters on Principles in Chem-
istry and Electricity " for making scientific
inventions " Mr. Thompson has treated the
probabilities of invention with the assistance
of these great factors, besides giving a large
fund of useful information regarding these
elements in the field of invention. The
major part of the volume treats of the possi-
bilities of invention in the field of electricity,
and consists for the most part of selections
from the author's writings upon this subject
in the Electrical Engineer and other scienti-
fic journals.

MECHANICS AND HYDROSTATICS. By S. L.
LONEY. Cambridge: University Press.
1893. Pp. 304. Price, $1.25.

PROF. LONEY has prepared this little
manual for the use of beginners, and pre-
sumes on only a limited mathematical knowl-
edge by the pupil. The subject-matter com-
prises statics, dynamics, and hydrostatics,
which are treated briefly and concisely, the
propositions being illustrated by appropriate
examples. A number of selected problems
are appended to each chapter for the student
to work out, the answers to which are given
at the end of the book. In an appendix a
sufficient exposition of elementary trigonome-
try is given to enable the student to follow
the text when the mathematical treatment
calls for more mathematical knowledge than
elementary geometry and algebra.

THE MINERAL INDUSTRY: ITS STATISTICS,
TECHNOLOGY, AND TRADE, IN THE UNITED
STATES AND OTHER COUNTRIES, FROM THE
EARLIEST TIMES TO THE END OF 1892.
Vol. I. Edited by RICHARD P. ROTH-
WELL. Pp. 628. New York: Scientific
Publishing Co., 1893.

THIS volume is a compilation of statistics,
essays, and general information concerning
the mineral industries of the United States
and of the world, which will be gladly wel-

LITERARY NOTICES.

849

corned by all persons interested in the min-
eral resources of this country.

It is the most comprehensive work of
this nature which has ever been put before
the public. All puzzling measurements of
quantity, etc., are reduced to the metric sys-
tem, and the student can readily examine
the progress of the different industries, from
their earliest conception to the present time.
The articles on aluminum, tin, chronology of
the gold and silver industries, and the plati-
num group of metals are very important ad-
ditions to the exhaustive statistical body of
the work. The histories of the progress of
metallurgy, assaying, etc., are also ably
treated ; and in the various papers on cop-
per we have a perfect encyclopaedia of the
history, progress, values, and modes of pro-
ducing this metal, which can not fail to be
of great benefit to everybody interested in
industrial progress.

Considering the ambitious plan of the
compilation it is somewhat unfortunate that
provision was not made for articles upon the
•unes of the precious and other metals, with a
few tables showing their quantitative appli-
cations. Iron, lead, and nickel occupy a con-
siderable portion of the work, and a won-
derful amount of information can be learned
about these metals and the progress of their
production from the exhaustive tables that
accompany the text. The onyx industry is
rather summarily treated; but it appears
that a difficulty existed in obtaining suffi-
cient important data to make that article
more interesting. Mr. Roth well is to be
congratulated upon the very useful volume
which he and his assistants, Messrs. Bene-
dict, Ingalls, Church, Hofman, etc., have pro-
duced.

OLD AND NEW ASTRONOMY. By RICHARD A.
PROCTOR, completed by A. COWPER RAN-
YARD. London and New York: Long-
mans, Green & Co. Pp. 816. Price, $12.

AT the time of the author's death, in 1888,
about half of this volume had been published
in parts, and about one third more was writ-
ten, though incompletely. Mr. Proctor in-
tended it to be the great work of his life, and
to this end had been collecting material for
more than twenty years before he began its
publication. The chapters which he left in
manuscript have been completed by Mr. A. I
VOL. XLIII. — 61

Cowper Ranyard, Mr. Proctor's successor as
editor of Knowledge, who has also written
the part on the stars, needed to fill out the
plan of the work. As implied in its title,
" Old and New," this treatise essays to give
the notions of ancient astronomers as well as
the present state of the science. The author
has made a practice also of telling when,
where, and by whom important discoveries
and advances in our knowledge of the heav-
ens have been made, and in this way has
added much of the charm of narrative to his
book. The large type, many illustrations
and maps, and fine paper also contribute to
make the volume an attractive one. The
frontispiece consists of three views of pyra-
mids, and in the first chapter, devoted to
Ancient and Modern Methods of Observing
the Heavenly Bodies, the use of the pyra-
mids and other structures of masonry for
this purpose is explained. In the same chap-
ter are described the quadrants and astro-
labes of the middle ages, and the most mod-
ern transit and equatorial instruments as
well. The shape of the earth is the first
subject taken up after the description of
instruments. Under this head the various
proofs that the earth is round are given, and
the processes employed for measuring its
curve are set forth. The third chapter is de-
voted to Apparent Motions of the Sun, Moon,
and Planets, and is copiously illustrated with
charts and diagrams. The author next de-
scribes the True Mechanism of the Solar
System, and here has occasion to dip quite
deeply into history in order to give the suc-
cessive approximations to the truth arrived
at by the early astronomers. He follows
this account with a statement of the meth-
ods that have been devised for measuring
and weighing the solar system. The sun, the
moon, and each of the planets are fully de-
scribed, a notably interesting chapter being
made on sun-spots and solar prominences un-
der the title The Sun's Surroundings. When
his labors were broken off by his unexpected
death Mr. Proctor had written nothing on
the stars, the nebulae, or the Milky Way,
though it was known that he intended to
make these sections a special feature of the
book. It was in this department of astrono-
my that his own work was of most original
and lasting character. Mr. Ranyard has
sought to follow out the author's general

850

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

plan in the stellar section of this treatise by
giving as complete a review as he could of
the various theories which have been advo-
cated with regard to the Milky Way and the
distribution of stars and nebulae. A feature
of the book is the explanatory notes at the
foot of nearly every page, and in these notes,
throughout Mr. Proctor's chapters, are often
to be found vigorous criticisms of words,
things, and men which are notably charac-
teristic of the author. The volume is in-
dexed, and the illustrations comprise 31
plates and 472 wood- cuts.

HANDBOOK OP GREEK AND LATIN PALAEOGRA-
PHY. By EDWARD MAUNDE THOMPSON,
D. C. L., etc. The International Scientific
Series, Vol. LXX. New York: D. Ap-
pleton & Co. Pp. 343. Price, $1.75.

THE general reader will begin to have
some fellow-feeling with the delver among
ancient manuscripts after he has read this
book, and learned something about the ma-
terials and implements used by scribes of
different periods, the successive changes in
the forms of the alphabetic characters, the
various styles of handwriting characterizing
different times and localities, and the numer-
ous other features that aid in deciphering,
and in deciding as to the age and genuine-
ness of a given document. The author de-
scribes the Greek and the Latin alphabets,
and gives charts showing the forms of script
letters at different periods, and how the Latin
alphabet was derived from the Egyptian
hieroglyphs, through the hieratic, the Phoe-
nician, and the Greek. Among the materials
used to receive writing he enumerates leaves,
bark, linen, clay, metals, both plain and waxed
wooden tablets, papyrus, skins, parchment,
vellum, and finally paper. The letters were
scratched on waxen tablets with a sharp-
pointed stylus ; on papyrus they were traced
in ink with a reed. The old form of a book
was the roll. After the practice of hinging
two or more tablets together in a " codex "
arose, vellum books took on this more con-
venient shape. The further transition to the
modern bound volume Avas easy. Naturally
the ancient scribes sought to diminish their
toil by abbreviations and contractions of
words. These abbreviations form one of the
chief difficulties that a person meets with
when he begins to read Latin and Greek

manuscripts, and a large number of them are
explained by Mr. Thompson. In describing
the several styles of Greek writing Mr.
Thompson divides manuscripts written on pa-
pyrus from those on vellum. He considers
first the book hand on papyrus, next the cur-
sive hand on the same material, then the un-
cial hand on vellum, and lastly the mediaeval
minuscule writing. A similar course is taken
in tracing the history of Latin palaeography :
The two branches of majuscule writing —
capitals and uncials — form the first division,
then come the modified uncial, mixed hands,
and the half-uncial. Roman cursive writing
is next taken up, descriptions of the national
minuscule hands derived from it follow, and
the history is brought down to include Eng-
lish charter hands of the fifteenth and six-
teenth centuries. In these chapters, which
constitute two thirds of the work, is seen a
striking instance of the aid which physical
science is giving to all branches of research
and endeavor. Photographic engraving, by
means of which the author puts before his
readers actual facsimiles of a large number
of styles of ancient writing, alone makes pos-
sible a really instructive book on this subject
at a moderate price. These facsimiles en-
able us to compare, side by side, specimens
from manuscripts which lie scattered in the
different libraries of Europe, and which could
never have been brought together. The vol-
ume has an index, and a list of the principal
palaeographical works used or referred to by
the author is appended.

POOLS BROTHERS' CELESTIAL PLANISPHERE.
Drawn and compiled by JULES A. COLAS.
Price, $3. — POOLE BROTHERS' CELESTIAL
HANDBOOK. Compiled and edited by
JULES A. COLAS. Pp. xiv+110. Price',
$2. Chicago : Poole Brothers.

THE planisphere published by Messrs.
Poole Brothers consists of the usual map of
the constellations on a disk nineteen inches
and a half in diameter, revolving under a
screen. A skeleton screen is used, so that
besides the constellations visible in the sky
nearly all the others on the map can be seen.
Disk and screen are mounted on a heavy
sheet of cardboard, which slips into a sub-
stantial cardboard case.

The Celestial Handbook is intended as a
companion to the planisphere, and has been
compiled especially for the use of amateurs

LITERARY NOTICES.

851

in the study of astronomy. An introduction
containing explanations and definitions is fol-
lowed by systematically arranged data con-
cerning the constellations. The data are ac-
companied by diagrams and illustrations, and
consist of a short history of each constella-
tion, a catalogue of the stars, with their desig-
nations, magnitudes, and positions, and notes
on the principal curiosities contained in the
constellations. Following this portion of the
book are tables of old and new constellations,
names given to the principal stars, etc.
There are also brief chapters on shooting
stars, star showers, comets, and the planets.
The text is illustrated with one hundred and
forty cuts.

SOME HINTS ON LEARNING TO DRAW. By
G. W. CALDWELL HUTCHINSON. London
and New York : Macmillan & Co. Pp.
199. Price, $2.25.

THE first " hints " given in this book re-
late to the reasons why drawing is an art
that every one should desire to be acquainted
with. There is the story of James Nasmyth,
who, being in Sweden, where the party of
either side could not understand the lan-
guage of the other, secured a good supper
by drawing its principal features, and got his
other wants satisfied in a like way, with great
admiration on the part of his hosts. The
" graphic " language is thus evidently a uni-
versal one. Drawing is of first importance
to architects, in teaching them to see artist-
ically, without which they can not build artist-
ically. It is a momentous aid in the culti-
vation of the observing powers, and " practi-
cally the first step in drawing is to learn to
see accurately." One of the earliest lessons
to be learned is "how very untrustworthy
is the testimony of the untrained eyesight ;
when this is realized, the importance of keen
observation becomes apparent." Erroneous
conceptions, which are among the great diffi-
culties in the way of good drawing, must be
got rid of, for which purpose the student
should be placed face to face with the object
as soon as possible. Care should be taken
to have the best specimens of the model
obtainable. Freehand outline copies from
the flat may, with advantage, be alternated
every now and then with outline drawings
from objects, so that we, by seeing and
working from good copies, may have a high

standard before us to show what our own
work should be like. From the drawing of
such common objects we may pass to outline
drawings from casts of leaves or fruit, and
thence to outlines from natural leaves and
growing plants and shells, and casts from the
antique. The time is not wasted that is
spent in striving to do everything as thor-
oughly as possible, even the smallest thing.
It follows from any fair consideration of the
subject that there is no simple road, no one
process or rule by which success may be ob-
tained in drawing. Another important rea-
son why every one should learn to draw and
so learn to see, is in order that our taste for
what is really good may be improved. The
student is led from the opening story and
these interesting considerations to the prac-
tical maxims and their application, which
are given in a plain style, and are illustrated
by numerous diagrams and by drawings from
a group of living artists of the first rank.

REPORT OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL
MUSEUM. For the Year ending June 30,
1891. Washington: Government Print-
ing Office. Pp. 869.

THE catalogued collections in the muse-
um now number 3,028,714 specimens, having
increased about nineteen fold during the
past ten years. It is observed, however,
that a large portion of the material cata-
logued in 1884 and in later years has been
in the custody of the Smithsonian Institution
for several years, but in storage. There are
now thirty-three organized departments and
sections in the museum, under the care of
curators, including honorary and acting cu-
rators and assistant curators. In the divi-
sion of anthropology progress in the ethno-
logical department has been satisfactory ; the
collection hi prehistoric anthropology has
been reclassitied and rearranged according
to locality, and special researches have been
pursued in many directions. In forestry a
systematic display of the more important
lumber trees by means of maps showing
their distribution, photographs of typical
trees, and photomicrographs, has been begun.
The zoological, botanical, mineralogical, and
geological collections have been increased in
nearly every department. The largest gift
to the library during the year was from the
Rev. John Crumbie Brown, of Scotland, of

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the professional library of his brother, the
late Dr. Samuel Brown, who has been called
" the last of the alchemists," from his advo-
cacy of a belief in the transmutability of the
elements. The work of issuing the publica-
tions is now more punctually performed than
heretofore. One of the aims of the museum
— to aid students and others engaged in
scientific work by lending them material to
be used in their researches — has been carried
out in a number of loans ; and other students
have availed themselves of the privilege of
examining the collections. A summary is
given in the report of the cases of co-opera-
tion with the work of the museum by various
departments and bureaus of the Government,
from which many valuable results have ac-
crued. The papers contributed by mem-
bers of the museum staff describing and
illustrating the collections include The Gene-
sis of the National Museum, by G. Brown
Goode ; Ethnological Collections in the United
States National Museum from Kilimandjaro,
East Africa, by Dr. W. L. Abbott; The
Bernadon, Allen, and Jouy Korean Collec-
tions in the United States National Museum,
by Walter Hough ; Shinto, or the Mythology
of the Japanese, The Ancient Burial Mounds
of Japan, and Some Ancient Relics in Japan,
by Romyn Hitchcock ; Prehistoric Naval
Architecture of the North of Europe, by
George H. Boehmer; and First Draft of a
System of Classification for the World's Co-
lumbian Exposition, by G. Brown Goode.

LECTURES ON SANITARY LAW. By A. WYN-
TER BLYTH. New York: Macmillan &
Co. Pp. 287. Price, $2.50.

THESE twelve lectures were delivered by
the author at the College of State Medicine,
as part of the usual course of instruction in
sanitary science. They are republished on
account of their possible value to those who
desire to obtain, in a small compass, a gen-
eral view of the powers and duties of (Eng-
lish; local authorities in relation to the pub-
lic health. Having described the division
into sanitary districts and the functions of
authorities, the lectures concern Nuisance;
Sewerage and Drainage; Water; Sanitary
Appliances, Regulations, and By-laws ; Statu-
tory Provisions with Regard to the Preven-
tion of Disease ; the Law under the Infec-
tious Diseases Notification and Prevention

Acts ; Port Sanitary Law ; the Housing of
the Working Classes Act, 1890 ; Canal Boats
and Metropolitan Sanitary Law. In the ap-
pendix are given examples of by-laws relat-
ing to offensive trades, with other matters,
and the statutes specially treating of the in-
spection and examination of food.

The eighth volume of the Mineral Re-
sources of the United States, compiled by
David T. Day, Chief of the Division of Min-
ing Statistics and Technology, contains 63d
pages of statistical data relative to the prog-
ress made from year to year in the produc-
tion of minerals. A complete statement of
the mineral products of 1891, with compara-
tive tables, occupies the greater portion of
the volume, the remainder being devoted to a
very important examination of the new dis-
coveries of mineral deposits and explana-
tions of improved technical processes by
which minerals have been made more avail-
able and the yield increased, etc. The sum-
mary shows an increase in value in the entire
mineral products of $9,501,139 over 1890,
chiefly in silver, copper, lead, and coal, the
iron and steel production having fallen off
nearly one million tons in 1891. Washing-
ton, 1893.

In Bulletin No. 3 of the United States
Department of Agriculture, 1893, A. K.
Fisher, M. D., Assistant Ornithologist, con-
tributes an interesting report upon the ffaicks
and Owls of the United States. From an ex-
amination of seventy-three species and sub-
species of these birds, Dr. Fisher has ar-
rived at the conclusion that instead of their
being pests or enemies, all except six species
of the hawks and owls of this country are
really among the farmer's best friends. This
conclusion was arrived at after an examina-
tion of the stomachs of 2,700 of these birds,
when it was found that the principal food of
sixty-seven of the species examined, com-
prising 2,212 birds, consisted of "mice and
other small mammals " which are a constant
source of annoyance and loss to the farmer.
The work, which is illustrated with twenty-
six colored plates, is a valuable contribution
to the natural history literature of the coun-
try, and can not fail to be widely appreciated
by ornithologists and lovers of the feathered
tribe. The color, food, locality, and habits
of each of the seventy-three species are de-

LITERARY NOTICES.

85.3

scribed. Pp. 210. Department of Agricul-
ture, Washington.

Mr. Marsdcn Manson, C. E., has pub-
lished an interesting little book entitled
Geological and Solar Climate*, their Causes
and Variations. In it he attacks the pub-
lished opinions of some of the most eminent
students and writers of geology, and, al-
though he admits that the direct cause of
the Glacial epoch or Ice age was a de-
crease in the original heat of the globe, he
scores those scientists whose researches es-
tablished that fact because they failed " to
account for all the phenomena accompanying
the Ice age, or to account for the disappear-
ance of that age." Mr. Manson's theory is
that the direct cause of the glaciation was
the exclusion of solar heat from those re-
gions where the ice development was taking
place, and that the disappearance of the ice
northward and southward was caused by the
natural earth heat breaking through the ice
crust, after which, assisted by the solar
agencies, it began to gather heat and dis-
persed the cold toward the arctic and ant-
arctic regions relatively as the land area
predominated. The book is for sale by Wil-
liam Doxey, 631 Market Street, San Fran-
cisco. Price, 75 cents.

Volume X of the United States Fish
Commission Bulletin is an important con-
tribution to the scientific and industrial liter-
ature of the fishes and fisheries of the
country. Besides articles on The Oyster and
Oyster-culture, by Bashf ord Dean, which have
already been noticed in these pages, it con-
tains a valuable paper on the Fishing Ves-
sels and Boats of the Pacific Coast, by Cap-
tain J. W. Collins ; a report on the fisheries
of the New England States ; and various arti-
cles and reports on the aquaria of the United
States Fish Commission and the conditions
of the fisheries of Kentucky, Iowa, Lake On-
tario, etc.

In the article on the Fishing Craft of the
Pacific Coast, besides a fund of useful infor-
mation and suggestion, Captain Collins de-
scribes the appearance, construction, and
sea-going qualities, as well as their general
adaptability to the several fisheries, of all
kinds of boats and vessels, from the Alaskan
kaiak (canoe) to the perfectly appointed
whaler, and illustrates the text by thirteen
plates and four figures. The fisheries of the

New England States are also exhaustively
treated, the report chiefly consisting of sta-
tistical tables of their condition, with an
analysis of the quantities of the various
fishes captured, the number of men and
boats engaged, and the amount of capital
invested.

In the report of the fisheries of Lake
Ontario, Hugh M. Smith, M.D.,- gives an
interesting account of his investigations,
which were made with a view to the estab-
lishment of a fish-hatching station on the
lake. The volume is fully illustrated with
ninety-four full-page plates and ten figures
in the text. Pp. 436. Washington, 1892.

A Concise History of Religion has been
prepared by F. J. Gould for the issues of the
Rationalist Press Committee of London. In
the first volume, the only one that yet ap-
peared, are given brief accounts of the prin-
cipal religions of the world except Judaism,
Christianity, and Mohammedanism, preceded
by an analysis exhibiting the chief phases
of primitive worship, and the main lines of
religious development. The list of religions
treated include about fifty. The author pro-
poses to follow this volume with other parts
dealing with the Bible, Judaism, Christianity
(from the point of view of a purely human
origin), and modern Rationalism. (London :
Watts & Co.)

The book Hermetic Philosophy, vol. iii,
" A comedy founded on Plato's Meno, applied
to modern discoveries in theosophy, Chris-
tian science, magic, etc., and to those who
are seeking these discoveries," bearing the
signature of Styx, and published by the J. B.
Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, discusses the
question, " Can virtue and science be taught?"
There is a vein of levity running through the
whole, yet the author's purpose appears to
be serious. He has taken Plato for his pat-
tern and applied his mode of illustration to
modern . mental phenomena — to the disi-u<-
sion of " the merits of a few self-appointed
leaders among the thousands of those who
feel that there is a call in the mind for them
to begin on the ' mighty work.' " Among
these pretenders are named u Adepts, Hon.
Magi, Mahatmas, Children of the Sun, tht>
Divinely anointed," and Christian scientists.
The author's point of view is indicated t>y
the question, "Is not the man who present-
himself for common spectacle as one pos-

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

sessing gifts direct from the hand of God,
for which he is a specially selected and or-
dained recipient, either a fool, a fanatic, or
a rascal ? "

The Religious Herald (Hartford, Conn.)
presents to its subscribers as a souvenir of
fifty years' publication of the paper, a large
and profusely illustrated volume entitled Pic-
turesque Chicago and Guide to the World's
Fair. It consists of descriptions of the city,
its parks, benevolences, business houses, in-
stitutions, and other peculiar features, illus-
trated by more than fifty photographic re-
productions. The mechanical execution is of
the most pleasing character.

A view of what some socialistic agitators
might do if they had opportunity is given in
a little book entitled Is it Right to rob Rob-
bers? by Morrison L. Swift, published by
the Commonwealth Society, Boston. The
''robbers" of the story are capitalist em-
ployers. A plot formed by a few clerks to
steal regularly from the moneys of their con-
cerns and distribute the sums among the
needy, spreads till it includes nearly all the
employed and vast corporative concerns have
been built up out of the proceeds, " labor "
has found its level as high as capital, and all
of society — manufacturers, the legal profes-
sion, education, and what not — are affected
by the conditions developed. Detection
comes at last ; capital shows its cruel hand
in the prosecution of the thieves, now num-
bering many thousands ; convulsions and al-
most revolution follow, till at last insolent
capital is forced to yield and share in the
universal partnership.

No. 10 of the third volume of Werner's
Readings and Recitations, compiled and ar-
ranged by Caroline B. Le Row, (quarterly,
Edgar S. Werner, 28 West Twenty-third
Street, New York), is known as America's
Recitation Book, and includes pieces, by
American authors only, on great events in
the history of our country, arranged accord-
ing to the chronology. The pieces are classi-
fied as relating to Discoveries, Settlements,
French and Indian Wars, Revolutionary War
and Declaration of Independence, the War
of 1812 and the Mexican War, and the Civil
War and Emancipation Proclamation.

The Conversations on some of the Old
Poets were published by Mr. /. R. Lowell in
1845, and again in a revised edition in 1846;

and were reprinted in London in 1845. They
were afterward allowed to pass out of print.
Mr. Lowell did not include them in his col-
lected works, regarding them as in a measure
superseded by his later and more mature
writings on like subjects. They have, how-
ever, a value and interest that have not been
lessened by time or by the author's growth
in fame ; and although a self-restraint with
which we can find no fault may have pre-
vented the author from pressing his thoughts
on the same subjects twice upon the public,
often greatly modified the second time and
perhaps contradictory of the first impression
such scruple need not now exist to exclude
the reading public from what is really a very
enjoyable and instructive series of essays.
The conversational form was adopted partly
because the essays were discursive, and part-
ly to enable them to be so without violation
of the canons of literary propriety. They
have their faults, which appertain to the
youthfulness of the author at the time he
wrote them ; but, as the present publishers
well say, Mr. Lowell's reputation can better
afford the faults than our literature can
afford the suppression of the work. The
present edition is published, with an intro-
duction by Robert Ellis Thompson, by David
McKay, Philadelphia.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Agricultural Experiment Stations. Bulletins:
Michigan. Potatoes, by P. M. Harwood. Pp. 20.—
Mass chusetts. Meteorological Summary. May
and June, 1892-1893. Pp. 8.— Iowa. Various Arti-
cles. Pp. 84.

"A. L. A.11 Library. Catalogue, 5,000 volumes
for a Popular Library. Washington : U. S. Bu-
reau of Education. Pp. 260.

The Altruistic Review. Monthly. Chicago.
Pp. 45. 20 cents; $2 a year.

American Chemical Society. Journal. March,
1893. Pp. 40. $5 a year.

Arnold, Matthew. Sohrab and Rustum. Amer-
ican Book Company. Pp. 44. 20 cents.

Beal, Dr. W. J. Report of the Botanical De
partment, etc., University of Michigan Pp. 37.

Bolton, Henry Carrington. A Select Bibliogra-
phy of Chemistry, 1492-1892. Washington :
Smithsonian Institution. Pp. 1212.

Bottome, S. R. Electricity and Magnetism. A
Popular Introduction. Macmillan & Co. Pp. 203.
90 cents.

Bradley, F. H. Appearance and Reality. Mac-
millan & Co. Pp. 558. $1.75.

Clerke, Agnes M. A Popular History of As-
tronomy during the Nineteenth Century. Lon-
don : Adam and Charles Black. Pp. 573.

Cleveland, The Duchess of. The True Story of
Kaspar Hauser. Macmillan & Co. Pp. 112. $1.50.

Cummins, W. F. Notes on the Geology of
Northwest Texas. Austin : Geological Survey of
Texas. Pp. 60.

LITERARY NOTICES.

855

Dean, Bashford. Report on the European
Methods of Oyster Culture. Washington : United
States Fish Commission. Pp. 48, with Plates.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. The American Scholar,
Self-Reliance, Compensation. American Book
Company. Pp. 108. 20 cents.

Employer and Employed. Quarterly. Pp. 16.
Boston: George H. Ellis. 10 cents; 40 cents a
year.

Fernow, B. E. Report of the Chief of the Di-
vision of Forestry for 1892. Washington ; Gov-
ernment Printing Office. Pp. 64.

Fitting, The Principle of. By a Foreman Pat-
tern Maker. Macmillan & Co. Pp. 313. $1.50.

Ginn & Co., Boston. Bulletin of Publications
in the Modern Languages.

Graham, Douglas. Recent Developments in
Massage. Detroit, Mich. : George S. Davis. Pp.
128. (Physicians1 Leisure Library. $2.50 a year.)

Grinnell, George Bird. Pawnee Mythology.
Pp. 17.

Harkness, James, and Morley, ~ rank. Theory
of Functions. Macmillan & Co. Pp. 537.

Harper, W. R., and Castle, C. F. Greek Prose
Composition. American Book Company. Pp.
127. 75cents.

Harrinerton, C. W. Report of the Chief of the
Weather Bureau for 1892. Washington: Govern-
ment Printing Office. Pp. 80.

Harris, W. T., Commissioner. Report of the
Commissioner of Education, 1889-'99. Washing-
ton: Government Printing Office. 2 vols. Pp.
1724.

Hawkins, C. C., and Wallis, F. The Dynamo;
its Theory, Design, and Manufacture. Macmillan
& Co. Pp. 520.

Hayes, M. H. The Points of the Horse. Mac-
millan & Co. Pp. 38. $10 50.

Himes, Prof. C. F. The Scientific Expert in
Forensic Procedure. Pp. 32.

Hollick, Arthur. Contribution on Cretaceous
Formation of Long Island and Eastward. Pp. 16,
with Plates.— Plant Distribution as a Factor in
the Interpretation of Glacial Phenomena. Pp. 16.

Horsford, E. N. and Cornelia. Leif s House
in Vineland. — Graves of the Northmen. Boston:
Damrell & Upham. Pp. 40, with Plates.

Imperial University of Japan. Journal of the
College of Science (Anatomy of the Limproliacese,
by Sadahisa Matsuda). Pp. 36, with Plates.

Johnston, W. J. Elementary Treatise on Ana-
lytical Geometry. Macmillan & Co. Pp. 425.

" Land, The, shall not be sold forever." Re-
print from Canadian Methodist. Quarterly. Pp. 8.

MacDonald, Arthur. Abnormal Men. Wash-
ington: Bureau of Education. Pp. 445.

Mach, Dr. Ernst. The Science of Mechanics.
Chicago : Open Court Publishing Company. Pp.
534 |2.50.

Magazine and Book Reference. Quarterly.
New York: Society of Pedagogy. Pp.8.

Maginnis, A. J. The Atlantic Ferry. Mac-
millan & Co. Pp. 208. 75 cents.

Marlatt, C. L. Report on Useful and Injurious
Insects, etc. Pp. 32.— Report on Wine-making in
France. Pp. 60.

Martin, H. T. Castorologia (the Canadian
Beaver). Montreal: William Drysdale & Co. Pp.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Bos-
ton. Description. Pp. 39.— Annual Report. Pp.
81.— Annual Catalogue. Pp. 250.

Maycock, W. P. Electric Lighting and Power
Distribution, Part III. Macmillan & Co. Pp.
148, with blanks. 75 cents.

Morrow, J. T., and Reid, Thorburn. Arith-
metic of Magnetism and Electricity. Lynn, Ma— .
Bubier Publishing Co. Pp. 145. $1.

New England Weather Service. Bulletin for
June, 1893. J. W. Smith, Director.

Newton, Alfred, and Gadow, Hans, and others.
A Dictionary of Birds. Part I, A to G. London :
Adam and Charles Black. Pp. 304. $2.60.

North Dakota Weather and Crop Service.
June, 1893. Bismarck. Pp. 15, with Plate.

Oaepe, Selections from. Book of Cosmogony
and Prophecy. Boston. Pp. 23.

Riley, C. V. Report of the Entomologist,
United States Department of Agriculture for 1892.
Pp. 30, with Plates.— The Yucca Moth and Yucca
Pollination. Pp. 60, with Plates.— Parasitism in
Insects. Pp. 35.— Various Papers on Lachnosterna;
A New Herbarium Pest ; Certain Peculiar Struc-
tures of Lepidoptera ; The Department of Agri-
culture and Apiculture ; The Elm-leaf Beetle ;
Coleopterous Larvae ; New Species of Prodoxidse;
On the Ox Bot in the United States. Pp. 4 to 16
each.

Ritchie, David G. Darwin and Hegel, etc.
Macmillan & Co. Pp. 285.

Savage, R. H. The Passing Show. New York
and Chicago : F. Tennyson Neely. Pp. 326. 50
cents.

Society, The, for Psychical Research. Trans-
actions. June, 1893. London. Pp. 234. 3*. M.

Stowell, C. H., Editor. Food. Monthly. New
York : The Clover Publishing Co. Pp. 48. 20
cents. $2 a year.

Swinton, William. A School History of the
United States. American Book Co. Pp. 383. 90
cents.

Tebb, William. The Recrudescence of Lep-
rosy. London: Swan, Souuenschein & Co. Pp
412.

Technical Society of the Pacific Coast. Trans-
actions. San Francisco. Pp. 60.

Thorpe, F. N. Benjamin Franklin and the
University of Pennsylvania. Washington : Bu-
reau of Education. Pp. 450, with Plates.

Thorpe, J. E. A Dictionary of Applied Chem-
istry, Vol. III. New York : Longmans, Green &
Co Pp.1038. $20.

Topinard, Dr. Paul. L'Anthropologie aux
fitats Unis (Anthropology in the United States).
Paris. Pp. 48.

United States Geological Survey. Report for
ISSO-'gO. 2 vols. Pp. 757 and 395.— Lesquereux's
Flora of the Dakota Group. Pp. 397. — Papers on
the Geology of New Jersay, by R. P. Whitfield.
Pp. 402.— Bulletins, 82 to 85, and 90 to 96 (Correl-
ative Papers on the Cretaceous, by C. A. White ;
on the Eocene, by W. B. Clark ; on the Neocene,
by W. H. Dall ; on the Newark System, by I. C.
Russell ; Report of Work done in Chemistry and
Physics, by W. F. Clarke; Record of North
American Geology for 1890, by N. H. Dayton ; the
Compressibility of Liquids, by Carl Bams ; Insects
from the Tertiaries of Colorado and Utah, by S. H.
Scudder ; The Mechanism of Solid Viscosity, by
Carl Barus ; Earthquakes in California in 181)0
and 1891, by E. S. Holden ; The Volume Thermo-
dynamics of Liquids, by Carl Barus).

United States National Museum Publications.
A New Species of Cyprinoid Hsb, by D. S. Jor-
dan ; Diatomacete from off Delaware Bay, by
Albert Mann; Throwing Sticks from Mexico and
California, by O. T. Mason ; The Gray Shrike, by
Leonhard Stejneger; Erian (Devonian) Plants,
etc., by D. P. Penhallow; Report on Actiniae, by
J. P. McMurrich ; Fossil Plants from the Fort
Union Group, Montana, by F. H. Knowlton.

United States Navy. Catalogue of the Exhib-
its in the Museum of Hygiene, Medical Depart-
ment. Compiled by P. S. Wales. Pp. 138.

Ward, C. J., Honorary Commissioner. Jamaica
at Chicago. Pp. 95, with Map.

Warden, Florence. A Terrible Family. New
York: International News Company. Pp. 311. 50
cents.

856

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

Weld, L. G. A Short Course in the Theory of
Determinants. Macmillan & Co. Pp. 238.

Wickeraham, James. Tacoma, Wash. Is it
Mount Tacoma, or Rainier ? Pp. 34.

World's Columbian Exposition. Department
of Engineering. Official Programme. Pp. 3;i.

Wright. C. H., and Dewar, O., Editors. John-
Hon's Gardener's Dictionary. New revised edi-
tion. Part II. Macmillan & Co. Pp. 128. 40
cents.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

Notes from the Madison Meeting of
the American Association. — At the Madison
meeting of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science, the pressing neces-
sity for giving availability to the world's
wealth in scientific literature was discussed.
In the Botanical Section was suggested the
desirability of a bibliography for botany such
as that compiled for chemistry by Prof. H.
Carrington Bolton. It was further proposed
that the bibliographical volumes be supple-
mented by a serial index. In the Mechan-
ical Section Mr. C. Wellman Parkes, of Troy,
N. Y., outlined a weekly index to periodicals
which he promises to establish in New York
with the new year. During each quarter the
numbers will successively recapitulate all the
titles from the beginning of the quarter.
At the end of the sixth, ninth, and twelfth
months special numbers will recapitulate all
the titles from the beginning of the year.
The reclassifications needed for this index
are to be rendered easy by adopting a ma-
chine casting each title as a solid line of
type metal.

Prof. Bolton's bibliography of chemistry
is published by the Smithsonian Institution.
At the recent Congress of Librarians in Chi-
cago it was stated that this institution may
publish other similar bibliographies for
which manuscripts may be prepared by
learned societies. As a good many of these
societies have moderate funds available for
the purpose, and as societies still more nu-
merous could arrange for gratuitous co-op-
eration, on the plan of the American Li-
brary Association with its index to period-
icals, the impulse to organization seems to
be all that is lacking in order to supply a
crying need of the times.

Prof. Edward Hart, of Easton, Pa., ad-
verted to the importance of mechanical aids

in analytical chemistry. Balances, he said,
are now made with short arms, and are in
consequence more rapid. They are provided
with agate knife edges to resist corrosion,
with aluminum beams for lightness, with
better weights, with improved beam and pan
arrests. The torsion balance, due to Dr.
Alfred Springer, of Cincinnati, enables a
heavier load to be weighed with greater sen-
sitiveness. The Gibb ring-burner much im-
proves the Bunsen lamp : it allows the upper
part of a crucible to be heated so that
liquids boiling at high temperatures may be
evaporated without spattering.

Prof. T. M. Drown, of Lafayette College,
first used, in 1875 or 1876, the crucible with
perforated bottom which, reinvented in 1879
by Prof. F. A. Gooch, with the addition of
asbestos felt, is invaluable in certain analy-
ses. Filters of paper, when unsatisfactory,
can be replaced by Gibbs's sand filter, Mun-
roe's clay filter, and CarmichaePs siphon
filter. The chemist with recent years has
added two metals to the list from which his
vessels are drawn — nickel and aluminum.
In the cheap and ready supply of reagents,
which a few years ago were troublesome to
make and costly of purchase, industry has
done an important service to research ; to-
day hydrogen dioxid, bromin, and potassium
permanganate are articles of commerce and
bear moderate prices.

Prof. E. L. Nichols, of Cornell Univer-
sity, referring to the phenomena of" alternat-
ing currents, said that their complexity had
obliged the modern electrician to be both a
mathematician and a physicist. In much
the same way a generation ago the new and
difficult phenomena of cable telegraphy
served to train the men who stand as pio-
neers and chieftains in electrical science.

Prof. W. H. Brewer, of New Haven,
Conn., speaking of stock-breeding, said that
as long ago as 1812 a thousand guineas had
been paid in England for a short-horn bull.
The Short-horn Herd-book, published in 1832,
and the Stud-book, yet earlier, had laid the
foundation for the science of heredity in
part by proving that cross-breeding induced
variability. Within the modern era the only
additions to domesticated animals have been
the canary and the ostrich.

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

857

As showing how far mechanical and
chemical economy has saved labor on the
farm, Prof. Brewer cited Johnson, who esti-
mated fifty years ago that ninety per cent of j
the capital of the United States was invested
in farming; to-day the proportion has fallen
to one third.

Anthropological Material. — In his anni-
versary address as President of the Anthro-
pological Institute of Great Britain and Ire-
land, Prof. E. B. Tylor remarked on the fear
felt by some that one of the main topics of
anthropology would before long dwindle or
disappear. When the savages and barbari-
ans are disposed of by civilization or extir-
pation, their anthropological material is more
or less exhausted. At present, however, this
is so far from having happened that the sup-
ply is on the whole better and more plenti-
ful than ever. With many tribes, indeed, the
record is closed, as with the Tasmanians,
those representatives of the palaeolithic age
in modern times, who can give us few more
details of the lowest known stage of culture
beyond those collected by Mr. Ling Roth.
Not to give a whole list of modern works, it
is enough to say that for minutely accurate
accounts of uncultured life, none excel Cod-
drington's Melanesians and Kubari's treatise
on the Pelew Islanders, and we can only
regret that the anthropologists of past cen-
turies were not alive to the need of such
minutely careful study of the tribes who
were then, but are not now, in a state to be
thus studied. One class of anthropological
material, of which the quantity available has
only lately been appreciated, is folk lore.
When, fourteen years ago, the speaker took
part in founding the Folk-lore Society, for the
preservation and publication of popular tradi-
tions, legendary ballads, local proverbial say-
ings, superstitions, and old customs, and all
subjects relating to them, he as little as others
anticipated how many volumes of such matter
it would produce, or of how great value they
would be, as to the main purpose of tracing
the development and diffusion of popular
tradition and fancy, and as to the incident-
al knowledge of man which is preserved in
them. Especially to students of the develop-
ment of ethical ideas, folk-lore studies are
exceptionally valuable, recording as they do
in their incidents what were the ideas on
VOL, xuii. — 62

good and bad actions, not indeed of the age
in which the stories are gathered, but of a
remote past kept thus in memory. Speaking
of the reports of investigations among the
Indians of Northwest America, Prof. Tylor
said it was a ground of satisfaction, in look-
ing through them, to feel that a systematic
account of the anthropology of British North-
west America is to a great extent completed.
"Not that everything requiring record has
been recorded. Observation of rapidly chang-
ing native life will still tax to the extreme
the efforts of the anthropologists of the
Canadian Dominion, but it is a great work to
have the framework already set up to be
filled in future years."

Officers of the American Association.—

The next meeting of the American Associa-
tion for the Advancement of Science is to be
held August 16 to 22, 1894, probably in
Brooklyn, N. Y., under the presidency of
Daniel G. Brinton, of Media, Pa. The fol-
lowing are the vice-presidents and secre-
taries of sections and general officers elect :
Vice-Presidents : (A) Mathematics and As-
tronomy— George C. Comstock, Madison,
Wis. ; (B) Physics— William A. Rogers,
Waterville, Me. ; (C) Chemistry — Thomas
H. Norton, Cincinnati, Ohio ; (D) Mechanic-
al Science and Engineering — Mansfield Mer-
riman, South Bethlehem, Pa. ; (E) Geology
and Geography — Samuel Calvin, Iowa City,
Iowa ; (F) Zoology — Samuel H. Scudder,
Cambridge, Mass. ; (G) Botany — Lucien M.
Underwood, Greencastle, Ind. ; (H) Anthro-
pology— Franz Boas, Worcester, Mass. ; (I)
Economic Science and Statistics — Henry Far-
quhar, Washington, D. C. Permanent Secre-
tary: F. W. Putnam, Cambridge (office, Sa-
lem), Mass. General Secretary : H. L. Fair-
child, Rochester, N. Y. Secretary of the
Council: James Lewis Howe, Louisville, Ky.
Secretaries of the Sections : (A) Mathematics
and Astronomy — Wooster W. Beman, Ann
Arbor, Mich.; (B) Physics— Benjamin W.
Snow, Madison, Wis. ; (C) Chemistry— S. M.
Babcock, Madison, Wis.; (D) Mechanical
Science and Engineering — John H. Kinealy,
St. Louis, Mo. ; (E) Geology and Geography
— William Morris Davis, Cambridge, Ma->. ,
(F) Zoology— William Libbey, Jr., Prince-
ton, N. J. ; (G) Botany — Charles R. Barnes,
Madison, Wis. ; (H) Anthropology — Alexan-

858

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

der F. Chamberlain, Worcester, Mass. ; (I)
Economic Science and Statistics — Manly
Miles, Lansing, Mich. Treasurer: William
Lilly, Mauch Chunk, Pa.

A Correction. — Owing to some defect, the
cut on page 459 of the August number of
the Monthly, intended to illustrate a peculiar
form of lightning flash, fails to show the

IMPULSIVE KUSH DISCHARGE, SO-CALLED DARK FLASHES.

characteristic features of the phenomenon
as brought out in the photograph. We pre-
sent herewith another cut which is an excel-
lent reproduction of the photograph, and
with it an explanation of the peculiar ap-
pearances observed in the picture.

The illustration herewith is to be substi-

tuted for the illustration with the same legend
on page 459 of The Popular Science Monthly
for August. The flash was photographed by
the writer at Blue Hill Observatory, and was
one of the most intense flashes he has ever
seen. To the eye it appeared as a straight
core of dazzling light, with a jacket of lumi-
nous air in diameter six or seven times that
of the core. The name " impulsive rush " is
from Dr. Oliver Lodge's classifi-
cation of lightning discharges.
The so-called " dark flashes " can
be distinctly seen branching out
from the core. Briefly, these may
be the result of previous expos-
ure, and the flashes altogether
distinct in time and place ; or, a
reversal of a flash brought about
by the glare from subsequent illu-
minations ; or, a reflection from
the lens (although a plain view
lens was used), or an absorption
effect connected with chemical
change in the gases of the atmos-
phere. It is needless to add that
the negative was carefully kept
from alteration or retouching of
any kind.

ALEXANDER McAniE.

Reasons for Emigration. —

The conclusion of an inquiry made
under the direction of our Com-
missioners of Immigration upon
the causes that incite immigra-
tion to the United States is that,
except in Russia, where emigra-
tion is abnormal, the primary
causes are the superior conditions
of living in the United States, the
fewer hours of labor, the exemp-
tion from the exactions imposed
by foreign governments upon
their citizens, and the general
belief that the United States pre-
sents better opportunities for ris-
ing to a higher level than are
offered at home. Information on these points
is usually furnished by friends or relatives
who have preceded the intending emigrants
and have established themselves here. It is
estimated that nearly sixty per cent of the
immigrants who land in our country come
on prepaid tickets or money sent by friends

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

859

already here, and that they in turn influence
a considerable percentage of immigration
that comes on tickets purchased directly in
the Old World. The prepaid business is
largely affected and increased by even tern- ;
porary improvement in our conditions here.
So far as this class of immigrants is con- |
cerned, it argues against the belief that exists
in the minds of many of our people that the
quality of immigration, as to character, is j
inferior to that of former years, as it neces-
sarily follows that the class who are prepaid,
belonging to the same families as those who j
prepay, must be of the same general charac- j
ter. This information as to our conditions is j
also supplemented by the large number of j
persons who return to their native lands tern- |
porarily, and whose improved appearance, j
enhanced prosperity, and statements to their
old friends disseminate the knowledge of the j
better conditions in this country. A refer- j
ence to the table of steerage passengers re-
turning to all parts of Europe during the j
year previous to the making of the report
demonstrates the volume of this business, j
Low passage rates, sea and inland, affect the
currents both coming and going. Generally,
wherever the manufacturing industries are
active emigration is sluggish ; and it is small
wherever the wages are fairly good as com-
pared with the standard of wants and man-
ner of living of the working people. In ad-
dition to the superior conditions prevailing
here, the conditions in Europe greatly affect
the outflow. Short crops, industrial depres-
sion, social persecutions, and rumors and an-
ticipations of war swell the tide.

Prof. N. T. Lnpton. — Nathaniel Thomas
Lupton, Professor of Chemistry in the Ala-
bama Agricultural and Mechanical College,
a pioneer in America in teaching chemistry
as a practical science, died in Auburn, Ala.,
June llth. He was a native of Virginia;
studied chemistry under Bunsen at Heidel-
berg, worked with him afterward, and made
special investigations in his laboratory after ]
his own fame had been established in Amer-
ica. He was engaged during a large portion
of his life in original research, at home, in
Mexico, and in Europe ; was connected with
several Southern institutions of learning, in-
cluding ten years at Vanderbilt University,
and built up the school of chemistry at Au-

burn, Ala. He was much interested in other
sciences than chemistry, particularly with
ethnology, and contributed largely from his
Mexican, Western, and Southwestern re-
searches to the Smithsonian collection of
relics of the Indians and mound-builders.
His own collection of minerals and prehis-
toric relics is extensive and interesting. He
was twice President of the Chemical Section
of the American Association, was President
last year of the Association of Official Chem-
ists of the United States, and was a member
of several foreign scientific and other soci-
eties. He was the author of a book on scien-
tific agriculture, and a frequent and valued
contributor to the scientific publications of
this country and Europe.

Copper Works of the Aborigines.— The

present evidence regarding the use of cop-
per by the aborigines of this country, as re-
viewed by R. L. Packard, in the American
Antiquarian, appears to show that the metal
had not passed its ornamental or precious
stage on the seaboard or in the South at the
time this continent was brought to the atten-
tion of Europe. It was not part of the na-
tive equipment, either, for war, or hunting,
or other useful purposes, and its position in
the native economy was not like the notice-
able part it played in the armament of the
Mexicans and Central Americans of the same
period. In the absence of evidence that the
Indians of the United States had any knowl-
edge of smelting, it must be inferred that all
the copper they possessed was found in the
metallic or native state. There is nothing to
show that they were aware of the existence
of copper ore as a source of metal. Xo re-
mains of smelting places, or slag, or other
indications of metallurgical operations have
yet been found. The quantity of copper
which the North American Indians possessed
at the time of the discovery, although the
metal was diffused over a very wide territory,
was very small as compared with stone.
This is shown by the relatively small propor-
tion of copper implements in the principal
collections, as at the Smithsonian Institution
and the Peabody Museum. The larger num-
bers are found in Wisconsin, and this is ac-
counted for by the fact that Wisconsin is
directly south of the Keweenaw district in
Michigan where the largest beds of native

86o

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

copper occur. In these beds the copper is
classed as stamp rock, in which the metal
is contained in fine particles and is separated
by crushing ; " barrel work," or the pieces
of copper that are large enough to be de-
tached from the rock without stamping, which
are shipped in barrels ; and mass copper, or
the very large pieces. All this copper shows
as such in the rock, and the ancient miners
had only to follow down a promising outcrop
showing " barrel work " for a few feet, and
hammer away the rock from the copper to
secure the latter. When they came upon
mass copper they were compelled to abandon
it after hammering off projecting pieces, be-
cause they had no tools for cutting it up and
removing it. Several instances of this sort
have been found. The ancient mines were
not mines in the strict sense of the word, be-
cause they were not underground workings,
but merely shallow pits or trenches, and
sometimes excavations in the face of the
cliffs. At the time modern mining began
they had become mere depressions in the
ground. All these workings when examined
contained countless stone hammers or mauls,
a few wooden shovels, remains of wooden
bowls for baking, birch-bark baskets, and
some spear or lance heads, and other articles
of copper. Opinions and evidence vary as
to the age of the operations. Modern miners
would regard the whole system as nothing
more than prospecting work, and not min-
ing proper, as there were no shafts or tun-
nels or underground workings.

Feeding Value of Tree Leaves. — Exper-
iments on the feeding value of the leaves of
trees, made by M. C. H. Girard, point to
them as an available source of nutriment for
cattle, particularly in times when hay and
grain are scarce. The author has determined
the content of nitrogenous matters in a con-
siderable number of species. It ranges from
eight per cent in the willow and alder to
from three to four per cent in the plane,
birch, and pine. Out of twenty-one kinds
of leaves studied, nineteen possessed more
nitrogenous matter than meadow hay, and
more than half of them were superior to the
hay of the best leguminous plants. Some are
of extraordinary richness, the common acacia,
for example. M. Girard was able, from his
analyses and from direct experience in feed-

ing sheep, to draw the conclusion that the
leaves have a feeding value comparable to
that of lucern. They are also superior in
the proportion of fat matters and other car-
bohydrate principles to that of water. Leaves
taken from various heights of the trees and
from trees of various ages show but little
variation in composition ; and, putting aside
the periods of youth and of extreme old age,
the richness of the leaf in nutritive value
remains almost stationary. Consequently,
crops can be gathered during the three sum-
mer months ; and in September the wood pro-
duction of the trees would not be prejudiced.

Gilbert White's Character.— The Sel-
borne Society, of London, celebrated the
centenary of the death of Gilbert White,
June 24th, by making a pilgrimage to Sel-
borne, where the earl of that ilk spoke to
the memory of White. He said that the
impression which most people had formed of
White from his book was that he was a man
of excellent natural abilities, strongly culti-
vated, and of wide classical attainments and
accomplishments. He was not only an ob-
server of Nature, but one who prepared him-
self for observation by the best mental culti-
vation. No one could read his book without
seeing his remarkable faculty of observation,
and the constant aim at exactness and ac-
curacy, together with a good deal of humor.
Nor could any one help being struck with the
modesty and simplicity of his character. His
simplicity, which contributed a very great
charm to the book, every now and then pro-
duced even a sense of amusement. The
speaker was visited, in 1872, by Mr. W. M.
Evarts, who, like most other cultivated
Americans, was acquainted with White's
book, and had a great regard for his mem-
ory. One day, when driving, the Sussex
downs were pointed out to Mr. Evarts, who
burst into laughter, remembering a passage
in which White referred to the downs as " a
vast range of mountains." His shrewdness
of discernment was a most valuable gift, and
he loved all God's creatures, but perhaps es-
pecially birds. By this he reminded one of
two great men. The one, mythical, was
Melacampus, who rescued and brought up
some young serpents. One day, when he
slept, the serpents nestled round his head,
and when he woke he found he could under-

POPULAR MISCELLANY.

861

stand the language of birds. The other was i
Francis of Assisi, who was in some measure
the forerunner of Gilbert White. There was ;
a legend that he so loved the birds that they
flocked around him while he preached ser-
mons to them. The legend at least showed
his love for those creatures and his power
of making them love him. These character- |
istics of Gilbert White could be gathered j
from his book ; but the picture was filled up
by the mass of family correspondence which
had just come to light. The combination of i
simplicity and refinement, the absence of os- i
tentation and self-consciousness which con-
stituted the great charm of White's book
were equally conspicuous in his family corre-
spondence and in his every-day habits. The
Earl of Stamford, who has been collecting
reminiscences and unexplored documents con-
nected with his great relative, White, said
that years ago an old woman was asked
what she remembered of him. She said that
he used to walk about the lanes tap-tapping
with his cane, and stopping every now and
then to brush the dust off his shoes.

Unexplored .Mountain Regions. — While
many of the mountain districts of the world,
hitherto unexplored, have been reached in re-
cent years by scientific mountaineers, yet,
excepting Switzerland and the Pyrenees,
which have been entirely explored by the
different Alpine Clubs, there is no chain of
mountains, as Mr. Edwin Swift Balch shows
in his essay on Mountain Exploration, which
is as yet thoroughly known or perfectly
mapped out. New Zealand, though settled
and inhabited by Englishmen for many
years, had to wait till a few years ago for
Mr. Green first to explore its Alps. The
Himalayas, although the Indian Govern-
ment has tried to map and explore them, are
still in many cases keeping their secrets un-
til men shall come along who know the sci-
ence of climbing. Mr. Graham's trip in the
Sikkim ranges in 1886 showed conclusively
how little was known about the Himalayas,
as he has now left us in doubt as to
whether the two peaks which he saw from
the top of Kabru were not higher than Gau-
risankar. In America there is a large field
left for mountain exploration. Of the Sel-
kirks we know but little; St. Elias has not
been reached ; the Alaskan ranges and Mount

Fairweather and Mount Cook are believed to
be entirely untouched. The Mount Wrangel
range is hardly known, even by name, and
though it is said to have been measured and
to be over twenty thousand feet high, we know
practically nothing about it or its surround-
ings. On the map of the northern Rockies,
north of the Sol kirks, we find a bunch of
peaks, called Mount Brown and Mount Mur-
chison, and marked as being over sixteen
thousand feet high. Of these mountains we
again are in almost complete ignorance,
though from Mr. Green's explorations we
may doubt the accuracy of their supposed
altitude. In South America the Andes of
Pera and Chili are mostly still unascended,
and even Ecuador has had only one serious
exploration, by Mr. Whymper. Here is un-
explored mountain country enough to occupy
our clubs several years.

Vegetation of imeriean Deserts. — The

true sagebrush of the Western desert (Arte-
misia tridentata\ according to Prof. C. Hart
Merriam, begins with a solid front along the
southern border of the upper Sonoran zone
and spreads northward over the Great Basin
like a monstrous sheet, covering almost with-
out a break hundreds of thousands of square
miles. It is not only the most striking and
widely diffused plant of the upper Sonora and
transition zones, but as a social plant has
few equals, often occupying immense areas
to the exclusion of all but the humblest and
least conspicuous forms. Wherever one
travels in this vast region, the aromatic odor
of the sagebrush is always present, and some-
times, particularly after rains, is so powerful
as to cause pain in the nostrils. In addition
to the sage, many of the desert ranges sup-
port a growth of shrubs and small trees rare-
ly if ever found in the intervening deserts
and plains, whatever the altitude. The so-
called cedar (Juniperus californica utahensis)
and the piilon or nut pine (Pimts monophyttd)
clothe the summits and higher slopes of
many of the ranges, forming stunted open
forests of much beauty. Mixed with these
are scattered clumps of bushes representing
a number of genera, most of which bear
green foliage and handsome flowers. Some
of the desert ranges, as the Funeral Moun-
tains, are too excessively hot and arid to
support even those i'omis of vegetation ;

862

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

others, as the Charleston Mountains, push
their lofty summits into so cold an atmos-
phere that they obtain a covering of the bo-
real pines and firs. These higher mountains,
when rising from the lower Sonoran deserts,
present in succession all the extratropical
/ones of North America, which, from their
close juxtaposition, may be here studied to
unusual advantage. In ascending or de-
scending such slopes the change from one
zone to another is quickly recognized, and
the altitude of first appearance of the various
new species encountered may be recorded
with considerable confidence. Not so, how-
ever with the species lost, for, except in the
case of trees and such strikingly conspicuous
forms as the yuccas, some of the cactuses, the
creosote bush (Larrea), and a few others, it is
exceedingly difficult to detect the disappear-
ance of species when passing out of their
ranges.

The Rattlesnake's Rattle. — The idea that
the rattles of a rattlesnake correspond with
its years is, according to Dr. Arthur Strad-
ling, incorrect. "When the little Crotalus
is born," this author says, " its tail is fur-
nished with a single tip of horn, incapable of
producing any sound by the violent vibration
which its owner nevertheless communicates
to it when excited. In some near relations
of the rattlesnake, such as the purucncu of
Brazil, this horny claw or nail persists
throughout life without addition thereto.
But in the rattlesnakes proper — and there
are many species of them — two, and some-
times three, joints appear during the first
few months of the creature's life ; then and
later there is probably no definite relation
between their number or frequency of de-
velopment and its age, though they may be
proportionate in some measure to its rate of
growth. Broods of young serpents belong-
ing to this genus which I have reared have
exhibited great diversity in this matter ; so
much so, that it has been impossible to base
any calculation on obsei'vations of the phe-
nomena presented by them. The overlap-
ping 4 thimbles ' or cones of which the rattle
is composed are thin, dry, and exceedingly
brittle, and in consequence the instrument is
easily broken off when it has reached the
length of from one to two inches, though
longer specimens are occasionally seen;

twenty joints make an exceptionally big
rattle. This shedding of the rattle is in all
cases accidental, and is due to external
causes, not a constitutional and periodical
function like the casting of the skin. When
it breaks off at the root or in the middle,
there is generally no trace left of a fracture
having taken place, as the thimbles are
all alike, and any one forms a symmetrical
termination to the organ. Whatever pur-
pose the rattle may serve in the snake's
economy — and its use is still involved in
some obscurity — it undoubtedly does not rep-
resent the owner's age, nor the sum total of
his manslaughter."

Energy in Organic Evolution.— In two

papers, Mr. John A. Ryder has endeavored
to demonstrate the potency of energy as a
factor in organic evolution, and to show that
the form of the hen's egg is determined by
mechanical means while the egg membranes
and shell are in process of formation within
the oviduct. The development of the figure
of eggs is regarded by him as a purely dy-
namical problem, or one in which energy
is applied in a definite manner to a mass
in statical equilibrium within the oviduct.
The moment motion is set up to propel the
egg through the duct the forces operative
in determining the figure of the as yet un-
formed shell depend upon the physiological
activity and condition of tone of the muscu-
lar walls of the oviduct.

Cremation of Cholera-dead. — From a pa-
per read by Dr. Robert Newman before the
Northwestern Medical and Surgical Society
of New York in favor of the cremation of
persons dying of cholera, it appears that
there are now fifteen crematories in this
country, and that two thousand and seven-
teen incinerations took place between 188*7
and 1892, of which eight hundred and sixty-
eight were at New York. The Earl Memo-
rial Crematory, at Troy, is the most costly.
Thirty-two active cremation societies are
scattered over the country. Nearly all those
who participated in the discussion of the pa-
per agreed with the author as to the impor-
tance of cremation in cholera. In respect
to the objection — the only really important
and valid one that has been made — that cre-
mation facilitates the concealment of crimi-

NOTES.

863

nal poisoning, the observation of an eminent
but unnamed chemist was quoted, that al-
kaloidal poisons are destroyed by burial as
well as bv cremation, so that the only poi- j
son that would not be discovered after crema- j
tion and which might be detected after ordi- j
nary burial is arsenic.

Ecdurance in Animals.— The tradition,
says an English writer, which assigns to cer-
tain animals a daring and endurance diffi-
cult to match in man, is so old, and on the ;
whole so consistent, that it would be im- j
possible to disregard it, even were the facts
on which it is based less clearly within the
limits of ordinary observation and compre-
hension than they are. It may even be
doubted whether our measurement of ani-
mal courage has yet been sufficiently extend-
ed, for there appear instances in which the
acts of daring are prompted by a sense of
obedience, of discipline, and even of duty —
something similar in kind to that which
marks and distinguishes the highest forms
of courage in man.

NOTES.

AN English edition of the Reminiscences
of Werner von Siemens, to which we are in-
debted for the material of the sketch of him
published in this number, is now in press and
shortly to be published by D. Appleton & Co.
It abounds in stirring incidents and bright
anecdotes.

A WORLD'S CONGRESS OF EVOLUTIONISTS
has been called to meet in the Art Building,
Chicago, September 27th, 28th, and 29th.
Morning, afternoon, and evening sessions
will be held each day. A carefully arranged
programme of subjects has been provided
for the discussions. The first subject, set
down for the morning session of September
27th, is Constructive Evolution. Progress
of the Doctrine in Forty Years. Its Present
Scientific and Popular Status. Its Upbuilding
and Beneficent Character. Other subjects,
under each of which are several subheadings,
furnishing a wide and varied scope for ex-
pression by different speakers from their re-
spective points of view, are Biology as re-
lated to Evolution ; The Heroes of Evolution
(Darwin, Spencer, Wallace, Haeckel, Gray,
Youmans, etc.) ; Psychology as related to
Evolution ; Sociology, with Evolution's Prom-
ise for the Settlement of Social Problems and
the True Conservatism of Evolution; Eco-
nomics as related to Evolution ; Philosophy
as affected by Evolution; Ethics, the Moral

of Evolution ; and the final series, Religion :
how it is affected by the Doctrine of Evolu-
tion, Spiritual Implications in all Progress,
Materialistic Speculations Untenable, The
Immanent and Transcendent Power that
makes for Beauty, Order, and Righteous-
ness. The arrangements for the congress are
under the guidance of Dr. Lewis G. Janes,
James A. Skilton, and other persons of rep-
resentative character. All friends of evolu-
tion are invited to attend.

A WRITER in the London Spectator sug-
gests that, in studying the intelligence of
animals instead of ourselves, we should com-
pare them with men who are more or less in
the same state of education with them. He
lives in Bolivia, in a country close to three
tribes of Indians who are more or less sav-
ages, although engaged in agriculture of a
desultory kind; and he has had it forced
upon him on various occasions that the nobler •
animals — such as the horse and the dog — are
quite as capable of " reasoning " or " think-
ing " out the ordinary problems of maintain-
ing their existence as those savages. "Of
the wild animals, many put whatever brain
power they possess to ' cunning.' Again,
what is ' cunning ' ? Their cunning is very
similar to that of the Indians of this country,
who would rank high among savage races."

ACCORDING to an observation by C. Mar-
gat, of the University of Geneva, when alu-
minum, previously well cleaned, is lightly
rubbed with an amalgam, its surface becomes
covered with an arborescence of alumina,
which can literally be seen to grow, and in
the course of half an hour the forest may
reach the height of a centimetre. The growth
ceases on the application of heat, to be re-
sumed on a new i-ubbing with the amalgam.
If the forest growth is brushed away, the
surface of the metal where the oxidation was
most rapid will be found to have been eaten,
as if with an acid. The mercury acts in some
way to make the aluminum more amenable
to oxidation. The experiment is more con-
veniently performed with an amalgam than
with pure mercury, because the amalgam can
be powdered and brought into more imme-
diate contact with the aluminum.

IN the investigation of the purity of the
I ice supplied to Paris, Lac Daumesnil at Vin-
cennes, whence a considerable proportion of
the natural ice comes, has been found to be
polluted by the entrance of a sewer and by
an artificial stream from the plateau of Gra-
i velle. It is proposed to limit the use of
this ice to applications, in which it is not
| brought into direct contact with the artu-lrs
I to be cooled, and to enforce the use of arti-
ficial ice got exclusively from spring water
I or from river water sterili/ed by heat, when
such contact takes place.

LAKK MKMHMIKMAGOU, on the line be-
t\\crn Vermont and Canada, has been sub-

864.

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

jected to a hydrographic examination by Mr. I
A. T. Drummond. It is a deep-water lake,
giving soundings of six hundred feet, and is
found by Mr. Drumniond to be also a cold-
water lake, giving bottom temperatures in
August of 44-75° Fahr., with the high sur-
face temperature maintained for relatively
only a few feet ; beneath this depth the mer-
cury falls rapidly toward the lowest reading.

A WRITER in the Lancet calls attention to
our still persisting lack of practical knowl-
edge on the hygiene of schools, although a
complete revolution has taken place during
the past fifty years in our ideas relating to the
management of children and the methods to
be adopted in educating the young. This
position of affairs seems to have arisen, not
from any want of knowledge in sanitary af-
fairs, but rather from lack of system in fol-
lowing up the subject. We habitually in-
sist that certain conditions shall be fulfilled
before a dwelling house shall be considered
habitable or a hospital fit for the reception
of patients, and in other matters, but do not
as firmly stipulate that certain rules shall be
followed in the building of schoolhouses.

A NUMBER of the plates — so many of them
being missing as to preclude the formation of
couplete sets — of Audubon's Birds of Amer-
ica, are offered for sale by Estes and Lauriat,
Boston, at largely reduced prices. Of many
of the plates but few copies are in store, and,
the original stones having been destroyed, it
is certain that no more copies will be pub-
lished.

VOLUME V, No. 2, of Insect Life is chiefly
filled with proceedings of the sixth meeting
of the Association of Economic Entomolo-
gists, which was held in connection with the
meeting of the American Association at
Rochester in August, 1892.

METALLURGY is tending to become one of
the most efficient producers of manures in
the world. Twenty years ago, says the Annales
industrielles, twenty thousands tons of phos-
phoric acid were as poison to the two million
tons of cast iron which England produced,
while English ships were ransacking the
most distant regions of the globe for phos-
phoric acid for agriculture. The basic pro-
cess has been the end of this anomaly. Ap-
paratus attached to the furnaces in Scotland
for the recovery of the ammonia out of the
furnace gases have furnished a new and im-
portant source of sulphate of ammonia for
agriculture.

A CURIOUS method of anthropometrical
measurement for the determination of iden-
tity is described by the French Captain Cu-
pet as in use in southern Anam. A sliv
of bamboo is placed between the middle a
fore fingers of the left hand of the person i
desired to identify, and on it notches are cut
to mark the base of the nail and the distance
between the phalanges. The stick is kept,

to be used as occasion requires when the
identity of the person in question is to be
established.

THE emerald mines of Muzo, Colombia,
are situated on the Minero River, about
eighty miles northwest of Bogota, and are
farmed out to a French syndicate. They are
situated in a very rough, wild country, with
nearly impassable roads, and are worked by
open cuts, with provision for washing away
the debris. The rough stones are for the
most part sent to Paris to be cut. About
three hundred natives are employed at the
works, and the yield is about one hundred
thousand dollars a year.

THE advance in the knowledge of the
coal fields of India, promoted by the Geo-
logical Survey of the country, is great. The
centers of production, which a few years
ago were almost confined to Bengal, have
been extended to Assam, the Punjaub, the
central provinces, the Nizam's territory, and
Burmah. The survey has also done much to
determine the character of the oil resources
of the country. The Government is anxious
to associate natives educated in the country
with the European officers in the work of
original investigation and research ; but the
attempt has had to be abandoned for the
present in consequence of the difficulty of
finding young men suitably educated for such

OBITUARY NOTES.

THE Rev. Charles Pritchard, D. D., Savil-
ian Professor of Astronomy in the Universi-
ty of Oxford, whose death was recently an-
nounced, was in his earlier life a teacher in
the English upper middle-class schools, in
which he distinguished himself by his efforts
to exhibit an improved method of' education.
After thirty years of this occupation, he re-
tired to become an active clergyman, but in
1870 was offered and accepted the professor-
ship at Oxford. Here he secured the estab-
lishment of the university observatory ; ap-
plied photography, before the gelatin plate
came into use, to the moon and other bright
objects ; devised and used a method of in-
vestigating the magnitude of the brighter
stars through a process of extinction by
means of a wedge of neutralized glass ; visit-
ed Egypt to determine the amount of atmos-
pheric absorption ; studied the mutual proper
motions of the stars of the Pleiades ; and
began the investigation of the parallax of
stars of the second magnitude.

THE • aath, on August 16th, is announced
°-f " an Martin Charcot, of the Salpetriere,
he eminent specialist in diseases of
•rvous system. He was most distin-
0^. ed for his researches in the field of in-
sanity, hysteria, hypnotism, and of all those
nervous phenomena which have been asso-
ciated by many with magnetic influences.

D EX.

ARTICLES MARKED WITH AN ASTERISK ARE ILLUSTRATED.

PAGE

Aber, William M. Oswego State Normal School * 51

Africa, East, The Masais of. (Misc.) 574

African, East, Finery. (Misc.) 574

" Pluck. (Misc.) 138

Agaves, The. (Misc.) 282

Air, Solid. (Misc.) 428

Alcohol, The Discovery of, and Distillation. P. E. M. Berthelot 85

Alger, Miss Abby L. Grandfather Thunder 651

American Association Meeting, The, at Madison. (Editor's Table) 841

" u Notes from the Madison Meeting of the. (Misc.) 856

" " Officers of the. (Misc.) 857

Andria, Alcide T. M. d'. An Ethnologic Study of the Ynruks * 184

Animal Courage, Paradoxes of. (Misc.) 430

" Speech, Studies of. E. P. Evans 433

Animals, Endurance in. (Misc.) 863

" for Pets. (Misc.) ' 280

" How Plants and, grow. M. Miles 503

Anthropological Material. (Misc.) 857

Anthropology at the World's Fair.* F. Starr 610

Apple Barrel, Decay in the.* B. D. Halsted 76

Asteroids, Origin of the. (Misc.) 140

Australasian Association, The. (Misc.) 712

Author's Protest, An. (Corr.) I. E. Clarke 410

Backward Movement, A. (Editor's Table) 413

Bacteriological Processes against Disease. (Misc.) 143

Benjamin, Marcus. Sketch of Charles A. Joy 405

Berthelot, P. E. M. The Discovery of Alcohol and Distillation 85

Binet, Alfred. The Problem of Colored Audition 812

Boland, Miss M. A. Scientific Cooking 653

Bolton, Henry Carrington, Sketch of. (With Portrait) 688

Books noticed 125, 268, 415, 554, 702, 845

Alexander, James B. The Dynamic Theory Ball, Sir Eobert Stawell. An Atlas of As-

of Life and Mind, 423. tronomy, 560.

Alsop, P. C. Practical Electric-light Bandelier, A. F. Documentary History of

ting, 559. the Zufli Tribe, 418.

Anderson, Wlnslow. M. D. Mineral Sprin; Barnes, Mary Sheldon. Studies in Ameri-

and Health Resorts of California, 274. can History, 277.

Arkansas. Geological Survey. Vol. Ill, Bates, Henry Walter. The Naturalist on

182. the River Amazon, 558.

VOL. XLHI. — 63

866

INDEX.

Books noticed:

Baye, Baron J. De. The Industrial Arts of
the Anglo-Saxons, 270.

Bedell, Frederick, and Albert Gushing Cre-
hore. Alternating Currents, 560.

Beecher, Henry Ward. Bible Studies, 557.

Bernard, Henry Meyners. The Apodidse,
277.

Blackwell, Antoinette Brown. The Philos-
ophy of Individuality, 558.

Blyth, A. Wynter. Lectures on Sanitary
Law, 852.

Boies, Henry M. Prisoners and Paupers,
268.

Bolles, Frank. At the North of Bearcamp
Water, 568.

Bonney, G. E. Electrical Experiments, 847.

Booth. Charles, Editor. Life and Labor of
the People in London. Vols. Ill and IV,
561.

Bottone, S. R. How to Manage the Dy-
namo, 710.

Bowker, William. The Harvest of the Sea,
419.

Boyd, Nelson. Coal Pits and Pitmen, 132.

Bradford, E. F., M. D., and Louis Lewis,
M. D. Handbook of Emergencies and
Common Ailments, 561.

Brooklyn Ethical Association. Man and
the State, 710.

Brown, A. J. Jukes. The Student's Hand-
book of Physical Geology, 275.

Buckley, J. M. Faith-healing, Christian
Science, and Kindred Phenomena, 270.

Burnz,Mrs. E. B. The Step-by-step Primer.
132.

Calderwood, Henry. Evolution and Man's
Place in Nature, 705.

Carus, Paul. Truth in Fiction, 564.

Cheal, J. Practical Fruit Culture, 134.

Clarke, Isaac Edwards. Education in the
Industrial and Fine Arts in the United
States, 181.

Clercq, F. 8. A. de, and J. D. E. Schmeltz.
Ethnographische Beschrijving van de
West en Noordkust van Nederlandsch
Nieuw-Guinea, 272.

Colas, Jules A. Poole Brothers' Celestial
Planisphere, 850.

—Poole Brothers' Celestial Handbook, 850.

Cree, Nathan. Direct Legislation by the
People, 422.

Dana, Mrs. William Starr. How to know
the Wild Flowers, 708.

Day, David T. Mineral Resources of the
United States, 852.

Dean, Bashford. Physical and Biological
Characteristic of the Natural Oyster
Grounds of South Carolina, 420.

—A Report on the Present Methods of Oys-
ter Culture in France, 420.

Delafield, .Francis, M. D., and T. Mitchell
Prudden, M. D. A Handbook of Patho-
logical Anatomy and Histology, 125.
Densmore, Emmet, M. D. How Nature
cures, 417.

Dobbin, Leonard, and Jamea Walker. Chem
ical Theory for Beginners, 133.

Dreyspring, Adolphe. The French Reader
on the Cumulative Method, 564.

Dumble, Edwin T. Report on the Brown
Coal and Lignite of Texas, 420.

Edwards, William Seymour. Coals and
Cokes in West Virginia, 421.

Elliot, Sydney Barrington. Ideology, 276.

English Classics for Schools, 276.

Evans, Elizabeth E., 422.

Evermann, Barton W. Fish-hatching Sta-
tions in the Rocky Mountain Region and
Gulf States, 420.

Fisher, A. K. Hawks and Owls of the
United States, 852.

Fouillee, Alfred. Education from a Na-
tional Standpoint, 415.

Galton, Francis. Hereditary Genius, 559.

Gore, J. Ellard. The Visible Universe, 127.

Gould, F. J. A Concise History of Re-
ligion, 853.

Hague, Arnold. Geology of the Eureka
District, 423.

Hart, Ernest. Hypnotism, Mesmerism, and
the New Witchcraft, 845.

Havilaud, Alfred, M. D. Geographical Dis-
tribution of Disease in Great Britain, 423.

Heaviside, Oliver. Electrical Papers, 560.

Henry, A. J. Normal Temperature Charts,
by Decades, for the United States and the
Dominion of Canada, 564.

Herrick, C. L. Mammals of Minnesota,
422.

Hilgard, E. W. Relations of Soil to Cli-
mate, 419.

Hilton, John. Rest and Pain, 130.

Hoblyn, Richard D. A Dictionary of Terms
used in Medicine and the Collateral Sci-
ences, 272.

Hobson, E. W., and C. M. Jessop. Ele-
mentary Treatise on Trigonometry, 277.

Hopkins, W. J. Telephone Lines and their
Properties, 709.

Hopkinson, John. Original Papers on Dy-
namo Machinery and Allied Subjects,
704.

Houston, Edwin J. Electrical Measure-
ments, 703.

— Electricity and Magnetism, 703.

Howard, O. O. General Taylor, 269.

Hudson, W. H. Idle Days in Patagonia,
704.

Hutchinson, G. W. Caldwell. Some Hints
on Learning to Draw, 851.

Hutchinson, H. N. Extinct Monsters, 556.

Interstate Commerce Commission. Third
Annual Report on the Statistics of Rail-
ways in the United States, 133.

Jamieson, Andrew, An Elementary Man-
ual on Applied Mechanics, 559.

Keenan, W. J., and James Riley. The
Transmitted Word, 710.

Kirby, W. F. Elementary Text-book of
Entomology, 274.

INDEX.

867

Books noticed:

Lea, A. Sheridan. The Chemical Basis of
the Animal Body, 276.

Lecky, W. E. H. The Political Value of
History, 706.

Le Row, Caroline B. Werner's Readings
and Recitations, 854.

Lodge, Oliver. Pioneers of Science, 129.

Loney, S. L. Mechanics and Hydrostatics,
848.

Lowell, J. R. Conversations on Some of
the Old Poets, 854.

Lubbock, Sir John. A Contribution to our
Knowledge of Seedlings, 416.

Lydston, G. Frank. Varicocele and its
Treatment, 276.

Mahan, A. T. Admiral Farrngut, 269.

Maine, Sir Henry. Speeches, 417.

Manson, Marsden. Geological and Solar
Climates, 853.

Marine Biological Laboratory. Fifth An-
nual Report, 419.

Marshall, A. Milnes, M. D. Vertebrate Em-
bryology, 702.

Mason, Otis T. The Birth^of Invention,
562.

Miles, Manly. The Heredity of Acquired
Characters, 277.

Minot, Charles Sedgwick. Human Embry-
ology, 128.

Missouri. Geological Survey Report. Vols.
II and m.

—A Report on the HigginsvDle Sheet, La-
fayette County, 564.

New York State Reformatory at Elmira.
Seventeenth Year-book, 421.

Newth, G. S. Chemical Lecture Experi-
ments, 131.

Nuttall, George H. F., M. D. Hygienic
Measures in Relation to Infectious Dis-
eases, 130.

Palmberg, Albert. A Treatise on Public
Health .and its Applications in Different
European Countries, 558.

Pancoast, Henry S. Representative Eng-
lish Literature from Chaucer to Tenny-
son, 557.

Partou, James. General Jackson, 269.

Pattern-maker, A Foreman. The Principles
of Pattern-making, 133.

Pearce, Alfred J. Longmans' School Men-
suration, 132.

Peddle, William. Manual of Physics, 562.

Peet, Stephen D. The Mound-builders:
their Works and Relics. Vol. I, 273.

Pellew, Charles E. A Manual of Practi-
cal Medical and Physiological Chemistry,
272.

Picturesque Chicago and Guide to the
World's Fair, 854.

Poyser, Arthur William. Magnetism and
Electricity, 559.

Proctor, Richard A. Old and New Astron-
omy, 849.

Quatrefages, A. de. Darwin et see Precur-
seurs fran9ais, 556.

Rafter, George W. The Microscopical Ex-
amination of Potable Wa.er, 133.
Roberts, R. D. The Earth's History, 275.
RoLinson. New Primary Arithmetic, 276.
— New Rudiments of Arithmetic, 276.
—New Practical Arithmetic, 276.
Rothwell, Richard P. The Mineral Indus-
try. Vol.1, 848.
Sayce, A. H. The Primitive Home of the

Aryans, 562.
Seelye, Elizabeth Eggleston. The Story of

Columbus, 126.
Shaler, Nathaniel S. The Interpretation of

Nature, 707.
Song Budget, The, 134.
—Century, The, 134.
—Patriot, The, 134.
Spencer, Herbert. The Principles of Ethics.

Vol. II, 554.
Stebbing, Thomas R. R. A History of

Crustacea, 703.

Styx. Hermetic Philosophy. Vol. Ill, 853.
Swank, James M. Twenty Years of Prog-
ress in the Manufacture of Iron and Steel
in the United States, 419.
Swift, Morrison L. Is it Right to rob Rob-
bers ? 854.
Talmage, James E. Domestic Science,

130.
Taussig, F. W. The Silver Situation in the

United States, 709.
Texas Geological Survey. Third Annual

Report, 421.
Thompson, Edward Maunde. Handbook of

Greek and Latin Palaeography, 850.
Thompson, Edward P. How to make In-
ventions, 848.
Thompson, Herbert M. The Theory of

Wages and its Application, 416.
United States Fish Commission. Bulletin,

Vol. X, 853.
United States Geological Survey. United

States Relief Map, 563.
United States National Museum. Proceed-
ings, 562.
—Report, 851.
Usher, J. E., M. D. Alcoholism and its

Treatment, 422.

Vogel. E. Practical Pocketbook of Pho-
tography, 274.
Waltcn, John. Mollusca of Monroe County,

421.

Whiting, Charles E. The Complete Musi-
cal Reader, 134.

Who ? When ? and What ? 563.
Williams, Montague S. Monier, Winter R.
Pidgeon, and Arthur Dryden. Figure
Skating, Simple and Combined, 133.
Willink, Arthur. The World of the Un-
seen, 422.
Winchell, Horace V. Iron Ores of the

Mesabi Range, 419.
Wright, J. Horticulture, 708.
Ziehen, Theodor. Introduction to Physio-
logical Psychology, 131.

868 INDEX.

PAGE

Borneo, North, The Jagir Duseens of. (Misc.) 427

Borodine, N. The Ural Cossacks and their Fisheries* 767

Brain, Human, Structural Plan of the.* 0. S. Minot 372

Branner, John 0. The Lip and Ear Ornaments of the Botocudus* 753

Breath Figures. (Misc.) 136

Oattell, James McKeen. The Progress of Psychology 770

Celluloid Button, The Danger of the. (Misc.) 283

Ceremonial Use, The, of Tobacco. J. Hawkins 173

Children and Flowers. (Misc.) 137

u Cruelty to. (Misc.) 717

Children's Questions 238

Chinese Naval College, A. (Misc.) ". 427

" Newspapers. (Misc.) 571

Cholera, Origin of. (Misc.). . 285

'• The Comma Bacillus, and Sanitation. (Misc.). 137

" The Pilgrim Path of.* E. Hart 634

Civic Duty. (Editor's Table) 699

Clarke, Henry L. A Characteristic Southwestern Plant Group * 786

Clarke, I. Edwards. An Author's Protest. (Corr.) 410

Claypole, E. W. Major Powell on "Are there Evidences of Man in the Gla-
cial Gravels? " (Corr.) 696

Color Changes, The, of Frogs.* C. M. Weed 490

" of Birds, Evolution of the. (Misc.) 283

Colored Audition, The Problem of. A. Binet 812

Communities, Exclusive. (Misc.) 137

Consumption at Davos Platz. (Misc.) , 572

Conventionalities, The Reasons of. (Misc.) 570

Cooking, Scientific. M. A. Boland 653

Copper in the United States. (Misc.) 425

" Works of the Aborigines. (Misc.) 859

Correction, A.* (Misc.) 858

Cremation of Cholera-dead. (Misc.) 862

Crime increasing, Is ? 399

Criminal Festivals. G. Ferrero > . . 758

" Crocodile Tears/' (Misc.) 714

Crystallization of Metallic Oxides. (Misc.) 574

Customs, East Central African. J. Macdonald 240

" Funeral, of the Haida Indians. (Misc.) 568

Davies, N. E. Yorke. Why Grow Old? 226

Dead, The Company of the. (Misc.) 566

Death in Battle, The Phenomena of. G. L. Kilmer 196

Delbceuf, J. The Psychology of Lizards 682

Deserts, American and African. (Misc.) 141

" Vegetation of. (Misc.) 861

Dietary for the Sick. D. Duckworth Ill

Duckworth, Sir Dyce, M. D. Dietary for the Sick Ill

Eastlake, W. Delano. Japanese Home Life.* 1

" Moral Life of the Japanese* 327

INDEX. 869

PAGE

Eaton, Frank IT. The Bay of Fundy Tides and Marshes 250

Economics, Sound. (Misc.) 428

Education and Selection. A. Fouillee, 349

" Sound Words on. (Editor's Table) 121

Electricity at the World's Fair.* 0. M. Lungren 721

Practical, Progress in. (Misc.) 286

Emigration, Reasons for. (Misc.) 858

Energy in Organic Evolution. (Misc.) 862

Ethnologic Study, An, of the Yuruks.* A. T. d'Andria 184

Evans, E. P. Modern Miracles 192

Studies of Animal Speech 433

Explosion of Kitchen Boilers. (Misc.) 712

Fans, Early. (Misc.) f 140

" Manufacture of. (Misc.) 139

Farmer, The, How Science is helping. C. S. ^lumb 100

Fashions, Origin of. (Misc.) 429

Fauna, Curious, of La Plata. (Misc.) 139

Feeding Value of Tree Leaves. (Misc.) 860

Fernald, Frederik A. Household Arts at the World's Fair 803

Ferrero, Guillaume. Criminal Festivals . 758

Fire, The, of Incandescent Lamps. (Misc.) ' 571

Fisheries, The Ural Cossacks and their.* N. Borodine 767

Floral Festivals. (Misc.) 426

Folk Lore of the Kootenay Indians. (Misc.) 279

" Study in America.* L. J. Vance 586

Folsom, J. W. Adaptations of Seeds and Fruits 218

Fossil Forests of the Yellowstone.* S. E. Tillman 301

Fossils, Preservation of Leaves as. (Misc.) 136

Fouillee, Alfred. Education and Selection 349

Fox, William J. Some Remarkable Insects.* 527

Game, A Whipping. (Misc.) 430

Game, Large. (Misc.) 566

Geikie, Sir Archibald, Sketch of. (With Portrait) 257

Geological Exploration, American, Tribute of the French Academy to 95

Geology, Unsolved Problems in. (Misc.) 718

Ghosts, The " Savagery " of believing in. (Editor's Table) 415

Glacial Gravels, Are there Evidences of Man in the? J. W. Powell 316

" Major Powell on "Are there Evidences of Man in the?

(Corr.) E. W. Claypole 696

" Man in Ohio, Evidences of.* G. F. Wright 29

" Moraine, the Pennsylvania, The Tracing of. (Corr.) Mrs. J. F.

Lewis 411

" Periods, Number of. (Misc.) 135

Great Work, A, concluded. (Editor's Table) 552

Groff, G. G. Honey and Hoaey Plants 545

Growth of Boys and Girls, Facts about. (Misc.) 573

Guthrie, Frederick. Teaching Physics 388

Gypsy Moth, Fighting the. (Misc.) 716

8 7o INDEX.

Hair, Cleansing Function of the. (Misc.) ................................ 431

Halsted, Byron D. Decay in the Apple Barrel * ......................... 76

Hart, Ernest. The Pilgrim Path of Cholera* ............................ 634

" The Revival of Witchcraft ........................... 206, 516

Hawkins. John. The Ceremonial Use of Tobacco ........................ 173

Heat Phenomena of the Diamond. (Misc.) .............................. 567

Honey and Honey Plants. G. G. Groff ................................ 545

"Hot Waves," Origin of. (Misc.) ...................................... 139

Household Arts at the World's Fair. F. A. Fernald ...................... 803

Humane Ideas and Feelings, The Cultivation of. W. Mills ................ 46

Hygienic Value of the Bicycle. (Misc.) ................................. 714

Ice, Impurities in. (Misc.) ............................................ 138

lies, George. Success with Scientific and other Meetings ................. 463

Index, Our New. (Editor's Table) ..................................... 844

Indians, Northwestern, Some Characteristics of .......................... 823

Indo-Chma. (Misc.) ................................................. 713

Insane, The Duty of the State to the. A. Macfarlane ..................... 741

Insects, Some Remarkable.* W. J. Fox .......... ................ ! ..... 527

Intellectual Work, Vitality in. (Misc.) ................................ 713

Irrigation in the Arid States.* C. H. Shinn ............................. 145

Jackman, Wilbur S. Food of the Garter Snake. (Corr.) ................. 265

Japanese Home Life.* W. D. Eastlake .................................. 1

" Moral Life of the.* W. D. Eastlake ........................... 327

Johnson, Samuel William, Sketch of. (With Portrait) .................... 117

Joy, Charles A., Sketch of. (With Portrait). . ........................... 405

Kilmer, George L. The Phenomena of Death in Battle ................... 196

Kropotkin, Prince. Recent Science ................................ 391, 622

Language, The Whistled, of the Canary Islands. (Misc.) .................. 142

Lea, Henry Charles. The Spanish Inquisition as an Alienist ............. 289

Learn and Search. R. Vircho w ........................................ 440

•Leaves and Roots, Relations of. (Misc.) ................................ 279

Letourneau, Charles. Origin of Literary Forms .......................... 673

Lewis, Mrs. Julia F. The Tracing of the Pennsylvania Glacial Moraine.

(Corr.) ...................................................... 411

Life, Hurry and the Chance of. (Misc.) ................................. 567

Lightning, Protection from.* A. McAdie ............................... 453

Literary Forms, Origin of. 0. Letourneau .............................. 673

Littlehales, G. W. Growth of our Knowledge of the Deep Sea ............ 89

" Why a Film of Oil can calm the Sea * ................. 494

Lizard, Precautions against the. (Misc.) ............................... 284

Lizards, The Psychology of. J. Delbceuf ...................... .......... 682

Long, J. H. Evil Spirits .............................................. 357

Lungren, Charles M. Electricity at the World's Fair * ........... ....... 72 1

Lupton, Prof. K T. (Misc.) ........................................... 859

Lusk, Graham. The Material View of Life and its Relation to the Spiritual.. 533

INDEX. 871

PAGE

Me Adie, Alexander. Protection from Lightning * : 453

Macdonald, James. East Central African Customs 240

Macfarlane, Andrew, M. D. The Duty of the State to the Insane 741

Mantegazza, Paolo, Sketch of. (With Portrait) 549

Mars, The Channels of. (Misc.) 281

Material View, The, of Life and its Relation to the Spiritual. G. Lusk 533

Meetings, Scientific and Other, Success with. G. lies . . . .. 463

Mercer, H. 0. Prehistoric Jasper Mines in the Lehigh Hills* 662

Miles, Manly. How Plants and Animals grow 503

Mills, Wesley. The Cultivation of Humane Ideas and Feelings 46

Minot, Charles Sedgwick. Structural Plan of the Human Brain * 372

Miracles, Modern. E. P. Evans 192

Misery, Aids to. (Editor's Table) 839

Moral Evolution. (Editor's Table) ... 124

Morocco, Life in. (Misc.) 285

Mountain Regions, Unexplored. (Misc.) 861

" Scenery, Contrasts in. (Misc.) 281

" Natural Selection," The Inadequacy of. H. Spencer : 21, 162

Obituary Notes. — Axel Wilhelmovitch Gadolin, Nikolai Ivanovitch Koksha-

roff, Francois van Rysselberghe, Henry F. Blackford. 144

F. O. Morris 288

Ludwig Lindenschmit, Alphonse Louis Pierre Pyramus de

Candolle 432

• T. Wolle, Giuseppe Antonio Pasquale, Karl Semper 720

Charles Pritchard, Jean Martin Charcot 864

Ocean, Derelicts on the. (Misc.) 713

Oil, Why a Film of, can calm the Sea.* G. W. Littlehales 494

Old, Why Grow ? N. E. Yorke-Davies 226

Orchards, Protection of* against Frost. (Misc.) 138

Ornaments, The Lip and Ear, of the Botocudus.* J. C. Branner. 753

Oswego State Normal School.* W. M. Aber 51

Parental Discipline, The Limits of. (Misc.) 715

Pasteur's Seventieth Birthday. (Misc.) 140

Perfumes, Coal-tar. (Misc.) 425

Photographing Savages. (Misc.) 570

Plant Group, A Characteristic Southwestern.* H. L. Clarke 786

Platinum and its Sources. (Misc.) 575

Plumb, Charles S. How Science is helping the Farmer 100

Poor, Private Relief of the. H. Spencer 307

Powell, J. W. Are there Evidences of Man in the Glacial Gravels? 316

Prehistoric Jasper Mines in the Lehigh Hills.* H. C. Mercer 662

" Jeweled Teeth. (Misc.) 569

Prisons, Reformatory, and Lornbroso's Theories. H. Zimmern 598

Psychology, The Progress of. J. M. Cattell 779

Rattlesnake's Rattle, The. (Misc.) 862

River's Character, Factors of a. (Misc.) 282

872 INDEX.

PAGE

Schooling, Excessive. (Misc.) 429

Schools, Elementary, Science in. (Misc.) 716

" Spinal Curvature in. (Misc.) 280

Science, Recent. Prince Kropotkin 391, 622

Scientific Alliance, The. (Editor's Table) 122

a Controversy, Amenities of. (Misc.) 281

" Meetings, The, at Madison, Wis. (Misc.) 565

Sea, The Deep, Growth of our Knowledge of. G. W. Littlehales 39

Sealing in the Antarctic 530

Seeds and Fruits, Adaptations of. J. W. Folsom 218

Self-purification. (Misc.) 568

Shinn, Charles Howard. Irrigation in the Arid States* 145

Siemens, Werner von, Sketch of. (With Portrait) 831

Silver, Why, ceases to be Money. F. W. Taussig 577

Sirius and its Companion. (Misc.) 285

Slates, Qualities of. (Misc.) 139

Snake, the Garter, Food of. (Corr.) W. S. Jackman 265

Snakes, Young, Behavior of. (Misc.) 284

Social Problems. (Editor's Table) 266

Spanish Inquisition, The, as an Alienist. H. C. Lea 289

Spencer, Herbert. The Inadequacy of " Natural Selection " 21, 162

" " Private Relief of the Poor 307

" " Professor Weismann's Theories 473

Spirits, Evil. J. H. Long '. 357

Starr, Frederick. Anthropology at the World's Fair * 610

" " Sketch of Paolo Mantegazza 549

Steamboats on Long Island Sound. (Misc.) 717

Steamer, The First Transatlantic. (Corr.) F. C. Wurtele 265

Superstitions about Snakes. (Misc.) 717

u concerning the " Black Devil." (Misc.) 426

" East African. (Misc.) 569

Taussig, F. W. Why Silver ceases to be Money 577

Teaching Physics. F. Guthrie 388

Telautograph, The. (Misc.) 278

Telephotography. (Misc.) 431

Thunder, Grandfather. A. L. Alger 651

Thunderstorm, The Critical Point in a. (Misc.) 282

Tides and Marshes, The Bay of Fundy. F. H. Eaton 250

Tillman, Samuel E. Fossil Forests of the Yellowstone * 301

Trees, Willow, Growth of. (Misc.) 427

Yance, Lee J. Folk-lore Study in America * 586

Yarigny, C. de. American Woman, The 383

Virchow, Rudolph. Learn and Search 440

Water, a Polluted, What constitutes ? (Misc.) 142

Waterworks, Mongol. (Misc.) 713

Weed, Clarence M. The Color Changes of Frogs* 490

Weismann's, Prof., Theories. H. Spencer 473

INDEX. 873

PAGE

Whirlpools, The, of Charybdis and Scylla. (Misc.) 572

White's, Gilbert, Character. (Misc.) 860

Wind Effects. (Misc.) 141

Witchcraft, The Revival of. E. Hart 206, 516

Witch hazel, Paradoxes of the. (Misc.) 573

Woman, The American. 0. de Varigny 383

Words, Psychology of Some. (Misc.) 428

Wright, G. Frederick. Evidences of Glacial Man in Ohio * 29

" Prof., The Attack on. (Editor's Table) 412

Wurtele, F. C. First Transatlantic Steamer. (Corr.) 265

Zimmern, Miss Helen. Reformatory Prisons and Lombroso's Theories 598

END OF VOL. XLIII.

VOL. XLIIL] ESTABLISHED BY EDWARD L. YOUMANS. [No. 6.

POPULAR '* SCIENCE
MONTHLY. (M, ,b

(Public Lift

OCTOBER, 1893.

EDITED BY WILLIAM JAY YOUMANS.

C O N T E N T S . ,.AOE

I. Electricity at the World's Fair. I. By C. M. LUNGREN. (Illus.). 721
II. The Duty of the State to the Insane. By Dr. A. MACFA.RLANE. . 741

III. The Lip and Ear Ornaments of the Botocudus. By JOHN C.

BRANNER, Ph. D 753

IV. Criminal Festivals. By M. GUILLAUME FERRERO. 758

V. The Ural Cossacks and their Fisheries. By Dr. N. BORODINE.

(Illustrated.) 767

VI. The Progress of Psychology. By Prof. JAMES McK. CATTELL. . . 779
VII. A Characteristic Southwestern Plant Group. By HENRY L.

CLARKE. (Illustrated.) 786

VIII. Household Arts at the World's Fair. By F. A. FERNALD 803

IX. The Problem of Colored Audition. By M. ALFRED BINET 812

X. Some Characteristics of Northwestern Indians 823

XL Sketch of Werner von Siemens. (With Portrait.) 831

XII. Editor's Table: Aids to Misery.— The American Association Meeting at Madi-
son.— Our New Index •> 839

XIII. Literary Notices 845

XIV. Popular Miscellany 856

XV. Notes 863

XVI. Index to Vol. XLIII.. . 865

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Stocks and Bonds 86,680,177 51

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Losses paid ,\ $7,896,589 29

Endowments paid 1,114,301 99

Annuities, Dividends, Surrender Values, etc 4,984,12105

Total paid Policy-holders $13,995,01233

Commissions 4,178,316 60

Agency Expenses, Physicians' Fees, Advertising and Printing 1,851,246 18

Taxes, Salaries, and other Expenses '. 1,629,715 65

Total Disbursements $21,654,290 76

Number of Policies issued during 1892, 66,259. New Insurance, $173,605,070.

Total number of Policies in force January i, 1893, 224,008. Amount at Risk, $689,248,629.

NOTE AS TO STATEMENT.— The above Statement corresponds in all respects with
the Official Report of the Company as it will be published by the State Insurance Depart-
ment. No Assets, not acceptable under the law of the State, or the Regulations of the
Department, are included, and the SURPLUS ($16,804,948 1O) IS THE EXACT SUM
THAT WILL BE SHOWN BY THE SUPERINTENDENT'S ANNUAL REPORT.

JOHN A. McCALL, President.

HENRY TUCK, Vice-President. C. C. WHITNEY, Secretary.

A. H. WELCH, Second Vice-President. T. M. BANTA, Cashier.

G. W. PERKINS, Third Vice-President. J. A. BROWN, Auditor.

R. W. WEEKS, Actuary. D. P. K1NGSLEY, Superintendent of Agencies.

C. N. JONES, Associate Actuary. A. HUNTINGTON, M.D., Medical Director.

H. C. RICHARDSON, Assistant Actuary. S. H. CARNEY, M. D., Associate Medical Director.

E. N. GIBBS, Treasurer. M. L. KING, M. D., Assistant Medical Director.

H. S. THOMPSON, Comptroller. O. H. ROGERS, M. D., Assistant Medical Director.

TRUSTEES.

WILLIAM H. APPLETON, JOHN CLVFLIN, WM. B. HORNBLOWER, HENRY C. MORTIMER, HIRAM R. STEELE,

C. C. BALDWIN, CHAS. S. FAlRrHILD, WALTER H. LEWIS, RICHARD MUSER, WM. L. STRONG,

WILLIAM A. BOOTH, E H WARD N. GIBBS, WOODBURY LANGDON, AUGUSTUS G. PAINE, HENRY TUCK,

WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY, WILLIAM R. GRACE, JOHN A. McCALL. EDMUND D.RANDOLPH, A. H. WELCH,

WILLIAM C. WHITNEY.

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