■
- ■
•
'
BbSBSSSSSSSa
aPQaoooaaaaa
OOOC BBBBS OOOt
immmm
tid. cit., p. 29. Bui this observation seems to me to need confii
mation.
STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. n
dren are apt to be terrified by the strange and quite irregular
behavior of a feather as it glides along the floor or lifts itself
into the air.*
In these cases we may suppose that we have to do with a germ
of superstitious fear which seems commonly to have its starting
point in the appearance of something exceptional and uncanny
that is unintelligible, and so smacking of the supernatural. The
fear of feathers as uncanny objects plays, I am told, a consider-
able part in the superstitions of folklore. Such apparently self-
caused movement, so suggestive of life, might easily give rise to
a vague sense of a mysterious presence or power possessing the
object, and so lead to a crude form of a belief in supernatural
agents.
In other cases of unexpected and mysterious movement the
fear is slightly different. A little boy, when a year and eleven
months, was frightened when visiting a lady's house by a toy ele-
phant which shook its head. The same child, writes his mother,
" at one year and seven months was very much scared by a toy
cow which mooed realistically when its head was moved. This
cow was subsequently given to him at about two years and three
months. He was then still afraid of it, but became reconciled
soon after, first allowing others to make it moo if he was at a
safe distance, and at last making it moo himself."
There may possibly have been a germ of the fear of animals
here ; but I suspect that it was mainly a fear of the signs of life
(movement and sound) appearing when they are not expected and
have an uncanny aspect. The close simulation of a living thing
by what is known to be not alive is disturbing to the child as to
the adult. He will make his toys alive by his own fancy, but re-
sent their taking on the full semblance of reality. In this sense
he is a born idealist and not a realist. More careful observations
on this curious group of child-fears are to be desired.
Concerning an African idea of the origin of monkeys or chimpanzees, Mr.
Herbert Ward relates a fable of the natives of Balangi and adjacent tribes of the
upper Congo, to the effect that many generations ago a tribe of natives who
lived on the banks of the Congo River, near Bolobo, fell into a condition of debt
and difficulties with their neighbors. In order to escape the persecutions of their
wrathful creditors, they retired into the great forest. Time passed, but they still
remained poor. Forest life degenerated them. Flair grew upon their bodies.
They arranged to forego speech, lest they should be recognized. They are still in
the forest, and are known as BaJeewa, or monkey men. Upon being asked if they
ate chimpanzees, a member of the Balangi tribe replied : " No ; we are not can-
nibals ! "
* See The Pedagogical Seminary, i, No. 2, p. 220.
12
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
ARCHEOLOGY IN DENMARK.
By Prof. FREDERICK STARR.
A MUSEUM of national history is, in a sense, a symptom of pa-
triotism. No wonder, then, that in Denmark, where every
child absorbs love of country with his mother's milk and inhales
it at every breath, such museums are in high favor. Two great
governmental museums at Copenhagen illustrate the history
proper of Denmark ; one, the Museum of Northern Antiquities,
is chiefly devoted to objects back of history.
Prehistoric archseology may almost be said to have taken its
rise in the sturdy little northern kingdom. Here it was that
Thomsen in 1836 first proposed the terms age of stone, age of
bronze, age of iron, now universally used in the science. Thom-
sen was a man of profound learning, of most simple and beautiful
character, and of immense energy. More than any other single
man influential in the establishment of the museum, he shaped
its early policy, and his name remains closely associated with its
history. Director Thomsen believed in the educational value of
the collections, and was
ever ready to answer the
question of a child or
to explain to the com-
mon people the meaning
and importance of the
objects here displayed.
This policy has been con-
tinued to the present,
and the result is that the
Museum of Northern
Antiquities is known
and loved by all good
Danes (Fig. 1).
The greatest name in
Danish archaeology is
that of Worsaae. Of
keen intellect, thorough-
ly scientific in his mode
of thought, of remark-
able executive ability, he
gave final shape to the whole subject. Under his direction the
museum grew enormously; most important explorations were
conducted ; steps were taken for the permanent preservation under
governmental patronage of important tumuli, dolmens, and other
• ml iipi'ii ics and monuments both historic and prehistoric. J. J. A.
Fig. L.— C. J. Thomsen.
ARCHAEOLOGY IN DENMARK. 13
Worsaae was, moreover, a writer of force, and his archaeological
books and lesser writings are classical. The prehistoric chronol-
ogy of Denmark suggested by him is practically that now used
by all students ; it is about as follows :
Stone age. (a) Earlier 3000 to 2000 b. c.
(b) Later 2000 to 1000 B. C.
Bronze age. (a) Earlier 1000 to 500 b. c.
(b) Later 500 to 100 b. c.
Iron age. (a) Pre-Roman 100 B. c. to 100 a. D.
(b) Later 100 a. d.
Thus fortunate in its early directors, the museum is no less
fortunate in having for its present director a worthy follower of
these two great men. Sophus
Miiller is ably carrying on
the work of Thomsen and
Worsaae. Assisted by a com-
petent corps of helpers, the
museum is vigorously prose-
cuting the work of field col-
lecting, noting, mapping, and
preservation of Denmark's
antiquities. Dr. Miiller has
recently produced two im-
portant volumes entitled
Ordning af Danmarks Old-
sager. Volume I is devoted
to the stone age, Volume II
to the bronze age. The third
volume, upon the iron age, „ a T T . w
' L & ' Fig. 2. — J. J. A. Worsaae.
is in preparation. In these
works every type of Danish archeology is carefully described and
the very great majority accurately figured. The text is Danish,
but a resume in French accompanies it ; the pictures, of course,
speak all languages (Fig. 3).
In Danish archaeology there is no palaeolithic period. Glacial
deposits abound in Denmark, but so far evidence of man's exist-
ence there at that time is lacking. Very shortly after the ice
retreated man must have appeared, and from that time on both
the islands and Jutland have been occupied by busy, active, pro-
gressive men.
The oldest monuments seem to be the shell heaps or kjoekken-
moeddinger. These abound along certain parts on the coast, espe-
cially along the Kategat and elsewhere in Zealand and in Jut-
land. They are heaps sometimes hundreds of metres in length,
dozens of metres in width, and as much as three metres in thick-
ness. They consist mainly of the broken or entire shells of ma-
H
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY
vine mollusks— the oyster, cockle, mussel, and periwinkle being
the most common. Scattered through, this mass of shells are
bones of mammals, birds, and fishes, fragments of rude pottery,
flint flakes, an occasional im-
plement of bone, or a roughly
chipped axe or knife of flint.
Here and there are to be seen
signs of fires. The word
Jcjoeklcenmoedden means a
kitchen-refuse heap, and that
is just what we have. These
" kitchen middens " are old
camp sites. Here men once
lived. These shells and bones
are refuse from their meals ;
these bits of pottery are parts
of their dishes ; these flint
and bone tools were lost or
discarded by the earliest
Danes. Although living
mainly upon mollusks, the
man of the shell heaps was
also a hunter. We have re-
ferred to bones of beasts and
birds in the heaps. The emi-
nent zoologist Prof. Steen-
strup, still living though now a very old man, carefully studied
the " kitchen middens." He made an estimate of the frequency
of bones in the heaps ; each cubic foot contains ten to twelve
bones of birds and mammals. It will easily be seen that the num-
ber of individuals represented in a large heap is really very great.
The mammals found most frequently are the stag, reindeer, and
wild boar. The relics from the shell heaps are of very rude work-
manship. Flint flakes (Fig. 4) are common ; a little chipping
Fid. 3. — SOPIIUS MtJLLER.
Fig. 4. — Flake. Flint.
makes one of these into an axe, a knife, a saw, or an adze (Figs.
5 and 6). Occasionally little broad-edged chipped flints are found
i Km. ; ). The type is one found in other parts of Europe, and it
has given rise to considerable discussion among archaeologists.
There can be little doubt, however, that they are really blunt-
ARCHsEOLOGY IiV DENMARK.
J5
Fig. 5.— Knife or
Scraper. Flint.
point arrowheads ; one Danish specimen has been found still at-
tached to its slender shaft. The pottery fragments from the shell
heaps are usually small, plain, and very rude
and coarse. Bone piercers and combs are found
occasionally. All the relics and the conditions
of life hinted at by the food supply indicate
that the primitive Danes were a low and savage
people. Sir John Lubbock reproduces a picture
of their life, no doubt very similar to that of
the modern Fuegians. He says : " On the low
shores of the Danish archipelago dwelt a race
of small men, with heavy, overhanging brows,
round heads, and faces probably much like those
of the present Laplanders ; living in tents of
skin, they had weapons and implements of stone,
bone, horn, and wood. Their food, consisting
mainly of shellfish, comprised also fish and
game. Probably eating was gorging and mar-
row was a delicacy. They were not summer
visitors, but may likely enough have migrated frequently." (Not
literal quotation.)
Yet this savage or barbarous man was not entirely without
brute helpers. Among the mammalian bones
in the heaps are those of the dog. Of course,
the question arises whether these are the re-
mains of wild dogs hunted as food, or those
of domesticated or semi-domesticated dogs liv-
ing about the settlement. Steenstrup's at-
tempts to answer the question are sufficiently
well known. He observed that nearly all the
long bones of animals and birds were reduced
to shafts, the heads or extremities having dis-
appeared ; he observed also that short bones
were rare or almost lacking — there being fully
twenty or twenty-five long bones for every
short one. Struck by these facts, he experi-
mented with dogs, giving them bones to gnaw.
He found that they devoured short bones and
gnawed the heads off the long bones, leaving
the shafts in precisely the condition of those
from the shell heaps. He concluded that dogs,
at least half tamed, lived around the village
and gnawed the bones thrown upon the refuse
heaps.
The Danish shell heaps are old. Worsaae
Flint. estimates that they date to 3000 to 2000 B. c.
i6
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
It is certain that since they were heaped up important changes
have taken place in Denmark — changes in geography, in fauna,
in flora. The sea line has changed ; these heaps were formed at
the water's edge — to-day many of them are at a considerable dis-
tance from the sea. The Baltic has become so fresh that oysters,
once abundant and very large, have abandoned its waters. The
hollows in the glacial deposits, during the centuries that have
elapsed since the ice sheet withdrew, have gradually filled with
peat formed by the decay of successive genera-
tions of plant life. The peat tells its own story to
the geologist and declares that Denmark was clad
in coniferous forests after the Glacial period ; later
it was covered with oak growth ; at present, and
for centuries past, beech has been the main arbo-
real product. Ah, well ! the " kitchen middens "
go back to the time of the evergreen forests.
Bones of the capercailzie or blackcock are found
in the shell heaps ; this bird dwells no longer in
Denmark, and it lives only on the buds of certain conifers. When
these old gatherers of shellfish and hunters of stags lived here
the Urus still inhabited Jutland, and game of many kinds was
abundant.
Fig. 7. — Bunt
Arrowhead.
Flint.
#11
{<■ 4v mm
- Isl
Fig. 8.— Unpolished Celt.
Flint.
Fig. 9. — Polished Gelt
or Hatchet. Flint.
A year since we visited a shell heap in West Jutland that was
being excavated under the direction of Mr. Neergaard, assistant
of the museum. Located at the edge and on the slope of a ter-
race, at some little distance from the sea, it extended for many me-
tres along the terrace, presenting a width of several metres and a
maximum thickness of T75 metre. It had been cut across by a
ARCHAEOLOGY IN DENMARK.
>7
trench two metres wide and about eleven metres in length ; this
section was being removed carefully, a single cubic metre at a time.
Every bone, potsherd, flint, or other relic as it was removed was
Fig. 10. — Saw. Flint.
Fig. 11.— Axe. Stone.
ffiflfc -.
at once labeled, and a complete record regarding it entered in a
note-book. The commoner shells at this locality were species of
the genera Ostrea, Cardium, Littorina, Nassa, Tapes, and Mytilus.
Bones of various birds, mammals, and fish were rather common.
The day we were there two diggers removed about three cubic
metres of material, and the yield of relics was four rude flint
axes, one fishhook, and some bits of pottery.
The upper level area of the terrace proper is
sprinkled with flakes, knives, and hatchets of
flint, plain evidence of an old village site.
The later neolithic of Denmark presents a
magnificent development. Flint of the finest
quality is found everywhere. In no part of the
world did its chipping attain greater perfection.
Material for other implements of stone was not
rare, and was fully utilized. The consequence
is that throughout the country beautiful relics
of the later stone age are found ; they lie on the
surface ; they are dug up in plowing and in ex-
cavations of all kinds ; they are picked out by
peat cutters ; they are discovered in tumuli or
old graves. Lubbock says: "Many of these
barrows, indeed, contain in themselves a small
collection of antiquities, and the whole country
may even be considered as a museum on a great
scale. The peat bogs, which occupy so large an
area, may almost be said to swarm with antiqui-
ties, and Prof. Steenstrup estimates that, on an
average, every column of peat three feet square
contains some specimen of ancient workman-
ship."
This part of the stone age was marked by
the curious habit of erecting great monuments
of stone and earth — dolmens, giant chambers,
etc. Such monuments are sometimes called Flint.
Hr-s L* fornix
18
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
megalithic monuments, from the great size of the stones used in
their construction. Erection of megalithic monuments was by no
means peculiar to Denmark, but was practiced throughout west-
ern Europe during the later stone age and on into the bronze age.
Fig. 13. — Speak Point. Flint.
It is stated that there are upon the islands of Denmark and in
eastern Jutland about 47"5 of these monuments to every square
myriameter, or one to about two kilometres square. In a single
afternoon's drive from Olstyke around by Roskilde Fiord to Ros-
kilde, a distance of but a few miles, we examined fully a dozen of
different types. Three of these will illustrate their character, (a)
Dolmen : Near a long and narrow strip of water, on a little mound
of earth ; consisting of five great granite rocks ; four stood up-
right on edge, set firmly in the ground, and inclosed a nearly
rectangular space six feet or more in length, more than three feet
wide, and some five feet high. Three of these stones are of equal
height, and bear a great cap-stone ;~ the fourth one is not so high,
and serves as a sill or threshold to the chamber. The whole
structure is now free and exposed, but it was probably originally
covered with a mound of earth, (b) Giant's Chamber : External-
ly, a simple plain mound of earth about
fifteen feet high. As it is one of the
monuments preserved by the Govern-
ment, it is supplied with a little door
on one side. Passing through this, we
found our way through a short passage
into a great chamber at right angles to
it ; the passage enters this chamber at
the middle of one of its long sides. Both
chamber and passage are walled with great bowlders, and are
roofed with slabs of large size. The chamber is about twenty-one
feet long, seven feet wide, and over six feet in height, (c) Badly
denuded by the weather ; a large part of the covering mound is
gone ; there are no roofing slabs, but the stones are carefully set
on edge so as to inclose a space forty feet in length and more than
twenty feet in width ; there is no sign of a passageway. In the
middle of this inclosed space is an admirably made rectangular
chamber about four feet deep, six feet in length, and perhaps four
feet in widl h.
It is probable that all these structures were burial places.
Fig. 14. — Miniature Hammer.
Amber.
ARCHEOLOGY IN DENMARK.
In those which have remained intact skeletons are often found,
together with objects of use or decoration. The dolmen type is
generally considered the older; the jattestue, or chambers with
passage, are later ; the rectangular stone coffins, or cists, with no
approach are still more recent. The later stone-age man in Den-
mark cared well for his dead. He apparently believed in a future
life, else why should he so care-
fully bury with his dead such
beautiful and valuable objects ?
In some cases a tumulus might be
erected for a single dead man ; very
commonly, however, several dead
were buried in one mound ; occa-
sionally scores were thus compan-
ions in a common grave.
The man of the later stone age
in Denmark was not ill equipped.
Implements and tools and orna-
ments of stone, bone, horn, wood,
etc., were his. His list of weapons
and tools included beautiful celts
or hatchets of flint finely polished,
war clubs, lances, arrows, poniards
of flint chipped to the most graceful
forms, axes, chisels, saws, knives,
scrapers, hammers (Figs. 8-13).
This is but a part : wonderful sam-
ples of chipping, of polishing, of
drilling ; beautiful in form and
finish. Nor were they useless ob-
jects. The weapons were perfectly
adapted to their purpose. As for
the tools, we may be sure that they
were serviceable. In the little town
of Broholm, in Funen, is a small
wooden house containing a fine
collection of stone implements.
These were found on the estate of a nobleman, who, after gather-
ing the series, ordered carpenters to build for him a house for
their display, stipulating that they should only use the old stone
tools in its construction. A book has been written giving the full
details of the work, and we can see that a carpenter of our day
might be in a worse plight than to be supplied only with a neo-
lithic kit of tools.
That neolithic man in Denmark was an artist is shown by
these wonderful stone objects ; it is also shown by the beautiful
Fig. 15. — Garments of the Bronze
Age.
20
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
forms and neat decorations of his pottery and by his ornaments.
Of these last the most interesting certainly are those of amber.
This brilliant yellow fossil resin early attracted his attention.
At first he strung the rough pieces, just as he found them, on to
strings or thongs, or rounded the bits into rude beads ; later on
amber was worked carefully into various pretty or curious forms.
A favorite pendant was a miniature axe (of the same shape as the
stone ones in actual use) in amber (Fig. 14). Curious questions
are suggested by these. Neolithic man in Europe seems to have
had superstitious ideas or even reverence toward the stone axe.
It is possible' that these miniatures in amber were amulets or
charms.
This rich development of the stone age which we have been
considering is generally referred to the period from 2000 to 1000
B. c. It is considered as an outgrowth from the ruder conditions
Fig. 16. — Razor of Bronze.
of the kitchen middens. It is but fair to state that a bitter con-
troversy has been carried on over the matter. Some — among
them Steenstrup — have argued that this high culture and the
savagery of the shell heaps were contemporaneous ; that the men
of the kjoeklcenmoeddinger and of the megalithic monuments were
neighbors ; that poor, primitive, backward fisher folk lived side
by side with rich, advanced, more civilized agriculturists of the
interior. We have not space to present the argument ; we follow
Worsaae.
The bronze age in Scandinavia was a marvelous development.
Probably the knowledge of bronze was brought to Denmark from
the Orient ; perhaps the amber of the northwestern country was
bartered to the cultured people of the East. However that may
be, bronze reached Denmark. Nor were the skillful chippers and
polishers of stone slow in learning how to use the new and pre-
cious material. Those who had been the best lapidaries of Europe
became the best metallurgists. Nowhere are there so many pecul-
iar, beautiful, and artistic types in bronze as in Denmark and
Sweden. Bronze was made into implements and weapons ; it
ARCHAEOLOGY IN DENMARK.
21
was also fashioned into ornaments. Gold, too, was known and
widely used.
We have emphasized the fact that the dead were buried dur-
ing the neolithic. At the beginning of the bronze age inhumation
Fig. 17. — Band of Bronze.
was also practiced. ■ Stone cists of full size were constructed in
many cases ; in others very curious coffins, made by splitting
oaken tree trunks and then hollowing the two pieces, one into a
trough and the other into a cover, were constructed. As time
passed cremation was practiced ; the ashes were buried in stone
cists, which gradually diminished in size until at last they were
only about a foot square. In these latter cists the ashes were fre-
quently placed in a vessel of clay. Finally, the cists disappeared,
and the clay urn containing the ashes might be simply covered
with a flat stone and buried in the ground. As cremation gained
and the grave cists diminished in size, the gifts placed with the
dead became fewer and less important ; real objects were replaced
by inferior ones or miniature make-believes. Had we only the
relics from the graves we would be
led to think that art degenerated
during the bronze age; but the
contrary was really true. The ob-
jects found in the peat bogs and
elsewhere show an improvement
and progress in artistic work.
Certain grave mounds in Jut-
land have informed us as to the
dress of the people of the bronze
age. In them were found oaken
coffins such as we have described
above. In these, wrapped in cow-
skin shrouds, have been found the
remains of men and women, more
or less preserved, with garments and funereal objects almost in-
tact. High woolen caps, with knotted cords all over the outside
for ornamentation ; wide mantles cut round ; mantles of mixed
wool and hair ; waistbands bound around with a tasseled girdle ;
Fig. 18. — Gold Cdp.
22
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
sleeved jackets— all well made and of good material — are among
the garments (Fig. 15).
To describe even a tithe of the types in bronze would require
more space than we may use. Of weapons we may mention
swords and daggers, beautiful in form
and decoration, lance and spear heads,
battle-axes ; of tools and implements,
hatchets, axes, knives, razors (so
called) of quaint shape and frequently
with engraved patterns on the blade
(Fig. 16) ; of ornaments, every con-
ceivable variety of rings for fingers,
arms, neck, and head. The ornaments
may be either of gold or bronze. Some
of the neck or head bands are elabo-
rately twisted (Fig. 17) ; finger and
arm rings may be simple rings or may
be spirals ; fibulae or safety pins are
worked out in many curious and at-
tractive patterns. Vessels, too, of
gold or bronze have been found, and
these, reproduced by modern work-
men, delighted many visitors to the
Exposition in 1893 (Fig. 18).
Among the masterpieces of the
bronze- worker which have come from that olden time to us are
great bronze battle-horns, called by the Danes lur. These are
truly gigantic. Twenty-three specimens have been found in Den-
mark, all in peat bogs, and most of them in pairs (Fig. 19). For
years a dozen of these lurs hung in the museum silent. Recently
Dr. A. Hammerich secured permission to study them as musical
instruments and to test them. Finally, these were played upon
Fig. 19. — Bronze Battle Horn.
Fig. 20. — Minim ire Boat of Gold.
before a large and enthusiastic audience, the king himself being
I in 'sci it. Only a few times since have these old horns been
sounded, but on one of these occasions we had the good fortune
to be present. Two players from the opera were the performers;
the court of the museum was filled with hearers. Wonderful, is
ARCHEOLOGY IN DENMARK.
23
it not, that horns two thousand years old, buried for long centu-
ries in peat bogs, should, after this long silence, still be capable of
giving out clear, ringing — even sweet — tones ?
The conditions in which these lurs are found are most sug-
gestive—always in peat bogs, usually in pairs. This could not be
the result of accident. Other objects are found purposely laid
away in the same manner : thus ten bronze hemispherical plates
were found at one spot ; nine fine bronze axes, all of one form, at
another. Similar clusters of celts, spears, etc., are not uncommon.
On one occasion about one hundred miniature boats of thin beaten
gold were placed in a vessel
and buried ; such occurrences
are not completely under-
stood. Dr. Sophus Miiller
believes that such purposely
buried or sunken objects are
ex voios (Fig. 20).
The early iron age pre-
sents interesting problems
and wonderful relics. Still
prehistoric time in Denmark,
it is historic time in much of
Europe. The Danes now dis-
posed of their dead both by
inhumation and cremation ;
with those who were buried
relics are found. Near Tis-
trup, in West Jutland, with
Captain A. P. Madsen, of the
museum, we were present at
some excavations. Captain
Madsen has long been en-
gaged in studying the archaeology of Denmark. He is an artist
of no mean ability, and has sketched and painted many of the old
monuments. His Bronzealderen and other works (one of which
is now appearing) are important and especially valuable for their
illustrations. He is an indefatigable field explorer (Fig. 21). The
spot was a level field overgrown with heather in bloom. Only
the practiced eye would have detected aught there of archaeologi-
cal interest. The whole area, however, was covered with low,
flat, round mounds several metres in diameter and less than half
a metre in height. Digging revealed at the center of each, only a
little below the surface, a single pottery vase. The forms were
simple, but characteristic of the age. In them were mixed earth
and ashes (the remains of a cremated corpse). Iron fibula?, frag-
ments of bronze rings, and the like were found with some of these.
Fig. 21.— A. P. Madsen.
24
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY
In such cases the bronze is usually fairly preserved, while the
iron is deeply rusted and frequently quite fragile.
The best preserved iron objects come from certain peat mosses.
In some of these enormous deposits have been found. The famous
localities are Nydam and Tlwrsbjerg, now, unfortunately, no
longer Danish possessions. At Thorsbjerg the articles were found
mainly in a layer of soft dark peat, about five feet thick, which
was under eleven feet of peat of a different character. The objects
were apparently placed here intentionally and at one time. Sev-
eral layers of wooden shields, one above the other, with javelins
Fig. 22. — Commemorative Bronze Tablet in Museum Court.
thrust through them ; in another spot, pieces of chain mail ; else-
where, bundles of iron spearheads or arrowheads wrapped in chain
mail, a cluster of objects of gold, vessels of clay sunk by stones
placed in them. Everything had been destroyed or rendered
worthless before it was placed here. Of course at that time the
upper eleven feet of peat had not formed, and there was probably
a pond of water above the antiquities-bearing layer. At Thors-
hji'ii;', for some reason, the iron has not been well preserved; at
Nydam it is in excellent condition. Here the relics lay at a depth
of some four to seven feet on a sandy and clayey bottom ; as at
Thorsbjerg, the objects are clustered and grouped together as if
THE OFFICE OF LUXURY. 25
sunken in bundles ; here, too, the objects have been rendered use-
less before deposition. Spears and swords were thrust violently,
perpendicularly through the stratum containing the relics. At
this locality, too, were found two or three boats ; the largest, of
oak, some seventy-seven feet long and about ten feet wide, was a
fine piece of work. These were intentionally sunk. Some of the
iron objects were magnificent pieces ; certain sword blades were
handsomely damascened. Roman workmanship or influence is
shown by some of the objects from these mosses. A number of
Roman coins from here range from about 60 to 217 A. d. Thus
we may fix the age of the deposit.
We have but glanced at a few of many interesting matters
which are fully illustrated in this great museum, of which
Denmark is so justly proud (Fig. 22).
THE OFFICE OF LUXURY.
By M. PAUL LEROY BEAULIEU.
THE question whether luxury is legitimate or illegitimate, use-
ful or injurious, is most actively debated. The moralists claim
that it is within their peculiar field, and it has been one of their
favorite subjects for discussion from the days of antiquity down.
We can not, however, leave it to them. Economists have an inter-
est in it. It does not concern only precepts and rules for an edi-
fying conduct of life, but bears also upon the direction that ought
to be given to production, or to a considerable part of it at least,
and upon the influence of certain kinds of consumption on the
distribution of wealth and on the respective situations of differ-
ent classes of society.
One of the difficulties encountered in the discussion, and no
small one at that, is that of finding an exact definition of luxury.
Most even of the best definitions are insufficient and vague. It is
very hard to find an absolute formula for a thing so relative, fluc-
tuating, and variable. The definition we would propose is that
luxury consists of that superfluity of enjoyment which exceeds
what the generality of the inhabitants of a country at a given time
consider essential, not only for the necessities of existence but
also for decency and comfort in life. It is, therefore, curiously
variable, constantly taking a new position as the limit of ordi-
nary enjoyment advances at a corresponding pace with the in-
creasing wealth and refinement of a society. This definition has
the merit of regarding luxury as relative and as changing in
standard from age to age.
To the barbarians who ravaged the Roman Empire the simple
TOL. XLVII. — 3
26 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
furniture and wardrobe of a modest household of our middle
class of people, or of the better class among our working people,
would have seemed to have a profusion of luxurious objects ; a few
not costly easy-chairs, a carpet, window curtains, cheap wall paper,
a looking-glass, a clock, a few vases filled with flowers, a small
show of plate, shirts, handkerchiefs, neckties, stockings — all
would be new to them, and not essential either for the normal
wants of existence or even for decency and pleasant living. The
idea of what constitutes luxury varies in the most striking man-
ner according to the country, the times, and the classes of society.
Each class considers a luxury whatever its circumstances do not
allow it to possess, and which a higher class is, nevertheless, able
to enjoy. It has been manifest over and over again that the
luxury of one period, or of one social class, tends inevitably to
become at least a requisite of respectability for the following
age and the next lower class. Civilization is characterized by the
gradual, progressive, general distribution of many elements of
luxury which thus gradually lose that character. Every ten
years, some luxuries cease to be such in consequence of their
becoming more common and cheaper.
In speaking of the principle of luxury we should consider it
apart from the excesses and excrescences that have been associ-
ated with it. A great many men regard luxury as an abuse, a
sin, a scandal. Some imagine that if it were got rid of, society
would be happier and more moral. Many believe that the super-
fluities of some are gained at the expense of necessaries of others.
The enemies to the principle of luxury may be arranged in two
divisions: moralists and politists, and economists.
The political arguments against luxury bear chiefly upon the
two points that it increases the separation between the classes
of the population, and makes it more marked ; and that it ener-
vates man and makes civilized populations more easily sub-
jects for spoliation by barbarians. We have shown in another
place that the gap between the conditions of different classes
of men is tending to diminish.* This inequality, furthermore,
has not unwholesome effects only ; it is both the result and the
stimulus of civilization. In regard to the dangers that luxury
may bring upon the state, it should be observed that luxury is
one thing and luxurious living is another. We may love and
seek luxury in furniture, decoration, and objects of art, and live
simply. The physical deterioration assumed to result from lux-
urious tastes has not been proved. In almost every country of
Europe the young people of the most aristocratic classes display,
* Espai sur la repartition des richesses et la tendance d'une moindre in6galit6 dea
conditions.
THE OFFICE OF LUXURY. 27
in physical exercises and acts of courage, at least as much vigor
and resolution as men of other social grades. Civilized peoples
have during the past three centuries obtained most brilliant
advantages over barbarians. If civilization is threatened, it is
much less by the taste for elegance in living than by the poison
of certain doctrines, and by a mental and moral dilettanteism
that has no necessary relation, in its adepts, to an enlightened
taste for objects of luxury.
When we read most of the criticisms that have been uttered
against luxury, even by great writers, we find that they are in-
spired by a thought as inexact as it is superficial ; by the mistake
of supposing that the superfluous luxuries enjoyed by the wealthy
are acquired at the expense of the necessaries of the poor. If no
fine shoes were made, it is said, everybody would have good shoes ;
but all men in civilized countries have got their good shoes with-
out the manufacture of fine boots for men and women being
diminished. Again, we hear, would the world not be better off
if, instead of ten or twenty thousand objects of luxury, ten or
twenty thousand useful things were made ?
The question can not be put in this way. The conception of
social activity that lies at the bottom of this reasoning is false.
It regards social activity as a factor fixed once and forever ; and
it imagines that if we take five hundred thousand days' work for
superfluities, this five hundred thousand days' work will be lack-
ing for necessaries. We should ask whether man's productive
capacity, his inventive force, his energy in working, and the
progress of the arts and sciences have not been kept up and
extended by the constant seeking for a more embellished life and
the satisfaction of more diversified wants ; if a society that does
not condemn and proscribe luxury has not, even in the matter
of common objects, an infinitely greater productive force than a
society that does condemn and proscribe it. We should inquire
if the taste for novelty and change that characterizes luxury does
not contribute to keep the general spirit of a society more on the
alert, more ready to institute better industrial conditions and
make discoveries and improvements ; and if, on the other hand, a
society always held down to the same kind of monotonous, insipid
life would be as productive, even in agriculture and the common
arts, as another, excited to incessant activity by luxurious tastes.
Industrial progress and the extension of general wealth make
common many articles once regarded as luxuries. Sugar, spices,
and coffee were once luxuries ; drinking glasses, window panes and
curtains, and carpets. Watches and clocks were grand luxuries
till they could be made for eight or ten dollars. In articles of
clothing, shirts, stockings, shoes, pocket-handkerchiefs (even in
Montaigne's time), ribbons, and lace were regarded as super-
28 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
fluities which men and women living naturally could well do
without. In London, in the eighteenth century, the use of um-
brellas was looked upon as effeminate. In the planning of the
household, a dining room distinct from the kitchen, a parlor dis-
tinct from the dining room, a sitting room distinct from the bed-
room, a bath room and water-closet, were considered useless, and
are still by some people. Thus, fortunately, the bounds of luxury
keep on retreating. The luxury of other days becomes, if not a
necessity, an enjoyment of the present, useful or inoffensive,
within the reach of a large number of men. Whether its roots lie
in sensuality and vanity, as its critics affirm, or in aesthetic taste,
luxury, if it is not in violation of Nature, is propagated through
the instrumentality of man's imitatve instinct ; of his desire to
conform to the ways of those in the highest ranks, and to the
feelings and manners prevalent in the community. Thus lux-
uries are gradually transformed into decencies. Old men seldom
fail to call every new fashion, and everything of the uses of which
they were ignorant in childhood or mature age, a luxury.
The character of a thing in use should be judged, not accord-
ing to certain ideas we form of human nature in general, but
according to circumstances of time, place, climate, profession, and
surroundings.
The evolution of luxury has been divided into three periods :
the luxury of primitive periods, which was exemplified in patri-
archal times, and in the beginning of the middle ages ; luxury
of flourishing and prosperous peoples, as in the modern age ;
and the luxury of peoples in decay, like the ancient Romans and
the Orientals.
Primitive luxury is very simple. It consists chiefly in the
grouping around the rich man, who is also usually of high birth,
of a large number of servants supported by him, and in the
practice of an extensive hospitality. The furnishings of this
luxury are very limited : fine wardrobes, elegant arms, spirited
horses, and rich caparisons. Though pleasant in appearance, and
having a family air, this patriarchal luxury has its inconven-
iences, which are much less apparent in modern luxury. It cre-
ates and maintains legions of parasites and idlers. Its world
of servants and clients do little work, but are supported by the
labor of others. It brings no refinement in living, it is burden-
some, nurses conceit, diminishes production, and deprives num-
bers of people of their independence, exposing them to the vices
of indolence. Another phase of this primitive luxury was ex-
hibited in the great feasts, which were characterized by quantity
rather than quality, with coarse revels lasting many days. This
luxury was occasional rather than permanent, and did not pene-
trate, as the later living did, into the whole tissue of life. The
THE OFFICE OF LUXURY. 29
people's equivalent for the expensive feastings and revels of
the grandees was found in kirmesses and carnivals. The forced
sobriety of these uncultivated ages was interrupted by periodical
debauches. No thought was taken of comforts. Except for the
furnishings of the church and drinking vessels, there were few
things of beautiful finish. Fashions did not change ; there was no
elegance and no variety in daily personal life, and workmen's
wages were very small. Thus all was for display and nothing
for comfort, and waste of men and means was the rule. Very
different is the luxury of civilized, intelligent, and thoughtful
people, which looks more to the comfortable or to elegance and
artistic enjoyment than to magnificence and sumptuousness. It
includes and penetrates the whole life, and extends in different
degrees over all classes of the people. It is distinguished by the
use of an infinitely greater variety of goods, and for each kind
of an increasingly more considerable range of qualities. It
adapts itself to democratic habits, which it has contributed to
introduce. Instead of encumbering himself with a great number
of domestics, clients, and parasites the prosperous citizen has
around him only the number of people he requires for a good
and prompt service; while, on the other hand, he has at his
command independent outside workmen who develop into the
honored class of artisans. Together with the immense perma-
nent household installations, external distinctions and extensive
private establishments of all kinds are given up, their places
being supplied by those which may be used in common with the
public.
The luxury of these prosperous and democratic periods
reaches in multiplied and infinite gradations all classes of the
people ; then, supplying itself with durable objects and perma-
nent arrangements, it becomes an accompaniment of the whole
life. Its great characteristic is variety and elegance in necessary
and usual objects. The extension of this luxury into all grades
of the population is aided by such technical knowledge as permits
the substitution of less costly goods for those which are more so,
whereby things formerly enjoyed only by the wealthy are put
within reach of persons of modest means : thus plate and white
metal take the place of silver ; electrotypes, of carved work ;
lithographs and photographs, of engravings and paintings ; and
figured papers, of tapestries. Cotton and silk mixed or silk waste
give the illusion of silk ; tulle and gauze, of lace. New sub-
stances, like nickel and aluminum, make it easy to possess
watches, clocks, and the like, elegant in appearance and yet
cheap. Improvements in the mechanic arts aid in this ; and
everything is imitated, even pearls and diamonds. There is
nothing immoral in this sort of luxury, which varies, brightens,
3o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
and embellishes life, and incites the man to better care of his
house and his person. It is, rather, a motive of good economical
and domestic habits. And it promotes a kind of saving. A man
who will not lay up for old age will save money to buy a gold
watch or a chain, or nice furniture. Fondness for variety is one
of the characteristic traits of the luxury of intelligent and pros-
perous peoples. Variety in food, clothing, furnishings, and in
amusements is an excellent stimulant to industry, a preventive
of enervation of man's mind. It is likewise one of the most
vital needs of human nature, one of the legitimate charms of
life. The luxury of industrious and prosperous peoples is pre-
dominantly exhibited in the dwelling and the furniture. It cre-
ates permanent establishments that make life more pleasant. It
transforms the house from a simple shelter into a commodious
and pleasant mansion, beautified and vivified with numerous and
interesting objects. Herein lies the inappreciable benefit of
national modern luxury. This it is that has divided up the
house according to the various wants and conveniencies for
which it is intended to provide. The result is a more becoming,
more private, and more independent daily life for each of the
members of the family, as well as a more hygienic regime. The
example spreads from the upper to all the social classes. The
house becomes the center of man's efforts to embellish. Many
bad habits and many vices are abandoned. It is a general opinion
that whenever the workman shall have a sufficiently ample abode,
diversified and adorned, the family life will retain more attrac-
tions and the saloon will lose them.
While modern taste expends liberally on the construction,
furnishing, and decoration of the house, it encourages sobriety
in the wardrobe. It is one of its characteristics that it makes
itself compatible with civil equality and with fraternity in social
relations, colliding with them in nothing. The dress of the men
bears witness to this. Men are no longer to be seen, as Henry IV
of France used to say, "wearing their mills and their forest
estates on their backs." Lace, in sleeves and frills, formerly
habitual with middle-class people, has long been left off by the
men, and there is no prospect of its returning. Who, when he
looks at an assembly of two or three hundred men, including
representatives of all classes, from the highest to the most mod-
est, can tell from their dress which are the wealthy ones ? It is
true that women still indulge in these little extravagances ; but
this does not prove that the majority of the rich expend more
now upon dress than those similarly situated have done during
the past three or four hundred years. We complain that maids
wish to be dressed like their mistresses, farm-servants like the
farmers' wives, and these like the landlords' wives. A few may
THE OFFICE OF LUXURY. 31
be extravagant ; but nearly all these people, servants and farmers,
save ; and a little luxury in their lives does no great harm. By
virtue of the blending of these shades of luxury between one
social stratum and another, the difference in the lives of men of
the several classes is much less as to the real enjoyments they are
all able to procure than as to the cost of what they possess.
External luxury is becoming less conspicuous. There are no
more gilded carriages with footmen and outriders, except to
mark the state of ambassadors. The simple carriages now in
use, however elegant their forms may be and handsome the
horses that draw them, are otherwise as democratic in appear-
ance, without showy harness decorations or extraneous orna-
ments, as the old-fashioned post chaises.
Judicious investment in luxury constitutes a kind of revenue
fund for emergencies and times of need. This is true for all
classes and for the whole nation. Jewels, pretty pieces, tapes-
tries, pictures, and choice collections may be sold in periods of
misfortune without loss. Even among those in more moderate
circumstances the watch, the chain, the clock, and the cheap
jewels are adequate to procure in days of distress or illness, if
not much, something that could not be had otherwise.
Such luxury as this, far from being immoral and deleterious,
is legitimate, commendable, and useful, provided that with it
allowance is made from the income for future emergencies, and
for saving.
Quite different is it with the luxury of periods of decay and
of corrupt classes ; for morbid social groups may exist even in a
country generally sound. This luxury becomes immoral and un-
intelligent when, instead of responding to natural and normal
physical and intellectual wants, it consists solely in the seeking
for costly pleasures and objects simply because they are costly, in
systematic waste, and in the single satisfaction of an extrava-
gant vanity. These features of social life were marked among
the wealthy classes of the Roman Empire, but appear only in
individual examples and a few narrow circles in modern life. It
is not by such eccentricities, which have become rare among
modern peoples, that luxury is to be judged. As we have de-
scribed it, it is impossible to condemn it. Regarded in a general
aspect, and apart from its abuses, luxury is one of the principal
agents of human progress. Mankind has it to thank for nearly
everything which to-day adorns and embellishes life, and for a
large proportion of what makes life more pleasant and whole-
some. It is the father of the arts. Neither painting nor sculp-
ture nor music, nor their popular accompaniments, could ever
have become so greatly developed and so widely diffused in a
society that had declared war on luxury.
32 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
It has been objected that if luxury did not exist the world
would be better provided with articles of use. The millions that
are spent in luxury, these objectors say, could be better applied to
the production of wheat or of potatoes or of common clothing ;
if some were not too -rich, none would be poor. This reasoning
is at fault in two points : First, a million's worth of luxuries
does not, as some persons think, represent the amount of labor
and human force required to produce a million's worth of wheat
or potatoes or common clothing or plain furniture. The cost of
luxuries bears only a comparatively small relation to the quan-
tity of good work ; by far the greater proportion of it is paid for
quality. An accomplished jeweler or engraver can earn three
or four times as much in working at the art in which he excels
as in applying the same quantity of labor to a coarser trade —
blacksmithing, for instance. And if luxuries were abolished, and
the artists now employed in producing them were set to some
common labor in farming or the ruder trades, they would not be
able to produce at them more than one third of the value which
they now bestow upon the world of taste and refinement. In
the second place, we need not deny that materially, and aside
from a fact to be noticed, if mankind would limit its wants to
bread and meat, to the commonest clothing, the most modest
abodes, and the simple articles of use, it would be able to get a
considerably larger number of such things. If all the painters,
engravers, upholsterers, pleasure-coach makers, jewelers, makers
of fine furniture, lace-makers, embroiderers, etc., should return
to tilling the soil, spinning, weaving, and knitting, a more ample
stock of the products of the common callings might be obtained.
This is only possible. It is not certain. In assuming it we leave
out of view the indirect consequences of such a profound modifi-
cation in men's desires, in their life, in their motives to effort as
such a change would work. We overlook the depressing, stupe-
fying influence which monotony and uniformity in occupation
would exercise upon man's activity, his spirit of initiative, and
his zeal in research and invention. A society in which all were
engaged upon nearly the same tasks, living in identical condi-
tions, having narrow wants, none of them enjoying visions of a
brilliant future different from that of his fellows, would fall dead
with inertia and routine. It would lose in elasticity and inevita-
bly becomes stationary, and finally retrograde; and it would not
be paradoxical to assert that the suppression of luxury would
result, in the course of time, in a diminution even of objects of
ordinary consumption.
The stimulating action of luxury is incontestable, and oper-
ates upon every grade of the social scale. While luxury is not
the only instigator of human activity, or even the principal one
THE OFFICE OF LUXURY. 33
it is one of unquestionable importance; and there are none too
many instigating forces to arouse man from inertia and idleness.
At the highest degree of the scale, some men — we will not say all
— impose additional work and mental tension upon themselves in
order to have an elegant house, fine gardens, and high style ; in
the middle of the scale, other men will put themselves to addi-
tional trouble in order to procure some comfort which was only
recently a luxury, and can still hardly be distinguished from
one, or in order to reach a certain standard of respectability in
their manner of living, to which decorations and superfluities
will contribute. At the bottom of the scale numerous men and
women work longer or tax their ingenuity in order to procure
for themselves some secondary elegances which have become
common but are nevertheless luxuries, in that the abundance of
them does not contribute to the satisfaction of man's rudimen-
tary wants.
The influence of luxury is very great upon social progress and
the arts, and upon the course of literary and scientific advance.
Industrial advancement is usually brought about by the efforts
of individuals of remarkable will and intelligence, but sensitive
to the attractions of material rewards. The surest of such re-
wards for the numerous spirits not solely devoted to an ideal is
wealth, and this to many men would lose its value if they were
deprived of the luxuries which they could obtain with it. While
there are many men of noble aspirations among great inventors
and the projectors of important enterprises who would be satis-
fied with the good they accomplished, there are others, energetic,
capable, and ardent, and valuable in economic progress, who are
guided by less noble ideas, and who, in themselves or their sur-
roundings, have keener perceptions of the attractions of luxury
than of pure intellectual enjoyments and the satisfaction of an
elevated self-respect. It is important for mankind as a whole
that such men do all they can for it. — Translated for TJie Popular
Science Monthly from the Revue des Deux Mondes.
The Congo natives of all tribes, Mr. Herbert Ward says, are ready speakers,
flowery in expression, adepts in tbe use of metaphors, clear in reasoning, and
alert in debate. The sonorous effect of their speech is greatly aided by the soft
inflections and harmonious euphony of their language. In many of the tribes it
is common for the speaker to hold in his hand a number of small sticks, each rep-
resenting a preconsidered point of his argument. Each point is subsequently
enumerated and emphasized by selecting and placing one of these sticks upon the
ground. A speaker will often begin his address by referring to events that hap-
pened in his earliest recollection, and in this manner will refer to every favorable
incident in his career, whether his stories apply or not to the subject under dis-
cussion. ,
VOL. XLV1I. — 4
34 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS.
I.— PROFESSIONS IN GENERAL*
By HERBERT SPENCER.
WHAT character professional institutions have in common,
by which they are as a group distinguished from the other
groups of institutions contained in a society, it is not very easy
to say. But we shall be helped to frame an approximately true
conception by contemplating in their ultimate natures the func-
tions of the respective groups.
The lives of a society and of its members are in one way or
other subserved by all of them: maintenance of the life of a
society, which is an insentient organism, being a proper proxi-
mate end only as a means to the ultimate end — maintenance of
the lives of its members, which are sentient organisms. The
primary function, considered either in order of time or in order
of importance, is defense of the tribal or national life — preserva-
tion of the society from destruction by enemies. For the better
achievement of this end there presently comes some regulation
of life. Restraints on individual action are needful for the effi-
cient carrying on of war, which implies subordination to a leader
or chief ; and when successful leadership ends in permanent chief-
tainship, it brings, in course of further development, such regula-
tion of life within the society as conduces to efficiency for war
purposes. Better defense against enemies, thus furthered, is fol-
lowed by defense of citizens against one another ; and the rules of
conduct, originally imposed by the successful chief, come, after his
decease, to be re-enforced by the injunctions ascribed to his ghost.
So that, with the control of the living king and his agents,
there is gradually joined the control of the dead king and his
agents. Simultaneously with the rise of agencies for the defense
of life and the regulation of life, there grow up agencies for the
sustentation of life. Though at first food, clothing, and shelter
are obtained by each for himself, yet exchange, beginning with
barter of commodities, gradually initiates a set of appliances
which greatly facilitate the bodily maintenance of all. But now
the defense of life, the regulation of life, and the sustentation
of life, having been achieved, what further general function is
there ? There is the augmentation of life ; and this function it is
* The series of articles to which this is introductory will in their eventual form be
chapters constituting Part VII of The Principles of Sociology — Professional Institutions.
Hence the explanation of the various references and allusions to preceding parts of that
work which they will be found to contain. The various references to books will, as in
past cases, be found at the end of the volume when published.
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 35
which the professions in general subserve. It is obvious that the
medical man who removes pains, sets broken bones, cures dis-
eases, and wards off premature death, increases the amount of
life. Musical composers and performers, as well as professors of
music and dancing, are agents who exalt the emotions and so
increase life. The poet, epic, lyric or dramatic, along with the
actor, severally in their respective ways yield pleasurable feelings
and so increase life. The historian and the man of letters, to
some extent by the guidance they furnish, but to a larger extent
by the interest which their facts and fictions create, raise men's
mental states and so increase life. Though we can not say of the
lawyer that he does the like in a direct way, yet by aiding the citi-
zen to resist aggressions he furthers his sustentation and thereby
increases life. The multitudinous processes and appliances which
the man of science makes possible, as well as the innumerable
intellectual interests he arouses and the general illumination he
yields, increase life. The teacher, alike by information given
and by discipline enforced, enables his pupils more effectually to
carry on this or that occupation and obtain better subsistence than
they would else do, at the same time that he opens the doors to
various special gratifications : in both ways increasing life. Once
more, those who carry on the plastic arts — the painter, the sculp-
tor, the architect — excite by their products pleasurable percep-
tions and emotions of the aesthetic class, and thus increase life.
In what way do the professions arise ? From what pre-exist-
ing social tissue are they differentiated — to put the question in
evolutionary language ? Recognizing the general truth, vari-
ously illustrated in the preceding parts of this work [The Princi-
ples of Sociology], that all social structures result from specializa-
tions of a relatively homogeneous mass, our first inquiry must be
— in which part of such mass do professional institutions origi-
nate.*
* When, more than twenty years ago, the first part of the Descriptive Sociology was is-
sued, there appeared in a leading weekly journal, specially distinguished as the organ of
university culture, a review of it, which, sympathetically written though it was, contained
the following remark : " We are at a loss to understand why the column headed ' Profes-
sional,' and representing the progress of the secular learned professions . . . appears in
the tables as a subdivision of 'Ecclesiastical.' "
The raising of this question shows how superficial is the historical culture ordinarily
provided. In all probability the writer of the review knew all about the births, deaths, and
marriages of our kings ; had read the accounts of various peoples given by Herodotus ;
could have passed an examination in Thucydides ; and besides acquaintance with Gibbon,
probably had considerable knowledge of the wars carried on, and dynastic mutations suf-
fered, by most European nations. Yet of a general law in the evolution of societies he was
evidently ignorant — conspicuous though it is. For when attention is given, not to the gossip
of history, but to the facts which are from time to time incidentally disclosed respecting
the changes of social organizations ; and when such changes exhibited in one society are
3 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
Stated in a definite form the reply is that traces of the profes-
sional agencies, or some of them, arise in the primitive politico-
ecclesiastical agency ; and that as fast as this becomes divided
into the political and the ecclesiastical, the ecclesiastical more
especially carries with it the germs of the professional, and
eventually develops them. Remembering that in the earliest
social groups there is temporary chieftainship in time of war,
and that where war is frequent the chieftainship becomes perma-
nent— remembering that efficient co-operation in war requires
subordination to him, and that when his chieftainship becomes
established such subordination, though mainly limited to war
times, shows itself at other times and favors social co-operation
— remembering that when, under his leadership, his tribe subju-
gates other tribes, he begins to be propitiated by them, while he
is more and more admired and obeyed by his own tribe — remem-
bering that in virtue of the universal ghost-theory the power he
is supposed to exercise after death is even greater than the power
he displayed during life; we understand how it happens that
ministrations to him after death, like in kind to those received by
him during life, are maintained and often increased. Among
primitive peoples, life in the other world is conceived as identical
in nature with life in this world. Hence, as the living chief was
supplied with food and drink, oblations are taken to his burial-
place and libations poured out. As animals were killed for him
while he lived, animals are sacrificed on his grave when he is
dead. If he has been a great king with a large retinue, the fre-
quent slaughter of many beasts to maintain his court is paralleled
by the hecatombs of cattle and sheep slain for the support of his
ghost and the ghosts of his attendants. If he was a cannibal,
human victims are furnished to him when dead as when alive ;
and their blood is poured on the grave-heap, or on the altar
which represents the grave-heap. Having had servants in this
world he is supposed to need servants in the other, and fre-
quently they are killed at his funeral or sent after him.
When the women of his harem are not immolated at his burial-
place, as they sometimes are, it is usual to reserve virgins for him
in his temple. Visits of homage made to his residence become,
in after times, pilgrimages made to his tomb or temple ; and pres-
ents at the throne reappear as presents at the shrine. Prostra-
tions, genuflections and other obeisances are made in his presence,
along with various uncoverings ; and worship in his temple has
the like accompaniments. Laudations are uttered before him while
compared with those exhibited in other societies ; the truth that the various professional
agencies are derived from the ecclesiastical agency, is one which " leaps to the eyes," as the
French say.
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 37
he is alive, and the like or greater laudations when he is dead.
Dancing, at first a spontaneous expression of joy in his presence,
becomes a ceremonial observance, and continues to be a cere-
monial observance on occasions of worshiping his ghost. And
of course it is the same with the accompanying music: instru-
mental or vocal, it is performed both before the natural ruler
and the supernatural ruler.
Obviously, then, if any of these actions and agencies, common
to political loyalty and divine worship, have characters akin to
certain professional actions and agencies, these last must be
considered as having double roots in the politico-ecclesiastical
agency. It is also obvious that if, along with increasing differ-
entiation of these twin agencies, the ecclesiastical develops more
imposingly and widely, partly because the supposed superhuman
being to which it ministers continually increases in ascribed
power, and partly because worship of him, instead of being lim-
ited to one place, spreads to many places, these professional
actions and agencies will develop more especially in connection
with it.
Sundry of these actions and agencies included in both polit-
ical and religious ministrations are of the kind indicated. While
among propitiations of the visible king and the invisible deified
king, some of course will have for their end the sustentation of
life, others are certain to be for the increase of life by its exalta-
tion: yielding to the propitiated being emotional gratifications
by praises, by songs, and by various aids to aesthetic pleasures.
And naturally the agencies of which laudatory orations, hymnal
poetry, dramatized triumphs, as well as sculptured and painted
representations in dedicated buildings, are products, will develop
in connection chiefly with those who permanently minister to the
apotheosized rulers — the priests.
A further reason why the professions thus implied, and others
not included among them, such as those of the lawyer and the
teacher, have an ecclesiastical origin, is that the priest-class
comes of necessity to be distinguished above other classes by
knowledge and intellectual capacity. His cunning, skill, and
acquaintance with the natures of things, give the primitive priest
or medicine-man influence over his fellows ; and these traits con-
tinue to be distinctive of him when, in later stages, his priestly
character becomes distinct. His power as priest is augmented by
those feats and products which exceed the ability of the people
to achieve or understand ; and he is therefore under a constant
stimulus to acquire the superior culture and the mental powers
needed for those activities which we class as professional.
Once more there is the often-recognized fact, that the priest-
3 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
class, supplied by other classes with, the means of living, becomes,
by implication, a leisured class. Not called upon to work for
subsistence, its members are able to devote time and energy to
that intellectual labor and discipline which are required for pro-
fessional occupations as distinguished from other occupations.
Carrying with us these general conceptions of the nature of
professional institutions and of their origin, we are now prepared
for recognizing the significance of those groups of facts which
the historical development of the professions presents to us.
■♦«»
KIDD ON "SOCIAL EVOLUTION."
By W. D. LE SUEUR.
TO want to say something and to have something to say are
two very different things. Mr. Benjamin Kidd, when he took
in hand to write a book on Social Evolution, wanted very badly
to say something; but whether he really had anything to say
is a question upon which we can hardly imagine his own mind,
now that he has had time to think over it, is fully made up. Yet
when the book first appeared many persons thought that it was
freighted with some important message. There was something
so impressive and oracular in the manner of the writer, such an
evident conviction on his own part that, like the poet invoked by
Clough, he had to come to reveal to " trembling thinkers on the
brink (who) shiver and know not how to think " just what was
and is the matter with them, that the reader had to be more than
usually forearmed against illusion not to find himself taking Mr.
Kidd very seriously indeed, and reading into his pages all the
high significance that was meant to be there but was not. The
book, we are free to confess, is not an everyday one. It has a cer-
tain baffling quality which bespeaks a peculiar order of mind in
its author. It is interesting to read : the style is good ; the lan-
guage is strong ; the thoughts seem to have some substance ; the
author gives one the impression that he is working steadily for-
ward to some important, or what ought to be an important, con-
clusion ; and yet, when we come to ask ourselves what the main
purpose of the book is, and what proposition of any importance it
has established, it is uncommonly difficult to pass from interroga-
tion to affirmation. It gives one the impression of a system with
a shifting center of gravity. The author at once champions sci-
ence and disparages it, exalts religion and denies it any footing in
common sense ; makes progress depend upon the unchecked action
of natural selection, and again declares that its most important
factor is the " ultra-rational " sanction which religion supplies for
KIDD ON "SOCIAL EVOLUTION:' 39
right action ; condemns socialism as unscientific and totally in-
compatible with the continued progress of civilization, and again
presents as his ideal of the social state, and as the form to which
it is surely tending, something which it is difficult to distinguish
from socialism ; commiserates mankind for being involved in a
perpetual struggle for existence, and yet looks forward joyfully
to a condition of struggle which he says will be more " intense "
than anything the past has witnessed. It is possible that Mr.
Kidd sees some way in his own mind of bringing these apparently
contradictory views into harmony; but the general impression
left on a careful reader of his book will be that his literary art
includes the supreme accomplishment, to speak metaphorically, of
riding two horses at the same moment in opposite directions.
Unfortunately, all readers are not careful, and some are preju-
diced. These are days in which the glib litterateur talks about
" the bankruptcy of science " ; and Mr. Kidd, though he does not
use the phrase, has done not a little to give countenance to the
silly idea. Science, he tells us, has made such a distressing bun-
gle in its treatment of religion, shown such hopeless incompe-
tency, such amazing blindness, in connection with the whole sub-
ject ! Alas ! why did not Mr. Kidd appear a little earlier upon the
scene, in order to prevent this painful scandal ? He is a man of
science — at least, he discourses with the air of one — and it is too
bad that " science " should have incurred all this discredit when
help was so near at hand. One might be disposed to ask whether
science has not redeemed its character through the discoveries of
Mr. Kidd, were it not that the latter is evidently indisposed to let
his work go to the credit of science. Achilles has come out of his
tent and mingled in the fray ; but he does not want his mighty
deeds to swell the glory of the Grecian name ; rather would he
flout the Greeks for the sorry figure they cut before he inter-
vened. But, if Mr. Kidd's achievements are not to be passed to
the credit of science, to what account are they to be credited ?
" Alone I did it " is a proud boast, but still we may ask, in what
character ? What is science if it is not organized and correlated
knowledge ? If Mr. Kidd has really helped to organize and cor-
relate our knowledge on the subject of religion he has done a
good thing ; but Science must really claim that by so doing he has
extended her boundaries and added to her conquests. And so the
historian of nineteenth-century thought will say, if, when the
complete work of the century comes to be narrated and appraised,
" Kidd on Social Evolution " shall have managed to escape Libi-
tina.
Let us, however, examine with a little attention Mr. Kidd's
alleged discoveries, and let us see how far, if at all, science has
been at fault in the matter.
4o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
It is charged that science " has no answer " to the question,
What is the meaning, what is the function of religion in social
development ? It is asserted that " contemporary literature may
be searched almost in vain for evidence of any true realization of
the fact " that religious beliefs " must have some immense utili-
tarian function to perform " in the evolution of society. What
are we to say to this ? Simply that Mr. Kidd is not well informed
on the subject of which he writes. We shall not be accused of
diverging very far from the highroad of science, of betaking our-
selves to any very obscure or devious paths, if we venture to
quote on this point Dr. Henry Maudsley, author of a number of
well-known works on mental physiology. Let us, then, turn to
his work on Body and Will, republished in this country eleven
years ago, and see what we can find bearing on this very ques-
tion. On page 208 we read : " It is most necessary to bear in mind
that forms and ceremonies, stereotyped propositions, articles of
faith, and dogmas of theology do not constitute the essence of re-
ligion, but its vesture, and that, apart from all such forms and
modes of interpretation, it responds to an eternal need of human
sentiment. For it is inspired by the moral sentiments of human-
ity and rests on the deep foundations of sacrifice of self, devotion
to the kind, the heroism of duty, pity for the poor and suffering,
and faith in the triumph of good. It appeals to and is the out-
come of the heart, not of the understanding; and so goes down
into lower depths than the fathom line of the understanding can
sound ; for the intellect is aristocratic and the heart democratic,
knowledge puffing up, but love uniting and building up, and the
true social problem is to democratize the intellect through the
heart. It is the deep fusing feeling of human solidarity, in what-
soever doctrines and ceremonies it may be organized for the time,
that is religion in its truest sense ; for it is in the social organism
what the heart is in the bodily organism, and, when it ceases to
beat in conscience, death and corruption ensue." Dr. Maudsley
did not sound a trumpet before him that all the world might sus-
pend its ordinary business in order to admire his originality, be-
cause he knew enough to know that, while what he was saying
was well worth saying, it was not so very original after all. But
after reading the above-quoted sentences from so well known a
writer, what are we to think of Mr. Kidd's statement that " con-
temporary literature may be searched almost in vain " for any
true recognition of the "utilitarian function of religion in the
evolution of society " ? And what great degree of originality can
we attribute to the definition of religion which, after an elaborate
preamble, Mr. Kidd delivers to us : "A religion is a form of be-
lief providing an ultra-rational sanction for that large class of
conduct in the individual where his interests and the interests of
KIDD ON "SOCIAL EVOLUTION." 41
the social organism are antagonistic, and by which the former are
rendered subordinate to the latter in the general interests of the
evolution which the race is undergoing." Whatever is true in
this definition is expressed in simpler and stronger phraseology
by Dr. Maudsley. Whatever meaning there is in the word " ultra-
rational" is better expressed, it seems to us, in Dr. Maudsley 's
declaration that " it (religion) appeals to and is the outcome of
the heart, not the understanding, and so goes down into lower
depths than the fathom line of the understanding can sound";
while, as regards the furnishing of a sanction for actions per-
formed in the interests of society, the language of Maudsley, who
says that religion rests on "the deep foundation of sacrifice of
self, devotion to the kind, the heroism of duty," surely covers the
whole ground. On the next page to that in which these expres-
sions occur we find the following : " Any one who looks forward
with a light heart to the overthrow of Christianity might do well
to consider what can ever adequately replace it merely as a social
and humanizing force." We turn another page and read : " In
him (the founder of Christianity) was the birth of the greatest
social force that has ever arisen to modify human evolution " ;
and the paragraph ends with the declaration that if humanity is
to progress, " it will, as heretofore, draw from a source within
itself, deeper than knowledge, the inspiration to direct and urge
it on the path of its destiny."
Now, we venture to say that Mr. Kidd has nowhere in his book
put the case for the social utility of religion more strongly than
it has been put in these passages and many others which we
might quote from one of the most advanced of modern scientific
thinkers. But Dr. Maudsley, as we have already hinted, does
not, in what he says on this subject, take up any very peculiar
position. Mr. Spencer fully recognizes religion as an indispensa-
ble source of moral control in early stages of society, and as one
that can ill be discarded even in our own day. He believes that
it will be progressively purified of all doctrines that are not es-
sential to it, and that it will abide as an ineradicable conscious-
ness of a power behind phenomena, in and by which all things
exist. Schopenhauer declared that the metaphysical impulse of
the human race, that by which it seeks to formulate those trans-
cendent truths that are of the substance of religious belief, is no
less fundamental in human nature than the scientific impulse;
and the later Schopenhauerians, like Prof. Paul Deussen, whose
excellent little book on Metaphysics has lately been given to the
world in an English dress, use language which might be supposed
to have been specially intended to forestall what Mr. Kidd evi-
dently regards as his most striking and original utterances. Take
the following passages, for example, from Prof. Deussen: "For
42 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
opposed to the natural and egoistic actions, affirming the will to
life, are certain actions which show a diametrically opposed striv-
ing. The only explanation of these actions is that the actor
always sacrifices in them, to a certain extent, his own individual
and limited existence by expanding his ego beyond the bounds
of his individuality, recognizing his own self in others/' "In
investigating the action of man, which is, in general, an expres-
sion of the affirmation of the will to life, we meet a series of
actions which are, in the natural order of things, inconceivable,
being diametrically opposed to this world and its laws, contra-
dicting these in every sense, and, as it were, totally unhinging
them. These phenomena are the deeds of a genuine morality."
" Thus the totality of human action appears as the expression of
two opposed currents — one, egoistic, affirming, mundane ; the
other, ascetic, denying (i. e., self-denying), supramundane." " "We
may denote faith as that which has as its inevitable result moral-
ity." It is impossible for any one who has read these passages
and many similar ones to be much startled when he is informed
by Mr. Kidd that "throughout its existence (viz., of the social
organism) there is maintained within it a conflict of two oppos-
ing forces : the disintegrating principle represented by the ra-
tional self-assertiveness of the individual units; the integrating
principle represented by a religious belief, providing a sanction
for social conduct, which is always necessarily ultra-rational."
The fact is that the conception of religion as an influence con-
straining men to identify their own good with that of the com-
munity apart from all calculations of selfish interest is one very
generally entertained in the present day, and not less, certainly,
by men of science than by others. It lies at the basis of Feuer-
bach's remarkable book on The Essence of Christianity. It is
clearly expressed in one or two of the late Prof. Clifford's essays ;
it can be traced in the writings of the late Prof. Tyndall and of
Prof. Huxley ; probably it would be difficult to discover an intel-
lectual region of any note in which it is not more or less distinctly
accepted.
But, says Mr. Kidd, " Science from an early stage in her career
has been engaged in a personal quarrel " with successive religious
systems. The quarrel " has developed into a bitter feud." Yet,
instead of investigating this historic antagonism in a scientific
spirit, and asking " whether it was not connected with some deep-
seated law of social development," Science " seems to have taken
up, and to have maintained, down to the present time, the ex-
traordinary position that her only concern with them is to de-
clare that they are without any foundation in reason." Now this
seems to us, to speak plainly, not only an incorrect but a very
nonsensical statement. Science has only antagonized religion in
KIDD ON "SOCIAL EVOLUTION." 43
so far as demonstrable scientific errors have been put forward as
essential parts of this or that religious system. And it was not
science, be it remembered, that insisted that such errors were
essential to the integrity of religion; it was religion, as repre-
sented by its official expounders, that took up this position. It
was not Galileo who said that religion could not exist if the
Ptolemaic system of astronomy were overthrown; it was the
Church. All Galileo asked was leave to establish a purely scien-
tific theory. It was not the founders of modern geology who in-
sisted that religion must stand or fall with belief in a six-days
creation ; it was their opponents, the uncompromising partisans
of a traditional theology. It was not Darwin or Spencer who said
that religion could not withstand the shock of the evolution theory
— t-he latter said expressly that it could and would — it was again
the party that spoke in the name of religion. If a certain num-
ber of scientific men were carried away by the vehement asser-
tions of the champions of religion into believing and speaking as
if religion itself were about to be involved in the ruin of the
erroneous views which had formed part of its popular present-
ment, can we wonder at it ? And if to-day the impression is
widespread that religion has been shaken and discredited by the
advance of science, on whom must the blame chiefly rest ? With-
out doubt on those who, not distinguishing between the accidents
of religion and its essence, fought a losing battle with science on
matters that were wholly within the jurisdiction of the latter.
Science, Mr. Kidd says, has lost sight of the main question,
which is not whether religious beliefs have " any foundation in
reason," but whether they "have a function to perform in the
evolution of society." This again is incorrect ; science has not
lost sight of this question, but on the contrary has of late years
devoted a large amount of attention to it. Never was it so clearly
recognized as it is to-day that beliefs may have no foundation in
reason, and yet have a more or less important " function to per-
form in the evolution of society." The proofs of this are so
abundant that it seems a waste of time to produce them. But
for very specific statements take the following from Vignoli's
work on Myth and Science, published in the International Scien-
tific Series : " Man rises in the social scale by means of his super-
stitious and religious feelings, which act as a stimulus and symbol,
so far as he subjects his animal and perverse instincts to the pre-
cepts which he imagines to be expressed by these myths " (page
106). And again (page 321), " The problem of myth is transformed
into the problem of civilization." Turning to a very recent
work, Mr. Havelock Ellis's The New Spirit, we find the author
asking, " What is the nature of the impulse that underlies, and
manifests itself in, that sun worship, Nature worship, fetich wor-
44 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
ship, ghost worship to which . . . we may succeed in reducing
religious phenomena?" Here is the very question which Mr.
Kidd says modern science does not face. "What is Mr. Ellis's an-
swer ? — " The supreme expression of the religious consciousness lies
always in an intuition of union with the world, under whatever
abstract or concrete names the infinite not-self may be hidden.
... It comes in the guise of a purification of egoism, a complete
renunciation of the limits of individuality — of all the desires and
aims that seem to converge in the single personality — and a joy-
ous acceptance of what has generally seemed an immense external
Will now first dimly or clearly realized. ... It is this intuition
which is the ' emptiness ' of Lao-tsze, the freedom from all aims
that center in self." When one has been reading things of this
kind from day to day for years, it is a little provocative of
fatigue to find Mr. Kidd attaching so much importance to formu-
las of his own devising that are essentially of the same signifi-
cance.
But possibly Mr. Kidd, it may be suggested, states the func-
tion of religious beliefs much more definitely than has ever been
done before, and throws new and vivid light upon their origin
and rationale. We can not see that there is the least foundation
for such a claim. We are told by this author that religion is
essentially an " ultra-rational sanction " for actions which, though
injurious to the individual, are beneficial to the community. Is
any light whatever thrown on the nature of religion by calling it
an " ultra-rational sanction " ? The term " ultra-rational " is es-
sentially negative. We understand from it that religion is a sanc-
tion with which reason has nothing to do. What we want to know
is, What has to do with it ? Whence is its authority derived ?
How far are rational beings bound or compelled to recognize and
bow to it ? Is it something like the law of gravitation that no
one can resist, or is it a mere habit of mind that can be out-
grown, perverted, or destroyed ? If all that Mr. Kidd has to tell
us of the nature of religion is that it is a sanction, and that rea-
son has nothing to do with it, or rather that it is contrary to
reason, we certainly have not much to thank him for. Far more
are our thanks due to Hegel and Feuerbach and Comte, to Spencer
and Martineau and Arnold, to Muller and Reville and Caird, who
all, from their several points of view, have endeavored to explain
what religion is and to define its place in the sum of human
powers and faculties. The time is not far distant, Mr. Kidd says,
when Science will " look back with shamefacedness to the atti-
tude in which she has addressed herself to one of the highest
problems in history"; but we fail to see either what Science
has to be shamefaced about, or what Mr. Kidd has himself done
to mark out better lines for the action of Science in the future.
KIDD ON "SOCIAL EVOLUTION." 45
Science finds, we are told, mankind holding "beliefs which she
asserts have no foundation in reason ; and Science has not done
the right thing in the premises. What on earth, then, should
Science have done ? Should Science have refrained from criticis-
ing the errors in regard to plain matters of fact which she found
incorporated with popular religious creeds ? So far as we can
judge, Mr. Kidd himself seems to have benefited from such criti-
cisms. In regard to the doctrine of evolution, he is a stalwart of
the stalwarts. His faith, anticipating proof, has even taken hold
of the extreme theory of Weismann and pressed it into the serv-
ice of his sociological speculations. But the doctrine of evolution
is precisely the one to which the religious world found it most
difficult to reconcile itself, and one which, indeed, it is impossible
to hold without at least a tacit criticism of views formerly consid-
ered as essential to religious faith. Did Mr. Kidd win his present
position for himself without antagonizing the religious instincts
and convictions of the mass of his fellow-men ? If he did, it must
have been because other men prepared the way for him ; for cer-
tainly, not without much tribulation, has Science established its
claim to judge freely and according to evidence of things within
its ken. The world, we are informed, no longer takes the interest
it once would have done in such attacks as Prof. Huxley has
lately been making on certain orthodox beliefs. Well, if so, we
must regard it as a good sign ; for it can only mean that the
world — that is to say, the thinking world — looks upon Prof. Hux-
ley's labors as a little superfluous. Still, it is well to remember
that even to-day the energetic professor's attack on the miracle
of the Gadarene swine has been warmly repelled by eminent
ecclesiastical authorities.
It would really be interesting to know Mr. Kidd's precise
views as to the etiquette to be observed by " science " in its rela-
tions with religious systems which take under their patronage
and vouch for gross scientific or historical errors. If science does
not criticise such things, who or what is going to do it ? If no
one does it, what chance is there that religion will ever shake
itself free from such accretions ? Will the several priesthoods of
the world see to it that the faiths they represent are progressively
purified from error ? In the last two centuries of the Roman Re-
public and the first two of the Empire, the question how to treat
foreign cults, which were seeking a foothold in Rome itself, was a
serious one for the state. Mr. Kidd was not present to caution
the Roman Senate against rash action, or to point out that the
great question was not whether these cults did or did not involve
material errors, but what bearing religious systems in general
had on the development of society ; consequently the Senate had
simply to follow its own best lights. " These Bacchic rites," says
4.6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
a recent writer, " of undoubtedly Oriental origin, and for centu-
ries common enough in Greece and Asia Minor, were apparently-
introduced into Etruria by a Greek adventurer, and from there
spread with extreme rapidity both in Italy and Rome. At first
women only were admitted into the secret associations which
formed the basis of the cult ; the initiation took place by day, and
the meetings were only held three times a year. But all this was
now changed ; men were initiated as well as women ; the initiated
were to be under twenty years of age. Meetings were held five
times in every month, and took place under the secrecy of night.
The inevitable enormities did not fail to follow, and the Bac-
chic associations became hotbeds not only of moral corruption,
but of civil crimes such as forgery and murder and even of
political conspiracy."* Attention having been called to these
abuses, the Senate acted vigorously, and the Bacchic rites were
stamped out with great severity (b. c. 188). A century later, the
same writer tells us, the Roman Government was confronted
with the Isis cult, but was not able to deal with it in the same en-
ergetic fashion, owing to the fact that the national religion had
largely lost its hold upon the people. " Mysterious rites of initia-
tion," we read, " sensuous music, a worship crowded with sym-
bolism no less awe-inspiring that it was imperfectly or not at all
understood ; and above all, a system of expiatory and purifica-
tory rites in which there was enough of asceticism to satisfy the
craving for something personal in religion, and enough of license
to attract the crowd in its non-religious moods, all these things
made the population of Rome peculiarly susceptible to the influ-
ence of cults like the Egyptian." f
What bearing have these historical instances, it may be asked,
on the subject in hand ? A tolerably direct bearing, we think, as
tending to show that if there is anything that needs to be watched
and criticised, anything the claims of which to prescribe conduct
or to limit knowledge need to be challenged and examined, it is
precisely religion in its varying forms and phases. Religion, to go
back to Mr. Kidd's definition, provides an ultra-rational sanction
for socially useful actions ; but when, let us ask, has religion
been content with enjoining the performance of such actions on
the strength of its ultra-rational sanction ? It is true that an
apostle has beautifully said, " Pure religion and undefiled before
God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in
their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world " ;
but this is merely the utterance of a profound individual intuition,
not the expression of what, historically, religion has ever been.
* E. G. Hardy, Christianity and the Roman Government, p. 10.
f Ilardy, as above, p. 13.
KIDD ON "SOCIAL EVOLUTION." 47
How vehemently the most earnest exponents of religion have
repudiated the idea that it could be identified with morality, in
however comprehensive a form, need not be insisted on.
To do justice to science it is not necessary to represent it as
the unfailing minister of truth, or to assign to it any absolute
character whatever. The less we deal in personifications and ab-
stractions the better, when historical or social problems are de-
manding solution. To understand the function of science in the
world we have simply to remind ourselves that man possesses a
faculty of comparison and judgment by which he is compelled to
recognize, unless overmastered by his imagination, likeness or
unlikeness, equality or inequality, agreement or disagreement, in
the things which occupy his attention. The exercise of this fac-
ulty leads to classification, which, in the higher form of generali-
zation, is the source and vital principle of all knowledge. The
more knowledge man acquires, the more certainly he can inter-
pret and correlate the data of sense. Among his impressions and
inferences there is a continual struggle as to which shall sur-
vive; and those which, by their deeper conformity to unchanging
facts, assert their viability, go to form the tissue of what we call
science. To talk, therefore, of what " science " does or does not
do is very apt to be misleading. Science is like a coral reef, built
up of innumerable accretions, the result of the life processes of
organic bodies. We may from one point of view define science as
the enduring products of man's intellectual activity. That the
history of science should be largely a record of errors and failures
follows of necessity from the fact that the work of science consists
essentially in the attacking of ever-new problems with more or
less inadequate means of investigation. But the very failures of
science are necessary to its successes ; and it never turns aside from
its main function and purpose of harmonizing, consolidating, and
extending human knowledge. Its permanent relation to religion
can thus easily be understood. Religion, appealing to imagina-
tion and resting more or less upon myth, incorporates in its creed
statements or assumptions which fall within the domain of science,
and which, if inacurate, the latter is obliged to challenge ; but
there is no necessary hostility between the scientific impulse to
know that which can be known and the religious impulse to wor-
ship a Power that can not be known, and to frame higher sanc-
tions for life than those of the market place and the law courts.
Religion, which is essentially emotional, is slow to recognize the
rights of science ; and science, in the conflicts which ensue, is in
danger of overlooking the fact that religion is something more
than a misinterpretation of the world and of history.
The signs of the times all give us reason to hope, however,
that a better modus vivendi than the past has ever known is
4.8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
about to be arrived at. Religion is more and more withdrawing
from the disputed territory of facts historical and physical, and
saying in effect to Science: "I am no longer your rival on this
ground ; so now tell us freely all you know about the world and
its origin, about man and his descent ; tell us whence we sprang,
how we have come to be as we are, with such thoughts and in-
stincts, such hopes and fears, such aspirations and superstitions
as you wot of ; and what the future is to which we may look for-
ward. Tell us if you can the raison d'etre of this universe.
Henceforth I shall not dispute with you one single verifiable fact ;
so now deliver to the world a free, untrammeled message; tell
us all the truth you know." Thus challenged, Science becomes
solemn under a new sense of responsibility, and its thoughtful
reply might be : "I see but in part, I know but in part. I pass
through my hands the successive links of a chain, but the begin-
ning of the chain and the end are not only beyond my vision but
beyond the flight of my strongest thought. I organize knowl-
edge, I minister to the physical and intellectual wants of men;
whatever a finite faculty of judgment is capable of, I may hope
to accomplish ; but if man has a craving to know his relation to
the universe, I can not determine it ; if he wants a higher motive
than expediency (in the widest sense) for his actions, I can not
supply it ; if he craves to believe in an Infinite Goodness, I can
not demonstrate it for him ; if he longs for a life beyond the pres-
ent, I can not assure him that such a longing will be realized.
Here, then, is your province, with which I engage not to interfere ;
and if, while I increase man's power over the energies of physical
Nature, you can raise him to a nobler self-control and a higher
sense of moral dignity ; if you can satisfy his emotional longings
and place his whole life on something more than an empirical
foundation, then shall I reverence your work and recognize that
I am but your humbler yoke-fellow in the service of the race."
We have reached the limits of our space, and find that we have
only dealt with one point of the book under review. In our opin-
ion, however, it is the most important point, as being the one that
was most calculated to lead the general reader astray. We
should have wished to devote two or three pages to what we con-
sider the very faulty account Mr. Kidd gives of the function of
the intellect in connection with social progress ; but that, if it is
to be done at all, must be done some other day.
The only industry in the hamlet of Nova Varos, Sandjack of Novi Bazar, is
the manufacture of carpets and rugs. Every girl, on marriage, takes one or more
rugs and a large painted chest to her husband. For this reason each house makes
its own rugs, and each house uses what it makes.
AN OLD NATURALIST— CONRAD OESNER.
49
AN OLD NATURALIST— CONRAD GESNER (1516-1565).
By W. K. BROOKS,
PROFESSOR OF ZOOLOGY IN THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY.
Illustrated by Photo-engravings reduced from the Original Woodcuts.
SO many lives have been devoted to the earnest study of Nature
that disinterested zeal and untiring industry are no peculiar
claims to our interest, however inspiring and instructive they
may be.
Conrad Gesner was not only a faithful student and a great
educational influence, but a hero who took life in his hand for the
service of man, and calmly facing horrors more awful than a
battlefield, laid it down, like so many forgotten physicians, at his
post of duty.
His great work on natural history, which was published in
Zurich (1551-1587), is one of the chief sources of that interest in
Fio. 1.
the living world which has grown stronger and stronger from his
time to the present day.
There were other men who merit the title of naturalist in
Gesner's day. We find the spirit of original research in Ron-
dolet, and in Belon, whose intense love of Nature led him on in
his wanderings from his home in France, over the mountains and
valleys of Greece and along the shores of the Archipelago, through
Asia Minor far into Egypt.
Aldrovandi also made formal calls on Nature, visits of state to
her haunts, taking notes on her ways, for he says : " I often wan-
dered through the vineyards and fields, over the marshes and
mountains, accompanied by my draughtsman, carrying his pencil,
to draw whatever I pointed out; and by my amanuenses, with
VOL. XLVII. 5
5°
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
their note-books, to write down at my dictation whatever occurred
to me."
It is the great distinction of Gesner that, without sacrificing
the dignity of science, he made it attractive, and thus became a
great educational influence. His contemporary and friend, Diirer,
has been called the " evangelist of art," and the title of " evangel-
ist of science " might with equal propriety be applied to him, for
Fig. 2.
he is one of the foremost representatives of that time of intense
and contagious industry " when art was still religion."
The modern world takes morbid interest in the crudity and
errors of early writers on science, and we are in no danger of
forgetting their views on griffins and krakens, on goose barnacles
and spontaneous generation. Their merits are less interesting
and seem too antiquated and too far below our mark to be notable
simply as good, faithful work.
The demands of current scientific literature leave us no time
for the ponderous volumes of ancient writers, but if we had time
to spare we should find in many of them both pleasure and profit,
although it is quite true that their value as sources of scientific
knowledge has passed away, and that later writers have helped
themselves to all that is best in them, and have passed it on to us.
One of Gesner's greatest services to natural science is the
introduction of good illustrations, which he gives his reader by
hundreds.
Work under his severe scrutiny was a valuable training to the
draughtsman and engraver of his day, and the publication of hi?
AN OLD NATURALIST— CONRAD GESNER.
5»
natural history, filled with simple but spirited pictures of animals,
did much to educate the critical powers of the public.
We can not appreciate the educational value of his work with-
out tracing it into other fields, and studying its influence on con-
temporary art.
Before the day of photography success in drawing living
animals depended to a great degree upon the study of earlier at-
tempts, upon the imitation of their successes, and the correction
of their failures and shortcomings ; and the success of Gesner's
draughtsmen, who had few models to copy, was very notable.
Their attempts to draw strange and unfamiliar animals are not
always happy, but most of the drawings of familiar forms are full
of life and spirit, even after they have been interpreted by the
wood engraver, who unquestionably failed to render them with
perfect accuracy.
Little is known about the makers of the drawings. Gesner
says he made some of the originals himself, and also employed
several draughtsmen, who lived in his house and gave him all
their service. He also says most of the cuts were drawn from life
under his supervision, and that he gives the original source of all
that are copied or supplied by friends or correspondents.
Like most authors of illustrated works on natural history, he
found his own standard of accuracy hard to reach, and he says :
Fig. 3.
" I admit that all the illustrations are not well drawn, but this is
not the place for explanations. Most of them are pretty fair, or at
least tolerable, especially those of the quadrupeds, which may be
considered the best."
The woodcuts made from these drawings are remarkable ex-
amples of the skill of the old wood engravers, and they have high
claims on the interest of students of the history of their art.
All attention is concentrated on the central figure, and few of
the cuts have any accessories whatever; but they are not dia-
52
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
Fig. 4.
grams, and the engraver boldly faces all the difficulties of texture
and markings, and uses his best resources to overcome them. His
success is notable, as the photographic reprints show, and work
under Gesner must have contributed not a little to the advance-
ment of wood engraving.
The cuts which are here
reproduced are selected
to exhibit the wide field
which Gesner covers,
and to show at the same
time something of the
resources of his engrav-
ers, and, while good
drawings have been
chosen, no attempt to
pick out the best has
been made. All the re-
productions are consid-
erably reduced, and they
give a false impression
of delicacy, although
they faithfully exhibit
the accuracy and versatility of the old engraver.
The names of very few of the draughtsmen or engravers are
known, but Gesner says that Lucas Schron drew the birds, and
that Albrecht Diirer made the cut of the rhinoceros.
This statement has led many writers on wood engraving to
reproduce this cut, which has thus become familiar to us, al-
though it is by no means a fair sample of Gesner's illustrations.
The typography of Gesner's book and the binding of many of
the copies are as notable as the cuts. In fact, all the craftsmen
met the author in generous rivalry and mutual inspiration, and
it would be difficult to produce a nobler monument than that
which their combined labors created.
While Gesner has recorded many original observations, the
work as a whole is a compilation undertaken for the express pur-
pose of gathering in one book a summary of all trustworthy ob-
servations on living things. The work was done so thoroughly
that it records for all time the status of natural science in his day,
and forms a permanent landmark in its history.
Its educational influence upon his contemporaries was due to
the attractive and simple way in which he presents the subject,
but its scientific value to-day is due to the exhaustive complete-
ness with which he compiled it.
He read nearly two hundred and fifty authors and his literary
learning is almost unparalleled. The list of authorities quoted
AN OLD NATURALIST— CONRAD GESNER.
53
or referred to and of the correspondents who supplied notes, illus-
trations, and oral information includes nearly every ancient and
mediaeval writer who makes any reference to animals. He draws
from many works which are now known only through his refer-
ences, and his long list of friends and helpers includes Italians,
Frenchmen, Englishmen, Germans, Swiss, and Poles.
He tells us that while it is easy to assert that history should
be written from the best books only, he has found no book too
bad to yield something to judicious study, and that he has ignored
nothing.
" Only those who have tried," he says, " can know what a labor
it is to compare the works of different authors and to bring all
into unity, with nothing overlooked and nothing repeated. This
I have tried to do so faithfully that all may be brought together,
a library in itself, so
that no one need here-
after consult other
writers on the ground
which I have covered.
As my only purpose,"
he tells us, " is to make
the work more useful
and accurate, I have
exercised the more in-
credulity and have crit-
ically revised the quo-
tations, and, when pos-
sible, verified them by
original observations
and dissections."
The completeness of
the work is astonish-
ing when we bear in
mind that he was only
thirty-five when the
first part appeared, and
that he had already
published thirty-four
works, among them two which are as remarkable as the Natural
History for learning and industry, and that all the illustrations
for the Natural History were prepared and the whole book written
with his own hand and printed in eight years.
The dignity and thoroughness of his work are in strong con-
trast to many of the discursive and trivial works of his time, and
his compilation was made with good judgment and independence.
When he now and then quotes descriptions of fabulous or imagi-
Fig. 5.
54
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
nary animals or repeats fanciful tales, he seldom fails to record his
own opinion of their value, unless they are contained in letters
from correspondents, who are always treated with courtesy.
Modern writers have disputed Gesner's title to a position
among men of science on two grounds. It is held by some that
since science is the reference of the phenomena of the universe to
the fundamental properties of matter, none of the old naturalists
who did not have this aim have any scientific standing ; but as
this point of view shuts out men like Wallace, Gesner is expelled
in good company.
Others hold that Gesner's weakness is his lack of the concep-
tion of systematic zoology, and his failure to so arrange his facts
as to exhibit natural affinity and do away with endless repetition.
As a matter of fact,
he does recognize
natural relationship,
and often treats al-
lied animals togeth-
er ; thus, for exam-
ple, under Bos we
find not only Taurus,
Vacca, and Vitulus,
but also Bison, Bo-
nasus, and Urus.
He says, in the
introduction to the
book on water ani-
mals, that he has fol-
lowed the alphabeti-
cal order, rather than a more philosophical system, for the sake of
easy reference, and on account of his uncertainty regarding the
affinities of many of them.
This criticism was to be expected from the systematists of the
last generation, but the modern morphologist can not cast it in
Gesner's face, for, while he feels sure that there is a natural or
genealogical classification of animals, he admits, like Gesner, his
" uncertainty about the affinities of many of them."
We are told (Encyclopaedia Britannica, article Gesner) that
"his life was singularly pure and blameless; his love of knowl-
edge was as disinterested as it was engrossing. He was always
ready and glad to acknowledge any help he received. When
obliged to engage in controversy, he did so in a dignified and
courteous manner. His medical writings show him to have been
far above the silly prejudices of his day. A cheerful and amia-
ble piety was a prominent feature in his character — a character
chastened, not soured, by the trials of a hard lifetime."
Fig. 6.
AN OLD NATURALIST— CONRAD GESNER.
55
Fig.
Gesner's short life was a struggle with poverty and ill health,
but he did not suffer neglect, for there is evidence that his con-
temporaries held him in
honor and took a just pride
in his industry and simple
earnestness.
The magistrates of Zu-
rich appointed him chief
physician and Professor
of Philosophy and Natu-
ral History in 1553, and
the magistrates of Lu-
cerne welcomed him, in
1554, with those distin-
guished honors which
were usually reserved for
high public officers.
The Emperor Ferdinand granted armorial bearings to him and
his family, with a statement of his desire to express his apprecia-
tion of his work, and to encourage others to follow his example.
His death was the glorious climax of his earnest, laborious life.
When the plague broke out in Zurich in 1564 he devoted his
scientific skill and professional experience to the effort to dis-
cover some way to check it ; he threw himself into this inquiry
with such earnestness that he himself contracted the disease, and,
after a short illness, died in his museum, to which he had been
carried a short time before,
at his request.
He was interred in the
cloisters of the great
church of Zurich the next
day with most distin-
guished honors, and a large
concourse of people of all
ranks followed him to the
tomb, amid the mourning
of the whole city.
I have selected as an
illustration of Gesner's
method of treating his sub-
jects the chapter on the
marmot ; for here, as in many other places, we find proof of the
injustice of the assertion that he was not an original observer,
but simply a compiler.
Fig. 8.
56
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
THE MARMOT (Mm Alpinus).
Its Shape and Outline and where to find it. — In shape,
outline, and size this animal is like a big rabbit, but lower and
with a broader back. Its hair is coarser than that of a rabbit, of
a reddish color, darker in some places and lighter in others. It
has big eyes, placed above the cheek-pouches. In its mouth are
long, yellow teeth, much like those of a beaver, two above and
two below. The length of its tail is two hands or more. It has
short, thick, hairy feet, like those of a bear, with long, black nails,
which enable it to dig deeply into the earth. While the rest of
the body is lean, the back is fat, although this fat is not real fat,
but something between fat and meat, like the substance of the
udder of the cow. This animal is found only on the very highest
tops of the Alps. The widely known Dr. Conrad Gesner has
himself traveled in these regions and observed its habits.
Its Nature and Properties. — While playing and frolicking
together the marmots make a noise not unlike that of a cat, but
when they are angry
or wish to warn each
other of a change in
the weather, their cry
is sharp and penetrat-
ing, and very dis-
agreeable to the ear
of man, like the noise
of a highly pitched
small flute. On ac-
count of their offen-
sive voice they are
often called manure-
barkers.
This animal some-
times walks on its two
hind legs. It uses its
fore paws like hands,
grasping its food with
them, like a squirrel,
and eating while it
sits on its hind legs. It eats not only fruit, but many other things,
such as bread, cheese, meat, fish, and nuts, especially when accus-
tomed to them in captivity. It prefers milk and cheese above all
other food, and it is often caught by the peasants in the milk
cellars, where it is easily discovered by the noise it makes in
drinking the milk, like a young pig.
It is a drowsy animal, sleeping often and long. It makes its
Fig. 9.
AN OLD NATURALIST— CONRAD GESNER.
57
nest with two openings — one, pointing up the mountain, is used
for walking in and out, while the other, which points down the
mountain, is not used for these purposes, but as a place for de-
positing urine and fseces. A short passage leads from the burrow
which connects these openings to a room or nest which is lined
with hay, straw, or similar light substances.
About Michaelmas, when the mountains begin to be covered
with snow, they hide themselves in their house, first plugging the
openings with earth so firmly that they are harder to dig with a
Fig. 10.
shovel than the undisturbed ground around them. Thus securely
protected from wind, rain, and cold, and rolled up in balls, like
hedgehogs, they sleep through the whole winter, without food
or drink, till spring comes again. Five, seven, nine, eleven, or
even more, are often found thus sleeping in one nest. The prov-
erb " He sleeps like a marmot " is applied to lazy people by the
inhabitants of these regions. Even when kept and fed in houses,
they sleep through the winter. That very learned man Dr. Con-
rad Gesner says that he fed one for some time in his house, and
at the beginning of winter, about the time when it should have
gone to sleep, he put it in a small pine barrel, which he half filled
with straw and then closed up tightly with the head belonging to
it, to protect his pet from the cold. When he opened the barrel
after many days he found the animal dead. He thinks it was
suffocated and that it might have lived if he had made a hole in
the barrel, although he is very much astonished by the result of
his experiment, and does not now see how they can survive in
their nest when the holes are plugged up.
They make use of a peculiar device for bringing home their
hay. If they have gathered a great quantity they need a wagon
to carry it, and one of them lies down on his back and, lifting his
feet toward heaven, forms supports like those of a hay wagon, be-
tween which the others pile the hay. When the cart is loaded,
the other marmots take the tail in their mouths, drag their
brother home like a sled, and, after unloading him, put the hay in
their holes. As each one takes his turn of service as a sled, none
of them have any hair on their backs at this season of the year.
5«
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
So long as it is awake this animal is rarely idle. It is always
busy carrying hay, straw, etc., into its nest. It fills its mouth
with these things, and the amount it can stow away is incredible
to one who has not seen it. What it can not get into its mouth it
takes between its paws, and carries that too. It never soils itself
with its urine or fseces, but either deposits them in the proper
place in the burrow, or throws them away from its body. Jo-
hannes Stumpff says, in his chronicle, that the marmot always
stinks in the summer before it gets fat.
Op its Cleverness and Sweet Nature. — Occasionally they
frolic in the sunshine before their holes like kittens or puppies,
rolling themselves in balls and frisking and chattering to each
other. When reared in the house they carry on their sports be-
fore the eye of man. When angry they bite viciously, but when
they are once used to captivity they make man their playmate,
and sometimes catch his lice like a monkey. Few animals be-
come more familiar than this one. It sometimes bites the dog,
which is too well trained to defend itself.
When the marmots gather in the meadows to play, one stands
near the mouth of the hole on the watch for men or other ene-
FlG. 11.
mies, and gives warning of the approach of danger by a bark or a
shrill, high-pitched whistle. As soon as the others hear this cry
they run to the hole, tumbling over each other in their hurry, the
sentinel standing guard till all are in.
In unfavorable weather they remain in their holes ; with their
high-pitched voices they give notice of changes in the weather as*
well as of the approach of danger.
AN OLD NATURALIST— CONRAD GESNER.
59
Fig. 12.
The Uses of these Animals. — They are caught in the fol-
lowing way, during their winter sleep when they are nice and fat,
by hunters, who sell their meat for money : In the summer the
people who live at the foot of the Alps mark the holes with long
sticks which will show above
the snow in the winter.
About Christmas they walk
over the snow to these marks
on broad wooden runners,
carrying picks and shovels,
with which they clear away
the snow, and digging into
the nests, catch them asleep
without trouble, although
one must not talk loudly or
make much noise while catch-
ing them, for if awakened
they burrow rapidly into the
soil, throwing the earth be-
tween themselves and the
hunter and making it hard
for him to follow them. They are also caught in snares laid
before their holes, and in many other ways. They are always
found in odd numbers, as seven, nine, eleven, or even more.
The hunters who dig them up in winter notice the length of
the cone of dirt with which the animal has plugged up the open-
ing of its burrow, for if this is short the winter will be mild, but
very cold and severe if it is several feet long.
The Flesh of the Animal and how to prepare it. —
They are fattest about the Christmas days, and are killed while
asleep by cutting the throat with a knife, as calves or swine are
slaughtered. They usually die without awakening. The blood is
caught, and the animal is scalded with hot water, like a hog, to
remove the hair, and is cleaned and made to appear white. The
intestines are then taken out, and the body, filled with the blood,
is roasted on a spit or is boiled with black pepper. The flesh is
sometimes salted and smoked, and is then boiled with black pep-
per, turnips, or a pumpkin.
The salted flesh is better than the fresh, as the salt dries it and
takes away its penetrating odor. It is always indigestible and
heating, but it is good for women in their confinement and also
for their diseases.
Its Use in Medicine. — The stomach of the marmot is used as
a remedy for stomach ache, and the fat for sclerosis of the arteries,
which are rubbed with it.
60 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
THE WORK OF THE NATURALIST IN THE WORLD.*
By Prof. CHARLES SEDGWICK MINOT.
THERE can be no broader question, touching us all, than the
influence of our profession upon the world. With your «per-
mission I will present a series of considerations in regard to our
professional careers which ought, in my opinion, to receive more
attention than hitherto. I am aware that in doing this I depart
very far from our custom, your previous presidents having each
dealt with some broad but specific problem of natural history in
their formal addresses. I must leave it to your judgment whether
or not I have done wisely in not following, in the present address,
the example of my distinguished predecessors.
The object of the naturalist is to discover the truth about
Nature, and to record his discoveries in a form which will render
them available to others. Original research is the pivot of knowl-
edge.
We will examine :
First. The conditions of success in research.
Second. The effect of the naturalist's career on his character.
Third. The influence of the naturalist on mankind.
I. The Conditions op Success in Research. — That the
fundamental condition is the love of truth goes without saying.
It is an axiom which, before this audience, requires no proof.
But, though we all acknowledge Truth to be our sovereign, I fear
there is not one of us whose loyalty to her is perfect — not one of
us who can say that his allegiance to the truth has never swerved
for the sake of competing influences. Yet Truth is the most ab-
solute of despots, and if any man adheres to Error instead, Truth
will triumph over him at last and rob him of all the honor which
he thought to win. The disloyal investigator may for a time win
honor, but in the end the falsity of his claims becomes known and
his reputation shrivels. In our own time we have seen the Ger-
man founder of brilliant embryological theories lose caste because
he did not have the discretion to wait to learn whether his ideas
were true. Certain great naturalists have suffered in reputation
from their inability to accept Darwinian theories, for, had it been
possible for them to join with Darwin, their greatness would be
to us still greater. A man may be of the highest ability, yet will
he rank low among naturalists unless he is quick and sure in his
recognition and inflexible in his devotion, to truth.
Perfect truth is our ideal, but we encounter so many, many
* Presidential address delivered before the American Society of Naturalists at the
annual meeting in Baltimore, December 27, 1S94.
WORK OF THE NATURALIST IN THE WORLD. 61
obstacles that we do not attain the ideal. The practical question
is, What are these obstacles, and how may they be removed,
avoided, or overcome ? We undoubtedly make many failures,
which are inevitable, and for which we are not responsible ; I
mean such failures as are due to the present limits of scientific
knowledge, and the lack of the methods and instruments of re-
search, which are as yet in the future. Nevertheless, the majority
of failures to find the absolute truth are due to our own personal
deficiencies. It is to the correction and, if possible, removal of
these deficiencies that our professional training is very rightly
directed.
The naturalist should be trained in observation, experimenta-
tion, and in reasoning.
Observation is our mainstay, the foundation of all our work.
I believe that in many of our laboratories a student becomes well
disciplined in observation, and acquires practical acquaintance
with the principal sources of error in observation in his special
line of work. This part of the naturalist's education is the part
best done, and we must regretfully admit that his training in ex-
perimentation is almost nil, while his training in reasoning power
leaves very much to be desired.
I should like to plead before you for experimentation. It is a
most difficult art — far more difficult than that of observation, be-
cause the possibilities of error are far greater. The observer in-
quires " What ? " the experimenter " Why ? " The experimenter
endeavors to determine an effect and a cause. He seeks, if you
will allow me the expression, to find two " whats " and their
mutual relation. Every science begins with observation, and,
when it is advanced enough, takes to experiments. Natural his-
tory is still in the descriptive stage. The statement is almost
strictly true of meteorology and zoology, nearly so of geology,
least so of botany. I attribute so great value to experimental
work that I regard botany as being at the present time the most
valuable of the natural-history sciences from an educational point
of view. As regards the zoologists — with whom I must be counted
— we are most of us either systematists or morphologists. Such
experimental physiological work as has been done stands not to
the credit of zoologists, but almost entirely to that of medical men.
In the slow advance of experimental morphology, through the la-
bors of Driesch, Hertwig, Morgan, Roux, Whitman, Wilson, and
others, we have the initiation of a most significant and beneficent
reform. In all natural-history departments the great work of the
future will, I believe, be done by experimenters.
For this reason it is to be desired earnestly that all young
naturalists should be disciplined in making experiments. When
that is done we shall hear less phylogenetic speculation and more
VOL. XLVII. — 6
62 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
of true causes. There are still many morphologists who feel that
they have somehow explained matters when, for example, they
state that the human embryo has gill- clefts because man is de-
scended from a fishlike ancestor. In reality such a statement is
no explanation of the causation, any more than it would explain
vegetable humus to say that it is due to vegetable matter de-
posited on the ground. Such assertions may be true, but the
omission of all links between the initial cause and the terminal
effect shows that the notion of causation is in its rudimentary
stage. There are too many naturalists who have still to develop
a just conception of cause and effect ; and it is just this devel-
opment that we must look for in connection with experimental
work. The biologists especially ought to profit more than they
do by the opportunities offered in physiological laboratories.
The reasoning faculty is our weak point. Of the late Prof.
Helmholtz, his friend, the physiologist Carl Ludwig, once re-
marked to me, " Er ist eine reine Denkmaschine." It was the
possession of a superlative reasoning faculty that rendered Helm-
holtz to many of us the foremost scientific man of his time. Most
of us certainly find that, when we try to reason, our reasoning is
disturbed by various personal factors, and, though we know that
emotional factors must be eliminated from intellectual processes
if our conclusions are to be sure, yet experience has taught us that
logic in our practice is rarely divorced from all emotion. Sound
reasoning involves the character of the individual. To train a
naturalist, it is even more important to perfect his character than
his intellect. For this reason no teacher can deal advantageously
with more than a few students, because he must understand the
individual characteristics, and give each man personal guidance,
which necessarily is different for each student.
Let us consider some of the factors which are most apt to dis-
turb or distort the work of reason.
First and foremost is the love of one's own observations and opin-
ions. If it takes the form of pride, which leads us to be so careful
that our opinions deserve trust, well and good ; but if it is merely an
excitable vanity, it lures us to disaster. Think of the innumerable
controversies of science, and tell me how often have the dispu-
tants cared less to prove themselves right, than to ascertain the
truth, be their own opinions right or wrong. What we strive for
and, I fear, never attain is perfect indifference to the sources of an
idea. It is almost impossible not to feel an undue interest in our
own idea, yet such an interest inevitably leads to overvaluation
of the evidence in favor of our idea, and undervaluation of the
evidence against it. Let us, therefore, avoid polemics, and so
avoid the temptation to search for proof of a personal theory,
when we ought to search for the truth only. Never let a pupil
WORK OF THE NATURALIST IN THE WORLD. 63
say : " I am sorry it did not turn out thus and so ; it would have
been so fine if it only had been so." Let him be glad at discover-
ing the truth. When he is eager for controversy, teach him the
difference between discussion and controversy, and keep him out
of the latter. Point out to him that erroneous conclusions are to
be set aside, not so much by disproving them as by demonstrat-
ing the true conclusion. ( Darwin's theory of pangenesis has been
set aside, not by being disproved, but by the demonstration that
the theory of germinal continuity is well founded. The cataclys-
mic theories of Adam Sedgwick and the older geologists have
been overthrown by the accumulated proofs of the gradual
character of geologic changes. An error is hard to kill, but with
a truth you may drive it away ; therefore research is better than
controversy.
The love of one's own opinion is the most insidious and fruit-
ful of all sources of human error, and accordingly we recognize
vanity and self-conceit as the gravest of defects in the naturalist's
character. It is easier to make a competent investigator out of a
dull man than out of a conceited man.
A second source of error is impatience — impatience to get re-
sults before the data are sufficient to support conclusions. What
a horrible record against this century has been piled up by the ac-
cumulation of " preliminary notices," " vorlaufige Mittheilungen,
and notes preventives!" — a vast mass of mistakes, a terrible
impediment to science, and all to gratify the mad longing for
priority. I wish that the publication of a preliminary notice to
secure priority should disqualify for membership in this society,
and I trust that every one of us will stand firmly and sternly
against this abuse, which is doing more to degrade science than
any other influence I know of. Indeed, I am almost ready to say
that the Acade'mie des Sciences at Paris has done more against
science than for science, because in its Comptes-Rendus it initiated
the custom of brief premature publication for priority.
A third difficulty in the way of reason is the tendency to spec-
ulate. The annual waste of cerebral protoplasm in speculation
must amount to millions of pounds. A vast generalization has
its allurements, but in yielding to them we are apt to be drawn
away from the actual facts. There is another danger, for the
mere lapse of time gives hypotheses a dignity and apparent
worth, and it were easy to give illustrations. You are doubtless
all familiar with the hypothesis of panmixia, which was advanced
on the flimsiest of bases ; yet a few years later its propounder
treats it as an established law. The like misfortune might hap-
pen to any of us, since it is easy to remember the conclusion and
to forget the evidence. Among zoologists speculation has long
been rife, and for many years we have been deluged with phylo-
64 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,
genetic inferences, with the evil accompaniment of eager welcome
for facts which agree with the favorite phylogenetic theories of
the day, and of disdain for such facts as did not concord with
these theories. Thus has been created that biological mythology
against which Prof. E. B. Wilson has protested so suitably.
Philosophy and science are practically often incompatible — not
because philosophy is unworthy of our entire respect, but because
would-be philosophers are not seekers for wisdom but lovers of
speculation. Twenty years ago we thought that Oken, whose
Natur-philosophie was created by his speculative enthusiasm,
would never have another imitator, but since then biological spec-
ulation has become almost a fetich. Let us part company from
the horde of foolish thoughts which have too long masqueraded
under the false garb of philosophy. For our lifetimes the labor
of inductive research will suffice, and we may well leave deduc-
tion for future generations. Philosophy, so called, is often an
effort to decide what must be, but while knowledge remains im-
perfect the " must be's " will guide us wrong more frequently
than they will guide us aright. As long as Science seeks to deter-
mine what is, her work will endure. My protest against specula-
tion is no idle rhetoric, for the evil is very great. I hope that
Weismann's mystical treatise on Germplasm will prove to be the
culminating effort of the speculative school, and that the influ-
ence of the school will be as brief as it has been widespread.
A hypothesis may be a good serving maid to clean away rub-
bish and get the workroom in order. It is for us to remember
that this good maid makes the worst mistress.
There are many other difficulties of character which obstruct
reason, but you will excuse me from an exhaustive review of
them, and therefore I will refer only to one more, and that briefly.
I mean the artistic perception which induces us to look for com-
pleteness, clearness, and simplicity, so that we are tempted to add
a little or more to our conclusions, or to accept a result partly be-
cause it is complete, clear, and simple. The most eminent illus-
tration of this tendency is Herbert Spencer, whose mental pro-
cesses are so far governed by his love of clear, simple formulae
that he uses simplicity as a test of his conclusions, and makes
formulation a test of truth and a substitute for proof. We are
all inclined to be lax as to our proofs if the generalization is satis-
factory and pleasing, but Spencer's mistakes may warn us against
the danger of gratifying this inclination. Science is not one of
the fine arts. Its work can not be directed by the love of beauty
or by sentiments. Science is a pursuit for the intellect and for
the intellect alone.
I will turn to another part of our work — publication. Scien-
tific publications naturally group themselves in four classes : origi-
WORK OF THE NATURALIST IK THE WORLD. 6,-
nal memoirs, handbooks, text-books, and bibliographies. Now in
the three latter good workmanship is indispensable, for their util-
ity depends on their arrangement, the right proportion of parts,
and the skillful use of language ; but the value of original memoirs
depends upon the discoveries which they report and the sufficien-
cy of the evidence presented to support the discoveries claimed ;
hence the form in which the matter is presented appears less im-
portant than in a handbook or text-book. Moreover, our original
memoirs, saving a very few which mark epochs of progress in
natural science, are, as we all perfectly know, destined to oblivion.
In time our new discoveries will become old-established facts, the
original authorities for which will be forgotten. Who of us
would search, save as a student of the history of science, for the
original authority on the muscles of the human arm, or for the
proof that fossils are not lusus naturcB but genuine remains, or
that some rocks are of sedimentary origin ? When we have
attained certainty in our discoveries, they gradually become so
verified that the memoirs, which originally brought the proofs,
lose their value. Original memoirs are like digestive organs;
they are filled with raw facts, which they prepare for assimila-
tion, but to build the body of science these same facts must be
absorbed and transmuted.
We are, of course, convinced that our original memoirs are for
temporary service, though their recorded facts are to be perma-
nently added to knowledge. To the influence of this conviction
we may ascribe that carelessness of style, verbosity, and frequent
padding which mar scientific writings too commonly, because the
necessary care does not appear worth while for a temporary es-
say. But the time has now come when the burden of reading the
thousands of pages of memoirs which are published annually
even in a single field of research is overwhelming, and it is evi-
dent that for the advantage of science every legitimate means to
lessen this heavy burden should be adopted. The habit of con-
ciseness and clearness should be sedulously cultivated.
With a view of estimating what might be done in this direc-
tion, I have gone over a number of articles upon embryology
which have been published in the four accepted languages of
science — German, English, French, and Italian — during the last
two years. I am compelled to admit that the majority of these
articles could be easily shortened by a half, and many of them
shortened by much more than that, and still offer a thorough, or,
better, said an exhaustive account of the matter presented. I have
been astonished at the amount of perfectly irrelevant matter and
of personal details which appears. The author informs us that
he could not leave home until Tuesday ; that it rained on Friday ;
that he had to carry the eggs eleven kilometres on Saturday ;
66 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
that lie used Delafield's heematoxyline solution, of which he gives
the formula ; that he began making his sections with a Thoma
microtome, but later used a Schanze, as Prof. X — needed the
Thoma ; the author's work was interrupted because he was called
home on account of his father's illness ; his father lived in Meyer-
stadt or Smithville. What have these and thousands of similar
items to do with the plane of the first cleavage of the ovum, the
origin of the centrosome, or the development of the notochord, or
any other problem of embryology ? I have not invented my
illustrations ; on the contrary, I have taken them from some of
the best of recent embryological articles. Similar illustrations
can be collected from recent literature of any branch of natural-
history research.
So far as embryological literature is concerned, the French
standard is certainly the lowest. Their verbosity is infinite,. and
one must read page after page for a single fact. Many of the
French memoirs I have read are literally ten times too long for
the matter. Next to the French come the Germans and ourselves
— Americans — who, in the biological sciences, are disciples of the
Germans. The best-written memoirs are the English, owing, I
think, to Huxley's influence. Huxley has carried scientific writ-
ing to unsurpassed excellence, combining clearness and brevity in
a marvelous way, and his pupils, Francis Balfour and Michael
Foster, have invariably sustained a high literary standard. Their
example has been all the more telling because literary art holds
the same position in England that music holds in Germany and
painting in France.
No doubt the ark of science will traverse the deluge of publi-
cation safely and land us on the Ararat of natural law, but I fear
our Ararat will not appear until the deluge subsides.
But I must hasten to the second part of my address.
II. The Effect of the Naturalist's Career on his Char-
acter.— The occasion does not permit me to refer to more than
two or three professional traits.
The best that we gain from the pursuit of research is, I be-
lieve, our characteristic optimism. We are engaged in achieving
results, and results of the most permanent and enduring quality.
A business man may achieve a fortune ; but time will dissipate it.
A statesman may be the savior of a nation ; but how long do na-
tions live ? Knowledge has no country, belongs to no class, but
is the might of mankind, and it is mightier for what each of us
has done. We have brought our stones, and they are built into
the edifice and into its grandeur. My stone is a small one. It
will certainly be forgotten that it is mine, nevertheless it will re-
main in place.
How different is the pessimism toward which literary men are
WORK OF THE NATURALIST IN THE WORLD. 67
seen to tend ! Harvard University lost James Russell Lowell in
1891, and Asa Gray in 1888. The letters of both of these eminent
men have been published. Lowell's letters grow sad and discour-
aged, and he gives way more and more to the pessimistic spirit.
Gray is optimistic steadily and to the end. The difference was
partly due to natural temperament, but chiefly, I think, to the
influence of their respective professions. The subject material of
the literary man is familiar human nature and familiar human
surroundings, and his task is to express the thoughts and dreams
which these suggest. He must compete with the whole past, with
all the genius that has been. There is nothing new under the sun,
he exclaims. But to us it is a proverb contradicted by our daily
experience.
The attitude of literary men is indeed sad. Lowell opens his
essay on Chaucer with the question, " Can any one hope to say
anything, not new, but even fresh, on a topic so well worn ? "
and answers, " It may well be doubted." This feeling that any-
thing new is impossible is not modern. La Bruyere begins his
Caracteres with " Tout est dit, et Ton vient trop tard depuis plus
de sept niille ans qu'il y a des hommes, et qui pensent " ; and two
hundred years later Joubert repeats : " Toutes les choses, qui sont
aise*es a bien dire, ont 6t6 parfaitement dites ; le reste est notre
affaire ou notre tache : tache penible."
Another trait which is very striking shows itself, not in all
naturalists, but in nearly all great naturalists — the trait of humil-
ity— not the humility of self-depreciation, but the humility which
is the privilege of those who pursue a high ideal. The great '
naturalist cares for the absolulely true, and, though he may know
that he is abler than other men, he feels only a minor interest in
personal comparison, and measures himself by a different stand-
ard. A man who estimates himself by an ideal which he never
fully attains, learns humility in its noblest form. Von Baer, Ernst
Heinrich Weber, Helmholtz, and Darwin were men of that rank ;
and doubtless the very greatness mentally of such men enables
them to estimate justly the proportion their personal contributions
bear to the whole of science.
The sad side of an investigator's life is its inevitable loneliness,
so far as his special work is concerned. It rarely happens that
one of us finds a colleague at hand able to appreciate his special
work ; but at these meetings we each find appreciation and stimu-
lus, and we return refreshed to our isolated labors, return stronger
to stand by ourselves, as men must who wish to share in the seri-
ous work of the world.
The solidarity of our profession, the mutual loyalty not only
of naturalists but of all scientific men, is very great and of im-
mense value. It is perhaps the most important function of this
68 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
society to maintain and strengthen our professional loyalty, be-
cause upon that loyalty depends our success as a body, and as
a body we have a great work to do. Loyalty implies generous
co-operation, and secures that unity of feeling and action which
breeds success. Our influence is not yet large enough, and I hope
that it will be vastly increased by carrying out the scheme of
affiliation between ourselves and kindred societies. Unity is
power.
It is believed by many outside of our profession that a scien-
tific career is narrowing in effect, and tends to obliterate human,
artistic, and religious interests. They look upon Darwin's loss of
sympathy with poetry as typical. The idea seems to me false.
The naturalists whom I know are as genuinely interested in their
friends and in art and in literature as any other group of liberal-
ly educated men. One of our foremost geologists is a learned mu-
sical enthusiast ; one of our botanists, a loving student of the best
European literature ; one of our anatomists, an earnest participant
in charitable work. I claim, in short, that the pursuit of pure sci-
ence broadens and deepens the character. Science is full of sub-
limity, of charm, of inspiration ; but the poet has not yet been
found who will express this aspect of science. We are like colo-
nists: our pioneers are continually advancing into new territo-
ries ; we must work incessantly to secure mere possession ; so it
is not yet quite time for the poet.
Another characteristic of the naturalist is faith. He must
preserve his faith in the possibility and value of knowledge of
the truth. We often forget that this necessity exists. Although
we know not whither truth will lead us, whether to happiness or
to unhappiness, we nevertheless believe in it, trust in it, and
strive for it. Let us therefore have a broad-minded respect for
the faculty of faith, for the loss of it is a crushing disaster to a
naturalist.
The loss of faith in the truth is rare ; its opposite, an exagger-
ated confidence in the possibilities of science, is not rare. I think
that we habitually measure science incorrectly, because we esti-
mate its magnitude by our individual capacity for knowledge,
and so come thoughtlessly to call that infinite which is merely
large. I hold the opposite conception, that the extent of possible
human knowledge is comparatively small so soon as we omit the
details. Huet, Bishop of Avranches, thought that the real knowl-
edge of his time,* aside from the details of history, etc., could be
put in ten folio volumes. He was probably not far from right.
All the knowledge of our time could be brought within the com-
pass of a moderate number of volumes. Nor does the future ap-
* The latter part of the reign of Louis XIV.
WORK OF THE NATURALIST IN THE WORLD. 69
pear to me to offer more than very finite possibilities. Discov-
ery can not always go on with its present rapidity. We live in
the golden age of research. We are surrounded on every side by
discoveries so easy that they seem to beg for our attention. But
as each one is made and its result added to the known, the
unknown is equally diminished. It diminishes daily, and the
store of easy discoveries lessens so fast that the time is not very
distant when investigators of moderate abilities will no longer
enjoy such opportunities as they have now. If we consider the
whole of science, we have a sense of boundlessness ; but each part
has its end, and its end is not far away. It will not be long be-
fore nearly everything easily known will be known. It would
be presumptuous to assume that, even when the whole knowable
has become known, there will not still be problems which the
human intellect can apprehend but not solve. As to-day, so here-
after, the naturalist's final thought must be reverent submission.
III. The Influence of the Naturalist on Mankind. — The
influence and utility of natural science need neither defense nor
explanation to a generation which has witnessed the establish-
ment of the theory of natural selection and of the germ theory of
disease ; nor need we argue for the pre-eminence of original re-
search, but there are certain principles for which we stand indi-
vidually and collectively. I think that it will be profitable to
review and to formulate some of these.
We stand for the value of good intellectual work and for the
recognition of the value of proper training. We do not admit
that scientific work requires a peculiar mind, but only the cultiva-
tion of those fundamental faculties of observation and induction
which every one should possess and use. On the other hand, we
claim that in addition to the development and disciplining of
these faculties the naturalist must have his special professional
training, and that without it he is not qualified for his profes-
sional work. In upholding this standard we not only serve the
cause of science, but we serve the whole country. It is safe to
say that the greatest evil in the social life of the United States is
the habitual disregard of competency — a disregard which prevails
not only with the people at large, but also among the most highly
educated men. Democracy is the belief that every man is the
equal of his betters. Americans are loath to admit that training
and experience make experts, and that experts are better than
others for their special work. The spoils system of the office-
seekers is based upon the assumption that training and expe-
rience do not render a man more competent. When a water
board is established to plan a water supply, we do not appoint
chemists, engineers, and sanitarians, but grocers, novelists, and
ward politicians. It is a rare exception if among the trustees of
70 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
endowed educational institutions a man is found with extensive
knowledge of educational methods. It is common for a man who
has never been trained to teach to take up teaching for a few
years, when he changes to some business or profession. These,
and thousands of other instances, crowded in our memories, illus-
trate the dislike of real competency.
Imagination anticipates the revolution which must come, and
foresees the time when public workers of all kinds shall be chosen
—first, because they have been properly trained and educated for
the work which is to be their lifelong profession ; second, accord-
ing to the relative ability of those so prepared. Democracy ap-
pears as a permanent factor of steadily increasing influence in
social evolution. It has, of course, done much good, but its fail-
ure to secure honest government has raised one of the gravest
problems of our time. Some persons advocate restriction of the
right to vote, but to me restriction of the right to be a candidate
offers the practicable solution of the problem. We are a few
among millions, but the educational and other offices we hold
give us an influence out of proportion to our mere numbers. If
we demand within the limits which becomes us that men must be
chosen for their competency, we shall uphold effectively a prin-
ciple the defense of which is among the foremost duties of every
patriotic citizen.
We have already done something to improve school educa-
tion. We should do more, especially in the direction of adding
scientific courses to the school curriculum. A man is liberally
educated when he has learned to take an appreciative interest in
the intellectual life of his time, and a man who has not learned
enough of the natural sciences to understand something of their
progress can to-day scarcely rank as an educated man. It is true
that science is better adapted to serve as a basis of education than
the classics, and it is true also that it is easier to give a liberal
education without classics than without science ; nevertheless we
must urge the claims of science in schools conservatively. A re-
form is better than a revolution. A reform saves strength and
spares prejudices. We must remember, too, that centuries have
been spent in testing and perfecting the classical system of educa-
tion, and that it has rendered services which can hardly be over-
estimated. The education based on science has scarcely two
decades of imperfect and hesitating trial, and the people at large
have still to learn that it is feasible and more valuable than the
older system. The methods of utilizing science for school courses
are still crude. We suffer from an erribarras des richesses. There
is here an opportunity for public usefulness for this society.
Could we not through a committee prepare a plan for a system
of school education in which science should have its place, and
WORK OF TEE NATURALIST IN TEE WORLD. 71
by which our children should acquire some information about
themselves, the world around them, and at the same time be
disciplined in observation and reasoning ?
In regard to our schools there prevails the miserable delusion
that they are good. We have many private and public good
schools, but they constitute the small minority. Most of the
young men who enter my classes after leaving our public schools
are poorly disciplined in every respect, and a great many of them
are absolutely uneducated : they can not express their thoughts
in English; they can not spell common words; they can not
translate correctly a simple phrase in Latin or any modern lan-
guage, and they are ignorant of all sciences. Such is too often
the condition of the graduates of the primary, grammar, and high
schools of the country which claims to afford the best system of
public education in the world. I have very little personal ac-
quaintance with our schools, but to my mind their product
condemns them, and I believe that our influence can do much to
redeem them from their present condition.
Another public duty, which belongs especially to us, is to
advance the development of universities in America. There are
three grades of education — school, college, and university. In
schools elementary knowledge is used to inform and develop the
mind ; in colleges advanced knowledge is used for the same pur-
poses. Now it is one thing to teach what is known, as in schools,
and to teach how to confirm what is known, as in colleges ; but it
is a fundamentally different task to advance a student to success-
ful original investigation of the unknown. As Mill has justly
remarked, the vast majority of mental operations are neither in-
ductive nor deductive, but reasoning from particular to the par-
ticular. Minds which work in this way suffice for the routine
affairs of existence, but the progress of the world depends on the
higher faculty of originality, either in the inductive establish-
ment of laws by the comparison of particulars or in the deduc-
tive applications of these laws. It is the function of universities
to develop and discipline originality, to cultivate the faculty of
thinking out a conclusion for the first time — not for the first time
in the history of the thinker, but for the first time in the history
of the world.
To train men to originality in every field of production is the
proper function of a true university. This has long been the
accepted ideal of German universities, and because they have
steadily striven for this ideal they have attained a fame which
draws to them students from every other country. In America
we are slowly creating a few universities. Of nominal univer-
sities we have too many — false Duessas, fair in semblance, but not
true to their pretensions. We have, in fact, as yet nothing to
jz THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
rank with, the German universities. We are handicapped by the
college tradition of four years' education to fit a man for every-
thing in general and nothing in particular. But the colleges are
rapidly losing ground, and it seems to be only a question of time
as to their total disappearance. I do not mean that they will
cease to exist in name, but that a college (in the sense of the term
as universally accepted thirty years ago) is an institution which
will have no place in the American educational system of the
future, just as it is unknown in the present educational system of
Europe. In fact, our best colleges are passing through rapid revo-
lutionary changes, and, like Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and others,
are becoming universities. Let it be our part to help the trans-
formation, to hasten it, and to secure for research its place as the
basis of the highest education in science. Every one admits that-
the value of a university depends chiefly upon its professors, but
it is not understood that ability to give instruction six to ten
hours a week successfully by no means qualifies a man to be a
university professor. The essential qualifications for a professor
of any natural science are, first, ability to carry on original re-
search ; second, ability to train others to carry on original re-
search. AH other qualifications are subsidiary. Of university
life research is the Alpha and research is the Omega.
We welcome the growth of the university idea in this country,
and we can not gather in this place without speaking with grate-
ful recognition of the services rendered to the cause of the high-
est education by the university whose guests we are to-day. The
Johns Hopkins University has the glory of having been the first
American institution to accept unreservedly the genuine univer-
sity ideal. Would that she had had more imitators !
Summing up the conclusions announced by Mr. Worthington 0. Smith in his
book, Man, the Primeval Savage, Dr. W. Boyd Dawkins agrees with the author
in the opinion that man inhabited southeastern England after the Glacial period ;
also in the view that the preglacial or postglacial age of man is to be regarded
as merely of local significance, because the Glacial period is a purely local phe-
nomenon, not marked in the warmer southern lands, such as the Indian Peninsula,
which was inhabited by the palaeolithic hunter. " We know him in India simply as
living in the Pleistocene age. He probably invaded Europe in the preglacial age,
and lived in the south while Britain lay buried under a mass of glaciers, or was
covered by a berg-laden sea. He is postglacial in the valley of the Thames. He
is not separated from our own times either by a wall of ice — the ice age of Prof.
James Geikie— or by the tumultuous waters of a vast deluge, such as that recently
put before us by Sir Henry Oovvorth. He is separated by a geographical revolu-
tion during which the seaboard of northwestern Europe, as we find it now, came
into being, and Britain became an island — as well as by a change in our land
from a continental to an insular climate."
BUSINESS, FRIENDSHIP, AND CHARITY. 73
BUSINESS, FRIENDSHIP, AND CHARITY.
Br LOGAN G. McPHEKSON.
AS man has learned with increasing complexity of means
toward an increasing variety of ends to wrest food and
fuel and shelter from the earth and all that springs therefrom,
each man has had to depend more and more upon the efforts of
his fellowmen; and hence has arisen that marvelously intricate
intertwining of effort that characterizes the civilization of to-day.
Interwoven in ministering to the needs and gratifications of man-
kind are the laborer's muscle, the hand of the mechanic, the brain
of the merchant, the painter's touch, the singer's voice.
This intertwining of effort is nowhere separable ; the result is
the blood of civilization that, flowing through the arteries of
commerce, connects the hemispheres. Europe and America eat
the cattle and the wheat of the western plains, wear the fabrics
of England and France, and drink the tea of the Orient. The re-
sults of the researches of the German laboratory, and of the in-
ventor of whatever nation, are utilized throughout the world, and
books of whatever press penetrate to the households of every
clime. Patti sings in San Francisco and St. Petersburg ; Irving
and Booth act in Berlin, Paris, London, and New York. In pub-
lic gallery and public park the masterpiece of painter and'sculptor
is seen by thousands, and, as reproduced by engraving and etch-
ing, is brought to the sight of thousands more. The English
specialist discovers a remedy that all physicians use ; the Ameri-
can lawyer collates, systematizes, and formulates a code that eases
the burden of all litigation.
In the simplicity of primeval life each man obtained for him-
self his own crude subsistence, prepared his own rude clothing,
and fashioned his own rude tools. In time it was learned that, by
yielding a portion of the result of one's efforts for the benefit of
another in return for a portion of the results achieved by that
other, increased benefit was obtained by each. Thus began that
co-operation that, through the centuries of slavery, feudalism,
and absolutism, has increased and extended until to-day all who
by work of hand or brain achieve results that contribute to the
benefit of others receive the measure of their material reward in
money obtained as wages, salaries, fees, or profits.
The man of affairs, before taking the morning train that con-
veys him to his place of business, gives a penny to the boy at the
station and receives in return a newspaper. In exchange for that
penny he receives knowledge of the happenings of the previous
day, which may play a part in determining his course in connec-
tion with the production and distribution of commodities that
74 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
may directly affect hundreds of workmen and thousands of con-
sumers. The boy who receives the penny receives many other
pennies, a portion of which accrues to him as his profit from the
sale of the papers. The greater portion goes with hundreds of
other pennies, from each of hundreds of other boys, to the office
of the newspaper, where they form a considerable portion of the
fund that pays for the paper whereon, and the ink, type, and
presses wherewith, the newspaper is printed ; that goes in wages
and salaries to the foreman, compositors, correspondents, and
editors. The portion of this fund that goes to the manufacturers
of ink, paper, and presses contributes to their profits and to the
wages and salaries of the workmen employed by them. Portions
of the wages and salaries of foreman, compositors, correspond-
ents, and editors, and of the workmen that make ink, paper, and
presses, are in turn paid by them to dealers in shoes, hats, clothes,
meat, flour and potatoes, coal, furniture, carpets, and so on. The
dealers in these commodities make remittances to the manufac-
turers who in turn, pay the wages of the workmen who produce
shoes, hats, and clothes ; to the killers of cattle ; the packers and
shippers of meat ; the raisers of wheat and millers of flour ; the
miners of coal ; the makers of furniture, and the weavers of car-
pets. Each is a purchaser of products that all are concerned in
producing. The money that goes to each as a reward for his
efforts is distributed through various channels to all others as a
portion of the reward for their efforts. The exchange of the
penny and the paper between the man and the newsboy is one of
a myriad of exchanges between man and man that are interlinked
one with the other in bringing to each a portion of the benefit of
the efforts of all the others, and which, giving a broad signifi-
cance to the term, constitute Business.
Without this interlinking of effort the fabric of our civiliza-
tion would be impossible. Not under any conceivable conditions
could any one family supply its needs as those needs are supplied
by the various producing and distributing agencies of to-day.
With the increasing interdependence of man and man in
ministering to material needs has been an increasing tendency
toward association for that satisfaction which is obtained from
the common enjoyment of a pleasure, the sharing of grief, the ex-
pression and exchange of thought and opinion, from social con-
versation. Association, from necessity or convenience, frequently
develops a similarity of taste and habit that brings congeniality ;
the wider the range of association permitted by the conditions of
their lives, the greater is the opportunity for persons of particu-
lar tastes and habits to form companionships affording the great-
est gratification, and the likelihood that they will do so. With
the congeniality thus formed is the growth of sympathy of one
BUSINESS, FRIENDSHIP, AND CHARITY. 75
with the other, and this sympathy or fellow-feeling is the basis of
that relation known as Friendship. This sympathy, leading to
the desire on the part of those between whom it exists that the
life of each shall be free from discomfort and annoyance, prompts
the doing of kindly acts one for another. These acts are fre-
quently the dispensing of hospitality ; they frequently are the
extending of aid in misfortune and adversity, and, now and then,
result in the sharing of fortune, to a greater or less extent, by one
more richly endowed with the means for the satisfaction of his
material needs, with those to whom he is bound by this sympathy
of friendship. It will be perceived, therefore, that when a person,
prompted by this sympathy, contributes to the material welfare
of another, that other receives from his gift benefit that he might
not otherwise obtain, except as the reward of effort toward the
satisfaction of the material needs of mankind. Thus friendship
bestows what otherwise would not be obtained but through the
channels of business.
Akin in a measure to that sympathy which prompts acts of
kindness which inure to the benefit of "one's friends, is that sym-
pathy which prompts acts of charity intended to inure to the
benefit of the needy and unfortunate — of those who, whether by
reason of bodily, mental, or moral defects, or by the grinding
force of untoward circumstance, live in misery. The giving of
alms to a beggar, the contribution to a hospital, asylum, or mis-
sionary fund, springing from this feeling of sympathy, have
directly or indirectly for their object the bettering of the mate-
rial condition of the beneficiaries.
As the actions prompted by the desire for pecuniary gain,
many of the actions prompted by friendship, and the actions
prompted by charity have for their object the satisfaction of the
desires of others, the conferring of benefit upon others, it is proper
to consider to what extent, in what manner, and under what con-
ditions one should confer benefit upon or receive benefit from
others.
It has been demonstrated by the greatest philosophers that
the highest end to be attained by each individual for the good of
himself and the good of civilization is the greatest harmonious
physical, mental, and moral development of which he is capable.
The benefits conferred by each individual upon others should
therefore be such as to lead to this end for each of the beneficia-
ries, and the benefits received by each individual from others
should lead to this end for him.
To its wholesome use, as well as to its highest development, is
essential that the body receive that food and clothing and the
bodily organs that alternate exercise and rest that promote regu-
larity and fullness of the vital processes ; that nerves and muscles
7 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
receive that training which brings them under the complete con-
trol of the will ; that the perceptive organs be habituated to con-
vey clear and accurate impressions to the brain.
To the wholesome use of the mind it is essential that the im-
pressions coming thereto be perceived in their exact relation, so
that nerve and muscle may be directed to most efficient result ;
its development means the more extended and the more complex
correlation of an increasing number and variety of impressions.
The highest moral development is attained through the in-
creasing and constantly more refined perception of that conduct
which contributes to the highest good of one's self and others, and
action in accordance therewith.
Here arises the fact that the physical and mental structures
of different individuals are of greatly varying capacities. An
amount of physical exertion that serves only as wholesome exer-
cise to one man might ruin another of less sturdy structure.
The amount of mental exertion upon which one brain thrives and
develops would cause another pain, and would be utterly impos-
sible for yet another. Different impressions coming under differ-
ent conditions, through bodies of different fiber, to brains of dif-
ferent caliber, have, together with the mold given by differing in-
fluences of heredity, produced that difference of characteristics in
different individuals that is so incalculable that it is accepted as
a truism that no two persons are exactly alike. It is obvious,
therefore, that no one can contribute to the totality of effort in
greater degree or in kind other than his physical and mental
structure and characteristics will permit. The laborer on the
embankment has the muscle wherewith to use the pick and
shovel, but ordinarily is incapable of that co-ordination of hand
and brain which would enable him to use tools of a higher class.
The blacksmith has that adjustment of brain and muscle which
enables him to bend and shape the bars of iron. Through the
ascending ranks of artisans this adjustment of brain and muscle
becomes more delicate, reaching a rare degree of precision in, for
example, the optician who grinds and shapes the glasses for spec-
tacles, microscope, and telescope. The clerk who keeps journal
and ledger, or who prepares deeds and mortgages, has that con-
trol of the hand and that mental development which suffice for
this work. Neither laborer, blacksmith, optician, nor clerk could
perform the work accomplished by the other; but each, by giv-
ing to others the benefit of effort of which he is physically and
mentally capable, receives that which enables him to obtain the
food, shelter, and clothing necessary to his maintenance.
And it is through work of body and brain that yet higher re-
sult is achieved. The blacksmith's son, compelled to contribute
early in life to the support of himself, his brothers and sisters, be-
BUSINESS, FRIENDSHIP, AND CHARITY. 77
comes perhaps a machinist's apprentice. As he sweeps the shop,
carries tools, and blows the bellows, he sees the firing of the boil-
ers, the turning of the wheels and belts, and the men at their work.
In time he comes to use tools and lathe himself. His hands be-
come deft, and his brain increases in perception of what tools and
machines can be made to do ; he is being trained and developed,
physically and mentally, to a capacity for increased usefulness,
which brings increased reward. This development perhaps may
result in the invention of appliances or the discovery of methods
whereby greater results may be accomplished with less effort,
thereby giving to civilization that extraordinary benefit and ob-
taining for himself that extraordinary reward which comes to the
inventor. And so, likewise, with all men in all vocations. The
printer's devil, step by step, may rise to the foremanship of the
composing room, or to the editorship of the paper. The office
boy becomes shipping clerk, or bookkeeper, and may acquire that
knowledge of commerce and that judgment which fit him to con-
trol the operations of a great manufacturing or mercantile estab-
lishment.
Throughout the field of human effort, extraordinary achieve-
ment proceeds from a correlation of ideas in an original percep-
tion of far-reaching relation of cause and effect that, through
nerve and muscle, results in handiwork or delivered word that
places that relation in tangible shape for the benefit of mankind.
And in any line of human effort extraordinary achievement is
usually attained only after years of toil, in which body and brain
are trained and tempered to this perception of far-reaching rela-
tion of cause and effect and the ability to give it expression.
Different individuals, however, attain different degrees of useful-
ness, and different degrees of reward; only the few achieve ex-
traordinary result, the vast majority in any vocation laboring
year after year without more than average achievement or more
than average reward. But the work of each brings that which
sustains the body ; it gives body and brain the use by which they
are exercised and developed ; it contributes to that totality of
effort by which all individuals of the civilized world are sus-
tained ; and it is by means of toil that civilization is advanced ;
that better machines are made ; that better cloths are produced ;
that more nutritious food is prepared ; that better houses are
built ; that better books are written ; and better songs are better
sung.
In every community different people live in different degrees
of comfort. Their habitations vary greatly in size, strength, and
durability. Their clothing differs greatly in warmth and adapt-
ability, and varies in quantity. There is great variety in the
kind and quantity of food which each family can afford, and the
VOL. XLVII. 7
78 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
opportunities for other pleasurable gratifications of the senses
widely differ. And therefore the question, Why do different in-
dividuals obtain from the totality of effort different proportions
of benefit ?
The reply is suggested by the actions of men in primeval bar-
ter. "When man first learned that, by yielding a portion of the
result of his efforts for the benefit of another in return for a por-
tion of the benefit of the result achieved by that other, increased
benefit could be obtained for himself, he naturally yielded only
so much of benefit as would bring him greater benefit in return,
and so also with the other. Each yielded as little and obtained
as much as he could. In that intricate intertwining of effort that
characterizes the civilization of to-day that primeval principle of
exchange holds good. The wage of the laborer and servant, or
the salary of the clerk, as a rule, is as little as can be paid for
the work which each performs ; likewise with the fees of the phy-
sician, lawyer, writer, painter ; and, as a rule, the least considera-
tion for which commodities can be obtained is the price that is
paid for them. And likewise laborer, servant, clerk, musician,
lawyer, writer, or painter, as a rule, endeavors to obtain the high-
est price for his services or the result of his efforts, and the mer-
chant the highest price for his commodities. And this basis,
which seems to be of unmixed selfishness, is the only basis that
will lead to ultimate justice to all.
For if A produces the same quantity, quality, and result of
work as B, and receives greater wages, salary, fees, or profits in
return therefor, he is able to obtain from the efforts of others
a greater proportion than B of all that contributes to the well-
being of himself and of his family. That is, in return for equal
contributions to the totality of effort A receives more than B,
which is manifestly unjust. If there can be obtained from C, D,
E, or F the same quantity, quality, and result of work as is ob-
tained from B and for the same reward as is paid to B, society, as
a whole, by paying to A a greater reward than it pays to B, C,
D, E, or F, diminishes the totality of effort by the amount of ef-
fort that B, C, D, E, or F would produce in return for the differ-
ence between the reward paid to A and that paid to B, C, D, E,
or F for the same result. If, however, society can not obtain
from C, D, E, or F, or any other source, the same quantity, qual-
ity, and result of work as it obtains from B — except for a reward
equal to that paid to A, and it needs a greater amount of such
work than can be produced by B — it is obliged to avail itself of all
or a portion of the efforts of A, C, D, E, and F. If it continues to
obtain results from B equal to the result obtained from either A,
C, D, E, or F for less reward than is paid to A, C, D, E, or F, B by
reason of the discrimination has a grievance which is not ad-
BUSINESS, FRIENDSHIP, AND CHARITY. 79
justed until his reward is made equal to that paid A, C, D, E, and
F. But if from B, G, H, I, and K work can be obtained equal to
that obtained from A, C, D, E, and F for the same reward to each
as that paid to B, the totality of effort would be increased by-
employing B, G, H, I, and K at the lesser reward. Society as a
whole, therefore, receives greatest benefit, other things equal, by
obtaining needed results for the least reward. But by paying
unequal rewards for equal services it incites the antagonism of
those discriminated against as soon as the discrimination is per-
ceived by them. The merchant, who pays one clerk a greater
salary than another whose services are of equal value, incites that
other to the demand for an increase of salary. A class of laborers
receiving wages less than other laborers to whose services they
think their own equal, are incited to demand equal wages ; and so
throughout all society.
But if A and B for equal results receive equal reward, and in
a given time A produces more than B, it follows that to make
equal contributions to, and to receive equal reward from, the
totality of effort, B must work longer than A. And if A in a
given time produces not only more than B, but of more impor-
tant result than B, it follows that his reward should be greater
than that of B. In other words, to receive the greatest reward
that he can obtain from the totality of effort, each individual
should contribute to his capacity to that totality; and that the
totality of effort may be the greatest, society must bestow upon
each individual such proportion of benefit as in return for which
the proportion of effort of which he is capable can be obtained.
And it is not difficult to perceive that the value of effort is
directly proportionate to the intelligence with which it is guided
and by which its results are directed. On roads and embank-
ments, in the fields, mines, and quarries, is necessary a vast amount
of work that depends almost entirely on physical exertion and
endurance. While the aggregate of this work forms a large pro-
portion of the totality of effort, the portion contributed by each
individual is but an infinitesimal portion of the whole, and, as
requiring but little intelligence or experience or training, it can be
performed substantially as well by one as another the proportion
of benefit accruing to each individual in return is small, and this
also because such work is without avail unless it is directed to
efficient result, and its results are co-ordinated to beneficial ends,
and this directing and co-ordinating come from others than those
performing the work. On the plane with these laborers may be
classed teamsters, stevedores, porters, and like functionaries. For
their individually slight and easily obtained services, which are
immediately directed by the intelligence of others, society gives
but slight reward. In stores and offices are needed the services
80 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTELY.
of multitudes of clerks, who, by helping purchasers to secure
desired commodities, by writing letters and keeping accounts,
contribute to the benefit of society effort that requires a consid-
erable degree of intelligence in addition to manual labor. Their
contributions to the totality of effort, and likewise those of arti-
sans, such as carpenters and machinists, to the performance of
whose work is necessary a considerable degree of intelligence,
training, and experience, meet with ampler reward than those
whose efforts spring from physical exertion alone. To those who
direct the efforts of others toward results of great benefit to a
great number of people still greater reward is given. The manu-
facturer, who employs the services of numerous employees in
producing commodities of a design and quality that cause them
to be of use to multitudes of people throughout an extended
territory, and the transportation manager and the merchant who
utilize the efforts of legions of subordinates in effecting their dis-
tribution, frequently amass fortunes. Those from whose brains
spring ideas that are of extraordinary benefit to mankind, and
those who have made practical utilization of such ideas, have
received extraordinary reward. Instance after instance occurs of
inventors whose devices have wonderfully cheapened and facili-
tated production and distribution, and who have thereby reaped
immense personal gain. And likewise throughout the professions
and the arts. There is a vast difference between the remuneration
accruing to the lawyer of slight and unimportant practice and
that to him who contributes to the adjustment and maintenance
of vast and important interests ; between the reward given the
actor of little histrionic ability and that flowing in upon a Jeffer-
son or a Booth. At the extreme end of the scale are the vagabond
and the tramp, who, contributing nothing to the well-being of
any one, are entitled to nothing in return.
Out of the different capacities of different men that have been
accentuated by the increasing specialization by which alone it
has been possible to administer to the growing and varied needs
of mankind has arisen the present industrial system. Each man,
to obtain the satisfaction of his own needs, must contribute to the
needs of others ; each man, in the endeavor to obtain the most for
himself, strives for higher wages and salaries and for greater fees
and profits ; and all men, that they may supply their own needs
to the fullest extent, strive to obtain services and commodities for
the lowest price. Therefrom arises the great force of competi-
tion that, acting through the merchant who sells, upon the man-
ufacturer who produces articles of use and consumption, compels
production in best adapted localities, the adoption of economical
appliances and thrifty methods, the placing of particular func-
tions in charge of those best fitted to their performance. The in-
BUSINESS, FRIENDSHIP, AND CHARITY. 81
creasing use of machinery and the development of methods of
production and distribution necessitate the employ of a constantly
increasing, number of men of the higher grades of ability and
intelligence and the efforts of other grades of those who work
increase both in vigor and system toward securing the greatest
remuneration for their services. The result, as amply proved by
statistics, is that the reward of effort constantly increases both by
reason that wages, salaries, and incomes become greater, and the
prices of commodities and of the result of services become less.
That this holds true even during the radical industrial readjust-
ment of the past two years is evidenced by the following extract
from the editorial summary of business in Dun's Review of Jan-
uary 5, 1895 :
" The complete review of different branches of business given
to-day places in a clear light the fact that prices of commodities
are at the lowest level ever known. Eight years ago, in July,
prices averaged only 73*69 per cent of the same articles and in
the same markets January 1, 1860, and this remained the lowest
point ever touched until August 10, 1893, when the average fell to
7276, but early this year prices dropped below all previous records
and have never recovered, the average December 26th being only
6873 per cent of the prices in 1860. These changes contrast
sharply with the decline of wages paid per hour's work, which, as
was shown last week, average only 1*2 per cent less than a year
ago."
It should, however, be perceived that the greatest contribution
which any one can make to the totality of effort is not the result
of effort pushed to excess in any one direction for a limited time,
for such effort results in the premature impairment of physical
and mental power ; but the total result of his efforts for the long-
est time that his mental and physical efficiency can be preserved.
It therefore follows that periods of expenditure should be followed
by periods of recuperation ; that each man for the benefit both of
himself and of society should have that rest and recreation and
the opportunity for that bodily and mental gratification which
offset the wear and tear of energy persistently expended in one
direction, and contribute to the preservation and symmetrical
development and rounding of his bodily and mental life.
All the foregoing statement leads irresistibly to the conclusion
that each man should work as best he can in fulfillment of his
duty to himself and his duty to all others, whether his contem-
poraries or those who come after him. And therefore stands
clear and firm the corollary that each man should find pleasure
and satisfaction in that work which it is possible for him to
do. And it doubtless would be so if throughout the world all
people recognized the full meaning of work, and it were true, and
82 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
all people clearly perceived it to be true, that each man receives
benefit in proportion to the value of his efforts. But all history-
shows that man has ever had to fight for the fruit of his labor ;
to stand guard over that which his efforts have gained. Herein
lies the meaning of theft. In broad significance, to steal is to de-
prive another of benefit without yielding benefit in return. The
robber and the thief that directly filch are shown to become less
in each decade in proportion to the total population ; but, in the
complexity of the growing industrial mechanism, the greed of the
unscrupulous has found new channels through which to wrest
from others that for which adequate recompense is not given.
But after war is peace, and as a wider sense of justice has fol-
lowed the struggles of mankind in the past, there is reason to be-
lieve that the industrial warfare that now confronts us on every
hand and the discussion of political, economical, and industrial
problems which is now intense throughout the civilized world
will result in that increased intelligence and increased morality
which tend ever more and more to give each man his due.
And contributing to this end must be a fuller understanding
of the nature of friendship and charity and of their just limita-
tions. For these much-extolled virtues are but too frequently
with mistaken intent devoted to unworthy ends; in devious ways
their counterfeits are made to serve as instruments for obtaining
unearned gain. That a monarch of old who gave to a genial
comrade power to devote tribute obtained from the subjects of the
realm to his personal pleasure and indulgence allowed friendship
for his comrade to result in wrong to his people is apparent with-
out other proof than that of the fact. Because of the pleas-
ure obtained by the king from association with him, the favorite
benefited by the efforts of thousands of people to whom he con-
tributed no benefit in return. And so also with every man occu-
pying position of power or trust who bestows place, authority, or
privilege because of friendship upon a man incompetent and un-
worthy. For, as the efforts of each man are interlinked in greater
or less degree with the efforts of all others, so to do would be to
diminish the totality of effort that is the lifeblood of civilization.
The human nature quickly adjusts itself to that which is pleas-
ant ; the frequent bestowal of unearned benefit upon a friend
tends to adjust his nature to the reception of that benefit, to lead
him to expect it. His perception of the fact that benefit should
come to him in proportion to the value of his contribution to the
totality of effort is thereby weakened, to his mental and moral
detriment. And he who by the display of a kindly interest,
whether real or simulated, in another's welfare obtains benefit
from the effort of that other for which he does not make due
recompense adds to theft the vice of hypocrisy. It is only under
BUSINESS, FRIENDSHIP, AND CHARITY. 83
the unhindered working of the law of supply and demand that
exchange of effort can be made with ultimate justice to all, and
this ultimate justice can only be attained when all persons whose
efforts are interchanged clearly perceive the value of any particular
effort, and willingly exchange effort for effort, benefit for benefit,
in proportion to their true value. That increased morality which
comes from increased intelligence alone will lead to this end.
And so also with charity. That there should be a distinction
between helping those who can not work and contributing to the
comfort of those who will not work, is being ever made more
clear by those who have given studious attention to the minis-
tration of charity. As to steal is to deprive others of benefit
without yielding benefit in return, those who are physically and
mentally able and have the opportunity to maintain themselves,
but who abstract from others the benefit that conduces to that
maintenance by the simulation of helplessness and appeal to sym-
pathy, are no less than thieves. And, likewise, those who by ap-
peal to sympathy obtain from others benefit in excess of that to
which they are entitled under the unhindered working of the law
of supply and demand, in common with those who because of
sympathy extend that benefit, inflict a wrong upon society as a
whole. Many persons of fine sensibilities, who live in comfort
and are kindly disposed toward all men, feeling it their duty to
alleviate pain, succor the distressed, and elevate the lowly, in the
attempt to lift to a higher standard the life of those whose lot
appeals to them in piteous contrast with their own, have scattered
gifts and expended energy often misdirected because they have
not recognized that the mold given by heredity and environment
can not suddenly be changed, that true and lasting improvement
to any one can only result from his own perception of and desire
to reach a higher standard, and his own effort directed toward
that end.
But, says one of the well-to-do, " Am I to be debarred from the
exercise of kindness to my friends, to whom the giving of pleasure
yields me manifold pleasure in return ; am I not to have my good
friend who lives more humbly than I at my house for dinner, for
a drive in my carriage, or may I not take him with me for a jour-
ney that will give him needed rest and build up his health ? Am
I not to extend token of friendship by gifts to whom I choose ? "
The reply first and foremost is, that the highest end of friendship
is removed far and above the exchange of material benefit. From
the association of minds that are congenial and natures that
accord, there is derived a rare and refined delight to which in
proper bounds the exchange of kindness and gifts may minister ;
but it is polluted and broken the instant it becomes on either side
a means for obtaining unrequited material gain.
84 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
Continuing the inquiry, he asks : " Is there no good to be ac-
complished by giving in charity ? Am I to be prohibited from
aiding the needy and giving succor to the distressed ? Am I to
use no endeavor toward bettering the lot of the more lowly than
I?" The reply in part has been amply suggested. The highest
charity to those who are able and have opportunity to work, but
decline to do so, is to endeavor to make them clearly understand
that unless they contribute as they are able to the benefit of others,
there is no reason that from the efforts of others benefit should
accrue to them. The highest charity to those who are able and
willing to work, but have not the opportunity to do so, is to use
every endeavor to establish conditions that will permit them to
contribute as best they can to the benefit of others, and to receive
benefit in full proportion to the value of their efforts in return ;
and, likewise, the highest charity to those who are susceptible to
that training which would develop the capacity and willingness
for contribution to the benefit of others, is to establish conditions
whereunder they may receive that training. It should go with-
out saying that those who are in affliction by reason of sickness,
by the sudden death of those upon whom they have justly been
dependent, or by reason of " plague, pestilence, or famine," should
be given that succor which will restore or lead them to useful-
ness, and it should go without saying that, when it is just for one
to give, it is just for the other to receive. And those who, from
mental, moral, and physical defects, are actually incapable of
maintaining themselves by their own exertions should be placed
under conditions that will render them as little burdensome as
possible to the community as a whole.
The foregoing are generalizations that bear upon the serious
problems of the treatment of the criminal and shiftless, of labor,
wages, and of education, and whose practical application under
the existing status can not but often be most difficult. If, how-
ever, all who desire the betterment of their kind — all those who
make and execute laws, who instruct their fellow-men in pulpit or
press, who mold the minds of the young in school or home —
would perceive as a principle that the greatest good to all comes
from the contribution of each in kind and degree as may be pos-
sible to the totality of effort in return for benefit to the full value
thereof, and would give that principle the fullest possible appli-
cation in their own actions and in the endeavor to instill it in the
minds of those under their guidance, or otherwise associated with
them, all these problems, which are important factors in the great
problem of civilization, will sooner or later, upon the basis of that
principle, be solved.
It will be perceived that the full application of that principle
will nullify many beliefs and traditions that, descending through
BUSINESS, FRIENDSHIP, AND CHARITY. 85
the centuries, still influence the mass of mankind. For example,
the injunction of the Old Testament, " In the sweat of thy face
shalt thou eat bread," which is reiterated from the pulpit as the
decree of punishment that weighs as a burden upon mankind,
fades in the perception of the grandeur of human effort ; while a
deeper significance comes to the injunction, " If any would not
work neither should he eat " ; and to the utterance, " Give every
man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his
doings." The fallacy that work is for hirelings, and the life of a
gentleman a life of leisure, falls in the perception that no servi-
tude is dishonorable, for from the maid in the kitchen to the
statesman in the cabinet the efforts of all are in the service of
mankind. The widely prevalent and not infrequently lauded
practice in business circles, whereunder each party to every ex-
change endeavors to reap the entire benefit, will disappear. The
man who ostentatiously disburses in so-called charity the fortune
that he has amassed by sharp practice and overbearing greed will
be unknown. When all people clearly perceive that they should
receive benefit from all in proportion as they contribute to the
benefit of all, the core will be reached of the dissatisfaction that
breeds jealousy and distrust between the employer and employee,
that leads to the grosser forms of socialism and anarchy; and
when that perception is carried into practice the core will be re-
moved. And not least, many of the accepted opinions in regard
to the tenure of property acquired by inheritance will join the
crumbled belief in the divine right of kings.
This essay, however, has not touched upon those actions
whereby benefit is conferred by one upon another under the im-
mediate relationship of family and marriage. The application of
the principle to the elucidation of which it has been devoted can
not but constantly be traversed by such actions, which comprise
the begetting and rearing of children, the care by one for those
who, under family ties, are justly dependent upon him, the trans-
fer of property by marriage and inheritance. Did space permit
it might be shown that in the last analysis all these actions,
which are interwoven with all the other actions of mankind in
the continuance and advancement of civilization, rest upon that
principle also ; that these, in common with all other actions, con-
tribute to ultimate justice to all to the extent that that principle
is recognized and given effect.
One of the most remarkable features of Albanian " full dress " is a petticoat
reaching to the knee, made of white linen, sixty yards in width. The weight of
the costume is very great; but the more yards in the garment, the greater dandy
is the wearer.
86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
RACE MIXTURE AND NATIONAL CHARACTER.
By LEWIS K. HAELEY, A.M.
THE term "nation" as used at the present time involves
much confusion in thought ; and an eminent writer, in order
to fix clearly the meaning of this term in the mind of the student,
has defined the nation as a population of an ethnic unity, inhabit-
ing a territory of a geographic unity.* This high development
of the nation has scarcely been reached in any part of the world,
but as the geographic and ethnic elements tend to coincide, the
national character grows stronger, and resolves itself into a polit-
ical form called the state. In order to attain this high ideal, the
territory must be separated by natural barriers, so that the na-
tional unity may not be disturbed by foreign influence, and in
the development of ethnic unity there must be, first of all, a
common language, so that men may understand each other and
agree upon certain views. The introduction of the large number
of foreigners into our country leads us to inquire whether there
is such a thing as national character in the United States. Ban-
croft describes all the colonial traits as coming from the English
or Anglo-Saxon. The Germans are often spoken of in the sense
of being local, yet there is no better illustration of national unity
than in the German empire. The English are often looked upon
as being extremely practical, but the Puritan Commonwealth was
ideal. It seems to have been an original principle in the political
psychology of the Anglo-Saxons to evolve the national idea, and
thus give to the world the strongest political organization, at the
same time offering the widest range of liberty. It is generally
admitted at present that there should be some restriction upon
immigration. The influx of foreigners, being measurable by sta-
tistics, is wonderful. Since 1820 we have had statistics on immi-
gration, which form a very important study. In the first decade,
ending with 1830, there were 143,439 immigrants to the United
States, while in the decade ending with 1890 the number had
reached 5,246,613. In the census of 1850, statistics were for the
first time obtained concerning the number of persons of foreign
birth in the country. The proportion which each of these ele-
ments bore to the total population in 1850 was 90'32 per cent
native born to 9'68 per cent foreign born, while in 1890 the pro-
portion was 85*23 per cent native born to 14*77 per cent foreign
born. Before 1820 immigration was trifling in amount, but in
1847 it set in upon a wonderful scale, and the famines in Ireland
at that time led to a migration to this country which has been
* Burgess, Political Science and Constitutional Law, vol. i, pp. 1-4.
RACE MIXTURE AND NATIONAL CHARACTER. 87
continued to the present day. The total immigration since 1820
amounts to 15,427,057, and of this number 40'42 per cent came
from Great Britain and 29*20 per cent from Germany. Thus
Great Britain and Germany have furnished 69'G2 per cent of all
the immigration to this country, while Norway and Sweden have
supplied but six per cent. But the past decade furnishes statistics
of special significance. Between 1881 and 1890 only 27*88 per cent
came from Great Britain and 27*69 per cent from Germany. The
immigration from Norway and Sweden has increased very much ;
while almost all the Hungarians, Italians, and Poles have come
during the past decade. Indeed, it is said that in 1890 two thirds
of the entire emigration movement of the world was directed
toward the United States. The distribution of the foreign ele-
ment is confined almost entirely to the Northern and "Western
States. In the North Atlantic division 22*34 per cent of the
population is foreign born, the proportion ranging from 3077 per
cent in Rhode Island to 11*94 per cent in Maine. In the North
Central division 18*16 per cent of the proportion is foreign born,
the extremes being North Dakota with 44*58 per cent, and Indi-
ana with 6*67 per cent. In the "Western division the proportion
of foreign born is 25*46 per cent, ranging between 32*61 per cent
in Montana to 7*33 per cent in New Mexico. The South Atlantic
division has been affected but very little by immigration, only
2*35 per cent being foreign born. Of this group of States, Mary-
land has the largest proportion, 9*05 per cent, and North Carolina
the smallest, with 0*23 per cent. In the South Central division
the foreign element is also very slight, being only 2*93 per cent,
the greatest proportion being in Texas, where it is 6*84 per cent,
and the least in Mississippi, 0*62 per cent. A study of the eleventh
census shows that the States which a generation ago attracted
foreigners still attract them in almost the same degree. Immi-
gration was thus turned to the North and West by economic and
climatic conditions. On account of the slave system in the South,
there was no inducement for immigrants to locate there; thus
the ideas of this section were never modified by foreign influence ;
again, the Germans and other immigrants from the northern
part of Europe were attracted to the Northwest on account of the
climate. Accordingly, the movement of population was west-
ward along the parallels. The institutions of the South remained
unmodified by the influx of foreigners, and the sections became
. more and more estranged, making the civil war possible.
Another element which enters into the problem is the propor-
tions in which the total white population is made up of native
whites of native parents and of whites of foreign parentage.
This is of great importance, as it presents the distribution of the
native and foreign blood throughout the country. In Massa-
88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
chusetts 56'87 per cent of the population have one or both par-
ents foreign born ; Rhode Island, 59*29 per cent ; New York, 57*45
per cent ; Maryland, 30'27 per cent ; Wisconsin, 74*14 per cent ;
Minnesota, 76*01 per cent ; North Dakota, 79*74 per cent ; Louisi-
ana, 20*02 per cent ; Utah, 66*75 per cent. We notice again that
the white element of foreign extraction is found chiefly in the
Northern and Western States. The native whites having both
parents foreign should also be considered. The proportion of this
element varies as follows : Massachusetts, 27*09 per cent ; Rhode
Island, 27*29 per cent ; New York, 30*64 per cent ; Maryland, 15*01
per cent ; Wisconsin, 43*09 per cent ; Minnesota, 39*80 per cent ;
Utah, 41*04 per cent. The Southern States show the usual small
percentage, ranging as follows : Virginia, 1*52 per cent ; Georgia,
1*07 per cent; Mississippi, 1*30 per cent ; while, taking the South-
ern and South Central sections together, the proportion is only 4*13
per cent.
The colored element in 1890 amounted to 7,470,040, the popu-
lation being distributed as follows :
North Atlantic division T55 per cent ;
South Atlantic division 36-83 " "
North Central division T93 " "
South Central division 3171 " "
Western division '89 " "
In taking the South as a whole there was a proportional
increase in the colored population up to 1840, but since then the
proportion has diminished gradually. Having stated the prin-
cipal elements with which we have to deal, let us now consider
the various methods of dealing with the problem.
If we consider the problem from an ethnological standpoint,
we shall have four races in the United States — the white, negro,
Indian, and Chinese. But these races do not mingle together.
The Indian is dying out, and, although the negroes mingled in
the days of slavery, the offspring carried the stigma of the race.
Herbert Spencer is the chief authority on the sociological theory
of the mixture of races. He claims that it is a theory of evolu-
tion, and the unity that is developed is not of blood but of insti-
tutions. The historical theory does not try to determine whether
there is really a mixture of blood, but it simply considers the
institutions, customs, and laws, and how these have been modified.
In applying this theory to the United States, the mixture of
races does not mean a mixture of blood but of institutions.
The mixture of nationalities in this country has differed
from that of other parts of the world. In other countries mixture
has occurred by conquest, but it has been peaceful in the United
States. There has been no forcing of institutions or blood, ex-
cept in the case of the negro, and we thus have the unique negro
RACE MIXTURE AND NATIONAL CHARACTER. 89
problem whose solution no one can predict. The immigrants
did not come here in tribes, but as individuals. If the millions
of Germans had come with state encouragement in a body, the
results might have been different, but they came as individuals
and mingled with our people.
I have already stated the elements that are to be assimilated.
For the purpose of convenience, they may be classed into four
groups as follows : 1. Colored, 7,000,000, or twelve per cent. 2.
Native whites of native parents, 34,000,000, or fifty-five per cent.
3. Native whites of foreign parents, 11,000,000, or eighteen per
cent. 4. Foreign born, 9,000,000, or fifteen per cent.
These elements differ by blood, by parentage, and by birth-
place, and they are of great importance. No other country has
such important elements, and no nation has ever sought to
solve such a question in a peaceful way. The native American is
the element about which all others must be grouped, and they
must be assimilated to this. The third element is very interest-
ing. This class stands halfway between the foreign and the
native. It represents the process of assimilation in the act. The
fourth element is the foreign born, and it is the most difficult to
assimilate on account of its constant renewal.
There are two ways of combining these figures. The third and
fourth elements may be added together, and we will then have
20,000,000. These figures show how large the foreign element is.
In regard to its distribution in New England and the Northwest,
New England would have forty-seven per cent foreign popula-
tion ; in Massachusetts alone this element constitutes fifty-six
per cent; in Rhode Island, fifty-eight per cent; in New York,
eighty two per cent ; in Wisconsin, ninety per cent. But it is
not right to consider the second generation as foreigners. They
are more American than foreign. It is best to contrast these two
classes and measure their relative strength. We find in the East
that the first generation outnumbers the second, while in the
West the second generation is the stronger. Thus the question
of foreign influence is a more serious one in New England than in
the Western States.
The chief forces tending toward the assimilation of races in
our country are physical environment and social environment.
The physical environment means not only the influence of Na-
ture, but also the habits of life. In this respect the influence of
frontier life should be considered. From the beginning, the
people along the frontier have had a struggle with Nature, and
they developed self-reliance and the capacity for self-government.
So the pioneer set up self-government in the wilderness, and the
State Constitutions of the West and Northwest, where the propor-
tion of immigration is so great, show no signs of foreign influ-
9o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
ence, but they all contain the fundamental ideas of American
liberty. This influence of physical environment still goes on,
and in subduing the wilderness the pioneer abandons the habits
of the Old World and takes up those of the New. Thus the con-
tinent forced the conditions of its conquest.
Herbert Spencer, in his Principles of Sociology, states that
the earlier development was at the mercy of the physical en-
vironment, while civilized man has reduced Nature to subjec-
tion. As society progresses, new factors come in to modify the
physical organization, which Spencer calls the super-environ-
ment or social environment. Spencer claims that the social en-
vironment is more powerful than the physical environment. The
men who settled this country had a social history behind them,
and the institutions that they brought here greatly influenced
their children. What I said in regard to the physical environ-
ment may also be said of the social environment. The immi-
grants did not come in bands, but individually, and the social
environment had full play. During the colonial period the im-
migrants were chiefly English, and the English stamp was upon
the institutions which they planted here. So it has not been a
mingling of institutions, but foreigners have assimilated the
institutions already established here.
One of the chief influences of the social environment is edu-
cation. This is very important, as so many ignorant come. It is
important to know how receptive these people are to our institu-
tions. This will depend upon their power to learn our language,
and upon the standard of intelligence of the native country. Out
of the 15,000,000 foreigners who landed here between 1820 and
1850, forty per cent came from English countries. This propor-
tion is growing less, as in 1891 only twenty-two per cent came
from English countries, while from all German countries the
proportion is thirty-one per cent. A new difficulty may arise
here, in that people of other languages may now find communi-
ties where their own language is spoken ; but this can hardly be
urged as an objection, for, in the case of the German immigrants,
they come from a country with a high standard of education.
We depend upon our school system to reach the immigrants and
prepare them for citizenship. The parents can not be reached by
the schools directly, so the system must exert its influence upon
the children of the immigrants. The eleventh census shows that
the foreign-born element of school age between five and seventeen
years is 900,000. The second generation, or native born of for-
eign parents, is 12,400,000, and the number of immigrants foreign
born above seventeen years is 8,332,000. This shows that the
problem is very favorable, as, for every hundred who can not
come under the influence of our schools, there are one hundred
RACE MIXTURE AND NATIONAL CHARACTER. 9i
and fifty who can. In the Eastern States the second generation
is less numerous than in the West. The influence of our schools
is apparent, for, if we take Massachusetts as an example, we find
that of the native-born population one per cent are illiterate,
while of the foreign born twenty per cent are illiterate.
Another influence of the social environment is the exercise of
political rights. Here the second generation can not be looked
upon as foreigners, as all persons born or naturalized in the
United States are citizens thereof. The terms of naturalization
are such that the foreign born may become citizens in five years.
Whatever may be the dangers of foreign influence upon our
government, surely one of the best methods of assimilating the
discordant elements is to make all classes feel that they have an
interest in our institutions, by the exercise of political rights. If
this process of assimilation had not been going on, we should be
able to notice some effect upon legislation in the different States.
Assimilation is promoted by the participation in the holding of
property. Thousands of foreigners have availed themselves of
the land grants by the homestead and other laws. Having vested
interests, they are loyal to the Government, for very few property-
holders become anarchists. Self-reliance and independence also
tend to attach the foreigner to our institutions. Our system is
not paternal in its character, but the guarantees of civil liberty
are so broad that they offer the greatest measure of individual
action. Every man's house is his castle, and some writer has said
that, although the snow and rain may blow in, the king can not
enter. The prominence given to labor in America is also con-
ducive to the assimilation of the foreign elements. A new dignity
has been placed upon labor here, and we are passing over from
a political to an economic attitude, which will have its effect upon
all classes. Titles and rank, which have done so much in the Old
World to keep the classes alienated, are unknown here, and their
absence is the means of encouraging foreigners to accept the
responsibilities of citizenship. Economic influences which have
frequently been overlooked, are also a potent factor in the assimi-
lation of races. I have already referred to the dignity of labor
in this country. The laborer is not regarded as depending upon
a wage fund for support, but he is looked upon as an integral
part of society, receiving a share in distribution. There are
causes at work affecting consumption, and society is in a dynamic
state. Changes in the economic order of consumption are taking
place which tend to raise the standard of life. Economic con-
ditions induce the foreigner to leave his native land and come to
America. On arriving here, he is probably influenced as much
by the standard of life of our people as by any other cause. He
enters the field of labor and attempts to reach our standard of
92 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
life, and in doing so he must abandon his old habits of life and
adopt those of our country. Thus, through labor an assimilation
takes place. This has been the process in our Northern and
Western States, which have received that great bulk of im-
migration during the century.
♦»»
WOMAN AS AN INVENTOR AND MANUFACTURER.*
THE question has been seriously raised whether woman is
capable of important achievements as an inventor, and an
opinion actually exists and is held in good faith by some other-
wise intelligent persons that she is not. The Patent-Office records
have been searched to show that woman's modern work in in-
ventive art has been insignificant ; and occasionally, when some
woman's invention is announced, it is treated as something un-
usual and very remarkable. A perusal of Dr. O. T. Mason's nar-
rative of Woman's Share in Primitive Culture should convince
the unprejudiced reader that this is a most shallow view to take
of the matter. In that book she is shown to be the earliest in-
ventor, and is proved in numberless cases to be the author from
the most ancient times of the most important inventions and
those which have contributed most to human well-being.
From the primitive age when the division of duties was first
made between man and woman (somewhat roughly drawn, it is
true, as the rudeness of the then existing conditions compelled)
but substantially along the lines it has followed among all peo-
ples who labor, woman's ingenuity has been an important ele-
ment of progress. As the food-bringer, which is the character
under which Dr. Mason first presents her, "to feed the flock under
her immediate care, woman had to become an inventor, and it is
in this activity of her mind that she is specially interesting here.
The hen scratches for her chicks all day long because Nature has
furnished her hoes and rakes and cutting apparatus upon her
body. But here stands a creature on the edge of time who had to
create the implements of such industry." In the search for food
materials she first appears as taking fruits and other parts of
plants that are ready for consumption without further prepara-
tion. Next she took a stick and carrying basket and sought out
roots and other parts that might be prepared by roasting or per-
haps by boiling with hot stones. " On her third journey she gath-
ered seeds of all kinds, but especially the seeds of grasses, which at
* Woman's Share in Primitive Culture. By Otis Tufton Mason. Anthropological Series,
No. 1. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1894.
WOMAN AS AN INVENTOR AND MANUFACTURER. 93
her hand were to undergo a multitude of transformations. These
had to be broken up or ground, and called for the devising of
grinding apparatus. Wherever the tribes went in the early days
women found out by and by the great staple productions that
a
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to
a
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o
o
O
<
a
W
"4
a
1
H
W
UJ
m
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5
were to be their chief reliance; and "the whole industrial life of
woman is built up around these staples. From the first journey
on foot to procure the raw materials until the food is served and
vf'L. XLVII. 8
94
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
eaten there is a line of trades that are continuous and that are
born of the environment."
The five sources of information respecting primitive woman's
activities are found in history, which records the things of pris-
tine culture that lingered three or
four thousand years ago; language,
which has crystallized expressions
descriptive of early conditions ; ar-
chaeology, which recovers the things
they did before there was any his-
tory ; folklore, a perpetual record
of the most ancient occupations and
customs ; and living tribes that
have stood still during all the ages.
The variety of occupations in
which primitive woman displays
her genius is illustrated in a de-
scription quoted from Im Thurn of
the day's work of a Carib woman
in British Guiana, in which she is
seen performing the parts of a
"mother, butcher, cook, beast of
burden, fire maker and tender, miller, stonecutter (stone-griddle
maker), most delicate and ingenious weaver, engineer (devising a
mechanical press and sieve in one woven bag and using a lever of
the third kind), baker, and preserver of food. Add to this her
function of brewer, and you have no mean collection of primitive
industries performed by one little body, all of which underlie
occupations which in our day involve the outlay of millions of
dollars and the co-operation of thousands of men."
Fio. 2. — The Primitive Loom Weaver
— Navajo Woman, Arizona. (After
Matthews.)
Fio. 3. — Eskimo "Scraper," made to fit the Woman's Hand. (After Mason.)
" Suppose a certain kind of raw material to abound in any area
or country ; you may be sure that savage women searched it out
and developed it in their crude way. Furthermore, the peculiar
qualities and idiosyncrasies of each substance suggest and de-
WOMAN AS AN INVENTOR AND MANUFACTURER.
95
mand a certain treatment. Women of the lowest grades of cul-
ture have not been slow in discovering this ; so that between them
and the natural product there has been a kind of understanding
or co-operation leading to local styles. If these women were
moved far away, they carried oftentimes these processes with
them and plied their old trade upon such strange materials as
they discovered in the new home." So negro women brought
basket-making from Africa to America and taught it to the In-
dians.
Subsidiary to the weaving and basket-making practiced by
women in savagery are spinning, netting, looping, braiding, sew-
ing, and embroidery. Bark-cloth weaving is practiced by women
in the tropics all round the world. " Each and all of these re-
quire tools which the workwomen must fashion for themselves.
And, though the earth
had the raw materials
in abundance, it did not
yield them without a
search which would do
honor to the manufac-
turers of our day. . . .
Aboriginal woman's
basketry excites the ad-
miration of all lovers of
fine work. It is difficult
to say which receives
the most praise — the
forms, the coloring, the
patterns, or the delicacy
of manipulation. Pri-
marily, her basketry
divides itself into two
sorts of types — the woven and the seived, the former built up on a
warp, the latter produced by the continuous stitching of a coil.
Of these two main classes there are many subclasses, which have
been necessitated by the nature of the material which the fabri-
cator has at her hands, and by the uses to which the products
have to be put."
Weaving is the climax of the textile industry ; and " among
all the types of modern savagery — American, negroid, and Ma-
layo-Polynesian — intricate processes of weaving were in vogue
before they were approached by the white race." In comparison
with the complex and world-embracing activity of modern weav-
ing and commerce, " how simple the process in savagery ! The
women there go to the fields or to the animals for the fiber, or hair,
or wool. They transport the material on their backs, in carrying
Fio. 4.
-Eskimo Fat Scraper of Reindeer Antler
and Rawhide. (After Mason.)
96
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
frames and apparatus that they themselves have made, and pre-
pare it ... to be woven, or sewed, or embroidered. They make
up the bag, or mat, or garment, or sail of a whole piece, and wear
it out in use, the same woman in each case following the material
from the cradle to the grave." The subsidiary textile arts are of
much importance in savagery, and they are of great antiquity,
remains having been found in very old deposits.
In her tanning and skin-dressing work the savage woman's
problem was to remove the dermis from the hide, and leave the
hair adhering to the epidermis, with only a thin portion of the
true skin. If the work were creditably done, the surface of the
robe, " frequently more than thirty square feet in extent, had to be
uniform in thickness throughout, and she should not cut through
Fig. 5. — Eskimo Fat Scraper of Walrus Ivory, made to fit the Fingers.
(After Mason.)
the epidermis once. The whole must be as pliable, too, as a wool-
en blanket : the problem was to reduce a hide of varying thickness
and twice too thick everywhere to a robe of uniform thickness
throughout without once cutting through the outer part of the
skin. Her tools for this varied with the locality. The Eskimo
women scrape off the fat with a special tool made of walrus ivory
or bone and plane down the dermis with a stone scraper. The
Indian women cut off bits of meat and fat and remove the dermis
with a hoe or adze. In the good old days of savagery the Eskimo
woman made her fat scraper of walrus ivory or antler ; her skin
scraper was of flinty stone set in a handle of ivory, wood, or horn,
whichever material was easiest to procure. But later on, it may
WOMAN AS AN INVENTOR AND MANUFACTURER. 97
Fig. C— Making Coiled Ware in Basket Bowl.
(After dishing.)
be, the whalers helped her with steel tools. The Indian woman
had three tools — to wit : the stone knife for cutting away the flesh ;
the hoe-shaped scraper
for splitting the skin ;
and the grainer, a hoe or
chisel-like tool with ser-
rated edge to roughen
up the inner side of the
robe and give it flexibil-
ity. Besides these, both
Eskimo and Indian had
hands and feet and teeth
for pulling and pound-
ing and breaking the
grain. They had also
a wonderful supply of
pride in their work, and
love of applause, which kept them up to the mark of doing the
best that could be done with their, resources." The scraper is the
oldest instrument of any craft in the world. The Indian women
of Montana still receive their trade from their mothers, and they,
in turn, were taught by theirs in unbroken succession since the
birth of the human spe-
cies. With the scraper
the hair was removed,
when that was desired,
after having been loos-
ened by exposure to chem-
ical treatment with quick-
lime, or by a process of
fermentation. The meth-
ods of preparation corre-
sponded with the purposes
to which the skin was to
be applied, and these were
various. "The tailoring
of savage women, espe-
cially that of the North
American women, is most
interesting. While the
weavers in the south were
making blankets and se-
rapes in the whole piece,
never cutting their goods, the tailors north of the Mexican border
were excellent cutters. For scissors they used the woman's knife,
called ula by the Eskimos, a blade of chert or other rock, crescent-
Fig. 7. — Basket Bowl as Base Mold for Large
Vessel, showing also the Smoothing Process
after Coiling. (After Cushing.)
98
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
shaped on the outer edge, and a most excellent device for cutting
skin without marring the hair. Scissors would be useless in this
connection, for they would shear the hair as well as the hide and
make an ugly seam. In the fitting of garments these primitive
tailors anticipated the long list of
terms, such as puckering, gather-
ing, inserting gores, and the like.
For tucks in their more beautiful
dresses they inserted band after
band of the skins of different ani-
mals, bits from different parts of
the same hide, and strips of bare
hide ornamented by quill-work.
Tufts of feathers or long hair, pen-
dants of shell, hoof, teeth, or bone
— in short, all objects of comely
shape and pretty color and proper
size — were gathered into the cos-
tumes of men and children as well
as into their own." The reticule,
the tobacco bag, the traveling case,
the bandbox, and the packing trunk
all exist among savages, and in
North America were made by
women, chiefly from the hides of
animals.
The potter's art may be seen in
its pristine simplicity in the soap-
stone or earthen lamp and stove of
the Eskimo, and in the arid regions
of New Mexico and Arizona, as
well as in South America, Africa, and New Guinea; and it is
woman that carries it on. " In the Southwestern States of our
Union women have, from time immemorial, practiced the art of
pottery with the greatest success. There is no reason to believe
that their present methods and tools and products are different at
all from what they were a thousand years ago. . . . The women
go forth to the mesa, where the proper layers of clay are exposed,
and quarry the raw material. To do this, one would say they
ought to be good mineralogists and skillful engineers. They also
gather from the sediment of the streams most excellent clay for
their paste." If the potter-woman does not find this excellent
paste, she gathers and carries home on her back the clay quarried
from the mesa; and in doing this she becomes a pack- woman.
She washes the clay, lets the gravel and worthless material sink
or float, decants the liquid, and allows the fine aluminous earth to
Fig. 8. — California Cradle Frame.
(After Mason.)
WOMAN AS AN INVENTOR AND MANUFACTURER. 99
settle. " Though the term ' specific gravity ' was unknown to her,
she seems to have seized upon this principle in order to gather
out the elements desired. This fine paste will not make pottery ;
it will crack badly in drying and baking. But our ceramic worker
is equal to the occasion, and long ago had discovered, as every
archaeologist knows, that sand or some other tempering material
must be added. The oldest fragments yet discovered reveal in
their texture grains of sand, put there by Nature or by the potter,
bits of pulverized shells, or the remains of old pots ground fine
and worked over into new vessels." She sorts material for coarser
and for finer ware, turns it with her hand, guided by her eye,
molds it around or within some object to give it shape, using
gourds, nets, or baskets for the purpose, whose forms and pecul-
iar markings are thus preserved, and arrives at the
stage of
Fro. 9. — Eskimo Mothers. (After Healy.)
making pottery like basketry, for which she rolls out a slender
cylinder of prepared paste, and builds her vessel by coiling this
cylinder around the form. The evolution of form in this Pueblo
ware, by which a flat disk becomes a bowl, and from that are de-
rived various forms of bottles and vases, has been well studied by
Mr. Frank Cushing.
" From woman's back to the car and the stately ship " is the
lOO
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
history of the carrier's art ; and woman " was primarily the only
creature that transformed Nature to produce an apparatus for
the carrying of burdens. . . . Many other industries were created,
stimulated, and modified by this carrying trade. The member of
pristine society who went to the fields to gather nuts and seeds
and fruit must necessarily have brought them home. Hence the
burden-bearer must be a basket-maker, and the pack-woman is a
patron of husbandry and of the textile art. Clay and fuel must
be brought to make pottery, and pottery, in turn, has to be shaped
to carry water and food ; so the potter and the carrier are sisters.
It can not fail to be interesting to know how ingeniously these
early passenger cars were con-
structed." The builders were
strictly scientific in their meth-
ods, in that they ingeniously
adapted structure to function and
environment. To the Eskimo
mother the great consideration
is to protect the child from the
cold. " So she makes a baby car-
riage of her hood, and her off-
spring, when she takes it abroad
or when she is on a journey, is
safely ensconced between the soft
fur and the mother's warm neck.
All the American tribes used a
papoose frame of some sort."
The distinguishing marks of this
apparatus were the back, the
sides, the lashing, the bed, the
pillow, the covering, the awning,
the decoration. All these were
present in some form, but in each stock, and especially in each
natural-history region, there were just such variations as were
necessary and proper. In Canada the cradle was made of birch
bark and the bed was of the finest fur. In the coast region of
British Columbia and southward little arklike troughs were ex-
cavated as the boats were, and beds and pillows and wrappings of
the finest shredded cedar bark took the place of furs. Farther
south still, as the climate became milder, the ark gave place to a
little rack or gridiron of osier, sumac, or reed, and the face of the
child was shaded from the sun by a delicate awning. Across the
Rocky Mountains, in the land of the buffalo, the papoose frame
looks like a great shoe lashed to an inverted trellis or ladder, and
nowadays the whole surface is covered with embroidered bead-
work. It matters not where we travel within the limits assigned
Fig. 10. — The Knapsack in Woman's
Work — German Peasant Woman.
WOMAN AS AN INVENTOR AND MANUFACTURER. loi
on the western continent, the primitive passenger car was exactly
suited to the meteorological and other conditions." This is one
class of devices that women have contrived for carrying precious
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burdens. They are also in all savage lands, and in some civilized,
the bearers of loads of a more common and grosser sort, and for
these they have invented a variety of appliances, adapted to dif-
loz THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY
ferent positions and different kinds of loads : cushions for placing
the burden on the head ; cords or straps for supporting it from
the head while it is carried on the shoulder or the back. " Away-
down in Arizona hay is delivered at the agency by Mojave Indian
women, who go out and cut with common house knives the ' grama
grass/ put it up in immense sheaves, and bring it to the agency
on their backs/' or rather shoulders, a sheaf of hay sticking from
each end of a pole that rests on the shoulders, and knapsack con-
trivances of different kinds. We generally suppose that the knap-
sack belongs to soldiers and schoolboys ; but " if you will get up
early some morning and walk around the busy portions of a Ger-
man city, you will see upon a box or table a cylindrical basket,
holding half a bushel, more or less, with the sticks of the frame
projecting an inch or two downward from the bottom, and two
broad straps fastened at one end to the rim of the basket and
having eyelets or loops at the loose ends. Presently you will see
a woman back up to the basket, draw the straps over her shoul-
ders, and pass the ends backward around the projecting frame
sticks below. She is now hitched up and may walk off with such
load as the basket may contain. Perhaps this is older than the
knapsack." Women are carriers, too, in France, and a picture by
Gioli, exhibited at Venice in 1887, shows that in Italy, also, that
work has not been taken off from her.
" It is not enough, in speaking of savage women, to say that
they, as a class, do this or that. It should also be asked how
many of these are performed by one woman — in short, by every
woman. Recalling what was previously said about the user of
an implement having to be the maker of it, one sees to what a
diversity of occupations this would naturally lead. ... It is not
enough to say in any case, as we have seen, that she was food-
bringer, weaver, skin-dresser, potter, or beast of burden. This
view of her is absolutely misleading. It is not sufficient to say
that the modern lucrative employments originated with her. We
are bound to keep in mind that each woman was all of these. As
in the animal world one part of the body performs many func-
tions, in the social world one woman is mistress of many cares.
The diversification of duties in well-regulated houses among the
civilized nations produces the matron. The savage woman is
really the ancestress and prototype of the modern housewife, and
not of our factory specialists."
Savage woman next appears on the scene as an artist ; and
her originality and skill in this line are illustrated in every piece
of pottery and every basket ; in decorative work of all kinds, and
in costumes in a thousand designs of form and color, all of which
the maker had to invent, and furthermore to find means and
instruments for producing them.
MICROBES AS FACTORS IN SOCIETY
103
In the aspects of a linguist, the founder of society, and the
patron of religion, in all of which Mr. Mason exhibits woman
as a leader, we have not space to follow him. We therefore
leave her here, as the founder of some of our most useful mate-
rial arts.
MICROBES AS FACTORS IN SOCIETY.*
By M. L. OAPITAN.
IN an address delivered before the Anthropological Society of
Paris, July 2, 1867, Paul Broca very neatly emphasized the
fact that the population of a country can not increase indefinitely.
As the population multiplies on a territory that is extensible, the
more undesirable lands are gradually improved and occupied.
The holdings are made smaller, woods are cleared, barren tracts
are fertilized, and marshes are drained. Till these works are com-
pleted all goes well, but the time comes at last when every place
is occupied. The resource remains of emigration to unsettled
countries. Our planet, however, is not elastic ; when all of it is
occupied and bears all the population it can sustain, what will
then become of the human race ? The balance of population and
resources is kept up by death, which cuts down the living and
leaves the places they filled to the newborn.
Dead beings, too, must be got out of the way. Even in that
condition they claim too much space. They, moreover, fix an im-
portant quantity of matter — that of which their tissues are con-
stituted. Matter, we all know, is not infinite in amount ; it is
undergoing incessant transformations, and is never created. It is
therefore necessary that dead organic matter, which is essentially
insoluble, be disaggregated, dissociated, and dissolved, to be fixed
again by new beings. This is accomplished through the interven-
tion of the phenomenon of decomposition or putrefaction. Putre-
faction, Pasteur has demonstrated, is the function of microbes.
Without them the disaggregation of matter which would prob-
ably be produced by solar radiations would be absolutely insuffi-
cient ; consequently matter would accumulate in continually
multiplying and insufficiently dissociated organic combinations.
Without microbes, therefore, life would not be able, for lack of
available matter, to continue on the globe. Applying these data
to the accumulations of human beings which make up societies,
we find that they are rigorously exact. We have, then, in this
reduction of fixed matter to conditions under which it can be
* An address {Conference Broca) delivered December 14, 1893, before the Anthropo-
logical Society of Paris.
io4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
assimilated, the first and a considerable function which microbes
perform in society.
Microbes have other equally important and useful offices. Of
these is their action in digestion. Ordinary digestion is per-
formed in the stomach and the intestine by means of soluble fer-
ments secreted by the organic cells, which attack alimentary sub-
stances, dissociate them, and render them assimilable; and this is
perceived to be a function very similar to that of microbes. The
digestive passages, however, contain immense quantities of mi-
crobes continually brought in with the food, multiplying infi-
nitely, and performing exceedingly complex offices. Even if we
take up only a few of these offices, we are compelled of necessity
to assume that they intervene in digestive operations, either as
aids to the organic diastases or as themselves effective agents. M.
Duclaux, insisting on this point, has remarked that some cellu-
loses are capable of being attacked only by microbes, no organic
juice having sufficient strength to affect them. M. Pasteur does
not believe in the possibility of digestion in a medium completely
deprived of microbes.
Of the chemical activity of microbes, what we know is as noth-
ing in comparison with what it may be. Every species, every
race, every variety of microbe is charged with a special function ;
the division of labor is carried among them to its extreme limits,
so much so that in any chemical reaction each microbe takes its
part in producing the process at different stages. Each variety
has its duty in the work, determines a partial dissociation of the
material which another species completes, and so on to the ex-
treme simplification of organic matter, reduced to its elementary
constituents, or to such conditions as to be assimilable by the
plant.
These chemical actions determined by the microbe are there-
fore infinite and infinitely varied. Take two examples among a
thousand. Starting with a single body — sugar, for example — the
microbes may transform it into dextrolactic or serolactic acid or
an indifferent acid, according to their own activity, the culture
medium, or the associated reactions. Reducing agents in a high
degree, microbes transform sulphates into sulphites, and even into
sulphurets, the latter yielding, still by means of microbic reac-
tions, sulphohydric acid. Thus, by this mechanism of successive
dislocations, microbes, starting from sulphates, end by producing
sulphurous water. This simple enunciation of a very special mi-
crobic process illustrates the extreme complexity of the chemical
function of microbes, which are furthermore often aided in their
work by solar radiation, likewise a powerful chemical agent, the
action of which, though less immense than that of microbes, is
similar to it. As a chemist, the sun proceeds like a microbe — a
MICROBES AS FACTORS IN SOCIETY. ic5
strange and remarkable similarity of action, mentioned by Claude
Bernard in his last notes, and now demonstrated by M. Duclaux
and his pupils. The climax of these complex chemical reactions
is reached in the humus, which is compared by M. Duclaux to a
laboratory in ceaseless activity, into which the primary matter is
continuously entering to be worked up there and transformed into
new products assimilable by the plant.
Availing itself of the action of an external force, the solar
light and heat, this laboratory employs as its workmen the mi-
crobes, which only are capable of carrying the complicated task
to a good result. Fixers of nitrogen, for example, in the nodular
formations of the leguminous plants, preparers of nitrates, and
constantly producing soluble organic substances at the expense
of insoluble matters, the microbes work untiringly in this vast
abode of chemical transformations.
Yet more : as old as the living world, contemporaries of the
earliest generations of plants, microbes have contributed in a
powerful way to the constitution and formation of the geological
strata. Peat, which later becomes coal, has been formed by the
action of microbes ; they have been the agents in the complex
processes of precipitation by which the immense masses of vari-
ous limestones have been formed ; they have played a part in
other reactions from which deposits of iron, sulphur, and most of
the metals have resulted. This enumeration might be very much
extended. These innumerable and strong chemical actions, an-
cient as some of them are, still play an immense part, which is
absolutely necessary to the existence of the social medium. From
the point of view solely of producer of coal and preparer of iron,
the microbe justifies its claim to be an agent indispensable to the
life of all society. But its function is still more complex and
extended.
The chemical work of microbes is often used industrially by
man. Two examples in which this is done may be taken as typ-
ical. Indigo is extracted from a plant which is cultivated chiefly
in India, Japan, and Central America. The plant contains a
sugar, indiglucin, which is separated by washing in warm water,
and is then subjected to a special fermentation. The microbe
splits it into indigotin and glucose. The indigotin, which is col-
orless, is oxidized, still by means of a microbial! reaction, and is
transformed into blue indigo. This preparation would be impos-
sible without these special microbial! reactions.
Another example of the chemical activity of microbes is fur-
nished in the preparation of opium for smoking. The juice of
the poppy, from which opium is derived, was till lately fermented
in tubs to give it the desired qualities. Recently M. Calmette, of
Saigon, discovered that this transformation was due to the Asper
106 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
gillus, a fungus allied to the microbes. Since then it has been'
enough to sow the tubs in which the fermentation proceeded with
the pure Aspergillus to obtain a better return and an opium of
superior quality in only one or two months.
In the preparation of several most indispensable alimentary
products certain micro-organisms, domesticated as it were, prove
themselves incomparable chemists. Without them these prepara-
tions would be impossible. Among such products are bread, alco-
hol, wine, beer, and such fermented substances as koumiss, cheese,
and sauerkraut.
These microbes are inferior alg&B formed of one cell, usually
with an envelope. They live almost everywhere on and with liv-
ing beings, in the ground, in water, on solids, etc., and multiply
with extreme rapidity. They produce a great variety of actions,
some of which, as we have seen, are beneficial, while others are
injurious.
As microbes decompose dead matter, so they are capable of
disorganizing living matter. Some species have this power in a
marked degree, which is distinguished as virulence. They are
called pathogenic microbes, which means capable of causing ill-
ness. Each species of pathogenic microbe produces a particular
kind of disease, and has a power that varies considerably accord-
ing to a number of circumstances. The microbe alone, however,
can not produce disease : that requires the intervention of the
organism of the subject in which the disorder is to be developed.
The disease is, in fact, the resultant of the reaction of the one
upon the other of the two factors, the microbe and the organism.
According to the felicitous comparison of Prof. Bouchard, the
organism is a strong place, the microbe is its assailant, and the
struggle between them is the infectious disease. The condition of
the organic estate which the microbe endeavors to seize is there-
fore important. If the person is in general good health, he will
offer a vigorous resistance to the microbes. If, on the other hand,
his health is not perfect, there will be a point where the defenses
are weak, and his danger will be proportionately great ; for, as
M. Bouchard said some time ago, one does not become ill till he
is already not in good health. There are many ways of getting
into poor health. It may be done by a number of processes,
which may be summarized under the two categories of troubles
of the organic functions or lesions of the tissues. Some of these
pathogenic processes depend directly on a variety of social in-
fluences.
Wealth and poverty are alike efficient factors of disease. The
rich man, by his often superabundant diet, his neglect of exercise,
and his excess of luxury, readily contracts obesity, gout, or dia-
betes ; his kidneys and his heart are frequently afflicted with dis-
MICROBES AS FACTORS IN SOCIETY, 107
order. The poor man, by different forms of inanition, overwork,
exposure, or uncleanliness, is liable to derangements of the lungs,
liver, kidneys, bowels, etc. Like the rich man, he has a pathology
special to certain organs, and different from that of the other, but
which is due to his social sanitary situation.
The professions also entail their special maladies, which are
liable to infect those who exercise them. Lead chemically poisons
those who handle it — painters, printers, white-lead makers, etc. —
and mercury is dangerous to silverers of glass and gilders ; while
each poison affects particular organs most directly — lead the
kidneys, bowels, and brain, mercury the brain and nerves. Ex-
amples might be multiplied to show how the profession may
injure the organs, create real diseases, or induce an imperfect con-
dition of health which will facilitate the invasion of the microbe.
It is not necessary to dwell here on the pathogenic effects of alco-
holic intoxication — a condition which is in every feature the
product of social influences. It ravages all classes of society,
and is illustrated in the most various pathological modalities.
In short, we find that a great multiplicity of mechanisms, all
of social origin, may affect the internal organs in their structure
or their work, and bring the person into a condition of receptivity
to microbes. A thousand social conditions may expose us to the
invasion of microbes and thus make real the second term required
to constitute an infectious disease. The hostile microbe is in fact
everywhere — within and without us, seeking, we might say, what
it may devour. All the natural cavities of the body — the nose,
the mouth, and the digestive tube — having exterior openings are
seeded with microbes brought from without by air or food, and
afterward multiplied. The skin is similarly exposed. Among
these microbes there are also others, the relics of infectious dis-
eases, with which the subject, now well, has been formerly at-
tacked. All these microbes live in the normal condition of a
later life ; they are sometimes useful, as we have seen in regard
to digestion ; more frequently inoffensive in the face of the resist-
ance opposed to them by the cellular coverings of the organic
cavities or by the activity of those zealous defenders of the organ-
ism, the white globules, or by the chemical action of the organic
liquids. But when the texture of these coverings is modified by
some of a variety of circumstances, whether of external or of in-
ternal origin, or when one or more of the microbes attain an
unusual degree of virulence, then the protective barriers will
be overcome, the microbe will penetrate to the interior of the
tissues, and will be able to bring on some of a great variety
of diseases, from pneumonia to erysipelas, meningitis, or liver
disease.
The microbes living without the organism are likewise of
108 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
various origin. We have already mentioned the innumerable
varieties living in the ground, in the water, and on plants, which
play so many important parts. Some of them may, under many
circumstances, borrow a pathogenic power and produce diseases.
There are also others, normally pathogenic, which have been
eliminated from diseased organisms, and instead of succumbing
at once they have fallen into the outer world, have adapted them-
selves to the new medium, and are living another life in the
ground or in water. They are all ready when, with food or by
respiration, or by a scratch of the tissues, they enter a living
organism anew, to determine in it, if circumstances are favorable,
the disease characteristic of them. So do the microbes of cholera,
tetanus, etc. Social influences play an important part also from
this point of view. All kinds of microbes may be carried to
long distances by the solid matters of every kind that are em-
ployed in innumerable ways in the life of society. The solids
may transport the microbes just mentioned as living in the
external medium, and also those which come direct from a dis-
eased subject. This distribution of agents of infection by solids
is of extreme importance, but has attracted attention only within
a few years. The hands may retain infectious germs and carry
them to a long distance, often without the person carrying them
being affected. Examples are abundant that illustrate the trans-
portation and propagation in this way of pyogenic and septic in-
fections, erysipelas, etc. Clothing, carriage cushions, tapestries,
and bedding may preserve and carry cholera, smallpox, scar-
latina, diphtheria, and erysipelas. The most various utensils,
food, and particularly bread, may be soiled by pathogenic mi-
crobes, and thus facilitate their penetration into the organism.
We may understand, therefore, without having to insist upon
it, how a large number of social circumstances may expose per-
sons who live in society to the attacks of microbes. One's occu-
pation will often force a person to come into contact with patients
afflicted with infectious disorders, or with excreta from such
patients containing pathogenic microbes, and thus cause him to
contract such diseases as cholera or typhoid fever. Occupations
having to do with diseased animals may also expose those who
are engaged in them to direct infections, as when a groom takes
care of a glandered horse ; or to indirect infections, as with tan-
ners preparing the hides of animals that had anthrax.
These examples show that there are extremely multiplied pro-
cesses that may expose men living in society directly to infection
by microbes, while mechanisms not less complex and equally of
social origin may prepare the organic ground for the invasion of
the microbe by changing either the structure or the working of
the organism.
MICROBES AS FACTORS IN SOCIETY. 109
To these special causes of infectious disorders — invasion by-
microbes and their intra-organic evolution — hygiene is able to
oppose a number of means of protection or defense ; this is the
part of prophylaxis. The physician can, besides, assist the organ-
ism to make a victorious struggle against the microbe ; this is the
part of therapeutics. On these two points, also, social influences
have an extremely active effect. These interventions may be
greatly modified by the position of the subject in society, and
rendered, according to circumstances, insufficient and illusory, or
more efficacious and even potent.
The facts thus far glanced at in this rapid review relate only
to isolated cases, or to diseases which reach and kill only a few
subjects. Suppose, however, these pathogenic influences raging
at their extreme height ; we shall then be dealing with epidemics
carrying men off by thousands, by hundreds of thousands, as actu-
ally takes place with cholera, yellow fever, and the plague. Un-
der such circumstances the microbe performs destructive work,
carries death abroad, and decimates populations.
So we are brought back to the beginning of this discussion ;
and, examining philosophically this phase of the complex ques-
tion of the office of the microbe in society, we are able to answer
Broca's question, quoted at first, " What will take place in future
generations when they shall have exhausted the temporary re-
sources of emigration ? " We say : Then the microbe will inter-
vene, as it does periodically ; it will decimate populations and will
sow death ; but it will be to renew life by enabling new existences
to take the place of those which have become extinct, and by fur-
nishing them, under an assimilable form, the organic matter
which they will require for their life and healthy growth.
We thus see, even from this rudimentary sketch, that the
function of microbes in society is very important. Good or evil,
useful or injurious, they all have a part which is indispensable to
the regular evolution of social bodies. Moreover, paradoxical
as the assertion may at first sight appear, I believe the fact has
been rigorously demonstrated, and may be formulated in the
words, that society can not exist, live, or subsist except with the
aid of the constant intervention of microbes, the great purveyors
of death, but also the dispensers of matter, and therefore all-
potent purveyors of life. — Translated for The Popular Science
Monthly from the Revue Scientifique.
The mass of the asteroids has been computed by B. M. Roszell, of Johns Hop-
kins University, and found — including the whole three hundred and eleven bodies
whose elements had been calculated at the time — to be '026 of the mass of the
moon.
vol xlvii. — 9
no THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
THE ILLUSTRIOUS BOERHAAVE.*
By WILLIAM T. LUSK, M.D., LL. D.
OF the serious questions which need to be considered at the
outset of a professional career there is none more vital than
that of personal conduct. This is recognized by the provision for
the medical man of a code of ethics, which shows him how the
portion of the ten commandments which teaches one's duty to-
ward one's neighbor, is applicable to his dealings with the public
and with other medical men. It is useful to the class which need
to be reminded that for uprightness a man should do no murder,
should not steal, should not bear false witness, should not covet.
But the sweetness and light which should govern our relations
to others are not the product of written law. The real training
comes from action with attendant victories and defeats. There is,
however, a special inspiration to higher effort which is derived
from the study of the lives of distinguished men. For this rea-
son I have thought it might be profitable for you to follow with
me on this occasion the career of the Dutch physician Hermann
Boerhaave. In his day his fame was world-wide. A letter ad-
dressed to the " illustrious Boerhaave, physician in Europe," by
a mandarin in China, in those days of limited communication,
reached him without inquiry or delay. In the history of medicine
he ranks as the peer of Hippocrates and Sydenham.
He was born in Voorhut, a small village, two miles distant
from Leyden, on December 31, 1668. His father, James Boer-
haave, was a poor minister with a large family. He had, as
we learn from a few but very precious memoranda left by his
famous, son, a good acquaintance with Latin, Greek, and He-
brew, and was well versed in historical studies. He was, in fact,
a modest scholar, simple and unpretending, but with high ideals,
and respected by all for his probity and honor. With special
gratitude the son recalls the self-denying economy by which the
father sought to provide the means of educating his nine living
children.
James Boerhaave was twice married. Hagar, the mother of
Hermann, died when he was five years old. She left seven chil-
dren. From her Hermann inherited his taste for natural sci-
ence. At the end of a year, James married a Mrs. Dubois, a
minister's daughter. By her he had six children, but, owing to
her obliging, impartial disposition, the old home sheltered an un-
divided family. In his memoranda Hermann commemorates the
* An address delivered before the graduating class of the Medical Department of Yale
University, June 26, 1894.
THE ILLUSTRIOUS BOERHAAVE. in
" mores sanctissimos, raram virtutem, amabilem indolem " of this
beloved stepmother.
The elder son by the second marriage, James was selected for
the medical profession, but the influence of heredity was too
strong. He tired of physic, and became an eminent divine at
Leyden.
Hermann, on the other hand, was designed for the pulpit. His
maternal grandfather, Hermann Daeldir, was famous as a maker
of instruments of navigation in Amsterdam. His mother was
regarded as a great authority in the simple medication for the
parish poor. He was brought up to regard divinity as the high-
est of all professions, and was deeply imbued with the religious
sense ; but his native instincts and tastes were always for scien-
tific investigation, and a trivial incident made him one of the
greatest physicians of all times. In after life, when at the zenith
of his fame, he modestly wrote a dedication of his work on
chemistry to his brother ; in referring to the plans laid out for them
both in their boyhood he says : "Providence disposed of us other-
wise ; and exchanging our views, consigned you to the service of
religion, and made me, whose talents were unequal to higher
things, humbly contented with the profession of physic."
At eleven, under his father's instruction, he was well versed in
Latin and Greek, and ready at the grammatical rules of both
tongues, for to be a good grammarian was the ambition of the
countrymen of Erasmus. To write Latin with elegance and ease
was essential when the Latin language was the means of com-
munication between learned men over the entire civilized world.
In those childish days it is interesting to learn that the seri-
ous minded boy delighted in devoting his leisure hours to the
culture of the little garden of the parsonage. Holland was then,
Griffin tells us, the gayest garden land of Europe, and later,
under the skilled direction of Boerhaave, the botanical garden of
Leyden became the most renowned in the world.
From the twelfth to the seventeenth year the boy suffered
greatly from hip disease. He tells us it was the grievous pain
from this source which led him to contemplate the study of medi-
cine. But the malady seems scarcely to have affected his prog-
ress in his studies. At fourteen he was sent to the public school
in Leyden, where he was rapidly advanced in his studies, winning
all the prizes, and at sixteen, he was admitted to the university.
It may here be parenthetically stated that the schools of Holland
were the best in the world. They received state aid, and were free
to the needy student.
Meantime the father of Boerhaave had died, and left his
family in straitened circumstances ; but, in Leyden, where, after
its heroic siege, while the memory of plague and famine was still
112 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
fresh upon them, its people had asked for a university in place
of the proffered exemption from taxation ; in Leyden, which,
when Scaliger was invited to a professorship, had ordered a ship
of war to receive him, a helping hand was always outstretched
to aid the meritorious student. Trigland, one of the divinity
professors of the university, who had been a friend of Boer-
haave's father, and who entertained great expectations as to the
boy's future, procured for him the patronage of Van Alphen, the
burgomaster, to whose paternal, continuous, and benevolent in-
terest Boerhaave renders grateful tribute.
While a student at the university, by the advice of his in-
structors, in addition to studies in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and
Chaldee he attended lectures on natural philosophy and mathe-
matics. During his undergraduate course he was often called
upon by Siguerd, his professor, to take part in discussions upon
the latter subjects. The study of algebra, geometry, and trigo-
nometry he tells us he found most entertaining. In his twenty-
first year he delivered the academic oration upon the subject
that " the Doctrine of Epicurus concerning the Chief Good was
well understood by Cicero," for which he received the gold
medal.
It may perhaps be of interest to recall at this time the digni-
fied formalities with which the competition for university honors
was then surrounded.* The candidate first announced his inten-
tions to the rector and senators, and these in turn informed the
curators, who appointed the day for the oration. Then the appli-
cant waited on each of the curators, and on the chief magistrate
and sheriff of the city, to desire their presence. If the oration
gave satisfaction to the curators, their secretary was sent to his
habitation to thank him in their name, and to acquaint him that
he should be presented with the gold medal. This was worth
thirteen pounds, and bore a Pallas in relief on the front, and an
engraved inscription relating the name of the person and the
occasion on the reverse.
" The University of Leyden," Thorold Rogers tells us, " was
far more renowned in the seventeenth century than Oxford, Cam-
bridge, or Paris, and students from all countries crowded into
this the youngest of the great universities. The student was
exempted from taxation ; he received his wine, beer, tea, coffee,
salt, soup, and books free ; and when once his name had been on
the university rolls he was amenable for all offenses to a special
court composed of the rector, four professors, and a representa-
tion in the city magistracy. One of the gravest punishments
with which he could be visited, in the popular apprehension,
* Burton's Life and Writings of Boerhaave, 174G, p. 9.
THE ILLUSTRIOUS BOERHAAVE. 113
was banishment from town for a term of years, and deprivation
of academic privileges.
After receiving his philosophical degree, Boerhaave entered
upon his theological studies. He delighted, he tells us, in the
primitive fathers, whom he highly reverenced for the purity and
simplicity of their doctrine, for the sanctity of their instruction,
and for the perfection of their lives, dedicated to God ; but he had
no patience with the efforts of the schoolmen to make the sacred
writings conform to the metaphysical abstractions of Plato, Aris-
totle, Aquinas, Scotus, and Descartes, with the confusion ensu-
ing, and with an outcome, as he regarded it, contrary to peace
with God and man. Independent judgment, it may be stated,
was not favorably regarded in those days by the orthodox in
Holland.
Meantime, to aid in his support, Boerhaave received a small
number of pupils for private instruction, and, contemporaneously
with his religious exercises, he took up the study of anatomy as a
diversion. To him the works of Vesalius, of Fallopius, and of
Bartholin were of absorbing interest. He attended likewise the
dissections of Prof. Nuck, and with the true scientific spirit,
eager for personal observation, he frequented slaughterhouses, and
sought to increase his knowledge by vivisections. Anatomy was
then to the student a revelation, and not a compulsory task.
Chemistry, too, with the hopes it inspired of new and wonderful
discoveries, filled him with splendid dreams.
Thus it came to pass that while loyal to his father's wish that
he should devote his life to the ministry, and though still believ-
ing that his duty lay in that direction, he decided that he would,
in addition to his theological studies, take a degree in medicine.
For that purpose he entered the University of Harder wick, and
in July, 1693, was made a Doctor of Physic. There now occurred
to him one of those accidents which happen to most men at some
time in their career by which the nature of their life's work is
determined for them independently of their volition. On his
way home from Harderwick a discussion was started on the
passage-boat about the doctrines of Spinoza as subversive of
all religion. Now, the universal education which was the glory
of Holland bred a goodly number of blatherskites as well as
famous scholars. One of the former was filling the air with loud
invectives against the great philosopher ; whereupon Boerhaave
quietly asked him whether he had ever inspected the works of the
author he decried. The clamorous orator, Burton tells us, was
struck dumb. Inquiry was at once made as to the name of the
troublesome student, and, after their arrival in Leyden, it was
soon current gossip that Boerhaave had become a Spinozist.
Strong opposition was organized to his receiving a license to
ii4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
preach. On the advice of his three steadfast friends — Van Al-
phen, his earliest patron ; Trigland, the most famous of the in-
structors in the theological department ; and Van der Berg, for
some time burgomaster, a man of wealth and great influence —
Boerhaave decided not to risk a refusal, but to devote his life to
the practice of medicine.
He had already a reputation for prodigious powers of intel-
lect, and those who knew his easy mastery of every subject to
which he directed his attention anticipated for him a most brilliant
future. Yet for a long time few patients sought his counsel.
"While awaiting at Leyden the advent of remunerative practice,
he was invited by a prime favorite of King "William to settle at
the Hague and to establish himself as a court physician. But
this temptation he resolutely put aside. He devoted the waiting
period which falls to the lot of most young physicians to teaching
mathematics, to work in a laboratory which he fitted up in his
own domicile, and to reading the Scriptures and those authors
who best teach the true way of loving God.
It may be interesting to state that Leyden, in the seventeenth
century, according to the account of John Mollett,* was " rich and
prosperous, beautiful, clean, and pleasant, abounding in handsome
houses, intersected with canals of fast-running water, its broad
streets planted with trees ; its houses of red brick, faced with
white masonry, shadowed the pathways with their projecting
gables ; and their ornamentation of arches, festoons, and medal-
lions carved with quaint and heraldic devices completed a style
of architecture that was characteristic and charming. Above
these houses rose a large and splendid Town Hall, two beautiful
Gothic churches, and a number of buildings originally dedicated
to religious but at that time to secular uses."
The city, in the height of its prosperity, had a population of
nearly one hundred thousand souls. The most perfect order pre-
vailed. At the same time there were everywhere activity, vigor,
and exuberance of life. It had a wide fame for the product of its
looms, and Leyden cloth, Leyden baize, and Leyden camlet be-
came familiar terms at home and abroad, f It was the birthplace
of Rembrandt, Jan Steen, and Gerard Douw. Important works of
every kind issued from its printing presses. The classic editions
of the Elzevirs of Leyden are still the book-lover's delight.
In this favorable environment, Boerhaave's mental powers
were ripened by observation and study. In 1701, in his thirty-
third year, he was induced by his friends, on the death of Drelin-
court, to lecture on the institutes of physic. His success was
* Rembrandt, by John Mollett. The Great Artist Series.
f British Encyclopaedia. Art. Leyden.
THE ILLUSTRIOUS BOERHAAVE. 115
such that at the end of his course his delighted pupils prevailed
upon him to instruct them in chemistry likewise.
Two years later he was invited to a vacant professorship at
Groningen, which he declined with grateful acknowledgments.
Thereupon his trusty friend Van der Berg, President of the
Burgomasters and one of the seven curators of the university, in-
duced the authorities to increase his salary, and to promise to him
the first vacancy in the regular professorships. This did not occur
until 1709, when, on the death of Dr. Hotton, he was made Pro-
fessor of Medicine and of Botany.
By the aid of returning captains, at a time when Dutch ships
ruled the sea, and by a system of exchanges with noted corre-
spondents, in ten years he had doubled the number of plants in
the botanical garden. Crocodiles, turtles, and other strange crea-
tures were imported from distant settlements in the Indies. The
bamboo, the papyrus, the palm, the coffee plant, trees of cinna-
mon, camphor, and mahogany could be seen growing in the open
air and in hothouses. The plants were especially remarkable for
their strength and vigor. In their classification Boerhaave pre-
pared the way for Linnaeus.
In 1714 Boerhaave was elected to the rectorship of the univer-
sity— " of their Noble High Mightenesses' University of Leyden,"
he terms it in his correspondence — and in the same year was ap-
pointed Professor of Physic in place of Prof. Bidloo, and to a posi-
tion in the University Hospital. By this time his fame had out-
grown its local limits, and students flocked to him from all parts
of the world. When he began his public teachings, the doctrines
of Van Helmont and Paracelsus were held in high favor. Indeed,
he tells us that the works of the former he read through seven
times and those of the latter four times. Van Helmont he re-
garded rather as a philosopher than as a physician, as his boasted
remedies fell far short of their promised efficiency. Yet Paracel-
sus swore by his own soul, and calls every god in heaven to wit-
ness, that with one single remedy he was able to cure all diseases,
be they what they would ; and in another place he declares that no
one need scruple about getting certain secrets of physic from the
devil, and boasts of holding conversations with Galen and Avi-
cenna at the gates of hell. By the school of Paracelsus it was
claimed that the doctrine of transmutation was contained in the
Pentateuch, in the books of Solomon, and in the Revelation of St.
John.
Van Helmont's methods are illustrated by an account he gives
us of how he treated himself for pneumonia. In 1640, in the sixty-
third year of his age, he was seized with a fever, attended with a
slight shivering which made his teeth chatter; a pricking pain
about the sternum, a difficulty of respiration, and a spitting first
n6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
of bloody matter and then of pure blood. For the removal thereof
he took certain scrapings, which seem to have been in anticipation
of the animal extracts of the present day, upon which the pains
grew less. Then he took a drink of goat's blood, and the spitting
of blood ceased in four days, leaving only a slight cough with a
moderate expectoration ; but the fever still remained, and was
followed by a pain in the spleen, for which he took wine boiled
with crabs' eyes, whereupon all the symptoms disappeared.
Medicine was not only obscured by the vagaries of the chem-
ists, but knowledge was darkened by the theories of philosophers,
who sought by shutting their eyes to arrive at truth by purely
intellectual processes. Now, Boerhaave's teaching was an unceas-
ing protest against the errors of his times. His introductory ora-
tion at the beginning of his career as a teacher was one extolling
Hippocrates. To you, to whom the father of medicine is probably
little more than a name, it may be proper to mention that the
veneration in which he has been held is due to his having been
the first to found medical teaching upon naked and indisputable
facts. He was the nineteenth physician in succession in the same
family. The records of his forefathers, the fruits of travel, the
clinical experiences upon the isle of Cos, and the reports of his
pupils formed the material of his Observations, which still are
read with wonder and with profit. After him, from Galen to
Vesalius, great advances were made in anatomy, and Harvey had
discovered the circulation of the blood, but there was little con-
tributed to the practice of medicine until Sydenham — the "im-
mortal Sydenham " Boerhaave loved to term him, though at that
time his merits had not been recognized by his own countrymen.
The qualifications of Boerhaave for the reconstruction of
medicine were extraordinary. His memory was amazing. He
had a familiar acquaintance with the works of his predecessors
in medicine and in the kindred sciences. He conversed in Eng-
lish, French, and German, and could read easily Italian and
Spanish, so that few new reports from those countries escaped his
notice. He had studied with profit the writings of Lord Bacon,
of Sir Isaac Newton, and of Robert Boyle. He had followed with
eager interest the microscopic discoveries of Malpighi, Leuwen-
hoeck, and Ruysch, and he had a vision which could overlook the
entire field, and see all branches of knowledge in their proper
relations. With such gifts and training his Institutes of Medi-
cine, published in 1707, in which all the teachings in anatomy,
in physiology, and in pathology up to his time were, after the
severest personal scrutiny, made the foundation of the theory
and treament of disease, rapidly became the text-book of Europe
and of the East, and long remained in the hands of his pupils the
basis of medical teaching. Yet there were so-called "practical
THE ILLUSTRIOUS BOERHAAVE. 117
men" in those days who received the work with scant favor.
They boasted that they read nothing ; that all available knowl-
edge was the product of experience only. They sneered at mu-
seum doctors, and said that such were not fit to doctor a cat.
But Boerhaave's greatest glory was the prominence he gave to
clinical instruction. Instead of aimless wandering through the
hospital wards, he adopted the plan of examining few patients,
but with them to be exact, thorough, and exhaustive. At the
bedside he taught with great minuteness the conditions that
prevail in health, and then the changes wrought by disease, and
upon these data he proceeded to formulate his therapeusis.
Under him the post-mortem room assumed the same importance
as the library, the chemical laboratory, the dissecting room, and
the botanical gardens. His pupils in other lands established
clinics and clinical instruction in conformity with the precedents
he established. The clinical schools of Edinburgh and Vienna,
under the guidance of Cullen and Van Swieten, owe their glory
to his transplanted spirit.
His system of treatment, like that of Sydenham and Hip-
pocrates, comprised few remedies, and laid great stress upon
hygiene. He had little faith in the prevailing elixirs ad long am
vitam. " As to nostrums," he says, " let those who have them
keep them till they can convince impartial observers of their
real worth." In a footnote to this, Burton, who was his Boswell
and worshiper, says, " Mrs. Stephens' saponaceous dissolvent for
stone in the kidneys and bladder may be a proof of one of them."
In 1718 he accepted, in addition to his other public positions,
the professorship of chemistry, then left vacant by the death of
Le Mort. In 1738 he published his Elements of Chemistry. It
is divided into three parts. The first is historical, and is full of
curious learning; the second part presents Boerhaave's theoret-
ical views ; while in the third part the author's personal observa-
tions are given. These are chiefly of interest as showing the vol-
ume of useless experimentation that preceded solid advances in
chemical science.
As a sample of old-time ways, Burton, with loving admiration,
details Boerhaave's attempt to accomplish the consummate purifi-
cation of quicksilver. " With matchless perseverance he tortured
it by conquassation, trituration, digestion, and by distillation.
He amalgamated it with lead, tin, or gold, repeating this opera-
tion to 511 or even to 877 distillations." But alas ! owing to an
inherent turpitude in the metal, at the end it was only the same
quicksilver as at the beginning.
That this and similar experiences were not satisfactory to
Boerhaave is evident from his preface. The work, he complains,
was produced at the instance of his friends, and because of spuri-
VOL. XLVII. — 10
n8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
cms accounts of his lectures which were then in circulation.
" This brought Petrarch to my mind, who bewails the unhappiness
of his age upon finding himself ranked among the chief poets in
it. With what confidence could I, conscious of my own insuffi-
ciency, and full of admiration of other authors, enter the list of
writers of chemistry ? At length, however, I undertook the dis-
gustful work which I now declare was extorted from me."
In his prime Boerhaave was. tall, robust, and athletic, hard-
ened by exercise, negligent in dress, with a large head, curly
brown hair, bright, piercing eyes, and a florid complexion. He
was a sincere and affectionate friend, courteous in his professional
intercourse, never talking of his own affairs, ready with praise
for others, but silent concerning himself.* " There was in his air
something rough and artless, but so majestic and great at the
same time that no man ever looked upon him without veneration
and a kind of tacit submission to the superiority of his genius."
He rose at four o'clock in summer and at five in winter. Ten
was his usual bedtime. One hour he devoted to prayer and
meditation. This, he said, gave him spirit and vigor in the busi-
ness of the day. All his abilities he ascribed to the goodness of
God. In the severest winter he had neither fire nor stove in his
study, where he passed three to four hours in the morning. His
library abounded in the works of the best historians, poets, and
authors of polite literature as well as in those upon medicine.
By unceasing industry he produced in rapid succession books,
minor treatises, orations, and discussions. Besides the public lec-
ture on botany and the private lectures on chemistry, the insti-
tutes and practice of physics, which employed him four hours in
speaking, he frequently spent an hour in giving a public lecture
on some special subject. He allowed nothing to interfere with his
duties as a teacher.
He brought to the lecture room a vast comprehension, a pro-
digious memory, and a solid experience. He used no notes ; his
manner was concise, clear, and methodical. He illustrated his
subjects with quotations from the poets, of which his favorites
were Virgil, Ovid, Rapin, and Cowley. Sometimes by a delicate
irony he stirred his audience to laughter, but never moved a mus-
cle of his own face. His lecture room was thronged. Men came
to Leyden from all parts of the world, who regarded it as a special
glory to have been taught by the illustrious Boerhaave. As a
writer said of him after his death : " Long was he the oracle of
his faculty. Never was preceptor more beloved, professor more
celebrated, nor physician more consulted." f
His practice was enormous. A hundred patients, it is said,
* Gentleman's Magazine, 1739. * Burton, footnote, p. 73.
THE ILLUSTRIOUS BOERHAAVE. 119
were frequently waiting in his anteroom. The Czar Peter once
lay all night in his pleasure barge outside of Boerhaave's house,
to have two hours' conversation with him before college time. He
was temperate in his habits. He rarely touched wine. Water
was his common drink. In the German student song it reads :
" Hermann Boerhaave schreibet ja :
Aqua paullo frigid a
Potio est optima."
Until infirmity came upon him his favorite exercise was riding.
When he was weary he distracted himself with music, of which
he was very fond. He had a good voice and played a number of
musical instruments. It was his custom to have a weekly con-
cert at his own house.
At forty-two he married Mrs. Mary Drolenveaux, the only
child of the Burgomaster of Leyden. They had four children ;
three died in infancy — one, a daughter, survived him.
In 1722, when fifty-four years of age, his physical constitution
gave the first warning of the effects of the strain to which it was
subjected. He had an attack of arthritis, whether of a gouty or
rheumatic nature is uncertain, though it is stated that it was the
result of exposing himself to the morning dews before sunrising,
which kept him in bed six months. The pains were atrocious.
Once, after fifteen hours of continued suffering, he prayed that his
disease might end his life and misery. This afterward gave him
great concern, for he wished, he said, to abide by this maxim living
or dying : " That only is best, and alone to be desired, which is
perfectly agreeable to the Divine Goodness and Majesty."
When in 1723 Boerhaave had sufficiently recovered to reopen
his private college, the citizens of Leyden celebrated the event in
the evening by illuminations and by public rejoicings. In 1727,
on a return of the attack, he gave up the chairs of chemistry and
botany, though he continued to teach actively in other branches
until his final illness. In his later life his greatest pleasure was
in his country home. This was large and roomy, with eight acres
of ground. His garden was filled with the exotic shrubs and trees
which would flourish in that climate. A present of American
shrub seed he styles " a gift more precious than gold," and two
cedar trees " a royal benefaction."
In 1725, at the expiration of his rectorship, he delivered an
oration in which he reprehended the philosophers who have at-
tempted to invent rather than to discover principles, and in par-
ticular he singled out Descartes. Andala, an orthodox Cartesian
professor, set up a cry that the Church was in danger, and that
the dreaded evil of Spinozism would be the result. But the times
had changed since the journey of the young student from Harder-
120
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
wick. The governors of the university insisted on a retraction.
To Andala's recantation Boerhaave replied with fine courtesy
that the most agreeable satisfaction he could receive was that so
eminent a divine should have no more trouble on his account.
Boerhaave was through life cheerful and desirous of promoting
mirth by a facetious and humorous conversation. He was never
soured by calumny and detraction, nor ever thought it necessary
to confute them, " for they are sparks/' he said, " which if you do
not blow them will go out of themselves."
In 1728 he was elected a member of the Royal Academy of
Sciences in Paris, and in 1730 a member of the Royal Society.
He accumulated an immense fortune, estimated by some at two
millions of florins, and yet through life no one appealed in vain
to his generosity. " The poor," he said, " were his best patients,
for God paid for them."
About the middle of the year 1737 he began to suffer from car-
diac disturbances, from dyspnoea, and from dropsy. If for a mo-
ment he fell asleep, the respi-
ration was interrupted, and
rest was prevented by a ter-
rible sensation as of stran-
gling. Yet in a letter he
writes, " I have lived to up-
ward of sixty-eight years,
and always cheerful."
In the library of the Fac-
ulty of Medicine in Paris
there were found in 1877
ninety letters from Boer-
haave to his friend Baron
Bassand, physician to the
Duke of Lorraine, afterward
the Emperor Francis I. In
one of these, written two
weeks before his death, and
intended for private eyes
only, he says : " My malady
gathers in force. The cardiac oppression due to polypi is con-
stant, and of the last degree of cruelty. God wishes it thus. His
perfect and sovereign will be glorified by the submission of his
creature, who loves and adores only the infinitude of the eternal." *
He died on the 27th of September, 1738. His monument in the
St. Peter Church, where his body was interred, bears the inscrip-
tion " Salutifero Boerhaavii Genio."
Article by Chireau, L' Union Medicale, 1877, p. 584.
CORRESP ONDEN CE.
121
CORRESPONDENCE.
STEEL ENGRAVINGS AS WORKS
OF ART.
Editor Pojmlar Science Monthly ;
In the article on bank-note engraving,
published in your March issue, the writer
classes the engraving of bank notes among
the fine arts, and describes it as the last and
highest step in a long series, beginning with
the wood and metal engravings of Albrecht
Diirer. Just what analogy the writer finds
between the metal engraving of Diirer and
modern bank-note work is by no means ob-
vious, although his statements in regard to
this artist are doubtless authoritative, as they
are taken entire, with scarcely the change of
a word, from Philip Gilbert Hamerton's arti-
cle on Engraving in the eighth volume of
the Encyclopaedia Britannica, page 441. But,
as Diirer was an artist and not an animated
cycloidal lathe, he is scarcely to be com-
pared with the modern engraver of bank
notes. There is not even similarity between
the materials used, for Diirer's medium was
copper or wood, while the modern bank-note
plate is of steel. I can not forbear slight
criticism, because, in an article otherwise in-
structive and valuable, the writer manifests
a complete and utter misapprehension of the
meaning of art as such. Mr. Dickinson
hopelessly confounds steel engraving and
etching, and deplores the lack of "original
artists " in these lines of work, for, says he,
" steel engravings have found a place in the
hearts of the people of this country that no
other class of art can ever replace." It is
somewhat ludicrous to think of placing Sey-
mour Haden, Rajon, or the immortal Whis-
tler on the level of the producers of steel
engravings, which are, in general, the most
inartistic and lifeless things ever allowed to
masquerade under the name of art. Of cop-
perplate, the scroll and papyrus of our etch-
ers, Mr. Dickinson speaks disparagingly be-
cause it wears out " in one thousand impres-
sions, while ten or fifteen thousand can be
taken from steel." He generously adds that
it is " still used to a considerable extent for
visiting cards," and " in some cases for the
cheaper classes ..of picture work, such as
book- illustrations," evidently ignorant of the
fact that numbers of our greatest artists —
Reinhardt, Gibson, Frederic Remington, Irv-
ing R. Wiles, and W. T. Smedley, among
others — consider their art in no wise cheap-
ened or degraded when turned into the enor-
mously profitable channel of " picture
work, such as book illustrations."
Says Mr. Dickinson, " Here [in a bank-
note portrait] we have a beautiful specimen
of pure line engraving, much better than
most of that done by some of the old mas-
ters and now considered classic." Now, it is
not the fault of the bank-note portrait that
scarcely anything more mechanical, more un-
interesting from an artistic point of view,
has ever been produced, but it is doubtful if
ever before it has been looked upon as pos-
sessing genuinely artistic value. And this
difference between mechanism and art is just
what Mr. Dickinson has utterly failed to per-
ceive. A work of art lays claim to that title
only when the means of expression remain
subordinate to the thought which is ex-
pressed. Technique alone will not save any
work of art from more or less speedy obliv-
ion, while a serious thought, even though in-
adequately expressed, will remain a domi-
nant tone in the chord of the world's art for
all time. The technically faulty works of
the early Italian artists, and even of Diirer
himself, give ample proof of this. Then,
too, a work of art is never more than merely
suggestive — never, as in the case of the
bank note, is it elaborated to painful com-
pleteness. A mechanical draughtsmanship,
such as is displayed in the bank note, crams
the same conclusion down the consciousness
of each and every onlooker. The genuine
work of art remains obstinately silent, or else
pours out its wealth of color and song lav-
ishly, according to whether the spectator be
a poet at heart or a dolt.
In a bank-note engraving, on the other
hand, the sole interest aroused is in the pro-
cess, and this interest is heightened in pro-
portion as the process involves greater in-
tricacy of detail and more rigid and unvary-
ing evenness of line. Since that so-called
perfection is due chiefly to the accuracy of
machinery, " the ruling machine, and cycloid-
al and geometrical lathes," a bank note can
have no other than a purely mechanical in-
terest. The engraving of it is doubtless a
valuable factor in the commercial world,
but to compare it to the work of Diirer,
crown and flower of the German Renais-
sance, is quite like comparing a lathe-turned
table leg to the Moses of Michael Angelo.
Grace Green Bohn.
Chicago, March 2, 1895.
VOL, XXVII.
-11
122
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY
EDITOR'S TABLE.
PUBLIC EDUCATION AND PUBLIC
OPINION.
THE editor of the Revue des Deux
Mondes contributes to a recent
number of that periodical an article
entitled Education and Instruction,
in which are some things with which
we heartily agree and others from
which we are compelled to dissent.
The article as a whole, however, is
of undoubted value, inasmuch as it
sets for^h the true theory of educa-
tion, while what we regard as errors
are in matters of detail. M. Brune-
tiere remarks at the outset that for-
merly the ideas of education and of
instruction were but little distin-
guished from each other. True, to
instruct meant " to furnish," and to
educate meant "to lead forth" or
"develop" and so "to mold" ; but
it was always assumed that the fur-
nishings provided for the mind would
be of such a nature, and would be so
imparted, as to promote development
and favor true culture ; and thus the
words were to a great extent used
interchangeably. In the present day
we are compelled to separate their
meanings, owing to the fact that,
in our modern systems of so-called
"education," while much effort is
concentrated on fitting up the mind
with an equipment of knowledge,
the right direction of mental growth,
and, above all, the right develop-
ment of character, receive but little
attention, and indeed are almost left
out of sight. Our children are in-
structed in the schools of to-day;
but, he maintains, they are not edu-
cated in the true sense. Personally,
he expresses his regret that educa-
tion was not allowed to remain a
private matter; but seeing that it
has passed into the hands of the
state, we have simply to see what
we can do to get the maximum of
good out of the huge mechanism
which the state has set up.
Now it might readily have been
supposed by any one speculating be-
fore the event, that when state edu-
cation became general it would at
least have one strong point: it would
aim at fitting the rising generation
for social and political life ; it would
aim at overcoming or at least tem-
pering in the interest of the com-
munity the natural selfishness of the
individual. The error in this calcu-
lation would have lain in imagining
that the state, as represented by in-
dividuals, has any consciousness of
its own interests. The individuals
in question have a consciousness of
their own interests; the best among
them have, in additiou, some sense
of public duty ; but the state can not,
through the officers and teachers it
appoints, study and strive after its
own interests as the individual stud-
ies and strives after his. Hence, in
any system of public education, the
claims of the state never get more
than a partial and fitful recognition :
the whole drift of the work done is
in the direction of an intensified in-
dividualism, or, as M. Brunetiere ex-
presses it, " la culture intensive du
Moi" — the intensive culture of the
Ego. Referring to the statement
made by Sir John Lubbock that the
progress of education and that of
morality kept pace in England, M.
Brunetiere exclaims : " Happy Eng-
land! and most fortunate accident!
for statistics have brought nothing
similar to light in France or any-
where else, in Germany or in Amer-
ica. In these countries, on the con-
trary, we see that quite ignorant
EDITOR'S TABLE.
123
people, who know neither antiquity,
nor the sciences, nor languages, nor
even orthography, are nevertheless
very worth y folk ; while inversely we
find that all their instruction has not
preserved a number of unfortunates
from the worst lapses; and neither
certificates nor diplomas have pre-
vented them from succumbing to
the most vulgar temptations." As
applied to this country the writer's
language is a little lacking in exact-
ness; for here the conditions are
such that it is difficult, for native-
born citizens at least, to remain igno-
rant of the arts of reading and writ-
ing except through fault of their
own ; but it certainly has been the
case in the past everywhere that
people could be, as he says, '\fort
honnetes gens'''' without any tinc-
ture of what we now call education.
Their knowledge was confined to
some useful art by which they earned
a living, and the precepts of common
morality.
The question M. Brunetiere next
discusses is how "to put some soul
back into the school," or, in his own
words, " rendre une dme a Vecole " ;
but his observations on this point,
referring as they do to a system of
education controlled by the national
Government, have but a slight ap-
plication to this country. It is here,
however, that we find ourselves dis-
agreeing with some of his incidental
remarks. He accuses men of science
of being excessively dogmatic in their
opinions, and apparently ignoring
the modern conception of the rela-
tivity of knowledge. Now, some men
of science may be dogmatic, but to say,
as the learned editor does, that a most
of these will not allow their con-
clusions to be disputed, or so much
as criticised," is to fall into great ex-
aggeration. As to the doctrine of
the relativity of knowledge, it is a
doctrine which science has estab-
lished. It is earnestly and constant-
ly insisted on by Auguste Comte,
and has been illustrated and elabo-
rated in great detail by Herbert
Spencer. It is not, however, a doc-
trine of which much use can be
made in imparting scientific or any
other knowledge to the young, whose
natural philosophic creed is one of
simple confidence in the reality of
phenomena. M. Brunetiere is fur-
ther of opinion that science should
only be given in very small and judi-
cious doses in primary and second-
ary schools. The important thing, in
our opinion, is, that nothing should
be done to check the spontaneous
activity of youthful minds, or any
flow of emotion which may be asso-
ciated therewith. Science should,
therefore, not be imparted to the
young in too didactic or formal a
manner; it should rather come to
them in the form of a constant ap-
peal to investigate, to use their own
faculties of sight, touch, hearing,
smell, and to draw their own infer-
ences from data thus collected. We
quite believe that, in the hands of
an inexperienced and unsympathetic
teacher, science lessons might be
given to youthful students in such a
way as simply to check imagination
and inspire distrust in the testimony
of the senses; but when the right
kind of science teaching can be got,
there will be no need to deal it out
as the dangerous drug which the ed-
itor of the Revue des Deux Mondes
seems to consider it.
Returning to the question on
which, as we have stated, this writer
does not give us much help — how to
get " soul " into the schools — we must
observe that any success in such an
effort will depend largely on public
opinion. The great mischief of an
imperfect educational system is that
it creates the public opinion by which
itself is judged. The man of thirty-
five, who to-day has children of his
own at school, was a scholar himself
i 24
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
only twenty years ago. Things have
not changed much in that time. If
the spirit of competition was stamped
into him, he will want it stamped
into his children. If money is his
chief preoccupation, he would not
like to hear that a public- school
teacher was doing anything to lessen
the importance of money in their
eyes. He would be willing enough
that other children should learn that
lesson, but not his own. The case,
we are persuaded, is far from being
an imaginary one. The average par-
ent sends his children to school with
no other view than that they shall
be prepared for some money-making
occupation ; and he expects that that
object shall be kept uppermost by
the school authorities. This being
the case, the "soul" that M. Brune-
tiere desiderates runs a great risk
of being contraband of our modern
school systems; because it can not
enter without coming at once into
conflict with the spirit of money-
worship, and also with that of self-
ish ambition. Of course, if we had
every reason to be satisfied with the
moral progress of our people and the
signs of the times generally, there
would be no need to raise this ques-
tion ; we might assume that the
schools were doing all that was re-
quired of them : but such is not the
case; the signs of the times are in
many respects unsatisfactory. The
state has wrenched education from
private hands, and now we have to
consider what can be done to human-
ize the teaching which it is bestow-
ing on the millions of our youth.
Very many individual teachers are
doubtless occupying themselves with
the problem, but their efforts will
not make up for general public in-
difference to it. A nation can not
thrive on love of money, nor live on
the virtues of a small minority. We
must have '' soul," or, to speak with
more precision, the spirit of social
duty and of moral responsibility, at
the very base of our educational sys-
tems; otherwise education itself be-
comes a fraud and a snare, and the
very agencies which should consoli-
date the social fabric will work for
its disruption.
THE ALLEGED DOGMATISM OF
SCIENCE.
In the above article we have
touched, in passing, upon a change
very frequently and very carelessly
made against men of science that
they are intolerant of opposition to
their scientific theories, and in effect
set up a kind of orthodoxy to which
all must bow who desire to be con-
sidered rational and intelligent be-
ings. The charge is utterly frivo-
lous, as the most obvious facts attest.
Consider first how it applies to some
of the most prominent scientific
workers of the century. Surely
nothing of this kind could truth-
fully have been said of such men as
Sir Humphry Davy and Michael
Faraday, of Sir Charles Lyell or of
Agassiz, of our own geologist Dana
or our great botanist Gray. As to
Darwin, all the world knows that
candor and modesty were of the
very essence of his character. We
might pass rapidly in review a num-
ber of other eminent names the very
mention of which would be a vindi-
cation from the charge, but it would
be superfluous. When dogmatism
appears it is nearly always on the
part of men who have adopted their
opinions at secondhand, and who
have either ignored altogether, or
paid little attention to, those elements
of uncertainty which were not only
fully present to the minds of the
originators of the theories in ques-
tion, but also fully expressed in
their published works. This simply
means that scientific leaders have
the same experience that other lead-
ers have had, and need to join in the
EDITOR'S TABLE.
125
classic prayer, "Save us from our
friends ! "
There is one feature in the case,
however, which is not to be over-
looked, and that is that the represent-
atives of science have been in the
past, and still are to some extent, re-
quired to put up with a kind of oppo-
sition that is very annoying to men
who have worked their way by pa-
tient labor, in appropriate fields of
observation, to certain well-demon-
strated conclusions. We refer to the
opposition of those who have not
labored at all in those fields, but
who, on the ' strength of the most
extraneous considerations, insist that
certain scientific conclusions must
be all wrong. Such was the oppo-
sition made by the Catholic Church
to the modern system of astronomy,
and such the opposition made by
all Christian churches, more or
less, to modern geological science.
What is the use of inquiring into
the origin of language and the
affinities of different families of
speech if the stories of the Garden
of Eden and the Tower of Babel are
to dominate all speculation on these
subjects ? The indignation used to
be all on the side of the theologians,
when their opinions were traversed
by considerations drawn from the
study of Nature. Nowadays scien-
tific men allow themselves occasion-
ally a little indignation, or at least
impatience, when theories, which
they have carefully founded on facts,
are traversed on the strength of
other men's interpretations of a
book. Time brings about these
changes, and it wrould be harsh to
find much fault with the champions
of science for not being wholly above
the infirmities of human nature.
It should, of course, be clearly
understood that dogmatism, in so
far as it exists, does no good to sci-
ence. True theories will vindicate
themselves in the end; and, even
when the grounds for certainty
seem ample, it is well not to be too
confident or too absolute. Then if
people who simply adopt other peo-
ple's opinions would only learn not
to be more dead-sure than the au-
thors and sponsors of those opin-
ions, a great point would be gained
and much trouble avoided. Science
wants all the friends it can get, see-
ing that is a friend to all; but its
path would be smoothed if ardent
converts would temper their zeal
with discretion.
SPENCER ON PROFESSIONAL
INSTITUTIONS.
When we wrote, in March, con-
cerning the series of articles by Mr.
Spencer with which this magazine
began its career we had no thought
that we should be so fortunate as to
have the first of another series by the
same master hand for the opening
number of our twenty-fourth year.
Nor had Mr. Spencer ; for that edi-
torial itself suggested to him the
advisability of issuing serially the
chapters on Professional Institutions
which he had nearly completed.
There will be eleven or twelve papers
in the present series. These papers
will show how the several profes-
sions have been differentiated from
the functions of the priest or medi-
cine-man, who is the only profession-
al man of primitive society. They
will demonstrate that in these affairs
— although subject to human will
and caprice — the grand principle of
evolution operates just as surely and
completely as in the derivation of an
animal species from its ancestral
form.
A peculiar element of value in
the evolutionary philosophy, of
which Mr. Spencer is the original
and most eminent expositor, is the
power of understanding the present
and predicting the future which is
afforded by its explanation of the
iz6
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
past. To take the present subject as
an illustration, from the division of
functions that has taken place in the
past we may infer a still further
specialization in the future. Higher
achievements in the several profes-
sions may be expected as a result of
this process, the men of different
professions will become more and
more necessary to one another, and
the solidarity of society will be in-
creased.
The Professional Institutions will
form the last portion but one of the
only volume remaining uncompleted
in Mr. Spencers systematic series of
philosophical works. It therefore
makes probable the successful com-
pletion of the series, and, together
with the division on Industrial In-
stitutions which is to follow, will be
sure to throw much light upon the
puzzling industrial problems of the
day. A few days ago Mr. Spencer
completed three quarters of a cen-
tury of life and about half a century
of productive labor in the field of
thought. For twenty years past
there have been times when the close
of his labors seemed imminent, but,
mainly as a result of prudent care,
his physical strength has lasted till
this time, while the articles of which
we print the first this month ade-
quately demonstrate that his mental
grasp and acumen are in no wise
impaired.
LITERARY NOTICES.
The Great Ice Age and its Relation to
the Antiquity of Man. By James Gei-
kie. Third edition. Largely rewritten.
New York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 850.
With Maps and Illustrations. Price,
$7.50.
Geikie's Great Ice Age, when it ap-
peared in 187*7, took a position at once as
one of the standard treatises in geological
science. It has held that place ever since,
although the department of geology with
which it is concerned has been more actively
and scrutinizingly studied, perhaps, than any
other. With so much research as has been
bestowed upon glacial phenomena, much
knowledge has been accumulated that was
not within the author's reach eighteen years
ago, and some new views have prevailed ; yet
Prof. Geikie's arguments so ably set forth in
the first edition of his work have not lost
their force, and his main conclusions have
not been successfully assailed in their essen-
tials. A revision of the book had, however,
become necessary, in order that it might en-
joy the benefit of the acquired knowledge,
and that the new views might receive just
discussion and the old ones be re-examined
in the light of them. Yet in the immense
bulk of the literature that has accumulated,
and its scattered condition among many
nationalities and in multitudes of periodicals
and monographs, the author has not at-
tempted to discuss all the interesting ques-
tions mooted and canvassed in it, but, to keep
his sketch within reasonable limits, has been
compelled to follow more or less strictly the
lines laid down in the first edition, in which
his endeavor was represented to be to give
a systematic account of the Glacial period,
with special reference to its climatic condi-
tions. All the more important features of
the evidence, however, have been considered,
and few references are given to original
sources of information. The chapters deal-
ing with the phenomena of existing glacial
action in Alpine and arctic regions have
been touched up, and the glacial geology
of Scotland has been thoroughly revised.
Some rearrangements of other matter have
been made ; but nearly three fourths of the
volume have been entirely rewritten. The
glacial and interglacial deposits of the Euro-
pean continent are treated more fully than
was possible ten or fifteen years ago. The
purpose of the book being to sketch the
present position of glacial geology rather
than to write the history of its rise and prog-
ress, no great notice has been taken of the
opinions held by its pioneers. In dealing
with questions still under discussion the au-
thor has endeavored to avoid a controversial
tone, preferring as a rule to set forth the
evidence as clearly and impartially as he
could, and then to point out what seemed the
most reasonable interpretation. To avail
himself as fully as possible of the results of
LITERARY NOTICES.
127
glacial investigation in America, where some
of the fullest researches have been made,
the author engaged Prof. T. C. Chamberlin
to prepare a summary of the American evi-
dence, which is presented in the forty-first
and forty-second chapters of the book. An in-
teresting confirmation of the author's con-
clusions, drawn most largely from observa-
tions of British geology, is afforded by those
of Prof. Peunck, of Vienna, which are similar,
though derived from the study of a different
field — the Alpine lands.
Geological Survey of New Jersey. An-
nual Report of the State Geologist
for the Year 1893. By John C. Smock,
State Geologist. Trenton: John L. Mur-
phy Publishing Company. Pp. 45*7.
The survey for 1893 was engaged in the
continuation of the work on the surface
formations of the State, on the greensand
marl beds and the associated bed of the
Cretaceous and Tertiary ages, on the study of
stream flow and the general questions of
water supply and water power, and on the
examination of the clays of the State ; and
the collection of artesian or deep-bored well
records was continued. The study of the
surface geology by Prof. Rollin D. Salisbury
was carried on mostly in the northern and
central parts of the State. One of its fruits
is the preparation of maps of the surface
formations, separate from that of the under-
lying strata, in the beginning of the publi-
cation of which New Jersey leads. These
maps may be said to make a new series, dis-
tinct from the topographic maps by their
geology, and from the older geological maps
in the absence of any representation of the
older and underlying rock formations, except
where they crop out and make the surface.
They show the nature of the soils and sub-
soils in general, and the deposits of sands,
gravel, peat, shell marls, and other earthy
beds, and also the bowlder-covered areas of
the glacial drift. The work in the green-
sand marl belt and in the newer formations
of the Tertiary age overlying the marl beds
was continued, in co-operation with the
United States Geological Survey, under the
charge of Prof. William B. Clark. The sur-
vey of the crystalline rocks of the Highlands
was carried on by the United States Survey,
and was in charge of Dr. J. E. Wolff. The
subjects of water supply and water power
were further investigated and studied by Mr.
C. C. Vermeule, and the collection and tabu-
lation of data for the volume of water supply
were carried forward. Mr. Vermeule has
prepared a map of the State showing the
water sheds which are utilized for public
water systems and those which are still
available. Mr. Lewis Woolman has con-
tinued to collect the records of artesian wells
put down in the southern part of the State ;
and his report contains, in addition, historical
notes of wells and important generalizations
on the water-bearing beds or horizons.
Progress is reported in drainage surveys,
and surveys for the reclamation of tide-
marsh lands. Attention has been given to
the adaptation of the trap ridges and high-
land regions to the purpose of natural parks
and forest reservations. The last part of
the report is devoted to a list of the useful
minerals and mineral subtances which occur
naturally in the State, and to notes on the
localities and modes of occurrence. The vol-
ume contains the map showing water sheds,
and is accompanied by a tube containing
maps illustrating the distribution of intra-
morainic and extra-morainic drift ; of the
extinct Lake Passaic ; showing glacial striae
on the Palisade range ; and of the vicinity
of Hibernia, in the ore district.
General Hancock. By General Francis A.
Walker. Great Commanders Series.
New York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 332.
Price, $1.50.
In telling the story of Hancock's life and
military career General Walker draws atten-
tion to the fact that Hancock never command-
ed a separate army, and hence was never re-
sponsible for the plan, but only for the exe-
cution of the part intrusted to him, in the
operations of the army with which he was
connected. Hence he is to be estimated as
an executive officer and not as a strategist:
In two chapters his life is brought down to
the great rebellion. Winfield Scott Han-
cock was the son of a lawyer who prac-
ticed a few miles out of Philadelphia. He
went through West Point with the class of
1844, and served in the Mexican War, which
began a couple of years after he graduated.
From the evacuation of the city of Mexico
until the civil war Hancock served much of
128
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
the time as a quartermaster, the last two
years being chief quartermaster on the Pacific
coast. In this service he won distinction for
his care, foresight, and good management.
General Walker represents him as having the
almost incompatible qualities of loving " pa-
pers," rejoicing in forms and regulations and
requisitions, while at the same time he had
the temperament that enjoys the clash of
battle with its excitement and danger. His
experience had prepared him most admirably
to cope with material obstacles, and very of-
ten it is material obstacles quite as much as
the efforts of the enemy that defeat armies.
In his first battle, Williamsburg, he was sent
with five regiments to execute a movement,
which he accomplished with consummate
skill. His conduct led McClellan to say in
his telegraphic report, "Hancock was su-
perb," and the adjective clung to him. By
what the author calls " one of those curious
fortunes which mark the course of war," the
brigade and its commander that had acted
so brilliantly and steadily at Williamsburg
were given scarcely anything to do in the
seven days' battles and other fighting that
followed on the peninsula, nor were they
more actively employed at Antietam. But
when Richardson fell on the last-named field,
Hancock was advanced to the command of
his division.
The account follows Hancock through
Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and the
three days of Gettysburg, setting forth the
tactics employed by the Union army on each
day and freely criticising them. The severe
wound received by Hancock on the third day
at Gettysburg took him away from the Sec-
ond Corps, which he then commanded, for
six months. After his return came the se-
vere campaign of 1864, in which Hancock
bore a prominent part, Grant being now his
chief. In the spring of 1865, after a winter
of recruiting service, Hancock was placed in
command of the Middle Military Division
whose operations were to begin from Win-
chester. The final crash at Petersburg came
earlier than Grant expected, so that Hancock
had no share in the operations which brought
it about. A single chapter is given to the
events of Hancock's life after the war. The
position that General Walker occupied on
Hancock's staff, of assistant adjutant general,
makes him exceptionally well qualified for the
work he has here performed. It is no eulogy
that he has produced, for he does not conceal
the deficiencies nor the specific mistakes of
his subject. His incidental criticism of other
generals is equally outspoken, and adds much
to the interest of the volume.
Meteorology. Weather, and Methods of
Forecasting, Descriptions of Meteorologi-
cal Instruments, and River Flood Predic-
tions in the United States. By Thomas
Russell. New York: Macmillan & Co.
Pp. 277, with Plates. Price, $4.
The main object of this book is to explain
the use of the weather map, where it can be
of service for the purpose of making predic-
tions ; but the authoi''s expressions as to the
feasibility of making successful predictions,
even w ith the use of the weather map, are not
hopeful. There are not more than from six
to twelve occasions in the year when they can
be made, and for some places they are never
possible. The kinds of .weather that can be
foretold are the great changes. A fall of
temperature as great as forty degrees can be
foreseen to a certainty for most parts of the
country east of the Mississippi River. The
northeast rainstorms along the Atlantic
coast can be successfully predicted in most
cases. Floods along the lower Ohio and
Mississippi Rivers can be foreseen from one
to three weeks in advance of their occurrence,
and the height the water will reach can be
assigned within a foot or two. The course of
rains, which agrees as a rule with that of the
areas of low pressure that cross the country
from west to east and from southwest to
northeast, can be inferred in a general way,
but is subject to many irregularities. The
reader being thus warned of the uncertain-
ties connected with the matter, a summary
of what is known about the weather, its ap-
parent laws, and its somewhat erratic move-
ments, is given in a series of chapters which
are broken up into crisp, pertinent, and in-
telligible paragraphs distinguished by their
conspicuous headings. First, the influence of
the moon, sun spots, and periodicity are dis-
cussed ; we have no satisfactory knowledge
on either point. Next, the properties and
functions of the air are described, with more
definite conclusions. Then meteorological in-
struments are enumerated, and the principles
involved in their construction and their uses
are explained. The succeeding chapters are
LITERARY NOTICES.
129
devoted, with numerous subheadings, to the
discussion of temperature and pressure and
their variations, evaporation, clouds, rain, and
snow ; winds, thunderstorms, and tornadoes,
and optical appearances. A full chapter is
given to the exposition of the construction
and meaning of weather maps, and another
chapter to the consideration of the import
of weather predictions. A short account
of river floods is given, and the method of
predicting river heights for a number of
points along the lower Mississippi River and
its tributaries. In all this a general view is
taken of meteorology, while climatology is
treated of only in its broad, general features.
The principal weather changes are described
as they occur in various parts of the world
in different seasons on land and sea, and
their causes are narrated as far as is known.
A collection of facts is given useful in form-
ing a conception of the phenomena of the
atmosphere as a whole, so as to enable those
with little time for consulting a multitude
of books to form a notion of the science of
meteorology as it is at present.
The Birds of Eastern Pennsylvania and
New Jersey. With Introductory Chap-
ters on Geographical Distribution and
Migration. Prepared under the Direction
of the Delaware Valley Ornithological
Club. By Witmer Stone. Philadelphia :
Delaware Valley Ornithological Club.
Pp. 185, with Two Maps.
The object of this volume — which has
been prepared by a special committee ap-
pointed to collate the field notes of members
of the club — is to provide these members
and ornithologists with a summary of our
present knowledge of the birds of the dis-
trict included, with regard to their abun-
dance, distribution, and time of occurrence.
Description of the birds and their habits
does not come within the scope of the work.
In the preliminary pages are given notes on
the geographical distribution of birds ; the
faunal areas of the region ; their physical
features and characteristic birds ; the dis-
tribution of winter birds ; a general discus-
sion of bird migration ; migration in the vi-
cinity of Philadelphia ; and birds found
within ten miles of Philadelphia — conveying
copious information. The region is crossed
by the three faunal zones : the Carolinian, oc-
cupying the southeastern corner of Pennsyl-
VOL XLV1I — 12
vania and the whole of southern New Jersey,
to the Hudson and beyond, with a bay up the
Susquehanna Valley ; the Alleghanian, occu-
ing the rest of the region, except the tops
of the higher mountain ranges and portions
of the elevated table land in the north cen-
tral part of Pennsylvania, where the Cana-
dian zone is represented. The passage from
the Alleghanian to the Canadian zone is, as
a rule, remarkably distinct, as the more
northern birds keep strictly to the virgin
forest. Where the forest has been removed,
the Canadian species for the most part dis-
appear. These three faunal zones are di-
vided into several well-defined regions which
differ more or less in their physical features,
and consequently in the character of their
bird life ; and these are described.
Proceedings of the International Confer-
ence on Aerial Navigation, held in
Chicago, August 1, 2, and 3, 1893. New
York : The American Engineer and Rail-
road Journal. Pp. 429.
The proposal to hold the conference of
which the proceedings are recorded in this
book originated with Prof. A. F. Zahm, of
Notre Dame University, who communicated
with Mr. C. C. Bonney, President of the
World's Congress Auxiliary, and interested
several other persons in the project. The
principal objects of the conference were to
bring about the discussion of some of the
scientific principles involved in the scheme
of aerial navigation ; to collate the results of
the latest researches ; to procure an inter-
change of ideas ; and to promote concert of
action among the students of this inchoate
subject. The programme involved, first, a
discussion of the general principles of the
subject, and more special discussions in Sec-
tions A and B, under the heads of Aviation
and Ballooning. Letters of co-operation
were received from experts or students of
the subject, and from the British Aeronautical
Society, the Aerial Navigation Society of
France, the Aviation Society of Munich, the
Imperial Aeronautical Society of Russia, and
the Aviation Society of Vienna. The ses-
sions were attended by about one hundred
persons, who seemed to take great interest
in the proceedings, and the discussions
brought out several investigators who had
been studying the subject or trying interest-
130
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
ing experiments without making it publicly
known. The opening address was by Mr. 0.
Chanute, and it is followed in the book by
thirty-six other papers, on the work of the
wind, propelling devices, sailing flight, soar-
ing flight, the machines of flight and aspira-
tion, forms of flying machines, aeroplanes,
kites, balloons, explorations of the upper air,
and discussions.
The Ills of the South. By Charles H.
Atken, LL. D. New York : G. P. Put-
nam's Sons. Pp. 2*7*7.
Demoralized labor, lost fortunes, a ruin-
ous credit system, and the indirect conse-
quences of Southern lien laws, are the chief
subjects dealt with in this volume.
The book is penned in no hostile spirit
to any one State or class of people, while to
the student of modern history it forms a
valuable adjunct to his historic knowledge
of the Southern States. In all, the work
contains fourteen chapters, each imparting
a succinct view of the various needs of the
Southern people from 1865 to the present
time.
Psychologie des Grands Calculateurs et
Jouecrs d'Echecs. Par Alfred Binet.
(Psychology of Great Calculators and
Chess-players. By Alfred Binet.) Paris :
Librairie Hachette et Cie. 1894.
The author of this work has made his
investigations in these unusual forms of
memory with the fundamental desire to dis-
cover something that might be utilized in
pedagogics. The investigation of the men-
tal processes of mathematical prodigies was
made at the suggestion of the late Prof.
Charcot. The investigation of chess-players'
memories was made at the suggestion of M.
Taine.
Mathematical prodigies form a natural
class, and their ability is independent of
heredity or environment. They manifest
their talents precociously, and the familiar-
ity with figures is at the expense of general
intelligence. Furthermore, their aptitude is
developed by exercise and is decreased by
non-usage. It is largely a matter of audi-
tory and visual mnemonics.
In blindfold chess the ability depends
upon knowledge, memory, and imagination.
The ability to recall so complex a mental
image as one or more chessboards contain-
ing thirty-two or less pieces, in a variety of
positions, constitutes what Binet designates
as a visual geometrical memory, associated
with which is a memory of recapitulation or
faculty of repeating all the moves in the
order in which they were played.
The work is an interesting study of curi-
ous phases of mentality.
The Pygmies. By A. de Quatrefages. New
York : D. Appleton & Co. (The Anthro-
pological Series.) Pp.255. Price, $1.*75.
This work of one of the most eminent
anthropologists of the century, translated by
Prof. Frederick Starr expressly for the An-
thropological Series, relates to a race, or rather
a group of races, of meD, concerning which
speculation and tradition were rife for many
centuries, but of which little or nothing was
definitely known till very recently. They
were mentioned by Homer, they were de-
scribed by Aristotle, and were referred to as
a historical fact by Herodotus. These authors
placed them in Africa. Pliny, a more recent
writer than they, speaks of them as living in
different countries. The African pygmies re-
mained substantially unknown, except from
these ancient references, until a few years ago
explorers of the heart of Africa brought home
accounts given of them by neighboring tribes.
Schweinfurth saw them and obtained an in-
dividual Akka, and specimens were brought
to Europe ; since then acquaintance has been
direct. Besides these, M. de Quatrefages
classified with the pygmies other " small
black races " which had attracted his atten-
tion and interest in a special manner, and
made frequent references to them in his
writings. "These little blacks," he says,
" are to-day almost everywhere scattered,
separated, and often hunted by races larger
and stronger ; nevertheless, they have had in
the past their time of prosperity," and have
played a very real ethnological part. The
principal purpose of this book is to make
known the scientific truth in regard to the
ancient fables, and to show what the pygmies
of antiquity really were. He finds that the
ancients had information " more or less in-
exact, more or less incomplete, but also more
or less true," concerning five populations of
little stature from whom they made their
pygmies. Two were located in Asia ; a third
to the south, toward the sources of the Nile ;
LITERARY NOTICES.
!3l
a fourth to the east, not far from these ; and
the fifth in Africa, to the southwest. Two
of these groups, more or less modified by
crossing, are still located in Asia. The Afri-
can groups are farther away than the tradi-
tions represent, but nearly in the same direc-
tion. All of them are fragments of two
human races well characterized as blacks,
occupying considerable areas in Africa and
in Asia respectively, and both including
tribes, distinct peoples, and subraces. The
name of Negritos is suggested for the dwarf
black populations of Asia, Malaysia, and Me-
lanesia, as distinguished from the larger ne-
groes, or Papuans, and Negrillos for the
dwarf African tribes, taken collectively.
These definitions and distinctions having
been made clear, the author proceeds to de-
tail the general history of the eastern pyg-
mies, of whom the Mincopies of the Anda-
man Islands appear a conspicuous type, their
physical and special characteristics, and of
other negroes than the Mincopies ; and next
of the Negrillos, or pygmies of Africa ; clos-
ing with a discussion of the religion of the
Hottentots and Bushmen. The conclusion is
drawn from the study of the Negritos, which
have been regarded as very low in the scale
of humanity, and by some as related to the
" missing link," that " this is not so ; and
that where they have lived most outside of
movement and mixture — which alone elevate
societies — the Negritos show themselves true
men in all things and for all things."
Economic Geology of the United States.
By Ralph S. Tarr, B. S., F. G. S. A.
New York : Macmillan & Co. Pp. 509.
Price, $4.
In the presentation of this text-book on
economic geology the author has extended
his primary plan from the issuance of printed
notes to accompany a series of lectures de-
livered before the Economic Geological Class
at Cornell University. Hence, a far wider
field is destined for a work which will neces-
sarily take the place of books that treat too
exclusively of those branches of the subject
having little or least importance for more
thorough students.
Throughout the volume the reader's at-
tention is directed to the mineral products
of the United States, while only those of
special importance from foreign localities
are dealt with. Apart from the ample re-
ports of State and national geologic surveys,
the author has consulted and employs with
effect special articles and data selected from
leading scientific journals of the day. Also
Ore Deposits, by Phillips, the Reports of the
Director of the Mint, Day's Mineral Resources
of the United States, the Census Reports,
Mineral Industries, etc. Tables and illustra-
tions add to the usefulness of the work.
Arout Mushrooms. The Study of Escu-
lent and Poisonous Fungi. By Julius
A. Palmer, Jr. Boston : Lee & Shep-
ard. Pp. 100. Price, $2.
This is a pleasant little book, that will
interest both the amateur and the trained
naturalist. The classification, or key to the
principal forms of large and fleshy fungi, is
original with the author, and promises to
facilitate the work of those commencing the
study of the subject.
Systematic Survey of the Organic Color-
ing Matters. By Drs. G. Schultz and
P. Julius. Translated and edited by
Arthur G. Green, F. I. C, F. C. S. New
York : Macmillan & Co. Pp. 205. Price,
$5.
A thorough knowledge of the chemis-
try and technology of coal-tar products has
within recent years become a necessity with
those engaged in the color industry.
The work before us is a technical one,
and appears to be thoroughly well suited to
the needs of the analyst, the dyer, patent
agent, merchant, or others concerned with
coal-tar colors.
The editor and translator has carried out
the fundamental idea of the authors, and has
given us, in as precise a form as possible, all
the essential details, including items of the
most recent knowledge. There have also been
added full tables for the analysis and identi-
fication of the various coloring materials.
The Report on the Mound Explorations
of the Bureau of Ethnology, an extract from
the twelfth annual report of the bureau, by
Cyrus Thomas, is based almost exclusively
upon the results of explorations carried on
by the bureau since 1881. A thorough in-
vestigation of all the mounds could not be
made with the means at the disposal of the
bureau ; a superficial examination was not to
132
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY
be thought of. The problem was solved by
making thorough examinations of single
mounds and single groups, selecting such as
were most typical, over the whole area ; so
that, by a careful examination of these typical
structures in the various districts, the end, it
was thought, might be secured of collecting
the data necessary to an understanding of
the more general and more important prob-
lems relating to the mounds and tbe mound-
builders. The exhaustive examination of
many single groups and the study of local
problems are left to the future. Accurate
and full descriptions and measurements are
given of all the mounds and groups exam-
ined. The collections made include pottery
of most of the known varieties, and some
that are new, showing most of the known
types of textile impressions and some that
are unusual ; polished and pecked celts from
mounds ; stone pipes, which so supplement
others that the whole evolution of forms may
be traced from the earliest known ; copper
articles, including two new types, " decidedly
the most important yet discovered " ; en-
graved shells ; specimens of textile fabrics
and mattings ; and chipped flint implements,
stone axes, discoidal stones, gorgets, etc.
(Published at the Government Printing Office,
Washington.)
In the preparation of his Elements of Me-
chanical Drawing the author, Gardner C.
Anthony, has aimed, as in the other num-
bers of his Technical Drawing Series, to pro-
vide a text-book rather than a copybook, a
treatise in which principles should be estab-
lished and methods suggested, but freedom
permitted in their application. It is intended
that the student should first thoroughly mas-
ter the principles, and then, unaided, apply
them to the solution of the problems, receiv-
ing such instruction as his special case may
demand. The system has been successfully
applied by the author and others in teaching
various classes. The present work concerns
geometrical problems, conic sections, projec-
tion, the development of surfaces, the inter-
section of surfaces, screw threads and bolt
heads, bolts, and isometric and oblique pro-
jection. (Published by D. C. Heath & Co.,
Boston. Price, $1.50.)
In Tlie Natural History of Hell, a discus-
sion of some of the relations of the Christian
plan of salvation to modern science, including
a chapter on miracles and a scientific exami-
nation of the theory of endless punishment,
John Phillipson undertakes a scientific dem-
onstration of the natural necessity of endless
punishment for wrongdoing, inevitable unless
arrested by some agency outside of Nature.
The argument is based upon the conception
of the never-ending endurance and transmis-
sion of the picture and the consequences of
every action. Under this view there is a
necessity for some plan of salvation outside
of natural law. Here science stops. (Pub-
lished by the Industrial Publication Compa-
ny, New York. Price, 25 cents.)
Expositions of Buddhism have come to
us in two works. Of The Gospel of Bnd-
dha, according to the old records, by Dr.
Paul Cams (Open Court Publishing Com-
pany, Chicago), the bulk of the contents is
derived from the old Buddhist canon. Many
passages, including the most important ones,
are literally copied from translations of the
original texts, rendered rather freely in some
cases to make them intelligible to the pres-
ent generation ; others have been rearranged ;
and still others are abbreviated. The few
original additions embody ideas for which
prototypes may be found somewhere among
the traditions of Buddhism, and are giv.en as
elucidations of the main principles of the
doctrine. For those who want to trace the
Buddhism of the book to its foundation a
table of references is appended, directing to
the sources of the various chapters and point-
ing out parallelisms with western thought.
A Buddhist Catechism (G. P. Putnam's
Sons) is an introduction to the teachings of
the Buddha Gotamo, compiled from the holy
writings of the southern Buddhists, with ex-
planatory notes for the use of Europeans, by
Subhadra Bhikshu. It is a concise repre-
sentation of Buddhism, according to the Cey-
lonese Pali manuscripts of the Tipitakam,
which are regarded as the oldest and most
authentic sources. It contains the funda-
mental outlines of the doctrine, with the
omission of the legendary, mystic, and occult
accessories with which Buddha's teachings
have been adorned or encumbered in the
course of centuries.
The third part of the Elementary Treatise
on Theoretical Mechanics of Alexander Ziwet
(Macmillan & Co., $2.25) is on kinetics.
About half of the volume is devoted to the
LITERARY NOTICES.
•33
kinetics of a particle, and the remainder is
given to the study of the kinetics of a rigid
body and a brief discussion of the funda-
mental principles of the kinetics of a system.
In the discussion of the motion of a particle
(impact, rectilinear motion) such fundamental
ideas as momentum, impulse, kinetic energy,
force, work, potential energy, and power are
gradually introduced and illustrated in an
elementary way. Then the general equations
of motion of a particle are discussed ; and
the principle of kinetic energy, that of angu-
lar momentum, and the principle of d'Alem-
bert are explained and applied — first, to the
motion of a free particle, then to constrained
motion. In treating of the motion of a rigid
body, after the discussion of the fundamental
principles and of the theory of moments and
ellipsoids of inertia, the action of impulses
and the motion under continuous forces are
taken up separately. The last chapter, on
the motion of a system, is brief, but includes
the theory of Lagrange's generalized co-or-
dinates and of Hamilton's principle.
A suggestive and useful little book pre-
pared by William C. Connell, and published
by G. P. Putnam's Sons, is The Currency
and the Banking Laws of the Dominion oj
Canada, considered with Reference to Cur-
rency Reform in the United States. It con-
tains the substance of an address delivered
at the American Bankers' Convention held
at New Orleans in 1891, in which financial
straits that have since occurred were pre-
dicted ; followed by the Banking Act of
Canada, given entire. This act is presented
as completely filling all the requirements of
the community in which it exists and flour-
ishes, and worthy of consideration in recon-
structing our own financial system.
The Dynamics of Life (Blakiston & Son,
Philadelphia) presents the substance of an
address delivered before the Medical Society
of Manchester, England, in October, 1894,
by W. R. Gowers, M. D. In it are explained,
without the author assuming any claims for
novelty in conception, the operations of La-
tent Chemical Energy, the Dynamics of Mus-
cle, the Dynamics of Nerve, and the Dynam-
ics of Disease. Summing up the results of
his inquiry, the author observes that, search
as earnestly and thoroughly as we may, that
which we call life eludes our search and
resists our efforts. " We may, indeed, trace
the relations to vitality of matter and of the
energy it bears — their entrance into the do-
main of life, their exit, their effects." But
we see them only as shadows in the mist.
In the Fifth Annual Report of the Mis-
souri Botanical Garden, for 1893, mention
is made of the destructive effects of drought
and extreme alternations of winter tempera-
ture on the lawns and the evergreens. The
Norway spruce has particularly suffered, and
it will be only a few years before all the
older trees will have disappeared. The old
red cedars and the arbor vitEes are also suc-
cumbing, and are being gradually removed.
A similar experience is recorded at the Har-
vard Botanic Garden. The year's additions
to the herbarium number 19,417 sheets. In
addition to the " Shaw Premiums " already
awarded annually, a gold medal has been in-
stituted for the introduction of a plant of
decided merit for cultivation not previously
an article of North American commerce.
The Garden and the School of Botany, en-
dowed by Mr. Shaw in Washington Uni-
versity, are working harmoniously together.
The volume, including the report, containg
the usual anniversary publications and sci-
entific papers on the Venation of Salix, by
Dr. N. M. Glatf elter ; the Tannoids, by J. C.
Beny ; the Sugar Maples, by Dr. Trelease ;
Gayophytum and Boisduvalla, by Dr. Tre-
lease ; Pomological Notes for 1892 and 1893,
by J. C. Whitten ; The Emergence of Pro-
nuba from Yucca Capsules, by J. C. Whit-
ten ; Plants collected in Southeastern Mis-
souri, by B. F. Bush ; Notes and Observa-
tions, by Dr. Trelease ; and more than forty
plates.
The first of the two volumes of Lord
RayleigKs work on The Theory of Sound,
first issued in 1877, has come to a second
edition (Macmillan, $4). The work is a
mathematical presentation of the subject,
aiming to include the more important of the
advances made in modern times by mathe-
maticians and physicists. The present vol-
ume includes chapters on the vibrations of
systems in general, followed by a more de-
tailed consideration of special systems, such
as stretched strings, bars, membranes, and
plates. In the second edition are two new
chapters, dealing respectively with curved
plates or shells and with electrical vibrations.
Minor changes and new sections are inserted
>34
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
here and there. The author remarks that
the mathematician will complain of deficient
rigor in his method of treatment, but he
feels that from the point of view of the
physicist some slight relaxation is justifiable.
A text-book on Steam and the Marine
Steam Enginehas been prepared by John Yeo,
R. N., from notes of the lectures given by
him as an instructor in steam engineering at
the English Royal Naval College (Macmil-
lan, $2.50). The scope of the book includes
descriptions of the marine boilers and en-
gines in common use, with their fittings, a
statement of the properties of steam, and
instruction concerning feed-water, the com-
bustion of fuel, etc. Other matters treated
are the construction of double and triple ex-
pansion engines and the form of propeller
screws. The author's language is notably
clear and concise, and the volume is fully
illustrated.
Under the title The Genesis of Water a
speculation as to how the first combination
of oxygen and hydrogen took place is pre-
sented by P. W. Dooner. The pamphlet is
printed at Los Angeles.
In the Report of 'the State Board of Health
of South Dakota for 1892 we find, besides
the usual accounts of the transactions of the
board and the conditions of public health,
articles for public information on Dangerous
Contagious Diseases and Diphtheria, and more
general articles on climate and the climatic
cure for consumptives. The climate of South
Dakota is presented as of special value, from
the medical point of view, on account of the
peculiar dryness of the atmosphere. " That
it is as good as any during the summer is not
to be doubted, and that in winter it is far
better than the great majority is a fact."
Cases of "taking cold" and of pneumonia
are much rarer in proportion to the popula-
tion than in the States farther east ; and
with the clearness of the atmosphere of the
country and its lack of clouds and cloudy
weather the sunlight acts as an efficient
tonic and destroyer of impurities. The claim
is maintained that the climate fulfills to an
excellent degree the conditions of one favor-
able to consumptives.
A new educational journal, devoted to
" manu-mental " training, has appeared under
the title Art Education (J. C. Witter & Co.,
853 Broadway, New York ; 75 cents a year).
It is to be issued bimonthly for the present.
Its field is the training of the mind through
the use of the hand, and hence comprises
drawing, manual training (so called), and
writing. In the first number are articles by
Francis W. Parker, on Acquiring Forms of
Thought Expression; Stella Skinner, on
Color Study ; Henry T. Bailey, on the Super-
visor of Drawing; besides quite a number
of biographical notices, with portraits of in-
structors in drawing, manual training, etc.
There is a colored supplement, which it is
small praise to say is worth the price of the
number. It consists of two lithographic fig-
ures printed in several shades of brown, and
" illustrates the fact that artistic effect does
not depend so much upon an elaborate design
as upon correct combination of color." The
editors are James C. Witter, Charles P.
Zaner, and Rose N. Yawger.
A Stable Money Standard is the title of
the address by Henry Farquhar, Sectional
Vice President, before the Section of Econom-
ic Science and Statistics, of the recent Brook-
lyn meeting of the American Association.
The author concludes that while gold has
been proved by the experience of the ages
to be the best-fitted medium to meet the re-
quirements of such a standard, all interfer-
ence by Government in defining legal tender
is needless and mischievous. Perfect free-
dom in contracts for methods of payment
and for the kind of money should be allowed,
the terms of the contract to be interpreted
and enforced according to prevalent usage ;
the Government's part being only to certify
to the weight and fineness of its coin.
The Twelfth Annual Report of the Board
of Control of the New York Agricultural
Experiment Station includes the report of
the treasurer, showing the receipts and ex-
penditures on the several accounts, and the
reports of the director describing the addi-
tions and improvements that have been made
to the station and its appurtenances and the
work done. Fifteen bulletins were published,
containing six hundred and ninety-five pages
in all, of each of which fifteen thousand
copies were distributed ; besides circulars on
the Leaf Spot of Chrysanthemums, Preserv-
ing Eggs, and the Fertilizer Law of the
State. The new experiments undertaken in-
clude investigations with a view to determine
the relative value of the different breeds of
LITERARY NOTICES.
»35
dairy cattle in the production of milk, but-
ter, and cheese, and of the differences in
composition and quality of the milk pro-
duced ; experiments with poultry and in
feeding swine ; chemical experiments, mostly
bearing on the manufacture and qualities
of cheese ; and experiments with vegetables,
various fruits, diseases of fruits and fruit
trees, celery diseases, and potato scab.
PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.
Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia.
Proceedings. Serial.
Adams, Henry C. Relation of the State to In-
dustrial Action. Baltimore, Md. : American Eco-
nomic Association. Pp. 94. 75 cents.
Agricultural Experiment Stations— Reports
and Bulletins. Cornell University.— A Plum Scale
in Western New York. By M. V. Slingerland.
Pp. 34.— Black Rot of Plums and Cherries, etc.
Spray Calendar. By E. G. Lodeman. Pp. 16.—
Nebraska : Some Obstacles to Successful Fruit
Growing. By F. W. Card. Pp. 12.— Water Sup-
ply in Nebraska. By O. V. P. Stout. Pp. 24.—
New York : Dairy Cattle, etc. Pp. 24.— Black-
berries, Dewberries, and Raspberries. Pp. 16. —
Insects Injurious to Squash, Melon, and Cucum-
ber Vines. The Asparagus Beetle. Pp. 20.— Al-
falfa Forage for Milch Cows. Pp. 52
Al!en, Harrison, M.D., Philadelphia. Cretin-
ism and the Nasal Chambers. Pp. 5.— Morphol-
ogy as a Factor in the Study of Disease. Pp. 27.
American Philosophical Society. Proceedings,
One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary, May,
1893. Pp. 643. July to December, 1894. Pp.
116, with List of Surviving Members.
Angot, Alfred. Les Aurores Polaires (Polar
Auroras). Paris : Felix Alcan. Pp. 318. 6
francs.
Bell, Alexander Melville. Address to the Na-
tional Association of Elocutionists. Washington,
D. C. : The Volta Bureau. Pp. 25.
Ceramic Monthly. Vol. I, No. 1, February,
1895. Chicago. Pp. 15. 20 cents ; $2 a year.
Chambers, G. F. The Story of the Stars.
New York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 160. 30
cents.
Cleveland Public Schools. Forty-eighth An-
nual Report of the Board of Education, 1894.
Cleveland, Ohio. Pp. 179.
Colgate University. Annual Catalogue, 1894-
'95. Pp. 117.— Hamilton Theological Seminary
Catalogue. Pp. 55.
Conn, H. W. The Outbreak of Typhoid Fever
at Wesleyan University. Pp. 24.
Dana, James D. Manual of Geology, Treat-
ing of the Principles of the Science, with Special
Reference to American Geological History. Amer-
ican Book Company. Pp. 1087.
Dorsey, G. A.. Harvard University. The Char-
acter and Antiquity of Peruvian Civilization. Pp.
10.— A Ceremony of the Quichuas of Peru. Pp. 3.
Fewkes, J. Walter. The Tusayan New Fire
Ceremony. Boston. Pp. 40.
Forbes, S. A., State Entomologist, Illinois.
Report on Noxious and Beneficial Insects for
1891 and 1892. Springfield, 111. Pp. 189, with 15
Plates.
Fuller, Horace W., Editor. The Green Bag, an
Entertaining Magazine for Lawyers. Monthly.
Boston Book Company. Pp. 54. 50 cents ; $4 a
year.
Funk, Isaac K., Editor in Chief. The Funk
and Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of the Eng-
lish Language, Vol. DI. New York : Funk &
Wagnalls Company. Price of the whole work,
full ruesia, $17.
Gill, Theodore. The Nomenclature of the My-
liobatidaj or ^Etobatidae. Pp. 4.
Glazebrook, R. T. Mechanics : An Elemen-
tary Text-Book. Theoretical and Practical Dy-
namics. New York : Macmillan & Co. Pp. 256
$1.75.
Grilling, Harold. On Sensations from Pressure
and Impact (Psychological Review, Monograph
Supplement). New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp.
88. 75 cents.
Harris, W. T. How to teach Natural Science
in Public Schools. Syracuse, N. Y.: C. W. Bar-
deen. Pp. 46. 50 cents.
Interstate Commerce Commission. Preliminary
Report of the Income Account of Railways to June
30, 1894. Pp. 59.
Kanthack, A. A., and Drysdale, J. H. A
Course of Elementary and Practical Bacteriology.
New York : Macmillan & Co. Pp. 181. $1.10.
Keyes, Charles H., State Geologist, Missouri.
Biennial Report. Jefferson City. Pp. 60.
Kitson, Arthur. A Scientific Solution of the
Money Question. Boston : The Arena (Arena Li-
brary Series). Pp. 418. 50 cents.
Knobel, E.. Endicott, Mass. A Guide to find
the Names of all Wild-growing Trees and Shrubs
of New England by their Leaves. 15 Plates, with
Text.— Ferns and Evergreens of New England. A
Simple Guide for their Determination. 11 Plates,
with Text. Boston : Bradlee Whidden. 50 cents
each.
Knowles, Edward Randall. The Supremacy
of the Spiritual. Boston : Arena Publishing Co.
Pp. 61. 75 cents.
Marsh, O. C. National Academy of Sciences
on Electrical Measurement. Pp. 2.
Martin, F. W. Blowpipe Analysis. Lynch-
burg, Va.: J. P. Bell Co. Pp. 4.
Massachusetts Agricultural College. Thirty-
second Annual Report, January, 1895. Boston.
Pp. 152.
Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agricul-
ture. Infectiousness of Milk. Boston: Published
by the Society. Pp. 141, with 17 Plates.
Matter, Force, and Spirit ; or, Scientific Evi-
dence of a Supreme Intelligence. New York : G.
P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 144.
Minnesota Geological and Natural History
Survey. Twenty-third Annual Report. ByN. H.
Wincbell, State Geologist, Minneapolis. Pp. 254.
Minnesota Botanical Studies. Conway Mac-
Millan, State Botanist. Bulletin No. 9, Part V,
containing four papers. Pp. 72, with 10 Plates.
Minnesota Magazine, The. Vol. I, No. 1,
March, 1895. University of Minnesota, Senior
Class, Minneapolis. Pp. 40.
National Academy of Sciences. Report on
Units of Electric Measure. Pp. 7.
Nernst, Prof. Walter. Theoretical Chemistry
from the Standpoint of Avogadro's Rule and
Thermodynamics. Translated by C. S. Palmer.
New York : Macmillan & Co. Pp. 697. $5.
Old South Leaflets. Edwin D. Mead, Editor.
Nos. 48 to 55. 16 pp. each. Boston : Old South
Work. 5 cents each. Also an Account of the Old
South Work, by E. D. Mead. Pp. 15.
Philadelphia Northeast Manual Training
School, fifth year, 1894--95. Pp. 58.
Pickering, W. H. Investigations in Astro-
nomical Photography. Cambridge, Mass. : As-
tronomical Observatory of Harvard College. Pp.
115, with 7 Plates.
Plummer, Fred G. The Last Change of the
Earth's Axis. Tacoma, Wash.: Nevada Branch
Theosophical Society, publishers. Pp.50. 25 cents.
Powell, John W. Physiographic Processes.
American Book Co. Pp. 32. 20 cents.
i36
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
Prosper. Charles S. The Devonian System of
Eastern Pennsylvania and New York." United
States Geological Survey. Pp. 81.
Rockhill, William Woodville. Diary of a
Journey through Mongolia and Tibet. Smith-
sonian Institution. Pp. 413.
Root, L. Carroll. New York Bank Currency,
Safety Fund vs. Bond Security. New York : Sound
Currency Committee. Pp. 24.
Shearman, Thomas G. Taxation of Personal
Property Impracticable, Unequal, and Unjust.
New York : Sterling Publishing Company. Pp.
63. 30 cents.
Smith, J. Warren. Observations of the New
England Weather Service in the Year 1893. Cam-
bridge, Mass. : Harvard College Observatory.
Pp.30.
Starr, Frederick. Notes on Mexican Archae-
ology. Pp. 16, with Plates. Comparative Re-
ligion Notes. Pp. 6. University of Chicago Press.
Steiner, Bernard C. History of Education in
Maryland. Washington : United States Bureau
of Education. Pp. 331, with Plates
Tracv, Frederick. The Psychology of Child-
hood. Boston : D. C. Heath & Co. Pp. 170. 90
cents.
Trumbull, M. M. The Free-Trade Struggle in
New England. Chicago : Open Court Publishing
Company. Pp. 288. 25 cents.
Turkey, a few Facts about, under the Sultan
Abdul Hamid II. By an American Observer.
New York : J. J. Little & Co. Pp. 67.
Ufer, Chr. Introduction to the Pedagogy of
Herbart. Translated, etc., by J. G. Zeiser. Bos-
ton : D. C. Heath & Co. Pp. 123. 90 cents.
Walker, Louisa. Varied Occupations in Weav-
ing. New York : Macmillan & Co. Pp.224. $1.
West Virginia. Biennial Report of the State
Superintendent of Free Schools (Virgil A. Lewis),
Charleston. Pp. 320.
Wyoming, University of. The Heating Power
of Wyoming Coal and Oil, with a Description of
the Bomb Calorimeter. By Edwin E. Slosson and
L. C. Colburn. Laramie. Pp. 32.
Webber, H. J. Treatment for Sooty Mold of
the Orange. United States Department of Agri-
culture. Pp. 4.
POPULAR MISCELLANY.
Doggish Sympathy. — A correspondent
of the London Spectator writes that he
owned a large dog Rose, and a smaller and
less beautiful dog Fan, of different breeds,
but both passionately attached to a member
of the household who was commonly called
their best friend. A shawl of this friend's
was especially sacred to Fan, and jealously
watched, especially as against Rose ; and
when the best friend was in bed Fan would
lie in her arms, opposing with growls the ap-
proach of all intruders. One day Rose in
jumping over a gate spiked herself badly
and was committed to surgical treatment for
ten days. " On her return she was cordially
welcomed by Fan and myself ; but when she
rushed upstairs to the room of her best friend
(then confined to her bed), my mind fore-
boded mischief. We followed, and I opened
the door. With one bound Rose rushed into
her best friend's arms, taking Fan's very
own place, and was lost in a rapture of lick-
ing and being caressed. Fan flew after her,
but, to my amazement, instead of the fury
I expected, it was to join in heart and tongue
with the licking and caressing. She licked
Rose as if she had been a long-lost puppy
instead of an intruder ; and then, of her own
accord, turned away, leaving Rose in posses-
sion, and took up a distant place on the foot
of the bed, appealing to me with almost a
human expression of mingled feelings — the
heroic self-abnegation of newborn sympathy
struggling with natural jealousy. The bet-
ter feelings triumphed (not, of course, un-
supported by human recognition and ap-
plause) till both dogs fell asleep in their
strangely reversed positions. After this, there
was a slight temporary failure in Fan's per-
haps overstrained self-conquest ; but on the
next day but one she actually, for the first
(and last) time in her life, made Rose wel-
come to a place beside her on the sacred
shawl, where again they slept side by side
like sisters. This, how-ever, was the last
gleam of the special sympathy called forth
by Rose's troubles. From that day Fan de-
cidedly and finally resumed her jealous occu-
pation and guardianship of all sacred places
and things, and maintained it energetically
to her life's end."
Protoplasm for Hot Stars. — A new sub-
ject for speculation has been suggested by
Sir Robert Ball's observation that life on the
heavenly bodies materially hotter or colder
than the earth, or differing in other important
respects, is exceedingly improbable if not
impossible for beings of the forms and com-
position which we associate with life. But
is protoplasm composed of carbon, hydrogen,
oxygen, nitrogen, and a little sulphur the
only physical basis on which life can ex-
ist ? May there not be protoplasms of other
compositions adapted to hot stars or to cold
stars, upon which life as vigorous as that
upon the earth may exist on such bodies ?
Prof. Emerson remarked two or three years
ago that silicon, when the earth was in an
intensely hot stage, played much the same
part that carbon does now ; and that under
the conditions then prevailing the silicon com-
pounds, now immobile, may have been active.
P OP ULAR MIS CELL ANY.
137
In those days, when the temperatures were
above the point of decomposition of many of
the carbon-nitrogen compounds, a silicon-
aluminum series may have presented cycles
of complicated syntheses, decompositions,
and oxidations essentially parallel to those
that underlie our own vital phenomena. The
case is at least fascinatingly plausible. If we
are to admit the possibility that the chemical
accompaniments of life were rehearsed long
ago and at far higher temperatures by ele-
ments now inert, it is not such a very long
step from this, an English essayist suggests,
to the supposition that vital, subconscious,
and conscious developments may have ac-
companied such a rehearsal. One is startled
toward fantastic imaginings by such a sug-
gestion : Why not silicon-aluminum men at
once — wandering through an atmosphere
of gaseous sulphur, let us say, by the shores
of a sea of liquid iron some thousand degrees
or so above the temperature of a blast fur-
nace? But that, of course, is merely a
dream. Who will discover a silicon-alumi-
num fossil ?
A Study of Maya Hieroglyphics. — Amer-
ican students have not made as much prog-
ress in Central American archaeology as those
of Europe ; and it is only recently that the
Peabody Museum of Harvard University has
undertaken to carry on extensive and ex-
haustive researches in what Mi\ Marshall H.
Saville styles the most prolific source of
hieroglyphic inscriptions of which we have
knowledge. The ancient inhabitants of
Copan, Honduras, Mr. Saville says, in his
his paper read before the American Associ-
ation, appear to have been more literary in
character than even those of Palenque.
There have been found there twenty-four
stelae, all of which have inscriptions, besides
altars, slabs, and hieroglyphic steps in large
numbers. Pottery vessels and potsherds
have been found bearing glyphs, either
painted or engraved. These potsherds have
been found in such quantities as to show
that thousands of their vessels had hiero-
glyphic inscriptions. The inscriptions are
intimately connected with the symbolism al-
most invariably found with them, and an
understanding of the symbolic marks and
ornaments will largely aid in deciphering the
glyphs. One glyph is found so often repeat-
ed on the potsherds as to become significant,
and this is the special subject of the author's
present study. It is at the head of most of
the graven inscriptions of Copan, Palenque,
Quirigua, Jikul, and Menche, and of the
three tablets of Palenque, and is named by
the author the Pax glyph. The heading in-
dicated by this glyph is found on analysis to
represent the month Pax, surmounted either
by a serpent's head, a mask, or a human
face, associated with a vegetal form, or rare-
ly a fish, above the whole of which is a
scroll. Having in view the ideas and the
nature of the festivals associated with this
month, the author concludes that the inscrip-
tions beginning with this heading relate to
ceremonies taking place at that time to the
god Kukulcan. The occurrence of the Pax
glyph in the text, with the hand sowing seed,
and again with a flower with seeds, also bears
out this conclusion, and it may be inferred
that the inscriptions, so far as these single
glyphs are concerned, relate to the cere-
monies of planting.
Chinese Ideas of War. — M. Leon de Remy
has made a curious communication respect-
ing the ideas of the Chinese concerning war.
Although it has often been necessary for the
Chinese to engage in war, the military art
has never been in good repute among them.
In their view, every war is a misfortune, if
not a sin. They avoid talking to their chil-
dren of laurels, crowns, and triumphs won in
war, but teach in their schools that the most
glorious battles are at bottom simply homi-
cides, abominable disasters to both parties.
An emperor who decides to sacrifice numer-
ous existences on a field of slaughter is re-
puted an unwise and unjust prince. A gen-
eral who has won a battle ought to wear
mourning for the quantity of blood his suc-
cess has cost. These doctrines are not gross
or immoral, but in the existing conditions of
society generous thoughts are not without
some inconveniences ; and it is easy to un-
derstand how, with such ideas concerning
war, the Middle Kingdom has been con-
quered sometimes by peoples of no great
importance and not very well armed. Nev-
ertheless, it is a curious ethnographical fact
that whenever the Chinese people have been
conquered they have absorbed their conquer-
ors to their almost entire disappearance.
i38
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
The successors of the Manchu conquerors
are now reigning in China, and it can hardly
be said that any Manchus exist in Asia.
Those who serve are treated at the court
like slaves, while the powers are very care-
ful not to show any lack of respect to the
Chinese. The Manchu language, in spite of
efforts to give it some literary and political
importance, has been thrown into the back-
ground, and is hardly more than one of the
rude jargons of central Asia.
The Baskets of Lichtenfels. — One of the
largest basket markets in the world is situ-
ated in the little town of Lichtenfels, in the
mountains of upper Franconia, Bavaria. The
industry was introduced there toward the
close of the last century by a citizen who,
desiring to take advantage of the fine growth
of willow trees in the neighboring valley of
the chain, began weaving baskets on a small
scale corresponding with his means. The
business gradually developed in extent and
in variety and artistic character of the de-
signs ; the products were sent to the larger
markets, and even France was almost exclu-
sively supplied from Lichtenfels till the war
of 1870, and is still supplied thence to a con-
siderable extent. The gradually increasing
demands soon made it necessary to procure
foreign raw material. The finer varieties of
willow reeds had to be imported from Hun-
gary and France and from countries beyond
the sea. Straw for the finer woven articles
was ordered from Spain and Italy, and the
palm leaves used for ornamenting the better
class of wares from the tropics. In this
manner the evolution of the house industry,
as it is called, of Lichtenfels proceeded, and
has resulted in the employment at this time
of about sixteen thousand men, women, and
children, who produce every variety of bas-
ket from the simplest to the most elegant.
Factories, as usually spoken of, are few. The
manufacturer delivers the raw material to
the people who are to make the baskets at
their own home — that is, he weighs out for
them the willow reeds, colored straw, palm
leaves, etc., and gives them the designs ac-
cording to which they are to be made, and at
a stated time the workers — who mostly live
in neighboring villages — bring their work to
the manufacturer and receive their pay. The
industry is encouraged through the schools
of design that have been established and are
supported by the state, in which the young
people of the neighborhood are educated in
all branches of it.
Fjords, Fjords, and Fohrden. — Fjords
according to a memoir by Herr P. Dinse, of
Berlin, are long, narrow bays or sea inlets,
penetrating an elevated or mountainous coast ;
their sides slope steeply both above and be-
low water, giving a troughlike cross-section,
while the longitudinal section shows an ir-
regular relief of gentle ridges and shallow
troughs. In all true fjords the depth inside
is greater than that of the stretch of sea
immediately beyond the mouth. There are
several varieties of this type. Thus, two
fjords entering the coast at an angle may
meet/forming a sound separating an island.
Again, the bar of the mouth may be slightly
elevated so as to become dry land, and a
fjord lake or loch results. Minor subdivi-
sions include the f jard and scharen types by
the Gulf of Bothnia, differing only in the
relative frequency of islands and continuous
coast and the fohrden type of the low coasts
of Denmark. These are entirely different
from the inlets of the ria type, which occur
on the coasts of Spain, northwestern Ireland,
and elsewhere. A ria is a more or less
wedge-shaped inlet, gradually widening and
uniformly deepening from its head to the sea,
showing no trace of an included basin. It
is noted, however, that prolonged sedimenta-
tion might ultimately convert a fjord into
a ria. The distribution of fjords as dis-
tinguished from rias is subject to the gen-
eral statement that there are no fjords except
on the coasts of lands which show signs of
recent glacial action. The coasts where they
occur are those of Scandinavia, the west
of Scotland, northwest of Ireland, Iceland,
Greenland, Labrador, and the coast of Maine,
the west coast of North America from Alaska
to Vancouver Island, the west coast of South
America from Chiloe to Cape Horn, Ker-
guelen, the antarctic lands, and the southern
part of the west coast of the South Island in
New Zealand.
Cave Exploration. — Spelaeology is the
name given by M. E. A. Martel to the study
of caves — a study which he regards as of
much greater significance than has hitherto
POPULAR MISCELLANY.
!39
been attached to it. He believes that it may
be made to throw light on all the branches
of science that deal with the structure of the
\ earth — on geography, geology, paleontology,
mineralogy, zoology, anthropology, the phys-
ics of the globe, agriculture, public works,
and hygiene. In his explorations of caves M.
Martel has devoted much attention to those
openings which form a peculiar feature in
the limestone regions of France and eastern
Europe, called goiiffres or pits, which have
been regarded hitherto chiefly as curiosities
or feeders of superstitious fears, but are al-
most virgin to scientific exploration. During
six years, from 1888 to 1893, he explored
two hundred and thirty of these goiiffres and
other cavities, one hundred and sixty-five of
which had never been examined before, and
made a large number of plans. In this work
he had special regard to the hydrology, the
origin, location, etc., of subterranean waters,
with a view to utilize the lessons of his ob-
servations in agriculture, but did not neglect
to examine carefully all the other bearings,
not letting the most minute features pass un-
observed. The results of his investigations
have been published in a book, Les Abimes.
Forests and Climate. — Considering the
Relation of Forests to Climate and Health,
Cleveland Abbe finds that while the forest
does not cause increase of rainfall, its tend-
ency is to conserve it. The forest shields
the moisture from evaporation and uses less
of it for its own growth than would be used
0 for the growth of grasses or herbs, and it
also conserves what is left in the soil so as
to diminish, or at least regulate, the drain-
age into the river basins, thereby reducing
the danger of destructive floods. The in-
fluence of forests extends outside of their
boundaries under varying conditions. The
effect of forest-covered mountains is to di-
minish the cold night winds and the hot day
breezes in the valleys below, and to favor
the formation of local cloud and rain in them.
As the air that flows down the mountain
side during the night from a forest has a
higher dew point and a lower temperature
than that which flows down from an unfor-
ested surface, therefore a less amount of
cooling will cause it to form fog ; hence the
crops in the valley are more likely to be
sheltered by the fog from dangerous frosts.
The most interesting influence of the forest
on the leeward side is that which it exerts
by virtue of its action as a wind-break. A
diminished wind means that the sluggish
moving air shall be warmed up in the day-
time by contact with the ground much more
than would be the swift-moving air when the
wind-break is absent. This reacts upon the
ground, so that as a consequence both soil
and air are warmer. The evaporation from
the surface of the soil is also greatly dimin-
ished, in consequence of which the soil re-
tains more moisture, and is warmer than it
would be under the influence of a stronsr
wind. At the same time, the air above the
soil acquires a higher percentage of relative
humidity. Thus the plant has more water
at its disposal stored in the earth, while the
leaves, apparently, are in less need of water,
and transpire less.
Biological Laboratory at Cold Spring. —
The Biological Laboratory of the Brooklyn
Institute at Cold Spring Harbor, L. I., aims
first at instruction. Each year a course
has been given there in elementary system-
atic zoology, adapted both to teachers whose
knowledge of elementary zoology is not
great, and to students of higher institutes
who seek a practical study of marine forms.
A botanical department was organized in
1893. More advanced courses have been es-
tablished, and lessons were given last sum-
mer on comparative embryology. A course
in bacteriology is given by the director.
Original investigation is provided for in pri-
vate rooms • for research, and most of the
Board of Instruction and others who have
been present from time to time have been
engaged in personal work in that line. In
addition to the regular work of the school,
evening semi-popular lectures are given to
the students and to attendants from the
neighborhood. During the last year a de-
partment was started for supplying speci-
mens of the common types of marine life to
colleges and schools.
Lord Rayleigh on Waves. — In a lecture
at the Royal Institution, on waves of water,
Lord Rayleigh said that in such waves the
velocity is not independent of the wave length
(or distance from crest to crest) as it is in
the case of sound waves, but the long waves
140
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY
travel more speedily than the short ones.
Waves at sea are mostly generated by wind,
though other causes, such as earthquakes,
occasionally operate. By blowing the sur-
face of a long trough with a fan, the lecturer
showed that the waves produced close to the
source of the wind are shorter than those set
up farther away. Oil has no effect upon big
rollers, but the broken water on which it acts
is just what is dangerous to boats in a tem-
pest. A storm in mid-ocean generates waves
of all lengths, but a kind of regularity is
reached at a distance, where the long waves
arrive first. The height of waves at sea has
often been exaggerated, owing to the diffi-
culty of measuring them, but the highest
authentic observation is about forty feet.
Stationary waves, as opposed to the progress-
ive waves of which the lecturer had been
speaking, were described as the results of
the meeting of two equal sets of progressive
waves. In illustration of the effects of waves
upon ships, Lord Rayleigh showed a small
model boat so weighted as to have the same
rolling period as the waves in the tank in
which it floated. Its rolling was exceedingly
violent, but became comparatively slight
when the heights were altered so as to change
the rolling period. Warships, in which sta-
bility is very essential, are designed so as to
have a longer period of roll than any waves
they are likely to encounter.
Plymouth School of Applied Ethics.—
The School of Applied Ethics at Plymouth,
Mass , has had three profitable sessions — in
1891, 1892, and 1894; the session of 1893
having been omitted on account of the con-
gresses at Chicago. At the first session, 1891,
H. C. Adams, dean, the faculty numbered
twenty-nine, and one hundred and sixteen lec-
tures were given in the three departments of
Economics, Ethics, and History of Religions.
At the second session, Prof. C. H. Toy, dean,
there were twenty-two lecturers and ninety-
six lectures, in the three departments as be-
fore. At this session the Wednesdays were
set apart for conferences and other special
meetings — .an experiment which was regarded
favorably, but was not repeated during the
next year. At the third session, 1894, Prof.
Felix Adler, dean, there were thirty lectur-
ers and one hundred and one lectures. The
general subject in each of the three depart-
ments was the labor question, which was
treated from various points of view, some of
the lecturers being among the foremost po-
litical economists of our leading colleges and
universities. The fourth session will begin
in the second week in July, 1895, and will
continue five weeks. An " Auxiliary Society
of the School of Applied Ethics " has been
formed, for the purpose, among others, of
making the school and its work more widely
known. Membership is open to all, for five
dollars a year, and applications for it may be
sent to the Rev. Paul R. Frothingham, New
Bedford, Mass.
Indian Bows, Arrows, and Quivers. — In
an interesting study of North American
Bows, Arrows, and Quivers, published in the
Smithsonian Report for 1893, Prof. Otis T.
Mason shows how, in respect to either and
all these appurtenances of the savage war-
rior and hunter, the form and material of the
instrument and the manner of making n vary
with and are dependent upon the kind of ma-
terial which the local manufacturer had at
his disposal. The bow is of hard wood, and
simple, but of various forms according to
fancy, in those regions where strong, elastic
woods are abundant ; compound, built up of
buffalo or other horns in several pieces skill-
fully joined, where wood is scarce and the
other material plenty ; sinew-lined — finely
shredded sinew mixed with glue being laid
upon it so as to resemble bark — in the re-
gions of the Sierras and as far north as the
headwaters of the Mackenzie ; sinew-corded,
or having a long string or braid of sinew
passing to and fro along the back, of which
several types are found in the arctic and sub-
arctic regions. The material of bows^varies
geographically, and the list shows that in
some regions some of the apparently most
unpromising woods are used in their con-
struction. The strings are of rawhide, the
best vegetable fibers of the country, the in-
testines of animals cut into strings and twisted,
or, most frequently, of sinew. The study is
continued, with even more minutenes corre-
sponding with the varieties of detail involved
— concerning the head, the shaft, nocking,
notching, and feathering — with the arrow.
The quiver is difficult of study, because col-
lectors have paid little attention to it.
Among all the Plains tribes the quivers are
POPULAR MISCELLANY.
141
objects of beauty. The quiver is largely of the
region. The material out of which each ex-
ample is made must be furnished by Nature :
hence it is of sealskin in one place, of cedar
wood in another, of soft pelt in another, and
in the south land is frequently made of some
kind of soft basketry. " Among several of
the mountain tribes the squaw lavished all
her skill upon her husband's quiver. The
costliest beaver, marten, otter, and mountain-
lion pelt was invoked. It was lined with soft
buckskin, or in after times with red stroud-
ing. Beads of every imaginable color were
worked upon the border of the arrow case
and upon the lining of the long pendant there-
from. Strips of fur, daintily cut in fringes,
were sewed about the bottom of the bow case,
and every spot capable of rich decoration re-
ceived it. Between this and the plain salm-
on-skin capsules into which the Eskimo
thrust his arrows there are many gradations
of quivers."
Prof. Sergi's Human Classifications. — In
studying the varieties of the human species,
Prof. Giuseppe Sergi, as he is quoted in a
paper by Dr. D. G. Brinton, finds that hy-
bridism is a syncretism or propinquity of
characteristics belonging to many varieties ;
that these do not modify the skeletal forms
as do individual variations ; and that hybrid-
ism may affect different parts of the skele-
ton, constituting characteristics in themselves
distinct. The stature, the thoracic form, the
proportion of the long bones may be united
with external characteristics differing from
each other, as well as from different cranial
structures. The cranial form may be associ-
ated with different facial forms, and inverse-
ly. It happens, however, that the structures
taken separately remain in part unvaried in
the hybrid constitution. The face preserves
its own characteristics in spite of the union
of different cranial forms; so also the crani-
um preserves its structures, associating them
with different facial forms. The stature
preserves its own proportions in spite of its
association with different cranial and facial
types, and in spite of the different coloration
of the skin and form and color of the hair.
All this may be affirmed, particularly of
much larger human groups which, accord-
ing to external characteristics, may be con-
sidered much nearer than they really are in
geographical position, as the so-called white
races in Europe, the negroes in Africa, in
Melanesia, and so on. Seeking a criterion
of classification, the author finds that exter-
nal characteristics can not be relied upon.
Regarding the internal or skeletal charac-
teristics as presenting greater stability, he
chooses the cranium, as at the same time
the most important and most useful. He
thus impliedly accepts the brain in its vari-
ous forms. He finds sixteen varieties of the
human species, without considering that he
has exhausted the number, and fifty-one sub-
varieties.
A Monkey's Caprices. — The last of the
famous group of pets which Frank Buckland
collected at his house died January 17th.
It was the monkey, Tiny the second, of the
species Cercopithecus mona. She was a
beautiful and graceful creature, covered with
a thick coat of handsomely shaded hair, and
had been under Mrs. Buckland's care seven-
teen years and a half. She had the life-
long reputation of being exceedingly mis-
chievous, and was an accomplished thief.
She led a gray parrot, which had been an
inhabitant of the house for twenty-five years,
a terrible life ; and when she was let out of
her cage she played havoc with her master's
papers and manuscripts. She would dash
about the room, make a clean sweep of the
table, and fill her pouches with anything
that appeared especially nice. Her two
later companions were a gray parrot and
a thoroughbred dachshund, Olga. Every
morning Tiny and the dog had a game of
romps that invariably ended in the discom-
fiture of Olga. The dog would run round
the monkey's cage, barking loudly ; Tiny,
inside the wires, would run round also, and
when opportunity occurred would seize the
dog's ears and keep pulling at them till
Olga released herself. Notwithstanding
these little disagreements, the dachshund
appeared to miss Tiny, and went about the
house as if seeking her. The parrot, too,
seemed to regret the loss of the monkey,
and efforts were made to cheer her drooping
spirits, if possible.
Qualities of the Acetylene Light. — The
method of producing acetylene, one of the
most brilliant constituents of illuminating
142
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY
gas, by the simple action of water on calcium
carbide has been mentioned in the Monthly.
Great possibilities from the use of this
method are foreshadowed by Prof. Vivian
B. Lewes. The property possessed by calcic
carbide of forming acetylene with water was
accidentally discovered while working with
the electric furnace to form an alloy of cal-
cium. A mixture containing lime and pow-
dered anthracite was fused down to a semi-
metallic mass, which, proving not to be
desired, was thrown into a bucket contain-
ing water, when a rapid effervescence took
place, and the escaping gas burned, on the
application of a light, with a smoky but
luminous flame. This source of light can
be produced by the exposure to the electric
furnace of finely ground chalk or lime mixed
with powdered carbon in any form. When
the calcic carbide is placed in a glass flask
and water is allowed slowly to drip upon it
from a dropping tube, the decomposition
begins at once with considerable rapidity,
and the acetylene pours off in a continuous
stream ; as the decomposition continues, the
solid mass in the flask swells up and is
eventually converted into a mass of slacked
lime. The value of this useful product may
be deducted in computing the cost of the
acetylene. For commercial purposes the
carbide may be cast direct from the electric
furnace into rods or cylindrical cartridges,
which, when twelve inches long and an inch
and a quarter in diameter, will weigh one
pound and will give five cubic feet of gas.
Acetylene is a clear, colorless gas, with an
intensely penetrating odor which somewhat
resembles garlic. The strong smell is a
great safeguard in its use, and, when the
quantity of the gas is dangerous, can not be
endured. Hence, while poisonous like car-
bon monoxide, its use, on account of its
odor, is much more safe. When burned it
emits a light greater than that given by any
known gas, its illuminating power, calculated
to a consumption of five cubic feet an hour,
being two hundred and forty candles. It
being liquefiable with comparative ease,
enormous volumes of it may be compressed
in small wrought- iron or steel cylinders, in
which it may be stored and from them
burned as wanted. It should not be used
with silver or copper, as it forms explosive
compounds with their aimnoniacal solutions.
Advantage may be taken of the calcic car-
bide method of forming acetylene by putting
sticks of the carbide coated with a slowly
soluble glaze into cylinders containing water
and attached to portable lamps. As the
glaze dissolves from the surface of the stick
of carbide, acetylene is generated, and the
five cubic feet furnished by the stick are
compressed by their own pressure, so as to
supply through a suitable burner a light of
more than twenty candles for about ten
hours. The most immediate use contem-
plated by Prof. Lewes for acetylene is for
enriching ordinary illuminating gas.
Cycling and the Heart.— Dr. B. W. Rich-
ardson represents cycling as differing from
other exercises in that it tells primarily and
most distinctly upon the heart. It produces
at once a quickened circulation, though the
riders may not be conscious of it ; and this
accounts for the astonishing journeys a cy-
clist can undertake, and his endurance as
against sleep. Although the heart increases
in action and sometimes undergoes enlarge-
ment, the author has never seen a rider
embarrassed by overstrain of it, faintness,
breathlessness, angina, or vertigo, so as to
oblige him to dismount. Indeed, he had
known a practiced rider who could climb
a hill on his machine, but could not mount a
flight of stairs on his feet without breath-
lessness and a slight palpitation ; he had
never seen a sudden death from cycling. He
had met with instances in which, after sev-
eral years of cycling, there was evidence of
heart disease, with general languor and in-
ability to sustain fatigue if exercise were
again tried on the machine ; and, on the
other hand, he had known examples in which
even an octogenarian had kept up the exer-
cise in a moderate degree apparently with
benefit to the circulation. He had seen in
some cases apparent benefit arising from cy-
cling even where there was an indication of
some disease affecting the circulation, and
had known good to arise from it in cases of
varicose veins and of fatty degeneration, and
in conditions of anaemia. In other cases ex-
cessive cycling had been a definite cause of
injury to the circulation. The author be-
lieves that cycling in moderation may be per-
mitted and even recommended to persons
with healthy hearts ; that it is not necessary
NOTES.
»43
to exclude it in all eases of heart disease,
while it may be even useful where the action
of the heart is feeble and signs of fatty de-
generation are found ; that, as the action of
cycling tells dh-ectly upon the motion of the
heart, the effect it produces on that organ is
phenomenally and unexpectedly great com-
pared with the work it gets out of it ; that
the ultimate action of severe cycling is to
increase the size of the heart, to render it
irritable and hypersensitive to motion ; that
the overdevelopment of the heart affects in
turn the arterial resilience, modifies the nat-
ural blood pressure, and favors degenerative
structural changes in the organs of the body
generally ; that in persons of timid and nerv-
ous natures the fear incidental to cycling is
often creative of disturbance and palpitation
of the heart, and should be taken account
of ; that, in giving advice, it is often more
important to consider the peripheral condi-
tions of the circulation than the central ;
that venous enlargement is often rather ben-
efited than injured by cycling ; and that
straining to climb hills and meet head winds,
excessive fatigue, and alcoholic stimulants
should be avoided, and the proper number of
meals of light, suitably selected food should
not be neglected.
NOTES.
The leaves of pine and fir trees are in-
flammable— in strong contrast with the leaves
of deciduous trees, which can not be made
to burn at all while green — because of the
pitch they contain, which consists of fats
and ethereal oils, and compared with which
the proportion of water is small. When the
leaves burn, the water is at once converted
into steam, and causes the explosions, snap-
ping, and spitting of fire for which burning
coniferous trees are remarkable. Dry fir
leaves, although they burn very rapidly, do
not exhibit these explosions, because there
is no water in them. The rending of tree
trunks struck by lightning is in like manner
supposed to be caused by the steam evolved
from the sap suddenly heated by the electric
force.
M. Saccado, a botanist of some fame,
computes the number of known species of
plants to be lYS^OO, including 105,251
phanerogams, 2,819 ferns, 565 other vascular
cryptogams, 4,609 mosses, 3,041 liverworts,
5,600 lichens, 39,603 fungi, and 12,178 alga? ;
and he guesses that the whole number of
fungi is perhaps as much as 250,000, and
that of other plants 135,000. It is proper
to observe that the author is a specialist in
fungi, and is therefore perhaps predisposed
to make a liberal estimate of their number.
The International Meteorological Commit-
tee, at its recent meeting in Upsala, Sweden,
decided upon the publication of a cloud atlas,
to be in English, French, and German.
The educational conference of a week,
held last summer at the Summer School of
Applied Ethics, Plymouth, Mass., was so suc-
cessful that it has been decided to transform
it into a department of the school. The spe-
cial direction of the department has been as-
signed to a committee of three experienced
teachers, and the sessions will begin near
the end of July and close about August 12th.
This new department does not enter into
competition directly with existing summer
schools, for the aim is neither to give instruc-
tion in the school subjects nor in the theory,
history, and art of education, but to consider
education as a social force and its relation to
other social forces.
The Deseret professorship of geology in
the University of Utah has been endowed, as
we learn in a note from Dr. James E. Tal-
mage, the incumbent of it, with sixty thou-
sand dollars by the liberality of the Salt
Lake Literary and Scientific Association —
not by the city, as was stated in a recent note
in the Monthly. The Literary and Scientific
Association is a body incorporated for scien-
tific pursuits which has existed for several
years in Salt Lake City.
Recent dispatches from Europe state
that argon, the newly discovered element in
the air, has been found by Prof. Ramsay in
combination in a mineral containing the ex-
tremely rare elements yttrium and erbium ;
associated with it was another gas which
under Prof. Crookes's spectroscope gave a
spectrum identical with that of the hypothet-
ical element helium, which has been found
in the spectrum of the sun and of the aurora
borealis, but, till this time, nowhere else. M.
Berthelot has, by means of the electric
spark, effected a combination of argon with
benzene.
A new weed has become common and
abundant through a large part of the cen-
tral Southwestern States. It is described by
J. C. Arthur, of Purdue University Agri-
cultural Experiment Station, under the name
of Lactuca scariola — wild or prickly lettuce —
as an annual, related to the garden lettuce,
but bearing prickles on parts of the leaf aud
stem, and blossoming in July and August.
It has all the qualities needed to insure its
survival — producing many seeds, feathered
for wind-carriage and ready to grow, sprout-
ing abundantly when cut, and tenacious in
its root hold. It is of curious botanical in-
terest as having, like the silphium or com-
i44
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
pass plant, the property of twisting its stem
leaves into a vertical position, with the edge
directed north and south. It is one of two
well-marked compass plants. It is not likely
to be exterminated, and can at most be kept
down by timely mowing and uprooting.
The result of an inquiry by Dr. J. S.
Cameron, of Huddersfield, England, into the
conditions of the dwelling as affecting re-
covery from measles, points to the conclusion
that fresh air provided by a through draught
tends to produce recovery when measles has
attacked the family ; while overcrowding,
dirt, and structural or other insanitary con-
ditions assist in bringing about a fatal re-
sult.
OBITUARY NOTES.
Dr. W. S. W. Ruschenberger, Presi-
dent of the Philadelphia Academy of Natu-
ral Sciences from 1869 to 1891, and medical
director, United States Navy, retired, died in
Philadelphia, March 24th, aged eighty-eight
years. He served in the navy from 1826 to
1869, and was successively fleet surgeon of
the East India squadron, 1835-37 and 1847-
'50; the Pacific squadron, 1854-'57; and
the Meditei'ranean squadron, 1860-61. Dur-
ing the civil war he was surgeon at the Naval
Hospital, Brooklyn, and there organized the
laboratory for supplying the service with un-
adulterated drugs. He was President of the
College of Physicians and Surgeons in Phila-
delphia, 1879-'83. His literary and scien-
tific publications include Three Years in the
Pacific (1834) ; A Voyage Around the World
(1835-'37); Elements of Natural History
(1850); A Lexicon of Terms used in Natural
History (1850) ; A Notice of the Origin, Prog-
ress, and Present Condition of the Academy
of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (1852);
Notes and Commentaries during Voyages to
Brazil and China, 1848 (1854). He also
contributed many papers to scientific jour-
nals; published articles on Naval Rank and
Organization, and edited the American edition
of Mrs. Somerville's Physical Geography.
Sir Henry Rawlinson, of much fame as
a British general and statesman and of great-
er fame as the first decipherer of the cunei-
form inscriptions, died in London, March 5th.
He was born in 1810 ; went to Bombay as a
military cadet of the East India Company
in 1827; studied Oriental languages, and
served as an interpreter. In 1833 he was
transferred to Persia, whence he was recalled
to India on the breaking out of the Afghan
difficulty in 1838-'39, and there won distinc-
tion in military service. He began copying the
cuneiform inscriptions on the rock tablets at
Behistun as far back as 1835. Mastering the
old Persian character in these inscriptions,
he found the key, by the aid of which the
deciphering of the other cuneiform languages
was achieved. The years 1844 and 1845
were specially devoted to this task, and in
1846 Rawlinson's first work on the cuneiform
inscriptions was published. The next year
he obtained complete copies of all the Behis-
tun inscriptions, standing, to do the work, on
a ladder placed on a shelf of rock jutting
from the precipice three hundred feet above
the plain. Since then he has been one of
the foremost in furthering the work of deci-
pherment he had so well begun.
M. Jules Regnauld, Professor of the
Paris Faculty of Medicine, has recently died,
ninety years old.
Dr. F. Schmitz, Professor of Botany at
Greifswald, who died January 28th, was best
known by his studies of alga?, and particu-
larly of the red seaweeds, of which he added
much to our knowledge of the life history.
He published an account of the formation
of auxospores in the diatoms in 1877, and a
description of the green algae of the Gulf of
Athens in 1877.
The Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, the ethnologist,
who died in Washington February 5th, had
been connected with the United States Bu-
reau of Ethnology since 1 877, and was Presi-
dent of the Anthropological Section of the
American Association in 1893.
The death is reported of Dr. Gerhard
Kriiss, Extraordinary Professor of Chemistry
in the University of Munich. He was per-
haps best known in connection with re-
searches concerning the metals of the rare
earths.
Dr. D. Hack Tuke, editor of the Journal
of Mental Science and President of the Med-
ico-Psychological Association of Great Brit-
ain, died in London, March 5th, in the sixty-
eighth year of his age. He was author of
several standard works on mental diseases,
including such subjects as Sleep-walking and
Hypnotism, Insanity, Psychological Medicine,
the Influence of the Mind on the Body, etc.,
and of several valuable essays for a Dictionary
of Psychological Medicine.
George Newbold Lawrence, one of the
oldest and most eminent American ornithol-
ogists, died in this city, January 17th, aged
ninety-five years. He was the contemporary
of all American ornithologists, from Audu-
bon and NuUall down. The list of his pub-
lished writings contains one hundred and
twenty-one titles. The earliest appeared in
1844 and the latest in 1891. He was asso-
ciated with Baird and Cassin in the author-
ship of Baird's work on the birds of North
America, which was published in 1858. His
special field was in tropical American birds,
of which he described more than three hun-
dred new species. One genus and twenty
species were named in his honor.
The Rev. T. P. Kirkman, a mathemati-
cian of considerable reputation, died Febru-
ary, 1895, eighty-eight years old.
TIMOTHY ABBOTT CONRAD.
THE
POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.
JUNE, 1895.
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE.
XX.— FROM THE DIVINE ORACLES TO THE HIGHER CRITICISM.
By ANDEEW DICKSON "WHITE, LL. D. (Yale), Ph. D. (Jena),
FORMERLY PRESIDENT OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
I. THE OLDER INTERPRETATION.
THE great sacred books of the world are the most precious of
human possessions. They embody the deepest searchings
into the most vital problems of humanity in all its stages, the
naive guesses of the world's childhood, the opening conceptions
of its youth, the more fully rounded beliefs of its maturity.
These books, no matter how unhistorical in parts and at times,
are profoundly true. They mirror the evolution of man's loftiest
aspiratioDS, hopes, loves, consolations, and enthusiasms; his hates
and fears ; his views of his origin and destiny ; his theories of his
rights and duties; and these not merely in their lights but in
their shadows. Therefore it is that they contain the germs of
truths most necessary in the evolution of humanity, and give to
these germs the environment and sustenance which best insure
their growth and strength.
With wide differences in origin and character, all this sacred
literature has been developed and has exercised its influence in
obedience to certain general laws. First of these in time, if not in
importance, is that which governs its origin : in all civilizations
we find that the Divine Spirit working in the mind of man shapes
his sacred books first of all out of the chaos of myth and legend,
and of these books, when life is thus breathed into them, the fit-
test survive.
So broad and dense is this atmosphere of myth and legend en-
vox. XLVII. 13
i46 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
veloping them that it lingers about them after they have been
brought forth full-orbed ; and, sometimes, from it are even pro-
duced secondary mythical and legendary concretions, satellites
about these greater orbs of early thought. Of these secondary
growths one may be mentioned as showing how rich in myth-
making material was the atmosphere which enveloped our own
earlier sacred literature.
In the third century before Christ there had been elaborated
among the Jewish scholars of Alexandria, then the great center
of human thought, a Greek translation of' the main books con-
stituting the Old Testament. Nothing could be more natural at
that place and time than such a translation ; yet the growth of
explanatory myth and legend around it was none the less luxu-
riant. There was indeed a twofold growth. Among the Jews
favorable to the new version a legend rose which justified it.
This legend in its first stage was to the effect that Ptolemy, then
on the Egyptian throne, had, at the request of his chief librarian,
sent to Jerusalem for translators ; that the high priest Eleazar
had sent to the king a most precious copy of the Scriptures from
the temple, and six most venerable, devout, and learned scholars
from each of the twelve tribes of Israel; that the number of
translators thus corresponded with the mysterious seventy-two
appellations of God ; and that the combined efforts of these
seventy-two men produced a marvelously perfect translation.
But, in that atmosphere of myth and marvel, the legend con-
tinued to grow, and soon we have it blooming forth yet more gor-
geously in the statement that King Ptolemy ordered each of the
seventy-two to make by himself a full translation of the entire
Old Testament, and shut up each translator in a separate cell on
the island of Pharos, secluding him there until the work was
done ; that the work of each was completed in exactly seventy-
two days ; and that when, at the end of the seventy-two days, the
seventy-two translations were compared, each was found exactly
like all the others. This showed clearly Jehovah's approval.
But out of all this myth and legend there was also evolved an
account of a very different sort. The Jews who remained faith-
ful to the traditions of their race regarded this Greek version
as a profanation, and therefore there grew up the legend that
on the completion of the work there was darkness over the
whole earth during three days. This showed clearly Jehovah's
disapproval.
These well-known legends, which arose within what — as com-
pared with any previous time — was an exceedingly enlightened
period, and which were steadfastly believed by a vast multitude
of Jews and Christians for ages, are but single examples among
scores which show how inevitably such traditions regarding
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. H7
sacred books are developed in the earlier stages of civilization,
when men explain everything by miracle and nothing by law.*
As the second of these laws governing the evolution of sacred
literature may be mentioned that which we have constantly seen
so effective in the growth of theological ideas — that to which
Comte gave the name of the Law of Wills and Causes. In ac-
cordance with this, man attributes to the Supreme Being a phys-
ical, intellectual, and moral structure like his own ; hence it is
that the votary of each of the great world religions ascribes to
its sacred books what he considers absolute perfection ; he im-
agines them to be what he himself would give the world were he
himself infinitely good, wise, and powerful.
A very simple analogy might indeed show him that even a lit-
erature emanatiug from an all-wise, beneficent, and powerful au-
thor might not seem perfect when judged by a human standard ;
for he has only to look about him in the world to find that the
work which he attributes to an all-wise, all- beneficent, and all-
powerful Creator is by no means free from evil and wrong.
But this analogy long escapes him, and the exponent of each
great religion proves, to his own satisfaction and the edification
of his fellows, that their own sacred literature is absolutely accu-
rate in statement, infinitely profound in meaning, and miracu-
lously perfect in form. From these premises also he arrives at
the conclusion that his own sacred literature is unique ; that no
other sacred book can have emanated from a divine source ; and
that all others claiming to be sacred are impostures.
Still another law governing the evolution of sacred literature
in every great world religion is that when the books which com-
pose it are once selected and grouped they come to be regarded as
a final creation from which nothing can be taken away, and of
which even error in form, if sanctioned by tradition, may not be
changed.
The working of this law has recently been seen on a large scale.
A few years since a body of chosen scholars, universally ac-
knowledged to be the most fit for the work, at the call of English-
speaking Christendom undertook to revise the authorized Eng-
lish version of the Bible.
* For the legend regarding the Septuagint, especially as developed by the letters of
Pseudo-Aristeas, and for quaint citations from the fathers regarding it, see The History of
the Seventy-two Interpretators, from the Greek of Aristeas, translated by Mr. Lewis, Lon-
don, 1715 ; also, Clement of Alexandria, in the Ante-Nicene Christian Library, Edinburgh,
1867, p. 448. For interesting summaries showing the growth of the story, see Drummond,
Philo-Judeeus and the Growth of the Alexandrian Philosophy, London, 1888, vol. i, pp. 231
et seq. ; also, Renan, Histoire du Peuple Israel, vol. iv, chap, iv ; also, for Philo-Judteus's
part in developing the legend, see Rev. Dr. Sanday's Bampton Lectures for 1893, on Inspi-
ration, pp. 86, 87.
148 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
Beautiful as was that old version, there was abundant rea-
son for a revision. The progress of biblical scholarship had re-
vealed multitudes of imperfections and not a few gross errors in
the work of the early translators, and these, if uncorrected, were
sure to bring the sacred volume into discredit.
Nothing could be more reverent than the spirit of the revis-
ers, and the nineteenth century has known few historical events
of more significant and touching beauty than the participation in
the Holy Communion by all these scholars — prelates, presbyters,
ministers, and laymen of churches most widely differing in belief
and observance — kneeling side by side at the little altar in "West-
minster Abbey.
Nor could any work have been more conservative and cautious
than theirs ; as far as possible they preserved the old matter and
form with scrupulous care.
Yet their work was no sooner done than it was bitterly at-
tacked and widely condemned ; to this day it is largely regarded
with dislike. In Great Britain, in America, in Australia, the old
version, with its glaring misconceptions, mistranslations, and in-
terpolations, is still read in preference to the new ; the great body
of English-speaking Christians clearly preferring the accustomed
form of words given by the seventeenth- century translators, rather
than a nearer approach to the exact teaching of the Holy Ghost.
Still another law is that when once a group of sacred books
has been evolved — even though the group really be a great
library of most dissimilar works, ranging in matter from the
hundredth Psalm to the Song of Songs, and in manner from the
sublimity of Isaiah to the offhand story-telling of Jonah — all
come to be thought one inseparable mass of interpenetrating
parts ; every statement in each fitting exactly and miraculously
into each statement in every other; and each and every one, and
all together, literally true to fact, and at the same time full of
hidden meanings.
The working of these and other laws governing the evolution of
sacred literature is very clearly seen in the great rabbinical schools
which flourished at Jerusalem, Tiberias, and elsewhere, after the
return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity, and especially
as we approach the time of Christ. These schools developed a
subtlety in the study of the Old Testament which seems almost
preternatural. The resultant system was mainly a jugglery with
words, phrases, and numbers, which finally became a " sacred sci-
ence," with various recognized departments, in which interpreta-
tion was carried on sometimes by attaching a numerical value
to letters; sometimes by interchange of letters from differently
arranged alphabets; sometimes by the making of new texts out
of the initial letters of the old ; and with ever-increasing subtlety.
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. i49
Such efforts as these culminated fitly in the rabbinical decla-
ration that each passage in the law has seventy distinct mean-
ings, and that God himself gives three hours every day to their
study.
After this the Jewish world was prepared for anything, and it
does not surprise us to find such discoveries in the domain of
ethical culture as the doctrine that for inflicting the forty stripes
save one upon those who broke the law the lash should be
braided of ox-hide and ass-hide ; and, as warrant for this con-
struction of the lash, the text, " The ox knoweth his owner, and
the ass his master's crib, but Israel doth not know " ; and, as the
logic connecting text and lash, the statement that Jehovah evi-
dently intended to command that " the men who know not shall
be beaten by those animals whose knowledge shames them."
By such methods also were revealed such historical treasures
as that Og, King of Bashan, escaped the deluge by wading after
Noah's ark.
There were, indeed, noble exceptions to this kind of teaching.
It can not be forgotten that Rabbi Hillel formulated the golden
rule, which had before him been given to the extreme Orient by
Confucius, and which afterward received a yet more beautiful
emphasis from Jesus of Nazareth ; but the seven rules of interpre-
tation laid down by Hillel were multiplied and refined by men
like Rabbi Ismael and Rabbi Eleazar until they justified every
absurd subtlety.*
An eminent scholar has said that while the letter of Scripture
became ossified in Palestine, it became volatilized at Alexandria ;
and the truth of this remark was proved by the Alexandrian
Jewish theologians just before the beginning of our era.
This, too, was in obedience to a law of development, which is
that, when literal interpretation clashes with increasing knowl-
edge or with progress in moral feeling, theologians take refuge in
mystic meanings — a law which we see working in all great re-
ligions, from the Brahmans finding hidden senses in the Vedas to
Plato and the Stoics finding them in the Greek myths ; and from
the Sofi reading new meanings into the Koran, to eminent Chris-
tian divines of the nineteenth century giving a non-natural sense
to some of the plainest statements in the Bible.
The great early master in this evolution was Philo ; by him
came as never before the use of allegory. The garden of Eden
* For a multitude of amusing examples of rabbinical interpretations, see an article in
Blackwood's Magazine for November, 1882 ; for a more general discussion, see Archdeacon
Farrar's History of Interpretation, lect. i and ii, and Rev. Prof. H. P. Smith's Inspiration
and Inerrancy, Cincinnati, 1893, especially chap, iv ; also Reuss, History of the New Testa-
ment, English translation, pp. 527, 528.
150 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
thus becomes virtue; Abraham's country and kindred, from
which he was commanded to depart, the human body and its
members ; the five cities of Sodom, the five senses ; the Euphrates,
correction of manners. By Philo and his compeers even the most
insignificant words and phrases, and those especially, were held to
conceal the most precious meanings.
A perfectly natural and logical result of this view was reached
when Philo, saturated as he was with Greek culture and nour-
ished on pious traditions of the utterances at Delphi and Dodona,
spoke reverently of the Jewish Scriptures as "oracles." Oracles
they became, as oracles they appeared in the early history of
the Christian Church, and oracles they remained for centuries :
eternal life or death, infinite happiness or agony, as well as ordi-
nary justice in this world, being made to depend on certain in-
terpretations of a long series of recondite or doubtful utterances
— interpretations frequently given by men who might have been
prophets and apostles, but who had become simply oracle-
mongers.
Pressing the oracle into the service of science, Philo became
the forerunner of that long series of theologians who, from Au-
gustine and Cosmas to Mr. Gladstone, have attempted to extract
from scriptural myth and legend profound contributions to natu-
ral science. Thus he taught that the golden candlesticks in the
tabernacle symbolized the planets, the high priest's robe the uni-
verse, and the bells upon it the harmony of earth and water —
whatever that may mean. So Cosmas taught, a thousand years
later, that the table of showbread in the tabernacle showed forth
the form and construction of the world ; and Mr. Gladstone hinted,
more than a thousand years later still, that Neptune's trident
had a mysterious connection with the Christian doctrine of the
Trinity.*
These methods, in spite of the resistance of Tertullian and
Irenseus, were transmitted to the early Church ; as applied to the
* For Philo Judaeus, see Yonge's translation, Bonn's edition ; see also Sanday on Inspi-
ration, pp. 78-85. For admirable general remarks on this period in the history of exege-
sis, see Bartlett, Bampton Lectures, 1888, p. 29. For efforts in general to save the credit
of myths by allegorical interpretation, and for those of Philo in particular, see Drummond,
Philo-Judseus, London, 1888, vol. i, pp. 18, 19 and notes. For interesting samples of Alex-
andrian exegesis and for Philo's application of the term " oracle " to the Jewish Scriptures,
see Farrar, History of Interpretation, p. 147 and note. For his discovery of symbols of
the universe in the furniture of the tabernacle, see Drummond, as above, vol. i, pp. 269 et
seq. For the general subject, admirably discussed from a historical point of view, see the
Rev. Edwin Batch, D. D., The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian
Church, Hibbert Lectures for 1888, chap. iii. For Cosmas, see my chapters on Geography
and Astronomy. For Mr. Gladstone's view of the connection between Neptune's trident and
the doctrine of the Trinity, see his Juventus Mundi.
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 151
Old Testament, they had appeared at times in the New ; in the
work of the early fathers they bloomed forth luxuriantly.
Justin Martyr and Clement of Alexandria vigorously extended
them. Typical of Justin's method is his finding, in a very simple
reference by Isaiah to Damascus, Samaria, and Assyria, a clear
prophecy of the three wise men of the east who brought gifts to
the infant Saviour, and in the bells on the priest's robe a prefig-
uration of the twelve apostles. Any difficulty arising from the
fact that the number of bells is not specified in Scripture, Justin
overcame by insisting that David referred to this prefiguration in
the nineteenth Psalm : " Their sound is gone forth through all the
earth and their words to the end of the world."
Working in this vein, Clement of Alexandria found in the
form, dimensions, and color of the Jewish tabernacle a whole
wealth of interpretation — the altar of incense representing the
earth placed at the center of the universe, the high priest's robe
the visible world, the jewels on the priest's robe the zodiac, and
Abraham'^ three days' journey to Mount Moriah the three stages
of the soul in its progress toward the knowledge of God. Inter-
preting the New Testament, he lessened any difficulties involved
in the miracle of the barley loaves and fishes by suggesting that
what this really means is that Jesus gave mankind a preparatory
training for the gospel by means of the law and philosophy, be-
cause, as he says, barley, like the law, ripens sooner than wheat,
which represents the gospel, and because, just as fishes grow in
the waves of the ocean, so philosophy grew in the waves of the
Gentile world.
Out of reasonings like these, those who followed, especially
Cosmas, developed, as we have seen, a complete theological science
of geography and astronomy.*
But the instrument in exegesis which was used with most
cogent force was the occult significance of certain numbers. The
Chaldean and Egyptian researches of our own time have revealed
the great source of this line of thought ; the speculations of Plato
upon it are well known ; but among the Jews and in the early
Church it grew into something far beyond the wildest imaginings
of the priests of Memphis and Babylon.
Philo had found for the elucidation of Scripture especially
deep meanings in the numbers 4, 6, and 7 ; but other interpreters
* For Justin, see the Dialogue with Trypho, chaps, xlii, Ixxvi, and lxxxiii. For Clement
of Alexandria, see his Miscellanies, Book V, chaps, vi and xi, and Book VII, chap, xvi, and
especially Hatch, Hibbert Lectures, as above, pp. 76, 77.
As to the loose views of the canon held by these two fathers and others of their time
see Ladd, Doctrine of the Sacred Scriptures, vol. ii, pp. 86, 88 ; also Diestel, Geschichte des
alten Testaments.
i52 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
soon surpassed him. At the very outset this occult power was
used in ascertaining the canonical books of Scripture. Josephus
argued that, since there were twenty-two letters in the Hebrew
alphabet, there must be twenty-two sacred books in the Old Tes-
tament ; other Jewish authorities thought that there should be
twenty-four books, on account of the twenty-four watches in the
temple. St. Jerome wavered between the argument based upon
the twenty-two letters in the Hebrew alphabet and that suggested
by the twenty-four elders in the Apocalypse. Hilary of Poitiers
argued that there must be twenty-four books, on account of the
twenty -four letters in the Greek alphabet. Origen found an argu-
ment for the existence of exactly four gospels in the existence of
just four elements. Irenseus insisted that there could be neither
more nor fewer than four gospels, since the earth has four quar-
ters, the air four winds, and the cherubim four faces ; and he de-
nounced those who declined to accept this reasoning as "vain,
ignorant, and audacious." *
But during the first half of the third century came one who
exercised a still stronger influence in this direction — a great man
who, while rendering precious services, did more than any other
to fasten upon the Church a system which has been one of its
heaviest burdens for more than sixteen hundred years : this was
Origen. Yet his purpose was noble and his work based on pro-
found thought. He had to meet the leading philosophers of the
pagan world and to reply to their arguments against the Old
Testament, and especially to their taunts against its imputation
of human form, limitations, passions, weaknesses, and even im-
moralities to the Almighty.
Starting with a mistaken translation of a verse in the book of
Proverbs, Origen presented as a basis for his main structure the
idea of a threefold sense of Scripture : the literal, the moral, and
the mystic — corresponding to the Platonic conception of the three-
fold nature of man. As results of this we have such masterpieces
as his proof, from the fifth verse of chapter xxv of Job, that the
stars are living beings, and from the well-known passage in the
nineteenth chapter of St. Matthew his warrant for self-mutilation.
But his great triumphs were in the allegorical method. By its
use the Bible was speedily made an oracle indeed, or, rather, a
book of riddles. A list of kings in the Old Testament thus be-
* For Jerome and Origen, see notes on pages following. For Irenaeus, see Irenanis
adversus Heres., lib. iii, cap. xi, § 8. For the general subject, see Sanday on Inspiration!
p. 115 ; also Farrar and H. P. Smith as above. For a recent very full and very curious
statement from a Roman Catholic authority regarding views cherished in the older Church
as to the symbolism of numbers, see Detzel, Christliche Iconographie, Freiburg im Breisgau,
1894, Band i, Einleitung, p. 4.
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 153
comes an enumeration of sins ; the waterpots of stone, "contain-
ing two or three firkins apiece/' at the marriage of Cana, signify
the literal, moral, and spiritual sense of Scripture ; the ass upon
which the Saviour rode on his triumphal entry into Jerusalem
becomes the Old Testament, the foal the New Testament, and the
two apostles who went to loose them the moral and mystical
senses ; blind Bartimeus, throwing off his coat while hastening to
Jesus, opens a whole treasury of oracular meanings.
The genius and power of Origen made a great impression on
the strong thinkers who followed him. St. Jerome called him
"the greatest master in the Church since the apostles/' and
Athanasius was hardly less emphatic.
The structure thus begun was continued by leading theologians
during the centuries following. St. Hilary of Poitiers — "the
Athanasius of Gaul " — produced some wonderful results of this
method ; but St. Jerome, inspired by the example of the man
whom he so greatly admired, went beyond him. A triumph of
his exegesis is seen in his statement that the Shunamite woman,
who was selected to cherish David in his old age, signified heav-
enly wisdom.
The great mind of St. Augustine was drawn largely into this
kind of creation, and nothing marks more clearly the vast change
which had come over the world than the fact that this greatest
of the early Christian thinkers turned from the broader paths
opened by Plato and Aristotle into that opened by Clement of
Alexandria.
In the mystic power of numbers to reveal the sense of Scripture
Augustine found especial delight. He tells us that there is deep
meaning in sundry scriptural uses of the number forty, and espe-
cially as the number of days required for fasting. Forty, he re-
minds us, is four times ten. Now, four is the number especially
representing time, the day and the year being each divided into
four parts ; while ten, being made up of three and seven, represents
knowledge of the Creator and creature, three referring to the
three persons in the triune Creator, and seven referring to the
three elements, heart, soul, and mind, taken in connection with
the four elements, fire, air, earth, and water, which go to make up
the creature. Therefore this number ten, representing knowledge,
being multiplied by four, representing time, admonishes us to live
during time according to knowledge — that is, to fast for forty
days.
Referring to such misty methods as these, which lead the
reader to ask himself whether he is sleeping or waking, St. Augus-
tine remarks that "ignorance of numbers prevents us from under-
standing such things in Scripture." But perhaps the most amazing
example is to be seen in his notes on the hundred and fifty and
i54 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
three fishes which, according to St. John's Gospel, were caught by
St. Peter and the other apostles. Some points in his long develop-
ment of this subject may be selected to show what the older theo-
logical method can be made to do for a great mind. He tells us
that the hundred and fifty and three fishes embody a great mys-
tery ; that the number ten, evidently as the number of the com-
mandments, indicates the law ; but, as the law without the spirit
only kills, we must add the seven gifts of the spirit, and we thus
have the number seventeen, which signifies the old and new dis-
pensations ; then, if we add together every several number which
seventeen contains from one to seventeen inclusive, the result is a
hundred and fifty and three — the number of the fishes.
With this sort of reasoning he finds profound meanings in the
number of furlongs mentioned in the sixth chapter of St. John.
Referring to the fact that the disciples had rowed about " twenty-
five or thirty furlongs/' he declares that "twenty-five typifies the
law, because it is five times five, but the law was imperfect before
the gospel came ; now perfection is comprised in six, since God in
six days perfected the world, hence five is multiplied by six that
the law may be perfected by the gospel, and six times five is
thirty."
But Augustine's exploits in exegesis were not all based on
numerals ; he is sometimes equally profound in other modes.
Thus he tells us that the condemnation of the serpent to eat dust
typifies the sin of curiosity, since in eating dust he " penetrates the
obscure and shadowy " ; and that Noah's ark was " pitched within
and without with pitch" to show the safety of the Church from
the leaking in of heresy.
Still another exploit — one at which the Church might well
have stood aghast — was his statement that the drunkenness of
Noah prefigured the suffering and death of Christ. It is but just
to say that he was not the original author of this interpretation ;
it had been presented long before by St. Cyprian. But this was
far from Augustine's worst. Perhaps no interpretation of Scrip-
ture has ever led to more cruel and persistent oppression, torture,
and bloodshed than his reading into one of the most beautiful
parables of Jesus of Nazareth — into the words " compel them to
come in" — a warrant for religious persecution: of all uninten-
tional blasphemies since the world began possibly the most
appalling.
Another strong man follows to fasten these methods on the
Church : St. Gregory the Great. In his renowned work on the
book of Job, the Magna Moralia, given to the world at the end of
the sixth century, he lays great stress on the deep mystical mean-
ings of the statement that Job had seven sons. He thinks the
seven sons typify the twelve apostles, for "the apostles were
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 155
selected through the sevenfold grace of the Spirit; moreover,
twelve is produced from, seven — that is, the two parts of seven,
four and three, when multiplied together give twelve." He also
finds deep significance in the number of the apostles ; this number
being evidently determined by a multiplication of the number of
persons in the Trinity by the number of quarters of the globe.
Still, to do him justice, it must be said that in some parts of his
exegesis the strong sense which was one of his most striking char-
acteristics crops out in a way very refreshing. Thus, referring to
a passage in the first chapter of Job, regarding the oxen which
were plowing and the asses which were feeding beside them, he
tells us pithily that these typify two classes of Christians: the
oxen, the energetic Christians who do the work of the Church ;
the asses, the lazy Christians who merely feed.*
Thus began the vast theological structure of oracular inter-
pretation applied to the Bible. As we have seen, the men who
prepared the ground for it were the rabbis of Palestine and the
Hellenized Jews of Alexandria ; and the four great men who laid
its foundation courses were Origen, St. Augustine, St. Jerome, and
St. Gregory.
During the ten centuries following the last of these men, this
structure continued to rise steadily above the plain meanings of
Scripture. The Christian world rejoiced in it, and the few great
thinkers who dared bring the truth to bear upon it were rejected.
It did indeed seem at one period in the early Church that a better
system might be developed. The School of Antioch, especially
as represented by Chrysostom, appeared likely to lead in this
better way, but the dominant forces were too strong ; the passion
for myth and marvel prevailed over the love of real knowledge,
and the reasonings of Chrysostom and his compeers were neg-
lected, f
In the ninth century came another effort to present the claims
of right reason. The first man prominent in this was St.
*For Origen, see the De Principiis, Book IV, chaps, i-vii et seq., Crombie's translation ;
also the Contra Celsum, vi, 70 ; vii, 20, etc. ; also various citations in Farrar. For Hilary,
see his Tractatus super Psalmos, cap. ix, li, etc., in Migne, torn, ix, and De Trinitate, lib.
ii, cap. ii. For Jerome's interpretation of the text relating to the Shunamite woman, see
Epist. lii, in Migne, torn, xxii, pp. 527, 528. For Augustine's use of numbers, see the De
Doctrina Christiana, lib. ii, cap. xvi, and for the explanation of the draught of fishes, see
Augustine in Johan. Evangel., Tractat. cxxii, and on the twenty-five to thirty furlongs, ibid.,
xxv, sect. 6 ; and for the significance of the serpent eating dust, ibid., ii, 18. For the view
that the drunkenness of Noah prefigured the suffering of Christ, as held by SS. Cyprian
and Augustine, see Farrar, as above, pp. 181, 238. For St. Gregory, see the Magna Moralia,
lib. i, cap. xiv.
f For the work of the School of Antioch, and especially of Chrysostom, see the
eloquent tribute to it by Farrar, as above.
156 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
Agobard, Bishop of Lyons, whom an eminent historian has well
called the clearest head of his time. With the same insight
which penetrated the fallacies and follies of image worship,
belief in witchcraft, persecution, the ordeal, and the judicial duel,
he saw the futility of this vast fabric of interpretation, protested
against the idea that the Divine Spirit extended its inspiration to
the mere words of Scripture, and asked a question which has re-
sounded through every generation since : " If you once begin such
a system, who can measure the absurdity which will follow ?"
During the same century another opponent of this dominant
system appeared : John Scotus Erigena. He contended that
" reason and authority come alike from the one source of Divine
Wisdom"; that the fathers, great as their authority is, often
contradict each other ; and that, in last resort, reason must be
called in to decide between them.
But the evolution of unreason continued : Agobard was un-
heeded, and Erigena placed under the ban by two councils, his
work being condemned by a synod as a " Commentum Diaboli."
Four centuries later Honorius III ordered it to be burned, as
"teeming with the venom of heretical depravity"; and finally,
after eight centuries, Pope Gregory XIII placed it on the Index,
where it remains to this day. Nor did Abelard, who, three
centuries after Agobard and Erigena, made an attempt in some
respects like theirs, have any better success : his fate at the
hands of St. Bernard and the Council of Sens the world knows by
heart. Far more consonant with the spirit of the universal
Church was the teaching in the twelfth century of the great
Hugo of St. Victor, conveyed in these ominous words : " Learn
first what is to be believed" (Disce primo quod credendum est),
meaning thereby that one should first accept doctrines, and then
find texts to confirm them.
These principles being dominant, the accretions to the enor-
mous fabric of interpretation went steadily on. Typical is the
fact that the Venerable Bede contributed to it the doctrine that, in
the text mentioning Elkanah and his two wives, Elkanah means
Christ and the two wives the Synagogue and the Church; even
such men as Alfred the Great and St. Thomas Aquinas were
added to the forces at work in building above the sacred books
this prodigious mass of sophistry.
Perhaps nothing shows more clearly the tenacity of the old
system of interpretation than the sermons of Savonarola. Dur-
ing the last decade of the fifteenth century, just at the close of
the mediaeval period, he was engaged in a life-and-death struggle
at Florence. No man ever preached more powerfully the Gospel
of Righteousness ; none ever laid more stress on conduct ; even
Luther was not more zealous for reform or more careless of tra-
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 157
ditionalism ; and yet we find the great Florentine apostle and
martyr absolutely tied fast to the old system of allegorical inter-
pretation. The autograph notes of his sermons, still preserved in
his cell at San Marco, show this abundantly. Thus we find him
attaching to the creation of grasses and plants on the third day
an allegorical connection with the " multitude of the elect " and
with the " sound doctrines of the Church " ; and to the creation
of land animals on the sixth day a similar relation to " the Jewish
people " and to " Christians given up to things earthly." *
The revival of learning in the fifteenth century seemed likely
to undermine the older structure.
Then it was that Lorenzo Valla brought to bear on biblical
research, for the first time, the spirit of modern criticism. By
truly scientific methods he proved the famous Letter of Christ
to Abgarus a forgery ; the Donation of Constantine, one of the
great foundations of the ecclesiastical power in temporal things,
a fraud ; and the creed attributed to the apostles a creation
which post-dated them by several centuries. Of even more per-
manent influence was his work upon the New Testament, in
which he initiated the modern method of comparing manuscripts
to find what the sacred text really is. At an earlier or later
period he would doubtless have paid for his temerity with his
life ; fortunately, just at that time, the ruling pontiff and his con-
temporaries cared much for literature and little for orthodoxy,
and from their palaces he could bid defiance to the Inquisition.
While Valla thus initiated biblical criticism south of the Alps,
a much greater man began a more fruitful work in northern
Europe. Erasmus, with his edition of the New Testament,
stands at the source of that great stream of modern research and
thought which is doing so much to undermine and dissolve away
the vast fabric of patristic and scholastic interpretation.
Yet his efforts to purify the scriptural text seemed at first to
encounter insurmountable difficulties, and one of these may
stimulate reflection. He had found, what some others had found
before him, that the famous verse in the first chapter of the First
* For Agobard, see the Liber auversus Fredigisuna, cap. xii ; also Reuter's Relig. Auf-
klarung iin Mittelalter, i, 24 ; also Poole, Illustrations of the History of Medieval Thought,
London, 1884, pp. 38 et seq. For Erigena, see his De Divisione Naturae, lib. iv, cap. v, also
i, cap. lxvi-lxxi, and for general account see Ueberweg, History of Philosophy, New York,
1871, vol. i, pp. 358 et seq., and for the treatment of his work by the Church, see the edition
of the Index under Leo XIII, 1881. For Abelard, see the Sic et Non, Prologue, Migne,
torn, clxxviii, and, on the general subject, Milman, Latin Christianity, vol. iii, pp. Z1 1-311.
For Hugo of St. Victor, see Erudit. Didask., lib. vii, vi, 4, in Migne, clxxvi. For Savonarola's
interpretations, see various references to his preaching in Villari's Life of Savonarola, Eng-
lish translation, London, 1890, and especially the exceedingly interesting table in the ap-
pendix to vol. i, chap. vii.
158 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
General Epistle of St. John, regarding the " three witnesses," was
an interpolation. Careful research through all the really impor-
tant early manuscripts showed that it appeared in none of them.
Even after the Bible had been corrected in the eleventh and
twelfth centuries by Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, and
by Nicholas, cardinal and librarian of the Roman Church, " in
accordance with the orthodox faith/' the passage was still want-
ing in the more authoritative Latin manuscripts. There was not
the slightest tenable ground for believing in the authenticity of
the text ; on the contrary, it has been demonstrated that, after a
universal silence of the orthodox fathers of the Church, of the
ancient versions of the Scriptures, and of all really important
manuscripts, the verse first appeared in a Confession of Faith
drawn ujd by an obscure zealot toward the end of the fifth
century. In a very mild exercise, then, of critical judgment,
Erasmus omitted this text from the first two editions of his
Greek Testament as evidently spurious. A storm arose at once.
In England, Lee, afterward Archbishop of York ; in Spain, Stu-
nica, one of the editors of the Complutensian Polyglot ; and in
France, Bude*, Syndic of the Sorbonne, together with a vast army
of monks in England and on the Continent, attacked him fero-
ciously. He was condemned by the University of Paris, and
various propositions of his were declared to be heretical and im-
pious. Fortunately, the worst persecutors could not reach him ;
otherwise they might have treated him as they treated his dis-
ciple, Berquin, whom they burned at Paris in 1529.
The fate of this spurious text throws light into the workings
of human nature in its relations to sacred literature. Although
Luther omitted it from his translation of the New Testament, and
kept it out of every copy published during his lifetime, and al-
though at a later period the most eminent Christian scholars
showed that it had no right to a place in the Bible, it was, after
Luther's death, replaced in the German translation, and has been
incorporated into all important editions of it, save one, since the
beginning of the seventeenth century. • So essential was it found
in maintaining the dominant theology that, despite the fact that
Sir Isaac Newton, Richard Porson, the nineteenth-century revisers,
and all other eminent authorities have rejected it, the Anglican
Church still retains it in its Lectionary, and the Scotch Church
continues to use it in the Westminster Catechism, as a main sup-
port of the doctrine of the Trinity.
Nor were other new truths, presented by Erasmus, better re-
ceived. His statement that " some of the Epistles ascribed to St.
Paul are certainly not his," which is to-day universally acknowl-
edged as a truism, also aroused a storm. For generations, then,
his work seemed vain.
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 159
On the coming in of the Reformation the great structure of
belief in the literal and historical correctness of every statement
in the Scriptures, in the profound allegorical meanings of the sim-
plest texts, and even in the divine origin of the vowel punctuation,
towered more loftily and grew more rapidly than ever before. The
reformers, having cast off the authority of the Pope and of the
universal Church, fell back all the more upon the infallibility of
the sacred books. The attitude of Luther toward this great sub-
ject was characteristic. As a rule he adhered tenaciously to the
literal interpretation of the Scriptures; his argument against
Copernicus is a fair example of his reasoning in this respect ; but,
with the strong good sense which characterized him, he from time
to time broke away from the received belief. Thus, he took the
liberty of understanding certain passages in the Old Testament in
a different sense from that given them by the New Testament,
and declared St. Paul's allegorical use of the story of Sarah and
Hagar " too unsound to stand the test." He also emphatically de-
nied that the Epistle to the Hebrews was written by St. Paul, and
he did this in the exercise of a critical judgment upon internal
evidence. His utterance as to the Epistle of St. James became
famous. He announced to the Church : " I do not esteem this an
apostolic epistle ; I will not have it in my Bible among the canon-
ical books," and he summed up his opinion in his well-known
allusion to it as " an epistle of straw."
Emboldened by him, the gentle spirit of Melanchthon, while
usually taking the Bible very literally, at times revolted ; but this
was not due to any want of loyalty to the old method of interpre-
tation : whenever the wildest and most absurd system of exegesis
seemed necessary to support any part of the reformed doctrine,
Luther and Melanchthon unflinchingly developed it. Both of
them held firmly to the old dictum of Hugo of St. Victor, which,
as we have seen, was virtually that one must first accept the doc-
trine, and then find scriptural warrant for it. Very striking
examples of this were afforded in the interpretation by Luther
and Melanchthon of certain alleged marvels of their time, and one
out of several of these may be taken as typical of their methods.
In 1523 Luther and Melanchthon jointly published a work
under the title Der Papstesel, interpreting the significance of a
strange, ass-like monster which, according to a popular story, had
been found floating in the Tiber some time before. This book was
illustrated by startling pictures, and both text and pictures were
devoted to proving that this monster was " a sign from God," in-
dicating the doom of the papacy. This treatise by the two great
founders of German Protestantism pointed out that the ass's head
signified the Pope himself, " for," said they, " as well as an ass's
head is suited to a human body, so well is the Pope suited to be
160 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
head over the Church." This argument was clinched by a refer-
ence to Exodus. The right hand of the monster, said to be like an
elephant's foot, they made to signify the spiritual rule of the Pope,
since " with it he tramples upon all the weak " : this they proved
from the book of Daniel and the Second Epistle to Timothy. The
monster's left hand, which was like the hand of a man, they de-
clared to mean the Pope's secular rule, and they found passages to
support this view in Daniel and St. Luke. The right foot, which
was like the foot of an ox, they declared to typify the servants of
the spiritual power, and proved this by a citation from St. Mat-
thew. The left foot, like a griffin's claw, they made to typify the
servants of the temporal power of the Pope, and the highly devel-
oped breasts and various other members, cardinals, bishops, priests,
and monks, " whose life is eating, drinking, and unchastity " : to
prove this they cited passages from Second Timothy and Philip-
pians. The alleged fish-scales on the arms, legs, and neck of the
monster they made to typify secular princes and lords, " since," as
they said, " in St. Matthew and Job the sea typifies the world, and
fishes men." The old man's head at the base of the monster's
spine they interpreted to mean "the abolition and end of the
papacy," and proved this from Hebrews and Daniel. The dragon
which opens his mouth in the rear and vomits fire, " refers to the
terrible, virulent bulls and books which the Pope and his minions
are now vomiting forth into the world." The two great reformers
then went on to insist that, since this monster was found at Rome,
it could refer to no person but the Pope, " for," they said, " God
always sends his signs in the places where their meaning applies."
Finally, they assured the world that the monster in general clearly
signified that the papacy was then near its end. To this develop-
ment of interpretation Luther and Melanchthon especially devoted
themselves ; the latter by revising this exposition of the prodigy,
and the former by making additions to a new edition.
So great was the success of this kind of interpretation that
Luther, hearing that a monstrous calf had been found at Freiburg,
published a treatise upon it, showing, by citations from the books
of Exodus, Kings, the Psalms, Isaiah, and Daniel, and the Gospel
of St. John, that this new monster was the especial work of the
devil, but full of meaning in regard to the questions at issue
between the reformers and the older Church.
The other great branch of the reformed Church appeared for a
time to establish a better system. Calvin's strong logic seemed at
one period likely to tear his adherents away from the older
method ; but the evolution of scholasticism continued, and the
great influence of the German reformers prevailed. At every
theological center came an amazing development of interpretation.
Eminent Lutheran divines in the seventeenth century, like Ger-
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 161
hard, Calovius, Cocceius, and multitudes of others, wrote scores of
quartos to further this system, and the other branch of the Protes-
tant Church emulated their example. The pregnant dictum of St.
Augustine — " Greater is the authority of Scripture than all human
capacity " — was steadily insisted upon, and toward the close of the
seventeenth century Voetius, the renowned professor at Utrecht,
declared, " Not a word is contained in the Holy Scriptures which
is not in the strictest sense inspired, the very punctuation not ex-
cepted." But unfortunately it was very difficult to find what the
" authority of Scripture " really was. To the greater number of
Protestant ecclesiastics it meant the authority of any meaning
in the text which they had the wit to invent and the power to
enforce.
To increase this vast confusion came, in the older branch of
the Church, the idea of the divine inspiration of St. Jerome's Latin
translation of the Bible — the Vulgate. It was insisted by leading
Catholic authorities that this was as completely a product of
divine inspiration as was the Hebrew original. Strong men arose
to insist even that, where the Hebrew and the Latin differed, the
Hebrew should be altered to fit Jerome's mistranslation, as the
latter, having been made under the new dispensation, must be
better than that made under the old. Even so great a man as
Cardinal Bellarmine exerted himself in vain against this new tide
of unreason.*
* For Valla, see various sources already named ; and, for an especially interesting account,
Symonds's Renaissance in Italy, the Revival of Learning, pp. 260-269 ; and, for the opinion
of the best contemporary judge, see Erasmi Opera, Ley den, 1*703, torn, iii, p. 98. For
Erasmus and his opponents, see Life of Erasmus, by Butler, London, 1825, pp. 179-182;
but especially, for the general subject, Bishop Creighton's History of the Papacy during the
Reformation.
For the attack by Bude and the Sorbonne and the burning of Berquin, see Drummond,
Life and Character of Erasmus, vol. ii, pp. 220-223 ; also pp. 230-239. As to the text of
the Three Witnesses, see Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap, xxxvii, notes
116-118 ; also Dean Milman's note thereupon. For a full and learned statement of the evi-
dence against the verse, see Porson's Letters to Travis, London, 1790, in which an elaborate
discussion of all the MSS. is given. See also Jowett in Essays and Reviews, p. 307. For a
very full and impartial history of the long controversy over this passage, see Charles Butler's
Horse BiblicEe, reprinted in Jared Spafks's Theological Essays and Tracts, vol. ii. For Luther's
ideas of interpretation, see his Sammtliche Schriften, Walch edition, vol. i, p. 1199, vol. ii,
p. 1758, vol. viii, p. 2140 ; for some of his more free views, vol. xiv, p. 472, vol. vi, p. 121,
vol. xi, p. 1448, vol. xi, p. 1089 ; also, Tholuck, Doctrine of Inspiration, Boston, 1867,
citing the Colloquia, Frankfort, 1571, vol. ii, p. 102; also, the Vorreden zu der deutschen
Bibelubersetzung, in Walch's edition, as above, vol. xiv, especially pp. 94, 98, and 146-150.
As to Melanchthon, see especially his Loci Communes, 1521 ; and, as to the enormous growth
of commentaries in the generations immediately following, see Charles Beard, Hibbert Lec-
tures for 1883, on the Reformation, especially the admirable chapter on Protestant Scho-
lasticism ; also Archdeacon Farrar, History of Interpretation. For the Papstesel, etc., see
Luther's Sammtliche Schriften, edit. Walch, vol. xiv, pp. 2403 ct seq. ; also Melanchthon's
VOL. XLVII. — 14
\6z THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
Nor was a fanatical adhesion to the mere letter of the sacred
text confined to western Europe. About the middle of the seven-
teenth century, in the reign of Alexis, father of Peter the Great,
Nikon, Patriarch of the Russian Greek Church, attempted to cor-
rect the Slavonic Scriptures and service-books. They were full of
interpolations due to ignorance, carelessness, or zeal, and in order
to remedy this state of the texts Nikon procured a number of the
best Greek and Slavonic manuscripts, set the leading and most
devout scholars he could find at work upon them, and caused
Russian Church councils in 1G55 and 1GGG to promulgate the books
thus corrected.
Straightway great masses of the people, led by monks and parish
priests, rose in revolt. The fact that the revisers had written in the
New Testament the name of Jesus correctly, instead of following
the old wrong orthography, aroused the wildest fanaticism. The
monks of the great convent of Solovetsk, when the new books were
sent them, cried in terror : " Woe, woe ! what have you done with
the Son of God ?" They then shut their gates, defying patriarch,
council, and Czar, until, after a struggle lasting seven years, their
monastery was besieged and taken by an imperial army. Hence
arose the great sect of the " Old Believers," lasting to this day, and
fanatically devoted to the corrupt readings of the old text.*
Opera, edit. Bretschneider, vol. xx, pp. 665 et seq. In the White Library of Cornell Uni-
versity will be found an original edition of the book with engravings of the monster. For
the Monchkalb, see Luther's works as above, vol. xix, pp. 2416 et seq. For the spirit of
Calvin in interpretation, see Farrar, and especially H. P. Smith, D. D., Inspiration and In-
errancy, chap, iv, and the very brilliant essay forming chap, iii of the same work, byL. J.
Evans, pp. 66 and 67, note. For the attitude of the older Church toward the Vulgate, see
Pallavicini, Histoire du Concile de Trente, Montrouge, 1844, torn, i, pp. 19, 20; but espe-
cially Symonds, The Catholic Reaction, vol. i, pp. 226 et seq. As to a demand for a revision
of the Hebrew Bible to correct its differences from the Vulgate, see Emanuel Deutsch's
Literary Remains, New York, 1874, p. 9. For the work and spirit of Calovius and other
commentators immediately following the Reformation, see Farrar, as above; also Beard,
Schaff, and Hertzog, Geschichte des alten Testaments in der Christlichen Kirche, pp. 527
et seq. As to extreme views of Voetius and others, see Tholuck, as above.
* The present writer, visiting Moscow in the spring of 1894, was presented by Count
Leo Tolstoi to one of the most eminent and influential members of the sect of "Old Be-
lievers," which dates from the reform of Nikon. Nothing could exceed the fervor with
which this venerable man, standing in the chapel of his superb villa, expatiated upon the
horrors of making the sign of the cross with three fingers instead of with two. His argu-
ment was that the two fingers, as used by the " Old Believers," typify the divine and human
nature of our Lord, and hence that the use of them is strictly correct ; whereas, signing
with three fingers, representing the blessed Trinity, is " virtually to crucify all three persons
of the Godhead afresh."
Not less cogent were his arguments regarding the immense value of the old text of
Scripture as compared with the new.
For the revolt against Nikon and his reformers, see Rambaud, History of Russia, vol. i,
pp. 414-416 ; also Wallace, Russia, vol. ii, pp. 307-309 ; also Leroy Beaulieu, L'Empire des
Tsars, vol. iii, livre iii.
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 163
Strange to say, on the development of Scripture interpretation,
largely in accordance with the old methods, wrought, about the
beginning of the eighteenth century, Sir Isaac Newton.
It is hard to believe that from the mind which produced the
Principia, and which broke through the many time-honored be-
liefs regarding the dates and formation of scriptural books, could
have come his discussions regarding the prophecies ; still, at vari-
ous points even in this work, his power appears. From internal
evidence he not only discarded the text of the Three Witnesses,
but he decided that the Pentateuch must have been made up
from several books ; that Genesis was not written until the reign
of Saul ; that the books of Kings and Chronicles were probably
collected by Ezra ; and, in a curious anticipation of modern criti-
cism, that the book] of Psalms and the prophecies of Isaiah and
Daniel were each written by various authors at various dates.
But the old belief in prophecy as prediction was too strong for
him, and we find him applying his great powers to the elucida-
tion of the details given by the prophets and in the Apocalypse
to the history of mankind since unrolled, and tracing from every
statement in prophetic literature its exact fulfillment even in the
most minute particulars.
By the beginning of the eighteenth century the structure of
scriptural interpretation had become enormous. It seemed des-
tined to hide forever the real character of our sacred literature
and to obscure the great light which Christianity had brought
into the world. The Church, Eastern and Western, Catholic and
Protestant, was content to sit in its shadow, and the great divines
of all branches of the Church reared every sort of fantastic but-
tress to strengthen or adorn it. It seemed to be founded for
eternity ; and yet, at this very time when it appeared the strong-
est, a current of thought was rapidly dissolving away its founda-
tions, and preparing that wreck and ruin of the whole fabric
which is now, at the close of the nineteenth century, going on so
rapidly.
The account of the movement thus begun is next to be given.*
Hydrogen has at last been liquefied in quantities susceptible of exami-
nation, by Prof. Olzewski, of Cracow, who finds that its critical point— the
temperature at which it passes from a liquid to a vapor— is —233° C, and
its boiling point at normal pressure —343° C. Thus the last gas that has
resisted liquefaction has yielded.
* For Newton's boldness in textual criticism, compared with his credulity as to the
literal fulfillment of prophecy, see his Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel and
the Apocalypse of St. John, in his works, edited by Horsley, London, 1785, vol. v, pp.
297-491.
164 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS.
II.— PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON.
By HERBERT SPENCER.
A LREADY, in Chapter II of the preceding part, have been
-£^~ given illustrations of the general truth that in rude tribes it
is difficult to distinguish between the priest and the medicine-
man. Their respective functions are commonly fulfilled by the
same person. In addition to the instances there given, here are
some others. According to Humboldt, "the Caribbee marirris
are at once priests, jugglers, and physicians." Among the Tupis
" the Payes, as they were called, were at once quacks, jugglers,
and priests." Passing from South America to North, we read that
the "Carriers know little of medicinal herbs. Their priest or
magician is also the doctor ; " and, of the Dakotahs, Schoolcraft
says — " The Priest is both prophet and doctor." In Asia we meet
with a kindred connection. In Southern India, the Kurumbas
act as doctors to the Badagas, and it is said of them — " The Ku-
rumbas also officiate as priests at their marriages and deaths."
So is it among peoples further north. " Native doctors swarm in
Mongolia. . . . They are mostly lamas. There are a few laymen
who add medical practice to their other occupations, but the great
majority of doctors are priests." It is the same on the other great
continent. Reade tells us that in Equatorial Africa the fetish-
man is doctor, priest, and witch-finder ; and concerning the Joloffs
and Eggarahs, verifying statements are made by Mollien and by
Allen and Thomson.
This evidence, re-enforcing evidence given in the preceding
part, and re-enforced by much more evidence given in the first
volume of this work, shows that union of the two functions is a
normal trait in early societies.
The origin of this union lies in the fact before named that the
primitive priest and the primitive medicine-man both deal with
supposed supernatural beings; and the confusion arises in part
from the conceived characters of these ghosts and gods, some of
which are regarded as always malicious, and others of which,
though usually friendly, are regarded as liable to be made angry
and then to inflict evils.
The medicine-man, dealing with malicious spirits, to which
diseases among other evils are ascribed by savages, subjects his
patients partly to natural agencies, but chiefly to one or other
method of exorcism. Says Keating of the Chippewas, " their
mode of treatment depends more upon the adoption of proper
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 165
spells than the prescription of suitable remedies." Among the
Nootka Sound people, —
" Natural pains and maladies are invariably ascribed to the absence or
other irregular conduct of the soul, or to the influence of evil spirits, and
all treatment is directed to the recall of the former and to the appeasing of
the latter."
So, too, of the Okanagans we read : —
"But here, as elsewhere, the sickness becoming at all serious or mys-
terious, medical treatment proper is altogether abandoned, and the patient
committed to the magic powers of the medicine- man."
Sequent upon such beliefs in the supernatural origin of dis-
eases are various usages elsewhere. It is said of the Karens that
"when a person is sick, these people [medicine-men], for a fee,
will tell what spirit has produced the sickness, and the necessary-
offering to conciliate it." Among the Araucanians, the medicine-
man having brought on a state of trance, real or pretended, dur-
ing which he is supposed to have been in communication with
spirits, declares on his recovery —
"the nature and seat of the malady, and proceeds to dose the patient,
whom he also manipulates about the part afflicted until he succeeds in ex-
tracting the cause of the sickness, which he exhibits in triumph. This is
generally a spider, a toad, or some other reptile which he has had carefully
concealed about his person."
Speaking of the Tahitian doctors, who are almost invariably
priests or sorcerers, Ellis says that in cases of sickness they re-
ceived fees, parts of which were supposed to belong to the gods :
the supposition being that the gods who had caused the diseases
must be propitiated by presents. A more advanced people ex-
hibit a kindred union of ideas. Says Gilmour —
" Mongols seldom separate medicine and prayers, and a clerical doctor
has the advantage over a layman in that he can attend personally to both
departments, administering drugs on the one hand, and performing reli-
gious ceremonies on the other."
Hence the medical function of the priest. When not caused
by angry gods diseases are believed to be caused by indwelling
demons, who have either to be driven out by making the body an
intolerable residence, or have to be expelled by superior spirits
who are invoked.
But there is often a simultaneous use of natural and super-
natural means, apparently implying that the primitive medicine-
man, in so far as he uses remedies acting physically or chemically,
foreshadows the physician ; yet the apparent relationship is illu-
sive, for those which we distinguish as natural remedies are not
so distinguished by him. In the first volume, in the chapter on
166 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
Plant- Worship, it was shown that powerful effects wrought on
the body by plants, and the product of plants, are supposed to be
due to spirits dwelling in the plants. Hence the medicine-man,
or " mystery-man," being concerned solely with supernatural
causation of one or other kind, foreshadows the physician only to
the extent of using some of the same means, and not as having
the same ideas.
As we shall presently see, it is rather from the priest properly
so called, who deals with ghosts not antagonistically but sympa-
thetically, that the physician originates.
While the medicine-man is distinctive of small and unde-
veloped societies, the priest proper arises along with social aggre-
gation and the formation of established government. In the pre-
ceding division of this work, Chapters III, IV, and Y, we saw
that since originally propitiation of the ghosts of parents and
other members of each family is at first carried on by relatives,
implying that the priestly function is generally diffused ; and
since this priestly function presently devolves on the eldest male
of the family ; and since, when chieftainship becomes settled and
inheritable, the living chief makes sacrifices to the ghost of the
dead chief, and sometimes does this on behalf of the people ; there
so arises an official priest, and it results that with enlargement of
societies by union with subjugated tribes and the spread of the
chieftain's power, now grown into royal power, over various sub-
ordinated groups, and the accompanying establishment of deputy
rulers in these groups, who take with them the worship that arose
in the conquering tribe, there is initiated a priesthood which,
growing into a caste, becomes an agency for the dominant cult ;
and, from causes already pointed out, becomes the seat of culture
in general.
From part of this culture, having its origin in preceding
stages, comes greater knowledge of medicinal agents, which
gradually cease to be conceived as acting supernaturally. Early
civilizations show us the transition. Says Maspero of the ancient
Egyptians : —
" The cure- workers are . . . divided into several categories. Some in-
cline toward sorcery, and have faith in formulas and talismans only. . . .
Others extol the use of drugs ; they study the qualities of plants and
minerals . . . and settle the exact time when they must he procured and
applied. . . . The best doctors carefully avoid binding themselves exclu-
sively to either method . . . their treatment is a mixture of remedies and
exorcisms which vary from patient to patient. They are usiially priests."
Along with this progress, there had gone on a differentiation of
functions. Among the lower classes of the priesthood were the
" pastophors, who . . . practiced medicine."
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 167
Respecting the state of things in Babylonia and Assyria, the
evidence is not so clear. Says Lenormant of the Chaldseans :
" II est curieux de noter que les trois parties qui composaient ainsi le
grand ouvrage magique dont Sir Henry Rawlinson a retrouve les debris,
correspondent exactement aux trois classes de docteurs chaldeens que le
livre de Daniel (i, 20 ; ii, 2 et 27 ; v, 11) enumere a cote des astrologues et
des divins (kasdim et gazrim), c'est-a-dire les khartumin ou conjurateurs,
les hakamin ou medecius, et les asaphin ou theosophes."
With like implications Prof. Sayce tells us that —
" The doctor had long been an institution in Assyria and Babyonia. It
is true tbat the great bulk of the people had recourse to religious charms
and ceremonies when they were ill, and ascribed their sickness to possession
by demons instead of to natural causes. But there was a continually in-
creasing number of the educated who looked for aid in their maladies
rather to the physician with his medicine than to the sorcerer or priest with
his charms."
But from these two statements taken together it may fairly be in-
ferred that the doctors had arisen as one division of the priestly
class.
Naturally it was with the Hebrews as with their more civilized
neighbors. Says Gauthier —
" Chez les Juif s la medecine a ete longteraps sacerdotale comme chez
presque tous les anciens peuples ; les Levites etaient les seuls medecins.
. . . Chez les plus anciens peuples de TAsie, tels que les Indiens et les
Perses, l'art de guerir etait egalement exerce par les pretres."
In later days this connection became less close, and there was
a separation of the physician from the priest. Thus in Ecclesias-
ticus we read : —
" My son, in thy sickness be not negligent : but pray unto the Lord, and
he will make thee whole. Leave off from sin, and order thine hands
aright, and cleanse thy heart from all wickedness. Give a sweet savor,
and a memorial of fine flour ; and make a fat offering. Then give place
to the physician, for the Lord hath created him ; let him not go from thee,
for thou hast need of him." (xxxviii, 15.)
Facts of congruous kinds are remarked on by Draper : —
" In the Talmudic literature there are all the indications of a transitional
state, so far as medicine is concerned ; supernatural seems to be passing
into the physical, the ecclesiastical is mixed up with the exact : thus a rabbi
may cure disease by the ecclesiastical operation of laying on of hands ; but
of febrile disturbances, an exact, though erroneous explanation is given,
and pai'alysis of the hind legs of an animal is correctly referred to the
pressure of a tumor on the spinal cord."
Concerning the origin of the medical man among the Hindus,
whose history is so much complicated by successively superposed
governments and religions, the evidence is confused. Accounts
168 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
agree, however, in the assertion that medicine was of divine ori-
gin : evidently implying its descent through the priesthood. In
the introduction to Charaka's work, medical knowledge is said to
have indirectly descended from Brahma to Indra, while " Bharad-
vaja learned it from Indra, and imparted it to six Rishis, of whom
Agnivasa was one." The association of medical practice with
priestly functions is also implied in the statement of Hunter that
" the national astronomy and the national medicine of India alike
derived their first impulses from the exigencies of the national
worship." The same connection was shown during the ascend-
ancy of Buddhism. " The science was studied in the chief centers
of Buddhist civilization, such as the great monastic university of
Nalanda, near Gaya\"
Similar was the genesis of the medical profession among the
Greeks. "The science [of medicine] was of divine origin, and
the doctors continued, in a certain sense, to he accounted the de-
scendants of Asklepios." As we read in Grote —
" The many families or gentes called Asklepiads, who devoted them-
selves to the study and practice of medicine, and who principally dwelt
near the temples of Asklepius, whither sick and suffering men came to
obtain relief — all recognized the god [Asklepius] not merely as the object
of their common worship, hut also as their actual progenitor."
In later times we see the profession becoming secularized.
"The union between the priesthood and the profession was gradually
becoming less and less close ; and, as the latter thus separated itself, divi-
sions or departments arose in it, both as regards subjects, such as pharmacy,
surgery, etc., and also as respects the position of its cultivators."
Miscellaneous evidence shows that during early Roman times,
when there existed no medical class, diseases were held to be
supernaturally inflicted, and the methods of treating them were
methods of propitiation. Certain maladies ascribed to certain
deities prompted endeavor to pacify those deities ; and hence there
were sacrifices to Febris, Mephitis, Ossipaga, and Carna. An
island in the Tiber, which already had a local healing god, be-
came also the seat of the ^Esculapius cult : that god having been
appealed to on the occasion of an epidemic. Evidently, therefore,
medical treatment at Rome, as elsewhere, was at first associated
with priestly functions. Throughout subsequent stages the nor-
mal course of evolution is deranged by influences from other
societies. Conquered peoples, characterized by actual or sup-
posed medical skill, furnished the medical practitioners. For a
long time these were dependents of patrician houses. Say Guhl
and Koner — " Physicians and surgeons were mostly slaves or
freedmen." And the medical profession, when it began to de-
velop, was of foreign origin. Mommsen writes : —
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 169
" In 535 the first Greek physician, the Peloponnesian Archagathus, set-
tled in Rome and there acquired such repute by his surgical operations, that
a residence was assigned to him on the part of the state and he received the
freedom of the city; and thereafter his colleagues flocked in crowds to
Rome . . . the profession, one of the most lucrative which existed in
Rome, continued a monopoly in the hands of the foreigners."
Opposed to paganism as Christianity was from the beginning,
we might naturally suppose that the primitive association be-
tween the priestly and medical functions would cease when Chris-
tianity became dominant. But the roots of human sentiments
and beliefs lie deeper than the roots of particular creeds, and are
certain to survive and bud out afresh when an old creed has been
superficially replaced by a new one. Everywhere pagan usages
and ideas are found to modify Christian forms and doctrines, and
it is so here. The primitive theory that diseases are of super-
natural origin still held its ground, and the agency of the priest
consequently remained needful. Of various hospitals built by
the early Christians we read : —
"It was commonly a priest who had charge of them, as, at Alexandria,
S. Isidore, under the Patriarch Theophilus; at Constantinople, St. Zoticus,
and after him St. Samson."
Concerning the substitution of Christian medical institutions for
pagan ones, it is remarked : —
" The destruction of the Asclepions was not attended by any suitably
extensive measures for insuring professional education. . . . The conse-
quences are seen in the gradually increasing credulity and imposture of
succeeding ages, until, at length, there was an almost universal reliance on
miraculous interventions."
But a more correct statement would be that the pagan conceptions
of disease and its treatment re-asserted themselves. Thus, according
to Sprengel, after the sixth century the monks practiced medicine
almost exclusively. Their cures were performed by prayers, relics
of martyrs, holy water, etc., often at the tombs of martyrs. The
state of things during early niediEeval times, of which we know
so little, may be inferred from the fact that in the twelfth cen-
tury the practice of medicine by priests was found to interfere so
much with their religious functions that orders were issued to
prevent it; as by the Lateran Council in 1123, the Council of
Reims in 1131, and again by the Lateran Council in 1139. But
the usage survived for centuries later in France and probably
elsewhere ; and it seems that only when a papal bull permitted
physicians to marry, did the clerical practice of medicine begin
to decline. Says Warton, " The physicians of the University of
Paris were not allowed to marry till the year 1452."
In our own country a parallel relationship similarly survived.
i7o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
In 1456 " the practice of medicine was still, to some extent, in the
hands of the clergy." That ecclesiastics exercised authority over
medical practice in the time of Henry VIII, is shown by a statute
of his third year, which reads : —
" It is enacted that no person in London, or seven miles thereof, shall
practice as a physician or surgeon without examination and license of the
Bishop of London, or of the Dean of Paul's, duly assisted by the faculty ;
or beyond these limits, without license from the bishop of the diocese, or
his vicar- general, similarly assisted."
And it is alleged that down to the early part of our own century
there remained with the Archbishop of Canterbury a latent power
of granting medical diplomas. So that the separation between
" soul-curer and body-curer," which goes on as savage peoples
develop into civilized nations, has but very gradually completed
itself even throughout Christian Europe.
This continuity of belief and of usage is even still shown in
the surviving interpretations of certain diseases by the Church
and its adherents ; and it is even still traceable in certain modes
of medical treatment and certain popular convictions connected
with them.
In the minds of multitudinous living people there exists the
notion that epidemics are results of divine displeasure ; and no
less in the verdict " Died by the visitation of God," than in the
vague idea that recovery from, or fatal issue of, a disease, is in
part supernaturally determined, do we see that the ancient theory
lingers. Moreover, there is a predetermination to preserve it.
When, some years ago, it was proposed to divide hospital patients
into two groups, for one of which prayers were to be offered and
for the other not, the proposal was resented with indignation.
There was a resolution to maintain the faith in the curative effect
of prayer, whether it was or was not justified by the facts ; to
which end it was felt desirable not to bring it face to face with
the facts.
Again, down to the present day epilepsy is regarded by many
as due to the possession by a devil ; and the prayer-book contains
a form of exorcism to be gone through by a priest to cure mala-
dies supernaturally caused. Belief in the demoniacal origin of
some diseases is indeed a belief necessarily accepted by consistent
members of the Christian Church ; since it is the belief taught to
them in the New Testament — a belief, moreover, which survives
the so-called highest culture. When, for example, we see a late
Prime Minister, deeply imbued with the university spirit, pub-
licly defending the story that certain expelled devils entered into
swine, we are clearly shown that the theory of the demoniacal
origin of some disorders is quite consistent with the current
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 171
creed. And we are shown how, consequently, there yet remains a
place for priestly action in medical treatment.
Let me add a more remarkable mode in which the primitive
theory has persisted. The notion that the demon who was caus-
ing a disease must be driven out, continued, until recent times, to
give a character to medical practice, and even now influences the
conceptions which many people form of medicines. The primi-
tive medicine-man, thinking to make the body an intolerable
habitat for the demon, exposed his patient to this or that kind of
alarming, painful, or disgusting treatment. He made before him
dreadful noises and fearful grimaces, or subjected him to an
almost unbearable heat, or produced under his nose atrocious
stenches, or made him swallow the most abominable substances
he could think of. As we saw in the case cited from Ecclesias-
ticus, the idea, even among the semi-civilized Hebrews, long re-
mained of this nature. Now there is abundant proof that, not
only during mediaeval days but in far more recent days, the effi-
ciency of medicines was associated in thought with their disgust-
ingness : the more repulsive they were the more effectual. Hence
Montaigne's ridicule of the monstrous compounds used by doctors
in his day — " dung of elephant, the left foot of a tortoise, liver of
a mole, powdered excrement of rats, etc." Hence a receipt given
in Vicarie's Treasure of Anatomy (1641)— " Five spoonfuls of
knave child urine of an innocent." Hence " the beliefs that epi-
lepsy may be cured by drinking water out of the skull of a sui-
cide or by tasting the blood of a murderer ; " that " moss growing
on a human skull, if dried, powdered, and taken as snuff, will
cure the headache ; " and that the halter and chips from the
gibbet on which malefactors have been executed or exposed have
medicinal properties. And there prevails in our own days among
the uncultured and the young a similarly-derived notion. They
betray an ingrained mental association between the nastiness of a
medicine and its efficiency : so much so, indeed, that a medicine
which is pleasant is with difficulty believed to be a medicine.
As with evolution at large, as with organic evolution, and as
with social evolution throughout its other divisions, secondary
differentiations accompany the primary differentiation. "While
the medical agency separates from the ecclesiastical agency, there
go on separations within the medical agency itself.
The most pronounced division is that between physicians and
surgeons. The origin of this has been confused in various ways,
and seems now the more obscure because there has been of late
arising not a further distinction between the two but a fusion of
them. All along they have had a common function in the treat-
ment of ordinary disorders and in the uses of drugs; and the
i7z THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONT ELY.
" general practitioner " has come to be one who avowedly fulfills
the functions of both. Indeed in our day it is common to take
degrees in both medicine and surgery, and thus practically to
unite these sub-professions. Meanwhile the two jointly have
become more clearly marked off from those who carry out their
orders. Down to recent times it was usual not only for a surgeon
to compound his own medicines, but a physician also had a dis-
pensary and sometimes a compounder : an arrangement which
still survives in country districts. Nowadays, however, both
medical and surgical practitioners in large places depute this part
of their business to chemists and druggists.
But the apparent nonconformity to the evolutionary process
disappears if we go back to the earliest stages. The distinction
between doctor and surgeon is not one which has arisen by dif-
ferentiation, but is one which asserted itself at the outset. For
while both had to cure bodily evils, the one was concerned with
evils supposed to be supernatu rally inflicted, and the other with
evils that were naturally inflicted — the one with diseases ascribed
to possessing demons, the other with injuries inflicted by human
beings, by beasts, and by inanimate bodies. Hence we naturally
find in the records of early civilizations more or less decided dis-
tinctions between the two.
" The Brahmin was the physician ; but the important manual depart-
ment of the profession could not be properly exercised by the pure Brah-
min; and to meet this difficulty, at an early period, another caste was
formed, from the offspring of a Brahmin with a daughter of a Vaishya.*'
There is evidence implying that the division existed in Egypt
before the Christian era ; and it is alleged that the Arabians sys-
tematically divided physics, surgery, and pharmacy into three
distinct professions. Among the Greeks, however, the separation
of functions did not exist : " the Greek physician was likewise a
surgeon" — was likewise a compounder of his own medicines.
Bearing in mind these scattered indications yielded by early
societies, we must accept in a qualified way the statements re-
specting the distinctions between the two in mediaeval times
throughout Europe. When we remember that during the dark
ages the religious houses and priestly orders were the centers of
such culture and skill as existed, we may infer that priests and
monks acted in both capacities ; and that hence, at the beginning
of the fifth century, surgery "was not yet a distinct branch of the
practice of medicine." Still, it is concluded that clerics generally
abstained from practicing surgery, and simply superintended the
serious operations performed by their assistants : the reason
being perhaps, as alleged, that the shedding of blood by clerics
being interdicted, they could not themselves use the operating
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 173
knife. And this may have been a part cause for the rise of those
secular medical practitioners who, having been educated in the
monastic schools, were, as barber-surgeons, engaged by the larger
towns in the public service. Probably this differentiation was
furthered by the papal edicts forbidding ecclesiastics from prac-
ticing medicine in general; for, as is argued, there may hence
have arisen that compromise which allowed the clergy to pre-
scribe medicines while they abandoned surgical practice into the
hands of laymen.
Along with this leading differentiation, confused in the ways
described, there have gone on, within each division, minor differen-
tiations. Some of these arose and became marked in early stages.
In ancient India —
" A special branch of surgery was devoted to rhinoplasty, or operations
for improving deformed ears and noses, and forming new ones.'1
That the specialization thus illustrated was otherwise marked, is
implied by the statement that " no less than a hundred and
twenty-seven surgical instruments were described in the works
of the ancient surgeons ; " and by the statement that in the San-
skrit period —
" The number of medical works and authors is extraordinarily large.
The former are either systems embracing the whole domain of the science,
or highly special investigations of single topics."
So was it, too, in ancient Egypt. Describing the results, Herod-
otus writes : —
" Medicine is practiced among them [the Egyptians] on a plan of separa-
tion ; each physician treats a single disorder, and no more: thus the coun-
try swarms with medical practitioners, some undertaking to cure diseases
of the eye, others of the head, others again of the teeth, others of the intes-
tines, and some those which are not local."
Though among the Greeks there was for a long period no division
even between physician and surgeon, yet in later days " the sci-
ence of healing became divided into separate branches, such as
the arts of oculists, dentists, etc."
Broken evidence only is furnished by intermediate times ; but
our own times furnish clear proofs of progress in the division of
labor among medical men. We have physicians who devote
themselves, if not exclusively, still mainly, to diseases of the
lungs, others to heart diseases, others to disorders of the nervous
system, others to derangements of digestion, others to affections of
the skin ; and we have hospitals devoted some to this and some
to that kind of malady. So, too, with surgeons. Besides such
specialists as oculists and aurists, there exist men noted for skill-
ful operations on the bladder, the rectum, the ovaria, as well as
men whose particular aptitudes are in the treatment of breakages
174 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
and dislocations, to say nothing of the quacks known as " bone-
setters," whose success, as has been confessed to me by a surgeon,
is often greater than that of men belonging to his own authorized
class.
In conformity with the normal order of evolution, integration
has accompanied this differentiation. From the beginning have
been shown tendencies toward unions of those who practiced the
healing art. There have arisen institutions giving a certain com-
mon education to them; associations of those whose kinds of
practice were similar ; and, in later times, certain general, though
less close, associations of all medical men. In Alexandria —
" The temple of Serapis was used for a hospital, the sick being received
into it, and persons studying medicine admitted for the purpose of familiar-
izing themselves with the appearance of disease, precisely as in such insti-
tutions at the present time."
In Rome, along with the imported worship of ^Esculapius, there
went the communication of knowledge in the places devoted to
him. During early medi&val times the monasteries, serving as
centers of instruction, gave some embodiment to the medical pro-
fession, like that which our colleges give. In Italy there later
arose institutions for educating physicians, as the medical school
of Salerno in 1140. In France before the end of the thirteenth
century the surgeons had become incorporated into a distinct
college, following, in this way, the incorporated medical faculty ;
and while thus integrating themselves they excluded from their
class the barbers who, forbidden to perform operations, were
allowed only to dress wounds, etc. In our own country there have
been successive consolidations. The barber-surgeons of London
were incorporated by Edward IV, and in the fifteenth century the
College of Physicians was founded, and " received power to grant
licenses to practice medicine — a power which had previously been
confined to the bishops/' Progress in definiteness of integration
was shown when, in Charles I's time, persons were forbidden to
exercise surgery in London and within seven miles, until they
had been examined by the company of barbers and surgeons ; and
also when, by the 18th of George II, excluding the barbers, the
Royal College of Surgeons was formed. At the same time there
have grown up medical schools in various places which prepare
students for examination by these incorporated medical bodies :
further integrations being implied. Hospitals, too, scattered
throughout the kingdom, have become places of clinical instruc-
tion, some united to colleges and some not. Another species of
integration has been achieved by medical journals, weekly and
quarterly, which serve to bring into communication educational
institutions, incorporated bodies, and the whole profession.
TWO-OCEAN PASS. i75
Two additional facts should be noted before closing the chap-
ter. One is the recent differentiation by which certain professors
of anatomy and physiology have been made into professors of
biology. In them the study of human life has developed into the
study of life at large. And it is interesting to see how this spe-
cialization, seemingly irrelevant to medical practice, eventually
becomes relevant; since the knowledge of animal life obtained
presently extends the knowledge of human life and so increases
medical skill. The other fact is that along with incorporation of
authorized medical men there has arisen jealousy of the unincor-
porated. Like the religious priesthood, the priesthood of medicine
persecutes heretics and those who are without diplomas. There
has long been, and still continues, denunciation of unlicensed prac-
titioners, as also of the " counter-practice " carried on by chemists
and druggists. That is to say, there is a constant tendency to a
more definite marking off of the integrated professional body.
■*»*■
TWO-OCEAN PASS.
By BAETON WAEEEN EVEEMANN, Ph. D.,
ICHTHYOLOGIST OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION.
IT was while the Great Ice King still ruled over all America
from the pole to the middle United States that Lake Lahontan
and Lake Bonneville spread their waters over hundreds of square
miles of our western territory ; Lahontan where we now have the
sage plains and alkali sinks of Nevada, and Bonneville covering
the greater part of Utah west of the Wasatch Mountains, but
now reduced to Sevier, Utah, and Great Salt Lakes, the last shal-
low remnants of a once mighty inland sea. It was probably long
before these great lakes had dried up, while their waters were yet
fresh and sweet, that occurred an event which wrought a vast
change in the physical geography of that region. Somewhere,
but no one is yet certain exactly where, one or more great fissures
opened in the earth, and there poured out an incredible amount
of lava which covered not less than one hundred and fifty thou-
sand square miles with one vast sheet of rhyolite hundreds, in
some places thousands, of feet in thickness. Northern California,
northwestern Nevada, nearly all of Oregon, Washington, and
Idaho, and parts of Wyoming, the Yellowstone Park, Montana,
and British Columbia were all covered by this stupendous flow.
The effect of this lava flow upon the present distribution of
the fishes of that region is known to have been very great, and
we are now beginning to understand some of the most important
factors of that distribution— a distribution which, until recently,
presented many anomalies.
176 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
It has been my good fortune to make explorations in Montana,
Wyoming, Idaho, and the Yellowstone Park which have cleared
up some of these difficulties. The presence of trout in Yellow-
stone Lake and the total absence of all fish from the other large
lakes of the park was one of the most interesting of these anom-
alies, and it is to its explanation that this article is devoted.
It is certain that all the streams and lakes of the territory
covered by the lava flow were wiped out of existence by the fiery
flood, and all terrestrial and aquatic life destroyed. Many long
years must have passed before this lava sheet became sufficiently
cooled to permit the formation of new streams ; but a time finally
came when the rains, falling upon the gradually cooling rock,
were no longer converted into steam and thrown back into the
air, only to condense and fall again, but, being able to remain
in liquid form upon the rock, sought lower levels, and thus
new streams began to flow. And then the fishes in the con-
necting streams below, which had not been destroyed by the
lava flow, began to invade the desolated region and repeople its
waters.
The rhyolite, obsidian, and trachyte were very hard and eroded
slowly, but when the streams reached the edge of the lava field
they encountered rock which was comparatively soft and which
wore away rapidly. The result is that every stream leaving the
Yellowstone Park has one or more great waterfalls in its course
where it leaves the lava sheet. Notable among these streams are
Lewis River, the outlet of Lewis and Shoshone Lakes ; Yellow-
stone River, the outlet of Yellowstone Lake ; Gardiner, Gibbon,
and Firehole Rivers, and Lava, Lupine, Glen, Crawfish, Tower,
and Cascade Creeks, all leaving the lava sheet in beautiful falls,
varying from thirty feet to over three hundred feet in vertical
descent. The following is a list of the principal waterfalls in the
streams in and about the park, each one of which is supposed to
form an insurmountable barrier to the ascent of fish :
Great Falls of the Yellowstone 308 feet.
Upper Falls of the Yellowstone 109 "
Crystal Falls in Cascade Creek 129 "
Tower Falls in Tower Creek 132 "
Undine Falls in Lava Creek 60 "
Lower Falls in Lava Creek 50 "
Wraith Falls in Lupine Creek 100 "
Osprey Falls in Gardiner River , 150 "
Rustic Falls in Glen Creek 70 "
Virginia Cascades in Gibbon River 60 "
Gibbon Falls in Gibbon River 80 "
Keppler Cascade in Firehole River 80 "
Upper Falls in Lewis River 50 "
Lower Falls in Lewis River 30 "
Moose Falls in Crawfish Creek 30 "
o
3
o
o
-1
to
o
o
VOL. XLVII. 15
178 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
Besides these, there are almost innumerable falls in the
smaller streams and brooks, but of them we take no account.
When it is remembered that nearly all these falls are within the
limits of an area fifty-five by sixty-five miles, one can get some
idea of the grandeur and beauty of the Yellowstone National
Park. It is doubtful if any other similar area in the world affords
so many magnificent waterfalls, beautiful cascades, seething tor-
rents, and abysmal gorges as are found here. But these are
among the least of the strange and wonderful things in this won-
derland, where geysers great and small, mud springs and boiling
paint-pots, and petrified forests so abound. With scarcely an
exception all these streams and lakes are of the best of pure,
clear, cold water, well supplied with insect larvae, the smaller
Crustacea, and various other kinds of the smaller animal and plant
forms sufficient in amount to support an immense fish life. But
it is a strange and interesting fact that, with the exception of
Yellowstone Lake and River, these waters were wholly barren of
fish life until recently stocked by the United States Fish Com-
mission. The river and lake just named are well filled with the
Red-throated trout (Salmo mykiss lewisi), and this fact is the
more remarkable when it is remembered that the falls in the
lower Yellowstone River are one hundred and nine and three
hundred and eight feet, respectively — by far the greatest found
in the park.
The total absence of fish from Lewis and Shoshone Lakes
and the numerous other small lakes and streams of the park
is certainly due to the various falls in their lower courses, which
have proved impassable barriers to the ascent of fishes from
below ; for in every one of these streams, just below the falls,
trout and in some cases other species of fishes are found in
abundance. But to account for the presence of trout in Yellow-
stone Lake was a matter of no little difficulty. If a fall of
thirty to fifty feet in Lewis River has prevented trout from
ascending to Lewis and Shoshone Lakes, why have not the much
greater falls in the Yellowstone proved a barrier to the ascent of
trout to Yellowstone Lake ? Certainly no fish can ascend these
falls, and we must look elsewhere for the explanation.
Many years ago the famous old guide, Jim Bridger, told his
incredulous friends that he had found, on the divide west of the
upper Yellowstone, a creek which flowed in both directions — one
end flowing east into the Yellowstone, the other west into Snake
River. But, as he also told about many other strange and to
them impossible things which he had seen — among which were a
glass mountain, and a river which ran down hill so fast that the
water was made boiling hot — they were not disposed to acknowl-
edge the existence of his " Two-Ocean Creek." Subsequent events
180 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
however, showed that the strange stories of Jim Bridger were not
without some elements of truth.
Two-Ocean Pass was visited by Captain Jones in 1S73, by Dr.
F. V. Hay den in 1878, and by Mr. Arnold Hague in 1884. The
observations made by these various explorers seemed to indicate
that Two-Ocean Pass is a nearly level meadow, near the center
of which is a marsh, which, in times of wet weather, becomes a
small lake, and that " a portion of the waters from the surround-
ing mountains accumulates in the marshy meadows and gradually
gravitates from either side into two small streams, one of which
flows to the northeast, the other to the southwest" (Hayden).
From these reports it began to be suspected that trout, ascend-
ing Pacific Creek from Snake River, might, in time of high wa-
ter, pass through the lake in Two-Ocean Pass and descend Atlantic
Creek and the upper Yellowstone to Yellowstone Lake, and thus
would the origin of the trout of that lake be explained. Dr. Jor-
dan, who spent some time in the park in 1889, was impressed with
the probable correctness of this explanation, but did not visit
Two- Ocean Pass.
In 1891, while carrying on certain investigations in Montana
and the Yellowstone Park, under the direction of the United States
Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, Colonel Marshall McDonald,
I was instructed to visit Two-Ocean Pass and determine definitely
the conditions which obtain there.
On August 7th, with Billy Hofer, that prince of mountaineers,
as our guide, we started out from the Mammoth Hot Springs with
a pack train of ten pack horses and eight saddle horses. Our
route led us through all the geyser basins of the park, and we
reached Two-Ocean Pass August 17th, where we remained long
enough to make a careful examination.
This pass is a high mountain meadow, about eight thousand
two hundred feet above the sea, and situated just south of the
park, in longitude 110° 10', latitude 44° 3'. It is surrounded on all
sides by rather high mountains, except where the narrow valleys
of Atlantic and Pacific Creeks open out from it. Running back
among the mountains to the northward are two small canons,
down which come two small streams. On the opposite side is an-
other canon, down which comes another small stream. The ex-
treme length of the meadow from east to west is about a mile,
while the width from north to south is not much less. The larger
of the streams coming in from the north is Pacific Creek, which,
after winding along the western side of the meadow, turns ab-
ruptly westward, leaving the pass through a narrow gorge. Re-
ceiving numerous small affluents, Pacific Creek soon becomes a
good-sized stream, which finally unites with Buffalo Creek a few
miles above where the latter stream Hows into Snake River.
w
o
H
3
h'S a
C3
'£
03
a
"
COS
1 gj ,3
g ?CO
0
'3
«3 .
0
"3
CD
a
'3
1852
1857 ':
1862
1867
1872
1877
1887
1892
$43 87
55 26
52 73
59 19
55 12
29 24
16 45
15 89
13 ol
12 98
$27 42
34 59
26 57
28 68
21 51
13 50
10 55
9 70
8 63
8 87
$38 52
29 53
34 17
19 26
12 09
8 86
9 42
8 46
8 42
$27 56
40 77
30 37
25 59
19 97
15 33
12 77
11 88
$86 33
43 45
51 32
33 60
26 19
24 76
$58 07
32 34
24 75
18 98
14 34
13 33
12 89
$55 40
34 17
29 24
20 81
15- 33
14 43
14 43
$32 90
27 00
31 07
19 97
15 20
14 52
$17 37
14 54
12 63
12 34
The foregoing statement shows reductions startling in amount
and distributed throughout all sections of the country. It is seen
that the Fitchburg Railroad now receives only $13.10 for an
amount of transportation for which as late as the year 1867 it
would have charged $59.19, while other railways show even greater
proportionate reductions. Similar data, including all railway
THE DECLINE IN RAILWAY CHARGES.
189
traffic, are not available for the years prior to 1882, but reductions
since that time are shown to have been extensive.
It should not, however, be understood that the amount paid
per capita for freight transportation by rail has decreased in the
proportion shown by these figures. The most obvious result of
declining rates is an extension of the utility of transportation
facilities, as is amply shown by the statistics of freight movement.
During 1882 the total railway freight service was equal to only
39,302,209,249 ton-miles, or about seven hundred and fifty-two tons
carried one mile per capita, and the decline in the average charge
per ton-mile from 1*236 cent in that year to 0'878 cent in 1893 was
accompanied by an increase in the volume of traffic of nearly
two hundred and fifty per cent, and in the amount of transporta-
tion per capita to almost twice that of 1 882. The increase in ton-
nage movement in proportion to population was about eighty-
seven per cent, and in the aggregate sum received therefor by the
railways only thirty-seven per cent.
It will not be sufficent to abandon the investigation of changes
in the charges for moving freight at this stage, nor to remain sat-
isfied with mere general averages of those charges. The more
minute inquiry which deals with actual rates upon specific com-
modities of commercial importance affords quite as interesting
and it is confidently believed equally important and significant
results. The rate from Chicago to New York on grain and flour,
WHEAT.
Export price
per bushel.
Average rate
per bushel.
Number of bushels
which could be carried
from Chicago to New
York for export price
of one bushel.
1867
$1 27
1 47
1 17
1 19
89
1 03
80
67
44
34
20
14
15
13
14
12
75 cents.
99 "
50 "
47 "
75 "
80 "
63 "
88 "
2-84
1872
4-20
1877
5-71
1882. .
8-22
1887
5-65
1892
7-46
1893
5-47
1894
5-20
which are nearly always classed together for rate-making pur-
poses, is indisputably the most important single rate that could
be selected. It derives its prominence not alone from the fact
that it applies to the most important agricultural and food
products, when shipped from the greatest grain market in the
world to its principal port of export, but also because it is the
basis of all charges on grain and flour shipped from the western
regions of surplus production to the Eastern States. Any modi-
fication of this rate, therefore, effects a corresponding change in
the transportation charge on nearly every bushel of grain and
i9o TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
barrel of flour produced in the United States, and directly affects
the price to producer and consumer of these important com-
modities.
The preceding table shows the average wheat rate from Chi-
cago to New York, the average export price as compiled by the
Bureau of Statistics, and the number of bushels which could be
shipped between those points for a sum equal to the export price
during each of the years named.
This table shows that the reduction in rates has been consid-
erably in excess of that in the price of wheat, and the same is
probably true of the other cereal products and of flour.
The rates charged on the artificial fertilizers so largely used
on the cotton plantations of the south are of great importance to
the producers of that section. Taking that from Charleston, S. C,
to Albany, Ga., as an example, it is found to have been reduced
from $4.30 per ton in 1884 to $2.59 in 1894. Equally important
changes have taken place in the rates on the product itself, cot-
ton being now shipped from Memphis to Boston via rail for fifty-
five and a half cents per one hundred pounds, a reduction of about
thirty per cent from the rate in force during 1880, which was
seventy-nine cents.
Nearly every one is familiar with the importance of the live-
stock movement from the southwest to Chicago. Shipments of
live cattle are concentrated at the railway centers on the Missouri
River and are carried forward to destination in train loads. The
rate per car load from 1877 to July, 1881, was $67.50. It was then
reduced to $60, but was advanced to $65, remaining at that
figure from 1883 to 1887. It is now twenty-three and a half cents
per hundred pounds, which is equivalent to $56.40 per car load.
The rate on packed meats from Cincinnati to New York city
averaged seventy-one and a quarter cents per hundred pounds
during 1867; during 1877 the average was 31*93 cents; during
1887, 2712 cents ; and during 1893, 25*43 cents.
Turning to passenger traffic, it is found that the tendency
toward increased speed and improved facilities has operated as a
limitation upon reductions in charges, though by no means wholly
preventing them. The earliest available data give the average
charge per passenger per mile during the year 1880 as 2*51 cents,
which is higher than any subsequent year. The average for 1893
was 1*976 cents, and the saving upon the traffic of that year over
what the public would have paid at the higher rates of 1880
amounted to $80,568,025.
Numerous reductions equal to those given could be cited and
to enumerate them all would require a statement showing rates
between practically all railway stations and upon nearly every
article commonly offered for shipment by rail. As such a mass
THE DECLINE IN RAILWAY CHARGES.
191
of detail would be unnecessarily confusing, it is important to
endeavor to discover some means for measuring at least with
approximate accuracy the aggregate public saving by means of
reduced charges for railway transportation. Fortunately, we
have such a means which may be made highly satisfactory so far,
at least, as relates to the last decade. The entire transportation
performed by the railways of the United States during the ten
years ending on June 30, 1893, was equal to moving 113,170,723,-
026 passengers and 681,500,465,282 tons of freight one mile ; and
had the average rates of 1883 been maintained upon this aggre-
gate, the public would have paid $251,981,813 for passenger and
$1,797,078,221 for freight transportation more than was actually
received by the railways. The total sum gained by the public by
means of reduced charges was therefore $2,049,060,034, an amount
equal to one fifth of the present aggregate railway capital, and
almost exactly equal to the entire revenue the United States Gov-
ernment derived from customs duties during the same period.
The effect of the decline in the amounts received for similar
railway service upon railway revenues can not be neglected by in-
telligent students of transportation. The following comparisons
between the years 1871, 1882, and 1893 are therefore presented :
Capitalization — stock and bonds
Gross earnings
Operating expeuses
Net earnings
Freight earnings
Passenger earnings
Dividends
PER MILE OF LINE OPERATED.
1871.
1882.
1893.
$59,426
$61,969
$59,729
9,040
7,189
7,190
6,863
4,290
4,876
3,177
2,899
2,314
6,600
4,725
4,883
2,441
1,886
1,776
1,265
952
594
From the .foregoing it is seen that the average railway capi-
talization has changed but little. Gross earnings per mile de-
creased during the first half of the period, but have remained
without material change during the last ; or, in other words, the
increased traffic has so far balanced the decrease in charges that
the average gross revenue has not changed. Operating expenses
have increased during the last eleven years, though during the
period from 1871 to 1882 they showed a decline. The explanation
is, that during the first period increased density of traffic per-
mitted economies in conducting transportation which had the
effect of reducing the average cost to the carriers. It would
appear, however, that a point was reached beyond which the in-
stitution of new economies could not keep pace with increased
traffic at low rates, and that this had its natural effect in the sec-
ond period. This explanation gains force when the constant de-
crease in average net earnings per mile is noted. Average freight
192
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
and passenger earnings are seen to have fallen off considerably
since 1871, and the final effect of these changes is summarized by
the item of dividends, which are seen to be less than fifty per cent
of those paid during 1871.
The more complete statistics of the last ten years afford still
more impressive results. The following data are for the year
ending on June 30, 1803, and comparisons by means of percent-
ages with 1884 are given :
Tons of freight carried one mile.. . .
Average rate per ton per mile
Freight revenue
Passengers carried one mile
Average rate per passenger per mile
Passenger revenue
Operating expenses
Net earnings
Dividends
1893.
93,588,111,833
0-878 cent
$829,053,861
14,229,101,084
2-108 cents
$301,491,816
$827,921,299
$392,830,575
$100,929,885
COMPARED WITH 1884.
Increase,
per cent.
109-25
63-55
62-09
*44:74
64-72
46-54
Decrease,
per cent.
21-96
1053
1-10
It is thus seen that more than double the freight transporta-
tion of 1884 is now performed for a total compensation less than
two thirds greater; that passenger transportation has increased
eighteen per cent more than the sum paid therefor ; and that the
capital now invested in the stock of one hundred and seventy-six
thousand miles of railway receives in dividends a sum absolutely
less than did that invested in the one hundred and twenty-five
thousand miles operated during 1884. These figures furnish a
key to the reasons which justified Judge Cooley's epigrammatic
summary of the financial condition of the railway interest when
he declared that it " represents an enormous aggregate of wealth
and an increasing aggregate of corporate poverty." .
The natural query is, What is to be the result ? Are railway
rates to go still lower, and the return to invested capital become
even less than at present ; or are charges to remain stationary,
and the public benefit from cheapening transportation be finally
or even temporarily suspended ?
Probably the best informed among railway managers would
declare that their charges are already too low, and that it is highly
important to discover some means for preventing further reduc-
tions. As to what means would safely accomplish this result
there is great diversity of opinion, and not a few managers whose
knowledge of the conditions governing the business of transpor-
tation has accrued during long years of practical experience are
emphatic in the announcement of their belief that the tendency
toward lower charges is the result of commercial laws which
they have no power to restrain. If the latter opinion is the cor-
THE DECLINE IN RAILWAY CHARGES. 193
rect one, as may reasonably be assumed from the history of rail-
way transportation, as well as from a consideration of the com-
petition to which rail carriers are everywhere subject, not only
among themselves but from common carriers operating via our
rivers and lakes, and of the recent impetus which has been given
to the construction of artificial waterways by the completion of
the Manchester Canal, it is necessary to discover means for fur-
ther reducing charges without at the same time decreasing net
revenue so as to ultimately result in deterioration and bankruptcy
of the railways. Obviously, the return to capital must not be
much further reduced. With a large portion of the railways of
the country in the hands of receivers, the securities of nearly
all selling lower than ever before, and being returned in larger
quantities from European exchanges, it is evident that the door
to further reductions at the expense of capital is closed. Railway
transportation, then, must become cheaper by reducing its cost to
the corporations conducting it ; and as it has been shown that
operating expenses per mile of line have increased during the
past decade, while gross revenue has remained practically station-
ary, it is apparent that this can only be accomplished through the
introduction of economies not now practiced.
These economies, the nature of which is evident to every ex-
perienced railway manager and every intelligent student of trans-
portation, can be effected by the actual or tacit consolidation of
railway properties, and their extent and importance will be in
direct ratio to the thoroughness of the consolidation and the
degree in which the conflicting interests are brought into subjec-
tion. The wastes of competition are nowhere more evident nor
their detrimental effect upon society as a whole more clearly
apparent than in railway transportation.
The legislative restraints upon consolidation should be re-
moved, agreements and contracts between common carriers where
not in contravention of public policy should be given legal sanc-
tion, in order that the products of farms and factories may be
distributed and exchanged at lower cost and with greater free-
dom. If necessary, the means of governmental regulation should
be strengthened, and the operation of the consolidated properties
brought more in harmony with public interests. If, as a final
result, it should appear that absolute government ownership is
safe, practicable, and likely to be productive of much good, it
is not unduly optimistic confidently to expect that our institu-
tions will be found perfectly adequate for the new task, and
it will certainly be found much easier to deal with a few large
corporations than with the multitude of smaller ones now in
existence.
VOL. XLVII. 17
i94 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
PLEASURES OF THE TELESCOPE.
By GARRETT P. SERVTSS.
V.— IN SUMMER STAR-LANDS.
IN the soft air of a summer night, when fireflies are flashing
their lanterns over the fields, the stars do not sparkle and
blaze like those that pierce the frosty skies of winter. The light of
Sirius, Aldebaran, Rigel, and other midwinter brilliants possesses
a certain gemlike hardness and cutting quality, while Antares
and Vega, the great summer stars, and Arcturus, when he hangs
westering in a July night, exhibit a milder radiance, according
with the character of the season. This difference is, of course,
atmospheric in origin, although it may be partly subjective, de-
pending upon the mental influences of the mutations of Nature.
The constellation Scorpio is nearly as striking in outline as
Orion, and its brightest star, the red Antares (a in map No. 12) r
carries concealed in its rays a green jewel which, to the eye of
the enthusiast in telescopic recreation, appears more beautiful and
inviting each time that he penetrates to its hiding place.
We shall begin our night's work with this object, and the four-
inch glass will serve our purpose, although the untrained observer
would be more certain of success with the five-inch. A friend of
mine has seen the companion of Antares with a three-inch, but I
have never tried the star with so small an aperture. When the
air is steady and the companion can be well viewed, there is no
finer sight among the double stars. The contrast of colors is
beautifully distinct — fire-red and bright green. The little green
star has been seen emerging from behind the moon, after an
occultation, ahead of its ruddy companion. The magnitudes are
one and seven and a half or eight ; distance :>", p. 270°. Antares
is probably a binary, although its binary character has not yet
been established.
A slight turn of the telescope tube brings lis to the star o-, a
wide double, the smaller component of which is blue or plum-
colored ; magnitudes four and nine, distance 20", p. 272°. From o-
we pass to /?, a very beautiful object, of which the three-inch
gives us a splendid view. Its two components are of magnitudes
two and six ; distance 13", p. 30° ; colors, white and bluish. It is
interesting to know that the larger star is itself double, although
none of the telescopes we are using can split it. Burnham dis-
covered that it has a tenth-magnitude companion ; distance less
than 1", p. 87°.
And now for a triple, which will probably require the use of
our largest glass. Up near the end of the northern prolongation
PLEASURES OF THE TELESCOPE.
'95
of the constellation we perceive the star
chap, ii, iii, iv, v, and xiii. For his denial of the prevailing theory regarding Hebrew, see
liv. i, chap. xiv. For Morinus (Morin) and his work, see the Biog. Univ. and Nouvelle Biog.
Generale ; also Curtiss. For Bossuet's opposition to Simon, see the Histoire de Bossuet in
the (Euvres de Bossuet, Paris, 1846, tome xii, pp. 330, 331 ; also x, 738 ; also sundry attacks
in various volumes. It is interesting to note that among the chief instigators of the per-
secution were the Port- Royalists, upon whose persecution afterward by the Jesuits so much
sympathy has been lavished by the Protestant world. For Le Clerc, see especially his Penta-
teuchus, Prolegom., dissertat. i ; also, Com. in Genes., vi-viii. For a translation of selected
passages on the points noted, see Twelve Dissertations out of Monsieur Le Gere's Genesis,
done out of Latin by Mr. Brown, London, 1 696 ; also, Le Clerc's Sentiments de Quelques
Theologiens de Hollande, passim ; also, his work on Inspiration, English translation, Boston,
1820, pp. 47-50, also 57-67. For Witsius and Carpzov, see Curtiss, as above. For some
subordinate points in the earlier growth of the opinion at present dominant, see Briggs, The
Higher Criticism of the Hexateuch, New York, 1893, chap. iv.
296 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
the thinking world now acknowledges, infinitely more important ;
it was, indeed, the most valuable single contribution ever made to
biblical study. But such was not the judgment of the world then.
While Lowth's book was covered with honor and its author pro-
moted from the bishopric of St. David's to that of London, and
even offered the primacy, Astruc and his book were covered with
reproach. Though, as an orthodox Catholic, he had mainly de-
sired to reassert the authorship of Moses against the argument of
Spinoza, he received no thanks on that account. Theologians of
all creeds sneered at him as a doctor of medicine who had blun-
dered beyond his province ; his fellow-Catholics in France bitterly
denounced him as a heretic, and in Germany the great Protestant
theologian, Michaelis, who had edited and exalted Lowth's work,
poured contempt over Astruc as an ignoramus.
The case of Astruc is one of the many which show the wonder-
ful power of the older theological reasoning to close the strongest
minds against the clearest truths. The fact which he discovered
is now as definitely established as any in the whole range of lit-
erature or science. It has become as clear as the day, and yet for
two thousand years the minds of professional commentators,
Jewish and Christian, were powerless to detect it. Not until this
eminent physician applied to the subject a mind trained in mak-
ing scientific distinctions was it given to the world.
It was, of course, not possible even for so eminent a scholar as
Michaelis to pooh-pooh down a discovery so pregnant ; and, curi-
ously enough, it was one of Michaelis's own scholars, Eichhorn,
who did the main work in bringing the new truth to bear upon
the world. He, with others, developed out of it the theory that
Genesis, and indeed the Pentateuch, is made up entirely of frag-
ments of old writings, mainly disjointed. But they did far more
than this. They impressed upon the thinking part of Christen-
dom the fact that the Bible is not a book, but a literature ; that
the style is not supernatural and unique, but simply the Oriental
style of the lands and times in which the books were written ;
and that they must be studied in the light of the modes of
thought and statement and the literary habits generally of
Oriental peoples. From Eichhorn's time the process which, by
historical, philological, and textual research, brings out the truth
regarding this literature has been known as "the higher criti-
cism."
He was a deeply religious man, and the mainspring of his
efforts was the desire to bring back to the Church the educated
classes who had been repelled by the stiff Lutheran orthodoxy ;
but this only increased hostility to him. Opposition met him in
Germany at every turn, and in England Lloyd, Kegius Professor
of Hebrew at Cambridge, who sought patronage for a translation
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 297
of Eichhorn's work, was met generally with, contempt and fre-
quently with insult.
Throughout Catholic Germany it was even worse. In 1774
Isenbiehl, a priest at Mayence who had distinguished himself as
a Greek and Hebrew scholar, happened to question the usual in-
terpretation of the passage in Isaiah which refers to the virgin-
born Immanuel, and showed then what every competent critic
knows now- — that it had reference to events looked for in older
Jewish history. The censorship and faculty of theology attacked
him at once and brought him before the elector. Luckily, this
potentate was one of the old, easy-going prince-bishops, and con-
tented himself with telling the priest that, though his contention
was perhaps true, he "must avoid everything likely to make
trouble, and remain in the old paths."
But at the elector's death, soon afterward, the theologians re-
newed the attack, threw Isenbiehl out of his professorship and
degraded him. One insult deserves mention for its ingenuity. It
was declared that he, the successful and brilliant professor,
showed by the obnoxious interpretation that he had not yet
rightly learned the Scriptures ; he was, therefore, sent back to the
benches of the theological school, and made to take his seat
among the ingenuous youth who were receiving the rudiments of
theology.
At this he made a new statement so carefully guarded that it
disarmed many of his enemies, and his high scholarship soon won
for him a new professorship of Greek ; the condition being at-
tached to it that he should cease writing upon Scripture. But a
crafty bookseller having republished his former book, and having
protected himself by keeping the place and date of publication
secret, a new storm fell upon the author ; he was again removed
from his professorship and thrown into prison ; his book was for-
bidden, and all copies of it in that part of Germany were confis-
cated.
In 1778, having escaped from prison, he sought refuge with
another of the minor rulers, who, in blissful unconsciousness,
were doing their worst, while awaiting the French Revolution,
but was at once delivered up to the Mayence authorities and again
thrown into prison.
The Pope, Pius VI, now intervened with a brief on Isenbiehl's
book, declaring it " horrible, false, perverse, destructive, tainted
with heresy," and excommunicating all who should read it. At
this, Isenbiehl, declaring that he had written it in the hope of do-
ing a service to the Church, recanted, and vegetated in obscurity
until his death in 1818.
But despite theological faculties, prince-bishops, and even
popes, the new current of thought increased in strength and vol-
298 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
ume, and into it at the end of the eighteenth century came impor-
tant contributions from two sources widely separated and most
dissimilar.
The first of these, which gave a stimulus not yet exhausted,
was the work of Herder. By a remarkable intuition he had an-
ticipated some of those ideas of an evolutionary process in Nature
and in literature which first gained full recognition nearly three
quarters of a century after him ; but his greatest service in the
field of biblical study was his work, at once profound and bril-
liant, The Spirit of Hebrew Poetry. In this field he eclipsed
Bishop Lowth. Among other things of importance he showed
that the Psalms were by different authors, and of different periods
— the bloom of a great poetic literature. Until his time no one
had so clearly done justice to their sublimity and beauty ; but
most striking of all was his discussion of " Solomon's Song." For
over twenty centuries it had been customary to attribute to it
mystical meanings. If here and there some man saw the truth, he
was careful, like Aben Ezra, to speak with bated breath ; or if,
like Castellio, under the sway of Calvin at Geneva, he dared speak
openly, he must submit to obloquy and persecution. Here, too, we
have an example of the efficiency of the older "biblical theology in
fettering the stronger minds and in stupefying the weaker. Just
as the book of Genesis had to wait over two thousand years for a
physician to reveal the simplest fact regarding its structure, so the
Song of Songs had to wait even longer for a poet to reveal not only
its beauty but its character. Commentators had interpreted it at
great length ; St. Bernard had preached over eighty sermons on
its first two chapters ; Palestrina had set the most erotic parts of
it to sacred music ; Jews and Gentiles, Catholics and Protestants,
from Origen to Aben Ezra, and from Luther to Bossuet, had un-
covered its deep meanings, and had demonstrated it to be anything
and everything save that which it really is. Among scores of
these strange imaginations it was declared to represent the love of
Jehovah for Israel ; the love of Christ for the Church ; the praises
of the Blessed Virgin ; the union of the soul with the body ; sacred
history from the Exodus to the Messiah ; Church history from the
Crucifixion to the Reformation ; and some of the more acute Prot-
estant divines found in it references even to the religious wars in
Germany and to the Peace of Passau. In these days it seems hard
to imagine how really competent reasoners could thus argue with-
out betraying doubts, after the manner of Cicero's augurs. Her-
der showed " Solomon's Song " to be what the whole thinking
world now knows it to be — simply an Oriental love-poem.
But his frankness brought him into trouble ; he was bitterly
assailed. Neither his noble character nor his genius availed him.
Obliged to flee from one pastorate to another, he at last found a
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 299
happy refuge at Weimar in the society of Goethe, Wieland, and
Jean Paul, and thence he exercised a powerful influence in liber-
ating human thought.
It would hardly be possible to imagine a man more different
from Herder than was the other of the two who most influenced
biblical interpretation at the end of the eighteenth century. This
was Alexander Geddes, a Roman Catholic priest and a Scotchman.
Having at an early period attracted much attention by his scholar-
ship, and having received the very rare distinction, for a Catholic,
of a doctorate from the University of Aberdeen, he began publish-
ing in 1792 a new translation of the Old Testament, and followed
this in 1800 with a volume of critical remarks. In these he sup-
ported mainly three views: first, that the Pentateuch in its
present form could not have been written by Moses; secondly,
that it was the work of various hands ; and, thirdly, that it could
not have been written before the time of David. Although there
was a fringe of doubtful theories about them, these main conclu-
sions, supported as they were by deep research and cogent reason-
ing, are now recognized as of great value. But such was not the
orthodox opinion then. Though a man of sincere piety, who
throughout his entire life remained firm in the faith of his fathers,
he and his work were at once condemned ; he was suspended by
the Catholic authorities as a misbeliever, denounced by Protest-
ants as an infidel, and taunted by both as " a would-be corrector
of the Holy Ghost." Of course, by this taunt was meant nothing
more than that he dissented from sundry ideas inherited from less
enlightened times by the men who just then happened to wield
ecclesiastical power. But not all the opposition to him could
check the evolution of his thought.
A line of great men followed in these paths opened by Astruc
and Eichhorn, and broadened by Herder and Geddes. Of these
was De Wette, who, early in the nineteenth century, showed to the
world how largely poetical myths and legends had entered into the
formation of the Hebrew sacred books, and whose Introduction to
the Old Testament gave a new impulse to fruitful thought through-
out Christendom. He had, indeed, to pay a penalty for thus
aiding the world in its march toward more truth ; he was driven
out of Germany, obliged to take refuge in a Swiss professorship ;
and Theodore Parker, who published an English translation of his
work, was, for this and similar sins, virtually rejected by what
claimed to be the most liberal of all Christian bodies in the United
States.
But contributions to the new thought continued from quarters
whence least was to be expected. Gesenius, by his Hebrew Gram-
mar, and Ewald, by his historical studies, greatly advanced it.
To them and to all like them during the middle years of the
3oo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
nineteenth century was sturdily opposed the colossus of orthodoxy,
Hengstenberg. In him were combined the haughtiness of a
Prussian drill-sergeant, the zeal of a Spanish inquisitor, and the
flippant brutality of an ultra-orthodox journalist. Behind him
stood the gifted but erratic Frederick William IV, a man admi-
rably fitted for the professorship of sesthetics, but whom an in-
scrutable fate had made King of Prussia. Both these rulers in the
German Israel arrayed all possible opposition against the great
scholars laboring in the new paths. But this opposition was
vain; the succession of acute and honest scholars continued:
Vatke, Bleek, Reuss, Graf, Hupfeld, Delitzsch, Kuenen, and others
wrought on in Germany and Holland, steadily developing the new
truth.
Especially to be mentioned among these is Hupfeld, who pub-
lished in 1853 his treatise on The Sources of Genesis. Accepting
the " Conjectures " which Astruc had published just a hundred
years before, he established what has ever since been recognized by
the leading biblical commentators as the main basis of work upon
the Pentateuch — the fact that three main documents are combined
in Genesis, each with its own characteristics. He, too, had to pay
a price for letting more light upon the world. A determined at-
tempt was made to punish him. Though deeply religious in his
nature and aspirations, he was denounced in 18G5 to the Prussian
Government as guilty of irreverence ; but, to the credit of his
noble and true colleagues who trod in the more orthodox paths,
men like Tholuck and Julius Miiller, the theological faculty of
the University of Halle protested against this persecuting effort,
and it was brought to naught.
The demonstrations of Hupfeld gave new life to biblical schol-
arship in all lands, but most important among the newer contri-
butions was that made by Reuss and Graf. The former had de-
veloped it by a sort of intuition, but in his timidity had withheld
it from publication for nearly fifty years, and he only made it
known when Graf's courage strengthened his own.
These men penetrated the reason for a fact which had long
puzzled commentators and given rise to masses of futile debate ;
namely, the fact that such great men as Samuel, David, Elijah,
and Isaiah, and indeed the whole Jewish people from Joshua to
the exile, showed in all their utterances and actions that they
were unacquainted with the Levitical system. These scholars
solved the problem by demonstrating that the Law and Ceremo-
nial Code, which the theological world up to that time had so
generally believed to have been established at a vastly earlier
period, were really the product of a later epoch in Jewish history.
Thus was the historical evolution of Jewish institutions brought
into harmony with the natural development of human thought;
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 301
ceremonial institutions carefully devised being shown to have
come after the ruder beginnings of religious development instead
of before them. Thus fell another main support of the older bib-
lical theology.
To work out this new discovery and to close for a time this
great line of Continental scholars came Kuenen. Starting with
strong prepossessions in favor of the older thought, and even with
violent utterances against some of his opponents, he was borne
on by his love of truth until, in his great work, The Religion of
Israel, published in 1869, he took his place as, in many respects,
the leader in the upward movement. He, too, opened new paths.
Recognizing the fact that the religion of Israel was, like other
great world religions, a development of higher ideas out of lower,
he led men to bring deeper thinking and wider research to the
great problem. With ample learning and irresistible logic he
also proved that the Old Testament prophecy was never super-
naturally predictive, and least of all predictive of events recorded
in the New Testament. Justly has one of the most eminent
divines of the contemporary Anglican Church indorsed the state-
ment of another eminent scholar that " Kuenen stood upon his
watchtower, as it were the conscience of Old-Testament science " ;
that his work is characterized " not merely by fine scholarship,
critical insight, historical sense, and a religious nature, but also
by an incorruptible conscientiousness and a majestic devotion to
the quest of truth."
Thus was established the science of biblical criticism. Its fur-
ther development and results, especially in Great Britain and
America, will be next considered.*
* For Lowth, see the Rev. T. K. Cheyne, D. D., Professor of the Interpretation of the
Holy Scripture in the University of Oxford, Founders of Old Testament Criticism, London,
1893, pp. 3, 4. For Astruc's very high character as a medical authority, see the Diction-
naire des Sciences Medicales, Paris, 1820. It is significant that at first he concealed his
authorship of the Conjectures. For a brief statement see Cheyne ; also, Moore's introduc-
tion to Bacon's Genesis of Genesis ; but for a statement remarkably full and interesting,
and based on knowledge at first hand of Astruc's very rare book, see Curtiss, as above.
For Michaelis and Eichhorn, see Meyer, Geschichte der Exegese ; also, Cheyne and Moore.
For Isenbiehl, see Reusch in Allg. Deutsche Biographie. The texts cited against him were
Isaiah, vii, 14, and Matt, i, 22, 23. For Herder, see various historians of literature and
writers on exegesis. For his influence, as well as that of Lessing, see Beard's Hibbert
Lectures, chap. x. For a brief comparison of Lowth's work with that of Herder, see
Farrar, History of Interpretation, p. 3 7 1. For examples of interpretations of The Song of
Songs, see Farrar, as above, p. 33. For Castellio (Chatillon), his anticipation of Herder's
view of Solomon's Song, and his persecution by Calvin and Beza, which drove him to star-
vation and death, see Lecky, Rationalism, etc., vol. ii, pp. 46-48 ; also, Bayle's Dictionary,
article Castalio ; also, Montaigne's Essais, liv. i, chapit. xxxiv ; and especially the new life
of him by Buisson. For a remarkably frank acceptance of the consequences flowing from
Herder's view of it, see Sanday, Inspiration, pp. 211-405. For Geddes, see Cheyne, as
3o2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
THE BOWELS OF THE EARTH.
By ALFRED C. LANE.
WHITHER man can not go his imagination the more fondly
travels. Thus a most striking difference between man and
the apes lies in the vast and boundless range of man's curiosity.
Curiosity indeed becomes the mother of Science, while the collec-
tion of curiosities grows into the scientific museum. It is natural,
therefore, that for generations the mysterious and inaccessible
north pole and the bowels of the earth have been favorite dwell-
ings for men's fancies. Since the abodes of the dead are equally
mysterious and inaccessible to the living, we are not surprised to
find these regions combined, and the dead consigned either to in-
fernal— that is, inferior — regions, or, as did the Scandinavian saga,
to the frozen north. But it was reserved for the fertile genius of
an American naval officer to combine with one fell swoop the
solution of all these mysteries into one, by supposing that the
world was hollow, and that there was no north pole, but, instead,
a vast annular cavity leading into interior and Arcadian regions,
auroral glimpses and flashes of whose electric lights sometimes
stream beyond the portals. Unfortunately, his solution is erro-
neous, and it is our aim in this paper to see what light science
really has from the dark regions of Proserpine, and to consider
why the world can neither be hollow nor stuffed with sawdust.
Our light is, of course, indirect, as the depth below the surface
of the earth to which man has burrowed is very small. The deep-
est mines are little over four thousand feet deep ; and although,
when one sees the rapid strides that the science of mining is mak-
ing and the unexampled speed with which in the past four or five
years shafts have been sunk over four thousand feet deep to tap
the rich deposits of native copper on the south shore of Lake
Superior, one may soon hope to see mines over a mile deep, yet, if
we say that mines will never go down over two miles below the
above. For De Wette and contemporaries, see Meyer, Cheyne, and others, as above. For
Theodore Parker, see his various biographies, passim. For Reuss, Graf, and Kuenen, see
Cheyne, as above; and for the citations referred to, see the Rev. Dr. Driver, Regius Pro-
fessor of Hebrew at Oxford, in The Academy, October 27, 1894; also, a note to Well-
hausen's article Pentateuch, in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. For the view of leading
Christian critics on the book of Chronicles, see especially Driver, Introduction to the
Literature of the Old Testament, pp. 495 et seq. ; also Wellhausen, as above ; also, Hooy-
kaas, Oort, and Kuenen, Bible for Learners. For many of the foregoing see also the writ-
ings of Prof. W. Robertson Smith ; also, Beard's BTibbert Lectures, chap. x. For Hupfeld
and his discovery, see Cheyne, Founders, etc., as above, chap, vii ; also, Moore's Introduc-
tion. For a justly indignant judgment of Hengstenberg and his school, see Canon Farrar's
History of Interpretation, p. 417, note.
THE BOWELS OF THE EARTH.
3°3
surface, we shall probably not live long enough to see our predic-
tion proved false. The deepest mines, therefore, far from reach-
ing the bowels of the earth, can not pierce so far in proportion
as does the mosquito into the human epidermis. And yet we are
not wholly without information concerning the deeper regions of
the earth.
In the first place, man has succeeded in the weighing of the
earth as a whole. In accordance with the law of gravity, if two
balls of lead attached to elastic steel rods are placed close to each
other, they must attract each other with a force increasing with
their masses, but decreasing with the distance which separates
them. The steel rods will be very slightly bent toward each other
in consequence. But the same steel rods extended horizontally
will be far more strongly bent downward, owing to the attraction
of this great ball which we call the earth. If, then, we compare
the size, the distance apart, and the density of the two balls, and
the effect they produce, with the size of the earth, the distance of
its center, and the effect it produces, we may find the average
density and weight of the earth. We find that the earth weighs
much more than would a ball of granite of like size, but less than
a ball of iron. Its density is about halfway between the two, and
it is about twice as heavy as, on the average, are the rocks at the
surface.
Not only do we know the average weight and density of the
earth, but we can form some idea as to how that density varies.
It must, of course, increase toward the center, as the surface rocks
are lighter than the average ; but we can be even more precise
than that. If we compare two tops of like mass which have simi-
lar conditions of support and are spinning away so as to make an
equal number of turns a minute, that one will wabble least whose
mass is farthest from the axis about which it turns. Therefore
a top is often made in the shape of a light upright axis upon
which it may turn, and this axis is connected by light spokes to a
wheel in the rim of which, as far as possible from the axis, the
mass is mainly collected, for we thus have the extra stability.
If we have two such tops of exactly the same shape and size and
weight, but the one having a wooden wheel spinning on an iron
axis, the other having the iron in the rim of the wheel and the
axis all wood, the latter will wabble least. Now, the earth is
spinning like a top, and the axis about which she spins connects
the north and south poles, and points at present nearly to the
north star. But this axis wabbles also, and has not always pointed
to the place to which it now points in the starry firmament. The
time has been (since Egyptian monuments were built) when the
pole star was other than the present one to which the lip of the
Dipper points, and quite possibly our remote descendants may
304 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
look to yet another star as the pole. The wabbling of the earth's
axis in the heavens thus indicated is due to the attraction of the
sun and the moon on the mass of the earth, and we can obtain,
from its observed amount and from the forces known to be pro-
ducing it, some idea as to how the mass of the earth must be dis-
tributed. Still, we can not, even with this help, be absolutely
sure as to the law of the density, but we may rule out the idea of
a hollow earth, and accept, as agreeing well with all the facts, the
suggestion of Laplace that the condensing effect of pressure de-
creases as the density produced becomes greater. This increase
of density with pressure is, of course, in part to be accounted for
by the pressure of the outer layers of the earth on those beneath,
which increases until it is something enormous, and, of course,
tends to squeeze together the interior and thus render it more
dense.
There are, nevertheless, limits to this squeezing effect; and
there is another thing that we know about the earth's interior —
namely, that it is hot. Hence, as the effect of heat is to expand,
the increase of heat would tend to counteract the condensing
effect of the increase of pressure. That the earth is really hotter
within, and that thus the literally infernal regions are actually
hot whatever may be said of the metaphorical inferno, is shown
by various lines of reasoning.
In the first place, the astronomers tell us (although they are not
quite so sure now that the earth may not be a lump of coagulated
meteorites) that this world has cooled from a fluid mass. If so,
of course it must be hotter inside. Further, although we have
pierced but so little a way into the earth, yet everywhere we
meet an increasing temperature. The rate of increase varies very
much, however. In the deep copper mines of Lake Superior, for
example, at a depth of three thousand feet the temperature has
risen from a surface temperature of 40° F. only up to about 70° F.,
which is still quite a comfortable working temperature. This
gives an increase of only one degree Fahrenheit per hundred feet.
Beneath the peninsula of Lower Michigan there are brines and
sheets of mineral water lying in basin form, and very rich in salt,
bromides, etc., and of great medical and commercial value. They
have been reached by numerous wells which run down to about
three thousand feet near the center of the basin, as at Alma and
Bay City. The water comes up from the bottom of these wells
hot (over 90°), showing a decidedly more rapid increase in tem-
perature than in the copper mines. But the famous Comstock
lode, where fabulous wealth lured the miners on, showed perhaps
the most rapid increase in temperature that man has ever dared
to face. It was, however, doubtless due to the action of hot
waters rising from still greater depths — probably the same waters
THE BOWELS OF THE EARTH. 305
that deposited the silver ores, still at work. In the mines of this
region the miners, naked as savages, reeking with perspiration,
drinking pailful after pailful of ice water (twenty tons of ice, or,
in another case, ninety-five pounds per man, were used each day),
could labor but ten minutes at the drift (in imminent danger of
being scalded by striking a stream of hot water) before being
overcome by the heat and reeling to a cooler place. Fainting,
delirium, even death have been the effect of the reaction on
coming to the surface. Verily the Cuban proverb, that a Yankee
would be found to go after a sack of coffee though it were at the
gates of hell, was not far from the literal truth.
However the rate of increase of temperature may vary, all
indications thus agree that less than ten miles below us a red
heat is attained and within twenty a white heat. Think of it !
Ten miles below us it is red hot. Ten miles above we have the
pitiless cold, far below zero, of interplanetary space. To what
a narrow zone of delicately balanced temperature is life con-
fined !
From the deeper zones of higher temperatures we have sam-
ples furnished us by the volcanoes, opened along great cracks in
the earth, whence red or white hot foaming lava rises. They con-
firm our idea of the downward increasing heat of the earth.
These outpourings of molten matter from volcanoes give us some
idea also of the composition of the earth. To the path of investi-
gation thus opened we shall return in a moment. They have
also given rise to the very prevalent notion that the earth's sur-
face is but a solid crust over a fluid interior of the consistence
of lava. Observers on the Hawaiian Islands have even thought
they could hear the dashing of the lava waves beneath. But it is
not hard to see that the phenomena of volcanoes are far more
complex than the mere welling up of a fluid interior. The lava is
often more heavy than the crust, and it often stands at different
heights in neighboring vents. Moreover, contemporaneous, not
far distant vents sometimes furnish quite different material. This
could hardly be possible if all volcanoes had a common source.
The really essential and important part of a volcanic eruption is
the escape of gases, which are or soon become largely steam.
This forms the clouds which overhang a volcano, and descends in
time of violent eruptions in torrential rains, such as buried Pom-
peii in mud. Hence, some have supposed that a volcanic eruption
was due to the explosive action of sea water reaching the heated
interior. But it is perhaps more probable that the gases which
escape are originally contained in the lava and burst forth from
the interior of the earth on their own account wherever a crack
gives them a chance. According to this notion, the working of
volcanoes is not unlike that of a bottle of ginger ale. All that is
VOL. XLVII. 25
3o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
needed is the formation of some sort of a crack, to answer to
drawing the cork, and fizz, away she goes !
Possibly the thought that we live on top of such effervescent
stuff may not be comfortable, for it suggests that the whole earth
will some time explode if the volcanoes allowing the gas to escape
cease to act as safety valves. There are, indeed, astronomical
traces of such catastrophes. Stars have suddenly burst into un-
wonted radiance, only to fade again almost as quickly ; and the
belt of asteroids around the sun, occupying as they do a place
which naturally would be filled by one large planet, have been
supposed to represent some disaster in the process of planet-
making. Whether the course of life on this world is ended by
the world suddenly exploding, or by a slow refrigeration, or
whether the world finally drops into the sun, or is knocked stag-
gering through space by some collision, makes little difference to
us, however, so long as the inevitable end that none can foresee
must some time come.
Something like this giving off of gas from within the earth is
a curious " spitting," as it is called, of molten silver, which when
melted absorbs much oxygen gas and gives it off again in cooling.
Now, the spectroscope has shown us the kinship in composition
of matter throughout the universe, so that stars millions of miles
away are composed of the very same elements which make up
our own earth and our own bodies. Thus, if we grant the possi-
bility of the earth's exploding, we may expect to find fragments
of similar explosions, in composition like that of the earth, scat-
tered through space. And, in fact, every once in a while as we
gaze into the starry heavens we see a flash and exclaim, " A shoot-
ing star ! " It is in reality a bit of matter that has come into col-
lision with our atmosphere at such a tremendous velocity that
when so struck even the air resists almost like granite. Indeed,
sometimes the shock of collisions dissolves these shooting stars
into vapor or dust, but at other times they explode, and the frag-
ments reach the earth, and are picked up. Such fragments are
commonly known as meteorites, and we examine them with ex-
treme interest to see if they can throw any light on the average
composition of the earth. I think we find that they do, for they
are closely allied in composition to some of the series of rocks in
the earth's crust that have arisen from beneath and are associ-
ated with volcanic activity — the igneous rocks as they are called.
In general the meteorites are much heavier than the average sur-
face rocks, and their average weight is much nearer that of the
whole earth. The heaviest meteorites are composed mainly of
iron — native iron — not quite pure, but associated with some nickel
and sulphur and also diamond. This last-named interesting com-
ponent of meteorites was for years overlooked, but Foote's dis-
THE BOWELS OF THE EARTH. 307
covery of some sizable lumps of black diamond in the Canon
Diablo meteorite led Mr. Huntington to investigate further in the
very extensive collection belonging to Harvard University, and
he found, on dissolving sample chips as thoroughly as possible,
that a powder remained whose resistance to corrosives and in-
vincible hardness are signs manual of the sovereign of stones.
We find, too, in these iron meteorites gases absorbed, such as
those at whose door we have laid the responsibility for the pro-
duction of volcanic eruptions.
Since the weight of our earth and the evidence of sample
fragments of planetary matter point to its being mainly iron — if
we may not only say that this is an iron age but also an iron
world — is it any wonder that iron is so widely distributed, or that
it is the universal pigment, even dyeing the blood of our veins ?
But there is further evidence on these lines at which we have as
yet but hinted. We said that meteorites were connected in com-
position with terrestrial rocks. It is in fact true that native iron
similar in structure to that of meteorites is found in some basaltic
dikes in Greenland as large masses, and in microscopic quantities
elsewhere, and it seems almost certain that it has been torn from
the depths of the earth. The rock in which the diamonds occur in
the Kimberly mine (and everywhere else where they occur origi-
nally, and not in sand and gravel, they are in similar connection)
is very rich in iron, is composed of minerals common in meteor-
ites, but is devoid of quartz and feldspar, the commonest minerals
of the upper crust. Practically, all the minerals of the meteorites
occur native in the earth's crust, but only sparingly, except in
connection with rocks that have risen through fissures from be-
neath. They do not occur in connection with all these rocks,
but only in connection with rocks like the Kimberly rock, which
are darker and heavier and less siliceous. There are a number
of reasons for supposing that these darker and heavier igneous
rocks, containing more iron and less silica, have a deeper source
than those composed mainly of quartz and feldspar, but we will
mention only one. Our earth is wrapped with an atmosphere of
oxygen, an element exceedingly ready to enter into combination
— so much so that in all our ordinary surface rocks all the other
elements are combined with oxygen as much as can be. Now
iron, as is well known, has the power of combining with oxygen
either in the proportion of three of oxygen to two of iron or
in even proportions. The former compounds which have more
oxygen are those found in ordinary rust, and are much more
readily formed, being the so-called ferric compounds. They are
often yellow or red in color. The other compounds containing
less oxygen — the so-called ferrous compounds — very readily ab-
sorb more oxygen. In fact, their readiness to do so under the
3o8
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY
influence of light is at the basis of many photographic processes,
notably those of making blue prints and tintypes. Now, of
course, in the meteorites containing native iron, not all of the
iron is oxidized, and the iron is contained in its less oxidized con-
dition in the other associated minerals, such as the yellowish-
green mineral known as chrysolite, sometimes used for a gem. In
\&
^
Ocean
Ocean
Fig. 1.— Much-exaggerated Sections of the Earth through the Equator — illustrating
((/) the tidal effect on a rigid earth with a fluid envelope, (A) on a yielding earth.
general, also (there are exceptions), the rocks which contain less
silica and more iron have their iron less oxidized. By analogy,
as we go from the oxidizing effect of the atmosphere toward the
center of the earth, we may expect finally to encounter rocks not
oxidized even in the less degree. To sum the argument up in a
nutshell, we find among the rocks furnished us by volcanic and
igneous agencies from various depths in the earth a series from
quartzose and feldspathic rocks to those with less quartz ami
feldspar, more iron, less oxygen, and greater weight, in which the
presence of a trace of nickel and the occasional occurrence of
diamonds and native iron betoken a kinship to the meteorites.
The latter in every way continue this series toward a goal which
is nearly pure iron, and the weight of the earth as a whole is
consistent with this idea that it is largely iron, almost purely so at
the center, but gradually, perhaps not perfectly uniformly, grow-
ing more quartzose toward the crust.
One question still remains to us : In what condition is the in-
terior of the earth ? Is it a molten fluid or what ? If we look at
the downward increase in temperature alone it would seem as if
within thirty miles a heat would be reached where even pure
iron, which is much less fusible than cast iron containing carbon,
would be quite fluid. If the earth were freely fluid, however, it
THE BOWELS OF THE EARTH.
3°9
would yield to the attraction of the sun and moon as the oceans
now do. Some effects of this pull may indeed be seen in the distri-
bution of earthquakes, which are more frequent at full moon than
at other times, as though the strain produced by the attraction of
the moon helped to produce these shocks by the cracking and giv-
ing way of the earth. But if the earth as a whole were anything
like as fluid as water, it would yield as a whole and assume the
same shape, bulging about as much toward the moon as the wa-
tery envelope, so that the water would not be perceptibly deeper
toward the moon than elsewhere ; whereas, if it were perfectly
rigid, it would retain its shape unaltered, and the water about it
alone would be drawn by the moon. It would be pulled up into
tidal waves. These two different cases and effects are illustrated
in Fig. 1. As a matter of fact, we find that the heights of the
tides are nearly as great as though the earth were absolutely rigid.
The earth, therefore, must be exceedingly rigid ; we may say solid,
so far as these tidal strains are concerned. These are, however,
A E B
Fig. 2. — P, point of origin of earthquake shock; E (epicentrum), point on the surface directly
over it ; A, B, limits of the area of vertical, .simultaneous, and earliest shock.
so varying in their application, shifting their direction through
all the points of the compass every twenty-four hours, that if the
interior of the earth is very viscous — and we know that hot iron
is in just this viscous condition when at welding heat — the yield-
ing to forces so rapidly changing direction might be no greater
than that which is observed.
Another argument for the solidity of the earth is based on the
310 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
fact that the mountain ranges and continents are lifted so high
above the normal level. To be sure, their weight is not so very
great in comparison with that of the earth, nor the distance they
project above the general level. But then the breadth of the base
in comparison with the height is very great, and if we compute the
thrust which so broad an arch as that of the Rocky Mountain pla-
teau, for example, must exert on its abutments, we find that the
earth, if not entirely solid, must have a solid crust some hundreds
of miles thick ; or else possibly that the density of the mountains
and the part of the crust beneath them is much lighter than the
average, so that they can rise by floating on a liquid interior to
their present height. There are, in fact, some indications that these
plateaus, and the continents generally, really have lighter matter
beneath them than the sea basins do, so that the above argument
against the fluidity of the earth has not much weight. Another
more important argument for the solidity of the earth may be de-
rived from earthquakes. Sometimes these convulsions of Nature
are caused merely by the jar due to a giving way or cracking in
the earth's crust. Such cracks we often find in studying the
rocks, where on one side of the crack the beds do not match those
on the other side, but a particular bed when it comes to the crack
line is not found on the other side where we should expect it to
come, but some distance to the right or left. Such cracks are
technically known as faults, and the displacement produced is
sometimes several thousand feet. Such faults or cracks have oc-
curred in the red sandstone area of the Connecticut River, and are
well marked. Similar faults have tilted the western plateaus in
great blocks. Indeed, even the very line of displacement and
sudden elevation have been sometimes noticed after earthquakes,
notably in New Zealand and very recently in Japan, after the
earthquake described by Koto, that cost so many lives (Fig. 3).
Now, these jars known as earthquakes spread with wavelike
motion and decreasing intensity from their source, like the ripples
from a pebble thrown into a pond. By careful study of the time
at which the jar arrives at different points and of the direction of
disturbance we can form some idea of its source, just as one can
tell from the ripples at what point the stone was thrown in, even
though too late to see the splash. In Japan, a country much
afflicted with earthquakes — although, as a friend writes me, the
shocks are commonly so slight that the only attention one pays to
them is to stop shaving — their study has been so far advanced that
one can actually tell what path a particle describes under the
influence of a given quake, and what position it occupied at any
moment, and a model of such a path was exhibited at the Chicago
Exposition.
Let us suppose, for example, that the shock started from the
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312 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
center of the earth. If we neglect the slight bulging of the earth
at the equator, and suppose it a perfect sphere, the shock of the
earthquake wave would reach every point of the earth's surface
at the same time. It would tend to throw objects vertically up-
ward. Moreover, the intensity of violence would be equal at
every point. Now, we can see from the diagram (Fig. 2) that the
nearer the surface the source, the smaller will be the area of prac-
tically simultaneous first arrival (A, B), the smaller will be the
area of vertical shock, and the more rapidly will the intensity de-
crease from a point of the surface directly over the source (E).
From such considerations the depths of the sources of various
earthquakes have been computed. For example, Schmidt com-
puted that the Charleston earthquake started from a depth of no
less than one hundred kilometres, say sixty miles. Unfortunate-
ly, there has been much difficulty in getting reliable facts enough
for these estimates, and Dutton, who investigated the same earth-
quake for the United States, made it but twelve or eighteen miles
deep. But whether it be one depth or the other does not affect
what we wish to show — namely, that the earth is capable of
cracking to a depth such that if the earth's heat increases at any-
thing like the ratio that it does near the surface, it must there be
more than white hot, and would be molten and freely fluid, except
for the counteracting effect of pressure. If, then, the earth is
solid at this depth, pressure has more effect than heat and keeps
the earth solid. Barus has shown by experiment that for the
basic rocks pressure tends to solidify. Moreover, the most basic
rocks we know, those apparently from the greatest depths, con-
tain fragments of chrysolite, etc., whose rounded and corroded out-
lines and often blackened edges show plainly that they have been
in process of dissolving in the lava. They therefore may repre-
sent fragments of deep-seated rocks which have liquefied when
pressure has been relieved by cracks and the eruption of lava fol-
lowing thereon.
The fact that we find the rocks in some places crumpled in
folds and recrystallized has been by some taken to indicate that
such rocks had been buried so deep beneath the surface as to be
remelted. But recent investigations, by cutting thin sections of
such rocks and studying them under the microscope, have shown
that a rock may be thoroughly changed into different minerals,
differently interwoven, and may be folded and contorted in most
complex fashion, without for a moment being molten or ceasing
to be crystalline. Recent experiments have also shown that we
may account for the folds and crumplings without supposing a
thin, flexible crust lying over a fluid interior ; while, on the other
hand, there are very numerous faults or cracks, where one part
has slidden down on the other, that can hardly be accounted for
CLIMATE AND HEALTH. 313
except by supposing our earth solid (or very thick in crust), cool-
ing and contracting unequally.
As to other arguments for the fluidity of the earth, we have
seen that volcanic phenomena carefully studied go against the
idea of one central reservoir for the lavas. It is, of course, natu-
ral to think of a cooling globe as having a solid crust and molten
interior, but it is quite possible that solidification started at the
center, just as even now in the nebulous stars the condensation
from gaseous to liquid state proceeds from central points or
nuclei.
We may say, then, in summing up, that there are no valid
arguments against the conclusion to which all the facts point,
that the earth is at heart an intensely hot but practically solid
mass of iron.
■♦«»
CLIMATE AND HEALTH.*
By Dr. CHARLES FAYETTE TAYLOR.
IN the divisions of land and water, the situations of the conti-
nents, the seas, and the islands in the seas; the mountain
ranges and the rivers which have their sources in them ; the ele-
vations and depressions of the more even surfaces, together with
procession of the seasons and the earth's diurnal revolutions, we
have some of the conditions for a great variety of climates. Pro-
ceeding from the equator toward the poles or moving along the
surface of the earth in any direction, man, who seems to be the
toughest animal on the face of the earth, can so adjust himself
to varying climatic conditions as to exist in fairly good health
almost anywhere, from the steaming equatorial jungles to the
regions of perpetual ice and snow, as well as in intermediate
locations where often heat and cold vary from one extreme to the
other in rapid succession. And yet men live and thrive in nearly
all lands and under the most diverse conditions, and with intelli-
gent self-adjustment to their environment they may live well and
live out their allotted times as a general rule. While the human
race is exceedingly flexible, and can adapt itself rapidly to very
diverse conditions, such adaptations, be they rapid or relatively
slow, are not accomplished without an expenditure of energy to
correspond with the functional modifications thus brought about.
We call the process acclimatization, and the person, after subjec-
tion to the process, we say is acclimatized. That is to say, the
functional activities of such a person have become adjusted to his
environment ; his functions have learned to harmonize with the
* Read before the New York Academy of Medicine, October 4, 1894.
vol. xltii. — 26
3 H THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
temperature, food, humidity, and other influences affecting him.
The effect on the individual varies according to his susceptibility
and the degree and intensity of the factors acting on him. In
some cases sluggish functional activities are energized with a
tonic effect. But when that is the case it does not follow that the
new climate is necessarily intrinsically better than the one from
which he came. In other cases the effect of climate change often
proves atonic, depressing, and injurious ; but a bad effect on an in-
dividual does not prove that the climate is necessarily worse than
the one to which he was formerly accustomed. It may happen that
influences, good in themselves, may be injudiciously employed : as,
if a person requiring a cooler climate, such as that of the coast of
Maine, for instance, should try Labrador, and it should be more
than he could bear ; or, if one needed a milder climate and should
find Para too depressing. Even the relatively slight difference
between the European and American sides of the Atlantic often
proves serious to the immigrant during the process of acclimati-
zation, and many succumb, though it is probably true that the
majority of immigrants find themselves invigorated in their new
conditions of life on this side of the Atlantic.
My object is to call your attention strongly to the well-known
fact that change of climate and its attendant circumstances, even
when not of any extreme character or degree, does produce an
impression more or less profound on the vital processes, and that
the nature, degree, and general therapeutic or pathological char-
acter of these influences should be more carefully studied than
they have thus far been studied, so that when consulted by our
patients we may have some definite advice to give in regard to
locations best suited to the inquirer's special needs ; or, if we can
not do so much, we ought at least to be able to give our patients
some very positive ideas as to the kind of climate to seek, and
especially what to avoid. For instance, California is seven hun-
dred and seventy miles long. It embraces, according to Dr. Re-
mondino, at least seven climates, distinctly different from each
other, and all very different from the climatic conditions existing
on this side of our continent. What is the sense in telling a
patient with a hole at the top of his lung to " go to California "
without instructing him in regard to the location to which he
should go, or at least what kind of climate he should look for ?
Without some specific information such a patient is likely to
drop into a place better calculated to shorten than to prolong his
days. To be sure, all the climates of California are characterized
by a dryness exceeding what is known in the east, and this fact
gives some relative advantages. But unquestionably the air may
be too dry in certain localities for certain cases. Is it not too
much to expect a patient to find out what the doctor who sends
CLIMATE AND HEALTH. 315
him away from home and friends himself does not know ? Be-
sides, there are many constituent elements which enter in to make
up what we call " climate." The first of these to be mentioned is
usually the thermometrical readings, and the " mean " tempera-
ture is generally quoted as proof positive of superiority when it
varies a few degrees one way or the other from that of another
locality with which it is compared. Now, the truth is, that to
know the mean temperature of a place, and to know only that, is
to know very little about its climate. The physiological effects
of a climate must necessarily include the degree of humidity, the
force and direction of the prevailing winds, the sunshine and
cloudiness ; the fogs and their characteristics — whether thin or
dense, high or low, whether coming down from the mountains or
rolling in from the sea ; besides other unmeasurable influences not
seen though felt : all these and more must be appreciated in order
to give the single factor of relative temperature any positive
quality whatever. For instance, the mean temperature of the
seven hundred and seventy miles along and near the coast of
California varies but a few degrees, though the extremes vary
much. But the physiological effects of the climates of different
areas vary greatly. There are stiff northwest winds from off the
Pacific, carrying a thin, swift-moving fog that chills an invalid
to the bone, during July and August in San Francisco. To
correspond to the sensations, the thermometer there lies like a
cheap watch, and should be twenty degrees lower. A few miles
back from the coast, with less wind and little fog, one's bodily
comfort is perfect, and life is worth living, though the unlucky
thermometer persists in recording nearly the same average as
when you had been shivering on the coast. I conclude that the
physiological influence of a given temperature below a certain
degree, say below sixty, with the wind ten or fifteen miles an
hour, is equal to at least ten or fifteen degrees lower in scale. On
the other hand, a thermometrical showing of 90° and over is not
uncomfortable if there is a gentle breeze and little humidity, but
with a strong wind becomes a sirocco, when prostrations are
numerous, and, if long continued, many aged and feeble die under
its influence. In one of the interior valleys of California I have
seen the thermometer indicate 100° to 110° F. for days and weeks
together, and no one complained of the heat as excessive, while
all labor of man and beast went on as usual, and prostrations are
unknown. I refer to the temperature in the shade. In the sun,
where men work, it must be ten or fifteen degrees higher. In
New York, when summer heat approaches 90° we expect many
prostrations and some deaths. I am not trying to show that 110°
of heat in California with no prostrations is a better climate than
New York at 90° and many prostrations, but to illustrate the
3i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
principle that we must know much more about a climate than
what the thermometer can tell us before we know very much
about it. I kept a record of the temperature in Martinique, one
of the Windward Islands lying in 14° north latitude, and it never
went above 86° F., nor so high but two or three times during a
residence of three seasons, and once so late as the 1st of July.
But no sensible person would dare to expose himself to the mid-
day sun with the same impunity that he could in this latitude
and a corresponding temperature. The ever-present humidity,
bordering on saturation, in the tropics is an important modifying
element to be taken into account.
Again, temperature may depend on latitude or on altitude ; but
it is not a matter of small moment which the cause may be. Sixty
degrees of heat at the level of the sea and on the seashore are very
unlike in physiological effect to 60° in the dry and rarefied air of
an elevated inland situation. There is no doubt that considerable
moisture in the air favors the growth of minute organisms, and
decomposition of matter takes place rapidly under the influence
of heat and moisture. On the other hand, a dry air retards de-
composition, and, if sufficiently dry, prevents it entirely, no
matter how hot it may be. The Sacramento Valley is very hot in
the summer, but it is also dry, so that friends of mine would kill
a beef and elevate the carcass by means of rope and pulley to the
top of a tall pole, let it down from time to time to cut from it, and
it would keep perfectly sweet until it was all eaten up. A good
illustration of conditions retarding or favoring the growth of
minute organisms may be seen during the orange harvest in por-
tions of California. The altitude of Redlands, California, aver-
ages about fifteen hundred feet above sea level. Fogs seldom
reach there, the sun shines clear more than three hundred days
of the year, and there is not a speck of mildew on any fruit. But
go forty miles nearer the sea and seven or eight hundred feet
down nearer the sea level, and at every station you will see many
people washing oranges. More fogs, denser air, less sunshine,
more humidity favor fungous growths. On the high table lands
of the central portions of the continent, at an altitude of six or
eight thousand feet, as in Wyoming, where a friend lives, milk
does not " sour " or change under a week or ten days, and the
carcasses of dead cattle, of which there are many, give no offen-
sive stench, but slowly dry up and waste away, showing that
comparatively few organic germs exist there, and that the con-
ditions for their rapid propagation are unfavorable. From the
facts just stated — and they are representative facts — it would be
too hasty to conclude that the higher and drier locality is es-
sentially more healthy than the lower and moister locality, even
for consumptives, until we have mastered and estimated the
CLIMATE AND HEALTH. 3i7
quality and energy of the other meteorological influences. There
is another fact which has come under my personal observation
which must be taken into consideration. It is that life in those
elevated nonmicrobian regions is not without its drawbacks.
Whether it is due to the increased action of the heart in the
rarefied atmosphere, the constant hammering of the nerves by
the winds and the fierce sunshine, or all these and other causes,
people in those regions have a thin and tired look, and it is found
useful and often necessary, especially in cases of women and
children, to visit lower, damper, and more germ-laden regions in
order to recuperate. It is important that the air we breathe
should contain as few disease germs as possible ; but it is still
more important that we should breathe an air and live under
such climatic conditions as shall most conduce to such general
bodily vigor as will resist the entrance of disease germs into the
organism, or destroy them if an entrance is once effected. It is
quite conceivable that a dry atmosphere containing few microbes
may be too dry for an irritable mucous membrane, and set up
catarrhs which may furnish nesting places for disease germs ;
while a moister, softer air, though holding many more microbian
elements, may be more advantageous, at least in certain cases.
In these latter days, in the wonderful strides which have been
made and are constantly being made in bacteriology, perhaps we
are in some danger of losing sight of meteorology in its relations
to health and disease. It seems to me that climatology has here-
tofore to a large extent resolved itself into a search for some
place where consumptives can not die. There is no such place.
There is no place where the ever-present bacillus may not get in
its deadly work. The chief question in climatology in its rela-
tion to health should be, " In what climate, or by what changes
and influences of different climates, can we be best invigorated
for good existence in the location where we are obliged to live
the greater portion of our lives ? " Many other causes besides
tuberculosis men die of. Among civilized people, especially
among our pushing Americans, debility, nervous exhaustion in
one form or another, from overactivity of brain or body, render
multitudes asthenic and vulnerable to the invasion of disease.
We say that such cases need to be "toned up." This is un-
doubetdly true, but there are many cases in which the first step
in " toning up " should properly be to tone them down. By that
I mean that it is necessary to diminish the unnecessary expendi-
ture of energy which has become a fixed habit of life. We all, as
a rule, are too prodigal of our resources, and squander vast quan-
tities in excess of what the occasion requires. It is amazing to
see people, intelligent about ordinary things, traveling for their
health at a rate that suggests that they have been shot out of a
318 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
gun. Many do, of course, get a limited benefit in the change of
subjects of thought, but they often mistake change of feeling due
to excitement for recuperation. "We need to learn how to stop.
Instead of rushing across the face of the earth in the delusive
hope of finding health on the other side, we need to learn how to
sit down and make ourselves comfortable where we are. A man
who had lived to a great age in health and contentment was
asked to give some simple rule of life out of his experience. In
reply, he said, "The only rule I can give is, 'Always keep com-
fortable/ " I feel confident that a well-selected residence in the
tropics from time to time will prove helpful in acquiring habits
of reposefulness. Tropical heat is not oppressive, as many who
have not tried it seem to suppose. It is very different from the
same -temperature as indicated by the thermometer during a
northern summer. One does not fret about the tropical heat as
he is apt to do here, but is inclined to keep quiet, lie down and
sleep a good deal during the daytime as well as profoundly all
night. Wakefulness is a rarity. The relief from nervous tension
and irritability is inexpressibly delightful. The increased action
of the skin relieves and gives needed rest to overworked kidneys,
the air passages are bathed by a moist, bland, nonirritating, warm
air, no chilly draughts scourge the nerve centers into activities
wasteful of energy, morbid appetites are allayed, digestion is im-
proved in sympathy with increased skin activity, and the poor
invalid begins to feel that, after all, life may be worth living. It
is a delusion, born of constant assertions of the advocates of negro
slavery before the war, that white people can not work in the
tropics. The island of Porto Rico was originally settled by
Catalonian peasants, and the major part of the farm labor has
from the beginning till now — say for approaching four hundred
years — been done by white men. True, negro slavery was intro-
duced there, but of a milder type than in the other islands ; and
the blacks never amounted to much more than one third of the
population, and they rapidly mixed with their Spanish colaborers
beside whom they worked. The facts are still more startling in
regard to the Spanish Main. Along the coasts of Central Amer-
ica the mahogany cutters, called " Indians/' are mostly of mixed
negro blood ; and along the unhealthy shores of the Magdalen a
River, or wherever the sugar cane is cultivated, negro slaves
were introduced, and their descendants, largely mixed with the
Indian race, still remain. Even in Brazil the negroes and their
descendants are confined to a few provinces, and never to exclude
white labor ; and in numbers the African blood constitutes but a
small proportion of the ten or twelve millions in that country —
certainly not enough to influence the following statement : From
the southern border of the United States through Mexico, the
CLIMATE AND HEALTH. 319
republics of Central America, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador,
Peru, Bolivia, Chili, Paraguay, Uruguay, the larger part of
Brazil, Argentina, down to Patagonia, with the exceptions above
mentioned, there is not now and there never has been any farm
labor but white farm labor since the settlement of that vast con-
tinent ; and the widest portion is directly under the equator. I
do not include the Indians in this statement, because when wild
they do not work in the sense here meant, and when brought
under the influence of the Spanish and Portuguese civilization
they immediately mix with and become essentially one with their
white coworkers. I do not deny that there are pestilential
lagoons which are more pestilential than any similar territory
to be found north. But I do not believe that, shunning local
conditions which would be bad anywhere, and worse in the
tropics, well-selected locations are unhealthy because of tropical
heat and moisture, except in certain cases. On the other hand, I
believe that almost all elderly people and a large number of over-
worked and tired-out persons would find that tropical life costs a
largely diminished outlay of energy with a corresponding hus-
banding of nervous .and metabolic forces. In illustration of the
foregoing statement I give the following facts :
The island of Dominica lies in fifteen degrees north latitude
and contained twenty-nine thousand people in 1885. Dr. Nicholls,
the chief medical officer of the island, whom I personally know,
made a report to the managers of the Colonial Exhibition held in
London in the year 1886, in which he stated that the death rate
of the preceding year was fifteen and a half per thousand of the
population — that is to say, the death rate in this small island,
deep in the tropics, was less by ten per thousand than the average
for New York city. The people are mostly blacks. Further in-
quiries revealed the fact that there were, at that time, three hun-
dred and ninety-one white people— men, women, and children —
and that there had been two deaths among them during the pre-
vious year : one from apoplexy and one, a nun, died from phthisis,
which she had brought from England, she having come to the
island in the hope of benefit to her health. In fact, there was not
one death among the whites from any disease generally supposed
to be especially tropical. The death rate is higher in some of the
other islands, but not higher, according to the best information I
could get, than in northern communities from the same classes of
diseases. It should also be remembered that many of the West
India Islands are in a deplorably bad sanitary condition, exposing
them to be scourged from time to time by importations of yellow
fever, smallpox, and such like epidemics, when, of course, the
death rate is largely increased. The foregoing applies more espe-
cially to the Windward Islands, which possess some conspicuous
320 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
advantages over the Greater Antilles, in that they lie in the path
of the northeast trade winds, and, being small, the winds sweep
over them as over the deck of a ship. There is no alternating sea
breeze and land breeze, because there is not sufficient land to be
heated by day to form an upward current, and to cool by night
and form a downward and outward current ; but there is always
a gentle movement of the air toward the west, without the inter-
vals of calms which characterize the Greater Antilles. But any
of the West India Islands, no doubt, furnish many locations in
good sanitary condition where the intelligent invalid may find
bodily and mental repose, and let his muscles relax and take com-
fort, while his enfeebled skin, long constringed by cold and de-
bilitated by clothing, is stimulated by genial warmth to doing its
long.-neglected duty, for a time at least, while the kidneys, heart,
and lungs are given a much-needed rest.
It should be understood that I do not think all cases would be
benefited by a sojourn in a tropical climate, but I feel assured
that for a large number of carefully selected cases no resource of
climate can be so promotive of improved metabolism as a well-
selected location and suitably regulated life during several win-
ter months in the tropics, from time to time, especially if closely
followed by a change to a higher latitude or altitude and cooler
locality during the following summer.
Not least among the advantages of a tropical climate for a
temporary sojourn in certain cases is the change of food which is,
or at least ought to be, always effected. It would be a very un-
wise proceeding to subsist upon a diet essentially the same as one
is accustomed to at home. In the first place, there are not many
of our American stomachs that do not need a rest, and one of the
objects to be sought in living in a warm climate is to give the
overworked stomach a chance to recuperate ; not only because
there is no necessity for the same amount and quality of food to
be digested, but we can find in the fruits of a country food which
is not only very easily digested, but which supplies nearly all the
requisites for wholesome nutrition under the changed conditions.
The best fruits of the tropics are very perishable — so much so
that we never see them in New York. Now, I am not advocating
an exclusively fruit diet ; but I think when people from the north
go to the tropics for " climatic therapeutics " they should make
it a point to eat very sparingly of meats and even farinaceous
food, and endeavor to supply Nature's wants by using largely of
the fruits of the country — especially those soft, sweet, and perish-
able fruits which do not last more than a day or two. Thus we
have, besides the influences of steady warmth and moisture, the
added advantage of a change of diet, which is no small factor in
modifying the metabolism which we seek.
CLIMATE AND HEALTH. 321
I have spoken of the Windward Islands as being especially
desirable during the three or four months of the so-called " dry
season," or from December to May, and of the whole West India
Islands as furnishing desirable locations for climatic rejuvena-
tion. The West Indies are especially interesting because commu-
nication is so easy and constant and relatively cheap ; they are
practically at our door, and it seems to me that they should be
studied more. The Spanish Main also furnishes a great variety
of especially desirable locations which can be used for the same
purposes ; but in speaking to the question of climate in " thera-
peutics" my object is not to advocate any particular point, but to
illustrate the general subject.
When one has become rested by a some months' sojourn in a
tropical region, and, as the season advances, goes north instead of
sweltering in New York or other corresponding place, it would be
well to go to the seashore or to the mountains, where he would
receive another form of tonic to his already partially recuperated
energies. In that way we should be using the climate as an
essentially " therapeutic means." *
The larger number of invalids and tired- out people will con-
tinue to go to Europe for their change, and undoubtedly that is
the better course for the majority, and, when properly managed,
the "therapy of climate" may be sufficiently realized in that
manner in most cases. I do not include those people who travel
for pleasure only, or where change of climate is the secondary
object, though in many instances even those persons do reap real
advantage from the considerable change in food, air, and the
surrounding conditions of life. There are many advantages to
Americans in visiting Europe, not the least of which is the
change of interests which new and different objects for contem-
plation furnish, and that fill the mind without taxing it to the
temporary displacement of the business, political, domestic, or
other cares and anxieties which are apt to hold our American
mind in a tenacious grip from sheer force of habit. With three
thousand miles of ocean behind us, it is not easy to talk "shop"
with the neighbor at our elbow during the ten minutes some
people devote to their lunch or dinner, and we are almost obliged
by prevailing custom to take a reasonable time at meals and
be quiet about it. I believe that the climate of Europe is no
better than ours, and in some respects not so good. I am told
that life-insurance statistics — the most reliable of all — show that
the life expectation is somewhat longer among American risks
* For more detailed information in regard to the West Indian climate, I refer those
interested in the subject to several articles in The Times and Register, by Dr. William F.
Hutchinson, beginning in the number for September 6, 1890.
322 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
than in European; and there seems to be no evidence among
athletes or race-horses that bodily vigor is not equal here, to say
the least, to anything across the water. But there is a difference
in meteorological conditions, and this difference may be very
effectually used to invigorate and improve the metabolism in a
large number of cases if we keep this object steadily in mind and
manage toward the accomplishment of this end. There is not
only the mental relaxation not possible here in the midst of ordi-
nary pursuits, but the change of climatic conditions, though not
so great as a change to tropical lands, is still considerable — quite
enough, when properly utilized, in connection with mental and
bodily rest, change of food and cooking, change of many habits,
and the gentle but quite positive mental tonic of new scenes and
new interests. With some important exceptions to be presently
noticed, I do not think it makes very much difference where our
American tired- out or half invalids go, provided they actually
get rest and always keep comfortable. Of course, I do not include
those thousands who are always on the rush, "doing" Europe.
Among other influences there is no doubt, in my mind, of the
great therapeutic value in many cases of well-regulated courses
of mineral waters, when the cases and the waters are carefully
selected and as carefully directed to the peculiarities of each case.
Nothing could be more reprehensible, from the therapeutic point
of view, than for an American family to turn itself loose in Carls-
bad, for instance, and drink haphazard of these powerful waters
— powerful for harm as well as for good — without the advice of a
competent physician, experienced in their use and effects, as I
have been told our brethren sometimes do. My experience with
physicians at some half dozen European spas has been very satis-
factory, and leads me to believe that the local doctors are gen-
erally capable, honest men, and that their advice ought to be
generally sought and followed with confidence in the use of the
waters. But we, on this side, ought to be able to give clear
advice, if not as to the particular mineral spring, at least as to
the general character of the waters to be sought ; and especially
it is always important to urge our countrymen not to overdo the
matter. I am speaking more especially of that vast horde of
tired-out health- seekers who annually cross the Atlantic and for
whom there can be no better therapy than judicious change of
climate, including mineral waters for a certain number as an
added and potent alterative. Taking Carlsbad as perhaps the
representative spa of the Continent, I am of the opinion that
there are few middle-aged or elderly persons who are not decided-
ly the better for having their capillaries physicked and their
emunctories cleaned out once in a while by a course of Carls-
bad water sufficient for that purpose ; and it is astonishing what
CLIMATE AND HEALTH.
323
a small quantity of the water will sometimes do it to the extent
here contemplated.
There is some danger to the novice in going into semitropical
regions in being unacquainted with and unprepared for the de-
gree of apparent cold which he is likely to find to his great sur-
prise. And when he looks at the thermometer he is further sur-
prised to see it so high while his feelings indicate a much lower
temperature. He is still more astonished to notice that the
natives do not mind the cold that makes the novice shiver.
The fact is that without his accustomed fire and housewarming
facilities, and subjected to air currents, the practical temperature
in its physiological effects is much lower than the thermometer
registers. In Spain, Italy, and in general along the Mediterra-
nean shore, they have a semitropical climate during eight or nine
months of the year, during which time the native inhabitants
hold their calorifacient function in reserve, and when they reach
their short and moderately cold season they have no difficulty
in drawing sufficiently on their reserve heat-making power. The
man from the north has no such reserve, and what he has the
temperature is not sufficiently stimulating to call into full ac-
tivity. He has used up his caloric in the greater cold of the
north. People from the extreme south enjoy their first north-
ern winter. I met, in Teneriffe, an intelligent captain of a whal-
ing ship who had several times fished in the Bering Sea. He
said it is customary for whalers to make up for loss of men
from desertions by taking on South Sea islanders. He said they
bear the cold and hardships of the north as well as New Bedford
whalemen, and in proof related the following incident: One
morning, when far north, he noticed on coming on deck one of
his South Sea islanders entirely naked taking a bath. There
was a strong wind blowing, and it was so cold that the water he
dashed over him froze as it struck the deck. The man seemed to
enjoy it, though he had never seen frozen water or snow before.
There are good reasons why people of the north with impaired
stamina should not expect to bear exposure so well as natives of
semitropical regions and should make themselves, in regard to
temperature, more comfortable than would be sufficient for the
natives.
Northern people should be particularly careful in going to a
climate with a temperature too low for comfort without a fire
and too high for comfort with a fire. Even the increased sun-
shine is not sufficiently constant, and all rooms do not face the
south. No matter what natives may say, Americans ought al-
ways to have the means for heating when occasion requires, and
a southern aspect to their rooms everywhere in southern Europe,
if they are at. all sensitive to cold, irrespective of the thermometer,
324 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
or else travel north till they come to fireplaces, stoves, ovens, or
other means for artificial warmth. Inquiry into the sanitation
not only of residences but of the towns should never be neglected.
I suppose the climate of the southern and southeastern coast of
Spain is perhaps the most genial on the Mediterranean, and
equally the most dangerous for Americans to abide in on account
of the lack of proper drainage and other attention to sanitation.
But the same may be said of much of the coast except on portions
of the Riviera, where in certain places much improvement has
been and is being effected in that respect.
There are generally good reasons for many of the customs and
habits of the natives of any region, and there will be found ad-
vantages in adopting many of their ideas and methods so far as
practicable. Along the Riviera people flock indoors with the
going down of the sun : and there is good reason for it. At Nice,
I have seen the thermometer register a fall of 25° F. within an
hour as the sun neared the horizon. Such sudden cooling might
be dangerous to an American dyspeptic with his limited power of
reaction. Going indoors reduces this difference of temperature.
Right across the Gulf of Lyons, in Barcelona, Spain, in nearly
the same latitude and about the same mean temperature, the
habit of the people is to be out of doors in the evening, promenad-
ing, visiting theaters and cafes, and the ladies doing their shop-
ping till midnight and after. They find evening the best time for
many purposes because there is very little change between the
temperatures day and night. My thermometer was hung in an
alley which the sun never reached, and all I could make it do was
to record the extreme difference of two degrees between six
o'clock in the morning and two o'clock in the afternoon during
a week. I was still a thermometer dupe at that time. I have
since broken my thermometers, and they will never endanger my
sanity any more.
But it is not always convenient or even possible for one needing
the therapeutic advantages of change of climate to go to Europe,
nor is such a change necessary or even desirable in many cases.
There is a great deal of as good climate as the world affords in
our own country ; and almost any change from low to high
temperature, from damp to dry, from low to high altitudes, from
seashore to mountains, from regions of high cultivation to the
balsamic air of primeval forests or the reverse, can be had with-
out the fatigue and expense of long sea voyages and wide stretches
of turbulent sea between the traveler and anxious friends at
home. The " sunny south " offers much that is admirable both
in quality and variety of climate suited to various conditions.
The main idea should not be the search for the perfect climate
which does nowhere exist, but the question should be, "What
CLIMATE AND HEALTH. 325
change is indicated for the case in hand ?" The question, to be
properly answered, necessarily includes a knowledge of the region
in which the individual has been living. Shall an inhabitant of
Virginia go south or north for the winter ? Or, had he better
go west, or northwest, or southwest ? Shall a New-Yorker go
to Florida, and, if to Florida, shall it be into the tonic Atlantic
breezes of the eastern shore, or the milder and softer air of the
Gulf coast ? Does this person's condition and meteorological
surroundings indicate a change to the rarefied air of Colorado or
to the denser atmosphere of Tennessee, Michigan, or Minnesota ?
Ought the change to be to the moist breezes and frequent rains of
Washington in the northwest or to the constant sunshine and
more even temperature of southern California in the semitropical
southwest ? If the Pacific slope seems indicated, shall it be in the
coast cool winds or the warm and calm interior valley ? Or, had
we not better make a new climate of our own ? The bosom of
great Ocean furnishes a variety of climates all its own. In former
days a sea voyage was much resorted to for chronic invalids, and
with decided advantages in many cases. A life at sea, if at all
prolonged, has the disadvantage of leaving too many comforts
behind to be recommended for any but the young and compara-
tively robust. It is said that three hundred miles from land the
air is free from living germs. Many persons have returned from
long voyages in health entirely restored.
But we need not go to sea, or go abroad, or even to the south,
or to the wide west. We can make a climate of our own if we
properly work for that end. It is not even necessary to rattle
over ten miles of pavement in order to get a change of air. We
have it right there on the veranda ; we can have it fresh from the
outside grand air, by opening the windows and opening them
wide till all the stale air in the room is blown out and all the
room is filled with ozone. We can change our food at home if we
like. I know a man who almost rejuvenated himself by living on
little else than fish, oysters, and clam juice for three months. We
can regulate the temperature and take a sun-bath whenever the
sun shines. And we can stop fretting if we are sufficiently
determined to do so. Actions are but the evidence of a pre-
determination. Why not determine to change our climate, when
there is benefit to be derived from such change ?
It has always been the unsolved puzzle of my professional life
that so many people insist on reaching out to a distance for much
that can be had better right at hand if they would but open their
hand and take it. This is especially so in regard to climate and
changes of climate. Notwithstanding positive directions to the
contrary, many a child in pain with joint disease has been taken
out miles over rough pavements " for the air," while every jolt
326 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
was agony, when the same air could be had in his bedroom, with
pleasure and safety, by bundling him up and opening the windows
and keeping them open. It is against the law to live in cellars,
but we make cellars of our rooms by keeping them filled with
impure air. I do not inveigh, as it is the fashion to do, against
the temperature at which our American houses are kept; a
higher temperature is a necessity of our climate ; but some one
has yet to secure a fortune and the blessings of mankind by
devising a system which will keep our houses always filled with
living, moving, fresh air, and that will oblige everybody to attend
to this matter as he ought.
And here I wish to enter an earnest protest against the prac-
tice of sending patients, often far gone with consumption or other
wasting disease, away from friends and the comforts of home,
without knowledge of what would be best for them, in a fruitless
search for health, when, in their enfeebled state, better conditions
could be instituted at home where at least they could die in peace.
Some, not too far gone, do recover, it is fortunately true, but many
lie buried there, and more are sent east in long boxes. On my
last trip east, a young girl sat in front of me, whose mother's
body accompanied her, and opposite me sat a gentleman and his
wife whose daughter's body was also in the baggage car. In
neither of these instances had the invalids been more than a
short time west. Too many such things are happening for the
credit of our profession. Send patients, in time, with a definite
intention in the change of climate sought, or do not send them
at all.
My object has been to call attention to the many and often
difficult questions involved in the therapeutics of climate in its
wide and varied significance. Probably no one now lives who is
capable of answering all the questions relating to " therapeutics
of climate," but they will be answered some day and correctly
answered; and when answered it will be found, I believe, as a
general thing, that the best climate for consumptives is also the
best for other persons in like general physical conditions. Twenty
years after our profession more fully realizes the immense value
of " climate in therapeutics " — and hundreds of capable men have
been studying the subject from that point alone, and valuable
material has been created to draw upon — a climato-therapy may
be formulated which will give the divine art of healing a new up-
lifting, not less glorious than that which in our day has attended
the labors of Pasteur, Koch, Lister, and others whose immortal
services have so enriched the world.
MR. BALFOUR'S DIALECTICS. 327
MR. BALFOUR'S DIALECTICS.
By HERBERT SPENCER.
IN early stages of progress gods, conceived as man-like in so
many other respects, are conceived as man-like in their credu-
lity : deceptions being consequently practiced upon them. Some-
times in place of a human being an animal dressed up as a human
being is immolated. Among the ancient Mexicans effigies of men
were subject to sacrificial ceremonies like those to which actual
men had been subject. The Chinese carry the system of sham
offerings very far ; making paper-models of properties, utensils,
and money, and burning them to propitiate the worshiped beings.
And there are peoples among whom deceptions of this nature are
practiced in the avowed belief that their gods are stupid. So that
as the marauding Basuto expects by certain sounds to deceive the
gods of the people he is robbing, so, in other cases, the semblance
of an offering to a god is supposed to be mistaken by him for the
reality.
What is the relevance of these facts ? Well, I am reminded
of them by observing how easily deluded is that many-headed
god to whom in our day multitudinous sacrifices are made (espe-
cially of convictions), and before whom so much incense is burnt
— the god Demos, I was about to say, but remembering the re-
stricted meaning of the word, let me say instead the apotheo-
sized Public, whose fiat, uttered through its delegates, is thought
to be a final criterion of good and evil, right and wrong. For
this modern deity is deluded with scarcely less ease than the year-
god of the Chinese is supposed to be deluded by paper offerings.
Similarly lacking in discrimination, it does not distinguish be-
tween a semblance and a reality ; and when the process of destroy-
ing the semblance has been gone through, it shows, by demon-
strations of delight, that it thinks the reality has been destroyed.
A good illustration was furnished at the last meeting of the
British Association by Lord Salisbury. Beginning his presiden-
tial address with the remark that he felt like " a colonel of volun-
teers " reviewing " an army corps at Aldershot," but shortly
assuming the manner proper to a colonel of the guards reviewing
the " awkward squad," he set forth what he professed to be the
hypothesis of Natural Selection ; and then, with an amusing simile,
thrust it through, and, as it seemed to the onlooking public, let
out its life-blood. Whereupon came through the press rounds of
applause, and among readers much throwing up of caps and
laughter at the fallacy detected : even comic verses, illustrative
of the supposed absurdity, being published. Very curious was it
to observe how a doctrine which Mr. Darwin had spent a life in
3z8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
elaborating, and which had been under examination and discus-
sion by the whole biological world for a generation, was thought
to be thus readily disposed of by a scholar's mate. Very curi-
ous, too, was it to observe the different effects produced in the
world of science and in the outer world. Neither in the recent
controversy between Dr. Wallace and Professor Henslow, nor in
the criticisms of Mr. Bateson's late work, nor in the discussion
before the Royal Society on Professor Weldon's experiments
and views — all of them concerned with aspects of Natural Se-
lection— is there the slightest sign that Lord Salisbury's attack
had produced any impression whatever : a serene disregard
showing that its irrelevance was tacitly recognized by all. Mean-
while the extreme improbability that there could be achieved
so easy a triumph being overlooked, there was great rejoicing
among those who stand by the old ; even to the extent that a
bishop and a dissenting minister were heard exchanging congrat-
ulations on what they supposed to be a defeat of the common
enemy !
And now I have to make a remark to which the foregoing
illustration is preliminary — the remark that this slaying of effigies
entails on those concerned a provoking choice of alternatives.
Either the attack must be noticed for the purpose of showing that
the thing disproved was not the thing said, in which case time
and energy, often much wanted for other purposes, must be spent ;
or else the attack must be passed by in silence, in which case
readers assume that nothing is said because there is nothing to
say — that the misstated view is the actual view, and the criticism
of it fatal. For it never occurs to them that silence may result
from preoccupation or from the belief that controversy is futile,
or from ill-health. Once more, after many repetitions, I have my-
self to choose between the two evils. As the issue raised by Mr.
Balfour is important, I reluctantly decide to accept his challenge.
Limitations of time and space oblige me to leave some contro-
verted views of mine undefended ; as instance certain ethical and
SBsthetical ones. I must content myself with saying that those
who turn to my own expositions of them will carry away differ-
ent impressions from those given by Mr. Balfour's burlesques.
But before entering on the essential question, something may fitly
be said concerning Mr. Balfour's assumptions and his methods.
Let us look first at one of his assumptions.
" What remedy remains ? " he asks ; referring to the inade-
quacy of reasoning "based upon ordinary experience" to "enable
us to break out of the Naturalistic prison-house." " One such
remedy consists in simply setting up side by side with the creed
of natural science another and supplementary set of beliefs, which
MR. BALFOUR'S DIALECTICS. 329
may minister to needs and aspirations which science can not
meet." * And then, further on, respecting a certain " patchwork
scheme of belief," he says — " If and in so far as it really meets
their needs I have nothing to say against it, and can hold out
small hope of bettering it. It is much more satisfactory as re-
gards its content than Naturalism." f
Is there not in these passages an indirect begging of the ques-
tion ? The title of Mr. Balfour's work is The Foundations of Be-
lief. Belief in what ? Not in any of those doctrines which he
groups together under the name of Naturalism ; but in the op-
posed doctrine, Supernaturalism — belief in a Ruling Power such
as that which the current creed asserts. If the existence of such
a Power is tacitly assumed by the arguments urged in proof of it,
the reasoning is circular. But unless the existence of such a
Power is assumed, how can it be assumed that the constitution of
things is one which " ministers " to men's " needs and aspirations,"
or provides a theory which is " satisfactory" ? In the absence of
the assumption that things have been by some agency prearranged
for men's benefit, there seems no reason to expect the order of the
Universe to be one which provides for men's mental "needs and
aspirations " ; and that the truth of a theory may be judged by
the degree in which it conforms to such expectation.
Tests furnished by other creeds clearly show this. If a North
American Indian, confidently looking forward to a " happy hunt-
ing-ground" after death, is told that there is no such place, is the
fact that the creed offered to him negatives his hopes a reason for
rejecting it ? When the baselessness of his belief in an unlimited
supply of houris to be hereafter provided, is shown to a Mahom-
medan, may he urge that his " needs and aspirations " can not be
otherwise satisfied, and that therefore his faith must be true ? Or
once more, if to the half-starved and over-worked Hindoo, to whom
it is a consolatory thought that by placing himself under the
wheel of Juggernaut's car he may forthwith ascend to heaven,
there comes the demonstration that he can not thus gain happi-
ness, is the fact that the alternative belief is not " satisfactory " a
sufficient ground for adhering to his superstition ? Doubtless the
needs and satisfactions which Mr. Balfour has in view are of a
higher order than those instanced, but that does not alter the is-
sue. The question is whether the comforting character of a belief
is an adequate reason for entertaining it ; and the answer to this
question is not to be determined by the quality of the comfort
looked for, as high or low.
The truth is that Mr. Balfour's view, here tacitly implied, is a
more refined form of that primitive view which regards things as
* The Foundations of Belief p. 186. f Ibid., p. 187.
vol. xlvii. — 27
330 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
all arranged for human benefit — the Sun to rule the day, the Moon
to rule the night, animals and plants provided for food, and the
seasons beneficently adjusted to men's welfare. It is the anthro-
pocentric view. But the anthropocentric view does not appear
acceptable to one who contemplates things without foregone con-
clusions. When he learns that millions upon millions of years
passed during which the Earth was peopled only by inferior
brutes, and that even now three-fifths of its surface are occupied
by an ocean-basin carpeted with low creatures which live in dark-
ness, utterly useless to man and only lately known to him ; and
when he learns that of the remaining two-fifths, vast Arctic and
Antarctic regions, and vast desert areas, are practically uninhab-
itable, while immense portions of the remainder, fever-breeding
and swarming with insect pests, are unfit for comfortable exist-
ence ; he does not recognize much adjustment to the wants of
mankind. When he discovers that the human body is the habi-
tat of thirty different species of parasites, which inflict in many
cases great tortures ; or, still worse, when he thinks of the numer-
ous kinds of microbes, some producing ever-present diseases and
consequent mortality, and others producing frightful epidemics,
like the plague and the black death, carrying off hundreds of
thousands or millions, he sees little ground for assuming that
the order of Nature is devised to suit our needs and satisfactions.
The truth which the facts force upon him is not that the sur-
rounding world has been arranged to fit the physical nature of
man, but that, conversely, the physical nature of man has been
molded to fit the surrounding world ; and that, by implication,
the Theory of Things, justified by the evidence, may not be one
which satisfies men's moral needs and yields them emotional sat-
isfactions, but, conversely, is most likely one to which they have
to mold their mental wants as well as they can. The opposite as-
sumption, tacitly made by Mr. Balfour, obviously tends to vitiate
his general argument.
I have sometimes contended, half in jest, half in earnest, that,
having but a given endowment of any mental faculty, its pos-
sessor can not use it largely for one purpose without partially dis-
abling it for other purposes ; and that, conversely, great economy
in one direction of expenditure makes possible an excess in some
other direction. It seems to me that, in his manifestations of
doubt and faith, Mr. Balfour affords some support to this hypoth-
esis. Of his extreme economy of belief here is an illustration.
After first quoting from me the sentence : — " To ask whether
science is substantially true is much like asking whether the sun
gives light " ; he goes on : — " It is, I admit, very much like it. But
then, on Mr. Spencer's principles, does the sun give light ? After
MR. BALFOUR'S DIALECTICS. 331
due consideration we shall have to admit, I think, that it does
not." And he then proceeds to argue that the proposition is
doubtful, or indeed untrue, because I hold that certain elements
of it — matter, space, time and force— are, when fundamentally-
considered, incomprehensible. Now this, which at first sight ap-
pears to be simply a vicarious skepticism, proves, on inquiry, to
be a skepticism of Mr. Balfour himself. For since, as shown on
p. 284, he holds the same view that I do respecting these " ulti-
mate scientific ideas/' what he calls my principles are, in this
region, 7m principles. So that, making the substitution, the sen-
tence should run : — " But then, on my principles, does the sun
give light ? " The statement that the sun gives light is in his
view not a certainty but the contrary.
Turn now to Mr. Balfour's converse attitude. As a result of
economies of belief, like the foregoing, he is able to regard as
necessary certain assumptions which seem to me to have no war-
rant. The following passages from p. 302 supply an example : —
" The ordered system of phenomena asks for a cause; our knowledge of
that system is inexplicable unless we assume for it a rational Author. . . .
" We can not, for example, form, I will not say any adequate, but even
any tolerable, idea of the mode in which God is related to, and acts on, the
world of phenomena. That He created it, that He sustains it, we are driven
to believe. How He created it, how He sustains it, it is impossible for us
to imagine."
Here, then, is implied the belief, apparently regarded as unquestion-
able, that while one ultimate difficulty can not be allowed to re-
main without solution, another may be allowed so to remain. But
why, if it must continue " impossible for us to imagine " the mode
of operation of the cause behind " the ordered system of phenome-
na," may it not continue "impossible for us to imagine" the
nature of that cause ? If we are obliged to assume the cause to
be " a rational Author," since otherwise our knowledge of " the
ordered system of phenomena is inexplicable," why must we not
assume a certain mode of action by which " He created " and
" sustains "" the ordered system of phenomena," since otherwise
the creation and sustentation of it are inexplicable ? To me it
seems an indefensible belief that while for one part of the Mys-
tery of Things we must assign an explanation, all other parts may
be left without explanation. If the constitution of matter defies
all attempts to understand it, if it is impossible to understand in
what way feeling is connected with nervous change, if wherever
we analyze our knowledge to the bottom we come down to un-
analyzable components which elude the grasp of thought, what
ground is there for the belief that of one part of the mystery,
and that the deepest part, we must and can reach an explana-
tion ? Surely there is a strange incongruity in holding that we
332 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
have here a certainty while denying to be certain that the sun
gives light.
A considerable portion of The Foundations of Belief is occu-
pied by a discussion of the relative claims of Reason and Au-
thority. Certainly, in whatever other ways Mr. Balfour's argu-
ment tends to discredit Reason, it does not here discredit it by
example; for in general and in detail it is in this case charac-
terized by philosophic grasp, clear discrimination, and unusual
lucidity of statement. But while agreeing with him in his esti-
mate of the relative shares of Authority and Reason in determin-
ing our beliefs, and while holding as he does that life would be
impossible if all our beliefs had to be formed by Reason without
the aid of Authority, I would emphasize the fact of which he is
himself conscious, that it is impossible to go completely behind
Reason ; for if any other ruler is raised to the throne, in part or
for a time, it is by Reason that this is done. Reason can not be
essentially discredited by Reason : the attempt ends in suicide.
In one case only — that, namely, in which the question is between
the verdicts of Reason and those of simple Perception, chiefly of
objective existence — may Reason, estimating its own powers, vol-
untarily abdicate ; since critical examination of its processes shows
that it can not take even a first step toward discrediting the in-
tuitions which yield the consciousness of external existence with-
out tacitly positing these intuitions as data, and connoting the co-
existence of subject and object by all the words it uses;* and
that, consequently, all it can do in this sphere is to explain incon-
gruities so as to harmonize these intuitions with one another and
with itself. But while this limitation holds where the opposition
is between mediate and immediate knowledge, it does not hold
where the opposition is between two kinds of mediate knowledge
— the verdicts of Reason and those of Authority. Hence, in esti-
mating the relative claims of Reason and Authority we have to
bear in mind that the supremacy of Reason is exercised in the act
of choosing the Authority. How, exercising this supremacy, does
it make the choice ? Clearly by comparing the degrees of trust-
worthiness of authorities as ascertained in experience. That we
do this when the authorities are individual men is undeniable.
We ask how often their respective statements have been verified,
and how often the guidance they have severally yielded has
proved good. If, looking back, we see that the statements made
by the one have habitually corresponded with facts, and that the
advice given by him has been shown by the result to be wise,
while many statements of the other have been disproved at the
* Principles of Psychology, §§ 388-412.
MR. BALFOUR'S DIALECTICS. 333
same time that his suggestions have been misleading or impracti-
cable, Reason obliges us to accept the first authority rather than
the second. And if we have to select one of two conflicting
masses of authority of the kind Mr. Balfour so well describes as
largely influencing our beliefs apart from Reason, we must deter-
mine their respective claims to our confidence in a similar way.
What are the authorities between which we have to choose ?
Briefly characterized, Mr. Balfour's book is a plea for Supernatu-
ralism versus Naturalism, and unless his section insisting on the
"beneficent part" which Authority plays in the production of
beliefs is without any raison d'etre, it is clear that the aggregate
of influences composing the authority which supports Religion is
set against the aggregate of influences by which Rationalism, con-
sidered by him as a form of authority, is supported. The au-
thorities which uphold Theology and Science respectively are the
two in question. Let us, then, observe what happens when we
test their relative values as we test the relative values of individ-
ual authorities.
From the days when Chaldean priests began to record
eclipses, and after a time partially discovered the cycle they fol-
low, and were so enabled to foresee their recurrence with approxi-
mate truth, down to our own day, astronomical knowledge has
been growing ever more exact and more extensive, until now the
celestial motions are so perfectly known, that a transit of Venus
or an occultation of Jupiter by the moon, fulfills expectation to the
minute. So is it throughout : the previsions of the chemist hav-
ing reached such a stage that, foreseeing the possibility of an un-
known compound which must have certain properties, he proceeds
to form it, and creates a substance which has never before exist-
ed, answering to his anticipations. If from this ever-increasing
verification of scientific statements and inferences we turn to the
guidance Science has afforded, allied evidence everywhere sur-
rounds us. Led by Science mankind have progressed from boom-
erangs to 100-ton guns, from dug-out canoes to Atlantic liners,
from picture-writing on skins to morning journals printed twenty
thousand per hour ; and that over all the developed arts of life
Science now presides scarcely needs saying.
With the Authority of Science, thus daily becoming greater,
contrast now the opposed Authority. Have the propositions con-
stituting current Theology been rendered more certain with the
passage of time and the advance of knowledge, or has the con-
trary happened ? Assyrian and Egyptian records, discovered of
late years, have, indeed, served to confirm certain statements con-
tained in the Bible ; and so have tended to verify the natural part
of the Hebrew story. But this yields no more reason for accept-
ing its supernatural part than does proof that there occurred the
334 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
feuds and conquests described in the Norse sagas yield reason for
believing in Thor and Odin. Add to which, that if these agree-
ments with Assyrian and Egyptian records tend to verify the
Hebrew religion, then, conversely, it might be held by Assyrian
and Egyptian priests, did any now exist, that such agreements,
verified their religions. Apart, however, from historic statements,
thus proved true, investigations, scientific and literary, have
served more and more to disprove, or to make doubtful, those
parts of the biblical narrative which constitute its Theology. It
needs but to contrast past confidence in them with present doubts
and disbeliefs, to see that statements of this class have not, like
those of Science, become gradually clearer and more certain, but
the reverse.* Nor is confidence increased when we ask whether
its guidance has been successful. After nearly two thousand
years of Christian teaching and discipline, how near are we to
that ideal life which Christian leading was to bring us to ?
What must we think of the sentiment implied in the saying of a
glorified prince, repeated by a popular emperor, lauding " blood
and iron — a remedy which never fails." Among the peoples who
socially insist on duels, what advance do we see toward the prac-
tice of forgiving injuries ? Or, turning from private to public
transactions, what restraint do we find upon the passion of inter-
national revenge — revenge by the great mass insisted upon as a
duty. How much moralization can we trace in the contrast be-
tween the practice of savages, whose maxim in their inter-tribal
feuds is — " Life for life," and the practice of Christian nations,
who in their dealings with weak peoples take as their maxim —
" For one life many lives." Toward the foretold state when
swords shall be beaten into plowshares, how much have we
progressed, now that there exist bigger armies than ever existed
before. And where are the indications of increased brotherly
love in the doings of Christian nations in Africa, where, like hun-
gry dogs round a carcass, they tear out piece after piece, pausing
only to snarl and snap at one another, f
* Even while I write there comes to me, in The Academy, for April 2Vth, 1895, suffi-
cient illustration in the following remarks, made by a learned biblical critic, the Rev. Prof.
Cheyne : — " There is, indeed, no reason, since the Tell-el-Amarna discoveries, to doubt that
religious myths of Babylonian origin found their way into Canaan long before the entrance
of the Israelites, and were adopted by the Israelitish conquerors ; but it may be reasonably
held, (1) that the creation-myth in that early age was less developed than that which lies
at the root of Gen. i. ; (2) that some of its elements had lost much of their life by the time
of Amos ; (3) that renewed intercourse with Assyria and Babylonia resulted in the revival
of the old myth, perhaps with new elements ; and (4) that religious teachers in Judah
adopted and adapted this and other myths."
f If it be complained that while emphasizing failures in guidance I have ignored suc-
cesses, by omitting to name the good conduct in private life which has been fostered, I
MR. BALFOUR'S DIALECTICS. 335
Clearly, then, by the never-ceasing verification of its dicta and
by the increasing efficiency and wider range of its guidance, Sci-
ence is gaining a greater and greater Authority ; at the same
time that the Authority of Theology is being decreased by the
discrediting of its statements and by its unsuccessful regulation
of conduct. Hence if Reason, whenever it abdicates in favor of
Authority, has to choose between the two, it is compelled to ac-
cept the Authority of Science rather than that of Theology,
where they are in conflict. So far from strengthening his own
position by showing how large a share Authority has, and ought
to have, in determining our beliefs, it seems to me that Mr. Bal-
four strengthens the position of his opponents.
Not unfitly introduced by the foregoing considerations, Mr.
Balfour's assault on the fundamental position held by me may
now be dealt with. He supposes that he has shown it to be un-
tenable, and is thought to have done so by others. Here are the
relevant passages. After describing me as holding that " beyond
what we think we know, and in closest relationship with it, lies
an infinite field which we do not know, and which with our pres-
ent faculties we can never know, yet which can not be ignored
without making what we do know unintelligible and meaning-
less," he proceeds : —
"But he has failed to see whither such speculations must inevitably
lead him. He has failed to see that if the certitudes of science lose them-
selves in depths of unfathomable mystery, it may well be that out of these
same depths there should emerge the certitudes of religion; and that if
the dependence of the 'knowable' upon the 'unknowable' embarrasses us
not in the one case, no reason can be assigned why it should embarrass us
in the other.
"Mr. Spencer, in short, has avoided the error of dividing all reality into
a Perceivable which concerns us, and an Unperceivable which, if it exists
at all, concerns us not. Agnosticism so understood he explicitly repudiates
by his theory, if not by his practice. But he has not seen that, if this sim-
ple-minded creed be once abandoned, there is no convenient halting-place
till we have swung round to a theory of things which is its precise oppo-
reply that, though unquestionably some effect has been produced, there is reason for doubt-
ing whether the effect has been great. I have to point out once more, what I have repeat-
edly pointed out {Principles of Sociology, §§ 324, 327, 330-2, 437, 573-4 ; Principles of
Ethics, §§ 128, 141, 155, 159, 191), that if we wish to see exemplified in full measure -the
virtues especially claimed as Christian, we must look among sundry uncivilized peoples
classed as Heathens — peoples who do exercise the virtue of forgiveness, whose truthful-
ness is a proverb, who are absolutely honest, whose goodness is such that in one case it is
described as like a romance. The distinctive trait they have in common is that they are
perfectly peaceful. We find among them no Christian creed, but only Christian conduct.
They do not preach to neighboring tribes an impossible altruism and then treat them with
unscrupulous egoism.
336 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
site: a theory which, though it shrinks on its speculative side from no
severity of critical analysis, yet on its practical side finds the source of its
constructive energy in the deepest needs of man, and thus recognizes, alike
in science, in ethics, in beauty, in religion, the halting expression of a
reality beyond our reach, the half-seen vision of transcendent Truth." (p.
288-9.)
On these passages my first criticism is that they exemplify the
process described at the outset — the spearing of an effigy which is
alleged to be the reality. For when the doctrine represented as
mine is compared with the doctrine which is actually mine, it be-
comes manifest that Mr. Balfour's spear does not touch it at all.
Nowhere have I either directly or indirectly denied that out of the
"depths of unfathomable mystery there may . . . emerge the
certitudes of religion;" and it would be wholly inconsistent with
my expressed views were I to deny that there may. The conclu-
sion that by the nature of our intelligence, we are forever de-
barred from forming any conception of the Reality which lies
behind Appearance, has the inevitable corollary that we can assign
no limits to the possibilities within it. This I have not only
implied, but long ago asserted. Witness the following passage : —
" Though I have argued that, in ascribing to the Unknowable Cause of
things such human attributes as emotion, will, and intelligence, we are
using words which, when thus applied, have no correspending ideas; yet I
have also argued that we are just as much debarred from denying as we are
from affirming such attributes; since, as ultimate analysis brings us every-
where to alternative impossibilities of thought, we are shown that beyond
the phenomenal order of things, our ideas of possible and impossible are
irrelevant." — Nineteenth Century, July, 1884.
After thus showing that I am unharmed, because untouched,
by Mr. Balfour's thrust, I might leave the matter without further
remark. But remembering that, much more important than the
personal question is the impersonal question lying behind, it
seems proper that I should make a counter-attack; for, in oppo-
sition to my supposed negation, Mr. Balfour places not only an
affirmation but something more than an affirmation. Against my
wrongly-assumed assertion that there may not emerge, he does
not simply put the assertion that there may emerge, but he unob-
trusively puts the assertion that there does emerge. This sub-
stituted statement, which he tacitly makes, is a totally different
one ; and while I admit the may I demur to the does. Without
pausing to ask what is the evidence that there does, it will suffice
if I examine the proposition itself, and see whether it is a think-
able one — whether the terms in which it is expressed have real
meanings, or are merely symbols having no meanings correspond-
ing to them.
Thinking, truly so called, implies mental representation of the
MR. BALFOUR'S DIALECTICS. 337
things and processes named ; and nearly all incorrect thinking is
due to imperfect representation or to non-representation. This is
so with thoughts about concrete things, and still more with
thoughts about abstract things. If, to an inadequately instructed
person, I show a hyperbola and a parabola, and tell him that the
sides of the last will obviously meet sooner than the sides of the
first, he will not improbably believe my erroneous statement ;
and, if he does so, it will be because he fails to figure in thought
the characters of the two curves. Did he mentally represent
them distinctly, he would see that the sides of neither can ever
meet. Or if, to such a person I say that, linear dimensions being
the same, an eight-sided cube contains more matter than a six-
sided cube, he may vaguely think that I am right. If he accepts
my false statement, why does he do so ? Simply because he has
not formed true mental images of the things named. Did he im-
agine them, or try to imagine them, he would discover that there
exists no such thing as an eight-sided cube. Turning to state-
ments about physical phenomena, we have a vivid illustration of
sham thinking in the assertion, not unfrequently made concerning
some remarkable phenomenon — " Oh, it is caused by electricity : "
an assertion which, in both speaker and hearers, leaves a con-
tented feeling that they understand the matter : the truth being
that none of them have the remotest idea what electricity is, and
none of them have the remotest idea how electricity, did they
know its nature, could produce the effect observed. What they
take to be their ideas are simply pseud-ideas. And if in the field
of sensible experience there is a prevalence of these pseud-ideas,
still more widely do they prevail in the fields of theology and
metaphysics. Examples are not far to seek.
In Mr. Balfour's proposition that out of the " depths of un-
fathomable mystery/' there " emerge the certitudes of religion,"
there are two essential elements — that which emerges, and the
process of emergence. The primary religious certitude, as im-
plied by his argument, is the existence of "a rational Author" for
"the ordered system of phenomena" — an existence which he
thinks more certain than the existence of an " independent ma-
terial world " (p. 237). If, now, the thought of " a rational Au-
thor " has emerged out of the " depths of unfathomable mystery,"
it must, if it is distinguishable from the mere blank form of a
thought, have some definable characters ; and unless Mr. Balfour
considers himself, and men who have similar thoughts, to be
fundamentally different from men in general, we must say that
thoughts having like characters have emerged into human con-
sciousness at large. I will not ask what happens if we contem-
plate all the implications, and observe the multitudinous con-
ceptions of gods which the multitudinous races of men have
338 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
entertained. It will suffice if I take the conceptions which have
arisen in races that have entertained the system of religious
beliefs Mr. Balfour defends. Without dwelling on the contrasts
between the conceptions of God current in early Hebrew times
and those current in later Hebrew times, and without dwelling
on the contrasts between the highly anthropomorphic ideas which
prevailed in mediaeval days throughout Europe and those less
anthropomorphic ones which prevail in our days, it will suffice to
name, side by side, the diverse conceptions existing among our-
selves at present. There is the conceived divine character which
most Protestants and all Catholics imply by the belief in an eter-
nal hell ; and there is that widely different one implied in the fol-
lowers of Maurice, who reject that belief. There are the views of
Trinitarians and Unitarians, so definitely unlike ; and there are
two other widely unlike views — that of the Quakers, and that of
their fellow Christians who laugh at them for believing that the
Christian ideal must be conformed to. Now, if from the " depths
of unfathomable mystery " the conception of " a rational Author "
of "the ordered system of phenomena" has emerged into human
consciousness, there arises in the first place the question — How
come there to have so emerged the different conceptions which
men have entertained from early days when God was said to have
appeared to various persons, down to our late days when the-
ophany is nonsense ? Then, seeing that many of these concep-
tions are in direct antagonism, there arises the question — How
are we to decide which must be rejected ? And once more, if out
of all of them one only has truly emerged, in what manner shall
we identify it ? To all which unanswerable inquiries add one
more. Assuming that the conception of " a rational Author," as
existing in Mr. Balfour and those who are on the same high plane
of thought, is the only true one, then, if possession of this concep-
tion is to be shown, it is requisite that there should be specified
some mentally-representable traits which constitute it. And if
the asserted traits are unrepresentable — if being, as they must be,
abstractions of human attributes existing unlocalized and multi-
plied by infinity, they are unthinkable — then the assertion of
their existence becomes nothing but the blank form of a thought
— expresses a pseud-idea.
A kindred result is reached if, not content with the word
" emerges," we try to imagine a process answering to that word.
The word implies some medium out of which some existence
previously concealed gradually appears — at first vaguely and at
last distinctly. Can Mr. Balfour say that, apart from any im-
pressions given to him in the course of education and subsequent
culture, such a representable emergence has taken place in him ?
If so, one implication is that his mind differs, not in elevation
MR. BALFOUR'S DIALECTICS. 339
only, but in nature, from certain minds which have been so
placed as to prevent communication of theological ideas from
without ; for it has been shown that among deaf-mutes who have
received no religious instruction, no idea of God exists.* Hence,
in the absence of proof to the contrary, we must say that that
high conception of a deity which exists in the minds of Mr. Bal-
four and others has had an historical origin. By what steps has
it been reached ? Beginning with the days when, as we are told,
God walked in the garden of Eden, there has been a gradual fall-
ing away of human attributes — first of all the physical structure
and accompanying needs, such as those which Abraham minis-
tered to ; then the lower desires and passions which later Hebrew
books imply ; until through many changes — now reactions to-
ward cruder and coarser ideas, and now advances toward more
refined ones — there has been formed the present conception, in
which there remain only certain highest intellectual and moral
traits, possessed in a degree transcending human imagination.
So that, in fact, the movement of thought by which the existing
consciousness has been reached is exactly the reverse of the move-
ment alleged by Mr. Balfour. The word " emerges " implies prog-
ress from the imperceptible, through the vague, to the distinct ;
whereas the actual progress has been from the distinct, through
the more and more vague, to the imperceptible, or rather to the
scarcely conceivable, or literally inconceivable. So that when
collated with the implied change, the word "emerges" is also
found to stand for a pseud-idea.
The difference between Mr. Balfour's consciousness of that
which lies behind Appearance, and the consciousness of those he
opposes (or, at least, of such of them as do not assume that there
can be Appearance without anything which appears), is that
whereas he persists in supposing himself to have thoughts when,
under close examination, all the components of thoughts have
vanished, they candidly admit that with the vanishing of such
components all thoughts have ceased; leaving only a conscious-
ness which can not be put into any form. Not only have they
dropped those early conceptions which imply that the Power
manifested in thirty millions of suns made a bargain with Abra-
ham— not only have they ceased to believe that such inferior pas-
sions as jealousy, anger and revenge can be felt by an Energy
which pervades infinity; but they have surrendered themselves
to the final conclusion that not even the highest mental attributes
conceivable by us, can be predicated of that Existence which fills
all Space for all Time.
It is not that they ivish to do this, but that they must : self-
* Ecclesiastical Institutions, chapter i.
3+o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
deception is the alternative. There is no pleasure in the con-
sciousness of being an infinitesimal bubble on a globe that is itself
infinitesimal compared with the totality of things.
Those on whom the unpitying rush of changes inflicts suffer-
ings which are often without remedy, find no consolation in the
thought that they are at the mercy of forces which cause, indif-
ferently, now the destruction of a sun and now the death of an
animalcule. Contemplation of a Universe which is without con-
ceivable beginning or imaginable end and without intelligible
purpose yields no satisfaction. The desire to know what it all
means is no less strong in the agnostic than in others, and raises
sympathy with them. Failing utterly to find any interpretation
himself, he feels a regretful inability to accept the interpretation
they offer.
-♦*♦-
STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD.
IX.— FEAR (continued).
By JAMES SULLY, M.A.,LL. D.,
GROTE PROFESSOR OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND AND LOGIC AT THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE,
LONDON.
IN my last article I gave a general account of children's fears.
In this account I purposely reserved for special discussion
two varieties of this fear — namely, dread of animals and of the
dark. As the former certainly manifests itself before the latter, I
will take it first.
It seems odd that the creatures which are to become the com-
panions and playmates of children, and one of the chief sources
of their happiness, should cause so much alarm when they first
come on the scene. Yet so it is. Many children at least are at
first put out by quite harmless members of the animal family.
We must, however, be careful in distinguishing between mere
nerve-shock and dislike, on the one hand, and genuine fear on the
other. Thus a lady whom I know as a good observer tells me
that, though when her boy was fifteen months old his nerves were
shaken by the loud barking of a dog, he had no real fear of
dogs. With this may be contrasted another case, also sent by
a good observer, in which it is specially noted that the aver-
sion to the sound of a dog's barking developed late and was a
true fear.
^Esthetic dislikes, again, may easily give rise to quasi fears,
though, as we all know, little children have not the horrors of
their elders in this respect. The boy C could not understand
his mother's scare at the descending caterpillar. A kind of
aesthetic dislike appears to show itself sometimes toward animals
STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 341
of peculiar shape and color. Black animals, as sheep and cows,
seem more particularly to come in for these childish antipathies.
At first it seems impossible to understand why a child in the
fourteenth week should appear to shrink from cats.* This is not,
so far as I can gather, a common occurrence at this age, and one
would like to cross-examine the mother as to the precise way in
which the child had its first introduction to the domestic pet. So
far as one can speculate on the matter, one would say that such
early shrinking from animals is probably due to their sudden un-
expected movements, which may well disconcert the inexperienced
infant accustomed to comparatively restful surroundings.
This seems borne out by another instance, also quoted by
Preyer, of a girl who, in the fourth month, as also in the eleventh,
was so afraid of pigeons that she could not bring herself to stroke
them. The prettiness of pigeons, if not of cats, ought, one sup-
poses, to insure the liking of children ; and one has to fall back
on the supposition of the first disconcerting strangeness of the
moving animal world for the child's mind.
Later shrinkings from animals show more of the nature of
fear. It is sometimes said that children inherit from their ances-
tors the fear of certain animals. Thus Darwin, observing that
his boy, when taken to the zoological gardens at the age of two
years and three months, showed fear of the big caged animals,
whose form was unfamiliar to him (lions, tigers, etc.), infers that
this fear is transmitted from savage ancestors whose conditions
of life compelled them to shun these deadly creatures. But, as M.
Compayre' has well shown, f we do not need this hypothesis here.
The unfamiliarity of the form, the bigness, together with the
awful suggestions of the cage, would be quite enough to beget a
vague sense of danger.
So far as I can ascertain, facts are strongly opposed to the
theory of inherited fear of animals. Just as in the first months a
child will manifest something like recoil from a pretty and per-
fectly innocent pigeon, so later on children manifest fear in the
most unlikely directions. In The Invisible Playmate we are told
of a girl who got into her first fright on seeing a sparrow drop on
the grass near her, though she was not the least afraid of big
things, and on first hearing the dog bark in his kennel said, with
a little laugh of surprise, " Oh ! coughing." J A parallel case is
sent me by a lady friend. One day when her daughter was about
four years old she found her standing, the eyes wide open and
filled with tears, the arms outstretched for help, evidently trans-
fixed with terror, while a small wood louse made its slow way
* Quoted by Preyer, op. cit., p. 127. The word he uses is "scAewen."
f Evolution intellectuelle et morale de PEnfant, p. 102. \ See pp. 26, 2*7.
342 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
toward her. The next day the child was taken for the first time
to the "Zoo," and the mother, anticipating trouble, held her hand.
But there was no need. A "fearless spirit "in general, she re-
leased her hand at the first sight of the elephant, and galloped
after the monster. If inheritance plays a principal part in the
child's fear of animals, one would have expected the facts to be
reversed. The elephant should have excited dread, not the harm-
less insect.
As this story tells us, children's shrinkings from animals have
much of the caprice of grown-up people's. Not that there is any-
thing really inexplicable in these odd directions of childish fear,
any more than in the unpredictable shyings of the horse. If we
knew the whole of the horse's history, and could keep a perfect
register of the fluctuations of " tone " in his nervous system, we
should understand all his shyings. So with the child. All the
vagaries of his dislike to animals would be cleared up if we could
look into the secret workings of his mind and measure the vary-
ing heights of his courage.
That some of this early disquietude at the sight of strange
animals is due to the workings of the mind is seen in the behavior
of Preyer's boy when at the age of twenty-seven months he was
taken to see some little pigs. The boy on the first view looked
earnest, and as soon as the lively little creatures began to suckle
the mother he broke out into a fit of crying and turned away from
the sight with all the signs of fear. It appeared afterward that
what terrified the child was the idea that the pigs were biting
their mother ; and this gave rise in the fourth and fifth year to
recurrent nocturnal fears of the bitiug piglets, something like
C 's nocturnal fear of the wolf.* To an imaginative child
strongly predisposed to fear, anything suggestive of harm will
suffice to beget a measure of trepidation. A child does not want
direct experience of the power of a big animal in order to feel a
vague uneasiness when near it. His own early inductions respect-
ing the correlation of bigness and strength, aided as this com-
monly is by information picked up from ethers, will amply suf-
fice. To this may be added that the swiftness of movement of
the dog, as well as the knowledge soon gained that it can bite, is
apt to make this animal especially alarming. So, too, the sudden
pouncing down of a sparrow might prove upsetting as suggesting
attack; and a girl of four may be quite able to imagine the
unpleasantness of an invasion of her dainty person by a small
creeping wood louse which, though running slowly, was running
toward herself, and so to get a fit of shudders.
It is, I think, undeniable that imaginative children, especially
* See Preyer, op. til., p. 130.
STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 343
when sickly and disposed to alarm, are subject to great terror at
the thoughts of the animal world. Its very vastness, the large
variety of its uncanny and savage-looking forms, appearing often-
times as ugly distortions of the human face and figure — this of
itself, as known from a picture book, may well generate many a
vague terror. We know from folklore how the dangers of the
animal world have touched the imagination of primitive races,
and we need not be surprised that it should make the heart of the
wee weakly child to quake. Yet the child's shrinking from ani-
mals is less strong than the impulse of companionship which bears
it toward them. Nothing is prettier perhaps in child-life than the
pose and look of a small boy as he is getting over his trepidation
at the approach of a strange big dog and " making friends " with
the shaggy monster. The perfect love which lies at the bottom
of children's hearts toward their animal kinsfolk soon casts out
fear ; and when once the reconciliation has been effected it will
take a good deal of harsh experience to make the child ever again
entertain fear.
Fear of the dark — that is, fear excited by the actual experience
or the idea of being in the dark, and especially alone — and the
actual dread of dark places, as closets and caves, is, no doubt, very
common among children, and seems indeed to be one of their
commonly recognized characteristics. Yet it is by no means cer-
tain that it is " natural " in the sense of developing itself instinct-
ively in all children.
It is generally agreed that children have no such fear at the
beginning of life. A baby of three or four months, if accustomed
to a light, may very likely be disturbed at being deprived of it ;
but this is some way from a dread of the dark.*
Fear of the dark seems to come on when intelligence has
reached a certain stage of development. It apparently assumes a
variety of forms. In some children it is a vague uneasiness, in
others it takes the shape of a more definite dread. A common
variety of this dread is connected with the imaginative filling of
the dark with the forms of alarming animals, so that the fear of
animals and of the dark are closely connected. Thus in one case
reported to me a boy between the ages of two and six used at
night to see " the eyes of lions and tigers glaring as they walked
round the room." The boy C saw his bete noire the wolf in
* A mother sends me a curious observation bearing on this. One of her children when
four months old was carried by her upstairs in the dark. On reaching the light she found
the child's face black, her hands clinched, and her eyes protruding. As soon as the child
got back to the light she heaved a sigh and resumed her usual appearance. This child was
in general hardy and bold and never gave a second display of terror. This is certainly a
curious observation, and it would be well to know whether similar cases of apparent fright
at being carried in the dark have been noticed.
344 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
dark places. Mr. Stevens, in his note on his boy's ideas of the su-
pernatural, remarks that when one year and ten months old he was
temporarily seized with a fear of the dark at the time when he
began to be haunted by the specter of " Cocky." * It is important
to add that even children who have been habituated to going to
bed in the dark in the first months are liable to acquire the fear.
This mode of fear is, however, not universal among children.
One lady, for whose accuracy I can vouch, assures me that her
boy, now four years old, has never manifested a dread of darkness.
A similar statement is made by a careful observer, Dr. Sikorski,
with reference to his own children, f It seems possible to go
through childhood without making acquaintance with this terror,
and to acquire it in later life. I know a lady who only acquired
the fear toward the age of thirty. "Curiously enough/' she
writes, " I was never afraid of the dark as a child ; but during the
last two years I hate to be left alone in the dark, and if I have to
enter a dark room, like my study, beyond the reach of the maids
from downstairs, I notice a remarkable acceleration in my heart-
beat and hurry to strike a light or rush downstairs as quickly as
possible."
There is little doubt that when the fear is developed it is apt
to become one of the greatest miseries of childhood. We can
faintly conjecture, from what Charles Lamb and others have told
us about the specters that haunted their nights, what a weighty,
crushing terror this may become. Hence, we need not be sur-
prised that the writer of fiction has sought to give it a vivid and
adequate description. Victor Hugo, for example, when painting
the feelings of little Cosette, who had been sent out alone at night
to fetch water from a spring in the wood, says she " felt herself
seized by the black enormity of Nature. It was not only terror
which possessed her, it was something more terrible even than
terror."
Different explanations have been offered of this fear. Locke,
who, when writing on educational matters, was rather hard on
nurses and servants, puts down the whole of these fears to these
wicked persons, "whose usual method is to awe children and
keep them in subjection by telling them of Raw Head and Bloody
Bones, and such other names as carry with them the idea of
something terrible and hurtful, which they have reason to be
afraid of when alone, especially in the dark." \ Rousseau, on the
other hand, urges that there is a natural cause. " Accustomed
as I am to perceive objects from a distance, and to anticipate
their impressions in advance, how is it possible for me, when I
* Mind, xi, p. 149. f Quoted by Compayr6, op. cit., p. 100.
X Thoughts on Education, § 138.
STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 345
no longer see anything of the objects that surround me, not to
imagine a thousand creatures, a thousand movements which may-
hurt me, and against which I am unable to protect myself ?" *
Rousseau here supplements and corrects Locke. For one
thing, I have ascertained in the case of my own child, and in that
of others, that a fear of the dark has grown up when the influ-
ence of the wicked nurse has been carefully eliminated. Locke
forgets that children can get terrifying fancies from other chil-
dren and from all sorts of suggestions unwittingly conveyed by
the words of respectable grown people. Besides, he leaves un-
touched the question why children should choose to dwell on
these fearful images in the dark rather than on the bright, pretty
ones which they also acquire. Mr. R. L. Stevenson has told us
how happy a child can make himself at night with such pleasing
fancies. Yet it must be owned that darkness seems rather to
favor images of what is weird and terrible. How is this ? Rous-
seau gets some way toward answering the question by saying (as
I understand him to say) that darkness breeds a sense of insecu-
rity. Not that a child lying in his cot is likely to be troubled
that he can not see what is at the other end of the room. I do
not think that it is the inconvenience of being in the dark which
generates the fear ; a child might, I imagine, acquire it without
ever having had to explore a dark place.
I strongly suspect that the fear of darkness takes its rise in a
sensuous phenomenon, a kind of physical repugnance. All sen-
sations of very low intensity, as very soft vocal sounds, have
about them a tinge of melancholy — tristesse — and this is espe-
cially noticeable in the sensations which the eye experiences
when confronted with a dark space, or, what is tantamount to
this, a black and dull surface. The symbolism of darkness and
blackness, as when we talk of "gloomy" thoughts, or liken
trouble to a " black cloud," seems to rest on this effect of mel-
ancholy.
Along with this gloomy character of the sensation of dark,
and not always easy to distinguish from it, there goes the craving
of the eye for its customary light, and all the interest and glad-
ness which come from seeing. When the eye and brain are not
fatigued — that is, when we are wakeful — this eyeache may become
an appreciable pain; and it is probable that children feel the
deprivation more acutely than grown persons, owing to the abun-
dance of their visual activity as well as to the comparatively
scanty store of their thought resources. Add to this that dark-
ness, by extinguishing the world of visible things, would give to
a timid child tenacious of the familiar home surroundings a
* firnile, Book II.
vol. xlvii. — 28
34-6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
peculiarly keen sense of strangeness and of loneliness, of banish-
ment from all that it knows and loves. The reminiscences of this
feeling, described in later life — as that of Mr. James Payn, in
his recently published volume, Gleams of Memory — show that it
is the sense of loneliness which oppresses the child in its dark
room.
This, I take it, would be quite enough to make the situation
of confinement in a dark room disagreeable and depressing to a
wakeful child even when in bed and there is no restriction of
bodily activity. But this sense of banishment through the blot-
ting out of the familiar scene would not, I take it, amount
to a full, passionate dread of darkness. It seems to me to be
highly probable that a baby of two or three months might
feel something of this vague depression and even this crav-
ing for the wonted scene, especially just after the removal of a
light ; yet such a baby, as we have seen, gives no clear indica-
tions of fear.
Fear of the dark arises from the development of the child's
imagination, and might, I believe, arise without any suggestion
from nurse or other children of the notion that there are bogies
in the dark. Darkness is precisely the situation most favorable
to vivid imagination ; the screening of the visible world makes
the inner world of fancy bright by contrast. Are we not all apt
to shut our eyes when we try to " visualize " or picture things
very distinctly ? This fact of a preternatural activity of imagi-
nation, taken with the circumstance emphasized by Rousseau
that in the darkness the child is no longer distinctly aware of the
objects that are actually before him, would help us to understand
why children are so much given to projecting into the unseen,
dark spaces the creatures of the imagination. Not only so — and
this Rousseau does not appear to have recognized — the dull feeling
of depression which accompanies the sensation of darkness might
suffice to give a gloomy and weird turn to the images so pro-
jected.
But I am disposed to think that there is yet another element
in this childish fear. I have said that darkness gives a positive
sensation : we see it ; and the sensation, apart from any difference
of signification which we afterward learn to give to it, is of the
same kind that is obtained by looking at a dull, black surface.
To the child the difference between a black object and dark, unil-
lumined space is as yet not clear, and I believe it will be found
that children tend to materialize, or, to use a rather technical
word, " reify " — that is, make a thing of darkness. When, for ex-
ample, a correspondent tells me that darkness was envisaged by
her when a child as a crushing power, I think I see traces of this
childish feeling. I seem able to recall my own childish sense of
STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 347
a big black something on suddenly waking and opening the eyes
in a very dark room.
But there is still something else to be noticed in this sensation
of darkness. The black field is not uniform, some parts of it
showing less black than others, and the indistinct and rude pat-
tern of comparatively light and dark changing from moment to
moment, while now and again more definite spots of brightness
may form themselves. The varying activity of the retina would
seem to account for this apparent changing of the dark scene.
What, my reader may not unnaturally ask, has this to do with a
child's fear of the dark ? If he will recall what was said about
the facility with which a child comes to see faces and animal
forms in the lines of a cracked ceiling or the veining of a piece
of marble, he will, I think, recognize the drift of my remarks.
These slight and momentary differences of blackness, these fleet-
ing rudiments of a pattern, may serve as a sensuous base for the
projected images : the child's excited fancy sees in these faint dif-
ferentiations of the black, formless waste definite forms. These
will naturally be the forms with which he is most familiar, and
since his fancy is tinged with melancholy they will, of course, be
gloomy and disturbing forms. Hence we may expect to hear of
children seeing the forms of terrifying living things in the dark.
Here is an instructive case. A boy of four years had for some
time been afraid of the dark, and indulged by having the candle
left burning at night. On hearing that the London Crystal Pal-
ace had been burned down he asked for the first time to have the
light taken away, fear of the dark being now cast out by the big-
ger fear of fire. Some time after this he volunteered an account of
his obsolete terrors to his father. " Do you know," he said, "what
I thought dark was ? A great, large, live thing, the color of
black, with a mouth and eyes." Here we have the " reifying " of
darkness, and we probably see the influence of the comparatively
bright spots in the attribution of eyes to the monster, an influence
still more apparent in the instance quoted above, where a child
saw the eyes of lions and tigers glaring as they walked round the
room. Another suggestive instance here is that given by M.
Compayre', in which a child, on being asked why he did not like
to be in a dark place, answered, " I don't like chimney-sweeps." *
Here the blackness with its dim suggestions of brighter spots de-
termined the image of the black chimney-sweep with his white
flashes of mouth and eyes.f I should like to observe here paren-
* Op. cit., pp. 100, 101.
f It is supposable too that disturbance of the retina giving rise to subjective luminous
sensations, as the well-known small bright moving disks, might assist in the case of nervous
children in suggesting glaring eyes.
3+8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
thetically that we still need to learn from children themselves, by
talking to them and inviting their confidence when the fear of the
dark is first noticed, how they are apt to envisage it.
When imagination becomes abnormally active, and the child
is haunted by alarming images, these, by recurring with greatest
force in the stillness and darkness of the night, will add to the
terrifying associations of darkness. This is illustrated in the
case of the boy Stevens, who was haunted by the specter of
"Cocky" at night. Dreams, especially the horrible nightmare
to which nervous children are subject, may invest the dark with
a new terror. A child suddenly waking up, and with open eyes
seeing the phantom-object of its dream against the dark back-
ground, may be forgiven for acquiring a dread of dark rooms.
Possibly this experience gives the clew to the observation already
quoted of a boy who did not want to sleep in a particular room
because there were so many dreams in it.
If the above explanation of the child's fear of the dark is cor-
rect, Rousseau's prescription for curing it is not enough. Chil-
dren may be encouraged to explore dark rooms and, by touching
blindlike the various objects, rendered familiar with the fact
that things remain unchanged even when enveloped in darkness
— that the dark is nothing but our temporary inability to see
things ; and this may, no doubt, be helpful in checking the fear
when reflection is possible. But a radical cure must go further,
must aim at checking the activity of morbid imagination — and
here what Locke says about effects of the terrifying stories of
nurses is very much to the point — and in extreme cases must set
about strengthening shaky nerves.
I have probably illustrated children's fears at sufficient length.
Without trying to exhaust the subject I have, I think, shown
that fear of a well-marked and intense kind is a common feature
of the first years of life, and that it assumes a Protean variety of
shapes.
Much more will, no doubt, have to be done in the way of me-
thodical observation, and more particularly statistical inquiry
into the comparative frequency of the several fears, the age at
which they commonly appear, and so forth, before we can build up
a theory of the subject. One or two general observations may,
however, be hazarded even at this stage.
The thing which strikes one most, perhaps, in these early fears
is how little they have to do with any remembered experience of
evil. The child is inexperienced and, if humanely treated, knows
little of the acute forms of human suffering. It would seem at
least as if he feared, not because experience has made him appre-
hensive of evil, but because he is constitutionally and instinct-
ively nervous, and possessed with a feeling of insecurity. This
STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 349
feeling of weakness and insecurity comes to the surface in pres-
ence of what is unknown, in so far as this can be brought by the
child's mind into a relation to his welfare — as disturbing noises
and the movements of things, especially when they take on the
form of an approach. The same thing is, as we have seen, illus-
trated in the fear of the dark. This fact, that children's fears are
not the direct product of experience, is expressed otherwise by
saying that they are the offspring of the imagination. They are
afraid because they fancy things, and it will probably be demon-
strated by statistical evidence that the most imaginative children
(other things being equal) are the most subject to fear.
In certain of these characteristics, at least, children's fears
resemble those of animals. In both alike fear is much more an
instinctive recoil from the unknown than an apprehension of
known evil. The shying of a horse, the apparent fear of dogs at
certain noises, probably, too, the fear of animals at the sight and
sound of fire — so graphically described by Mr. Kipling in the
case of the jungle beasts — illustrate this. Animals, too, seem to
have a sense of the uncanny when something apparently un-
caused happens, as when Romanes excited fear in a dog by at-
taching a fine thread to a bone which he was accustomed to drag
about with him and, by surreptitiously drawing it from him, giv-
ing to the bone the look of self-movement. The same dog was
frightened by soap bubbles. According to Romanes, dogs are
frightened by portraits. It is to be added, however, that in ani-
mal fears the influence of heredity is clearly recognizable, whereas
in children's fears I have regarded it as doubtful.*
Another instructive comparison is that of children's fears with
those of savages. Both have a like feeling of insecurity and fall
instinctively in presence of a big unknown— e.g., at the first sight
of the sea — into the attitude of dread. In the region of supersti-
tious fear more particularly we see how in both a gloomy fancy
forestalls knowledge, investing the new or unexplored with alarm-
ing traits.
Lastly, children's fears have some resemblance to certain abnor-
mal mental conditions. Idiots, who are so near normal childhood
in their degree of intelligence, show a marked fear of strangers.
More interesting, however, in the present connection is the exag-
geration of the childish fear of new objects which shows itself in
certain mental aberrations. There is a characteristic dread of
newness, " neophobia," just as there is a dread of water. \
While, however, these are the dominant characteristics of chil-
* On animal fears, see Romanes, Animal Intelligence, p. 455 f. ; Preyer, op. cit, p. 127
ff. and p. 135 ; Perez, First Three Years of Childhood, p. 64 ff.
•f See Compayre, op. cit., pp. 99, 100.
350 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
dren's fears, they are not the only ones. Experience begins to
direct the instinctive fear impulse from the very beginning.
How much it does in the first months of life it is difficult to say.
In the aversion of a baby to its medicine glass or its cold bath
one sees perhaps more of the rude germ of passion or anger than
of fear. Careful observations seem to me to be required on this
point, at what definite date signs of fear arising from experience
of pain begin to show themselves in the child. Some children at
least have a surprising way of not minding even considerable
amounts of physical pain— the misery of a fall, a blow, a cut, and
so forth, being speedily forgotten. It seems doubtful, indeed,
whether the venerable saw, " The burned child dreads the fire," is
invariably true. In many cases apparently a good amount of
real agony is necessary to produce a genuine fear in a young
child.* This tendency to belittle pain is not unknown, I suspect,
to the tutor of small boys. It may well be that a definite and
precise recalling of the misery of a scratch or even of a moderate
burn may not conduce to the development of a true fear, and that
here, too, fear, when it arises in all its characteristic masterful-
ness, is at bottom fear of the unknown. This seems illustrated
by the well-known fact that a child will often be more terrified
by a first experience of pain, especially if there is a visible hurt
and bleeding, than by any subsequent prospect of a renewal of
the catastrophe. Is not the same thing true, indeed, of older
fears ? Should we dread the wrench of a tooth extraction if we
experienced it often enough and had a sufficiently photographic
imagination to be able to estimate precisely the intensity and
duration of the pain ?
Much the same thing shows itself in the cases where fear can
be clearly traced to experience and association. In some of these
it is, no doubt, remembered experience of suffering which causes
fear. A child that has been seriously burned will dread a too
close approach to a red-hot poker. But in many cases of this
excitation of fear by association it is the primary experience of
fear itself which is at the bottom of the apprehension. Thus a
child who has been frightened by a dog will betray signs of fear
at the sight of a kennel, at a picture of a dog, and so forth. The
little boy referred to above, who was afraid of the toy elephant
that shook its head, showed signs of fear a fortnight afterward on
coming across a picture of an elephant in a picture book. In
such ways does fear propagate fear in the timid little breast.
* On this point there are some excellent observations made by Miss Shinn, who points
out that physical pain, when not too severe, is apt to be lost sight of in the new feeling; of
personal consequence to which it gives rise. — Notes on the Development of a Child, Part II,
p. 144 ff.
STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 35 1
One can not part from the theme of children's fears without a
reference to a closely connected subject, the problem of their hap-
piness. To ask whether childhood is a happy time, still more to
ask whether it is the happiest, is to raise perhaps a foolish and
insoluble question. Later reminiscences are in this case rather
treacherous evidence to build upon. Children themselves, no
doubt, may have very definite views on the subject. A child will
tell you with the unmistakable marks of profound conviction
that he is so unhappy. But, paradoxical as it may seem, children
really know very little about the matter. At the best they can
only tell you how they feel at particular moments. To seek
for a precise and satisfactory solution of the problem is thus
futile. Only rough comparisons of childhood and later life are
possible.
In any such comparison the fears of early years claim, no
doubt, careful consideration. There seem to be people who have
no idea what the agony of these early terrors amounts to. And
since it is the unknown that excites this fear — and the unknown
in childhood is almost everything — the possibilities of suffering
from this source are great enough :
'* Alike the good, the ill offend thy sight,
And rouse the stormy sense of shi'ill affright."
George Sand hardly exaggerates when she writes, " Fear is,
I believe, the greatest moral suffering of children." In the case
of weakly, nervous, and imaginative children, more especially,
this susceptibility to terror may bring miserable days and yet
more miserable nights.
Nevertheless, it is easy here to pass from one extreme of bru-
tal indifference to another of sentimental exaggeration. Childish
suffering is terrible while it lasts, but happily it has a way of not
lasting. The cruel, distorting fit of terror passes and leaves the
little face with its old sunny outlook. It is not remembered, too,
that although children are pitiably fearful in their own way, they
are, as we have seen in the case of the little Walter Scott, delight-
fully fearless also as judged by our standards. How oddly fear
and fearlessness go together is illustrated in a story sent me. A
little boy fell into a brook. On his being fished out by his
mother, his sister, aged four, asked him, " Did you see any croco-
diles ? " " No/' answered the boy, " I wasn't in long enough."
The absence of fear of the water itself was as characteristic as
the fear of the crocodile.
It is refreshing to find that in certain cases, at least, where
older people have done their worst to excite terror, a child has
escaped its suffering. Prof. Barnes tells us that a Californian
child's belief in the supernatural takes on a happy tone, directing
352 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
itself to images of heaven, with trees, birds, and other pretty-
things, and giving but little heed to the horrors of hell.* In less
sunny climes than California children may not perhaps be such
little optimists, and it is probable that graphic descriptions of
hell fire have sent many a creepy thrill of horror along a child's
tender nerves. Still, it may be said that, owing to the fortunate
circumstance that children have much less fear of fire than many
animals, the imagery in which eternal punishment is wont to be
bodied forth does not work so powerfully as one might expect on
a child's imagination. Then it is noticeable that children in gen-
eral are but little affected by fear at the sight or the thought of
death. The child C had a passing dread of being buried, but
his young, hopeful heart refused to credit the fact of that far-off
calamity. This, too, is no small deduction to be made from the
burden of children's fear.
Not only so, when fear is apt to be excited, Nature has pro-
vided the small, timorous person with other instincts which tend
to mitigate and even to neutralize it. It is a happy circumstance
that the most prolific excitant of fear, the presentation of some-
thing new and uncanny, is also provocative of another feeling —
that of curiosity, with its impulse to look and examine. Even
animals are sometimes divided in the presence of something
strange between fear and curiosity ; f and children's curiosity is
much more lively than theirs. A very tiny child, on first making
acquaintance with some form of physical pain, as a bump on the
head, will deliberately repeat the experience by knocking its head
against something, as if experimenting and watching the effect.
A clearer case of curiosity overpowering fear is that of a child
who, after pulling the tail of a cat in a bush and getting scratched,
proceeded to dive into the bush again. \ Still more interesting
here are the gradual transitions from actual fear before the new
and strange to bold inspection. The behavior of one of these
small persons on the arrival at his house of a strange dog, of a
colored foreigner, Hindu, or some. other startling novelty, is a
pretty and amusing sight. The first overpowering shyness and
shrinking back to the mother's breast, followed by cautious peeps,
then by bolder outreachings of head and arms, mark the stages
by which curiosity and interest gain on fear and finally leave it
far behind. Very soon we know the small, timorous creatures
will grow into bold, adventurous lads, loving nothing so much as
to probe the awful mysteries of flame and gunpowder and other
alarming things.
* Pedagogic Review, ii, 3, p. 445.
\ Some examples are given by Preyer, op. cit., p. 135.
\ Miss Shinn, op. cit., p. 150.
STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 353
One palliative of these early terrors remains to be touched on,
the instinct of sheltering or refuge-taking. The first manifesta-
tions of what is called the social nature of children are little more
than the reverse side of their timidity. A baby will cease crying
at night on hearing the familiar voice of mother or nurse, because
a vague sense of human companionship does away with the
misery of the black solitude. A frightened child probably knows
an ecstasy of bliss when folded in the protective embrace of a
mother's arms. Even the most timid of children never have the
full experience of terror so long as there is within reach the secure
base of all their reconnoitering excursions, the mother's skirts.
Happy those little ones who have ever near them loving arms
within whose magic circle the oncoming of the cruel fit of terror
is instantly checked, giving place to a delicious calm!
How unhappy those children must be who, timid and fearsome
by Nature, lack this refuge — who are left much alone to wrestle
with their horrors as best they may, and are rudely repulsed
when they bear their heartquakings to others — I would not ven-
ture to say. Still less should I care to suggest what is suffered
by those unfortunates who find in those about them not comfort,
assurance, support in their fearsome moments, but the worst
source of terror. To be brutal to these small, sensitive organisms,
to practice on their terrors, to take delight in exciting the wild
stare and wilder shriek of terror, this is perhaps one of the
strange things which make one believe in the old dogma that the
devil can enter into men and women. For here we seem to have
to do with a form of cruelty so exquisite, so contrary to the oldest
of instincts, that it is dishonoring to the savage and to the lower
animals to attempt to refer it to heredity.
To dwell on such things, however, would be to go back to a
pessimistic view of childhood. It is undeniable that children are
exposed to indescribable misery when they are delivered into the
hands of a consummately cruel mother or nurse. Yet one may
hope that this sort of person is exceptional — something of which
we can give no account save by saying that now and again in
sport Nature produces a monster, as if to show what she could do
if she did not choose more wisely and benignly to work within
the limitations of type.
Thoreau, in relating some of his experiments in making maple sugar —
when he got an ounce and a half of sugar from four quarts and a half pint
of sap — says that he " had a dispute with father about the use of my mak-
ing this sugar when I knew it could be done, and might have bought sugar
cheaper at Holden's. He said it took me from my studies. I said I made
it my study, and felt as if I had been to a university."
VOL. XLVII. 29
354 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY
THE ARMADILLO AND ITS ODDITIES.
By CHARLES H. COE.
THOSE who have seen the armadillo only in pictures, or stuffed
specimens in museums, can form but a slight idea how odd
and interesting the animal is in life. With an ardent love of
natural history, and with exceptional opportunities for indulging
my tastes in this direction, I have been the possessor of many pet
animals ; but none, I can truly affirm, have interested me more
by their odd forms and curious habits than a pair of armadillos.
I named my armored pets Jack and Jill, for they are a perfect
pair, male and female, now nearly three years old. They were
brought from Brazil, having been captured there by men who
make it their business, with the aid of native hunters, to secure
rare forms of animal life for menageries, zoological gardens, and
private fanciers.
So rarely are armadillos seen in captivity, and so little has
been written about them, that I am sure a reasonably full and
detailed description of the animal in general and my pets in
particular will prove interesting and instructive.
The armadillo belongs to two different genera, known as Dasy-
pus and Tatusia, the former name being applied to several South
American species, and the latter to those which inhabit North
America. They all belong to the order Edentata, or toothless
animals, which order also includes the sloths and ant-eaters. All
these are characterized by the absence of front teeth, while the
molars or grinders are not true teeth, being without regular roots
or enamel.
Long ages before man appeared upon the earth, as we learn
from fossil remains found in its strata, this order was represented
by gigantic forms now known as the glyptodon and the mega-
therium. The former, a huge creature sometimes thirteen feet
in length, was related to the armadillo, but its armor was in one
solid piece instead of plates and movable bands. The mega-
therium ("great beast"), a still more enormous animal of the
ancient world, was not covered with armor, but was nearly
allied to the sloth. It often attained a length of over eighteen
feet.
The musical Spanish name armadillo, meaning "little armed
one," is applied to many species, from the smallest, no larger than
a rat, to the giant armadillo, which measures four and a half feet
in length from tip to tip, the tail being eighteen inches long.
All the species are confined to the American continent, ranging
from southern Texas to the Argentine Republic. Some species
inhabit the low coasts of Peru and Chili, others the elevated
THE ARMADILLO AND ITS ODDITIES. 355
plateaus of the Andes, the forests of Brazil, and the barren plains
of Central America and Mexico.
From the imperfect structure of its back teeth, which vary in
number from twenty-eight to thirty-six, according to the species,
and which curiously interlock with each other, it will be seen
that the armadillo can only eat the softest food, both animal and
vegetable, such as insects, worms, carrion, fruit, and tender roots.
Some species are more exclusively vegetarian than others. Those
which make the flesh of animals a part of their diet can only eat
it after it has become putrid, or, in the case of my pets, after it
has been cooked until very tender.
In certain South American countries where cattle are fre-
quently killed for their hides only, and the carcasses left on the
ground, the armadillo feasts on putrid flesh. It burrows under a
fresh carcass and waits patiently until decay has taken place. It
Jack and Jill.
then eats its way into the body, finally leaving nothing but the
dry bones and skin. In this habit the armadillo resembles certain
insects, such as ants and carrion beetles.
The giant armadillo has a still more repulsive habit, some-
times burrowing into human graves when opportunity offers. In
such localities graves are commonly protected from the ravages
of these ghouls by stones or heavy planks.
The smaller armadillos often enter the nests of ants, but more
for the purpose of securing the larvae than the perfect insects.
The tongue, though not long and extensile like that of the true
ant-eater, is slender, tapering, and flexible, and can be protruded
a short distance from the mouth. It is further adapted for secur-
ing insects by a glutinous saliva.
It is amusing to see an armadillo eat, to hear it smack its lips,
and to notice its evident enjoyment of its food. Both in its wild
state and in captivity it is a hearty eater and often becomes very
356 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
fat. The flesh of the animal is highly prized by the natives, but
its rank flavor generally repels other residents. It is usually
placed upon the table roasted whole, as we prepare a young pig.'
On many of the dry and barren plains of Central America the
armadillo is the only mammal. There, like the Florida gopher,
it shares its burrow with a fellow-tenant, the deadly rattlesnake,
which it does not seem to dread in the least. The snake, on the
other hand, though it could easily insert its fangs into the arma-
dillo's skin between its bands and plates of armor, seems to know
better than to harm its good-natured landlord. Wild creatures
often seem thus to tolerate one another's presence, and even to
have a friendly understanding which man can not fully compre-
hend.
The various species of living armadillos differ in the number
of movable bands of armor, and are named accordingly. The com-
mon species of Central America, Mexico, and southern Texas is
the nine-banded armadillo (Tatusia novemcincta). My pets,
Jack and Jill, belong to the South American species {Dasypus
sexcinctus), and my description of them will therefore apply to
the six-banded armadillo in general.
The two sexes resemble each other closely in size, structure,
and outline. The total length of both Jack and Jill is nineteen
inches, including the tail, which is six inches. The girth of the
body is twelve inches, and it is plump and rounded like that
•of a puppy or young pig. When the legs are straightened, as in
walking, the highest part of the back is six inches from the
ground.
The head, three inches and a half in length and conical in
shape, is covered above with a single plate of armor which ex-
tends on the sides to the eyebrows and lengthwise from a point
three quarters of an inch from the end of the nose to a line drawn
between the ears. Next behind the ears is a movable transverse
band of armor nearly three fourths of an inch in width, separated
from the head plate in front of it and from the next band behind
it by a narrow space of chocolate-colored, rough, wrinkled, and
pliable skin. Following this is another plate over the shoulders,
two inches in width at the top, and gradually widening as it ex-
tends downward to the neck under the ears.
Now follow one after another the six movable bands from
which this species is named. They are all alike, each three
fourths of an inch in width, and separated from one another by
similar spaces of leathery skin, as above described. Behind these
six bands is the posterior plate, four inches wide and ending at
the roots of the tail. The tapering tail has four movable bands,
followed by a continuous plate extending to the tip.
Besides the armor thus described as protecting the head, bacl- ,
THE ARMADILLO AND ITS ODDITIES. 357
sides, and tail, there is a similar coating on the outer surfaces of
the legs. The six body bands and the four tail bands are com-
posed of small polygonal pieces, joined together, slightly resem-
bling certain parts of an alligator's skin. The other parts of the
armor differ somewhat from these in shape, being more irregular.
It will be seen that the armadillo's protecting coat of mail is
by no means firm and immovable like the shell of the tortoise,
but is comparatively flexible, thus securing to the animal con-
siderable freedom of movement, quite in contrast to the unwieldy
awkwardness of the tortoise. When the armadillo's feet are
drawn up under the body, this protecting coat reaches to the
ground, overhanging like a cloak lightly thrown over the animal.
We read how the warrior of ancient time, though incased in a
heavy coat of mail, was sometimes " pierced between the joints of
the harness." A similar fate may befall our "little armed one."
Even so puny a creature as the mosquito is enabled to annoy it
by attacking the naked skin between the plates and bands. The
tiny insect's partiality for this animal is so great, attracted doubt-
less by the abundant blood coursing through its plump form, that
it even follows the armadillo into its burrow on its bloodthirsty
errand.
The under parts of the animal, including the chin, breast, belly,
and the inner sides of the legs, are covered only by skin. This is
of the same color as that between the bands, and resembles in
roughness the skin of a plucked chicken, being also naked with
the exception of a few scattered hairs. The ears and the end of
the nose are also without armor. A few bristly hairs appear on
the skin between the bands of armor, and there is quite a tuft
under each eye. The hair on the back and sides is pure white ;
on all other parts, jet black.
The ears are an inch and a quarter in length, round, and always
erect. The eyes are small, black, and piggish in expression, with
oddly wrinkled lids. The armadillo is chiefly nocturnal in its
habits, sleeping much during the day ; accordingly, we find the
eyes weak and unable to bear strong light. The smell and hear-
ing, on the contrary, are very acute.
The legs are short and stout. Both fore and hind feet have
five toes, which are provided with powerful, slightly curved nails
from one fourth to one inch long, those on the fore feet being the
longest. With these instruments the armadillo not only burrows
in the ground with wonderful ease and rapidity, but it can clutch
an object, or the earth even, with a powerful grip. In walking
on firm ground or on a floor, the nails only of the fore feet touch
the surface, and but little more of the hind feet, although the
latter are plantigrade when the animal is standing still.
The six-banded armadillo, in common with most of the species.
358 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
is one of the most timid and inoffensive of all creatures, not even
surpassed in this respect by the guinea pig. It is never known to
defend itself, much less to make an assault. The absence of
incisors and canine teeth renders it incapable of biting, and it has
no offensive odor to warn off molesters. Its strong claws, strange
to say, are never used as weapons of combat.
Some species are said to be able to outrun a man, but the six-
banded armadillo can not run faster than a man can walk. It
has a habit when pursued of quickly dodging and doubling like
a rabbit. Failing in all other means of escape, it simply puts
its head between its fore feet, tucks its tail and feet away, and
rolls itself into a ball, after the common habit of our porcupine
and opossum. In this position it may be punched and kicked
about with apparently the same freedom from feeling that is dis-
played by these animals in similar circumstances. Not all of the
species, however, resort to this expedient. Some are enabled to
expand and flatten their bodies until they lie on the ground
extended like a board, somewhat after the habit of the snake
known as the spreading adder.
If the armadillo can not reach its burrow before an enemy is
upon it, it often escapes by digging its way into the ground — a
feat which it is enabled to accomplish in an incredibly short
space of time, vanishing before the very eyes of its pursuer.
Persons unused to hunting the armadillo sometimes grab its
retreating tail, thinking thus to draw out its owner. Failure
invariably attends such efforts. The animal simply continues its
course into the earth, leaving its tail in the hands of the aston-
ished hunter !
The great strength which thus enables the armadillo to resist
withdrawal resides chiefly in its wonderful feet and claws. It
simply stiffens its legs and firmly implants its long toe-nails in
the ground. The back and sides of the animal are at the same
time forced against the top and sides of the burrow, wedging its
body in the hole so tightly that six men could scarcely draw it
out. It would be like pulling up a sapling tree by its roots. I
have noticed a similar bracing movement, by a stiffening of the
legs, in the Florida gopher or land tortoise, a creature which has
some habits in common with the armadillo.
Hunters have three methods of getting the armadillo out of
its hole : by drowning it out, by smoking it out, and by digging.
Sometimes all three expedients prove unsuccessful, the rapid bur-
rowing of the animal enabling it to escape. The surest way is to
continue digging until the fugitive is exhausted.
Hunters frequently resort to stratagem by taking advantage
of the nocturnal habits of the armadillo and capturing it when it
emerges from its hole at nightfall. Or they watch near its bur-
THE ARMADILLO AND ITS ODDITIES. 359
row on a moonlight night and pounce upon it suddenly when it
returns from a foraging trip. Dogs are often employed to trail
the creature when away from its home. When overtaken, of
course, it offers not the slightest resistance.
In Central America the armadillo is frequently domesticated
to rid houses of insect pests. They also make as nice pets as one
could desire ; no animal is cleaner or less objectionable about the
house. They are as desirable in this respect as well-trained cats
or lapdogs, and there could be no higher praise than this.
It is not merely the odd forms and ways of my rare pets that
have made them the objects of my peculiar interest. I have been
equally charmed with their intelligence and with their evident
attachment to myself. If, when they are near me, I suddenly
move away from them, they come trotting at my heels in their
comical way as fast as their short legs can carry them.
Their gait is always a walk or brisk trot, never a gallop.
Most of their movements when in motion resemble those of little
pigs. They have learned to answer to their names, and come
quickly when called. Curiosity is a prominent characteristic of
the animal ; if allowed free scope, they will explore every part of
a strange place, trying to run their sharp noses into every open-
ing. Much of the daytime is spent in sleeping. In lying down
one generally rests its head and fore feet on the neck or back of
the other, in a very affectionate manner.
Their attachment for each other is remarkable, all the more
noticeable when one becomes separated from the other. If I
shut Jack up in a basket, Jill goes round and round outside,
at times standing on her hind feet and reaching to the top with
her nose. When Jack is finally liberated they put their heads
together for a few moments, and then off they go on one of
their tours of exploration.
The spirit of science, said President Brinton at the American Association,
is modest in its own claims and liberal to the claims of others. The first lesson
which every sound student learns is to follow his facts and not to lead them.
New facts teach him new conclusions. His opinions of to-day must be modified
by the learning of the morrow. He is at all times ready and willing to abandon
a position when further investigation shows that it is probably incorrectly taken.
He is in this the reverse of the opinionated man, the hobby-rider, and the dogma-
tist. The despair of a scientific assemblage is the member with a pet theory,
with a fixed idea, which he is bound to obtrude and defend in the face of facts.
Yet even toward him we are called upon to exercise our toleration and our char-
ity, for the history of learning has repeatedly shown that from just such wayward
enthusiasts solid knowledge has derived some of its richest contributions. So
supreme, after all, is energy that error itself, pursued with fervid devotion, yields
a more bountiful harvest than truth languidly cultivated.
360 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
HERBARIA IN THEIR RELATION TO BOTANY.*
By JOHN P. LOTSY, Pu. D.
THE offer of Captain Donnell Smith to Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity of his valuable herbarium and library gives us an
excellent opportunity to consider what such herbaria are, how
they are brought together, and what is their purpose. We intend,
furthermore, to show what they accomplish in botany and what
botany does besides.
The importance of Captain Smith's gift will then be evident,
and the value of a well-equipped botanical department to the
Johns Hopkins and to the community at large will also be clear.
The references to flowers and trees in ancient poems show that
the beauty of vegetable Nature was fully appreciated at an early
period, and agriculture requires the rudiments of a scientific
knowledge of plants ; but the first systematic attempts to study
botany scientifically owe their origin to the desire to know more
of plants in their relation to medicine. There are few plants
which have not at some time been supposed to have great medici-
nal value, as the number of those designated officinalis clearly
indicates.
The first systematic study of plants in their relation to medi-
cine was in the Athenian Republic, and Theophrastus, Dioscorides,
Pliny, and Galen are especially known for their writings on this
subject. During the middle ages the science of the Greeks was
forgotten, and interest in their investigations was not revived
till the sixteenth century. By this time the old Greek texts had
become greatly obscured by imperfect translations, and it required
much patience and care to recognize plants from their descrip-
tions. The botanists of the sixteenth century, like Bock, Fuchs,
and Mattioli, working in Germany, found another difficulty in the
circumstance that plants of their country differed widely from
those in Greece. This, together with the imperfect state of the
old descriptions, gave rise to frequent mistakes in identification.
Some other authors, however, would notice the error, and disputes
often arose, which sometimes became violent. The great value of
this work to us is that it showed the necessity for more exact
descriptions of plants, and this, combined with the occasional
finding of new plants of a supposed or real value to medicine,
gave rise to those large parchment-bound, queer-looking old vol-
umes on botany which, besides the descriptions, often contained
very beautiful pictures of the plants. These were then called
* Read before the Scientific Association of the Johns Hopkins University, February 21,
1894.
HERBARIA IN THEIR RELATION TO BOTANY. 361
herbaria, a significance being given to the word which it has
now lost. It soon became painfully evident that very good and
conscientious descriptions, even when accompanied by accurate
plates, were yet not adequate to express all those delicate details
which the living plant showed. So some of the authors found a
way to keep the plants they had described, at first for their own
reference, and for this purpose dried them carefully, glued them
on sheets of paper, and put the name on this paper. Preserved
in this way and arranged alphabetically for easy reference, these
specimens formed a supplementary confirmation of their descrip-
tions which was readily accessible. This was what we now call a
herbarium — in other words, a collection of well-preserved, care-
fully named dry plants. If the description of an author who had
a collection of this sort was called in question, it was an easy
thing for him to send his original plant to some third botanist,
who could decide whether he was right. Afterward it was rec-
ognized by those who described new plants that it would be of
great importance to them if they could have the originals of
the descriptions of their fellow-botanists. So a system of in-
terchange of originals arose, which is now carried on between
botanists all over the world. A trained and competent botanist
who finds an opportunity to study the flora of regions which
are little known may by this means become possessed of all
the most instructive and remarkable plants that are known to
science.
So a modern botanist no longer collects, as was formerly
done, only one or two samples of every plant, but one or two
hundred — of rare species often two thousand — because every
specimen he has will enable him to obtain some new one in
exchange.
The difficulties of collecting in the present time may be esti-
mated from this. To collect four thousand plants in a tropical
climate means not only to find, dry, and name these under the
most unfavorable conditions, but to prepare perhaps forty thou-
sand, all the duplicate specimens being used in exchange.
For a long while plants were named by any word which took
the fancy of its author, and were arranged in the alphabetical
order of the names. Soon, however, it was found that a better
disposition was desirable, as nobody could look over such exten-
sive alphabetically arranged collections, and students began to
assort the plants in such a way that those which had certain
characteristics in common were grouped in classes. So, for exam-
ple, all kinds of grasses, all kinds of trees, all kinds of shrubs
were put together, etc. Such a beginning of classification and
unconscious recognition of relationship was begun by Lobelius
and Bauhin, extended by Csesalpin, and completed by Linnaeus.
VOL. XLVII. — 30
362 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
Linnaeus, besides, saw the necessity of bringing together all the
descriptions of plants already existing, and of wording them in
such a way that, without losing anything essential in the descrip-
tion, they should occupy the smallest possible space. Such a con-
densed description is now known as a diagnosis.
When he had accumulated a considerable number of diagnoses
he saw that it was difficult to find one's way through them, and
he set about arranging them after some of the most striking
characteristics which did not necessarily indicate relationship,
but were simply as a means of classification and recognition. He
took for this first the number of stamens, bringing all plants with
one stamen in the flower together, all with two, three, four, five,
ten, etc., into their several classes, in this way creating the groups
of the Monandra, Decandra, Polyandra, etc.
Having done this, he recognized that a subdivision of these
groups was desirable ; that many plants with the same number of
stamens yet differed considerably among one another ; and these
smaller groups he called genus, plural genera. Such a genus now,
for example, is the buttercup, which he called Ranunculus. He
saw that further subdivision could take place, and that there were
a great many plants which, though evidently all buttercups, yet
differed sufficiently to be distinct. So he resolved to give every
plant two names, the first one being the genus name, here Ranun-
culus, the second one expressing some property of that particular
kind of Ranunculus, and thus indicating the species. Thus he
found, for example, that one buttercup had an acrid taste, and he
called it the acrid buttercup — in Latin, Ranuncidus acris ; that
another one always grew on marshy places ; he called it the marsh
buttercup — in Latin, Ranunculus palustris, etc.
Latin names were used simply as a matter of convenience, as
it was much easier to know one Latin name than a dozen names
in a dozen different languages for the same plant. Linngeus's
system was consequently one of mere convenience and thoroughly
artificial.
It had, however, already been recognized that certain plants
belong naturally together, as grasses, for example, while Lin-
nseus's system often placed two grasses very far apart. This
conception of relationship, however, could not be expressed well
before Darwin had shown that plants had not always been as
they are now, but that the higher plants had gradually been
developed from the lower ones. Then an entirely different sys-
tem arose — a system which expressed the relation of plants in
the way of a genealogical tree ; this system is generally known
under the name of the natural system. It is after this natural
system, which expresses our conception of the blood relation be-
tween the different plants, that our present herbaria are arranged,
HERBARIA IN THEIR RELATION TO BOTANY. 363
and it is their object to show us at all times not only the plants
described, but also the family relation between these different
plants.
In Linnreus's time a botanist was regarded as somebody who
could name at sight any plant presented to him, and the best
botanist was the one who was most proficient in this. We are
justified, however, in requiring a few other things from a good
botanist. The recognition of the family relations between differ-
ent plants gave rise to the comparing of their different organs, to
the study of their development, to inquiring what conditions had
influenced an organ in such a way that it became modified, to
the search for the equivalents of the organs of the higher plants
among the lower ones ; all of which constitute that branch of
botany which now is known as morphology.
The recognition of yet finer details created our histology.
The closer acquaintance with plants induced scientific men to
observe their habits, their distribution, and how they lived ; and
this is plant physiology in its widest sense.
For the study of the botanical system, morphology, and geog-
raphy, a herbarium like that of Captain Smith is of the greatest
advantage. For physiological purposes, quite other things — as
exact instruments, hothouses to keep living plants, etc. — are
necessary.
Physiology is that part of botany which has had most practical
value. The fertilizing with artificial manures is entirely founded
upon it, for it never could have become known if careful experi-
ments in the laboratory had not shown what substances were
necessary to each particular kind of plant. Consequently, all
agricultural experiment stations are practically based on plant
physiology.
This plant physiology, or the science of the normal life of the
plant, gave rise to the study of the plant under abnormal — in other
words, diseased— conditions, and so the science of plant pathology,
on which our knowledge of the diseases of our crops and the way
to prevent or cure them is based.
Last, and not least, the study of those very smallest plants, the
bacteria, made an enormous change in our treatment of sick
human beings ; the study of the parasitic molds has done an im-
portant service to our fish industries ; so the influence of mod-
ern scientific botany is felt in fields that seem to the casual
observer to have no connection with vegetation, and the scope
of this science is no longer confined to what for years was its
only object — the naming of plants.
-♦♦♦-
364 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS.
III.— DANCER AND MUSICIAN.
By HERBERT SPENCER.
IN an essay on The Origin and Function of Music, first pub-
lished in 1857, I emphasized the psycho-physical law that
muscular movements in general are originated by feelings in gen-
eral. Be the movements slight or violent, be they those of the
whole body or of special parts, and be the feelings pleasurable or
painful, sensational or emotional, the first are always results of the
last : at least, after excluding those movements which are reflex
and- involuntary. And it was there pointed out that, as a conse-
quence of this psycho-physical law, the violent muscular motions
of the limbs which cause bounds and gesticulations, as well as
those strong contractions of the pectoral and vocal muscles which
produce shouting and laughter, become the natural language of
great pleasure.
In the actions of lively children who, on seeing in the distance
some indulgent relative, run up to him, joining one another in
screams of delight and breaking their run with leaps, there are
shown the roots from which simultaneously arise those audible
and visible manifestations of joy which culminate in singing and
dancing. It needs no stretch of imagination to see that when, in-
stead of an indulgent relative met by joyful children, we have a
conquering chief or king met by groups of his people, there will
almost certainly occur saltatory and vocal expressions of elated
feeling, and that these must become, by implication, signs of
respect and loyalty — ascriptions of worth which, raised to a higher
power, become worship. Nor does it need any stretch of imagina-
tion to perceive that these natural displays of joy, at first made
spontaneously before one who approaches in triumph as a bene-
factor and glorifier of his people, come, in course of time, to be ob-
servances used on all public occasions as demonstrations of allegi-
ance; while, simultaneously, the irregular j Limpings and gesticu-
lations with unrhythmical shouts and cries, at first arising with-
out concert, gradually by repetition become regularized into the
measured movements we know as dances and into the organized
utterances constituting songs. Once more, it is easy to see that
out of groups of subjects thus led into irregular ovations, and by
and by into regular laudatory receptions, there will eventually
arise some who, distinguished by their skill, are set apart as
dancers and singers, and presently acquire the professional char-
acter.
Before passing to the positive evidence which supports this in-
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 365
terpretation, it may be well to remark that negative evidence
is furnished by those savages who have no permanent chiefs
or rudimentary kings; for among them these incipient profes-
sional actions are scarcely to be traced. They do indeed show
us certain rude dances with noisy accompaniments ; but these are
representations of war and the chase. Though the deeds of cele-
brated warriors may occasionally be simulated in ways implying
laudation of them, there do not commonly arise at this stage the
laudations constituted by joyous gesticulations and triumphant
songs in face of a conqueror. At later stages ceremonies of this
primitive kind develop into organized exercises performed by
masses of warriors. Thus among the Kaffirs the war-dances con-
stitute the most important part of their training, and they engage
in these frequently ; and it is said that the movements in the grand
dances of the Zulus resemble military evolutions. So, too, Thom-
son writes that the war-dance of the New Zealanders approximated
in precision to the movements of a regiment of European soldiers.
Clearly it is not from these exercises that professional dancing
originates.
That professional dancing, singing, and instrumental music
originate in the way above indicated, is implied by a familiar
passage in the Bible. We are told that when David, as general of
the Israelites, " was returned from the slaughter of the Philis-
tines " —
" The women came out of all cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet
king Saul with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of music; and the
women answered one another as they played, and said 'Saul hath slain his
thousands and David his ten thousands''' (I Sam., xviii, 6, 7).
Here the primitive reception of a conquering chief by shouts and
leaps, which has, along with semi-civilization, developed into more
definite and rhythmical form, vocal and saltatory, is accorded both
to a reigning conqueror and to a conqueror subordinate to him.
But while on this occasion the ceremony was entirely secular, it
was, on another occasion, under different circumstances, predomi-
nantly sacred. When, led by Moses, the Israelites had passed the
Red Sea, the song of Miriam, followed by the women " with tim-
brels and with dances " exhorting them " sing ye to the Lord, for
he hath triumphed gloriously," shows us the same kind of ob-
servance toward a leader (a " man of war," as the Hebrew god
is called) who is no longer visible, but is supposed to guide his
people and occasionally to give advice in battle. That is, we see
religious dancing and singing and praise having the same form
whether the object of them is or is not present to sight.
Usages which we find in existing semi-civilized societies, justify
the conclusion that ovations to a returning conqueror, at first
3 66 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
spontaneous expressions of applause and loyalty, gradually pass
into ceremonial observances used for purposes of propitiation. It
becomes the policy to please the ruler by repetitions of these
songs describing his great deeds, and of the dances expressive of
joy at his presence. Describing the Marutse, Holub says : —
" All the musicians [of the royal band] were obliged to be singers as welL
having to screech out the king's praises between the intervals in the music,
or to a muffled accompaniment of their instruments."
So, Schweinfurth tells us that at the court of king Munza, the
Monbutto ruler, there were professional musicians, ballad-singers,
and dancers, whose leading function was to glorify and please the
king. And in Dahomy, according to Burton, " the bards are of
both sexes, and the women dwell in the palaces . . . the king
keeps a whole troop of these laureates." Official praises of this
kind are carried on by attendants not only of the king but of sub-
ordinate rulers. In processions in Ashantee, "each noble is at-
tended by his flatterers, who proclaim, in boisterous songs, the
'strong names' of their master;" and on the Gold Coast, "every
chief has a horn-blower, and a special air of his own." Similarly
we learn from Park that among the Mandingos there are minstrels
who " sing extempore songs in honor of their chief men, or any
other persons who are willing to pay them : " showing us an un-
obtrusive divergence from the original function. Winterbottom
indicates a like divergence.
" Among the Foolas there is a set of people called singing men, who,
like tbe ancient bards, travel about the country singing the praises of those
who choose to purchase renown."
Passing beyond Africa we read that in Madagascar "the sov-
ereign has a large band of female singers, who attend in the
courtyard, and who accompany their monarch whenever he takes
an excursion." Raffles, too, says that in Java there are three
classes of dancing- girls, who perform in public : 1. The concubines
of the sovereign and of the hereditary prince. These are the most
skillful. 2. The concubines of the nobles. 3. The common danc-
ing girls of the country. In these cases we are shown that while
saltatory and vocal forms of glorification, at first occasional and
spontaneous, have become regular and ceremonial; and while
those who perform them, no longer the people at large, have be-
come a specialized class ; two further changes have taken place.
Instead of being both singers and dancers, as the primitive cele-
brants were, these permanent officials have become differentiated
into the two classes, singers and dancers ; and, if not of the singers,
yet of the dancers we may remark that their performances, ceas-
ing to be expressions of welcome and joy before the ruler, have
grown into displays of agility and grace, and are gone through
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 367
for tho purpose of yielding aesthetic pleasures. Among the He-
brews this development had taken place in the time of Herod,
when the daughter of Herodias delighted him by her dancing ;
and a like development is shown at the present day throughout
India, where troops of bayaderes are appendages of courts.
That laudatory dancing and singing before the visible ruler
are associated with like observances before the invisible ruler, the
Hebrews have shown us. To the case of the prophetess Miriam
and her companions, may be added the case of David dancing
before the ark. Hence we shall not be surprised to find such facts
among other semi-civilized peoples. Markham, describing a
Puharrie festival, and saying of a certain receptacle that "in it
the Deity is supposed to dwell," adds that " upon this occasion
the deptha, or ark, is brought forth with much solemnity, and the
people decked out with flowers and ears of corn dance around it."
In an account of the Bhils we read, concerning a class of men
called Barwds who are votaries of the hill-gods, that —
" Their powers are, however, dormant, till they are excited by music ; and
for this reason, they have a class of musicians connected with them, who
are proficient in numerous songs in praise of the hill-deities. When the
recitation of these songs has kindled the spark of spiritual fire, they begin
to dance with frantic gestures."
An analogous use of dancing occurs in Abyssinia. The duties of
priests " consist in reading the prayers, chanting, administering
the sacrament, and dancing ; the latter being indulged in during
religious processions." That the dancing is in this case imported
into the quasi- Christian religion by adoption from some previous
religion (a like adoption being common with Roman Catholic
missionaries) is a conclusion supported by an instance from a
remote region. Describing the usages of the Pueblos, Lummis
says : —
"The cachinas or sacred dances which were in vogue before Columbus,
still survive ; but now they are applied to the festivals of the Church, and
are presumed to be as grateful to Tata Dios as to the Sun."
But the way in which singing and dancing before the visible
ruler differentiate into singing and dancing before the ruler no
longer visible, is best seen in the early records of civilized races.
To the above illustrations furnished by Hebrew history may be
added various others. Thus I Samuel x, 5, tells of " a company
of prophets coming down from the high place with a psaltery, and
a tabret, and a pipe, and a harp before them ; " and, according to
some translators, dancing and singing. Again in I Chronicles ix,
33, we read of certain Levites that " these are the singers, chief of
the fathers of the Levites." And in Psalm cxlix, there is the ex-
368 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
hortation : — " Let them praise his name in the dance : let them
sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp : " worship
which was joined with the execution of " vengeance upon the
heathen."
This association of dancing and singing as forms of worship,
and by implication their more special association with the priest-
hood, is not so conspicuous in the accounts of Egypt ; proba-
bly because the earlier stages of Egyptian civilization are unre-
corded. According to Herodotus, however, in the processions
during the festival of Bacchus, the flute-player went first and was
followed by the choristers who chanted all the praises of the
deity. Naming also cymbals and flutes and harps as used "in
religious ceremonies;" Wilkinson says that "the sacred musi-
cians were of the order of priests and appointed to the service,
like the Levites among the Jews." Songs and clapping of hands
are mentioned by him as parts of the worship. Moreover the
wall-paintings yield proofs. " That they also danced at temples,
in honor of the gods, is evident from the representations of sev-
eral sacred processions." Wilkinson is now somewhat out of
date, but these assertions are not incongruous with those made
by later writers. The association between the temple and the
palace was in all ways intimate, and while, according to Brugsch,
one steward of the king's household " was over the singing and
playing," Duncker states that " in every temple there was a min-
strel." So too, Tiele, speaking of Im-hotep, son of Ptah, says —
" The texts designate him as the first of the Cber-hib, a class of priests
who were at the same time choristers and physicians."
But Rawlinson thinks that music had, in the days of historical
Egypt, become largely secularized : — " Music was used in the
main as a light entertainment . . . The religious ceremonies into
which music entered were mostly of an equivocal character."
Similar was the genesis which occurred in Greece. A brief
indication of the fact is conveyed by the statement of Guhl and
Koner that all. the dances " were originally connected with reli-
gious worship." The union of dancing and singing as components
of the same ceremony, is implied by Moulton's remark that —
' 'Chorus' is one example amongst many of expressions that convey mu-
sical associations to us, but are terms originally of dancing. The chorus
was the most elaborate of the lyric ballad-dances."
And that the associated use of the two was religious is shown by
the description of Grote, who writes : —
'The chorus, with song and dance combined, constituted an important
part of divine service throughout all Greece. It was originally a public
manifestation of the citizens generally . . . But in process of time, the per-
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 369
formance at the chief festival tended to become more elaborate and to fall
into the hands of persons expressly and professionally trained."
In like manner Donaldson tells us " that music and dancing were
the basis of the religious, political, and military organization of
the Dorian states ; " remarking also that —
'e>
" The preservation of military discipline and the establishment of a prin-
ciple of subordination, not merely the encouragement of a taste for the fine
arts, were the objects which these rude legislators had in view; and though
there is no doubt that religious feeling entered largely into all their
thoughts and actions, yet the god whom they worshiped was a god of war,
of music, and of civil government."
On which statement, however, we may remark that it contains a
species of error common in historical interpretations. It is erro-
neously assumed that these dances were introduced by legislators,
instead of being continuations of observances which arose sponta-
neously. How in Greece there early began the secularization of
music is shown by the traditions concerning the religious festivals
— the Pythian, Olympian, etc. — which presently furnished occa-
sions for competitions in skill and strength. The Pythian games,
which were the earliest, exhibited the smallest divergence from
the primitive purpose ; for only musical and poetical contests
took place. But the establishment of prizes shows that out of the
original miscellaneous chorus had arisen some who were marked
by their more effective expressions of praise and finer vocal utter-
ances. And on reading that out of those who pLyed accompani-
ments to the sacred songs and dances, some became noted for
their skill, and that there presently followed at the great Greek
games prizes to the best performers on flutes, trumpets, and lyres,
we see how there arose also that differentiation of instrumental-
ists from vocalists which presently became pronounced. Says
Mahaffy concerning a performance about 250 b. c. —
" This elaborate instrumental symphony was merely the development
of the old competitions in playing instruments, which had existed at Delphi
from very early days."
Hence, after a time, a complete secularization of music. Besides
musical performances in honor of the gods, there grew up in
later days performances which ministered solely to aesthetic en-
joyments. Distinguishing the sacred from the secular, Mahaffy
says the first " were quite separate from the singing and playing
in private society, which were cultivated a good deal at Athens,
though not at all at Sparta, where such performances were left to
professional musicians."
Parallel evidence is furnished by Roman history. We read
in Mommsen that —
37o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
" In the most ancient religious usages dancing, and next to dancing instru-
mental music, were far more prominent than song. In the great procession,
with which the Eoman festival of victory was opened, the chief place, next
to the images of the gods and the champions, was assigned to the dancers,
grave and merry. . . . The ' leapers ' (salii) were perhaps the most ancient
and sacred of all the priesthoods.''
So, too, Guhl and Koner write : —
"Public games were, from the earliest times, connected with religious
acts, the Roman custom tallying in this respect with the Greek. Such
games were promised to the gods to gain their favor, and afterward carried
out as a sign of gratitude for their assistance. "
CoDgruous with this statement is that of Posnett, who, after
quoting an early prayer to Mars, says —
" This primitive hymn clearly combined the sacred dance . . . with the
responsive chant ; and the prominence of the former suggests how readily
the processional or stationary hymn might grow into a little drama sym-
bolizing the supposed actions of the deity worshiped."
Here we see a parallelism to the triumphal reception of David
and Saul, and are shown that the worship of the hero-god is a
repetition of the applause given to a conqueror when alive in
celebration of his achievements : the priests and people doing in
the last case that which the courtiers and people did in the first.
Moreover in Rome, as in Greece, there eventually arose, out of
the sacred performances of music, secular performances — a culti-
vation of music as a pleasure-giving art. Says Inge —
" In republican days a Roman would have been ashamed to own himself a
skilled musician. . . . Scipio iEmilianus delivered a scathing invective in
the senate against schools of music and dancing at one of which he had
even seen the son of a Roman magistrate."
But in the days of the Caesars musical culture had become part
of a liberal education ; and we have, in illustration, the familiar
remembrance of Nero as a violinist. At the same time " trained
choirs of slaves were employed to sing and play to the guests at
dinner, or for the delectation of their master alone."
On tracing further the evolution of these originally twin pro-
fessions, we come upon the fact that while, after their separation,
the one became almost wholly secularized, the other long contin-
ued its ecclesiastical connections and differentiated into its secular
forms at a later date. Why dancing ceased to be a part of reli-
gious worship, while music did not, we may readily see. In the
first place dancing being inarticulate, is not capable of expressing
those various ideas and feelings which music, joining with words,
is able to do. As originally used it was expressive of joy, alike in
presence of the living hero and in the supposed presence of his
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 371
spirit. In the nature of things it implies that overplus of energy
which goes along with elated feeling, and does not serve to ex-
press the awe, the submission, the penitence, which form large
parts of religious worship in advanced times.
Naturally then dancing, though it did not in the middle ages
wholly disappear from religious worship, practically fell into dis-
use. One part only of the original observance survived— the pro-
cession. Alike in the triumphal reception of a returning conqueror
and in the celebration of a god's achievements, the saltatory ac-
tions were the joyous accompaniments in a moving stream of peo-
ple. But while the saltatory actions have ceased the moving
stream has continued. Moreover there have survived, even down
to our own day, its two original forms. We have religious pro-
cessions, now along the aisles of cathedrals and now through the
streets; and besides other secular processions more or less tri-
umphal, we have those in which either the ruler or the represent-
ative of the ruler is escorted into the city he is approaching by
troops of officials and by the populace: the going out to meet the
judges, who are the king's deputies, shows us that the old form
minus the dance is still extant.
A further fact is to be noted. While dancing has become
secularized it has in part assumed a professional character.
Though, even in the earliest stages, it had other forms and pur-
poses than those above described (as shown in the mimetic rep-
resentations of success in the chase, and in primitive amatory
dances), and though from these, secular dancing has been in part
derived ; yet if we bear in mind the transition from the dancing
in triumphal processions before the king, to dancing before him
as a court-observance by trained dancers, and from that to danc-
ing on the stage, we may infer that even the forms of secular
dancing now familiar are not without a trace of that origin we
have been following out.
Returning from this parenthesis and passing from the evidence
furnished by ancient civilizations to that furnished by the pagan
and semi- civilized peoples of Europe, we may first note the state-
ment of Strabo concerning the Celts.
There "are generally three divisions of men especially reverenced, the
Bards, the Vates, and the Druids. The Bards composed and chaDted
hymns; the Vates occupied themselves with the sacrifices and the study of
nature ; while the Druids joined to the study of nature that of moral phi-
losophy."
And the assertion is that these bards recited the exploits of their
chiefs to the accompaniment of the harp. The survival of pagan
observances into Christian times probably gave origin to the class
3J2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
distinguished among the Scandinavians as " skalds " and among
the Anglo-Saxons as harpers and gleemen. Thus we read : —
"The gleemen added mimicry . . . dancing . . . tumbling, with sleights
of hand. ... It was therefore necessary for them to associate themselves
into companies."
'' Soon after the conquest these musicians lost the ancient Saxon appel-
lation of gleemen and were called ministraulx, in English minstrels."
Moreover in the old English period the minstrel "was sometimes
a household retainer of the chief whom he served, as we see in
the poem of Beowulf." And since it was the function of the min-
strel now to glorify his chief and now to glorify his chief's ances-
tors, we see that in the one capacity he lauded the living potentate
as a courtier, and in the other capacity he lauded the deceased
potentate as a priest lauds a deity.
While, with the decay of the worship of the pagan gods, he-
roes, and ancestors, some music became secularized, other music
began to develop in connection with the substituted religion.
Among the Anglo-Saxons, "music was also cultivated with
ardor. . . . Permanent schools of music were finally established
in the monasteries, and a principal one at Canterbury. So, too,
was it under the Normans : " great attention was now paid to
Church music, and the clergy frequently composed pieces for the
use of their choirs." And then in the fifteenth century —
" Ecclesiastical mnsic was studied by the youths at the Universities,
with a view to the attainment of degrees as bacheloi'S and doctors in that
faculty or science, which generally secured preferment."
But the best proof of the clerical origin of the musical professor
during Christian times, is furnished by the biographical notices
of early musicians throughout Europe. "We begin in the fourth
century with St. Ambrose, who set in order "the ecclesiastical
mode of saying and singing divine service ; " and then come to St.
Gregory who in 590 arranged the musical scales. The tenth cen-
tury yielded Hucbaldus, a monk who replaced the two-lined stave
by one of more lines ; and the eleventh century the monk Guido
d'Arezzo, who further developed the stave. A differentiation of
sacred into secular was commenced in the twelfth century by the
Minnesingers : " their melodies were founded on the Church
scales." Developed out of them, came the Meistersingers, who
usually performed in churches, and " had generally a sacred sub-
ject, and their tone was religious." " One of the first composers
who wrote in regular form" was Canon Dufay of the Cathedral
of Cambrai in 1474. The sixteenth century brought Lasso, who
wrote thirteen hundred musical compositions, but whose status is
not named; and then, showing a pronounced secularization, we
have, in the same century, Phillipus de Monte, Canon of Cambrai,
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 373
who wrote thirty books of madrigals. About that time Luther,
too, " arranged the German mass." In the next century we have
the distinguished composer Palestrina who, though originally a
layman, was elected to priestly functions ; and the priest, Allegri,
a chorister and composer. At later dates lived Carissimi, chapel-
master and composer ; Scarlatti also maestro di capella. France
presently produced Rameau, church-organist ; and Germany two
of its greatest composers — Handel first of all capellmeister in
Hanover and then in England ; and Bach, who was primarily an
organist, and who, " deeply religious," developed " the old Church
modes "into modern forms. Among other leading musicians of
the eighteenth century were Padre Martini, and Zingarelli, both
chapel-masters ; and there flourished during the same period the
Abbe' Vogler, and Cherubini, a chapel-master. To all which
cases abroad should be added the cases at home. Beginning in
1515 with Tallis "the father of English Cathedral Music," we find
him called "gentleman (chorister) of the Chapel Royal." In the
same century comes Morley, chorister," epistler," and "gospeller,"
who, thus semi-priestly, composed secular music ; Byrd, a similar
functionary similarly characterized ; Farrant, also clerical in char-
acter; and a little later Gibbons, an organist but largely a writer
of secular music. In the next century we have Lawes, " epistler "
of the Chapel Royal composer of sacred music ; Child, chorister,
organist, and sacred composer ; and Blow, the same. Then come
the four generations of Purcells, all connected with the Church
as choristers and organists ; Hilton, organist and parish clerk,
and writer of secular as well as sacred music ; and Croft, organ-
ist, chief chorister, and composer, secular and sacred. And so
with later composers, Boyce, Cook, Webbe, Horsley, who, still in
part Church-functionaries, are chiefly known by their songs, glees,
and catches.
We must not, however, ignore the fact that though out of the
cultivation of music for purposes of worship, music of the more
developed kinds originated, there independently grew up simple
popular music ; for from the earliest times emotions excited by
the various incidents of life have prompted spontaneous vocal ex-
pression. But recognition of this truth consists with assertion of
the larger truth that the higher developments of music in mod-
ern times, arose out of elaborated religious worship, and were for
a long time the productions of the priest-class; and that out of
this class, or semi-secularized members of it, there were eventu-
ally differentiated the composers and professors of secular music.
One further differentiation which has accompanied the last
has to be noted. The musician's art, developed by the priestly
class in the service of the church, and gradually influencing the
simple secular music existing among the people, began to evolve
374 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
out of this the higher forms of music we now know. Whether
or not the popular dances in use during recent centuries had
arisen de novo, or whether, as seems more probable, they had de-
scended with modifications from the early dance-chants used in
pagan worship, inquiry discloses the remarkable fact that out of
them have grown the great orchestral works of modern days.
The suites de pieces of Bach and Handel were originally sets of
dances in different times ; and these have developed into the suc-
cessive movements of the symphony, which even now, in the oc-
casional movement named " minuet," yields a trace of its origin.
And then, along with these developments of music, has taken place
one further differentiation — that of composer from performer.
Though some performers are also composers, yet in large measure
the composer has become an independent artist who does not him-
self, unless as conductor, take part in public entertainments.
In this case, as in other cases, the general process of evolution
is exemplified by the integration which has accompanied differen-
tiation. Evidence furnished by ancient civilizations must be
postponed to the next chapter as more closely appertaining to it.
Here we may content ourselves with indicating the illustrative
facts which modern days furnish.
Beyond the unorganized body of professed musical performers
and beyond the little-organized body of professors and teachers
of music, there is the assemblage of those who, having passed
examinations and acquired degrees in music, are marked off more
distinctly : we see the increased definiteness which accompanies
integration. There are also the multitudinous local musical soci-
eties ; the local musical festivals with their governing organiza-
tions ; and the several incorporated colleges, with their students,
professional staffs, and directors.
Then as serving to unite these variously-constituted groups
of those who make the musical art a profession, and of those
who give themselves to the practice of it as amateurs, we have a
periodical literature — sundry musical journals devoted to re-
ports and criticisms of concerts, operas, oratorios, and serving
to aid musical culture while they maintain the interests of the
teachers and performers.
The curious fact is noticed by Prof. Basil Hall Chamberlain that in the
Japanese Archipelago vegetation diminishes instead of increasing in rank-
ness as one travels south. In Yezo the summer grasses and tall weeds
are higher than the head of a horseback rider; in central Japan the grass
is seldom taller than a man on foot; in Great Luchu everything is much
lower still. There are no tall grasses, comparatively few bamboos, and
few thickets of any sort. The country is parklike.
A MEDICAL STUDY OF THE JURY SYSTEM. 375
A MEDICAL STUDY OF THE JURY SYSTEM.
Br T. D. CROTHEES, M. D.
THE uncertainty of jurors, and the capricious, whimsical
character of their verdicts, are accepted as inevitable, and
explained as part of the natural weakness of the mind. It is
assumed that, if the facts are clearly presented, a jury will give a
common-sense verdict, which will approximate the truth and
human jnstice. Where they fail, it is due to the confusion of
testimony, the misrepresentation of counsel, and the general
perversion of facts. Many thoughtful men consider the judg-
ment of twelve men, who are disinterested, superior and on
general matters of dispute of far more reliable character than
the judgment of one trained man. Yet literally, the verdicts of
twelve men, based on the same set of facts, differ widely, and can
never be anticipated ; and, whether wise or unwise, are clearly due
to other influences than the commonly supposed conflict of facts
and motives of truth and justice.
While it would be difficult to doubt the motive and intent of
the average juror to be just and fair in his conclusions, it would
seem that certain conditions and surroundings make it impossill3
in most cases to either understand the case in question or the
principles of equity involved. The theoretical and ideal jury to
whom are daily referred questions of life and death, and often
momentous interests concerning families and individuals, is never
seen in real life. The delusions of the court room, that the twelve
men set apart for this duty are endowed with a large and suffi-
cient mental capacity for the discernment of justice, is far from
being true in reality.
From a medical and scientific point of view, the average twelve
men who are appealed to by the counsel and judge to wisely
determine the issue of a case are usually incompetent naturally,
and are generally placed in the worst possible conditions and sur-
roundings to even exercise average common sense in any disputed
case.
In a noted trial at Hartford, Conn., out of a panel of one
hundred jurors, twelve men were finally selected after a long,
searching inquiry. Five of them were farmers, who worked hard
every day in the open air, men who were unaccustomed to think
or reason, except in a narrow way along their surroundings and
line of work. These men all swore that they had not read any
details of the case, although it occupied a large share of public
attention and had been discussed freely in all the papers. They
were muscle workers, with but little mental exercise, living c n
coarse, healthy food, and sleeping from early evening to early
376 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
morning. Of the rest of the jury, one was a blacksmith and two
were mechanics, all steady workers ; one was a horse trader, one
a groceryman. one a retired farmer and trader, and the last man
was an ex-railroad man who had no business. Every one of this
jury was accustomed to be in the open air, and had not read
details of the case, although he had heard it talked over. Not
one of these men would have been chosen to take charge of any
trust, or to decide on any matter outside of his everyday life —
simply because, on general principles and from common-sense
observation, he would have been considered clearly incompetent.
For ten days this jury was confined from five to six hours a
day, listening to the testimony of the mental capacity and motives
of the maker of a will that was disputed. Of course, they disa-
greed ; and had they reached a unanimous verdict, its wisdom
and justice would have been a matter of accident.
In a celebrated case tried in an interior town in New York,
a most complicated chain of circumstantial evidence, involving
the questions of concealed motives of unusual acts and conduct,
of blood-stains, of the accuracy of chemical and microscopical
work, of different opinions of competent men, was submitted to a
jury of the following persons: one carpenter, one wagon-maker,
three coopers, two farmers, one groceryman, one contractor, and
three nurserymen. These men all testified that they had not
formed an opinion on the case, although it had been town talk
for months. Not one of them could naturally have given an in-
telligent opinion on any of the issues of the case, even if they had
been presented in the most impartial, simple manner by the judge.
When two opposite views were urged by opposing counsel, in
an adroit partisan manner, the most uncertain mental confusion
would be inevitable.
This particular jury was not only incompetent naturally and
by want of training to discriminate facts that were unfamiliar,
but its members were unaccustomed to consider any range of
facts compared with others to determine which were true.
In a third celebrated case, a jury composed of four fishermen,
two shipbuilders, two stonecutters, one clerk, two merchants, and
two persons of no business, was asked to decide on the facts of
one of the most mysterious cases of poisoning. A number of
expert witnesses and shrewd lawyers extended this case two
weeks, and gathered a mass of statements that only the most
astute judge could have disentangled. These jurymen were not
only bewildered, but were mentally palsied by the appeals of
counsel.
The methods of selecting jurors are thus literally open doors
for the defeat of the very purposes of justice. The ostensible
purpose in the selection of a jury is to secure men of honesty,
A MEDICAL STUDY OF THE JURY SYSTEM. 377
intelligence, and courage to reach unbiased conclusions in accord
with the facts. In reality the practice is to gather men who can
be influenced by the counsel — men possessing some defect and
weakness which can be taken advantage of by one side or the
other. The issue of the case will depend on the influences which
can be brought to bear on the jury. Usually, jurors are rejected
when they swear that they have formed an opinion ; but when
they assert that such opinions are subject to change from evidence
and are not fixed, they are accepted. The real qualifications would
seem to be availability, credulity, ignorance, and possibility of
personal influence by persuasion, flattery, and appeals to some
personal bias that may be known. Each counsel is interested in
selecting twelve men he can influence to his view of the case, or,
in the court language, " men he can handle readily." It is un-
fortunately true that jury duty is evaded by the best men, and to
a large extent the men who are willing to serve in this capacity
are more or less incompetent. In the cities, idle men and pro-
fessional jurors are always available. In country towns, farmers,
mechanics, and others find the jury duty a recreation, and a not
unpleasant change from the monotony of their life. While these
men are superior to the city jurors in honesty, they are less able
or accustomed to the confinement of rooms and the emotional
appeals of partisans.
It is evident to any general observation that the average jury
is unable to pass judgment on, or even to comprehend in any
adequate way, many of the questions submitted to it — such as
motives and capacity of the mind and the power of control ; the
analysis of conduct, and the conditions and influences which have
been dominant in certain acts ; the application of the law, and the
distinctions of responsibility and accountability ; the distinctions
of science as to the meaning of certain facts, or the recognition
and discrimination of facts from the mass of statements. To this
incapacity are added the passionate appeals of opposing counsel,
who draw the most opposite conclusions from the same set of
facts. Then the judge charges that if they shall find such and
such conditions to be true, they shall bring in such and such a
verdict; and if such and such conditions are not true, another
verdict must be given. This brings them into a state of the most
bewildering mental confusion, from which only the trained
judge could extricate himself. The wonder is that they are able
to reach any verdict that even approximates the levels of human
justice.
These facts are recognized by all observing men, and have
been the subject of serious discussion for a long time. It has not
occurred to any one to consider the conditions and surroundings
of the jury who are to decide the great questions of life and death
VOL. XLVII. — 31
378 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
so often submitted to them. Practically and literally the twelve
men of uncertain intelligence, and doubtful capacity and training
essential to determine the disputed questions, are placed in the
most adverse hygienic conditions for healthy brain and functional
activity. Supposing these men to have fair average intelligence
with honesty of purpose, they are placed always in a close, badly
ventilated court room, and are obliged to sit in one place for five
or six hours a day ; in cases of capital crime they are housed at
some hotel at night, and have changed diet, changed sleeping
rooms, imperfect exercise, continuous mental strain, and this may
be continued for a week, ten days, or even longer. Intelligent
and sound brain reasoning would be impossible under these con-
ditions. Even judges, trained to examine and reason from facts
along legal lines, display weakness and confusion of mind at the
close of a long trial on many occasions.
The practical observation of any jury in some important trial
will show after the first day a listless abstraction that slowly
deepens into a veritable mental confusion. At times, some one of
the jury will appear impressed, but soon he settles back into a
prolonged, steady, vacant stare at the counsel and witness. As
the ca?e goes on the faces of the jurors become paler, or increase
in redness ; their eyes lose their intelligence and become vacant
or watery. Some show restlessness in their frequent changing
positions of body; others become somnolent and inclined to
stolidity ; others are constrained, and seem to be struggling to
keep up some degree of dignity, and imitate the judge in sever-
ity of manner. When the counsel flatters them, they start up
anew and assume the appearance of more dignity and wisdom.
Every lawyer has many curious stories of the schemes and de-
vices to capture juries and jurors. Many of these turn on the
debility and confusion of mind which come from changed sur-
roundings and functional disorders resulting from confinement
and mental exhaustion.
After the second day all connected ideas of the case become
confused ; only here and there some fact impresses itself, or some
witticism or story that is strange or grotesque, or some conflict of
lawyers, or reprimand of the judges. All the rest is vague and
uncertain. The surprise on the faces of the jury, as the judge and
lawyers repeat the testimony of the witnesses, shows that it is
new, and they did not hear it at the time it was given. The pleas
of opposing counsel often create equal surprise in the faces of the
jury. If the jury were to render a verdict after one side had
closed, it would be for that side. The same conviction is noted at
the close of the arguments of the opposite side. The judge's
charge often dispels this conviction for the last speaker, and
throws them back into more helpless, confused states. They are
A MEDICAL STUDY OF THE JURY SYSTEM. 379
told to decide between this and that statement, and if they think
this is true, they must find so and so ; if that is true, the verdict
must be so and so. In reality they have no very clear concep-
tions of any of the facts the judge has called to their attention.
They go to the jury room in a dazed mental state, or possessed
with some particular idea that has become fastened in the mind ;
some idea that has no logical support or sequence in the testimony
which has been offered.
The following study of a case that was recently tried indicates
conditions that are present far more frequently than would be
supposed :
The case was murder, in which an intricate chain of circum-
stantial evidence pointed to one of three men as guilty. The jury
was composed of five farmers, four mechanics, and three mer-
chants. Nine of them were active muscle workers, living in the
open air most of the time, and three were actively engaged in-
doors. The trial lasted eleven days. The jury were boarded
at a hotel, and had no exercise except walking to and from the
hotel to the court room three times a day. Four of the jury
complained of dull headache. On the fourth day, five of the
jury had attacks of indigestion, with pain and nausea. One had
chills on the night of the same day, and was given quinine freely.
Two men had attacks of what was called rheumatism, consisting
of pain and stiffness of the muscles, and a physician was called.
Eight suffered from insomnia and constipation after the fifth
night. All suffered from bad feeling and dizziness while in the
court room in the afternoons. Four had coughs and colds, for
which rock candy and rye whisky were freely used. Several ex-
perienced extreme drowsiness in the court room. The argu-
ments of counsel and the judge's charge occupied a day and a
half. After the verdict and the discharge of the jury, four of
them were confined to bed for several days. Here were twelve
men, suffering from functional disturbances due to bad air,
changed surroundings, and auto-intoxications, called to decide the
issues of life and death.
In a case of murder and incendiarism, where the verdict of the
jury was criticised severely, the following were the facts : The
jury was composed of farmers, miners, tradesmen, and mechanics.
Four of them were sufferers from cough and influenza ; six com-
plained of loss of appetite and headache ; one suffered from ma-
laria, so called ; and one from a return of an old rheumatic attack.
The trial lasted eight days, and most of the time the jurymen
were practically sick — made so by the surroundings and changed
conditions of living. The diet of hotels, consisting of rich meats
and desserts in great variety, is usually different from the aver-
age food of the average jurymen, particularly of the working
380 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
class. The result is always overeating and under-exercise. This
alone would quickly break up or disorder the mental activities.
In addition to this, the confinement in the bad air of court
rooms brings new sources of poisoning, particularly deficient
oxidation, which of itself is sufficient to derange the normal
brain functions. The crowded rooms at hotels are either over-
heated and badly ventilated or cold and noisy. The time for
retiring and rising varies, and the usual habits of the juryman
are changed in every respect. His accustomed food, sleep, and
exercise, and his manner of thinking and the subject of his
thoughts, all are broken up. He is asked to follow an intricate
chain of reasoning, and discriminate the errors, and told that
this is true and that is true, and that the law should lead him to
some other point. He is flattered, and his pride is roused to do
the best he can. He grows more incapacitated daily as the evi-
dence accumulates and his system becomes deranged. Then, in
despair, he will suddenly form some conclusion, guided by a
fancy for some attorney or some remark by the judge. Perhaps
a stubborn member of the jury has formed a conviction on the
first day of the trial, and all the rest of the time is passed uncon-
scious of evidence, pro or con, and in the jury room his very
stubbornness wins.
In a noted murder trial at Portland, Me., it was evident that
the jury had been impressed favorably to the prisoner. The
prosecuting attorney suggested to the sheriff that he invite the
jury to church. Sunday evening to hear a noted preacher. The
topic of the clergyman was, " God's Hatred of Sin, and Divine
Judgment." The attorney knew the topic and the intense dog-
matism of the preacher, and calculated its effect on the jury.
A verdict of conviction followed, due almost entirely to the
sermon.
The personal characteristics of the jury are often the only
doors through which they can be influenced. Religious, political,
and social or personal prejudices are often considered by counsel
in the presentation of the evidence. In reality, the average jury-
man becomes more incapacitated to rise above his prejudices, or
to reason impartially, every day he is confined to the court room.
At the end of a long trial he is utterly unable to form any new
views, and nothing remains but his old prejudices, and these are
often more fixed than ever.
The following record of a juryman's experience was made by
a carpenter of more than average intelligence. He put down
each night his impressions : The first day he was impressed with
the magnitude of the case and the sadness of the prisoner. He
did not sleep the first night, for the reason that four men occu-
pied one room. The air was bad, and two men snored loudly.
A MEDICAL STUDY OF THE JURY SYSTEM. 381
The second day he tried to remember all that the witnesses said,
and its bearing on the case, and at night was very weary and
went to bed early, but was wakened and disturbed by the other
jurors. The third day his head ached, and he could with dif-
ficulty follow the testimony. His appetite was poor and he was
drowsy. The fourth day he was astonished to hear opposing
evidence ; statements which had been made by apparently honest
men were affirmed to be false. He was shocked, and his first im-
pressions and personal interest were disturbed. His head ached,
and he felt weak and nervous ; his appetite and sleep were broken.
The fifth day he gave up all efforts to follow the testimony, or to
understand what was said. He felt stupid and excessively tired.
The other jurors began to complain of the food and the sleeping
rooms, and had several quarrels with each other on religious and
political matters. Foolish stories were told, and card-playing
and personal boasting filled up the evenings. They all mani-
fested disgust at the trial, and longed for the end, and declared
they would never be caught in a similar case. On the sixth day
the case was closed. The arguments of attorneys and the judge's
charge seemed very dull and wearisome. He felt sick, looked for-
ward to a release, and his interest in the case had died out. He
could not understand why so much was said that was contradic-
tory, and why the judge should not tell them the real facts of the
case. In the jury room no discussion took place : each one voted
"guilty" or not "guilty"; and when they found the majority
was " guilty," most of them followed the majority. Two of the
minority became angry, and refused to vote for over a day, ex-
cept in favor of the prisoner. They gave no reasons for their
belief, only saying that they were right and the rest of the jury
were wrong. Finally, one of these men was accused of having
some personal object in voting for the prisoner, and after a short
altercation he changed, and the other man followed him, and the
verdict "guilty" was agreed upon.
In my experience as an expert witness I have frequently noted
the change of feelings in a moderate-drinking juror. If the pris-
oner was an inebriate, and the crime associated with excessive
use of alcohol, the first two days of the trial all moderate-drinking
jurymen manifest strong feeling for the prisoner. Later, when
they become tired, dull, and debilitated by the surroundings, all
this feeling changes to severity and desire to punish, no matter
what the evidence may be. All natural sentiments of sympathy
and kindness are replaced by the coarser, lower motives, as the
brain becomes disordered and weakened. If any of the jury have
had a similar weakness or committed a similar crime, they usu-
ally urge most severe punishment, and especially after they lose
their mental vigor in the bad air of the court room. In some
382 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
cases the opposite prevails, and jurors are strangely stubborn in
their unreasoning convictions for the prisoner. This is naturally
the outcome of placing untrained men in positions which they
can not fill, and requiring of them clear judgment under circum-
stances where it is almost impossible to act normally.
WHY CHILDREN LIE.
By NATHAN OPPENHEIM, M. D.
IT is not many years ago that the occurrence of pulmonary
tuberculosis in a person stamped the family of the sufferer as
tainted. So lax was the common as well as the professional logic,
and so imperfect were the observations drawn from experience,
that the fact of inheritance clearly seen in some diseases was im-
mediately applied to all cases where there was any ground for the
analogy. What was true of one case must necessarily be true of
all others that seemed similar ; and the growing belief in heredity
helped to make this opinion progressively stronger. Even to-day
there still remains with thousands of people a belief in the
" taint " of a family that has unfortunately had a tubercular dis-
ease in one of its members, and the general public is merely be-
ginning to awaken to the distinction between an inherited disease
and an inherited predisposition to that disease. As a matter of
fact there exists between these two things the widest space ; in-
deed, a predisposition may act as a warning, may insure a greater
care and a better conformity to laws of right living, so that the
threatened persons are often able to avoid dangers which formerly
they might have dreaded as inevitable.
Tuberculosis is not by any means the only sickness which
carries with it a widespread " taint." In the same way that an
almost insuperable objection to a man or a woman contemplating
marriage was a " consumptive strain in the blood," so an equally
potent obstacle was relation to a lunatic. There are still other
parallels between the two cases : one's brother who died of pul-
monary consumption cast a cloud upon one's physical reputation ;
but if that same brother had suffered from a white swelling of the
knee (tuberculosis of the joint), it carried but little significance
with it. Likewise, mania cursed a whole family in all its ramifi-
cations ; but marked eccentricity, kleptomania, or wrong conduct
amounting to what we now call moral insanity would be entirely
harmless, would be strictly confined to the person in whom it
appeared.
This lack of knowledge and the consequent laxity in judgment
have wide-reaching results. Outside of those immediately appar-
WHY CHILD REN LIE. 383
ent they influence so intimately our methods and standards of
education and culture that they call for more attention than has
yet been given them. It is particularly in regard to education
and the environment of children that I make these remarks, be-
cause here the effects act most powerfully for good or bad. Every
day I see children who exhibit these educational distortions, many
of which seem to a certain extent superfluous. And nothing is
more common than to find children, with an evidently rudimen-
tary conception of truth, who willfully and often for no reason
make exaggerated or false statements, who seem really to deceive
themselves as well as others, who make their relatives miserable
by threatened lack of responsibility, which, spreading out in
many ways, points to an unhappy or disgraceful life.
This fear is so common that the majority of people, I fancy,
have felt it more or less. It is so natural to regard truth as the
foundation of our whole moral structure, to look upon it as the
loveliest product of a fine character, that any deviation from it
must necessarily be held as most unfortunate. I should be simi-
larly impressed if I did not feel certain that the fear is often
wrongly placed, that this habitual telling of falsehood has its
origin, not in viciousness or a spontaneous desire to deceive, but
rather in causes for which the person is not entirely respon-
sible ; which, on the contrary, are the natural results of natural
causes.
The origin is to be sought among the fundamental workings of
the mind ; it begins with our first attempts at perception, our first
uses of words. A word is always a more or less complex idea
composed of more than one sort of image. According to our in-
nate tendencies these will be predominant as visual or speech or
writing or auditory images. They are elements which every one's
judgment in expression must use, and the variations give each
person his individuality. Most of us think in speech conceptions ;
we hear rather than see our thoughts. It is only occasional that
we find a man who sees a mental image of a concept, who clothes
his thoughts in written words. When we do, we have found an
artist who sees and remembers thoughts as well as things as defi-
nite memory pictures. Again, there is a class who speak or write
their thoughts internally, but the thought or the thing is always
expressed in letters. This association of thought with writing
movements is most often found in those of a decidedly literary
tendency, whose concepts appear to their consciousness as printed
lines. Of course, it goes without saying that no one is absolutely
confined to any one method. It is merely the predominance which
is sufficiently marked to give a trend of individuality.
All these methods are simply the internal process of speech,
they are the body of our concepts. Likewise there must be an
384 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
external process, our method of expression — words. But it is not
entirely" essential that words should accompany the conceptions,
and as a matter of fact we find in certain nervous conditions just
exactly this state of affairs. And it is just at this point, as we
shall very shortly see, that we may look for a frequent cause of
the unnecessary, the unexplainable, the habitual lie.
The natural inference is that between the formation of a con-
cept and the rightful expression of it there must be a direct and
uninterrupted connection, with the least tendency to interference
from cross-currents, with the fewest possible obstacles from ex-
aggerated inhibitions. This condition finds a parallel to a certain
extent in the phenomena of producing electric energy, its trans-
mission in a current, and its final exhibition in some palpable way.
Now, in order to insure this connection there must be perfect in-
sulation, a perfect protection against opportunities for divergence,
a guard and a help for the characteristic activity. In mental
workings we have this insulation in memory, the principal prop-
erty of nerve substance, the result of repeated and continued
impressions. As concepts are conveyed through the senses, so
the repeated recognition and use of them are provided for by
the memory activity ; and upon the normal and exact co-ordi-
nation of this activity do our mental workings depend. The
relation and combination of remembered concepts must be ab-
solutely regular, must coincide with the normal standard in
order to give the person an image which will correspond with
that of his fellows, which will appeal to them as really true.
But suppose, as most people affirm, that there is a particle of
insanity in every one's make-up ; let us for the time admit that
there are variations from the normal in every man. We are then
forced to say that, as the standard of the normal can not vary, it
naturally follows that deficiencies are abnormities, are signs of
degeneration, are signs which point to a lack of sanity. This does
not mean that men so constituted are not fit to be trusted in the
general affairs of life or to fill their places in the world. In the
same way a man may be weak in the knees and still be capable of
locomotion, even though he halt. Nevertheless, such a man is
susceptible of mishaps and accidents brought on by natural in-
ability; and, moreover, no one would be justified in punishing
him for such accidents. In the same way no one would think of
blaming a man because he was color-blind, any more than of
punishing a woman because she happened to be unable to distin-
guish smells. By these analogies we merely conclude that we
constantly find variations from the normal occurring sponta-
neously which nevertheless do not prevent the possessor from
mingling with others on the ordinary footing of social and busi-
ness intercourse. This principle has long been recognized among
WHY CHILDREN LIE. 385
lower animals, but there is a natural prejudice against applying
similar rules to men.
Likewise is this true concerning man from his first growth.
He is born with the possibility of various characteristics and in-
dividual peculiarities. Just exactly what these will be and how
far they will develop depend to a considerable extent upon his
environment. Of course, it goes without saying that heredity
counts for much, although heredity is not everything. Most of
all is it not supreme in view of the fact that our system of edu-
cation and culture has the strongest tendency for leveling, for
mediocrity. Our infant education, our school life, domestic life,
social life, all tend to trim away whatever of originality — good
or otherwise — the individual may possess. Our methods are
mainly inhibitory : we are constantly talking about what one
must not do. The decalogue itself, the declaration of our moral
and religious code, is couched mostly in terms of negative com-
mand. Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not lie, thou shalt not
worship idols, it says ; and this is far different, when reasoned
about broadly, from speak the truth, be honest, love God.
Given, then, a tendency to variations from the normal, it fol-
lows that our principal care should be to ascertain what this nor-
mal is, and to conform to it. But, so far as common experience
goes, this is the last thing to be carefully worked out. The tend-
encies to variation are emphasized by the frequent liability to in-
ferior physical conditions. Some of these are so remote that they
would be thought of only by the physician- psychologist, while
others are of such common occurrence that everj' practitioner is
familiar with them. Now, one of the most striking of these — un-
fortunately not frequently noticed except in its ultimate exag-
gerations— is that disturbance of conception produced locally in
the cortex of the brain by which the person is unable to distin-
guish between the internal processes and their external causal
conditions. If the ability to differentiate is impaired, an halluci-
nation is present, dependent upon processes in those parts of the
brain which preserve memory pictures of the most varied kinds.
As the result of this condition we may have expressions and acts
which are seemingly at utter variance with the actual premises
from which they start. The familiar example of the different
views which two knights looking upon opposite sides of a shield
take, is an old and trite attempt at explanation of this condi-
tion. In many, many cases it is not merely that people in giving
conflicting accounts of a fact see isolated and separate parts
thereof ; very frequently there is a wider basis : the condition —
certainly pathological in its results — of broken connection between
internal processes and their external causal conditions. Thus, a
child may be reproved by a teacher : we should expect that nor-
VOL. XLVII. 32
386 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
mally there would be a continuity of concepts beginning with,
the commission of a breach of discipline, followed by correction
from the teacher, and ending in improved conduct on the part of
the scholar. But frequently this chain is broken. The child fails
to recognize the connection between these component parts, or
certain parts are obliterated and others exaggerated, or the im-
pression is cross-currented or side-tracked, with the result that
the final impression and account of the matter may be widely
divergent from the original facts. The conclusion usually is that
the child has been willfully lying. Again, the child may see two
dogs playing together, and, being subject to abnormal mental
processes, comes to his mother with a tale of a horrible struggle
between ferocious bears, with imminent danger to himself. The
startling element in the matter is that usually the parents either
smile indulgently, remarking that the child has a vivid imagi-
nation, or on the other hand they will punish him for an attempt
at causeless and vicious deceit.
However, I should consider this explanation problematical if
it had no further basis than an obscure mental condition. But as
soon as one looks carefully at the matter one is strongly im-
pressed by the number of additional conditions which may act in
similar ways. Indeed, the matter becomes so plain that we may
say, broadly, that any cause which makes for intellectual tenuity
has a tendency to bring about this state of things. Recently we
have named this psychical trauma, a morbid nervous condition
caused by repeated injurious impressions ; and it is a fact that
beyond distinct mental disorders codified as diseases some of the
lower emotional and mental activities may in the same way be
markedly injured. We have evidence of this from such signs as
nervous digestive disorders, hysterical attacks, loss of sleep other-
wise inexplicable, disturbances of flushing and pallor, all of which
may be results of psychical effects repeated again and again.
These symptoms should not be called diseases, or in any way pri-
mary disorders ; they are merely natural results which flow from
natural causes, just like the loss of self-control in fright or breath-
lessness from the shock of cold water. The continued repetition
of them wears, as it were, a rut in the brain, so that any impulse
approaching it slips out of its ordinary path in the direction at
once of least resistance and utter distortion. Again, the very
faulty methods of our teaching by rote, of mechanical repetition
and memorizing, which seems to be the basis of our school sys-
tem, must necessarily lean toward psychical poverty; and the
more these vicious stimuli are repeated, the greater must be the
effect toward an unfortunate end.
Still, there are other causes, of a purely physical nature, which
doubtless will appeal more strongly to most readers. It is well
WHY CHILDREN LIE. 387
known that the products of fermentation and putrefaction found
as a result of faulty assimilation of food may act as irritants,
either in the way of repressing normal impulses or exaggerating
feeble sensory impressions, to the end that the relation of con-
cepts may be quite broken, and even go so far as to assume the
dignity of full illusions. A full list and explanation of the possi-
ble causes of disturbances of the perceptive process would be be-
yond the scope of this article ; although it is distinctly in place,
I believe, to mention a few of the most common, simply to give
an idea of the wide range which they occupy. Among them are
diseases of the eye, such as phenomena which occur in the end
distribution of the optic nerve, among which are light phenomena
developed in the retina, the so-called light dust of the internal
field of vision, and the shadowings and polychrome pictures.
These are all aided by processes in the retinal vessels, such as
those involving the blood-corpuscles ; likewise the pulsations of
the central artery, opacities of the cornea and vitreous, and in-
deed all conditions producing entoptic shadows on the retina may
give rise to illusions. And these are not all; in addition we
may include catarrhs of the middle ear, irritations of mucous
membranes and the skin of the head and face, blows and falls
upon the head, as well as morbid changes in the viscera and
muscles.
The sum of the matter is this : We constantly see children who
lie habitually, and usually for no recognized reason. This habit
is commonly looked upon as an indication of spontaneous vicious-
ness. In the majority of cases this opinion has no basis in fact.
The children usually are suffering from disorders of mind or body,
or both, which radically interfere with the transmission of con-
ceptions and perceptions from the internal to the external pro-
cesses of expression, so that they are really unable to be more exact
than they seem ; usually these peculiarities are either neglected
or cause severe punishments to be inflicted, with the natural re-
sult that they are confirmed and added to by various unfavorable
characteristics of cruelty, revenge, slyness, and actual deceit.
Lying does not necessarily mean viciousness, nor is truth to
be regarded merely as a saving means of grace. On the contrary,
many a child may be led to forget the lie simply by being placed
in proper physical and mental environments.
The result of an experiment instituted to determine the effect of rhythm
on the visibility of a succession of optical signals, tried by M. Charles
Henry at the Depot des Phares, France, is to show that it is possible to
increase the range through whicb an optical signal will carry by adjusting
the succession of flashes according to a sufficiently complex nonrhyth-
mical law.
388 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
MORBID HEREDITY.
By M. CH. FEKE.
THE study of morbid heredity is full of interest, because the
knowledge of its laws may assist us in finding preventive
measures against it, and because it may thereby be a means of
comforting persons who are under those laws. In seeking a defi-
nition of morbid heredity, we first take Sanson's definition of bio-
logical heredity as the transmission from ascendants to descend-
ants, by sexual generation, of natural or acquired properties.
With acquired properties we may include morbid ones. Heredity
of morbid properties seems to obey the same law as heredity of
natural properties, for which we may accept Darwin's formulas
of — 1. The law of direct and immediate heredity, under which
parents tend to transmit their physical and moral characteristics
to their descendants. 2. The law of predominance of direct hered-
ity, under which the character of one of the two progenitors is
predominant in the product. 3. The law of heredity in reversion,
racial heredity, which is applicable to the often-observed facts of
atavism, or the reappearance in descendants of the characteristics
of a more or less remote ancestor ; and 4. The law of homochronous
heredity, or the reappearance of hereditary characteristics at the
same periods of life in ascendants and descendants.
Morbid heredity does not inevitably obey the laws of direct
heredity. It is a well-known fact that diseases in morbid families
are not usually transmitted with a perfect likeness. The homol-
ogous or similar heredity, which is observed chiefly as to mental
diseases, is rare as to other diseases. Usually the disease is modi-
fied in descent. A diabetic patient produces an ataxic son, or a
hysterical daughter, or an epileptic child. John Hunter seems to
have anticipated these variations when he maintained the exist-
ence not of hereditary diseases proper, but of a hereditary dispo
sition to contract them — a hypothesis which, though somewhat
vague, may account for dissimilar heredity and also for the fre-
quent happy absence of heredity. The probability of morbid
heredity manifesting itself is increased when both the parents
are attainted with the same defect. Consanguineous marriages,
which have been charged with being an important factor in the
genesis of neuropathy, of deaf-mutism, and of degeneration in
general, really are of effect only through the accumulation of
heredity. Consanguinity favors the heredity both of good and
of bad family qualities. In healthy families it is desirable ; in
morbid families it should be shunned.
Pathological selection of nervous parties, who seem to be at-
tracted to one another by invincible sympathies, involves the
MORBID HEREDITY. 389
same probabilities of degeneration as morbid consanguinity. It
appears with nervous, hysterical, and veneric persons, and with
criminals, among whom vice becomes the basis of unions leading
to progressive degeneracy.
Some infectious diseases, usually propagated by contagion, may
be transmitted to the child by the mother, or even by the father,
while the mother remains free from them. The disease being due
to a special agent of infection, that is, to a being with an existence
of its own, such transmission can not, properly speaking, be re-
garded as a fact of heredity. The generative agents have served
only as vehicles for the morbid agent or its products. What has
been transmitted is not a natural characteristic, or even a defi-
nitely acquired characteristic, but a strange and accidentally im-
posed property, susceptible of disappearing or of being destroyed.
Transmission of this kind does not correspond with the definition
of biological heredity. Direct heredity of certain diseases has
attracted the attention of observers of all times, and has been
most regularly noticed in mental diseases.
The family defect is very often exhibited gradually. One or
more generations manifest slight troubles, which we might call
preparatory. Heredity has to be accumulated, capitalized, as it
were, before displaying itself as a morbid entity to which we can
give a name. We often find individuals among the ancestors of
insane persons, individuals subject to overexcitement, enthusiasts,
originals, unfortunate inventors, dissipated persons, or men of
irregular life or afflicted with mental or moral eccentricities.
Heredity is not manifested in the same degree in all the forms
of madness, and is less evident in the acute than in the chronic
forms. Mental troubles generally are most likely to transmit
themselves by heredity when they are active at the moment of
conception. They are less surely transmissible if their activity
in the progenitors is suspended at the time, and especially if the
first attack does not come on till after the birth of the child. The
fact that we occasionally see a person who has not yet been insane
transmit the predisposition to become so to his descendants dem-
onstrates that it is not the disease itself, but the aptitude to acquire
it that is transmitted. Accumulated heredity often results in the
production of individuals distinguished by physical malformations
or by abnormal emotionalisms, constituting what are called the
physical and the psychical stigmata of degeneracy. Yet we can
not say that heredity impresses special characteristics on mad-
ness. But persons inheriting morbid tendencies are more sensi-
tive to excitement of every kind, and more frequently suffer acute
irritations under the influence of insignificant causes, while most
usually these irritations disappear as easily and as abruptly as
they came on.
39Q THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
It is now impossible to deny the heredity of mental troubles, as
well of those in the case of which we do not know the accompany-
ing anatomical lesions as of those with which we think we are
better acquainted, as in general paralysis and senile dementia.
Still less doubtful is it that our cases are most frequently not of
direct and identical heredity, but usually of what we call col-
lateral and dissimilar heredity. The son may not inherit from
his father, and if the nephew inherits, he will generally seem to
be afflicted with a different mental affection from that of his
uncle. It must, therefore, be understood that what is meant by
heredity in mental diseases does not necessarily correspond with
the definition of normal biological heredity.
This frequent dissimilarity in the inheritance of madness be-
comes more clearly denned when we regard the alliances of the
psychopathic family. Nervous troubles very different in their
manifestations are frequently met with in families of insane.
Prichard has given the name of moral insanity to a mental trou-
ble which prompts to abnormal or mischievous acts while con-
sciousness of their moral nature is wanting. This kind of insanity
differs from the impulsive insanity, in which the patient is urged
to violent, harmful, or criminal acts by a force which, though in-
vincible, leaves him able to appreciate more or less sanely the
character of those acts.
Vice and crime are, furthermore, often hereditary, like in-
sanity. More frequently they are met in families combined with
the most various mental disorders — insanity, imbecility, idiocy,
etc. The combination of insanity and crime is observed not only
in the same family, but often, too, in the same person. Physi-
cians of penitentiaries have long insisted on the frequency of
mental disorders among the convicts, and have become convinced
that the causes of what is called prison-madness are inherent in
the prisoners and not in the prison. It has, moreover, been re-
marked that debauchery and instinctive perversions are often
met with in the hereditary antecedents of insane persons.
Not criminality only has family connections with insanity, but
the artistic temperament and genius are frequently associated
with it. An old writer has said that there never was a great
genius who had not some tinge of insanity. Numerous men, illus-
trious under different titles, have been attacked with various
mental troubles, or have belonged to families in which such trou-
bles were common. The frequency of such associations suggested
to Moreau de Tours his saying that genius is a nervous disorder.
Further, while great men are rarely exempt from a trace of folly,
madmen have no less frequently had a share of genius. Thus we
sometimes find in the asylums calculators and musicians of re-
markable aptitude in their respective lines. M. H. Nordau (De-
MORBID HEREDITY. 391
generation, 1893) has endeavored to demonstrate the constancy of
these associations in a special category of artists and literary men
whose imagination seems to rejoice in its departure from common
ideas. He is liable to criticism for not having comprehended that
the madness of these supposed degenerates consisted simply in
seeking to surprise or scandalize, and that at bottom their thoughts
were not much different from those of their contemporaries.
While this criticism may be just as to M. Nordau, it can not clear
the authors concerned from the suspicion of insanity.
Civilization favors the production of exceptional beings, men
of genius as well as those most degraded by vice or by mental
perturbations. The most civilized nations are as much distin-
guished by the number of their insane and criminals as by that of
their men of talent. Civilization produces variation or excites the
tendency to it, and it is manifested chiefly in the masculine sex.
The parallel development of insanity, genius, and crime consti-
tutes one of the most interesting illustrations of the tendency
to variation which characterizes the evolution of mankind, and
which results in a progressive inequality, against which the re-
strictive laws of individualism are of no avail.
Psychical disorders are often associated in families and indi-
viduals with other diseases of the nervous system, either growing
out of lesions or not connected with known lesions — nervous affec-
tions. The relative frequency or nervous manifestations, whether
isolated or associated with nervous or other diseases which we
shall consider, is so predominant that all such family morbid
manifestations may be designated under the name of neuropathic
family.
Nervous diseases may be hereditary, and pass directly from
father to son ; examples of such are locomotor ataxy, epilepsy,
and hysteria; but indirect and dissimilar heredity, as in psy-
chopathies, is more usually observed. Family connections between
diseases from lesions of the nervous system and nervous affections
are proved by frequent coincidences among relatives, and also by
their manifestations in the same person, either at the same time
or in different periods of his life. Not rarely, further, are mental
and neuropathic troubles met with in the history of the same per-
son ; and, moreover, a number of diseases are marked by both
classes of symptoms.
The already somewhat chaotic picture of morbid heredity
would still be incomplete if we omitted to add that among the
members of a nervous family we often meet individuals affected
with disorders of nutrition — gout, chronic rheumatism, diabetes —
quite often hereditary diseases which, as much by their course as
by their relationship, deserve the name of nutritional nervous af-
fections. It should be observed further that other diseases, para-
392 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
sitic or suspected to be so, like tuberculosis and cancer, appear
more frequently in the same families. The last coincidence may
be explained by the fact that the system of nerves regulating nu-
trition may, when its activity is weak, diminish the resistance of
the organism and favor the action of morbid agents.
The question of morbid heredity is still more complicated by
the established facts that in a large number of tainted families
there exist individuals wholly exempt, while the exceptional
character of their cases can not be interpreted by the uncertain-
ties of paternity ; and that a considerable number of affectioDS
usually regarded as hereditary or peculiar to the family may
appear in a family independently of all heredity. Many diseases
are known that merit the title of family disorders and attack
several children of a single generation without its being possible
to find anything like them in either the paternal or the maternal
line. The persistence of healthy individuals in an unhealthy fam-
ily may be explained by atavism ; but the appearance of a family
disease without any resemblance among the ascendants consti-
tutes an exception to the laws of normal heredity.
We are justified in charging certain toxic or infectious agents
with being capable of determining, by the influence they exercise
upon progenitors, the same morbid predispositions as heredity.
Thus, we can attribute to chronic alcoholism, to saturnism, to
morphinism, and to other habits of intoxication of parents a con-
siderable number of nervous affections and psychopathies which
are developed in the children at different ages, and confer upon
them characters quite different from the characters of their par-
ents. Acute transitory intoxications may have the same effect ;
and drunkenness of parents at the moment of conception or dur-
ing gestation has been charged with producing imbecility, idiocy,
epilepsy, and other diseases in the children.
The effect of intoxication by drugs may likewise be induced by
emotional intoxication. The acute or chronic emotions of the
mother during gestation may undoubtedly have a noxious influ-
ence upon the child and determine troubles of development in it,
which may be manifested by anomalies of forms or by functional
troubles revealing anomalies of structure. Bad food or defective
hygiene, acting directly upon the nutrition of the mother, may
have the same effects. All these conditions, finally, may be ac-
cumulated under certain circumstances.
In short, the predisposition to disease may be hereditary or con-
genital. Hereditary transmission is, however, not inevitable, and
most frequently it is due to very diverse conditions in the nutri-
tion of the progenitors. Some authors have associated the idea
of degeneration with that of heredity, and designate a whole
category of disorders under the name of hereditary degenerations ;
MORBID HEREDITY. 393
but many persons who exhibit the characteristics of this category
have not inherited them. The necessity of this connection between
degeneration and heredity ought to disappear along with the
notion of inevitable heredity. We may degenerate without a
hereditary tendency thereto, and we may escape morbid heredity.
Diseases which are developed simply on account of a hereditary
or congenital disposition constitute manifestations of a tendency
to degeneration. Morel showed long ago that a race of insane,
whatever its origin, tends to exhaust itself in the fourth genera-
tion. The fact is found to apply to other hereditary diseases. The
tendency to become sterile is, like dissimilarity, an indication of
the diminishing vitality which constitutes degeneration, and may
be found in plant as well as in animal species. Mr. Dixon has
shown, as Morel demonstrated for pathological families, that mu-
latto stocks die out unless they are crossed with negroes or with
whites, and the fourth generation usually marks the limit of their
continuance. We have, therefore, a right to infer that it is by
degeneration that various diseases which rarely arise except in
consequence of a morbid predisposition are met with in the same
families.
Congenital malformations act also frequently like the diseases
with which they are found associated. Teratological heredity in-
cludes facts very like those which have been marked in pathologi-
cal heredity. While we observe such malformations as sexdigit-
ism, syndactyly, and ectrodactyly transmitted directly for sev-
eral generations, we more usually see different deformities in the
same family. This is because the malformation may vary in form
and seat according to the age of the embryo in which a disorder
of nutrition is produced. It has even been assumed that variation
of species may have had a teratological origin ; but we are ac-
quainted with very few deformities that have been definitely estab-
lished. If the tailless cats of Japan and the Isle of Man are of
teratological origin, they constitute a unique exception. While we
often observe various deformities in the same family, it is not
more rare to meet a number of anomalies in the same person — a
phenomenon which deserves special attention.
Most of the deformities compatible with life may be coincident
with affections of the nervous system; and the patients whose
nervous systems are most gravely affected are just those who pre-
sent multiple deformities ; idiots and imbeciles nearly always ex-
hibit congenital anomalies, which likewise frequently occur in deaf-
mutes, epileptics, etc. The anomalies found in the insane are less
gross, but appear more frequently in proportion as the morphol-
ogy of that class of patients is more carefully studied. The study
of physical anomalies in neuropaths, though they are not less com-
mon, is still more frequently neglected. With epileptics who
39+ THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
have been attacked at an advanced age, and who had conse-
quently resisted a large number of provocative agencies, fewer
anomalies are found than among those who were attacked in in-
fancy or youth. If the former held out against a larger num-
ber of occasional causes, it was because they were less predisposed,
as they were less abnormal.
Teratological abnormities resemble neuropathies not only in
their origin and the characteristics of their hereditability, but there
can be found in their genesis, besides heredity, all the defective
conditions of generation and gestation that have been charged,
and justly, with the faculty of giving rise to disorders of the nerv-
ous system — emotions, shocks, defective food, alcoholism or any
other intoxication, infections, etc. The greater frequency has
been noticed of deformities among natural children in cases of
conception during intoxication, disproportion in the age of pro-
genitors, etc.
As the masculine sex appears to present a more marked tend-
ency to variation in respect to development and in mental disor-
ders, so it seems to do likewise as regards morphology. Mr.
Francis Warner, who has recently examined fifty thousand chil-
dren in English schools, found 8'27 per cent of physical anoma-
lies among the boys and only 678 per cent among the girls.
Functional anomalies were also more frequent among the boys.
Like monstrosity, morbid predisposition is the result of a dis-
turbed evolution. In the same way as in families anomalies in
form may manifest themselves in very diverse localizations, so
anomalies in structure may be variously seated. It is thus com-
prehensible how, under the influence of the different conditions
that usually provoke the manifestations of hereditary diseases —
puberty, menopause, fatigue, physical or moral shocks, intoxica-
tions, or infections — we observe diverse affections appearing in
the same family, but most usually bearing upon the same system.
It is worthy of remark that most of these provocative conditions
act simply by virtue of the exhaustion that results from them.
Growth is usually included among the conditions favorable to the
development of disease ; but in reality periods of growth, when
the processes of nutrition are most energetic, can be and are noth-
ing but periods of resistance ; and the susceptibility to attack is
developed in the times following periods of growth, particularly
of active growth.
The disturbances in evolution of the nervous system are most
important in the consideration of the origin of diseases because
that system is dominant in the phenomena of the life of nutrition,
as well as in those of the life of relation. These disturbances
may account for the numerous varieties of morbid manifestations
in pathological families.
MORBID HEREDITY. 395
The want of resemblance in descent observed in pathological
and teratological families evidences the want of embryogenic
energy which is so accentuated in those families as to end in
sterility after a few generations. The attenuation of embryogenic
force which may be signalized by failures of very different ele-
ments may serve to interpret what is called dissimilar morbid
heredity and that paradoxical heredity designated as collateral
morbid heredity.
It should be remarked that dissimilarity in morbid families is
not absolutely fortuitous. The head of a family gives rise to off-
spring suffering from different and differently seated disorders of
evolution, that cause various morbid predispositions, the variety
of which is, however, not so great but that we can find analogies in
the manifestation capable of giving a family resemblance to them.
Degeneration, in fact, does not take effect except under a kind of
rule. As Morel has well observed, unlike degenerates of one
family resemble unlike degenerates of another family to such an
extent that, like monsters, they are susceptible, wheresoever they
may come from, of a scientific classification. Degeneration has
its laws the same as normal evolution ; whatever may be its
cause, it is manifested under a relatively restricted number of
common forms.
The theory of the teratological origin of manifestations of
morbid heredity is really the only one that will allow us to ex-
plain how very diverse conditions of generation, such as extreme
youth or too advanced age of progenitors, disproportion in their
ages, permanent or even transitory disorders in their vitality,
drunkenness, intoxications, infections, accidental exhaustion of the
nervous system, or acquired neurasthenia, can produce the same
effects as morbid heredity. We should not, in fact, be surprised
at finding that degenerates by heredity are not different from
degenerates in consequence of disorders of nutrition in progeni-
tors, since degeneration in general results from embryogenical
troubles which are reduced, as a whole, to troubles of nutrition.
The teratological theory of morbid heredity and of degeneration
permits us to comprehend not only unlikeness in morbid heredity,
but also the absence of heredity in diseases of the group pre-
sumed to be hereditary, but which might be more correctly called
degenerative.
Greater importance attaches to disorders of development,
when we regard their consequences, as they are produced at a
period nearer the beginning of the evolution. External forms
are fixed long before the structure of the organs has reached per-
fection. Thus in man birth finds some parts of the nervous sys-
tem— and the most important ones, when the light of relation is
regarded — in full development. It is therefore easily compre-
396 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
liensible that evolutionary disorders of the nervous system due to
morbid heredity or provoked by influences of the medium may
exist without external morbid aberrations. Furthermore, many
lesions of the centers met with in neuropathic families in which
no external deformities have been found have been attributed to
evolutionary troubles of the nervous system.
A race is formed by the fixing of the specific characteristics
transmissible by sexual generation. The families and the indi-
viduals composing the race transmit to their descendants charac-
teristics of the family and individual characteristics combining
themselves in infinite variety to constitute personalities which
are yet capable of differing only in limited measure. When the
specific qualities that characterize the race cease to be transmit-
ted by heredity ; when the children in a family cease to resemble
their parents and their brothers and sisters without recovering an
ancestral type, and there results a defective change in the adapta-
tion to the physical and social medium, we say that the race is
degenerating. By degeneration should be understood the loss of
the hereditary qualities that have determined and fixed the char-
acteristics of the race. The characteristic of what is called in
human races morbid heredity, which is simply a degeneration, is
an abnormal tendency to variation in the posterity, which be-
comes, in consequence of physical, mental, and moral faults, pro-
gressively capable of adapting itself. In the artificial races of
domestic animals the result of degeneration is often reversion to
a primitive type of the species with capacity to recover the old
adaptations. The designation race has in this case been really
given to variety, the hereditary qualities of which had not the
fixity that characterizes a race. No reversions are observed in
the natural races. In the human races in particular degeneration
is not manifested, whatever some authors may have said about it,
by returns to ancestral forms, but rather by evolutionary dis-
orders bringing on somatic deformities and functional perver-
sions incompatible both with the adaptations now necessary and
with ancestral adaptations. Harelip, spina bifida, malconforma-
tions of the genital organs, so frequent in degenerates, have
nothing to do with ancestral types ; and sterility, which is the
inevitable outcome of degeneration, can have but little relation
to atavism. Considering the matter more closely, we find that
the vices in the conformation of degeneration, which we call
the stigmata of degeneration, are teratological deformities. If
the degenerate fails to give origin to beings that resemble him,
it is not because he has acquired the special faculty of trans-
mitting characteristics that do not belong to him, but because
degeneration is the dissolution of heredity.
The similarity which we find in the human species among de-
MORBID HEREDITY. 397
generates of different origin — a similarity that permits us to make
a classification the scale of which is as a whole narrow enough,
has been reproduced in experiments having the provocation of
artificial monsters as their object. If the incubation of hen's
eggs is disturbed by eccentricities of temperature, if they are
warmed too much or not enough, if they are deprived of air, if
poisonous substances or substances capable of modifying the
nutrition of the embryo — ether, chloroform, alcohol, essences,
or nicotine — are introduced into the medium in which they
respire, if the same substances are caused to penetrate into the
albumen, if they are shaken by abrupt shocks or feeble but re-
peated blows, monstrosities are generally produced ; but it does
not appear that any of these causes will provoke exclusively the
formation of a special monstrosity. Each of these causes will
produce a variety of deformities, any of which may resemble
other deformities produced by other causes. In short, the gen-
eral facts already noticed in degenerating descent may be found
in hatches experimentally disturbed — unlikeness in the same
families and resemblance of unlike types of one family with
those of another.
Besides resulting in ultimate sterility, morbid heredity and
degeneration contribute to the destruction of families and races
by producing mental and moral differences among them that lead
to dissensions and conflicts as mischievous as diseases. When
multiple crossings of normal individuals have been effected in a
single locality or country, they create in the end both physical
resemblances — a family air, a national type — and also psychical
likenesses, which entrain a community of tastes and consequently
of moral ideas susceptible of becoming fixed for a long series of
generations and of constituting a family or national character.
The dissolution of heredity, which may be realized either by the
introduction of strangers of too different races, or under the
influence of native causes of degeneration, is marked both by
physical unlikenesses and by the psychical and moral ones that
necessarily accompany them. The social discords that spring up
among a people like those that so often divide the families of
degenerates, taken together, constitute a manifestation of the dis-
solution of heredity ; their source is in a biological fact.
The facts that authorize us to regard morbid heredity or de-
generation in general as the consequence of disorders of nutrition
during the developmental period of evolution permit us to com-
prehend the exceptions to the laws of heredity, and consequently
to conceive the possibility of securing means of favoring these
exceptions and of contending against degeneration.
A strong temptation arises to propose a law prohibiting the
marriage of certain categories of degenerates, whereby the natural
393 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
process of their extinction might be initiated by an artificial ste-
rility. Such a measure would be impracticable, because it would
be impossible to fix a limit; and it would certainly be ineffica-
cious in proportion as the temperaments of the persons concerned
should be averse to their submission to the laws. The contest
may be made by less uncertain processes.
Restoration of a degenerated race — return to mediocrity, as
it has been called — may be effected through crossing with indi-
viduals of healthy races. M. Sanson has shown, by good exam-
ples drawn from zootechny, that heredity of biological character-
istics, and even perhaps of the sex, is generally influenced by the
condition of nutrition of the progenitors. The stronger of them
attracts the resemblance to his side. It may be assumed that in a
union including a morbid factor the healthy factor is in the bet-
ter position to prevail, and all the more so because it has the
atavistic tendency of the other side in its favor. But whether
because of the rarity in our time of absolutely healthy elements,
or for some other reason, we usually find that, in crossing, the
good are more likely to lose than the bad to improve.
There are still other means than happy crossing that may
help in the return to mediocrity. Less and less deficient children
may be observed to be born in a family of degenerates as the
biological conditions of the parents improve. There is nothing
surprising in the fact that disorders of nutrition have an injuri-
ous influence ; all improvements of nutrition may, on the other
hand, be accompanied by a correlative amelioration of the prod-
ucts. Generation is, as a whole, the resultant of an excess of
nutrition ; the lower organisms, absorbing in the medium in
which they live more elements than they need for the repair of
their losses, increase in volume. When this increase exceeds a
certain limit, the individual breaks itself up to form new beings.
The process is much more complex in the higher animals, but it
is fundamentally the same ; and Haeckel has felt free to call
reproduction the excrescence of the individual. The best condi-
tions for generation are the best conditions of nutrition. To the
regularity of their nutrition is due the regularity of the fold-
ing of blastodermic leaflets and the regularity of their further
evolution. The arrest of development of a single cell in the ear-
lier periods of evolution is susceptible of determining grave de-
formations.
Facts observed in human families, in which we see degen-
erates producing offspring less and less deficient as their own
conditions of nutrition improve, indicate that under the influence
of a superactivity of nutrition defective organisms might furnish
a normal epigenesis. Further, the possibility of combating dur-
ing the embryonary period the degenerative tendency which is
MORBID HEREDITY. 399
manifested by the delay of development and the frequency of
morphological anomalies may be established on the basis of ex-
perimental facts which are significant although not very numer-
ous. We find that in the artificial incubation of eggs certain
conditions capable of accelerating the normal development are
also susceptible of resisting the retarding and deforming influ-
ence of disturbing agencies that came into play previous to incu-
bation.
Darwin has remarked that the reproductive function is the
most delicate of all, and is also considerably influenced by the
medium ; in spite of a superabundant alimentation, a large num-
ber of wild animals become sterile or produce aborted or de-
formed offspring by reason simply of being kept in captivity ;
domestic animals, on the other hand, become more fruitful under
the influence of a better regime.
If the influences of the medium are reduced simply to modifi-
cations of nutrition ; if, on the other side, the embryogenic pro-
cesses are of the same nature as the processes of nutrition in
general, we may assume that the influences of the medium which
are capable of happily modifying the nutrition of a defective
organism are likewise capable of putting it in better conditions
to contribute to the development of the embryo.
Finally, observation and experiment indicate that in order to
contend with success against morbid heredity and degeneration,
which are besides not inevitable, none of the conditions of nutri-
tion, none of the influences of the medium capable of acting on
the development should be neglected. — Translated for The Popular
Science Monthly from the Revue des Deux Mondes.
One day, relates Mr. Murray, the publisher, in Good Words, Mr. Dar-
win came to the late Mr. Murray with a manuscript. As he laid it upon
the table he said : " Mr. Murray, here is a book that has cost me many
years of hard labor; the preparation of it has afforded me the greatest in-
terest, but I can hardly hope that it will prove of any interest to the gen-
eral public. Will you bring it out for me, as you have my other books ? "
It was the work on Earthworms, which had a large and rapid sale. The
incident illustrates the modesty of the man.
A successful experiment in telegraphing by induction without con-
necting wires has been performed by Mr. W. H. Preece between Oban and
Auchnacraig, Scotland, while the submarine cable was broken. A gutta-
percha wire a mile and a half long was laid along the ground from Mor-
ven, while on the island of Mull use was made of the ordinary overhead
wire connecting Craignure with Aros. The distance between the two
parallel wires was about three miles and a half. Using a vibi*ator as trans-
mitter, and a telephone as receiver, the usual messages were successfully
dealt with till the cable was repaired.
4oo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
SKETCH OF WILLIAM CRANCH BOND.
IN seconding the obituary resolutions of the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences on the first director of the Harvard
College Observatory, ex-President Quincy used these words: "It
is not too much to say that the extent of his knowledge, the win-
ning urbanity of his manners, and his exemplary exactness in
life and as an observer, in a great degree effected the attainment
of those large means and increased powers which ultimately
raised to its present prosperous state the observatory over which
through subsequent life he watched, and which he left at death
honored and improved by his labors and genius." Let us briefly
trace the career which could deserve such a testimonial.
William Cranch Bond was born in Portland, Me., September
9, 1789, being the youngest son in a family of several children. His
parents, Hannah (Cranch) and William Bond, were natives of
England and were married there. The Bond family can be traced
to the time of William the Conqueror, by whom Brandon Manor
is said to have been granted to the contemporary ancestor of that
line. William Bond was born in Plymouth, and became a clock-
maker and silversmith. Having been induced to emigrate to
America, he located at Portland, then called Falmouth, and en-
gaged in cutting ship timber which he sent to England. In a
short time he brought over his family, but the timber business
not proving successful, he removed to Boston in 1793 and took up
again his former occupation. His shop stood on one of the cor-
ners of Milk and Marlboro (now Washington) Streets, the other
being occupied by the Old South Church. William C. Bond was
then a Boston boy from the age of four years. He had little oppor-
tunity to attend school, for the circumstances of the family, as he
afterward told Josiah Quincy, " obliged me to become an appren-
tice to my father before I had learned the multiplication table."
But, judging from his later achievements, young William must
have been the kind of boy that picks up knowledge, so his lack of
set schooling was not so great a misfortune as it might seem.
His eldest sister described him as having been, at the age of
fourteen, " a slender boy with soft gray eyes and silky brown hair,
quick to observe, yet shrinking from notice, and sensitive to
excess." She adds, in reference to his early developed tastes :
"The first that I remember was his intense anxiety about the
expected total eclipse of the sun of June 16, 1806. He had then
no instrument of his own, but watched the event from a house top
on Summer Street through a telescope belonging to Mr. Francis
Gray, to which somehow he got access. In so doing he injured
his eyes, and for a long time was troubled in his vision."
SKETCH OF WILL [AM C RANCH BOND. 401
An elder brother writes of him at this early period, " He was
the mildest and best tempered boy I ever knew, and his remark-
able mechanical genius showed itself very early." He adds that
in devising and making bits of apparatus that boys use in their
sports, William was chief among his comrades. Before he was
fifteen years old he had constructed at odd times a reliable shop
chronometer. He had no model to go by, but made it after a
description of an instrument used by La Pe"rouse, the navigator,
which he had found in an old French book. Not having a suit-
able spring to put into it, he contrived to run it by weights.
About a year later he made a good working quadrant out of ebony
and boxwood, the best materials he had. His son, George Phillips
Bond, has thus described this instrument : " It is no rude affair,
but every part, especially the graduation, the most difficult of all,
shows the neatness, patience, and accuracy of a practiced artist.
A better witness to the progress he had already made in astron-
omy could not be desired. It is all that the materials would admit
of, and proves that he must have been, even then, irrevocably
devoted to astronomy."
About the time he became of age his father took him into
partnership, and the clock-making business was expanded to in-
clude the rating, repairing, and making of chronometers. The
first seagoing chronometer made in America was made by him
in 1812. It at once went into service, and satisfactorily stood the
test of a voyage to and from the East Indies. In 1810 the Bonds
removed their business to Congress Street, and the family took
up its abode in Dorchester.
Mr. Bond regarded his watching of the eclipse when he was
seventeen years of age as the event that determined his pursuit of
astronomy. Certain it is that he never after then abandoned it.
Five years later he first came under the notice of older astron-
omers, and in this way : Prof. John Farrar, of Harvard College,
having caught sight of a comet on September 4, 1811, watched its
subsequent progress and published a paper on it in the memoirs
of the American Academy. Dr. Nathaniel Bowditch, of Salem, to
whom he communicated this discovery, did the same, and the
comet was watched also by others. Before presenting his paper
to the academy, Prof. Farrar learned that young Bond had seen
the comet in the preceding April. He mentioned this fact in the
account of his own observations and added the following notes,
with which, he says, Mr. Bond had " obligingly favored " him : *
* Much of the material here employed is derived from a historical sketch of the Har-
vard College Observatory, prepared by Mr. Daniel W. Baker, which first appeared as a
series of newspaper articles, and was afterward reprinted in pamphlet form as one of the
official publications of the observatory.
vol. xlvii. — 33
402 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
" I remarked on the 21st of April a faint, whitish light near the
constellation Canis Major projecting a tail about one degree in
length, and set down its place as follows : right ascension, 106° ;
declination, 7° or 8° south. Its motion and the situation of its
tail convinced me that it was a comet. I noticed it several times
in May, and supposed that its motion was toward the western
part of the constellation Leo."
These observations on the comet brought the young chronom-
eter-maker the acquaintance of scientific men and facilities for
his favorite pursuit. Up to this time his observations had been
made with the rudest appliances. The elder brother already
quoted says of these early days : " I suppose it would cause the
astronomer royal to laugh could he see the first transit instru-
ment used by us at Dorchester — a strip of brass nailed to the east
end of the house, with a hole in it to see a fixed star and note its
transit ; this in 1813. When we moved into the Hawes house, he
procured a good granite block ; we dug a deep hole and placed it
at the west end of the house, and got Mr. Alger to cast a stand for
the transit instrument, a small one, which I think belonged to
Harvard College. From this time he began to live among the
stars."
Bond's sister also gives an account of the setting up of the
first telescope used by him at Dorchester, and says that through
it could be seen the satellites of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn.
She adds that in the pursuit of astronomy " he had had no assist-
ance whatever, except from the genial kindness of Hon. Josiah
Quincy, who had early recognized the future astronomer in the
unpretending boy in the watchmaker's shop on Congress Street,
and whose kindness and encouragement never failed throughout
the subsequent years."
The obstacles in the path of the young astronomer were now
rapidly removed. The leading men of science in Boston and
vicinity gave him their aid and counsel. " He has mentioned,"
writes his son, "the names of Dr. Nathaniel Bowditch, Prof.
Farrar, and Tutor Clapp as those from whom he received most
encouragement to continue the cultivation of astronomy. Upon
his friendly intercourse with the eminent mathematician and
astronomer first named he often dwelt with peculiar pleasure and
warmth of feeling."
Although instruction in astronomy had been given and astro-
nomical observations had been made bjr the professor of natural
philosophy at Harvard for a century or more, the college had not
as yet been able to erect an observatory. In 1805 John Lowell,
uncle of the founder of the Lowell Institute, had obtained from
Delambre in Paris advice as to a building and its equipment.
But nothing further was done at that time. Ten years later the
SKETCH OF WILLIAM C RANCH BOND. 403
college authorities took up the subject anew and appointed a
committee to form a plan for an observatory. Mr. Bond was
then about to make a trip to England, and his friends Farrar
and Bowditch procured for him a commission as agent of the
college to obtain information as to the construction and instru-
mental equipment of the observatory at Greenwich, and to make
such drawings as would be needed in constructing an observatory
for the college. He was requested also to obtain from the makers
the prices of instruments like the principal ones used at Green-
wich. " He performed the service," says the writer of the sketch
above referred to, " and reported in detail in the following year.
That nothing practical came of it for a quarter of a century was
not owing to the will but, comparatively speaking, to the poverty
of the college.
" This result followed, however, that, upon his return, Mr. Bond
constructed the model of an astronomical dome, the operative plan
of which was the same as that of the great dome built in 1844,
and which has been in satisfactory use at Cambridge to the pres-
ent time. The chief peculiarity of its mechanism is in the method
of rotation by means of smoothly turned spheres of iron. The
dome rests on these at equidistant points, and, being set in mo-
tion by suitable gearing, the iron balls sustaining its weight roll
along a level, circular track of iron, the circumference of which
is equal to that of the dome. The method was unlike that previ-
ously in use. It appears to have been original with Mr. Bond, as
is perhaps evinced by a remark in his report for 1848 referring to
the matter : ' If carefully examined, it will be found that this
arrangement is as perfect in theory as it is appropriate and con-
venient in practice.' Experience has shown that spheres of hard
bronze are more serviceable than those of iron, and bronze is now
used."
While Mr. Bond was abroad, he married, July 18, 1819, his
cousin, Selina Cranch, of Kingsbridge, in Devonshire. Return-
ing home, he went to live in Dorchester near his father's residence
in a house which he bought. On these premises he erected, about
1823, a small wooden building which he carefully equipped for
astronomical observations. This building is meant in the official
reference to the " observatory at Dorchester " found in various
publications. Its position, as given by Mr. Bond in 1833, was 0° 3'
15" east of Harvard Hall in Cambridge.
Mr. Bond now advanced rapidly in his favorite pursuit. " As
soon as his circumstances permitted," writes his son, "he im-
ported more perfect apparatus from Europe, and continued to
add to his collection until it was the best in the country." In his
little observatory " no eclipse or occultation escaped him, though
occupied in business during the day in Boston." After gathering
4o4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
for several years materials for investigating the comparative
rates of chronometers at sea and on shore, he presented a paper
to the American Academy in which he effectually disposed of the
scientific question involved, so far as it related to the interests of
navigation. Mr. G. P. Bond, who records this, states that his
father investigated also the influence of changes of temperature
in the presence of large surfaces of iron upon the performance of
chronometers, and, " although the conclusions arrived at were at
variance with the opinions of men high in authority in such mat-
ters, they are now known to be correct."
About this time the Navy Department sent out the Wilkes
Exploring Expedition, the purpose of which in part was to estab-
lish the latitudes and longitudes of uncharted places in distant
parts, of the world where American commerce was extending, and
in part to investigate natural phenomena, including the facts of
terrestrial magnetism. In connection with this expedition, Mr.
Bond was engaged to make at his private observatory investiga-
tions to fix a zero of longitude, whence final reference to Green-
wich might be had, and to make a continuous record of magnetic
observations at Dorchester for comparison with like records
obtained at distant points by the expedition itself. As prelimi-
nary to the latter work Mr. Bond tested the magnetic instruments
with which the expedition was to be equipped.
Josiah Quincy, who had given Mr. Bond early encouragement,
was now President of Harvard College. It occurred to him, to
use his own words, " that if Mr. Bond could be induced to transfer
his apparatus and residence to Cambridge and pursue his obser-
vations there, under the auspices of the university, it would have
an important influence in clearing the way for the establishment
of an efficient observatory in connection with that seminary."
There was little inducement for Mr. Bond to make the change.
His business was prosperous and his home life among friends and
neighbors whom he had known for years was very pleasant. The
college could offer him no salary — only the use of a house. In
his excessive modesty he feared that the arrangement proposed
would arouse great expectations that he with the facilities at his
command would be unable to satisfy. He made other objections,
but all were overcome, and on November 30, 1839, he entered into
a contract with the college corporation, agreeing to make the
transfer as proposed. A subscription was at once raised for fit-
ting up a dwelling owned by the college to be occupied by Mr.
Bond. This building, known as the Dana House, was the first
observatory of Harvard College. It still stands upon its original
site at the southeast corner of what are distinctively called the
college grounds, and is remembered by many Harvard graduates
as the residence for a term of years of the Rev. Dr. A. P. Peabody.
SKETCH OF WILLIAM C RANCH BOND.
405
Its cupola was placed upon it to accommodate one of Mr. Bond's
telescopes, and at that time was suitably domed.
Mr. Bond's chief work at Cambridge for the first two or three
years was a continuation and extension of his observations for
the Navy Department in regard to the earth's magnetism. He
was assisted by his son, W. C. Bond, Jr., whose death in 1842 was
regarded as a loss to science. Renewed exertions were now made
to secure an adequate observatory and set of instruments. The
site was purchased in 1841. A brilliant comet that appeared in
1843 furnished a favorable occasion for raising a subscription.
The best telescope that could be produced in Europe, a refractor
of fifteen inches aperture, equatorially mounted, was ordered
from Merz & Mahler, of Munich, and ground was broken for a
pier for it in the summer of the same year. In September, 1844,
The Dana Housb. First observatory of Harvard College.
the instruments were removed from the Dana House to the new
observatory, and Mr. Bond entered upon a series of observations
for determining the latitude and longitude of the new station.
Mr. Bond's first recorded observation in Cambridge was of
date December 31, 1839, and his appointment as director of the
observatory dates from February 12, 1840. During the first eight
years of his connection with Harvard College he is to be regarded
as a benefactor rather than an employee of the institution. The
official report for 1846 states that up to that time the labors of Mr.
Bond had been " entirely unrequited, except by the gratification of
his love of science and of home," and suggest that this devotion
to the institution at Cambridge was the more marked in that dur-
406 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
ing the preceding spring he had declined " the almost unlimited
offers made to him by the administration at Washington to in-
duce him to take charge of the observatory there." It is known
also that frequent expenditures of his own money were made
during this period for current expenses and for things convenient
in conducting the observatory — sums small severally, no doubt,
but considerable in the total. In 1846 a sum equal to the proposed
salaries for the next two years was subscribed by citizens of Bos-
ton, and in 1849 the official board was able to report that " through
a bequest of one hundred thousand dollars made by Edward
Bromfield Phillips they should thereafter be relieved from anxiety
as to the payment of salaries and current expenses."
The fifteen-inch equatorial was set up in June, 1847, and has
done splendid service for now nearly half a century. At last the
skill of Prof. Bond was furnished with a fitting implement. In
reply to an inquiry from Edward Everett, who had become presi-
dent of the college the year before, Prof. Bond wrote specifying
several interesting things that could be seen with it, and ended by
saying : " But I must recollect that you require of me only a brief
account of our telescope. The objects revealed to us by this ex-
cellent instrument are so numerous and interesting that it is diffi-
cult to know where to stop/' In a subsequent letter he wrote to
the president, " You will rejoice with me that the great nebula in
Orion has yielded to the powers of our incomparable telescope."
Besides this and other nebulse the planet Saturn was an early sub-
ject of investigation. On September 19, 1848, Prof. Bond dis-
covered the eighth satellite of this planet, which long remained
the only addition to the solar system made on the continent of
America.
When Bond was determining the position of the Harvard Ob-
servatory, Commodore Owen, of the British navy, was making an
official survey in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The latter,
desiring to use the observatory as his zero point, co-operated with
Bond in making a transfer of twelve chronometers to and from
Greenwich, England. Afterward other chronometer expeditions
were conducted by Bond in co-operation with the United States
Coast Survey, the final one being in 1855. In the summing up of
results, seven hundred and twenty-three independent chronometer
records were used. The magnitude of this undertaking, as a whole,
surpassed anything ever attempted in any other country.
As early as 1848 Prof. Bond mentions, in his report as director
of the observatory, some experiments with the daguerreotype
and talbotype processes for obtaining pictures of the sun, which,
though encouraging, could hardly be called successful. But in
his report for 1850 he is able to say : " With the assistance of Mr.
J. A. Whipple, daguerreotypist, we have obtained several impres-
SKETCH OF WILLIAM CRANGH BOND. 407
sions of the star Vega. We have reason to believe this to be the
first successful experiment ever made either in this country or
abroad." Some daguerreotypes of the moon and certain stars
were exhibited in the World's Fair of the following year at Lon-
don, and received a council medal.
The inventive skill which won success for Bond as an artisan
appears in certain astronomical appliances and methods devised
by him. The great telescope is poised thirteen feet above the
floor of the observatory's dome. It has a vertical sweep of more
than ninety degrees, and can, of course, make a complete revolution
about its axis of support. An observer would evidently have to
be something of an acrobat to use it successfully, unless a suitable
chair could be obtained. There was none in the world that filled
all the requirements, so Prof. Bond invented and made one. It is
in use unchanged to this day, and by means of its ingeniously
combined wheels, cogs, and pulleys the observer can quickly and
easily place himself anywhere along the vertical quarter-circle
and horizontal full-circle traversed by the eyepiece of the tele-
scope.
Certain experiments for determining differences of longitude
by the aid of the telegraph were undertaken by the Coast Survey
in 1848, Prof. Bond being one of the special assistants whose serv-
ices were secured for this work. While engaged in these experi-
ments the idea occurred to him, as it had to one or more others, of
using an automatic circuit interrupter in place of human nerves
and muscles as the connecting link between the astronomical clock
and the electric wire. Fear of injuring the clock had prevented
the use of such a device, but Prof. Bond obtained authority to
have a clock made especially for this work, at the expense of the
survey. This was done, and the device was found to operate per-
fectly and without injury to the clock. "But another and far
more serious difficulty presented itself," says Prof. Bond, referring
to this matter in one of his reports, " in the accurate registry of
the beats of the clock after being transmitted by the galvanic cir-
cuit; and it was at this point that further progress in the appli-
cation of this method to astronomical observing was arrested."
Attempts to overcome this difficulty were made by various in-
ventors in the course of the next two years, but nothing satisfac-
tory came of it before April 12, 1850, when Bond submitted to the
Coast Survey an apparatus invented by him and his sons George
P. and Richard F. Bond. It was named at first, from one of its
peculiar parts, the " spring governor," but the more comprehen-
sive title of " chronograph " was applied to it later. The appara-
tus was at once adopted for use by the survey. It was taken by
Mr. G. P. Bond on his tour to Europe of the next year and exhib-
ited before the Royal Astronomical Society of England and the
4o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
British Association for the Advancement of Science. Through
the urgency of Sir David Brewster and others it was set up in
the great exhibition of that year in London, where a medal was
awarded for it. It was adopted at the Greenwich Observatory
soon after, and speedily throughout Europe. The use of the "cir-
cuit interrupter " and the " chronograph " together constitute what
became known in Europe as " the American method " of record-
ing observations. Through it the errors for which the " personal
equation " is a partial remedy are largely eliminated, and a supe-
rior definiteness of record is attained.
Soon after the electrical experiments of 1848, the " circuit in-
terrupter " was put to use at Cambridge in transmitting to Boston
and other points in New England the true local time. This was
the beginning of the Harvard Observatory time-service, which
was systematically organized in 1872. This idea was also early
adopted at Greenwich.
In 1852 the officers of the Harvard Observatory co-operated
with Captain Charles Wilkes in experiments for ascertaining the
velocity of the sound from the discharge of cannon under differ-
ent atmospheric conditions. The object of this investigation was
to secure accurate values for some of the data obtained by the ex-
ploring expedition, the measurement of distances in some cases
having been made by firing cannon.
One of the important events in the latter part of Prof. Bond's
directorship of the Observatory was the beginning of the publi-
cation of The Annals of Harvard College Observatory. This was
made possible by an endowment of ten thousand dollars given in
1855 by Josiah Quincy, ex-president of the college. The first of
these noble quarto volumes was issued in the following year, and
embodied a review of the work of the preceding years, so that the
whole series makes a continuous record from the establishment of
the observatory.
Prof. Bond died January 29, 1859, and was succeeded in the
management of the Observatory by his son, George Phillips Bond,
who had been one of his assistants for many years. The elder
Bond had entered vigorously into the scientific life of his time,
and his labors were duly appreciated by his associates and con-
temporaries. He was a member of the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the
Royal Astronomical Society of England. From Harvard College
he received the honorary degree of A. M. in 1842.
EDITOR'S TABLE.
409
EDITOR'S TABLE.
SOCIAL EVOLUTION.
A RECENT writer, whose work
has been very much discussed,
tells us that social evolution depends
more on the kind of religion a com-
munity possesses than on any other
circumstance. A given community,
provided with a suitable religion, will
far outstrip in civilization another
more richly endowed intellectually
but with an inferior religion. Like
all new formulas, this one has been
having considerable vogue ; and
many persons whose strong point is
not intellectuality are gratified to
think that a snub has been admin-
istered to that aggressive quality.
What we should like the able author
to do would be to supplement his
generalization by telling us how the
suitability of a religion for purposes
of social evolution is to be deter-
mined, and also how a community
that is not in possession of the right
kind of religion is to get into posses-
sion of it. Another question which
the work undoubtedly suggests is
how the right kind of religion is to be
maintained in authority against the
intellectual influences which the
writer seems to say tend to under-
mine all religions. As Greece and
Rome both reached a very high level
in civilization, we must presume
their religions were relatively supe-
rior— at least in the sense of being
favorable to social evolution to those
of less distinguished races; but their
religions decayed. Was any one to
blame in the matter ? Or was the
decay in each case inevitable ? Was
it a needful preparation for the ad-
vent of a still higher form of re-
ligion ? If so, what is to be done
when other forms of religion seem
about to undergo transformation ?
Should we try to arrest the process,
or let things take their course ?
These are entirely practical ques-
tions, on none of which does the
author to whom we are referring*
throw, or attempt to throw, any
light. They are not only practical
questions, but they are questions
which any thoughtful man finds it
impossible not to ask when con-
fronted with Mr. Kidd's formula ;
and which he feels must be answered
in a very definite manner before it
can prove of any utility either for
the interpretation of history or for
guidance in the present. What we
would suggest would be an amend-
ment to the formula which we think
would greatly increase its applicabil-
ity both to the past and to the pres-
ent course of events. If we are al-
lowed to understand by religion the
ideal of social duty, then it seems
to us very true that social evolution
will, in the long run, be mainly de-
pendent thereon. What made Rome
great was the social cohesion be-
tween her citizens. How this supe-
rior degree of social cohesion was
in the first place produced would be
one of the most obscure of historical
problems; but that it existed and was
largely the cause of the growth of
the Roman power can not be doubt-
ed. Devotion to the state and faith
in its fortunes were in reality the
most important elements in the re-
ligion of an ancient Roman. His
gods were in the fullest sense civic
gods, and as civic — that is to say,
local — gods merely he regarded those
of other races. The virtues which
he esteemed and reverenced were
those which made for the strength
* Kidd. Social Evolution.
410
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
and well-being of the state; and only
in later yeai's, when the ancient
forms of faith were undergoing a
process of disintegration, did any
conception of virtue for virtue's sake,
or of the connection of virtue with
the wider interests of humanity,
dawn on the Roman mind.
In dealing with this subject, how-
ever, our object was neither to criti-
cise Social Evolution nor to discourse
on the civilization of the ancient Ro-
mans: on the contrary, we had an
entirely "modern instance" in view.
If social evolution depends in large
measure on the ideal of social duty
existing in each community, it be-
hooves us to consider carefully what
ideals are growing up and taking
root among ourselves. We believe
that, making all abatements for con-
spicuous evils in the social state,
there is a steady evolution taking
place — that is to say, that the condi-
tions of social life are improving on
the whole from year to year. The
principal drawbacks to such evolu-
tion are undoubtedly connected with
our political life. One of the ablest
of our contemporaries makes a duty
of holding up the mirror to the evils
and scandals which mark the course
of politics in this State; and the pic-
ture presented is not encouraging.
" In the belief,'' it says, " of nearly all
the intelligent portion of our popu-
lation the meeting of the Legislature
in January is simply the opening of
a school of vice. As soon as the
Speaker is elected the members or-
ganize for the sale of legislation in
quantities to suit purchasers or for
the levy of blackmail." We do not
fully indorse these words; but that
they should be uttered at all by a
responsible journal is significant and
lamentable. The question is urgent:
What can be done to create a deeper
sense of responsibility in the public
mind in regard to the conduct of po-
litical affairs? No community can
permanently afford to have a dis-
reputable legislature. While other
agencies are at work to improve and
purify the social state, here is one of
the greatest magnitude which is op-
erating in an opposite direction —
filling the minds of young and old
alike with the idea that social duty
is an illusion, and that fraud has no
meaning when practiced at the ex-
pense of the State. We talk of teach-
ing " civics " in our schools, but some-
thing more than a school teaching
of civics is required. We have vast
organizations of a Christian charac-
ter throughout the land — societies of
Christian Endeavor and the like.
What are they doing to purify poli-
tics ? We believe in evolution, but
not as a power that will save people
from the consequences of neglecting
their most important duties; and we
think the time has come when com-
munities should help forward their
own evolution by conscious efforts
to abate what is evil and encourage
what is good. We commend the
question we have raised to the con-
sideration of all well-intentioned
persons. The problem is how to
prevent politics from corrupting the
character of our citizens and antago-
nizing the efforts that are made in
other spheres for social reform and
improvement. It is a question for
every one — for the wise and for the
ignorant, for the man of science and
the man of letters, for the theologian
and for the journalist, for the man
of business and the teacher of youth.
What is needed is a concentration
upon it of the attention and will of
right-minded persons — of that large
majority who have no sinister inter-
ests to serve by the abuse of political
influence, and who ought to have
enough regard for the national well-
being to be willing to make some
sacrifices on its behalf. If these will
but do their duty, a solution of the
problem will be found ; but if, unfor-
LITERARY NOTICES.
411
tunately, their other engagements,
whether of business, pleasure, or re-
ligion, are too pressing to permit
them to do so, there is much reason
to fear that the poison generateil by
corrupt politics will seriously affect
the whole life and growth of the
community.
LITERARY NOTICES
A Manual for the Study of Insects. By
John Henry and Anna Botsford Com-
stock. Ithaca, N. Y. : Comstock Pub-
lishing Co. Pp. *701. Price, postpaid,
$4.09.
A substantial service has been done to
teachers and students of entomology in the
preparation of this handsome, systematically
arranged work by Prof, and Mrs. Comstock.
Besides describing the important insects of
each order, the authors have undertaken
to provide an analytical key of insect spe-
cies similar to those which the student of
plants finds so helpful and interesting. But
while much pains has been taken to ren-
der easy the classification of specimens,
the mere determination of their names has
been treated as a matter of slight im-
portance. The authors warn the reader
against expecting in this volume such an
approach to completeness as exists in the
manuals of flowering plants. A work con-
taining adequate descriptions of all the spe-
cies in our insect fauna, they say, " would
rival in size one of the larger encyclopae-
dias." The general mode of treatment con-
sists of a discussion of the characteristics of
each order and the families composing it,
with descriptions of the commoner species
as illustrations of the several families. Sim-
plicity has been studied in the descriptions,
though not at the expense of accuracy,
morphological terms have been reduced to a
minimum, and so far as possible a uniform
nomenclature has been used for all orders of
insects. Writers confining themselves to
single orders have developed differing no-
menclatures, which is confusing to the stu-
dent in passing from one order to another.
Prof. Comstock has made as near an ap-
proach as practicable to uniformity in this
respect, as a consequence of which, homolo-
gies heretofore above the grasp of any but
advanced students, as in the wing- veins, arc
now brought forcibly to the attention of the
beginner. The technical terms from Greek
and Latin, which are a great bugbear to
many beginners in the study of science, have
been robbed of half their terrors by marking
the syllabic division and the accent of each
the first time it occurs. Most of the eight
hundred woodcuts in the volume have been
engraved from Nature by Mrs. Comstock,
who has also furnished a part of the text.
An attractive frontispiece in colors represents
several butterflies and other insects about
a thistle-head and a spray of golden-rod.
The book is issued at a low price consider-
ing its size, its large number of illustrations,
and the excellence of its manufacture.
The Education of the Greek People and
its Influence on Civilization. By
Thomas Davidson. International Educa-
tion Series, Vol. XXVIII. New York :
D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 229. Price,
$1.50.
The purpose of the author in this vol-
ume is " to show how the Greek people were
gradually educated up to that stage of cul-
ture which made them the teachers of the
whole world, and what the effect of that
teaching has been." After an introductory
chapter on the aim and general form proper
to education, he outlines the life of the
Greeks and its ideals. He traces the Greek
citizenship from its patriarchal and tribal
origins, and finds worth — " the worth of the
individual as a member of society " — to be
the Greek ideal in life. To this conception
was added, when leisure came, the ability to
employ that leisure in elevating avocations
(diagoge). The nature of education, both
before and after the rise of philosophy, is
then sketched. In the earlier times much
attention was given to physical culture, and
for young boys music had almost equal
prominence. Competitive exercises evidently
were not feared. The mother-tongue and its
literature were thoroughly studied, but we
find no mention of any time whatever being
devoted to the grammars of other languages,
dead or living. Youths learned political
science by observation of the conduct of
public affairs by their elders. After the
philosophical era began individual happiness
came to rival civic worth as an end of activ-
412
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
ity, and all sorts of knowledge were culti-
vated under the tuition of the Sophists.
Then came Socrates, who largely counter-
acted the charlatanry into which the Sophis-
tic teaching had degenerated. Our author
next discusses the attempt in Plato's Repub-
lic to plan a state with a basis in philo-
sophic principles, and that of Aristotle,
whose basis was inductive reasoning. Both
of these he sets down as failures. He then
shows how Greek culture was influenced by
contact with the two great religions of the
Eastern world, Zoroastrianism and Judaism,
and with the statesmanship of Rome. In
conclusion the author affirms that the Greeks,
through their scheme of culture, "not only
lifted the world out of barbarism, but it re-
quires their influence even to this day to pre-
vent it from falling back into the same."
What he regards as the error that was fatal
to the Greek civilization was placing philos-
ophy on the throne that should have been
given to religion. This book is designed as
a guide in teaching, but if it were itself put
into the hands of students it would give
more insight into Greek thought than digging
out many pages telling what number of par-
assangs the army marched day by day or
what was done by " wily Odysseus," aided by
" ox-eyed Athente."
The Writings of Thomas Paine. Collected
and edited by Moncure Daniel Conway.
Volumes II and III. New York : G. P.
Putnam's Sons. Price, $2.50 a volume.
Political and sociological essays make
up these two volumes ; Volume II covering
the period from 1779 to 1792, and Volume
III extending from 1791 to 1803. The most
extended of these writings is the Rights of
Man, which occupies half of Volume II.
The two parts of which it is composed were
written in a controversy with Edmund Burke
d propos of the French Revolution and em-
body a full and careful statement of repub-
lican principles. The same volume contains
Paine's pamphlet published in 1782 under
the title, Letter to the Abbe Raynal, on the
affairs of North America : in which the Mis-
takes in the Abbe's Account of the Revolu-
tion of America are Corrected and Cleared
up. Paine was in England or France for
fifteen years of the period covered by these
volumes, having gone abroad in 1787 to in-
troduce a form of bridge that he had in-
vented. He was active in establishing the
French Republic, though opposed to its ex-
treme measures, hence many of the essays
in both volumes relate to French affairs
Among the American questions treated are :
The United States Bank, paper money, the
Newfoundland fisheries, and the purchase of
Louisiana. Paine's religious writings, his
poems, and some letters and scientific frag-
ments are reserved for the fourth volume.
Proceedings of the Society for Psychical
Research. Part XXVI. Dr. Richard
Hodgson, 5 Boylston Place, Boston, Mass.,
American Secretary. Pp. 466.
This number of the society's Proceedings
is mainly occupied by the Report of the Cen-
sus of Hallucinations taken by a committee
of which Prof. Henry Sidgwick was chair-
man. Seventeen thousand answers were ob-
tained to the question, " Have you ever, when
believing yourself to be completely awake,
had a vivid impression of seeing or being
touched by a living being or inanimate ob-
ject, or of hearing a voice ; which impres-
sion, so far as you could discover, was not
due to any external physical cause ? " About
ten persons in a hundred were found to have
had such experiences. Accounts of a large
number of these occurrences, for the most
part written by the percipients, are included
in the report. The differences between hal-
lucinations and other phenomena with which
they are liable to be confounded are pointed
out by the committee and illustrated by
cases. Passing from merely subjective hal-
lucinations, the committee discusses those of
a veridical character — i. e., such as " can only
be accounted for on the hypothesis that im-
pressions or impulses have reached the per-
cipient's mind otherwise than through the
recognized channels of sense." A large
number of these, and by far the most im-
pressive class, occur at, or within a few
hours of, the death of the person whose fig-
ure seems to be seen or voice seems to be
heard. Another impressive class of cases is
those in which the hallucination is experi-
enced at the same moment by two or more
persons. The evidence gathered through
the census has been carefully sifted, and
after rigid requirements have been satisfied
there remain enough facts to satisfy the com-
LITERARY NOTICES.
4i3
mittee that " between deaths and appari-
tions of the dying person a connection exists
which is not due to chance alone." Some
other remarkable cases seem to indicate action
on the part of the dead, but the committee
does not deem them anything like sufficient
to establish post mortem agency.
Manual of Geology. By Jamks D. Dana.
Fourth edition. New York : American
Book Company. Pp. 1088.
Prof. Dana's Manual has been an author-
ity for a generation, its first edition having
appeared in 1863. It has always been of
especial value to American students from
the fact that it has treated geology with es-
pecial reference to American geological his-
tory. In the new edition, for which the
work has been wholly rewritten, this fea-
ture has been preserved. Historical geology,
in fact, occupies about two thirds of the
volume, three hundred pages being devoted
to the dynamical side of 'the science, while
the physiographic and structural divisions
together occupy one hundred. So many
new facts and hypotheses have been brought
forward in the last fifteen years that the au-
thor felt obliged to increase the quantity of
matter, both text and illustrations, in the
book by fifty per cent. A peculiar interest
attaches to this edition from the death of
Prof. Dana two months after completing the
supervision of its publication. It is fortu-
nate for students of geology that he was
able to finish his task.
The Astrophysical Journal. An Inter-
national Review of Spectroscopy and As-
tronomical Physics. Vol. I, Nos. 1 and 2,
January and February, 1895. George
E. Hale and James E. Keeler, Editors.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Pp. 100. Annual subscription, $4.
The plan of this journal was conceived
by Mr. Hale several years ago, but was modi-
tied on consultation with Prof. Payne, of the
Sidereal Messenger, and a union of forces re-
sulted in the publication, in January, 1892,
of the periodical Astronomy and Astrophys-
ics. This periodical was, during three
years, a leading organ of astronomical re-
search, and its career was highly creditable
to American science. A separation of in-
terests has now taken place, Popular As-
tronomy being continued as a journal of the
character indicated by its title, and Mr. Hale
returning to his original plan of conducting
a journal of Astronomical Physics. In prep-
aration for this undertaking the co-operation
of eminent astronomers the world over has
been secured, and besides those of its editors
in chief the Astrophysical Journal bears the
names as assistant editors of J. S. Ames, of
Johns Hopkins; W. W. Campbell, of the
Lick Observatory ; Henry Crew, of the North-
western University ; E. B. Frost, of Dart-
mouth College ; and F. L. 0. Wadsworth, of
the University of Chicago ; and as associate
editors, of ten eminent working astronomers
in Europe and America. The scope of the
journal includes all investigations of radiant
energy, whether conducted in the observatory
or in the laboratory — especially photographic
and visual observations of the heavenly bod-
ies, spectroscopic, photometric, bolometric,
and radiometric work of all kinds ; descrip-
tions of instruments and apparatus used in
such investigations ; and theoretical papers
bearing on any of these subjects.
A Text-book of Invertebrate Morphology.
By J. Playfair McMurrich, M. A., Ph. D.
New York : Henry Holt & Co. Pp. 661.
Price, $4.
A student of the invertebrates will wel-
come this new work by Prof. McMurrich.
The various subdivisions are fully discussed,
and an excellent bibliography follows each
group. The illustrations are abundant
enough and in the main clear, though one
would wish for better drawings, some of
which, especially in the Mollusca, are posi-
tively bad. In a work of so comprehensive
a nature the author would have avoided
many minor mistakes if he had submitted
each section to a specialist. Under the
Brachiopods we are told that the shells are
similar to those of the Lamellibranchs,
whereas neither in origin, structure, nor po-
sition is there the slightest similarity. In
stating the composition of the Brachiopod
shell as carbonate of lime he overlooks Lin-
gula, in which the composition is phosphate
of lime. He says there are no organs of
hearing in Brachiopods, while Lingula has
very distinct auditory vesicles. He states
that the circulation is induced by the con-
traction of the body wall, whereas circula-
tion is due to the ciliary lining of the lacu-
/
4H
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
nae. A flushing of the lacunae, so to speak,
takes place now and then when the shells
open and close.
The author has frankly stated in his
preface that the book must necessarily be
tinged with his own opinions, and therefore
the reviewer can only express disagreement
with the position he has assigned to certain
groups, notably the Lamellibranchs, Echino-
derms, and Amphioxus, and to the use of
the word type. Despite the minor errors,
which can be corrected in a subsequent edi-
tion, we heartily commend the book, and
congratulate the author for his fairness in
accrediting drawings to their proper source.
Elements- of Mineralogy, Crystallogra-
phy, and Blowpipe Analysis from a
Practical Standpoint. By Alfred J.
Moses, E. M., Ph. D., and Charles L.
Parsons, B. S. New York : D. Van
Nostrand Company. Pp. 342.
A thorough and systematic study of
mineralogy is the ideal of this book. The
part on crystallography is illustrated with
one hundred and seventy-one figures ; it de-
scribes the use of the hand and the reflec-
tion goniometers, and contains a chapter on
clinographic projection of crystal figures.
The symbols of Weiss, Naumann, Dana, and
Miller are given with the several forms. The
chapters on blowpipe analysis include sys-
tematic schemes of operation. More than
half of the volume is devoted to descriptive
mineralogy, in which, after some account of
the physical and chemical characters of
minerals, the species are taken up by groups,
as the iron minerals, the manganese miner-
als, zinc and cadmium minerals, etc. As the
book is made from a practical standpoint,
the chief uses and localities of each mineral
are included in its description. This part is
also fully illustrated with forms of crystals,
bringing the whole number of figures up to
three hundred and thirty-six. A series of
i allies for determinative work and two in-
dexes complete the volume.
A large fund of information about pub-
lic affairs is crowded into Tlie Daily News
A! ma line and Political Register for 1895
(I bicago, 25 cents). It includes rates of the
old and new tariffs, statistics of imports and
exports, of manufactures, agriculture, mort-
gages, the liquor trade, pensions, etc., etc. ;
accounts of the labor disturbances, the Ha-
waii affair, and other matters ; a register of
the national Government, the army, navy,
and diplomatic service, important legislation
by Congress, election returns, events of the
year, including sporting events, and many
other things that it is often convenient to
refer to.
The Aeronautical Annual for 1895, ed-
ited by James Means (W. B. Clarke & Co.,
Boston, $1), is made up largely of historic
matter. Some account of Leonardo da Vinci
is given, with reproductions of his mechan-
ical drawings and extracts from his Treatise
upon the Flight of Birds. This is followed
by essays on aerial navigation, by Sir George
Cayley, Bart., published in 1809 and 1810,
by Thomas Walker in 1810, by F. H. Wen-
ham in 1866; Benjamin Franklin's aero-
nautical correspondence, 1783 to 1786; and
some minor fragments. There are also a
bibliography of aeronautics, an essay on The
Problem of Manflight, by the editor, 1894,
and an editorial article on the prospects of
aeronautics. The volume is illustrated with
repi-oductions of many quaint engravings.
The Smithsonian Geographical Tables,
prepared by R. S. Woodward, is an out-
growth and further development of the idea
embodied in the meteorological tables pre-
pared by Dr. Arnold Guyot, at the request
of Prof. Henry, and published in 1852 in the
Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. This
work passed through four editions, the last
having been published in 1884. This edition
was exhausted in a few years, and a recast-
ing, rather than a revision, of the work was
called for; and it was decided by Prof.
Langley to publish the new work in three
parts — Meteorological Tables, Geographical
Tables, and Physical Tables — each repre-
sentative of the latest knowledge in its field,
and independent of the others. The Me-
teorological Tables were published in 1893.
The present is the second work in the con-
templated series. It includes an introduc-
tory part and tables. The introductory part
is divided into seven sections under the heads
Useful Formulas, Mensuration, Units, Geol-
ogy, Astronomy, Theory of Errors, and Ex-
planation of Source and Use of Tables. The
forty-two tables, involving various factors of
geodetical and astronomical measurement,
occupy one hundred and seventy pages.
LITERARY NOTICES.
4'5
The Catholic University Bulletin is a new
quarterly publication, conducted by profess-
ors of the Catholic University of America,
Washington, similar in scope to the reviews
and other periodicals which it is now becom-
ing customary for American institutions of
learning to issue. Its object is to convey to
those who are interested in the university a
knowledge of what is being done by its pro-
fessors and its students ; and it will make
known the work of the administration so far
as it is of public interest; its material prog-
ress, benefactions, gifts, etc. ; facts relative
to the systein of teaching and results ob-
tained ; descriptions of the special schools
and their operation, and the progress made
by professors and students in the sciences
for which the schools were opened ; methods
of teaching, educational discussions, and
comparative notices of the work of other
institutions ; articles on higher pedagogics ;
public official documents concerning the uni-
versity; literary and biographical notices,
necrologies of men of learning deceased, ac-
counts of learned congresses, etc.
A History of Higher Education in Rhode
Island, prepared by William Howe Tolman,
Ph. D., is number eighteen of Herbert B.
Adams's series of contributions in the Bureau
of Education to American Educational His-
tory. The educational history of this State
is of particular interest because it raises the
question whether religious freedom reacted
favorably on the establishment of a system
of education in the early days of the New
England colonies — and helps answer it. The
first part of the essay gives an account of
colonial and later education. The second
part tells the story of the academies and
preparatory schools, of which seven are de-
scribed. The third part is devoted to the
institutions for the education of women.
The story of Brown University — the only uni-
versity in the State — occupies the main part
of the history, and is told for the most part
in connection with the work of the institu-
tion's eight presidents. Lastly, the College
of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts is repre-
sented ; and two pages are given to a bibli-
ography.
In the handsome Geological Map of Ala-
bama, by the State Geologist, Eugene A.
Smith, the formations are clearly shown in
distinct coloring, which is also harmonious
and agreeable to the eye. In the accompany-
ing description and explanatory chart, which
corresponds with the map in size and form,
the formations, names, synonyms, classifica-
tion, and common fossils ; thickness, litho-
logical and topographical characters, area
and distribution ; useful products, soils,
characteristic timber growth and agricultural
features ; and the reports in which these
features are described, are conveniently
shown for ready reference in parallel col-
umns. Mr. Smith's reports, of which we
have had many, all bear the marks of good
work.
The thirteenth volume of the Bulletin of
the United States Fish Commission, 1893, con-
tains the proceedings of the World's Fish-
eries Congress, which was held in Chicago in
October, 1893, and the papers that were read
there. These papers, represented by forty-nine
in the volume, touched various fishery topics,
and in many cases called out considerable
debate. The same subject gave rise to the
expression of divergent opinions, especially
on some phases of the commercial fisheries,
which demonstrated that a fair conclusion
on any of the subjects discussed can be
reached only after a careful consideration of
all the views presented. The papers given
in the volume, being the views of represent-
ative men upon the subjects treated, are
necessarily of great practical worth, and are
published by the Fish Commission with the
idea of furnishing the general public with
valuable information concerning the fishery
industry, and not with any view of approving
or disapproving the opinions expressed.
Some of the papers are handsomely illus-
trated, particularly that of Mr. G. F. Kunz,
on pearls.
With 1895 the Journal of the American
Public Health Association takes the place of
the annual volume of the association's Trans-
actions. It is issued quarterly from Con-
cord, N. H., at $5 a year. The number for
January contains the addresses delivered and
part of the papers read at the meeting of
1894, in Montreal. Most of the papers in
this number deal with water supplies ; two
others treat of diphtheria epidemics ; and
there is one, in French, on the general sub-
ject of preventive inoculation.
A plan for teaching science in public
schools drawn up by Dr. William T. Harris
4i6
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
for his report as Superintendent of the St.
Louis Schools, in 1871, was afterward pub-
lished in book form under the title How
to teach Natural Science, and now appears in
a second edition (Bardeen, 50 cents). It
would undoubtedly give very practical help
to a teacher confronted with the problem of
adding science to the subjects usually taught
in common schools, but if Dr. Harris were
to rewrite it at the present day, in the light
of the advances in science teaching made
during the past quarter century, he would
probably modify it somewhat. He would
not omit to mention the peculiar mental dis-
cipline that the study of science affords as a
reason for including it in a course of study ;
he would hardly say that science should
"afford relief from the other studies, and
not be placed in the same rank with them " ;
and while in this plan he insists that the
teacher rather than a text-book should be
the pupil's source of information, he would
now probably go further and say that the
pupils should get their knowledge of natu-
ral objects mainly from the objects them-
selves.
In the mathematical series of text-books
by John H. Walsh, noticed several months
ago, the Elementary Arithmetic includes no-
tation, numeration, and the " four rules,"
the latter being applied in denominate as
well as abstract numbers although no tables
are given. The arithmetical processes dealt
with are exemplified in a great variety of
ways, including the use of many practical
problems suited to the understanding of
young pupils. (Heath, 40 cents.)
The first edition of Joint-metallism, by
Anson Phelps Stokes, noticed in our January
number, has been followed by a second and
this by a third edition, each being an exten-
sion of its predecessor (Putnams, $1). Of
the new matter, Part II consists of further
arguments for joint-metallism and against
bimetallism and monometallism. Part III is
historical, giving views of writers on the sci-
ence of money, beginning with Oresme, who
wrote about 1366. In Part IV too great re-
liance on credit is deprecated and objections
to the author's plan are answered.
The eleventh edition of the Advertiser's
Handy Guide (1895) has been received (L.
I). Morse Advertising Agency, New York,
$2). It contains the names of the impor-
tant journals of all the States and Territories
of the United States, also those of the Do-
minion of Canada, in alphabetical order un-
der each State or province. The circula-
tion, politics, and frequency of issue of each
paper are given, also the population of the
city or town and county in which it is pub-
lished. In addition to the general list there
are separate lists of agricultural, medical,
religious, etc., journals and other informa-
tion valuable to advertisers. The volume
contains seven hundred and eighty-six pages
and is of handy size — about four by seven
inches.
An Introduction to English Literature
(Henry Holt & Co., New York), by Henry S.
Pancoast, is based upon the author's previous-
ly published Representative English Litera-
ture, enlarged in some directions and curtailed
in others, in order to adapt it to somewhat
different requirements. It is intended to meet
the needs of teachers who may wish to use
the historical and critical portions of a book
like that one, without being restricted to the
prescribed selections which it gives as rep-
resenting the successive literary epochs. To
this end about two hundred pages of new
matter have been added, and the notes and
selections in the former work omitted. It is
still the author's object to send the student
directly to the literature itself, which is done
here by suggesting in reading lists the se-
lected works, giving them in some instances
with general hints for study.
Volume IX of the Contributions to North
American Ethnology published by the Unit-
ed States Geological Survey is the Dakota
Grammar Texts and Ethnography, prepared
by Stephen Return Riggs, and edited after the
author's death with the copy not revised, by J.
Owen Dorsey. Mr. Dorsey contributes a pref-
ace embodying interesting information con-
cerning the structure, etc., of the language.
The texts include eight Dakota myths, Dakota
and English interlined, with translations fol-
lowing, the Parable of the Prodigal Son, The
Lord's Prayer, and the Fourth Command-
ment, in the Ethnography are chapters on
the Tribes, the Migrations, the Dakota Gens
and Phratrv, Unwritten Dakota Laws, The
Superhuman, Armor and Eagle's Feathers,
and Dakota Dances.
The First Latin Readings, selected and
compiled by Robert Arrows?nith and George
LITERARY NOTICES.
417
M. Whicker (American Book Company,
$1.25), is an attempt to respond to the call for
variety in the Latin authors read in American
preparatory schools. It aims, in introducing
the student to the literature of the Romans,
by presenting attractive and varied material,
to arouse the desire for further acquaintance
with that literature ; to cultivate in him an
appreciation of the beauties of language and
instruction ; and to help him gain, besides
a mastery of the mechanism of the language,
an insight into the thought and life of the
people. The selections have been carefully
made with reference to their difficulty, their
interest as literature, and, in great part,
their relation to Roman life and customs.
Eutropius, Cornelius Nepos, Caesar, Aulus
Gellius, Cicero, and Livy are represented.
Roderick Hume ; the Story of a New
York Teacher, has been written by Mr. C.
W. Bardeen to depict certain phases of the
modern union school. The author says that
he has no hobby to ride and no gi-ievance to
redress, but has merely described what he
has seen, trusting his fancy just far enough
to weave into one web characters and inci-
dents that were real but disconnected. (Syra-
cuse, N. Y. : C. W. Bardeen, 50 cents.)
A little book on Varied Occupations in
Weaving has been prepared by Louisa Walk-
er, head mistress of Fleet Road Board
School, Hampstead (Infants' Department),
for kindergartens. The work described in
it has been systematically taught in the au-
thor's own school for the past twenty years.
The ways and means employed in construct-
ing the articles illustrated have been adapted
to meet the exigencies of each case, and sim-
plify matters for little workers. The illus-
trations are from actual work produced in
the school. The entire weaving was done
by infants of from five to seven years of
age, and the material was afterward manipu-
lated into useful articles by the teachers.
(Published by Macmillan & Co., $1.)
The National Geographic Society has ar-
ranged for a series of geographical mono-
graphs on the physical features of the
earth's surface, to be published monthly dur-
ing the school year, at 20 cents each, or
$1.50 for the ten. The first two of these
monographs are by Major J. W. Powell.
The first describes Physiographic Processes,
treating the atmosphere, waters, and rock
VOL. XLVII. — 34
formations as envelopes of the earth contin-
ually in motion and pointing out the pro-
cesses by which, through the action of the
forces generated, the principal features of
the earth's surface are produced. The sec-
ond is on the Physiographic Features of the
earth, and is an attempt to characterize
these mainly as they are dependent on the
three great physiographic processes, and to
show how fire, earthquake, and flood have
been involved in fashioning the land and the
sea.
The Annates de la Oficine Meteorologica
Argentina (Argentine Weather Office), of
which Walter G. Davis is director, at Ro-
sario, South America, embodies the results
of observations made three times a day at
thirty regular stations, and voluntary rain
observations made by station agents at six-
ty-nine stations on the four principal rail-
roads of the republic. The observations,
recorded in tabular form, fill a large volume.
The Geological Atlas of the United States,
now being published in parts called folios,
consists of topographical and geological
maps. The complete atlas will consist of
several thousand folios, each of which con-
tains a topographical and a geological map
of a small section of country, and will be
named after some well-known town or natu-
ral feature within the limits of the district
named. The topographical maps will show
the reliefs, drainage, and cultures of the dis-
tricts, indicated by the usual or definite con-
ventional marks. The geological maps will
show on distinct sheets the areal geology, or
the areas occupied by the various rocks of
the district ; the economical geology, or the
distribution of useful minerals ; the occur-
rence of artesian water, and other facts of
economical interest, showing their relations to
the features of topography and to geological
formations ; the sheet of structure sections
will exhibit the relations existing beneath
the surface among the formations the distri-
bution of which on the surface is repre-
sented in the map of areal geology ; and
the sheet of columnar sections will contain a
concise description of the rock formations
which constitute the local record of geo-
logical history. To each of these maps is
attached a legend fully explaining all the
conventional signs, marks, and colors used
in it ; and each folio contains a descriptive
418
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
letterpress. Of these folios, each contain-
ing the six sheets, we have received No. 1,
Livingston, Mon. ; No. 2, Ringgold, Georgia
and Tennessee ; No. 3, Placerville, Cal. ;
No. 6, Chattanooga, Tenn. ; and No. 7, Pike's
Peak, Col., to be supplemented by a special
detailed map of the Cripple Creek district.
Each folio is provided with stiff paper covers
and cloth backs.
In a little book by Florence Bass, in the
Nature Stories for Youug Readers, entitled
Animal Life, the subjects are mainly such
insects or other animals as the children may
observe for themselves. The lessons aim to
give illustrations of some of the varied
means of self-protection employed by ani-
mals ; their methods of home building and
of caring for their young ; the transforma-
tions they undergo ; the adaptability to
their surroundings and coverings ; and the
" tools " with which the various animals are
provided. It is intended to interest children
in the animals, and to make them averse to
giving them pain and to killing them. (Pub-
lished by D. C. Heath & Co., 35 cents.)
Regents' Bulletin (of the University of the
State of New York), No. 25, contains the
secretary's report, with special papers on
University Institutions, certain special top-
ics, department reports, and notices of
higher educational meetings ; No. 28 con-
tains the proceedings of the Thirty-second
University Convocation, held July 5 to 7,
1894. Nos. 24, 27, and 29 are specially
numbered as Extension Bulletins Nos. 6, 7,
and 8. The first comprises the report of
the Extension Department for 1893, with
the circulars issued and other items of in-
formation ; No. 2*7 is a record of the prog-
ress of extension teaching ; and No. 29 em-
bodies accounts of summer schools in 1892-
'93 ; in New York ; other American schools ;
and foreign schools. The whole number of
schools represented is a hundred and five.
Three plates of Enlargements of Lunar
Photographs (Agrandissements de Photogra-
phies lunaires) published by W. Prinz, of
the Belgian Royal Observatory at Uccle, are
phototypie reductions, without retouching,
of some of the enlargements which were
presented by the author to the Belgian
Academy of Sciences in April, 1892. They
represent photographs taken with the great
refractor of Lick Observatory, enlarged from
ten to a hundred times, and among other
things they illustrate the richness in details
of the views taken with that instrument.
They are of special value as permitting a
closer study of the details of lunar relief — a
study which, it is hoped, may cast some
light respecting the origin of terrestrial re-
liefs. A question of priority is connected
with this publication, which is made partly
to enforce M. Prinz's claims and partly as a
specimen of a proposed atlas. The photo-
graphs represent the circle Copernicus, the
crater Bullialdus, Mare Humorum, and Mare
Imbrium. Sent gratis to astronomers and
observatories.
Nos. 14, 15, 16, and 17 of the Contribu-
tions to American Educational History, pub-
lished by the Bureau of Education, under the
editorial direction of Herbert B. Adams,
present the History of Education in Co?i-
necticut, by Bernard C. Stdner ; Delaware,
by Lyman P. Powell ; Higher Education in
Tennessee, by L. S. Merriam ; and Mary-
land, by B. C. Steiner. The histories are
constructed in general on a common plan,
beginning with the first establishment of
schools in the State, tracing their develop-
ment in the colonial or territorial period and
under the State government ; describing the
more important academies and the colleges,
and then the principal special and technical
schools. The story of education in Con-
necticut is of peculiar interest ; for that
State was a pioneer in the establishment of
public schools, which are almost coeval with
its existence, and is still behind none.
In the Delaware history a logical rather
than a chronological order is followed. The
beginning of educational enterprise is traced
to the middle of the seventeenth century,
under the Swedish, Dutch, and English set-
tlers ; education in the towns is considered ;
next the colleges ; then public education
from its origin in 1796; and the education
of the negro.
The history of higher education in Ten-
nessee is in the main the history of private
initiative and activity which has been char-
acterized by broad liberality and farsighted-
ness. By these means the State has become
the seat of an exceedingly interesting and
creditable group of academies and colleges
of all kinds, and Nashville an important
educational center. Of these institutions,
LITERARY NOTICES.
419
not the least in importance and fame are
the schools for negroes.
Maryland has not obtained wide renown
until recent years for its higher institutions
of learning, yet the number and importance
of them have been too great to justify such
neglect as they have received. Though the
early conditions of life in the colony were
not such as to favor schools or colleges, a
plan for a college was brought forward as
early as 1*791 — the fourth attempt for a col-
lege in the United States — but no college
proved successful till Maryland became a
State.
It is claimed by Director Powell, in pre-
senting the Twelfth Annual Report of the
Bureau of Ethnology, covering the year
1890-'91, as a noteworthy feature of the
plan under which the work of research is
conducted, that the ethnologists who, as au-
thors, prepare the publications of the bureau,
personally gather the material for them in
the field, supplementing this material by a
study of all the connected literature and by
a subsequent comparison of all ascertained
facts. The continuance of the work for
a number of years by the same zealous
observers and students, who freely inter-
change their information and opinions, has
resulted in their training with the acuteness
of specialists, corrected and generalized by
the knowledge obtained from other authori-
ties on the same or related specialties. The
present report is an excellent example of the
application of this method of work. The
substance of it, after the routine matter is
disposed of — otherwise the " accompanying
paper " — is a Report on Mound Explorations,
by Dr. Cyrus Thomas, a veteran laborer in
this field, who brings to the task of review-
ing the whole subject all the advantages
that long experience in field and study
work can bestow. The explorations reviewed
cover eighteen States in the Mississippi Val-
ley, Atlantic coast, lake, and eastern central
regions, supplemented by papers on archaeo-
logical areas and distribution of types, the
mound-builders and comparison of their
works with those of the Indians, and evi-
dences of contact with modern European
civilization found in the mounds, with 344
illustrations.
In Le Centre de VAfrique, autour du Tchad
(The Center of Africa, around Lake Chad),
the story of the journeyings of the Maistre
French expedition to the region in question is
told by M. P. Brunache. The object of the
expedition, departing from the Congo, was to
reach the Chari River and form relations
with the Mussulmans of the Chad Valley.
The expedition did more than this, for,
having reached Palem beyond the Chad,
through a country which no European had
ever penetrated, it continued on through a
region equally virgin to European explora-
tion to Gueroua, and thence diverting from
the Bineree to strike it again at Ibi, down
that river and the Niger. It made several
geographical discoveries of interest; cor-
rected some errors ; made treaties with nu-
merous fetich chiefs; and collected anthro-
pological data and material. Published by
Felix Alcan, Paris, in the Bibliotheque Sci-
entifique Internationale.
Les Auroras Polaires (Polar Auroras), of
M. Alfred Angot, has been developed by re-
vision and expansion from a series of articles
published in the periodical La Lumiere Elcc-
trique in 1882. All is brought up to date.
The history of auroral observations is told,
and the theory of the lights is discussed with
the clearness of style and facility in explana-
tion that have given the author an eminent
position in scientific literature. Numerous
carefully executed engravings illustrate some
of the most remarkable observations of au-
roras. A list is appended of auroras observed
from 1700 till 1890, in Europe, south of lati-
tude 55°. The work is published by Felix
Alcan, in the French edition of the Inter-
national Scientific Series.
We have already spoken twice of the
Dictionary of Birds, prepared by Alfred
Newton and Hans Gadow, with the assistance
of eminent English naturalists, and Dr. R.
W. Shufeldt as American contributor, pub-
lished by the Blacks in London, and Mac-
millan & Co., New York. The work is con-
tinued in Part III, from Moa to Sheathbill.
The matter is arranged alphabetically ; is pre-
sented in brief, clear statements and descrip-
tions ; and the whole is appropriately and
well illustrated. Price, $2.60.
PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.
Agricultural Experiment Stations. Reports and
Bulletins. Connecticut : Eighteenth Annual Re-
port. Pp. 296 ; Fertilizers. Pp. lC-Cornell Uni-
versity : The Dwarf Lima Beans. Pp. 20 \ Early
420
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
Lamb Raising. Pp. 24. — Illinois University:
The Cliinch Bug. Pp. 64. — Massachusetts :
Twelfth Annual Report of the Board of Control,
Amherst. ± p. 487.— Michigan : When and What
to Spray. By L. R Taft. Pp. 9.— Fruits at South
Haven. By T. T. Lyon. Pp. 64.— New York :
The San Jose\ or Pernicious Scale. Pp. 16.— Treat-
ment of Common Diseases and Insects Injurious
to Fruits and Vegetables. Pp. 48.— North Dako-
ta : Bulletin, March, 1895.— Ohio : Oats. Pp. 24.
Purdue University. Three Subjects. Pp. 42. —
United States Department of Agriculture. Ex-
periment Station Record. Pp. 64.
Bachelor of Arts. A Monthly Magazine de-
voted to University Interests and General Litera-
ture. J. S. Wood, Editor. New York. Vol. I,
No. 1. May, 1895. Pp. 144. 35 cents, $4 a year.
Bardeen, C. W. A Brief Descriptive Geog-
raphy of the Empire State. Syracuse, N. Y. : C.
W. Bardeen. Pp. 126. 75 cents.
Bean, Barton A. Two New Flounders. Pp. 4.
Bean, Tarleton H. Two New Fishes. Pp. 2
each.
Bean, T. H. and B. A. The New Fish —
Gobieidas Broussoneti. Pp. 2.
Beaunis, H.. and Binet, A. L'Annee Psy-
chologique (The Psychological Year), 1894. Paris :
Felix Alcan.
Boas. Franz. Chinook Texts. Smithsonian
Institution. Pp. 278.
Carasso, Dr. and Lieutenant-Colonel G. M.,
Genoa, Italy. Nouvelle Mfithode de Traitement
de la Tuberculose Pulmonaire (New Method of
Treating Pulmonary Tuberculosis). Pp. 4.
Carter, Oscar C. S. Drilling for Oil and
Natural Gas in the Vicinity oi Philadelphia.
Pp.7.
Chapman, Frank M. Handbook of Birds of
Eastern North America. New York : D. Apple-
ton & Co. Pp. 421.
Clarke, Hubert Lyman. The Pterylography
of Certain American Goatsuckers and Owls.
Smithsonian Institution. Pp. 24.
Cockerell, T. D. A. Geographical Distribution
of Scale Insects. Smithsonian Institution. Pp.12.
Cornell University. Courses of Instruction in
Chemistry for 1895-'9f>. Pp. 22.— Courses of In-
struction in the Sage School of Philosophy. Pp.
23.
Crocker. Uriel H. The Cause of Hard Times.
Boston : Little, Brown & Co. Pp. 108.
Davies, General Henry E. General Sheridan.
New York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 332. $1.50.
Gee, William. Short Studies in Nature Knowl-
edge. An Introduction to the Science of Physi-
ology. New York : Macmillan & Co. Pp. 213.
$1.10.
George, A. J., Editor. Webster's Speech on
Bunker Hill Monument. Pp. 34. 20 cents. —
Burke's Speech on Conciliation with America,
1775. Pp. 99. 30 cents. Boston : D. C. Heath
&Co.
Gould, George M., M. D. An Illustrated Dic-
tionary of Medicine, Biology, and Allied Sci-
ences. Specimens. Philadelphia : P. Blakiston
&Son.
Grimes, J. Stanley, Chicago. The Radiate
Theory of the Cause of Gravitation. Pp. 9.
Harrington, Mark W. Currents of the Great
Lakes. Revised edition. Washington : Weather
Bureau. Pp 14. Letterpress and Six Charts.
Hartt, Irene W. How to Make Money, though
a Woman. New York : J. S. Ogilvie Co. Pp.
142.
Hill, Robert T. Notes on the Geology of the
Island of Cuba. Cambridge, Mass. Pp. 48, with
9 Plates.
noffmann, Frank Sargent. The Sphere of the
State, or the People as a Body Politic. New
York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 275.
Holley, George W. Magnetism, its Potency
and Action. Boston : Arena Publishing Com-
pany. Pp. 283. $1.25.
Howard, L. O The Bothiothoracine Insects
of the United States. Smithsonian Institution.
Pp. 12. •
Huidekoper, R S., M.D. The Cat. New
York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 148. $1.
Jarvis, Josephine, Translator. Friedrich
Froebel's Pedagogics of the Kindergarten. New
York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 237, with Plates.
Jordan, David Starr. The Story of the Innu-
merable Company. Palo Alto, Cal. : Stanford
University. Pp. 39.
Keen, W. W., M. D., Philadelphia. Amputa-
tion of the Female Breast, Pp. 16. — Amputation
of the Entire Upper Extremity, etc. Pp. 9, with
Plates.
Kerner, Anton Von Marilaun, and Oliver, F.
W. The Natural History of Plants, their Forms,
Growth, Reproduction, and Distribution. New
York : Henry Holt & Co. Pp. 777.
Leffmann, Henry, Dairy and Food Commis-
sioner of Philadelphia. Abstract from the Sec-
ond Annual Report. Report of Analytic Work.
Pp. 16.
Lombroso, Prof Cesare, and Ferrero, William.
The Female Offender, with an Introduction by
W. Douglas Morrison. New York : D. Appleton
& Co. Pp. 313, with Plates. $1.50.
Mason, Otis T. The Origins of Invention.
New York : Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 419.
$1 25.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Bos-
ton. Entrance Examinations. Pp. 4. — Announce-
ment of Summer Courses. Pp. 10.
Mathews, F. Schuyler. Familiar Flowers of
Field and Garden. New York : D. Appleton &
Co. Pp. 3C8.
Merrill, George P. Notes on Eruptive Rocks
from Gallatin, etc., Counties, Montana. Smith-
sonian Institution.
Missouri Botanical Garden. Sixth Annual Re-
port. St. Louis. Pp. 133, with Plates.
New Jersey, The, Forester, May, 1895. Bi-
monthlv Edited by John Gifford. May's Land-
ing, N. J. Pp. 12.
Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School
for the Blind. Sixty-third Annual Report of the
Trustees. Boston. Pp. 299.
Pfuhl, A. C. C. The Maximus Homo ; or, the
Interpretation of the New Testament. Denver,
Col. Pp. 10.
Powell, John W. Canyons of the Colorado.
Meadville, Pa. : Flood & Vincent. Pp. 403.
$10.— Physiographic Regions of the United States.
American Book Company. Pp. 36. 20 cents.
Richmond, Charles W. Diagnosis of a New
Genus of Trogons. U. S. National Museum.
Pp. 3.
Roscoe, Sir Henry E. John Dalton and the
Rise of Modern Chemistry. New York : Mac-
millan & Co. Pp. 216. $1.25.
Russell, Israel C. Present and Extinct Lakes
of Nevada. American Book Company. Pp. 32,
with Maps.
Stedman, J. M. Observations on a So-called
Petrified Man. Pp. 10.
Stejneger, Leonhard. A New Salamander
from Arkansas. Pp. 3.— On the Specific Name of
the Coachwhip Snake. Pp. 2. — Notes on Butler's
Garter Snake. Pp. 2.— A New Lizard from Cali-
fornia. Pp. 3. U. S. National Museum.
Stevenson, Robert. Electricity a Mode of
Motion. San Francisco. Pp. 61. 50 cents.
Story- Maskelyne, N. Crystallography: A
Treatise on the Morphologv of Crystals. New
York : Macmillan & Co. Pp. 521. $3.50.
Taber, C. A. M. The Cause of Warm and
Frigid Periods. Boston : G. H. Ellis. Pp. 80.
POPULAR MISCELLANY.
421
Taylor, W. E. The Box Tortoises of North.
Ameiica. U. S. National Museum. Pp. 16.
University of the State of New York. Report
of the Examination Department, 1894. Pp. 122.
Warming, Dr. E. A. Handbook of Systematic
Botany. New York : Macmillan & Co. Pp. 020.
$3.75.
Warren, Lillie Eginton. Speech Revealed in
Facial Expressions. New York : E. S. Werner.
Wheelbarrow on the Labor Question. Chi-
cago : The Open Court Publishing Company.
Pp. 303. 35 cents.
Wheeler, Oliver D. Sketches of Wonderland.
St. Paul, Minn. Pp. 105.
Werner, The, Company. Self-Culture. Month-
ly. May, 1895. Pp. 48. 20 cents, $2 a year.
Wright, Mabel Osgood. Bird Craft. A Field
Book of Two Hundred Song, Game, and Water
Birds. New York : Macmillan & Co. Pp. 317,
with 15 Two-page Colored Plates.
United States Coast and Geodetic Survey.
Legal Units of Electrical Measure in the United
States. Pp. 2. — The Constant of Aberration as
determined from Observations of Latitude at San
Francisco, Cal. Pp. 10.— The Direction and In-
tensity of the Earth's Magnetic Force at San
Francisco, Cal. Pp. 4.
POPULAR MISCELLANY.
Meeting of the American Association. —
The forty-fourth meeting of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science
will be held in Springfield, Mass., August
28th to September 7th. Ample provisions
have been made by the local committee for
the accommodation of the association and its
sections and for the entertainment of those
who will attend. The meetings will be held
in the Young Men's Christian Association
building, where the offices will be and the
general meetings will be held ; the Art
Museum, the high-school building, Christ
Church Parish House, Unity Church Chapel,
State Street Baptist Church lecture rooms,
South Church Chapel, and Evangelist Hall.
A large list of excursions has been arranged,
to places in the vicinity of Springfield and
some longer ones, adapted to almost every
taste, a large proportion of them being to
factories or laboratories where manufac-
turing processes and scientific methods are
practically illustrated, and a considerable
number to interesting geological fields.
Meetings of affiliated societies will be held
as follows : Geological Society of America,
August 27th and 28th ; Society for Promo-
tion of Agricultural Science, August 26th ;
Association of Economic Entomologists, date
not given; Association of State Weather
Service, date not given ; American Chemical
Society, August 27th and 28th ; American
Forestry Association, September 3d; Botan-
ical and Entomological Club of America,
during the week. The president for the
year is E. W. Morley, of Cleveland, O. ; per-
manent secretary, F. W. Putnam, Cambridge,
Mass. ; general secretary, James Lewis Howe,
Lexington, Va. ; treasurer, R. S. Woodward,
New York.
Lu Chn Islands Politics. — The history of
the Lu Chu Islands for several centuries has
consisted, according to Prof. Basil Hall Cham-
berlain, of " an attempt to sit on both sides
of the fence." With China on the one hand
and Japan on the other, " the kinglet of Lu
Chu was driven into being a sort of Mr. Fac-
ing-both-ways ; and the whole nation more
or less, or at any rate the higher official class,
came to have a double set of manners — one
for use vis-d-vis the first of its inconveniently
big neighbors, the other vis-d-vis the second.
Thus the Japanese copper ' cash,' with which
of late some of the commercial transactions
of life had been carried on in the absence
of any native money, were always carefully
kept out of sight when the Chinese officials
were by to see. On the other hand, the
Chinese year names commonly current in Lu
Chu were ignored as far as possible in dip-
lomatic intercourse with Japan. Even in
matters of food the poor little Lu Chuans
tried to make themselves all things to all
men." Of the two patrons China was the
favorite, notwithstanding that Japan was
more nearly allied by race. The Chinese
overlordship was rather nominal than real,
and the tribute-ships despatched annually to
Fu Chau did such good strokes of business
under the rose that the Lu Chuans actually
requested to be allowed to send more tribute
to China than the amount originally stipu-
lated.
Undisturbed Nature. — M. de Conferon
relates in La Nature that a fox, which had
established itself on his place, made nightly
excursions for several months into his gar-
den and yard. He was rather pleased with
the visits than otherwise, being a lover of
animals, and interested in the study of the
habits of this one. The marks the fox left
behind him indicated that, while he might
be fond of grapes, he could eat a great num-
ber of rats and mice, and of beetles and oth-
422
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
er insects too. The many little excavations
found everywhere pointed likewise to fond-
ness for crickets and worms. It seems from
his observations that foxes are not so mis-
chievous as they are reported to be, and that
while they may have their faults, these are
to a large extent compensated for by services
they render. Yet they are fond of fowls
and hares and rabbits ; but M. de Conferon
remarks that there are not so many hares in
the whole region around as in the neighbor-
hood of his estate. Squirrels, jays, magpies,
and the like, which are regarded as before
everything else destructive, are allowed to
build their nests and eat nuts at will on his
premises, but -he has never found that they
prevented his having an abundance of little
birds of all sorts, and his shrubbery is
filled with the nests of singing birds that
are scarce in other places. He ascribes his
blessing to the fact that no guns are ever
fired on his place. Birds are not destroyed
there, or frightened or disturbed, and the
children never take a nest. Nature is al-
lowed to take its course without interfer-
ence, and there is no trouble. That is the
secret of the whole matter.
Electricity and Plant-growing. — Experi-
ments in the application of electricity to
plant-growing are recorded by Prof. L. H.
Bailey in the Transactions of the Massachu-
setts Horticultural Society. Deherain had
found that the electric light contained rays
harmful to vegetation, and that the greater
part of the injurious rays were modified by a
transparent glass. Exposing different kinds
of plants to the light, Prof. Bailey found that
they were differently affected. He then tried
the effect of the light screened with glass
and also of the naked light running half
the night. The influence of the naked light
upon the productiveness and color of flowers
was found to vary with the different species,
and different colors within the same species.
Tulips were of deeper and richer color, but
the colors lost their intensity after four or
five days. Petunias were much taller and
more slender in the light. But all flowers, of
whatever species, which stood within five or
six feet of the naked arc were injured. It
was apparent, in general, that the light
hastened blooming and caused the production
of larger stems ; but this effect was much
obscured by the injuries resulting from the
unscreened arc. It was afterward found
that the use of a globe or pane of glass will
avert the injuries to flowers as well as to
foliage, and the long stems and open inflo-
rescence, together with the increase in ear-
liness in some cases, may be obtained
without fear of injury. But Prof. Bailey is
not ready to recommend the electric arc lamp
for the growing of flowers. Lettuce, how-
ever, was greatly benefited by the electric
light, and filled its heads much earlier than
under normal conditions. The injury done
to the plants by exposure to the naked light
was found to be due to the fact that their vital
activity was so hastened by it that the plant
could not supply material quickly enough, and
it was forced to death ; but by removing it
to greater distances from the lamp a point
will be found where water can be supplied
with sufficient rapidity to meet the demands
of the quickened activities, and the plant
will grow more rapidly, or at least mature
earlier, than in normal conditions. The ap-
plication of electric currents to plant-growing
may be made to the plant directly, to the
soil, or to the atmosphere. Concerning the
first condition, little of an exact nature can
be said. A mild electrical discharge will
often seriously injure plants ; but application
to germinating seeds and ripening fruits
sometimes hastens the processes. The results
in application to the soil are various, and it
so far promises little in the way of commer-
cial returns. The effect of atmospheric
electricity has been studied by several ob-
servers, with the general results, from which
only Naudin dissents, that normal atmos-
pheric electricity is in some way beneficial
to vegetation. Lemstrom has suggested
that the modifications produced by it are not
the direct results of the electrification of
the plants or the atmosphere, but rather fol-
low some change in the atmosphere which is
engendered by the current — and this, Prof.
Bailey thinks, is highly probable.
The Vision of Spiders. — Uncertainty
seems to exist among arachnidists concerning
the extent and quality of the spider's vision-
ary power, and methodical experiments have
been made by Mr. and Mrs. Peckham to deter-
mine the fact. Twenty species of Attidce and
others of other families were studied. The
POPULAR MISCELLANY.
423
authors find that " the power of expression
through different attitudes and movements
is of great assistance in determining not
only how far the spider can see, but how
much it recognizes of what it sees — or, in
other words, its power of distinct vision —
since it acts in one way when it catches
sight of its prey, in another at the appear-
ance of a male of its own species, and in still
another when it sees a female. Dr. McCook
says ' their rapid and marked change of man-
ner when prey is sighted, the mode of ap-
proach, like the action of a cat creeping
upon a bird, the peculiar behavior displayed
when the final spring is made, are not to be
accounted for on any theory other than a
keen sense of sight."' Among many inci-
dents very much alike related by the authors
we cite the case in which eight gnats and
four small flies were put into a box contain-
ing one of the spiders. " They all settled
and became quiet. The spider, neglecting
several gnats and flies which were close to
him, fixed his eyes upon a gnat five inches
away, and, approaching it by short jerks
from in front, pounced upon it, holding it
tightly a moment and then letting it go.
One of its legs was broken. It fluttered off
to a distance of seven inches. After a mo-
ment the spider followed it and caught it
again, still paying no attention to several
nearer ones. This he repeated six times,
letting it go each time. He then began to
catch other gnats and flies at distances of
from one to four inches. He made in all
twenty-five captures, jumping always when
about an inch away. His actions were ex-
actly like those of a cat playing with a
mouse. It seems remarkable that he could
see clearly enough to follow the gnat which
he had at first singled out among a number
of others which were almost identical in ap-
pearance." Experiments on Attidce at their
mating season prove that spiders can see at
a considerable distance. A male was put
into a box containing a female of the same
species. The female was standing motion-
less twelve inches away, and three inches
and a half higher than the male. " He per-
ceived her at once, lifting his head with an
alert and excited expression, and went
bounding toward her. This he would not
have done if he had not recognized her as a
spider of his own species. When four inches
and a half from her he began the regular
display of the species, which consists of a
peculiar dance. This he would not have
done had he not recognized her sex. A
male of this species on the floor of the box
caught sight of a motionless female on the
glass nine inches away and four inches and
a half above him. He raised his body al-
most vertically, and gazed alternately at her
and at a male which was five inches away
in another direction. At other times the
males recognized the females at eight, nine,
and eleven inches, and the females recog-
nized the males at six, seven, nine and a
half, and eleven inches." A spider can not
recognize its egg sac by sight, because in its
natural position it never sees it, and there-
fore does not know how it looks. Experi-
ments on the color sense of spiders were not
conclusive.
British New Guinea. — The colony now
called British New Guinea has been formally
annexed to the British Empire. The natives,
who probably number between 300,000 and
400,000, are described by Sir William Mac
gregor, administrator, as mostly of a rich,
dark bronze color, varying from a brown
that might be called black to a yellowish
brown. In temper they are cheerful, lively,
and full of fun, and are generally very con-
tented; not quarrelsome or violently pas-
sionate. Suicide is comparatively rare among
them ; when it does take place, it is, as a
rule, the outcome of affection, one of the
strongest and best characteristics of the race.
Occasionally a woman would climb a tall
cocoanut tree and kill herself by jumping
down, because she had become convinced
that she could never meet again among men
with a husband so good as the one she had
lost. This family affection is so strong as to
be often an impediment to the employment
of men away from their own districts. It is
not often that a man cares to remain longer
than one year in the constabulary, because
he is separated there from his family and
friends. The London Missionary Society
finds it difficult, for the same reason, to get
wives of native teachers to live in strange
villages. Yet the strong feeling of affection
that the Papuan has for his relatives and
neighbors does not prevent him from doing
to others what appear terribly cruel things.
424
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
It must be recollected, however, that cruel
murder is, according to their code of ethics,
a conspicuous virtue, a moral duty. They all
apparently believe that man is compounded
of a body and spirit. The spirit leaves its
tenement during sleep, and at death does not
return. Hence, in waking up a sleeper, they
proceed to rouse him by degrees, so that the
spirit may have time to return and take its
place.
Korean Marriages. — Korean girls, ac-
cording to Mr. H. S. Saunderson, after enjoy-
ing freedom till they are eight years old, are
consigned to the women's quarters, where
they live in seclusion till they are married, at
sixteen or seventeen years. After marriage
the woman is allowed to see no man but her
husband. The boys, on the other hand, are
taught that it is undignified for them to enter
the women's part of the house. They never
see their brides till the wedding day, all hav-
ing been arranged for them, often when both
bride and groom are infants. The marriage
ceremony is very simple. The bride and
bridegroom invite their most intimate friends
to assist them in dressing their hair in the
manner befitting their new estate. Then
the bridegroom mounts a white pony, which
is led by two servants, while two others
on either side support the rider in his
saddle. Thus he proceeds to the bride's
house, accompanied by his relatives. At
their destination they find a pavilion erected
in the courtyard of the house, in which the
bride and her relatives are awaiting their
arrival. A goose (the Korean symbol of
fidelity), which the bridegroom brings with
him, is then produced. The bride (who has
to cover her face with her long sleeves) and
the bridegroom then bow to each other until
their heads almost touch the ground. This
they do three or four times, and are then man
and wife. A loving-cup is passed round,
and then the bride is taken off to the woman's
apartments of her husband's home, where she
is looked after by her mother and mother-in-
law, while the groom entertains his friends.
Fidelity is imposed on the wife, but the hus-
band is under no such obligation. He can
marry but one wife, it is true, but he is allowed
as many concubines as he can afford. These,
however, never inhabit the same house as his
principal wife. The husband is forced to
maintain his wife properly and treat her with
respect. Marriage is the great event in a Ko-
rean's life, for he then attains man's estate.
Before marriage, no matter how old he may
be, he is treated as a boy, and has to maintain
a deferential attitude toward the married
men, even though they be only half his age.
Rapid Transmission of Earthquake Mo-
tion.— Attention is called by Prof. John
Milne to the apparently high velocity with
which motion is transmitted from an earth-
quake center to places far distant from it —
a quarter of the earth's circumference — and
to the importance of instituting an extended
systematic observation of these movements.
During the last few years European ob-
servers have recorded earth movements that
had their origin in Japan or in other distant
countries. Beyond a radius of a few hun-
dred miles from their origin these disturb-
ances are often too feeble to be sensible or
to be recorded by ordinary seismographs.
Their presence is, however, made known by
the use of specially contrived nearly horizon-
tal pendulums, and it is found that they have
a duration of from ten to thirty minutes,
and sometimes last for one or two hours.
Observations made at Tokyo of the earth-
quake of March 22, 1894, the distance from
the epicentrum being about six hundred
miles, indicated that the rate of propagation
of the motion of the waves was from 2*3
kilometres per second for the more pro-
nounced superficial waves, to 11 '5 kilome-
tres per second for the lighter shocks, and
they passed to Italy at the rate of nine or ten
kilometres per second. An investigation is
especially wanted of the velocities of propa-
gation of the elastic movements which ap-
parently go from Japan to Europe in fifteen
or twenty minutes. Prof. Milne has devised
some delicate instruments expressly to be
used in these investigations.
American Nickel Mines. — The nickel mine
at Lancaster Gap, Pa., belongs to the class
of ores described by Prof. J. H. L. Vogt, of
Christiania, Norway, as typical deposits of
nickeliferous sulphides, formed by a process
of magnetic differentiation in basic igneous
rocks. It is situated about three miles south
of the main line of the Pennsylvania Rail-
road, a little more than fifty miles west of
POPULAR MISCELLANY.
425
Philadelphia, and fifteen miles north of the
Maryland border. It lies in the midst of
mica schists, presumably Archaean, in what
was called the middle gneissic belt by H. D.
Rogers, and the Georgetown series by Persi-
for Frazer. This formation is quite narrow
in the vicinity of the mine, and pinches out
to the westward, from the coming in of the
limestone on the north and south sides. The
dark, basic rock with which the ore is asso-
ciated forms a lenticular mass of rock, which
consists most largely of green secondary
hornblende, and often shows almost nothing
else than this mineral. It is called horn-
blende at the mine, and is best described by
the word amphibolite as a rock name. The
pyrrhotite lens on Anthony's Nose, near
Peekskill, on the Hudson, is quite different
in its geological relations from the Gap mine.
It is situated on the northern side of the
mountain, about seven hundred feet above
tide water, and three miles from Highlands
Station. The general geology consists of the
usual gneisses of these old formations. Sev-
eral well-known iron mines lie about twenty
miles northeast. The ore bed was opened
shortly after the war, when it was known as
the Phillips Mine, and was operated for ten
or fifteen years, but for sulphur fumes, and
not for its metallic contents, which proved
too low for profit. Other minor nickel-bear-
ing beds have been noticed along the Hud-
son. Openings for nickel in gneiss have
also been made at Litchfield, Conn. ; at Dra-
cut, near Lowell, Mass. ; and perhaps at other
points. The geological relations seem to be
practically the same as those along the
Hudson. These ores and the formations in
which they occur have been fully described
in a paper of the Geological Department of
Columbia College, by J. F. Kemp, in the
light of Prof. Vogt's views of the igneous
origin of the ores.
The Former Antillean Continent. — The
theory of a former kind of continental exten-
sion— the Antillean continent — which united
the West Indies to the mainland, excluding
the Atlantic waters and admitting the Pa-
cific waters into the Mexican Gulf and the
Caribbean Sea, has been examined in the
light of the geographical and geological evi-
dences by J. W. Spencer, who has attempted
to restore the topography of the submerged
continent and to set forth the geomorphic
evidence that the drowned valleys of the At-
lantic coasts are the valleys of former lands
now depressed beneath the sea. These val-
leys or fiords are very numerous, and many
of them are traceable to depths of more than
two miles along the Atlantic, Gulf, and Ca-
ribbean coasts. The measurements of them
give data for calculating the late elevation
of the region. From the application of the
continental movements it becomes apparent
that the mainland stood as high as the fiords
are deep, less some correction for unequal
subsidence of the continental region. Ac-
cordingly, it is concluded that the Antillean
bridge stood at from one and a half to two
and a half miles above the present altitudes
of the plains that now form the islands, with
their mountains relatively somewhat lower
than at present. The formations out of
which the valleys are excavated belong
mostly to the more recent geological periods,
and are generally but little disturbed. From
the determination of their age and that of
the materials filling the buried valleys, it
has been found that there were two epochs
of great elevation, namely, in the Pleiocence
and in the Pleistocene periods. Between
these there was a subsidence of such depth as
to drown the continental coastal plains, and
reduce the West Indian region to very small
islands, with (probably) a shallow connection
between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
The Gothenbnrg System. — What is called
the Gothenburg system of regulating the sale
of intoxicating liquors is undergoing fierce
criticism in England, where its adoption is
favored by the Public-House Reform Asso-
ciation, founded by the Bishop of Chester.
Under this system the traffic is made a con-
cern of the community, and is carried on in
its behalf by a company to which it is commit-
ted under conditions. The principles of the
theory of popular control of the liquor traffic
are summarized by the Rev. F. S. McC. Ben-
nett, Honorary Secretary of the Public-House
Reform Association, as being that licenses,
though they have been granted for years to
private persons and have been renewed with
such regularity as to give them a marketable
value, are essentially local public property,
and the community, while bound to recog-
nize the equitable claims of those whom it
426
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
has allowed to hold them, is entitled to deal
with its own in whatever way seems best
calculated to promote the public weal ; that
those communities which, though unprepared
to veto the liquor traffic, desire to reduce
the consumption of alcohol, should be grant-
ed the option of local management. The
" company " feature of the Gothenburg sys-
tem is sharply attacked by W. S. Caine,
M. P., who, while admitting that there has
been a sweeping reduction in the intemper-
ance of Scandinavia, in consequence of the
Swedish law of 1855, asserts that this is not
in consequence but in spite of the company
system, " the ingrafting of which upon the
law of 1855 has been followed by an increase
of drunkenness in every large city in which
it has been adopted. Undoubtedly," Mr.
Caine continues, " the drunkenness of Nor-
way and Sweden is very greatly reduced from
that prevailing thirty years ago ; but it is
due entirely to other causes than the com-
pany system, was realized before the com-
pany system came into operation at all, and
has reverted to a steady increase since the
company system prevailed." The most im-
portant evidence adduced in favor of this
proposition is derived from the statistics of
convictions for drunkenness, which appear to
have increased since the company system
went into operation. Mr. Bennett replies
that the small increase remarked in the num-
ber of convictions indicates increased vigi-
lance, activity, and efficiency in enforcing the
law quite as much as increased violation of
it, and he quotes strong counter-evidence
against other allegations that drunkenness
has increased.
Flowers and their Cnweleome Visitors. —
Having, in a lecture on the pollenization of
flowers, considered the means by wrhich the
plants secure the aid of insects in that work,
Prof. L. H. Pammel mentions a few of the
methods by which flowers are protected from
the invasions of unwelcome insects. Aquatic
plants are protected by their isolation in
water. Land plants have occasionally se-
cured the same advantages for themselves
by certain leaves forming cups around the
stem ; some have a leaf-cup at each joint ;
in others there is a single basin formed of
the rosette of leaves at the base, in which
rain and dew collect, and are retained for a
considerable time. Some plants have slip-
pery leaves, with often a curved surface,
over which it is impossible for ants to climb ;
others are covered with hairs and spines,
especially in the parts near the corolla,
which often point downward. Some plants
are distinguished by viscid and gelatinous
secretions. Kerner believes that the milky
juices of such plants as lettuce, asclepias,
euphorbia, apocynum, chelidonium, etc.,
serve to keep ants away. Relative to hy-
bridization, Prof. Pammel finds that hybrids
between widely separated species are usually
tender, especially in their early life, so that
it is hard to grow such seedlings. Hybrids
of species of closer relationship on crosses
of races are usually strong and productive.
Such plants are characterized by their great-
er size, rapid growth, early maturation of the
flowers, longer life, greater productiveness,
and unusual size of the separate organs.
Abrasive Substances. — The growing im-
portance of abrasives is such as to suggest
inquiry concerning our future supply, and
that is one of the topics considered by T.
Dunkin-Paret in his paper on Emery and
other Abrasives. At present we depend for
the larger part on Turkey and Greece.
Emery occurs also in Sweden, Spain, Saxony,
and Greenland, but the lands named are
apparently the only foreign countries that
afford a commercial supply. Our supply of
native emery has come thus far from New
York and Massachusetts, while the corun-
dum has come from Pennsylvania, North
Carolina, and Georgia. While small speci-
mens of corundum, in the form of imperfect
sapphires, have come from Montana, where
the existence of this mineral has long been
known, no other locality has yielded corun-
dum except the belt which reaches from
Massachusetts to Georgia, and seems to
have its center in the corner where North
and South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee
come together. In this belt the localities
where the mineral occurs are innumerable,
but its prevalence is a poor indication of
its quality. Corundum occurs in pockets,
seams, sand veins, narrow streaks, and de-
tached crystals, seldom in large mass.
Chester County, Pennsylvania, is apparently
the only locality where large, solid masses
have been found. The largest annual prod-
POPULAR MISCELLANY.
427
uct of American corundum was six hun-
dred and forty-five tons. Unlike corundum,
emery consolidates in large masses. It
does not, indeed, form continuous beds of
great extent, but its discontinuous masses
and .veins sometimes contain hundreds of
tons. The emery-bearing locality in West-
chester County, New York, is a strip from
one half to three fourths of a mile in width
and from five to six miles in length. The
place in which the largest openings have
been made, and which has excited the most
interest, is on a part of a summit about
three miles from Peekskill and seven hun-
dred or eight hundred feet above tide level.
It overlooks, on the one side, the valley of
the Croton, whose stream is invisible, and,
on the other side, the Hudson. On the
north and northeast of the emery belt are
outcrops of granite. South of it lies the
common marble of Sing Sing; still farther
south, at Spuyten Duyvil, occur the oldest
of the Laurentian gneisses ; and still farther
south, on Manhattan Island, the mica schist.
The emery is, however, all immediately as-
sociated with a hornblende rock. Large
masses of emery are seen projecting above
the surface. These are delusive, and those
which hold out a large promise are some-
times found to extend only one or two feet
underground and to yield only from five to
twenty tons. Such masses are usually sur-
rounded by soft, reddish earth.
Substitutes for White Lead.— Only two
substances at present manufactured are re-
garded by Mr. A. P. Laurie as satisfactory
substitutes for white lead in painting — sul-
phate of lead and oxide of zinc. Sulphate
of barium has hardly any covering power,
and sulphide of zinc, though remarkable for
covering power, has not proved, as at pres-
ent manufactured, a durable pigment. Ox-
ide of zinc, though deficient in covering
power, is remarkably white, and preserves
its color in impure air. Sulphate of lead is
in the market in two forms — sublimed sul-
phate, which is prepared directly from
galena ; and precipitated sulphate, ground
by Freeman's patent with oxide of zinc, and
sold as Freeman's white. Sulphate of lead
prepared by sublimation has much more
covering power and is much denser than
precipitated sulphate. Another pigment
sold as a harmless white lead is prepared
in a similar way by grinding together oxide
of zinc and sulphate of barium. In quan-
tity of oil required the substitutes named
compare well with white lead, some taking a
little more and some a little less, except
oxide of zinc, which takes a very large
quantity. In the matter of susceptibility to
impure air, they all have a distinct advan-
tage over white lead. Zinc oxide is not at
all affected, and the sulphate is very slightly
affected unless the gas is in very large quan-
tities and the paint is wet. In durability
under outdoor exposure they are not better
than white lead, except that oxide of zinc
remains white. In their appearance in oil
they differ considerably from white lead,
being thin and stringy instead of stiff and
firm, and this is against them. But Mr.
Laurie does not find that when thinned
down they seem to differ appreciably from
lead carbonate in ease of wyorking. In their
effects on health, oxide of zinc is harmless.
Sulphate of lead is not absolutely insoluble
in very weak hydrochloric acid, and may
therefore be slightly soluble in the stomach
and to some extent poisonous ; but the au-
thor does not believe that under ordinary
conditions of manufacture or use it would
produce lead poisoning.
The Dangerous Proportion of Carbonic
Acid. — Of the power of carbonic acid to
smother, Prof. F. Clowes, of Nottingham,
England, ascertained that the flames of can-
dles, oil, paraffin, and alcohol are extinguished
by air containing from thirteen to sixteen
per cent of carbonic acid. The flame of
coal gas requires the presence of at least
thirty-three per cent of the extinguishing gas,
while the flame of hydrogen requires fifty-
eight per cent. Concerning the proportion
of carbonic acid mixed with water that can
be breathed with impunity, the statements
of different observers are conflicting. Prof.
Clowes finds ten per cent more than is required
to extinguish a candle flame respirable, while
Dr. Haldane, of Oxford, estimates that air con-
taining twenty per cent of carbonic acid can
not be breathed, even for a minute, without
serious consequences ; even five per cent, he
claims, caused serious distress of body and
mind, while any proportion higher than ten
per cent produced distinct poisonous effects.
428
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
The vitality of the hydrogen flame in foul air,
Prof. Clowes points out, makes it useful for
maintaining the flame of a miner's safety
lamp in an impure atmosphere. The author's
testing lamp, which burns either oil or hydro-
gen, or both together, can be carried into foul
air with both substances burning. The oil
flame is extinguished as soon as the propor-
tion of carbonic acid reaches a certain limit,
while the hydrogen continues to bum. As
soon as the miner goes back into a somewhat
purer atmosphere, the still burning hydrogen
relights the oil flame, and the miner is not
left in complete darkness, as he otherwise
would be.
The Earth's School of Enterprise. — In
his study of the Relation of the Earth to the
Industries of Mankind, Prof. 0. T. Mason
infers that the earth was in the beginning
and is now the teacher of the activities
through which commodities are conducted
through the progress of industries. " There
were quarriers, miners, lumberers, gleaners,
and some say planters ; there were fishermen,
fowlers, trappers, and hunters before there
was a genus lvomo. There were also manu-
facturers in clay, in textiles, and in animal
substances before there were potters, weavers,
and furriers ; there were all sorts of moving
material and carrying passengers and en-
gineering of the simplest sort. It might be
presumption to hint that there existed a sort
of barter, but the exchange of care and food
for the honeyed secretions of the body going
on between the ants and the Aphidce looks
very much like it. The world is so full of
technological processes brought about among
her lower kingdoms that I should weary you
in enumerating them. Stone-breaking, flak-
ing, clipping, boring, and abrading have been
going on always, by sand-blast, by water, by
fire, by frost, by gravitation. Archaeologists
tell us that savages are very shrewd in select-
ing bowlders and other pieces of stone that
have been blocked out and nearly finished by
Nature for their axes, hammers, and other
tools. In tropical regions of both hemispheres
where scanty clothing is needed, certain spe-
cies of trees weave their inner bark into an
excellent cloth, the climax of which is the
celebrated tapa of Polynesia. Furthermore,
the fruits of vines and trees offer their hard
outer shells for vessels and for other domes-
tic purposes, and as motives in art and hand-
icraft. Among the animals there is hardly
one that has not obtruded itself into the im-
aginations of men and stimulated the invent-
ive faculty. The bears were the first cave
dwellers ; the beavers are old-time lum-
berers ; the foxes excavated earth before
there were men ; the squirrels hid away food
for the future, and so did many birds ; and
these were also excellent architects and nest-
builders ; the hawks taught men to catch
fish ; the spiders and caterpillars to spin !
the hornet to make paper, and the crayfish
to work in clay."
A Generation of French Science. — The
Revue Scientifique, of Paris, last November
entered upon its thirty-third year. Noticing
the event, it recalled the fact that when it
was begun, in 1863, the Darwinian theory
was only timidly sustained by a few, while it
was contested by most men of science — in
France at least. The Revue fought actively
for it from the first, and for ten years gave
it the most prominent place among subjects
discussed. After that it gave other ques-
tions, including the new ones as they sprang
up, a larger share of attention. The purpose
which the Revue has constantly pursued has
been to keep scientific readers acquainted
with the work accomplished by other stu-
dents in related or neighboring fields, and
thereby serve as a kind of bond of connec-
tion between the scattered members of the
scientific body. The collected volumes, ac-
cording to the Revue's own expression, con-
stitute a kind of gigantic scientific encyclo-
paedia, in which may be found the traces of
great scientific contests mingled with dog-
matic expositions of the most glorious con-
temporary discoveries.
Sewer-fed Oysters. — Concerning the pos-
sible contamination of oysters by sewage,
which seems to be demonstrated by experi-
ences at Middletown, Conn., Nature says : " It
has been alleged, on the evidence of certain
recent bacteriological investigations as re-
gards the contents of London sewers, that
the organism producing typhoid fever can
not live and multiply in sewers. But the or-
ganism has been found in sewers ; it also
lives in sea-water ; and the fact remains that
sewage bathes our oysters during cultivation
POPULAR MISCELLANY.
429
to an extent that is essentially disagreeable
and that ought not to take place ; and also
that typhoid fever follows the use of oysters
so cultivated. It may also be alleged, as is
done by certain oyster-growers, that sewage is
fatal to the oyster itself. In answer to this
we can only say that such evidence as we
have obtained as to some of our oyster beds
is absolutely opposed to this statement ; and
not only so, but we know of more tban one
instance where the oysters are deliberately
brought from the beds to fatten in still near-
er proximity to outfall sewers for a week
or more preliminary to their sale. In brief,
if sewage and noxious micro-organisms can
be retained in the beard and other portions
of the oyster, or in the ' juice,' which is so
much relished, everything seems contrived to
secure such retention of filth at some of our
oyster fisheries."
Japanese Bronze Casting. — The casting
of bronze has been carried on in Japan from
very early times, reaching nearly, if not
quite, back to the settlement of the country
by its present inhabitants, seven or eight
centuries before Christ. It appears to have
been developed since then with the course
of the centuries, each successive period hav-
ing its peculiar styles and being distinguished
by its more remarkable works. Among the
great works of the bronze founders of the
early seventeenth century were a colossal
figure of the Buddhist divinity Rochana in
Kioto, built to replace the wooden image
that was destroyed by an earthquake in
the previous century, and a huge bell for
the temple. The image was nearly sixty
feet high, and was cast where it stood, in
segments, the mold being built upon the
parts already finished. It was completed in
1614, but was destroyed forty-eight years
afterward by an earthquake. The bell is
the largest in Japan, and is about fourteen
feet high, nine feet in external diameter at
the mouth, and ten and three quarters inches
thick at the rim, which is swelled inter-
nally so as to constrict the mouth. It is
this constriction that causes the gentle ris-
ing and falling tones that characterize the
boom of all Japanese bells. Two other simi-
lar bells were cast during the first half of
the seventeenth century. Mr. W. Gowland,
late of the Japanese Imperial Mint, says that
the casting of a large bell in old times in
Japan was an important event, and was ac-
companied by religious ceremonies and pop-
ular rejoicings. On the day appointed for
running the metal into the mold a grand fes-
tival was held, which people of all ranks
came from far and near to attend, with con-
tributions, many with offerings of mirrors,
hairpins, and metal ornaments, to be added
to the bronze. On one occasion the Shogun
himself was present and took part in the
direction of operations.
Revival of Ramie Cultivation. — The cul-
tivation and treatment of the ramie plant as
an industrial product are again attracting
attention as a field for the profitable employ-
ment of capital. It was apprehended at one
time that the returns from cultivation had
so far fallen short of expectation as to dis-
courage further effort with it. The plant
has, however, been closely studied in all its
phases for three or four years past, and the
processes of decorticating and degumming
the stalks have been established upon a sci-
entific basis. As the ramie gives an exceed-
ingly small quantity of raw fiber — about
three and a half to three per cent of the
weight of the green stalks — the only way of
making it a commercial success has been to
treat it in enormous quantities at the lowest
possible limit of cost. This necessitated the
designing of machines upon the simplest
lines. Many of the machines have recently
been greatly improved, and their mechanism
has been simplified to the apparent limit.
Hence the ramie problem seems to have
been definitely solved.
Overhead Wires and Lightning. — Con-
cerning the influence of overhead electric
wires in reference to safety from lightning,
it is to be remembered, the Lancet says, that
an overhead telephone wire becomes in point
of fact a lightning conductor, and in this
capacity may act in two ways : by equalizing
differences of potential it may prevent the
occurrence of the disruptive discharge; or,
by receiving a lightning charge, it may carry
the current to the earth. There can be lit-
tle doubt that overhead conductors if con-
nected with the earth play an important part
in the distribution of atmospheric electricity.
Lord Kelvin, in a recent paper, said that the
43°
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,
difference of potential he obtained between
the earth and an insulated burning match
placed nine feet above the ground was from
two hundred to four thousand volts. What,
then, is the result of permanently connecting
by a good conductor the earth and the at-
mosphere directly above it, a condition that
exists in the case of single-wire circuits?
Such an arrangement must tend to equalize
potential and prevent the accumulation of
those charged masses which no doubt form
the nucleus of the storm cloud. This equali-
zation will continue to take place in all con-
ditions of weather. But when a storm oc-
curs it is obvious that if struck by lightning
the wire carries the current to the point of
greatest range — viz., to the instrument and
to any one in its vicinity. Therefore, unless
the strictest structural precautions be taken,
such a wire becomes a source of danger
rather than of safety. To obviate this dan-
ger, every post or support for overhead wires
ought to be fitted with a lightning guard,
and every instrument, whether using the
earth as a return or not, should be furnished
with a lightning arrester.
Conditions of Sleep. — Some interesting
experiments on sleep have been made by
Prof. I. Tarchanoff, of St. Petersburg, upon
puppies from three weeks to three months
old. The animals at this age have a strong
disposition to sleep, and are not awakened
even when physiological experiments are
made upon them — a few minutes' stroking
of the head and back assuring the persist-
ence of their slumbers or their return to
sleep if they are aroused. Adult dogs will
not sleep under such circumstances, except
with the aid of a narcotic. Position of the
body exerts a distinct influence on the sleep-
ing. Puppies lightly strapped were placed,
some in a horizontal and others in a ver-
tical position, and of the latter some were
held with the head downward and others
with the tail down. Stroking and caressing
failed to induce sleep only when the head
was kept down. Other experiments demon-
strated that the arterial pressure falls during
sleep, and that when the animal wakes it
returns to its former height. These facts
agree with the statements and observations
of Mr. Darben that the brain is anaemic
during sleep. Further experiments were
made by Prof. Tarchanoff on animals in
which the spinal cord had been divided be-
tween the dorsal and lumbar regions, and the
animals had recovered from the immediate
effects of the injury. The result was ex-
pressed in the observation that the spinal
cord never sleeps. The author thinks, fur-
ther, that the brain is not during sleep in-
active in all its parts, but is a source of
depressed action propagating itself to all
parts of the cord which are in perfect con-
tinuity with the brain.
Physiological Influence of Music. — In
the investigation of the influence of music
on man and animals, Prof. Tarchanoff, of St.
Petersburg, used the ergograph of Mosso,
and found that, if the fingers were com-
pletely fatigued, music had the power of
making the fatigue disappear. It appeared
that music of a sad and lugubrious character
had the opposite effect, and could check or
inhibit the contractions. The author is in-
clined to suppose that the voluntary muscles,
being furnished with excito-motor and de-
pressant fibers, act in reference to the music
similarly to the heart — that is, that joyful
music resounds along the excito-motor fibers
and sad music along the depressant or in-
hibitory fibers. Experiments on dogs showed
that music was capable of increasing the
elimination of carbonic acid by \&'1 per cent,
and of increasing the consumption of oxygen
by 201 per cent. It was also found that
music increases the functional activity of the
skin. The author claims as the result of his
experiments that music may fairly be re-
garded as a serious therapeutic agent, and
that it exercises a genuine and considerable
influence over the functions of the body.
NOTES.
A timely protest is made in the Pharma-
ceutische Rundschau against the proposition
of some pharmaceutical schools to confer the
degree of Doctor of Pharmacy. A forcible
objection to the use of the term doctor in this
connection was uttered in 18*74 by the Board
of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy,
which deprecated the use of that title because
the practices of pharmacy and medicine were
so closely connected with each other that it
would tend to confusion. A dispensing drug-
gist possessing it would be supposed to have
the right to prescribe, and danger of conflict
NOTES.
431
would arise. President Gilman, of Johns
Hopkins University, writes to the editor of
the Rundschau that by expediency, usage,
and justice, " the ancient and honorable title
of a doctor should not be bestowed or ac-
cepted in any unjustified way," and that the
proposed application of it is likely to mislead
the public. Other confusion may arise, too,
from the use of the initials Ph. D., which are
those of Doctor of Philosophy, a degree that
implies the successful pursuit of some special
study. The title of Master of Pharmacy,
already in use, is appropriate and significant,
and should be held sufficient.
A curious theory of the channels on Mars
is propounded by Mr. Tornebohm, of Stock-
holm, which is worth citing for its ingenuity.
With a drier atmosphere and less mountain-
ous relief than the earth, Mars must have
large desert tracts. Across these its enter-
prising inhabitants have constructed trade
roads, which they have furnished with arte-
sian wells and possibly with canals, for the
convenience and facilitation of traffic. This
irrigation has promoted the growth of vege-
tation for a considerable distance back of the
roads on either side, and the dark marks it
makes are what we call the channels.
Objections to the use of wood in warships
arise out of its combustibility and its liability
to splinter. A board of experts commissioned
by the United States Navy Department to
consider the subject of dispensing with it and
of finding a substitute for it, has decided that
the substitute sought. should be light, or not
heavier than wood, nonconducting, noncom-
bustible, and, when struck by shot, should
not fly into splinters. It suggests, as a di-
rection in which the search for a substitute
should be made, to select something in the
nature of cheap wood or vegetable fiber and
fine sawdust; treat them chemically with
some insoluble fireproof substance, not too
heavy ; then press and roll into boards, more
or less dense, according to the use for which
the material is desired.
An international and representative com-
mittee of one hundred and eighty men of
science has been formed for the erection of a
monument to the late Prof, von Helmholtz.
The Emperor of Germany has promised ten
thousand marks and a free site for the pur-
pose.
Thoreau records in his journal how he
witnessed the formation of a ravine in the
course of a February thaw. " Much melted
snow and rain being collected on the top of
the hill, some apparently found its way
through the ground frozen a foot thick, a
few feet from the edge of the bank, and be-
gan, with a small rill, washing down the
slope the unfrozen sand beneath. As the
water continued to flow, the sand on each
side continued to fall into it and be carried
off, leaving the frozen crust above quite firm,
making a bridge five or six feet wide over
this cavern. Now, since the thaw, this
bridge, I see, has melted and fallen in, leav-
ing a ravine some ten feet wide and much
longer, which now may go on increasing from
year to year without limit. I was there just
after it began."
A number of explosions of gas have re-
cently occurred in London, which are sup-
posed to have been connected with the
electric-lighting conduits, though the con-
nection was not in every case traced, so that
Major Cardew, who has investigated them,
has sought for other possible causes. As
shown by his report, the most striking fea-
tures about the accident of four explosions on
Southwark Bridge were the distance to which
a series of explosions may travel along the
electric mains ; the proof the event affords
of the insufficiency of any ordinary ventila-
tion of the pipes and street boxes, if gas can
find an easy access to them ; and the neces-
sity for exercising great care to make and
keep the street boxes impervious to gas.
A section of Anthropology was organized
in connection with the Academy of Natural
Sciences of Philadelphia on the 3d of April
last, under the chairmanship of Harrison
Allen, M. D. The purpose of the section is
the presentation of original papers, the state-
ment of interesting facts, the exhibition of
illustrative objects, and the discussion of the
methods included under the term anthro-
pology. The meetings of the section will be
held at the academy on the evenings of the
second Friday in each month, from Septem-
ber to May. Communications should be ad-
dressed to Charles Morris, Academy of Natu-
ral Sciences, or 2223 Spring Garden Street.
The fourth summer session of the School
of Applied Ethics, at Plymouth, Mass., will
continue from July 7th to August 9th. The
school will embrace four departments :
Economics, Prof. H. C. Adams, director ;
Ethics, Dr. Felix Adler, director; Education,
S. T. Dutton, of Brooklyn, R. G Huling,
Cambridge, Mass., and Paul H. Hanus, of
Harvard University, committee in charge ;
and History of Religions, Prof. C. H. Toy,
director. A large variety of subjects will
be discussed in these departments, with
teachers and specialists of high repute lead-
ing ; and in most of their relations to social
questions those relating to labor will be
held prominent.
Prizes have been awarded by the adjudi-
cators on behalf of the Leprosy Fund in Eng-
land for five papers on leprosy — relating to
the decline and extinction of the disease as
endemic in the British Islands ; its preva-
lence and decline in Iceland ; its increase at
the Cape and prevalence in South Africa ;
its extent and probable causes in Australia ;
and the conditions under which it prevails
in China, Cochin China, Batavia, and the
432
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
Malay Peninsula. On some of the subjects
for which prizes were offered no essays were
sent in, and some of the essays sent in were
held not to meet the terms of the compe-
tition.
A committee of the British House of
Commons appointed to consider the advisa-
bility of adopting the metrical system of
weights and measures has found many con-
siderations in favor of the movement. An
engineering firm has used the system for
several years, having adopted it on account
of the advantage of working interchangea-
bly with engineers on the Continent. Their
workmen were agreed that the entire system
was easier to deal with than the English
measures, and was much less liable to error.
Dr. Gladstone insisted upon the superior fa-
cility of teaching the metric system. As the
children have to learn decimals, very little
more time would be needed by them for
learning the metric system.
OBITUARY NOTES.
Prof. Julius Lothar Meyer, one of the
greatest of chemists, died " suddenly, gently,
and painlessly," at Tubingen, Germany,
April 12th, in the sixty-fifth year of his age.
He was born in 1830; studied at Zurich,
Wiirzburg, Heidelberg, and Konigsberg,
medicine, chemistry, and mathematical phys-
ics ; was graduated doctor of medicine from
Wiirzburg in 1854; received leave to teach
chemistry and physics in 1859 ; and was suc-
cessively engaged in the Physiological Insti-
tute at Breslau, the Royal Prussian Forst-
akademie at Eberswalde, the Polytechnikum
at Carlsruhe, and the University of Tubingen,
where he was professor of chemistry for
nearly twenty years, and where he died. His
reputation as a philosophical chemist was
based upon a work on Modern Theories in
Chemistry, which he published in 1864, and
which has appeared in a fifth edition and in
an English translation. He was preparing a
sixth edition at the time of his death. In
1883 he with Prof. Seubert recalculated the
atomic weights of the elements from the
original data, and published a book embody-
ing their results. He was one of the earliest
investigators of the relations between the
properties and the atomic weights of the
elements, and published a memoir on that
subject in 1869, in which he arranged the
elements in the order of atomic weights, in
a single table, and indicated the periodic
character of the dependence of properties on
atomic weights. On this subject a question
of priority arose between him and Mendc-
leett*. The case appears to be one of those
of which the history of science offers many
illustrations, in which two investigators
reached similar results about the same time
independently. In experimental chemistry,
Lothar Meyer published memoirs in almost
every branch, including those on the atomic
weight of beryllium, on determinations of
vapor densities, on the combustion of carbon
monoxide, on the preparation of hydriodic
acid, on the transpiration of gases, and on
various organic compounds, etc.
Prof. Karl Ludwig, the eminent Ger-
man physiologist, died in Leipsic, April 25th.
He was born at Welzenhausen, in 1816, and
took the degree of doctor in 1839. He be-
came a privat docent at Marburg in 1842 ;
extraordinary professor at Zurich in 1849 ;
ordinary professor in the Academy for Army
Surgeons at Vienna ; and for the last thirty
years was professor of physiology at the
University of Leipsic. His first published
work was on the Mechanism of the Secretion
of Urine. He improved physiological meth-
ods by the introduction of apparatus for the
graphic recording of results ; was the author
of important researches on the circulation of
the blood, on the influence of respiration on
the circulation, and on the action of the me-
dulla oblongata on the circulation ; and he
made very valuable researches on the part
played by the nervous system in glandular
secretion.
Prof. Carl Vogt, an eminent naturalist
and original investigator on his own lines,
from whom the Monthly has published sev-
eral charming as well as instructive articles,
died in Geneva, Switzerland, May 5th. He
was born at Giessen, in 1817, and was par-
ticularly industrious in the study of fresh-
water mollusks. In 1845 he published, with
Prof. Agassiz, a memoir on the anatomy of
fishes of the family Salmonidce, in prepara-
tion for which he had specially studied the
different phases of the development of these
fishes. This was the beginning of the in-
vestigation of the embryology of fishes. He
gained much fame by the researches which
he carried on, under the direction of Agassiz,
on the formation and movement of glaciers,
establishing a station, which was named the
Hotel of the Neufchatelais, on the lower
glacier of the Aar. In his later years he pub-
lished, in conjunction with M. Jung, a treatise
on zoology.
Daniel Kirkwood, late Professor of
Mathematics in Indiana State University, and
a distinguished astronomer, died in Riverside,
Cal., June 11th. He was born in Bladens-
burg, Md., in 1814; studied in the academy
at York, Pa., where he became first assistant
and mathematical instructor ; was appointed
Principal of the High School at Lancaster,
Pa., in 1843 ; Professor of Mathematics in
Delaware College in 1851, and president of
the institution three years later ; and served
thirty years, from 1856 till 1886, as Professor
of Mathematics in Indiana University. He
was a frequent contributor on astronomical
subjects to scientific journals, and published
a book upon the asteroids, or minor planets
between Mars and Jupiter.
CHARLES UPHAM SUEPARD
THE
POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.
AUGUST, 1895.
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS.
IV.— ORATOR AND POET, ACTOR AND DRAMATIST.
By HERBERT SPENCER.
THINGS which during evolution become distinct were of course
originally mingled: the process of evolution implies this.
Already we have seen that in the triumphal reception of the con-
queror, originally spontaneous and rude but in course of time be-
coming an established ceremonial elaborated into definite forms,
there were germs of various arts and the professors of them.
With the beginnings of dancing and music just described, were
joined the beginnings of oratory, poetry, acting and the drama ;
here, for convenience, to be treated of separately. All of them
manifestations of exalted emotion, at first miscellaneous and con-
fused in their display, they only after many repetitions became
regularized and parted out among different persons.
With the shouts of applause greeting David and Saul, came,
from the mouths of some, proclamations of their great deeds ; as,
by Miriam, there had been proclamation of Yahveh's victory over
the Egyptians. Such proclamations, at first brief and simple, ad-
mit of development into long and laudatory speeches ; and, with
utterance of these, begins the orator. Then among orators occa-
sionally arises one more fluent and emotional than ordinary, whose
oration, abounding in picturesque phrases and figures of speech,
grows from time to time rhythmical, and hence the poet. The
laudations, comparatively simple in presence of the living ruler,
and afterward elaborated in the supposed presence of the apoth-
eosized ruler, are, in the last case, sometimes accompanied by
mimetic representations of his achievements. Among children,
everywhere much given to dramatizing the doings of adults, we
VOL. XL VII. 35
434 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
may see that some one of a group, assuming the character of a
personage heard about or read about, imitates his actions, espe-
cially of a destructive kind ; and naturally therefore, in days when
feelings were less restrained than now, adults fell into the same
habit of representing the deeds of the hero they celebrated. The
orator or poet joined with his speech or song the appropriate ac-
tions, or else these were simultaneously given by some other cele-
brant. And then, when further developments brought represen-
tations of more complex incidents, in which the victories of the
hero and his companions over enemies were shown, the leading
actor, having to direct the doings of subordinates, became a
dramatist.
From this sketch of incipient stages based on established facts,
but partly hypothetical, let us pass to the justifying evidence,
supplied by uncivilized races and by early civilized races.
If we take first the usages of peoples among whom the musical
faculty is not much developed we meet with the lauding official in
his simplest form — the orator. Says Erskine of the Fijians, each
tribe has its " orator, to make orations on occasions of ceremony,
or to assist the priest and chief in exciting the courage of the
people before going to battle " : the encouragement being doubt-
less in large measure eulogy of the chief's past deeds and asser-
tions of his coming prowess. So is it among the New Cale-
donians.
In Tanna "every village has its orators. In public harangues these
men chant their speeches, and walk about in peripatetic fashion, from the
circumference into the center of the marum [forum], laying off their sen-
tences at the same time with the nourish of a club'' : [a dramatic accom-
paniment.]
And, according to Ellis, the Tahitians furnish like facts. Of
their " orators of battle " he says —
" The principal object of these Rautis was, to animate the troops by re-
counting the deeds of their forefathers, the fame of their tribe or island, the
martial powers of their favoring gods,1' etc.
The Negro races have commonly large endowments of musical
faculty. Among them, as we have seen, laudatory orations as-
sume a musical form ; and, in doing so, necessarily become meas-
ured. For while spoken utterances may be, and usually are,
irregular utterances which, being musical, include the element of
time, are thereby in some degree regularized. On reading that
among the Marutse, those who " screech out the king's praises "
do so to a muffled accompaniment of their instruments," we must
infer that, as the sounds of their instruments must have some
rhythmical order, so too must their words. Similarly the Mon-
butto ballad- singers, whose function it is to glorify the king, must
fall into versified expression of their eulogies. The " troop of
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 435
laureates or bards " kept at the Dahoman court, can not utter
their praises in chorus without having these praises rhythmically
arranged. So, too, in Ashanti and among the Mandingos, the
laudations shouted before their chief men, having assumed the
form of songs, must have verged into speech more measured than
usual. Other uncivilized peoples show us the official orator and
poet giving to his applause a musical form which must, by impli-
cation, be rhythmical. Atkinson says : —
'' The Sultan ordered his poet to sing for us. The man obeyed, and
chanted forth songs, describing the prowess and successful plundering
expeditions of my host and his ancestors, which called forth thunders of
applause from the tribe."
Among these African peoples, however, and the nomadic peoples
of Asia just named, eulogies of the living ruler, whether or not
with rhythmical words and musical utterance, are but little, or
not at all, accompanied by eulogies of the apotheosized ruler, hav-
ing a kindred form but with priests in place of courtiers. Why
is this ? There appear to be two reasons, of which perhaps one is
primary and the other secondary. We have seen that among the
Negro peoples in general, ideas about life after death, where they
exist, are undeveloped. The notion is that the double of the dead
man does not long remain extant : when there are no longer any
dreams about him he is supposed to have perished finally. Con-
sequently, propitiation of his ghost does not grow into a cult, as
where there has arisen the notion that he is immortal. And, then,
possibly because of this, African kingdoms are but temporary. It
is remarked that from time to time there arises some powerful
chief who conquers and consolidates neighboring tribes and so
forms a kingdom ; but that after a generation or two this ordi-
narily dissolves again. We have seen how powerful an aid to con-
solidation and permanence is the supposed supernatural power of
a deceased ruler ; and hence it appears not improbable that the
lack of this belief in an immortal god, and consequent lack of the
established worship of one, is a chief cause of the transitory nature
of the African monarchies.
This supposition harmonizes with the facts presented to us by
ancient civilized societies, in which, along with praises of the
living ruler, there went more elaborate praises of the dead and
deified ruler.
Egypt furnishes instances of poetic laudations of both. Pre-
ceding a eulogy of Seti I, it is written : —
" The priests, the great ones, and the most distinguished men of South
and North Egypt have arrived to praise the divine benefactor on his return
from the land of Ruthen." Then follows a song " in praise of the king and
in glorification of his fame."
43 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
So too Rameses II is glorified in "the heroic poem of the priest
Pentaur." In the eighteenth dynasty we see the two functions
united.
'' An unknown poet, out of the number of the holy fathers, felt himself
inspired to sing in measured words the glory of the king [Thutmes III], and
the might and grandeur of the god Amon."
And then we have the acts, wholly priestly, of —
"the nobleman who bore the dignity of 'prophet of the Pyramid of
Pharaoh.' This officer's duty was to praise the memory of the deceased
king, and to devote the god-like image of the sovereign to enduring remem-
brance."
Still better and more abundant evidence is furnished by ac-
counts of the early Greeks. The incipient poet, as eulogizer of the
god, is priestly in his character and at first is an official priest.
Concerning the Greeks of rude times Muir writes — " Hence, in
their traditions, the character of poet is usually found to combine
those of musiciau, priest, prophet, and sage ;" and he adds that —
The mythical poet Olen " ranks as the earliest and most illustrious priest
and poet of the Delian Apollo . . . Bceo, a celebrated priestess of that sanc-
tuary [the Delphic], pronounces him ... to be, not only the most antient
of Apollo's prophets, but of all poets."
We are told by Mahaffy that " the poems attributed to these men
[poets prior to Homer] . . . were all strictly religious."
"The hexameter verse was commonly attributed to the Delphic priests, who
were said to have invented and used it in oracles. In other words, it was
early used in religious poetry . . . There is no doubt that the priests did
compose such works [long poems] for the purpose of teaching the attributes
and adventures of the gods. Thus epic poetry [was at first] purely reli-
gious . . . Homer and Hesiod represent the close of a long epoch. "
And that their poetry arose by differentiation from sacred poetry,
is implied in his further remark that in Homer's time, " the wars
and adventures, and passions of men, had become the center of in-
terest among the poets." This partially secularized poetry at a
later date became further secularized, while it became further dif-
ferentiated from music. The hymn of the primitive priest-poet
was uttered to the accompaniment of his four-stringed lyre, in a
voice more sonorous than ordinary speech — not in song, as we
understand it, but in recitative ; and, as Dr. Monro argues, a vague
recitative — a recitative akin to the intoning of the liturgy by our
own priests, and to the exalted utterance spontaneously fallen into
under religious excitement.* But in course of time, this quasi-
* In his learned work, The Modes of Ancient Greek Music, he writes : — " Several indica-
tions combine to make it probable that singing and speaking were not so widely separated
from each other in Greek as in the modern languages with which we are most familiar."
(p. 113) . . .
..." For if the language even in its colloquial form had qualities of rhythm and into-
nation which gave it this peculiar half-musical character, so that singing and speaking were
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 437
musical utterance of hexameters was dropped by a certain derived
secular class, the Rhapsodists. These, who recited at courts " the
books [of Homer] separately, some one, some the other, at the
feasts or public solemnities of the Greek cities," and who them-
selves sometimes composed "dedicatory prologues or epilogues
in honor of the deities with whose festivals such public per-
formances were connected," and became in so far themselves
poets, were distinguished from the early poets by their non-
musical speech.
"While the latter sang, solely or chiefly, bis own compositions to the
accompaniment of his lyre, the rhapsodist, bearing a laurel branch or wand
as his badge of office, rehearsed, without musical accompaniment, the poems
of others: " [sometimes, as above said, joined with his own].
Thus there simultaneously arose a class of secular poets and a
divergence of poetry from song.
A parallel genesis occurred among the Romans. Though
its sequences were broken, its beginning was the same. Says
Grimm —
. . . "Poetry borders so closely on divination, the Roman vates is alike
songster and soothsayer, and soothsaying was certainly a priestly function."
Congruous with this is the statement that —
"Roman religion was a ceremonial for the priests, not for the people;
and its poetry was merely formulae in verse, and soared no higher than the
semi-barbarous ejaculations of the Salian priests or the Arvolian brother-
hood."
The more elaborated forms of religious ceremony appear to have
been imported from subjugated countries — the sacred games from
Etruria, and other observances from Greece. Hence the Romans
being the conquerors, it seems to have resulted that the arts, and
among others the art of poetry, brought with them by the cap-
tives, were for a long period lightly thought of by their captors.
Having no commission from the gods, the professors of it were
treated with contempt and their function entirely secularized. So
that, as Mommsen writes : —
" The poet or, as he was at this time called, the " writer," the actor and the
composer, not only belonged still, as formerly, to the despised class of la-
borers for hire, but were still, as formerly, placed in the most marked way
under the ban of public opinion, and subjected to police mahreatment."
With like implications in a later chapter he adds : —
" None of those who in this age appeared as poets before the public, as we
have already said, can be shown to have been noble, and not only so, but
none can be shown to have been natives of Latium proper."
more closely akin than they ever are in our experience, we may expect to find that music
was influenced in some measure by this state of things." (p. 119).
Thus it is clear that the primitive priest-poet of the Greeks was simply an emotionally-
excited orator, whose speech diverged from the common speech by becoming more measured
and more intoned.
438 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
More coherent evidence concerning the differentiation of the poet
from the priest is hardly to be expected where, instead of a con-
tinuous evolution of one society, we have an agglomeration of
societies, in which the conquering society from the beginning
incorporated other ideas and usages with its own.
When, from Southern Europe of early days, we turn to North-
ern Europe, we meet, in Scandinavia, with evidence of a connec-
tion between the primitive poet and the medicine-man. Speaking
of the " diviners, both male and female, honored with the name of
prophets," who were believed to have power to force the ghosts of
the "dead to tell them what would happen," Mallet says that
" poetry was often employed for the like absurd purposes : " these
same skalds or bards were supposed to achieve this end " by force
of certain songs which they knew how to compose." At the same
time that these poets and musicians of the ancient northern na-
tions invoked the spirits of the departed in verses which most
likely lauded them, they " were considered as necessary appendages
to royalty, and even the inferior chieftains had their poets." The
Celts had kindred functionaries, whose actions were evidently
similar to those of the Greek priest-poets. Says Pelloutier, basing
his statement on Strabo, Lucan, and others : —
"Les Bardes, qui faisoient [des] Hymnes, etoient Poetes et Musiciens;
ils composoient les paroles, et l'air sur lequel on les chantoit."
The use of the word "hymnes" apparently implying that their
songs had something of a sacred character. That the connection
between poet and priest survived, or was re-established, after
paganism had been replaced by Christianity, there is good evi-
dence. In the words of Mills —
" Every page of early European history attests the sacred consideration
of the minstrel ; " his peculiar dress " was fashioned like a sacerdotal robe."
And Fauriel asserts that —
" Almost all the most celebrated troubadours died in the cloister and under
the monk's habit."
But it seems a probable inference that after Christianity had sub-
jugated paganism, the priest-poet of the pagans, who originally
lauded now the living chief and now the deified chief, gradually
ceased to have the latter function and became eventually the
ruler's laureate. "We read that —
" A joculator, or bard, was an officer belonging to the court of William
the Conqueror."
" A poet seems to have been a stated officer in the royal retinue when
the king went to war."
And among ourselves such official laureateship still survives, or
is but just dying.
While the eulogizer of the visible ruler thus became a court-
functionary, the eulogizers of the invisible ruler — no longer an
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 439
indigenous deity, but one of foreign origin — came to be bis priests ;
and in tbat capacity praised biin, sometimes in poetical, sometimes
in oratorical, form. Throughout Christendom from early times
down to ours, religious services have emphasized in various pro-
portions the different attributes of the deity — now chiefly his
anger and revenge, now chiefly his goodness, love, and mercy ;
but they have united in ceaseless exaltation of his power; and
the varieties of oral admiration, of invocation, of devotion, have
been partly in prose and partly in verse. All along the Church-
service has had for its subject-matter this or that part of the divine
story, and all along it has embodied its ideas and feelings in a
semi-rhythmical liturgy, in hymns, in the orations which we call
sermons : each of them having in one way or other the laudatory
character. So that the Christian priest has throughout stood in
substantially the same relation to the being worshiped, as did the
pagan priest, and has perpetually used kindred vehicles of ex-
pression.
While the Christian priest has been officially one who repeated
the laudations already elaborated and established, he has also
been to a considerable extent an originator, alike of orations and
poems. Limiting ourselves to our own country, and passing over
the ancient bards, such as Taliesin and Merlin, whose verses were
in praise of living and dead pagan heroes, and coming to the poets
of the new religion, we see that the first of them Cssdmon, a con-
vert who became inmate of a monastery, rendered in metrical
form the story of creation and sundry other sacred stories — a
variously elaborated eulogy of the deity. The next poet named
is Aldhelm, a monk. The clerical Bede again, known mainly by
other achievements, was a poet, too ; as was likewise bishop Cyne-
wulf. For a long time after, the men mentioned as writers of
verse were ecclesiastics ; as was Henry of Huntingdon, a prior ;
Geraldus Cambrensis, archdeacon ; Layamon, priest ; and Nicholas
of Guildford. Not until Edward Ill's reign do we find mention
of a secular song-writer — Minot ; and then we come to our first
great poet, Chaucer, who, whether or not " of Cambridge, clerk,"
as is suspected, became court-poet and occupied himself mainly
with secular poetry. After this the differentiation of the secular
verse- writer from the sacred verse-writer became more marked,
as we see in the case of Gower ; but still, while the subject-matter
of the poems became more secularized, as with Langland and
with Barbour, the ecclesiastical connection remained dominant.
Lydgate was priest, orator and poet ; Occleve, poet and civil serv-
ant ; William of Massington, proctor and poet ; Juliana Berners,
prioress and secular poetess ; Henryson, schoolmaster and poet ;
Skelton, priest and poet laureate ; Dunbar, prior and secular poet ;
Douglas, rector and court-poet ; Barclay, priest and poet ; Hawes,
440 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
priest and poet; and so on. It should be added that one of the
functions of the clergyman has been the writing of laudatory
hymns — hymns composed now by ordained ecclesiastics, now by
dissenting ministers. These facts, joined with facts of recent
times, make it clear that as in pagan societies, so in Christian
societies, the priest-poet, appointed eulogizer of the deity he
serves, is the first poet; and that the poets we distinguish as
secular have gradually arisen by differentiation from him.
Along with the divergence of secular poets from sacred poets
there have arisen divergences within the assemblage of secular
poets themselves. There have come the mainly epic, as Milton ;
the didactic, as Pope ; the satiric, as Butler ; the descriptive, as
Wordsworth ; the comic, as Hood.
From those official praisers of the hero or god whose lauda-
tions take the form of speech, non-rhythmical or rhythmical, we
pass to those whose laudations take the form of mimetic actions
— who express the triumphs of the deified ruler by imitations of
his deeds. United as the two originally were, they diverge and
develop along their respective lines.
Existing savages yield illustrations of the primitive union of
vocal laudation and mimetic laudation. Concerning the Point
Barrow Eskimo we read : —
" The most important festivals are apparently semi-religious in character
and partake strongly of the nature of dramatic representations. . . . All
festivals are accompanied by singing1, drumming', and daucing."
More detailed evidence is supplied by an official account of the
Navajo Indians, from which here are relevant passages : —
" Hasjelti Dailjis, in the Navajo tongue, signifies the dance of Hasjelti,
who is the chief or rather the most important and conspicuous of the gods.
The word dance does not well designate the ceremonies, as they are in gen-
eral more histrionic than saltatory. . . . The personation of the various gods
and their attendants and the acted drama of their mythical adventures and
displayed powers exhibit features of peculiar interest. . . . Yet, from what
is known of isolated and fragmentary parts of the dramatized myths, it is to
he inferred that every one of the strictly regulated and prescribed actions
has or has had a special significance, and it is obvious that they are all
maintained with strict religious scrupulosity."
And it is added that each of these observances " clearly offers a
bribe or proposes the terms of a bargain to the divinities."
Noting next the evidence furnished by Ancient India, we are
led to infer that there, as elsewhere, the triumphal reception of a
conqueror was the observance from which sprang the dramatic
art, along with the arts we have thus far contemplated. Weber
writes —
" Next to the epic, as the second phase in the development of Sanskrit
poetry, comes the Drama. The name for it is Ndtaka, and the player is
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 441
styled Nata, literally 'dancer.' Etymology thus points to the fact that the
drama has developed out of dancing", which was probably accompanied, at
first with music and song only, but in course of time also with pantomimic
representations, processions, and dialogue."
And though, himself offering another interpretation, he quotes
Lassen to the effect that —
" The Indian drama, after having acquitted itself brilliantly in the most
varied fields — notably too as a drama of civil life — finally reverted in its
closing phases to essentially the same class of subjects with which it had
started — to representations from the story of the gods."
Greek history yields various facts of like meaning. In Spar-
ta—
"The singing chorus danoed around it ['the sacrifice . . . burning on
the altar'] in the customary ring ; while others represented the subject of
the song by mimic gesture."
That the drama had a religious origin is shown by the fact that
it continued always to have a religious character. Says Moulton —
" the performance of every drama was regarded by the ancients as
an act of worship to Dionysus." And to like effect is the state-
ment of Mahaffy that — " the old Greek went to the theater to
honor and serve his god." The dramatic element of religious
ceremonies was at first mingled with the other elements, as is
implied by Grote, who speaks of the importance of the united
religious celebrants —
" in the ' ancient ' world, and especially in the earlier periods of its career —
the bards and rhapsodes for the epic, the singers for the lyric, the actors
and singers jointly with the dancers for the chorus and drama. The lyric
and dramatic poets taught with their own lips the delivery of their com-
positions."
The process of differentiation by which the drama arose is well
shown by the following extracts from Moulton : —
" Only one of these Ballad-Dances was destined to develop into drama.
This was the Dithyramb, the dance used in the festival worship of the god
Dionysus.
"... the ' mysteries ' of ancient religion were mystic dramas in which
the divine story was conveyed."
" The choi*us started from the altar in the center of the orchestra, and
their evolutions took them to the right. This would constitute a Strophe,
whereupon (as the word 'Strophe' implies) they turned round and in the
Antistrophe worked their way back to the altar again."
In lyric tragedy " the Chorus appears as Satyrs in honor of Dionysus, to
whose glory the legend is a tribute ; they maintain throughout the com-
bination of chant, music, and dance."
"The work of Thespis was to introduce an 'actor,' separate altogether
from the chorus."
That along with differentiation of the drama from other social
products there went differentiation of the dramatist and the actor
from other persons and from one another, may fairly be inferred,
however little able we may be to trace the process. Already, by
442 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
the above extract from Grote, we are shown that a leading actor
gave oral directions to subordinate actors ; and in doing this he
assumed to some extent the character of dramatist. Before the
rise of a written literature no greater distinction could be made ;
but after written literature arose, the dramatist proper became
possible. Still, it is to be observed that in the productions of the
great dramatic writers of Greece, the original relations continued
to be shown. As Moulton remarks : —
" Tragedy never ceased to be a solemn religious and national festival,
celebrated in a building which was regarded as the temple of Dionysus,
whose altar was the most prominent object in the orchestra."
And the subject-matter continued in late days as in early days to
be, in chief measure, the doings of the gods. An illustration is
furnished by Mahaff y, who says : —
"We hear in the days of the Ptolemies about 250 B. c, of a regular
symphony at a Delphic feast, in which the contest of Apollo and the
Python was represented in fiye movements with the aid of flutes (or rather
clarinettes, avXoi), harps, and fifes without singing or libretto."
Clearly this incident, which while mainly showing the develop-
ment of instrumental music, shows also the kind of theme chosen.
But when we come to the comedies of Aristophanes we see a com-
plete secularization.
Partly because, as pointed out above in following the genesis
of the poet, so much of Roman civilization was not indigenous
but foreign, and partly because Roman life, entirely militant, led
to a contempt for all non-militant occupations (as happens every-
where) ; the rise of the dramatist in Rome is indefinite. Still we
find indications akin to the foregoing. Duruy, in agreement with
Guhl and Koner, writes that —
In 36.4 during a pestilence the Romans applied to the Etruscans who
" replied that the gods would be satisfied if they were honored by scenic
games, and, that the Romans might be able to celebrate these games, they
sent them at the same time actors, who executed religious dances to the
sound of the flute . . . the pestilence then ended."
And he goes on to say that —
"Young Romans learnt the dances introduced from Etruria, and
marked the rhythm of them by songs, often improvised, which ended by
being accompanied with action. Roman comedy was discovered."
In Rome as in Greece an idea of sacredness long attached to the
drama. "'Varo,' says St. Augustine, 'ranks theatrical things
with things divine.'" This conception of sacredness, however,
was congruous with their conceptions of the gods, and widely
different from sacredness as understood by us.
'• The subjects of the pantomime were taken from the myths of gods and
heroes, the actor having to represent male and female characters by turns,
while a choir, accompanied by flute-players, sang the corresponding can-
ticum."
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTION'S. 443
"Sometimes mythological scenes were performed in the arena with
cruel accuracy. Condemned criminals had to mount the pyre like Her-
cules, or to give their hand to the flames like Mucius Scaevola, or to be cru-
cified like Laureolus the robber; others were torn by bears, in imitation of
the fate of Orpheus."
Having usually been an alien and possessing no odor of sanctity
derived from his traditional religious function, —
The actor u was ranked with slaves and barbarians ... he generally
was a slave or freedman, or a native of some country where his profession
was more esteemed, such as the Greek colonies and the East generally."
Little as one might have expected it, we find that the pagan
genesis of the drama was paralleled by the Christian regenesis
of it in mediseval Europe. It commenced, as in India, Greece,
and Rome, with representations of sacred subjects by priestly
actors. Incidents in the life of the god were dramatically repeated
in edifices devoted to his worship.
u The circumstance that the ritual was carried on in Latin naturally led to
its being supplemented on pai'ticular occasions with sacred scenes or lessons
acted to the ignorant."
" Thus the raison d'etre of the mysteries and miracle plays was to act
stories from Scripture or the lives of Saints, or embodying central doctrines
such as the incarnation, for the benefit of a populace unable to read for
themselves."
But there are confused evidences and conflicting opinions respect-
ing dramatic representations in early Christian days — secular and
sacred origins appearing to be mingled. We read that " some-
times when a sufficient number of clerical actors were not to be
procured, the churchwardens . . . caused the plays to be acted by
secular players." And in the same work we also read that " com-
plaint [to Richard II] is made against the secular actors, because
they took upon themselves to act plays composed from scripture
history, to the great prejudice of the clergy." But in another
passage the writer, Strutt, says that these acted mysteries " differed
greatly from the secular plays and interludes which were acted
by strolling companies, composed of minstrels, jugglers, tumblers,
dancers, bourdours or jesters . . . these pastimes are of higher an-
tiquity than the ecclesiastical plays." Not improbably such com-
panies may have survived from pagan times, in which their
representations formed part of the pagan worship: losing their
original meanings, as did the songs of the minstrels. This view
seems congruous with the opinion that the secular drama did not
arise by direct descent from the mystery-plays, but that, influ-
enced by the familiarity of its writers both with them and with
the popular exhibitions, it took its definite form mainly by sug-
gestion of the classic drama : a supposition favored by the fact
that in various Elizabethan plays a chorus is introduced. Be this
444 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
as it may, however, the general implication remains the same.
There arose in Christendom, as in Greece, a sacred drama per-
formed by priests and representing incidents in the sacred story ;
and if our secular drama did not directly descend from this Chris-
tian religious drama, then it indirectly descended from the original
pagan religious drama.
Along with the rise of the secular drama have arisen minor
differentiations. The separation between actor and dramatist,
though still not complete, has become greater; most dramatic
authors are not actors. And then the dramatic authors are now
distinguished into those known as producers chiefly of tragedy,
comedy, melodrama, farce, burlesque.
We meet here with no exception to the general law that segre-
gation and consolidation are parts of the evolutionary process.
Beginning with Greece we trace the tendency even among the
poets. Curtius remarks that "poetry like the other arts was first
cultivated in circles limited after the fashion of guilds." And the
religious character of these guilds is shown by the further state-
ment that " schools of poets came to form themselves which were
. . . intimately connected with the sanctuary."
Naturally the process readily took place with those occupied in
combined representations ; for they, as a matter of necessity, ex-
isted as companies. But there early arose more definite unions
among them. Mahaffy says, concerning the Greeks, that —
" Inscriptions reveal to us the existence of guilds of professionals who
went about Greece to these local feasts, and performed for very high pay."
And he further states that —
The actors' " corporation included a priest (of Dionysus) at the head, who
still remained a performer ; a treasurer ; dramatic poets of new tragedies
and comedies and odes ; principal actors of both tragedy and comedy . . .
and musicians of various kinds.''
From Rome, for reasons already indicated, we do not get much
evidence. Still there is some.
The authorities . . . out of regard for the Greek Andronikos " conceded
to the guild of poets and actors a place for their common worship in the
temple of Minerva."
Nor do modern days fail to furnish a few, though not many, illus-
trations of the integrating tendency. A slight organization is
given by the Actors' Benevolent Fund. The dramatic writers
have an agency for collecting the amounts due to them for the
performance of their pieces, and are to that extent combined.
And then we have a special newspaper, The Era, which forms a
medium for communication, by advertisements, between all kinds
of stage-performers and those who wish to engage them, as well
as an organ for representing the interests of the stage and the
semi-dramatic music-hall.
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 445
[After the above chapter was written my attention was drawn
to a passage in the late Prof. Henry Morley's work, A First Sketch
of English Literature (p. 209), which in short space yields verifica-
tion for the various leading propositions contained in it and in the
preceding chapter : —
" Our English ballads are akin to those which also among the Scandina-
vians became a familiar social amusement of the people. They were recited
by one of a company with animation and with varying expression, while
the rest kept time, often with joined hands forming a circle, advancing,
retiring, balancing, sometimes remaining still, and, by various movements
and gestures, followed changes of emotion in the story. Not only in Spain
did the people keep time by dance movement to the measure of the ballad,
for even to this day one may see, in the Faroe Islands, how winter evenings
of the North were cheered with ballad recitations, during which, according
to the old northern fashion, gestures and movements of the listeners ex-
pressed emotions of the story as the people danced to their old ballads and
songs."
Here, then, as in the Hebrew triumphal reception of the living
hero, and the Greek worship of the apotheosized hero, we see a
union of music and the dance, and with them a union of rhyth-
mical speech with some dramatic representation of the incidents
described, and of the emotions caused by the description. We see
that everywhere there has tended to bud out afresh the combined
manifestations of exalted feeling from which these various arts
originate. Another fact is forced upon our attention. We are
shown that in all cases, while there arises some one of a group
who becomes singer or reciter, the rest assume the character of
chorus. This segregation, which characterized the religious wor-
ship of the Greeks and characterized also their dramatic repre-
sentations, is not only displayed in later times by the cathedral
choir, which shares the service with the solo-singers, and by the
operatic chorus which does the like on the stage, but is also
displayed by the choral accompanists described in the above
passage, and even now survives among us as the chorus which
habitually winds up the successive verses of a convivial song
in a public house.]
Describing a lecture by Dean Buckland on Kent's Cavern, Sir Henry Ackland
says that the lecturer "paced like a Franciscan preacher up and clown behind a
long show-case, up two steps, in a room in the old Clarendon (at Oxford). He
had in his hands a huge hyena's skull. He suddenly dashed down the steps,
rushed, skull in hand, at the first undergraduate on the front bench, and shouted,
'What rules the world?' The youth, terrified, threw himself against the next
back seat, and auswered not a word. He rushed then on me, pointing the hyena
full iu my face: 'What rules the world?' 'Haven't an idea,' I said. 'The
stomach, sir,' he said (again mounting his rostrum), 'rules the world. The great
ones eat the less, and the less the lesser still.' "
44.6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE.
XX.— FROM THE DIVINE ORACLES TO THE HIGHER CRITICISM.
Br ANDREW DICKSON WHITE, LL. D. (Yale), Ph. D. (Jena),
FORMERLY PRESIDENT OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
III. THE CONTINUED GROWTH OP SCIENTIFIC INTERPRETATION.
THE science of biblical criticism was, as we have seen, first
developed mainly in Germany and Holland. Many considera-
tions there, as elsewhere, combined to deter men from opening
new paths to truth : not even in those countries were these the
paths to preferment ; but there at least the sturdy Teutonic love
of truth for truth's sake found no such obstacles as in other parts
of Europe. Fair investigation of biblical subjects had not there
been extirpated, as in Italy and Spain ; nor had it been forced into
channels which led nowhither, as in France and southern Ger-
many ; nor were men who might otherwise have pursued it
dazzled and drawn away from it by the multitude of splendid
prizes for plausibility, for sophistry, or for silence displayed be-
fore the ecclesiastical vision in England. In the frugal homes
of North German and Dutch professors and pastors high think-
ing on these great subjects went steadily on, and the " liberty of
teaching," which is the glory of the northern Continental univer-
sities, while it did not secure honest thinkers against vexations,
did at least protect them against the persecutions which, in other
countries, would have thwarted their studies, and starved their
families.
In England the admission of the new current of thought was
apparently impossible. The traditional system of biblical inter-
pretation seemed established on British soil forever. It was knit
into the whole fabric of thought and observance ; it was protected
by the most justly esteemed hierarchy the world has ever seen ; it
was intrenched behind the bishops' palaces, the cathedral stalls,
the professors' chairs, the country parsonages — all these, as a rule,
the seats of high endeavor and beautiful culture. The older
thought held a controlling voice in the senate of the nation, it was
dear to the hearts of all classes, it was superbly endowed, every
strong thinker seemed to hold a brief for it, or to be in receipt of
its retaining fee.
While there was inevitably much alloy of worldly wisdom in
the opposition to the new current, no just thinker can deny far
higher motives to many, perhaps to most, of the ecclesiastics who
were resolute against it. The evangelical movement incarnate in
the Wesleys had not spent its strength ; the movement initiated
by Pusey, Newman, Keble, and their compeers was in full force.
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 447
The aesthetic reaction, represented on the Continent by Chateau-
briand, Manzoni, and Victor Hugo, and in England by Walter
Scott, Pugin, Rnskin, and, above all, by Wordsworth, came in to
give strength to this barrier. Under the magic of the men who
led in this reaction, cathedrals and churches, which, in the pre-
vious century had been regarded by men of culture as mere bar-
baric masses of stone and mortar, to be masked without by classic
colonnades and within by rococo work in stucco and papier maclie,
became even more beloved than in the thirteenth century. Even
men who were repelled by theological disputations were fascinated
and made devoted reactionists by the newly revealed beauties of
mediaeval architecture and ritual.*
The center and fortress of this vast system, and of the reaction
against the philosophy of the eighteenth century, was the Uni-
versity of Oxford. Orthodoxy was its vaunt, and a special expo-
nent of its spirit and object of its admiration was its member of
Parliament, Mr. William Ewart Gladstone, who, having begun
his political career by a labored plea for tbe union of church and
state, ended it by giving that union what is likely to be a death-
blow. The mob at the circus of Constantinople in the days of
the Byzantine emperors was not more wildly orthodox than the
mob of students at this foremost seat of learning of the Anglo-
Saxon race during the middle decades of the nineteenth century.
A curious proof of this had been displayed just before the end of
that period. The minister of the United States at the Court of
St. James was then Edward Everett. He was undoubtedly the
most accomplished scholar and one of the foremost statesmen that
America had produced ; his eloquence in early life had made him
perhaps the most admired of American preachers ; his classical
learning had at a later period made him Professor of Greek &i
Harvard ; he had successfully edited the leading American review,
and had taken a high place in American literature ; he had been
ten years a member of Congress ; he had been again and again
elected Governor of Massachusetts ; and in all these posts he had
* A very curious example of this insensibility of persons of really high culture is to be
found in American literature toward the end of the eighteenth century. Mrs. Adams, wife
of John Adams, afterward President of the United States, but at that time Minister to
England, one of the most gifted women of her time, speaking, in her very interesting
letters from England, of her journey to the seashore, refers to Canterbury Cathedral, seen
from her carriage windows, and which she evidently did not take the trouble to enter, as
" looking like a vast prison." So, too, about the same time, Thomas Jefferson, the Amer-
ican plenipotentiary in France, a devoted lover of classical and Renaissance architecture,
giving an account of his journey from Strasburg to Paris, never refers to any of the beautiful
cathedrals or churches upon his route.
For the alloy of interested motives among English church dignitaries, see the pungent
criticism of Bishop Hampden by Canon Liddon, in his Life of Pusey, vol. i, p. 363.
448 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
shown amply those qualities which afterward made him Presi-
dent of Harvard, Secretary of State of the United States, and a
United States Senator. His character and attainments were of
the highest, and, as he was then occupying the foremost place in
the diplomatic service of his country, he was invited to receive an
appropriate honorary degree at Oxford. But on his presentation
for it in the Sheldonian Theater there came a revelation to the
people he represented, and indeed to all Christendom: a riot
having been carefully prepared beforehand by sundry zealots,
he was most grossly and ingeniously insulted by the mob of un-
dergraduates and bachelors of arts in the galleries and masters
of arts on the floor ; and the reason for this was that, though by
no means radical in his religious opinions, he was thought to
have been in his early life, and to be possibly at that time, below
what was then the Oxford fashion in belief, or rather feeling,
regarding the mystery of the Trinity.
At the center of biblical teaching at Oxford sat Pusey, Regius
Professor of Hebrew, a scholar who had himself remained for a
time at a German university, and who early in life had embodied
so much of the German spirit as to expose himself to suspicion
and even to attack. One charge against him at that time shows
curiously what was then expected of a man perfectly sound in the
older Anglican theology. He had ventured to defend Holy Writ
with the argument that there were fishes actually existing which
could have swallowed the prophet Jonah. The argument proved
unfortunate. He was attacked on the scriptural ground that the
fish which swallowed Jonah was created for that express purpose.
He, like others, fell back under the charm of the old system:
his ideas gave force to the reaction : in the quiet of his study,
which, especially after the death of his son, became a hermitage,
he relapsed into patristic and mediaeval conceptions of Christian-
ity, enforcing them from the pulpit and in his published works.
He now virtually accepted the famous dictum of St. Hilary of
Poictiers — that one is first to find what is to be believed, and then
to search the Scriptures for proofs of it. His devotion to the
main features of the older interpretation was seen at its strongest
in his utterances regarding the book of Daniel. Just as Cardinal
Bellarmine had insisted that the doctrine of the Incarnation de-
pends upon the retention of the Ptolemaic astronomy ; just as
Wesley had insisted that the truth of the Bible depends on the
reality of witchcraft ; just as Peter Martyr had made everything
sacred depend on the literal acceptance of Genesis ; just as Bishop
Warburton had insisted that Christianity absolutely depends
upon a right interpretation of the prophecies regarding Anti-
christ— so did Pusey now virtually insist that the whole claim of
Christianity upon the world depends upon the early date of the
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 449
book of Daniel. Happily, though, the Ptolemaic astronomy and
witchcraft, and the Genesis legends of Creation, and the prophe-
cies regarding Antichrist, and the early date of the book of Daniel
have now been relegated to the limbo of delusions, Christianity
has but come forth the stronger.
Nothing seemed less likely than that such a vast intrenched
camp as that of which Oxford was the center could be carried by
an effort proceeding from a few isolated German and Dutch
scholars. Yet it was the unexpected which occurred ; and it is
instructive to note that, even at the period when the champions
of the older thought were to all appearance impregnably in-
trenched in England, a way had been opened into their citadel,
and that the most effective agents in preparing it were really the
very men in the universities and cathedral chapters who had
most distinguished themselves by uncompromising and intolerant
orthodoxy.
A rapid survey of the history of general literary criticism at
that epoch will reveal this fact fully. During the last decade
of the seventeenth century there had taken place the famous con-
troversy over the Letters of Phalaris, in which, against Charles
Boyle and his supporters at Oxford, was pitted Richard Bentley
at Cambridge, who insisted that the letters were spurious. In the
series of battles royal which followed, although Boyle, aided by
Atterbury, afterward so noted for his mingled ecclesiastical and
political intrigues, had gained a temporary triumph by wit and
humor, Bentley's final attack had proved irresistible. Drawing
from the stores of his wonderfully wide and minute knowledge,
he showed that the letters could not have been written in the
time of Phalaris — proving this by an exhibition of their style,
which could not then have been in use, of their reference to
events which had not then taken place, and of a mass of consid-
erations which no one but a scholar almost miraculously gifted
could have marshaled so fully. The controversy had attracted
attention not only in England but throughout Europe. With
Bentley's reply it had ended. In spite of public applause at
Atterbury 's wit, scholars throughout the world acknowledged
Bentley's victory: he was recognized as the foremost classical
scholar of his time; the mastership of Trinity, which he ac-
cepted, and the Bristol bishopric, which he rejected, were his
formal reward.
Although in his new position as head of the greatest college in
England, he went to extreme lengths on the orthodox side in bib-
lical theology, consenting even to support the doctrine that the
Hebrew punctuation was divinely inspired, this was as nothing
compared with the influence of the system of criticism which he
introduced into English studies of classical literature in preparing
VOL. XLVII. — 36
45Q THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
the way for the application of a similar system to all literature,
whether called sacred or profane.
Up to that period there had really been no adequate criticism
of ancient literature. Whatever name had been attached to any
ancient writings was usually accepted as the name of the author ;
whatever text was imputed to an author was settled generally on
authority. But with Bentley began a new epoch. His acute in-
tellect and exquisite touch revealed clearly to English scholars
the new science of criticism and familiarized the minds of think-
ing men generally with the idea that the texts of ancient litera-
ture must be submitted to this science. Henceforward a new
spirit reigned among the best classical scholars, prophetic of more
and more light in the greater field of sacred literature. Scholars,
of whom Porson was chief, followed out this method, and though
at times, as in Porson's own case, they were warned off, with
much loss and damage, from the application of it to the sacred
text, they kept alive the better tradition.
A hundred years after Bentley's main efforts appeared in Ger-
many another epoch-making book — Wolf's Introduction to Homer.
In this was broached the theory that the Iliad and Odyssey are
not the works of a single great poet, but are made up of ballad
literature wrought into unity by more or less skillful editing. In
spite of various changes and phases of opinion on this subject
since Wolf's day, he dealt a killing blow at the idea that classical
works are necessarily to be taken at what may be termed their
face value.
More and more clearly it was seen that the ideas of early copy-
ists and even of early possessors of masterpieces in ancient litera-
ture were entirely different from those to which the modern world
is accustomed. It was seen that manipulations and interpolations
in the text by copyists and possessors had long been considered
not merely venial sins, but matters of right, and that even the
issuing of whole books under assumed names had been practiced
freely.
In 1811 a light akin to that thrown by Bentley and Wolf upon
ancient literature was thrown by Niebuhr upon ancient history.
In his History of Rome the application of scientific principles to
the examination of historical sources was for the first time ex-
hibited largely and brilliantly. Up to that period the time-hon-
ored utterances of ancient authorities had been, as a rule, accepted
as final : no breaking away, even from the most absurd of them,
was looked upon with favor, and any one presuming to go behind
them was regarded as troublesome and even as dangerous.
Through this sacred conventionalism Niebuhr broke fearlessly,
and, though at times overcritical, he struck from the early his-
tory of Rome a vast mass of accretions, and gave to the world a
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 451
residue infinitely more valuable than the original amalgam of
myth, legend, and chronicle.
His methods were especially brought to bear on English his-
tory by one of the truest men and noblest scholars that the Eng-
lish race has produced — Arnold of Rugby — and, in spite of the
inevitable heavy conservatism, were allowed to do their work in
the field of ancient history as well as in that of ancient classical
literature.
The place of myth in history thus became more and more
understood, and historical foundations, at least so far as secular
history was concerned, were henceforth dealt with in a scientific
spirit. The extension of this new treatment to all aEcient litera-
ture and history was now simply a matter of time.
Such an extension had already begun, for in 1829 had appeared
Milman's History of the Jews. In this work came a further evo-
lution of the truths and methods suggested by Bentley, Wolf,
and Niebuhr, and their application to sacred history was made
strikingly evident. Milman, though a clergyman, treated the
history of the chosen people in the light of modern knowledge of
Oriental and especially of Semitic peoples. He exhibited sundry
great biblical personages of the wandering days of Israel as sheiks
or emirs or Bedouin chieftains, and the tribes of Israel as obedient
then to the same general laws, customs, and ideas as govern wan-
dering tribes in the same region now. He dealt with conflicting
sources somewhat in the spirit of Bentley, and with the mythical,
legendary, and miraculous somewhat in the spirit of Niebuhr.
This treatment of the history of the Jews, simply as the develop-
ment of an Oriental tribe, raised great opposition. Such cham-
pions of orthodoxy as Bishop Mant and Dr. Faussett straightway
took the field, and with such effect that the Family Library, a
very valuable series in which Milman's history appeared, was
put under the ban and its further publication stopped. For years
Milman, though a man of exquisite literary and lofty historical
gifts, as well as of most honorable character, was debarred from
preferment and outstripped by ecclesiastics vastly inferior to
him in everything save worldly wisdom ; for years he was passed
in the race for honors by divines who were content either to
hold briefs for all the contemporary unreason which happened
to be popular or to keep their mouths shut altogether. This
opposition to him extended to his works. For many years they
were sneered at, decried, and kept from the public as far as
possible.
Fortunately, the progress of events lifted him, before the
closing years of his life, above all this opposition. As Dean of
St. Paul's he really outranked the contemporary archbishops ; he
lived to see his main ideas accepted, and his History of Latin
452 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
Christianity received as certainly one of the most valuable, and
no less certainly the most attractive, of all church histories ever
written.
The two great English histories of Greece — that by Thirlwall,
which was finished, and that by Grote, which was begun, in the
middle years of the nineteenth century — came in to strengthen
this new development. By application of the critical method to
historical sources, by pointing out more and more fully the in-
evitable part played by myth and legend in early chronicles, by
displaying more and more clearly the ease with which interpola-
tions of texts, falsifications of statements, and attributions to
pretended authors were made, they paved the way still further
toward a just and fruitful study of sacred literature.*
Down to the middle of the nineteenth century the traditionally
orthodox side of English scholarship, while it had not been able
to maintain any effective quarantine against Continental criticism
of classical literature, had been able to keep up barriers fairly
strong against Continental discussions of sacred literature. But
in the second half of the nineteenth century these barriers were
broken at many points, and, the stream of German thought being
united with the current of devotion to truth in England, there
appeared early in 18G0 a modest volume entitled Essays and Re-
views. This work discussed various subjects in which the older
theological positions had been rendered untenable by modern re-
search, and brought to bear upon them the views of the newer
school of biblical interpretation. The authors were, as a rule,
scholars in the prime of life, holding influential positions in the
universities and public schools. They were seven — the first be-
ing Dr. Temple, a successor of Arnold at Rugby ; and the others,
the Rev. Dr. Rowland Williams, Prof. Baden Powell, the Rev. H.
* For Mr. Gladstone's earlier opinion, see his Church and State and Macaulay's review
of it. For Pusey, see Mozley, Ward, Newman's Apologia, Dean Church, etc., and especially
his Life by Liddon. Very characteristic touches are given in vol. i, showing the origin of
many of his opinions (see letter on p. 184). For the scandalous treatment of Mr. Everett
by the clerical mob at Oxford, see a rather jaunty account of the preparations and of the
whole performance in a letter written at the time from Oxford by the late Dean Church in
The Life and Letters of Dean Church, London, 1894, pp. 40, 41. For a succinct and
brilliant history of the Bentley-Boyle controversy, see Macaulay's article on Bentley in the
Encyclopaedia Britannica; also Beard's Hibbert Lectures for 1893, pp. 344, 345; also Dis-
sertation in Bentley's works, edited by Dyce, London, 1836, vol. i, especially the preface.
For Wolf, see his Prolegomena ad Homerum, Halle, 1*795 ; for its effects, see the admirable
brief statement in Beard, as above, p. 345. For Niebuhr, see his Roman History, trans-
lated by Hare and Thirlwall, London, 1828 ; also Beard, as above. For Milman's view, see,
as a specimen, his History of the Jews, last edition, especially pp. 15-27. For a noble
tribute to his character, see the preface to Lecky's History of European Morals. For
Thirlwall, see his History of Greece, passim ; also his letters ; also his Charge of the
Bishop of St. David's, 1863.
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 453
B. Wilson, Mr. C. W. Goodwin, the Rev. Mark Pattison, and the
Rev. Prof. Jowett — the only one of the seven not in holy orders
being Goodwin. All the articles were important, though the first,
by Temple, on The Education of the World, and the last, by
Jowett, on The Interpretation of Scripture, being the most mod-
erate, served most effectually as entering wedges into the old
tradition.
At first no great attention was paid the book, the only notice
being the usual attempts in sundry clerical newspapers to pooh-
pooh it. But in October, 1860, appeared in the Westminster Re-
view an article exulting in the work as an evidence that the new
critical method had at last penetrated the Church of England.
The opportunity for defending the Church was at once seized by
no less a personage than Bishop Wilberforce, of Oxford, the same
who a few months before had secured a fame more lasting than
enviable by his attacks on Darwin and the evolutionary theory.
His first onslaught was made in a charge to his clergy. This he
followed up with an article, in the Quarterly Review, very ex-
plosive in its rhetoric, much like that which he had devoted in
the same periodical to Darwin. The bishop declared that the
work tended " toward infidelity, if not to atheism " ; that the
writers had been "guilty of criminal levity"; that, with the ex-
ception of the essay by Dr. Temple, their writings were " full of
sophistries and skepticisms/' He was especially bitter against
Prof. Jowett's dictum, " Interpret the Scripture like any other
book " ; he insisted that Mr. Goodwin's treatment of the Mosaic
account of the Origin of Man " sweeps away the whole basis of
inspiration and leaves no place for the Incarnation " ; and through
the article were scattered such rhetorical adornments as the words
" infidel," " atheistic," " false," " wanton," and the like. It at once
attracted wide attention, but its most immediate effect was to
make the fortune of Essays and Reviews, which was straightway
demanded on every hand, went through edition after edition, and
became a power in the land. At this a panic began, and with the
usual results of panic — much folly and some cruelty. Addresses
from clergy and laity, many of them frantic with rage and fear,
poured in upon the bishops, begging them to save Christianity
and the Church ; a storm of abuse arose ; the seven essayists were
stigmatized as " the seven extinguishers of the seven lamps of the
Apocalypse," " the seven champions not of Christendom." As a
result of all this pressure, Sumner, Archbishop of Canterbury,
one of the last of the old, kindly, bewigged pluralists of the Geor-
gian period, headed a declaration, which was signed by the Arch-
bishop of York and a long list of bishops, expressing pain at the
appearance of the book, but doubts as to the possibility of any
effective dealing with it. This letter only made matters worse.
454 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
The orthodox decried it as timid and the liberals denounced it as
irregular. The same influences were exerted in the sister island,
and the Protestant archbishops in Ireland issued a joint letter
warning the faithful against the " disingenuousness " of the
book. Everything seemed to increase the ferment. A meeting of
clergy and laity having been held at Oxford in the matter of
electing a Professor of Sanskrit, the older orthodox party having
made every effort to defeat the eminent scholar Max Miiller, and
all in vain, found relief after their defeat in new denunciations of
Essays and Reviews.
Of the two prelates who might have been expected to breast
the storm, Tait, Bishop of London, afterward Archbishop of Can-
terbury, bent to it for a period, though he soon recovered himself
and did good service ; the other, Thirl wall, Bishop of St. David's,
bided his time, and, when the proper moment came, struck most
effective blows for truth and justice.
Tait, large-minded and shrewd, one of the most statesmanlike
of prelates, at first endeavored to detach Temple and Jowett from
their associates, but though Temple was broken down with a load
of care, and especially by the fact that he had upon his shoulders
the school at Rugby, whose patrons had become alarmed at his
connection with the book, he showed a most refreshing courage
and manliness. A passage from his letters to the Bishop of Lon-
don runs as follows : " With regard to my own conduct I can only
say that nothing on earth will induce me to do what you propose.
I do not judge for others, but in me it would be base and untrue."
On another occasion Dr. Temple, when pressed in the interest of
the great institution of learning under his care to detach himself
from his associates in writing the book, declared to a meeting of
the masters of the school that if any statements were made to the
effect that he disapproved of the other writers in the volume, he
should probably find it his duty to contradict them. Another of
these letters to the Bishop of London contains sundry passages of
great force. One is as follows : " Many years ago you urged us
from the university pulpit to undertake the critical study of the
Bible. You said that it was a dangerous study, but indispensable.
You described its difficulties, and those who listened must have
felt a confidence (as I assuredly did, for I was there) that if they
took your advice and entered on the task, you, at any rate, would
never join in treating them unjustly if their study had brought
with it the difficulties you described. Such a study, so full of diffi-
culties, imperatively demands freedom for its condition. To tell
a man to study, and yet bid him under heavy penalties to come to
the same conclusions with those who have not studied, is to mock
him. If the conclusions are prescribed, the study is precluded."
And again, what, as coming from a man who has since held two
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 455
of the most important bishoprics in the English Church, is of
great importance : " What can be a grosser superstition than the
theory of literal inspiration ? But because that has a regular
footing, it is to be treated as a good man's mistake ; while the
courage to speak the truth about the first chapter of Genesis is a
wanton piece of wickedness."
The storm howled on. In the Convocation of Canterbury it
was especially violent. In the Lower House Archdeacon Denison
insisted on the greatest severity, as he said, " for the sake of the
young who are tainted, and corrupted, and thrust almost to hell
by the action of this book." At another time the same eminent
churchman declared : " Of all books in any language which I ever
laid my hands on, this is incomparably the worst ; it contains all
the poison which is to be found in Tom Paine's Age of Reason,
while it has the additional disadvantage of having been written
by clergymen."
Hysterical as all this was, the Upper House was little more
self-contained. Both Tait and Thirlwall, trying to make some
headway against the swelling tide, were for a time beaten back
by Wilberforce, who insisted on the duty of the Church to clear
itself publicly from complicity with men who, as he said, "gave up
God's word, creation, redemption, and the work of the Holy Ghost."
But the matter was brought to a curious issue by two prosecu-
tions— one against the Rev. Dr. Williams by the Bishop of Salis-
bury; the other against the Rev. Mr. Wilson by one of his
clerical brethren. The first result was that both these authors
were sentenced to suspension from their offices for a year. At
this the two condemned clergymen appealed to the Queen in Coun-
cil. Upon the Judicial Committee to try the case in last resort sat
the Lord Chancellor, the two Archbishops, and the Bishop of
London. One occurrence now brought into especial relief the
power of the older theological reasoning and ecclesiastical zeal to
close the minds of the best of men to the simplest principles of
right and justice. Among the men of his time most deservedly
honored for lofty character, thorough scholarship, and keen per-
ception of right and justice was Dr. Pusey. No one doubted
then, and no one doubts now, that he would have gone to the
stake sooner than knowingly countenance wrong or injustice ; and
yet we find him at this time writing a series of long and earnest
letters to the Bishop of London, who, as a judge, was hearing this
case, which involved the livelihood and even the good name of
the men on trial, pointing out to the bishop the evil consequences
which must follow should the authors of Essays and Reviews be
acquitted, and virtually beseeching the judges, on grounds of
expediency, to convict them. Happily, Bishop Tait was too just
a man to be thrown off his bearings by appeals such as this.
456 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
The decision of the court, as finally rendered by the Lord
Chancellor, virtually declared it to be no part of the duty of the
tribunal to pronounce any opinion upon the book ; that the court
only had to do with certain extracts which had been presented.
Among these was one adduced in support of a charge against
Mr. Wilson — that he denied the doctrine of eternal punishment.
On this the court decided that it did "not find in the formularies
of the English Church any such distinct declaration upon the
subject as to require it to punish the expression of a hope by a
clergyman that even the ultimate pardon of the wicked who are
condemned in the day of judgment may be consistent with the
will of Almighty God." While the Archbishops dissented from
this judgment, Bishop Tait united in it with the Lord Chancellor
and the lay judges.
And now the panic broke out more severely than ever. Con-
fusion became worse confounded. The earnest-minded insisted
that the tribunal had virtually approved Essays and Reviews;
the cynical remarked that it had " dismissed hell with costs." An
alliance was made at once between the more zealous High and
Low Church men, and Oxford became its headquarters ; Dr. Pusey
and Archdeacon Denison were among the leaders, and an impas-
sioned declaration was posted to every clergyman in England and
Ireland, with a letter begging him " for the love of God " to sign
it. Thus it was that in a very short time eleven thousand signa-
tures were obtained. Besides this, deputations claiming to repre-
sent one hundred and thirty-seven thousand laymen waited on
the Archbishops to thank them for dissenting from the judg-
ment. The Convocation of Canterbury also plunged into the fray,
Bishop Wilberforce being the champion of the older orthodoxy,
and Bishop Tait of the new. Caustic was the speech made by
Bishop Thirlwall, in which he declared that he considered the
eleven thousand names, headed by that of Pusey, attached to the
Oxford declaration "in the light of a row of figures preceded by a
decimal point, so that, however far the series may be advanced, it
never can rise to the value of a single unit."
In spite of all that could be done, the act of condemnation was
carried in Convocation.
The last main echo of this whole struggle against the newer
mode of interpretation was seen when the Chancellor, referring
to the matter in the House of Lords, characterized the ecclesias-
tical act as "simply a series of well-lubricated terms — a sentence
so oily and saponaceous that no one can grasp it ; like an eel, it
slips through your fingers, and is simply nothing."
The word "saponaceous" necessarily elicited a bitter retort
from Bishop Wilberforce ; but perhaps the most valuable judg-
ment on the whole matter was rendered by Bishop Tait, who de-
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 457
clared, " These things have so effectually frightened the clergy
that I think there is scarcely a Bishop on the bench, unless it be
the Bishop of St. David's (Thirl wall), that is not useless for the
purpose of preventing the widespread alienation of intelligent
men."
During the whole controversy, and for some time afterward,
the press was burdened with replies, ponderous and pithy, vitri-
olic and unctuous, but in the main bearing the inevitable char-
acteristics of pleas for inherited opinions stimulated by ample
endowments.
The authors of the book seemed for a time likely to be swept
out of the Church. One of the least daring but most eminent,
finding himself apparently forsaken, seemed, though a man of
very tough fiber, about to die of a broken heart ; but sturdy Eng-
lish sense at last prevailed. The storm passed, and afterward
came the still, small voice. Really sound thinkers throughout
England, especially those who held no briefs for conventional
orthodoxy, recognized the service rendered by the book. It was
found that, after all, there existed even among churchmen a great
mass of public opinion in favor of giving a full hearing to the
reverent expression of honest thought, and inclined to distrust
any cause which subjected fair play to zeal.
The authors of the work not only remained in the Church of
England, but some of them have since represented the broader
views, though not always with their early courage, in the highest
and most influential positions in the Anglican Church.*
* For the origin of Essays and Reviews, see Edinburgh Review, April, 1861, p. 463.
For the reception of the book, see the Westminster Review, October, 1860. For the attack
on it by Bishop Wilberforce, see his article in the Quarterly Review, January, 1861 ; for
additional facts, Edinburgh Review, April, 1861, pp. 461 et seq. For action on the book by
Convocation, see Dublin Review, May, 1861, citing Jelf ct al. ; also, Davidson's Life of
Archbishop Tait, vol. i, chap. xii. For the Archiepiscopal Letter, see Dublin Review, as
above; also, Life of Bishop Wilberforce by his son, London, 1882, vol. iii, pp. 4, 5. D, is
there stated that Wilberforce drew up the letter. For curious inside views of the Essays
and Reviews controversy, including the course of Bishop Hampden, Tait, et al., see Life of
Bishop Wilberforce, by his son, as above, pp. 3-11; also 141-149. For the denunciation
of the present Bishop of London (Temple) as a "leper," etc., see ibid., pp. 319, 320. For
general treatment of Temple, see Fraser's Magazine, December, 1869. For very interesting
correspondence, see Davidson's Life of Archbishop Tait, as above. For Archdeacon Deni-
son's speeches, see ibid., vol. i, p. 302. For Dr. Pusey's letter to Bishop Tait, urging con-
viction of the Essayists and Reviewers, ibid., p. 314. For the striking letters of Dr. Tem-
ple, ibid., pp. 29i) et seq.; also, The Life and Letters of Dean Stanley. For replies, see
Cliarge of the Bishop of Oxford, 1863; also, Replies to Essays and Reviews, Parker, Lon-
don, with preface by Wilberforce; also, Aids to Faith, edited by the Bishop of Gloucester,
London, 1861; also, those by Jelf, Burgon, ct al. For the legal proceedings, see Quarterly
Review, April, 1864 ; also Davidson, as above. For Bishop Thirlwall's speech, see Chronicles
of Convocation, quoted in Life of Tait, vol. i, p. 320. For Tait's tribute to Thirlwall, see
Life of Tait, vol. i, p. 325. For a remarkably able review, and in most charming form, of
vol. xlvii. — 37
458 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
ART AND EYESIGHT.
By LUCIEN HOWE, M. D.,
MEMBER OF THE KOYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF ENGLAND.
THERE was perhaps no more interesting object at the Colum-
bian Exposition, as an example of a developing appreciation,
than the typical Illinois farmer as he stood surprised and be-
wildered before some of the works of the modern school of painters.
His verdict in many instances was doubtless like that of the small
boy upon the decorative attempts of an artistic aunt when he
said, " It do look awful." Apparently the effect upon at least one
such visitor was even more appalling. Perhaps he had been
gazing at the various yearnings of the impressionists, or was lost
in the labyrinth of color, but at any rate he accosted a bystander
in hot haste with " Mister, can you tell me the handiest way to
get out of this 'ere place ? " If others were not in equal haste to
leave the place, they certainly went away questioning seriously
what causes had combined to produce some of the conspicuous
phases of modern art. Perhaps an explanation can be offered by
science. At least, when we examine into the subject we find that
the vision of artists is, as a rule, more imperfect than that of
other persons. Where this is a not natural defect, artists find it
convenient or necessary in their work to make their vision
purposely imperfect, and in consequence do not place on canvas
what the eye usually sees. Hence a discrepancy between Nature,
as seen by the ordinary observer, and its alleged representation
by some artists.
the ideas of Bishop Wilberforce and Lord Chancellor Westbury, see H. D. Traill, The
New Lucian, first dialogue. For the cynical phrase referred to, see Nash, Life of Lord
Westbury-, vol. ii, p. 78, where the noted epitaph is given, as follows:
" Richard Baron Westbury,
Lord High Chancellor of England.
He was an eminent Christian,
An energetic and merciful Statesman,
And a still more eminent and merciful Judge.
During liis three years' tenure of office
He abolished the ancient method of conveying land,
The time-honored institution of the Insolvents' Court,
And
The Eternity of Punishment.
Toward the close of his earthly career,
In the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council,
He dismissed Hell with costs,
And took away from Orthodox members of the
Church of England
Their last hope of everlasting damnation."
ART AND EYESIGHT. 459
The chief imperfection in the vision to which I refer is
astigmatism, although either with that, or independently of it,
there is usually with artists excessive contraction of the muscle
used in focusing the eye — the so-called ciliary muscle. The ma-
jority of people have become somewhat familiar with the term
astigmatism and its meaning, but, as it involves a rather com-
plicated principle in optics, it may be well to define it here.
Technically it might be described as an asymmetry of the eye in
which the radius of curvature in one meridian is greater or less
than the radius of curvature in another. This definition may be
easily understood by a simple illustration. If the transparent
portion in the front part of the eye, known as the cornea, were
perfectly regular, like the surface of the ordinary sunglass, the
rays of light would all tend to converge to a single point ; but if
the globe were compressed in any one direction — for example,
from above downward — then this transparent portion of the eye
would not have a regular curvature, but would be somewhat like
the top of a Derby hat, held with the long diameter horizontally
and the convex surface forward. Practically this is what usually
exists in the human eye. As the globe is compressed above
and below by the upper and lower lids, it is to a certain extent
flattened. This is the usual form of astigmatism, or astigmatism
with the rule, as it is called. Other causes tend to make the
axes of these two curvatures oblique to each other, or may
change their position in various ways, which need not be con-
sidered here.
According to the popular idea, the human eye is a perfect
instrument, but this, in the vast majority of cases, is not the
truth. Nearly every one is astigmatic. Many a person whose
eyes are quite imperfect would laugh at the idea if this were told
him. He has perhaps always prided himself upon having the
best of vision. But the fact is that only a very small per cent of
eyes are really free from this unequal curvature which we call
astigmatism.
One series of observations made by Dr. Roosa of two hundred
eyes, whose owners supposed them to be perfect, and which were
apparently perfectly normal, showed that only about one per cent
were, beyond question, absolutely perfect, and my own investiga-
tion in the same direction would fully corroborate this. If, there-
fore, a variation from the normal type is so frequent, it is but
natural to suppose that artists should have at least their share of
astigmatism. But the fact is that among artists astigmatism is
not only more frequent, but also that it exists, on the average,
in a higher degree, probably, than among any other class of
persons.
We can understand the reason for this if for a moment we
460 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
observe an artist at his work. Having arranged on his palette
a variety of pigments, he stands before the easel and applies
them to the canvas, but at intervals steps back some few feet in
order to get the effect of distance, as he says. It should be no-
ticed that almost without exception the artist when doing this
partly closes his eyes, pressing the lids together, making " clinge-
ment '' as the French call it, because, as he explains, " bet-
ter effects " are thus obtained. At the same time he tips his
head from one side to the other, the reason for which we will con-
sider later. Now, if the eyes of persons with ordinary occupa-
tions are changed, as we have seen, by the pressure of the upper
and lower lids upon the globe, it is but natural to infer that the
same result would follow even in a greater degree with persons
whose occupation from morning until night, year in and year out,
is such as to cause them to practice to an unusual degree this
habit of clingement, or lid pressure upon the cornea. Indeed,
this fact has long since attracted the attention of investigators
and has been demonstrated and elaborated by Bull, of Paris, and
others. Dr. Bull experimented on his own eyes, having them
measured exactly by an instrument of wonderful exactness known
as the ophthalmometer while he was making this lid pressure.
These measurements showed that even this slight momentary
contraction of the lids produced a perceptible increase of the
unequal curvature of the cornea, and also that a very high degree
of astigmatism could with little effort be produced by pressure
of the lids.
Very strong a priori reasons, therefore, lead us to expect that
the eyes of artists are as a rule more imperfect than those of
persons with other occupations. I have taken pains, however, to
establish this fact by tests and measurements. The first results
of that investigation are given in the American Journal of
Ophthalmology for October, 1894, and tests have been made at
intervals since then of the vision of artists, record being kept of
the variety of work done, style preferred, whether the individual
practiced lid pressure habitually or not, and other details of a
technical nature. Excluding those on the one hand who were too
young in the profession to be really classed as " artists," and on
the other hand those whose eyes were practically in a diseased
condition, the list thus far includes eighty-four artists, or one
hundred and sixty-eight eyes.
Among these, not a single eye was found to be without some
astigmatism. This is not surprising, but the degree of astigma-
tism is significant.
In the series of two hundred eyes already referred to as ex-
amined by Dr. Roosa, which had every indication of being abso-
lutely perfect, an exact examination showed that there was, on the
ART AND EYESIGHT. 461
average, a degree of astigmatism which technically would be
written 0"68 of a dioptre, this dioptre corresponding to a certain
weak glass used as the unit of measure.
Among artists, on the other hand, the examination showed
that the average was 0*83 of a dioptre, thus being decidedly greater
than with persons having other occupations.
It would be interesting to study the degree of this fault as re-
lated to the style of the artist, but the limits of this paper do not
permit such a long digression. Moreover, this number is small,
and there is always danger in generalizing from insufficient data,
but I think it fair to say that these facts are sufficient to show the
comparatively high degree of the astigmatism of artists, and I am
confident that corroborative testimony will not be wanting when
this subject is studied by others. Nor is this idea by any means
a new one. It is true, exact measurements of the vision of so
large a number of painters had not been previously made, but long
ago the effects of astigmatism were so conspicuous in some well-
known pictures as to attract attention.
A quarter of a century ago no oculist was more prominent
than Prof. Liebreich, of London, or better able than he to speak
on questions relating to optics. Unfortunately for that branch of
science, he came into a fortune, and, giving up the labors of pro-
fessional work, devoted himself to the study of painting, thus
doubling his equipment for the investigation of such questions as
these. He turned his attention to the pictures of Turner and
Mulready, both of whom have prominent places in the National
Gallery and at the Kensington Museum, and in the works of
these artists Liebreich's trained sight discovered incontrovertible
evidences of defective vision. These facts were brought out in
1863 by Liebreich in a communication to the Royal Institution
which still lies buried among its archives.
" Till the year 1830," he says, in speaking of Turner, " all is
normal. In 1831 a change in the coloring becomes for the first
time perceptible, which gives to the works of Turner a peculiar
character not found in any other master. Optically this is caused
by an increased intensity of the diffused light proceeding from
the most illuminated parts of the landscape. . . . From the year
1833 this diffusion of light becomes more and more vertical. It
gradually increases during the following years. At first it can
only be perceived by a careful examination of the pictures, but
from the year 1839 the regular vertical streaks become apparent
to every one. ... It is a generally received opinion that Turner
adopted a peculiar manner, that he exaggerated it more and more,
and that his last works are the result of a deranged intellect. I
am convinced of the incorrectness — I might almost say of the in-
justice— of this opinion. . . . According to my opinion, his manner
462
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY
is exclusively the result of a change in the eyes, which developed
itself during the last twenty years of his life. In consequence of
it, the aspect of Nature gradually changed for him, while he con-
Fio. 1.
tinued in an unconscious, I might almost say in a na'ive, manner
to reproduce what he saw. . . ."
That astigmatism distorts objects can be easily demonstrated.
It is well known that the structure of the human eye is practi-
cally the same as that of the photographer's camera. Ordinarily
the image which falls on the glass plate of the camera is equally
clear in every part, because the lenses in front are ground with
spherical surfaces. Such a camera when properly directed at
a picture like that of the Taj Mahal, for example, gives us on
the glass plate a clear and undistorted image of the building,
such as is seen in Fig. 1. If, now, we render the front glass of
the camera slightly astigmatic, by placing in front of it a so-
called cylindrical glass with the axis horizontal, it produces
optically exactly the same effect as that obtained when the globe
of the eye is pressed from above downward. Moreover, the de-
gree of this distortion in any eye can be reproduced with perfect
exactness by placing in front of the camera a cylindrical glass
of proper strength. It will be remembered that the average de-
gree of astigmatism with the artist's examined was found to be
ART AND EYESIGHT.
463
0'83 of a dioptre, and for this experiment I have chosen one of
the lenses which is very nearly the same strength. Of course, the
effect is magnified, as the camera is larger than the eye. But the
eye can recognize differences infinitely more minute than those
which it is possible to reproduce here, and the physiological dis-
tortion is even greater than that which it is possible to represent
on the printed page. A picture taken with such a combination
of lenses is shown in Fig. 2. In this it will be noticed that while
the vertical lines are all clearly marked the horizontal ones are
blurred and indistinct. If, now, for any reason the globe of the
eye has the same distortion from side to side instead of from
above downward, this can be imitated by placing the cylindrical
lens before our camera with the axis vertical instead of horizon-
tal. The result is shown in Fig. 3. The effect in this case is to
blur the lines which before were clear, and make clear those
which were blurred. For example, the horizontal line extending
Fig. 2.
along the top of the wall of the terrace, and even some of the
strata of the stones, can be distinguished, and the horizontal lines
in the building itself are also well defined. On the contrary, the
vertical lines are blurred. The pillars at the top of the tower and
on the dome itself are all indistinct, while, as a whole, the build-
464
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
ing is broadened and the arches are apparently wider than is
shown in Fig. 2.
In all these pictures the frame also is worthy of notice. In
the first it has its true proportions; and in the second, it is dis-
torted at the sides, and in the third, above and below.
There can be no question but that astigmatism even in a slight
degree materially affects what the artist sees, and if it is true that
he draws what he sees, does this not mean that his drawing tends
to be proportionately faulty ? Nor does it affect the vision for
rectangular objects alone. This distortion is a constant quantity,
and it does not take very exact study to see its effect in the draw-
FlG. 3.
ing of the figure. For this reason, often an undue plumpness is
given to some portions, while others are rendered emaciated and
anaemic to a degree of which the originals were never guilty.
Another disadvantage of astigmatism to the artists is that
lines really parallel appear to converge or diverge, when distorted
by the blurring which astigmatism can produce. The reason of
this would require too great a digression here. The practical fact
is that as the blurring is unequal when different parts of the
objects are differently illuminated, and as the direction of the
apparent blurs depends somewhat upon the form of the object,
lines which should be straight have their direction apparently
changed.
ART AND EYESIGHT.
465
SK 3P 5£ & sfc >K
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illl
This is shown in a modified way by the accompanying dia-
gram.
If the page be tilted so as to be held in the line of vision, and
if we " sight " along these heavy black lines, they are seen to be
really parallel ; and yet, when viewed as the page is ordinarily
held, they appear inclined
more or less to each other.
Such an effect is produced
only in exceptional cases,
where the axis of the astig-
matism varies in the two
eyes, and this is therefore
rather an unfair example.
But the fact remains that
the blurring of lines in cer-
tain directions may cause an
artist to misrepresent very
greatly the object which he
is trying to reproduce.
Before leaving this phase
of astigmatism it is worth
while to note in passing a
significant motion of the artist, already mentioned, in tipping his
head from side to side, as he stands off to criticise his work. I
am inclined to think he does this instinctively, in order to see
better the errors in drawing caused by his own astigmatism.
The imperfect photographs of the Taj Mahal may serve to
illustrate this point for some of the readers of this article. If
one eye be closed (simply to exclude the correcting vision of the
other), and if either of the astigmatic pictures be looked at while
the book is rotated from side to side in the plane of the open page,
one position can be found by most persons in which the lines are
decidedly more distinct than in any other.
But, as the artist can not conveniently tip up the sides of his
easel without disturbing also the equilibrium of brushes and
paints and- bottles, he simply steps back and tips his head.
Moreover, the critic does the same. He, too, instinctively
wishes to obtain the clearest lines — for to some these blurred, as-
tigmatic images are confusing, disagreeable, almost painful — and
to obviate that, the stranger in the studio, when he comes to see
the finished picture, tips the head just as did the artist when he
was at his work. The more closely we observe actions called
" instinctive," the more frequently do we find they have an under-
lying cause.
There is another imperfection of vision, more frequently arti-
ficial and temporary than due to any structural change. This is
VOL. XLVII. 38
466 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
imperfect focusing. To understand this, let us for a second time
observe the artist before his easel. If he is painting a bunch of
flowers, with a white rose near the center, and if he wishes this
rose to stand out in strong relief, he focuses his eyes naturally
and normally upon it, and reproduces on the canvas the same
clearly denned, well-focused flower which he sees. To the other
flowers of the cluster he does not care to give the same promi-
nence, and sketches them with less distinctness, or else focuses
his eyes purposely for a point in front of the bouquet or behind
it, thus blurring the colored flowers and purposely transferring to
the canvas an ill-defined image of them. For example, teachers
often find fault with their pupils, saying, " The trouble is, you see
too much ; you should not paint so exactly." An artist, holding
an important public position as a teacher of painting in Boston,
recently showed me lenses which were .used by the students when
learning thus to focus the objects imperfectly. Given, then, this
fact of imperfect vision on the part of the artist, either in the
form of astigmatism or in the form of undue contraction of the
focusing muscle, let us consider its effect in relation to three
factors — namely, drawing, values, and color.
As to the first, imperfect vision is unquestionably a disadvan-
tage, as we have seen. The draughtsman owes his power to two
things — accuracy of eye, which enables him clearly to perceive
forms ; and dexterity of hand, which enables him to reproduce
them. Truth in one is as indispensable as in the other.
Next, as to the question of values. This term, as we know, is
used in a certain sense to express perspective, or, more exactly,
the relative distance of an object in the foreground as compared
with another more or less in the background. In the case of the
bouquet, just cited, the white flower in the center, having the
highest relative value, is painted exactly in focus. A certain
amount of artificial adjustment of focus by the artist is an un-
doubted advantage for the rest of the bouquet, however, and the
habit of focusing the eye for some point in front of the picture
or beyond it is, therefore, practically universal among artists,
though in most instances they are not conscious of the act. In a
similar way the effects called technically " distance " and " at-
mosphere " are also best secured in this way. The two factors
thus far considered relate to representations in black and white
as well as to those in color.
We come now to consider the third factor, that of the mix-
ing of colors. We shall find that this involves the blurring
or overlapping of images on the retina, which can be caused
by astigmatism, if it exists in sufficient degree, or by improper
focusing. It is usually produced by both of these together
and by another function dependent on the combination and
ART AND EYESIGHT. 467
contrasting of colors. All this is done unconsciously by the
observer.
To make this point clear, a slight digression is necessary to
glance at the growth of painting. It must be remembered that
the earlier artists were religious enthusiasts. First, they painted
upon the walls of the basilicas and baptisteries ; but as the early
styles of architecture changed, and more and more of the wall
space was encroached upon by windows, canvas came into use,
and with opportunities thus increased painters grew more numer-
ous and more proficient. Their methods of procedure were as
simple as their faith, and there were but few efforts to produce
unusual effects. The pigments were mixed on the palette, and
thus mixed were transferred to the canvas. This was the method
until recent times, and by that method the great masterpieces
have been produced.
It is true that the works of some of the great colorists before
which we bow down and worship to-day are not the pictures
painted by these artists. The pigments they used have faded, and
successive layers of varnish have changed them greatly. But in
all, whether well preserved, in a slightly pathological condition,
or in an advanced stage of decomposition, the point to be observed
is, that the pigments were mixed on the palette just as they were
placed on the canvas, and in looking at them no effort at accom-
modation of the eye or special focusing is required. If the eyes
of the observer are opened in a natural manner, he sees just what
was intended should be seen. In spite of certain variations from
this type, that was the condition of the art of painting until the
present generation. But, near the middle of this century a book
was published by Chevreul on the Principles of Harmony and
Contrasts of Colors, which by popularizing facts already known
undoubtedly exerted an important influence on the artistic mind,
especially in France. The principle to which I refer consists in
this, that the pigments mixed on the palette and transferred to
the canvas, as was the habit of earlier artists, do not produce
upon the human retina so marked or so true an effect as when the
proper pigments are placed unmixed but side by side on the can-
vas, and then viewed in such a blurred way that the rays from
each are superimposed upon the retina. It is not simply a theory
that the mixture of colors optically, produces effects quite differ-
ent from those obtained by the mixture of corresponding pig-
ments, but it is easily demonstrated. If we mix the rays of the
spectrum, as can be done by means of a lens or concave mirror,
the result is white light ; but if the very same pigments, as pure
as can be obtained, are mixed on the palette, we obtain not white,
but a dark gray — indeed, in certain proportions we have almost a
black resulting. Again, the commingling of the yellow and blue
468 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
of the spectrum produces white, as was first shown by Helmholtz,
but when these pigments are mixed they produce green. Such
examples might be multiplied to a considerable extent. The rea-
son why the mixture of colors in the spectrum differs in the re-
sults from the mixture of pigments is due to the fact that the
pigments are not pure colors. Every red contains some blue or
yellow, the yellows contain some blue or red, and the blues con-
tain some red or yellow. Not only does the actual mixture of
pigments produce effects differing from those caused by the mix-
ture of the same colors in the eye, but the mere juxtaposition of
the two pigments on the canvas influences the color of each, even
when they are both properly focused in the eye. Thus, if small
spots of pure yellow and blue are placed side by side, we see that
the yellow inclines to red and the blue to violet. But if the
spots are blurred and blended by making the eye sufficiently
astigmatic by improper focusing, then by this or other optical
combination it is possible to obtain shades of gray. In a word,
the combination is in a " higher key." These and similar facts
have been gradually worked out on the one hand in the labora-
tory by the physicists, and on the other by those who were
constantly experimenting with pigments as they were mixed
on the palette. Only a few painters know the scientific prin-
ciples involved, but many had stumbled upon the practical re-
sults, and of late a new and almost distinctive class has arisen,
whose usual practice it is not to mix the colors on the palette,
but, consciously or unconsciously, to so arrange them on the
canvas that they blend in the eye when properly viewed. This
is one of the distinctive features of the so-called school of impres-
sionists. It is easy to see that unusual care and fine artistic sense
must be exercised in attempting any such trick with pigments.
A genius may succeed at this, but the result for a mere imitator
is disastrous. The effect is that produced when a certain artist by
chance sat down on his freshly prepared palette. " Ah ! " said his
friend, " that is the best picture you ever produced. Cut it out,
call it ' An Old-time Garden/ and it will sell for a fortune." In
spite of the ridicule which this class of painters has brought upon
itself, it must be said in justification that the method has a certain
basis of scientific truth, and that good effects, striking effects, if
not the best effects, can often be obtained by this mixture of col-
ors, not on the palette, but in the eye. But this method of arrang-
ing colors demands as its correlative a certain amount of imper-
fect vision. In order to see such pictures at their best, it is neces-
sary to view them from a considerable distance, as we have seen
the artist do in his studio, or else, approaching the picture, pinch
the cornea by means of the lids into a marked degree of astigma-
tism, or, consciously or unconsciously, contract the ciliary muscle
ART AND EYESIGHT. 469
so that the eye is really focused for a point in front of the picture.
Under any one of these three conditions there can be produced on
the retina an overlapping of the colors, or what is termed in optics
circles of diffusion. It may be mentioned in this connection that
one of the most distinguished leaders to-day of the school of im-
pressionists in France, a master who has probably done more than
any other to bring that style of painting to public attention, has
one eye so imperfect as to be practically useless for his painting,
and the other eye is distinctly astigmatic, besides having the
changes in the hardening of the lens common to advancing years.
This was shown by tests which I made less than two years ago.
The question might be asked, Has every impressionist a marked
degree of imperfect vision from astigmatism or from other causes ?
While I am convinced that this is the rule, there are, of course, a
great many exceptions to it. Certainly the degree of impression-
istic tendency shown is by no means in proportion to the astigma-
tism possessed by a given artist. Various causes in the individual
cases combine to influence the results. Imitation of a popular
style is undoubtedly a potent factor, and many artists of late have
certainly modified their previous methods in the honest desire to
get more light into their pictures, as they would say, or to
paint in a higher key. While the artistic instinct itself may be
unchangeable from age to age, it is not strange that the expres-
sion of that instinct in painting should strive for greater perfec-
tion, and in doing so make use of any aids which science may
offer.
But we must not confuse this optical trick of the impressionist
with his mental condition. It is well known that when the pic-
tures of the extremists of this school were first exhibited in the
Paris Salon, they were called the works of the impressionists, for
the reason that they were supposed to represent the impression of
the artists at the moment. They were expressions of the lyric
mood, as it were, and represented, not Nature, but the mental at-
titude of the painter. (If purple shadows were given to a rock,
and no one else had ever seen such shadows, that was of no con-
sequence— simply, so much the worse for the rock. Real repre-
sentation was not the aim.) When the original of a portrait com-
plained that there was not the least resemblance to himself in the
picture, the impressionist replied : " Of course not. This is not
photography ; it is art." With some subjects such idealism is
convenient. But in the extreme it shows not an astigmatism of
the eye, but of the brain. The two should not be confounded.
A few practical conclusions may be drawn from our study of
art and eyesight. These are briefly :
1. As far as the artist is concerned, if he wishes to avoid in-
creasing astigmatism, it is necessary for him to abstain from this
470 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
habit of making lid-pressure on the cornea, the resulting astigma-
tism being of no advantage, but always a disadvantage.
2. If he wishes to render himself relatively near-sighted, or, as
he would state it, throw the eye out of focus, it is better to wear
at his work a pair of convex glasses. The inconvenience of re-
moving and replacing these could be obviated by spectacles made
after the plan of the ordinary bifocal glasses, or, still better, by
having the upper half cut away entirely, leaving for the lower a
convex glass of such a strength as that individual would find
most convenient for his special variety of work. In this way he
is at least rid of the annoyance of constantly walking back and
forward to obtain the effect of distance.
3. It is an undoubted advantage to every artist to ascertain
the degree in which his eyes vary from the normal standard.
Such a formula could be easily obtained. If the degree of error
is but slight, of course it can be disregarded ; if decided, and not
properly corrected, knowledge of that variation from the normal
in the artist's vision, if given in some way to the observer, would,
without doubt, often win more favorable criticism for his work.
The logical and imaginative reader will perhaps picture to
himself the art catalogue of the future, with a formula for the
amount of imperfect vision (ametropia, as the oculists call it)
added to each title. Thus :
No. 42. A Summer Morning. Myopic astigmatism, 1'5 dioptre,
vertical meridian.
No. 44. He Cometh Not. Cylindrical, minus 0'5 dioptre, with
spherical, minus 1"5, axis forty-five degrees.
This may seem rather like the " schedule of emotions," as it was
once called, which was printed on the weekly programme in the
earlier days of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, . but none the
less some such cataloguing of pictures would probably assist the
critics and give the artist the satisfaction of more praise.
4. As the .corollary of the last proposition it should be said
that the observer, in order to see a picture to the best advantage,
must adjust his vision to that of the artist who produced it. Most
of us do this instinctively. Not only do we select the best point
of view from which to observe a picture, but we recede from the
painting until the lights and colors blend in just the right degree.
In addition to that, many instinctively pinch the eyes together,
producing thus a momentary astigmatism, such as the artist had
produced in his own eye, and find the picture thus apparently
improved. A most useful appliance for viewing pictures is the
so-called stenopaic slit. This is merely a slit one or two millime-
tres in width in a card or thin plate of brass. Simple as this de-
vice is, but few persons are aware of how much it adds to the
effect in viewing paintings, as it allows the rays of light in only
THE PHYSICAL ELEMENT IN EDUCATION. 471
one meridian to pass through the cornea of the observer. If he
wishes to look at a painting done by an artist whose vision
is normal, or nearly so, the observer turns the slit around to
correspond with the meridian of his own best vision. If, how-
ever, he looks at a picture in which it is desirable to have over-
lapping of the retinal images — at one, where the colors must be
mixed in the eye, for example — it is necessary to rotate the slit to
another position, usually at right angles to the first, and with this
a canvas which before showed too clearly the blotches of color now
becomes blended into a much more perfect whole. I would rec-
ommend this simple device to any one who has not already ex-
perimented with it. Thus, by adjusting our own personal equa-
tion of eyesight to that of the artist, we literally obtain his point
of view. The colors are heightened, the daubs blend, and new
beauties appear. Instead of seeking, like our friend mentioned at
first, for " the handiest way to get out of this 'ere place," we are
glad to stay longer to study and to enjoy. Here, as everywhere,
it is art and science together that yield the richest result. If
science is allowed to be the interpreter, we may gain a heightened
enjoyment of art, and the artist a comforting increase of appre-
ciation.
THE PHYSICAL ELEMENT IN EDUCATION.
By EUGENE L. RICHARDS,
PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS IN YALE UNIVERSITY.
IT would be as unwise as it is impossible to expect that every
person engaged in education should be able to survey the
whole field. Each educator takes a part, and is very apt to think
that his or her part is the most important. Education, until quite
recently, has been so widely regarded as brain culture that the
whole trend of education is to develop the mind as one organ of
the body, as if mind resided in the brain alone. And even those
who know and admit that the mind is something more than brain,
disregard the fact in their systems of education, following almost
unconsciously the old ruts. Thus Bain says in one place : " The
organ of mind is not the brain by itself ; it is the brain, nerves,
muscles, organs of sense, and viscera/' And yet, in Education as
a Science, he says : " Now, when we inquire into the meaning of
physical education, we find it to be the rearing of a healthy
human being by all the arts and devices of nursing, feeding,
clothing, and general regimen. Mill includes this subject in his
article, and Mr. Herbert Spencer devotes a very interesting chap-
ter to it in his work on Education. It seems to me, however,
that this department may be kept quite separate, important
472 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
though it be. It does not at all depend upon the principles and
considerations that the educator, properly so called, has in view
in the carrying on of his work. The discussion of this subject
does not in any way help us in educational matters, as most com-
monly understood, nor does it derive any illumination from being
placed side by side with the arts of the recognized teacher." And
we have seen a Committee of Ten of the "recognized" teachers
of our own land blocking out the time of the secondary schools
without a single word of reference to the important matter of
physical education.
The Committee of Fifteen, which lately met at Cleveland,
Ohio, in their voluminous report on Education, did devote one
short paragraph to physical culture. But they did not seem to
grasp the vital connection between the growth of the mind and
the development of the body ; for they remark that " systematic
physical training has for its object rather the will training than
recreation " ; and again : " Systematic physical exercise has its
sufficient reason in its aid to a graceful use of the limbs, its de-
velopment of muscles that are left unused or rudimentary unless
called forth by special training, and for the help it gives to the
teacher in the way of school discipline." The report makes phys-
ical culture subsidiary to other kinds of education ; not as it
should be considered — a, fundamental and necessary part of edu-
cation.
I have therefore thought that a few remarks on the physical
element in education would be timely.
It is a suggestive fact that the ratio, by weight, of the brain
to the body of a new-born infant is one to ten, while the ratio of
the brain to the body of the average European adult man is one
to forty-six. Does not this fact at the very outset of life point the
way to a correct education ? The body needs development till it
attains maturity, if it is to have its appropriate growth. The
brain needs care rather than special culture while the body is
developing rapidly. Its appropriate culture for the years of
growth is to be found in its supervision, direction, and control of
the body.
If I were asked what should be the prime essential result of a
man's education, I should say power, vigor. And by that I mean
that a rightly educated man should have force in himself, of
which he is master. And I do not hesitate to say that any educa-
tion, however well it stores the mind with ideas or fills it with
knowledge, and yet fails to cultivate this force, is so far a failure.
I would extend my remarks so as to include similar statements
about the education of woman. Her power may be of a different
kind, but power she needs for the battle of life just as much as
man needs his force. And until we educate our men rightly, and
THE PHYSICAL ELEMENT IN EDUCATION. 473
our women also to be in this respect real helpmeets to men, we
shall not have on this continent a race which is to remain. What
Dr. Clark says, in the Building of a Brain, may well be quoted
here : " On this continent races have been born and lived and dis-
appeared. Mounds at the west, vestiges in Florida, and traces
elsewhere proclaim at least two extinct races. The causes of
their disappearance are undiscovered. We only know they are
gone. The Indian, whom our ancestors confronted, was losing
his hold on the continent when the Mayflower anchored in Plym-
outh Bay, and is now also rapidly disappearing. It remains to
be seen if the Anglo-Saxon race, which has ventured upon a con-
tinent that has proved the tomb of antecedent races, can be more
fortunate than they in maintaining a permanent grasp upon this
western world."
How shall we develop this power ? Regarding the new-born
child as a bundle of latent forces, how shall we draw out these
forces so that they shall be active, and yet be directed and con-
trolled by an enlightened will ? Only general suggestions can be
offered. The order of development is important. The earliest
attention should necessarily be given to the physical powers.
Nutrition is of the first importance. Next comes motion, the exer-
cise of muscles, and through these a certain development of mind
and will. And these phenomena of motion on the part of children
are so common, and, when we wish them to be quiet, so exasperat-
ing to us, that we miss their great importance in development.
How can children grow without continual motion ? Consider
how large a part of our physical economy is dependent on motion.
We pour food into the stomach, but the stomach is a muscular
organ and does a great part of its work through muscular motion.
It is to a certain extent dependent for its tone on the vigor of the
muscular system. After the food is converted into chyle and sent
drop by drop into the blood and is then passed through the oxy-
genizing process in the lungs, what is it that pumps it along the
arteries but another muscular organ, the heart ? And how much
help this flow of nutritious blood to the very extremities of the
system, into every nook and cranny of every organ of the body,
derives from the action of the voluntary muscular system, we can
hardly estimate. But we know the life current is quickened by
exercise and slackened by the cessation of exercise. There is an-
other way in which we know the influence of the voluntary mus-
cular system. When more exercise is taken, more food is required
to repair the waste, and there is better circulation of the blood.
Again, consider the senses, those avenues of knowledge to the
knowing mind. Take the eye. It is not only a combination of
lenses with a retina behind them sensitive to impressions. The
lenses are furnished with adjusting muscles. And the ball itself
474 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
is fitted with other nmscles to roll it in the socket and to direct it
on objects which the will commands it to see. Then, too, there is
the sense of touch, which, with sight, gives us knowledge of the
outside world. How could it give us such complete information
of our environment were it not supplemented by the muscles of
the outstretched arm and the feeling hand ? Our hearing is bet-
ter because we have muscles to enable us to turn the head that
we may listen. Smell and taste are more efficient because they
are supplemented by muscles appropriate to their functions.
Then, if we take our social life, how large a part of it is de-
pendent on speech ! And speech itself would be impossible with-
out the muscular power of taking and expelling breath and the
movement of the muscles of the larynx. Without muscles the
hand of the writer could not produce our books any more than
the cunning hand of the artificer could work out the inventions
of this inventive age. Knowledge itself, then, is dependent on
muscles and the power of muscles on motion.
It is, therefore, a wise provision of Nature which implants in
children a desire for play. By their very instincts they seek
motion, and the exercise and growth of their bodies through
motion.
But does the good effect of exercise end in the body ? Is that
simply larger and stronger ? The mind, too, has its share of
good. In the first place, the brain and nervous system are sup-
plied with blood and more of it. The repair of the waste is more
completely made. This of itself is one great gain. But in all
use of the voluntary muscles there is, as the term implies, a
necessary putting forth of will. The mind is exercised while the
body works. And this is especially true in all exercises which
require skill, in which the mind has an object to gain through
the skillful use of the body. This mental element comes in very
early in a child's life — as, for instance, in learning to walk, to
swim, or to write. All through the years of childhood it accom-
panies motions in games, most mind being required in those
games which require most skill. So those gymnastic exercises
which call for combinations of muscles in action, and need quick-
ness and exactness, are more useful for the majority of children
and men than those requiring the use of strength alone. For,
to attain success in games or exercises of skill, not only quickness
of body is needed, but an alertness of mind, and often, too, quick-
ness of the senses of sight and hearing. This mental element in
certain athletic games explains, in a measure, their fascination.
They furnish an exercise not for the body alone, but for the
whole man — every part of his being, including his mind, his
social nature, and even his moral nature, coming into play. This
is particularly the case in games in which a number of players
THE PHYSICAL ELEMENT IN EDUCATION. 475
are involved, so that individual skill must be subordinated to
the good of the whole body of players. The individual must re-
press and control self and observe law. Children have the same
discipline in their play when they engage in games requiring the
observance of rules.
This mental element in games assigns to them the first place
in any rational system of physical culture. The grind of the
gymnasium is so distasteful to the generality of people that gym-
nastic exercise, whether free or with apparatus, is only sought as
a last resort. But gymnasium work can be made interesting by
variety and by competitions. By being made also a preparatory
training for athletic sports, gymnastic exercises can be given an
interest and a power which they would fail to possess if taken
only from a sense of duty.
The more complete the exercise is for the whole system, the
more complete is this development of the mind through the body.
Therefore all supervision of the exercise of children should be in
the line of removing obstacles to the free exercise of every mus-
cle of the body. Care should be used to guard against the com-
pression of any part of the body by tight clothing. Badly fitting,
uncomfortable shoes often make the movements of the feet and
lower limbs a torture, affecting, unfortunately, the carriage of
the whole person, and producing ungraceful habits of walking.
The connection between the body and mind is so close that
the working of every (even the smallest) muscle of the body
must leave some trace in the mind. The education of the mind
through the body is defective to the extent of every unused mus-
cle. We see this plainly, according to Dr. Luys, quoted by Dr.
Faries in his paper read last April : " When a limb has lost its
function there is atrophy of certain parts of the gray matter of
the brain, due to defective action of the motor cells." So that
muscular exercise, besides conducing to the strength of the body,
is necessary to the storing of force in the brain and nervous sys-
tem. But this is not all. The brain has a great deal of its devel-
opment in consequence of directing and controlling the use of the
body through the muscular system. The more extensive this use
of the muscles, the more complete the education. Interfere with
this education by directing the will too early in life to conscious
cerebration by means of books, and you not only check the devel-
opment of the brain, but you deprive it also of a growth more
important than knowledge can give it, and one which no subse-
quent effort can supply.
In support of this theory of the growth of mind and true
brain power during the period of immaturity through the muscu-
lar system, I quote from Dr. Ladd's work on Psychology : " All
our study hitherto has led us to emphasize greatly the influence
476 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
upon mental development of the constitution and functions of
the muscular system. The condition and action of the muscles
stand in reciprocal relation to the senses and to the feelings which
form the necessary effective accompaniment of the senses. Fur-
thermore, the striated (or so-called voluntary) muscles are organs
of the will. In the complicated sensory motor apparatus all the
most primary foundations of the intellectual life are laid."
This quotation is right in line with the fact that the first
development of will comes through exercise of the muscles ; for
the first development of will, like all succeeding development of
will, consists in overcoming resistance; and the first resistance
to be overcome is physical. The child with flabby muscles has
generally a defective will power. Men of strong physique have
strong will power. Of course this will power to be effective
must be educated and directed like any other power. But its
foundation is laid in bodily power.
Another confirmation of the necessary connection between
strength of body and power of mind is to be found in the history
of the dominant races. The Greeks afforded the finest types of
body of their times or of any succeeding times. They showed
also that their intellectual activity was as remarkable as their
physical development. They have produced a literature that will
never die. The Roman supremacy, which lasted longer than the
Greek, was founded on physical prowess. It also has left a law
and a literature which are imperishable. The northern races of
Europe, overcoming the Roman arms by sheer physical force, and
appropriating what was best in the Roman polity, became the
masters of the world. From those races — one more virile than
the rest — the Saxon (now become the Anglo-Saxon) is through its
descendants almost master of the present world. Moreover, all
those races which declined, went down before races of stronger
physical power. The corruption of the body by sloth and effemi-
nate luxury was followed by a mental decline, just as softness and
weakness of mind and will have always gone hand in hand with
enervated, enfeebled bodies.
But I should be misunderstood if I leave the impression that
muscular force is the only one to be considered. Even of the
bodily forces, or of the agents which go to make these forces, it
is only one, though one of the most important. Nutrition must be
attended to. Without perfect nutrition the best muscular force
is impossible. If nutrition is faulty, muscular exercise if long
continued does harm rather than good. Next in importance to
nutrition is a fresh supply of oxygen to make good, pure blood.
Exercise should be taken in the open air, or at least in the purest
air possible. The skin should not be neglected. In fact, all the
laws of hygiene should be observed. Tests and measurements
APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES. 477
should be made of every person, to determine the best kind of
exercise for that particular person. And these examinations
ought to be made by a thoroughly educated physician. It will
not do to trust such an important agent in education as physical
culture to a man or woman who has only a smattering of knowl-
edge.
Systems of exercise are not half as important as the person
who exercises. Systems are only important in what they can
do for that person. The systems studied apart from the indi-
vidual may be perfect. Applied without judgment to particular
individuals they may prove disastrous failures. The persons ex-
ercising must be studied first, last, and all the time ; next, their
environment ; and then the kinds of exercise suited to their con-
dition and needs.
-♦*♦-
APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES.
By JOHN G. MORSE.
DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE
COLUMBUS. XIX.
A PECULIARITY common to all nations is the fact that not
until the industries of peace and the armaments of war
had been well developed was attention paid to procuring safe-
guards against conflagrations ; and when it was at last realized
that means for the extinguishing of fire were necessary, so little
was attempted that the results were entirely inadequate. Even
in the United States, noted the world over for advanced methods
of fire-fighting, the marked improvements have been so long in
coming that half the men alive to-day can remember the time
when the most marked changes were made.
It is believed that the first hose used for the extinguishing of
fire was made from the gut of an ox. This was attached to a bag
filled with water, which, being pressed, would force out a jet.
Charles F. T. Young, C. E., the author of Fires, Fire Engines,
and Fire Brigades, considers it probable that some mechanical
devices capable of squirting water existed in Nineveh, Tyre,
Babylon, etc. Ctesibius, of Alexandria, who flourished in the
second century b. c. during the time of Ptolemy, is said to have
invented a fire engine. Philadelphus and Euergetes are also said
to have worked in the same direction.
Certain it is that Hero in 150 b. c. invented and had made a
fire engine that was provided with an air chamber, and therefore
played a continuous stream. During the darkness of the middle
ages fire engines seem to have been forgotten, and it is doubtful
if syringes were kept in use. The Chronicles of Augsburg,
478
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
Fig. 1. — Hero's Fire Engine, 150 b. c.
(From Knight's Mechanical Dictionary,
by permission of the publishers.)
1518, speak of " water syringes useful at fires," and from that
time onward mention is made of fire engines in Denmark, Ger-
many, Holland, France, and Great Britain. From the work above
referred to it is stated that Decaus, in his Forcible Movements,
published in 1615, describes a Ger-
man engine of that period in the
following quaint language :
" A rare and necessary engin,
by which you may give a greate
reliefe to houses that are on fire.
This engin is much practiced in
Germany, and it hath been seen
what great and ready help it may
bring : for although the fire be
40 foot high, the said engin shall
there cast its water by help of
four or five men lifting up and
putting down a long handle, in
form of a lever, where the handle
of the- pump is fastened. The said
pump is easily understood : there are two suckers (valves) within
it, one below to open when the handle is lifted up, and to shut
when it is put down, and another to open to let out the water ;
and at the end of the said engin there is a man which holds the
copper pipe, turning it to and again to the place where the fire
shall be."
In 1632 there was a patent granted in England to one Thomas
Grant for a fire engine. Caspar Schott, of Nuremberg, manu-
factured one in 1657 that, when worked by twenty-eight men,
would play a stream eighty feet in length. In 1663 John Van
der Hayden, of Amsterdam, patented another, and to him is given
the credit of bringing the machine to the modern form of hand
engine. Several other early engines are mentioned in different
works on the subject; among them the " pompe portative,"
patented in France by Duperrier in 1699. To this Perrault
added the air chamber.
Although many different engines had been invented, buckets
and syringes were in use in England and on the Continent until
far into the seventeenth century. The largest of the hand
syringes were of brass, and held no more than a gallon. Two
men were required with each, one to hold the syringe and the
other to direct the stream. In the sixteenth century larger ones
were made and placed on wheels. These were capable of holding
about a barrel of water and had no hose. The direction of the
stream, or, more properly speaking, of the series of squirts, could
be changed up and down, as the syringe rested on pivots. To
APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES. 479
change the direction from side to side, the entire machine, wheels
and all, had to be moved.
Barring the gut of an ox mentioned at the beginning of this
article, hose was not known until 1672. Mr. C. B. Robinson, in an
address before the National Association of Fire Engineers, states
that fire hose was invented by John and Nicholas Van-der-Heide
(spelled by some Heyden) in 1672. These brothers were the in-
spectors of fire apparatus in the city of Amsterdam, and were
probably led to make the invention by their experience in these
matters. The hose was made of leather, of sail cloth, or of seam-
less fabric, in fifty-foot lengths, and coupled together with brass
screws. This contradicts the popular impression that canvas
hose was an exclusively modern invention. Although the leather
hose made at that time was very defective, being sewed like a
boot leg, it soon supplanted the sail-cloth and woven hose that
became worn out so quickly, and up to a very recent date leather
has been the only substance used in making hose.
The early settlers in America paid no attention toward pro-
tecting themselves against fire, and the different colonies had
grown into fair-sized communities with several industries well
established before any steps were taken in that direction. About
the earliest mention of a definite method of fire protection was
made at Salem, Mass., in 1644, when each inhabitant was ordered
to be supplied with a ladder under penalty of a fine of five shil-
lings. These ladders were undoubtedly made in Salem or in the
immediate vicinity, and one might rightly say that here be-
gan an American industry that is now carried on so extensively
in many places and under a multitude of different forms. In
1648 four fire wardens were appointed in New York city.
These men passed a law to fine every one whose chimney became
foul or whose house was burned by his own carelessness. The
money so obtained was to be used in the purchase of ladders,
hooks, and buckets. These were not provided, however, until
some years later.
Boston also took steps in this direction, and on the first day of
the twelfth month of 1653, or, by the modern method of compu-
tation, on February 1, 1654, the following entry is found in the
town records :
" The select men have power and liberty hereby to agree with
Joseph Jynks for Ingins to Carry water in Case of fire, if they
see Cause soe to doe." Mr. James R. Newhall, in his history
of Lynn, Mass., gives the following facts about this maker
of fire engines : Joseph Jenks, or Jynks, came from Hammer-
smith, England, to Lynn as an operative in the iron works. He
soon made himself known to the community and to the country
at large by his ingenious inventions. In regard to the order
480 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
found in the town records of Boston, Mr. Newhall makes the
following comment :
"This order, it will be observed, is permissive rather than
imperative ; and there has been a question whether they did con-
tract for an engine, or, if they did, whether the contract was
ever fulfilled, for it is asserted that Boston had no engine till
after the great fire in November, 1676, at which time some forty-
six dwellings were destroyed, besides shops, warehouses, and 'a
meeting house of considerable bigness/ An opportune rain is
mentioned as having done much toward arresting the flames,
and some buildings were blown up. But nothing is said about
an engine being there. Pemberton seems to have thought that as
late as 1711 Boston had no fire engine. Yet on the 9th of March,
1702, the town voted that the selectmen should 'procure two
water engines suitable for the extinguishing of fire, either by
sending for them to England, or otherwise to provide them/
This must have been in addition to one before had, for it was on
the same day voted that 'the Selectmen are desired to get the
Water Engine for the quenching of fire repaired, as also the house
for keeping the same in.' Now, might not the one referred to as
needing repairs in 1702 have been manufactured by Mr. Jenks, on
the order of 1654 ? It would have been an old ' machine/ to be
sure, but was, no doubt, constructed in a thorough manner, and
not very frequently called into use."
Mr. Caleb H. Snow, in his history of Boston, published in 1828,
doubts if the engine ordered in 1654 was ever made. He states,
however, that in 1679 a fire engine is mentioned as having lately
come from England. If this be true, there is a bare possibility
that this is the engine referred to as needing repairs in 1702.
It seems extremely doubtful whether a fire engine was manu-
factured for Boston as early as 1654. The town was then but
twenty-four years old, and what money was not used in keeping
the wolf from the door was probably fully expended in the
meager village improvements and in paying men to repel the
continually obnoxious Indians. The inhabitants would hardly
have cared to go to the expense of buying a doubtful invention
for the extinguishment of the then rarely occurring fires. Never-
theless, Mr. Jenks, from what we know of his mechanical genius,
was probably fully capable of making a successful fire engine,
had any of the towns in the widely separated and struggling
colonies cared to buy one. Had this engine been built, it would
not only have been the first made in this country, but it would
have been the first one used here, many English engines being
introduced later. But, as will be seen later, without taking this
engine into consideration, Boston holds priority in the ownership
of a fire engine. Besides authorizing the purchase of an engine
APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES. 481
in this first order of 1054, it was ordered that every house be pro-
vided with a ladder and a twelve-foot pole to reach the ridge-pole.
Six good and long ladders were to be furnished by the selectmen.
In 1G57 New York had made some ladders and hooks. It was
also decided to order two hundred and fifty leather buckets from
Holland. Thinking it would take too long to have the order
filled, it was decided to have one hundred and fifty buckets made
in this country. Remout Remoutzen was ordered to make one
hundred and Adrian Van Lair to make fifty. These were to cost
six guilders two stuyners each (about two dollars and a half).
The buckets were finished in 1659, and properly distributed.
Undoubtedly the first fire company organized in this country
was formed in New York in 1058. It was called the Prowlers, and
was composed of eight men with two hundred and fifty buckets,
hooks, and small ladders. Where the buckets were obtained, and
whether or not they were in addition to those owned by the town,
the records fail to state. In 1679 Salem purchased two or three
dozen cedar buckets, besides hooks and other implements ; also,
the selectmen and two others were authorized to take command
at fires, and to blow up and pull down buildings when such
action was necessary. This practice appears to have been much
more common before the use of engines than afterward. Boston,
on September 9, 1079, ordered that every quarter of the town
should be provided with twenty swobes, two scoopes, and six
axes. The swobes, or swabs as they are now called, were long-
handled mops that could be used to put out roof fires. The gen-
eral use of swabs has long since disappeared, but when a slight
blaze is beyond the reach of a pail of water and more improved
apparatus is not at hand, a long-handled mop is to-day the most
efficient article to be used. In Japan these swabs may be seen
on many roof tops.
In 1690 New York ordered that five ladders and also hooks be
made. In Philadelphia no mention is made of public precaution
against fire until 1690, when a law was passed forbidding the
firing of chimneys or allowing the same to become foul. Each
house was to have a swab, bucket, or pail. Another act was
passed in 1700, ordering every household to have two leather
buckets. In the following year six or eight hooks for the pur-
pose of tearing down houses were ordered to be made.
As has been stated above, Boston bought two engines in Eng-
land in 1702, and therefore, if the engines of 1754 and 1079 never
existed, Boston was yet the first town to be the proud owner of
a fire engine. Philadelphia came next, in 1018. On December
8th of that year the Council agreed with one Abraham Bickley
for " his ffire Engine At ye sum of £50." This engine had been
imported from London by the said Bickley.
VOL. XLVII. 39
482
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
With the exception of the buckets made in New York in
1657-'59 by Remout Reinoutzen and Adrian Van Lair, no men-
tion is made of the makers of the different equipments provided.
In 1729 Salem again took steps toward protection from fire by
ordering buckets, hooks, poles and ladders to be kept in the Town
Fig. 2. — Early Fire Fighting. (From an old print.)
House, but the records fail to state where and by whom the
buckets, etc., were made. It is most probable, however, that the
ladders, hooks, poles, and swabs were made by artisans in the
different towns, but many of the buckets were undoubtedly manu-
factured in Europe. Later records are more specific. In 1730,
Philadelphia, besides buying some buckets in England, made
a bargain with a townsman, Thomas Oldman, for one hundred
leather buckets.
New York had no fire engine until 1731, when two were
bought of Mr. Newsham, the celebrated London maker. These
engines were box affairs, with small wheels and axles solidly set.
They could not turn corners, but had to be lifted bodily around.
The first engine of home manufacture was built in New York in
I 737. In the New York Gazette, of May 9th of that year, the fol-
lowing advertisement appeared :
" A Fire-engine that will deliver two hogsheads of water in a
minute, in a continual stream, is to be sold by William Lindsay,
the maker thereof. Enquire at Fighting Cocks, next door to the
Exchange Coffee-house, New York."
"Whether or not this engine was successful is unknown, but it
APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES.
483
is tolerably certain that it was never used. Bartholomew Wel-
dern also made two engines, neither of which would work. In
the same year, however, Thomas Lote made an engine that was
more successful. It was used in the New York department, and
known as number three. Considering the length of time between
1654 and 1737, in which no mention is made of home-made en-
gines, it seems still more doubtful if Mr. Jenks, of Lynn, did
make the first machine in this country, and undoubtedly priority
should be given to one of the several New-Yorkers just men-
tioned.
Benjamin Franklin states in his autobiography that his read-
ing a paper on fire protection before a Philadelphia society gave
rise to the forming of " a company for the ready extinguishing of
fires, and mutual assistance in removing and securing of goods
when in danger." Besides the usual buckets, each member car-
ried a bag made of four yards of osnaburgs or wider linen, with a
running cord at the neck. These bags were used in safely trans-
porting valuables and small articles from burning buildings, and
Fig. 3.— Early Fire Fighting. (From a certificate issued to Seth Kneeland, New York
Volunteer Fire Department, November 13, 1789.)
formed a primitive forerunner of the outfits of the protective
patrols of to-day. Franklin was a member of the company thus
started.
Jacob Turk, who became the head of the New York depart-
ment in 1739, introduced the style of- leather hat that is worn by
firemen at the present day. Despite the countless changes that
have taken place in apparatus of all kinds, the fireman's hat
remains practically unchanged, and serves, as it always has, for a
distinguishing emblem to the profession.
Massachusetts passed a law in 1744 empowering all towns to
choose fire wards. The wards were to have for a distinguishing
+84
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY
badge of office a staff five feet long, painted red, and headed with
a bright brass spire six inches in length. One of the first towns
to take advantage of this law was Salem. At the same time a
fire club was formed that purchased a fire engine in England in
1749 and another in 1751.
Baltimore first took precautions against fire in 1747, when the
housekeepers were ordered to have ladders in readiness. The
Annals of Providence tell us that measures in this direction were
not taken until 1754, when a law was passed compelling each
housekeeper to have two buckets. An engine was also purchased,
although the records fail to state where it was manufactured.
Another engine was bought in Boston in 1700, undoubtedly a
second-hand English machine, as at that time there were no
makers in Boston.
It will be noticed that, although engines had been made in this
country, foreign machines were preferred, probably on account of
Fig. 4.— Early " Hand Tub.
(From a Sketch and Reminiscences of the Providence Fire
Department. )
their superior workmanship. The foreign makers, however, were
soon to lose their precedence. Mr. A. W. Brayley, in his History
of the Boston Fire Department, states that in 1765 David
Wheeler, an ex-fireman of Boston Engine Company 8, manu-
factured the first complete fire engine ever made in that town.
Wheeler was a blacksmith established on Washington Street^
then called Newbury. He gave notice to the press that he would
encourage home industry by making a fire engine. This he did,
and on August 21st the same year he had a chance to try
his production, which worked to the satisfaction of all pres-
ent. In 1767 Wheeler asked permission to make another. This
was granted, and the same year the importation of engines
APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES. 485
from abroad was prohibited. An industry was not only started
but encouraged by law — one that has increased and spread in all
parts of the country, embracing the manufacture of more im-
proved apparatus at a later day, until now it is the greatest
industry of its kind in the world.
Although begun in New York and Boston, the making of fire
engines was soon established in Philadelphia, where for over a
century it flourished to a greater extent than in any other city in
the country. From the history of that city by Messrs. Scharf
and Westcott, we learn that in 1768 Richard Mason, on Second
Street, began the manufacture of fire engines. His quaint ad-
vertisement appears in a copy of the Massachusetts Centinel of
Saturday, November 7, 1 789, published in Boston :
" Fire Engines made on the newest and most approved con-
struction ; warranted for seven years, and sold as cheap as they
can be procured from Europe. The business is now extensively
carried on in all its various branches, by the subscriber, in Union
Street, Philadelphia ; where Engines of any size may be had ; and
towns and fire companies supplied therewith on the shortest
notice." After mentioning small engines for house, garden, and
ship use, the advertisement goes on to state :
" He has several good second-hand engines for sale, at low
rates : — and makes fire-buckets of the neatest and best sort, which
he supplies, handsomely painted with any device required, at a
short notice.
" The strictest attention paid to orders from any part of the
continent, or elsewhere; and the utmost punctuality and dis-
patch may be relied on."
A list is given of the five sizes made, varying from one of eighty
gallons, throwing water eighty feet and worked by six men, to one
of one hundred and seventy-five gallons, throwing one hundred
and seventy-five feet and worked by eighteen men. The prices
varied from £40 to £120. The advertisement closes as follows:
" N. B. — The main body of water will not be thrown to the
above distances, and a greater number of men may be applied to
the large engines if occasions should require."
Mr. Mason was the first one to place the levers upon the ends
instead of upon the sides of the engines, and thereafter they were
spoken of as the Philadelphia levers.
The first ladder companies possessing trucks on which to
carry their ladders and hooks were formed in New York in 1772,
and were numbered one and two. There had been two trucks in
the New York department previous to this, carrying no name
or number. These were probably the first pieces of apparatus
of this kind used in the United States, for a careful scrutiny of
different records fails to show an earlier one.
486 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY
In 1774 each engine in Salem — there were then three — was
furnished with a framed canvas screen in three or four leaves,
eight feet high. The canvas was kept wet by the use of long-
handled swabs, and the screens are said to have been of great
service in preventing the spread of fire. Screens of this kind
were used in Salem and the adjoining towns until a very late day
but they were evidently local in their character, for the records
of the departments in other parts of the country do not mention
anything of like nature.
At the close of the Revolutionary War in 1782 the manu-
facture of fire engines that had been established in Philadelphia
took a decided start, and soon became such a distinctive feature
among the industries of that town that it added greatly to its
notoriety. Boston also for some time took a prominent part in
this industry. In 1792 the firm of Hunneman & Company,
manufacturers of hand fire engines, was established. This firm
continued to make hand fire engines until the introduction of
steamers threatened to ruin its business, and to save itself it
embraced the manufacture of steam fire engines. After continu-
ing to bear the name of Hunneman for almost a century it passed
into different hands and the firm is still in existence. As far as
can be ascertained, this is the oldest concern of the kind in this
country and perhaps in the world.
When Hunneman & Company first established their works
the New York authorities decided to make their own engines,
and did so to some extent, but also continued to buy elsewhere,
the records showing that one was purchased from Philadelphia
in 1798. The Philadelphia engines traveled farther from home
than to New York. In 1797 Salem, having bought several in
England during the previous years, ordered one from a Phila-
delphia maker by the name of Samuel Briggs. The journey to
Salem so injured the machine that it was useless on its arrival,
and the maker had to send on an agent to superintend its repair.
The history of the Boston Fire Department states that in 1798
a Mr. Fenno, of that town, made some new hose for engine five.
This seems to be the first mention of the making of fire hose in
this country. Although the Boston authorities had prohibited
the importation of foreign engines, they did not put the same
restrictions upon hose. In the same year they purchased two
hundred feet of hemp hose from Holland, giving as their reason
for so doing that the English and American kinds were unsat-
isfactory.
The New York firemen saw at an early date the need of some-
thing more effectual than land engines with which to fight fires
on the water front. Somewhere between 1805 and 1810 a large
boat, rowed by twenty-four men, and provided with a fire engine,
APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES. 487
was put in service. It did good work, but in winter the hard-
ships of the men were so great that few would serve, and the
boat was abandoned. This was a forerunner of the fire boats with
which so many of the larger cities are now provided.
Messrs. A. L. Pennock and James Sellers, of Philadelphia, in
1818 invented and manufactured the first leather copper-riveted
hose used in this country. Burr and Shaw, of Providence, estab-
lished a similar business a few years later.
Boston had no ladder truck until 1820. Having provided
many new ladders and hooks, the authorities purchased a rather
worn-out express wagon upon which the articles mentioned could
be carried to fires more readily. A company was formed to man
the same.
During the early part of the century the departments of the
larger towns realized that the private pumps and wells did not
form a sufficient water supply, and town pumps and cisterns were
placed at convenient intervals about the streets. Instead of fill-
ing the engines by means of lines of bucket-passers, it was often
possible to pump directly into the machine. This led to pumping
direct from the stationary pumps into the fire hose when the
pumps were in close proximity to the fire, and soon hose com-
panies were formed. A famous company of this kind was formed
in Providence. Equipped with a hose carriage and one thousand
feet of hose, its members competed for honors with the finest
engine companies. This was one of the first hose carriages used.
The leading hose of the engines had always been carried on the
machines, and this custom was generally continued. Mr. George
W. Sheldon, in his history of the New York Volunteer Firemen,
states that David J. Hubbs, foreman of one of the companies,
introduced the first separate hose carriage in the New York
department. It was a very simple device, a reel on the axle
between two ordinary wheels. This was known as "Hubbs's
Baby." It was either tied behind the engine or pulled by two of
the members of the company.
Up to the year 1820 the fire apparatus in use had improved
but little. The larger towns only were provided with engines,
and, as has been stated, these were box affairs that were filled by
lines of bucket-passers or by stationary pumps. The brakes and
pumps, it is true, had been greatly improved, and, indeed, besides
the piston-pump engines worked by brakes there was a rotary
pump in use, driven by a crank and geared to greater speed by
cog wheels, but the engines were limited in their usefulness by
the unsatisfactory method employed in supplying them with
water. Somewhere between 1819 and 1822, although the exact
date is in question, a new era was begun in the method of fight-
ing fire.
488
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
The Hon. Elislia Dyer, in a paper devoted to the Providence
Fire Department, states that the first successful suction engine
made in the United States was manufactured by Sellers & Pen-
nock, of Philadelphia, in 1822, for the town of Providence. It was
named Hydraulion No. 1. At about this date all the engines of
the New York department were provided with suctions. Proba-
Fig. 5.— First Suction Hand Engine. (From a Sketch and Reminiscences of the Provi-
dence Fire Department. )
bly at that time many of the old engines, in different parts of the
country, were changed to suction engines, while the first new one
built was Hydraulion No. 1, of Providence. With the introduc-
tion of suctions the general efficiency of the engines was greatly
increased. Every pond, brook, and bucketless well was at the
service of the firemen, and a new impetus was given to the manu-
facture of fire apparatus.
In 1834, Button & Company, of Waterford, New York,
entered the field. They continued building hand engines until
the introduction of steam, when they followed the example of
Hunneman & Company, of Boston, and began the building of
steam engines. Their successors lately consolidated with the
American Fire Engine Company, who, as the successors of Hun-
neman & Company have discontinued the manufacture of fire
engines, now form the oldest house of the kind in the country.
The Button hand engines are still placed upon the market for
the use of small country departments.
In 1848, William Jeffers, of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, in con-
nection with two or three other mechanics, altered over the
pumps of a hand engine. He met with such good success that
APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES.
489
lie began the manufacture of hand engines, and in 18G1 added
the making of steam fire engines to his business. Crockett, E. B.
Juckett, Henry Waterman, Pake & Kells, John R. Adams, John
Agnew, and several others were well-known names connected
with the building of hand fire engines, but it is difficult to obtain
the dates at which they entered the field. Many of them made
steam engines at a later date.
It is hard to realize that at the end of the first half of the
nineteenth century the fire departments of this country were
still far behind the times both in organization and in apparatus.
Stearn railroads were pushing out in every direction, steam ves-
sels were crossing the ocean, steam power was being used in
countless mills, the electric telegraph had been invented, the
equipments of the army and navy were being continually im-
proved, and machinery was taking the place of hand work in
every kind of manufactory. The firemen, on the other hand,
were using manual engines drawn by hand, small and inadequate
ladder trucks and hose reels, also dragged to fires by the fire-
men themselves. Their apparatus was removed but a few steps
Fig. G. — Ericsson's Engine. (From Scribner's Magazine, by permission of the publishers.)
from the old squirting syringes. The men were brave, but did
their work of their own free will. After the city government
had paid for the engines the firemen assumed all other expenses.
It is not the purpose of this article to discuss the organization
of the volunteer fire departments, but simply to show how handi-
capped they were by apparatus that was out of date, and entirely
unfit to cope with the fires that were sure to occur in the inflam-
mable and rapidly growing cities.
49°
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
The year 1840 marks the beginning of a great era in the devel-
opment of fire apparatus, although the stupidity of the general
public prevented the adoption of the improved methods for sev-
eral years later. Stationary steam pumps had been used in mills
for some years previous to 1842, but up to that time a portable
steam fire engine was a thing unknown in this country. In 1830
Captain Ericsson, then of London, but later famed as the builder
of the Monitor, designed a steam fire engine, and the firm of
Braithwaite & Ericsson built one machine and operated it in
London entirely at their own expense in the hopes that more
might be introduced. They met with so much opposition, how-
ever, not only from the press but forcible interference from the
firemen, that they abandoned the attempt. The Prussian Govern-
ment in 1832 ordered a steam fire engine built that threw a single
stream one inch and a half in diameter.
Fig. 7. — First Steam Fike Engine in the Dnited States, 1840.
After his failure in London Captain Ericsson thought he would
try again with the more progressive Americans, but he was doomed
to disappointment. Designs that he made for an engine were
awarded a prize by the American Institute in 1840, but no ma-
chine was built. The first steam fire engine ever built or used
in the United States was one made by Mr. Paul R. Hodge for the
Matteawan Insurance Company, of New York. The engine was
a self -propeller, and when working at a fire was blocked up so
that its hind wheels might be used as balance wheels. When
housed it was connected with boilers, and fuel was always laid
that steam might be got up quickly. This engine was operated
at the expense of the insurance company, but continually met
with opposition from the volunteer firemen. Finally, when play-
ing at a fire in Dover Street, the machine did such excellent work
that the firemen utterly refused to allow it to be used thereafter,
APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES. 49 1
and it was stored away, and New York's fire protection was lim-
ited again to the old hand tubs.
Such a marked improvement as a steam fire engine, however,
could not long remain unadopted by the progressive people of this
country, even though their protectors, the volunteer firemen, in-
sisted that hand power was the only means that should be used.
In 1852 Messrs. Latta & Shawk, of Cincinnati, placed a steam
boiler and cylinder in connection with the pumps of a hand engine
belonging to the Cincinnati department and mounted the whole
contrivance on wheels and frame. A public trial was made of this
crude affair, and it worked very successfully. In the short time
of four minutes and ten seconds steam was raised from cold water,
the engine started, and water discharged through three hundred
and fifty feet of hose to a distance of one hundred and thirty feet
from the nozzle. Although this exhibition was naturally looked
upon with dislike by the volunteer firemen, the city government
was greatly pleased and immediately contracted with the makers
for a complete steam fire engine. This was built and put in
service with a company organized and supported by the city.
Thus the first paid fire company in the world to operate by
steam power was brought into existence.
The volunteers made great opposition to the change in affairs,
but the chief engineer of the paid department, Miles Greenwood,
was so energetic and persevering that with the help of other
level-headed men the opposition was overcome and the trouble
adjusted. To Mr. Greenwood is due much of the credit for intro-
ducing the steam fire engine into this country. The firm of Latta
& Shawk passed into different hands, until controlled by the
celebrated Ahrens Manufacturing Company, which in turn has
been absorbed by the American Fire Engine Company.
The fame of the Cincinnati engines spread, and other cities en-
deavored to introduce the system, always meeting with the most
violent opposition from the volunteers. The press, however, advo-
cated the change, and called for its universal introduction. A
Boston gentleman, having visited Cincinnati, wrote in the Boston
Transcript of August 7, 1857, that he was amazed at the efficiency
of the Cincinnati department, and believed it had demonstrated
the impossibility of extensive conflagrations. He was disgusted
to return to Boston and find men and boys dragging hand tubs to
fires, after having discarded a steam fire engine without giving it
a fair trial. But the steam fire engine was bound to come. Chi-
cago and other western cities closely followed Cincinnati by or-
ganizing paid departments equipped with steam engines. The
more intelligent volunteers in the east began to see the error of
their ways, and replaced their hand engines with the more modern
apparatus. Boston was the first of the eastern cities to organize
492 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
a paid department, which she did in 1860. New York did the
same in 1865, and Philadelphia in 1871. Other eastern cities
rapidly fell into line, but some of the southern cities, though
equipped with the most modern apparatus, continue to the present
day with volunteer firemen, New Orleans having only recently
adopted a paid force.
When the success of the steam fire engine became an estab-
lished fact the demand increased rapidly. Not only did many of
the hand-engine builders begin their manufacture, but almost all
the locomotive works and many machine shops did the same.
Also many new firms sprang up. In almost every eastern and in
many western States men went into the business, while in some
cases the volunteer companies, notably one in Pittsburg, had the
steamers built under their own supervision at the shop of one of
the members. Philadelphia kept up her long-standing reputation
by soon having ten or more competitive firms engaged in the
work. Some of these numerous makers built but one engine,
some of them only a few, while others continued in the business
for several years.
The Portland Company Locomotive Works, of Portland, Me.,
made steam fire engines from 1859 until 1870. At the time their
engines had the most powerful suctions of any in the market, and
one of them, that is still on duty in Bangor, ably keeps up its repu-
tation in this respect. The work was discontinued because the
complicated nature of the machinery rendered it impossible to set
a competitive price. In 1858 Thomas Scott and N. S. Bean, of
Lawrence, Mass., made an engine for the Boston department.
The business thus established was absorbed by the Amoskeag
Manufacturing Company, of Manchester, N. H., and their engines
are now built by the Manchester Locomotive Works.
Silsby, Mynderse & Company, of Seneca Falls, and Clapp &
Jones, of Hudson, N. Y., were extensive builders, and their suc-
cessors have combined with the successors of the Button Com-
pany and the Ahrens into the American Fire Engine Company.
The multitude of firms in the eastern and a few in the western
States that went into the business are too numerous to mention,
and most of them soon discontinued the making of engines. The
Philadelphia firms one by one dropped out, and that city's reputa-
tion in this line is a thing of the past. Ettenger & Edmund, of
Richmond, made in 1860 an engine for St. Petersburg, Russia.
This was one of the first American engines sent abroad.
These early machines were of all models and sizes, either large
and cumbersome self-propellers or small and light to be drawn by
men. Engines drawn by horses were not generally introduced
until some years later. The different makers evidently made ex-
periments to find the most satisfactory arrangement of the ma-
APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES.
493
chinery. Some had the boiler at the extreme back, and the pumps
and air chamber in the middle ; in others the air chamber was far
in front, while one builder put the air chamber and pumps behind,
with the boiler in the center. Occasionally the self-propellers
were three-wheeled affairs, while others on four wheels carried
such an amount of chain and gears that they could hardly move
their own ponderous weight. A comparison of pictures of the
early machines would, to the most careless observer, show a
marked difference in form, while the engines of the present day
are nearly alike in general appearance.
The La France Fire Engine Company, Elmira, N. Y., and the
Waterous Engine Works Company of St. Paul, have made en-
gines but a comparatively few years, and with the Manchester
Locomotive Works and the American Fire Engine Company are
the only firms in the business to-day. Some few cities, notably
Fig. 8. — Steam Fire Engine of To-day.
Cleveland, encourage home industry by occasionally having en-
gines built by local machinists.
It is not within the scope of this article to go into a technical
description of the boilers, engines, and pumps used in the different
styles of steamers made to-day. Each maker has endeavored to
provide a boiler so arranged that steam can be generated in the
shortest possible time. The engines must be light and capable of
being worked in positions often far from level. The pumps must
be powerful both in suction and in being able to throw streams to
great distances. At the same time they must be as simple as pos-
sible and not easily clogged, for often the only available water is
in some muddy pool or pond filled with foreign matter. When it
is remembered that fire engines are often bought by village de-
partments where there is no one of mechanical ability to care for
them, it will be evident that every part of the machine must be of
a quality and construction that will stand misuse and abuse.
The Amoskeag, Ahrens, Clapp & Jones, Button, and Water-
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APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES. 495
ous engines have piston pnnips ; the Silsby engines have rotary
pumps, and the La France Engine Company manufactures two
distinct styles of engines — one with a piston pump and one with
a rotary. The piston pump needs no description here, but it will
be well to say a few words in regard to the rotary pump. The
engine in this case is composed of two cams, which to the uniniti-
ated are irregular cog-wheels with alternating large and small
cogs, working in a steam-tight case. The steam entering from
one direction forces these cams to revolve with great rapidity.
The pump is composed of cams somewhat similar, which are con-
nected with the engine cams, and when revolving suck the water
and force it through the discharge pipe with great pressure. The
capacities of steam fire engines differ from three hundred gallons
per minute in the smallest sizes up to twelve and thirteen hun-
dred gallons per minute in the largest.
Self-propellers are very little used at the present day. Boston,
Providence, Hartford, New York, Brooklyn, Detroit, Chicago,
Milwaukee, and other cities, have all tried them, but they have
been very generally discarded for engines drawn by horses. Hart-
ford is a notable exception to the list, there being two self-propel-
lers in her department. The latest of these is an Amoskeag engine
by the name of Jumbo, and has a capacity of thirteen hundred
and fifty gallons per minute. This is probably the largest land
fire engine in the world. The city departments are always fur-
nished with the larger sizes of engines drawn by horses, but in
many towns engines of lighter draft, that can be drawn by men,
are often used. Crane-neck and straight frames are both used,
but the former are more common. The American Fire Engine
Company make a combination engine and hose wagon called the
Columbian engine. The wagon part is forward, and the engine
and boiler are over the rear wheels. This is very convenient in
suburban departments, as it reduces the number of pieces of appa-
ratus. The fire-engine makers of the United States supply the
home market exclusively, and a number of machines have been
sent to Canada and to foreign countries.
The most powerful allies of the land engines are fire boats, that
are now used by all large cities bordering on the water. The
capacity of a fire boat is often equal to that of ten to twenty
land engines, and is limited only by the size of a boat that can be
worked quickly and easily among the crowded shipping of a har-
bor. As has been seen, New York had a floating hand fire engine
in use during the early part of this century, but it was not in serv-
ice for any length of time. After steam vessels came into gen-
eral use, harbor tugs were often provided with fire pumps, that
they might aid in extinguishing fires on the water fronts. The
first boat built expressly for fighting fire was launched in 1872,
496
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
from the Atlantic Works, East Boston, for the Boston Fire De-
partment. Her pumps were of the Amoskeag pattern. This boat
has since been replaced by one more powerful. The next fire boat
was the Havemeyer, built in New York in 1875, and followed in
1883 by the Zophar Mills for the same department. These boats
are still in service.
The first very powerful fire boat was the Seth Low, built for
the Brooklyn department by the Cowles Engineering Company
of that city. This company has since built a number of fire boats
F i < ; . 10. — The Fire Boat New-Yorker, New York Fire Department.
for different cities, one of them being the New-Yorker, which is
among the most powerful in the world. Chicago has four fire
boats in her department. The modern fire boat is sometimes built
of wood, but generally of iron, and in some cases the decks are so
provided with corrugated iron shields and sprinklers that the boat
can be worked to advantage in a perfect sea of fire. The whole
power of the pumps can be concentrated in one stream from three
to five inches in diameter, from a swivel nozzle on the forward
deck, or, instead, a large number of ordinary fire streams can be
APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES. 497
played at once. When using the one powerful stream at the bow
a brick wall can be penetrated, and the fire is not only deluged,
but the force of the stream knocks the flaming timbers to pieces,
and so distributes the fire that it can be quenched more rapidly.
When playing a multitude of smaller streams the fire boat can go
between a warehouse and a group of vessels, no matter how furi-
ous the fire may be, and there obtain a point of vantage impos-
sible to a land engine. It is stated that the New-Yorker could
sink herself in fifty seconds. The crew live in a house on the
wharf where the boat is stationed, and can reach their places as
rapidly as the members of a land fire company can reach their
engines. Fires are kept banked at all hours, and every alarm
within reach of the water front is answered. It will not be out
of place to quote a passage from an article on Modern Fire Appa-
ratus in Scribner's of January, 1891 :
" It is not uninteresting to note that there are floating fire
engines in London. They consist of steam pumps placed on scows
which are moored at long intervals along the water front. When
an alarm of fire comes in, the captain of the scow goes whooping
up and down the water front to get a tug to tow him to the place
from which the alarm has come ! "
Many cities increase the possibilities of fire boats by laying
empty pipe lines from the water front inland. The fire boat can
couple on the line nearest the fire and the land engines can draw
from this unlimited water supply in addition to the regular city
system. The time is probably not far distant when every town
and city bordering navigable water will have one or more fire
boats in its department.
Steam locomotives can be made to serve as fire engines by
attaching a device made by the Nathan Manufacturing Company
of New York. It consists of a pipe placed at a point just below
the level of the stationary water tanks in use on the railroad.
There are two receiving nozzles in the center and two delivery
nozzles at the base. The former are connected with a tank or an
ordinary hydrant, and steam entering at the top of the pipe will
force one eleven-sixteenths-inch stream one hundred and fifteen
feet or two half -inch streams sixty feet. This device can be used
very effectively in crowded freight yards where the regular fire-
men have difficulty in working with promptness, and also at way
stations where there is no fire department.
It has long been known that certain chemicals will not sup-
port combustion, and during the middle of this century a number
of chemists began to devise means by which such chemicals could
be used to advantage at fires. The first practical results were
five to ten gallon cans filled with a mixture of gas and water.
Small hose was attached, through which the fluid could be played.
VOL. XLVII. — 40
w
3
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o
2
APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES. 499
la some instances the combination of gas and water aided greatly
to extinguish the fire, while in others the gas escaped into the air
and served only to force the water in a stream. The successful
inventors soon tried large tanks on two and four wheeled trucks,
and to-day all sizes, from tin and glass hand grenades up to large
double-tank four-wheeled engines, are in use.
The first chemical engine was put on the market by the New
England Fire Extinguisher Company of Northampton, Mass.
The Babcock Company of Chicago took this up, and by the
aid of one of their engineers, Mr. Wellington Lee, who had
previously done much work with steam fire engines, soon made it
much more successful.
The Holloway, of Baltimore, the Babcock and Champion, made
by the Fire Extinguisher Manufacturing Company of Chicago,
and the Hutson and the Lindgren-Mahan, also of Chicago, are the
engines in general use at the present day. The chemicals used in
these different engines are more or less the same, and the engines
themselves consist of one or two tanks placed either horizontally
or vertically, and having one or two lines of small hose attached.
In some cases small extension ladders are carried. Combination
chemical engines and hose wagons or carriages were used in
Canada as early as 1883. Springfield, Ohio, Lawrence, Mass.,
Chicago, and Milwaukee had them in 188G. They have re-
cently been adopted in Boston. The wagon is made deep and
narrow, and a chemical tank placed on each side. Combination
ladder trucks and chemical engines are also made. The New
York department, the largest in the world, has discarded the use
of chemical engines, but they are considered necessary adjuncts
to most of the other fire departments of the country. Five or
ten gallon tank extinguishers, however, are carried on all hose
wagons and ladder trucks in New York and elsewhere. The
chemical engine can go into action more quickly than a steam
fire engine, and will extinguish small blazes with very little water
damage. In connection with chemical engines it might be stated
that for fires in electrical stations sand is the best extinguisher
known. It has been found by experience that the application of
water simply complicates matters by crossing currents, increas-
ing the sparking, and ruining the plant.
It has been remarked that the Button hand engines are still
made. Country departments, when old city tubs can not be
bought, must have new hand engines made for them. The
Gleason & Bailey Manufacturing Company, of New York, are
extensive builders of these.
Several inventors have tried their hands at producing an
electric fire engine, either to have the boiler and fire box of a
steamer replaced with storage batteries, or else to have a trolley
500
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
connection that could be used on any convenient electric railroad
wire. In 1888, or thereabout, Mr. S. S. Wheeler, of New York,
designed an electric engine which was constructed by placing a
g
3
W
a
85
H
O
W
►J
Sprague electric motor, directly attached to a Silsby rotary pump,
on a Silsby crane-neck" steam fire-engine truck. Several hundred
feet of insulated wire were carried to be attached to electric con-
nections. This engine is now the property of the Crocker-
THE MOTIVE FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. 501
Wheeler Electric Company. Mr. Joseph Sachs has also invented
an electric engine, which is described in Cassier's Magazine for
February, 1895. Undoubtedly in the future some machine of this
kind will be introduced, but at present the industry is still in its
infancy.
[To be concluded.]
THE MOTIVE FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH.
By HUBERT LYMAN CLARK.
AT the meeting of the British Association for the Advance-
- ment of Science held at Oxford in August, 1894, the presi-
dent, the Marquis of Salisbury, delivered a remarkable address
on Unsolved Problems of Science, which called forth much criti-
cism, particularly from scientific journals. The speaker called the
especial attention of his audience to four great questions which,
with all the boasted advances of science, still remain unsolved, and
the solution of which seems as far distant to-day as ever. These
questions were, the origin of the chemical elements, the problem
of the ether, the origin of life, and the theory of evolution. The
tendency of the address was certainly not to give encouragement
that these problems would soon or even ultimately be cleared up
by the work of scientists, but rather indicated a certain satisfac-
tion that there were nuts to crack which even the British Associ-
ation would find too hard. This tone was especially evident in
the treatment of the subject of organic evolution, and the speaker
made it plain that he considered certain of the objections to that
doctrine conclusive and was ready, for one, to fall back on the
doctrine of design to explain all the innumerable variations and
adaptations which we see in animal and plant life about us.
That the whole address was certainly reactionary there can be
no doubt, but it seems to be unfortunately true that certain of the
criticisms which it has called forth are to be equally condemned
for going at once to the other extreme. In one of the leading sci-
entific magazines of this country the reviewer says, under the
heading Back to Dogma :
" It needs but a few moments of careful and candid considera-
tion to show that the doctrine of design means the death of scien-
tific investigation. If things are so because they were intention-
ally made so or because certain processes were miraculously ex-
pedited, then the universe may be the theater of will, but not of
forces the operation of which we can hope to understand. . . .
The reason why the doctrine of design is so popular is partly be-
cause it is such a saver of intellectual toil, and partly because by
5o2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
making knowledge impossible it glorifies ignorance. What is
left for the student of Nature save to record facts as lie finds
them when every question as to how things have come to be
as they are receive but the one reply, ' The Creator designed
them so ' ? "
It is not my intention or wish to defend in itself the doc-
trine of design, nor is this the place to review the reviewer
or criticise the above-quoted criticism ; but such uncalled-for
prejudice and illogical reasoning as shown therein do cause the
question to arise, What, after all, is the real motive for scientific
research ?
A little over fifty years ago a young Englishman was busily
engaged in gathering and arranging all kinds of facts in regard
to changes in animals and plants, either under domestication or in
a state of Nature. For twenty years or more he worked patiently
and carefully gathering his facts, comparing and arranging them
and mentally digesting all this mass of material, and, at last, in
1859, he offered to the world his theory of the Origin of Species.
Before Charles Darwin, all naturalists were' engaged in gathering
and recording facts, and arranging them in a more or less natural
order, but they failed to compare and digest them, as he did, be-
cause they were content with statistics and did not ask for reasons.
That this was due to a belief in the immutability of species and
the doctrine of design there can be little doubt ; but that the great
men who accepted that doctrine did so because it " saved intellec-
tual toil " or " glorified ignorance " is a gross slander. They did
so partly because of early training, but very largely because it was
a satisfactory explanation of such problems as they happened to
meet and so proved its sufficiency. When Darwin, however,
came to apply it to the facts as he found them in his day, he soon
proved it was not sufficient, and then was asked for the first time
in biology, Hoiv did these things come to be so ? The question
had been asked long before in physics, chemistry, and astronomy ;
but until the middle of this century biologists and even geologists
had been chiefly concerned with the question What ? and had
neglected the far more important one How ? It was the asking
of this question, and the answer to it which he gave, which makes
Darwin the bright particular star in the scientific firmament of
the nineteenth century, and no lapse of time can ever dim the lus-
ter of that honored name. However inadequate we may consider
the theory of natural selection to account for all the innumerable
forms of animal and plant life which have existed or do now in-
habit and beautify the earth, there can be no doubt that the ques-
tion as an answer to which it was offered has been for thirty-five
years the mainspring of research not merely in biology but in all
the field of natural science. It is easy to see how this condition
THE MOTIVE FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. 503
was itself the result of evolution, for one can not ask the means
to an end until the end is seen or known. Up to the time of Lin-
naeus there was little general interest in zoology and botany, but
after he had placed in systematic order such facts as were known
to the scientific world of his day, others began to find all about
them additional facts which had been theretofore unrecorded, and
so interest in Nature began its steady rise toward the high position
which it holds to-day. So long as the great majority of forms
were unknown or undescribed, the only question was concern-
ing what existed, and naturalists everywhere were busy with these
facts of the existence of species ; but as the records became more
complete and the knowledge of natural phenomena wider spread,
of course the tendency would naturally be toward inquiry as to
hoiv these innumerable forms arose. Even as early as the latter
part of the eighteenth century some of the deepest thinkers were
turning this question over in their minds, although they did not
appreciate its great importance or its bearing on the acquisition
of knowledge. Darwin himself began his career as a gatherer of
facts, but his active mind soon saw the inadequacy of the doc-
trine of special creations, and demanded something more in ac-
cordance with the facts. The history of the development in his
own mind of the famous theory to which his name is attached is
a most fascinating story, but it is not necessary to enter into any
details here. Suffice it to say that he became thoroughly con-
vinced in his own mind, and actually convinced the whole scien-
tific world, even including his most bitter opponents, that the
question of the hour was not one of which species was which, nor
to what family it belonged when identified, but " How did species
arise ? " From that day to this the whole trend of scientific
study has been toward the solution of that problem, and an enor-
mous amount of investigation by biologists, far and near, has
thrown much light on its intricacies, although, when we consider
all phases of the subject, including the difficulties of heredity,
we feel that we have hardly made more than a beginning.
This change of position in the subject-matter of scientific
research has brought about a most remarkable and far-reaching
change in method, which is universally recognized as vastly
superior to the old. But it seems also to have brought about an
equally radical change in the spirit of investigation ; and instead
of the reverent work of an Owen, an Agassiz, or a Lyell, who
believed they were studying the creations of an Omnipotent God,
Maker and Father of all, we have the enthusiastic, energetic, all-
embracing investigations and theories of a Haeckel, a Huxley, or
a Spencer, who certainly can not be accused of holding any pro-
nounced religious beliefs whatever. There can be no doubt that
this change too was a very natural one; for as long as men felt
5o4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
that they were studying immutable creatures, there was a sense
of restraint in the work, a feeling that investigation had a definite
limit beyond which we could not go, and so there was little
chance for speculation or theorizing on the nature of causes.
When this restraint ,was suddenly and entirely removed by the
theory of evolution the reaction was inevitable, and a strong
tendency toward the other extreme set in, clearly shown by the
number and variety of the theories that have been suggested and
published to explain all kinds of natural phenomena. Scientists
have been so entirely taken up with explaining how all the won-
derful things which we find in the world about us have taken
place ; the doctrine of evolution has proved so completely satis-
factory at every turn that there is great danger that the ultimate
motive for scientific research will be completely lost to sight.
Indeed, one may search a great majority of scientific works with-
out finding a hint as to any higher motive than mere curiosity, —
a curiosity differing greatly in quality and extent in differont
writers, but very rarely that pure eagerness for " truth " which it
sometimes professes to be. So long as the answer to the question
How ? is the all-important thing, and so long as that is considered
the ultimate question, no proper conception of a nobler motive can
be formed. But we must now consider if there is not still another
question beyond the How ? which is as far more important than
that as that is beyond the question What ? The extraordinary
reverence which a certain school of scientists feel toward the
question How ? is clearly shown by the quotation in the earlier
part of this article, and it will, no doubt, be considered impious
by them that any one should presume to go beyond that question.
At the same time one can not read that criticism without hav-
ing forced upon him the belief that there is another and greater
question to be considered, and that question may be briefly stated
in the form of Why ?
It is not by any means a new question, and I claim no merit of
originality in bringing it forward here ; but since we have come to
see the importance of the means to the end, we seem to have lost
sight of the far greater importance of the causes of those means.
That is, while we have been busy inquiring how things came to
be so, we have either confused with that question, or forgotten
altogether to ask, the why. Probably the first objection that will
be raised to the consideration of this question will be the futility
of seeking ultimate causes ; and the limits of human knowledge
will be emphasized to show the folly of going beyond the How ?
Now, it is no part of my purpose to consider the question whether
there is an Absolute Unknowable ; but I will merely suggest that
when it was first proposed to consider how species came to be
what they are, it was not only the theologians who raised a great
THE MOTIVE FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. 505
hue and cry about the impiety and folly of the act ; a very large
number of scientific men really supposed that the question was
beyond the limits of actual knowledge. And yet is not the doc-
trine of evolution becoming less and less of an hypothesis and
more and more of an actually established law every year ? Is not
the evidence all tending to establish it completely, and to prove
that even the obscure problems of life and heredity are all within
the limits of human knowledge ? Can we then be sure that the
knowledge of why evolution has worked as it has is unattain-
able ? Is not the presumption strongly in favor of the proba-
bility that some day, somewhere, some race of men, our posterity
and the legatees of our knowledge, will know and understand the
causes and the " reasons why " which have led to and are now
leading toward that
"... one far-off divine event
To which the whole creation moves" ?
If, then, it is granted that this knowledge is a possibility, it is
fitting that we should consider whether there is any clew to the
solution of the problem in the work already done, and what effect
the question will have on the methods and spirit of scientific re-
search. We have already seen how long a time the doctrine of
immutability of species held in check the tendency to theorize and
led students to devote themselves to the collection and tabulation
of facts. Both questions, how and why, were confused together and
were answered promptly and positively : " The Creator designed
them so " ; and there was the end beyond appeal. When it was
found, however, that this was really no answer at all to the ques-
tion How ? and that the true answer to that question was within
the immediate grasp of the scientific world, the whole argument of
design was promptly thrown aside as rubbish, and we were free !
But we were not long to remain so, for now we find a new limit
set to our knowledge beyond which there is no appeal, and the
answer to our question Why ? is now given us, " Evolution evolved
them so " ! Distinguishing now as we do between how and why,
we find this limit is equally distasteful and causes a similar feel-
ing of restraint ; and it is only natural that, having been freed
from the other, we should demand emancipation from this. Why
did evolution evolve some birds into objects of such marvelous
beauty ? Surely we can conceive of peacocks, humming birds,
and birds of paradise fully as well, perhaps even better, fitted for
the struggle for existence without their gleaming colors and
gorgeous plumes. Why are some flowers so fragrant to our sense
of smell ? We certainly know that it is no advantage to them to
please us, as long as they attract insects, and we also know that
odor without fragrance will answer that' purpose. Was it only
chance that brought about these results ? It seems incredible
VOL. XL VII. 41
506 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
that any person familiar with Nature's conformity to law and the
mathematical improbability of inheritance of accidental variation
along a favorable line can believe that these marvelous results
have been governed only by chance. Surely Nature could never
thrive under such a shiftless and haphazard system, and we are
therefore justified in searching for the reason why. Not how beau-
tiful birds and fragrant flowers were evolved is the essential ques-
tion, but wliy. Yet we can never hope to know the causes until we
know perfectly the means, just as we could never have hoped to
know the means until we were tolerably familiar with the ends.
Darwin could never have formulated his theory if he had not had
the vast array of facts on which to base it, and it would never be
proved if men were to give up the gathering of the still unre-
corded facts. Of course, all this routine work appears in a new
and far more glorious light now, and much the greater number of
scientific workers are engaged in the collection of such facts as
have hitherto been unknown or overlooked. Only a very few are
giving the greater part of their time to theorizing on how evolu-
tion works, although we all realize the importance of that ques-
tion. So it will be when we see that the question Why ? is the
ultimate one, for there can be no solution of this problem until
the lesser ones are solved. It is neither probable nor desirable
that any change of method will result, for the present historical
system is so far ahead of any other that there is no danger
of our giving it up ; but it is both probable and desirable that
investigators should approach the phenomena of Nature in a
different spirit.
As we look about for a clew as to how the question Why ? may
be answered, let us examine more carefully that dogmatic asser-
tion which we threw aside so promptly when we accepted the doc-
trine of evolution : " The Creator designed them so." Have we
any hint here as to the causes which have governed the evolu-
tionary methods ? That depends on some other things which we
must examine first. The means by which an end is accomplished
we know by experience may be purely impersonal, but causes are
always dependent on personality. This may not appear at first
sight, so prone are we to confuse how and why, but it will be
clearly seen by means of an illustration. We are accustomed to
say that we know why it rains, but in reality we only know hoiv
it is that it rains — that is, we know the natural processes by
which rain is produced. On the other hand, we say we know why
we went to a given place at a given time, and in this case we not
only know how we went, but we do know the actual reasons or
causes which put the means at work. If this be granted, as it
seems to me it must be, we are at once presented with the condi-
tion that the answer to our question why is dependent on our
THE MOTIVE FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. 507
knowledge of the personality who is the cause of the phenomena.
If, therefore, the phenomena are in point of time or space as com-
pared with ourselves infinite, their cause must be infinite; and
since it is admitted that cause is dependent on personality, we are
justified in speaking of an Infinite Personal Being, and our knowl-
edge of the cause of natural phenomena and the origin of natural
law will be dependent on our knowledge of that Being whom we
may reasonably call God. The dogmatic assertion, then, which
we were examining does contain a clew to the solution of the prob-
lem. That "the Creator designed them so "is no answer to the
question of the origin of species, is palpably evident, nor does it
throw any light on the question of how things have come to be as
they are ; but it does give a clew as to why things are so, although,
of course, it does not answer the query. If we examine the acts of
any person we find that they throw light on his character, and if
we become fully acquainted with the means which he has used,
we become better acquainted with the character, and as we know
that, we come to understand his motives. So we shall find it in
the study of natural science. As we learn more and more of the
facts of Nature, we shall become better acquainted with the means,
and will understand then how things have been evolved ; and as
we solve these lesser problems we will become better and better
fitted to understand why evolution has worked as it has, and to
comprehend the character of God. This, then, is the true motive
for scientific research, that we may know him who is the only
true God, and by knowing his character and motives understand
our relations to him. That the appreciation of this motive would
have a marked effect on the spirit of scientific work is plainly
evident, and, instead of the tone of shallow materialism so common
to-day, we would have a religious reverence for truth as it is,
without regard to possible effects on our pet theories — that truth
which we shall some day know and which shall make us free.
The doctrine of design certainly failed to explain the many phe-
nomena of Nature, but that a re- examination of it, or even a tem-
porary acceptance of it as explaining the why of those phenomena,
means " the death of scientific investigation/' is the most arrant
nonsense. The universe certainly is the " theater of Will," other-
wise there could be no universe; but it is also the theater of
" forces the operation of which we can hope to understand," and
to deny the latter fact is as ridiculous as to ignore the former.
Much discredit has been cast on religious teachers and workers
because of ignorance and shallow reasoning, but there is great
danger that in the closing days of this century scientific teachers
and workers will bring discredit on themselves and their calling
by an equally erroneous position, not toward religion only but
toward Science herself. As soon, however, as one comprehends
508 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
the real motive for scientific research all such danger is dissipated,
and he will earnestly seek to add his life work as —
u . . . a closer link
Betwixt us and the crowning race
" Of these that eye to eye shall look
On knowledge ; under whose command
Is Earth and Earth's, and in their hand
Is Nature like an open book ;
" No longer half akin to hrute,
For all we thought and loved and did,
And hoped, and suffered is but seed
Of what in them is flower and fruit."
■ ♦*♦
PLEASURES OF THE TELESCOPE.
By GARRETT P. SERVISS.
VI.— FROM LYRA TO ERIDANUS.
TTTE resume our celestial explorations with the little constel-
V V lation Lyra, whose chief star, Vega (a), has a very good
claim to be regarded as the most beautiful in the sky. The posi-
tion of this remarkable star is indicated in map No. 17. Every
eye not insensitive to delicate shades of color perceives at once
that Vega is not white, but blue- white. "When the telescope is
turned upon the star the color brightens splendidly. Indeed,
some glasses decidedly exaggerate the blueness of Vega, but the
effect is so beautiful that one can easily forgive the optical
imperfection which produces it. With our four-inch we look for
the well-known companion of Vega, a tenth-magnitude star, also
of a blue color deeper than the hue of its great neighbor. The
distance is 50", p. 158°. Under the most favorable circumstances
it might be glimpsed with the three-inch, but, upon the whole, I
should regard it as too severe a test for so small an aperture.
Vega is one of those stars which evidently are not only enor-
mously larger than the sun (one estimate makes the ratio in this
case nine hundred to one), but whose physical condition, as far as
the spectroscope reveals it, is very different from that of our rul-
ing orb. Like Sirius, Vega displays the lines of hydrogen most
conspicuously, and it is probably a much hotter as well as a much
more voluminous body than the sun.
Close by, toward the east, two fourth-magnitude stars form a
little triangle with Vega. Both are interesting objects for the
telescope, and the northern one, e, has few rivals in this respect.
Let us first look at it with an opera glass. The slight magnifying
PLEASURES OF THE TELESCOPE.
509
power of such an instrument divides the star into two twinkling
points. They are about two and a quarter minutes of arc apart,
and exceptionally sharp-sighted persons are able to see them di-
o
'A
fit
<
vided with the naked eye. Now take the three-inch telescope
with a moderate power, and look at them. Each of the two stars
revealed by the opera glass appears double, and a fifth star of the
ninth magnitude is seen on one side of an imaginary line joining
VOL. XLVII.
-42
5io THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
the two pairs. The northernmost pair is named eu the magnitudes
being fifth and sixth ; distance 3", p. 15°. The other pair is e3,
magnitudes fifth and sixth ; distance 2'3", p. 133°. Each pair is
apparently a binary ; but the period of revolution is unknown.
Some have guessed a thousand years for one pair, and two thou-
sand for the other. Another guess gives e, a period of one thou-
sand years, and c2 a period of eight hundred years. Hall, in his
double-star observations, simply says of each, "A slow motion."
Purely by guesswork a period has also been assigned to the
two pairs in a supposed revolution around their common center,
the time named being about a million years. It is not known,
however, that such a motion exists. Manifestly it could not be
ascertained within the brief period during which scientific obser-
vations of these stars have been made. The importance of the
element of time in the study of stellar motions is frequently over-
looked, though not, of course, by those who are engaged in such
work. The sun, for instance, and many of the stars are known to
be moving in what appear to be straight lines in space, but obser-
vations extending over thousands of years would probably show
that these motions are in curved paths, and some of them, per-
haps, in closed orbits.
If now in turn we take our four-inch glass, we shall see some-
thing else in this strange family group of e Lyrse. Between et and
eo, and placed one on each side of the joining line, appear two
exceedingly faint specks of light, which Sir John Herschel made
famous under the name of the debiMssima. They are of the
twelfth or thirteenth magnitude, and possibly variable to a slight
degree. If you can not see them at first, turn your eye toward
one side of the field of view, and thus, by bringing their images
upon a more sensitive part of the retina, you may glimpse them.
The sight is not much, yet it will repay you, as every glance into
the depths of the universe does.
The other fourth-magnitude star near Vega is £, a wide double,
magnitudes fourth and sixth ; distance 44", p. 150°. Below we
find /?, another very interesting star, since it is both a multiple
and an eccentric variable. It has four companions, three of which
we can easily see with our three-inch ; the fourth calls for the
five-inch ; the magnitudes are respectively four, seven or under,
eight, eight and a half, and eleven ; distances 45", p. 150° ; 65", p.
320° ; 85", p. 20° ; and 40", p. 248°. The primary, p, varies from
about magnitude three and a half to magnitude four and a
half, the period being twelve days, twenty-one hours, forty-six
minutes, and fifty-eight seconds. Two unequal maxima and min-
ima occur within this period. In the spectrum of this star some
of the hydrogen lines and the D3 line (the latter representing
helium, a constituent of the sun and of some of the stars, which,
PLEASURES OF THE TELESCOPE. 511
until its recent discovery in a rare Norwegian mineral, was not
known to exist on the earth) are bright, but they vary in visibil-
ity. Moreover, dark lines due to hydrogen also appear in its spec-
trum simultaneously with the bright lines of that element. Then,
too, the bright lines are sometimes seen double. Prof. Pickering's
explanation is that ft Lyrse probably consists of two stars, which,
like the two composing ft Auriga?, are too close to be separated
with any telescope now existing, and that the body which gives the
bright lines is revolving in a circle in a period of about twelve days
and twenty-two hours around the body which gives the dark
lines. He has also suggested that the appearances could be ac-
counted for by supposing a body like our sun to be rotating in
twelve days and twenty -two hours, and having attached to it an
enormous protuberance extending over more than one hundred
and eighty degrees of longitude, so that when one end of it was
approaching us with the rotation of the star the other end would
be receding, and a splitting of the spectral lines at certain periods
would be the consequence. "The variation in light," he adds,
" may be caused by the visibility of a larger or smaller portion of
this protuberance."
Unfortunate star, doomed to carry its parasitical burden of
hydrogen and helium, like Sindbad in the clasp of the Old Man of
the Sea ! Surely, the human imagination is never so wonderful
as when it bears an astronomer on its wings. Yet it must be ad-
mitted that the facts in this case are well calculated to summon
the genius of hypotheses. And the puzzle is hardly simplified by
Belopolsky's observation that the body giving dark hydrogen
lines shows those lines also split at certain times. It has been cal-
culated, from a study of the phenomena noted above, that the
bright-line star in ft Lyrse is situated at a distance of about fifteen
million miles from the center of gravity of the curiously compli-
cated system of which it forms a part.
We have not yet exhausted the wonders of Lyra. On a line
from ft to 7, and about one third of the distance from the former
to the latter, is the celebrated Ring Nebula, indicated on the map
by the number 4447. We need all the light we can get to see this
object well, and so, although the three-inch will show it, we shall
use the five-inch. Beginning with a power of one hundred diame-
ters, which exhibits it as a minute elliptical ring, rather misty,
very soft and delicate, and yet distinct, we increase the magnifica-
tion first to two hundred and finally to three hundred, in order to
distinguish a little better some of the details of its shape. Upon
the whole, however, we find that the lowest power that clearly
brings out the ring gives the most satisfactory view. The circum-
ference of the ring is greater than that of the planet Jupiter. Its
•ellipticity is conspicuous, the length of the longer axis being 78"
5i2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
and that of the shorter 60". Closely following the nebula as it
moves through the field of view, our five-inch telescope reveals a
faint star of the eleventh or twelfth magnitude, which is suspected
of variability. The largest instruments, like the Washington and
the Lick glasses, have shown perhaps a dozen other stars appar-
ently connected with the nebula. Three of these, seen at Mount
Hamilton, are within the inclosure of the ring. A beautiful spark-
ling effect which the nebula presents was once thought to be an
indication that it was really composed of a circle of stars, but
the spectroscope shows that its constitution is gaseous.
Not far away we find a difficult double star, 17, whose com-
ponents are of magnitudes six and ten or eleven, distance 3'7",
p. 325°.
From Lyra we pass to Cygnus, which, lying in one of the
richest parts of the Milky Way, is a very interesting constella-
tion for the possessor of a telescope. Its general outlines are
plainly marked for the naked eye by the figure of a cross more
than twenty degrees in length lying along the axis of the Milky
Way. The foot of the cross is indicated by the star /?, also known
as Albireo, one of the most charming of all the double stars. The
three-inch amply suffices to reveal the beauty of this object,
whose components present as sharp a contrast of light yellow and
deep blue as it would be possible to produce artificially with the
purest pigments. The magnitudes are three and seven, distance
34'6", p. 55°. No motion has been detected indicating that these
stars are connected in orbital revolution, yet no one can look at
them without feeling that they are intimately related to one
another. It is a sight to which one returns again and again, al-
ways with undiminished pleasure. The most inexperienced ob-
server admires its beauty, and after an hour spent with doubtful
results in trying to interest a tyro in double stars it is always with
a sense of assured success that one turns the telescope to /3 Cygni.
Following up the beam of the imaginary cross along the cur-
rent of the Milky Way, every square degree of which is here worth
long gazing into, we come to a pair of stars which contend for the
name-letter x- On our map the letter is attached to the southern-
most of the two, a variable of long period — four hundred and six
days — whose changes of brilliance lie between magnitudes four
and thirteen, but which exhibits much irregularity in its maxima.
The other star, not named but easily recognized in the map, is
sometimes called 17. It is an attractive double whose colors
faintly reproduce those of yS. The magnitudes are five and eight,
distance 26", p. 73°. Where the two arms of the cross meet is y,
whose remarkable cortege of small stars running in curved
streams should not be missed. Use the lowest magnifying power.
At the extremity of the western arm of the cross is 8, a close
PLEASURES OF THE TELESCOPE. 513
double, difficult for telescopes of moderate aperture on account of
the difference in the magnitudes of the components. We may
succeed in dividing it with the five-inch. The magnitudes are
three and eight, distance 1'5", p. 310°. It is regarded as a binary
of long and as yet unascertained period.
In o2 we find a star of magnitude four and orange in color,
having two blue companions, the first of magnitude seven and a
half, distance 107", p. 174°, and the second of magnitude five and
a half, distance 358", p. 324°. Farther north is ^, which presents
to us the combination of a white five-and-a-half-magnitude star
with a lilac star of magnitude seven and a half. The distance is
3", p. 184°. A very pretty sight.
We now pass to the extremity of the other arm of the cross,
near which we find the beautiful little double 49, whose compo-
nents are of magnitudes six and eight, distance 2'8", p. 50°. The
colors are yellow and blue, conspicuous and finely contrasted. A
neighboring double of similar hues is 52, in which the magnitudes
are four and nine, distance 6", p. 60°. Sweeping a little way
northward we come upon an interesting binary, A., which is unfor-
tunately beyond the dividing power of our largest glass. A good
seven-inch or seven-and-a-half-inch should split it under favor-
able circumstances. Its magnitudes are six and seven, distance
0-66", p. 74°.
The next step carries us to a very famous object, 61 Cygni,
long known as the nearest star in the northern hemisphere of the
heavens. It is a double which our three-inch will readily divide,
the magnitudes being both six, distance 21", p. 122°. The dis-
tance of 61 Cygni, according to Hall's parallax of 0*27", is about
70,000,000,900,000 miles. There is some question whether or not
it is a binary, for, while the twin stars are both moving in the
same direction in space with comparative rapidity, yet conclusive
evidence of orbital motion is lacking. When one has noticed the
contrast in apparent size between this comparatively near-by star,
which the naked eye only detects with considerable difficulty, and
some of its brilliant neighbors whose distance is so great as to be
immeasurable with our present means, no better proof is needed
of the fact that the faintness of a star is not necessarily an indi-
cation of remoteness.
We may prepare our eyes for a beautiful exhibition of con-
trasted colors once more in the star /*.. This is really a quadruple,
although only two of its components are close and conspicuous.
The magnitudes are five, six, seven and a half, and twelve ; dis-
tances 3-2", p. 121° ; 208", p. 56° ; and 35", p. 264°. The color of the
largest star is white and that of its nearest companion blue ; the
star of magnitude seven and a half is also blue.
The star cluster 4681 is a fine sight with our largest glass. In
5H
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
the map we find the place marked where the new star of 1876
made its appearance. This was first noticed on November 24,
1876, when it shone with the brilliance of a star of magnitude
PHINUS
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three and a half. Its spectrum was carefully studied, especially
by Vogel, and the very interesting changes that it underwent
were noted. Within a year the star had faded to less than the
tenth magnitude, and its spectrum had completely changed in
PLEASURES OF THE TELESCOPE. 515
appearance, and had come to bear a close resemblance to that of
a planetary nebnla. This has been quoted as a possible instance
of a celestial collision through whose effects the solid colliding
masses were vaporized and expanded into a nebula. At present
the star is very faint and can only be seen with the most power-
ful telescopes.
Underneath Cygnus we notice the small constellation Vulpe-
cula. It contains a few objects worthy of attention, the first being
the nebula 4532, the " dumb-bell nebula " of Lord Rosse. With
the four-inch, and better with the five-inch, we are able to per-
ceive that it consists of two close-lying tufts of misty light.
Many stars surround it, and large telescopes show them scattered
between the two main masses of the nebula. The star 11 points
out the place where a new star of the third magnitude appeared
in 1670. % 2695 is a close double, magnitudes six and eight, dis-
tance 1*4*, p. 82°.
We turn to map No. 18, and, beginning at the western end of
the constellation Aquarius, we find the variable T, which ranges
between magnitudes seven and thirteen in a period of about two
hundred and three days. Its near neighbor 2 2729 is a very close
double, beyond the separating power of our five-inch, the magni-
tudes being six and seven, distance 0'6", p. 176°. 2 2745, also
known as 12 Aquarii, is a good double for the three-inch. Its
magnitudes are six and eight, distance 2*8", p. 190°. In £ we dis-
cover a beauty. It is a slow binary of magnitudes four and five,
distance 3'3", p. 325°. According to some observers both stars
have a greenish tinge. The star 41 is a wider double, magnitudes
six and eight, distance 5", p. 115°, colors yellow and blue. The
uncommon stellar contrast of white with light garnet is exhibited
by t, magnitudes six and nine, distance 27", p. 115°. Yellow and
blue occur again conspicuously in \f/, magnitudes four and a half
and eight and a half, distance 50", p. 310°. Rose and emerald
have been recorded as the colors exhibited in 2 2998, whose mag-
nitudes are five and seven, distance 13"5", p. 346°.
The variables S and R are both red. The former ranges be-
tween magnitudes eight and twelve, period two hundred and
eighty days, and the latter between magnitudes six and eleven,
period about three hundred and ninety days.
The nebula 4628 is Rosse's " Saturn nebula," so called because
with his great telescope it presented the appearance of a nebulous
model of the planet Saturn. With our five-inch we see it simply
as a planetary nebula. We may also glance at another nebula,
4678, which appears circular and is pinned with a little star at
the edge.
The small constellation Equuleus contains a surprisingly large
number of interesting objects. 2 2735 is a rather close double,
5.6
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
magnitudes six and eight, distance 1'8", p. 287.° 2 2737 (the first
star to the left of 2 2735, the name having accidentally been
omitted from the map) is a beautiful triple, although the two
closest stars, of magnitudes six and seven, can not be separated
by our instruments. Their distance in 188G was 078", p. 286 , and
they had then been closing rapidly since 1884, when the distance
was 1*26". The third star, of magnitude eight, is distant 11 , p.
PLEASURES OF THE TELESCOPE. 517
75°. 2 2744 consists of two stars, magnitudes six and seven, dis-
tance 1'6", p. 171°. It is probably a binary. 2 2742 is a wider
double, magnitudes both six, distance 2*6", p. 225°. Another
triple, one of whose components is beyond our reach, is y. Here
the magnitudes are fifth, twelfth, and sixth, distances 2", p. 274°,
and 366". It would also be useless for us to try to separate S, but
it is interesting to remember that this is one of the closest of
known double stars, the magnitudes being fourth and fifth, dis-
tance 0'4", p. 198°. These data are from Hall's measurements in
1887. The star is, no doubt, a binary. With the five-inch we
may detect one and perhaps two of the companion stars in the
quadruple (3. The magnitudes are fifth, tenth, and two eleventh,
distances 67", p. 309° ; 86", p. 276° ; and 6-5", p. 15°. The close pair
is comprised in the tenth-magnitude star.
Map No. 19 introduces us to the constellation Pegasus, which
is comparatively barren to the naked eye, and by no means rich
in telescopic phenomena. The star e, of magnitude two and a half,
has a blue companion of the eighth magnitude, distance 138", p.
324° ; colors yellow and violet. A curious experiment that may
be tried with this star is described by Webb, who ascribes the
discovery of the phenomenon to Sir John Herschel. When near
the meridian the small star in e appears, in the telescope, under-
neath the large one. If now the tube of the telescope be slightly
swung from side to side the small star will appear to describe a
pendulumlike movement with respect to the large one. The ex-
planation suggested is that the comparative faintness of the small
star causes its light to affect the retina of the eye less quickly
than does that of its brighter companion, and, in consequence,
the reversal of its apparent motion with the swinging of the tele-
scope is not perceived so soon.
The third-magnitude star 17 has a companion of magnitude ten
and a half, distance 90", p. 340°. The star (3, of the second magni-
tude, and reddish, is variable to the extent of half a magnitude in
an irregular period, and y, of magnitude two and a half, has an
eleventh-magnitude companion, distant 162", p. 285°.
Our interest is revived on turning, with the guidance of map
No. 20, from the comparatiye poverty of Pegasus to the spacious
constellation Cetus. The first double star that we meet in this
constellation is 26, whose components are of magnitudes six and
nine, distance 16*4", p. 252° ; colors, topaz and lilac. Not far away
is the closer double 42, composed of a sixth and a seventh magni-
tude star, distance 1*25", p. 350°. The four-inch is capable of
splitting this star, but we shall do better to use the five-inch. In
passing we may glance at the tenth-magnitude companion to rj,
distant 225", p. 304°. Another wide pair is found in £, magnitudes
third and ninth, distance 185", p. 40°.
5i8
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
The next step brings us to the wonderful variable o, or Mira,
whose changes have been watched for three centuries, the first
observer of the variability of the star having been David Fabri-
cius in 1596. Not only is the range of variability very great, but
the period is remarkably irregular. In the time of Hevelius,
Mira was once invisible for four years. When brightest, the star
is of about the second magnitude, and when faintest, of the ninth
PLEASURES OF THE TELESCOPE. 519
magnitude, but at maximum it seldom exhibits the greatest bril-
liance that it has on a few occasions shown itself capable of attain-
ing. Ordinarily it begins to fade after reaching the fourth or
fifth magnitude. The period averages about three hundred and
thirty-one days, but is irregularly variable to the extent of
twenty-five days. Its color is red, and its spectrum shows bright
lines, which it is believed disappear when the star sinks to a mini-
mum. Among the various theories proposed to account for such
changes as these the most probable appears to be that which
ascribes them to some cause analogous to that operating in the
production of sun spots. The outburst of light, however, as
pointed out by Scheiner, should be regarded as corresponding to
the maximum and not the minimum stage of sun spot activity.
According to this view, the star is to be regarded as possessing an
extensive atmosphere of hydrogen, which, during the maximum,
is upheaved into enormous prominences, and the brilliance of the
light from these prominences suffices to swamp the photospheric
light, so that in the spectrum the hydrogen lines appear bright
instead of dark.
It is not possible to suppose that Mira can be the center of a
system of habitable planets, no matter what we may think of the
more constant stars in that regard, because its radiation manifestly
increases more than six hundred fold, and then falls off again to
an equal extent once in every ten or eleven months. I have met
people who can not believe that the Almighty would make a sun
and then allow its energies " to go to waste," by not supplying it
with a family of worlds. But I imagine that if they had to live
within the precincts of Mira Ceti they would cry out for exemp-
tion from their own law of stellar usefulness.
The most beautiful double star in Cetus is y, magnitudes third
and seventh, distance 3", p. 288° ; hues, straw-color and blue. The
leading star a, of magnitude two and a half, has a distant blue
companion three magnitudes fainter, and between them are two
minute stars, the southernmost of which is a double, magnitudes
both eleven, distance 10", p. 225°.
The variable S ranges between magnitudes seven and twelve
in a somewhat irregular period of about eleven months, while R
ranges between the seventh and the thirteenth magnitudes in a
period of one hundred and sixty-seven days.
The constellation Eridanus, represented in map No. 21, con-
tains a few fine double stars, one of the most interesting of which
is 12, a rather close binary. The magnitudes are fourth and
eighth, distance 2", p. 327°. We shall take the five-inch for this,
and a steady atmosphere and sharp seeing will be necessary on
account of the wide difference in the brightness of the component
stars. Amateurs frequently fail to make due allowance for the
520
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY
effect of such difference. When the limit of separating power for
a telescope of a particular aperture is set at 1" or 2", as the case
may be, it is assumed that the stars composing the doubles on
which the test is made shall be of nearly the same magnitude, or
at least that they shall not differ by more than one or two magni-
tudes at the most. The stray light surrounding a comparatively
bright star tends to conceal a faint companion, although the tele-
PLEASURES OF THE TELESCOPE. 521
scope may perfectly separate them so far as the stellar disks are
concerned. Then, too, I have observed in my own experience
that a very faint and close double is more difficult than a brighter
pair not more widely separated, usually on account of the defect
of light, and this is true even when the components of the faint
double are of equal magnitude.
2 470, otherwise known as 32 Eridani, is a superb object on ac-
count of the colors of its components, the larger star being a rich
topaz and the smaller an ultramarine; while the difference in
magnitude is not as great as in many of the colored doubles. The
magnitudes are fifth and seventh, distance 67", p. 348°. The star
y, of magnitude two and a half, has a tenth-magnitude companion,
distant 51", p. 238°. 2 516, also called 39 Eridani, consists of two
stars of magnitudes sixth and ninth, distance 6'4", p. 150"; colors,
yellow and blue. The supposed binary character of this star has
not yet been established.
In oa we come upon an interesting triple star, two of whose com-
ponents at any rate we can easily see. The largest component is
of the fourth magnitude. At a distance of 82", p. 105°, we find a
tenth-magnitude companion. This companion is itself double,
the magnitudes of its components being tenth and eleventh, dis-
tance 2*6", p. 98°. Hall says of these stars that they " form a re-
markable system." He has also observed a fourth star of the
twelfth magnitude, distant 45" from the largest star, p. 85°. This
is apparently unconnected with the others, although it is only
half as distant as the tenth-magnitude component is from the
primary. 2 590 is interesting because of the similarity of its two
components in size, both being of about the seventh magnitude,
distance 10", p. 318°.
Finally, we turn to the nebula 826. This is planetary in form
and inconspicuous, but Lassell has described it as presenting a
most extraordinary appearance with his great reflector — a circu-
lar nebula lying upon another fainter and larger nebula of a simi-
lar shape, and having a star in its center. Yet it may possibly be
an immensely distant star cluster instead of a nebula, since its
spectrum does not appear to be gaseous.
Prof. O. C. Marsh regards the discovery of the Pithecanthropus erectus in
Java as an event equal in interest to that of the Neanderthal skull, and believes
that no one can doubt that still other intermediate forms will eventually be
brought to light. Nearly twenty years ago he placed on record his belief that
such missing links existed, and should be looked for in the caves of the later Ter-
tiary of Africa. The first announcement, however, has come from the East, where
large anthropoid apes still survive, and where their ancestors were doubtless en-
tombed under circumstances favorable to early discovery. The tropical regions of
both Asia and Africa still offer most inviting fields to ambitious explorers.
VOL. XLVII. — 43
$
522 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
ARGON.
THE NEW CONSTITUENT OF TIIE AIE.
Br Dr. JOHN TAPPAN STODDARD,
PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY IN SMITH COLLEGE.
ON the 31st of January last the Royal Society of England
held a special meeting in Burlington Gardens. Formal
invitation to this meeting had been extended to the members of
two other scientific bodies, and an audience of at least eight hun-
dred, which included the most distinguished scientific men of
England, assembled to listen to the account of the discovery of a
new substance in our atmosphere. This discovery, made by Lord
Rayleigh and Prof. Ramsay, had been announced at the Oxford
meeting of the British Association last August ; but five months
of patient and strenuous work proved necessary before the inves-
tigators felt prepared to publish the detailed results of their re-
search.
Our atmosphere consists essentially of a mixture of oxygen
and nitrogen. To the oxygen it owes its power of supporting
respiration and combustion ; while the nitrogen, inert and inca-
pable of chemical union under ordinary conditions, acts as a dilu-
ent, tempering the fierceness of the chemical activity which un-
mixed oxygen possesses. Both of these gases were discovered
more than one hundred and twenty years ago ; they have long
been recognized as elementary substances, and innumerable analy-
ses have established the proportion in which they occur in air.
When a measured quantity of air, carefully freed from the
moisture and carbon dioxide which it always contains, is passed
through a tube filled with red-hot copper, the oxygen is fixed by
the copper, and the residual gas, amounting to four fifths of the
original volume, is found to be incapable of supporting combus-
tion. It is, in fact, what all chemists have considered, up to the
time of this brilliant discovery, pure nitrogen.
It is now proved beyond all possible doubt or question that
this atmospheric nitrogen is not a single substance, but contains,
mixed with it to the amount of about one per cent, another
heavier gas, whose existence was previously unknown and un-
suspected. To this new substance, which out-nitrogens nitrogen
in its chemical inertness, its discoverers give the name of argon*
Besides its occurrence in the free state in air, nitrogen is found
in combination in animal and vegetable substanees, in saltpeter
or niter (from which its name is derived), and is a constituent of
* Argon is derived from alpha privative, and tpyov, and means not working, idle.
ARGON. 523
many chemical compounds, from some of which it can readily be
prepared. The identification of atmospheric nitrogen with that
contained in niter and nitric acid is due to Henry Cavendish,
whose exact and skillful work not only established this fact, but
led to an observation of great interest in connection with the dis-
covery of argon. In a paper which appeared in 1785 Cavendish
says : " As far as experiments hitherto published extend, we
scarcely know more of the phlogisticated part of our atmosphere
[nitrogen] than that it is not diminished by lime water, caustic
alkalies, or nitrous air ; that it is unfit to support fire, or maintain
life in animals; and that its specific gravity is not much less than
that of common air " ; and raises the question " whether there are
not in reality many different substances compounded by us under
the name of phlogisticated air." He then describes an experiment
for the purpose of deciding this point. By passage of electric
sparks through a mixture of air and oxygen, the nitrogen was
converted into a compound absorbed by the dilute alkali over
which the gases were confined. The sparking was continued
until no further diminution of volume took place, when, on re-
moving the excess of oxygen by absorption in " liver of sulphur/'
" only a small bubble of air remained unabsorbed." From this
he concludes that " if there is any part of the phlogisticated air of
our atmosphere which differs from the rest, and can not be re-
duced to nitrous acid, we may safely conclude that it is not more
than a hundred and twentieth part of the whole." Cavendish
was apparently satisfied with this as a proof of the simple char-
acter of atmospheric nitrogen, and his work has been accepted as
conclusive for more than a century ; but we now know that this
" small bubble of air " which survived his experiment must have
been argon.
It seems strange that a substance present in the air all about
us, and whose actual quantity is enormous, should have defied
detection through so many years of exact and searching chemical
work; but the explanation lies largely in the fact that argon
forms no compounds, so far as is known, and thus fails to assert
itself in the presence of the almost equally indifferent nitrogen
with which it is mixed.
Indeed, the hint which led to its discovery was obtained in the
course of a purely physical investigation. For some years Lord
Rayleigh has been engaged in the exact determination of the
densities of some of the more permanent gases. In dealing with
nitrogen, it was found that this gas, when prepared from chem-
ical compounds, was about one half per cent lighter than the
nitrogen obtained from air. This discrepancy at once suggested
contamination with some known impurities. A careful search
proved, however, that this was not the case. The possible ex-
524 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
planation then occurred, that the lightness of the " chemical"
nitrogen was due to a partial dissociation or breaking up of the
molecules of the gas into single atoms under the conditions of its
preparation. This, too, was negatived by experiment. One or
the other of the gases must be a mixture, containing an ingredi-
ent much heavier or much lighter than ordinary nitrogen. To
suppose a lighter ingredient mixed with the chemical nitrogen
required the existence of two kinds of nitric acid, which was out
of the question. " The simplest explanation in many respects was
to admit the existence of a second ingredient in air from which
oxygen, moisture, and carbon dioxide had already been removed."
This explanation was put to the test by an attempt to isolate
the suspected gas, with the result that by two entirely distinct
methods a new substance was obtained from air.
One of these methods was that of Cavendish, already de-
scribed. Air confined over dilute alkali is subjected to the ac-
tion of electric sparks, while oxygen is added from time to time
until, with an excess of oxygen present, no further absorption
occurs. The oxygen is then removed by alkaline pyrogallate, and
argon is left.
The second method for the separation of argon is based on the
fact that red-hot magnesium unites with nitrogen, forming a non-
volatile compound. Air from which moisture and carbon dioxide
have been removed is freed from oxygen by passing it over heated
copper, and then from nitrogen by means of magnesium turnings
at a red heat. The removal of the last portions of nitrogen is a
tedious operation, requiring some two days. The residual gas is
pure argon.
The gas obtained by both of these methods is the same, and its
behavior proves conclusively that it is a new substance. Prof.
Crookes finds that it gives two spectra, according to the strength
of the induction current, one characterized by red and the other
by blue lines ; and testifies that he has " found no other spectrum-
giving gas or vapor which yields spectra at all like those of
argon"; and that "as far, therefore, as spectrum work can de-
cide, the verdict must, I think, be that Lord Rayleigh and Prof.
Ramsay have added one, if not two, members to the family of
elementary bodies."
The behavior of argon at low temperatures and under high
pressures has been examined by Prof. Olszewski, of Cracow, who
is well known for his researches on the liquefaction of air and
other gases, its critical temperature — that is, the temperature at
which its liquefaction under pressure first becomes possible — is
— 121° C, and at that point it is condensed to a liquid by a pressure
of 50"G atmospheres. Liquid argon becomes an icelike solid at a
still lower temperature, melts at —189*6°, and boils under ordinary
ARGON. 525
pressure at —187°. Its critical and boiling points lie between those
of oxygen and nitrogen, nitrogen having the lowest of the three.
Argon is four tenths heavier than nitrogen, and much more
soluble in water. As already stated, and as is evident from the
methods employed for its preparation, argon is more inert than
nitrogen ; so great is its chemical indifference, that all attempts
to bring about reactions with even the most active substances at
high temperatures have thus far proved abortive. It is unaf-
fected by phosphorus or sulphur at red heat ; sodium and potas-
sium may be distilled in it without loss of their metallic luster ;
it is unaltered by fused and red-hot caustic soda or niter ; aqua
regia and other wet oxidizing and chlorinating agents are entirely
without action ; and it resists the attack of nascent silicon and
boron.
Though thus unique in its chemical inactivity, it would be
premature to conclude that argon may not form compounds under
conditions yet untried,* and that it is an absolutely " idle " and
useless thiug. Prof. Roberts- Austen suggests that it may possi-
bly play a part in certain metallurgical operations in which air is
largely employed. In making Bessemer steel, for instance, not
less than one hundred thousand cubic feet of air are blown
through each charge of metal for the purpose of removing the
carbon, silicon, phosphorus, and other impurities. In this air
there must be over one thousand cubic feet of argon. Now, Prof.
Roberts- Austen has found by experiment that the nitrogen which
can be pumped out of Bessemer-blown metal, and which is twice
the volume of the metal, contains little or no argon ; and the
question arises, whether the argon may not have united with the
iron, as nitrogen undoubtedly does, and confer upon Bessemer
steel some of the peculiarities which distinguish it from other
steel. It is, of course, possible and perhaps more likely that the
argon passes through the molten metal without combining with
it ; but the suggestion is an interesting one, and well worth ex-
perimental examination.
Further, it may prove that argon is in some way taken up by
plants, and contributes in an important manner to their nourish-
ment and growth ; although the attempts to extract argon from
vegetable and animal substances have thus far yielded only nega-
tive results. As is well known, plants are unable to take nitrogen
directly from the air, but obtain it from nitrogenous compounds
which are absorbed in solution by their roots. The air is, how-
ever, the original source of these compounds, as well as of all
* Berthelot announces that he has succeeded in causing argon to react with certain
organic compounds, especially with the vapor of benzene, by means of the silent electric
discharge.
526 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTELT.
other naturally occurring nitrogenous substances, most of which
are produced by the life-activity of micro-organisms ; and from
the natural substances all chemical compounds containing nitro-
gen are prepared. Considering, therefore, the identity of the
source, it seems improbable that the nitrogen of plants or animals
should contain argon, while that of inorganic chemical compounds
is without it. It is, however, possible that argon may enter the
plant in a manner quite different from nitrogen ; for it does not
follow that, because it is associated with nitrogen in the air, argon
must always play the part of an inseparable companion.
Is argon an element, a mixture of elements, or a compound ?
While the evidence that it is a new substance is indisputable, the
facts thus far obtained do not warrant a final decision in regard
to its simplicity. There is no reason, however, to believe that it
is a compound, but, on the contrary, there is a piece of most con-
clusive evidence against this view. This evidence is the ratio of
its specific heats at constant pressure and at constant volume.
This has been carefully determined, and is found to be in exact
agreement with the value required by the mechanical theory of
heat for a monatomic gas — that is, a gas whose molecules consist
of a single atom each. Such a state of things is obviously impos-
sible for a compound, which must have two atoms, at least, in
every molecule. It is also unusual in elementary gases, whose
molecules are in most cases diatomic, or of two atoms each.
Argon is therefore either an element or a mixture of elements
having structureless molecules. This evidence throws out of
court also the view, which has been repeatedly urged since the
first announcement of the discovery, that argon is an allotropic
form of nitrogen, consisting of triatomic nitrogen, and analogous
to ozone, which is triatomic oxygen.
As to the question whether it is a single element or a mixture,
the argument for the mixture is based on the fact that it gives
two spectra. Though suggestive, this can not be looked on as
conclusive, for certain well-known elements — hydrogen and nitro-
gen— show the same peculiarity. On the other hand, a definite
melting point, a definite boiling point, a definite critical tempera-
ture and pressure, all of which argon possesses, are generally
accepted criteria of a pure substance. The evidence, therefore, is
largely in favor of the simple elementary character of argon.
If subsequent investigation confirms this view, and argon
proves to be a single monatomic element, a question of great in-
terest is raised. For many years an accepted law of chemistry
has been expressed in the so-called periodic classification of the
elements. When the elements are arranged in the order of their
atomic weights, the series may be broken into a number of well-
defined periods, whose members show marked analogies to the
ARGON. 527
corresponding members of the other periods, and a regular grada-
tion of properties among themselves ; or, in other words, " the
properties of the elements and of their compounds are a periodic
function of their atomic weights." The exigencies of classifica-
tion, so that the elements of different periods may fall into their
proper places in the tabulated scheme, have left many gaps in the
table, which may represent elements yet awaiting discovery. In
fact, three such elements have been discovered since the first
formulation of the periodic law by Mendeleeff, and found to agree
very exactly with the prediction made several years previously
by Mendeleeff for the properties of elements which might be
expected to fill certain gaps.
Now argou, if it is a monatomic element, must have an atomic
weight of about forty. There is, however, not only no vacant
place in the table for an element of this atomic weight, but the
properties of the elements occupying this region are wholly
unlike those of argon. Thus for the first time in its history the
periodic law would fail in its hitherto triumphant provision for
the results of discovery.
A law which expresses so much undoubted truth, and which
has proved of such great service in the past, is not, however, to
be at once discredited because it seems not to provide for this
case. So great is the confidence felt in it, that many chemists
consider its apparent failure in this case a conclusive argument
against the monatomic character of argon. It must be remem-
bered, however, that the evidence for monatomicity is founded on
a deduction from the thoroughly established mechanical theory
of heat ; while the periodic law is, after all, as Prof. Riicker says,
" an empirical law, which rests on no dynamical foundation," for
which no adequate theory has yet been found. More evidence is
needed in the case, and more will probably soon be forthcoming.
Meantime the present situation will strengthen the feeling, by no
means new, that, while the periodic law is a grand generalization
containing much that is true, it is certainly not a complete or
final expression of the relations which exist between the proper-
ties of the elements and their atomic weights, but rather a first
approximation to the law which may ultimately be formulated.
Whatever the outcome of these speculative issues, there can
be but one opinion in regard to the discovery itself. From every
point of view it is a masterly achievement. The elements of re-
cent discovery have all been metals which occur in minute
quantities in rare minerals. No nonmetallic element has been dis-
covered for nearly seventy years, and the existence of another
element belonging to this group did not seem probable ; still less
likely did it appear that such an element could be present in our
atmosphere.
528 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
The discovery has well been called " the triumph of the last
place of decimals " — that is, of work so exact that the worker knew
that the small differences in the figures he obtained must be due
to the presence of an unknown substance rather than to an error
in his results. The prediction based on this observation, the
search for the disturbing substance, and its discovery, form an
achievement which, in the history of science, has perhaps only
been surpassed by the prediction of Neptune by Adams and
Leverrier, and its subsequent discovery by Galle.
■♦«»
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM, AND ITS RELATION TO
EDUCATION.
By JOHN FERGUSON, M. A., M. D., Ph.D.,
TORONTO.
JOHN LOCKE, the physician and philosopher, long ago said
that all our knowledge came from experience. Throughout
his Treatise on the Human Understanding he develops this view
of the acquisition of knowledge. This was followed by the writ-
ings of David Hume, the Scottish historian and metaphysician,
who held that we knew nothing of objects in themselves, but
only through their qualities; or, in other words, that we know
of nothing but ideas. This was in turn followed by Immanuel
Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, who took the ground that, though
all our knowledge did not come from experience (as taught by
Locke), yet it all came by experience. He held firmly to the
ground that we had intuitions, or an a priori knowledge. It was
this intuitive power that enabled us, by experience, a posteriori,
to acquire knowledge of the qualities and of the forms of matter.
Later came those who, like Ribot, Spencer, Romanes, have taught
that there is no science of mind apart from the operations of the
nervous system ; that the operations of the brain constitute what
is known as mental processes. Differing from these, the late
T. H. Green held, as did Kant, that there is a science of ethics
and psychology, independently of the study of physiology.
Fortunately for the purposes of this article, it will not be
necessary to review the opinions of the above writers ; it will not
be necessary to prove which of the many views is correct. This
much is definitely- known: that certain physiological laws govern
the human body, so as to determine what we know and how we
came to know it. The intuitions of Kant, the common sense of
Locke and Reid, the skepticism of Hume on knowledge, the ideal-
ism of Berkeley, need not detain us, as they have no special inter-
est for the present. The object before us is to show that we
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AND EDUCATION 529
come by our knowledge through, experience, and in what manner
experience acts upon our nervous system.
It is, therefore, the nervous system which we have to do with
in every system of education. It will go with the saying that
the better the condition of health in the nervous system, the
better will it be for the plans of education. One of the funda-
mental laws that must govern all methods of education is the
care of the health of those who are being taught. A normal con-
dition of the conducting nerves and perceptive centers is neces-
sary to a normal type of the perceptions gained by experience.
In all schools and colleges sanitary principles ought to have the
most thorough consideration. Impure air, either from bad venti-
lation or drainage, may do more harm to a number of children
than the most eminent teacher can do good. If the brain is not
well supplied with an abundance of nourishing and pure blood,
its functions can not be well performed. It is a poor waste of
time to teach a child, unless what is taught is imparted under
such circumstances as to be remembered; and how can impres-
sions made upon the brain become fixed and retained unless it is
in a fit condition of health, activity, nutrition, and rest ? Mens
sana in corpore sano is now and always will be true.
Granting that the school or college is in a sanitary condition,
and that there is a proper mixture of recreation in the hours of
study, the individual characteristics of each pupil deserve to be
taken into account. No teacher does his duty who does not make
each pupil placed under his charge a careful character study. It
is true this takes much time and requires much judgment ; but it
is far more than repaid by the greater progress that can after-
ward be made by the teacher with such a pupil. Some children
who may be naturally truthful are, nevertheless, extremely sensi-
tive to pain, and as a consequence will lie to escape punishment.
Others, again, are instinctively prevaricators ; while some are so
constituted as to have no fear of corporal punishment. The hope
of reward will stimulate one child to diligence ; but no such result
is produced in a second. One will study from a love of the work ;
whereas another looks upon all study as a useless waste of time,
and a weary drudgery. Individualism should therefore play an
important role in the management of every school. The teacher
must ever fall far short of true success who does not or who can
not become familiar with the many differences thus to be found
in the mental and ethical qualities of his class.
Prenatal and postnatal influences may have seriously im-
paired the child's health, and especially that of its nervous sys-
tem. Nature has done much to protect her works from the
destructive and injurious effects of their environments. But, in
spite of this, the conditions of life and development may have
530 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
been so bad that the child is started on its journey with an
organism full of twists and irregularities. Mirabeau was once
asked when he would commence the education of a child.
" Twenty years before it is born " was the philosophic answer.
The prenatal influences of heredity can not be overestimated.
An unhealthy, depraved, immoral, and vicious parentage tells its
sad tale through the offspring. Tennyson is as correct to science
as he was poetical when he said :
" 'Tis the blot xipon the brain
That will show itself without."
It matters nothing whether the views of Darwin shall stand
the test of future investigation, that acquired characteristics can
be inherited ; or the views of Weissman, that they can not. The
fact remains that a weak and diseased nervous organism is much
more liable to take on a perverted growth and development than
one that is ushered into the world free from such blemishes. One
of the prime objects in every system of education ought there-
fore to be the studious care given to the health of the scholars, so
as to avoid damaging those who are as yet sound, and in order to
remove as far as possible the blots that have already been made
upon the nervous mechanism of others, and that must show them-
selves without.
" Nihil est in intellectu quod non prius fuerit in sensu (There
is nothing in the intellect that has not first come through the
senses)." Philosophy and experience alike confirm the truth of
the above. When the child is born, its mind is like a sheet of
white paper, as Locke expresses it; but soon there begin to be
impressions made upon it, as characters may be inscribed upon
the paper. It is now some two hundred and seventy-five years
since Comenius recognized that children gain their knowledge
through the senses, and that these should be properly educated on
suitable objects. He strongly urged that matter, and not form,
should be presented to children. We should " cease to persuade,
and begin to demonstrate ; cease to dispute, and begin to look."
An old Latin writer puts it thus : "Iter Jon gum est per precepta ;
breve et efficax per exempla (The way is long by precept; short
and effective by example)."
With Kant and Green I agree that there are certain a priori
intuitions, such as those of time and space. But I also agree with
Kant, Locke, Reid, Spencer, and others, that our knowledge comes
through experience. It is of the utmost importance that the ex-
periences ' to which a child is subjected should be of a proper
kind ; that they should be of such a kind as to develop the mind
in wise directions, and store it with ideas of a useful and enno-
bling nature. The teachers under whom a child is placed, the
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AND EDUCATION 531
company it is allowed to keep, the books it is permitted to read,
should be the subject of 'the greatest care. John Stuart Blackie
once said that the most inspiring thing for a young man was to
be placed in the company of great and good men ; and next to
being in their company was to read their books and to read about
them.
But while it is of the greatest importance that the experiences
to which the child is exposed are of the best possible character, it
is no less important that the nervous system and the sense organs
of the child be in a sound and normal condition. The state,
through the public-school system, is supplying buildings and
teachers at great expense. All this outlay is for the purpose of
imparting learning to the rising generation. Is it not right and
proper that the state should see that the children upon whom
this enormous sum of money is being spent are in a fit condition
to receive the education that is offered ? One would hardly think
of any government spending millions upon an army, and making
no selection of the men who were to form this army. Further,
when the authorities had selected the men for the army, they
would surely see that the benefits of training and drill would
not be destroyed by dissipation and irregular habits among the
soldiery.
Thus I think it is clearly the duty of the state to exercise its
authority in the suppression of injurious books, papers, and adver-
tisements. It is high time that stringent steps were taken in this
direction. It does seem strange that large sums are paid annu-
ally to furnish children with good reason and morals, and at the
same time numerous presses are turning out tons of reading mat-
ter of the most degrading and perverting nature. There is still
another reform that could be well introduced. A proper medical
inspector should be appointed to examine schools and determine
their sanitary condition. All matters of drainage, heating, light-
ing, and ventilation would be subjects for his consideration. It
is hardly to be expected that the nervous system and special
senses of the pupils will be healthy if these children are pent up
for a good portion of the day in an unhealthy schoolroom. Fur-
ther, it ought to be the duty of this medical inspector to give the
pupils of each school under his control regular instruction on
hygiene, and especially on the hygiene of study and the care of
the sense organs. A teacher may be a very intelligent person,
yet the ordinary reading he may have bestowed upon these topics
would not enable him to do them the same justice that a well-
educated and experienced medical practitioner could. Cases of
melancholia, hysteria, chorea, epilepsy, defects of vision, and such
like, would be sent home by him for proper rest and treatment.
Children learn best what they like best. Pleasure in their
532 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
studies is an all-important factor. I remember once reading in
an old book a conversation that took place between Sir Walter
Scott and the driver of a stagecoach. Scott was sitting on the
seat along with the driver. The conversation turned upon a
group of children coming out of an old-fashioned schoolhouse.
The driver remarked that the teacher had great influence with
his classes, and that his pupils made much progress in learning.
Whereupon Scott inquired after the reason for such a happy state
of affairs. He was informed by the stage man that the teacher
worked on the lines of the old proverb that, " to be successful
with children, you must allure the ear, inform the mind, and then
impress the heart." This teacher was wise in his day. He sought
to win the affections of the child. He established a confidence
between himself and his pupil — in other words, he tried to make
things agreeable. This accomplished, he commenced to fill the
pupils' minds with new thoughts and new relations. The world
of ideas was opened up to the child, which was made to see, feel,
hear, and remember as it had never done before. On this an
ethic or moral system was planted. The late George Paxton
Young, Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of To-
ronto, often repeated in my hearing that, when he was a boy, he
would have been punished for using a translation in the study of
a Greek or Latin author. Now, however, if he had had his way,
he would punish a student who would not make use of such an
aid to promote his advancement and increase his pleasure in the
study of the classics. " Pleasure and pain," said Locke, "are the
hinges on which all our passions turn." The school life of the
child ought to be so managed that its search after knowledge
would be one continuous pursuit of pleasure.
Then, again, while it is necessary to present objects to the
various senses in order that an acquaintanceship with them may
be formed, it is equally necessary that these objects be properly
selected and graded according to the age and understanding of
the learner. When a pupil is not learning, it is not the fault of
the child so much as it is of the teacher. Things have not been
presented to the child in proper order or of suitable kind. It is
quite true the child may be dull. Its mental development may
be a long way behind that of another child of the same age ; but
this is not the fault of the child. It is the duty of the teacher to
take things as he finds them, and to grade his teaching to meet
the capacities of the pupil. The age of the pupil does not enable
one to decide what may be the degree of perceptive power. This
must be tested. It is an utter waste of time to present to a child
too complex thoughts or ideas ; it must be conducted from the
simple to the complex. A child is often found fault with for not
giving attention to study. The truth is that things have not
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AND EDUCATION. 533
been presented to it in such a manner as to interest it. In all
cases where the matter is brought under the child's notice in such
a way that it clearly understands it, there will not likely be much
ground for complaint on the score of lack of interest. But a still
further reason for lack of interest in study is that too often the
teaching seems to the child to have no connection whatever with
its outside life. Children soon learn to make inductions from
their experience. If they can see no connection between what
they are being taught and their experiences in life, there will cer-
tainly be a want of interest in their studies. It is a matter for
congratulation that so much has been done in this direction. The
natural method of teaching has made great progress, but much
remains yet to be done. The most primitive schoolhouse in the
land affords abundant facilities for the education of the child's
senses, and, through them, its powers of observation. It is all
contained in the simple question, Does the teacher understand
the rational method of appealing to the child's intellect through
its senses ?
The teacher ought to be a close student of Nature. There is
placed under his control a large number of young persons of the
most varied possibilities. In the schoolroom we have a collec-
tion of members of the highest order of animal life. Every mem-
ber of the class should be made to realize that there is the possi-
bility of a great future in store for him. The imagination and
ambition should be enlarged in wise directions. It is quite true
these ambitions may never be realized ; but the mental stimulus
they give the growing youth is of a most valuable character. A
high code of ethics should be found in every school; but this
must have its fountain head with the teacher. I am not con-
founding ethics with religion. There was a high ideal of ethics
in Plato and Aristides, though pagans ; there was a high code of
ethics revealed in the life of Darwin, though an agnostic ; and
there was a high code of ethics running through the life and
writings of F. D. Maurice, who was a beautiful type of Christian
character. Schiller, the German poet, has truly said : " It is an
admirable proof of infinite wisdom that what is noble and be-
nevolent beautifies the human countenance; what is base and
hateful imprints upon it a revolting expression." Through the
child's senses, feelings, and affections you must reach its soul,
whatever this may be regarded to mean by different schools of
thought, avoid inflicting scars upon it, and endeavor to erase
those that may unfortunately have been made by former bad
environments. Such a work as Mantegazza's Expression and
Physiognomy should be in the hands of every teacher.
But the teacher must carry his studies in this direction fur-
ther than that of mere expression and physiognomy. He ought
53+ THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
to be a careful student of physiology and the laws of health. A
thorough knowledge of the scientific principles of healthy exer-
cise and study enhances a teacher's usefulness. If the adage
" knowledge is power " be true anywhere, surely it is true here.
Possessed of a knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the
nervous system — a task which any intelligent teacher could
master in a few months — he can deal with the whole question
of the education of his class under a new and clearer light. Much
that was a mystery to him regarding the acquisition of knowledge
will become plain. The complex memory of a flower will be re-
solved into the memories of its several qualities, that were carried
to the brain by conducting nerves. The association of ideas and
the laws governing the same will be as simple as a lesson in
elementary botany. The smelling of a rose reviving the memory
of its color will cease to be an enigma. It will then become clear
how a person may lose the power of speech and still be able to
write and read; or how he may be able to read and write, al-
though unable to hear spoken words; or, again, how he may
have lost the power of hearing spoken words, and yet be able to
speak, read, and write.
If any one should say that such a knowledge of the physi-
ology of the nervous system in its relation to the acquisition of
learning is of no use to the teacher, then I would reply that it is
not necessary for the engineer to understand the engine he is
running, the mariner the course he is sailing over, nor the farmer
the nature of the soil he is tilling. The teacher has a number of
young human beings placed under his charge. He is guiding
them into the wide ocean of truth and thought. He is laying
the foundations on which the future structure of their intel-
lectual and moral natures are largely to be built. He is work-
ing with one of the grandest mechanisms known to man — the
brain of the child ! He ought therefore to know not only what
he has to teach, but the subject that has to be taught and the
best methods of teaching it. It can not be too strongly urged
that if there be any derangement or want of harmony in these
factors much of the good that might follow is lost. In order that
the relationships between the nervous system and education be
properly maintained the teacher must be thoroughly familiar
with all three great divisions of his work — the things to be
taught, the methods of teaching them, and the brain and sense
organs that are to be developed. When the teacher has made
himself master of the channels through which the child must
acquire its knowledge it becomes an easier and a far more inter-
esting work for him to select topics within the range of the
child's understanding and experience. If he is a wise teacher he
can build up the child's powers of observation for natural phe-
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AND EDUCATION. 535
nomena by leading from simple experiences to those that are
more complex. But the great beauty of such teaching is that the
child itself feels an interest in its work. It is learning as a pleas-
ure and not as a drudgery.
People in general know what is meant by a natural or rational
method of doing a certain task or carrying on to completion a
given work. It is astonishing that the very opposite of a natural
system should have prevailed so long in the important matter of
the education of children throughout the schools of all countries.
There have not been wanting some who, at different periods, have
called attention to the wrong methods in vogue ; but until recent
years no very decided advance has been made. Too much im-
portance can not be attached to the fact that in all well-regulated
schools such subjects as botany, chemistry, and zoology should
be taught by means of the objects under study. How much more
natural it is to take a rose flower and carefully explain all its
parts by pulling it to pieces than to attempt to give a class of
young children a knowledge of the same flower by talking about
it, without the object being in the hands of the teacher and class !
By means of the objects the analogies and differences between
the root, stem, and branch, or between the leaf, flower, and seed,
can be shown and demonstrated to the class. Lessons conducted
properly in this manner become a delight to children, and they
come to regard their teacher as a true friend.
Let us examine how we come by a general idea, concept, or
notion. Here we must call in the aid of language in naming ab-
stractions. Under this there are ideas of complex character that
exist in the mind without the need of language. Still more fun-
damental than these are simple conceptions carried to the per-
ceptive centers by the ingoing nerve currents. Take the example
of an ordinary cube. The child looks at it, and there is a visual
impression formed of its color, of the length of each side, of the
area of a surface, of the combination of the surfaces so as to give
rise to the idea of solidity. The simple ideas are combined into
the more complex idea — the visual one of a cube. But by the aid
of touch other qualities can be ascertained. The hardness,
weight, sharpness of edges and angles, smoothness or roughness
of surfaces, form the tactual idea of a cube. But the visual and
tactual ideas are still further combined into a general idea or
concept to which the name cube is given. In this general idea
or concept other qualities may enter, as, for example, the taste of
the cube, if it is a sapient object. When the word cube is spoken,
it recalls some, or all, of these qualities, according to the knowl-
edge and observation of the person to whom the word is ad-
dressed. In the case of a child, the word cube may convey no
definite recollection of the object mentioned. The child may not
536 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
have been taught to observe the surfaces, edges, angles, etc., of a
cube. The word will, therefore, recall only so many memory pic-
tures of the cube as the child has acquired. But point out some
new quality in the cube, and a new memory picture of the cube is
formed in the child's mind. When in future the word cube is
spoken the child will have a more complete memory of it — in
other words, a more complete knowledge of it. The process can
be continued until all the qualities of the cube are known to the
child, and form parts of its concept or notion of the cube. This
notion, or memory, is represented in language by the word cube.
The simple ideas or conceptions of its color, shape, weight, hard-
ness, go to form the general idea.
Now, grant that the teacher understands how the visual im-
pressions are carried by the eye to a certain center in the brain ;
how the tactual are carried by conducting nerves to another cen-
ter ; and how the impression of the spoken word is carried by the
ear to still another center. Further, he is supposed to know how
these centers are connected with each other, so that hearing the
word cube spoken recalls the memories of its shape, surfaces, an-
gles and edges.
Armed with such a knowledge of the mechanism of the nerv-
ous system as the basis of thought, the teacher has a magic wand
in his possession by means of which he can stimulate his pupils,
and make what would otherwise be dreary enough work more
interesting than a high-class novel or the story of an exciting ad-
venture. There will then exist in the teacher's mind a reason for
the natural method of teaching by appealing to the child's expe-
rience of things, and for showing it the object about which a cer-
tain lesson is to take place. The Ding an sich of Kant becomes
known inductively, as Spencer and Romanes have shown, through
an experience with its qualities. This sort of knowledge does not
lead to either the idealism of Berkeley nor the skepticism of
Hume, but to a true, scientific psychology as expounded by Wundt
and Ribot.
In the past, and indeed at present, far too much time has been
spent in instructing the child by telling it certain facts, and not
enough time in teaching the child how to observe for itself. We
can not see through other people's eyes, nor is their reasoning our
reasoning. The power to repeat certain formula) or to give an-
swers to certain questions does not indicate knowledge on the
part of the child. The great object of education is to make the
individual capable of solving his own problems, of doing his own
reasoning, of looking after his own affairs, of performing his
duties as a citizen, of improving himself socially and morally, and
of earning an honest living.
Thus it becomes clear that our knowledge is an aggregation of
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AND EDUCATION. 537
sensuous impressions. These senses must be made the special
object of study and care on the part of the teacher. His great
duty is, not so much to tell his pupils what to do or how things
happen, as to instruct them how to find out for themselves.
There are a number of avenues through which he can reach the
child's internal mind. These avenues must be made use of, and
the child must be taught how to use them for its own advance-
ment. The ears can be educated, but only practically, to recog-
nize what is meant by pitch, volume, quality, loudness, intensity,
harmony, etc., in musical notes. Only by practice can the child
be brought to recognize the many shades of color, the divergence
of angles, the approximate lengths of objects, or the rapidity of
motion in a passing object. The method of Zadig could be made
use of in endless variety. A horse's footprints are seen in the
sand. The child could be tested on its powers of observation as
to whether the horse had been walking, trotting, or galloping ;
whether he was a large animal or not ; whether shod or not, and
if the shoes were new ; or whether the horse was lame, as might
be indicated by one of the footprints. In like manner the tactile
and muscular senses may be developed and rendered extremely
acute in their power of fine distinctions as to quality, weight, firm-
ness, shape, composition, and such like of the objects that are
made the subjects of study. See, for example, what a blind per-
son can do, guided by the sense of touch and the muscular sense.
What has been said by no means exhausts the important rela-
tionships of the nervous system to the many problems of educa-
tion. It is now time that a knowledge of physiological psychol-
ogy should form a part of the qualifications of every person who
becomes a public teacher. It is to be feared that there are many
teachers at the present moment who know literally nothing of the
wonderful organisms under their charge. We do not so act in
business affairs. We do not permit a man to take charge of a
locomotive until he has acquired a knowledge of the engine. But
we allow men to become the educational engineers of our children
without exacting from them the slightest knowledge of the beings
they are going to take charge of. I need not state the case more
strongly than that this should cease.
One word more. The time has come when strong opinions
ought to be expressed against the too prevalent custom of crowd-
ing the child with studies and cramming its mind with discon-
nected facts. Away with the idea that such is education ! It is
not. Such a system is only a means of injuring the child's
health and interfering with its proper mental development. The
child's brain and nervous system must be developed along judi-
cious lines, and through this development the mind is enlarged.
Nothing is education that does not foster and bring about this
VOL. XLV1I. 44
538
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
result. I can not do better than end this article by quoting the
resolution passed at the recent meeting of the Canada Medical
Association : " That the system of education in force in the Do-
minion draws too largely upon the brain tissue of children and
materially injures their mental and bodily health."
TO BARBARA.
(A Study in Heredity.)
By DAVID STARR JORDAN.
LITTLE lady, cease your play
For a moment, if you may ;
Come to me, and tell me true
Whence those black eyes came to you.
Father's eyes are granite gray,
And your mother's, Barbara,
Black as the obsidian stone,
With a luster all their own.
How should one so small as you
Learn to choose between the two ?
If through father's eyes you
look,
Nature seems an open book —
All her secrets written clear
On her pages round you, dear.
Better yet than this may be
If through mother's eyes you
see ;
Theirs to read — a finer art —
Deep down in the human heart.
How should one so small as
you
Choose so well
two ?
between the
Hide your face behind your
fan ,
Little black-eyed Puritan ;
Peer across its edge at me
In demurest coquetry,
Like some Doiia Placida,
Not the Puritan you are.
TO BARBARA. 539
Subtle sorcery there lies
In the glances of your eyes,
Calling forth, from out the vast
Vaults of the forgotten past,
Pictures dim and far away
From the full life of to-day,
Like the figures that we see
Wrought in ancient tapestry.
This the vision comes to me :
Sheer rock rising from the sea,
Wind-riven, harsh, and vertical,
To a gray old castle wall ;
Waving palms upon its height,
At its feet the breakers white,
Chasing o'er an emerald bay,
Like a flock of swans that play ;
Tile-roofed houses of the town,
From the hills, slow-creeping down ;
Rocks and palms and castle wall,
Emerald seas that rise and fall,
Golden haze and glittering blue —
What is all of this to you ?
Only this, perchance it be,
Each has left its trace in thee ;
Only this, that Love is strong,
And the arm of Fate is long.
Deeply hidden in your eyes,
Undeciphered histories,
Graven in the ages vast,
Lie there to be read at last :
Graven deep, they must be true ;
Shall I read them unto you ?
Once a man, now faint and dim
With the centuries over him,
Wandered from an ancient town,
On its hills slow-creeping down,
O'er the ocean, bold and free,
Roved in careless errantry.
With Vizcaino had he fared,
And his strange adventures dared ;
Restless ever, drifting on,
Far as foot of man had gone ;
S+o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
On his cheek the salt that clings
To the Headland of the Kings,
Flung from the enchanted sea
Of Saint Francis Assisi!
Rover o'er the ocean blue —
What has he to do with you ?
Only this : he sailed one day
To your Massachusetts Bay,
And this voyage was his last,
For Love seized and held him fast.
Of that old romance of his
None can tell you more than this ;
Saving that, as legacies
To his child, he left his eyes,
Black as the obsidian stone,
With a luster all their own,
Seeing as by magic ken
Deep into the hearts of men.
And mid tides of changing years,
Dreams and hopes and cares and fears,
Life that flows and ebbs alway,
Love has kept them loyally.
Once, it chanced, they came to shine,
Straight into this heart of mine.
Little lady, cease your play
For a moment, if you may ;
All I ask is, silently,
Turn your mother's eyes on me!
Consul ado Ingles, Calle de las Olas Altas, Mazatlan, Sinaloa,
January 10, 1895.
According to Captain Younghusband, lately assistant English resident
at Clritral, a mountain district of India which has just been attracting
considerable attention, the principal evil in the mountains outside of his
station is the want of desire for money. The mountaineers, secluded from
mankind amid their hills, have never used any money, and consequently
have no idea of the value of coins. They took the rupees to be ornaments,
and were greatly aggrieved when after carrying loads up the hills tbey
were paid only in little bits of silver. But the government wanted work
done, and, not being willing to force labor, had to train the people to the
use of money, so they brought peddlers up from the plains. Then, when
the people found they could get the goods they wanted with their rupees,
they were willing to take them.
THE WORK OF IDEAS IN HUMAN EVOLUTION. 541
THE WORK OF IDEAS EST HUMAN EVOLUTION.
By GUSTAVE LE BON.
THE study of the different civilizations that have succeeded
one another since the origin of the world proves that they
have always been guided in their development by a very small
number of fundamental ideas. If the history of peoples should
be reduced to the story of their ideas, it would not be very long.
We have shown in a previous essay that the evolution of a people
is chiefly derived from its mental constitution. We found then
that while the hereditary sentiments, the aggregation of which
constitutes character, have great fixedness, they can nevertheless
be transformed slowly under the influence of various factors.
Among the most operative of these factors are ideas. But, for
ideas to have influence, they must have progressively come down
from the mobile regions of the conscious into the stable and un-
conscious regions of the feelings, where our thoughts and the
motives of our actions are elaborated. They then form as it were
a part of the character and act effectively on the conduct. When
ideas have undergone this modification, and are fixed in the un-
conscious, their power over the mind is absolute. They cease
then to be influenced by the reason. The convert who is dom-
inated by a religious idea or by any belief is inaccessible to all
arguments, however intelligent we may suppose him to be.
Governing ideas, formed as we have described, become estab-
lished and disestablished very slowly. If it were otherwise, civ-
ilizations would have no stability. But if ideas, once established,
could not be gradually transformed, and finally disappear, peo-
ples would achieve no progress. In consequence of the slowness
of our mental transformations, many human ages are required
for the triumph of a new idea, and several ages more for its elim-
ination. The most civilized peoples are those whose directing
ideas have been maintained at an even distance from variability
and fixity. History is strewn with the wrecks of those who have
not been able to maintain this equilibrium.
The reader of history is struck with the paucity of the ideas
of peoples, the slowness with which they are modified, and the
power they exercise. Civilizations are the resultants of certain
ideas, and when these ideas are changed, the civilization is inevi-
tably transformed with them. The middle ages lived on two
fundamental ideas — the religious and the feudal. From them
issued all the arts of the period, its literature, and its whole con-
ception of life. At the Renascence these ideas underwent a slight
modification : an ideal recovered from the ancient Greek and
Latin world imposed itself on Europe, and transformation of the
VOL. XLVII. — 45
542 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
conception of life, of the arts, philosophy, and literature at once
set in. The authority of tradition was shaken, scientific truths
began gradually to take the place of revealed truths, and civiliza-
tion entered upon a new phase. To-day the old religious ideas
have lost the greater part of their empire, and for that reason
alone all the social institutions that rested upon them are threat-
ened with dissolution.
Regarding ideas according to the importance of their working
rather than to their worth, we may divide them into two classes.
First are the great general directing and permanent ideas on
which an entire civilization rests— the feudal and religious ideas
of the middle ages, for example, and certain political conceptions
of modern times ; and, secondly, transient and changing ideas de-
rived, to a certain extent perhaps, from the general ideas which
arise and pass away in every age. Among these are the theories
which guide art and literature at certain periods, such as those
which have produced romanticism, naturalism, mysticism, etc.
They are usually as superficial as the fashion, and change like it.
They may be compared to the minor waves that are continually
rising and vanishing on the surface of a river, while the funda-
mental ideas may be compared to the deep current that bears
away the waters of the same river. Of the various transient
ideas that arise in the course of ages, a few become in time funda-
mental directing ideas, but this is the result of rare combinations
of special conditions.
It is as impossible to name the real creator of a great idea as
to point out the author of a great invention. When an idea
reaches the light and becomes capable of exercising influence, it
is, like one of the great inventions, the sum of numerous anterior
minor ideas. It has been subjected to long elaboration and nu-
merous transformations. The originators of the idea are there-
fore far anterior to its propagators. The brains which conceived
it live in regions inaccessible to the multitude. The results of
their thought may exercise a considerable influence in the world,
but they will not see it. If they were privileged to witness its
development, they would not be likely to recognize the fruit of
their meditations. From the intellectual heights whence the idea
usually is derived, it comes down step by step, undergoing con-
tinual changes and modifications, till it takes on a shape accessi-
ble to the popular mind, when its triumph is assured. It then
presents itself concentrated into a very small number of words,
perhaps into only one, but that word evokes striking images, and
consequently always impressive, whether they be seductive or
terrible. Such were paradise and hell in the middle ages, short
words that have the power of answering for everything, and to
simple minds explaining everything. The word socialism repre-
THE WORK OF IDEAS IN HUMAN EVOLUTION 543
sents to the modern workman one of these magical and synthetic
formulas capable of ruling the mind.
We may discuss the value of an idea from a philosophical
point of view ; but from the point of view of its influence such
discussion is without interest. The thing to be determined is not
its value, but the action it exerts upon minds. In scientific
affairs, the idea may have in itself a value independent of the time
when it originated, and may preserve it beyond that time. In
questions of institutions, creeds, morals, and government, the idea
never having any but a relative value, its success depends pri-
marily on the enthusiasm it inspires, and secondarily on the race
and epoch in which it originated. Christianity could never have
propagated itself till a particular epoch and among particular
peoples. When the idea represented by the word Csesarism
dawned upon the Roman world, it had become necessary, because
it survived its creator and every one of the persons who took his
place, notwithstanding most of them died violent deaths. Two
or three centuries earlier every effort to carry out such an idea
would have miscarried. In this age representative governments,
which are strongly rooted among some of the peoples of Europe,
could not subsist among others.
The absolute truth of an idea is not, therefore, the thing to be
considered. The value of an idea is measured by its success, its
utility, or its danger, and these elements depend upon circum-
stances, media, and races. Only experience can demonstrate
whether an idea is opportune. The notion of national unity,
which is fundamental in modern politics, is very old, for Charle-
magne tried to put it in operation. It could not be carried into
the domain of facts, and the work of the great man perished with
him. The idea of absolute religious submission to a representa-
tive of divinity, residing in the capital of Christianity, was for a
long time an excellent one, but there came a time when, in the
face of the advance of knowledge, it was no longer acceptable,
and Philip II exhausted the force of his genius and the might of
Spain, then predominant, in vain contentions with the spirit of
free inquiry, which was then prevailing in Europe under the
name of the Reformation.
The power of ideas, once fixed in the mind, is so great that no
person is able to arrest their progress. Their evolutions must
then inevitably be carried out, and all their consequences suf-
fered. Most frequently, as with the socialists of the present time,
their defenders are the ones marked to become their first victims.
They are no better than sheep which docilely follow their leader
to the slaughterhouse. We have to bow to the power of the
idea. When it has reached a certain period of its evolution, no
reasoning or demonstration can prevail against it. Centuries or
544 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
violent revolutions — sometimes both — are required to free peoples
from the yoke of a dominant idea.
Ideas are propagated in the minds of the multitude chiefly-
through affirmation, repetition, prestige, contagion, and faith.
Reason does not conie within the enumeration, its influence in the
matter being substantially null.
Affirmation, pure and simple, without reasoning and without
proof, is one of the surest means of planting an idea in the popu-
lar mind. The more concise it is, the more free from every ap-
pearance of proofs and demonstration, the more authority it has.
The religious books and the codes of all ages have always pro-
ceeded by simple affirmation. Statesmen called upon to defend
any political cause and manufacturers advertising their goods
know what it is worth. Yet it has no real influence, except it is
constantly repeated, and, so far as possible, in the same terms.
Napoleon said that repetition was the only serious figure in
rhetoric. By repetition an affirmation is incrusted in the minds
of hearers till they at last accept it as a demonstrated truth.
What is called the current of opinion is formed, and then the
potent mechanism of contagion comes in. Ideas that have reached
a certain stage, in fact, possess a contagious power as intense as
that of microbes. Not fear and courage only are contagious ; ideas
are, too, on condition that they are repeated often enough.
When the mechanism of contagion has begun to work, the
idea enters upon the phase that leads to success. Opinion, which
repelled it at first, ends by tolerating and then accepting it. The
idea henceforward gains a penetrating and subtle force which
sends it onward, while at the same time creating a sort of special
atmosphere, a general way of thinking. Like the fine road dust
which penetrates everywhere, the idea becomes general, and in-
sinuates itself into all the conceptions and all the productions of
an epoch. It then forms a part of that compact stock of heredi-
tary commonplaces, of ready-made judgments, which are regis-
tered in books and imposed upon us by education. The final
factor that gives the idea thus developed and spread its immense
power is that mysterious force it acquires called prestige. Every-
thing that rules in the world, whether of ideas or men, imposes
itself principally through the irresistible force expressed by this
word. It is a term which, while we comprehend the full meaning
of it, is applied in too various fashions to be easily defined. Pres-
tige comports with such feelings as admiration or fear, and is
sometimes even based upon them, but it can easily exist without
them. There are dead persons, and consequently beings we need
not fear, like Alexander, Csesar, Buddha, and Mohammed, who
possess the highest degree of prestige ; and there are other beings
or fictions which we do not admire at all — like the monstrous
THE WORK OF IDEAS IN HUMAN EVOLUTION. 545
divinities of the subterranean temples of India — which appear to
us invested with it.
Prestige is a kind of domination exercised over our minds
which paralyzes all our critical faculties and fills our hearts with
astonishment and respect. The feeling provoked by it is, like all
our feelings, inexplicable, but it is probably of similar order to
the fascination experienced by a magnetized subject. It is the
strongest moving spring of all domination. The gods, kings, and
women would never have reigned without it. Many factors enter
into its genesis, of which one of the most important is always
success. Every man who succeeds, every idea which prevails,
cease by that fact to be disputed ; and when success ceases, pres-
tige vanishes with it. The hero applauded by the multitude in
the evening is spat upon in the morning if his fortune has failed
him ; and the reaction is quicker in proportion as the prestige has
been more brilliant. Prestige likewise tends to disappear under
the light of discussion. One must hold the multitude at a dis-
tance to keep their respect.
The details of the psychology of prestige may be studied by
setting them at the end of a series that descends from the found-
ers of religions and empires to the particular person who is try-
ing to astonish his neighbors with a new coat or a decoration.
Between the extreme terms of such a series we should place all the
forms of prestige in the various elements of a civilization — in the
sciences, arts, literature, etc. — when we shall see that it constitutes
the fundamental element of persuasion. Whether consciously or
not, the being, the idea, or the thing possessing prestige is imi-
tated at once, and imposes on a whole generation certain ways of
thinking and of expressing thought. The four fifths of modern
painters who reproduce the faded colors and stiff attitudes of the
primitive school hardly suspect that they are imitators. They
believe they are sincere ; yet if an eminent master had not revived
this form of art, they would still have seen in it only the childish
side. Those who, at the instance of another illustrious master,
flood their canvases with violet shades, do not see any more vio-
let in Nature than was seen fifty years ago, but they have been
infected with the personal and special impression of a painter who,
in spite of this eccentricity, was able to gain great prestige. Simi-
lar examples might be found in all the elements of civilization.
Thus, through repetition, contagion, and prestige, men of each
age come to possess a fund of ideas of an average sort which
render them like one another, and to such a point that when
centuries have accumulated over them, we recognize, by their
artistic, scientific, philosophical, and literary productions, the age
in which they lived. It is true that we can not say that they
absolutely copied one another, but that they had in common
546 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
modes of feeling and thinking conducive to productions strongly-
affiliated with, one another. We have reason to felicitate our-
selves that this is so, for it is precisely this interweaving of iden-
tical traditions, ideas, feelings, creeds, and ways of thinkiDg that
constitutes the spirit of a people. That spirit is stable in propor-
tion as the texture is solid.
So far as we have as yet studied the imposition of the idea, we
have found it existing only in the upper ranks of the nation. For
it to descend to the lowest strata and be spread among them in
such a way as really to influence the mob, the intervention is re-
quired of that sort of believers in it whose faith is so intense as to
impel them to propagate it — apostles. Men of this kind are usu-
ally converts so fascinated by the new idea that everything else
vanishes from their thoughts. They are recruited chiefly from
among those nervous, excitable persons who live on the borders
of madness. However absurd may be the idea they defend and
the end they are pursuing, all reasoning is blunt against their
conviction. Despite and persecutions do not touch them, but only
excite them all the more. They sacrifice personal interest and
family, and so annul the instinct of self-preservation as to seek
martyrdom as their only recompense. The intensity of their zeal
gives their words a great suggestive force. The multitude is
always ready to listen to any strong-willed man who may impose
himself upon it. Men in a throng lose all their will, and turn in-
stinctively to one who has any. An assembly of men is capable
of acting only when it has a leader at its head.
The peoples have never had any lack of such leaders ; but it is
not necessary that they should all be actuated by the strong con-
victions that make apostles. They are more frequently subtle
rhetoricians seeking personal interests alone, and trying to per-
suade by flattering base instincts. The influence they thus exert
is usually very ephemeral. The great fanatics who have raised
the spirits of mobs — Peter the Hermit, Luther, and Savanarola —
did not exercise their peculiar fascination till they had them-
selves been fascinated by some belief. They could then create in
souls that formidable power called faith, a still very mysterious
force of which psychology afforded no explanation till it turned
its investigations upon hypnotic phenomena, studied the uncon-
scious transformation and combination of ideas into images and
sensations, the doubling of the self, the coexistence of several per-
sonalities in the same individual, dying sensations, etc. Persons
possessed by their faith may be compared to hypnotic subjects.
They are, as it were, absolute slaves of their dream.
Whatever may be the real nature of faith, its power can not
be contested. There is profound reason for the gospel affirmation
that it can move mountains. The great events of history have
THE WORK OF IDEAS IN HUMAN EVOLUTION. 547
been brought about by obscure fanatics armed with nothing but
their faith. The great religions which have governed the world
and the vast empires that have extended from one hemisphere to
the other were not built up by men of letters, of science, or by
philosophers. The creed on which the civilization under which
we live was founded was first spread by obscure fishermen of
a Galilean market town. Shepherds from the Arabian deserts,
whose contemporaries hardly knew of their existence, were the
men who subjected a part of the Greco-Roman world to the
dogmas of Mohammed, and founded one of the vastest empires
known in history.
A strong conviction is so irresistible that only an equal con-
viction has any chance of struggling victoriously against it.
Faith has no enemy to be really afraid of except faith. It is sure
of triumph when the material force opposed to it is the servant of
weak emotions and of weak belief. But if it is brought to face a
faith of the same intensity, the contest becomes very active, and
success is then determined by accessory circumstances usually
also of a moral order, such as the spirit of discipline and better
organization. In studying the history of the Arabians, to whom
we have just alluded, we find that in their first conquests, which
are the most difficult and the most important, they met morally
weak adversaries. They first bore their arms into Syria. They
found nothing more formidable than Byzantine armies composed
of mercenaries with little disposition to sacrifice themselves for
any cause. Inspired by an intense faith that multiplied their
forces by ten, they dispersed these armies without ideas as in an-
cient days a little handful of Greeks sustained by love for their
city scattered the innumerable hosts of Xerxes. Numerous ex-
amples in history stand in proof that when equally powerful
moral forces meet, the best organized always carry the day.
In religion, as in politics, success always goes to believers,
never to skeptics ; and if the future threatens to belong to the
socialists notwithstanding the annoying absurdity of their doc-
trines, it is because they are to-day the only persons who are
really convinced. The modern directing classes have lost faith in
everything. They do not believe in anything, not even in the
possibility of defending themselves against the dangerous flood of
barbarians all around them.
When, after a longer or shorter period of trials, transforma-
tions, discussion, and propaganda, an idea has acquired a definite
form and has penetrated the spirit of the multitude, it constitutes
a dogma, or one of those absolute verities which are not subject
to discussion. It then forms a part of those general beliefs on
which the existence of societies reposes. Its great characteristic
is its immunity from discussion. When a new dogma is thus im-
548 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
planted in a people, it becomes the inspiration of its institutions,
arts, and conduct. Its empire over the minds of the people is
absolute. Men of action think of nothing else than of carrying it
out and applying it ; and philosophers, artists, and literary men
occupy themselves with presenting it in various forms. Tran-
sient accessory ideas may arise from the fundamental idea, always
bearing the impress of the one from which they issued. Egyptian
civilization, European civilization in the middle ages, and the
Mussulman civilization of the Arabs, were all derived from a very
small number of religious ideas that put their mark on the most
minute elements of those civilizations, and made them distin-
guishable at once.
In fact, the men of every age are surrounded by a network of
traditions, customs, and opinions, created by their ideas, from the
yoke of which they can not subtract themselves, and which make
them very like one another. Men are more than anything else
led, with a despotism which no tyrant ever exercised, by custom
and opinion, which regulate the slightest actions of our existence,
and from which the most independent man never thinks of extri-
cating himself. Asiatic sovereigns are often represented as des-
pots guided only by their fancies. These fancies are really confined
within singularly narrow limits. The network of traditions and
the yoke of opinions are especially strong in the East. Religious
traditions, which have been loosened with us, retain all their em-
pire there. The most self-sufficient despot would never strike at
these two masters, which he knows are infinitely more powerful
than he. — Translated for The Popular Science Monthly from the
Revue Scientifique.
• +++
SKETCH OF CHARLES UPHAM SHEPARD.
/CHARLES UPHAM SHEPARD was born at Little Compton,
^-^ a town in the southeastern corner of Rhode Island, June 29,
1804. He was fitted for college in the Providence Grammar School
and entered Brown University in 1820, but left the following
year to join the sophomore class of the new college which opened
then at Amherst, Mass. He was graduated in due course in the
class of 1824.
In a graphic sketch of Amherst College as it was during his
student days, contributed to Prof. Tyler's History, Prof. Shepard
has said :
" I remember that I was the youngest of my class. Most of
my fellows were mature youths who did not appear to me youths
at all — seniors in character and manlike in purpose, with an air
which seemed to tell of years of yearning for the ministry, and
SKETCH OF CHARLES UPHAM SHEPAEI). 549
of a brave struggle with the poverty which had kept them from
their goal." After a description of the village and the mode of
life in it, Prof. Shepard continues : " With such surroundings,
what now were our interior advantages ? Whatever we may-
have represented them to outsiders, whatever we may have per-
suaded ourselves concerning them, they were, in my day, ex-
tremely meager. The teachers were few, and in general were
not distinguished in their departments. Our library did not
surpass the scholarly range of a country clergyman in fair cir-
cumstances. Apparatus and collections were unknown in our
first year, and they had made but feeble beginnings before our
graduation. The only lectures which I remember were the two
annual courses of Prof. Amos Eaton, in his day a distinguished
botanist and geologist.
"In Dr. Moore, a gentleman of suave manners, of true Chris-
tain dignity, and of singular judgment in managing youth, we had
an admirable president. I venture to suspect that he was the
only college president in the United States who, from the begin-
ning, personally subscribed for the somewhat expensive numbers
of the Journal of the Royal Institution of London. From this
source, and others similar, he appears to have gained a prevision
of the importance of the modern sciences in education, and to
him mainly are we indebted for the early foothold which they
gained in the institution; to him, at all events, we owed the
presence of Prof. Eaton. Rarely has college lecturer been more
faithfully and enthusiastically listened to than Prof. Eaton in
his courses on chemistry and botany, together with his abridged
course on zoology. To supply the place of a text-book on the last-
mentioned branch, he furnished us a highly useful printed
syllabus, drawn mainly from the great work of Cuvier, then
wholly inaccessible to us. . . . There were doubtless deficiencies
to be regretted. In the larger and older universities we might
have found better teachers and richer stores of libraries and
collections, but in some unknown way, perhaps in the enthusiasm
of comparatively solitary effort, compensation was made ; and on
the whole we may doubt whether higher life success would have
attended us had we launched from other ports."
For a year after graduation he studied botany and mineralogy
with Thomas Nuttall at Cambridge, and during most of this time
taught the same branches in Boston. His study of mineralogy
led to the preparation of papers on that subject which he sent to
the American Journal of Science, and in this manner he became
acquainted with its editor, the elder Silliman. He was invited in
1827 to become Prof. Silliman's assistant, and continued as such
till 1831. For a year of this time he was Curator of Franklin
Hall, an institution that was established by James Brewster in
550 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
New Haven for popular lectures on scientific subjects to me-
chanics.
In 1830 he was appointed to a lectureship in natural history at
Yale, which he held till 1847. In the winter of 1832-33 he in-
vestigated the culture of sugar cane and the manufacture of
sugar in the Southern States, his results being incorporated in
Prof. Silliman's report to the Secretary of the Treasury.
His investigation in the sugar States led to his appointment,
in 1834, as Professor of Chemistry in the South Carolina Medical
College, at Charleston. This position required his residence in
the South for only part of the year, so that he was able to con-
tinue his lectures at Yale and to accept, in 1835, an appointment
as associate to Dr. James G. Percival on the Geological Survey of
Connecticut.
It was in the darkest hours of Amherst College, in December,
1844, that Prof. Edward Hitchcock was raised to the presidency
of that institution, and in order to provide for the partial
vacancy thus created in his department, Charles U. Shepard, of
New Haven, was elected Professor of Chemistry and Natural
History, this election "to take effect provided Prof. Hitchcock
accepts the presidency." Both appointments were accepted.
Prof. Shepard entered upon his new duties in the following
year. Only two years were needed under President Hitchcock's
able management to restore prosperity to the college. Prof.
Shepard, being then satisfied that Amherst would be able to
afford him a permanent field of labor, severed his connection
with Yale and offered to bring his valuable collections to
Amherst if the college would house them in a fireproof building
and consider the purchase of them when it was able. This prop-
osition was gladly accepted.
His professorship was divided in 1852, when the college be-
came able to have a separate Professor of Chemistry. Prof.
Shepard continued to deliver the lectures on natural history till
1877, when he was made professor emeritus. After leaving
Amherst his northern home was at New Haven for the rest of
his life.
The following history of the growth of Prof. Shepard's collec-
tions was written by him for the History of Amherst College, at
the request of Dr. Tyler :
" My mineralogical cabinet was commenced at the age of
fifteen, while a member of the Providence Grammar School, and
was brought with me when I left Brown University to join the
sophomore class of Amherst institution in 1821. An early visit
after my arrival here to the tourmaline and other localities of
Chesterfield and Goshen served to increase my eagerness as a
collector, and at the same time placed me in possession of abun-
SKETCH OF CHARLES UP HAM SHEPARB. 551
dant materials for exchange. In 1823 my identification of the
previously supposed white augite of Goshen with the species
spodumene, gave me confidence in the study of minerals, while
it increased my stock of specimens desirable to mineralogists.
The exchange I then carried on with the Austrian consul-general,
Baron von Lederer, in behalf of his own collection and that of
the Imperial Cabinet of Vienna, rapidly enriched my little
museum in foreign minerals. Indeed, from the first it was
sufficiently ample, to serve a useful purpose in the instruction of
beginners ; and was the sole resource of Prof. Amos Eaton in the
lectures he gave during two seasons before the students of the
institution.
" On leaving college I resided a year partly in Cambridge and
partly in Boston, during which period I profited much in extend-
ing my collections, through visits to new localities in eastern
Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and still more by exchanges
with Prof. Nuttall and other active cultivators of mineralogy in
the region. I soon after made a very successful tour into Maine,
where, at Paris, I was the fortunate discoverer of the most re-
markable green and red tourmalines then known. With some
of these I made profitable exchanges with the British Museum
and other large collections. My association in 1828 with Prof.
Silliman as his assistant, and afterward with the college as a
lecturer on natural science for many years, afforded me unusual
facilities for the extension of my cabinet. All the best localities
of Connecticut were frequently visited, specimens of rare interest
secured, and the means of supplying scientific correspondents
abundantly obtained. These objects were still further effected by
journeys into adjoining States and the Canadas, until 1835, when
I became Professor of Chemistry in the Medical College of the
State of South Carolina, where a new and very ample field was
opened for the extension of my collections. From that time to
the present [1871], with the exception of the period of the civil
war, I have passed nearly the half of each year in the South, and
been engaged to a considerable extent in scientific and min-
ing explorations, which have resulted in varied and rich contri-
butions to my cabinet. These travels have also embraced the
Western or Mississippi States, attended by similar results. But
most of all have I gained by frequent excursions to the Old
World, having since 1839 twelve times visited Europe, where my
exchanges and purchases of specimens have been conducted on
a scale, I am led to believe, not surpassed by any of my country-
men. Numbers, however, have never been my aim in these acqui-
sitions. I have rather sought what was characteristic and instruc-
tive— not, however, to the neglect of the rare and beautiful/'
The foregoing relates to the mineralogical part of Prof. Shep-
552 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
ard's collections ; his geological cabinet was also important, being
especially remarkable for fossil remains. The meteoric collec-
tion, begun in 1828, he stated to be the fourth in extent and value
known at the time of writing.
As to the transfer of the combined cabinets to Amherst Col-
lege Prof. Shepard continues :
" The removal of these collections from New Haven to Am-
herst, in 1847, was the result of an understanding entered into
between President Hitchcock and myself, that if the college
would cause a fireproof building to be erected for their recep-
tion, I would deposit them therein, at least for a term of years,
and with the hope, through arrangements afterward to be made,
of leaving them with the college as a permanent possession.
Such a building was provided in the Woods Cabinet ; and, more
recently, the conditions for the purchase of the collection have
been agreed upon." When he wrote the above he was engaged
in the more perfect cataloguing and arranging of the three col-
lections.
When Walker Hall was built, the mineralogical cabinet was
removed to rooms in that building, and was destroyed when the
building was burned, in March, 1882. Although few could be
classed as combustibles, a diligent search in the debris of the
building revealed scarcely a trace of the specimens. This was a
sad loss. Prof. Shepard valued the collection at seventy-five
thousand dollars, and the college had actually paid forty thou-
sand dollars for it. There was only fifteen thousand dollars of
insurance on the whole contents of the building.
Dr. Shepard held his professorship at Charleston uninter-
ruptedly until the civil war, and immediately after it closed
he went back, at the urgent invitation of his former colleagues,
and resumed his lectures. Ie 1869 he retired from the full dis-
charge of his duties, but continued to give some lectures until
shortly before his death. While in Charleston he discovered
rich deposits of phosphate of lime in the immediate vicinity of
that city. Their great value in agriculture and subsequent use in
the manufacture of superphosphate fertilizers proved an impor-
tant addition to the chemical industries of South Carolina.
The collection that was burned in 1882 was the finest in the
United States, and was surpassed abroad only by that in the
British Museum. But Dr. Shepard's collecting had not stopped
with its formation, and he succeeded before his death in gather-
ing a second cabinet of meteorolites and minerals which ranked
among the very largest private collections. This he kept in a
fireproof cabinet at his private residence in New Haven.
Prof. Shepard died, after a short illness, at Charleston, May 1,
1886.
SKETCH OF CHARLES UP HAM SHEPARD. 553
In its obituary the Charleston News said of him : " He chose
his profession well. A mind so analytic as his and so keen in the
perception of relations could not have failed to see that the field
in which he cast his literary fortunes was one which offered an
undying reward for those who made it a successful arena of
untiring and indomitable labor and energy. . . . Prof. Shepard
discovered more new species of minerals which have attained
permanent recognition than perhaps any other scientist of the
present day. He was a member of many American and foreign
societies, among which are the Imperial Society of Natural Sci-
ence of St. Petersburg, the Royal Society of Gottingen, and the
Society of Natural Sciences of Vienna. He published a Treatise
on Mineralogy (1832 and 1835), a report on the Mineralogy of
Connecticut, and numerous scientific papers." Many reports on
mines made by him have been printed.
He announced in 1835 his discovery of his first new species of
microlite, that of warwickite in 1838, that of danburite in 1839, and
he afterward described many other new minerals until shortly
before his death. His knowledge of minerals was wonderfully
extensive, " and he was hence ready," it has been said, " with
quick judgments as to new and old ; sometimes too quick — but in
any case imparting progress to American mineralogy."
The honorary degree of M. D. was conferred upon him by
Dartmouth in 1836, and that of LL. D. by Amherst in 1857.
He was a man of refinement and great courtesy, and was held
in high esteem wherever he resided.
He left two children, a son and a daughter.
Prof. Shepard's son, Charles Upham, was born at New Haven,
October 4,1842. He was graduated from Yale College in 1863,
and took the degree of M. D. at Gottingen in 1867. He suc-
ceeded to his father's professorship at Charleston, and has been
active in developing the phosphate and other chemical indus-
tries of South Carolina. In 1887 he presented the second cabinet
of minerals that was formed by his father, numbering more than
ten thousand specimens, to Amherst College, and his cabinet of
representatives of more than two hundred different meteorites
has been deposited in the United States National Museum.
Spectrophotographic investigation by Prof. Keeler makes it certain
that the rings of Saturn are not solid, but are composed of innumerable
small bodies or meteorites. The observations show that the motion of the
interior parts of the rings is more rapid than that of those of the outer part,
which might be the case if the rings were composed of free moving bodies
independent of one another ; while if the rings were solid the outer parts
would necessarily move the fastest.
554
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
EDITOR'S TABLE.
THE 8PHEBE OF SCIENCE.
TTTE publish in this number a
V V criticism by a gentleman who,
we understand, is connected with one
of our most distinguished universi-
ties, of the article which appeared in
these columns some months ago un-
der the title of Back to Dogma. In
that article we maintained that the
then recent address of Lord Salis-
bury, as President of the British As-
sociation, was, to all intents and pur-
poses, an appeal to the scientific world
to put on once more those dogmatic
shackles from which the philosoph-
ical advance of the present century
was supposed to have set it free ; and
we endeavored to show how fatal to
the further progress of scientific
theory a compliance with such a
suggestion would be. The author
of the article we are now publishing
seems to agree with us entirely that
the general drift of the address was
reactionary; but he considers that
we go too far in another direction
when we say that the reintroduction
of the doctrine of design, as an ex-
planation of things which challenge
our curiosity, would mean " the death
of scientific investigation."
If we have published this article
we have done so — and we think it
right to make the statement — less
upon its merits as a piece of scien-
tific or philosophical argumentation,
than because we are anxious to give
every opportunity for the free and
fair criticism of opinions expressed
in this journal. Science does not
admit of any one-sided expositions;
and it knows no orthodoxy save that
which open discussion, free from all
bias of self-interest and prejudice,
may at any given moment appear to
establish. It has always been the
aim of this journal to convey to its
readers the idea that science is not
a rigid system of unalterable deduc-
tions, but consists essentially in the
gradual adaptation of the thought of
mankind to the ever-unfolding as-
pects and meanings of the universe.
While holding our own views, there-
fore, of the questions which from
time to time occupy the attention of
the scientific world, we not only have
no desire to exclude contrary expres-
sions of opinion, but are entirely pre-
pared to extend to them a cordial hos-
pitality, provided they are stamped
with a reasonable degree of logical
force and adequacy. The address
delivered by the Marquis of Salis-
bury was a case in point: we could
not agree with its main positions,
but neither could we deny that it
was a highly plausible and, upon the
whole, extremely able presentment
of a view which formerly found mul-
titudes of adherents, and still finds
not a few. We therefore made a
point of transferring it to our col-
umns, while reserving the liberty to
criticise it, as we did, in this portion
of our journal. In the same spirit
we publish Mr. Clark's article in
which our criticism is called in ques-
tion ; and we have now to consider
how far his objections to the posi-
tion taken by us are valid.
As already mentioned, our critic
agrees with us as to the reactionary
character of Lord Salisbury's address.
We expressed our sense of this by
the heading we gave to our article
Back to Dogma ! and we hardly
think it can be denied that if a reac-
tionary movement takes place in the
scientific world it must carry us back
to dogma. That scientific investi-
gation was formerly dominated by
EDITOR'S TABLE.
555
dogma, our critic seems quite pre-
pared to acknowledge. Indeed, he
uses language which so fully agi'ees
with our own that we almost won-
der he thought it worth while to find
fault with our position. We said
that an acceptance of the doctrine
of design would be the death of sci-
entific investigation. Mr. Clark,
speaking of the Darwinian doctrine
of natural selection, says that for
thirty-five years it has been " the
mainspring of research not merely
in biology, but in all the field of
natural science." But the two doc-
trines are completely opposed : so
that what Mr. Clark says of the one
is virtually a confirmation of what
we said of the other. Take away or
break " the mainspring of research,"
and what would follow ? If the
metaphor is sound, arrest of move-
ment would follow; and what is ar-
rest of movement but death, for the
time being at least? Before Dar-
win's time, our critic says, " natural-
ists were content with statistics, and
did not ask for reasons." And he
adds, " that this was due to a belief
in the immutability of species and
the doctrine of design there can be
little doubt." And yet, because we
said what we did about the doctrine
of design, we are accused of display-
ing "illogical reasoning and un-
called-for prejudice" !
At this point Mr. Clark gives a
little twist to our words which does
not speak well for his candor or his
carefulness: let us trust that it was
the latter that was at fault. We said
that "the reason why the doctrine
of design is so popular " is, partly be-
cause it is such a saver of intellectual
toil, and partly because by making
knowledge impossible it glorifies ig-
norance." Our critic, referring to
this remark, says that to accuse " the
great men who accepted that doc-
trine " in pre-Darwinian times of
having done so for the reasons men-
tioned, "is a gross slander." Well,
as we were speaking of what made
the doctrine " popular " in the pres-
ent day, and said nothing whatever
about the great men of the past, who
had hardly any choice in the matter,
the " gross slander " exists only in
Mr. Clark's imagination — a faculty
which a man of science, such as he
professes to be, should learn to keep
in subjection.
Our critic finds that the very suc-
cess of the doctrine of evolution has
brought in a new danger. These are
his wrords: "The doctrine of evolu-
tion has proved so satisfactory at
every turn, that there is great danger
that the ultimate motive for scien-
tific research will be completely lost
to sight." That motive he declares
to be expressed in the interrogation
" Why ? " The older naturalists set
themselves to answer the question
"What?" In other words, they
sought out and classified facts. Dar-
win came on the scene with the
question "How?" and his answer
thereto. And now Mr. Clark steps
forward with the question " Why ? "
to which he hopes an answer will
some day be forthcoming. He is not
content to understand the processes
of becoming; he wants to know what
objects God has in view in causing
things to happen as they do. That
he declares to be the true motive for
scientific research, without which it
is a matter of " mere curiosity." As
to the possibility of attaining to a
knowledge of the why, he considers,
rather oddly, that the success of the
doctrine of evolution in answering
the question How ? should give us
great encouragement. " Is not," he
argues, "the doctrine of evolution
becoming less and less of an hypothe-
sis and more and more of an actu-
ally established law every year ? Is
not the evidence all tending to estab-
lish it completely, and to prove that
even the obscure problems of life
556
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
and heredity are all within the limits
of human knowledge ? Can we then
he sure that the knowledge of why
evolution has worked as it has is un-
attainable ? "
It is really somewhat lamentable
that a man who has evidently had
some training in science, and who
perhaps either is, or is about to be-
come, a teacher of it, should reason
in this way. Because a certain line
of inquiry, dealing with natural
causes, has proved eminently fruit-
ful, therefore we may — such is the
argument— reasonably suppose that
another line of inquiry, dealing not
with natural causes at all, but with
the supposed motives of an Abso-
lute Being, will also prove fruitful.
When will our institutions of learn-
ing knock a little common logic into
the heads of their graduates, so that
they shall not be at the mercy of the
first idle and misleading analogy
that happens to flit through their
brains ? We should like to know
whether Mr. Clark has ever tried to
form any clear idea of what he means
by attaining to a knowledge of the
why — what, exactly, it would be like
to see into the mind of a Divine Be-
ing, and acquire an understanding
of his thoughts and purposes. Strain-
ing his imagination to the utmost,
can he give us any hint as to the
steps by which such knowledge as
he aims at could be approached ? In
all the ages that have passed, has the
smallest commencement been made
toward an insight into the "Why" ?
The religions of the past have all, in
their manner, grappled with the ques-
tion, but with what result ? Abso-
lutely none. We know no more on
this subject than our ancestors of a
hundred generations ago ; but we
differ a little from our ancestors in
being more content than they to
abide in a necessary ignorance. We
find, moreover, that a knowledge of
the How renders in many cases a
knowledge of the Why not only un-
necessary but inconceivable — renders
the very idea of such knowledge ab-
surd. When we have once grasped
the law of gravitation in its appli-
cation to the solar system, do we
feel any special need to ask why it
was arranged that the attraction ex-
erted by the sun and the planets
upon one another should be directly
as mass and inversely as distance ?
When we learn the properties of
oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen, do
we feel as if we must also know
why they are endowed with such
properties ? When we see how run-
ning water sifts earthy materials,
how the action of the waves furrows
the sand, wears away rocks, and
smooths pebbles, do we exclaim,
" But why ? oh, why ? " When we
study the laws of mechanics and
grasp the simple formulas which ex-
press the action of the lever, the
screw, and the inclined plane, do we
feel that it would elevate us greatly
in the scale of being to knowT why
these things are so ? It may be
said, perhaps, that these are not the
phenomena which suggest the ques-
tion Why ? If so, we reply that if
we would know the true nature of
that question we must apply it to
such matters as these. Applied to
these, we see that it is a silly and
meaningless question ; but none the
less is it silly and meaningless when
applied to other matters. Men want
to know why a pestilence or fam-
ine was sent (as they say) at a par-
ticular time; they do not trouble
themselves with the prior question
whether it was sent at all in any
proper meaning of the word. What
we know is that sanitary science is
showing an admirable power of con-
trolling pestilences, and that famines
only occur where there is defective
knowledge and inferior social or-
ganization. Here again, therefore,
a knowledge of the cause renders
LITERARY NOTICES.
559
moner" of philosophy, and without
the aid of titles sways the thought of
the world more potently than any
other man of this generation.
LITERARY NOTICES.
Physics for University Students. By
Henry S. Carhart, LL. D. Boston :
Allyn & Bacon. Pp. 335.
This is Part I, including mechanics light,
and sound, of a text-book, not a treatise, the
necessity for which has grown out of the
author's own needs as a teacher. The book
does not pretend to cover the subject, nor to
treat exhaustively those portions with which
it deals. It has been written with the no-
tion of giving the student a general survey,
and only those portions of the science of
most importance from this standpoint have
been selected for treatment. Rather more
space than is usual in an elementary book is
given to a consideration of simple harmonic
motion. The author explains this by point-
ing out its value in the study of alternat-
ing currents of electricity and in mechanics.
After the statement and explanation of the
various laws, the author has arranged prob-
lems for testing the student's knowledge.
The following, which is one of the experi-
ments given to illustrate surface tension,
will convey a fair notion of the simplicity
and clearness of the author's style : " Make
a ring of stout wire three or four inches in
diameter, with a handle. Tie to this a loop
of thread so that the loop may hang near
the middle of the ring. Dip the ring into a
good soap solution containing glycerin, and
obtain a plain film. The thread will float in
it. Break the film inside the loop with a
warm pointed wire, and the loop will spring
out into a circle. The tension of the film
attached to the thread pulls it out equally in
all directions."
Electricity and Magnetism. By S. R.
Bottone. London and New York :
Whittaker & Co. Pp. 203. Price, 90
cents.
Prof. Bottone, who is the author of sev-
eral other books on electrical subjects, has
here presented in small compass and popular
form an outline of what is known about
electricity. " The work is not intended as a
text-book," he says in his preface, " hence
no recondite calculations and no mere enu-
meration of all the existing electro-mag-
netic appliances are introduced. . . . The
two old theories are sufficiently dwelt upon
to enable the reader to form an intelligent
conception of them, while very special stress
has been laid upon the modern and more
satisfactory ' molecular ' theory." The book
has evidently been prepared for adult read-
ers, as its language is not restricted to the
vocabulary of the young. There are one
hundred and two illustrations.
The Rise and Development of Organic
Chemistry. By the late Carl Schor-
lemmer, LL. D., F. R. S. Revised edition.
Edited by Arthur Smithells, B. Sc.
London and New York : Macmillan & Co.
Pp. xxvii + 280. Price, $1.60.
Much light is thrown upon any science
by tracing the successive discoveries through
which it has been built up. There is a
chance also to give such a story an attract-
iveness which a general treatise on the sub-
ject might never hope to possess. Prof.
Schorlemmer well improved this opportunity,
and one who has any knowledge of chem-
istry will be interested in his account, telling
when and by whom the principal advances
in this field have been made, and pointing
out the importance of each and its bearing
upon the state of the science at the time.
The vivacious movement of the author's
style and his occasional anecdotes relieve the
book from the dryness that might be thought
inseparable from it. The volume first ap-
peared some years ago, and the present edi-
tion has been revised partly by the author and
partly since his death by Prof. Smithells, who
has prefixed a biographical notice of Prof.
Schorlemmer. There is also a frontispiece
portrait of the author.
How to Make and Use the Telephone. By
George H. Cary, A. M. Lynn, Mass. :
Bubier Publishing Co. Pp. 117. Price,
$1.
This is a little workshop companion,
confining itself entirely to the practical
parts of the subject : the materials and sim-
plest methods of construction ; the parts
most liable to get out of order, and how to
discover and repair them ; the things not to
560
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
do in handling the instruments ; the sim-
plest and most reliable batteries, etc. That
the book is a really practical one may be
gathered from the following extract : " The
poles for an ordinary line to carry from one
to four wires should be of chestnut, cedar,
or other durable wood, and should be rea-
sonably straight, at least twenty-five feet
long, and at least five inches in diameter at
the top," etc. An appendix contains a
chapter on the Gibboney long-distance tele-
phone, and another on how to make the
phonograph.
A Florida Sketch-book. By Bradford
Torret. Boston : Houghton, Mifflin &
Co. Pp. 242. Price, $1.50.
As a writer of out-of-door books Mr.
Torrey must be given high rank. His style
is chatty, he goes into no long disquisitions,
and in his descriptions of Nature he does not
forget that the human animal is part and
parcel thereof. His favorite subjects of ob-
servation are birds, and he tells us much
about the ways of the herons, the pelicans,
and the gannets, of the kingfishers, the
grackles, and the buzzards, and many others
of the feathered tribe. Occasionally he tells
us about creatures of other kinds, or some
striking flower, and his experiences with
crackers and negroes are frequent enough
to give quite a human flavor to the book.
A curious bit of local language here and
there adds still further to the variety of his
observations. The value of the little vol-
ume is increased by a serviceable index.
The Story of the Stars. By George F.
Chambers, F. R. A. S. New York: D.
Appleton & Co. Pp. 160. Price, 40
cents.
Ignorance of Nature can no longer be ex-
cused by the size and forbidding character
of scientific books. An especially attractive
series of little guides to various divisions of
the world about us has begun to appear
under the general title of The Library of
Useful Stories, the first place in the series
being given to the stars. Mr. Chambers is
an experienced writer on astronomical sub-
jects, and has a happy faculty for taking
away the strangeness of unfamiliar things.
He opens this little volume by telling of two
legal cases which turned on the matter of
standard time, and shows that in such mat-
ters, as well as in navigation, astronomy
comes very close to everyday life. This, fol-
lowed by a chapter on First Experiences of a
Starlight Night, make an easy introduction
to the subject. In speaking of the constel-
lations and their history he improves the
opportunity to bring in much curious lore.
Of similar interest is the chapter on The Stars
in Poetry, further along. Every one has won-
dered about the number of the stars, and Mr.
Chambers does not neglect to tell us what
attempts have been made to estimate them.
Colored, moving, temporary, and variable
stars are duly described ; also stars arranged
by twos, in groups, and in clusters. The
nebulae and the Milky Way have due con-
sideration, and finally we are told something
of what has been learned by the spectro-
scope about the stars and nebula?.- A Table
of the Constellations and a List of Celestial
Objects for Small Telescopes are appended.
Twenty-four maps in white on black illus-
trate the text.
A Standard Dictionary of the English
Language. Vol. II, M-Z and Appendix.
Edited by Isaac K. Funk, D. D., Editor
in Chief ; Francis A. March, LL. D.,
L. H. D., Consulting Editor ; and Daniel
S. Gregory, D. D., Managing Editor.
New York : Funk & Wagnalls Co. Pp.
1061-2318. Price (of two- volume edi-
tion, complete), russia, $17 ; morocco,
$22.
A little over a year ago we pointed out
the chief distinguishing features of this
work in noticing its first volume. In the
second volume the excellences of the first
are well maintained. Among the special
features falling in the latter half of the al-
phabet are colored plates showing national
coats of arms, familiar flowering plants, sig-
nal flags, and typical colors, also plates
showing typical heads of human races, and
the seals of the United States, the sev-
eral States, and the Territories. Several
other terms have illustrations occupying a
whole page. The color chart appears under
" spectrum " and is accompanied by a table
giving the percentages of primary colors to
be combined for producing nearly five hun-
dred shades. A list of varieties, subdivi-
sions, or technical terms is given under many
words, such as man, measure, officer, print-
ing-press, science, soap, theology, watch,
LITERARY NOTICES.
56.
and weight. The appendix includes a col-
lection of names in biography, fiction, geog-
raphy, mythology, etc., with the pronuncia-
tion and definition of each, arranged in a
single alphabetical list. There are also a
glossary of foreign words and phrases, a list
of cases of faulty diction, lists of disputed
spellings and pronunciations, abbreviations,
signs, and one giving the sentiments of
flowers and gems. The scientific alphabet
used throughout the dictionary to indicate
pronunciation is explained at length in the
appendix, and there is also a key showing
the pronunciation of Anglo-Saxon, L;itin,
Greek, and thirteen modern languages with
the aid of this alphabet. In the appendix,
as in the body of the work, the form and
arrangement of the matter have been care-
fully adapted to popular use. In a great
many families the dictionary is the only ref-
erence book, and to these especially the
Standard will prove highly satisfactory.
Dr. Judas : a Portrayal of the Opium
Habit. By William Rosser Cobbe.
Chicago : S. C. Griggs & Co. Pp. 320.
Price, $1.50.
Nine years of dreadful experience joined
to the facile diction of an able journalist are
here applied to warning all who will read of
the horrors of opium slavery. The author
tells the story of his own subjection — vividly,
impressively, fascinatingly — with incidents
from the experience of others and observa-
tions on the effects of other narcotic drugs.
The habit was fastened upon him from the
administration of morphine during an illness
by his physician. He declares that a great
majority of the two million persons habit-
ually using narcotic drugs in the United
States were introduced to the habit by care-
less physicians, whom he censures severely.
From the start he found himself compelled
to deceive and lie in order to conceal the
practice. For this he despised himself, and
he was also in constant dread of being
found out. Delusions as to hostile inten-
tions of those about him and threatening
voices haunted him. The unsettling influ-
ence of the drug caused him to endanger
the support of his family several times by
giving up his position. He had bewildering,
grotesque, and dreadful dreams, and among
his other ills were insomnia, periods of de-
vol. xlvii. — 4*7
pression, and a variety of aches and pains.
After many attempts to break his chains, he
was cured by a treatment lasting thirty days,
thus contradicting the verdict of many phy-
sicians that " the opium habit is a vice
which can not be reached by medical sci-
ence." The author vigorously denounces
De Quincey's book, and contradicts many of
its statements which are favorable to opium.
Elementary Lessons in Electricity and
Magnetism. By Silyaxus P. Thompson.
London and New York : Macmillan &
Co. Pp. 607. Price, $1.40.
This is a new and revised edition of a
work which first appeared in 1881. The re-
vision was rendered necessary by the large
advances which have been made in the elec-
trical world during the last ten years. These
advances have occurred not alone in the
practical electrician's department, in the way
of perfecting old and creating new machinery
and thus opening new fields for its applica-
tion, but also in the general acceptance and
extending of theories which ten years ago
were mere speculations.
The most striking of the latter has been
the establishment of the identity between
light waves and electrical waves, a fact the
probability of which Clerk Maxwell sug-
gested many years ago, and which has since
been practically established by the work of
Heinrich Hertz. In view of the widespread
and constantly growing uses and applica-
tions of electrical energy in the arts and in
transportation, it seems quite essential that
even a common-school education, to which,
unfortunately, much the greater number are
limited, should include such a study of elec-
trical theory and practice as would, at any
rate, teach the student the dangers and means
of guarding against accident when in the
neighborhood of this most subtle and silent
of workers. This book, while rather more
extensive than such a superficial knowledge
would require, is simply and clearly written
and well arranged, and, as its name implies,
begins at the bottom.
The first three chapters have to do re*
spectively with frictional electricity, current
electricity, and magnetism, and together
constitute Part I. Part II contains chapters
on electrostatics, electro-magnetics, elec-
tricity as a heating, lighting, and motor
562
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
agent, electro-chemistry, telegraphy, teleph-
ony, and electric waves. There is an ap-
pendix containing tables and various prac-
tical points, such as " directions for setting
up a cell," etc. This is followed by a num-
ber of carefully prepared problems for
school use. There is a magnetic chart of
the British Islands and other illustrations.
The Cat : a Guide to the Classification
and Varieties of Cats, and a Short
Treatise upon their Diseases and
Treatment. By Rush Shippen Huide-
koper, M. D. New York : D. Appleton
& Co. Pp. 148. Price, $1.
The first national cat show, held in New
York in the early part of May of the present
year, may be regarded as opening a new era
in the life of Pussy in this country ; and we
may henceforth expect to have cat fanciers
and cat breeders and the other appurte-
nances of a well- cultivated and really proper
fad, as we have long had horse and dog fan-
ciers and breeders. In view of her independ-
ence and individuality, it is well that Pussy
be taken up and have more regard paid to
her than heretofore. When it became cer-
tain that the exhibition would be held, and
inquiries were made concerning the classifi-
cation and qualities, it appeared that New
York had no suitable book on the subject.
Dr. Huidekoper perceived the emergency,
and determined to supply the want. He has
done it very well. The book is a practical
one, as well as scientific. It treats of the
zoological position of the cat family, the
anatomy, origin, and varieties of the domes-
tic cat, classified as long-haired and short-
haired ; the care of the cat ; its diseases
and the remedies, the etymology and syno-
nyms, and the emblematic significance of
the animal.
Electric Light Cables and the Distribu-
tion of Electricity. By Stuart A.
Russell. With 107 Illustrations. Lon-
don and New York : Whittaker & Co.
Pp. 319. Price, $2.25.
This is to be one of the new series of
books for students, practical engineers, and
others, to be called The Specialists' Series.
It is thoroughly practical, describing the
primary systems of distribution and their
combinations, the various forms of conduct-
ors and the insulating materials in use,
modes of placing overhead and underground
lines, internal wiring, modes of testing, etc.
Among the problems discussed are the rela-
tive advantages of different materials for
conductors, the relative economy of direct
and transformer systems, the use of air in-
sulation, and the comparative advantages
and disadvantages of overhead and under-
ground lines. Besides presenting the results
of experience so far attained, the book has
the additional purpose of helping the further
advance of knowledge in its field.
Geological Survey of New Jersey. Re-
port on Water Supply, Water Power,
the Flow of Streams, and Attendant
Phenomena. By C. C. Vermeule. Pp.
352 + 96.
The present is Volume III of the final
report of the State Geologist. The waters
of the State having been recognized by the
Geological Survey as part of its mineral re-
sources, much attention has been given to
them in nearly all the reports. The sub-
terranean as well as the accessible waters
were studied by Mr. Cook, the late State
Geologist, as to their accessibility, volume,
and character, and the artesian wells along
the Atlantic coast belt have demonstrated
the accuracy of his studies. The work for
the present volume was begun in 1 890. Re-
sults of permanent value have been obtained,
illustrating, among other points, the large
influence of geological conditions upon
storage and delivery of ground water ; the
bearing of evaporation and ground storage
upon stream-flow ; the preponderating in-
fluence of temperature in determining the
amount of evaporation and the total run-off
of streams for a given rainfall ; the subordi-
nate influence exerted by forests and other
vegetation thereon ; and the indicated cer-
tainty of occasional periods of small rainfall.
The former part of the volume is occupied
with discussion of the laws that govern
stream-flow, rainfall, evaporation, ground
storage, surface storage, and surface or
flood flows. Gauging flows and the method
of computing them are next considered. The
local water systems are then described. The
latter part of the book is devoted to general-
izations as to water supply, chemical analyses,
public water supplies, water power, evapora-
tion, ground storage, effects of vegetation,
LITERARY NOTICES.
563
and stream-flow ; and a list of tbe developed
water powers and the drainage systems is
given in the appendix.
The Psychology of Childhood, by Fred-
erick Tracy (Heath, 90 cents), would be bet-
ter described by the title The Psychology
of Infancy, for the view which it affords ex-
tends but little beyond the first two years of
life. The author shows that he recognizes
this fact, so perhaps the publisher is respon-
sible for the title used. What is here un-
dertaken is " to gather together, so far as
possible, the best work that has been done
in actual observation of children up to the
present time, arrange this under appropriate
headings, incorporate the results of several
observations made by the writer himself,
and present the whole in epitomized form,
with copious references and quotations."
The mental manifestations of early child-
hood are taken up in the following order :
sensation, emotion, intellect, and volition.
Language, in view of its peculiar importance,
is treated in a chapter by itself. Prof. G.
Stanley Hall testifies in an introduction to
the thoroughness with which the work has
been done.
The doctrine set forth by Theodore C.
Knaitff, in his Athletics for Physical Culture,
is that gymnastics is good, but athletic sports
are better. (Tait, $2.) Accordingly, after
giving two short chapters to gymnasium
work, he describes nearly a score of athletic
games and contests, pointing out their valu-
able features and warning against their dan-
gers. His descriptions are general, not aim-
ing to give the technics of the sports treated.
Other subjects discussed are Training, Ques-
tions of Hygiene, Athletic Clubs, and Pro-
fessionalism. There is a special chapter on
Women in Athletics, in which the matter of
dress is prominent, and in the chapter on
Equestrianism the riding of women receives
separate attention, the cross-saddle position
being strongly advocated. The volume con-
tains a large number of instructive illustra-
tions, most of them made from photographs.
The Twenty-second Annual Report of
the Geological and Natural History Survey
of Minnesota is a record of the regular work
of the survey in 1893. The Tioenty-third
Annual Report is largely made up of discus-
sions on interesting general and economic
topics. In the first of these the origin of
Archaean greenstones is treated by N. H.
Winchell, the State Geologist. This is fol-
lowed by a preliminary report on the gold
region about Rainy Lake, by H. V. Winchell
and U. S. Grant, and a record of the mineral
discoveries in the Lake Superior region,
which includes the Mesabi iron deposit.
Another scientific topic considered is the
late glacial subsidence and re-elevation of
the St. Lawrence River basin.
The Journey through Mongolia and Tibet
in 1891 and 1892, of which Mr. William
Woodville Rockhill gives the story in a large
and handsomely illustrated volume, was under-
taken by him partly under the auspices of
the Smithsonian Institution, and the work,
is issued as one of its special publications
Tibet is now, as it has been many scores of
years, the most isolated country in the world.
Many travelers have attempted to reach its
interior, but all have been turned away when
they came within a certain distance of the
capital. Mr. Rockhill himself was brought
to a stop in the neighborhood of the Tengri
nor and the Gart'ok. Although his route
was not to any great extent through wholly
new country, he has been able, through his
knowledge of the Chinese and Tibetan lan-
guages, as well as by his own observations,
to collect many data of interest and value.
At any rate he has given us a very excellent
book concerning a region of which very little
is known.
The Revue Franco- Americaine is a new
French magazine, especially designed for
American readers ; and with that view it
promises to temper the freedom with which
French writers are sometimes accustomed to
express themselves, to suit American ideas
of propriety and taste. It is edited in Paris,
by Prince Poniatowski ; will admit only mas-
ters of French literature and the principal
artists of France (though we find Whistler
named among them) as contributors; will
give representation to the various schools of
art and literature ; and will " not be com-
posed of extended, heavy studies, but will
contain short, vivid, vigorous articles on
subjects of universal interest." The first
number, of one hundred and twenty-three
pages, contains many articles of the charac-
ter described, by well-known authors, with
portraits of French authors in their work-
564
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY
rooms, and other pictures that deserve to be
well spoken of. (S3 and 85 Duane Street,
New York; price, $10 a year.)
The microbe has, during the past few
years, assumed so prominent a place, both in
dietetics and therapeutics, that nowadays
a medical school of any standing must in-
clude in its curriculum, some sort of a course
in bacteriology. The book before us, A
Course of Elementary Practical Bacteriology,
by A. A. Kanthack, M. D., and /. H Drys-
dale, M. B., has grown out of the teacher's
and student's needs at the St. Bartholomew
Hospital in London, and is designed simply
as a laboratory handbook. It is arranged
in three parts. Parts I and II, Elementary
Bacteriology and Bacteriological Analysis,
encompass three months' work. The third
part consists of an introduction to bacterio-
logical chemistry. (Macmillan, $1.10.)
A Report on the Geology of the Coastal
Plain of Alabama has been issued by the
Survey of that State. The coastal plain in-
cludes all but the northeastern two fifths of
the State. It is an agricultural region, and
contains only such useful minerals as fer-
tilizers and building materials. It is inter-
esting scientifically from the remarkably com-
plete series of Eocene and Cretaceous strata
exposed in its river banks.
The piece of special pleading for Greek
in which John Kennedy essays to answer the
question Must Greek go ? is likely to be in-
effective because of its extravagance (Bar-
deen, 50 cents). The author claims for
Greek the excellence of Shakespeare, Burns,
and Keats, to whom Greek culture was ac-
cessible only at second hand, also the " Spirit
of "76 " and the beauty of the Columbian
Exposition, allowing no credit to our inher-
itance from our Germanic ancestors. His
claims are tricked out in a multitude of
jingling phrases, many of which are too
hackneyed for the columns of a one-cent
newspaper.
A manual of technical directions for the
grinding, finishing, setting, testing, and com-
puting of lenses, prepared by Henry Orford,
has been issued under the title Lens Work
for Amateurs (Macmillan, 80 cents). The
directions are full and explicit, and are sup-
plemented by two hundred and thirty-one
cuts. The author disclaims any attempt to
give an easy method for the manufacture of
lenses, but he has aimed to furnish a service-
able guide to both young workmen and ama-
teurs.
The Psychological Review has undertaken
a series of Monograph Supplements, in which
may be published longer dissertations than
can be admitted to the Review. The first
issued is On Sensations from Pressure and
Impact, by Harold Griffing. The results
obtained from the investigations herein de-
scribed relate to discrimination between dif-
ferent intensities and durations of stimuli,
between the same stimuli applied to different
areas and different parts of the body, the
difference in the discriminative powers of
different individuals, etc.
In an article on Evolution and Christian-
ity, reprinted from the Wooster Quarterly,
Prof. Horace A7". Mateer gives a popular
statement of what evolution is, assenting to
its validity, but affirming also the truth of
all the important doctrines in the Bible.
He says that the position of the Bible is
strengthened by placing it upon a scientific
foundation.
Four essays by as many writers, reprinted
from The Engineering Magazine, have been
issued as a pamphlet with the title Architec-
tural Education for America. In the first of
these Arthur Rotch tells what is the influ-
ence of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts ; Robert
D. Andrews describes a practical training ;
the English method is set forth by R. W.
Gibson ; and Barr Ferree closes with An Out-
sider's View. The object of the pamphlet
is to bring together the chief points of merit
in the systems most familiar to the American
architect, so as to throw some light on the
question, How shall the American architect
be trained professionally to reach the best
results for architecture in his own country ?
The first of the 1895 series of Ethical.
Addresses is What we mean by Duty, by W.
L. Sheldon (S. Burns Weston, Philadelphia,
yearly, $1 ; single number, 12 cents). After
pointing out that popular conceptions of duty
regard it as something stern and forbidding,
the author shows that it should rather be re-
garded as the conformity of conduct to natu-
ral order.
In a pamphlet published by the Theo-
sophical Society, Tacoma, Wash., Fred G.
Plummcr attempts to prove a Change of the
EurUi's Axis. His argument is clearly put
LITERARY NOTICES.
565
and shows a wide acquaintance with both
ancient traditions and modern geological
writings. (Price, 25 cents.)
A pamphlet entitled A Few Facts about
Turkey under the Sultan Abdul Hamid II,
by An American Observer, tells of important
advances in the railroads, docks, finance,
education, army, navy, and other affairs of
that country. Several pages are devoted to
showing that the Armenians are deceitful
and conscienceless agitators. Testimony is
given also to the effect that the attitude of
the American missionaries toward the Ar-
menians is not always judicious. (Printed by
J. J. Little & Co., New York.)
S. Baring- Gould is at his best as a stu-
dent of mystery, antiquities, traditions, folk-
lore, and myth ; and whatever we may find
under his name we are sure that some of the
results of his studies in these fields are inter-
woven in the matter. His stories, conse-
quently, depart from the overworked models
on which too much of the usual fiction of the
day is drawn, and are always certain to af-
ford something novel, fresh, and instructive.
These words apply well to his Noemi, which
is published by D. Appleton & Co., in their
Town and Country Library. The story takes
us back to Guienne of five hundred years
ago, in what is now southern France. The
region — near Domme — is terrorized over by
Le Gros Guillem, a leader of the Free Com-
panies, whose supposed daughter — a girl
stolen from the Fenelons, and from whom
the story is named — and her lover — who has
a leading part in delivering the region from
its oppressors — are the central objects of in-
terest. The story, in its plot and general
structure, reminds one of Lorna Doone, al-
though the style and method of treatment are
vastly different.
The text of Prof. F. E. RockwoocVs edi-
tion of Cicero's Cato Major, or Be Senectute
(American Book Company), is substantially
that of C. F. W. Miiller (Leipsic), but a few
variations have been made. The text is sup-
plemented by a general introduction concern-
ing Cicero's life and works ; illustrative notes
on the pages with the text ; grammatical and
textual notes, a list of variations from Mid-
ler's text, and indexes to the notes and of
proper names. The introduction has been
made somewhat full in order to present, in
convenient form, besides the sketch of Cice-
ro's life, a brief account of what he has ac-
complished in literature and philosophy. Al-
together, this is a very satisfactory edition of
one of the most charming essays ever written.
PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.
Agricultural Experiment Stations. Reports and
Bulletins. Colorado : Hemiptera of Colorado.
Pp. 137.— Cornell : Recent Chrysanthemums. Pp.
28.— Feeding Fat to Cows. Pp. 12.— Delaware :
Spray Calendar; San Jose Seals Insect in Dela-
ware ._ Illinois : Russian Thistle ; Potatoes —
Michigan: Vegetable Novelties and Notions;
Potatoes ; Pests of Orchard and Garden ; Small
Fruit Notes; Native Plums; Russian Cherries;
The Apple Orchard.— New York : Forcing Let-
tuce in Pots ; Mushrooms as a Greenhouse Crop ;
Comparative Profits from Milk, Butter, Cream,
and Cheese.— Oregon : Zoolotry. Pp. 11.— United
States Department : Protection from Lightning.
Pp. 25 ; Use of Metal Railroad Tics. Pp. 383 ;
Weather and Crop Service. Pp. 15. -Wisconsin :
Pasteurization of Milk and Cream for Direct Con-
sumption. Pp. 48.
Bailey, L. H. The Horticultural Rule Book.
Macmillan & Co. Pp. 302. 75 cents.
Beddard, Frank E. Zoogeography. Cam-
bridge Natural Science Manuals. Pp. 246.
Biological Lectures. Delivered at Marine Bio-
logical Laboratory of Woods Holl, Summer
Session, 1891. Ginn & Co. Pp.287. $2.65.
Blatchford, Robert. Plain Exposition of So-
cialism. Commonwealth Publishing Company.
Pp. 172. 10 cents.
Bulletins and Reports : Academy of Natural
Sciences, Philadelphia. Pp. 211 to 290.— American
Humane Association : Vivisection and Dissection
in Schools.— Coast Survey: Magnetic Declination
in Alaska.— Columbia College : The Protolenus
Fauna; The Effusive and Dyke Rocks near St.
Johns, N. B. ; Crystalline Limestones, etc. ; Gla-
cial Lakes of Western New York ; Recent Glacial
Studies in Greenland ; On a Granite Diorite from
Westchester County, New York.— Geographical
Club of Philadelphia : Bulletin No. 5.— Geograph-
ical Society (National): Beaches and Tidal Marshes
of the Atlantic Coast.— Health Bulletins : Iowa,
Tennessee, Wisconsin ; Trinity Church Tene-
ments (Sanitary Condition of).— Wagner Free
Institute of Philadelphia : Transactions, Vol. III.
—Zoological Society of Philadelphia : Twenty-
third Annual Report.
Fitzgerald, Joseph. Pitfalls in English. Pp.
125.
Galton, Francis. Fingerprint Directories.
Macmillan & Co. Pp. 200. $2.
Hittell, John S. The Spirit of Papacy. Pp.
314.
Macdougal, D. T. Experimental Plant Phys-
iology. Henry Holt & Co. Pp.83. Teachers, $1.
Meunier, Stanislas. La Geologie Comparee.
Pp. 292. Germer, Balliere et Cie.
Menschutkin, N. Analytical Chemistry. Mac-
millan & Co. Pp. 512. $4.50.
Monroe, James P. The Educational Ideal.
D. C. Heath & Co. Pp. 262. $1.
Nevin, William M. Lectures on English
Literature. Intelligencer Printing Office, Lan-
caster, Pa. Pp. 485.
Preston, Thomas. The Theory of Light.
Macmillan & Co. Pp. 566. $5.
Quinn, Rev. D. A. Stenotypy. Continental
Printing Company, Providence, R. I. Pp. 55.
$1.50.
Reagan, H. C. Handbook and Chart of Brush
Arc Light System. Norman W. Henlev & Co.
Pp.48. $1.
566
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
Reynolds, A. R. Report of the Department of
Public Health of the City of Chicago. Pp. 268.
Ribot, Th. The Diseases of Personality.
Open Court Publishing Company. Pp. 163. 75
cents.
Seidel, Heinrich. Der Lindenbaum. Ameri-
can Book Company. Pp. 71. 25 cents.— Die
Monate. American Book Company. Pp. 72. 25
cents.
Shearman, Thomas G. Natural Taxation. G.
P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 239.
Smith, H. M. Notes on a Reconnaissance of
the Fisheries of the Pacific Coast. Pp. 65. — A
Statistical Report on the Fisheries of the Middle
Atlantic States. Pp. 130. Government Printing
Office, Washington, D. C.
Smithsonian Publications. Bureau of Ethnol-
ogy : Chinook Texts. Pp. 278 ; The Siouan
Tribes of the East. Pp. 100 ; Archaeological In-
vestigations in James and Potomac Valleys. Pp.
80. — National Museum : Directions for Collecting
Plant Specimens, etc.; Directions for Collecting
Rocks, etc.; Directions for Collecting Minerals,
etc.; Scientific Results of Explorations by United
States Pish Commission Steamer Albatross ; Di-
rections for Collecting and Preparing Fossils.
Stifter, Adalbert. Das Heidrdorf. American
Book Company. Pp. 80. 25 cents.
Tracy, Roger S. Handbook of Sanitary Infor-
mation. D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 114. 50 cents.
Van Rensselaer, Mrs. Schuyler. Should we
Ask for the Suffrage ? Pp. 57.
White, Horace. Coins Financial Fool. J. S.
Ogilvie Publishing Company. Pp. 112.
POPULAR MISCELLANY.
A Child's Thoughts about Providence. —
A very instructive account of the mental
aspects of childhood is given by Miss Isabel
Fry, in a book called Uninitiated, one of the
purposes of which is to show that it takes
much longer for children to learn the real
drift and meaning of the habits and expres-
sions and feelings of their grown-up friends
and attendants than it does to master the
language in which those feelings are con-
veyed. She thus pictures the process gone
through by a child in conceiving the mean-
ing of God's constant observation and care
of his creatures : " I was thinking dreamily
about heaven, and how wonderful it was
that God could always see me. Could he see,
for instance, and did he notice that I had a
button off my boot, or did he overlook some
things and only trouble himself about that
which was actually either good or naughty ?
I did not know. And then nurse said that
he was always taking care of me every min-
ute. Didn't he ever leave me alone at all ?
I supposed not. But surely if he saw that
I was sitting on this chair, and knew that
nurse had made up her mind not to come in
for, say, twenty minutes, he might leave me
at any rate for a little while. But no; I
hardly thought he would. Then I went on
to try to imagine what would happen. Sup-
posing, for any reason, he did leave me. I
should probably fall down through some vast
open space and die. No, not exactly die, for
then God would have to decide whether I
was to go to heaven or hell, and I should be
once more in his keeping, and in that case I
should be just sitting here in the night nur-
sery again for all the world, as I was doing
at this moment. I could not make up my
mind what would happen, and I felt it would
be almost worth while to try the experi-
ment." But if she should ask God to leave
off taking care of her she might go so fast
that she would not be able to pray him to
take her back. But she would pray him to
let her go for just one single second, and
then take care of her again. After a long
struggle with herself and much trembling,
she did so — and nothing happened. " Breath-
less and motionless as I sat with eyes staring
and ears strained, I could perceive no change
whatever in myself or in my surroundings.
The sewing machine in the nursery still
purred on ; little Samuel still knelt in the
picture on the wall opposite me, with the
yellow light still fiercely streaming upon him,
and the bluebottle who had been keeping
up a continual " fizzle " was still fighting on
the window pane. I set myself rigidly, and
tried again to feel the sort of falling or col-
lapse which I had imagined. Still I felt
nothing, and I had at last to give up the ef-
fort, and believe that for some reason, which
perhaps I was not quite old enough to un-
derstand, God would not let go of my still
sobbing body."
Science in Finland. — Besides the Na-
tional University at Helsingfors, which had
nineteen hundred and twenty-nine students
in 1894, with the number increasing regu-
larly, Finland has several scientific and
other learned societies. The Finnish Society
of Sciences, founded in 1838, has published,
besides its regular volumes of transactions, a
series of works on the nature, ethnography,
and statistics of the country. Among its
later achievements is the foundation of a
central meteorological institute, which is as-
sisted by the Government. It has, besides,
taken part in a number of international polar
POPULAR MISCELLANY.
567
expeditions, and has established a station at
Sodankyla, in Lapland. Other societies are
the Natural History Society (Societus pro
faund et fiord fennicd), founded 1821 ; the
Society of Finnish Literature, the Finno-
Ugrian Society, the Finland Historical Soci-
ety, the Finnish Archaeological Society, two
geographical societies, a medical society, and
a legal society. Among Finlanders distin-
guished in science and letters have been
LOnnrot, grammarian and collector of the
national literature; Ahlqvet, another able
grammarian ; Hallstrom, physicist ; the illus-
trious astronomer Argeliinder ; the mathe-
maticians Lindelof, Schulten, and Mittag-
Loffler, the last editor of the international
journal Acta Mathematica ; the explorer
Nordenskiold, who removed to Sweden in
1857 to escape trouble on account of an ad-
dress he had made at a students' festival ;
the botanist Nylander ; the zoologist Nord-
mann ; and the surgeon Estlander. Swedish
literature is also distinguished by several
Finnish names of great writers ; Finnish
literature is very ancient, although it has
only recently begun to receive special atten-
tion. The later poets and romancers have
discussed in the fresh and spontaneous old
poetry of the ancient folklore a nearly in-
exhaustible mine of rich images and striking
epics. Finland has further produced emi-
nent artists in various lines. The full story
of the achievements of this too little known
country of the far north is told in the book
La Finlande au XIX siecle, which the writ-
ers and artists of the country have combined
to make up, published at Helsingfors, in
French, in 1894.
Report on Opium. — The opium commis-
sion appointed many months ago by the
British Government was charged with the
investigation of three questions — whether
opium, when taken in moderation, is injuri-
ous ; whether Indian opinion is opposed to
its use ; and whether prohibition is a prac-
ticable policy. The commission has pub-
lished its report, and declares that by a vote
of eight to one it answers all the three ques-
tions in the negative. The commission finds
that an immense number of doctors in In-
dia believe opium to be less injurious than
alcohol. Witnesses drawn from every grade
and class testified that it is an excellent
remedy against malarial fever ; that it can
be and is consumed in moderation all through
life; and that its effect upon the constitu-
tion in health is practically nil. Among
natives the belief in the value of the drug is
nearly universal. The practice of opium-
eating pervades every class, is considered
allowable by every class, and the people are
opposed to prohibition. The commission,
therefore, though they believe some improve-
ment in the restrictive laws may be possible,
refuse to suggest any, and advise substan-
tially that the present system be left alone.
Steel Buildings. — A steel building, as the
words are now used by builders, is a struc-
ture supported by a steel frame, which frame
should carry all the other materials used in
the construction. If the frame is so ar-
ranged that it will always hold the building
securely in the position and condition in
which it was first erected, the other materials
used in construction will be required chiefly
to perform some other office than that of
giving strength and support. As considered
by Mr. C. T. Purdy, in his paper on the sub-
ject, the most important difference between
the old brick and stone buildings and the
new steel ones is in the construction of their
exterior walls. Brick and stone in the older
forms of construction were used first of all
to make the building strong. In steel build-
ings this use of masonry has nearly disap-
peared. It is used instead only to inclose
the structure from the outside air and ele-
ments, to protect the frame from fire, and to
afford opportunity for architectural effects.
Thick walls are useless with these frames,
and no matter how high the building is, the
exterior walls do not need to be heavier at
the bottom than at the top. Openings may
be made in them in almost any way or of
any size. In some respects the larger they
are the better, and the wall in any story may
be removed without injury to that above or
below. This is a great change. The steel
frame has worked a great difference in the
concentration of loads. Walls tend to dif-
fuse and spread the loads which they carry.
They act as beam and column at the same
time, and it is not always easy to tell what
part of the foundation supports a given load
in the upper part of the building. With the
column construction this indefinite feature
568
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
becomes definite, for all the loads are sure
to be concentrated at the column centers
that carry them. Kindred to this change is
the large independence of partition walls
which the steel construction makes possible.
Another radical change, and the most con-
spicuous to the eye that steel has introduced,
is in the height of large buildings. Steel
buildings — their construction admitting of
unlimited bracing — may be carried to any
height, the only restrictions being those im-
posed by the character of the foundations,
the land, and economical considerations. The
steel construction admits a vast increase of
window space, the masonry walls which had
to be built for strength being no longer re-
quired, and their place may be taken by
glass.
The Weather and Mental Aetion. — Who
has not felt the difference between a de-
pressing and an exhilarating day? Sydney
Smith wrote : " Very high and very low tem-
peratures establish all human sympathy and
relations. It is impossible to feel affection
above seventy-eight degrees or below twenty
degrees." Dr. Fair and Dr. Stark almost
lead us to think morality is registered on the
thermometer, so surely does it measure cer-
tain kinds of criminality. On suicides the
effects of the weather are well known.
Nearly all vocations are affected by weather.
Men of science are often as much subject to
weather as seamen. Some writers must have
the weather fit the mood, character, or scene.
If one will read poetry attentively, he will
be surprised to find how many weather marks
are scattered through it. Diverse weather
states may be one cause of so much diversity
and even disagreement in thought processes
usually regarded as scientific. Many experi-
enced teachers think there should be modi-
fications of school work and discipline to
correspond with the weather. The head of a
factory employing three thousand workmen
has said, " We reckon that a disagreeable
day yields about ten per cent less work than
a delightful day, and we thus have to count
this as a factor in our profit and loss ac-
count." These are some of the ideas put
forth in a preliminary statement by J. S.
Lemon, who proposes to publish more at
length upon the subject. "Laboratory in-
vestigation of the subject," he says, " meets
at the outset the difficulty of distinguishing
results of weather changes from similar states
otherwise caused. This difficulty is no greater
than in many other topics of research, and
we believe will not invalidate our methods
and results."
Characteristics of Recent Geological
Stndy. — If one were asked, says Sir Archi-
bald Geikie, to specify the feature which
above all others has marked the progress of
geology in Britain during the past five and
twenty years, he would reply, the enlarged
attention given to the study of the rocks, or
petrography ; and this study has been revo-
lutionized by the introduction of the micro-
scope as an adjunct to research. The rocks
of the country have become a foremost ob-
ject of study. In stratigraphical geology a
much closer attention than ever before has
been given to the investigation of the most
ancient accessible parts of the earth's crust.
The fundamental platform on wdiich the fos-
siliferous rocks repose has been searched for
and has been detected in several places
where it was not before supposed to exist.
We know more clearly than before the gen-
eral outlines of two or more great geological
periods anterior to the earliest relics of ani-
mal life. Among the applications of pale-
ontology to the stratigraphical side of geology
the most important in recent times has been
the recognition of life zones among the
stratified formations and the adoption of
these as a clew to the interpretation of the
sequence of strata, and even under some risk
of error of tectonic structure. In the de-
partment of geotectonics one of the most
interesting features has been the increased
attention bestowed upon the nature and
results of the great movements that have
affected the crust of the earth. Another
distinguishing characteristic of the period
has been the increased interest taken in the
history of the earth's surface or its super-
ficial topography as contrasted with the al-
most exclusive attention given by the older
geologists to the story of the rocks. The
views respecting the possible age of the
earth have undergone several modifications
by geologists and physicists alternately, with
accepted periods ranging from four hundred
millions down to ten millions of years. The
latest phase of them is that put forward by
POPULAR MISCELLANY.
569
Prof. Perry from the physical side, that, on
the assumption that the earth is not homo-
geneous, as Lord Kelvin supposed, but pos-
sesses a much higher conductive and thermal
capacity in its interior than in its crust, its
age may be enormously greater than previous
calculations have allowed.
Modoc Songs. — During his talks with
Modoc Indians, Mr. Albert S. Gatchett has
been able to record from dictation a number
of curious songs which these people highly,
appreciate, and frequently sing while at
work and while sitting idly in their lodges.
Only a few of them are lugubrious, but the
majority are merry utterances of a mind free
from care. There are erotic songs, dance
songs, satiric and mythologic songs, all de-
livered in a way that is half spoken and half
sung. Some, however, have attractive and
elaborate melodies, which, if well arranged
for the piano or string instruments, would
doubtless produce a sensation in cultured
communities. A specimen is given of a song
which is introduced as sung or spoken by a
prairie owl, which has the faculty of turning
its head around and then turning it instan-
taneously to the normal position ; while,
when it draws its body up, it appears almost
ball-shaped, and when traveling over the
prairie seems like a light-colored ball rolling
over the ground. The man singing the song
is supposed, after throwing off his garments
and limbs, to appear also as a head only, and
rolls on for many miles, when he may be
seen partaking of food inside of his subter-
ranean lodge. He has a dog who faithfully
tries to gather up his discarded appendages,
and take them first to his master and then
home. With this is coupled an idyl of a
young man carrying his sister on his back to
her bridegroom, and leaving her close to a
pine tree. A cradle song describes the hab-
its of the robin, which is seen earlier than
other birds flying toward the cedar to pick
at the bark in search of ants ; the mothers tell
their babes that robin redbreast sings this
song to its young, and sometimes also to its
grandmother. A third song has a satirical
application to another town than that of the
singers.
Uses of Science Teaching. — Dr. Michael
Foster defines two uses for the teaching of
science in schools. The first he calls the
" awakening " use, and the second the more
distinctly " educational " training use. The
minds of the young being differently consti-
tuted, one mind is especially awakened by
one branch of knowledge, another by an-
other. Physiology serves as awakening
knowledge to a large enough number to make
it desirable to teach it. For this purpose it
should be taught " as a new independent sub-
ject, not demanding any previous knowledge.
It should be presented as a wholly new field,
into which the mind may wander at will
without any restrictions as to being qualified
for entrance. It also follows that the teach-
ing must be of a most elementary kind ; that
as much of chemistry or physics as is neces-
sary for the comprehension of the physio-
logical matters should be taught with the
physiology, and, as it were, a part of it, the
pupil being led into chemistry and physics by
his interest in physiology, and not being com-
pelled to learn the one, for which he or she
perhaps does not, at present at least, care,
before beginning the other. The instruction
given, however elementary, should consist in
part of demonstrations and practical exer-
cises." In this way, Dr. Foster would have
physiology very widely taught, but not made
a compulsory study. As a distinctly educa-
tional study, as a training for the mind, he
regards it as unsuitable for schools.
American Life Zones. — Six life zones of
animals and plants are described by C. Hart
Merriam, in his Ornithological and Mamma-
logical Report to the Department of Agricul-
ture, as having been defined in this country
north of the tropical zone. They may be
grouped under the two heads of northern or
boreal, and southern or austral. The Arctic
or Arctic Alpine zone is above the limit of
tree growth, is the home of the polar bear,
arctic fox, reindeer, etc., and has no agricul-
tural importance. The Hudsonian zone com-
prises the northern or higher parts of the
great transcontinental forest, and is likewise
of no agricultural importance. The wood-
land caribou and the moose are probably its
most striking animals. The Canadian zone,
comprising the southern or lower part of the
great transcontinental coniferous forest, is
the first zone, coming from the north, of any
agricultural consequence. It has its charac-
57°
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
teristic animals, and in it white potatoes, tur-
nips, beets, the Oldberg apple, and the more
hardy cereals may be cultivated with mod-
erate success. In the Transition zone, the
outlying boreal and austral elements over-
lap ; the forests and the fauna are mixed, and
northern and southern trees and animals grow
and live side by side. In this zone we enter
the true agricultural part of our country, and
the hardier crop plants attain their highest
perfection. In the Carolinian zone trees
adapted to a warmer climate, like the sassa-
fras and tulip tree, first make their appear-
ance, and the semi-hardy fruits, the sweet
potato, tobacco, and the hardier grapes reach
their best conditions. In the Ausiro -riparian
zone, the long-leaved pine, magnolia, and live
oak are common on the uplands, and the bald
cypress and cane in the swamps ; the animals
and birds are characteristic. This is the
zone of the cotton plant, sugar cane, rice,
pecan, and peanut, and of tender fruits. Still
farther south is the Tropical region, which
in the United States is restricted to southern
Florida and extreme southeast Texas, along
the Rio Grande and the Gulf coast. The
Division of Ornithology and Mammalogy is
engaged in tracing the courses of these re-
gions across the continent, and in the prepa-
ration of large scale maps on which their
boundaries are shown in different colors.
Antillean Elevations and Depressions. —
A study by Charles Torres Simpson, on the
distribution of the land and fresh-water
mollusks of the West Indian region, touches
upon the evidence they afford with regard
to past changes of land and sea. The author
finds that a considerable proportion of the
land snail fauna of the Greater Antilles
seems to be ancient and to have developed
on the islands where it is now found. There
appears to be good evidence of a general ele-
vation of that region after most of the more
important groups of snails had come into
existence, at which time the larger islands
were united and a land connection existed
with Central America by way of Jamaica,
and a considerable exchange of species went
on between the two regions. At some time
during this elevation there was probably a
landway from Cuba across the Bahama pla-
teau to the Floridian area, over which cer-
tain groups of Antillean mollusks crossed.
This period was followed by one of general
subsidence, during which Jamaica was first
isolated, then Cuba, and afterward Hayti and
Porto Rico. The connection between the
Antilles and the mainland was broken, and
the Bahama region, if it had been previously
elevated above the sea, was submerged ; the
subsidence continuing until only the summits
of the mountains of the Greater Antillean
islands remained above water. Then followed
another period of elevation, which has lasted,
no doubt, until the present time, and the large
areas of limestone uncovered in the Greater
Antilles furnished an admirable field for the
development of the groups of land snails that
survived on the summits of the islands. The
Bahamas have appeared above the surface of
the sea, either by elevation or growth, and
have been peopled by faunas drifted from
Cuba and Hayti, and a number of land and
fresh-water species have been colonized in
south Florida. The Lesser Antilles have
been peopled for the most part from South
America.
Smoking in Mashonaland. — The luxuries
indulged in by the Mashonas appear, accord-
ing to W. A, Eckenberg, of the railroad sur-
vey, " to be confined to tobacco — not usually
smoked, but taken as snuff — and beer manu-
factured from the seed of the millet. Drunk-
enness is an uncommon vice, except among
certain of the chiefs. In the coast districts
hemp is smoked in a hookah pipe of simple
construction. A long, narrow gourd forms
the body of the pipe. Halfway down it a
hole is made of a convenient size for apply-
ing the lips. The gourd is filled with water
halfway to the level of the hole. Through
the closed top is inserted a small hollow reed,
reaching nearly to the bottom of the water,
and protruding well beyond the upper end
of the gourd. To the upper end of the reed
is fixed the clay or stone bowl of the pipe,
and this is of very small size, capable of
holding only a sufficient quantity of hemp
for a few whiffs. The smoker, holding the
gourd upright to prevent the escape of the
water, applies his lips to the hole, and draws
the smoke to his lungs, through the water,
by two or three vigorous inhalations. The
result is made known to the whole neighbor-
hood by a violeut and apparently purposely
exaggerated coughing and spluttering ; the
POPULAR MISCELLANY.
57i
louder the cough, the keener appears to be
the enjoyment of the smoker and his com-
panions. The pipe is passed round, until
the whole of the smokers are engaged in
violent contortions, accompanied by an al-
most terrifying coughing."
Aboriginal Art in Copper. — Very inter-
esting specimens of objects made of wood
and covered with copper have been found
among the relics of the American aborigines.
Several have been described by Prof. F. W.
Putnam and by Warren K. Moorehead, both
of whom have found them in Ohio. Other
objects have been found of copper sheathed
with silver, gold, or meteoric iron. It is
shown clearly that the American aborigines
in the Mississippi Valley and in South Amer-
ica had the art of cold-hammering copper, of
beating it so as to overlie and fit upon a
warped or curved surface, and of turning the
edges under. Yet more elaborate work is
exhibited in two specimens sent to the Na-
tional Museum by Lieutenant G. T. Emmons,
United States Navy, of figures of humming-
birds in wood, well carved and painted red,
each wing and tail of which is overlaid with
a covering of sheet copper, pressed down to
fit and turned under at the margins so as to
be held fast. The surfaces are adorned with
the conventional wing and eye signs of the
Haidas. Especial attention is invited by Mr.
Otis T. Mason to the carving on the copper.
The furrows and ridges are all cut with steel
tools. The work is regarded by Mr. Mason
as " above and beyond the ability of the
aboriginal metallurgists of the Mississippi
Valley."
Korean Hats. — The hats of the Koreans
are described by Mr. H. S. Saunderson as
shaped somewhat like inverted flower-pots,
with broad, straight brims, measuring nearly
two feet across ; while the crowns are about
six inches high and three inches in diameter
at the top. " The shape is undoubtedly due
to the way the hair is dressed. These hats
are made of horsehair or very finely split
bamboo, beautifully plaited, and are var-
nished, as a protection against the weather.
They are invariably stained black, except for
half mourning, when they are string-color
(that is, of natural hemp). They are usually
fitted with bands which are tied under the
chin, but in the case of high officials these
bands are replaced by a long string of beads
joined at each end to the hat. This hat does
not fit upon the head itself, but rests upon
a tightly fitting skullcap, held in place by
strings tied round the head. The natives
are very careful of their hats, for they are
expensive, and when it rains they always
protect them with little coverings of the oiled
paper for which the country is famous, and
of which they make their waterproof coats,
tobacco pouches, and fans. The officials,
when on court duty, wear even more extraor-
dinary hats than these, but their shapes are
so fantastic that it is perfectly impossible to
describe them. In the winter, fur and wadded
head-dresses are worn under the hats. . . .
The official servants wear hats made of black
or brown camel's-hair felt with small round
crowns and large flat brims ; while those worn
by the soldiers are much the same in shape
as the gentry's, but are made of black felt,
have much smaller brims, and are bound with
red." The most curious hats are those of
the mourners, shaped like enormous toad-
stools, and so large as to hide the face. They
are made of plaited bamboo strips, and are
not colored. The women wear nothing on
their heads, except in winter, when they put
on curiously shaped fur caps, open at the
crown and adorned in front and behind with
red silk tassels.
Uses of Wire. — Wire is shown in Mr. J.
Bucknall Smith's book on its manufacture and
its uses, to be employed for a great variety of
purposes, and these having a very extended
range. It is used for the delicate hair springs
of watches, and in the form of large cables
supports suspension bridges. It is also used
in the manufacture of pins, needles, and fish-
hooks ; it has been applied in coils to the
construction of heavy ordnance, and it forms
the periphery of a huge fly wheel recently
constructed in Germany. Wire ropes are
valuable in supplying the means of haulage
in mines ; by their help materials are trans-
ported in the air over a rough country ; they
are used for the traction of tram cars, and
of barges along canals ; and, being stronger,
lighter, more durable, and cheaper, they ad-
vantageously replace hempen ropes for tow-
ing, moving, hoisting, and other purposes.
Filigree work is formed of fine silver and
572
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY
silver-gilt wire ; the finest wires are inserted
to serve as tbe hairs within the eyepieces of
the telescopes of surveying and astronomical
instruments ; and wire is largely used in
fencing and netting. Steel wire forms the
frames of spectacles, and has replaced whale-
bone in the ribwork of umbrellas. It is also
employed for the strings of pianos and other
musical instruments, and has found a more
recent application in the spokes of cycle
wheels. Copper wire forms the coils round
the magnets of dynamo machines for gener-
ating electricity, and it transmits the electric
current to a distance after its production, for
the purposes of illumination. It, moreover,
furnishes the vehicle for the transmission of
messages by the telegraph and telephone ;
and when inserted in submarine cables it
forms a connecting link between distant parts
of the world, and permits the firing of un-
der-water mines in security by an electric bat-
tery at a distance. The great diversity of
uses to which wire is applied is due to the in-
creased tensional strength possessed by metals
when drawn into wire, which is owing to the
great tensional resistance acquired by the outer
skin ; to the flexibility, combined with
strength, possessed by wire cables ; to the
facility with which wire can be drawn out to
a variety of gauges ; and to the extreme
fineness that can be attained with certain
metals in the process of wire drawing.
Cereals in Japan. — The most important
cereal crops of Japan, according to a report
recently issued, are rice, barley, and wheat.
Rice is cultivated in nearly all the provinces,
and, either as flour or whole grain, boiled
with rice, is a common food. It is whitened
like pearl barley, steeped five or six hours in
water, and then boiled. One of the most
common articles of food is miso, which is
prepared by pounding together boiled soy
beans, salt, and the koji or yeast, prepared
from common barley. Barley is also used
for brewing beer and making confectionery,
and as food for horses and cattle. Its straw,
bleached and plaited, is used in summer
hats. Wheat is also generally cultivated,
and is principally used for preparing soy,
vermicelli, and confectionery, and its straw
for thatching roofs, etc. Some barley and
wheat is exported to foreign countries, barley
chiefly to Hong Kong and Vladivostock,
and wheat, in flour, to Russia and Korea,
and as grain to Hong Kong and England.
The manufacture of straw plaits and other
goods from bleached barley stalks is assum-
ing large proportions. Although Japanese
straw is not so good as that of Italy, it is
better than that of China. Articles of
straw, especially toys, have been made for
many centuries, but recently, stimulated by
the demand for exportation, the manufacture
of plaits has increased rapidly.
Chitral. — Chitral, where the British re-
cently conducted a successful military cam-
paign for the relief of their post, is described
by Captain Younghusband as " a mountain-
ous country, which, if you could get a bird's-
eye view of it, you would see to be composed
partly of gigantic snowy peaks, partly of
barren rocky mountains, and, in a very small
degree, of cultivated land. The valleys are
narrow and confined, the main ones in their
inhabited portions running from five thou-
sand to eight thousand feet above sea level.
It is only in them that any cultivation at all
is found, and even there it is not carried on
very extensively. But what there is is gen-
erally very good, and Chitral is a country
noted for its fruit." All the ordinary cereals
are grown, though in the higher part of the
valleys it is only possible to produce barley
and buckwheat. The whole food production
is small, and barely suffices for the people of
the country. The climate varies, of course,
according to the height of the valley. The
population of Chitral is probably about sev-
enty thousand or eighty thousand. The peo-
ple are all Mohammedans, but not of a very
strict or fanatical type. In the lower part
of the Chitral Valley, where they touch on the
Pathans, so noted for their fanaticism, they
have become to a certain extent tainted by
it ; but in the upper valleys the people are
very quiet, and do not seem to trouble them-
selves much about religious observances. On
the whole, the Chitralis may be described as
a peaceable race, who can fight well enough
when they are roused to action, but who
really prefer to keep quiet and be left alone
to enjoy life in peace. They are very fond
of sport, and delight in polo, which they
play in an offhand, " go-as-you-please " way.
The ruler of the country is designated the
Mehtar, and has absolute power up to a cer-
P OP ULAR MISCELLANY,
573
tain point, beyond which he is hedged in by
custom ; and nearly all the affairs of state
are transacted at the audience hall, where
every man has his say and perfect freedom.
The state is situated between Cashmere and
the Hindu Kush Mountains.
Making the Ilonse Healthful. — The re-
lation of the house to the prevention and
treatment of disease is set forth by Dr. G.
V. Poore, in The Practitioner, as a matter of
prime importance. The danger of the com-
munication of infectious disease to the other
inmates of the house in which it appears
has long been recognized, and the list of
diseases communicable in this way is ex-
tending ; yet sufficient account of this danger
is seldom taken in planning and construct-
ing the dwelling. The main object to be
kept in view in building a house, and espe-
cially in building a house for invalids, is the
supply of fresh air. Too much care can not
be taken to insure that all the channels of
internal communication — hall, passages, stair-
cases— have independent ventilation of their
own. Unless there be means of getting
these internal channels blown out by through
draughts, the house can not be wholesome;
and in the event of any air-borne contagion
getting a footing in the house, the liability
to spread is enormously increased. These in-
ternal channels must have light also. If the
house be of several stories, the ventilation
of the staircase has an importance that bears
a direct proportion to the height of the
house. The shafts for elevators require in-
dependent ventilation as much as the stair-
cases. One of the chief defects in the con-
struction of city houses is the absence of
provision for effective ventilation ; so that
the internal channels of communication, in-
stead of serving for the supply of fresh
air, merely facilitate exchange of foul air.
This defect of construction is dangerous in
proportion to the size of the building and
the number of persons it contains. The sug-
gestion has been made to place the sec-
ondary staircase (in invalid homes) between
the wards and the sanitary offices, so that
the staircase well forms a cut-off, with cross-
ventilation between the ward on one side
and the various sinks, closets, and baths
on the other side. The point which requires
more attention than any other in building
a house is the aspect. This is too often neg-
lected. A house should receive its maxi-
mum amount of sun. The best aspect for
a house is generally conceded to be that
which allows its chief rooms to look to the
southeast. In this way the morning sun is
enjoyed, and the rooms do not get the glare
of the afternoon sun. It may be advisable
to build a house in the form of a veritable
sun-trap. The sanitary advantage of a large
area for a house is very great indeed. In
hospitals we now recognize that infinitely
the most important element of the "cubic
space per bed " is the floor area, and that
a deficient floor space is not to be compen-
sated for by giving great height to the
wards. The same reasoning is applicable to
a house.
Irrigation of the Nile Valley. — In pro-
jecting the irrigation works for the Nile Val-
ley Engineer Scott-Moncrieff first undertook
to restore the barrage built by Mohammed
Ali — two stone bridges of seventy-one and
sixty-one arches respectively thrown across
the Rosetta and Damietta branches where
they bifurcate. The arches were intended to
be fitted up with gates, by lowering which
the water would be dammed up and turned
into three great brick irrigation canals. The
idea of these works was excellent, but the
execution was feeble, and they had so far
failed to accomplish their purpose. They
were again taken in hand and completed in
1890, since when the barrage has given no
trouble. The three great canals carry off all
the river supply from above it, so that prac-
tically now the low Nile is emptied every
season at the barrage, and no water escapes
to the sea. Attention was next directed to
providing for the storage of the surplus
waters of the upper Nile. The first scheme
was to build a great dam at Philse, to be one
hundred and fifteen feet high, eighty-five feet
at the base, and a mile and a quarter long,
pierced by sluices large enough to allow the
whole Nile at highest flood to rush through.
The lake formed would have been one hun-
dred and twenty miles long. The execution
of this plan would have drowned the island
of Phila) with its splendid Ptolemaic tem-
ples built on the sites of older buildings that
disappeared centuries ago ; and the civilized
world protested against the vandalism, though
574
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
it were perpetrated in the name of public
utility. Even the French for once agreed
with the English about what should be done
in Egypt. The plan was changed. The ma-
jestic structure of the dam will be cut down
thirty-seven feet, so as to be only eighty-eight
feet high, and Philas will stand in a lake, but
will not be drowned.
Patiuas of Japanese Bronzes. — Describ-
ing the patinas of Japanese bronzes, Mr.
W. Gowland, late of the Imperial Mint, says
that in many bronzes the beautiful color is
due to a " stain " or colored film of infini-
tesimal thinness. In others, the surface of
the metal is altered to a considerable depth,
and in these only we have true patinas. Fre-
quently both a stain and a patina are pro-
duced by similar treatment, but the opera-
tions required for the latter are of a more
prolonged character than for the former, and
are accompanied by special manipulations in
addition to the application of what are called
pickling solutions. For the production of
patinas of the richest and darkest shades of
brown by Japanese methods, it is essential
that lead should form one of the constituents
of the bronze, and that zinc should either be
absent altogether or be present only in small
proportions. On the other hand, stains of
any color can be given to metal of any com-
position, and even to unalloyed copper. The
substances used in the operations are cop-
per sulphate, basic acetates of copper (verdi-
gris), iron sulphate, sulphur in fine powder,
alum, vinegar prepared from unripe plums,
and a decoction of the roots or entire plant
of Calamagrestis Hakcnensis (natural order
Graminece), potassium nitrate, and sodium
chloride. The most important of these re-
agents are the first five. The processes for
producing a patina by the use of the various
solutions of these substances are somewhat
complicated and difficult, and the interme-
diate operations, on which its production de-
pends more than on the exact composition of
the solution, are variously modified in differ-
ent foundries.
The Peril of Color-Blindness. — Renewed
attention has been called by Surgeon W. M.
Beaumont, of the Bath (England) Eye In-
firmary, to the importance of perfect color
vision for railway servants, which is unques-
tioned in the minds of ophthalmic surgeons,
however other doctors and railway directors
may be disposed to ignore it. Some ques-
tions asked by one of the doubting doctors,
whether, since attention has been turned to
the subject, any accident has been brought
home to defect in color vision, or other facts
demonstrating the theory have been brought
out in usual practical sailing and railway
life, are answered by reference to several
illustrative incidents that have been gath-
ered. Of these are the wreck of the steamer
City of Austin, on the Florida coast, with a
color-blind pilot ; the collision of the Corbet
Castle and the T. H. Ramieu, due to the
color-blindness or short-sightedness of the
chief officer ; the collision of the Lumber-
man and the Isaac Bell, near Norfolk, Va.,
the Lumberman's master being color-blind,
and consequently taking the wrong course
with his vessel ; and the narrow escape of
the steamer Neera from a collision through
the color-blindness of its officer. In an-
other instance the color-blindness of a rail-
way fireman and the imminent danger of
collision thereby were experimentally deter-
mined in the ordinary working of the train.
Even where the color-blind engineer believes
he can distinguish between the signals, and
appears to do so, he does it, not by the color,
but by the difference in intensity. This is
a very uncertain and indefinite factor, and
is liable to variations according to the
weather, the condition of the engineer, and
other causes not so well known, and can not
be safely depended upon.
Farming on the Yang-tse Kiang. — The
country in China along the Yang-tse River
from Shanghai to Hankow, and for a hun-
dred miles on either side of the river, is, in
general, a rich alluvial plain, traversed by
ranges of hills having an east and west trend.
The tops of the hills give the best tea, and
where the ground is stony fir and oil trees
are planted, for oil, resin, timber, and fire-
wood. On lands of intermediate height — or
where the land is not suitable for rice — cot-
ton, wheat, corn, buckwheat, sweet potatoes,
and kitchen vegetables are grown in great
profusion. Dairy farming is unknown, and
milk is looked upon with disgust. The na-
tive buffalo is the domestic animal employed
in cultivating rice. Three crops can geuer-
NOTES.
575
ally be secured in a year. A little indigo is
grown for domestic use, and almost takes
care of itself. In many respects the bamboo
takes the place of metals, although iron,
copper, and brass are well known, and have
been from very early times. The young
shoots make an excellent vegetable, and pa-
per and twine of great strength are produced
from the fiber. The fields are cultivated
like gardens, well hoed and clear of weeds.
All the tools with cutting edges are of na-
tive manufacture, and steeled and tempered
on the edge.
NOTES.
In the excavation of the ancient Roman
city at Silchester, England, twelve rectangu-
lar inclosures or buildings have been found,
all of the same type, and containing fur-
naces, obviously of an industrial character,
and of various sizes. The circular furnaces
correspond exactly with the dyeing furnace
at Pompeii, and are supposed to have been
used for a like purpose. The supposition is
corroborated by the large number of wells
discovered. A number of other furnaces
with a straight flue are supposed to have
been intended for drying. Several rooms are
traceable which, it is presumed, were in-
tended for the storage of goods and mate
rials, and open spaces with no remains of
flues which may have been used for bleach-
ing grounds. A number of querns for hand-
grinding the madder-roots used for dyeing
purposes have been discovered.
A man shot through the brain, says Mr.
Victor Horsley, dies, not through failure of
the heart's action, but through the want of
breath occasioned by the explosive effect of
the bullet passing through the wet brain
substance, and consequent injury to the
base of the brain. The heart goes on beat-
ing, but respiration stops ; indeed, the heart
is stimulated, not depressed, when a bullet
enters the brain; and the proper treatment
of a man thus shot is the same as that re-
sorted to in the case of drowned people — one
should try to set up artificial respiration.
The investigation of the effect of metals
on the growth of bacteria has been continued
by Dr. Meade Bolton. His process was to
inoculate a tube of melted jelly with particu-
lar microbes, and pour the contents out on
a sterilized glass plate, after which bits of
the metal under examination were laid on
the jelly while it was still soft. If the metal
has an inhibitory action on the microbes,
then a clear zone is left around it after the
colonies have developed in the other parts
of the jelly. The width of this zone, Dr.
Bolton found, varied very considerably with
different organisms, as well as with different
metals. Throughout the investigation it
was found that those metals that are I'esist-
ant toward chemical reagents in general
failed to produce an effect on the microbes ;
while those metals which are readily attacked
by chemical reagents all exhibited a marked
inhibitory action upon the growth of bac-
teria. This result is probably due to a solu-
tion of the metal taking place in the me-
dium.
Provision is made in the Missouri Bo-
tanic Garden for the furtherance of advanced
research in botany and cognate sciences, and
facilities are freely given to professors of
botany and other persons wishing and com-
petent to perform such work. The garden
is rich in native and exotic species of plants,
and horticulturists' varieties under cultiva-
tion ; the herbarium includes nearly two
hundred and fifty thousand species, fairly
representative of the vegetable life of Eu-
rope and the United States, with specimens
from other regions, and is supplemented by
a large collection of woods ; and the library
is representative of the present condition of
the science in its various departments, and
contains besides nearly five hundred botan-
ical volumes prepared before the period of
Linnaeus. Botanists wishing to pursue their
studies here are invited to communicate on
the subject with Prof. William Trelease, di-
rector, St. Louis.
The rapid decrease in the population of
Ireland— from 8,300,000 to 4,600,000 in fifty
years — is ascribed by Dr. Grimshaw, regis-
trar general, to three causes : the frequent
failure of the potato crop ; the emigration
stimulated by the high wages in America
and the low wages at home ; and the lack of
manufacturing industries, the result of which
is that when the crops fail the people be-
come destitute and have to leave the coun-
try. Notwithstanding the decrease in the
population, the registrar general believes
that the country has gained in wealth.
Prof. Simon Newcomb has been elected
by the French Academy of Sciences an asso-
ciate academician as successor to the late
Prof. Helmholtz.
In addition to the general courses of in-
struction of the Marine Biological Labora-
tory at Woods Holl, Mass., special lectures
will be given on Embryologv, by C. O. Whit-
man ; Botanical Museum Development, by
J. M. McFarlane ; Matter and Energy, by A.
E. Dolbear ; and evening lectures will be de-
livered by specialists on biological subjects
of general interest. Forty private labora-
tories are provided for investigators. The
course of invertebrate anatomy will embrace
simply a study of typical marine inverte-
brates, through lectures, laboratory work, and
excursions ; that in vertebrate anatomy has
been arranged for those who desire a thorough
576
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
study of the vertebrate body. The work in
botany will be restricted to the study of the
structure and development of types of the
various orders of the cryptogamous plants
Applications should be addressed to William
A. Setehell, 2 Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven,
Conn.
Dr. E. B. Tylor suggests the use of cor-
respondence in culture as a means of tracing
lines of connection and intercourse between
ancient and remote peoples. The Egyptian
conception of the judgment of the dead by
weighing in a spiritual balance may be
traced in a series of variants that seem to
draw lines of intercourse through the Vedic
and Zoroastrian religions. The associated
doctrine of the Bridge of the Dead, which
separates the good, who pass over, from the
dead, who fall into the abyss, appears first in
the ancient Persian religion, reaching to the
extremities of Asia and Europe.
The subscription of .$250,000 required
by the law incorporating the New York Bo-
tanic Garden as a condition precedent to the
city's furnishing $5oO,0<»0 more and a site,
has been completed, and the Garden may
now be regarded as a near certainty. Its
friends purpose to go on with their efforts
and secure an increase of the subscriptions
to $500,000. The site chosen, comprising
250 acres, is in Bronx Park, on both sides
of the Bronx River.
The difference between European (conti-
nental) and our own methods of criminal
procedure was strikingly illustrated in a
trial for murder by poisoning which recently
took place in Antwerp. The presiding jus-
tice freely expressed the opinion that the
evidence was convincing, and questioned the
prisoner as if he had been a prosecuting
lawyer ; and the prisoner, who expected this,
had to prepare herself for such treatment.
She was herself the principal witness. The
jury was presumed to take the judge's ques-
tioning for what it was worth as it would
have taken them from a prosecuting coun-
sel, and not as carrying any authority, as
whatever the judge might say would do with
us. The prisoner had her advantages under
this method, for she could be her own wit-
ness and counsel, and explain the circum-
stances herself. No prejudice appears to
have existed in the minds of any except that
which was raised by the evidence.
The Report of the Interstate Commerce
Commission shows that the percentage of in-
crease of railway mileage in 1894 was less
than for any preceding year for which re-
ports have been made to the commission.
No better showing is anticipated for 1895.
Sixteen roads were abandoned. The gain in
the use of train brakes and automatic coup-
lers was largely in excess of the increase of
equipment during the year, but can not be
considered as showing a marked tendency
toward compliance with the law ; for V4-80
per cent of the total equipment is still with-
out train brakes and /72-'77 per cent without
automatic couplers. All must, by law, be
supplied before January, 1898. The num-
ber of men employed was smaller than in
any year since 1890, the largest decrease be-
ing in trackmen.
The man or woman, says Dr. B. Ward
Richardson, who trains himself in the best
bodily health makes the best of life. Bodily
welfare is important, not for itself only, but
because the health of the mind so largely de-
pends on the health of the body. A good
engine outlives many of its masters because
they attend to it more carefully than they at-
tend to their own bodies. The usual rela-
tions of the age of maturity to length of life,
indicating a ratio of one to five, suggest that
a man taking twenty-one years to mature
should live one hundred and five years. The
fact that such life is exceptionally attained
shows its possibility ; and it is owing to er-
rors that it is not more widely attained in
the human species.
OBITUARY NOTES.
Thomas Henry Huxley died at East-
bourne, England, on June 29th. A severe at-
tack of influenza early in the spring had been
followed by bronchitis and other disorders.
He several times rallied, but was finally
obliged to succumb. A sketch of his career,
by Ernst Haeckel, and a portrait, were pub-
lished in an early volume of this magazine.
Prof. Huxley had recently completed the re-
vision of his essays for an edition that has
appeared in nine volumes. His last maga-
zine article was on Mr. Balfour's Attack on
Agnosticism. It appeared in the Nineteenth
Century for March, and was to be followed
by a second paper which his illness prevented
him from completing.
Prof. William C. Williamson, well
known as a biologist and paleontologist, died
at Clapham, England, on June 23d, in his
seventy-ninth year. When Owens College
was founded in 1851 he was made its
Professor of Biology and Geology, his re-
searches having already won him an election
as a F. R. S. Later this professorship was
divided, and for many years he had held the
chair of botany. He was the first to an-
nounce the existence in some of the deeper
seas of what is now known as the foraminifer-
ous ooze. He also made important researches
upon the teeth and scales of fishes, and upon
the fossil plants of the coal measures. He
received the Royal Medal of the Royal So-
ciety, and the Wollaston gold medal of the
Geological Society. The University of Edin-
burgh conferred upon him the degree of
LL. D. He was elected by the Royal Society
of Sweden to the foreign membership left
vacant by the death of Asa Gray.
EDWAKD HITCHCOCK.
THE
POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.
SEPTEMBER, 1895.
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE.
XX.— FROM THE DIVINE ORACLES TO THE HIGHER CRITICISM.
Bt ANDKEW DICKSON WHITE, LL. D. (Yale), Ph. D. (Jena),
FORMERLY PRESIDENT OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
IV. THE CLOSING STRUGGLE.
THE storm aroused by Essays and Reviews had not yet sub-
sided when a far more serious tempest burst upon the Eng-
lish theological world.
In 1862 appeared a work entitled The Pentateuch and the
Book of Joshua Critically Examined, its author being Colenso,
Anglican Bishop of Natal in South Africa. He had formerly
been highly esteemed as fellow and tutor at Cambridge, master
at Harrow, and author of various valuable text-books in mathe-
matics. Had he exercised his powers within the limits of popular
orthodoxy, he was evidently in the way to the highest positions in
the Church ; but he chose another path. His treatment of his
subject was reverent, but he had gradually come to those conclu-
sions, then so daring, now so widespread among Christian schol-
ars, that the Pentateuch, with much valuable historical matter,
contains much that is unhistorical ; that a large portion of it was
the work of a comparatively late period in Jewish history ; that
many passages in Deuteronomy could only have been written
after the Jews settled in Canaan ; that the Mosaic law was not
in force before the captivity; that the book of Chronicles was
clearly written as an afterthought to enforce the views of the
priestly caste; and that in all the books there is much that is
mythical and legendary.
These statements, which now seem so moderate, then aroused
VOL. XLVII. — 48
578 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
horror. Especial wrath was caused by some of his arithmetical
arguments, and, among them, those which showed that an army
of six hundred thousand men could not have been mobilized in a
single night; that three millions of people, with their flocks and
herds, could neither have obtained food on so small and arid a
desert as that over which they were said to have wandered during
forty years, nor water from a single well; and that the butchery
of two hundred thousand Midianites by twelve thousand Israel-
ites, " exceeding infinitely in atrocity the tragedy at Cawnpore,
had happily only been carried out on paper." There was nothing
of the scoffer in him. While preserving his own independence,
he had kept in touch with the most earnest thought both among
European scholars and in the little flock intrusted to his care.
He evidently remembered what had resulted from the attempt to
hold the working classes in the towns of France, Germany, and
Italy to outworn beliefs; he had found even the Zulus, whom he
had thought to convert, awakened to the legendary character of
the Old Testament, and with his clear, practical mind he realized
the danger which threatened the English Church and Christian-
ity— the danger of tying its religion and morality to interpre-
tations and conceptions of Scripture more and more widely seen
and felt to be contrary to facts. He saw the especial danger of
sham explanations ; of covering up facts which must soon be
known, and which, when all was revealed, must inevitably bring
the plain people of England to regard their teachers, even the
most deserving, as " solemnly constituted impostors " ; ecclesiastics
whose tenure depends on assertions which they know to be un-
true. Therefore it was that, when his catechumens questioned
him regarding some of the legends in the Old Testament, the
bishop determined to tell the truth. He says: "My heart an-
swered in the words of the prophet, ' Shall a man speak lies in the
name of the Lord ?' I determined not to do so."
But none of these considerations availed in his behalf at first.
The outcry against the work was deafening ; churchmen and dis-
senters rushed forward to attack it. Archdeacon Denison, chair-
man of the Committee of Convocation appointed to examine it,
uttered a noisy anathema. Convocation solemnly condemned it ;
and a zealous colonial bishop, relying upon a nominal supremacy,
deposed and excommunicated its author, declaring him "given
over to Satan." On both sides of the Atlantic the press groaned
with " answers," some of these being especially injurious to the
cause they were intended to serve, and none more so than sundry
efforts by the bishops themselves. One of the points upon which
they attacked him was his assertion that the reference in Leviticus
to the hare chewing its cud contains an error. Upon this Prof.
Hitzig of Leipsic, probably the best Hebrew scholar of his time,
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 579
remarked : " Your bishops are making themselves the laughing-
stock of Europe. Every Hebraist knows that the animal men-
tioned in Leviticus is really the hare ; . . . every zoologist knows
that it does not chew the cud." *
On Colenso's return to Natal, where many of the clergy and
laity who felt grateful for his years of devotion to them received
him with signs of affection, an attempt was made to ruin these
clergymen by depriving them of their little stipends, and to ter-
rify the simple-minded laity by threatening them with the same
" greater excommunication " which had been inflicted upon their
bishop. To make the meaning of this more evident, the vicar-
general of the Bishop of Cape Town met Colenso at the door of
his own cathedral, and solemnly bade him " depart from the house
of God as one who has been handed over to the Evil One/' The
sentence of excommunication was read before the assembled faith-
ful, and they were enjoined to treat their bishop as "a heathen
man and a publican." But these and a long series of other perse-
cutions created a reaction in his favor.
There remained to Colenso one bulwark which his enemies
found stronger than they had imagined — the British courts of
justice. The greatest efforts were now made to gain the day be-
fore these courts, to humiliate Colenso, and to reduce to beggary
the clergy who remained faithful to him, and it is worthy of note
that one of the leaders in preparing the legal plea of the commit-
tee against the accused was Mr. Gladstone.
But this bulwark proved impregnable ; both the Judicial Com-
mittee of the Privy Council and the Rolls Court decided in Co-
lenso's favor. Not only were his enemies thus forbidden to de-
prive him of his salary, but their excommunication of him was
made null and void ; it became, indeed, a subject of ridicule, and
even a man so enwrapped in religious thought as John Keble
confessed and lamented that the English people no longer be-
lieved in excommunication. The bitterness of the defeated found
vent in the utterances of the colonial metropolitan who had ex-
communicated Colenso — Bishop Gray, "the Lion of Cape Town"
— who denounced the judgment as " awful and profane " and the
Privy Council as " a masterpiece of Satan " and " the great
dragon of the English Church." Even Wilberforce, careful as
* For the passages referred to as provoking especial wrath, see Colenso, Lectures on the
Pentateuch and the Moabite Stone, 18*76, p. 21*7. For the episode regarding the hare chew-
ing the cud, see Cox, Life of Colenso, i, p. 2-40. The following epigram went the rounds :
" The bishops all have sworn to shed their blood
To prove 'tis true the hare doth chew the cud.
0 bishops, doctors, and divines, beware —
Weak is the faith that hangs upon a hair ! "
580 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
he was to avoid attacking anything established, alluded with
deep regret to " the devotion of the English people to the law in
matters of this sort."
Their failure in the courts only seemed to increase the violence
of the attacking party. The Anglican communion, both in Eng-
land and America, was stirred to the depths against the heretic,
and various dissenting bodies strove to show equal zeal. Great
pains were taken to root out his reputation ; it was declared that
he had merely stolen the ideas of rationalists on the Continent by
wholesale, and then peddled them out in England at retail; the
fact being that, while he used all the sources of information at his
command, and was large-minded enough to put himself into rela-
tions with the best biblical scholarship of the Continent, he was
singularly independent in his judgment, and his own investiga-
tions were of lasting value in modifying Continental thought.
Kuenen, the most distinguished of all his contemporaries in this
field, modified, as he himself declared, one of his own leading the-
ories after reading Colenso's argument ; and other Continental
scholars scarcely less eminent acknowledged their great indebted-
ness to the English scholar for original suggestions.*
But the zeal of the bishop's enemies did not end with calumny.
He was socially ostracized ; more completely even than Lyell had
been after the publication of his Principles of Geology thirty
years before. Even old friends left him, among them Frederick
Denison Maurice, who, when himself under the ban of heresy, had
been defended by Colenso. Nor was Maurice the only heretic who
turned against him ; Matthew Arnold attacked him, and set up,
as a true ideal of the work needed to improve the English Church
and people, of all books in the world, Spinoza's Tractatus ! A
large part of the English populace was led to regard him as an
" infidel," a " traitor," an " apostate," and even as " an unclean
being " ; servants left his house in horror ; " Tray, Blanche, and
Sweetheart were let loose upon him"; and one of the favorite
* For interesting details of tbe Colenso persecution, see Davidson's Life of Tait, chaps,
xiii and xiv ; also the Lives of Bishops Wilberforce and Gray. For full accounts of the
struggle, see Cox, Life of Bishop Colenso, London, 1888, especially vol. i, chap. v. For the
dramatic performance at Colenso's cathedral, see vol. ii, pp. 14-25. For a very impartial
and appreciative statement regarding Colenso's work, see Cheyne, Founders of Old Testa-
ment Criticism, London, 1893, chap. ix. For testimony to the originality and value of
Colenso's contributions, see Kuenen, Origin and Composition of the Hexateuch, introduc-
tion, p. xx, as follows: "Colenso directed my attention to difficulties which I had hitherto
failed to observe or adequately to reckon with, and, as to the opinion of his labors curient
in Germany, I need only say that, inasmuch as Ewald, Bunsen, Bleek, and Knabel were
every one of them logically forced to revise their theories hi the light of the English bishop's
researches, there was small reason in the cry that his methods were antiquated and his
objections stale."
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 581
amusements of the period among men of petty wit and no con-
victions was the devising of light ribaldry against him.*
In the midst of all this controversy stood three men, each of
whom has connected his name with it permanently.
First of these was Samuel Wilberforce, at that time Bishop of
Oxford. The gifted son of William Wilberforce, who had been
honored throughout the world for his efforts in the suppression
of the slave trade, he had been rapidly advanced in the English
Church, and was at this time a prelate of wide influence. He was
eloquent and diplomatic, witty and amiable, always sure to be with
his fellow-churchmen and polite society against uncomfortable
changes. Whether the struggle was against the slave power in
the United States, or the squirearchy in Great Britain, or the
evolution theory of Darwin, or the new views promulgated by the
Essayists and Reviewers, he was always the suave spokesman of
those who opposed every innovator and " besought him to depart
out of their coasts." Mingling in curious proportions a truly re-
ligious feeling with care for his own advancement, his remark-
able power in the pulpit gave him great strength to carry out
his purposes, and his charming facility in being all things to
all men, as well as his skill in evading the consequences of his
many mistakes, gained him the sobriquet of "Soapy Sam." If
such brethren of his in the episcopate as Thirlwall and Selwyn
and Tait might claim to be in the apostolic succession, Wilber-
force was no less surely in the succession from the most gifted
and eminently respectable Sadducees who held high preferment
under Pontius Pilate.
By a curious coincidence he had only a few years before
preached the sermon when Colenso was consecrated in West-
minster Abbey, and one passage in it may be cited as showing the
preacher's gift of prophecy both hortatory and predictive. Wil-
* One of the nonsense verses in vogue at the time summed up the controversy as fol-
lows :
" A bishop there was of Natal,
Who had a Zulu for his pal ;
Said the Zulu, ' My dear,
Don't you think Genesis queer? '
Which converted my lord of Natal."
But verses quite as good appeared on the other side, one of them being as follows :
" Is this, then, the great Colenso,
Who all the bishops offends so ?
Said Sam of the Soap,
' Bring fagots and rope,
For oh ! he's got no friends, oh ! ' "
For Matthew Arnold's attack on Colenso, see Macmillan's Magazine, January, 1863. For
Maurice, see the references already given.
582 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
"berf orce then said to Colenso : " You need boldness to risk all for
God; to stand by the truth and its supporters against men's
threatenings and the devil's wrath ; . . . you need a patient meek-
ness to bear the galling calumnies and false surmises with which,
if you are faithful, that same Satanic working which, if it could,
would burn your body, will assuredly assail you daily through
the pens and tongues of deceivers and deceived, who, under a sem-
blance of a zeal for Christ, will evermore distort your words, mis-
represent your motives, rejoice in your failings, exaggerate your
errors, and seek by every poisoned breath of slander to destroy
your powers of service." *
Unfortunately, when Colenso followed this advice, his ad-
viser became the most untiring of his persecutors. While leav-
ing to men like the Metropolitan of Cape Town and Arch-
deacon Denison the noisy part of the onslaught, Wilberforce was
among those who were most zealous in devising more effective
measures.
But time, and even short time, has redressed the balance be-
tween the two prelates. Colenso is seen more and more of all
men as a righteous leader in a noble effort to cut the Church loose
from fatal entanglements with an outworn system of interpreta-
tion ; Wilberforce, as the remembrance of his eloquence and of
his personal charms dies away, and as the revelations of his indis-
creet biographers lay bare his modes of procedure, is seen to have
left, on the whole, the most disppointing record made by any
Anglican prelate during the nineteenth century.
But there was a far brighter page in the history of the Church
of England ; for the second of the three who linked their names
with that of Colenso in the struggle was Arthur Penrhyn Stanley,
Dean of Westminster. His action during this whole persecution
was an honor not only to the Anglican Church but to humanity.
For his own manhood and the exercise of his own intellectual
freedom he had cheerfully given up the high preferment in the
Church which had been easily within his grasp. To him truth
and justice were more than the decrees of a Convocation of Can-
terbury or of a Pan- Anglican Synod ; in this as in other matters
he braved the storm, never yielded to theological prejudice, from
first to last held out a brotherly hand to the persecuted bishop,
* For the social ostracism of Colenso, see works already cited ; also Cox's Life of
Colenso. For the passage from Wilberforce's sermon at the consecration of Colenso, see
Rev. Sir G. W. Cox, The Church of England and the Teaching of Bishop Colenso. For
Wilberforce's relations to the Colenso case in general, see his Life, by his son, vol. iii, espe-
cially pp. 113-126 and 229-231. For Keble's avowal that no Englishman believes in excom-
munication, ibid., p. 128. For a guarded statement of Dean Stanley's opinion regarding
Wilberforce and Newman, see a letter from Dean Church to the Warden of Keble, in Life
and Letters of Dean Church, p. 293.
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 583
and at the most critical moment opened to him the pulpit of
Westminster Abbey.*
The third of the high ecclesiastics of the Church of England
whose names were linked in this contest was Thirlwall.
He was undoubtedly the foremost man in the Church of his
time— the greatest ecclesiastical statesman, the profoundest his-
torical scholar, the theologian of clearest vision in regard to the
relations between the Church and his epoch. Alone among his
brother bishops at this period, he stood "four square to all the
winds that blew," as during all his life he stood against all storms
of clerical or popular unreason. He had his reward. He was
never advanced beyond a poor Welsh bishopric ; but, though he
saw men wretchedly inferior constantly promoted beyond him, he
never flinched, never lost heart or hope, but bore steadily on, re-
fusing to hold a brief for lucrative injustice, and resisting to the
last all reaction and fanaticism, thus preserving not only his own
self-respect but the future respect of the English nation for the
Church.
A few other leading churchmen were discreetly kind to Co-
lenso, among them Tait, who had now been made Archbishop of
Canterbury ; but, manly as he was, he was somewhat more cau-
tious in this matter than those who most revere his memory could
now wish.
In spite of these friends the clerical onslaught was for a time
effective ; Colenso, so far as England was concerned, was discred-
ited and virtually driven from his functions. But this enforced
leisure simply gave him more time to struggle for the protection
of his native flock against colonial rapacity, and to continue his
great work on the Bible.
His work produced its effect. The impulse which it gave had
much to do with arousing a new generation of English, Scotch,
and American scholars. That a new epoch had come was now
more and more evident, and out of the many proofs of this we
may note two of the most striking.
For many years the Bampton Lectures at Oxford had been
considered as adding steadily and strongly to the bulwarks of the
old orthodoxy. If now and then orthodoxy had appeared in
* For interesting testimony to Stanley's character, from a quarter whence it would have
been least expected, see a reminiscence of Lord Shaftesbury in the Life of Frances Power
Cobbe, London and New York, 1894. The late Bishop of Massachusetts, Phillips Brooks,
whose death was a bereavement to his country and to the Church universal, once gave the
present writer a vivid description of a scene witnessed by him in the Convocation of Canter-
bury, when Stanley virtually withstood alone the obstinate traditionalism of the whole body
in the matter of the Athanasian Creed. It is to be hoped that this account may be brought
to light among the letters written by Brooks at that time. See also Dean Church's Life and
Letters, p. 294, for a very important testimony.
584 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
danger from such additions to the series as those made by Dr.
Hampden, these lectures had been, as a rule, saturated with the
older traditions of the Anglican Church. But now there came an
evident change. The departures from the old paths became many
and striking, until at last, in 1893, came the lectures on Inspira-
tion by the Rev. Dr. Sanday, Ireland Professor of Exegesis in the
University of Oxford. In these, concessions were made to the
newer criticism, which at an earlier time would have driven the
lecturer not only out of the Church but out of any decent posi-
tion in society ; for Prof. Sanday not merely gave up a vast mass
of the other ideas which the great body of churchmen had re-
garded as fundamental, but accepted a number of conclusions
established by the newer criticism. He declared that Kuenen
and Wellhausen had mapped out, on the whole rightly, the main
stages of development in the history of Hebrew literature; he
incorporated with approval the work of other eminent heretics ;
he acknowledged that very many statements in the Pentateuch
show " the naive ideas and usages of a primitive age." But, most
important of all, he gave up the whole question in regard to the
book of Daniel. Up to a time then very recent, the early author-
ship and predictive character of the book of Daniel were things
which no one was allowed to dispute for a moment. Pusey, as
we have seen, had proved to the controlling parties in the English
Church that Christianity must stand or fall with the traditional
view of this book; and now, within a few years of Pusey 's death,
there came in his own university, speaking from the pulpit of St.
Mary's, whence he had so often insisted upon the absolute neces-
sity of maintaining the older view, this professor of biblical
criticism, a doctor of divinity, showing conclusively as regards
the book of Daniel that the critical view had won the day ; that
the name of Daniel is only assumed ; that the book is in no sense
predictive, but was written, mainly at least, after the events it
describes; that "its author lived at the time of the Maccabean
struggle"; that it is very inaccurate even in the simple facts
which it cites ; and hence that all the vast fabric erected upon
its predictive character is baseless.
But another evidence of the coming in of a new epoch was
even more striking.
To uproot every growth of the newer thought, to destroy even
every germ that had been planted by Colenso and men like him,
a special movement was begun, of which the most important part
was the establishment at the University of Oxford of a college
which should bring the old opinion with crushing force against
the new thought, and should train up a body of young men by
feeding them upon the utterances of the fathers, of the medieeval
doctors, and of the apologists of the seventeenth and eighteenth
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 585
centuries, and should keep them in happy ignorance of the re-
forming spirit of the sixteenth and the scientific spirit of the
nineteenth century.
The new college thus founded bore the name of the poet most
widely beloved among high churchmen; large endowments
flowed in upon it; a showy chapel was erected in accordance
throughout with the strictest rules of medieval ecclesiology. As
if to strike the keynote of the thought to be fostered in the new
institution, one of the most beautiful of pseudo-niedireval pictures
was given the place of honor in its hall, and the college, lofty and
gaudy, loomed high above the neighboring modest abode of Ox-
ford science. Kuenen might rage in Holland, and Wellhausen in
Germany, and Robertson Smith in Scotland — even Professors
Driver, Sanday, and Cheyne might succeed Dr. Pusey as ex-
pounders of the Old Testament at Oxford — but Keble College,
rejoicing in the favor of a multitude of leaders in the Church,
including Mr. Gladstone, seemed an inexpugnable fortress of the
older thought.
But in 1889 appeared the book of essays entitled Lux Mundi,
among whose leading authors were men closely connected with
Keble College and with the movement which had created it.
This work gave up entirely the tradition that the narrative in
Genesis is a historical record, and admitted that all accounts in
the Hebrew Scriptures of events before the time of Abraham are
mythical and legendary ; it conceded that the books ascribed to
Moses and Joshua were made up mainly of three documents rep-
resenting different periods, and one of them the late period of the
exile; that "there is a considerable idealizing element in Old
Testament history"; that "the books of Chronicles show an
idealizing of history" and "a reading back into past records of a
ritual development which is really later," and that prophecy is not
necessarily predictive — "prophetic inspiration being consistent
with erroneous anticipations." Again a shudder went through
the upholders of tradition in the Church, and here and there
threats were heard ; but the Essays and Reviews fiasco and the
Colenso catastrophe were still in vivid remembrance. Good sense
prevailed, and Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury, instead of
prosecuting the authors, himself asked the famous question,
" May not the Holy Spirit make use of myth and legend ?" *
In the sister university the same tendency was seen. Robert-
son Smith, who had been driven out of his high position in the
* Of Pusey's extreme devotion to his view of the book of Daniel there is a curious evi-
dence in a letter to Stanley in the second volume of the latter's Life and Letters. For the
views referred to in Lux Mundi, see pages 3-i5-S5fJ ; also, on the general subject, Bishop
Ellicott's Christus Comprobator.
586 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
Free Church of Scotland on account of his work in scriptural
research, was welcomed into a professorship at Cambridge, and
other men, no less loyal to the new truths, were given places
of controlling influence in shaping the thought of the new gen-
eration.
Nor did the warfare against biblical science produce any dif-
ferent results among the dissenters of England. In 1862 Samuel
Davidson, a professor in the Congregational College at Manches-
ter, published his Introduction to the Old Testament. Independ-
ently of the contemporary writers of Essays and Reviews, he had
arrived in a general way at conclusions much like theirs, and he
presented the newer view with fearless honesty, admitting that
the same research must be applied to these as to other Oriental
sacred books, and that such research establishes the fact that all
alike contain legendary and mythical elements. A storm was at
once aroused ; certain denominational papers took up the matter,
and Davidson was driven from his professorial chair ; but he la-
bored bravely on, and others followed to take up his work, until
the ideas which he had advocated were fully considered.
So, too, in Scotland the work of Robertson Smith was con-
tinued even after he had been driven into England, and, as vota-
ries of the older thought passed away, men of ideas akin to his
were gradually elected into chairs of biblical criticism and inter-
pretation. Wellhausen's great work, which Smith had intro-
duced in English form, proved a power both in England and
Scotland, and the articles upon various books of Scripture and
scriptural subjects generally, in the ninth edition of the Encyclo-
paedia Britannica, having been prepared mainly by himself as
editor or put into the hands of others representing the recent
critical research, this very important work of reference, which
had been in previous editions so timid, was now arrayed on the
side of the newer thought, insuring its due consideration wher-
ever the English language is spoken.
In France the same tendency was seen, though with striking
variations from the course of events in other countries — varia-
tions due to the very different conditions under which biblical
students in France were obliged to work. Down to the middle of
the nineteenth century the orthodoxy of Bossuet, stiffly opposing
the letter of Scripture to every step in the advance of science, had
only yielded in a very slight degree. But then came an event
ushering in a new epoch. At that time Jules Simon, afterward
so eminent as an author, academician, and statesman, was quietly
discharging the duties of a professorship, when there was brought
to him one day the visiting card of a stranger bearing the name of
" Ernest Renan, Student at St. Sulpice." Admitted to M. Simon's
library, Renan told his story. As a theological student, even
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 587
before he entered the seminary, he had devoted himself most
earnestly to the study of Hebrew and the Semitic languages, and
he was now obliged, during the lectures on biblical literature at
St. Sulpice, to hear the reverend professor make frequent com-
ments upon the Scriptures, based on the Vulgate, but absolutely
disproved by Kenan's own knowledge of Hebrew. On Renan's
questioning any interpretation of the lecturer, the latter was
wont to rejoin : " Monsieur, do you presume to deny the authority
of the Vulgate, the translation by St. Jerome, sanctioned by the
Holy Ghost and the Church ? You will at once go into the
chapel and say ' Hail Mary ' for an hour before the image of the
Blessed Virgin." " But," said Renan to Jules Simon, " this has
now become very serious; it happens nearly every day, and, mon
Dieu ! monsieur, I can not spend all my time in saying ' Hail
Mary ' before the statue of the Virgin." The result was a warm
personal attachment between Simon and Renan ; both were Bre-
tons, educated in the midst of the most orthodox influences, and
both had unwillingly broken away from them.
Renan was now emancipated and pursued his studies with
such effect that he was made professor at the College de France.
His Life of Jesus, and other books showing the same spirit,
brought a tempest upon him which drove him from his professor-
ship and brought great hardships upon him for many years. But
his genius carried the day, and, to the honor of the French Re-
public, he was restored to the position from which the Empire
had driven him. From his pen finally appeared the Histoire du
Peuple Israel, in which scholarship broad, though at times inac-
curate in minor details, was supplemented by an exquisite acute-
nes§ and a poetic insight which far more than made good any of
those lesser errors which a German student would have avoided.
At his death, in October, 1892, this monumental work had been
finished ; in clearness and beauty of style it has never been ap-
proached by any other treatise on this or any kindred subject. It
is a work of genius, and its profound insight into all that is of
importance in the great subjects which he treated will doubtless
cause it to hold a permanent place in the literature not only of
the Latin nations but of the world.
The anathemas lavished upon him by Church authorities dur-
ing his life, their denial to him of Christian burial, and their
refusal to allow him a grave in the place he had chosen, only
increased popular affection for him during his last years and
deepened the general mourning at his death.*
* The facts as to the early relations between Renan and Jules Simon were told in 1SY8
by the latter to the present writer at considerable length and with many interesting details not
here given. The writer was also present at the public funeral of the great scholar, and can
5 88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
But, in spite of all resistance, the desire for more light upon
the sacred books penetrated the older Church from every side.
In Germany, toward the close of the eighteenth century, Jahn,
Catholic professor at Vienna, had ventured, in an Introduction to
Old Testament Study, to class Job, Jonah, and Tobit below other
canonical books, and had only escaped serious difficulties by am-
ple amends in a second edition.
Early in the nineteenth century, Herbst, Catholic professor at
Tubingen, had endeavored in a similar Introduction to briDg more
modern research to bear on the older view ; but the Church
authorities saw that all passages really giving any new light were
skillfully and speedily edited out of the book.
Later still, Movers, professor at Breslau, showed remarkable
gifts for Old Testament research, and much was expected of him ;
but his ecclesiastical superiors quietly prevented his publishing
any extended work.
During the latter half of the nineteenth century much the
same pressure has continued in Catholic Germany. Strong schol-
ars have very generally been drawn into the position of " apol-
ogists," and, when this has been found impossible, they have been
driven out of the Church.
The same general policy had been evident in France and Italy,
but toward the last decade of the century it was seen by the more
clear-sighted supporters of the older Church in those countries
that the multifarious " refutations " and explosive attacks upon
Renan and his teachings had accomplished nothing ; that even
special services of atonement for his sin, like the famous " Triduo "
at Florence, only drew a few women and provoked ridicule among
the public at large ; that throwing him out of his professorship
and calumniating him had but increased his influence ; and that
his brilliant intuitions, added to the careful researches of German
and English scholars, had brought the thinking world beyond the
reach of the old methods of hiding troublesome truths and crush-
ing persistent truth-tellers.
Therefore it was that about 1890 a body of earnest Roman
Catholic scholars began very cautiously to examine and explain
the biblical text in the light of those results of the newer research
which could no longer be gainsaid.
Among these men were, in Italy, Canon Bartolo, Canon Berta,
testify of his own knowledge to the deep and hearty evidences of gratitude and respect then
paid to Renan, not merely by eminent orators and scholars, but by the people at large. As
to the refusal of the place of burial which Renan especially chose, see his own " Souvenirs,"
in which he laments the inevitable exclusion of his grave from the site which he most
loved. As to calumnies, one masterpiece very widely spread, through the zeal of clerical
journals, was that Renan received enormous sums from the Rothschilds for attacking
Christianity.
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 589
and Father Savi, and in France Mon seigneur d'Hulst, the Abbe*
Loisy, Professor at the Roman Catholic University at Paris, and,
most eminent of all, Prof essor Lenormant, of the French Institute,
whose researches into biblical and other ancient history and litera-
ture had won him distinction throughout the world. These men,
while standing up manfully for the Church, were obliged to allow
that some of the conclusions of modern biblical criticism were
well founded. The result came rapidly. The treatise of Bartolo
and the great work of Lenormant were placed on the Index ; Canon
Berta was overwhelmed with reproaches and virtually silenced ;
the Abbe* Loisy was first deprived of his professorship, and then
ignominiously expelled from the university ; Monseigneur d'Hulst
was summoned to Rome, and has since kept silence.*
The matter was evidently thought serious in the higher regions
of the Church, for, in November, 1893, appeared an encyclical
letter on The Study of Sacred Scripture by the reigning Pope,
Leo XIII. Much was expected from it, for, since Benedict XIV
in the last century, there has sat on the papal throne no Pope in-
tellectually so competent to discuss the whole subject. While,
then, those devoted to the older beliefs trusted that the papal
thunderbolts would crush the whole brood of biblical critics, vota-
ries of the newer thought ventured to hope that the encyclical
might, in the language of one of them, prove "a stupendous
bridge spanning the broad abyss that now divides alleged ortho-
doxy from established science." f
Both these expectations were disappointed ; and yet, on the
whole, it is a question whether the world at large may not con-
gratulate itself upon this papal utterance. The document, if not
apostolic, won credit as " statesmanlike." It took pains, of course,
to insist that there can be no error of any sort in the sacred books ;
it even defended those parts which Protestants count apocryphal
as thoroughly as the remainder of Scripture, and declared that
the book of Tobit was not compiled of man, but written by God.
His Holiness naturally condemned the higher criticism, but he
dwelt at the same time on the necessity of the most thorough
study of the sacred Scriptures, and especially on the importance
* For the frustration of attempts to admit light into scriptural studies in Roman Catholic
Germany, see Bleek, Old Testament, London, 1882, vol. i, pp. 19, 20.
For the general statement regarding recent suppression of modern biblical study in
France and Italy, see an article by a Roman Catholic author in the Contemporary Review,
September, 1894, p. 365. For the papal condemnations of Lenormant and Bartolo, see the
Index Librorum Prohibitorum Sanctissimi Domini Nostri Leonis XIII, P. M., etc., Rome,
1891 ; Appendices, July, 1890, and May, 1891. The ghastly part of the record, as stated
in this edition of the Index, is that both these great scholars were forced to abjure their
" errors " and to acquiesce in the condemnation — Lenormant doing this on his deathbed.
f For this statement, see an article in the Contemporary Review, April, 1894, p. 576.
59o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
of adjusting scriptural statements to scientific facts. This utter-
ance was admirably oracular, being susceptible of cogent quotation
by both sides ; , nothing could be in better form from an orthodox
point of view ; but, with that statesmanlike forecast which the
present Pope has shown more than once in steering the bark of
St. Peter over the troubled waves of the nineteenth century, he
so far abstained from condemning any of the greater specific
results of modern critical study that the main English de-
fender of the encyclical, the Jesuit Father Clarke, did not hesi-
tate publicly to admit a multitude of such results — results, indeed,
which would shock not only Italian and Spanish Catholics, but
many English and American Protestants. According to this in-
terpreter, the Pope had no thought of denying that there are dif-
ferent sorts of documents in the Pentateuch, or the plurality of
sources of the books of Samuel, or the twofold authorship of
Isaiah, or that all after the ninth verse of the last chapter of St.
Mark's Gospel is spurious ; and, as regards the whole encyclical,
the distinguished Jesuit dwelt significantly on the power of the
papacy at any time to define out of existence any previous de-
cisions which may be found inconvenient. More than that, Father
Clarke himself, while standing as the champion of the most thor-
ough orthodoxy, acknowledged that, in the Old Testament,
"numbers must be expected to be used Orientally," and that
" all these seventies and forties, as, for example, when Absalom
is said to have rebelled against David for forty years, can not
possibly be meant numerically"; and, what must have given a
fearful shock to some Protestant believers in plenary inspiration,
he, while advocating it as a dutiful son of the Church, wove over
it an exquisite web with the declaration that " there is a human
element in the Bible precalculated for by the divine."
Considering the difficulties in the case, the world has reason
certainly to be grateful to Pope Leo and Father Clarke for these
utterances, which perhaps, after all, may prove a better bridge
between the old and the new than could have been framed by
engineers more learned but less astute. Evidently Pope Leo XIII
is neither a Paul V nor an Urban VIII, and is too wise to bring
the Church into a position from which it can only be extricated
by subterfuges as ludicrous as those by which it was dragged out
of the Galileo scandal, or by a policy as tortuous as that by which
it writhed out of the old doctrine regarding the taking of interest
for money.
In spite, then, of the attempted crushing out of Bartolo and
Berta and Savi and Lenormant and Loisy, during this very epoch
in which the Pope issued this encyclical, there is every reason to
hope that the path has been paved over which the Church may
gracefully recede from the old system of interpretation and
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 591
quietly accept and appropriate the main results of the higher
criticism. Certainly she has never had a better opportunity to
play at the game of " beggar my neighbor " and to drive the older
Protestant orthodoxy into bankruptcy.
In America the same struggle between the old ideas and the
new went on. In the middle years of the century the first ade-
quate effort in behalf of the newer conception of the sacred books
was made by Theodore Parker at Boston. A thinker profound
and of the widest range — a scholar indefatigable and of the deep-
est sympathies with humanity — a man called by one of the most
eminent scholars in the English Church "a religious Titan," and
by a distinguished French theologian " a prophet," he had strug-
gled on from the divinity school until at that time he was the
foremost biblical scholar and preacher to the largest regular con-
gregation on the American continent. The great hall in Boston
could seat four thousand people, and at his regular discourses
every part of it was filled. In addition to his usual pastoral work
he exercised a vast influence as a platform speaker, especially in
opposition to the extension of slavery into the Territories of the
United States, and as a lecturer on a wide range of vital topics.
During each year at that period he was heard discussing the most
important religious and political questions in all the greater north-
ern cities ; but his most lasting work was in throwing light upon
our sacred Scriptures, and in this he was one of the forerunners
of the movement now going on, not only in the United States but
throughout Christendom. Even before he was fairly out of col-
lege his translation of De Wette's Introduction to the Old Testa-
ment made an impression on many thoughtful men ; his sermon
in 1841 on The Transient and Permanent in Christianity marked
the beginning of his great individual career ; his speeches, his
Lectures, and especially his Discourse on Matters Pertaining to
Religion, greatly extended his influence. His was a deeply devo-
tional nature, and his public prayers exercised by their touching
beauty a very strong religious influence upon his audiences. He
had his reward. Beautiful and noble as were his life and his life
work, he was widely abhorred. On one occasion of public wor-
ship, in one of the more orthodox churches, news having been
received that he was dangerously ill, a prayer was openly made
by one of the zealous brethren present that this arch-enemy might
be removed from earth. He was even driven out from the Uni-
tarian body. But he was none the less steadfast and bold, and
the great mass of men and women who thronged his audience
room at Boston and his lecture rooms in other cities spread his
ideas. His fate was pathetic. Full of faith and hope, but broken
prematurely by his labors, he retired to Italy, and there died at
the darkest period in the history of the United States, when
592 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
slavery in the State and the older orthodoxy in the Church seemed
absolutely and forever triumphant. The death of Moses within
sight of the promised land seems the only parallel to the death
of Parker less than six months before the election of Abraham
Lincoln and the publication of Essays and Reviews.*
But here it must be noted that Parker's effort was powerfully
aided by the conscientious utterances of some of his foremost
opponents. Nothing during the American struggle against the
slave system did more to wean religious and God-fearing men and
women from the old interpretation of Scripture than the use of
it to justify slavery. Typical among examples of this use were
the arguments of Hopkins, Bishop of Vermont, a man whose noble
character and beautiful culture gave him very wide influence in
all branches of the American Protestant Church. While avow-
ing his personal dislike to slavery, he demonstrated that the Bible
sanctioned it. Other theologians, Catholic and Protestant, took
the same ground, and then came that tremendous rejoinder which
echoed from heart to heart throughout the Northern States : " The
Bible sanctions slavery ? So much the worse for the Bible."
Then was fulfilled that old saying of Bishop Ulrich of Augsburg :
" Press not the breasts of Holy Writ too hard, lest they yield blood
rather than milk."
Yet throughout Christendom a change in the mode of inter-
preting Scripture, though absolutely necessary if its proper au-
thority was to be maintained, still seemed almost hopeless. Even
after the foremost scholars had taken ground in favor of it, and
the most conservative of these whose opinions were entitled to
weight had made concessions showing the old ground to be un-
tenable, there was fanatical opposition to any change. The Sylla-
bus of Errors, issued by Pius IX in 1864, as well as certain other
documents issued from the Vatican, had increased the difficulties
of this needed transition ; and, while the more able-minded Roman
Catholic scholars skillfully explained away the obstacles thus
created, others published works insisting upon the most extreme
views as to the verbal inspiration of the sacred books. In the
Church of England various influential men took the same view.
Dr. Baylee, Principal of St. Aidan's College, declared that in Scrip-
ture " every scientific statement is infallibly accurate ; all its his-
tories and narrations of every kind are without any inaccuracy.
* For the appellation " religious Titan " applied to Theodore Parker, see a letter of
Jowett, Master of Balliol, to Frances Power Cobbe, in her autobiography, vol. i, p. 357, and
for Reville's statement, ibid., p. 9 ; for a pathetic account of Parker's last hours at Flor-
ence, ibid., i, pp. 10, 11. For the statement regarding Parker's audiences and his power
over them, the present writer trusts to his own memory. There is a curious reference to
Bishop Hopkins's ideas on slavery in Archbishop Tait's Life and Letters.
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 593
Its words and phrases have a grammatical and philological accu-
racy, such as is possessed by no human composition." In 1861
Dean Burgon preached in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, as
follows : " No, sirs, the Bible is the very utterance of the Eternal ;
as much God's own word as if high heaven were open and we
heard God speaking to us with human voice. Every book is
inspired alike, and is inspired entirely. Inspiration is not a dif-
ference of degree, but of kind. The Bible is filled to overflowing
with the Holy Spirit of God ; the books of it and the words of it
and the very letters of it."
In 1805 Canon MacNeile declared in Exeter Hall that "we
must either receive the verbal inspiration of the Old Testament
or deny the veracity, the insight, the integrity of our Lord Jesus
Christ as a teacher of divine truth."
As late as 1889 one of the two most gifted pulpit orators in the
Church of England, Canon Liddon, preaching at St. Paul's Cathe-
dral, used in his fervor the same dangerous argument : that the
authority of Christ himself, and therefore of Christianity, must
rest on the old view of the Old Testament ; that, since the founder
of Christianity, in divinely recorded utterances, alluded to the
transformation of Lot's wife into a pillar of salt, and to Noah's
ark and the- flood, the biblical account of these must be accepted
as historical.
In the light of what was rapidly becoming known regarding
the Chaldaean and other sources of the accounts given in Genesis,
no argument could be more fraught with peril to the interest
which the gifted preacher sought to serve.
In France and Germany many similar utterances in opposition
to the newer biblical studies were heard, and from America, espe-
cially from the college at Princeton, came resounding echoes. As
an example of many may be quoted the statement by the eminent
Dr. Hodge that the books of Scripture " are, one and all, in
thought and verbal expression, in substance, and in form, wholly
the work of God, conveying with absolute accuracy and divine
authority all that God meant to convey without human additions
and admixtures"; and that "infallibility and authority attach as
much to the verbal expression in which the revelation is made as
to the matter of the revelation itself."
Bat the newer movement of thought went steadily on. As al-
ready in Protestant Europe, so now in the Protestant churches of
America, it took strong hold on the foremost minds in many of
the churches known as orthodox : Toy, Briggs, Francis Brown,
Evans, Preserved Smith, Moore, Bacon, developed it, and, though
opposed, bitterly by synods and councils of their respective
churches, they were manfully supported by the more intellectual
clergy and laity. The greater universities of the country ranged
VOL. XLTII. 49
594 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
themselves on the sides of these men ; persecution but intrenched
them more firmly in the hearts of all intelligent well-wishers of
Christianity. The triumphs won by their opponents in assem-
blies, synods, conventions, and conferences were really victories
for the nominally defeated, since they revealed to the world the
fact that in each of these bodies the strong and fruitful thought
of the Church, the thought which alone can have any hold on the
future, was with the new race of thinkers ; no theological tri-
umphs more surely fatal to the victors have been won since the
Vatican defeated Copernicus and Galileo.
And here reference must be made to a series of events which,
in the second half of the nineteenth century, have contributed
most powerful aid to the new school of biblical research.
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS.
V.— BIOGRAPHER, HISTORIAN, AND LITTERATEUR.
By HERBERT SPENCER.
HOW, in their rudimentary forms, the several arts which
express feelings and thoughts by actions, sounds, and words,
as well as the professors of such arts, originated together in a
mingled state, we have seen in the last two chapters. Continuing
the analysis, we have now to observe how there simultaneously
arose, in the same undifferentiated germ, the rudiments of certain
other products, and of those devoted to the production of them.
The primitive orator, poet, and musician, was at the same time
the primitive biographer, historian, and litterateur. The hero's
deeds constituted the common subject-matter ; and, taking this or
that form, the celebration of them became, now the oration, now
the song, now the recited poem, now that personal history which
constitutes a biography, now that larger history which associates
the doings of one with the doings of many, and now that various-
ly developed comment on men's doings and the course of things
which constitutes literature.
Before setting out to observe the facts which illustrate afresh
this simultaneous genesis, let us note that in the nature of things
there could not be any other root for these diverse growths ; and
that this root is deeply implanted in human nature. If we go
back to a group of savages sitting round a camp-fire, and ask
what of necessity are their ordinary subjects of conversation, we
find that there is nothing for them to talk about save their own
doings and the doings of others in war and the chase. Though
they have surrounding Nature and its changes, sometimes strik-
ing, to describe and comment upon, yet even these are usually of
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 595
interest only as affecting men and influencing their lives. Human
actions are the perennially interesting things; and obviously,
among human actions, those certain to be most discussed are those
which diverge most from the ordinary — the victories of the cou-
rageous man, the feats of the strong man, the manoeuvres of the
cunning man. Thus in the first stages, merely from lack of other
exciting matter, there goes, after the narratives of individual suc-
cesses in the day's hunt or the day's fight, a frequent return to
the always-interesting account of the great chief's exploits, his
ordinary doings, his strong sayings. Gradually the description
and laudation of his achievements grows into a more or less
coherent narrative of his life's incidents — an incipient biography.
As a reason, too, why biography of this simple kind becomes an
early mental product, let us note that it is the simplest — the
easiest both to speaker and hearer. To tell of deeds and dangers
and escapes requires the smallest intellectual power ; and the
things told are, fully or partially, comprehensible by the lowest
intelligence. Every child proves this. The frequent request for
a story shows at once the innate liking for accounts of adven-
tures, and the small tax on the mind involved by conceptions of
adventures. And it needs but to note how the village crone, men-
tally feeble as she may be, is nevertheless full of tales about the
squire and his family, to see that mere narrative biography (I do
not speak of analytical biography) requires no appreciable effort
of thought, and for this second reason early takes shape.
Of course, as above said, biography of a coherent kind, arising
among peoples who have evolved permanent chiefs and kings,
grows gradually out of accounts of those special incidents in their
lives which the priest-poets celebrate. Let us gather together a
few facts illustrative of this development.
Its earlier stages, occurring as they do before written records
exist, can not be definitely traced — can only be inferred from the
fragmentary evidence furnished by those uncivilized men who
have made some progress. The wild tribes of the Indian hills
yield a few examples. Says Malcolm, " The Bhat is both the bard
and the chronicler of the Bhils." He also states that certain lands
of the Bhils were taken by the Rajpoots, and that—
'' Almost all the revered Bhats, or Minstrels, of the tribe, still reside in
Rajpootana, whence they make annual, biennial, and some only triennial
visits to the Southern tribes, to register remarkable events in families, par-
ticularly those connected with their marriages, and to sing to the delighted
Bheels the tale of their origin, and the fame of their forefathers."
So, too, concerning another tribe we read, in Hislop : —
" The Pdddl, also named Pathadi, Pardhan, and Desai, is a numerous
class, found in the same localities as the Raj Gonds, to whom its members
act as religious counselors (Pradhana). They are, in fact, the bhats of the
596 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
upper classes, repeating their genealogies and the exploits of their ances-
tors."
Here, then, the priest is the narrator and his narrative is bio-
graphico-historical. It consists of leading facts in the lives of
persons, and these are so joined with accounts of tribal deeds as
to form a rudimentary history.
In Africa where, for reasons before named, loyalty to the liv-
ing ruler has not usually given origin to worship of the dead
ruler, we meet with only the first stage in the development.
The king of the Zulus has '* men who perform the part of heralds in the
dances, and who now, at every convenient opportunity, recounted the various
acts and deeds of their august monarch in a string of unbroken sentences."
In Dahomey, too, the union is between the courtier and the his-
torian. In that kingdom, where women play so dominant a part,
there are, as we have seen, female laureates ; and " these trouba-
dours are the keepers of the records of the kingdom of Dahomey,
and the office, which is hereditary, is a lucrative one."
From Abyssinia we get an illustration of the way in which the
united germs of biography and history make their appearance
during burials of notables.
"Professional singing women frequently attend the funeral meetings of
great people . . . Each person in waiting takes it by turn to improvise some
verse in praise of the deceased." But "the professional singers will give
minute details of the history of his ancestry, his deeds, character, and even
his property."
When the deceased person is a conquering monarch, this funeral
laudation by professionals, the first step in apotheosis, begins a
worship in which there are united that account of his life which
constitutes a biography and that account, of his deeds which
forms the nucleus of primitive history.
From the accounts of ancient American civilizations, facts of
kindred meaning come to us. Here is a passage from Bancroft
concerning the Aztecs : —
" The preparation and guardianship of records of the higher class, such
as historical annals and ecclesiastical mysteries, were under the control of
the highest ranks of the priesthood.1*
Again we read : —
At this assembly the * Book of God ' was prepared. " In its pages were in-
scribed the Nahua annals from the time of the Deluge . . . religious rites,
governmental system, laws and social customs; their knowledge respecting
:igriculture and all the arts and sciences."
It is instructive to observe how in this sacred book, as in other
sacred books, religion, history, and biography were mingled with
secular customs and knowledge.
Early civilized societies have bequeathed similar proofs. The
biographico-historical nature of the Hebrew scriptures is conspic-
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 597
uous. As in other cases, incidents in the life of the national deity
form its first subject-matter — how God created various things on
successive days and rested on the seventh day. Accounts of his
personal doings characterize the next books, and are combined
with accounts of the doings of Adam and the patriarchs — bio-
graphical accounts. In what we are told of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, we see biography dominant and history unobtrusive. But
with the transition from a nomadic to a settled life, and the
growth of a nation, the historical element comes to the front.
Doubtless for a long time the genealogies and the leading events
were matters of common traditional knowledge ; though we may
fairly assume that the priest- class or cultured class were those
who especially preserved such knowledge. Later times give some
evidence of the connection, as instance these sentences from
Kuenen and Neubauer.
" In the eighth century B. o. the prophet of Jahveh has become a
writer."
" Upon their return from Babylon, Ezra, called ' the skilled scribe,' made
disciples who were called sopherim, ' scribes,' and whose business it was to
multiply the copies of the Pentateuch and to interpret it. ' Scribe ' and
scholar' in those days were synonymous."
A few relevant facts are afforded by the ancient books of India.
Describing some of their contents Weber says: —
History " can only fittingly be considered as a branch of poetry," both
on account of form and on account of subject-matter.
Kalhana, who wrote a history of Kashmir, in 12th cent. a. d. was ''more
poet than historian."
41 In some princely houses, family records, kept by the domestic priests,
appear to have been preserved."
From ancient Egyptian inscriptions come various evidences
of these relationships. How naturally the biographico-historical
element of literature grows out of primitive worship we see in the
fact — allied to a fact above named concerning the Abyssinians, —
that in an Egyptian tomb there was given in the ante-room an
account of the occupant's life ; and, naturally, that which was
done on a small scale with the undistinguished man was done on
a large scale with the distinguished man. We read in Brugsch
that —
The Eoyal gods of the Egyptians, who "are referred to as kings," "have
their individual history, which the holy scribes wrote down in the books of
the temples."
Here are kindred passages from Bunsen and Duncker : —
Diodorus says "the priests had in their sacred books, transmitted from
the olden time, and handed down by them to their successors in office, writ-
ten descriptions of all their kings." " In these an account is given of every
king— of his physical powers and disposition, and of the exploits of each in
the order of time."
Priests daily read to the king accounts of the achievements of distin-
598 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
guished men out of the sacred books. " We know that poems of consider-
able extent on historical subjects were in existence."
Thus it is clear that in Egypt the priests were at once the biog-
raphers and historians.
Preceding chapters have indirectly shown the primitive con-
nections between religion, biography, and history among the
Greeks. The laudation of a god's deeds, now lyrical now epical^
rhythmically uttered by his priests, involved with the sacred ele-
ment both these secular elements. But a few more specific facts
may be added.
•'The history of the Greek families and states came to be systematically
represented in a manner edifying according to the sense of the religion of
Apollo and dictated by theocratic interests."
" In and near the sanctuaries the most ancient traditions were pre-
served."
''A list was kept of the priestesses at Argos and an account of the
priestly dignity also of the Kings of Sparta . . . and thus arose historical
archives."
And then, after the secularization of rhythmical speeches or songs,
first uttered in honor of the gods, the biographico-historical char-
acter of their subject-matters is retained and developed. In hex-
ameters, first employed by the Delphic priests, Homer, in the Iliad
recites a story which, mainly historical, is in no part biographical
— the wrath of Achilles being its most pronounced motive. And
then in the Odyssey, we have a narrative which is almost wholly
biographical. But though mainly secularized, these epics have
not wholly lost the primitive sacred character ; since the gods are
represented as playing active parts.
As before said, Roman society, so heterogeneous in its compo-
sition, had its lines of normal evolution broken by intruding in-
fluences. But still we trace some connection between the priest
and the historian. According to Duruy and others —
" The pontiffs were concerned in keeping up the memory of events, as accu-
rately as possible. Thus the Romans had the Annals of the Pontiffs, or
Annates Maximi, the Fasti Magistratuum, the Fasti Triumphales, the
rolls of the censors, etc."
" Every year the chief Pontiff inscribed on a white tablet, at the head of
which were the names of the consuls and other magistrates, a daily record
of all memorable events both at home and abroad. These commentaries
or registers were afterward collected into eighty books which were entitled
by their authors Annates Maximi.''''
Further, by its associations, the body of fetiales was apparently
shown to have had some sacerdotal character.
" By the side of these two oldest and most eminent corporations of men
versed in spiritual lore may be, to some extent, ranked the college of the
twenty state heralds {fetiales, of uncertain derivation), destined as a living
repository to preserve a traditionary remembrance of the treaties concluded
with neighboring communities."
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 599
If, as is alleged, Romulus was regarded by the Romans as one
of their great gods, honored by a temple and a sacrificing priest,
it seems inferable that the story of his deeds which, mythical as
it may have chiefly been had probably some nucleus of fact, was
from time to time repeated in the laudations of his priest ; and
that the speech or hymn uttered by his priest at festivals, had,
like the kindred ones which Greek priests uttered, a biographico-
historical character.
Though but indirectly relevant to the immediate issue, it is
worth while adding that the earliest Roman historian, Ennius,
was also an epic poet — " the Homer of Latium," as he called him-
self. The versified character of early history exemplified in his
writings, as also we shall presently see in later writings, is, of
course, congruous with that still earlier union of the two, which
was seen in the laudatory narratives of the primitive priest-poet.
Of evidences furnished by Northern Europe, we meet first with
those coming from the pre-Christian world. Though the stories
of the Teutonic epic, The Nibelungen, were gathered together in
Christian times, yet they manifestly belonged to pagan times ; and
we may fairly assume were originally recited, as among other
European peoples, by attendants of the great — courtiers while
these lived, priest-poets after they died. But for a long time after
Christianity had been victorious, the Christian narrative alone, in
which, as in other primitive narratives, biography and history are
united, furnished the only subject-matter for literature, and priests
were its vehicles.
" From the fourth to the eighth century, there is no longer any profane
literature ; sacred literature stands alone ; priests only study or write ; and
they only study, they only write, save some rare exceptions, upon religious
subjects."
So, also, the 57 authors named by Guizot as belonging to the 9th
and 10th centuries (of whom only five were laymen), were doubt-
less similarly occupied.
Nevertheless, while the ordinary biographico-historical matter
which priests devoted themselves to was that which their creed
presented or suggested, there appear to have been, after the 8th
century, some cases in which such matter furnished by other than
Christian traditions, occupied them ; as in the Rolandslied and
Alexander sited, written in the 12th century by the monks Konrad
and Lamprecht.
For the rest it will suffice if we take the case of our own coun-
try. Chronicles and histories " were mostly compiled in the mon-
asteries." Taking the illustrations in order, we come first to Bede,
who was monk and historian ; Cynewulf, bishop or abbot and
writer of sacred history ; Gildas, monk and chronicler ; Asser,
6oo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
monk and biographer. The Anglo Saxon chronicle was a year-
book of events recorded by monks from the 8th to the 12th cen-
tury. After the Conquest the chief authors were still ecclesiastics,
and their works were usually chronicles or lives of saints. Among
them were Marianus Scotus, Florence of Worcester, Eadmer, Or-
dericus Vitalis, William of Malmsbury, Wace, Geoffrey Gaimar,
Henry of Huntington, Fitzstephen, Thomas of Ely, and so on
through subsequent reigns, in which the relationship continues
for a long time to be marked, but during which the rise of secu-
lar competitors in the sphere of literature becomes gradually
manifest.
Even without specification of such facts we might safely infer
that since, during mediaeval days, there was scarcely any culture
save that of ecclesiastics, the writing of biography and history
was, by the necessities of the case, limited to them.
That fiction has developed out of biography scarcely needs
proof. Unless a biographer is accurate, which even modern biog-
raphers rarely are and which ancient biographers certainly were
not, it inevitably happens that there is more or less of fancy
mingled with his fact. The same tendencies which in early times
developed anecdotes of chiefs into mythological stories of them as
gods, operated universally, and necessarily produced in narratives
of men's lives exaggerations which greatly distorted them. If we
remember the disputes among the Greeks respecting the birthplaces
of poets and philosophers we see how reckless were men's state-
ments and how largely the actual was perverted by the imaginary.
So, too, on coming down to Christian times it needs but to name
the miracles described in the lives of the saints to have abundant
proof of such vitiations. As in our own days the repeater of an
anecdote, or circulator of a scandal, is tempted to make his or her
story interesting by making much of the striking points ; so, still
more in early days, when truth was less valued than now, were
stories step by step perverted as they passed from mouth to
mouth.
Of course the narrator who gave the most picturesque version
of an adventure or achievement was preferred by listeners ; and,
of course, ever tempted to increase the imaginary additions,
passed insensibly into a maker of tales. Even children, at first
anxious to know whether the stories told them are true, by and
by become ready to accept untrue stories ; and then some of them,
thus taught by example, invent wonderful tales to interest their
companions. With the uncivilized or semi-civilized a like genesis
naturally occurs among adults. Hence the established class of
story-tellers in the East — authors of oral fictions. And how
gradually by this process fiction is differentiated from biography,
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 601
is shown by the fact that at first these stories which, as exaggera-
tions of actual incidents, are partially believed in by the narrators
are wholly believed in by the listeners. In his Three Years in a
Levantine Family Mr. Bayle St. John tells us that when The Ara-
bian Nights were being read aloud, and when he warned those
around that they must not suppose the narratives to be true, they
insisted on believing them : asking — Why should a man sit down
to write lies ? So that after fiction comes into existence it is still
classed as biography — is not distinguished from it as among civ-
ilized nations.
The early history of these civilized nations shows that in the
genesis of imaginary biography the priesthood at first took some
part. In Henry Fs time Wace, a reading clerk, was also a romance
writer. So, in the next reign, we have Walter Map, chaplain to
the king, who wrote religious and secular romances ; and there
are subsequently named romances which probably had clerical
authors though there is no proof. But the general aspect of the
facts appears to show that after that time in England, the telling
of tales of imagination became secularized.
Meanwhile derivative forms of literature were showing them-
selves, mostly, however, having a biographical element. As a
writer on Church government the Saxon abbot Dunstan diverged
somewhat from the purely clerical sphere ; and after the Conquest
Sewulf, who, becoming a monk, wrote his travels, gives us a devi-
ation into an autobiographical, as well as a geographical, form of
literature. Then in Henry II's reign we have Nigel Wireker, a
monastic who wrote a satire on the monks, as did also the chap-
lain Walter Map, in addition to his volume of anecdotes. Under
Richard I there was Geoffrey de Vinsauf, an ecclesiastic who was
also a critic of poetry, and Giraldus Cambrensis, who wrote topog-
raphy. In the reign of Henry III came the monk Mathew Paris,
who, in denouncing pope and king, wove biographical matter into
a satire. In subsequent reigns Wiclif, John Trevisa, and others,
added the function of translator to their literary functions ; and
some, as Bromyard and Lydgate, entered upon various subjects —
law, morals, theology, rhetoric. Here it is needless to accumulate
details. It is enough for us to recognize the ways in which in
early days the priest took the lead as man of letters.
Of course along with the secularization of biography, history,
and literature at large, men of letters have become more diversi-
fied in their kinds. History, at first predominantly biographical,
has divided itself. There is the unphilosophical kind, such as that
written by Carlyle, who thought the doings of great men the only
subject-matter worth dealing with, and there is the philosophical
kind, which more and more expands history into an account of
national development : Green's Short History being an example.
TOL. XLVII. — 50
602 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
Then biography, besides dividing into that kind which is written
by the man himself and that kind which is written by another,
has assumed unlike natures — the nature which is purely narra-
tive, and that which is in large measure analytical or reflective.
And besides the various classes of writers of fiction, laying their
scenes among different ranks and dealing with them in different
ways — now descriptive, now sentimental, now satirical — we have
a variety of essayists — didactic, humorous, critical, etc.
There is little to add respecting the special unions which have
accompanied these general separations. Men of letters, taken as
a whole, have only in recent times, tended to unite into corporate
bodies. The reasons are not difficult to find.
Carried on chiefly in monasteries or by endowed ecclesiastics,
the writing of books in early days had not become an occupation
pursued for the purpose of gaining a livelihood. Even after the
invention of printing there was for a long time no public large
enough to make literature a bread-winning profession ; and when,
at length, books were written to get money, miserable lives re-
sulted : such rewards as could be obtained being chiefly obtained
through the patronage of the wealthy. Indeed, it is curious to
see how the modern man of letters for a long time continued to
stand in the same relative position as did the minstrel of old. He
was a hanger-on either of the king or of the great noble, and had
to compose, if not in verse then in prose, fulsome laudations of
his patron. Only in recent days has he been emancipated, and
only by the extension of the book-buying public has it been made
possible for any considerable number of writers to make tolerable
incomes. Hence, until lately, men of letters have not been suffi-
ciently numerous to make professional union feasible.
Remembering that in France the Academy has long existed as
a literary corporation, we may note that in England our genera-
tion has witnessed movements toward integration. Forty odd
years ago an effort was made to establish a Guild of Literature
and Art, which, however, did not succeed. But we have now a
Society of Authors, as well as a special periodical giving voice to
authors' interests ; and we have sundry literary journals which,
at the same time that they are organs for criticism, bring the
body of authors into relation with the general public.
One feature of the work of the national Weather Bureau which is not
generally known consists in furnishing transcripts of its records for use as
evidence in courts of law. The report of the chief of the bureau states that
several hundred such transcripts were furnished in 189.'?. Cases involving-
large sums of money often turn upon the state of the weather, which is
especially important where perishable goods are damaged in transit.
APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES. 603
APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES.
By JOHN G. MORSE.
DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE
COLUMBUS. XIX.
[Concluded. ]
ONE of the most important modem additions to fire- fighting
apparatus is the water tower. This invention has so greatly
aided in flooding out fires that it will be no exaggeration to say
that the date of its introduction marks another era in the history
of fire-fighting in this country. Quite appropriately, in the cen-
tennial year, 1876, Mr. John Logan, a machinist in the employ of
Mr. Abner Greenleaf, of Baltimore, invented a contrivance that
was encumbered with the long name of " a portable standpipe
fire-extinguishing apparatus." For convenience this term has
been shortened to " water tower." Mr. Greenleaf was so sure of
the future usefulness of the invention that he immediately made
a full-sized machine which was completed in 1879. The ap-
paratus consisted of a firmly built crane-neck truck, in the center
of which rested a length of pipe supported on a pair of trunnions.
Two more sections of pipe that could be coupled to the first
section were carried detached. The three sections measured fifty
feet when at full length and were braced with wire ropes. By
turning a hand-screw at the back, the trunnions revolved and the
pipe assumed an upright position. The nozzle at the top was
controlled by guide ropes, and as the pipe was raised the lower
end swung under the truck and could be connected to one, two, or
three steam fire engines.
The great advantage claimed was that a powerful stream
•could be directed at short range on a fire in the upper stories of a
building when a stream from the ground would spray and strike
the ceiling, and when the heat would prevent a fireman from
directing a stream from the top of a ladder. The later develop-
ment and use of the water tower has proved this claim to be well
founded. If the buildings opposite a fire are ignited, one sweep
of the water-tower stream will be of more avail than several
streams from the ground. Many other advantages could be
named. The first water tower was put on trial in the New York
Fire Department, and was so successful that it was purchased by
the authorities. Firemen generally were greatly pleased, and the
press lauded the inventor in praiseworthy terms. The Fireman's
Journal of September 4, 1880, alluded to the water tower as
follows :
" This apparatus is really the only absolutely new appliance
604
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY
for fire extinguishment that has been invented since the steam
fire engine was introduced. There have been improvements in
engines, ladders, hose, and rolling stock of all kinds, but of new
inventions, original in all respects and of practical utility, there
have been none for over twenty years."
Other towers were built for different cities, Boston buying
one in 1882 that was destroyed in the great fire of Thanksgiving
day, 1889. A few years later Messrs. Ashworth and Petrie, of the
Chicago Fire Department, had built in the repair shops a telescop-
ing brass tower of similar description, which is in use to-day in
the Chicago Department. In 1888 Chief Hale, of the Kansas City
Fire Department, invented a water tower that practically replaced
Fig. 13. — Greenleaf Water Tower.
the Greenleaf. The Kansas City Fire Department Supply Com-
pany took up the manufacture of the new machine. Two telescop-
ing square steel shafts rest on trunnions at the forward end of the
truck and a chemical engine takes the place of a hand-screw in
raising the tower into position. The inner shaft, lined with hose,
is raised by cable and pulleys, drawing after it a length of hose
that is already attached to receiving nozzles at the base. The
delivery nozzle is under perfect control by the aid of guide ropes-
The tower is made in different sizes, varying from thirty to sixty
feet in height.
In 1893 the Fire Extinguisher Manufacturing Company, of
Chicago, placed on the market the Champion water tower, that
differs essentially from the Hale tower. This was the invention
of their superintendent, Mr. E. Steck, who has done much impor-
tant work in the way of ladder trucks, chemical engines, and other
fire appliances. Hand power replaces the chemical engine in rais-
APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES.
605
ing, and the shape of the truck brings the base of the telescopic
pipe much nearer the ground, enabling the men in charge to stand
on terra fir ma. Two jacks act as adjustable legs to add steadiness
while in action. The water con-
nection is made by means of a
three or four way Siamese coup-
ling that rests on the ground, thus
giving a free course to the stream.
This tower can be raised to a
much greater height than could
previous towers. The above-men-
tioned company has recently pur-
chased all the Hale patents, and
now virtually controls the build-
ing of water towers in this coun-
try. Every large department in
the United States is equipped with
one or more towers, and the small-
er cities are rapidly following the
example. The Davol tower is a
very useful contrivance manufac-
tured by the Cornelius Callahan
Company, of Boston. It is a curved
nozzle attached to a flexible pipe,
and can be placed on the upper
rungs of an extension ladder. A
guide rope enables a fireman
to direct the stream from the
ground. Recent tests have
shown that a great deal of
force is lost in a
stream from the
water tower on ac-
count of
the fric-
tion, and
there is
still much
for
room
improve-
ment in
this piece
of appa-
Fig. 14. — Hale Watep. Tower.
ratus. The small hose reels adopted in the early part of the cen-
tury were the forerunners of the large and gayly decorated four-
wheeled reels used by the volunteer hose companies. After the
APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES.
607
introduction of steam fire engines two and four wheeled reels, drawn
by horses, were used as tenders. These have been replaced to a
great extent by the modern hose wagon. It is claimed that hose
can be drawn from flat coils in a wagon with greater rapidity than
from a reel, and when once the hose is out the wagon can be used
as an ambulance or to bring supplies. It will be impossible to
give the names of the manufacturers of hose reels and wagons,
for not only are innumerable firms engaged in the business, but
often the apparatus is furnished by local carriage builders. All
the makers of steam and hand fire engines and ladder trucks
manufacture hose wagons and carriages of every variety.
For many years the only hose generally used was made of
leather, but to-day this has been practically replaced by either
Fig. 16. — Hand Hose Carriage.
rubber or fabric. Samuel Eastman & Company, East Concord,
N. H., make a specially tanned leather hose that is riveted to-
gether in such a manner that the friction is reduced to a mini-
mum. The nature of the material makes it possible to place per-
manent leather straps at frequent intervals, thereby aiding the
firemen in handling.
Rubber hose is made by combining fabric with solid rubber.
In heavy hose an inner lining of rubber is combined with light
cotton, and an outside lining is combined with heavier cotton.
These two are firmly cemented together with the laps on opposite
sides. It has been seen that fabric hose was invented in Holland
in 1672, but generally discarded as being impracticable. The
early canvas hose of this century was made of sail cloth riveted
together, and was never very successful. The jacket hose of to-
day is woven seamless and lined with rubber. Another seamless
6o8
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY
jacket is pulled over this, and as many more as may be desired,
the heaviest hose being four or five ply. The fabric is treated
with chemicals that it may be rot-proof, and the rubber lining is
either made by cementing in a sheet of rubber, thereby making
one long seam the length of the hose, or by a patented process, in
making a seamless lining from melted rubber. The number of
companies in the United States engaged either wholly or partly
in the manufacture of rubber or fabric fire hose is too numerous
to mention.
Fire hose must not only stand the heavy pressure of the pow-
erful streams, but it must not be affected by the wear and tear of
being drawn over rough pavements and around various corners
while the heavy pressure is on. It must not absorb so much water
Fig. 17. — Hose Wagon.
from the outside that it becomes too heavy to handle, nor should
it be of a nature to allow mud to adhere to its surface. The in-
terior lining must be absolutely smooth, as the slightest friction
materially affects the force of the stream. Fire hose has to be
washed in a washing machine, and then dried by hanging in hose
towers, after every fire, otherwise the length of its life would be
greatly lessened.
Suction hose is of large diameter. It is made of heavy rubber,
and wound either inside or out with round or flat wire to give it
strength. When water is drawn from a hydrant the suction hose
is coupled to an opening of its size, but a large strainer is always
carried to use when taking water from the harbor, lakes, etc.
There are a great many different hose couplings in use, both
screw and snap. The Rhode Island Coupling Company, of Provi-
dence, and many other firms engaged in the manufacture of other
apparatus, furnish the screw couplings. The National Coupling
Company, of Pomona, Cal., has introduced a very serviceable
APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES.
609
snap coupling that fastens with a catch, needing no screw. The
representative firemen of this country have tried for many years
to adopt a universal coup-
ling, as a difference in
screw threads often causes
serious delays. Owing
to the enormous expense
that would be incurred in
changing every depart-
ment to one standard, the
efforts in that direction
have so far been unsuc-
cessful.
The Siamese coupling
is a very simple contriv-
ance that has one large
opening on one side, and
two, three, or four smaller
openings on the other. By
use of this, several fire
streams can be converted
into one powerful body
of water. In some cases
these couplings are pro-
vided with valves so that
one or more of the differ-
ent lines of hose can be
shut off if necessary. The
Siamese coupling has been
referred to in connection with the Champion water tower. A
reducing coupling is also made by which a hose of large diameter
can be coupled to a smaller line, and thus prevent water damage
at an incipient fire.
Hose nozzles have been varied to suit about every requirement
of the firemen. The outlets of the ordinary nozzles vary, being in
some cases a smooth bore, and in others lessened in size by a ring.
The larger nozzles are sometimes provided
with an inner tube that will make a division
in the stream, and therefore tend to close the
stream on itself and prevent spraying. In
some cases the nozzle is divided into sections
to destroy the revolving motion of the stream,
and one nozzle is made with a small hollow
tube in the center. The stream having an
air space, closes upon it and hangs together
zle showing Ring, for a longer time. The solid body of the noz-
Fig. 18. — Perfection Nozzle-Holder.
610 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
zle is generally wound with cord to give better holding surface,
and again the solid body is replaced by a flexible pipe made of
cotton-lined rubber wound with wire. This device enables the
fireman to change the direction of the pipe when at close quarters.
Spray and shut-off nozzles are used that can instantly reduce the
size of the stream or change it into a fine spray. The ball nozzle
is one of the latest inventions in this direction. A funnel-shaped
opening contains a ball that, when not in use, is held in place by
a light staple. When the stream is playing, however, the ball is
forced into the opening by outside pressure and an extensive
spray is the result. The cellar pipe is a modification of an ordi-
nary nozzle. Being bent and in some cases formed in the shape
of a letter S, it can be thrust through the floor and the stream
easily delivered in any direction. A similar contrivance is used
to extinguish a blaze between the ceiling and roof of a flat-roofed
building. The distributing nozzle consists of a metal globe pro-
vided with several nozzlelike outlets. This globe is attached to
the end of a line of hose, and the force of the stream causes it to
revolve and distribute a number of small powerful streams in
every direction. This is especially efficient when hung in a sub-
basement that is filled with smoke. There are also small sprin-
kling nozzles used to clear a smoky room.
The enormous force of a fire stream renders it a difficult mat-
ter to retain control, and many are the accidents reported of fire-
men who have been disabled by failing to hold the nozzle. The
Perfection nozzle holder, manufactured by Samuel Eastman &
Company, of East Concord, N. H., is composed of two bars be-
tween which the nozzle lies securely strapped. Two handles are
on each side, and a removable bar is carried, that can be let down
to the ground as a brace. An inner ring at the end of the nozzle,
called the Hopkins patent, destroys the twisting tendency, and
the ground brace carries off; any electric current with which the
stream may come in contact. One man can safely direct a stream
that ordinarily would require two or three to hold it.
Breaks in hose are mended by strapping a prepared sleeve to
the injured part, or inserting a convex brass plate under the break
and clamping to it a corresponding concave plate from the out-
side. To facilitate pulling hose up a ladder, through a window,
or over the edge of a roof, a simple hook-shaped frame, provided
with rollers, called the Bresnan hose hoist, is used.
The absolute shut-off nozzles can not be used without bursting
the hose, unless the engine or hydrant is provided with an auto-
matic relief valve that will open and allow the water to run back
into the suction pipe. The valve can be regulated to suit the
pressure that the hose will stand. During the sixties several
valves were tried, the first very successful one being that invented
.
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612 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
by Mr. Alvarado Mayer, a member of the Detroit Fire Depart-
ment, in 1809. Mr. L. D. Shaw, of Boston, also introduced a suc-
cessful valve in 187-4. Since then there have been a number of
different valves in use. Mr. Cornelius Callahan, of Canton, Mass.,
perfecting one in the neighborhood of 1888. These three are
about the only ones in general use to-day.
It has been seen that the first ladder trucks were introduced at
the beginning of this century, and the patterns then adopted have
been followed more or less to the present day. Portable escapes
were invented by the score, some in the form of extension ladders,
others as lazy tongs, and others in the form of cranes, by which a
bucket could be raised and lowered. None of these came into
general use, because they had not reached a stage of development
at which apparatus of that nature could be made light and strong
enough to be practicable. The ordinary ladder truck consists of
a long frame, with crossbars at different heights provided with
rollers. These are equipped with several ladders of different
lengths, and an extension ladder. The latter is a combination of
ladders that slide over each other by means of a chain and pulley.
The whole length is rested against a building, and the center is
supported by props. The Bangor Extension Ladder Company
and several others make ladders of this kind. The Gleason &
Bailey Manufacturing Company, the Stewarts, C. T. Holloway,
Seagrave & Company, P. J. Cooney, and some of the engine-
makers, manufacture ladder trucks that differ simply in minor
details too numerous to describe.
The aerial truck consists chiefly of an extension ladder that
rests on trunnions on a turntable at the forward end of the truck.
The extension ladder is raised in much the same manner as is the
water tower, and when erect is capable of supporting itself with
several working firemen without resting against a building. The
Hayes, the Gleason & Bailey, the Arrow, and the Babcock are
among those well known. The aerial trucks carry a full comple-
ment of ladders.
The largest ladder trucks are provided with a steering wheel
over the rear axle to facilitate the turning of corners, and Mr.
Steck, of Chicago, has invented a depressed rear axle which lends
stability to the truck, while a lever in place of a steering wheel
directs the rear wheels.
In addition to the regular ladders, a variety of apparatus is
carried on every truck. The axes, or hooks as they are called, are
too well known to need description. In olden times large, heavy
hooks were used to tear down buildings, but these have since been
abandoned. It is interesting to note in this connection that as
late as 1857 the Scientific American published an illustration of
an enormous hook mounted on wheels. The hook was intended
APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES.
613
to be attached to a house and pulled by a crowd of men until the
house collapsed. Probably a hook of this nature was never used.
The firemen of to-day extinguish a fire instead of being content
to stop it within certain boundaries, unless an extensive confla-
gration renders it necessary to raze buildings by dynamite. The
hooks of to-day are used to cut through into a hidden fire, and for
other purposes of like nature.
The pompier or scaling ladder is a most necessary article, and
is used in connection with the distinct pompier service. Christ
Hoell, of St. Louis, who had served in European pompier com-
panies, believed that the system could be advantageously intro-
duced into this country. In 1877 he formed a volunteer company
in St. Louis, and drilled the men in
the use of the apparatus connected
with the system. The members of
the city government were so pleased
with the exhibition given by this
volunteer company that the system
was introduced into the fire depart-
ment, under Chief Engineer Sex-
ton, in December of the same year.
Since then the pompier service has
found its way into all large depart-
ments, and many cities support
training schools that every fireman
may be thoroughly drilled. The
pompier ladder is made of one pole,
from twelve to eighteen feet long,
provided with cross-rungs. At one
end an iron hook projects at right
angles from two to three feet. By the aid of this ladder one man
can scale the side of a building by putting the hook over a win-
dow-sill above, climbing the ladder, and repeating the operation.
If flames are coming from the window directly above, the window
at the side is used, and the fireman has to swing into position
by the aid of his ladder. Two men with two ladders can climb
together much more speedily, as they take turns in steadying each
other's ladders. The pompier fireman wears a belt, in the front
of which is a snap-hook. He also carries a hatchet and a coil of
rope one hundred feet long. By fastening the rope to some con-
venient point, and taking two turns round the snap-hook, he can
descend rapidly and safely. If carrying a person with him, an-
other turn of rope is taken round the hook. A long canvas chute
is sometimes carried, through which inmates of a burning build-
ing can slide to the ground.
The "grip-sack," or what is more generally called the life net,.
s=^^%- ± k:
Fig. 21. — Aerial Truck.
Fig. 22. — Scaling a Building with Fompier Ladders.
APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES. 615
is a piece of leather-bound canvas, ten feet square. Handles
along the sides enable a group of firemen to hold the net taut
to catch any one who may jump from above. The life net did not
originate in this country with the pompier service. Canvas nets
have been in use for some time, and at the present day their place
is being taken by circular rope nets that are more yielding. Be-
ing formed in a circle, each man obtains a direct pull from the
center. The Hunter net is composed of a spiral of rope, and the
Empire net is made of concentric circles of rope, the ropes in each
case being supported with radial lines. It is a most difficult
matter to hold a life net securely and receive the shock of a fall-
ing body. When a man has jumped from an upper story, pos-
sibly sixty feet above the street, and his helpless body suddenly
emerges from a cloud of smoke and flame that is pouring from
lower windows, the firemen must instantly have the net directly
under him and then brace themselves to receive the shock. The
pompier ladders, etc., are also often carried on hose wagons, that
every chance may be given to put them in use at the earliest
moment.
There are several other articles carried on ladder trucks. The
life gun or life pistol is used to shoot a slug or arrow, to which is
attached a loosely coiled rope, over the roof of a building. The
inmates can then pull up a stronger rope and descend to the
ground. There are also short roof ladders with hooks to cling-
over the ridge-pole, and some departments carry a tripod ladder
that may be stood under an electric wire, where a fireman with
insulated shears can remove the dangerous obstruction. This
ladder is the invention of Captain Griffin, of the Boston Fire De-
partment. The ram, a heavy battering pole worked by three or
more men, held a place in departments for a long time, and was
used to batter down doors, etc. This is being replaced to a great
extent by the Detroit door opener, a simple prying device which
rips the entire lock out of place or the door off its hinges in a
shorter space of time than that in which the same could be
battered down. Ladder trucks are also provided with chemical
extinguishers, rubber blankets, medicines for burns, and several
sundries.
Although the protective departments had a forerunner in
some of the early fire companies whose members carried canvas
bags to be used in saving property, the insurance companies did
not introduce their patrols or salvage corps for several years
later. Some of the insurance companies of New York in 1839
organized a corps of bagmen, who saved what they could of en-
dangered property. Later a two-wheeled hand wagon, supplied
with half a dozen rubber covers, was put in service. Later a per-
manent station, equipped with a four-wheeled wagon, drawn by
6i6
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
horses, was established. To-day there are several stations with
nine wagons and a Silsby steam fire engine, which latter is used
to pump out cellars. In Boston, as early as 1849, the insurance
firm of Dobson & Jordan employed some men to carry bags
holding oil covers. In 1858 these were carried on Ladder No. 1.
In 18G8 an old milk wagon was purchased by the insurance com-
panies and filled with covers, brooms, shovels, etc. A regular
protective department was established in 1870. The insurance
companies in all large cities now support protective departments,
and in some places an effort is now on foot to merge them into the
regular fire departments.
All departments are equipped with supply wagons that re-
semble hose wagons in their construction and carry baskets of
coal, extra hose, etc., to every fire. In 1879 the New York de-
partment built a wrecking truck. The Boston department built
Fig. 23. — Wrecking Trick.
a similar truck in 1893. So far as learned, these are the only dis-
tinct wrecking trucks in use. The truck is long and low and sup-
plied with a variety of tools for making repairs on apparatus at a
fire. An extra wheel, hose, nozzles, etc., are also carried. On
one side of the truck is a vise, and on the other a chemical ex-
tinguisher.
In 1883 the New York City Department tried the experiment
of building a five thousand gallon tank, mounting it on wheels
and drawing it to some place between the water front and a fire,
that the fire-boats might pump into it and the engines draw there-
from. The apparatus proved unsuccessful, however, and has been
abandoned.
The wheels used on fire apparatus have to be of unusual
strength to stand the heavy weights, great speed over rough
pavements, slewing in car tracks, and other strains that would
demolish ordinary wheels. In the Archibald wheel the tire,
spokes, and hub are put together under heavy pressure. The
APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES. 617
hub is of malleable iron, from which a flange extends on the
inner side of the wheel. An outer removable flange is bolted
through the spokes to the inner flange. The Sarven wheel has a
wooden hub with an outer and inner flange that are pressed into
position and then bolted through the spokes. The Warner wheel
has a wooden hub upon which is shrunk a solid metal band with
openings to receive the spokes. The spokes are driven through
the openings into mortises cut in the hubs to receive them. The
Archibald wheel is made by a company of that name in Law-
rence, Mass. The Sarven and Warner, and some other wheels
not described, are made by several different firms.
A distinct feature of American fire apparatus is the swinging
harness, which is too well known to need description. There are
several kinds in use, and much conflicting testimony uttered in
regard to their priority. In a decision rendered by the United
States Circuit Court, sitting at Kansas City, Mo., it was stated
that swinging harness was used as early as 1843 by Dr. B. F.
Whitney, of Loudonville, Ohio; in 1871, by the fire departments
of Allegheny City, Pa., and St. Joseph, Mo., and by the Hughes
Brewery, Cleveland, Ohio ; and in 1872, by the Louisville (Ky.)
Fire Department. The writer is informed by Major Edward
Hughes, chief of the Louisville department, that Mr. Thomas
Pendegrast, a member of that department, invented the first
harness used there. Mr. Edward O. Sullivan invented a swing-
ing harness in 1875, which was first manufactured by the Wors-
wick Manufacturing Company, and also by Isaac Kidd, of Cleve-
land. In 1880, Mr. Charles E. Berry, of Cambridge, Mass.,
invented a harness which he still manufactures; and in 1885,
Chief George C. Hale, of the Kansas City Fire Department, in-
vented a harness that is now manufactured by the Fire Depart-
ment Supply Company of that city. The sliding pole, by which
firemen facilitate their descent from the second story of the
engine house, was invented by Captain B. F. Bache, of the Louis-
ville Fire Department. In nearly all engine houses the steamers
are kept connected with boilers, and an automatic lighter kindles
the fire as the engine starts in response to an alarm.
When it was first found necessary to have some warning sig-
nals upon fire apparatus, tinkling bells were used, and in many
cases a fireman would run ahead, blowing a bugle. The intro-
duction of horse cars made bells so universal in our streets that
clanging gongs were substituted in their place on apparatus.
The cable and trolley cars of to-day being exclusively provided
with gongs, in many instances the fire officials have returned to
the use of tinkling bells, although the bugle is still used.
The use of sail cars, introduced in Salem, Mass., and vicinity
in 1774, was continued as late as 1843. The Scientific American
VOL. XLVII. 51
618 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
of 1857 illustrates a truck carrying a roll of sheet iron that can
be raised to form a screen ; and in 1872 another is pictured com-
posed of plates that can be raised one above another. The mod-
ern high buildings make such apparatus useless at the present
time.
The numerous hand pumps would not receive notice here,
were it not for the fact that one of them has been incorporated
into a regular fire department. The Johnson pump, made by the
National Manufacturing Company of Boston, is composed of a
vertical cylinder and piston, provided with an air chamber. A
short piece of hose that can be held in the hand is attached near
the top. The pump is placed in a pail of water, and an adjust-
able clamp enables the operator to steady both pail and pump.
Mr. Joseph Bird, in his interesting book entitled Protection
against Fire, emphatically advocates the extended use of this
pump, in addition to the existing apparatus. The experiment
has been tried in Wakefield, Mass., with gratifying results. Al-
most a hundred of these pumps are owned by the town authori-
ties and distributed in easily accessible places over the town.
Every year a majority of the fires are quenched in their incipi-
ency by some citizen with the aid of one of the pumps, and the
steam fire engine is therefore seldom called upon to answer an
alarm where a moment's delay might result in a large fire. The
United States Government uses these pumps for the same pur-
pose in armories, etc.
Some experiments have been made in the way of running an
electric wire with each line of hose, that a fireman with a tele-
graph key or push-button at the nozzle may notify the engineer
by telegraph or prearranged bell siguals when to turn the water
on and off, when help is needed, etc. The idea is a good one, but
as yet has not been entirely perfected, as in dragging a line of
hose through a burning building the wire may become broken at
a critical moment when it is most needed.
Bicycles are being introduced in some European departments
to enable the men to reach the fires as soon as possible. In some
cases small chemical extinguishers are attached. As yet very
little has been done in this line in America. The hose wagons
and ladder trucks so well accommodate the men that the need of
bicycles has not been greatly felt.
It does not come within the scope of this article to mention
the fire-alarm telegraph, the stationary fire equipment of build-
ings, fire escapes, etc. It is also hardly necessary to mention the
numerous lanterns, trumpets, uniforms, and other objects of like
nature. The historical data at the beginning of the article are
doubtless incomplete, for historians generally give very little
attention to the primitive methods that were so long in use in
VARIATION IN THE HABITS OF ANIMALS. 619
every city. The American fireman is to-day equipped with the
finest apparatus in the world for extinguishing fires and. saving
life, but he is badly handicapped by the town and city govern-
ments on every hand, who will not modify loose building laws or
strengthen slight fire restrictions.*
VARIATION IN THE HABITS OF ANIMALS.
By GERTRUDE GROTTY DAVENPORT.
IN the introduction to his Animal Life as Affected by the Nat-
ural Conditions of Existence, Carl Semper wrote, in 1879 : " It
appears to me that of all the properties of the animal organism,
Variability is that which may first and most easily be traced by
exact investigation to its efficient causes ; and, as it is beyond a
doubt the subject around which at the present moment the strife
of opinion is most violent, it is that which will be most likely to
repay the trouble of closer research."
Among other sorts of variability discussed by Semper, that
which concerns the change of food habits of animals receives con-
sideration, and several examples illustrating such changes — pol-
yphagy — are cited. For instance, on page 62 the story of the New
Zealand parrot (Nestor mirabilis) is told. This parrot, which
formerly fed upon the juices of plants and flowers, has acquired
the habit of sipping the blood of newly slaughtered sheep, and
thereby has come to develop such a love for the taste of blood
that it will now alight upon living sheep and peck at the "most
minute wounds." Another case is told of two horses in Chili
which had developed the habit of eating young pigeons and
chickens.
A great many other interesting cases of variability in food
habits might be collected by a little observation and by compila-
tion. Two such cases at least have come under my own observa-
tion. On a farm in Coffey County, Kansas, a few years ago, there
* In compiling the data for this article the writer wishes to acknowledge the services
rendered by all the manufacturers of fire apparatus, especially the American Eire Engine
Company, the La France Fire Engine Company, S. F. Hayward & Company, and the
Gleason & Bailey Manufacturing Company. Also the personal assistance of the chiefs of
the Bangor, Boston, Hartford, New York, and Louisville Fire Departments ; Mr. James R.
Newhall, the Lynn historian; Mr. Arthur W. Brayley, author of the History of the Boston
Fire Department; Mr. Albert C. Winsor, Secretary of the Providence Veteran Fire Associa-
tion ; Mr. Amos Perry, Secretary of the Rhode Island Historical Society ; Mr. A. D. Nicker-
aon, Pawtucket; Mr. William Cowles, of the Cowles Engineering Company; Mr. Talcott
Williams, of the Philadelphia Press ; Mr. Abner Greenleaf, of Baltimore ; and Mr. E. Steck,
Superintendent of the Fire Extinguisher Manufacturing Company, of Chicago.
62o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY
were several horses and mules which greedily devoured the eggs
laid in their mangers by improvident hens. I believe that this
habit is not uncommon. At any rate, I have been told of several
instances in which this same practice has been acquired by other
horses. Also upon this farm, during the winter of 1887, a milch
cow and a fully grown pig were shut up together in the same lot.
This cow, which had been furnishing milk bountifully, suddenly,
about a month after her confinement in the lot with the pig,
ceased to supply milk at all. At first she was accused of " stub-
bornly holding her milk," but after several days it was decided
that some one was stealing her milk. A careful watch was then
kept, and the thief proved to be the pig.
Another kind of variability which is displayed by wild birds
has received not a little attention from ornithologists — namely,
that which they exhibit in their nesting habits. From the ob-
servations of Coues, Ridgway, and Allen, we learn that not only
in regard to the place, but also in regard to the manner of build-
ing their nests, do birds display considerable variation. Also we
know that among wild birds the male aids much more in the rear-
ing of broods than do the males of our various domestic fowls.
The wild male often takes turns with the female in sitting on the
incubating eggs, and in some instances the male assumes the
entire responsibility of rearing a hatched brood while his mate
builds a new nest and lays another set of eggs. Domestication
seems to have obliterated much of this parental instinct in our
male fowls. When, perhaps by reversion, we find such instinct
to be developed in our domestic male fowls, we are at once im-
pressed by the unusualness of the occurrence. I know of no
instance recorded in which parental instinct seemed to be so fully
developed in the male of any of our domestic fowls as in the fol-
lowing case. In the poultry yard upon a farm in La Salle County,
Illinois, there was but one pair of turkeys. The hen, one spring,
stole away, made her a nest in some hiding place, and in due time
began to incubate her eggs. After her disappearance the male
became exceedingly lonely. Sometimes he would follow her in
her tortuous retreat to the nest after a visit to the house for food ;
but he returned later, more disconsolate than ever. He strove to
make friends with the other fowls, but found none which seemed
to realize his loneliness and give him sympathy or affection.
After ten days or so of this dreary neglect he gave up in despair
and began to sit upon a deserted nest of hen's eggs which he dis-
covered under some shrubbery in a corner of the lawn. From
that time on he seemed as contented, important, and preoccupied
as any sitting hen. He would not leave the nest until driven by
absolute need of food and water. Then he would run to the feed-
ing-pans, greedily swallow a few grains of corn and a gulp of
VARIATION IN THE HABITS OF ANIMALS. 6zi
water, and dive again for his nest. As soon as his owners felt
convinced that he wished to rear a brood of his own, he was sup-
plied with fresh hen's eggs. He continued thus to persist in his
conduct for more than two weeks. Then the turkey hen appeared
in the poultry yard with her brood. During that day the male
turkey was observed to take food frequently. His visits to the
poultry yard became more and more prolonged, while the inter-
vals spent upon the eggs grew shorter and shorter, until finally,
after the elapse of two or possibly three days, the nest of hen's
eggs was abandoned altogether. From that time on he shared
with the turkey hen the care of the brood of his own kind. The
abandoned eggs were placed under a hen and hatched in a few
days. This instance is not without interest as it stands, but it is
much to be regretted that the eggs did not hatch while the male
turkey sat upon them. Would he have abandoned his living-
brood with the same or with more reluctance than he showed in
deserting the eggs, or would he have reared his adopted offspring ?
One other most remarkable instance of a change of habit came
under my observation also in Coffey County, Kansas. The indi-
viduals which showed a change of habit in this instance were
birds in the wild state — namely, blue jays (Cyanocitta cristata).
I say individuals, for a score or even scores of blue jays were
concerned. These all adopted the same peculiar practice in their
warfare with the so-called English sparrow (Passer domesticus),
and, moreover, have preserved this habit for at least three succes-
sive years.
Since the arrival of the aggressive English sparrow much
apprehension has been felt by bird-loving Americans regarding
the fate of native American birds. As the area of distribution of
the English sparrow rapidly widened, just so rapidly our native
birds seemed to be brought into violent conflict with the garru-
lous stranger, or else they were driven to abandon to the new-
comer their nesting sites and retire into the forests or prairies.
The question arose as to whether the English sparrow itself on
account of numbers would be driven from the cities and towns to
take up nesting sites about country barns and farmhouses. The
Report of the United States Department of Agriculture for the
year 1889 on The English Sparrow (Passer domesticus) in North
America, especially in its Relation to Agriculture, contains com-
munications from many parts of the country testifying, not only
to the destruction wrought by this sparrow in gardens and upon
ripening grain fields, but also to the fact that few American
birds seem to be able to resist the aggressions of this sparrow, and
many therefore are compelled to abandon their nests to the in-
truders, even after their eggs have been deposited or are in process
of incubation.
622 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
But the relations of our native birds to the English sparrow
seem now to be undergoing a change. F. H. Kirncoll (Auk, vol.
vi, July, 1894, p. 261) has stated that in many localities in Illi-
nois the English sparrow and native birds are now found nesting
side by side, where only a few years ago the English sparrow
occupied all the desirable nesting sites, and assumed so aggres-
sive an attitude toward native birds that one rarely saw a native
bird nesting in the regions inhabited by the English sparrow.
"Either," he writes, "our native birds have unexpectedly de-
veloped powers of resistance at first unsuspected, or the pug-
nacity of the English sparrow has diminished, for certainly our
own songsters have not been driven away, but, on the contrary,
seem as numerous as they were twenty years ago. For the past
two or three years, since my attention was first called to the
matter, I have seen but little if any persecution of our native
birds by the foreign sparrows ; on the contrary, our own birds are
now often the aggressors, and if they do not indulge in persecu-
tion themselves are adepts at defense. Very commonly a jaj^,
robin, or catbird will from pure mischief hustle a flock of spar-
rows into desperate flight."
I find, on referring to the Government report of 1889, that the
English sparrow has been present in the town of Burlington,
Kansas, for ten or twelve years. My own attention was not at-
tracted particularly to these birds until after they had been there
for several years. Upon returning to Burlington in 1889, I began
to look about upon the lawn for my old bird friends, and found
none of them. Upon inquiry, I was told that they had all been
driven away by the English sparrow. The wren house was oc-
cupied by sparrows. The martins, robins, bluebirds, and cat-
birds had all resisted according to their various strengths, and
had been worsted in the conflict. The lawn under consideration
is one peculiarly attractive to birds on account of its bountiful
supply of shade trees. There is a long walk upon it completely
shaded by apple and pear trees, of which the ripening fruit proves
attractive to insects all summer long, while the fruit itself is no
less enticing to bird than insect. On one side of the lawn there
are cherry trees with their tempting fruit, and on the adjoining
lots a large kitchen garden with its ripening seeds, berries, and
freshly turned loam. Altogether this place furnishes a paradise
for parent birds. The house itself was covered with vines of the
Virginia and trumpet creepers. Within these vines the English
sparrow took up its abode and soon so increased in numbers as
to be able to mob any other bird that ventured on the premises.
(July one pair of blue jays stubbornly clung to their nest in an
apple tree. With this pair was throughout the summer waged one
long and bitter warfare.
VARIATION IN THE HABITS OF ANIMALS. 623
Upon my return the following summer the number of jays had
increased and the conflict was much less one-sided. In June, 1891,
early the first morning after my return again to Burlington, I
heard on the lawn the screeching of a hen hawk. The English
sparrows shot in terror into the verandas and among the vines
upon the house. Upon inquiry, I was told that the hawks had
been chasing the sparrows all spring, and was assured by our col-
ored cook that " dis country am coram' to 'struction sub, when de
hawks come to town." I had never known of an instance where
hawks had entered a town several miles in area, and supposed
that they were made so bold on account of the attraction such
an abundance of sparrow food afforded. The cry of the hawk,
however, seemed shriller and more satanic than any hawk cry I
had ever heard before. Indeed, there was a suggestion of a
mocking laugh in these hawk screams. I wondered if this change
in tone was due to the new environment of the hawk, to the fact
that it was dealing with such helpless prey, or whether the cry
came from a hawk new to me.
With these questions in mind I watched carefully for days,
without even catching a glimpse of the hawks, although they
screamed at intervals all day long among the trees. Each time
the demonic scream began the sparrows seemed almost paralyzed
with terror, and the hens would hustle their broods into the barn
or under the shrubbery. One day, while lying in a hammock
watching some sparrows devour a fallen apple, I was startled by
the screams of a hawk in the tree just above me. Upon looking
upward I discovered that my elusive bird was no other than a
blue jay. The fallen apple was abandoned by the sparrows in
their fright and the jay sought its nest in a tree near by. For
several weeks longer the blue jays always concealed themselves
in the trees before they gave their adopted yell, but later in the
summer they did not even take the precaution of alighting in the
trees before screaming, but sat boldly in view upon the fence,
screamed while in flight, and even followed the sparrows into
their retreat among the vines. In a few instances they destroyed
the sparrows' eggs or young.
For a time the ability thus to imitate the hawk seemed to be
confined to the blue jays nesting upon this one lawn. Of'ttimes
these blue jays would rush to the rescue of other blue jays on
neighboring lawns. Eventually, however, other blue jays learned
the cry, and in the following summer I heard it on the other side
of the town some two miles or more away. The second summer
after this imitation of the hawk began, other native birds returned
in small numbers. The blue jays often made themselves cham-
pions of these returned exiles. The other birds, however, soon
learned to resist the English sparrow on their own account.
624 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
About a year ago the vines were almost entirely torn away
from the house, and in consequence the English sparrow, having
no place of refuge from the blue jays, has deserted this lawn. The
blue jays now seem to take greater pleasure in routing a venture-
some sparrow by means of their own natural call, and have re-
course to the imitation of the hawk only as a last resort.
The catbird and robin seem to have learned from the blue jay
the efficacy of a vigorous, angry call, and now fight successfully
their own battles. Last summer a bluebird nested and sang
freely in the trees. Even the wrens ventured to build on a beam
in the carriage shed, although they seemed ver}7 shy and were
rarely heard to sing.
In Ornithological Notes from the West, by J. A. Allen (Ameri-
can Naturalist, vol. vi, p. 18), I find the following references to the
blue jays which were observed by him at Leavenworth, Kansas :
"The blue jay (Cyanura cristatus) was equally at home and as
vivacious and even more gayly colored than at the north. While
he seemed to have forgotten none of the droll notes and fantastic
ways one always expects from him, he has here added to his man-
ners the familiarity that usually characterizes him in the more
newly settled parts of the country, and anon surprised us with
some new expression of his feelings or sentiments — some unex-
pected eccentricity in his varied notes, perhaps developed by his
southern surroundings."
Robert Ridgway, in Volume VIII of The American Natu-
ralist, refers to the above instance and others cited by Mr. Allen.
" Mr. Allen," he writes, " has called attention to the variation in
the notes of different birds at remote localities ; and in this I am
able to corroborate him, though I think that cases of such varia-
tion are very rare, and do not occur in more than perhaps five per
cent of the species. I have only detected it in two or three species
after the most careful observation, and in very many cases noticed
that there was not in the minutest particular any difference be-
tween individuals of one species on opposite sides of the conti-
nent. Such is undoubtedly the case in a very great majority of
the species, any seeming variation that may be observed being
more probably the peculiarity of an individual rather than the
manifestation of any regional impress."
The conduct of the blue jays instanced above may be used in
confirmation of the three quotations made in this article, for the
blue jay has certainly in this instance " developed powers of re-
sistance at first unsuspected," which certainly aid it in its war-
fare with the English sparrow. Moreover, it would confirm Mr.
Allen's observation in regard to the variability of the jay's note —
his " unexpected eccentricity " in Kansas — if indeed Mr. Allen's
observations needed other confirmation than that afforded by
DR. DANIEL HACK TUKE.
625
Ridgway for certain other birds in southern Illinois and by Dr.
Elliott Coues. The latter has observed that the note of Nuttall's
whip-poor-will differs from that of the eastern whip-poor-will in
that the western species " does not cry ' Whip-poor-will/ like "
the eastern species, but " drops a syllable, saying ' Whip-poor/ or
' Poor-will/ as the fancy of the hearer may interpret." Moreover,
the practice of mocking the hawk is, at present at least, confined,
so far as I know, to the individuals of such a limited area — this
one town — that with Mr. Ridgway we must believe this peculiarity
exhibited by the blue jay to be scarcely the " manifestation of a
regional impress."
DR. DANIEL HACK TUKE.
T^R. DANIEL HACK TUKE, the distinguished English alien-
-L^ ist and editor of the Journal of Mental Science, who died
early in March, 1895, was a grandson of William Tuke, the founder
of the York Retreat, and one of the earliest English workers in
the humane treatment of the insane, and was born in York, April
19, 1827. He was a delicate
child, of high spirit, and
with a turn for investigat-
ing; pertinently to which
the story is told of him
that he once carried the
family cat to the woods
and left it there, expecting
to find it again some day a
wild cat. His father being
a member of the Society of
Friends, he was sent to
their school, and afterward
to Bradford to study law.
Three months' experience
in this occupation showed
that he had no taste for the
law, and he was allowed to
gratify his own inclination
and study medicine. He
held the post of steward at
the York Retreat ; entered St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London,
in 1849 ; became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in
1852 ; was graduated M. D. at Heidelberg in 1853 ; visited the asy-
lums of Holland, Germany, and France ; and in 1857 published
his first book, an account of these visits. He was next appointed
VOL. XLTII. 52
626 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
visiting physician to the York Retreat and the York Dispensary ;
became Lecturer on Psychology at the York School of Medicine ;
was prevented by an attack of haemorrhage from converting the
old family house in York into a private asylum for ladies ; recov-
ered in a year, and settled in Falmouth for fifteen years. Here he
took active interest in the library, schools, workingmen's clubs,
etc., and did much literary work. He settled for practice in Lon-
don in 1879, and eventually became a governor of Bethlem Hos-
pital. He had great power of continued intellectual work, and a
corresponding indifference to mere physical comforts ; and pos-
sessed an extraordinary memory for details. His work in the
study of lunacy and advocacy of the humane treatment for the
insane was known all over the world. He visited most of the asy-
lums in Europe and America, never, says the Lancet, "losing a
chance of picking up the threads which connected the present
with the past. He knew the city of the simple (Gheel) in Belgium
and the secluded valley in Ireland where priest healing had held
sway. He was one of the originators of the After-care Associa-
tion for patients who, having left asylums, were not fit for full
work. His holidays were combinations of the study of asylums
with (insufficient) complete relaxation." He gave much thought
and attention to the study of moral insanity. His earliest estab-
lished literary work was prepared in collaboration with Dr. Charles
Bucknill, and is known as " Bucknili and Tuke on Insanity." He
set great value on his book on the Influence of Mind on the Body,
which has now been " left behind." He was for eighteen years
editor of the Journal of Medical Science ; prepared an Index
Medicus ; and undertook and carried out the Dictionary of Psy-
chological Medicine.
A body of the English engaged in the Chitral Expedition suffered se-
verely at the river Panjkora, in consequence of the enemy's launching
heavy logs of wood down stream, which destroyed the bridge the men
were constructing. One of the enemy who was captured in the subsequent
fight described in vivid language how their attempt at a night surprise was
frustrated by the magnesium light of a star-shell fired from the English
camp. ''There were two thousand hillmen who set forth that night to
crawl up to the soldiers' camp. We lay for hours in the wet fields, with
the rain falling steadily, waiting for our chiefs to give the signal for the
great rush. Word came round from chief to chief to be ready, and every
man crouched, grasping his weapon, to run forward. But at that very
moment a devil's gun boomed forth, and lo ! instead of bullets and balls
coming out, there burst over us a mighty light, so great that we thought
the night had suddenly become day. And we cried aloud to Allah to abate
his wrath against us, and when the great light faded we all hurried away,
and even our mullahs had no word to say."'
TRADES AND FACES. 627
TRADES AND FACES.
By Dr. LOUIS ROBINSON.
IT is to be feared that any present attempt on the part of the
physiognomist to analyze trade expressions must be some-
what unsatisfactory to the lovers of exact science. Our proved
knowledge concerning the laws which govern facial expression
is very slight: we are still stumbling among the elements of
feature language, and it may seem presumptuous to attempt to
criticise the text when the very alphabet is still doubtful.
But as the digger-out of a cryptogram finds it profitable to
take a general survey of the script before attacking details, so it
may perhaps be found that a somewhat speculative excursion,
such as the present, will not be altogether without value in
helping on more precise methods of research. At any rate, such
a discussion can hardly fail to interest those among the readers
of Maga who have observed the remarkable facial likeness often
found among people who follow the same calling, without being
able to see why a butcher should resemble his trade brethren
more than he resembles the other sons of his father who have
become bakers of bread or makers of candlesticks.
When we seek to analyze the forces which are continually at
work on the human face, the complexity of the problem as to the
interpretation of any prevalent trade expression at once becomes
apparent. A few examples will bring this fact home to every
reader, and will also help us in taking the first step toward clas-
sifying the numerous factors which contribute to the result in
any single instance.
In a previous article on facial expression,* attention was
drawn to the distinctive cast of countenance exhibited by men
who have much to do with horses. No great acuteness of ob-
servation is necessary to make it clear that, in the various
branches of such professions, a corresponding diversity of type
is visible.
Regarding Environment as a portrait painter (if we may ven-
ture to personify, in classic fashion, the abstractions of the newer
philosophers), we find that she has, after boldly laying on a gen-
eral groundwork of horseyness, touched the faces with different
pigments which greatly affect the final result.
If, for example, we place side by side a gentleman's groom
and a horse-dealer's groom, both of whom, when seen in a crowd
of ordinary mortals, strike us as typically horsey, these supple-
mentary touches are at once brought into prominence. The one
* See Popular Science Monthly, vo1. xlv, p. 380.
628 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
face reveals something of the superfine genteelness of the flunkey,
the other a shifty truculence acquired among the chafferers of
Barnet or Ballinasloe. In like manner we may distinguish be-
tween the many sections of the great tribe of Jehu. In the ex-
pression of the 'bus-driver, still more in that of the driver of a
tradesman's or carrier's cart, but most of all in that of the brew-
er's drayman, the extra coats are so numerous as to obscure the
original grounding. In the two former, traffic with humankind,
and other circumstances, such as constant exposure to the weather,
have entered into competition with the feature-molding power of
the horse ; in the last, all equine traces have been dissolved clean
away by malt liquor. Should a certain popular belief, to the
effect that contact with horses has a malign effect upon the char-
acter, be borne out by more exact researches in moral pathology,
the phenomena observable in the drayman's face might suggest
a powerful antidote, and one which would readily be taken by
the afflicted — although (as is often the case with new remedial
measures) it would, without doubt, be denounced by a consider-
able section of the public as ten times worse than the disease.
One would have thought that the riders and ringmaster at a
circus would exhibit a marked degree of facial horseyness ; but,
strangely enough, this is not so. The reason seems to be that
in a circus the achievement of certain difficult feats to the satis-
faction of the audience wholly occupies the minds of the perform-
ers, and the horses, large as they loom in the eyes of the public,
are regarded by the circus folk as mere " properties."
Now it is plain that, in the cases given, numerous agencies
of a widely diverse character are responsible for the total results.
Association with horses can only change a man's facial aspect by
first influencing his mind, and hence the general common ground-
work alluded to is essentially psychic in origin.
On the other hand, certain of the supplementary touches in
the cases brought forward seem at first sight to be purely acci-
dental, and to have no mental significance whatever. Hence it
might seem that those who study the human face as an index of
the mind might safely ignore such physiognomical items as are
due, let us say, to exposure, to heat, or cold, or to other purely
direct causes. This, however, is only partly true, if it is true at
all. Every student of the psychology of expression must be ex-
tremely cautious in neglecting any particular trait because it
seems due to some accident of environment which has no appar-
ent effect on the central nervous system.
That there is a continual stream of influence passing from the
brain to the muscles of expression, which tends to give a perma-
nent cast to the features, has been shown; but it is not so gen-
erally recognized that there are also reverse currents from the
TRADES AND FACES. 629
organs of expression to the inner nerve centers, and that in many-
cases these are sufficient (even when induced by agencies which
must be called external and fortuitous) to give a bias to the
mind. When Mr. Du Maurier depicted a small child forcibly-
wagging the tail of a big St. Bernard in order to put it in a good
humor, most people who laughed at the conceit probably thought
that the child's plan was as illogical as that of moving the
pointer of a barometer in order to bring about a change in the
weather. But it will be seen, when we come to discuss these
curious centripetal currents, that this is by no means the case.
Indeed, in all probability, some of the mental peculiarities which
mark the members of certain professions may be owing to
changes which originated primarily in the features.
Leaving this subject for the present, let us pay attention to
some of the face-making forces which act from within. In my
previous article a good deal was said about the facial muscles,
and the nervous mechanism which controls them. It was ex-
plained how a constant succession of stimuli to one set of muscles
would, in the course of time, give them a predominant influence,
and so bring about a general change of expression. Nowhere
can such a result be seen better than in the horsey type above
alluded to. Speaking generally, the expression of all men of
action is attributable to like causes. In such people the chief
motive force is the will, which is continually exerting authority
over the man himself, or over other men or things. Hence we
find that the expression mechanism which is under the control of
the will (consisting chiefly of muscles of the striped variety) is
mainly responsible for the result.
But a little reflection will show that the salient points of many
of the typical faces which we constantly see are under but little
obligation to these agents of the will. It is beyond the power of
the facial muscles shown in works on anatomy to give a man a
shiny nose or a double chin, or to affect the tint and general tone
of the integument.
Such changes must be attributed to the influence of the sym-
pathetic nervous system, which is practically independent of the
will, and which profoundly influences growth and nutrition in
all parts of the body. Any one who has looked into a treatise on
physiology will have seen diagrams of the sympathetic nervous
system, and will have learned that nearly all unconscious organic
processes, such as the digestion and assimilation of food, the
movements of the heart, the alteration in the caliber of the
arteries, and the special functions of innumerable glands, are
carried on under its management. He will also have learned
that fibers from the sympathetic ganglia frequently join the
nerve trunks derived from the brain and spinal cord ; and that
630 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
this is very markedly so in the case of those cranial nerves which
supply the face with common sensation. Probably he will have
observed that in the neighborhood of the heart, stomach, and liver,
as well as in certain other parts, there are extraordinary aggre-
gations of sympathetic fibers. Each of these dense networks of
nerves and ganglia is called a £>?e£cws, arid primarily, no doubt,
each plexus is busily engaged in superintending the purely
organic duties of the viscera in its neighborhood. But this is
not its only function. It is a very curious fact that when we
try to localize any deeply felt emotion, it seems to appeal to the
consciousness from one or other of these very regions. The least
analytical mind is aware that we do not love, or hate, or fear, with
our heads, but that, in each case, the feeling takes its rise some-
where in the body cavity. Hence the conventional phrases,
" warm-hearted/' " bowels of compassion," and many others of
like nature, which are only approximately correct from an ana-
tomical point of view, since it is demonstrable that the organs
named are only affected secondarily, and do not indicate the ex-
act spot where the emotion is felt.
It is not possible to discuss this subject fully on the present
occasion ; but enough has been said to show that, in their incep-
tion as well as in their expression, the feelings which accompany
the passions are referable to parts of the sympathetic nervous
system.
Now the question might very naturally be asked, What has
all this to do with physiognomy ? I hope to show, if my readers
will follow me in an argument involving a few more technical
details, that in these complex functions of the sympathetic nerv-
ous system we may find an explanation of certain curious points
of facial resemblance among people whose pursuits and mental
habits, at first sight, put them as far as the poles asunder.
We will take, as examples, the common facial traits seen in
professional musicians, religious devotees, of the priestly class,
and sensual " men about town."
To show how the fibers from the sympathetic ganglia affect
growth and nutrition in certain localities, let me instance the
different results which follow the division of the fifth cranial
nerve in two different parts of its course from the brain to the
face. If it is cut after it has received its accessory fibers from
the synqjathetic system, a destructive inflammation at once arises
in the eye, owing to defective or perverted nutrition ; but if the
division takes place on the cranial side of the ganglion through
which the nerve passes, so as to leave the sympathetic fibers
intact, no such consequences follow, although the part supplied
by the nerves is entirely cut off from the brain.
Redness or pallor of the skin is the direct result of the influ-
TRADES AND FACES. 631
ence of the sympathetic nerves upon the muscular coats of the
smaller blood-vessels, and such visible changes are often confined
to a small area. When, owing to some wave of emotion, the
cheeks flush or turn pale, the same stimulus which effects such
an alteration in outward expression anil also disturb the existing
conditions of nutrition in the regions affected. And it appears
exceedingly probable that just as the faint currents continually
flowing along the motor nerves are to a great extent responsible
for the prevailing " muscular " expression of the countenance, so
also slight but continuous emotional stimulation of the sympa-
thetic fibers which supply any part of the face may influence its
growth in a marked degree in the long run, although at any
given moment the vascular consequences may be imperceptible.
Now it is within the knowledge of every one who has turned
a curious inward eye upon his feelings that certain emotions
which deeply stir the inner man, and which may make us glow
or shudder to the finger tips, do not cause any facial changes,
except, perhaps, a slight difference in the hue of the brow or
cheeks, and a glistening or darkening of the eye. This is often
the case when we are under the control of the deeper feelings.
We do not laugh when filled with the most exalted joy, or dis-
tort our faces when overwhelmed with grief. The fierce emotion
which seizes on man and beast alike when the grosser appetites
hold full sway often produces many profound changes of an
organic nature without provoking any activity in the expression
muscles.
Even when certain forms of emotion tend to distort the fea-
tures if provoked in a natural and direct manner, they fail to
react upon the facial muscles when produced artificially, as they
may be by a play, a novel, or a strain of music. During the silent
perusal of a pathetic story many people confess to a " lump in
the throat," but it is very seldom that the corners of the mouth
are twitched downward.
These deliberately induced or artificial emotions offer an inter-
esting field to the psychologist. They evidently differ from their
elementary prototypes as much as polarized light differs from
direct light. They tint what would else be both hideous and pro-
saic with all the colors of the rainbow, so that we are able to
take pleasure in tragedy,
"And with an eager and suspended soul
Woo terror, to delight us."
If we survey the faces of a crowd of people at a concert, we
find that they offer scarcely a hint of the emotion evoked by the
music. The features of the listeners remain as placid as if they
were asleep, and as if the inward excitement which thrills them,
632 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
and which makes their pulses throb and their flesh " creep," were
but the sham excitement of dreamland. As a rule, the same may
be said of the ecstatic feelings which accompany devotional exer-
cises. I do not allude to public prayers from the pulpit — where
an earthly audience has to be borne in mind — but to the silent
communings of private worship, when the soul feels that it has
entered the holy of holies, and stands naked before the Eternal
Powers.
If it were possible to set apart certain individuals in whom all
emotional impulses reacted upon the features via the sympa-
thetic, to the exclusion of the motor nerves, we should expect to
find among them many strong points of resemblance in facial
expression. Although, happily, no such creatures exist among
healthy human beings, it is by no means difficult to indicate whole
classes of people whose pursuits, or mental habits, give the sym-
pathetic system a preponderating influence.
Professional musicians, priests, and sensualists, all, as a rule,
bear distinct certificates on their countenances that they belong-
to such a category.
But before we are in a position to discuss the special points of
resemblance among these very distinct classes, it will be neces-
sary to clear the ground of certain stumbling blocks.
Since the facial changes in question are brought about by
means of the machinery of nutrition, it must be taken for granted
that this machinery is in good working order in every case, and
that it is reasonably well supplied with raw material in the
shape of victuals and drink. If one of our subjects should
chance to be an ascetic or a dyspeptic, it is plain that all trophic
processes, whether direct or indirect, will be so profoundly af-
fected that it would be unfair to compare him with people who
live well and have sound stomachs. Again, the possession of an
exceptionally alert intellect would vitiate results in any indi-
vidual, since this tends, as is well known, to develop a distinct
type of face. The candidate for sympathetic facial marks must
also maintain an aloofness from the turmoil and traffic of the
world about him ; although it does not much matter whether the
wall which shuts him off from his fellows consists of substantial
bricks and mortar, or of professional enthusiasm, or of mere
selfishness.
It will be well, for the present, to confine our attention to
subjects of the male sex who are past their first youth, since
women and young people exhibit but few conspicuous traces of
emotional influence upon facial nutrition as compared with men
of mature age. Probably the reason of this difference is found
in the fact that both women and youths are normally more under
the sway of the feelings than are men, and therefore special emo-
TRADES AND FACES. 633
tional stimuli do not cause any deviation from the type of face
which usually characterizes them. If we were to take two individ-
uals, one a trained gymnast and the other a clerk with flabby mus-
cles, and were to make them exercise one arm, so as to develop
it to the fullest extent, there can be no doubt that, when this end
was attained, the latter would deviate more noticeably from his
usual state than the former.
From the fact that women are more governed by their emo-
tions than men, one might be tempted to jump to the conclusion
that constant emotional stimulation of the kind we are discussing
would tend to produce an effeminate type of face. But, as a
matter of fact, this is only true to a very limited extent. It must
be remembered (and this is a point upon which I wish to lay
special stress) that artificial emotion — such as is evoked by music
— has to make use of nervous machinery belonging primarily to
the body rather than to the soul, and which remains indissolubly
connected with certain organic processes common to man and
beast.
Now there can be no question that any deep stirring of the
emotional side of our nature tends to throw us back upon the
bestial substratum derived from our remote ancestors which we
generally keep covered up. In a strong gust of passion the
" vital spark," which crowns our material being like a nimbus, is
extinguished, and the ancient and half-quenched embers of ani-
mality beneath are fanned into fierce life. A man, excited or
enraged (in common with other mammals of the combative and
covetous sex), becomes emphatically a savage male. Hence ha-
bitual stimulation of the emotional side of our nature will tend
to enhance, rather than to diminish, certain sexual differences in
expression.
It is extremely important that we should bear in mind that
passion prints on the face are often quite useless in enabling us
to form an opinion as to the moral character (as distinct from
the moral tendencies) of any individual. For the inhibitory cen-
ters of the mental apparatus, upon which depend our powers of
self-restraint, do not exercise their veto beyond the frontier line
which separates the rational from the organic side of human
nature. And, let us recollect, it is the latter region which is
governed by the sympathetic system, with its complex emotional
and trophic functions. Thus, although a man may feel illicit
passion, or unrighteous rage, without deviating in act from the
path of rectitude, yet his heart, his skin, and other parts under
the sympathetic regime, will ignore both the moral code and
any voluntary decision to obey it.
Not only may the organic part of a man show every sign of
guilt when there is no guilt, but only temptation ; but it may
6 34 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
even go further in attaching a false and slanderous label to the
countenance, owing to the interlocking mechanism of emotion,
passion, and nutrition, above alluded to.
Doubtless some of my readers have chanced to contract a black
eye in a perfectly innocent and unpugnacious manner. Let us
suppose, for the sake of argument, that it resulted from a sharp
return across the tennis net. Until the last of the dismal tints
fades away, such a one bears about with him one of the most
generally accepted proofs of a hasty disposition and of a black-
guardly encounter. Yet the victim himself — and each of his
friends who will believe his statement — knows that not only is he
innocent of a breach of the peace, but that, when he received the
ugly mark, he was engaged in one of the most amiable of recre-
ations.
Now in like manner, certain popularly received evidences of
a bad moral record may be printed accidentally from within.
For the molecular impulses welling forth from a disturbed emo-
tional center may chance to flow along channels usually occu-
pied by less innocent currents, and may produce an expression
nearly identical with that which accompanies some form of vice.
And yet, all the time, the said emotion may be as essentially dis-
tinct from the travelers which usually follow the track, as were
Bunyan's Pilgrims when they walked the streets of Vanity. In
such a case it will be seen that, in spite of outward appearance5
not only is there no guilt, but there may be also a complete ab-
sence of evil inclination.
To return from what I fear may be regarded by some as a
rather arid and metaphysical region, let us take stock of the typ-
ical characteristics of the musician, the priest, and the sensual-
ist, who have so oddly foregathered in the interests of science.
Physiognomy, it will be seen, like misfortune, makes strange
bedfellows.
To get our typical musician, we must, to some extent, follow
the example of the society caricaturist. That is, we must gen-
eralize, after the fashion of a composite photograph, and then
slightly magnify the traits which are found to be common to
most members of the class. Probably professional singers ap-
proach our ideal most nearly, because the mastery of the tech-
nique of voice music involves fewer disturbing influences (from
our point of view) than does the mastery of any complex external
instrument.
The average musician's face shows but little trace of muscular
activity, but evidences of trophic changes due to sympathetic
disturbance are abundant. The skin, especially beneath the eyes
and about the throat, tends to be full and baggy, and is often
filled out with local accumulations of fat. As a rule, the eyes
TRADES AND FACES. 635
are prominent and dreamy, the cornea is bright and the conjunc-
tiva glistening, but the natural blue-white of the sclerotic has
given place to a duller tint. The nose is characterless (as far as
acquired qualities are concerned), and differs essentially from the
clear-cut nose of the man of active will or intellect. The mouth
is the least constant feature, but it generally is characterized by
a lax and flabby set of the lips. It is the sensuous mouth belong-
ing to the artistic temperament, with certain specific characters
superadded, which result from the same causes as are responsible
for the fullness beneath the eye and chin.
Now, why does the mouth, which commonly accompanies the
artistic temperament, suggest habits of self-indulgence ? It is an
essential, with every true artist, that he should follow certain
spontaneous impulses. He is born, not made. He can not, like
the student or the man of business, hope to excel by toiling
against the tide of inclination. In his art he therefore achieves
most through a species of self-indulgence ; and it is too often
characteristic of the artist that this drifting tendency widens and
embraces other departments of life. Yet, although it may be
confined to artistic matters alone, any habitual yielding to natural
impulse will tend to tell its tale on the mouth.
Although the subcutaneous tissues of certain parts of the
musician's face are plainly increased in bulk through sym-
pathetic influence, one does not find that the skin itself is much
altered in texture. It is, however, usually pallid, and does not
exhibit the full-blooded coarseness observable in the other types
which we are considering. I am inclined to 'think that the pe-
culiarities which are generally so obvious in the hair among
professional musicians are not altogether dependent upon fash-
ion, but that here again we have evidence of trophic changes
which result from mental habits. Almost every fashion of this
kind, when carefully analyzed, is found to be based upon some
natural physical peculiarity. All who have to do with the treat-
ment of mental disease know how profoundly the growth and
vitality of the hair is influenced by emotion ; and it seems very
probable that local trophic stimulation, similar to that which
gives a fullness to the throat, etc., may effect typical changes of
this kind also.
Passing on to the priestly class, we find many undoubted
signs of special sympathetic influence upon the face. It should
be understood, however, that the term " priestly " must be taken
in a very broad sense. Any religious devotee with mystical
tendencies, who makes much of the emotional and little of the
intellectual side of religion, is liable to develop something of the
characteristic priestly aspect. It is not unknown among those
archenemies of priestcraft, the Quakers, although these good
636 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
folk are generally too much in tonch with the world to develop
it to such an extent as do mystics who live in seclusion, or under
the dwarfing shadow of ecclesiastical authority.
In this type of face we find not a few points similar to those
already discussed. For some mysterious reason the subcutaneous
tissue over the cheek bones and under the jaw gets an undue sup-
ply of nourishment. The skin, however, is less flabby and has
more color than that of the musician, and in this respect the
priest occupies an intermediate position between him and the last
of our trio. Naturally, there is more evidence of mental activity
in the priestly than in the musical face, and, especially where our
reverend subject is conscious of a share in the apostolic legacy,
his sense of authority gives a more muscular set to his lips.
Habits of self-denial and self-command give him characteristics
which make him, as a rule, compare favorably with his physi-
ognomical associates ; but when these, and marked intellectual
traits, are absent, and no physical bars to nutritive processes in-
tervene, he is capable of reaching an even lower level of ugliness
than they.
Probably nowhere can one see the less prepossessing charac-
teristics of the priestly type in so pronounced a form as among
the humbler Catholic clergy in Ireland. Here we have most of
the conditions (mentioned above) which are required for the full
development of sympathetic facial traits. The Irish priest is
generally drawn from a healthy and imaginative peasant class,
readily given to emotion and superstition, and not overburdened
with intelligence. His constitution is sound, his digestion is
good, and he is not very rigidly abstemious either by rule or cus-
tom. I see no reason to doubt the testimony of impartial critics
who declare that, taken as a whole, the Irish priests are the most
chaste and devoted body of clerics upon earth. They are un-
doubtedly of good report, but they can not be classed among the
" things that are lovely." Judged from the conventional rather
than from the scientific standpoint, the expressions of these good
men are indicative of anything but of spiritual purity or of intel-
lectual refinement. In their jaws, lips, and eyes, those traits
which are generally considered to be the marks of the grosser
animal qualities are so apparent as to force themselves upon the
attention of the spectator.
Now why does a clerical congress in the Isle of Saints appear
—as far as outward facial aspect is concerned — like a parliament
representing the interests of the world, the flesh, and the devil ?
People of " the opposite religion," to use a convenient phrase
which we owe to Lord Salisbury, have not been backward in
suggesting explanations of the phenomena which are not very
favorable to the doctrines and practices of the spiritual followers
TRADES AND FACES. 637
of St. Peter. And in like manner some of those " painefull and
pious " Christians who regard all theatrical and similar amuse-
ments as sinful, find support for their views in the stodgy visages
of musicians and public singers. In both cases science is on the
side of the charity which thinketh no evil. For if the inferences
here drawn from what we know as to the physiology of emotion
are correct, the facts prove no more than that the ugly priest, or
public entertainer, has good assimilative organs, deep feelings, a
sluggish mind, and narrow interests. If in feature he tends to
resemble certain moral offenders, the fact is owing to a mere un-
happy accident, like the black eye of the tennis player aforesaid.
Any such resemblances depend npon the fact that man's emotional
machinery has not kept pace with civilization, but is still practi-
cally in the same state as when it was adapted for the very lim-
ited wants of our pristine ancestor, who had no inward feelings
unassociated with animal appetite. Our complex modern life has
revealed its deficiencies, just as the advent of a missionary among
certain primitive races reveals the ludicrous poverty of languages,
which can only express the idea of " heavenly bliss " by words
meaning " a very full belly."
Into the distinguishing facial traits of the sensualist it is not
necessary to enter. In his case the evil expression is honestly
come by, and is due to no physiological accident. To any compe-
tent reader of facial records it tells its story with a frankness
which out-Zolas Zola. What is chiefly of interest about it is
the mechanical process by which the inner man is revealed upon
the surface. Here, again, we find that the sympathetic nervous
system is the agent chiefly responsible ; for the changes which
have occurred since the face lost its youthful innocence are owing
to trophic rather than to muscular causes.
It is worth while noting that here, as in the other tpyes in-
stanced, the exercise of the will and the intellect, or any interfer-
ence with organic nutritive processes, will mask the facial results
of yielding to emotion. Any man of the world will support me
when I say that there are not a few grossly sensual men whose
expressions do not readily betray them. An ascetic debauchee is
an impossible being, but there are not a few instances of men who
give free rein to their desires, who nevertheless, from some defect
in the assimilative organs, or from the fact that they exercise
their wills and minds in other directions, do not develop the
bloated countenance and prominent lustful eye which typify the
class generally.
In concluding my remarks on the three types we have been
discussing, let me say that no abnormally acute powers of obser-
vation are required to enable one to distinguish the actual marks
of vice from the marks of sensuous emotion which is innocent in
638 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
character. But it is evident that the resemblance is quite sug-
gestive enough to confuse the crowd, and to provide mud for the
ever-ready hand of the religious controversialist. Let it be re-
membered, also, that we are not dealing here with any of the
deeper results of the complications which arise owing to the
diverse functions of the machinery of emotion. Dean Swift, in
his ruffianly onslaught on the revivalists of his day, had enough
truth on his side to give point to his parable. In our relig-
ious devotee the physical results of excitement do not break
through the barrier set up by the inhibitory centers, and come
into the region of conduct.
Having had occasion to make free use of the word " artist," it
may be worth while to devote a few words to the class most
generally known by that name. In the case of most painters,
and all sculptors, another and most important expression factor
comes into play. I allude to the effect of unconscious imitation.
This subject was touched upon in my previous article, when
an explanation was attempted of the remarkable resemblance
which often becomes apparent between persons who live to-
gether.
There appears good reason for believing that even an unsub-
stantial ideal face which is always before the mind's eye will
influence the expression muscles in a like manner. Among the
majority of artists who paint or model the human figure certain
standards of perfection, generally founded upon the old Greek
masterpieces, are ever present to the mind — more so, probably,
than the face of any human companion. Now when we strive to
realize a mental picture of another face, whether it be that of a
god or a costermonger, we unconsciously imitate it. Careful
observation of a considerable number of artists' faces has con-
vinced me that such involuntary mimicry is a considerable factor
in determining that classic cast of visage which is certainly more
common among men of this profession than among those of any
other. On the other hand, we find that caricaturists and all low
comedians of the pencil tend to develop an eccentric expression.
Those who have lived long enough to watch the development of
certain well-known faces in the artistic world will, I think, agree
with me that in most cases the acquired expressions are broadly
reflections of those chosen ideals which have been occupying the
thoughts and employing the hands of the artists.
Landscape and genre painters are of course free from this
kind of influence. There is nothing in their work or in their
ideals that can be reproduced by the mechanism of the body, and
any reaction of the nervous system must be akin to that of ordi-
nary sensuous impressions. These, as we have seen in the case of
the musician, do not conduce to personal beauty. It seems prob-
TRADES AND FACES. 639
able that Turner might have been a much more presentable
man, though possibly less famous, had he devoted himself to
figure painting.
Actors' and actresses' faces are of great interest to the physi-
ognomist. An actor's art must of necessity involve the stimula-
tion of both the muscular and trophic factors of expression. Not
only has he to emphasize the facial movements which are appro-
priate to his part, in order that his expression may be plainly
seen by the pit and gallery, but he is as a rule obliged to change
his role frequently, and to assume a succession of characters re-
quiring very different facial renderings. As a result, all his ex-
pression muscles are exercised as thoroughly as are the body
muscles of an athlete who is undergoing a systematic course in a
gymnasium. Hence in a typical actor's face, when seen at rest,
no one group of expression muscles outpulls the others, and as a
consequence of this state of muscular balance there is about it a
peculiar aspect suggestive of a mask. Moreover, this impassive
and almost wooden look is enhanced in many cases by an even
layer of subcutaneous fat — the result, probably, of emotional
stimulation of a constantly varying character.
I am aware that many actors state that they do not consciously
experience the emotions which they simulate ; but from the very
fact that they are able, without taking thought, to adapt their
voices, gestures, and expressions to the sentiments they utter, it
is clear that the organic (sympathetic) nerves are moved if the
conscious ego is not, and, as we have seen, this is all that is re-
quired to influence trophic function whether in the face or else-
where. Miss Ada Rehan, who was kind enough to assist me in
clearing up this point, stated that, in rendering any particular
expression, she is quite unconscious of any deliberate effort of
the will.
One consequence of the full exercise of all the facial mus-
cles, and of the trophic results of varying emotions, is a remark-
able interference with the time records which are usually so
visible on the human face. In fact, most actors maintain a
somewhat boyish aspect until late in life, although the sugges-
tion of callow immaturity is at times rather startlingly contra-
dicted by the expression of the eye. In ladies who adopt the
stage as a profession, a true youthful appearance is, as a rule,
much better maintained. Until the physiological principles
which account for the phenomenon are understood, it must re-
main a very puzzling fact that an actress's life should be more
favorable to the preservation of good looks, and even of girlish
freshness, than the life led by women who occupy their natural
sphere, and who cultivate (as they think) all physical and moral
virtues. A successful actress must work extremely hard, gener-
640 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
ally by artificial light, and in a gas-befouled atmosphere. Her
hours for work, meals, and sleep are all utterly bad from the
hygienic point of view ; and not infrequently she makes bad
worse by falling into those bohemian habits which are an im-
memorial tradition of her class. Her secret, apart from the laws
regulating the expression and nutrition of the face above stated,
consists chiefly of avoidance of monotony and petty worries —
those archenemies of feminine good looks and good temper. Her
work, if arduous, is generally performed both with earnestness
and lightness of heart ; and, above all, she gets a sufficiency of
bodily exercise of the kind (although not under the conditions)
most conducive to health — viz., exercise involving quick and gen-
eral movements of the muscles, combined with a certain amount
of mental excitement.
Any one who considers the preservation of female beauty
worthy of serious attention can draw from the facts here stated
some general principles, resting on a sound and scientific basis,
upon which to found rules for the guidance of the sex. I see
no reason why the average British matron should not be phys-
ically qualified to play Juliet at fifty if she will observe all the
conditions favorable to the preservation of youthful good looks.
Indeed, when we bear in mind the many adverse circumstances
in a stage career, a lady who goes to bed at half past ten and
rises at seven or eight, should be able to give an actress ten
years, and beat her easily.
Descending from the realm of Venus to that of Vulcan, let
us consider, while we stand among the smoke and sparks of the
forge, the problem already alluded to as to the reaction of the
expression on the mind. As the smith wields his hammer with
an energy which has something fierce and vengeful about it, he
automatically contracts his brow into a frown. He does this
partly, no doubt, to protect his eyes from the flying flakes of
metal ; but if you watch the face of the man who holds the iron
on the anvil, you will find that although he lowers his eyebrows
somewhat as the sledges descend, he does not scowl as do the
strikers. In most blacksmiths the constant exercise of the corru-
gator supercilii muscles causes a permanent frown, and gives the
face a somewhat hard expression ; but whether there is any in-
ward and spiritual state corresponding with this outward and
visible sign I am not quite sure. Certainly there is a popular be-
lief that, as a rule, the blacksmith is a serious and downright
person, who " looks the whole world in the face," and who does
not take chaff kindly ; but the popular mind is peculiarly liable
to be biased by such obvious arguments as are presented by the
smith's lowered brow and huge biceps, and does not stop to weigh
their pertinence in deciding questions of character. I remember
TRADES AND FACES. 64.1
being a good deal impressed, when residing in a shipbuilding
town, by the intent gaze and bent brows of the riveters and
boilersmiths with whom I was brought in contact. One instinc-
tively wondered at first what there was about a harmless hospital
surgeon who ministered to them in times of dire trouble, to excite
such an air of watchful hostility. I soon found, however, that
no hostile sentiments were entertained, but that the frowning,
falconlike expression was explained, partly by the "smith's
scowl " above mentioned, and partly by the fact that all these
men were rendered somewhat deaf by their noisy work, and in
consequence had a habit of closely watching the face of any one
who conversed with them. Whether their characters in any way
corresponded with their acquired expressions I did not discover ;
there was a grave courtesy in their demeanor while in hospital
which was singularly dignified and pleasing, although always
slightly suggestive of the politeness of foes during an armistice.
It is easy for any one to satisfy himself by making a few ex-
periments that the act of striking a forceful blow, even at the
empty air, tends not only to bring a flush and a frown to the face,
but also to awaken an inward glow of emotion which is the raw
material of wrath. We all know how certain individuals, when
they think it expedient to be angry, " work themselves up " by de-
liberately assuming a loud, harsh voice, violent gestures, and
other choleric symptoms. Here there can be no doubt about cen-
tripetal currents which pass inward from the expression organs,
and which influence the mind. ISTor is it necessary that the will
should be called into requisition in order to set such currents in
motion, for persons much given to involuntary blushing, and
who experience the distressing mental abasement and confusion
which accompanies a general dilatation of the arterioles of the
face and brain, find that any outward circumstance, such as the
heat of a room, which tends to redden the face, also renders them
liable to the psychic accompaniments of a blush. Moreover, it is
well known that the assumption of an expression of dejection
contributes to lowness of spirits, and that we find it easier to be
brave with our chins up and our shoulders squared than when
we cringe and look at our boots.
In religious services involving an elaborate ritual, posturing
is made use of in all parts of the world as a remedy for mental
inertia. Doubtless the general prevalence of the practice is a
strong testimony in its usefulness, although such strategy, based
upon the innate tendency of the mind to conform to the body,
appears, from one point of view, a trifle undignified, in warfare
where the spirit is endeavoring to assert its eternal supremacy
over the flesh.
Moreover, occasionally, the laws upon which these and like
voi. xlvii — 53
642 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
ceremonials are founded seem to be reversed. Professional merry-
men are proverbially grave and melancholy in private life, while
undertakers, according to Oliver Wendell Holmes, are cheery
beyond their fellows. The assumption, therefore, of devotional
attitudes, and of a pious countenance, in the hope that the soul
may follow suit, may not be so safe as has been generally sup-
posed.
Even if space permitted, it would be impossible on the pres-
ent occasion to analyze each of the many distinct trade expres-
sions which must be familiar to all dwellers in towns. In the
first place, our knowledge of the inner lives of most persons out-
side our own class or social circle is quite insufficient to justify
us in theorizing concerning the forces which may have been
instrumental in making them, facially, what they are. Until
some enthusiastic naturalist will apply the methods of Lubbock
and Huber to his fellow-men, we must be content to remain in
comparative ignorance. But if the general principles which I
have ventured to put forward in this paper are to be trusted, any
new fact concerning the habits of any section of the great human
swarm may at once be made available by those who are endeav-
oring to place physiognomy on a sound basis. — Blackwood's
Magazine.
NATURAL RAIN-MAKERS.
By ALEXANDER McADIE.
THE efficiency of the clouds in lifting water will be brought
home to us if we consider the rainfall over a garden fifty feet
wide and one hundred feet in length. If one hundredth of an inch
of rain occurs, about twenty-five gallons or two hundred and fifty
pounds of water will have fallen. One inch of rain over the gar-
den would mean twenty-five thousand pounds of water.
A rainfall of forty-five inches in a year is not an unusually
large rainfall. New York city has a mean annual rainfall of 45'2
inches, the observations covering a period of twenty- two years.
If this rain of a year fell in equal amounts each day, we would
have for every acre of surface two thousand eight hundred gal-
lons of water, or in avoirdupois nearly nine thousand tons of water
to the square mile. Tipping Manhattan Island each evening and
draining it would give two hundred thousand tons of water. In
a year over seventy million tons of water are dropped on the roofs,
sheds, and pavements of Manhattan Island.
It requires a powerful pump to lift water in such quantities
and store it in reservoirs thousands of feet above us. And these
reservoirs are remarkable ; for they have no walls of rigid ma-
NATURAL RAIN-MAKERS.
643
sonry, and they course across the sky at higher speed than man
can travel. A locomotive can travel a mile in thirty-seven sec-
onds, a fast yacht in about twice that time, and a swift torpedo
boat in one hundred and ten seconds. The upper clouds move with
an average velocity of a mile in thirty-six seconds, and have been
observed moving as rapidly as a mile in eighteen seconds. Equally
remarkable are the plastic walls of these aerial reservoirs. No
courses of heavy stone and mortar are to be found ; but in their
stead drops of water so minute that a thousand of them side by
side would not extend farther than one inch. If the temperature
Alto-cumulus.
was low during the building of the cloud, the water drops are
changed into ice spicules and snowflakes.
From such reservoirs the rain falls as a rule harmlessly. A col-
lapse, which rarely occurs, is known as a cloud-burst. Then, the
deluge destroys life and property, sweeping all before it.
If we were able to control the valves and vents of this tre-
mendous pump-reservoir, we could cause rain at will and shut off
the downpour at pleasure. But hardly yet may we hope to mas-
ter the rain. Rain- makers of our time bang and thrash the air,
hoping to cause rain by concussion. They may well be com-
pared to impatient children hammering on reservoir walls in a
vain endeavor to make the water flow. Rain-control is a scien-
tific possibility. Successful rain engineers will come in time, we
644 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
venture to predict, from the ranks of those who study and clearly
understand the physical processes of cloud formation.
Cloudland, for a realm so near us and so closely associated
with our welfare, has been sadly slighted by man's genius. The
ancients were surprisingly stupid in their views and discussions
of air, wind, and clouds. The wisdom of Aristotle, filtered through
the mind of his favorite pupil Theophrastus of Eresus, does not
show to advantage in these subjects. Nor have the moderns
achieved much that is worthy of detailed mention until a com-
paratively recent period.
Our cloud names date from the beginning of the century. At
a meeting of the Askesian Society in 1802, a young chemist of Tot-
tenham read an essay in which he proposed the terms stratus or
sheet, cumulus or heap, and cirrus or feather for cloud names.
One attempt at cloud classification had been made previously, but
Howard's scheme was so superior that it at once received recogni-
tion. The essay was reprinted, translated, and officially adopted
in all the great countries of the world. While Howard's name
is known to all meteorologists, little has been handed down con-
cerning the man himself. He is quaintly described on the title-
page of his three-volumed Climate of London, as a Citizen of Lon-
don, Honorary Citizen of Magdeburg, and Honorary Associate
of the Art Societies of Hamburg and Leipsic. No less a person
than Goethe was among those who were charmed by Luke How-
ard's work. A friendship sprang up, a long correspondence was
carried on, and the poet sings of Howard as one worthy of all
honor.
Within the past few years the leading countries of the world
through their representatives on the International Meteorological
Committee have decided to depose the Howardian nomenclature.
The proposal was made four years ago at the Munich Conference,
and at Upsala last year a new classification was formally approved.
Some of the more prominent sponsors for the new system are Hil-
debrandsson, Koppen, Neumayer, and Rotch. Modern meteorol-
ogy demands more than a record of the appearance of the cloud.
It seeks the meaning of each formation. The cloud is primarily
valuable not on account of its beauty but because it makes mani-
fest atmospheric motions and conditions not otherwise noticeable.
A striking illustration of the use which modern meteorology
makes of the clouds is found in the storm of August 26 to 29, 1893.
This is the storm more familiarly known as the Sea Islands storm,
in which eleven hundred lives were lost. At a critical moment
the telegraph lines were blown down and all reports were missing
south of Savannah. It is said that the storm center was accurate-
ly located by the forecasting officials by means of the clouds at dis-
tant stations.
NATURAL RAIN-MAKERS.
645
Great progress has been made in the past five years in our
knowledge of clouds. Two masters in physical science, von Helm-
holtz and Hertz, were brilliant cloud investigators. The for-
mer explained the formation of cloud billows ; the latter devised
a graphic method of following the adiabatic changes in moist air.
The number of tiny solid particles in a cloud can even be counted.
John Aitkin, of Edinburgh, has constructed a dust-counter deli-
cate enough to do this. The dust nuclei in the smoky air of Lon-
don, on the quiet shores of the Mediterranean, on Alpine peaks,
or in the pure mists of the Scotch Highlands can be counted and
Fracto-nimbus. Advance Clouds of Thunderstorm.
their influence in the making of rain properly appreciated. Both
in Europe and the United States meteorologists are studying
clouds. At Berlin, Storlein, Upsala, and Blue Hill observers are
daily determining cloud heights and velocities, and in the coming
year forces will be massed and something akin to a systematic
survey of cloudland attempted.
Poet, painter, and all of us have felt the keen delight of fol-
lowing the cloud transitions of a summer sky. All men in all
lands are nephelolaters or cloud admirers — for the cloudscape
gives all that the most varied landscape can offer. A generous
sky knows no difference between the sons of earth, and spreads
everywhere scenes of wondrous grace and color. Even the most
646 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
commonplace cloud formation — fog — which on earth is often ag-
gravating and trying to health and temper, becomes beautiful
as soon as it leaves the earth.
A fog may be defined as a cloud viewed from within, and is
therefore the first distinct cloud type. The next low type is the
stratus or " raised fog," less than one thousand metres high. And
here it may be noticed that in summer the earth pushes her
cloud mantle away from her and draws it closer to her in winter.
In other words, clouds are lower in winter than in summer. The
highest cloud is the cirrus, with a mean elevation of nine thou-
sand metres. The cirrus is a fine, featherlike cloud, and its neigh-
bor, cirro-stratus, something like it, only more diffuse and lower.
When a veil of cirro-stratus is drawn before the sun or moon,
large halos forty-four and eighty degrees in diameter, with faint
red on the inside or nearest the sun, and blue on the outside, ap-
pear. These are caused by the refraction of light by ice crystals.
A lower cloud, alto-stratus, without causing halos may cause
coronas or smaller circles of prismatic colors, about one fourth
the diameter of halos. In coronas the red is on the outside. The
Brockenspecter is a particular kind of coronal cloud shadow.
Midway between high and low clouds are the cirro-cumuli and
alto-cumuli. These give perhaps the most beautiful of all cloud
effects. The fairest meadows of earth seldom show such flocks
grazing so leisurely and scattered so harmoniously. Cirro-cumuli
are small, white, fleecy clouds, often arranged in rows, while the
alto-cumuli are denser, larger, and less regular. Both types are
like tranquil fleets upon a serene sea. " Their very motion is rest,"
as John Wilson said of them long ago. Trailing in lustrous
glory before the midnight moon, they turn into silver bars and
" streak the darkness radiantly." Of the low clouds, the strato-
cumuli and nimbi are most common : the former, large rolls of
dark cloud, often covering the whole sky and of somewhat dreary
aspect ; the latter, nondescripts without definite form and with
little gradation in color. The sky effects of both are as a rule
somber and depressing, though there are times, especially if the
sun be close to the horizon, when the nimbus gives the golden
rain of Greek mythology, a downpour inexpressibly beautiful.
The cumuli and cumulo-nimbi are the largest clouds in cloud-
land. The familiar " castles in air " are the turreted cumuli,
thick clouds with domes and summits. The cumulo-nimbus, or
towering thunder cloud, rises mountain high, and has peaks of
snowy whiteness with a flat and frowning base. Its monstrous
size can be better appreciated if we imagine Mont Blanc (14,i:J4
feet high) lifted into the air and set down on top of Mount Wash-
ington (6,279 feet). This would make a medium-sized cumulo-
nimbus. The thunder cloud is noteworthy in another respect,
NATURAL RAIN-MAKERS. 647
namely, that the water in it may be cooled below the freezing
point and yet not frozen. A snowfiake or ice crystal falling into
it may suffice to start a sudden congelation, just as we may see ice
needles dart in all directions when the chilled surface of a still
pond is disturbed. We liken this monstrous cloud to a huge gun
loaded and quiet, but with a trigger so delicately set that a fall-
ing snowfiake would discharge it. The sudden puffs, gusts, and
elongations of the thunder cloud may have their origin in this
way. Again, there is every reason for believing that electricity
plays an important part in the enlargement and subsequent his-
CUMULO-MMBUS.
tory of this cloud. We have ourselves measured with sensitive
quadrant electrometers the pull in volts experienced by the air be-
tween one of these clouds and the ground. The approach of the
cloud can be foretold without seeing it and the sky mapped out
roughly by the changes in the electrical potential caused by the
passage of the cloud.
From what precedes it will be readily understood that cloud
motion is not always a true exponent of air motion. Meteorolo-
gists know that it is not safe to obtain the motion of the air cur-
rents from the motion of the clouds, for the latter may move
faster or more slowly, or even apparently stand still in the wind,
as in the " table-cloth " cloud on Table Mountain at the Cape of
648 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
Good Hope. In reality the cloud is changing rapidly, forming
and dissolving at one and the same time.
In forecasting weather, clouds have, as we all know, special
significance. They are the true robes and garments of earth.
The poet sings of hills clad in verdure, the mantle of tender
green that the Earth puts on in the spring, and the splendid hues
of her autumnal dress ; but the garment which protects old Earth
the year round from extreme temperatures is the cloud layer.
Where there is little cloudiness the range of temperature is large,
and where there is much cloudiness the temperature is very even.
So, while the clouds delight us, they are also active for our
welfare. In never-ending procession they move — ragged ranks
of fracto-nimbi jostled by frowning cumuli, tatterdemalion scud
leading an army of mighty nimbi, the baleful funnel cloud, hover-
ing and ill-omened, rolling strato-cumuli that lie far out on the
flank ; thus they pass, while in the calm above appear the cirri
dainty and lacelike, or curling wisps of laughing cirro-stratus.
STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD.
X.— MATERIAL OF MORALITY.
By JAMES SULLY, M. A., LL. D.,
GROTE PROFESSOR OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND AND LOGIC AT THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE,
LONDON.
(a) PRIMITIVE EGOISM AND ALTRUISM.
PERHAPS there has been more hasty theorizing about the
child's moral characteristics than about any other of his
attributes. The very fact that diametrically opposed views have
been put forward is suggestive of this haste. By certain theo-
logians and others, infancy has been painted in the blackest of
moral colors. According to M. Compayre*, it is a bachelor, La
Bruyere, and a bishop, Dupanloup, who have said the worst things
of children ; and the parent or teacher who wants to see how bad
this worst is may consult M. Compayr^'s account.* On the other
hand, Rousseau and those who think with him have invested the
child with moral purity. According to Rousseau, the child comes
from the Creator's hand a perfect bit of workmanship, which
blundering man at once begins to mar. Children's freedom from
human vices has been a common theme of the poet : their inno-
cence was likened by M. About to the spotless snow of the Jung-
frau. Others, as Wordsworth, have gone further and attributed
to the child positive moral excellences, glimpses of a higher mo-
* L'Evolution intell. et mor. de l'enfant, chap xiv, ii
STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 649
rality than ours, divine intuitions brought from a loftier prenatal
existence.
Such opposite views of the moral status and worth of a child
must spring not out of careful observation, but out of preposses-
sion, and the magnifying of the accidents of individual expe-
rience. A theologian who is concerned to maintain the doctrine
of natural depravity, or a bachelor who happens to have known
children chiefly in the character of little tormentors, may be
expected to paint childhood with black pigments. On the other
hand, the poet attracted by the charm of infancy may easily be
led to idealize its moral aspects.
The first thing that strikes one in all such attempts to fix the
moral worth of the child is that they are judging of things by
wrong standards. The infant, though it has a nature capable of
becoming moral or immoral, is not as yet a moral being ; and
there is a certain impertinence in trying to force it under our
categories of good and bad, pure and corrupt.
If, then, we would know what the child's "moral" nature is
like, we must be careful to distinguish. By " moral " we must
understand that part of its nature, feelings, and impulses which
have for us a moral significance ; whether as furnishing raw ma-
terial out of which education may develop virtuous dispositions,
or, contrariwise, as constituting forces adverse to this develop-
ment. It may be well to call the former tendencies favorable to
virtue, pro-moral, the latter unfavorable tendencies, contra-moral.
Our inquiry, then, must be : In what respects and to what extent
does the child show itself by nature apart from all that is meant
by education, pro-moral or contra-moral — that is, well or ill fitted
to become a member of a good or virtuous community, and to
exercise what we know as moral functions ?
Our especial object here will be, if possible, to get at natural
dispositions, to examine the child in his primitive nakedness, look-
ing out for those instinctive tendencies which, according to modern
science, are hardly less clearly marked in a child than in a puppy
or a chick.
Now, there is clearly a difficulty here. How, it may be asked,
can we expect to find in a child any traits having a moral signifi-
cance which have not been developed by social influences and
education ? In the case of pro-moral dispositions more particu-
larly, as kindness or truthfuluess, we can not expect to get rid of
that molding effect of the combined personal influence and in-
struction of the mother which is of the essence of all moral
training. And even with regard to contra-moral traits, as rude-
ness or lying, it is evident that example is frequently a co-oper-
ating influence.
The difficulty is, no doubt, a real one, and can not be wholly
VOL. XLVII. — 54
650 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
got rid of. We can not completely eliminate the influence of the
common life in which the good and bad disposition alike may be
said to grow up. Yet we may distinguish. Thus we may look
out for the earliest spontaneous, and what we may call original,
manifestations of such dispositions as affection and truthfulness,
so as to eliminate the direct action of instruction and example,
and thus reduce the influence of the social medium on the child to
a minimum. Similarly, in the case of brutal and other unlovely
propensities, we may, by taking pains, get rid of the influence of
bad example.
Let us see, then, how far the indictment of the child is a just
one. Do children tend spontaneously to manifest the germs of
vicious dispositions, and, if so, to what extent ? Here, as I have
suggested, we must be particularly careful not to read wrong in-
terpretations into what we see. It will not do, for example, to
say that children are born thieves because they show themselves
at first charmingly indifferent to the distinction of meum and
tuum, and are inclined to help themselves to other children's toys,
and so forth. To repeat, what we have to inquire is whether
children by their instinctive inclinations are contra-moral — that
is, predisposed to what, if persevered in with reflection, we call
immorality or vice.
Here we can not do better than touch on that group of feelings
and dispositions which can be best marked off as antisocial, since
they tend to the injury of others, such as anger, envy, and cruelty.
The most distant acquaintance with the first years of human
life tells us that young children have much in common with the
lower animals. Their characteristic passions and impulses are
centered in self and the satisfaction of its wants. What is better
marked, for example, than the boundless greed of the child, his
keen desire to appropriate and enjoy whatever presents itself, and
to resent others' participation in such enjoyment ? For some
time after its birth the child is little more than an incarnation of
appetite which knows no restraint, and only yields to the under-
mining force of satiety.
The child's entrance into social life through a growing con-
sciousness of the existence of others is marked by much fierce
opposition to their wishes. His greed, which at the outset was
but the expression of a vigorous nutritive instinct, now takes on
more of a contra-moral aspect. The removal of the bottle by
another before full satisfaction has been attained is, as we know,
the occasion for one of the most impressive utterances of the
baby's " will to live," and of its resentment of all human checks
to its native impulses. In this outburst we have the first rude
germ of that defiance of control and of authority of which I shall
have to say more by and by
STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 651
In another way too the expansion of the infant's conscious-
ness through the recognition of others widens the terrane of
greedy impulse. For envy commonly has its rise in the percep-
tion of another child's consumption of appetite's dainties.
Here, it is evident, we are still at the level of the animal. A
dog is passionately greedy, like the child, will fiercely resent any
interference with the satisfaction of its appetite, and will be envi-
ous of another and more fortunately placed animal.
Much the same concern for self and opposition to others' hav-
ing what the child himself desires shows itself in the matter of
toys and other possessions of interest. A child is apt not only to
make free with another child's toys, but to show the strongest
objection to any imitation of this freedom, often displaying a
dog-in-the-manger spirit by refusing to lend what he himself does
not want. Not only so, he will be apt to resent another child's
having toys of his own. The envy of other children's possessions
by a child is apt to be impressive by reason not only of its pas-
sionate intensity, but of its far-reaching extent.
As the social interests come into play so far as to make caresses
and other signs of affection sources of pleasure to the child, the
field for envy and its "green-eyed" offspring, jealousy, is still
more enlarged. As is well known, an infant will greatly resent
the mother's taking another child into her arms.
Here, again, we are at the level of the lower animals. They,
too, as our dogs and cats show us, can be envious not only in the
matter of eatables, but in that of human caressings, and even of
possessions — witness the behavior of two dogs when a stick is
thrown into the water.
Full illustrations of these traits of the first years of childhood
are not needed. We all know them. M. Perez and others have
culled a sufficient collection of examples.*
Out of all this unrestrained pushing of appetite and desire
whereby the child comes into rude collision with others' wants,
wishes, and purposes there issue the well-known passionateness,
the angry outburst, and the quarrelsomeness of the child. These
fits of angry passion or temper are among the most curious mani-
festations of childhood, and deserve to be studied with much
greater care than they have yet received.
The outburst of rage as the imperious little will feels itself
suddenly pulled up has in spite of all its comicality something
impressive. Hitting out right and left, throwing things down on
the floor, breaking them, howling, and wild, agitated movement
of the arms and whole body — these are the outward vents which
the gust of fury is wont to take. Anything will do as object of
* See, for example, The First Three Years of Childhood, p. 66 ff.
6S 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
attack. A child of four, on being crossed, would bang bis chair
and then proceed to vent his displeasure on his unoffending toy-
lion, banging him, jumping on him, and threatening him with the
loss of his dinner. Hitting is in some cases improved upon by-
biting. The boy C was for some time vigorously mordant
in his angry fits. Another little boy would under similar circum-
stances bite the carpet.
Here we have expressive movements which are plainly brutal,
which assimilate the aspect of an angry child to that of an angry
savage and angry animal. The whole outward attitude is one of
fierce, ruthless assault. The insane, I am told, manifest a like
wildness of attack in fits of anger, smashing windows, etc., and
striking anybody who happens to be at hand.
Yet these are not all the manifestations. Childish anger has
its wretched aspect. There is keen suffering in these early experi-
ences of thwarted will and purpose. A little boy rather more than
a year old used, when crossed, to throw himself on the floor and
bang the back of his head ; and his brother, when fourteen months
old, would similarly throw himself on the floor and bang the back
of his head, biting the carpet as before mentioned. This act of
throwing one's self on the floor, which is common during this early
period, and is apparently quite instinctive, is the expression of the
utter dejection of misery. C 's attitude when crossed, gathered
into a heap on the floor, was eloquent of this infantile despair.
Such suffering is the immediate outcome of thwarted purpose, and
must be distinguished from the moral feeling of shame which
often accompanies it.
Such stormy outbursts vary, no doubt, from child to child.
Thus, C 's sister in her angry moments did not bite or roll on
the floor, but would dance about and stamp. Some children show
little if anything of this savage furiousness. Among those that
do show it, it is often a temporary phenomenon only.
This anger, it is to be noted, is due to mere check of will by
will, and would show itself to some extent even if there were no
intervention of authority. Thus a child will show himself angry,
resentful, and despairingly miserable if another child gets effective
hold of somethingwhich he wants to have. Yet it is undoubtedly
true, as we shall see, that these little storms are most frequently
called up by the imposition of authority, and are a manifestation
of what we call a defiant attitude.
This slight examination may suffice to show that with the child
self — its appetites, its satisfactions — is the center of its existence,
the pivot on which its action turns. I do not forget the real and
striking differences here, the specially brutal form of boys' anger
as compared with that of girls, the partial atrophy of some of these
impulses — e. g., jealousy — in the more gentle and affectionate type
STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 653
of child. Yet there seems to me little doubt that these are common
and among the most pronounced characters of the first years.
Evolution will, no doubt, help us to understand much of this.
If the order of development of the child follows and summarizes
that of the race, we should expect the child to show a germ at least
of the passionateness, the quarrelsomeness of the brute and of the
savage before he shows the moral qualities distinctive of civilized
man. That he often shows so close a resemblance to the savage
and to the brute suggests how little ages of civilized life, with its
suppression of these furious impulses, have done to tone down the
ancient and carefully transmitted instincts. The child at birth
and for a long while after may then be said to be the representa-
tive of wild, untamed Nature, which it is for education to subdue
and fashion into something softer and gentler.
At the same time the child is more than this. In this first
clash of his will with another's he knows more than the brute's
sensual fury. He suffers consciously, he realizes himself in his
antagonism to a world outside him. It is probable, as I have
pointed out before, that even a physical check bringing pain, as
when the child runs his head against a wall, may develop this con-
sciousness of self in its antagonism to a not-self. This conscious-
ness reaches a higher phase when the opposing force is distinctly
apprehended as another will. Self -feeling, a germ of the feeling
of " my worth," enters into this early passionateness and differen-
tiates it from a mere animal rage. The absolute prostration of
infantile anger seems to be the expression of this keen conscious-
ness of the self of its rebuff and injury.
While, then, these outbursts of savage instinct in children are,
no doubt, ugly and in their direction contra-moral, they must not
hastily be pronounced wholly bad and wicked. To call them
wicked in the full sense of that term is indeed to forget that they
are the swift reactions of instinct which have in them nothing of
reflection or of deliberation. The angry child venting his spite in
some wild act of violence is a long, long way from a man who know-
ingly and with the consent of his will retaliates and hates. The
very fleeting character of the outbreak, the rapid subsidence of
passion, and transition to another mood show that there is here
no real malice prepense. These instincts will, no doubt, if they
are not tamed, develop later into truly wicked dispositions; yet
it is by no means a small matter to recognize that they do not
amount to full moral depravity.
On the other hand, we have seen that we do not render com-
plete justice to these early manifestations of angry passion if we
class them with those of the brute. The child in these first years,
though not yet human in the sense of having rational insight into
his wrongdoing, is human in the sense of suffering through con-
654 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
sciousness of an injured self. This reflective element is not yet
moral ; the sense of injury may turn by and by into lasting ha-
tred. Yet it holds within itself possibilities of something higher.
But of this more when we come to envisage the child in his rela-
tion to authority.
The same predominance of self, the same kinship with the
unsocial brute which shows itself in these germinal animosities,
is said to reappear in the insensibility or unfeelingness of chil-
dren. The commonest charge against children from those who
are not on intimate terms with them, and sometimes, alas ! from
those who are, is that they are heartless and cruel.
That children often appear to the adult as unfeeling as a
stone is, I suppose, incontestable. The troubles which harass
and oppress the mother leave her small companion quite uncon-
cerned. He either goes on playing with undisturbed cheerful-
ness, or he betrays a momentary curiosity about some irrelevant
circumstances connected with the affliction which is worse than
the absorption in play through its tantalizing want of any genu-
ine feeling. Brothers and sisters may be ill ; but if the vigorous
little player is affected at all, it is only through loss of compan-
ions, if this is not more than made up for by certain advantages
of the solitary situation. If the mother is ill, the situation is
interesting merely as supplying him with new treats. A' little
boy of four, after spending half an hour in his mother's sick-
room, coolly informed his nurse: " I have had a very nice time;
mamma's ill ! " The order of the two statements is significant
of the child's mental attitude toward others' sufferings. If his
faithful nurse has her face bandaged, his interest in her torments
does not go beyond a remark on the "funniness" of her new
appearance.
When it comes to the bigger human troubles this want of
fellow-feeling is still more remarkable. Nothing is more shock-
ing to the adult observer of children than their coldness and
stolidity in presence of death. While a whole house is stricken
with grief at the loss of a beloved inmate the child preserves his
serenity, being affected at most by a feeling of awe before a great
mystery. Even the sight of the dead body does not always excite
grief. Mrs. Burnett, in her interesting reminiscences of child-
hood, has an excellent account of the feelings of a sensitive and
refined child when first brought face to face with death. In one
case she was taken with fearsome longing to touch the dead body
so as to know what " as cold as death " meant ; in another, that of
a pretty girl of three with golden-brown eyes and neat, small
brown curls, she was impressed by the loveliness of the whole
scene, the nursery bedroom being hung with white and adorned
with white flowers. In neither case was she sorry, and could not
STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 655
cry, though she had imagined beforehand that she would. Even
in this case, then, where so much feeling was called forth, com-
miseration for the dead companion seemed to have been almost
wholly wanting.
No one, I think, will doubt that, judged by our standards,
children are often profoundly and shockingly callous. But the
question arises here, too, whether we are right in applying our
grown-up standards. It is one thing to be indifferent with full
knowledge of suffering, another to be indifferent in the sense in
which a cat might be said to be indifferent at the spectacle of
your falling or burning your finger. We are apt to assume that
children know our sufferings instinctively, or at least that they
can always enter into them when they are openly expressed. But
this assumption is highly unreasonable. A large part of the
manifestation of human suffering is unintelligible to a little
child. He is not oppressed by our anxieties, our griefs, because
these are to a large extent beyond his sympathetic comprehension.
We must remember, too, that there are moods and attitudes of
mind favorable and unfavorable to sympathy. None of us are
uniformly and consistently compassionate. It is wonderful how
insensible really kind-hearted people can show themselves on
occasion, as, for example, toward the afflictions of those whose
previous good fortune they have envied. Children are the sub-
ject of moods which are exclusive of sympathy. They are im-
pelled by their superabundant nervous energy to wild, romping
activity; they are passionately absorbed in their play; they are
intensely curious about the many new things they see and hear
of. These dominant impulses issue in mental attitudes which are
indifferent to the spectacle of others' troubles.
Again, where an appeal to serious attention is given, a child
is apt to see something besides the sadness. The little girl al-
ready spoken of saw the prettiness of the death-room rather than
its mournfulness. A teacher once told her class of the death of a
classmate. There was, of course, a strange stillness, which one
little girl presently broke with a loud laugh. The child is said
to have been by no means unemotional, the laugh not a " nervous "
one. The odd situation — the sudden hush of a class — had affected
childish risibilities more than the distressing announcement.
One other remark by way of saving clause here. It is by no
means true that children are always unaffected by the sad and
sorrowful things in life. The first acquaintance with death, as
we know from a number of published reminiscences, has some-
times shaken a child's whole being with an infinite nameless
sense of woe. But of this more, presently, after we have heard
the rest of the indictment.
Children, says the niisopredist, are not only unfeeling when
656 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
we look for sympathy and kindness; they are positively unkind,
their unkindness amounting to cruelty. What we mean by the
brute in the child is emphatically this cruelty. By cruelty is
here understood cold-blooded infliction of pain. " Cet age," wrote
La Fontaine of childhood, " est sans pitieV' The idea that chil-
dren, especially boys, are cruel in this sense is, I think, a com-
mon one.
This cruelty will now and again show itself in relation to
other children. One of the trying situations of early life is to
find one's self supplanted by the arrival of a new baby. Children,
I have reason to think, are in such circumstances capable of
coming shockingly near to a feeling of hatred. I have heard of
one little girl who was taken with so violent an antipathy to a
baby which she considered outrageously ugly as to make futile
attempts to smash its head, much as she would, no doubt, have
tried to destroy a doll which had become unsightly to her. The
baby, I may as well add, was not really hurt by this shocking
precocity of infanticidal impulse — perhaps the smashing was
more than half a " pretense " — and the little girl grew up to be a
kind-hearted woman.
Such cruel-looking handling of smaller infants is probably
rare. More common is the exhibition of the signs of cruelty in
the child's dealings with animals. It is of this, indeed, that we
mostly think when we speak of a child's cruelty. Young chil-
dren are not, I think, often charged, even by the harshest of their
accusers, deliberately with inflicting pain on their human com-
panions.
At first nothing seems clearer than the evidence of malicious
intention in a child's treatment of animals. Look, for example,
at a little girl trying to get the cat from some hiding place. She
grabs at its tail, receives formidable scratches, yet perseveres
with something of a soldier's indifference to her own pains. Do
we not here see evidences of a determination to plague, and of a
delight in plaguing ? Or watch a child chasing a fly on the win-
dow pane, and note the hard, doglike pertinacity with which he
follows it up and at length pins and crushes it with his fingers.
The question of the innermost nature of human cruelty is too
difficult a one to be discussed here. I will only say that, what-
ever the cruelty of adults may be, children's so-called cruelty
toward animals is very far from being a pure delight in the sight
of suffering. The torments to which a child will subject a long-
suffering cat are, I suspect, due not to a clear intention to inflict
pain, but to the child's impulse to hold, possess, and completely
dominate the pet animal. It is a manifestation of that odd mix-
ture of sociability and love of power which makes up a child's
attachment to the lower animals.
STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 657
The case of destructive cruelty is somewhat different. Let me
give a well- observed instance. A little boy of two years and two
months, " after nearly killing a fly on the window pane, seemed
surprised and disturbed, looking round for an explanation, then
gave it himself: 'Mr. Fy dom (gone) to by by'; but he would
not touch it or another fly again — a doubt evidently remained,
and he continued uneasy about it." Here we have, I think, the
instinctive attitude of a child toward the outcome of its destruc-
tive impulse. And this destructive impulse, which as we know
becomes more clearly destructive when experience has taught
what result follows, is not necessarily cruel in the sense of in-
cluding an idea of the animal's suffering. Animal movement,
especially that of tiny things, has something exciting and pro-
voking about it. The child's own activity, and the love of power
which is bound up with it, impel him to arrest the movement.
This is the meaning, I suspect, of the fascination of the fly on the
window pane, and other small capturable creatures, as later on of
birds. The cat's prolonged chase of the mouse, into which some-
thing of a dramatic make-believe enters, owes its zest to a like
delight in the realization of the captor's power.
Along with this love of power there goes often something of a
child's fierce, untamable curiosity. A boy of four, finding that
his mother was shocked at hearing him express a wish to see a
pigeon which a dog had just killed, remarked : " Is it rude to look
at a dead pigeon ? I want to see where its blood is." I am dis-
posed to think that the crushing of flies and moths and the pull-
ing of worms to pieces, and so forth, are prompted by this curi-
osity. The child wants to see where the blood is, what the bones
are like, how the wings are fastened in, and so forth.
A like combination of love of power and of curiosity seems to
underlie other directions of childish destructiveness, as the break-
ing of toys and the pulling of flowers to pieces. In certain cases,
as in C 's destruction of a whole garden of peonies, the love of
power or effect overtops and outlives the curiosity, becoming a
sort of savage greed.*
I think, then, that we may give the little child the benefit of
the doubt, and not assign its rough handling of sentient things to
a wish to inflict pain, or even to an indifference to pain of which
he is clearly aware. Wanton activity, the curiosity of the experi-
menter, and delight in realizing one's power and producing an
effect, seem sufficient to explain most of the alleged cruelty of the
* Ruskin tells us that when a child he pulled flowers to pieces " in no morbid curiosity,
but in admiring wonder " (Praeterita, 88). Goethe gives an amusing account of his whole-
sale throwing of crockery out of the window, inspired by the delight of watching the droll
way in which it was smashed on the pavement.
658 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
first years. That later on cruelty becomes possible, that the
school bully may find his satisfaction in tormenting the "little
kids/' this is but too certain. Yet even schoolboys with clearest
example to guide them are by no means always bullies.
We have now looked at one of the dark sides of the child and
have found that, though it is unpleasant, it is not so hideous as it
has been painted. Children are, no doubt, apt to be passionate,
ferocious in their anger, and sadly wanting in consideration for
others ; yet it is consolatory to reflect that their savageness is not
quite that of brutes, and that their selfishness and cruelty are a
long way removed from a deliberate and calculating egoism.
It now remains to point out that there is another and counter-
balancing side. If a child has his outbursts of temper he has also
his fits of tenderness. If he is now dead to others' sufferings, he
is at another time taken with a most amiable, childish concern
for their happiness. In order to be just to the child we must rec-
ognize both sides.
It must not be forgotten here that children are instinctively
attachable and sociable, in so far as they show in the first weeks
that they get used to and dependent on the human presence, and
are miserable when this is taken from them. The stopping of a
child's crying at night on hearing the familiar voice of its mother
or nurse shows this.
In this instinct of companionship there is involved a vague
inarticulate sympathy. Just as the attached dog may be said to
have in a vague way a feeling of oneness with its master, so the
child. The intenser realization of this oneness comes in the case
of the dog and of the child alike after separation. The wild,
caressing leaps of the quadruped are matched by the warm em-
bracings of the little biped. Only that here, too, we see in the
child traces of a deeper human consciousness. A girl of thirteen
months was separated from her mother for six weeks. On the
mother's return she was speechless, and for some time could not
bear to leave her mother for a minute.
This sense of joining on one's existence to another's is not full
imaginative sympathy — that is, a warm realizing representation
of another's feelings — but it is a kind of sympathy, after all, and
may grow into something better. This we may see in the return
of the childish heart to its resting place after the estrangement
introduced by " naughtiness." The relenting after passion, the
reconciliation after punishment, are these not the experiences
which help to raise the dumb-animal sympathy of the first
months into a true human sense of fellowship ? But this part
of the development of sympathy belongs to another chapter.
Sympathy, it has been said, is a kind of imitation, and this is
strikingly illustrated in its early forms. A dog will howl pite-
STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 659
ously in response to another dog's howl ; similarly a child of nine
and a half months has been known to cry violently when its
mother or father pretends to cry.
One curious manifestation of this early imitative sympathy is
the impulse to do what the mother does and to be what she is.
Much of early imitative play shows this tendency. It is more
than a cold, distant copying of another's doings; it is full of the
warmth of attachment, and it is entered on as a way of getting
nearer the object of attachment. Out of this, too, there springs
the germ of a higher sympathy. It will be remembered that
Laura Bridgman bound the eyes of her doll with a bandage simi-
lar to the one she herself wore. Through this sharing in her own
experience the doll became more a part of herself. Conversely, a
child, on finding that her mother's head ached, began imitatively
to make believe that her own head was hurt. Imaginative sym-
pathy rests on community of experience, and it is curious that a
child, before he can fully sympathize with another's trouble and
make it his own by the sympathetic process itself, should thus
show the impulse to procure by a kind of childish acting this
community of experience.
From this imitative acting of another's trouble so as to share
in it, there is but a step to a direct sympathetic apprehension of
it. How early a genuine manifestation of concern at another's
misery begins to show itself , it is almost impossible to say. Chil-
dren probably differ greatly in this respect. I have, however, one
case which is so curious that I can not forbear to quote it. It
reaches me, I may say, by a thoroughly trustworthy channel.
A baby, aged one year and two months, was crawling on the
floor. An elder sister, Katherine, aged six, who was working at a
wool mat, could not get on very well, and began to cry. Baby
looked up and grunted, tl On ! on ! " and kept drawing its fingers
down its own cheeks. Here the aunt called Miss Katherine's
attention to baby, a device which merely caused a fresh outburst
of tears. "Whereupon baby proceeded to hitch itself along to
Katherine with many repetitions of the grunts and the finger
gestures. Katherine, fairly overcome by this, took baby to her
and smiled. At which baby began to clap its hands and to crow,
tracing this time the course of the tears down its sister's cheeks.
This pretty nursery picture certainly seems to illustrate a
rudiment of genuine fellow-feeling. Similarly, it is hard not to
recognize the signs of a sincere concern when a child of two will
run spontaneously and kiss the place that is hurt, even though it
is not to be doubted that the graceful action was learned through
imitation.
Very sweet and sacred to the mother are the child's first clear
indications of concern for herself. These are sporadic, springing
660 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
up rarely, and sometimes, as it looks to us, capriciously. Illness
and temporary removal are a common occasion for the appear-
ances of a deeper tenderness in the young heart. A little boy of
three spontaneously brought his story book to his mother when
she lay in bed ill ; and the same child used to follow her about
after her recovery with all the devotion of a little knight.
Very quaint and pretty, too, are the first attempts of the child
at consolation. A little German girl, aged two and a half, had
just lost her brother, and seemed very indifferent for some days.
She then began to reflect and to ask about her playmate. On
seeing her mother's distress she proceeded in truly childish fash-
ion to comfort her : " Never, mind mamma, you will get a better
boy. He was a ragamuffin" {"Er war ein Lump"). The coex-
istence of an almost barbarous indifference for the dead brother
with practical sympathy for the living mother is characteristic
here.
A deeper and more thoughtful sympathy comes with years
and reflective power. Thought about the overhanging terror,
death, is sometimes the awakener of this. "Are you old,
mother ? " asked a boy of five. " Why ? " she answered. " Be-
cause," he continued, " the older you are the nearer you are to
dying." This child had once before said he hoped his mother
would not die before him, and this suggests that the thought of
his own forlorn condition was in his mind here ; yet we may hope
that there was something of disinterested concern too.
This early consideration frequently takes the practical form
of helpfulness. A child loves nothing better than to assist you
in little household occupations ; and though love of activity and
the pleasure of imitating, no doubt, count for much in these cases
we can, I think, safely set down something to the wish to be of
use. This inference seems justified by the fact that such prac-
tical helpfulness is not always imitative. A little boy of two
years and one month happened to overhear his nurse say to her-
self, " I wish that Anne would remember to fill the nursery
boiler." " He listened and presently trotted off, found the said
Anne doing a distant grate, pulled her by the apron, saying,
' Nanna, Nanna ! ' (come to nurse). She followed, surprised and
puzzled, the child pulling all the way, till, having got her into the
nursery, he pointed to the boiler, adding, ' Go dare, go dare/ so
that the girl comprehended and did as he bade her."
With this practical "utilitarian" sympathy there goes a wish
to please in other ways. Sometimes this shows itself in a dainty
courtesy, as when a little girl, aged three and a quarter, petitioned
her mother in this wise : " Please, mamma, will you pin this with
the greatest pleasure ? " Regard for another's feelings was surely
never more charmingly expressed than in the prayer that in
STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 66 1
rendering this little service the helper should not only be willing
but glad.
Just as there are these sporadic growths of affectionate con-
cern and wish to please in relation to the mother and others, so
there is ample evidence of kindness to animals. The charge of
cruelty in the case of little children is indeed seen to be a gross
libel as soon as we consider their whole behavior toward the
animal world.
I have touched above on the vague alarms which this animal
world has for tiny children. It is only fair to them to say that
these alarms are for the most part transitory, giving place to in-
terest, attachment, and fellow-feeling. In a sense a child may be
said to belong to the animal community, as Mr. Rudyard Kip-
ling's account of the Jungle prettily suggests. Has he not indeed
at first more in common with the dog and cat, the pet rabbit or
dormouse, than with that grown-up human community which is
apt to be so preoccupied with things beyond his understanding,
and in many cases at least to wear so unfriendly a mien ? We
must remember, too, that children as a rule know nothing of the
prejudices, of the disgusts, which make grown people put animals
so far from them. The boy C was nonplussed by his mother's
horror of the caterpillar. A child has been known quite spon-
taneously to call a worm " beautiful."
As soon as the first fear of the strangeness is mastered a child
will take to the animal. A little boy of fifteen months quickly
overcame his fright at the barking of his grandfather's dog, and
began to share his biscuits with him, to give him flowers to smell,
and to throw stones for his amusement. This mastery of fear by
attachment takes a higher form when later on the child will
stick to his dumb companion after suffering from his occasional
fits of temper. Ruskin gives in his reminiscences a striking ex-
ample of this triumph of attachment over fear. When five years
old, he tells us, he was taken by the serving man to see a favorite
Newfoundland dog in the stable. The man rather foolishly
humored the child's wish to kiss Leo (the dog), and lowered him
so that his face came near the animal's. Hereupon the dog, who
was dining, resenting the interruption of his meal, bit out a piece
of the boy's lip. His only fear after this was lest Lion (the dog)
should be sent away.*
Children will too at a quite early age betray the germ of a
truly humane feeling toward animals. The same little boy that
bravely got over his fear of the dog's barking would, when nine-
teen months old, begin to cry on seeing a horse fall in the street.
More passionate outbursts of pity are seen at a later age. A boy
* Praeterita, pp. 105, 106.
662 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
of five years and nine months had a kitten of which he was very-
fond. One day, after two or three days' absence from the house,
it came back with one foot much mutilated and the leg swollen,
evidently not far from dying. "When" (writes the mother) "he
saw it, he burst into uncontrollable tears, and was more affected
than I have ever seen him. The kitten was taken away and
drowned, and ever since (a month) he has shown great reluctance
in speaking of it, and never mentions it to any one but those who
saw the cat at the time. He says it is too sad to tell any one of
it." The boy C , when only four, was moved to passionate grief
at the sight of a dead dog taken from a pond.
The righteous indignation of children at the doings of the
butcher, the hunter, and others, which deserves a chapter to itself,
shows how deeply pitiful consideration for animals is rooted in
their hearts.
It is sometimes asked why children should take animals to
their bosoms in this fashion, and lavish so much fellow-feeling
on them. It seems easy to understand how they come to choose
animals, especially young ones, as playmates, and now and again
to be ruthlessly inconsiderate of their comfort in their boisterous
gambols ; but why should they be so affected by their sufferings
and champion their rights so zealously ? I think the answer is
not hard to find. The sympathy and love which the child gives
to animals grows out of a kind of blind, gregarious instinct, and
this again seems to be rooted in a similarity of position and needs.
As M. Compayre well says on this point : " He (the child) sympa-
thizes naturally with creatures which resemble him on so many
sides, in wjaich he finds wants analogous to his own, the same
appetite, the same impulses to movement, the same desire for
caresses. To resemble is already to love." * I think, however,
that a deeper feeling comes in from the first and gathers strength
as the child hears about men's treatment of animals — I mean a
sense of a common danger and helplessness face to face with the
human " giants." The more passionate attachment of the child
to the animal is the outcome of the widespread instinct of help-
less things to band together. A mother once remarked to her
boy, between five and six years old, " Why, R , I believe you
are kinder to the animals than to me ! " " Perhaps I am " (he re-
plied) ; " you see they are not so well off as you are." May there
not be something of this sense of banding and mutual defense on
the animals' side too ? The idea does not look so absurd when we
remember how responsive, how forbearing, how ready to defend
a dog will often show itself toward a " wee mite " of a child.
The same outpourings of affection are seen in the dealings of
* Op. tit., p. 108.
STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 663
children with their toy babies and animals. Allowing for occa-
sional outbreaks of temper and acts of violence, the child's inter-
course with his doll and his toy " gee gee " is on the whole a
striking display of loving solicitude — a solicitude which is at once
tender and corrective, and has the enduring constancy of a ma-
ternal instinct. No one can watch the care given to a doll, the
wide-ranging efforts to provide for its comfort, keeping it Warm,
feeding it, bathing it, tending it while sick and so forth, to make
it look pretty, to make it behave nicely, approving, scolding, as
occasion arises, and note the misery of the child when parted
from it, without acknowledging that in this plaything human-
ized by childish fancy we have the very focus of the rays of
childish tenderness ; that in the child's devotion to its wooden pet
we have a striking example of the truth that daily companion-
ship and the habit of caring for a thing make it an inseparable
part of us.
Lastly, the reader may be reminded that childish kindness and
pitifulness extend to what look to us still less deserving objects
in the inanimate world. The expression of pity for the falling
leaves and for the stones condemned to lie always in one place,
referred to above, shows how quick childish feeling is to detect
what is sad in the look of things. Children have even been known
to apply the commiserating vocable " poor " to a torn paper figure
and to a bent pin. It seems right to suppose tha.t here too the
tender heart of the child saw occasion for pity.
It is worth noting that childish sorrow at the sufferings of
things is sometimes so keen that even artistic descriptions which
contain a " cruel " element are shunned. A little boy under four
" is indignant [writes his mother] at any picture where an animal
suffers. He has even turned against several of his favorite pic-
tures— German Bilderbogen — because they are ' cruel/ as the bear
led home with a corkscrew in his nose." The extreme mani-
festation of this shrinking from the representation of animal or
human suffering is dislike for " sad stories." The unsophisticated
tender heart of the child can find no pleasure in horrors which
appear to be the crowning delight of many an adult reader.
Here, however, it is evident we verge on the confines of senti-
mental pity. It is worth remarking that it is the highly imagina-
tive children who shed most tears over these fictitious sufferings.
Children with more matter-of-fact minds and a practical turn are
not so affected. Thus a mother writes of her two girls : " M ,
being the most imaginative, is and always has been much affected
by sad stories, especially if read to her with dramatic inflections
of voice. From two years old upward these have always affected
her to tears, while P , who is really the most tender-hearted
and helpful, but has little imagination, never cries at sad stories,
664 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
and when four years old explained to me that she did not mind
them because she knew they didn't really happen."
It appears to me to be incontestable that in this spontaneous
outgoing of fellow-feeling toward others, human and animal, the
child manifests something of a truly moral quality. C 's
stout and persistent advocacy of the rights of London horses
against the oppression of the bearing-rein had in it something
of righteous indigation. The way in which his mind was at
this period preoccupied with animal suffering suggests that his
sympathies with animals were rousing the first fierce protest
against the wicked injustice of the world. The boy De Quincey
got this first feeling of moral evil in another way through his
sympathy with a sister who, rumor said, had been brutally treated
by a servant. He could not, he tells us, bear to look on the
woman. It was not anger. " The feeling which fell upon me was
a shuddering horror, as upon a first glimpse of the truth that I
was in a world of evil and strife." *
-♦♦♦-
THE STUDY OF BIRDS OUT-OF-DOORS.f
By FRANK M. CHAPMAN.
WHETHER your object be to study birds as a scientist or
simply as a lover of Nature, the first step is the same — you
must learn to know them. This problem of identification has
been given up in despair by many would-be ornithologists. We
can neither pick, press, net, nor impale birds ; and here the bota-
nist and the entomologist have a distinct advantage. Even if we
have the desire to resort to a gun its use is not always possible.
But with patience and practice the identification of birds is a
comparatively easy matter, and in the end you will name them
with surprising ease and certainty. There is generally more
character in the flight of a bird than there is in the gait of a
man. Both are frequently indescribable but perfectly diagnostic,
and you learn to recognize bird friends as you do human ones —
by experience.
If you confine your studies to one locality, probably not more
than one third of the species described in this volume will come
within the field of your observation. To aid you in learning
which species should be included in this third, the paragraphs on
range are followed by a statement of the bird's standing at Wash-
* Autobiographical Sketches, chap. i.
\ Being part of a chapter from the author's illustrated Handbook of Birds of Eastern
North America recently issued by Messrs. D. Appleton & Co.
THE STUDY OF BIRDS OUT-OF-DOORS. 665
ingtou, D. C, Sing Sing, N. Y., and Cambridge, Mass., while the
water-birds of Long Island are treated specially. Take the list of
birds from the point nearest your home as an index of those you
may expect to find. This may be abridged for a given season by
considering the times of the year at which a bird is present.
After this slight preparation you may take to the field with a
much clearer understanding of the situation. Two quite differ-
ent ways of identifying birds are open to you. Either you may
shoot them, or study them through a field- or opera-glass. A
"bird in the hand" is a definite object whose structure and color
can be studied to such advantage that in most cases you will
afterward recognize it at sight. After learning the names of its
parts, its identity is simply a question of keys and descriptions.
If you would " name the birds without a gun/' by all means
first visit a museum, and, with text-book in hand, study those
species which you have previously found are to be looked for
near your home. This preliminary in-
troduction will serve to ripen your ac-
quaintance in the field. A good field- or
opera-glass is absolutely indispensable.
A strong opera-glass with a large eye-
piece is most useful in the woods, while
a field-glass is more serviceable in ob-
serving water-birds. Study your bird as
closely as circumstances will permit, and
write on the spot a comparative descrip-
tion Of its Size, the shape of its bill, tail, Head of Barred Owl.
etc., and a detailed description of its col-
ors. In describing form take a Robin, Chipping Sparrow, or any
bird you know, which best serves the purpose, as a basis for com-
parison. A bird's bill is generally its most diagnostic external
character. A sketch of it in your note-book will frequently give
you a good clew to its owner's family. It is of the utmost impor-
tance that this description should be written in the field. Not
only do our memories sometimes deceive us, but we really see
nothing with exactness until we attempt to describe it. Haunts,
actions, and notes should also be carefully recorded. This account
is your "bird in the hand," and while you can not hope to iden-
tify it as easily as you could a specimen, you will rarely fail to
learn its name, and experience will render each attempt less diffi-
cult than the preceding.
The best times of the day in which to look for birds are early
morning and late afternoon. After a night of fasting and resting,
birds are active and hungry. When their appetites are satisfied
they rest quietly until afternoon, hunger again sending them
forth in search of food.
''r'V-- '*;•<*■■
VOL. XLVII. 00
666
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
Experience will soon show you the places where birds are
most abundant. The more varied the nature of the country the
greater number of species you may expect to find inhabiting it.
An ideal locality would be a bit of tree-dotted meadow with a
Hairy Woodpecker.
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.
reed-bordered pond or stream, surrounded by woods, rolling up-
lands, and orchards.
Common sense will tell you how to act in the field. Birds are
generally shy creatures and must be approached with caution.
You must not, therefore, go observing or collecting dressed in
flaming red, but in some inconspicuous garb and as quietly
THE STUDY OF BIRDS OUT-OF-DOORS.
667
Head of Cedar Waxwing.
as a cat. Furthermore, go alone and keep the sun at your
back — two apparently unrelated but equally important bits of
advice.
The collector generally has the instincts of a hunter, and prac-
tice will develop them. The "squeak" is one of his most valu-
able aids. It is made by placing the
lips to the back of the hand or finger
and kissing vigorously. The sound
produced bears some resemblance to
the cries of a wounded or young
bird. In the nesting season its utter-
ance frequently creates much excite-
ment in the bird world, and at all
times it is useful as a means of draw-
ing bush- or reed-haunting species
from their retreats. One may enter
an apparently deserted thicket, and, after a few minutes' squeak-
ing, find himself surrounded by an anxious or curious group of
its feathered inhabitants.
The observer of birds will find that by far the best way to
study their habits is to take a sheltered seat in some favored
locality and become a part of the background. Your passage
through the woods is generally attended by sufficient noise to
warn birds of your coming long before you see them. They are
then suspicious and ill at ease. But secrete yourself near some
spot loved by birds, and it may be your privilege to learn the
secrets of the forest.
During the year the bird life of temperate and boreal regions
fluctuates with the changing seasons. Birds may thus be classed
in the following groups according to the manner of their occur-
rence: Permanent residents are birds found in one locality
throughout the year. Summer residents come from the south
in the spring, rear their young, and leave in the fall. Winter
visitants come from the north in the fall, pass the winter, and
leave in the spring. Transient visitants pass
through a given place in migrating to and
from their summer homes north of it. Acci-
dental visitants are birds which have lost
their way. They are generally young and
inexperienced, and are usually found in the
fall.
The best time of the year to begin study-
ing birds is in the winter, when the bird
population of temperate regions is at the minimum. The problem
of identification is thus reduced to its simplest terms, and should
be mastered before spring introduces new elements.
Golden-crowned Kinglet.
668 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
The commoner permanent residents of the middle Eastern
States are the following :
Bob-white, Hairy Woodpecker,
Ruffed Grouse, Flicker,
Red-shouldered Hawk, Blue Jay,
Red-tailed Hawk, Crow,
Sharp- shinned Hawk, Meadowlark,
Barred Owl, American Goldfinch,
Long-eared Owl, Purple Finch,
Screech Owl, Song Sparrow,
Great Horned Owl, White-breasted Nuthatch,
Downy Woodpecker, Chickadee,
and occasionally the Waxwing, Myrtle Warbler, Bluebird, and
Robin. To these should be added the following more or less
common winter visitant land-birds :
Saw- whet Owl, Tree Sparrow,
Horned Lark, Junco,
Snowflake, Northern Shrike,
Lapland Longspur, Winter Wren,
Redpoll, Golden crowned Kinglet,
American Crossbill, Brown Creeper,
White-throated Sparrow,
Let us now begin with the opening of the spring migration
and briefly review the ornithological year. In the vicinity of
New York city the first birds arrive from the south late in Feb-
ruary or early in March. There is much variation in the coming
of these early birds. Later, when the weather is more settled,
migrants arrive within a few days of a given date. In April
most of our winter visitants leave for the north. The current of
migration grows steadily stronger until about May 12th, when
high- water mark is reached. Then it rapidly subsides, and the
spring migration is practically over by June 1st. The winter
visitants have gone, the great army of transients has passed us,
and our bird population is now composed of permanent residents
with the addition of about ninety summer residents.
Nesting time has arrived, and birds which for nearly a year
have been free to go and come as inclination directed, now
have homes where, day after day, they may be found in tire-
less attendance upon the nest and its treasures. Courtship, the
construction of a dwelling, the task of incubation, and care of
the young, all tend to stimulate the characteristic traits of the
bird, and at no other time can its habits be studied to better
advantage.
But resident birds begin building long before the migration is
concluded. The Great Horned Owl lays in February, other birds
THE STUDY OF BIRDS OUT-OF-DOORS.
669
in March and April ; still, the height of the breeding season is not
reached until June 1st.
Another period in the avian year closely connected with the
spring migration and nesting time is the song season. Near New
Song Sparrow.
Swamp Sparrow.
York city it is inaugurated late in February by the Song Spar-
row. Voice after voice is added to the choir, and in June our
woods and fields ring with the chorus so dear to lovers of Nature.
By the middle of July it is on the wane, and early in August it is
practically over. Some birds have a brief second song season in
670 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
the fall, but as a rule it lasts only a few days — it is a farewell to
their summer homes.
August is a most discouraging month to the student of birds.
Birds leave their accustomed haunts and retire to secluded places
to renew their worn plumages. They are silent and inactive, and
therefore difficult to find. Late in the month they reappear clad
in traveling costumes and ready for their southern journey. One
by one they leave us, and there are days late in August and early
in September when the woods are almost deserted of birds. Later
the fall migration becomes continuous, and each night brings a
host of new arrivals.
The spring migration is scarcely concluded before the fall mi-
gration begins. July 1st, Tree Swallows, which rarely nest near
New York city, appear in numbers from the north and gather in
immense flocks in our marshes. Later in the month they are
joined by Bobolinks. Early in August the careful observer will
detect occasional small nights of Warblers passing southward,
and by September 10th the great southern march of the birds is
well under way ; it reaches its height between the 20th and last
of the month, when most of the winter residents arrive, and from
this time our bird life rapidly decreases. Some of the seed- and
berry-eaters remain until driven southward by the cold weather
in December. When they have gone our bird population is
again reduced to the ever-present permanent residents and hardy
winter visitants.
In a careful study of the great divine's woi'ks, the Rev. J. A. Zahm finds
that St. Augustine clearly distinguishes between creation, properly so
called, and the work of formation and development. The former was
direct and simultaneous, while the latter, he contends, was gradual and
progressive. l'As there is invisibly in the seed," he affirms, "all that
which in the course of time constitutes the tree, so also are we to view the
world, wdien it was created by God, as containing all that which was sub-
sequently manifested, not only the heavens with the sun and moon and
stars, but also those things which he produced potentially and causally,
from the waters and the earth, before they appeared as we now know
them.1' The formless matter, which God created from nothing, was first
called heaven and earth, and it is written that " in the beginning God
created heaven and earth," not because it was forthwith heaven and
earth, but because it was destined to become heaven and earth. When
we consider the seed of a tree, we say that it contains the roots, the
trunk, the branches, the fruits, and the leaves, not because they are
already there, but because they shall be produced from it. "Verily,"
says Mr. Zahm, "in reading these words, we can fancy that we are
perusing some modern scientific treatise on cosmogony instead of an
exposition of Genesis written by a father of the Church fifteen hundred
years ago."
ANCESTOR -WORSHIP AMONG THE FIJIANS. 671
ANCESTOR-WORSHIP AMONG THE FIJIANS.*
By BASIL II. THOMSON.
THERE are more gods than tribes among the Fijians, and it.is
manifestly impossible to give an account of the religions of
them all within reasonable limits ; hence I take as a type the tribes
inhabiting the northern and eastern portions of the island of Viti-
Levu, the part of the group first colonized by Fijians. Like the
Greeks, the Fijians made their gods as beings of like passions
with themselves ; but whatever may have been the fountain head
of Greek mythology, it is clear that the Fijians humanized their
gods, because they had once existed on earth in human form.
Their mythology was traditional history. Like other primitive
peoples, the Fijians deified their ancestors. The father ruled the
family. Each member of it turned to him for the ordering of his
daily life. No scheme entered the head of the young man that
did not depend upon the consent or prohibition of the head of his
family. Suddenly the father died. How were his sons to rid
themselves of the idea of his controlling influence that had guided
them ever since they were born, even though they had buried his
body ? He had been wont to threaten them with punishment
for disobedience, and even now, when they did the things of
which he disapproved in life, punishment was sure to follow —
the crops failed, a hurricane unroofed the hut, floods swept away
the canoe.
If they won a victory over their enemies, it was he who had
strengthened their arms in response to their prayers and offer-
ings. Then each son of the dead father founded his own family,
but still owed allegiance to their eldest brother, who represented
their father as the head of the joint family. Generations came
and went ; the tribe even increased its tens to hundreds, but still
the eldest son of the eldest, who carried in his veins the blood of
the common ancestor in its purest form, was venerated as the head
of the tribe. The name of the ancestor was not forgotten. He
was now a god, and had his temple and his priests, who had them-
selves come to be hereditary and had the strong motive of self-
interest for keeping his memory green. My belief is that the
extra-tribal mythology of the Fijians is in fact legendary history,
that the gods that peopled their Olympus had been the men who
were the founders of their race. The story of their origin, history,
and beliefs is contained in a poem, the Saga of Nakauvadra, by an
u nknown author, a specimen of which follows :
* Abridged from an address delivered before the Anthropological Institute of Great
Britain and Ireland, and published in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute.
672 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
" Ko Degei sa tagi lagalaga,
Bogi Dua, bog'i rua ka'u yadra,
Bogi tolu, bogi va ka'u yadra,
Sa tubu dugn diria ko Turukawa."
In a distant land to the far westward were three chiefs, Lutu-
nasobasoba, Degei, and Waicalanavanua. For some cause, long
since forgotten, they resolved to leave this land with their wives
and children, and they sent a messenger to the head craftsman
Rokola, bidding him build them a great canoe, which they called
the kaunitoni. In her they set sail, and with them went a num-
ber of other canoes, all seeking a new land. They found many
lands, and at each some of the people stayed to make it their
adopted home ; but none of them pleased Lutunasobasoba. At
last the kaunitoni was left alone, and for many days she sailed
and found no land. And then a great storm came up from the
westward and struck her, and the waves swept her deck, carrying
overboard all their goods, and among them a basket of inscrip-
tions. So for many days she drove before the western gale, and
all hope of gaining land left them. But at last they saw high
land, and knew that they were saved; and they beached their
canoe on a sandy shore, and built themselves huts and called the
place Vuda (Our Origin). This is the Vuda on the northwest
corner of Yiti-Levu. The saga goes on to relate the distress of
Lutunasobasoba at losing his basket of inscribed stones. I have
not succeeded in finding any contemporary tradition that throws
light on this very important passage. The Fijians, when we Euro-
peans first came into contact with them, had no knowledge of any
kind of writing, nor even of making rude representations of natu-
ral objects in their carving. But the poem says :
" Lutunasobasoba wept bitterly :
' My descendants will be in pitiable plight.
My basket of stones is overset,
My writings (vola) have fallen out.'"
It goes on to relate how he sent out the canoe to look for the lost
inscriptions (which, if they really were of stone, was a somewhat
futile proceeding), and how the crew of the canoe discovered the
Yasawa Islands, but came back without the lost records.
They stayed at Vuda until Lutunasobasoba became very old
and infirm, and then they decided to move him to higher ground.
Degei, who had now taken the lead of the party, ordered Rokola
to build some new canoes to carry them to the eastward. The
tribe had become too large for the kaunitoni. When these were
ready the fleet crept along the coast to the eastward, and landed
in what is now the bay of Rakiraki. Thence the dying Lutuna-
sobasoba was carried up the mountain, and a hut was built of
which the posts and walls and thatch were all made of the vadra
ANCESTOR-WORSHIP AMONG THE FIJIANS. 673
or pandanus tree, and from this hut or the profusion of this tree
the mountain took its name of Nakauvadra. Here Lutunasoba-
soba lived several years, and when at last he felt his end to be
near he summoned his children around him and gave them his
dying commands, ordering them to separate and settle in different
parts of the wide land he had discovered. Under these conditions
Fiji was peopled, and the greater part of the saga is taken up with
the wanderings of these children. Besides being the dwelling
place of their gods, Nakauvadra Mountain was the first circle of
the Fijian inferno, the point of departure for the unseen world
that lay to the westward. Nearly all South Sea islanders point to
some spot on their island where the spirits of the dead leap into the
ocean to be ferried over to the world of shades. These " jumping-
off places " (thombothombo) are generally steep cliffs facing the
place whence tradition says the race originally came. Whatever
may become of the soul hereafter, to Nakauvadra it must first be-
take itself before leaping into the ocean. From the populous dis-
trict of the Lower Rewa there is but one path to the Nakauvadra
Mountain, called the " Sala ni Yalo " (Path of the Shades). Chance
led to its discovery, or rediscovery, if it is true that Europeans had
before noticed it. Last year a surveyor was sent to traverse the
boundaries of lands claimed by the tribe of Namata. His native
guides led him along a high ridge, the watershed between the river
Rewa and the eastern coast of the island. As they cut their way
through the undergrowth that clothed the hilltop, he noticed that
the path was almost level, and seldom more than two feet wide,
and that the ridge joined hilltop to hilltop in an almost horizontal
line. The surveyor had a patch of the undergrowth cleared away
and found that without doubt the embankments were artificial.
Following the line of the ridge, the valleys had been bridged with
Jbanks thirty or forty feet high. The level path thus made ex-
tended, so the natives said, clear to Nakauvadra, fifty miles away.
For a people destitute of implements this was a remarkable work.
I thought at first that this was a fortification on a gigantic scale,
for Fijians never undertake any great work except for defense,
under the spur of a pressing necessity. It could not be a road,
because the ancient Fijians preferred to go straight over obstacles,
like the soldier ants in Africa, that climb trees rather than go
round them. The old men at Bau, whom I questioned, knew
nothing of its history except that it was called " The Path of the
Shades," and that it was an extension of one of the spurs of the
Kauvadra Mountain. I asked for guides to take me over it, and
they chose three gray-headed elders of the Namata tribe. We
started in heavy rain. My guides were reticent at first, but as we
went on the spirit of the place seemed to possess them, and at each
turn of the path they stopped to describe to me the particular dan-
TOL. XL VII. — 56
674 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
ger that there beset the passing shade. The eldest of the three be-
came at times positively uncanny, for he stopped here and there
in the driving rain to execute a sort of weird gamboling dance,
whether out of pure excess of spirits or a praiseworthy intention
of exorcising the gods of the place I do not know. Little by little
I wormed out of them the whole tradition, with fragments of the
sagas in which it was preserved. After I got home I set two of
my native collectors to write it all down. It is far too long to give
here in its entirety, but I will try to condense it.
Long ago — so long ago that the tradition has become dim — the
ghosts of the dead used to annoy the living. They whistled in
the houses, turned the yams rotten in the ground, filled the cook-
ing pots with live snakes, or played some other of the pranks in
which the Fijian ghost delights. And the living reasoned with
themselves, and found that it was because of the bad state of the
road to Nakauvadra that the shades could not find their way to
the sacred mountain, and so they stayed about their old haunts.
So the tribes banded together and built a road for the ghosts of
their dead to travel over, and thenceforward they did not stay to
annoy the living.
When a man died, his body was washed and laid in its shroud,
and a whale's tooth was put upon his breast to be his stone to
throw at the pandanus tree ; and while his friends were still
weeping, his spirit left the body and went and stood on the bank
of the "Water of the Shades" (Wainiyalo), at the place called
Lelele — the ferry — and cried to Ceba, the ghostly ferryman, who
brought the end of his canoe which was of hard vesi if it was for a
chief, but the end that was of breadfruit wood for a vulgar shade.
Across the stream the shade climbed the hill of Nathegani,
where grew the pandanus tree. And he threw his whale's tooth
at it, and if he hit it he sat down to await the coming of his wife,
who, he now knew, was being strangled to his manes ; but if he
missed the pandanus tree he went on, weeping aloud, for he knew
that his wife had been unfaithful to him in life, and that she
cared not to be strangled to accompany him. Then he came to
the ghost scatterer, Droydroyalo, who strode toward him and
pounded his neck with a great stone, scattering the ndawa fruit
he was carrying to eat on his journey. Thence he journeyed to
Drekei, where dwell the twin goddesses Nino, who crept on him,
peering at him, and gnashing their terrible teeth ; and the shade
shrieked in terror and fled away. As he fled up the path he came
to a spring and stopped to drink ; and as soon as he tasted the
water he ceased weeping, and his friends also ceased weeping in
his home, for they straightway forgot their sorrows and were con-
soled. Therefore this spring is called the Wai-ni-dula — Water of
Solace. And when he stood erect from drinking, he looked afar
ANCESTOR-WORSHIP AMONG THE FIJIAN S. 67 5
off, and saw the white ~buli shells gleaming on the roofs of the
great dwellings of Nakauvadra ; and he threw away the via roots
he was carrying, for he knew that he was near his resting place
and would want no more provisions for the journey. So he flung
away his via, to travel unencumbered, and to this day you may
see the via sprouting where the shades threw it. Going on, the
shade had many adventures. He was crippled by Tatovu's axe ;
he was wounded by Motoduruka's reed spear; he crawled for-
ward on his belly ; he bowed ten times ; he fainted away, and was
dragged onward as corpses are dragged to the cannibal ovens ; he
had to pinch the " pinching stone " to see whether his nails are
long, for if the stone is indented, it is a sign that he was lazy in
his lifetime, and that his nails are not worn away by scooping up
the yam hills in his plantation. From the " pinching stone " he
went onward, dancing and jesting, till he came to Taleya, the
Dismisser, who asked him how he died — whether by the club, or
the strangling cord, or the water, or naturally of disease or old
age. And if he said he died of violence, the Dismisser let him
journey onward, but if he said that he died naturally, he was
commanded to re-enter his body; but not all of these obey, so
anxious are they to reach Nakauvadra. Thus the Fijians ex-
plained recoveries from trances and epileptic seizures. He goes
on through myriad adventures and dangers, and it is entirely out
of the question to give them all. One of the most curious is that
of the vasa tree at Naililili — the " hanging place." From the
branches of this tree are hanging the souls of little children, like
bats, waiting for their mothers to come and lead them onward,
and they cry to the passing shades, " How are my father and my
mother ? " If the shade answers, " The cooking fire of your
mother is set upright," the child ghost wails aloud, knowing that
it must still wait, for its mother is still in her prime ; but if the
shade answers," Their hair is gray, and the smoke of their cooking
fire hangs along the ground," the child laughs with joy, crying :
" It is well ! my mother will soon be here. Oh, let her hasten, for
I am weary of waiting for her ! "
I wish that space permitted me to follow the journey of the
Fijian shade to its end. The folklore of a people spontaneously
developed and uninfluenced from without will always have an in-
terest of its own, because of the light it throws upon the genesis
of religions. Many of us have heard of the Fijians as the most
striking example of the success of missionary enterprise. Their
conversion, however, was in most cases a political move. The
chief found it convenient to " lotu," and his people of course fol-
lowed him. In one of these cases the missionary attended a meet-
ing of the tribe to receive their conversion to Christianity. The
heathen priest took his seat near the piled-up feast, and thus ad-
676 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
dressed the ancestor gods : " 0 ye, our fathers ! be not angry with
us. We, your children, bring you this miserably inadequate feast
from our impoverished gardens, this wretched root of yagona for
you to drink. We are poor, we are miserable. And another thing
— be not angry with us if, for a while, we give up worshiping you.
It is our mind to worship the foreigner's God for a while, yet,
nevertheless, be not angry with us." Then the ancestor gods ate
the spiritual essence of the yams, and the missionary lunched on
its grosser material fiber, and enjoyed it greatly.
In 1876 the natives of Fiji had all nominally embraced Chris-
tianity— outwardly they conformed to the new faith — but at the
end of 1885 strange rumors were brought to the coast by native
travelers from the mountains. A prophet had arisen, who was
passing through the villages, saying to the people, " Leave all
and follow me." His teachings were an ingenious compound of
Christianity and heathenism. He said that when Nacirikaumoli
and Nakausabaria (two of the ancestral chiefs, described in their
Saga) sailed away after their defeat by Degei, they went to the
land of the white men, who wrote a book about them, which is
the Bible ; only they lied about their names, falsely calling them
Jehovah and Jesus. They were about to appear and bring with
them all the ancestors of the Fijians. The millennium would
come, the missionaries and the Government would be driven into
the sea, and every one of the faithful would have shopfuls of
English goods. Those who believed that he was sent before, to
prepare their way would have immortality, but the unbelieving
would perish. The white men who came in the men-of-war, look-
ing through glass instruments, who falsely said that they were
surveying, were really looking for the coming of the divine twins.
In the meantime the faithful were to drill as soldiers and the
women to minister in the temples. Temples were secretly built
at Drau-ni-ivi and other places, and behind the curtain, where the
priest and the women sat, the god might be heard to descend with
a low, whistling sound. There was some controversy between the
faithful whether Degei was God or the devil. Many inclined to
the latter belief, because Satan took serpent form, and the tradi-
tions describe Degei as a gigantic serpent lying coiled in his cave
in Uakauvadra, and causing thunder when he turns his huge
bulk. The new prophet fixed the day for the resurrection of the
ancestors, but he was arrested and deported to Rotuma, and the
outbreak was stamped out for a time ; but in 1892 it reappeared,
and the Government then decided to remove the village of Drau-
ni-ivi, the fount of all these superstitions, and the houses were re-
moved and the site leveled to the ground. We have by no means,
however, heard the last of Fijian mythology. There was another
outbreak about a year ago.
FRUIT AS A FOOD AND MEDICINE. 677
FRUIT AS A FOOD AND MEDICINE.*
By HARRY BENJAFIELD, M. B.
And Eve saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight
to the eyes. — Genesis.
Stay me with raisins, comfort me with apples.— Solomon.
SUCH was the opinion of people who lived six thousand years
ago, and all down through the succeeding ages poets have
sung the praises of the luscious grape and peach, and painters
have sought to outvie each other in depicting the attractions of
the apple and plum, and away deep down below all this we see
throughout the whole animal creation a developed instinct which
teaches all to long after these beautiful fruits. Is this instinct
wrong ? Is Nature a fool thus to make her creatures voice their
needs ? When you see the whole insect family swarming over
and voraciously devouring our choicest fruits, shall we say that
they do not know what is good for them ? When we see pigs,
horses, cows, and sheep breaking down our fences, need we ask
how they learned to love fruit ? Ay, more, note the baby in
arms who screams for the rosy apple, and bites away at it even
with toothless gums, and as the baby grows into the boy how he
will defy canes, and even police, so that he can get what he loves
and longs for. The Creator is so anxious that this very necessary
food shall be eaten by his creatures that he makes it beautiful to
look upon, sweet and attractive in smell, and gives to it such
varieties of flavors that the most fastidious can be satisfied.
And yet in spite of all this the great mass of the people look upon
fruit as a luxury upon which they can only spend odd pennies
for the amusement of their children. Many parents will more
readily spend money on injurious or even poisonous sweets than
they will on good healthy fruit, and fashionable society will
spend pounds on cakes, wines, and brandies, while they spend as
many shillings on the very thing they need to keep them healthy
— fruit. And as for the amount of drugs swallowed which should
be replaced in great measure by fruit it is beyond my powers to
calculate. Millions upon millions of pounds are spent annually
upon mercurial and other purgatives, most of which would be
quite unnecessary if the people would but look upon fruit as a
necessary article of diet. The fruit grower of the future must try
to so educate the public mind that this state of things will be
* From advance sheets of a lecture delivered before the Australasian Federated Fruit-
growers' Association at the Tasmanian Exhibition Building, Queen's Domain, Hobart,
April 26, 1895.
678 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
altered. The man who makes sweets does not just make them
and do nothing to induce the public to buy. No ; first he puts
them up in all sorts of tempting boxes or packages, then he
pushes the sale in various ways. The men who make beers,
brandies, etc., not only do this, but they go further, they provide
all kinds of places where they shall be taken, they provide the
gin palace with all its attractions of club rooms, billiards, daily
papers, besides plenty of pretty girls to wait on their customers.
Why should we not have fruit palaces where, at reasonable prices,
people could get the choicest fruit at any hour of the day ?
Eve is said to have seen that fruit was good for food. Every
generation since has indorsed her opinion, and now perhaps more
than ever before the world is waking up to see how good a food
it really is. Good ripe fruits contain a large amount of sugar in
a very easily digestible form. This sugar forms a light nourish-
ment, which, in conjunction with bread, rice, etc., form a food
especially suitable for these warm colonies;* and when eaten
with, say, milk or milk and eggs, the whole forms the most per-
fect and easily digestible food imaginable. For stomachs capable
of digesting it fruit eaten with pastry forms a very perfect nour-
ishment, but I prefer my cooked fruit covered with rice and milk
or custard. I received a book lately written by a medical man
advising people to live entirely on fruits and nuts. I am not pre-
pared to go so far — by the way, he allowed some meat to be taken
with it — for, although I look upon fruit as an excellent food, yet I
look upon it more as a necessary adjunct than as a perfect food
of itself. Why for ages have people eaten apple sauce with their
roast goose and sucking pig ? Simply because the acids and
pectones in the fruit assist in digesting the fats so abundant in
this kind of food. For the same reason at the end of a heavy
dinner we eat our cooked fruits, and when we want their digest-
ive action even more developed we take them after dinner in
their natural, uncooked state as dessert. In the past ages instinct
has taught men to do this ; to-day science tells them why they did
it, and this same science tell us that fruit should be eaten as an
aid to digestion of other foods much more than it is now. Culti-
vated fruits such as apples, pears, cherries, strawberries, grapes,
etc., contain on analysis very similar proportions of the same
ingredients, which are about eight per cent of grape sugar, three
per cent of pectones, one per cent of malic and other acids, and
one per cent of flesh-forming albuminoids, with over eighty per
cent of water. Digestion depends upon the action of pepsin in
the stomach upon the food, which is greatly aided by the acids of
the stomach. Fats are digested by these acids and the bile from
* Australia.
FRUIT AS A FOOD AND MEDICINE. 679
the liver. Now, the acids and pectones in fruit peculiarly assist
the acids of the stomach. Only lately even royalty has been
taking lemon juice in tea instead of sugar, and lemon juice has
"been prescribed largely by physicians to help weak digestion,
simply because these acids exist very abundantly in the lemon.
Another great action of fruit in the body is its — shall I call it —
antiscorbutic action. It keeps the body in a healthy condition.
When out on a long voyage where fruit is scarce how one longs
for it ! Those who have been without it for an extended time
long for it until even in their dreams they picture the fruit their
system so badly needs. The following case will illustrate my
meaning : A ship's crew had any amount of fresh meat, new
bread, tea, coffee, etc., aboard, but no fruit nor vegetables. As
days went by the men grew haggard, breathless, and weak, with
violent, tearing rheumatic pains in the joints. Then the gums
grew spongy, the blood broke through its veins, and the whole
system was demoralized and dying. In short, they were dying of
scurvy. A fruit ship passing sent aboard a good supply of
oranges and lemons, which were greedily eaten by the sufferers.
Mark the the result : though they still went on eating the same
food the addition of fruit to their diet made all the difference
between life and death. In a few days their gums began to heal,
the blood became healthy, natural color came in their faces, and
strength came to the limbs so lately racked with pain. This is,
perhaps, an extreme illustration, but I am satisfied that in a lesser
degree the want of fruit is responsible for much of the illness in
the world. When a student I remember sitting beside a leading
London surgeon as an unhealthy child was brought in suffering
from a scrofulous-looking rash over the face. Turning to us he
-exclaimed, " That is a rash from eating lollies." And many times
since have I had occasion to remember his teaching, as I have
seen it verified. Good fruit clears the blood and prevents this
sort of thing. This lemon-juice cure for rheumatism is founded
on scientific facts, and having suffered myself from acute gout
for the last fifteen years, I have proved over and over again the
advantages which are obtained from eating fruit. Garrod, the
great London authority on gout, advises his patients to take
oranges, lemons, strawberries, grapes, apples, pears, etc. Tardieu,
the great French authority, maintains that the salts of potash
found so plentifully in fruits are the chief agents in purifying the
blood from these rheumatic and gouty poisons.
Perhaps in our unnatural, civilized society, sluggish action of
the bowels and liver is responsible for more actual misery than
any other ailment. Headache, indigestion, constipation, haemor-
rhoids, and a generally miserable condition, are but too often the
experience of the sufferer, and to overcome it about half the drugs
68 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
in the world are given in all sorts of compounds. Let the man of
drugs go aboard that ship in mid ocean, with its crew suffering
from all these ailments ; let the man with his artificially made
fruit salts have his trial at their bowels and liver ; let the man of
mercury and podophyllum, and all the so-called liver doctors try
their best ; call in the tribes of tonics, and give iron, quinine,
arsenic, strychnia, and all the rest of the family ; then try your
stomachics for his digestion, but in spite of all these the scurvy
fiend will sit aloft and laugh you to scorn. In fact, all these drugs
have been tried over and over again, and Dr. Buzzard, perhaps the
greatest authority in the world, tells us they have all proved
miserable failures. But bring in your fruit and the whole scene
changes. Can not we show the world that what is applicable to
these men in their extreme condition is more or less applicable to
the millions of sufferers on land who now persist in looking upon
fruit as a thing they can very well do without ? Dr. Buzzard
advises the scorbutic to take fruit morning, noon, and night.
" Fresh lemon juice in the form of lemonade is to be his ordinary
drink ; the existence of diarrhoea should be no reason for with-
holding it. Give oranges, lemons, apples, potatoes, cabbage,
salads," and if this advice is good for those aboard, and there is
no doubt about that, it is equally good for the millions who are
spending millions annually in drugs which will never cure them.
The first symptoms of scurvy are a change in the color of the
skin, which becomes sallow or of a greenish tint. Then follows
an aversion for all exercise. Bloodshot eyes, weak heart, bad
digestion, and constipation follow on. Dr. Ballard says many of
the most serious and fatal cases of scurvy he has seen have only
presented as symptoms the pallid face, general listlessness, and
bloodshot eyes. If we go through the back streets of our large
towns how many pallid faced, listless-looking people and children
swarm around us, and they have, as a rule, plenty of food !
"Within the last few weeks two of my own children have given
me a good example of what fruit will do. Two months ago I
decided to let these two boys, aged six and eight, go to my farm
among the apple-packers. They were not actually ill when
they went out, neither had they been at all shut up, but they were
pale-looking, would not eat their food, etc. During the last two
months they make their boast they eat a dozen apples a day each,
and as soon as they began eating these apples their appetite for
other foods about doubled, and during the eight weeks they have
grown stout and robust, skin clear and healthy, with the glow of
health on their cheeks, and bodily strength equal to any amount
of exertion.
As a medicine, I look upon fruit as a most valuable ally. As
previously shown, when the body is in that breaking- up condition
FRUIT AS A FOOD AND MEDICINE. 681
known as scurvy, the whole medical profession look upon fruit
and fresh vegetables as the one and only known remedy. I be-
lieve the day will come when science will use it very much mere
largely than it does now in the treatment of many of the every-
day ailments. I have shown how it aids digestion. Observations
in scurvy prove that it exerts a very powerful influence on the
blood. But " the blood is the life " : poor blood means poor
spirits, poor strength, poor breath, and poor circulation. Impure
blood means gout, rheumatism, skin diseases, rickets, and other
troubles. As it is proved that fruit will purify and improve the
quality of the blood, it must follow that fruit is both food and
medicine combined. In fevers I use grapes and strawberries,
giving them to my patients in small but frequent doses — oranges
and baked apples, if the others are not obtainable. For rheuma-
tism, plenty of lemons are invaluable. White girls with miser-
able, pallid complexions want a quart of strawberries a day ;
where these are not obtainable, bananas, which contain much
iron, are a good substitute. Probably, of all fruits, the apple
stands unrivaled for general purposes in the household ; either
raw or cooked it can be taken by nearly everybody, and it con-
tains similar properties to the other more delicate fruits. To my
mind the pear is more easily digested than the apple, and for
eating uncooked is superior to it. In our climate we can have
good dessert pears nine months in the year, and their culture
should be much increased.
Dried fruits are now occupying more attention than perhaps
they have ever done before. It has been proved in a large way
by giving troops dried vegetables and fruits that the attack of
scurvy could be warded off, but in curing scurvy they were no-
where alongside green. Still it teaches us that dried fruits should
be used when green can not be obtained. If soaked for a few
hours before cooking they make a capital substitute for fresh
fruit, and they come cheaper to the consumer. I wonder that
miners, sailors, and others do not use dried fruits very largely.
For preserving fruit I look upon bottling in glass bottles as
the coming thing. Not by the use of chemicals, such as salicylic
and boracic acids, and the various preservatives made from them,
but simply by protecting it after cooking from the fermentative
germs in the atmosphere. It keeps for years, turns out even
more palatable than green fruit, is equally digestible, and con-
tains all the virtues of freshly cooked fruit. When bottles are
made in Australia at a cheap rate this will be a great industry.
Canned fruit is not so good ; the acid of the fruit dissolves up tin
and lead from the tin, and I have seen very serious cases of illness
as a result. Besides, fruit should be sold much cheaper in bottles
than in tins, as the bottle can be returned and used again.
682 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
Jams made from nice fresh fruit, and put up in glass or ware,
make a very good article of diet, but much of the jams of com-
merce should be used as food for pigs. Jams act on tin and lead
very much like tart fruits, but the acid in them is greatly neu-
tralized by the sugar. Still, I have seen the outside of the jam in
a tin quite discolored.
Solomon said, " Stay me with raisins, comfort me with apples,"
so great and wise kings six thousand years ago wished to be fed
with dried fruit and apples. In this highly enlightened age it is
nothing to our credit that we pay less attention to our diet than
these old patriarchs did. They thought more of their vineyards
than they did of their cattle. When Moses sent the spies into
Canaan they were told to bring back samples of the fruit it bore,
and they brought back not a fat bullock but a very fat bunch of
grapes. A medical writer has recently been maintaining that
bread and other starchy food, containing as they do large quanti-
ties of lime, are responsible, especially in aged people, for many
of the diseases from which we suffer, such as apoplexy, rheumatic
gout, etc., and urged that fruit should be taken freely instead, to
counteract these limy effects. One of the first symptoms, when
people are deprived of fruit and vegetables, is very severe pain in
the joints like rheumatism, and death from failure of the heart's
action. "Whether he is right about this lime may not be proved,
but there is no doubt but lime exists too largely in the blood
vessels in these diseases, and if fruit were eaten regularly it would
do much to prevent it. Science to-day tells us that we may live
under the most beautiful conditions, we may feast on bread, meat,
eggs, rice, cocoa, oatmeal, and such like foods for a short time,
but unless we take fruits or fresh vegetables — fruits being the
best — we shall get listless, with leaden face, etc., until we die in a
few months at the longest ; and it follows that if we would keep
ourselves and our children with clear skins, bright intellects,
good digestion, rich colored, healthy blood and strength for
work, we must regularly take fruit and vegetables, and look upon
them as actually more necessary for the support of good health
than any other article of diet.
While among the Mongols of the borders of Tibet. Mr. W. W. Rockhill
heard a story, said to be widespread among the people, that some five hun-
dred years ago a foreign emperor, desirous of knowing what was in the sun,
took fifty Mongol men and as many women, and, shutting them up in a
crystal casket that had the power of flying, started them on a voyage of
discovery to that star. Nothing has been heard of the explorers since then,
and the Mongols bear a grudge against the emperor, whoever he may have
been, who served their people so ill.
ONLY A MATCH. 683
ONLY A MATCH.
By C. FALKENHORST.
IF one should count the matches that are used daily he would
arrive at an immense sum — in the milliards, at least. To sup-
ply the immense demand for the little sticks which so quickly go
out in fire and flame, a great number of factories on either side of
the ocean are busy with steam and noisy machines ; while we
have become so indifferent that we see nothing special in the fire-
bearing splinters, and are vexed when one of them fails, or the
hissing head breaks off, or the flame goes out, leaving the wood
to glimmer.
We shall really have to go among savages to learn to admire
the match. Take the white traveler in darkest Africa, in the
midst of naked negroes, who see a civilized man for the first time.
He carelessly brings out his matchbox to light his cigar. A
slight movement of the hand, and the blaze flickers ; the crowd
of black spectators, frightened, fall back and run away, crying,
" Witch ! witch ! " These negroes are really not savages. They
possess fire, by which they warm themselves, and with the help
of which they work metals, produce iron and forge it ; but they
still obtain fire in the primitive way, either by striking steel
against flint or in the tedious method of a ruder antiquity by
rubbing pieces of dry wood together, and not always with success.
But the white man produces his flame as if by magic in an
instant.
In the beginning of this century chemists discovered a num-
ber of substances which took fire more easily than dry wood or
punk, and, as modern naturalists are mostly practical men, the
thought occurred to them to make these substances available for
the quicker production of fire. They found, for example, that
chlorate of potash, now much used as a gargle in throat diseases,
was decomposed and set fire to combustible substances as soon as
it came in contact with concentrated sulphuric acid. The first
practicable match was based upon this observation ; a stick was
covered at the end with a coating of sulphur, and over this was
spread a mass of gum and chlorate of potash. When the head of
the match was dipped in concentrated sulphuric acid, the chlorate
of potash detonated and set fire to the inflammable sulphur, which
imparted its flame to the wood. These were the dip matches,
which were introduced in 1812, and were very popular. The sul-
phuric acid was kept in vials, from the stoppers of which asbestus
threads hung down in the inside, and were thereby wet with the
acid. If one wanted fire, he drew out the asbestus thread and
pressed the head of the match upon it when the fire appeared.
684 TRE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
Another property of chlorate of potash was discovered shortly
afterward. Mixed with various substances — sulphuret of anti-
mony, for example — a combination was produced which exploded,
with issue of flame, on being rubbed. This mixture was first
applied to matches by Johann Friedrich Kammerer in 1832.
Having sulphured the end of the stick, he prepared an adhesive
mixture of gum arabic, chlorate of potash, and sulphuret of anti-
mony, dipped the stick in it, and let the whole dry. This new
match was lighted by rubbing it, under pressure of the fingers, in
a folded piece of sandpaper.
The use of phosphorus was the next improvement. That sub-
stance inflames readily when warmed to 50° C, or 122° F. — a tem-
perature easily obtained by lightly scratching the match on a
rough surface. Experiments had been made with this substance
at the beginning of the century ; but the first phosphorus matches
were crude and unsafe. Pure phosphorus was kept under water
in bottles, whence small bits of it were taken out and lighted by
rubbing on leather. Kammerer, not being fully satisfied with his
first composition, tried a new one containing phosphorus as well
as chlorate of potash. After this there were no more failures of
the matches to light, for the phosphorus took fire under the
slightest friction and decomposed the chlorate of potash, which
gave out the oxygen required to inflame the sulphur, and made a
lively combustion possible. The idea found favor, and the first
large factory of phosphorus matches was erected in Vienna by
Stephan Romer and J. Preschel. This match, too, had its defects.
The mixture of phosphorus and chlorate of potash exploded with
such force as to be available for filling bombs. Some serious acci-
dents occurred in the shops, and the transportation of the mate-
rial was forbidden in several countries. The new matches were
wild comrades that needed taming. At last the Vienna makers
succeeded in replacing the chlorate of potash by other substances
— such as minium, peroxide of lead, and manganese oxide — which
gave out oxygen more slowly.
Objections were still brought against these matches. The
burning sulphur emitted an offensive odor : to obviate this, paraf-
fin was introduced in the place of sulphur as the substance in
which the sticks should be dipped before finishing their heads.
A more serious objection was founded on the poisonous nature of
the vapor of phosphorus, by reason of which the use of even
only a few matches at a time was attended with peril, and the
workmen in the factories became subject to dangerous diseases.
Yet the manufacturers would not give up phosphorus, and the
public, having become accustomed to the new matches, demanded
them, so that it was not feasible to prohibit the making of them,
and the attention of the Government was rather directed to
ONLY A MATCH. 6? 5
devising the best provisions practicable for the safety of the
workmen.
A curious coincidence occurred in 1845, when the attention of
Lorinser in Vienna was first directed to phosphorus poisoning,
and Romer, of the same city, discovered the amorphous or red
form of phosphorus and the method of converting white phos-
phorus into it. This form of the element, taking fire at 250° C,
is not poisonous. Romer and Preschel were engaged in experi-
ments to find whether the new form of phosphorus might not be
used in matches instead of white phosphorus. They found that a
mixture of chlorate of potash, sulphuret of antimony, and amor-
phous phosphorus would take fire readily through friction on a
rough body, but the same result followed which Kammerer had
experienced with his first mixture. The mass exploded with a
violence that sent burning bits of the stuff hissing all over the
room. About 1850 the German chemist Bottger introduced a
novelty which marked the beginning of a new era in the match
manufacture. He made the substance of the head of the match
of a mixture of chlorate of potash and sulphuret of antimony,
using gum to bind them, and prepared a special friction surface
consisting of a coating that contained amorphous phosphorus.
When the head of the match was drawn over this substance bits
of the amorphous phosphorus were kindled here and there by
the friction, which ignited parts of the match-head, producing
the explosion of the whole mixture.
The " Swedish safety matches " were made in many German
shops from Bottger's recipes about 1850, but they could not com-
pete with the phosphorus matches. People had become accus-
tomed to the last ; they were easily lighted, and if the sand-
paper was lost, fire could be got by drawing them on the wall or
the trousers ; while with the new matches one had always to
carry his rough card phosphorized with amorphous phosphorus,
without which his match was useless. The great value of the
German discovery, however, became known abroad about 1860,
when the Swedish engineer Lundstrom founded the famous fac-
tory in Jonkoping. The material of the match-head and the
friction surface remained as before, but the Swedes devised a
practicable method of boxing, putting the matches in the little
convenient slide-boxes, and the chief hindrance to the spread of
the invention was removed. The " Swedish matches," as they are
now generally called, do not light of themselves so easily as the
phosphorus matches, and are therefore safer ; and they are, fur-
ther, unpoisonous. It is therefore no wonder that the " Swedes "
have enjoyed a triumphal march through the world, have found
a home in Europe and America, and have even made their way
into dark Africa. During its most prosperous period, the Jon-
686 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
koping factory produced annually four million marks' worth, of
matches. Rivals soon rose to it in different parts of the world,
and several shops in Germany are sending out excellent Bottger
safety matches in Swedish dress. They have so far naturalized
themselves as to make the condition of the phosphorus match
trade a hard one, and in some states the prohibition of the use
of the poisonous white phosphorus in matches has been con-
templated.
Still the match has not yet reached its highest stage of perfec-
tion. A third period of development looms before it. The safety
matches can still be lighted only on the prepared surface of the
box. An unpoisonous match which will light as readily as a
phosphorus match is not yet found.
Not less important than the chemical constitution is the me-
chanical preparation of the little fire-bearers. The times have
passed when a man could make matches profitably with a simple
apparatus at home or in a little shop. Machines have gained the
victory over hand labor in this field, and they only are competent
to turn out the thousands of thousands of sticks that are burned
yearly. The favorite wood for matches is the poplar ; but as this
can not supply all the demand, pine and fir woods are also used.
In the early days of the manufacture, the work of cutting the
blocks and forming the sticks was performed by hand ; but now
the machines are so perfected that a single one can turn out as
many as 6,000,000 sticks in a day of ten hours.
The ordinary cut stick is not adapted to matches the heads of
which contain no sulphur, and the Swedish matches are prepared
by a new method, in which the sticks are obtained by a peeling
process. The logs are barked and sawed into blocks about
eighteen inches long. These are steamed, then drawn out of the
tubs and placed while still hot into the peeling machine, where
they are turned upon a pivot and cut by a sharp knife into a con-
tinuous band of the right thickness, which is also cut into strips
as broad as the length of a match. One of these machines, of
only two horse power, operated by a man, can in one working day
turn out 4,000 square metres of shavings, from which 15,000,000
matches may be made. The narrow ribbons of wood next go into
a machine the operation of which is something like that of a
common straw chopper. By a simple mechanism from fifty to
seventy thicknesses of the ribbons are pushed slowly forward
under a sharp knife, which cuts them into sticks of the desired
thickness. These fall upon an endless belt and are carried by it
into the drying room. There are machines which, worked by a
man and a boy, will turn out 28,000,000 sticks a day. The boxes
for the Swedish matches are likewise made by the aid of ma-
chines, a description of which involves too many technicalities to
ONLY A MATCH. 687
be given here ; so we only mention a few facts concerning their
performance.
The first machine prepares daily 3,000 square metres of board,
out of which 200,000 boxes can be made. The second machine
cuts up the board into strips affording material for between
300,000 and 400,000 boxes. Another machine sticks these boxes
together. The outside box is held together with blue paper.
This paper is introduced in endless strips about fifty-six centi-
metres broad from a roller adjusted sidewise to it; and the cut-
ting, turning, and parting are all done automatically. With one
girl to serve it the machine completes daily 36,000 outer boxes.
Another machine makes the drawers of the boxes, turning out
25,000 of them in a ten hours' day. Next the boxes are smeared
on the narrow sides with the preparation on which the matches
are rubbed. A machine does this for between 120,000 and 150,000
boxes a day, more neatly and correctly than can be done by a
man's hand. Finally, there is the machine for pasting on the
name of the firm, which tickets from 40,000 to 50,000 boxes a day,
using less paste in the operation than a workman would. If we
reflect now that there are thousands of these machines in differ-
ent parts of the world, we may be able to comprehend the impor-
tance which the match industry has reached in our time.
We return to our sticks, which we left in the drying room, and
which are yet to be furnished with the inflammable heads. Be-
fore this is done, the tips of the sticks are smeared with some sub-
stance that will take fire readily — sulphur, paraffin, or stearin.
For this purpose they are dipped in the matter while it is warm.
It was discovered at the beginning of the manufacture that no
progress could be made if single matches were to be dipped by
hand, and frames were devised for the purpose ; they were made
of thin boards, in which rows of parallel grooves were cut. The
sticks were laid in these grooves, and they being short, the
matches projected from them. The boards, having been filled
up, are tightly packed in larger frames, and the whole, contain-
ing hundreds of thousands of matches, is immersed in the bath.
The sticks were formerly deposited in the grooves by girls, who
became so dexterous in the business that they could handle as
many as 200,000 of the splinters in a working day. More recently
machines have been substituted for this tedious labor, with
which 1,500,000 matches can be handled in a day. But no one has
succeeded in inventing a machine for coating the heads with the
inflammable matter. That has still to be done by hand. •
When the heads are fixed, the matches are returned to the
drying room, where they remain till they have parted with all
their moisture ; then they are taken out of the frames, laid to-
gether, and packed in boxes. This part of the work, which is
688 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
attended with danger of fire, was likewise till only a short time
ago performed by hand ; but machines have now been devised
which take the matches from the opened frames and drop them
all in order into large cases, from which they are then repacked
in small boxes. One of these machines of the latest construction
is capable of extracting from the frames from two to three mil-
lions of the sticks a day, with far less danger of fire than when
the work is done by men.
Still more recently the Swedish Lundgren, who is famous for
his box-making machines, has devised another machine, which
fills the boxes and delivers them closed. Nothing more needs to
be done than to fill the receiver of the machine with matches and
boxes, and to draw from it 25,000 well-filled boxes in a work-
ing day.
Thus we see that the little match, which passes away so quick-
ly, has a famous history, and is really one of the most wonderful
achievements of the human race. An immense amount of most
sagacious ingenuity is concealed in it. The negro is right when,
seeing light and fire spurt out as he looks at the curious thing, he
cries out that " it is an enchantment," for the little piece of wood
certainly surpasses the most marvelous art of the old magicians.
— Translated for The Popular Science Monthly from Die Garten-
laube.
The Challenger Report, recording the work of the greatest scientific
voyage ever undertaken, is now completed, in fifty large volumes contain-
ing 29,500 pages of letterpress, with 3,000 plates and maps, and innumer-
able blocks in the text. The Challenger Expedition left England in Decem-
ber, 1872, charged with the scientific exploration of the physical, chemical,
geological, and biological conditions of the great ocean basins, with Cap-
tain George S. Nares as naval commander, and Prof. Wyville Thomson
and five other gentlemen as the scientific corps. A very complete study
was made of the Atlantic Ocean, which was crossed and recrossed in many
different directions. From Cape Town the Challenger proceeded to Aus-
tralia by a southerly course, and was the first steam vessel to cross the
Antarctic Circle. She then passed through the western Pacific and its
island groups to Hong Kong and Japan, crossed to the middle of the
Pacific in 40° north and sailed south to 40° south ; then visited Juan Fer-
nandez and Valparaiso; passed through the Strait of Magellan; and re-
turned along the central line of the Atlantic to England in May, 1876.
More than five hundred deep-sea soundings were made, with deep-sea
dredge and trawl. Besides the vast collection of marine animals, speci-
mens of water from different depths, and of the deposit in the sea-bed
were obtained. Tow-nettings for the collection of surface-living organ-
isms were taken continually, magnetic observations whenever it was pos
sible, and meteorological and surface temperatures every two hours. The
results of the exploration have furnished food for several years' study by
many naturalists besides those concerned in the preparation of the report.
EDWARD HITCHCOCK. 689
EDWARD HITCHCOCK.
BORN at Deerfield, Mass., May 23, 1793; died at Amherst,
Mass., February 27, 1864.
The first of this family emigrated to this country in 1635, com-
ing probably from Warwickshire in England. He was one of the
original members of the New Haven, Conn., Colony. Two or three
generations of the family resided in New Haven ; the fourth in
the line emigrated to western Massachusetts, and was an officer in
the Revolutionary War. His son, Justin, the father of Edward,
was a soldier in the army of General Gates when Burgoyne's
army was captured. Justin married one of the Hoyts, who was
descended from the sufferers at Deerfield at the French- Indian
raid of 1704. He settled at Deerfield, and was a hatter. Be-
coming embarrassed financially by obligations incurred in the
continental currency, he suffered from poverty all his life, and
was unable to give his children more education than was afforded
by the common school and the local academy. Edward was
therefore compelled to educate himself, and that under the draw-
back of ill health, caused by overwork and carelessness. Six
particulars may be mentioned, going to show that by improving
his opportunities he was well educated in many respects : 1. For
several years he was a leading member of a debating society. This
afforded the opportunity to practice extempore speaking, composi-
tion, and acquire facility in philosophical reasoning. A few short
poems showed that he essayed the higher type of composition.
One of these was a tragedy entitled The Downfall of Bonaparte,
written at the age of twenty-two, just after the battle of Waterloo,
and acted by himself and friends before the people of the village.
2. For four years — from twenty-two to twenty-six — he was the
principal of the academy in his native town. As there were
always in this school a number who were fitting for college, he
found it necessary to review all his classical studies — not once
merely, but several times. The same was true of scientific studies
also, so that quite a large number of subjects were gone over very
thoroughly, and the details were fixed in his memory. It was a
better discipline than if he had simply taken these studies as a
college student. The academy owned a very good philosophical
apparatus, and young Hitchcock prepared a number of lectures
on physics, which were delivered with experiments both before
his classes and in the evening to people of the village. 3. Perhaps
the best mental discipline came from the use of the astronomical
instruments belonging to the academy. He observed first the
comet of 1811. From September 7th to December 17th, during
the presence of the celestial visitor, he noted the distance of the
TOL. XLVII. — 61
6go THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
comet from various stars, determined the latitude and longitude
by lunar distances and eclipses of the sun and moon, occurring
about the same time, and the variation of the magnetic needle.
Several months of study were required to reduce these observa-
tions ; and as tables were wanting, he was compelled to calculate
elements that the modern astronomer finds ready to his hand.
The results of this work were published by the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences in a paper by General Epaphras Hoyt, the
conclusions of the uncle and nephew being combined in a longi-
tude determination. 4. In making these calculations use was
made of the Nautical Almanac, then published by Edmund M.
Blunt, of New York (reprinted from the standard English publi-
cation). Errors would hardly be looked for in such a work, but
beneath the opening page for every month was this sentence :
" Ten dollars will be paid on the discovery of an error in the fig-
ures." Young Hitchcock soon discovered a long list of errors,
both in the figures and the text, and sent it to Mr. Blunt, who an-
swered evasively. The list was then published in the American
Monthly Magazine, which called out Mr. Blunt in a statement com-
mencing, " Noticing an attack on my Nautical Almanac from one
Edward Hitchcock, a few remarks only are necessary to explain
the man's drift." He represented the errors as occurring in a part
of the work used chiefly by astronomers, and added, " I would
rather ten errors should escape me there than one by which the
mariner should be deceived." Before this answer had been seen,
Hitchcock had forwarded to the magazine a list of twenty errors
in the tables of lunar distances, which were serious, because of
their magnitude and their use by sailors. Six months later another
list of thirty-five errors from these almanacs for 1815, 1816, 1817,
and 1818 made its appearance. This led Mr. Blunt to employ a
mathematician to recalculate the almanac for 1819, and in his
preface to state that "it will afford much satisfaction and promote
commercial advantages if, on discovery of an error in any nautical
work, publicity should immediately be made." A copy was sent
to Hitchcock, who soon made out a list of thirty-five errors, and
forwarded them to the magazine. Mr. Blunt did not send the pe-
cuniary reward promised, but published the statement that "the
communication of Mr. Hitchcock deserves notice, and he is enti-
tled to much credit for his perseverance." It was a great triumph
for a young man to sustain himself against these standard astro-
nomical tables. The most rigid accuracy was indispensable, and
the discipline fully equal to that acquired by years of scholastic
training. 5. A related discipline came from the publication of
a Country Almanac from 1814 to 1818, whose calculations were
original. Here also accuracy was essential to success. No com-
plaint was ever made, except in the assignment of Easter to an
EDWARD HITCHCOCK. 691
unusual date. Both clergymen and people denounced the almanac
because of this supposed misstatement. Defense was made that the
ordinary rules for determining this festival were useless for that
year, as it was a peculiar case, occurring only once in several
hundred years. Soon afterward the bishop of the diocese issued a
circular sustaining the almanac. 6. Classical training came in
connection with teaching. First came the ordinary labor of mak-
ing translations and grammatical construction. Then he kept a
note-book for putting down the most striking sentiments of an
author, such as would answer for mottoes and quotations. To
obtain the choicest sentiments he carefully looked up all the
references made from rare authors. Thus he became familiar
with the best thoughts of the classical authors, and by fixing them
in his memory obtained a fair substitute for the more extended
college training.
Daring his connection with Deerfield Academy, Hitchcock be-
came interested in botany and mineralogy, through the influence
of Prof. Amos Eaton. With two associates, the list of plants and
minerals of the neighborhood was soon made exhaustive. He had
correspondence with the elder Prof. Silliman, of Yale College, re-
specting difficult questions, and the two maintained for each other
a lifelong friendship. It was probably this correspondence which
led Hitchcock to join the newly opened theological department at
New Haven. He furnished contributions to the first volume of
Silliman's American Journal of Science and Art, and to many
later issues. In all, his name is prefixed to fifty-two papers, no-
tices, and reviews on topics relating to geology, mineralogy, ich-
nology, surface geology, physics, meteorology, and botany, in this
journal.
Hitchcock chose the ministry for his profession. He was set-
tled as a pastor over the Congregational Church in Conway, Mass.,
from 1821 to 1825. While in this office he studied natural history
to some extent, for the benefit of his health. It was at this time
that he discovered and described that small but widely distributed
fern, Botrycliium simplex. In 1825 he was appointed Professor of
Chemistry and Natural History in Amherst College. Twenty
years afterward he became president of the same institution, and
continued in the office for nearly ten years. For the remainder of
his life — nearly ten years — he taught geology and natural the-
ology in the same institution.
Like scientific men of his time, Dr. Hitchcock was familiar
with several departments of learning — being an author, educator,
theologian, and explorer. His career as a geologist is the best
known. Starting as a student of the rocks of the Connecticut
Valley, his home, he is soon found at both extremities of the State
— at Martha's Vineyard and Berkshire County. With larger op-
692 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
portunities for travel, lie was impressed with tlie importance of
interesting legislatures in geological surveys, and he took meas-
ures to enlist the government of Massachusetts in such work.
With this aim in mind he published a lengthy review of Olm-
sted's survey of North Carolina in the American Journal of Sci-
ence, in 1828. Near the close he says : " We wish now to ask the
intelligent legislator whether such a development of internal re-
sources as this report exhibits does not amply remunerate the
State of North Carolina for the comparatively trifling expense of
this survey ; and whether so great success . . . does not strongly
recommend that this example be followed by other States of the
Union."
As the result of this and other efforts, the State of Massachu-
setts commissioned him to make a geological survey of her terri-
tory in 1830. Three years were spent in the explorations, and the
work was of such a high character that other States were induced
to follow the example of Massachusetts, and similar surveys were
organized in Tennessee, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Vir-
ginia, Maine, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Penn-
sylvania, Ohio, Delaware, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, and
Georgia. The State of New York sought his advice in the or-
ganization of a survey, and followed his suggestions, particularly
in the division of the territory into four parts, and appointed
him as the geologist of the first district. He entered upon the
work, but after a few days of labor he found that he must neces-
sarily be separated from his family, much to his disinclination.
He also conceived the idea of urging a more thorough survey of
his own State; hence he resigned his commission and returned
home. The effort for a resurvey of Massachusetts was successful,
and he was recommissioned to do the work. The results appeared
in 1841 and 1844 — the first a quarto report and the last the geo-
logical coloration of a map based upon Borden's Trigonometrical
Survey.
Independently of the survey came the discovery of fossil foot-
marks. As far back as 1800 Pliny Moody had observed trifid
markings upon sandstone which he called the tracks of birds. In
1835 Mr. W. W. Draper, of Greenfield, Mass., noticed similar im-
pressions, and drew the same conclusions. Mr. Draper remarked
upon them to Dexter Marsh and Colonel William Wilson, who in
turn consulted Dr. James Deane, who wrote to Professors Silliman
and Hitchcock. All agreed to refer the investigation to Prof.
Hitchcock, who propounded the fundamental principles of ich-
nology in the January number of the American Journal of Sci-
ences for 183G. The announcement was not favorably received
by many geologists, while the general public gave expression to
their views by the employment of ridicule. The subject was re-
EDWARD HITCHCOCK. 693
ferred to a committee of the American Association of Geologists,
consisting of H. D. Rogers, L. Vannxem, R. C. Taylor, E. Em-
mons, and T. A. Conrad, in order, if possible, to produce a una-
nimity of opinion. Those who had most earnestly opposed the
new doctrine were upon the committee, but all were convinced ;
as their report, issued in 1841, states, " From a comparative ex-
amination of the facts on both sides, your committee unanimously
believe that the evidence entirely favors the views of Prof. Hitch-
cock, and should regret that a difference had existed, if they did
not feel assured it would lead to greater stability of opinion."
The publications upon the subject of these triassic footmarks
by Prof. Hitchcock have been quite numerous. The most impor-
tant were that in the final report upon the geology of Massachu-
setts in 1841, a paper in the Transactions of the American Acad-
emy of Arts and Sciences in 1848, in the Ichnology of New Eng-
land, published by the State of Massachusetts in 1859 and its
supplement in I860. The total number of species described, as
finally revised, amounted to one hundred and fifty. They were
referred to several groups : a few marsupialoids, thick and narrow-
toed birds, ornithoid lizards or batrachians, lizards, batrachians,
chelonians, fish, Crustacea, myriapods, insects, and worms. At
first the trifid impressions were referred to birds ; and it was con-
sidered a remarkable confirmation of this view that in 1838 or
1839 there should have been found in New Zealand the bones of
true birds having the same dimensions as the largest Brontozoum.
Prof. Owen has stated jthat his belief in the ornithic character of
the Deinornis was strongly fortified by the fact of the existence
of the Brontozoum. Very soon after the earliest publications
about these ornithichnites specimens were exhumed which became
very puzzling because of the presence of quadrupedal characters.
It became very clear that there must be an intermediate class of
beings between birds and reptiles, and accordingly this conclu-
sion was embodied in the assignment of a large number of these
Ichnozoa to the designation of " ornithoid lizards or batrachians."
As time has progressed the order of Deinosaur has been pro-
posed, to include such animals as have been made known to us by
their bones; and now it is doubtful whether any of the impres-
sions were made by birds. Prof. O. C. Marsh has obtained entire
skeletons of Deinosaurs from the Connecticut sandstones, which
he calls Anchisaurus. They seem to be allied to the Plesiornis
rather than the Anomozpus or Brontozoum of Hitchcock.
The specimens from which the opinions and descriptions of
the ichnology were derived are preserved in the Hitchcock Ich-
nological Cabinet at Amherst College, and completely fill a room
one hundred by forty feet, besides two smaller apartments. The
number of distinct impressions studied and labeled exceeds twenty
694 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
thousand. It is likely that some of the suggestions of the Ichnol-
ogy may not be verified. It would be strange if the following
thirty years of discovery should not enable paleontologists to
declare positively whether the Batrachoides impressions are really
the mud nests of tadpoles, or whether the "insects" are properly
larval or adult hexapods, or simply Crustacea, as urged by Dana
and Agassiz.
In 1857 Prof. Hitchcock accepted the appointment of State
Geologist of Vermont. Though the appropriation was very small
the work was energetically prosecuted, and conclusions presented
in five years' time in two quarto volumes of nearly one thousand
pages. Not many speculations were indulged in, though oppor-
tunity was afforded for propounding new and startling theories
of the metamorphosis of rocks. The report was issued just at the
time when Barrande had discharged his artillery at the opponents
of the Taconic system, and compelled American paleontologists to
assign the Olenellus to the primordial zone instead of the Hudson
River slates. The report had been written to accord with the
American view, but the authors were enabled to omit everything
that did not illustrate the reference of the slates to the Cambrian
terrane. The Vermont report suggested two general principles
which have been of great service in the further discussion of the
nature of metamorphism and the age of the New England rocks.
The first point relates to the distortion and alteration of pebbles in
conglomerates. As far back as 1832 Prof. Hitchcock had noticed
the singular alterations in the shapes of pebbles constituting con-
glomerates in Rhode Island. Not till 1861 was he able to present
satisfactory considerations concerning their distortion and altera-
tion. He argued that pressure and metamorphism could totally
obliterate the shapes of pebbly constituents and convert them
into crystalline schists. Very few of his contemporaries followed
him in this generalization. The large geological manuals of Dana
and Le Conte conspicuously avoided any mention of this view.
To-day the skilled petrographers of the country unanimously in-
dorse the doctrine of the distortion and alteration of the frag-
mental constituents of sediments.
So long as our paleontologists referred the Cambrian fossils to
the Hudson River group, their associates, as represented by Sir
William E. Logan, insisted that the quartzite in western Vermont
overlaid the slates, and was of Medina age. Logan also claimed
a synclinal structure for the Green Mountains. Before accepting
any conclusion as to their structure, Prof. Hitchcock directed
that this mountain range should be carefully studied stratigraph-
ically. A dozen sections were made at equal distances apart
across the State, and it was discovered that the structure was
anticlinal when not monoclinal ; and hence comes the certainty
EDWARD HITCHCOCK. 695
that the axis of the Green Mountain chain is older than lower
Cambrian. The latest workers in this field accept this conclu-
sion.
Perhaps the favorite subject of Prof. Hitchcock was the study
of the " Drift/' He began to study the ice-marks even before the
discovery of the footprints, and soon found himself far beyond the
comprehension of his literary and scientific associates. Neither
the iceberg nor glacier theory was original with him; but no one
up to the time of his death had published so much upon the sub-
ject. His views are developed in the treatise on Surface Geology
published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1857. His general
theory refers the phenomena to both icebergs and glaciers ; and
their setting forth was generically like the most recent deliver-
ances of Sir William Dawson, who acknowledges the presence of
glaciers upon the mountains from which the icebergs were de-
rived that flooded the submerged valleys. His papers are of special
interest concerning river terraces, local glaciers in western New
England, trains of bowlders, and frozen deposits of drift gravel.
It is an interesting fact that he argued against the admissibility
of Agassiz's glacial theory because of the absence of a grand ter-
minal moraine at the outer margin of the ice sheet. It was less
than five years after his death that geologists began to appreciate
the true significance of the backbone of Long Island — that it was
part of a gigantic moraine more than a thousand miles long. It
is easy to see where Hitchcock would have stood had these facts
been known in his day..
The first written suggestion in regard to the formation of the
American Association of Geologists came from Prof. Hitchcock,
and he was chosen its first president in 1840. This was the parent
of the later organization known as the American Association for
the Advancement of Science. He was present at nearly every
meeting of both organizations until the gap in the later history
induced by the war.
As President of Amherst College he was called upon to exercise
unwonted judgment. The institution had almost broken down
because of heavy indebtedness. The historian of the college de-
clares that the institution was saved from destruction by the skill
and wisdom of President Hitchcock. As an instructor and guide
no one was more loved and honored. The number of students
doubled during his administration. It was while he was presi-
dent that his Religion of Geology appeared, in which he ex-
pounded the applications of science to theology. Most of the posi-
tions there maintained are accepted by the advanced Christian
thinkers of to-day. The work appeared before the advent of Dar-
winism, but its principle was discussed as creation by law. While
not accepting any development hypothesis, Prof. Hitchcock took
696 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
pains to insist that its adoption would not be at variance with
any fundamental principle of theology. During his lifetime the
doctrine of creation was the prevalent fashion of thought, just as
now everybody is an evolutionist, and as in the Mesozoic age
every vertebrate animal assumed some reptilian feature.
Prof. Hitchcock devoted much thought to the relations between
science and theology. He believed that his suggestions — original
with him — would tend to bring together truths often divorced,
but which only man puts asunder. The following are topics
upon which he made important suggestions : 1. Proof of the
general benevolence of God from geology. 2. Evidence from the
same, of special divine interpositions in Nature. 3. Evidence
from the same, of special providence. 4. Mode of answering ob-
jections to the doctrine of the resurrection of the body by the
nature of bodily identity. 5. The religious bearing of man's crea-
tion. 6. The adaptedness of the world for the redemptive work.
7. The Mosaic days properly interpreted by symbolism. These
and related truths were taught by him to his classes under the
title of natural theology. Through his efforts the chair of Geol-
ogy and Natural Theology was endowed in Amherst College,
with the understanding that the science should always be taught
from a religious standpoint.
A list of Prof. Hitchcock's published writings shows a total of
twenty-six distinct volumes, thirty-five separate pamphlets, nine-
ty-four papers in periodicals, and eighty newspaper articles — a
total of 8,453 pages, with 256 plates and 1,134 woodcuts. Half of
these were scientific papers ; of the others, most were religious
books, essays, sermons, and tracts. He published also biographies,
reviews, poetry, and temperance documents.
In 1821 Mr. Hitchcock married Miss Orra White, daughter of
Jarib White, of Amherst, Mass., and they lived together for
forty-two years. Mrs. Hitchcock was an artist, and prepared
many of the illustrations of her husband's reports. Six of their
children, two sons and four daughters, reached maturity. The
oldest son is the Professor of Hygiene and Physical Education at
Amherst College ; the youngest is the Professor of Geology at
Dartmouth College. Three of the daughters were married — the
first to Rev. Dr. H. M. Storrs, lately of Orange, N. J. ; the second
to G. B. Putnam, of the Franklin Grammar School, Boston, Mass. ;
the third to the late Rev. C. M. Terry, of Minneapolis, Minn. The
oldest daughter is known as an amateur botanist, residing at Han-
over, N. H.
EDITOR'S TABLE.
697
EDITOR'S TABLE.
THE PROSPECTS OF SOCIALISM.
THE result of the recent elections
in Great Britain has given no
little discouragement to the hopes
of those who were looking to see a
great increase in the socialistic ele-
ment in the British House of Com-
mons. It is clear that up to this
date the British public is more in-
terested in the definite and limited
questions of so-called u practical poli-
tics" than in the vague and general
schemes put forward for the improve-
ment of the world on the lines of so-
cialism. What the British public
feels in regard to this matter is felt,
we believe, by the great mass of every
advanced community in the present
day. When socialistic writers or
orators descant on the evils of the
existing condition of things, striking
as they frequently do a true and gen-
erous note, the sympathy of many
goes out to them ; but it is a differ-
ent thing when society is asked to
commit its legislation to the hands
of these eloquent declaimers. Even
those who acknowledge that such
men feel right, entertain very often
grave doubts as to whether they see
right— whether their views are prac-
tical, whether they have truly fore-
casted the results of the changes they
would introduce, and whether their
benevolent efforts, if power were in-
trusted to them, might not prove the
ruin rather than the salvation of the
state.
It would be a great mistake to
suppose that all who can not see
their way to support socialistic
schemes, and who can not even
share to the full socialistic senti-
ments, are either insensible to the
evils, such as they are, of our social
state, or unwilling to do all in their
power to have those evils remedied.
There is abroad in the world to-day
a very general desire to see things
made right and fair for the average
of mankind and for all men, to have
the general conditions of life im-
proved, to have an abatement, on
the one hand, of the senseless luxury
of the wealthy class, and, on the
other hand, a dignifying of the lot
of the ordinary citizen. Things are
to-day perceptibly moving in the di-
rection of giving better conditions to
the average man; but they might
move more quickly if the average
man would only stand more firmly
on his rights, and prosecute them in
a more intelligent manner. When-
ever the state grants a public fran-
chise, then is the time to make the
best bargain possible for the citizens
at large. But on what does the pos-
sibility of protecting the rights of
the citizen in such matters depend ?
Manifestly, on there being in our
legislative bodies men who will not
traffic with rich corporations in the
citizens1 rights. Then on what does
the presence of such men in the
legislature depend ? Now we come
to it: the citizen has the composi-
tion of the legislature in his own
hands, and it depends on him whether
the making of the laws shall be in-
trusted to honorable or to dishon-
orable, to trustworthy or untrust-
worthy, men. One of two things:
either representative institutions are
a mockery and a fraud, or the mass
of the citizens have it now in their
power to protect their own interests
so far as the whole public life of the
state is concerned. How they have
betrayed their own rights and privi-
leges into the hands of tricksters,
gulled by some party cry or swayed
698
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
by yet baser motives, is the story of
nineteenth-century politics.
In spite, however, of such self-
betrayal, things have improved even
for the self -betrayed — not, of course,
as they might have done, but still
they have improved. If we compare
the beauty of our modern cities and
the multiplied conveniencies and de-
cencies of modern life with the con-
dition of things existing fifty years
ago, we shall see that the average
citizen lives in a world that is a
much pleasanter and more desirable
abode than that in which his gi*and-
father's years were passed. At very
small expense he can do a hundred
things and share a hundred pleas-
ures and advantages that either were
totally inaccessible to his grand-
father, or were only to be obtained
at almost prohibitive cost. Whether
the man of to-day is on that account
happier than was his ancestor is an-
other question ; all we maintain is
that he has at least the means of
enjoyment and self-improvement
placed within his reach in much
more liberal measure. It is needless
to say that all such changes for the
better have been due, in the first
place, to the great advance that has
been made during the present cen-
tury in scientific knowledge, and, in
the second, to a certain enlargement
of view and increased liberality of
sentiment that have been the accom-
paniments of that advance. To say
that the benefits of scientific discov-
ery and invention have been mo-
nopolized by the rich would be to
fly in the face of the most obvious
facts. To the rich have doubtless
been opened up new channels for
extravagant expenditure ; but the
most substantial benefits of increased
knowledge have been reaped by
those of average means and by the
poor.
The true road to that improved
condition of human society which
socialists are so desirous of bringing
about lies, we have always held,
through a heightened and strength-
ened individualism. One great ad-
vantage of approaching the problem
from this side is that individualism
does not imply a call for any form
of state action. It means an awak-
ened sense of individual worth, a con-
sciousness of individual rights, the
exercise of individual self control,
the elevation of individual aims and
ambitions. The socialist wants to
make men other than they now are
by legislation. The individualist
says that men might be other than
they now are without legislation; at
the same time he makes no ol Sec-
tion to any legislation which springs
from an actual necessity of the body
politic, and which, without taking a
needlessly wide sweep, holds out a
remedy for a specific evil. He ob-
jects on principle to legislation whicla,
for example, undertakes to repress
drunkenness by forcing all men to
be total abstainers. The sweep here
is too wide, the law undertaking, not
only to repress a specific evil, but to
interfere on a vast scale with the
liberties of persons who have in no
way merited such interference. The
cardinal doctrine of individualism is
that each man is primarily respon-
sible for making the best conditions
of life he can for himself, and that
he is the better for being held to
this responsibility. Some writers de-
claim on the injustice of demanding
a degree of virtue in the poor which
is never practiced by the rich. It is
not a case of demand, however; it is
a case of counsel. If there are prac-
tices injurious to health, if there are
useless modes of expenditure and
degrading forms of amusement, he
surely is neither an enemy nor an
unsympathizing critic of the labor-
ing classes who would urge them to
avoid these things, and, by doing so,
to stand forth in a nobler than any
EDITOR'S TABLE.
699
merely political liberty — in the lib-
erty of men masters of themselves
and already the partakers of a far
higher life than that of the self-pam-
pering sons and daughters of luxury.
The more we reflect upon it, the more
we are impressed with the amount
of good which might be done in the
world, independently of any and all
legislation, simply by the substitu-
tion of higher aims for the lower
ones which now rule so largely all
classes of society. How many pass
their lives in a miserable attempt to
imitate the bad taste and generally
foolish proceedings of the class next
above them in point of means! If
to-day Shoddy is king, it is simply
because men and women are silly
enough to make him so; not because
there is anything in our laws to au-
thorize or constitute his royalty. We
can dethrone him whenever we like,
without passing even the smallest
municipal by-law, by simply resolv-
ing to throw off the yoke of false
pretense, and live our lives in a sim-
ple, honest, and reasonable manner,
studying what is excellent and not
what is fashionable, the things that
make for in ward peace and outward
dignity, rather than those which
make for outward show and inward
unrest.
It is truly the folly of mankind
that is chiefly responsible for the
evils which have called socialist agi-
tation into existence; and it is doubt-
less a deep-lying instinct that such is
the case which causes society as a
whole to look coldly upon proposed
socialistic remedies. It is desirable
that discussion of this subject should
be as free as possible, and our belief
is that the more the subject is dis-
cussed the more clearly it will ap-
pear that a higher individualism is
the key to the solution of our social
problems. What the world wants is
an extension of those liberties which
a man can create for himself, rather
than of the privileges and protec-
tions which are created by statute.
The highest service, therefore, which
any one can render to society is to
awaken men in general to those pos-
sibilities of life which simple individ-
ual initiative and determination can
realize ; for thus, more than in any
other way, would the unjust power
of capital be broken, and the way be
opened for the healthiest and hap-
piest development of the social or-
ganism.
SHAM EDUCATION.
One of the leading writers of fic-
tion of the present day has, in a quite
recent work, attempted to set forth
the miserable results of the preten-
tious modes of life and, above all,
the pretentious systems of education
which, according to his view, are
characteristic of the time. The scene
of his story is laid in England in the
year of the Queen's Jubilee (1887),
and the local color, as the expression
is, is strongly English ; nevertheless,
there is much in the descriptions
given and the lessons drawn which
is capable of application far beyond
the limits of the society the novelist
had in view. He introduces us to a
young woman who is overstraining
all the resources of a very indifferent
constitution in a desperate struggle
to prepare for the matriculation ex-
amination of the London University,
but whose mind is meantime in even
a more feeble condition than her
body, her judgment in practical mat-
ters wholly unexercised, her temper
and disposition a compound of van-
ity, jealousy, and spite. We read of
another who, having passed through
an expensive course at schools re-
puted to be of a very superior grade,
had emerged with an equipment of
undigested knowledge which simply
developed in her a morbid self-con-
sciousness and a futile ambition to
shine in some higher sphere than
700
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
that in which her lot was cast. So
far did the spirit of rebellion against
circumstances carry this young wom-
an that she abandoned herself to a
young Oxford graduate of good birth
who charmed and dazzled her by the
superiority of his culture and bear-
ing. We get a glimpse of another
family in which a young wife and
mother, also brought up in a preten-
tious fashion, neglects every duty of
her position and leads her husband
such a life that, taking his child with
him, he turns his back upon her,
leaving her, with such an allowance
as he can afford, to her own devices.
It may be said, and has been said,
that this author draws with too dark
a pencil ; but this need not prevent
us from discerning the truth to
which he calls attention. We learn
from his pages, not that a "little
knowledge is a dangerous thing," but
that superficial knowledge, all un-
conscious of its superficiality, is a
dangerous thing. We learn that a
mind clogged with undigested infor-
mation may lose the power of spon-
taneous judgment and become the
sport of accidental influences. We
learn that education may be so be-
stowed as to minister to vanity rather
than to self-respect, to a spirit of
reckless and selfish ambition rather
than to a sense of responsibility, to
habits of weak self-indulgence rather
than to any strengthening of the
moral powers. The question may
then be asked, How are these dan-
gers to be avoided ? We answer, by
making the building up of character
the constant aim of educational work,
and the guiding principle in the se-
lection of courses of study. The forc-
ing of uncongenial studies upon un-
willing minds is a process that can
not be too strongly deprecated, inas-
much as it inevitably tends to the
creation of an unnatural atmosphere
for the individual, to the confusing
of his intellectual perceptions and
the destruction of that sense for re-
ality which it is above all things im-
portant to preserve. We are strong-
ly of opinion that very serious dan-
gers of the nature already indicated
will attend our systems of education
until the secret has been found of
making all education contribute not
less to the right development of char-
acter than to the sharpening of the
intellectual faculties. That the thing
can be done we have not the shadow
of a doubt; and to say that it can be
done is to say that it must be done.
The author to whom we have re-
ferred seems to be of the opinion
that an unwise education shows its
worst results upon the female sex.
In this we think he is right. Con-
tact with the world of which most
men have early experience tends to
correct the errors, repair the omis-
sions, and cancel the superfluities of
their scholastic training ; whereas
women whose minds have been in-
jured by their school training do
not, to anything like an equal ex-
tent, enjoy the means of throwing
off the faults they have imbibed. It
is, therefore, of special importance
that young women should not be
made the victims of false systems of
education. Their intellectual food
should be of the purest and most
nutritious, so that the effects of their
education may be seen, not in a blaze
of evanescent accomplishments, but
in a steady glow of rational thought
and generous emotion. We have
not yet learned to make the best of
life, and many are the evils we suffer
in consequence ; but if once it can
sink into the consciousness of the
community that education for both
sexes should be regarded not as a
preparation for a career of mere self-
seeking, but as an introduction to all
the possibilities of higher mental and
moral life, a most important step in
the progress of the race will have
been won.
LITERARY NOTICES.
701
LITERARY NOTICES.
Handbook of Psychology. Senses and In-
tellect. 1890. Pp. 343. $1.80. Hand-
book of Psychology. Feeling and Will.
1894. Pp. 339. $2. Elements of Psy-
chology. 1892. Pp. $1.50. By James
Mark Baldwin, Stuart Professor of Psy-
chology in Princeton University. New
York: "Henry Holt & Co.
Prof. Baldwin expresses the hope in
the preface to Senses and Intellect that no
book upon psychology will hereafter sat-
isfy the requirements of higher education for
more than a generation. He says that the
philosophical conception of the sphere and
function of psychology now prevalent is
widely different from that of twenty years
ago, when many of the works were written
which are yet used as introduction and
strong support to the philosophy taught in
the universities — " the new conception, name-
ly, that psychology is a science of fact, its
questions are questions of fact, and that the
treatment of hypotheses must be as rigorous
and critical as competent scientists are accus-
tomed to demand in other departments of
research." It is no new complaint that out-
worn and effete ideas continue to drag
through school books long after they have
been exploded in the world of living science.
The hypothesis of caloric was still taught to
the young when the doctrine of the correla-
tion and conservation of forces had become
firmly established in the minds of scientific
men. The old dual chemistry held on in
education, though all out of harmony with
well-known facts, and though discussion and
speculation were rife concerning the chem-
ical constitution of bodies. When at last
the compilers of text-books could no longer
ignore the new state of things and seriously
undertook to keep their works abreast of dis-
covery, the advance was so rapid that new
books and new editions were needed every
eight or ten years at most It is the same
now in psychology. The accumulation of
facts in this field and the activity of specu-
lation about them are quite as remarkable.
Since the appearance of Prof. Bain's great
work on the Senses and Intellect forty years
ago, wherein the physical basis of mind for
the first time received adequate treatment in
a book of instruction, there has been a most
productive activity of observation, experir
ment, inquiry, and speculation, and several
new divisions of psychological science have
taken distinct form. Not to speak of psy-
chiatry, or abnormal psychology, we have
psychometry, psychophysics, and neurology
pursued independently and with promising
results. An excellent feature also is his
" Further Problems for Study," given at the
end of each chapter, indicating partially un-
explored fields in which students may engage
themselves in an original way. It is thus
that tastes are strengthened in early life,
that character is formed, and philosophers
are made. When, therefore, the attempt is
made to give such a presentation of the sci-
ence as will meet the needs of our higher
education and of an intelligent reading pub-
lic, great judgment is required in choosing
and rejecting material lest the work over-
run all practical bounds, like that of Prof.
James's, or for the most part omit the dis-
cussion of unsettled questions, like Sully's.
A judicial quality is also needed to enable
the author to deal fairly and in proper pro-
portion with all branches of his vast subject.
Prof. Baldwin's handbook may be com-
mended in both these directions. He not
only gives the facts, but he discusses theo-
ries and presents the important aspects of
disputed questions. He does not burden the
text with difficult points that are unsettled,
but puts them in smaller print for students
who like to know all sides and to go to the
bottom of the case.
The first volume of the handbook, Senses
and Intellect, opens with a short introduc-
tion, of which Chapter I is on the nature of
psychology, Chapter II on method, and Chap-
ter III on classification. Part I, containing
two chapters, deals with the general char-
acteristics of consciousness and attention.
Part II, on the intellect, has nine chapters,
and the book concludes with a short chapter
on The Rational Function.
Oddly enough, we have to wait till the
second volume, On Feeling and Will, before
we are given an account of the structure and
functions of the nervous system. Why this
is so does not appear, although it is evi-
dently by design. Prof. Baldwin states the
truth about the connection between mind
and body plainly enough, but does not empha-
size it or enlarge upon it. Perhaps he had
7<02
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
some jealousy of physiology, for he says in
the preface to the second edition of Senses
and Intellect that the object of the work was
" largely, to demonstrate the independence of
psychology," and a parade of pictures from
the physiologies at the very outset might
prejudice the case. His metaphysical train-
ing would be apt to generate such a feel-
ing. However, in The Emotions and Will full
consideration is given to the physiological
side of the subject in three chapters : Chap-
ter I, The Nervous System ; Chapter II, The
Nervous System and Consciousness ; Chapter
III, Nature and Divisions of Sensibility.
Four chapters follow upon the Feelings and
four upon the Emotions before we reach the
division of the Will, to which a hundred
pages are given. The headings of the chap-
ters and of the paragraphs look very attrac-
tive, and we have dipped in*x) the work suffi-
ciently to perceive the thoroughness of Prof.
Baldwin's preparation for his undertaking,
his deep earnestness and abounding enthusi-
asm. He must have looked upon his first
venture as an experiment, and we can imagine
his delight when within a year of its publi-
cation the unexpected demand was made
upon him for a new edition of Senses and
Intellect. This alone is a proof of its adap-
tation to present needs, while the interest
aroused by it in the author's " philosophical
point of departure" is another guarantee of
its quality. Still another, were it needed,
may be found in the request made by a num-
ber of teachers of psychology in the universi-
ties that a single, compact volume should be
made of the larger work, such as could be
furnished at reasonable cost. This request
has been complied with in the Elements of
Psychology, wherein the exposition of the
larger work is simplified, whole sections hav-
ing been rewritten and chapters recast, while
more illustrative facts and illustrations are
furnished than are given in the large work.
The treatment of the nervous system has
been put at the beginning, as "a concession,"
and references to the corresponding fuller
treatment of subjects in the larger work are
given at the beginning of each chapter. And
bo, by slightly reduced type, we have the
newest essentials of the science put within
reach of everybody. We may add that Prof.
Baldwin's large work has been welcomed
and strongly commended abroad as well as
at home. Fault may doubtless be found
with details of its execution, but the spirit
in which it is written, its power to awaken
interest, enthusiasm, and a thirst for inquiry,
are matters of greater importance, and in
these respects the work is admirable.
Actual Africa ; or, The Coming Continent.
By Frank Vincent. With Map and over
100 Illustrations. New York: D. Apple-
ton & Co. Pp. 541. Price $5.
Mr. Vincent's tour of Africa began in
Morocco, where customs, institutions, and
public affairs are dominated by the despotic
Mohammedan religion. He desciibes the
cities, bazaars, roads, and open country, tells
how the Jews and Moors live, and gives us
an idea of the architecture and wonderful
arabesques of the mosques. Tangier, Me-
quinez, Fez, Wezzan, and a number of
smaller Moroccan towns were visited, and
our traveler then proceeded to Algeria.
While in this country, now a French colony,
he made a trip to an oasis in the edge of the
Sahara and saw several Roman ruins. In
Tunis other Roman remains and the ruins of
Carthage were. visited. There is naturally
more or less sameness in the cities of the
Barbary states, but with the ascent of the
Nile we enter upon new scenes. Mr. Vincent
takes us to the sphinx and the pyramids, and
in succession to the temples and tombs at
Memphis, Sakhara, Beni Hassan, Assiout,
Denderah, Luxor, Karnak, Edfou, Kom Om-
bo, Kalabshah, Aboo Simbel, and Abydos,
penetrating into Nubia as far as Sarras.
While describing these monuments of severe
grandeur he does not neglect to give us a
realistic panorama of the river banks and
landing places, showing the native boats and
fishermen, style of agriculture, devices for
irrigation, crocodiles, donkey- boys, relic ped-
dlers, fields of sugar cane, sugar mills, etc.,
etc. From Egypt he takes us through the
Red Sea and southward to Mauritius and Re-
union. Before returning to the mainland an
extended tour is made through Madagascar,
where the French are now carrying on a war
with the natives. Any one who would un-
derstand the condition and resources of the
country, and the character and relations of
its three races of inhabitants, should study
Mr. Vincent's account. He next crosses to
Zanzibar, sees Tippoo Tib, and has an audi-
LITERARY NOTICES.
7°3
ence with the Sultan, who "decorates" him.
Proceeding down the coast to Natal, our
traveler turns inland to Johannesburg — the
city of Gold — and Kimberley, going thence
to the Cape Colony. In coming up the west
coast the first district visited is Angola,
where the habits of the natives and the ar-
rangements for trading with them furnish
much material of interest. Mr. Vincent
made an extended exploration of the Congo
Free State, having an opportunity to accom-
pany the managing director of the Upper
Congo Company in an expedition to explore
branches of the Congo where no settlements
of whites existed, and establish posts upon
them. The Cameroons, the Niger Territory,
the Guinea Coast, the Cape Verde, Madeira,
and Canary Islands are visited in turn, and
the circumnavigation of the continent is
completed when Gibraltar is passed once
more. The illustrations, all full- page plates
from photographs, are a valuable feature of
the book. They include views of cities and
native village-!, portraits of prominent per-
sonages, pictures of natives showing their
characteristic dress (or lack of it), dancing
girts, scenery, industrial operations, etc., etc.
The author's descriptions are eminently sat-
isfying, and they are so because, in addition
to the main facts, he is not too dignified to
put in those characteristic details which fill
the gaps between the outlines and give conti-
nuity to his word-pictures.
Handbook of Birds of Eastern North
America. By Frank M. Chapman. Il-
lustrated. New York: D. Appleton &
Co. Pp. 421. Price, $3.
This is one of the most attractive and, at
the same time, useful books that has come to
our notice on this subject. Mr. Chapman is
particularly well qualified, by long and en-
thusiastic study, to teach us about birds;
and he has adopted an arrangement in this
work which makes the subject extremely
interesting, and the book a very easy one
to use.
It is unfortunate that many of us are so
entirely ignorant of bird life that one of the
most varied and beautiful of Nature's crea-
tures has no place in our landscape pictures ;
and as for their language, we are in even a
worse plight. During a recent walk through
the woods with a citv friend, a wood thrush
suddenly gave voice some little distance
ahead of us. The friend immediately re-
marked that he didn't know crows lived in
the woods. Such absolute ignorance as this
is of course rather rare, but some of us are
little better off. For many, a knowledge of
bird lore is simply an addition to the pleasure
obtained from out-of-door life ; but to the
large agricultural class it has an important
economic value, and to the scientific philoso-
pher the bird fills an important place in the evo-
lutionary scheme. Mr. Chapman divides the
science of ornithology into three branches —
systematic, philosophic, and economic. The
systematist classifies birds according to what
are apparently their true relationships. " He
is the ornithological storekeeper, and, having
taken an account of stock, it is his duty to
keep the books of the firm in order." The
philosophic ornithologist, with the aid of
these books, attempts to explain the reasons
for and the effects of what he finds exist-
ing. " He is a seeker of causes." The econ-
omist, essentially practical, is impressed by
the important part which birds play in the
economics of Nature, and the value to the
agriculturist of a knowledge as to whether
their influence is, in a particular case, for
good or evil. He says : " Few persons real-
ize the value of birds to man. They are the
natural check upon the increase of insect
life ; . . . indeed, it is not too much to say
that without birds the earth would not long
be habitable." On the last page of the in-
troductory chapter is a heading, The Sen-
timent of Ornithology, under which the aes-
thetics of the science are considered. What
impresses one most strongly in these few
paragraphs is the enthusiasm of Mr. Chap-
man over his science. A perusal of simply
this portion of the book assures one that the
author's " whole heart is in his work," and
that of course implies the very best results
of which he is capable. In the next chapter
he tells us how to study birds out of doors.
How and when to find them requires a study
of their haunts and migratory habits ; how
to identify them in the field, a consideration
of the necessary outfit, such as gun, field-
glasses, etc. This chapter is closed with
some hints on keeping note-books and jour-
nals. Chapter III deals with collecting and
preparing birds, nests, and eggs for museum
specimens, and the care necessary to keep
7°4
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
them in good condition after their installa-
tion in the museum. A few pages are then
given to an explanation of the plan of the
work. One of the many valuable features
of the book is a color chart containing thirty
different color combinations.
The remaining three hundred and sixty
pages are occupied by the descriptive matter.
The distinguishing characteristics of each
order are first considered, including cuts of
both bill and foot when necessary. Then
the families and their individuals are studied.
The technical description is, in most cases,
followed by some observations on the origin
of the bird's common name, on a curious
habit which it may have, or other interest-
ing facts, from the pen of some careful ob-
server in the regions where this particular
specimen abounds. There are a number of
very pretty full-page illustrations. The book
is tastefully and strongly bound, and may
readily be carried in the pocket of a fishing
or hunting coat.
Thinking, Feeling, Doing. By E. W. Scrip-
tore, Ph. D. (Leipsic). Meadville, Pa. :
Flood & Vincent. Pp.304. Price, $1.50.
In this volume the director of the psy-
chological laboratory in Yale University sets
forth the methods of what may be called the
new psychology — " a psychology of fact," as
he terms it, " a science of direct investiga-
tion of our thinking, feeling, and doing." He
gives twenty chapters of directions for labo-
ratory tests of reaction-time and thinking-
time, steadiness, attention, power of discrimi-
nation by the senses, emotion, memory, etc.,
most of them requiring apparatus of more or
less complex construction. The author af-
fects no occult profundity in this work. His
style is popular and the illustrations that he
uses to bring home the nature of the several
faculties to the student or reader are drawn
from everyday life or well-known occur-
rences. Thus he begins the chapter on at-
tention by declaring frankly that he can not
tell what attention is. He proceeds to illus-
trate the process by describing the image
thrown by a camera, in which the object in
focus is distinctly seen while surrounding ob-
jects appear in successively greater degrees
of dimness according to their distances from
the focus. He then describes experiments
which consist in showing pictures, letters,
words, etc., to the observer for a brief time,
and from which it haa been learned that four
or five such objects can be grasped at the
same time. The following extract from his
statement of the methods of forcing atten-
tion to an object will serve as a sample of his
mode of treatment :
The first law I shall state is : Bigness regulates
the force of attention. Young children are at-
tracted to objects by their bigness. Advertisers
make it a business to study the laws of attention.
American advertisers in the past and also largely
in the present rely chiefly on the lavv of bigness.
They know that one large advertisement is worth
a multitude of small ones. A certain New York
life-insurance company puts up the biggest build-
ing, the New York World builds the highest
tower. Churches frequently vie in building not
the most beautiful but the largest house of wor-
ship. . . . Bigness, however, costs. The art of
successfully applying this law of bigness lies in
finding the point at which any increase or any
decrease in size lessens the pn fit.
Four other laws are stated and exempli-
fied in similar manner, and the discussions
of other topics and directions for experi-
ments are quite as lively and simple in lan-
guage as the foregoing. In the two con-
cluding chapters the ways in which the new
psychology differs from both materialism
and spiritualism are pointed out and some
account is given of the labors that have most
contributed to its rise, with portraits of Her-
bart, Fechner, Helmholtz, and Wundt. There
are over two hundred other illustrations
showing apparatus, persons, and animals be-
ing experimented upon, diagrammatic rec-
ords, etc.
The Source and Mode op Solar Energy.
By I. W. Heysinger, M. A., M. D. Phila-
delphia : J. B. Lippincott Company. Pp.
363.
The author takes as his guiding princi-
ple the theory that the true source of solar
energy is not to be found in the sun itself,
but in the potential energy of space, and
that this energy is transmitted to the sun in
the shape of electric currents of inconceiv-
ably high potential generated by the move-
ments of the planetary system, which is real-
ly a huge induction machine. " All planetary
space," he says, "is pervaded with attenu-
ated vapors or gases, among which aqueous
vapor occupies a leading place. The planets
and all planetary bodies having opposite
electrical polarity from the central and rela-
LITERARY NOTICES.
705
tively fixed sun, by their orbital motions
around and constant subjection thereto act
as enormous induction machines which gen-
erate electricity from the ocean of attenu-
ated aqueous vapor, each planet being sur-
rounded by an enormous electrosphere car-
ried with the planet in its axial and orbital
movements, the successive atmospheric en-
velopes gradually diminishing in rotational
velocity until merged into the outer ocean of
space. As the planets advance in their or-
bits they plunge into new and fresh fields,
and as the whole solar system gradually
moves onward through space these fields are
never reoccupied. These electrospheres by
their rotation generate enormous quantities
of electricity at an extremely high potential
— so high that we can scarcely even conceive
it — and this electricity flows in a constant
current to the sun, where it disappears as
electricity to reappear in the form of solar
light and heat." A chapter is given point-
ing out the difficulties in the way of accept-
ing present theoi*ies. The book is readable
and interesting, contains numerous extracts
from astronomical authorities, and some well-
executed cuts.
The Story of "Primitive" Man. By Ed-
ward Clodd. With Illustrations. New
York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 190.
Price 40 cents.
The second of the little books in the
Library of Useful Stories deals with the
fascinating science of man, and with that
division of it concerning which Dr. Johnson
said but little more than a century ago, " We
can know no more than what the old writers
have told us." A great deal that seemed
unknowable in Johnson's time, however, is
now known, and Mr. Clodd here gives the
general reader a comprehensive view of what
we are told by the old river beds, lake bottoms,
caverns, sepulchres, and refuse heaps con-
cerning man's doings before there were any
writers. Mr. Clodd is well known as the au-
thor of The Story of Creation, A Primer of
Evolution, and The Childhood of Religions,
and is thoroughly acquainted with the sub-
ject which he here epitomizes. After dis-
cussing the place of man in the earth's life
history and the earth's time-history, he de-
scribes the implements and other remains of
primitive man that have been found, and
vol. xlvii. — 58
tells what may reasonably be inferred from
them concerning human life at the time they
were laid down. He divides this ancient pe-
riod into the customary ages, but records his
conviction that no hard-and-fast line can be
drawn between the two stone ages. " The
revolution wrought by metals," he says, " is
the greatest that the world has yet seen or
that it will ever see." Mr. Clodd has fully
attained the ideal of the series to which he
contributes this little volume. He has suc-
ceeded in telling his story in an eminently
readable style, explaining all uncommon
words that he was obliged to use and avoid-
ing hosts that he might have used. He
takes frequent occasion to call attention to
the workings of evolution in human affairs,
thus showing his emancipation from the senti-
ment that man is not really a part of Nature,
which still hampers some men of science.
There are an abundance of instructive illus-
trations, and for frontispiece the author has
chosen the clever picture by Gabriel Max
showing the probable appearance of -the "an-
cestors of man."
Principles and Practice of Agricultural
Analysis. By Harvey W. Wiley. Vol-
ume I, Soils. Easton, Pa. : Chemical
Publishing Co. Pp. 607.
The chemist of the United States De-
partment of Agriculture has undertaken the
task of preparing a comprehensive manual
for the estimation of soils, fertilizers, and
agricultural products, and the first volume
of the work is now before us. After some
account of the origin of soils the author de-
scribes a variety of methods of taking sam-
ples for analysis and the preliminary treat-
ment of the samples. Proceeding to the
analysis, he takes up first the determination
of physical properties, including behavior to
heat, cohesion, adhesion, absorption of salts,
and porosity. Another division of the work
relates to the flocculation of soil particles
and the separation of soil particles by a
liquid, together with some miscellaneous de-
terminations, and a chapter is given to esti-
mations of gases. Coming to the chemical
examination, methods are given for the de-
termination of potash, lime, magnesia^ man-
ganese, iron, phosphoric and sulphuric acids,
chlorine, silica, kaolin, and nitrogen. Some
forty pages are devoted to determinations of
706
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
oxidized nitrogen, and a few matters of less
general application are grouped at the end.
Following each of the eight parts into which
the volume is divided is a list of authorities
cited in that part. There are ninety-three
figures, mostly of apparatus. Prof. Wiley
uses the new spelling of bromin, bromid,
sulfur, and similar words adopted by the
Chemical Section of the American Associa-
tion. In gathering the material for this
work he states that he has drawn freely
upon the results of experience in all coun-
tries, though paying more particular atten-
tion to what has been accomplished in the
United States.
Introduction to the Pedagogy of Herbart.
By Chr. Ufer. Translated by J. C.
Zinser. Edited by Charles de Gaumo.
Boston: D. C. Heath & Co. Pp. 123.
Price, 90 cents.
It is not possible to use an elementary
text-book to the best advantage unless one
has 6ome conception of the point of view
and ends which the author has in mind.
This work attempts to give in simple, con-
crete manner a bird's-eye view of the ends
and means of education as seen by Herbart,
and serves as a guide not only to the works
of Herbart himself, but also to the writings
of his school. Although it has been impos-
sible to make all the hard things easy, yet
the author has certainly rendered it possible
for the thoughtful teacher to make a profit-
able beginning.
Animal Rights. By H. S. Salt, with an Es-
say on Vivisection by Albert Leffing-
well, M. D. New York : Macmillan &
Co. Pp. 176. Price, 75 cents.
It is unfortunate that the reformer so
generally overstates and misapplies his views
that the people are often misled as to their
real value. His zeal for his one reform ob-
scures all other considerations, thus leading
him to make impracticable and ridiculous
applications of it. This has been a feature
in the " prevention of cruelty to animals "
movement, and tbe book before us is no ex-
ception. There is nothing in it especially
worthy of mention ; it rehearses all the old
arguments, insists that we are trespassing on
the animal's rights in using it for food or by
catching it in a trap to protect our granaries
and chicken houses, and says that we are
parties in a crime when we allow our stu-
dents, after the utmost precaution has been
taken to avoid giving pain, to examine the
workings of the vital machine in the animal.
The first few paragraphs of the introductory
chapter are rather deceptive, their tone lead-
ing one to expect a thoughtful and moderate
discussion of the question.
Geology. By Charles Bird, F. G. S. Lon-
don and New York : Longmans, Green
& Co. Pp. 429. Price, $2.25.
Although described on the title-page as
"a manual for students in advanced classes
and for general readers," this may properly
be called an elementary book. It is written
in a simple and readable" style, and, so far
as a necessarily brief examination shows, it
omits no topic needed by one who is begin-
ning his acquaintance with geology. More-
over, it does not go into any of the abstruse
questions of the science. To facilitate the
use of the book in teaching, a summary
and a list of questions are given at the end
of each chapter, and to enhance its worth
for general readers matter has been in-
serted to illustrate the various points of
contact which geology has with practical
life, including its application to such ques-
tions as water supply, agriculture, mining,
and building material. There are three
hundred cuts in the text, and at the end of
the volume are examination papers, a classi-
fication of the fossils, and an index.
Edward Knobel has hit upon an idea for
the study of Nature that ought to prove
popular. He has made A Guide to Find the
Names of all Wild-growing Trees and Shrubs
of New England by their Leaves, consisting
of fifteen plates, on which are tastefully
grouped leaves of two hundred and fifteen
trees and shrubs, a key occupying the pages
facing the plates. The whole is printed on
heavy glazed paper in the form of an oblong
booklet with a cardboard cover. He has
undertaken a series of such guides, the sec-
ond, already issued, being devoted to Ferns
and Evergreens of New England. In this
the plates are printed in white on black,
which brings out the delicate tracery of the
ferns very effectively. The subjects of other
booklets in preparation are : Day Butterflies
and Dusk-fliers, Beetles of New England,
LITERARY NOTICES.
"°7
Moths of New England, Fresh- Water Fishes,
and Frogs, Turtles, and Snakes (Whidden,
50 cents each).
An introduction to the subject of Elec-
trical Measurements, by Edward Trevert
(Bubier Company, $1), is a neatly arranged
little book, of convenient size for the pocket.
For an amateur who is attempting practical
work the book ought to be a very handy
one. Its four chapters, Electrical Units, The
Measurement of Resistance, Current Meas-
urements, and Potential Measurements, oc-
cupy 117 16mo pages. There are numerous
illustrations.
A condensed and convenient Handbook
of Practical Mechanics comes to us in the
shape of a 16mo from Charles H. Saunders,
of Hartford, its author and publisher. It is
intended for use in the shop and draught-
ing room, and contains rules and formula?
for the solution of practical problems. There
are numerous tables and illustrations where
necessary. The last few pages contain a col-
lection of " workshop receipts."
In Robinson's New Intellectual Arithmetic
(American Book Company, 35 cents) we
have a carefully arranged system of meutal
arithmetic ; a science, the study of which is
of great value in developing the thinking
and reasoning powers, and which has a direct
utility for the business man. The general
divisions of the subject — addition, subtrac-
tion, etc. — are treated in the same order as
in an ordinary arithmetic, and the problems
are much the same, but more carefully
graded.
Elementary Lessons in Algebra (Ameri-
can Book Company, 50 cents) is a series of
lessons inculcating a knowledge of algebraic
processes and giving facility in the use of
algebraic symbols. They set before the
learner the combinations of literal quantities
into sums, differences, products, and quo-
tients, with little reference to arithmetical
processes and without associating number
values to the letters — often a source of con-
fusion to the beginner. The book is in-
tended for use in grammar schools.
The puzzling problem of money is treated
by Arthur Kitson in A Scientific Solution of
the Money Question (Arena Publishing Com-
pany, cloth, $1.25 ; paper, 50 cents). Al-
though acknowledging important services
rendered to political economy by Jevons, the
author criticises him and other economists
for confusing the subject of value. He fur-
ther maintains that there is no such thing
as an invariable unit of value, but that there
may be such a unit of purchasing power, and
undertakes to show how the latter may be ob-
tained. In his view the only proper kind of
money is one that is itself valueless and the
issuance of which is not made a monopoly
by law, He advocates the abolition of all
laws restricting the issue of currency, and
says that the result would be the rise of a
variety of competing systems the fittest of
which would survive. During the continu-
ance of the struggle for existence people
would have to depend on their own dis-
crimination to determine whose money it
was safe to take.
The third of the Occasional Papers is-
sued by the trustees of the John F. Slater
Fund is an outline of the Education of the
Negroes since 1860, by J. L. M. Curry. It
tells of educational work done while the
civil war was yet in progress, sketches the
labors of the Freedmen's Bureau, and of va-
rious religious and benevolent associations,
and gives some account of the operations
under the Peabody and Slater Funds (Balti-
more : The Trustees).
Mr. C. Osborne Ward, who is the author
of several books on the labor question, has
issued a volume in advocacy of communism,
under the title The Equilibration of Human
Aptitudes and Powers of Adaptation (Na-
tional Watchman Company, Washington,
$1.25). He maintains that the competitive
system is a failure, and points out its defects,
giving especial prominence to the piracy of
inventions and plagiarism of literary produc-
tions. He praises the trades unions for hav-
ing made important progress in the right
direction, and touches upon a multitude of
minor topics to illustrate or enforce his con-
tentions. In his last chapter he gives the
average longevity in a large number of oc-
cupations and comments upon the injustice
that allows quicksilver miners and brakemen
to die at the age of twenty-six, while the
rich of no occupation, farmers, judges, and
some others live till past sixty. The author
gives evidence of a wide reading, and ex-
presses himself clearly and vigorously.
Several essays on The Nature of the State,
by Dr. Paul Cams, which first appeared as
708
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
editorials in The Open Court, have been col-
lected into a half number of The Religion of
Science Library (The Open Court Publishing
Company, 25 cents). It is explained in the
preface that the immediate occasion for the
editorials was a defense of the Homestead
rioters by General M. M. Trumbull, who
was a contributor to The Open Court. The
booklet which has now been made from
them takes up first the questions, Does the
state exist ? and Was the individual prior to
society ? and goes on to discuss the nature
of the modern state and the rights of its
citizens to revolution.
The question of a Divine Existence is dis-
cussed by a nameless author in a small vol-
ume under the title Matter, Force, and
Spirit (Putnams). He is neither materialist
nor spiritualist, for while, as the result of
his analysis, he affirms the existence of " sub-
stance— real and of final units ; force dy-
namic, represented by motion ; and force in-
being, represented in its aggregate form by
the attractive power of matter," he emphati-
cally denies that " an atom and motion ex-
plain all." In the laws and phenomena of
matter and force he finds conclusive evi-
dence of a Supreme controlling Spirit, and in
the phenomena of life and intelligence he
sees proof " that our own being has to some
degree the spiritual essence of the Divine
nature." He regards God as an absolute
and impersonal, but at the same time a sym-
pathetic, near, and loving spirit.
Early in the spring a very practical
(though needlessly embellished) Spray Calen-
dar, compiled by E. G. Lodeman, was issued
from the Agricultural Experiment Station at
Ithaca, N. Y. It tells in tabular form when
to use the spraying solutions and also gives
recipes for making them. With this in the
hands of every fruit-grower the bugs would
have a hard time.
An account of a field investigation of
The Devonian System of Eastern Pennsyl-
vania and New York, made by Charles S.
P?-osscr, has been issued as Bulletin No. 120
of the United States Geological Survey.
The investigation was left unfinished, but
it is hoped that the contribution may be of
some assistance in working out the corre
lation of the Devonian system of this region.
The first special report of the Factory
Inspectors of Illinois on Smallpox in the
Tenement-house Sweat-shops of Chicago is
instructive to all concerned with the public
health of large cities. It recounts a consider-
able number of instances in which garments
were being made on the premises where there
were cases of smallpox in the epidemic of
1894 in Chicago, and tells of the artifices
practiced by the Polish and Bohemian gar-
ment-makers to evade the sanitary provi-
sions of the State factory law. It gives
also a list of sweat-shops by streets, with the
location of smallpox cases in the radius
from which these shops draw their em-
ployees.
Bulletin No. 10 of the Minnesota Geologi-
cal Survey is an account of The Iron-bearing
Rocks of the Mesabi Range, by J. Edward
Spurr, in which are considered the structure
and character of the iron-bearing rocks, the
changes they have undergone, and the
length of time since their transformation.
The volume is illustrated with stratigraphical
sections and maps, the latter in colors, and
microscopic sections of rocks.
PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.
Allen, Grant. The Story of the Plants. New
York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 213. 40 cents.
Bonalde, J. A. Perez. El Kuerbo por Edgar
Allan Poe. Balparaiso : Frankisko Enrrikez.
Pp. 29.
Bulletins, Reports, etc. Alabama Geological
Survey : Coosa Coal Field. — American Philo-
sophical Society : Proceedings of January (1895)
Meeting. — Columbia College Geological Depart-
ment : A New Fossil from the Laramie Group at
Florence, Col. Winglike Appendages on the
Petioles of Liriophyllum Populoides Lesq., etc. ;
Descriptions of New Leaves from the Cretaceous
(Dakota Group) of Kansas —Illinois Factory In-
spectors' Report for Year of 1894.— Iowa Health
Bulletin. Vol. IX. No. 1. — Linmean Society :
Abstract of Proceedings for Year ending March 26,
1895 — National Flag Committee Proceedings: Ap-
peal to Fifty-fourth Congress on the Misuse of the
National Flag.— New England States, Vital Sta-
tistics of). — Tennessee State Board of Health
Bulletin. Vol. X. No. 2— Trinity Church Tene-
ments, Report on Sanitary Condition of. — Wis-
consin University Bulletins : A Contribution to
the Mineralogy of Wisconsin (Hobbs) ; Studies in
Spherical and" Practical Astronomy (Comstock).
An Experimental Study of Field Methods which
will insure to Stadia Measurements greatly
Increased Accuracy (Smith) — The Finances of
the United States from 1775 to 1889, with Especial
Reference to the Budget (Bullock).— On the
Quartz Keratophyre and Associated Rocks of the
North Range of the Baraboo Bluffs (Weidman).
— Utah University Quarterly. Vol. I. No. 2. Pp.
60. — Wagner Free Institute of Science : Trans-
actions. Vol. Ill, Part III. — Wisconsin State
Board of Health : Fifteenth Report. — Yale Uni-
versity Observatory : Report, 1894-'95.
Carmichael, James. How Two Documents
may be found in One. Montreal ; Gazette Print-
ing Co. Pp. 22.
Cams, Paul. The Gospel of Buddha. Chicago:
Open Court Publishing Company. Pp. 275. 35
cents.
POPULAR MISCELLANY.
7°9
Gage, A. P. Principles of Physics. Boston :
Ginn & Co. Pp. 634. $1.55.
Grindon, L. H. The Sexuality of Nature.
Boston, Mass. : New Church Union. Pp. 184.
75 cents.
Guerber, H. A. Contes et Legends. Pp. 181.
GO cents ; and Myths of Northern Lands. Pp.
319. $1.50. New York : American Book Co.
Hensoldt, Heinrich. Prospectus of Popular
Lectures on Oriental Travel. Pp. 14.
Hertwig, Oscar. The Cell. Translated by
Henry Johnstone Campbell. New York : Mac-
millah & Co. Pp. 368. $3.
MacClure, Theodore R. Babies. Pp. 50.
Macnie, John. Elements of Geometry. New
York : American Book Co. Pp. 374. $1.25.
Miall, Prof. L. C. The Natural History of
Aquatic Insects. New York : Macmillan & Co.
Pp. 3»9. $1.75.
Parkes, Louis. Elements of Health. Phila-
delphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co. Pp. 245.
$1.25.
Practical Science Monthly. Devoted to the
Practical Application of Scientific Electrical
Research. Vol. I, No. 1. Pp. 30.
Singleton, M. T. Gravitation and Cosmological
Law. Atlanta, Ga. : Franklin Publishing Com-
pany. Pp. 21.
Smith, John B. (Smithsonian Bulletin). Con-
tribution toward a Monograph of the Lepidop-
terous Family Noctuidse of Boreal North America.
Pp. 126.
Warren, L. E. Speech revealed in Facial
Expressions. New York : Edgar S. Werner.
Pp. 15.
Webster's Academic Dictionary. New York :
American Book Co. Pp. 704. $1.50.
Winter, Noel . Pan-Gnosticism. New York :
Transatlantic Publishing Company. Pp. 184.
POPULAR MISCELLANY.
The Rod Cross. — The organization known
as the Red Cross is the result of the interna-
tional treaty of Geneva, and has for its object
the prevention or amelioration of suffering
incurred in war. All military hospitals under
its flag are neutral, and can not be attacked
or captured. Surgeons, nurses, chaplains, at-
tendants, and all non-combatants wearing its
badge, all supplies, and whatever else, under
its care, are likewise protected. In this
country it has a civil branch, known as the
"American Amendment," which other coun-
tries are adopting, and which provides relief
against woes arising from fire, flood, pesti-
lence, and other national calamities. As late
as the Crimean War, civil help for military
necessities was unknown, and Florence Night-
ingale walked into a pathless field. In our own
civil war relief was afforded by the Sanitary
and Christian Commissions. The Red Cross
became active first in the Franco-German
War of 1870-71, and the annals of that war
were not stained by any record of needless
inhumanity or cruelty to wounded or sick.
Since then no war between nations within
the treaty has taken place in which the Red
Cross has not done its work, maintained its
position, and been respected. Under the
" American Amendment '' it has had a share,
according to Miss Clara Barton, its originator
and leading spirit, in relief work in the case
of the forest fires of Michigan in 1881 ; the
overflow of the Mississippi in 18S2 ; the
drought in Texas in 1886; the relief of the
sufferers from the Mount Vernon cyclone in
1888 ; the yellow-fever epidemic in Florida
in 1888; the Johnstown disaster in 1889;
the Russian famine in 1891-92; and the
hurricane and tidal wave of the South Caro-
lina sea-island coast in 1893-'94. It has also,
during that time, taken part in several inter-
national movements.
Unsolved Problems in the Manufacture
of Light. — In a lecture before the Royal So-
ciety of Canada, on Unsolved Problems in
the Manufacture of Light, Prof. John Cox
showed that in practice not more than from
seven to sixteen per cent of the energy stored
in the coal can be extracted by the steam
engine, and theoretical considerations fix an
absolute limit to the perfection of that ma-
chine, so that we can never hope to convert
so much as thirty per cent of the coal by any
form of heat engine. This is one of the un-
solved problems — unsolved, but still capable
of solution if some means of extracting ener-
gy from coal otherwise than by heat, and
more like the methods used in burning zinc
in a battery, can be discovered. In the sec-
ond stage of the process for producing the
electric light, the dynamo is already nearly
perfect, and hardly any heat is lost in its
conversion into an electrical current. We
reach the third stage, the lamp, with some
seven per cent of the original energy still
available. In this stage our only means of
producing luminous energy is to heat the
molecules of some substance, whereby we
are compelled to waste the greater part of
our efforts in producing heat, which is worse
than useless, before we obtain the light rays.
" Here, then, is the second unsolved problem,
since even in the incandescent lamp and the
arc lamp not more than from three to five
per cent of the energy supplied is converted
into light. Thus of the original store in the
710
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
coal less than three parts in a thousand ulti-
mately become useful. In the last six years,
however, some hint of means to overcome
the difficulty has been obtained from the
proof by Maxwell and Hertz that light is
only an electric radiation. Could we pro-
duce electric oscillations of a sufficient ra-
pidity, we might discard the molecules of
matter and directly manufacture light with-
out their intervention. To do this we must
be able to produce oscillations at the rate of
four hundred billions per second. Tesla has
produced them in thousands and millions per
second, and Crookes has shown how by means
of high vacua to raise many bodies to bril-
liant fluorescence at a small expense of en-
ergy. . . . These are hints toward a solution
of the problem, but give no solution as yet.
Prof. Langley states that the Cuban firefly
spends the whole of its energy upon the
visual rays without wasting any upon heat,
and is some four hundred times more effi-
cient as a light producer than the electric
arc, and even ten times more efficient than the
sun in this respect. Thus, while at present
we have no solution of these important prob-
lems, we have reason to hope that in the not
distant future one may be obtained, and the
human inventor may not be put to shame by
his humble insect rival."
Friends of the Farmer. — The common
white grub, the larva of the June bug, well
known as a destroyer of potatoes and the
roots of corn, is eaten by a considerable
number of small animals. Among thosB
mentioned in the eighteenth report of the
State Entomologist of Illinois are thrushes,
blackbirds, bluebirds, owls, hawks, the cat-
bird, robin, and some other birds, also pigs,
moles, ground squirrels, skunks, toads, and
frogs. It is probable that snakes also eat
them. Several of the above-named creatures
are too destructive themselves to be encour-
aged on farms, but others either do no dam-
age at all or a trifling amount compared with
the service they render. Poultry might have
been added to the list given in the report.
Significance of Unman Variation. — The
Shattuck Lecture, delivered by Prof. Thomas
Dwight at a recent meeting of the Massa-
chusetts Medical Society, was on the Range
and Significance of Variation in the Human
Skeleton. In it the author, who is convinced
that every bodily difference between man
and non-rational animals is of degree and
not of kind, expresses himself " astonished
and perplexed by the great network of anal-
ogies extending throughout Nature. No
one can ignore them without willfully shut-
ting his eyes. But the very multiplicity of
these resemblances assures me that some
other law than that of heredity must be in-
voked to account for them. They can not'
be represented by a treelike figure. They
spread out every way. The opinion is daily
growing stronger among serious scholars
that, if man's body came from a lower form,
it was not by a long process of minute modi-
fications, but by some sudden, or compar-
atively sudden, transition. The fabulous
missing link, once so accurately described
by Haeckel, is retreating to the limbo of
worn-out hypotheses."
Coloration of Birds' Eggs. — The expla-
nations put forth to account for the varia-
tions in color of the shells of birds' eggs are
arranged by Dr. R. W. Shufeldt in hia paper
on that subject as follows : In many instances
the general color and markings were in con-
formity with the law of protective coloration.
When both sexes are more or less brilliantly
colored, the eggs are generally laid where
they are not exposed to view, and where the
parent hatching them is also concealed to a
greater or less extent. This is effected by
either the form of nest constructed or by
the eggs being laid in burrows or hollow
trees. The eggs of such birds are, as a
rule, not handsomely marked, or are often
only white. When the general tone of the
plumage of the incubating parent is in har-
mony with its environment, the eggs, as a rule,
are laid in open nests or places where they
are fully exposed to view ; such eggs are
often very handsomely tinted and marked,
or the reverse may be the case. Frequently
birds that lay eggs in open and exposed
places, as directly on the ground, rock, or sand,
without any apology for a nest, have eggs
that are either tinted, or colored and marked,
or both, so as to be in harmony with their
surroundings. The earliest forms of birds
probably laid white, ellipsoidal eggs, varying
in number to the clutch from one to many.
Possibly in some of the lower types of exist-
P OP ULAR MIS CULL ANY.
711
ing birds such an ancestral trait has persist-
ed. In certain instances where birds lay ex-
posed to view either white or light-tinted
eggs, or those not otherwise protectively
colored, they have the habit of covering the
clutch over with leaves, etc., when the in-
cubating parent temporarily quits the nest.
The eggs of birds, irrespective of the char-
acter of the coloration of . their plumage,
which habitually lay in inaccessible places,
are often either white or light-tinted and ex-
posed to view. Both the age of the bird
and the physical condition of its constitu-
tion at the time of laying an egg have their
influence upon the coloration of its shell.
Changes in the constitution may be due to
external causes, as fright, etc. ; or to inter-
nal causes, as disease, etc. The richest-col-
ored eggs of any species (that lay other eggs
than white ones) are laid by that species at
its prime. The positions of th» egg as it
passes down the oviduct, as well as its mo-
tions, affect the pattern of its markings.
The Great Siberian Railway. — Of the
'total length of nearly four thousand seven
hundred miles of the great Siberian Railway,
the rails are already laid over one thousand
and six miles, or sixty-eight miles more than
one fifth of the whole distance. In this are
counted the distances built from the eastern
end at Samara to the Irtysh opposite Omsk,
and at the western end from Vladivostok
along the Usuri River. There was some
doubt at first whether the road should fol-
low the northern route, where a railroad is
already built along the old caravan road,
through Ekaterinburg to Tyreman, on the
Tura, or on the southern line where the ad-
vantages of population and traffic in central
Siberia are more tempting. The southern
route was chosen, and the railway, starting
from Samara, passes through the densely
peopled parts of south Siberia to Ufa, at the
junction of the Byela and Ufa Rivers, thence
to Zlatoust, the center of the great iron and
gold mining district of the southern Urals,
when it crosses the mountains, and to Chlya-
bisk, on the borders of the prairies of south-
west Siberia ; thence to Omsk, the present
terminus, Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk,
Chita, and the southern coast of Lake Baikal.
Here a way will have to be cut through the
Tocky crags that rise abruptly from the wa-
ters of the lake ; and between Chita and the
Amur a series of parallel ranges will have to
be crossed. Owing to the unfavorable char-
acter of the region for population, the rail-
way between the Amur and the Usuri will
probably remain for some time to come a
mere strategic line.
Climate of the City of Mexico. — A report
by the Director of the Meteorological Observ-
atory of Mexico, published by the director,
Senor M. Barcena, on the climate of that
city, gives the mean annual temperature as
59Y°, and the monthly means as ranging
from 53-6° in December to 64-6° in May.
The absolute maxima in the shade vary from
73-40 in December to 88-9° in April, and the
absolute minima from 28*9° in December to
46-8° in August and September. The great-
est daily range amounted to 41° in the
month of March. The mean annual rainfall
amounted to 23*8 inches, the wettest months
being June and September. The greatest
fall in one day was 2-5 inches in August,
1888. The prevalent wind is northwest,
which blows during most of the year, and
that is the coldest and wettest quarter. The
strongest wind blows from the northeast.
The greatest hourly velocity observed was
about fifty-six miles an hour. The report is
based upon the hourly observations of the
sixteen years, 1877 to 1892.
Lilian Island Snake.— Peculiar to the
Luchu Islands is the poisonous Trimeresurus
snake, called habu by the natives, which is
described by Prof. B. H. Chamberlain, of the
Imperial University of Japan, as being four
or five feet long by two inches in diameter,
and u3 an object of universal fear and hatred.
It springs out at passers-by from the hedges,
where its habits lead it to lie in wait for
birds, and actually enters houses, so as to
make it perilous during the warm season to
walk about the house at night except with a
lantern. The general result of bites that do
not bring on death is lifelong crippling. Re-
wards are offered by the authorities for the
bodies of these snakes, dead or alive, and
the villagers go out in the woods to secure
them. Yet the number does not seem to
diminish perceptibly, and at least one case is
recorded within recent years of a village hav-
ing been abandoned by its inhabitants be-
712
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
cause they could not cope with these enemies.
Sea snakes are common on some of the is-
lands, of three species, two of which are harm-
less, while the bite of the other is poisonous.
These sea snakes are highly prized, as vipers
are in Japan, and are used as food by the
rich and, to a smaller extent, as medicine by
the poor.
Smoke. — The following, from the Amer-
ican Engineer and Railroad Journal, seems
worthy of mention : A mistaken idea exists
as to the amount of actual carbon con-
tained in those dense masses of smoke
which are seen rising from the tall stacks
of manufacturing and other large plants.
By passing through water the gases aris-
ing from a furnace burning bituminous coal,
and weighing the solid particles retained
or precipitated, it has been proved, it is
claimed, that they amount to less than one
sixth of one per cent of the total amount of
coal consumed. It is not strange that a
different idea is entertained of the quantity
of actual carbon seemingly going to waste,
when the wonderful coloring power of the
finely divided particles of carbon is consid-
ered. To prove this it is only necessary to try
the well-known experiment of smoking a bit
of glass with a candle, and then mixing up
with a palette knife a portion of the coloring
matter thus secured with a drop or two of
gum arabic. A very small portion of this
mixture will color many quarts of water. The
actual carbon contained in the smoke itself is
inappreciable, but the unconsumed invisible
gases invariably associated with the smoke
are considerable in quantity and indicative
of a financial loss much larger than is gener-
ally known.
Therapeutic Hypnotism. — The unmis-
takable signs of the failing belief and in-
terest in hypnotism as a curative agent, and
its relegation to the field of curious if not
pathological psychology, is pointed out in
the editorial columns of the last Lancet.
The two deciding questions, about which
controversy has raged, have been, first, Are
hypnotic phenomena physiological or patho-
logical ? and, secondly, Has the induction of
hypnosis any therapeutic value ? A study of
the most successful hypnotic subjects seems
to indicate that the phenomenon is really a
morbid one, and "associated with feebleness
of will and unusual impressionability," and
as regards its therapeutics, while it may be
of some value in certain functional nervous
diseases, such as hysteria and neurasthenia,
there are other methods of producing the
same effect which have none of the dangers,
both moral and physical, with which hypnosis
is fraught.
Diphtheria and Milk. — A curious epi-
demic of diphtheria following a sore throat,
caused by drinking a certain milk, is recorded
in the British Medical Journal. On the out-
break of the sore throat the milk and its
surroundings were closely examined : some
of the cows had sore teats ; but no disease
in the throats of either cows or milkers
could be discovered, and there were no Loef-
fler bacilli in the throat scrapings from the
patients. Upon boiling the milk before
using, the epidemic promptly subsided. But
within less than a week a true epidemic of
diphtheria appeared among these same peo-
ple, and, although careful investigation was
made, no source of secondary infection could
be discovered. It seems probable that the
throat trouble caused by the milk laid the
foundation for the diphtheritic bacillus.
The outbreak was a very mild one, only one
death occurring.
Physical Measurements of School Chil-
dren.— In J. Allen Gilbert's researches on the
mental and physical development of school
children, the results in the observations of
muscle sense, or sensitiveness to weight,
showed a gradual increase in ability to dis-
criminate, from six to thirteen years of age.
At thirteen there was a gradual falling off
and then another gain. Boys and girls, con-
sidered together, gradually increase in ability,
but when they are considered separately,
marked differences of sex appear. At six
years the considerable difference is in favor
of the boys ; at seven both sexes have the
same ability. From this on both gain with
equal pace to the age of thirteen, with the ex-
ception of an abrupt falling off for boys at
eleven. From thirteen to seventeen the dif-
ference again becomes manifest in favor of
boys. Ability to distinguish different shades
of the same color increases with age. The
balance of advantage in this test is slightly
POPULAR MISCELLANY.
713
in favor of the girls. Voluntary motor abil-
ity is measured by the number of taps the
child can make in five seconds. The average
child at six years taps 20-8 times in that in-
terval. From this there is a gradual increase
till the age of twelve, when the rate is 29-9
taps. This is lowered one tap at thirteen
after which the increase is resumed and
reaches a maximum at seventeen, when the
rate of tapping is 33'8 in five seconds. The
rate is higher for boys than for girls. After
tapping for forty-five seconds fatigue enters
into the results very noticeably. The fa-
tigue is most marked at the age of eight and
least marked at fifteen. Boys tire more
quickly throughout in voluntary movement
than girls, but as they act more vigorously it
can hardly be said that they tire more easily.
Boys have a larger lung capacity than girls
throughout. Girls become nearly stationary
in it at twelve, but boys do not begin their
most rapid growth till they are fourteen years
of age. The time of simple reaction de-
creases with age. The results, when consid-
ered for girls and boys separately, show
marked differences in sex. The bright chil-
dren react more quickly than the dull. But
all react in about the same time just before
those ages — eleven and sixteen — in which
changes of growth manifest themselves. In
the test for reaction with discrimination and
choice, ability increased and the length of
time required decreased with advance in age.
This test implies more complicated mental
activity, and the influences that affect mental
life show themselves more plainly in the
curve representing such development.
Uses of the Sand Blast. — It appears from
an account of the applications of the sand
blast given by Mr. J. J. Holtzapffel, in the
English Society of Arts, that glass is almost
immediately depolished by the blasts now in
use, and only a little time is required to
pierce and cut holes through sheet and plate
glass. Stone, marble, slate, and granite are
equally amenable to its action. Iron, steel,
and other metals have their surfaces easily
reduced and smoothly or coarsely granulated,
according to the force and abrasive powder
used. The abrasive need not be harder than
the metal to which it is applied. The blast
is used for frosting and decorating glass, the
labeling of graduated measures, for remov-
ing hard scale from castings and forgings, for
carvings and inscriptions in intaglio or relief
on stone, slate, and granite, for delicate draw-
ings for lithography, for removing fur and
deposits in tubs and tanks, for cleaning off
accumulations of paint and dirt within iron
ships, for decorating buttons, for piercing
the holes in glass ventilators, for marking
pottery and ornamental tiles, for refacing
grindstones, emery and corundum wheels, for
granulating celluloid films for photography,
and on wood to bring out the grain in relief,
and, latterly, for blocks for printing.
Tnberenlosis in Meat. — The Koyal Com-
mission appointed in July, 1890, to inquire
into the effect of food derived from tubercu-
lous animals on human health has reported,
as the result of its five years' investigations,
that it has obtained ample evidence that
" food derived from tuberculous animals can
produce tuberculosis in healthy animals. The
proportion of animals contracting tuberculo-
sis after experimental use of such food is
different in one and another class of animals ;
both carnivora and herbivora are susceptible,
and the proportion is high in pigs. In the
absence of direct experiments on human sub-
jects we infer that man also can acquire
tuberculosis by feeding upon materials de-
rived from tuberculous food animals. The
actual amount of tuberculous disease among
certain classes of food animals is so large
as to afford to man frequent occasions for
contracting tuberculous disease through his
food." The commission thinks it probable
that an appreciable part of the tuberculosis
that affects man is obtained through the
food. Tuberculous disease is observed most
frequently in cattle and in swine. It is
found far more frequently in full-grown cat-
tle than in calves, and with much greater
frequency in cows kept in town cowhouses
than in cattle bred for the express purpose
of slaughter. It is but seldom found in the
meat substance, but principally in the organs,
membranes, and glands. It is found in the
milk of cows when the udder has been at-
tacked by tuberculous disease, and seldom
or never when the udder is not diseased. In
the milk it is exceptionally active in its oper-
ation upon animals fed either with the milk
or with dairy produce derived from it. Pro-
vided every part that is the seat of tubercu-
7H
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
lous matter be avoided and destroyed, and pro-
vided care is taken to save the actual meat
substance from contamination by such mat-
ter, a great deal of meat from animals af-
fected by tuberculosis may be eaten without
risk to the consumer. Ordinary processes of
cooking applied to meat which has got con-
taminated on its surface are probably suffi-
cient to destroy the harmful quality. They
would not avail to render wholesome any
piece of meat that contained tuberculous
matter in its deeper parts. The boiling of
milk, even for a moment, would probably be
sufficient to make it safe.
Similarities in Cnltnre.— Prof. 0. T.
Mason closes a somewhat critical discussion
of similarities in culture — on which, he sug-
gests, more is sometimes built than can
stand — with the conclusion that such simi-
larities may arise through a common hu-
manity, a common stress, common environ-
ment, and common attributes of Nature ;
through acculturation, or contact, commerce,
borrowing, appropriating, between peoples in
all degrees of kinship ; and through com-
mon kinship, race, or nationality. Generic
similitudes arise by the first cause; special
and adventitious similarities by the second
cause ; and the more profound, co-ordinated,
real, and numerous similarities by the third
cause. Similarities are partly natural, such
as sounds of animals, forms of pebbles,
qualities of stone, clay, and the like, but
most of tbem are fundamentally ideal. Where
the same idea exists in two areas, a simple
one may have come to men independently.
One containing two or more elements in the
same relation and order is less likely to have
so arisen, while a highly organized idea
could not often have come to two men far
removed from one another. Furthermore, a
complex idea is never the progeny of a sin-
gle mind, and that embarrasses the question
further. The generic and adventitious simi-
larities are most striking and most frequently
called to notice. The error is in taking
them for profound and real similarities.
Those similarities that are imbedded in the
life of peoples and logically co-ordinated with
the annual circle of activities are of the fam-
ily and stock, and beyond any reasonable
doubt proclaim the people to be one. " Fur-
thermore, they exist for the trained and
patient eye and hand ; they elude the gaze
of the superficial observer. The identifica-
tion of them is the reward of long years of
patient research, and the finder is the dis-
coverer of a pearl of great price."
Electric Cooking Vessels. — The first at-
tempt in practice to devise vessels for cook-
ing by electricity was made about four years
ago by a Mr. Carpenter, an American, who
developed Lane Fox's idea of surrounding
the vessel by a coil of insulated wire through
which a current should be passed. He at-
tached the resistant wires to the surface of
cast-iron plates by an enameling process.
Some defects appeared in his method, among
which was the liability of the enamel to
crack, whereby the wire was exposed to the
oxidizing action of the air. These difficul-
ties have been overcome by the English
manufacturers Crorapton & Co., who have
found a safer enamel and substituted a
nickel-steel wire as being better adapted to
endure the action to which it is exposed than
the wire that was used before. By specially
adapted methods they are able to apply the
wire in somewhat complicated patterns to
the surface of any metal plate, and to insu-
late it therefrom in a very thorough and
permanent manner. They exhibit, con-
structed on this plan, a simple electric
heater — a circular plate mounted on short
legs, to the under side of which wire is ap-
plied and fixed by the enamel, while the
upper side is ground flat and polished — a
frying pan, saucepan, kettle, griller, hot iron,
and radiator. The radiators have been
found convenient, safe, and economical for
heating theaters and efficient in preventing
the deposition of frost on shop windows.
Formation of Stalactites. — Describing
the deposition of carbonate of lime in
stalactites and stalagmites, Mr. George P.
Merrill, of the United States National Mu-
seum, says that water filtering through a
rock roof, by virtue of the carbonic acid it
contains, is enabled to dissolve a small amount
of the lime carbonate, which is again de-
posited when the excess of carbonic acid
escapes either through relief from pressure
or through the evaporation of the water.
Conditions favorable to either process are
furnished by the water filtering through the
POPULAR MISCELLANY.
7'5
roof of a cave and dripping slowly to the
floor beneath. In cases where the water
filters sufficiently slowly or evaporation is cor-
respondingly rapid, the deposit of lime car-
bonate from the roof takes at first the form
of a ring around the outer portion of the
drop, a natural consequence of the evapora-
tion of a suspended drop of liquid. This
process may go on until the ring becomes
prolonged into an elongated cylinder or tube,
the diameter of which may not exceed five
millimetres, though usually ranging from five
to ten, and of all lengths up to fifty centi-
metres. In exceptional cases this length
may be exceeded, but owing to the delicacy
of the material the stalactite usually breaks
from its own weight and falls to the floor
before the length of -even ten or fifteen cen-
timetres is reached, to become imbedded
in the stalagmitic material there forming.
Lengths of even these dimensions are com-
paratively rare, for the reason that the tube
becomes shortly closed, either as its upper
or lower end, usually the upper, and all
growth from the extremity alone ceases, sub-
sequent depositions being wholly exterior
and taking place in the form of concentric
coatings of the carbonate on the outer sur-
face and at the same time from the top.
There is thus formed around the original tube
a compact cylindrical mass, in its typical
form, constricted at the point of attachment,
but thickening rapidly and then tapering
gradually into an elongated cone. The ma-
terial of the stalactites is not always wholly
carbonate of lime, but in some cases thin
intervening coats of iron disulphide are met
with. Through a kind of crystallization the
material sometimes undergoes a distinctly
fibrous arrangement, but oftentimes the
structure is granular throughout.
Snake-bite Antitoxine. — At a recent
meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Prof. Fraser delivered a lecture embodying
some extremely valuable and interesting data
obtained by him during several years of ex-
perimental work on an antidote for snake
poisons. The principles utilized by him are
similar to those employed in the antitoxine
treatment of diphtheria and in vaccination
for smallpox. He first immunized an animal
by repeated small doses of the snake poison,
slowly increasing the quantity, until the ani-
mal was taking at a single dose many times
the minimum lethal amount for a non-im-
munized individual. He then injected into
another animal some of the blood serum
from the immunized case, and found that
this prevented any ill effects from a subse-
quent injection of venom. Still a third ani-
mal was given an injection of pure venom,
and, when distinct symptoms of poisoning
appeared, was treated with the immunizing
serum, with the result that the symptoms of
poisoning disappeared and no ill effects fol-
lowed. When it is remembered that in
British India alone there are each year from
eighteen to twenty thousand deaths caused
by snake-bite, the great beneficence of this
discovery is apparent. Prof. Fraser is at
present immunizing a horse, but is having
some trouble, owing to the difficulty of pro-
curing the snake- poison in sufficient quantity.
Unsanitary Filters. — For many years be-
fore any positive connection was established
between typhoid fever and a specific micro-
organism it was known that this and other
diseases were in some way connected with
the composition of the drinking water pre-
viously consumed by the patient. By chem-
ical analysis it was found that in almost all
such cases the water contained an excess of
organic matter ; it was accordingly inferred
that removing the organic matter would cor-
rect the trouble and obviate any further
danger; and filters were made with this end
in view. It is now known, however, that the
danger from waters containing much organic
matter lies not in the organic matter per se,
but arises from the fact that a large amount
of organic matter attracts and feeds a pro-
portionately large number of bacteria. It
has been proved experimentally that after a
filter of this class has been in use for some
time, water, in passing through it, becomes
much richer in bacteria, and even that ster-
ilized water passed through it is found
swarming with micro-organisms. The filter
collects the organic matter from the water
and with it some of the bacteria. This mass
of organic matter serves as an admirable
culture medium ; as the bacteria multiply,
they are taken up by the water as it passes
through the filter, so that, instead of serving
as a safeguard against disease, such filters
are really disease breeders. In order to be
716
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
effective, a filtering apparatus must either
remove or destroy any micro-organisms con-
tained in the water.
Color Photography. — At a recent soiree
of the Royal Society, in London, Dr. Joly, of
Dublin, exhibited some photographic trans-
parencies upon glass plates representing va-
rious objects in their natural colors. The
subjects photographed were especially chosen
because of variety of color and delicate
shading, and were reproduced with great
naturalness and fidelity. The results were
accomplished by the use of a finely ruled
glass plate, two hundred to three hundred
lines to the inch, each three lines being a
complete color series, consisting of an orange-
yellow line, a greenish-yellow line, and a
blue-violet line, these colors being repeated
over and over again. The lines are ruled
with colored inks, made up of gum and
gelatin mixed in certain proportions, on a
gelatin-coated plate. The plate to be ex-
posed is placed in contact with this color-
screen, and only exposed to light which has
passed through the latter ; an extra-long
exposure is necessary, owing to the partial
opacity of the color-screen. The plate is
then developed in the ordinary way. The
color-screen is now again placed against the
negative, and when the two are held up to
the light, if the color-screen is placed just
as it was when the exposure took place, an
accurately colored reproduction of the origi-
nal scene appears. The process is so simple
and inexpensive that it will probably come
rapidly into general use.
The Yalne of Object Lessons.— In a re-
cent educational circular we find the follow-
ing on object teaching : " To sum up the
main value of object teaching, there are
three principal uses : The first and most im-
portant is to teach the children to observe,
compare, and contrast ; the second is to im-
part information ; and the third is to re-en-
force the other two by making the results of
them the basis for instruction in language,
drawing, number, modeling, and other handi-
work. There are, however, other important
uses of good object teaching. It makes the
lives of the children more happy and inter-
esting by opening up an easily accessible
and attractive field for the exercise of brain,
hand, and eye; it gives the children an op-
portunity of learning the simplest natural
facts ; and directs their attention to external
objects, making their education less bookish.
It further develops a love of Mature and an
interest in living things, and corrects the
tendency, which exists in many children, to
destructiveness and thoughtless unkindness
to animals, and shows the ignorance and
cruelty of such conduct. The value of the
services which many animals render to man
should be dwelt upon, and the importance
of kindly treating them and preserving them
should be pointed out. By these means,
and in other ways, good object teaching may
lay the foundation for the right direction of
the activity and intelligence of the children
throughout the whole school."
Sunlight and Pictures. — The question of
preventing or mitigating the fading of pic-
tures and pigments has been attacked in
earnest and in a practical way by Captain
W. de W. Abney, who finds that fading in
the course of time is one of the inevitable
effects of the operation of ordinary sunlight.
Pictures can not well be taken from the
light, so the next best thing is to discover
which of the solar rays do the most damage,
and to mitigate their effects as far as pos-
sible. The violet rays prove to be most ac-
tive in producing fading. If we can elimi-
nate the majority of these rays from white
light without appreciably altering the fresh-
ness of the colors viewed in such light, we
shall practically have prolonged the life of
a picture. A variety of experiments made
with different pigments tell us that the loss
of the violet of the spectrum is practically
no loss at all. Even with white light the
loss is unnoticeable. If we form a patch of
light composed of all the colors except the
violet, we shall notice but little change from
the pure white that is alongside of it. The
case becomes simpler yet when we find that
the blue-green light and the yellow light of
the spectrum superposed give substantially
white. A blue-green glass and a yellow
glass interposed against the sunlight practi-
cally cut off all the violet, while they give
passage to the rays that form white. Cap-
tain Abney therefore solves his problem by
using glasses of these colors for the window-
glazing of hjs gallery. Making the windows
POPULAR MISCELLANY.
717
and skylights with alternate strips of these
colors, he has a light which when diffused
blends into a practical white that allows the
pictures to be seen as under usual conditions,
while the danger of fading is made the
smallest possible.
Pimento. — Pimento, allspice, or Jamaica
pepper is the dried berry of the pimento tree
of Jamaica, which grows to the height of
twenty or thirty feet ; and the markets of
the world are wholly supplied from this
source. The tree will not grow on the coast
lands, but flourishes best on the mountains
of the interior of the island. The tree from
the leaves of which the aromatic principle of
bay rum is extracted (Pimento acris) is also
a native of Jamaica, but its cultivation has
been neglected. * The pimento tree is a plant
of paradoxes. It is not friendly to cultiva-
tion, so that it has not been found possible to
rear healthy plants from the seeds by arti-
ficial planting ; and the stock can not be
successfully increased by slips. The seed-
lings thrive, however, when the seed has
been digested by a bird, and this source of
supply is largely relied upon. When it is
desired to stock land with pimento, the trees
growing upon it are cut down and their
trunks are left lying where they fell. The
bushes and the brush are burned, and the
ground is planted with provision crops. Aft-
er the lapse of some months, young pi-
mento plants may be seen springing from
the soil in various places. Care must be
taken to keep cattle from them, for they are
very fond of the spicy leaves and would de-
stroy the young plants. After two or three
seasons cultivation is stopped and the grass
is allowed to grow. Cattle are permitted to
pasture on the land after the trees have
grown out of their reach. The planter has
now only to keep the land clear of brush
and to gather his crops. The harvest begins
in August, just before the berries turn
black. One of each party of pickers climbs
the trees, breaks off the berry-bearing
branches, and throws them down to his com-
rades, who strip off the berries. The tree is
left in a ragged condition, and the process
seems to be a barbarous one, but it is said
to be best for the trees. If they are pruned,
the branches cut die to the main stem ; while
if the limbs are broken off they shortly send
forth new shoots ; and it is claimed that the
year's yield depends largely on the extent to
which the limbs have been broken the pre-
vious season. The crop is next cured by
drying, winnowed, and prepared for the
market. Pimento holds the fifth place of
importance in the exports from Jamaica,
being exceeded in value only by sugar, rum,
coffee, and fruit ; but the demand for it is
declining, and its importance is therefore
growing less.
The Tricks of Worthless Companies. —
A report lately published by the English
Board of Trade on the working of the Com-
panies Winding-up Act during 1893 reveals
some startling facts indicating mismanage-
ment. Winding-up proceedings were begun
during the year against more than a thou-
sand companies out of a total of 16,104 in
England and Wales, while 2,332 new com-
panies were started. The whole number of
liquidations during the two years 1892-93
was nearly equal to one half of the number
of companies formed during the same peri-
od. Besides these, a large number of new
companies annually prove abortive and
cease to exist, or, if their names are not taken
from the register, remain there as moribund
companies. From the figures of the past
year it would appear that nearly two thirds
of the companies formed fail to establish
themselves as permanent enterprises. The
report exposes the manner by which fraudu-
lent or mistaken estimates have enticed sim-
ple and believing investors to risk and lose
their savings. Malpractices begin with the
prospectus and continue till liquidation. One
case is cited in which the property sold to
the company for two hundred and fifty thou-
sand dollars had been bought a few months
before by the promoter for three thousand
dollars. In another case the interest in the
publication of a periodical was bought by
the promoter in June for fifteen hundred
dollars in cash, and was sold in August to a
company, practically consisting of himself,
for fifteen thousand dollars in cash and fif-
teen thousand dollars in debentures, with a
view of ultimately disposing of it to the
public at a price based upon these figures.
In another instance a small and worthless
business was represented as a business in
the various centers of industry in England
7i8
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
and Ireland, firmly established and very
lucrative, and, a safe investment, which
would, according to the report of an expert
sent out with the prospectus, return, taking
the previous year's business as a criterion, a
profit of fifteen per cent. The worst of the
matter is that the report confesses that the
statements, false as they were, were not of
such specific character that they could be
made the subject of criminal indictment.
NOTES.
A practical piece of work is reported
in the bulletin of the University of Wyo-
ming. This is a series of determinations
of the heating power of fifty-four samples
of Wyoming coal, six of petroleum, and two
of asphalt, by Prof. Edwin E. Slosson and
Prof. L. C. Colburn. Proximate analyses of
the coals and a description of the bomb
calorimeter used for the heat tests are also
given.
It appeared in observations made in Rus-
sia during two years that at the depth of
about a foot and a half the soil in the open
steppe holds only about two thirds as much
moisture as the soil of the woods and their
immediate borders. The snow covering on
the steppe on the 20th of February corre-
sponded with only one third as much water
as that in the forest. Frost reached four
times the depth in the open land that it did
in the woods. In summer, the upper layers
of the ground were most dried in the open
land, the deeper layers in the forest. It
was therefore inferred that the action of
trees is one of drainage. Woods planted in
the steppes protect the ground against the
direct effects of the sun and the wind, but
utilize most of the water that falls. The ex-
istence and growth of groves depend on
water coming from without. The subsoil
moisture is too deep down to be available for
the young plantations.
Two customs, supposed to be of Thibetan
origin, were noticed by the American trav-
eler W. W. Rockhill, as observed by Mon-
gols in connection with the fireplace. When
the party had finished drinking a big kettle
of tea, the men put the leaves on the hearth-
stones on which the kettle rested. This
practice was held to be equivalent to burn-
ing incense or making an oblation to the
gods, and is usually observed by the Chi-
nese frontiersmen, even though they profess
Islamism. In case a hearthstone cracks, they
are always careful to smear it with a little
butter — " for good luck," they say.
Of the results of recent antarctic explo-
ration, Prof. Angelo Heilprin, in an address
on the Progress of Discovery, mentions the
penetration by two Norwegian vessels on the
opposite sides of Graham Land to the sixty-
eighth and sixty-ninth parallels of latitude,
thus far the " farthest south " positions.
They discovered new lands - and islands,
which they called King Oscar II Land,
Weather, Robertson, Christensen, and Lin-
denberg Islands ; and found that the sup-
posed continental mass of Graham Land is
possibly an archipelago. Two of the islands
have active volcanoes. In the arctic re-
gions Captain Johannessen has discovered
a new land which he calls Hansenland, fif-
teen miles northwest of the New Siberian
Islands. The new land is described as rug-
gedly barren, nearly destitute of vegetation,
having high mountains, and supporting gi-
gantic glaciers.
Prof. J. Kollmaxn communicated to
the British Association in 1894 the discov-
ery at Schaffhausen, Switzerland, in neolithic
interments, side by side with the remains
of full - grown European types, those of
small-sized people, presumably pygmies of
that age. The situation of the remains in-
dicated that the two races lived peacefully
together. In connection with this find it is
observed that Sergi and Mantie have discov-
ered some living pygmies in Sicily and Sar-
dinia, looking like miniature Europeans.
The Schaffhausen bones are declared by
Virchow not to be of a pathologically degen-
erated people, but of those of normal struc-
ture. In the author's opinion these small
types must not be regarded as diminutive
examples of normal races, but as a distinct
species of mankind, which may have been
the precursor of the larger types of man.
Ax interesting and instructive enterprise,
an International Exhibition of Hygiene, or-
ganized under the direction of M. Brouardel,
was recently opened in Paris. The exhibits
were grouped as follows : (1) Hygiene of
Private Houses. (2) City Hygiene. (3) The
Prophylactics of Zymotic Diseases, Demog-
raphy, Sanitary Statistics, etc. (4) Hygiene
of Childhood, including Alimentary Hygiene,
Questions of Clothing, and Physical Exer-
cises. (5) Industrial and Professional Hy-
giene.
The International Geographical Congress,
which met in London from July 26th to Au-
gust 3d, had a very successful and interest-
ing week. The exhibits included a series of
maps showing the development of English
cartography ; portraits of explorers and
geographers from the thirteenth or four-
teenth century down to the present day ; a
series of globes constructed by von Raven-
stein to show how knowledge of the earth's
surface has grown from century to century ;
many rare and curious old maps ; a very
large collection of photographs representing
types of scenery in all parts of the world ; and
an extensive collection of geographical in-
struments, both ancient and modern. The
NOTES.
719
congress was divided for convenience into
two sections, one dealing with educational
and the other with mathematical geography.
Most of the prominent geographers of the
world were present, and much valuable work
was done. The visitors were entertained in
royal style, and the social features were not
the least attractive part of the meeting.
The yellow coloration of milk on expos-
ure to heat is due, according to M. Cazeneuve
and M. Haddon, to the oxidation of the lac-
tose in presence of the alkaline salts of the
milk. Lactose during this oxidation yields
acids, especially formic acid, easily detected,
the presence of which suffices to explain the
coagulation of the milk as it ensues with any
acid.
The French Association for the Advance-
ment of Science will meet at Bordeaux,
from August 4th to August 9th, under the
presidency of M. E. Trelat.
Three cases of tuberculosis following
tattooing are reported in the British Medical
Journal. Three boys were tattooed by the
same woman, who used her saliva as a ve-
hicle for the coloring matter. The woman
died soon afterward with pulmonary tuber-
culosis, and all the boys presented unmis-
takable signs of tuberculosis at the site of
the operation.
Bacteriology has taken up the telephone
as a disseminator of disease, and may make
necessary the adoption of some device by
which the danger of infection from the
mouthpiece, which many people allow to
touch the lips, can be avoided. The med-
ical journals of Paris are agitating the
matter.
The ultra-conservatism which is so cer"
tainly bred by life about an old university
was sadly illustrated recently at Oxford by
the rejection of a proposal to include an-
thropology among the subjects of the final
school of natural science not as an extra
but as an equivalent subject. There axe un-
fortunately still in high positions classical
teachers who believe that science is an un-
essential part of a nineteenth-century educa-
tion.
Rather a novel contrivance for utilizing
air currents in irrigation is described in the
Louisiana Planter. " A crude invention, which
is called the ' Jumbo ' wind engine, appeared
in western Kansas about ten years ago, and
is now coming into extensive use. It re-
sembles the paddle wheel of a stern wheel
boat, with a shaft twelve or fourteen feet
long, with a diameter of twelve or sixteen
feet, with six or eight radial arms. The
lower half of this horizontal wheel is shield-
ed from the wind, so that the air acts only
upon the upper vanes. A crank upon one end
of the shaft connects with a pump. Its
power can be indefinitely increased by in-
creasing its length. It is said that a Jumbo
giving one hundred horse power in a fifteen-
mile wind can be put up at a cost of five hun-
dred dollars. The wind acts on this sort of
paddle wheel from all points of the compass
except two."
The recorded heights of what are called
maximum waves on the ocean vary from
forty feet from crest to hollow to ninety
feet. The great storm waves travel very far
and faster than the storms, so that preced-
ing them they give warning of them. Some-
times they appear as a record of a far-awray
storm that is spent. When they have trav-
eled beyond the limits of the wind that
raised them tbey become long undulations,
hardly noticed in deep water, but very evi-
dent in shallow places. These probably
form the " i-ollers " that appear periodically
in places situated in latitudes where gales do
not occur. Other rollers are believed by
Captain W. J. L. Wharton to be due to earth-
quakes or volcanic eruptions occurring in
the bed of the sea. Of these are the sudden
great waves which often cause so much de-
struction on the South American coasts.
A marked decrease in the killed and in-
jured among railroad employees in 1894 is
attributed in the report of the Interstate
Commerce Commission to the smaller num-
ber of men, the smaller volume of business
transacted, and perhaps to the increased use
of automatic appliances and the improved
grade of efficiency of the men. One man
was killed out of every 428 in service, and
one injured out of every 23. One passenger
was killed out of each 1,912,G18 carried, or
for each 44,103,228 miles traveled ; and one
injured out of each 204,248 carried, or for
each 4,'709,'77l miles traveled. A distribu-
tion of accidents to the terminal groups into
which the railroads are divided exhibits the
diversity in the relative safety of railway
employment and of railway travel in the
different sections of the country.
The Reichsbank, the German Govern-
ment's banking establishment recently made
some instructive experiments, with cement
as a fireproof covering for safes. A safe
consisting of steel wire netting, between two
layers of cement, was subjected to a heat of
1,800° F. for over half an hour. When the
safe was opened, silk paper was found unin-
jured, and a maximum thermometer, which
had been in the safe, had only registered
85° F.
Some interesting observations on the re-
lation of dust to rainfall and scenic effect
were made during a trip to Greenland last
summer by Prof. William H. Brewer, of the
Sheffield Scientific School. He says that the
fogs progressively thinned as they went far-
ther north ; that, owing to the small amount
of dust in the air, the rain, even when
streams were flowing from the scuppers,
720
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY
was extremely fine, and seemed more like a
fog, so that it was difficult to believe one's
eyes, and that even a few moments in a thin
fog sufficed to thoroughly wet one's outer
garments. He also speaks of the absence of
that bluish haze which so softens and beau-
tifies a distant view in lower latitudes. Un-
fortunately, Dr. Brewer was not equipped
for accurate meteorological research, or we
should doubtless have had from him valu-
able data on this very important and inter-
esting subject.
A curious attempt to combine color im-
pressions with musical sounds was recently
made in London, by Mr. Wallace Rimington.
The instrument used, called a "color or-
gan," was so arranged that each organ note
had a corresponding colored disk ; pressure
on the key threw this disk in front of a
powerful arc or lime light by which an im-
age was projected on a screen, and at the
same time a musical tone was produced by
the organ. Extracts from Chopin and Wag-
ner were rendered ; the effects are said to
have been in the main pleasing, and were
certainly novel.
The Royal Academy of Sciences of the
Institute of Bologna offers a gold medal of
one thousand francs' value for a memoir on
a practical system for the prevention or ex-
tinction of fire. Italian, French, or Latin
may be used ; if in another language, it
must be accompanied by an Italian transla-
tion. The essays should be signed by a
nom de plume and accompanied by an enve-
lope containing the author's real name. All
essays must be in before May 29, 1896, and
should be addressed to uAl segretario della
R. Accademia delle Scienze deW Institute di
Bologna."
An examination of teas grown at vari-
ous altitudes w7as recently conducted in the
Lancet Laboratory, and seems to show that
while the content of caffeine, the refresh-
ing and important constituent of the tea
leaf, is not materially affected by an in-
crease of altitude, the tannin, the astrin-
gent principle, which gives to the stronger
teas their harsh, disagreeable flavor, is quite
markedly decreased. The essential oils, on
which the agreeable flavor and odor depend,
are increased by growth in higher altitudes.
Unfortunately, the higher the altitude the
less the yield — as, for instance, at seven
thousand feet above sea level at Darjeeling,
the yield is only two hundred to three hun-
dred'pounds per acre, while on the plains of
Assam, at an elevation of from only one hun-
dred to five hundred feet, the yield averages
one thousand pounds per acre.
TnE report of the British Opium Com-
mission is supplemented in a special memo-
randum by Sir William Roberts, who gives
opium a position as to its effects on the sys-
tem intermediate between alcohol and to-
bacco. But the habitual and excessive use
of alcohol is followed by special organic
changes that can be traced both during life
and after death, while this is not the case
with either opium or tobacco. Sir William
thinks that the number of opium-eaters in
India is likely to be underestimated rather
than overestimated. He dwells upon the
greater tolerance for opium among the na-
tives of India as compared with Europeans,
and cites the evidence of Surgeon-Lieutenant-
Colonel Crombie as to the very different
effect of opium on native and English infants
in support of the view that this enhanced
tolerance on the part of the natives of India
is apparently congenital.
A unique specimen of the great auk's
egg was sold recently in London. It is a
perfect egg, which was obtained sixty or
seventy years ago in Iceland. It sold for
$866.25.
In a paper read before the Geographical
Club of Philadelphia, Mr. T. W. Balch re-
lates several incidents observed by him in a
journey through Alsace and Lorraine illus-
trative of the people's concealing French
hearts under their Germanized exteriors.
Among them was the evasion of the law
forbidding the display of French flags, per-
ceived in a show window in Strasburg.
The storekeeper, with a thoroughly German
name on his sign, had put in a conspicuous
place some white candles between two pack-
ages of red ones, wrapped at the bottom in
blue paper. " It was indeed a dull man who
did not see at once the tricolor."
OBITUARY NOTES.
Prof. Franz Neumann, of the chair of
Physics and Mineralogy at the University of
Ktinigsberg, died on May 23d at Konigs-
berg, at the advanced age of ninety-seven.
The work which placed him in the front
ranks of science was a Memoire sur la Theo-
rie des Ondulations, presented to the Berlin
Academy in 1835.
Prof. Valentine Ball, of Dublin, died
on June 17th, aged fifty-two years. He was
Director of the Museum of Science and Art
of Dublin. He occupied the chair of Geolo-
gy and Mineralogy in the University of Dub-
lin from 1881 to 1883, and was the author
of several works oh geology.
Theodore Brorsen, best known from his
discovery of five comets, has recently died,
in the seventy-seventh year of his age. He
discovered the comet that bears his name in
1846, and found its period to be five years
and a half. It has since been seen at four
returns, but not since 1879. He discovered
a second comet in 1846, a third in 1847, and
two others in 1851.
DAVID HOSACK.
THE
POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.
OCTOBER, 1895.
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE.
XX.— FROM THE DIVINE ORACLES TO THE HIGHER CRITICISM.
By ANDREW DICKSON WHITE, LL. D. (Yale), Ph. D. (Jena),
FORMERLY PRESIDENT OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
V. VICTORY OF THE SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY METHODS.
WHILE the struggle for the new truth was going on in vari-
ous fields, aid appeared from a quarter whence it was least
expected. The great discoveries by Layard and Botta in Assyria
were supplemented "by the researches of George Smith, Oppert,
Sayce, and others, and thus it was revealed beyond the possibility
of doubt that the accounts of the Creation, the tree of life in
Eden, the institution of the Sabbath, the deluge, the Tower of
Babel, and much else in the Pentateuch were simply an evolution
out of earlier myths, legends, and chronicles. So perfect was the
proof of this that the most eminent scholars in the foremost
Christian seats of learning were obliged freely to acknowledge it.
The more general conclusions which were thus given to bibli-
cal criticism were all the more impressive from the fact that
they had been revealed by various groups of earnest Christian
scholars working on different lines, by different methods, and in
various parts of the world. Very honorable was the full and
frank testimony to these results given in 1885 by the Rev. Fran-
cis Brown, a professor in the Presbyterian Theological Seminary
at New York. In his admirable though brief book on Assyri-
ology, starting with the declaration that " it is a great pity to be
afraid of facts," he showed how Assyrian research testifies in
many ways to the historical value of the Bible record; but at
the same time he freely allowed to Babylonian history an an-
YOL XLYII. — 59
722 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
tiquity fatal to the sacred chronology of the Hebrews. He also
cast aside a mass of doubtful apologetics aud dealt frankly with
the fact that very many of the early narratives in Genesis belong
to the common stock of ancient tradition, and, mentioning as an
example the cuneiform inscriptions which record a story of the
Accadian king Sargon — how " he was born in retirement, placed
by his mother in a basket of rushes, launched on a river, rescued
and brought up by a stranger, after which he became king " — he
did not hesitate to remind his readers that Sargon lived a thousand
years before Moses ; that this story was told of him several hun-
dred years before Moses was born ; and that it was told of vari-
ous other important personages of antiquity. The professor dealt
just as honestly with the inscriptions which show sundry state-
ments in the book of Daniel to be unhistorical ; candidly making
admissions which but a short time before would have filled ortho-
doxy with horror.
A few years later came another testimony even more striking.
Early in the last decade of the nineteenth century it was noised
abroad that the Rev. Professor Sayce, of Oxford, the most emi-
nent Assyriologist and Egyptologist of Great Britain, was about
to publish a work in which what is known as the " higher criti-
cism " was to be very vigorously and probably destructively
dealt with in the light afforded by recent research among the
monuments of Assyria and Egypt. The book was looked for
with the most eager expectation by the supporters of the tra-
ditional view of Scripture ; but, when it appeared, the exulta-
tion of the traditionalists was speedily changed to dismay. For
Prof. Sayce, while showing some severity toward sundry minor
assumptions and assertions of biblical critics, confirmed all their
more important conclusions which properly fell within his prov-
ince. A few of the statements of this champion of orthodoxy
may be noted. He allowed that the week of seven days and the
Sabbath rest are of Babylonian origin ; indeed, that the very
word " Sabbath " is Babylonian ; that there are two narratives of
Creation on the Babylonian tablets, wonderfully like the two
leading Hebrew narratives in Genesis, and that the latter were
undoubtedly drawn from the former ; that the " garden of Eden "
and its mystical tree were known to the inhabitants of Chaldrea
in pre-Semitic days ; that the beliefs that woman was created out
of man, and that man by sin fell from a state of innocence, are
drawn from very ancient Chaldsean-Babylonian texts; that As-
syriology confirms the belief that the book Genesis is a compila-
tion ; that portions of it are by no means so old as the time of
Moses; and that the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife was
drawn in part from the old Egyptian tale of The Two Brothers.
Finally, after a multitude of other concessions, Prof. Sayce al-
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 723
lowed that the book of Jonah, so far from being the work of the
prophet himself, can not have been written until the Assyrian
Empire was a thing of the past ; that the book of Daniel contains
serious mistakes; that the so-called historical chapters of that
book so conflict with the monuments that the author can not
have been a contemporary of Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus; that
" the story of Belshazzar's fall is not historical " ; that the book
must have been written at a period later than that of Alexander
the Great; and that it associates persons and events which are
really many years apart. He also acknowledged that the book of
Esther " contains many exaggerations and improbabilities, and is
simply founded upon one of those same historical tales of which
the Persian chronicles seem to have been full." Great was the
dissatisfaction of the traditionalists with their expected cham-
pion ; well might they repeat the words of Balak to Balaam, " I
took thee to curse mine enemies, and behold ! thou hast blessed
them altogether." *
No less fruitful have been modern researches in Egypt.
While, on one hand, they have revealed a very considerable num-
ber of geographical and archaeological facts proving the good
faith of the narratives entering into the books attributed to Moses,
and have thus made our early sacred literature all the more valu-
able, they have at the same time revealed the limitations of the
sacred authors and compilers. They have brought to light facts
utterly disproving the sacred Hebrew date of creation and the
* For Prof. Brown's discussion, see his Assyriology, its Use and Abuse in Old Testament
Study, New York, 1885, passim. For Prof. Sayce's views, see The Higher Criticism and
the Monuments, third edition, London, 1894, and especially his own curious anticipation,
in the first lines of the preface, that he must fail to satisfy either side. For the declaration
that the " higher critic " with all his offenses is no worse than the orthodox " apologist,"
see p. 21. For important admission that the same criterion must be applied in researches
into our own sacred books as into others, and even into the mediaeval chronicles, see p. 26.
For justification of critical skepticism regarding the history given in the book of Daniel,
see pp. 27, 28, also chap. xi. For very full and explicit statements, with proofs, that the
" Sabbath," both in name and nature, was derived by the Hebrews from the Chaldasans, see
pp. 74 et seq. For a very full and fair acknowledgment of the " Babylonian element in
Genesis," see chap, iii, including the statement that the expression in our sacred book,
" The Lord smelled a sweet savor," at the sacrifice made by Noah, is " identical with that
of the Babylonian poet," and " it is impossible to believe that the language of the latter was
not known to the biblical writer," on p. 119. For an excellent summary of the work, see
Dr. Driver's article in the Contemporary Review for March, 1894. For the inscription on the
Assyrian tablets relating in detail the exposure of King Sargon in a basket of rushes, his
rescue and rule, see George Smith, Chaldsean Account of Genesis, Sayce's edition, London,
1880, pp. 319, 320. For the derivation of the Hebrew Sabbath, not only the institution
but the name, from the Chaldaean, see ibid., p. 308. For various other points of similar
interest see ibid., passim, especially chaps, xvi and xvii ; also Jensen, Die Kosmologie der
Babylonier, and Schrader, The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Testament ; also Lenor-
mant, Origines de l'Histoire.
724 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
main framework of the early biblical chronology ; they have
shown the suggestive correspondence between the ten antedilu-
vian patriarchs in Genesis and the ten early dynasties of the
Egyptian gods, and have placed by the side of these the ten ante-
diluvian kings of Chaldsean tradition, the ten heroes of Armenia,
the ten primeval kings of Persian sacred tradition, the ten
" fathers " of Hindu sacred tradition, and multitudes of other
tens, throwing much light on the manner in which the sacred
chronicles of ancient nations were generally developed.
These scholars have also found that the legends of the plagues
of Egypt are in the main but natural exaggerations of what
occurs every year ; as, for example, the changing of the water of
the Nile into blood — evidently suggested by the phenomena ex-
hibited every summer, when, as various eminent scholars, and,
most recent of all, Maspero and Sayce, tell us, " about the middle
of July, in eight or ten days the river turns from grayish blue
to dark red, occasionally of so intense a color as to look like
newly shed blood." These modern researches have also shown
that some of the most important features in the legends can not
possibly be reconciled with the records of the monuments ; for
example, that the Pharaoh of the Exodus was certainly not over-
whelmed in the Red Sea. As to the supernatural features of the
Hebrew relations with Egypt, even the most devoted apologists
have become discreetly silent.
Egyptologists have also translated for us the old Nile story
of The Two Brothers, and have shown, as we have already seen,
that one of the most striking parts of our sacred Joseph legend
was drawn from it; they have been obliged to admit that the
story of the exposure of Moses in the basket of rushes, his rescue,
and subsequent greatness, is a story told not only of King Sargon,
but of various other great personages of the ancient world ; they
have published plans of Egyptian temples and copies of the sculp-
tures upon their walls, revealing the earlier origin of some of the
most striking features of the worship and ceremonial claimed to
have been revealed especially to the Hebrews ; they have given to
the world copies of the Egyptian texts showing that the theology
of the Nile was one of various fruitful sources of later ideas,
statements, and practices regarding the brazen serpent, the golden
calf, trinities, miraculous conceptions, incarnations, resurrections,
ascensions, and the like, and that Egyptian sacro-scientific ideas
contributed to early Jewish and Christian sacred literature state-
ments, beliefs, and even phrases regarding the Creation, astrono-
mY> geography, magic, medicine, diabolical influences, with a
multitude of other ideas, which we also find coming into early
Judaism in greater or less degree from Chaldsean and Persian
sources.
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 725
But Egyptology, while thus aiding to sweep away the former
conception of our sacred books, has aided biblical criticism in
making them far more precious ; for it has shown them to be a
part of that living growth of sacred literature whose roots are in
all the great civilizations of the past, and through whose trunk
and branches are flowing the currents which are to infuse a
higher religious and ethical life into the civilizations of the
future.*
But while archaeologists thus influenced enlightened opinion,
another body of scholars rendered services of a different sort — the
center of their enterprise being the University of Oxford. By
their efforts was presented to the English-speaking world a series
of translations of the sacred books of the East, which showed the
relations of the more Eastern sacred literature ,to our own, and
proved that in the religions of the world the ideas which have
come as the greatest blessings to mankind are not of sudden
* For general statements of agreements and disagreements between biblical accounts
and the revelations of the Egyptian monuments, see Sayce, The Higher Criticism and the
Monuments, especially chap. iv. For discrepancies between the Hebrew sacred accounts
of Jewish relations with Egypt and the revelations of modern Egyptian research, see
Sharpe, History of Egypt ; Flinders Petrie, History of Egypt ; and especially Maspero and
Sayce, The Dawn of Civilization in Egypt and Chaldaaa, London, published by the Society
for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1894. For the statement regarding the Nile, that
about the middle of July " in eight or ten days it turns from grayish blue to dark red, occa-
sionally of so intense a color as to look like newly shed blood," see Maspero and Sayce, as
above, p. 23. For the relation of the Joseph legend to the Tale of Two Brothers, see
Sharpe and others cited. For examples of exposure of various great personages of antiquity
in their childhood, see G. Smith, Chaldaean Account of Genesis, Sayce's edition, p. 320.
As to Trinities in Egypt and Chaldaea, see Maspero and Sayce, especially pp. 104-106, p. 175,
and pp. 659-663. For miraculous conception and birth of sons of Ra, ibid., pp. 388, 389.
For ascension of Ra into heaven, ibid., pp. 16*7, 168 ; for resurrections, see representations in
Lepsius, Prisse d'Avennes, et al. ; and for striking resemblance between Egyptian and
Hebrew ritual and worship, and especially the ark, cherubim, ephod, Urim and Thummim,
and wave offerings, see same, passim. For very full exhibition of the whole subject, see
Renan, Histoire du Peuple Israel, vol. i, chap. xi. For Egyptian and Chaldaean ideas in
astronomy, out of which Hebrew ideas of " the firmament," " pillars of heaven," etc., were
developed, see text and engravings in Maspero and Sayce, pp. 17 and 543. For creation of
man by a divine being in Egypt out of clay, see Maspero and Sayce, p. 154 ; for a similar idea
in Chaldaea, see ibid., p. 545 ; and for the creation of the universe by a word, ibid., pp. 146, 147.
For Egyptian and Chaldaean ideas on magic and medicine, dread of evil spirits, etc., antici-
pating those of the Hebrew Scriptures, see Maspero and Sayce, as above, pp. 212-214, 217,
636 ; and for extension of these to neighboring nations, pp. 782, 783. For visions and use
of dreams as oracles, ibid., p. 641 and elsewhere. See also, on these and other resemblances,
Lenormant, Origines de l'Histoire, vol. i, passim ; see also George Smith and Sayce, as above,
chaps, xvi and xvii, for resemblances especially striking, combining to show how simple
was the evolution of many Hebrew sacred legends and ideas out of those of earlier civiliza-
tions. For an especially interesting presentation of the reasons why Egyptian ideas of im-
mortality were not seized upon by the Jews, see the Rev. Barham Zincke's work upon
Egypt. For the sacrificial vessels, temple rites, etc., see the bas-reliefs figured by Lepsius,
Prisse d'Avennes, Mariette, Maspero, et al.
726 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
revelation or creation, but of slow evolution out of a remote
past.
The facts thus shown did not at first elicit much gratitude
from supporters of traditional theology, and perhaps few things
brought more obloquy on Renan, for a time, than his statement
of the simple fact that " the influence of Persia is the most power-
ful to which Israel was submitted." But this was now seen to
be strictly true. Not only was it made clear by study of the Zend
Avesta that the Old and New Testament ideas regarding Satanic
and demoniacal modes of action were largely due to Persian
sources, but it was also shown that the idea of immortality was
mainly developed in the Hebrew mind during the close relations
of the Jews with the Persians. Nor was this all. In the Zend
Avesta were found in earlier form sundry myths and legends
which, judging from their frequent appearance in early religions,
grow naturally about the history of the adored teachers of our
race. Typical among these was the Temptation of Zoroaster.
It is a fact very significant and full of promise that the first
large, frank, and explicit revelation regarding this whole subject
in form available for the general thinking public was given to
the English-speaking world by an eminent Christian divine and
scholar — the Rev. Dr. Mills. Having already shown himself by
his translations a most competent authority on the subject, he in
1894 called attention, in a review widely read, to " the now un-
doubted and long since suspected fact that it pleased the Divine
Power to reveal some of the important articles of our Catholic
creed first to the Zoroastrians, and through their literature to the
Jews and ourselves." Among these beliefs Dr. Mills traced out
very conclusively many Jewish doctrines regarding the attributes
of God, and all, virtually, regarding the attributes of Satan.
There, too, he found accounts of the Miraculous Conception, Vir-
gin Birth, and Temptation of Zoroaster. As to the last, Dr. Mills
showed a series of striking coincidences with our own later ac-
count. As to its main features, he showed that there had been
developed among the Persians, many centuries before the Chris-
tian era, the legend of a vain effort of the arch-demon, one seat of
whose power was the summit of Mount Arezura, to tempt Zoro-
aster to worship him ; of an argument between tempter and
tempted, and of Zoroaster's refusal ; and the doctor continued :
" No Persian subject in the streets of Jerusalem, soon after or long
after the Return, could have failed to know this striking myth."
Dr. Mills then went on to show that, among the Jews, " the doc-
trine of immortality was scarcely mooted before the later Isaiah
— that is, before the captivity — while the Zoroastrian scriptures
are one mass of spiritualism, referring all results to the heavenly
or to the infernal worlds." He concludes by saying that, as re-
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 727
gards the Old and New Testaments, " the humble, and to a certain
extent prior, religion of the Mazda worshipers was useful in giv-
ing point and beauty to many loose conceptions among the Jew-
ish religious teachers, and in introducing many ideas which were
entirely new, while, as to the doctrines of immortality and res-
urrection— the most important of all — it positively determined
belief." *
Even more extensive were the revelations made by scientific
criticism applied to the sacred literature of southern and eastern
Asia. The resemblances of sundry fundamental narratives and
ideas in our own sacred books with those of Buddhism were espe-
cially suggestive.
Here, too, had been a long preparatory history. The discov-
eries in Sanskrit philology made in the latter half of the eight-
eenth century and the first half of the nineteenth, by Sir William
Jones, Carey, Wilkins, Foster, Colebrooke, and others, had met at
first with some opposition from theologians. The declaration by
Dugald Stewart that the discovery of Sanskrit was fraudulent,
and its vocabulary and grammar patched together out of Greek
and Latin, showed the feeling of the older race of biblical stu-
dents. But researches went on. Bopp, Burnouf, Lassen, Weber,
Whitney, Max Miiller, and others continued the work during the
nineteenth century. More and more evident became the sources
from which many ideas and narratives in our own sacred books
had been developed. Studies in the sacred books of Brahminism,
and in the institutions of Buddhism, the most widespread of all
religions, its devotees outnumbering those of all branches of the
Christian Church together, proved especially fruitful in facts re-
lating to general sacred literature and early European religious
ideas.
* For the passages in the Vendidad of special importance as regards the Temptation
Myth, see Fargard, xix, 18, 20, 26, also 140, 147. Very striking is the account of the
Temptation in the Pelhavi version of the Vendidad. The devil is represented as saying to
Zaratusht (Zoroaster), " I had the worship of thy ancestors, do thou also worship me." I
am indebted to Prof. E. P. Evans, formerly of the University of Michigan, but now of
Munich, for a translation of the original text from Spiegel's edition. For a good account,
see also Haug, Essays on the Sacred Language, etc., of the Parsees, edited by West, Lon-
don, 1884, pp. 252 et seq. See also Mills's and Darmesteter's work in Sacred Books of the
East. For Dr. Mills's article referred to, see his Zoroaster and the Bible, in The Nine-
teenth Century, January, 1894. For the citation from Renan, see his Histoire du Peuple
Israel, tome xiv, chap iv ; see also, for Persian ideas of heaven, hell, and resurrection,
Haug, as above, pp. 310 et seq. For an interesting resume of Zoroastrianism, see Laing,
A Modern Zoroastrian, chap, xiii, London, eighth edition, 1893. For the Buddhist version
of the judgment of Solomon, etc., see Fausboll, Buddhist Birth Stories, translated by Rhys
Davids, London, 1880, vol. i, p. 14, and following. For very full statements regarding the
influence of Persian ideas upon the Jews during the captivity, see Kohut, Ueber die
jiidiseke Angelologie und Daemonologie in ihren Abhangigkeit von Parsismus, Leipsic, 1866.
728 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
Noteworthy in the progress of this knowledge was the work
of Fathers Hue and Gabet. In 1839 the former of these, a French
Lazarist priest, set out on a mission to China. Having prepared
himself at Macao by eighteen months of hard study, and having
arrayed himself like a native, even to the wearing of the queue
and the staining of his skin, he visited Pekin and penetrated
Mongolia. Five years later, taking Gabet with him, both dis-
guised as Lamas, he began his long and toilsome journey to the
chief seats of Buddhism in Thibet, and after two years of fearful
dangers and sufferings accomplished it. Driven out finally by
the Chinese, Hue returned to Europe in 1852, having made one of
the most heroic, self-denying, and, as it turned out, one of the
most valuable efforts in all the noble annals of Christian mis-
sions. His accounts of these journeys, written in a style simple,
clear, and interesting, at once attracted attention throughout the
world. But far more important than any services he had ren-
dered to the Church he served was the influence of his book upon
the general opinions of thinking men. For he completed a series
of revelations made by earlier, less gifted, and less devoted trav-
elers, and brought to the notice of the world the amazing simi-
larity of the ideas, institutions, observances, ceremonies, and
ritual, and even the ecclesiastical costumes of the Buddhists to
those of his own Church.
Buddhism was thus shown with its hierarchy, in which the
Grand Lama, an infallible representative of the Most High, is
surrounded by its minor Lamas, much like cardinals, with its
bishops wearing mitres, its celibate priests with shaven crown,
cope, dalmatic, and censer, its cathedrals with clergy gathered in
the choir; its vast monasteries filled with monks and nuns vowed
to poverty, chastity, and obedience; its church arrangements,
with shrines of saints and angels ; its use of images, pictures, and
illuminated missals ; its service, with a striking general resem-
blance to the Mass ; antiphonal choirs ; intoning of prayers ; re-
cital of creeds ; repetition of litanies ; processions ; mystic rites
and incense ; the offering and adoration of bread upon an altar
lighted by candles ; the drinking from a chalice by the priest ;
prayers and offerings for the dead ; benediction with outstretched
hands ; fasts, confessions, and doctrine of purgatory— all this and
more was now clearly revealed. The good father was evidently
staggered by these amazing facts ; but his robust faith soon gave
him an explanation : he suggested that Satan, in anticipation of
Christianity, had revealed to Buddhism this divinely constituted
order of things. This na'ive explanation did not commend itself
to his superiors in the Roman Church. In the days of St. Au-
gustine or of St. Thomas Aquinas it would doubtless have been
received much more kindly ; but in the days of Cardinal Anto-
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 729
nelli this was hardly to be expected : the Roman authorities, see-
ing the danger of such plain revelations in the nineteenth cen-
tury, even when coupled with such devout explanations, put
the book under the ban, though not before it had been spread
throughout the world in various translations. Father Hue was
sent on no more missions.
Yet there came even more significant discoveries, especially
bearing upon the claims of that great branch of the Church
which supposes itself to possess a divine safeguard against error
in belief. For now was brought to light by literary research the
irrefragable evidence that the great Buddha — Sakya Muni him-
self— had been canonized and enrolled among the Christian saints
whose intercession may be invoked, and in whose honor images,
altars, and chapels may be erected; and this, not only by the
usage of the mediaeval Church, Greek and Roman, but by the
special and infallible sanction of a long series of Popes, from the
end of the sixteenth century to the end of the nineteenth — a sanc-
tion granted under one of the most curious errors in human his-
tory. The story throws an additional light upon the way in
which many of the beliefs of Christendom have been developed,
and especially upon the way in which they have been influenced
from the seats of older religions.
Early in the seventh century there was composed, as is now
believed, at the Convent of St. Saba near Jerusalem, a pious ro-
mance entitled Barlaam and Josaphat, the latter personage, the
hero of the story, being represented as a Hindu prince converted
to Christianity by the former.
This story, having been attributed to St. John of Damascus in
the following century, became amazingly popular, and was soon
accepted as true : it was translated from the Greek original not
only into Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, and Ethiopic, but into every
important European language, including even Polish, Bohemian,
and Icelandic. Thence it came into the pious historical encyclo-
paedia of Vincent of Beauvais, and, most important of all, into the
Lives of the Saints.
Hence the name of its pious hero found its way into the list of
saints whose intercession is to be prayed for and it passed without
challenge until about 1590, when, the general subject of canoniza-
tion having been brought up at Rome, Pope Sixtus V, by virtue
of his infallibility and immunity against error in everything re-
lating to faith and morals, sanctioned a revised list of saints,
authorizing and directing it to be accepted by the Church ; and
among those on whom the seal of Heaven was thus forever infal-
libly set was included " The Holy Saint Josaphat of India, whose
wonderful acts St. John of Damascus has related." The 27th of
November was appointed as the day set apart in honor of this
730 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
saint, and the decree, having been enforced by successive popes
for over two hundred and fifty years, was again officially ap-
proved by Pius IX in 1873. This decree was duly accepted as in-
fallible, and in one of the largest cities of Italy may to-day be
seen a Christian church dedicated to this saint. On its front are
the initials of his Italianized name ; over its main entrance is the
inscription Divo Josafat ; and within is an altar dedicated to the
saint — above it being a pedestal bearing his name and supporting
a large statue which represents him as a youthful prince wearing
a crown and contemplating a crucifix.
Moreover, relics of the saints were found, and bones alleged to
be parts of his skeleton having been presented by a Doge of Ven-
ice to a King of Portugal, are now treasured at Antwerp.
But even as early as the sixteenth century a pregnant fact re-
garding this whole legend was noted : for the Portuguese historian
Diego Conto showed that it was identical with the legend of Bud-
dha. Fortunately for the historian, his faith was so robust that
he saw in this resemblance only a trick of Satan ; the life of Bud-
dha being, in his opinion, merely a diabolic counterfeit of the life
of Josaphat centuries before the latter was lived or written — just
as good Abbe* Hue saw in the ceremonies of Buddhism a similar
anticipatory counterfeit of Christian ritual.
There the whole matter virtually rested for about three hun-
dred years — various scholars calling attention to the legend as a
curiosity, but none really showing its true bearings, until, in 1859,
Laboulaye in France, Liebrecht in Germany, and others following
them in research, demonstrated that this Christian work was
drawn almost literally from an early biography of Buddha, being
conformed to it in the most minute details, not only of events but
of phraseology ; the only important changes being that, at the end
of the various experiences showing the wretchedness of the world,
identical with those ascribed in the original to the young Prince
Buddha, the hero becomes a Christian, and that for the appella-
tion of Buddha — "Bodesat" — is substituted the more scriptural
name Josaphat.
Thus it was that by virtue of the infallibility vouchsafed to
the papacy in matters of faith and morals Buddha became a
Christian saint.
Yet these were by no means the most pregnant revelations.
As the Buddhist scriptures were more fully examined, there were
disclosed interesting anticipations of statements in later sacred
books. The miraculous conception of Buddha and his virgin
birth, like that of Horus in Egypt and of Krishna in India ; the
previous annunciation to his mother Maja ; his birth during a
journey by her; the star appearing in the east, and the angels
chanting in the heavens at his birth ; his temptation — all these
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 731
and a multitude of other statements were full of suggestions to
larger thought regarding the development of sacred literature in
general. Even the eminent Roman Catholic missionary, Bishop
Bigandet, was obliged to confess in his scholarly life of Buddha
these striking similarities between the Buddhist scriptures and
those which it was his mission to expound, though by this hon-
est statement his own further promotion was rendered impossible.
Fausboll also found the story of the judgment of Solomon im-
bedded in Buddhist folklore; and Sir Edwin Arnold, by his poem,
The Light of Asia, spread far and wide a knowledge of the antici-
pation in Buddhism of some ideas which, down to a recent period,
were considered distinctively Christian. Imperfect as the revela-
tions thus made of an evolution of religious beliefs, institutions,
and literature still are, they have not been without an important
bearing upon the newer conception of our own sacred books :
more and more manifest has become the interdependence of all
human development ; * more and more clear the truth that Chris-
* For Hue and Gabet, see Souvenirs d'un Voyage dans la Tartarie, le Thibet, la Chine,
English translation by Hazlitt, London, 1851 ; also supplementary work by Hue. For
Bishop Bigandet, see his Life of Buddha, passim. As authority for the fact that his book
was condemned at Rome and his own promotion prevented, the present writer has the
bishop's own statement. For notices of similarities between Buddhist and Christian insti-
tutions, ritual, etc., see Rhys Davids's Buddhism, London, 1894, passim ; also Lillie, Bud-
dhism and Christianity — especially chaps, ii and xi. It is somewhat difficult to under-
stand how a scholar so eminent as Mr. Rhys Davids should have allowed the Society for
Promoting Christian Knowledge, which published his book, to eliminate all the interesting
details regarding the birth of^Buddha, and to give so fully everything that seemed to tell
against the Roman Catholic Church ; cf. p. 2*7 with p. 246 et seq. For more thorough pres-
entation of the development of features in Buddhism and Brahmanism which anticipate
those of Christianity, see Schroeder, Indiens Literatur und Cultur, Leipsic, 1887, espe-
cially Vorlesung xxvii and following. For full details of the canonization of Buddha under
the name of St. Josaphat, see Fausboll, Buddhist Birth Stories, translated by Rhys Davids,
London, 1880, pp. xxxvi and following; also Prof. Max Muller in the Contemporary Review
for July, 1890 ; also the article Barlaam and Josaphat, in ninth edition of the Encyclopaedia
Britannica. For the more recent and full accounts, correcting some minor details in the
foregoing authorities, see Kuhn, Barlaam und Joasaph, Munich, 1893, especially pp. 82, 83 ;
also Zotenberg, cited by Gaston Paris in the Revue de Paris for June, 1895. For the trans-
literation between the appellation of Buddha and the name of the saint, see Fausboll and
Sayce as above, p. xxxvii, note ; and for the multitude of translations of the work ascribed
to St. John of Damascus, see Table III on p. xcv. The reader who is curious to trace
up a multitude of the myths and legends of early Hebrew and Christian mythology to
their more eastern and southern sources can do so in Bible Myths, New York, 1883. The
present writer gladly avails himself of the opportunity to thank the learned Director of
the National Library at Palermo, Monsignor Marzo, for his kindness in showing him the
very interesting church of San Giosafat in that city ; and to the custodians of the church
for their readiness to allow photographs of the saint to be taken. The writer's visit was
made in April, 1895, and copies of the photographs may be seen in the library of Cornell
University. As to the more rare editions of Barlaam and Josaphat, a copy of the Icelandic
translation is to be seen in the remarkable collection of Prof. Willard Fiske, at Florence.
732 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
tianity, as a great fact in man's history, is not dependent for its
life upon any parasitic growths of myth and legend, no matter
how beautiful they may be.
No less important was the closer research into the New Tes-
tament during the latter part of the nineteenth century. This
work has already been touched upon, but a few of the main
truths which it brought before the world may be here summa-
rized.
By the new race of Christian scholars it has been clearly shown
that the first three Gospels, which, down to the close of the last
century, were so constantly declared to be three independent tes-
timonies agreeing as to the events recorded, are neither independ-
ent of each other nor in that sort of agreement which was for-
merly asserted. All biblical scholars of any standing, even the
most conservative, have come to admit that all three took their
rise in the same original sources, growing by the accretions sure
to come as time went on — accretions sometimes useful and often
beautiful, but in no inconsiderable degree ideas and even narra-
tives inherited from older religions ; it is also fully acknowledged
that to this growth process are due certain contradictions which
can not otherwise be explained. As to the fourth Gospel, exqui-
sitely beautiful as large portions of it are, there has been growing
steadily and irresistibly the conviction, even among the most de-
vout scholars, that it represents an infusion of Greek conceptions
into Hebraism, and that its final form is mainly due to some gifted
representative or representatives of the Alexandrian school. Bit-
ter as the resistance to this view has been, it has during the last
years of the nineteenth century won its way more and more to
acknowledgment. A careful examination made in 1893 by a com-
petent Christian scholar showed facts which are best given in his
own words, as follows: "In the period of thirty years ending in
1860, of the fifty great authorities in this line, four to one were in
favor of the Johannine authorship. Of those who in that period
had advocated this traditional position one quarter — and certainly
the very greatest — finally changed their position to the side of a
late date and non-Johannine authorship. Of those who have
come into this field of scholarship since about 1860, some forty
men of the first class, two thirds reject the traditional theory
wholly or very largely. Of those who have contributed impor-
As to the influence of these translations, it may be noted that, when young John Kuncewicz,
afterward a Polish archbishop, became a monk, he took the name of the sainted Prince
Josafat ; and, having fallen a victim to one of the innumerable murderous affrays of the
seventeenth century between Greek and Roman Christians in Poland, he also was finally
canonized under that name, evidently as a means of annoying the Russian Government.
(See Contieri, Vita di S. Giosafat, Arcivescovo e Martira Ruteno, Roma, 1867.)
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 733
tant articles to the discussion from about 1S80 to 1890, about two
to one reject the Johannine authorship of the Gospel in its present
shape ; that is to say, while forty years ago great scholars were
four to one in favor of, they are now tw o to one against, the claim
that the apostle John wrote this gospel as we have it. Again,
one half of those on the conservative side to-day — scholars like
Weiss, Beyschlag, Sanday, and Reynolds — admit the existence of
a dogmatic intent and an ideal element in this Gospel, so that
we do not have Jesus's thought in his exact words, but only in
substance." *
In 1881 came an event of great importance as regards the de-
velopment of a more frank and open dealing with scriptural
criticism. In that year appeared the Revised Version of the New
Testament. It was exceedingly cautious and conservative ; but
it had the vast merit of being absolutely conscientious. One
thing showed, in a striking way, ethical progress in theological
methods. Although all but one of the English revisers repre-
sented Trinitarian bodies, they rejected the two great proof texts
which had so long been accounted essential bulwarks of Trinita-
rian doctrine. Thus disappeared at last from the Epistle of St.
John the text of the Three Witnesses, which had for centuries
held its place in spite of its absence from all the earlier important
manuscripts, and of its rejection in later times by Erasmus,
Luther, Isaac Newton, Porson, and a long line of the greatest bib-
lical scholars. And with this was thrown out the other like unto
it in spurious origin and zealous intent, that interpolation of the
word " God " in the sixteenth verse of the third chapter of the
First Epistle to Timothy which had for ages served as a war-
rant for condemning some of the noblest of Christians, even
such men as Newton and Milton and Locke and Priestley and
Channing.
Indeed, so honest were the revisers that they substituted the
correct reading of Luke, ii, 33, in place of the time-honored cor-
ruption in the King James version which had been thought ne-
cessary to safeguard the dogma of the virgin birth of Jesus of
Nazareth. Thus came the true reading, "His father and his
mother," instead of the old piously fraudulent words "Joseph and
his mother."
An even more important service to the new and better growth
of Christianity was the virtual setting aside of the last twelve
* For the citations given regarding the development of thought in relation to the fourth
Gospel, see Crooker, The New Bible and its Uses, Boston, 1893, pp. 29, 30. For a very
careful and candid summary of the reasons which are gradually leading the more eminent
among the newer scholars to give up the Johannine authorship of the fourth Gospel, see
Schiirer, in the Contemporary Beview for September, 1891.
734 « THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
verses of the Gospel according to St. Mark. For among these
stood that sentence which has cost the world more innocent blood
than any other — the words " He that believeth not shall be
damned." From this source had logically grown the idea that
the intellectual rejection of this or that dogma which dominant
opinion had happened at any given time to pronounce essential,
since such rejection must bring punishment infinite in agony and
duration, is a crime to be prevented at any cost of finite cruelty.
Still another service rendered to humanity by the revisers was in
substituting a new and correct rendering for the old reading of
the famous text regarding the inspiration of Scripture, which had
for ages done so much to make our sacred books a fetich. By
this more correct reading the revisers gave a new charter to
liberty in biblical research.*
Most valuable, too, have been studies during the latter part
of the nineteenth century upon the formation of the canon of
Scripture. The result of these has been to substitute something
far better for that conception of our biblical literature, as forming
one book handed out of the clouds by the Almighty, which had
been so long practically the accepted view among probably the
majority of Christians. Reverent scholars have demonstrated
our sacred literature to be a growth in obedience to simple laws
natural and historical ; they have shown how some books of the
Old Testament were accepted as sacred, centuries before our era,
and how others gradually gained sanctity, in some cases only
acquiring it long after the establishment of the Christian Church.
The same slow growth has also been shown in the New Testament
canon. It has been demonstrated that the selection of the books
composing it was a gradual process, and indeed that the rejection
* The texts referred to as most beneficially changed by the revisers, are I John, v, 1 ;
I Timothy, iii, ] 6.
Though the revisers thought it better not to suppress altogether the last twelve verses
of St. Mark's Gospel, they softened the word " damned " to " condemned," and separated
them from the main Gospel, adding a note stating that " the two oldest Greek manuscripts,
and some other authorities, omit from verse nine to the end"; and that "some other au-
thorities have a different ending to this Gospel."
The resistance of staunch high churchmen of the older type even to so mild a reform as
the first change above noted may be exemplified by a story told of Philpotts, Bishop of
Exeter, about the middle of the nineteenth century. A kindly clergyman reading the invi-
tation to the holy communion, and thinking that so affectionate a call was disfigured by the
harsh phrase " eateth and driuketh to his own damnation," ventured timidly to substitute
the word " condemnation." Thereupon the bishop, who was kneeling with the rest of the
congregation,, threw up his head and roared "damnation!" The story is given in T. A.
Trollope's What I Remember, vol. i, p. 444. American churchmen may well rejoice that
the fathers of the American branch of the Anglican Church were wise enough and Christian
enough to omit from their prayer book this damnatory clause, as well as the Commination
Service and the Athanasian Creed.
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 735
of some books and the acceptance of others was accidental, if
anything is accidental.
So, too, scientific biblical research has, as we have seen, been
obliged to admit the existence of much mythical and legendary
matter, as a setting for the great truths, not only of the Old Testa-
ment but of the New. It has also shown, by the comparative
study of literatures, the process by which some books were com-
piled and recompiled, adorned with beautiful utterances, strength-
ened or weakened by interpolations expressing the views of the
possessors or transcribers, and assigned to personages who could
not possibly have written them. The showing forth of these
things has greatly weakened that sway of mere dogma which has
so obscured the simple teachings of Christ himself; for it has
shown that the more we know of our sacred books, the less certain
we become as to the authenticity of proof texts, and it has disen-
gaged more and more, as the only valuable residuum, like the mass
of gold at the bottom of the crucible, the personality and general
teaching and ideals of the blessed Founder of Christianity. More
and more, too, the new scholarship has developed the conception
of the New Testament as, like the Old, the growth of literature
in obedience to a divine law — a conception which in all proba-
bility will give it its strongest hold on the coming centuries.
In making this revelation Christian scholarship has by no means
done work mainly destructive. It has, indeed, swept away a mass
of noxious growths, but it has at the same time cleared the ground
for a better growth of Christianity — a growth through which
already pulsates the current of a nobler life. It has forever de-
stroyed the contention of scholars like those of the eighteenth
century, who saw, in the multitude of irreconcilable discrepancies
between various biblical statements, merely evidences of priest-
craft and intentional fraud. The new scholarship has shown that
even such absolute contradictions as that between the date as-
signed for the crucifixion in the first three Gospels and that given
in the fourth, and other discrepancies hardly less serious, do not
affect the historical character of the essential part of the narra-
tive. Even the hopelessly conflicting genealogies of the Saviour
and the evidently mythical accretions about the simple facts of
his birth and life are thus full of interest when taken as a nat-
ural literary development.*
* Among the newer English works on the canon of Scripture, especially as regards the
Old Testament, see Ryle in work cited. As to the evidences of frequent mutilations of the
New Testament text, as well as of frequent charge of changing texts made against each
other by early Christian writers, see Reuss, History of the New Testament, vol. ii, § 362.
For a reverent and honest treatment of some of the discrepancies and contradictions which
are absolutely irreconcilable, see Crooker, as above ; also Matthew Arnold, Literature and
Dogma.
736 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
Among those who have wrought most effectively to bring the
leaders of thought in the English-speaking nations to this higher
conception, Matthew Arnold should not be forgotten. By poetic
insight, broad scholarship, pungent statement, pithy argument,
and an exquisitely lucid style, he aided effectually during the lat-
ter half of the nineteenth century in bringing the work of spe-
cialists to bear upon the general development of a broader and
deeper view. In the light of his genius a conception of our
sacred books at the same time more literary as well as more sci-
entific has grown widely and vigorously, while the older view
which made of them a fetich and support for unchristian dogmas
has been more and more thrown into the background. The con-
tributions to these results by the most eminent professors at the
great Christian universities of the English-speaking world, Ox-
ford and Cambridge taking the lead, are most hopeful signs of a
new epoch. Very significant, also, is a change in the style of
argument against the scientific view. Leading supporters of the
older opinions see more and more clearly the worthlessness of
rhetoric against ascertained fact : mere dogged resistance to co-
gent argument evidently avails less and less, and the readiness of
the more prominent representatives of the older thought to con-
sider opposing arguments, and to acknowledge any force they
may have, is certainly of good omen. The concessions made in
Lux Mundi regarding scriptural myths and legends have been
already mentioned.
Typical, also, among the evidences of a better spirit in contro-
versy has been the treatment of the question regarding mistaken
quotations from the Old Testament in the New, and especially
regarding quotations by Christ himself. For a time this was ap-
parently the most difficult of all matters dividing the two forces ;
but, though here and there appear champions of tradition, like
the Bishop of Gloucester, effectual resistance to the new view has
virtually ceased ; in one way or another the most conservative
authorities have accepted the undoubted truth revealed by a sim-
ple scientific method. Their arguments have indeed been varied.
While some have fallen back upon Le Clerc's contention that
" Christ did not come to teach criticism to the Jews," and others
upon Paley's argument that the Master shaped his statements in
accordance with the ideas of his time, others have taken refuge
in scholastic statements — among them that of Irenseus regarding
"a quiescence of the divine word," or the somewhat startling
explanation by sundry recent theologians that " our Lord emptied
himself of his Godhead." *
* For Matthew Arnold, see especially his Literature and Dogma and his St. Paul and
Protestantism. As to the quotations in the New Testament from the Old, see Toy, Quota-
NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 737
But for all this dissolving away of the traditional opinions
regarding our sacred literature, there has been a cause far more
general and powerful than any which has been given, for it is a
cause surrounding and permeating all. This is simply the atmos-
phere of thought engendered by the development of all sciences
during the last three centuries.
Vast masses of myth, legend, marvel, and dogmatic assertion,
coming into this atmosphere, have been dissolved and are now
dissolving quietly away like icebergs drifted into the Gulf
Stream. In earlier days, when some critic in advance of his time
insisted that Moses could not have written an account embracing
the circumstances of his own death, it was sufficient to answer
that Moses was a prophet ; if attention was called to the fact that
the great early prophets, by all which they did and did not do,
showed that there could not have existed in their time any
" Levitical code," a sufficient answer was " mystery " ; and if
the discrepancy was noted between the two accounts of crea-
tion in Genesis, or between the genealogies or the dates of the
crucifixion in the Gospels, the cogent reply was "infidelity."
But the thinking world has at last been borne by the general
development of a scientific atmosphere beyond that kind of refu-
tation.
If, in the atmosphere generated by the earlier developed sci-
ences, the older growths of biblical interpretation have drooped
and withered and are evidently perishing, new and better growths
with roots running down into the newer sciences have arisen.
Comparative mythology and folklore, comparative religion and
literature, by searching out and laying side by side the main
facts in the upward struggle of humanity in various old seats
of civilization, are giving a new interpretation of these great
problems which dogmatic theology has long labored in vain to
solve. Thus, while they have established the fact that accounts
formerly supposed to be special revelations to Jews and Chris-
tians are but repetitions of widespread legends dating from far
earlier civilizations, and that beliefs formerly thought funda-
mental to Judaism and Christianity are simply based on an-
cient myths, they have also begun to impress upon the intel-
lect and conscience of the thinking world the fact that the
tions in the New Testament, 1889, p. 72 ; also Kuenen, The Prophets and Prophecy in
Israel. For Le Clerc's mode of dealing with the argument regarding quotations from the
Old Testament in the New, see earlier parts of the present chapter. For Paley's mode, see
his Evidences, Part III, chapter iii. For the more scholastic expressions from Irenseus and
others, see Gore, Bampton Lectures, 1891, especially note on p. 267. For a striking pas-
sage on the general subject, see B. W. Bacon, Genesis of Genesis, p. 33, ending with the
words, " We must decline to stake the authority of Jesus Christ on a question of literary
criticism."
vol. xltii. — 60
738 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
religious and moral truths thus disengaged from the old masses
of myth and legend are all the more beautiful and serviceable,
and that all individual or national life of any value must be
vitalized by them.*
Nor should there be omitted a tribute to the increasing justice
and courtesy shown in late years by leading supporters of the
older view. During the last two decades of the present century
there has been a most happy departure from the older method of
resistance, first by plausibilities, next by epithets, and finally by
persecution. To the bitterness of the attacks upon Darwin, the
Essayists and Reviewers, and Bishop Colenso, have succeeded,
among really eminent leaders, a far better method and tone.
While Matthew Arnold, no doubt, did much in commending
" sweet reasonableness " to theological controversialists, Mr. Glad-
stone, by his perfect courtesy to his opponents, even when smart-
ing under their heaviest blows, has set a most valuable example.
Nor should the spirit shown by Bishop Ellicott, leading a forlorn
hope for the traditional view, pass without a tribute of respect.
Truly pathetic is it to see this venerable and learned prelate, one
of the most eminent representatives of the older biblical research,
even when giving solemn warnings against the newer criticisms,
and under all the temptations of ex cathedra utterance, remaining
mild and gentle and just in the treatment of adversaries whose
ideas he evidently abhors. Happily, he is comforted by the faith
that Christianity will survive ; and this faith his opponents fully
share, f
Thus at last, out of the old conception of our Bible as a collec-
tion of oracles — a mass of entangling utterances, fruitful in
wrangling interpretations, which have given to the world long
and weary ages of " hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness," of
fetichism, subtlety, and pomp, of tyranny, bloodshed, and sol-
emnly constituted imposture, of everything which the Lord Jesus
Christ most abhorred — has been gradually developed through the
centuries, by the labors, sacrifices, and even the martyrdom of a
long succession of men of God, the conception of it as a sacred
literature, a growth in obedience to divine light in the mind and
heart and soul of man. No longer an oracle, good for the " lower
* For plaintive lamentations over the influence of this atmosphere of scientific thought
upon the most eminent contemporary Christian scholars, see the Christus Comprobator, by
the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, London, 1893, and the article in the Contemporary
Review for May, 1892, by the Bishop of Colchester, passim. For some less known exam-
ples of sacred myths and legends, inherited from ancient civilizations, see Lenormant, Les
Origines de l'Histoire, passim, but especially chapters ii, iv, v, vi. See also Goldziher.
f As examples of courtesy between theologic opponents may be cited the controversy
between Mr. Gladstone and Prof. Huxley, Principal Gore's Bampton Lectures for 1891, and
Bishop Ellicott's Charges, published in 1893.
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 739
orders" to accept, but to be quietly sneered at by "the enlight-
ened"— no longer a fetich, whose defenders must become perse-
cutors or " apologists," but a most fruitful fact, which religion
and science may accept as a source of strength to both.*
-♦»»
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS.
VI.— MAN OF SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHER.
By HERBERT SPENCER.
CLEAR as are the connections between the priesthood and the
several professions thus far treated of, the connection between
it and the professions which have enlightenment as their function
is even clearer. Antagonistic as the offspring now are to the
parent they were originally nurtured by it.
We saw that the medicine-man, ever striving to maintain and
increase his influence over those around, is stimulated more than
others to obtain such knowledge of natural phenomena as may
aid him in his efforts.
Moreover, when seeking to propitiate the supernatural beings
he believes in, he is led to think about their characters and their
doings. He speculates as to the causes of the striking things he
observes in the Heavens and on the Earth ; and whether he re-
gards these causes as personal or impersonal, the subject-matter
of his thought is the subject-matter which, in later times, is dis-
tinguished as philosophical — the relations between that which we
perceive and that which lies beyond perception.
As was said at the outset, a further reason why he becomes
distinguished from men around by his wider* information and
deeper insight is that he is, as compared with them, a man of
leisure. From the beginning he lives on the contributions of
others ; and therefore he is better able to devote himself to those
observations and inquiries out of which science originates.
Save some knowledge of medicinal herbs and special animal
* To the fact that the suppression of personal convictions among " the enlightened "
did not cease with the Medicean Popes there are many testimonies. One especially curious
was mentioned to the present writer by a most honored diplomatist and scholar at Rome.
While this gentleman was looking over the books of an eminent cardinal, recently deceased,
he noticed a series of octavos bearing on their backs the title Acta Apostolorum. Surprised
at such an extension of the Acts of the Apostles, he opened a volume and found the series
to be the works of Voltaire. As to a similar condition of things in the Church of England
may be cited the following from Froude's Erasmus : " I knew various persons of high repu-
tation a few years ago who thought at bottom very much as Bishop Colenso thought, who,
nevertheless, turned and rent him to clear their own reputations — which they did not suc-
ceed in doing." See work cited, close of Lecture XI.
74o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
products, with perhaps a little information about minerals, often
joined with such observations of weather-signs as enables them
to foresee coming changes, and so, apparently, to bring rain or
sunshine, there is little to be named as rudimentary science among
the medicine-men, or quasi-priests, of savages. Only when there
has arisen that settled life which yields facilities for investigation
and for transmitting the knowledge gained, can we expect priests
to display a character approaching to the scientific. Hence we
may pass at once to early civilizations.
Evidence from the books of Ancient India may first be set
down. Demonstration is yielded by it that science was originally
a part of religion. Both astronomy and medicine, says Weber,
"received their first impulse from the exigencies of religious wor-
ship." More specific, as well as wider, is the following statement
of Dr. Thibaut :—
'* The want of some rule by which to fix the right time for the sacrifices
gave the first impulse to astronomical observations ; urged by this want the
priest remained watching night after night the advance of the moon. . . .
and day after day the alternate progress of the sun toward the north and
the south. The laws of phonetics were investigated because the wrath of
the gods followed the wrong pronunciation of a single letter of the sacri-
ficial formulas; grammar and etymology had the task of securing the right
understanding of the holy texts."
Further, according to Dutt, " geometry was developed in India
from the rules for the construction of altars." A sentence from
the same writer implies that there presently arose a differentia-
tion of the learned class from the ceremonial class.
" Astronomy had now come to be regarded as a distinct science, and
astronomers by profession were called Nakshatra, Darsa, and Ganaka . . .
sacrificial rites were regulated by the position of the moon in reference to
these lunar asterisms."
So, too, we have proof that philosophy, originally forming a part
of the indefinite body of knowledge possessed by the priesthood,
eventually developed independently. Hunter writes : —
" The Brahmans, therefore, treated philosophy as a branch of religion.
. . . Brahman philosophy exhausted the possible solutions ... of most of
the other great problems which have since perplexed Greek and Roman
sage, mediaeval schoolman, and modern man of science."
And in this, as in other cases, the speculative and critical activity
presently led to rationalism. There came " a time when philoso-
phers and laymen were alike drifting toward agnostic and hetero-
dox opinions."
Concerning the relations of science to theology among the
Babylonians and Assyrians, current statements almost suffice for
the purpose of the argument. A few facts in illustration must,
however, be given. All the astronomical knowledge of the Baby-
lonians had as its ends the regulation of religious worship, the
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 741
preparation of charms, the prediction of events. Here are extracts
from Rawlinson, Layard, and Maury showing how religion and
science were mingled.
" We are, perhaps, justified in concluding1, from the careful emplace-
ment of Urukh's temples, that the science of astronomy was already culti-
vated in his reign, and was regarded as having a certain connection with
religion."
" At a very early period the Assyrian priests were able to fix the date
of events by celestial phenomena, and to connect the public records with
them."
The familiar fact that the cycle of lunar eclipses was discovered
by the Chaldean priests, shows how exact and how long- continued
were their observations.
"Comparative philology seems to have been largely studied, and the
works upon it exhibit great care and diligence. Chronology is evidently
much valued, and very exact records are kept whereby the lapse of time
can even now be accurately measured. Geography and history have each
an important place in Assyrian learning ; while astronomy and mythology
occupy at least as great a share of attention."
Les Chaldeens avaient '" une caste sacerdotale et savante qui se consacra
a l'observation du ciel, en vue de penetrer davantage dans la connaissance
des dieux. . . . De la sorte, les temples devinrent de veritables observa-
toires : telle etait la celebre tour de Baby lone, monument consacre aux sept
planetes."
Of testimonies concerning science in Egypt, we may fitly begin
with one from Maspero, which contrasts Egyptian views with the
views of the Assyrians.
"In Egypt the majority of the books relating to science are sacred
works composed and revealed by the gods themselves. The Assyrians do
not attribute such a lofty origin to the works which teach them the courses
and explain the influences of the stars: they believe them to have been
written by learned men, who lived at different epochs, and who acquired
their knowledge from direct observation of the heavens."
Basing his account on the statements of various ancient writers,
Sir G. C. Lewis says of the Egyptian priesthood that—
"they were relieved from toil, and had leisure for scientific study and
meditation ; and that from a remote period they habitually observed the
stars, recorded their observations, and cultivated scientific astrouomy and
geometry. The Egyptian priests are moreover related to have kept regis-
ters, in which they entered notices of remarkable natural phenomena."
(Strab. xvii, 1. § 5.)
Similar is the description of the actions and achievements of the
Egyptian priests given by Diodorus : —
They " are diligent observers of the course and motions of the stars; and
preserve remarks of every one of them for an incredible number of years,
being used to this study, and to endeavor to outvie one another therein,
from the most ancient times. They have with great cost and care, ob-
served the motions of the planets; their periodical motions, and their
stated stops."
742 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
How intimate was the connection between their science and their
religion is proved by the fact that " in every temple there was
. . . an astronomer who had to observe the heavens; "and how
their science was an outgrowth of their religion is shown by the
remark of Duncker, that their writings, at first containing tradi-
tional invocations of the gods and ceremonial rules, " grew into
a liturgical canon and ecclesiastical codex of religious and moral
law, and a comprehensive collection of all the wisdom known to
the priests." But, as is remarked by Bunsen, "the Egyptians
never arrived at a systematic dialectically-conducted philosophy "
— a fact of much significance ; for I may remark in passing that
among oriental peoples at large, and other peoples long habitu-
ated to despotic control, thinking and teaching are entirely dog-
matic : absolute authority characterizes at once external govern-
ment and internal government. It is only on passing to partially-
free societies that we meet with appeals to individual judgments
— a giving of reasons for beliefs.
Apparently because Greece was a congeries of independent
states often at variance with one another, and because these states
had their respective religious worships akin but not identical,
there never arose in Greece a priestly hierarchy; and apparently
the lack of one impeded some of the professional developments.
Partly, perhaps, for this reason, but chiefly for the reason that
scientific progress in Egypt and Assyria preceded Greek civiliza-
tion, science in as lightly developed state was imported. Sir G. C.
Lewis repeats the testimonies of sundry ancient authors to the
effect that the Egyptian priests —
"regarded their astronomical science as an esoteric and mysterious doc-
trine, and that they disclosed it to curious strangers with reluctance (Strab.
xvii, 1. § 29). . . . Similar statements are made with respect to Assyrian
astronomy (Plat. Epinom. § 7, p. 987). This derivation does not rest
merely on general declarations, but it is fortified by detailed accounts
of visits of Greek philosophers to Egypt, to Assyria, and to other orient-
al countries, made for the purpose of profiting by the lessons of the
native priests and sages.'1 Thus Thales, Pherecydes of Syros, Pythag-
oras, Democritus, CEnopides of Chios, Eudoxus, Solon, Anaxagoras, Plato
are said to have visited Egypt, and to have received instruction from
the priests.
And from his work may be added this further passage : — " Aris-
totle . . . says that mathematical science originated in Egypt, on
account of the leisure which the priests enjoyed for contempla-
tion." Respecting which statement may be interposed the remark
that whether the name "geometry" was a translation of the
Egyptian equivalent word or was independently originated, we
equally see, in the first place, that this concrete half of mathe-
matics germinated from the practical needs for measuring out
the Earth's surface, and we see, in the second place, that since
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 743
temples (which, served also as king's palaces) were in early times
the sole permanent and finished buildings (the rest being of wood
or of sun-dried clay) it is inferable that this great division of
science, first employed in the orientation and laying out of them,
took its earliest steps in the service of religion. Returning now
from this parenthesis to the subject of Greek science, we find
that development of it can be but in very small measure ascribed
to the priesthood. From Curtius we learn that " the localities of
the oracles became places where knowledge of various kinds was
collected, such as could not be met with elsewhere," and that
" the Greek calendar fell under the superintendence of Delphi,"
and also that " the art of road-making and of building bridges
took its first origin from the national sanctuaries, especially from
those of Apollo : " some culture of science being thus implied.
But, practically, the scientific advances made by the Greeks were
not of sacred but of secular origin. So, too, was it with their phi-
losophy. Though Mahaffy thinks " we have no reason to doubt the
fact that philosophers were called in professionally to minister in
cases of grief," and though in ministering they assumed a function
characteristic of priests, yet we can not assume that they acted in
a religious capacity. Evidently in the main their speculations
took their departure not from theological dogmas but from the
facts which scientific observation had elsewhere established. Be-
fore there was time for an indigenous development of science and
philosophy out of priestly culture, there was an intrusion of that
science and philosophy which priestly culture had developed
elsewhere.
The normal course- of evolution having been in Rome, still
more than in Greece, interrupted by intruding elements, an un-
broken genealogy of science and philosophy is still less to be
looked for. But it seems as though the naturalness of the con-
nection between priestly culture and scientific knowledge led to a
re-genesis of it. Mommsen, after stating that there were origi-
nally only two "colleges of sacred lore "—the augurs and the
pontifices, says : —
" The five ' bridge-builders ' (pontifices) derived their name from their
function, as sacred as it was politically important, of conducting the build-
ing and demolition of the bridge over the Tiber. They were the Roman
engineers who understood the mystery of measures and numbers; whence
there devolved upon them also the duties of managing the Calendar of
the State, of proclaiming to the people the time of the new and full moon
and the days of festivals, and of seeing that every religious and every judi-
cial act took place on the right day . . . thus they acquired . . . the gen-
eral oversight of Roman worship and of whatever was connected with it—
and what was there that was not so connected ? ... In fact the rudiments
of spiritual and temporal jurisprudence as well as of historical composition
proceeded from this college."
744 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
A curious parallel, not un suggestive, is thus displayed. As in
Greece the art of bridge-building arose in connection with the
national sanctuaries, and as in Rome the building of bridges was
the function of a priestly college, the implication appears to be
that since in those days building a bridge was one of the most
difficult of undertakings, it naturally fell into the hands of those
who were reputed to have the greatest knowledge and skill — the
priests. And, probably, the connection between the priesthood
and this piece of applied science was furthered by the apparent
supernaturalness of the arch — a structure which must have
seemed to the people incomprehensible. But alike in science and
in philosophy, the Romans were the pupils of the Greeks ; and
hence possibly may have arisen the parallelism between a certain
function of the philosopher in Greece and one he exercised in
Rome.
The philosopher " was generally to he found in a large mansion acting
almost like a private chaplain, instructing in ethics those who wished to
learn, and attending the death-beds of members of the family. "
Most likely, the ethics and the consolations here indicated were
more or less tinged with ideas theologically derived ; but even if
not, the function described appears semi-priestly.
During those dark days which followed the fall of the Roman
Empire, nothing to be called science existed. But when, along
with gradual reorganization, the re-genesis of science began, it
began as in earlier instances among the cultured men — the priest-
hood. It was not, indeed, a re-genesis de novo, but one which
took its departure from the knowledge, the ideas, and the meth-
ods, bequeathed by the older civilizations. From these, long
buried, it was resuscitated, almost exclusively in the monaster-
ies. In his Science and Literature in the Middle Ages Lacroix
writes : —
" At the death of Charlemagne, the exact sciences, which had flourished
for a brief space at his court, seemed to shrink into the seclusion of the
monasteries. . . . The order of St. Benedict had almost made a monopoly
of the exact sciences, which were held in high honor at the Abbeys of
Mount Cassini, in Italy ; of St. Martin, at Tours (France) ; of St. Arnulph,
at Metz; of St. Gall, in Switzerland; of Prum, in Bavaria; of Canterbury,
in England, etc."
A significant parallelism has here to be noted. We saw that in
India, in Assyria, and in Egypt, the earliest steps in science were
made in subservience to religious needs : their primary purpose
was to regulate the times of religious sacrifices so as to avoid
offense to the gods. And now, strange to say, mediaeval records
show that among Christian peoples science was first called in for
fixing the date of Easter.
How on the Continent was illustrated the monopoly of science
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 745
and philosophy by the priesthood in early days, scarcely needs
pointing out. Such philosophical dogmas as were current during
the ages of darkness were supplementary to the current theologi-
cal dogmas and in subordination to them. When, in the time of
Charlemagne, some intellectual life began, it was initiated by the
establishment of schools in connection with all abbeys through-
out his dominions. These schools, carried on under priestly rule,
eventually became the centers at once of philosophy and science :
the philosophy distinguished as scholasticism being of such kind
as consisted with the authorized theology, and the science —
geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, and music — being such as did
not obviously conflict with it or could be conformed to it. That
is to say, alike in their nature and in their agency, the philosophy
and science of the time diverged in a relatively small degree from
the theology — the differentiation was but incipient. And the
long continued identification of the cultivators of philosophy and
science with the cultivators of theology is seen in the familiar
names of the leading scholastics — William of Champeaux, Abe-
lard, Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, etc. To which may be
added the notable fact that such independence of theological dog-
ma as was thought to be implied in the doctrine of the Nominal-
ists, was condemned alike by the Pope and by secondary ecclesias-
tical authorities — the differentiation was slowly effected under
resistance.
In England there was a no less clear identity of the priest with
the philosopher and the man of science. In his account of the
Saxon clergy Kemble writes : —
"They were honoi'ably distinguished by the possession of arts and
learning, which could be found in no other class. ... To them England
owed the more accurate calculations which enabled the divisions of times
and seasons to be duly settled."
The first illustration is furnished by Bede, a monk who, besides (
works of other kinds, wrote a work on The Nature of Tilings, in
which the scientific knowledge of his day was gathered up. Next
may be named Dicuil, an Irish monk and writer on geography.
And then comes Archbishop Dunstan : —
He "was very well skilled in most of the liberal arts, and among the
rest in refining metals and forging them ; which being qualifications much
above the genius of the age he lived in, first gained him the name of a con-
jurer, and then of a saint."
Though, soon after the Conquest, there lived two cultivators of
science who seem not to have been clerical — Gerland and Athelard
of Bath— yet it is to be remarked of the first that his science was
devoted to a religious purpose— making a Computus or calcula-
tion of Easter,— and of the other that his scientific knowledge was
acquired during travels in the East, and can not be regarded as
VOL. XLVII. 61
746 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
an indigenous development. In Richard the First's time flour-
ished Abbot Neckham, who wrote a scientific treatise in Latin
verse, and the Bishop-elect Giraldus Cambrensis, who was a
topographer. Under John we have Bishop Grosseteste, a writer
on physical science, and in the next reign comes the Franciscan
monk Roger Bacon, whose scientific reputation is familiar. The
15th century yields us among clerical men of science John Lyd-
gate, chiefly known for his poetry. When we turn back to see
who were the first to occupy themselves with the science of the
sciences — philosophy — we perceive this same connection. In the
old English period lived Scotus Erigena, a philosophical ecclesi-
astic whose philosophy was theological in its bearings. After a
long interval, the next of this class was prior Henry of Hunting-
don, who, as a moralist, brought other incentives than divine
commands to bear on conduct. Presently came Bishop John of
Salisbury, who, besides being classed as a writer on morality, was
more distinctly to be classed as a writer on ancient philosophy.
Grosseteste to his physical philosophy added mental philosophy,
as also did Roger Bacon.
Joined with the fact that in mediaeval days scarcely any lay-
men are named as devoted to studies of these kinds, the facts
above given suffice to show that in Christian Europe, as in the
pagan East, the man of science and the philosopher were of
priestly origin. Inductive proof seems needless when we remem-
ber that during pre-feudal and feudal days, war and the chase
were thought by the ruling classes the only honorable occupa-
tions. Themselves unable to read and write, they held that learn-
ing should be left to the children of mean people. And since
learning was inaccessible to the masses, it becomes a necessary
implication that the clerical class was the one to which mental
culture of all kinds, inclusive of the scientific and philosophical
kinds, was limited.
To trace the stages by which has been gradually effected the
differentiation of the scientifico-philosophical class from the cler-
ical class is not here requisite. It will suffice to note the leading
characters of the change, and the state now reached.
The first broad fact to be observed is that the great body of
doctrine distinguished by being based on reason instead of au-
thority, has divided into a concrete part and an abstract part;
with the result of generating two different classes of cultivators
—the man of science and the philosopher. In the ancient East
the distinction between the two was vague. Among the Greeks,
from T hales onward, the thinker was one who studied physical
facts and drew his general conceptions from them. Even on
coming to Aristotle we see in the same man the union of
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 747
scientific inquiry and philosophical speculation. So all through
the development of knowledge in Europe, down to the time of
Newton, when the use of the term "natural philosophy" for
physical science implies an indefinite distinction between the two.
But now the distinction has become tolerably definite— quite defi-
nite in Germany and in large measure definite here. The philoso-
pher does not enter upon scientific investigations and often knows
little about scientific truths ; while, conversely, the man of sci-
ence, of whatever class, is little given to philosophical speculation,
and is commonly uninformed about the philosophical conclu-
sions held by this or that school. How distinct the -two classes
have become is implied by the contempt not unfrequently ex-
pressed by each for the other.
Simultaneously there has progressed a separation within the
body of scientific men into those who respectively deal with the
inorganic and the organic. Nowadays, men who occupy them-
selves with mathematical, physical and chemical investigations
are generally ignorant of biology ; while men who spend their
lives in studying the phenomena of life, under one or other of its
aspects, are often without interest in the truths constituting the
exact sciences. Between animate and inanimate things there is a
marked contrast, and there has come to be a marked division be-
tween the students of the two groups.
Yet a further transformation of the same nature has been
going on. Within each -of these groups differentiations and sub-
differentiations have been taking place. The biologists have di-
vided themselves primarily into those who study plant-life and
those who study animal- life — the phytologists (commonly called
botanists) and the zoologists. In each of these great divisions
there have been established large sub-divisions : in the one those
who devote themselves to the classification of species, those who
treat of plant-morphology, those who treat of plant-physiology;
and in the other the classifiers, the comparative anatomists, the
animal-physiologists. More restricted specializations have arisen.
Among botanists there are some who study almost exclusively
this or that order ; among physiologists, some who commonly
take one class of function for their province, and among zoolo-
gists there are first of all the divisions into those who are pro-
fessed entomologists, ornithologists, ichthyologists, etc., and again
within each of these are smaller groups, as among the entomolo-
gists, those who study more especially the coleoptera, the lepidop-
tera, the hymenoptera, etc.
Respecting these major and minor differentiations it has only
further to be remarked that though the prosecution of science as
a whole is not called a profession (the whole being too extensive
and heterogeneous), yet the prosecution of this or that part of it
748 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
has come to be thus distinguished. We have " professors " of
various divisions and sub-divisions of it ; and this implies that
the bread-winning pursuit of science, irrespective of the particu-
lar kind, must be regarded as a profession.
The combinations of like units which have accompanied these
separations of unlike units, are equally conspicuous. Those occu-
pied in science as a whole, as well as those occupied in particular
divisions of science, have everywhere tended to segregate them-
selves and consolidate.
On the , Continent each nation has a scientific academy or
equivalent body, and in some cases several such. In our own
country we have, similarly, a fixed general union among scientific
men — the Royal Society ; in addition to which we have a nomadic
general union — the British Association.
Then beyond these largest corporations including all kinds of
scientific men, we have various smaller corporations, each com-
prised of those devoted to a particular branch or sub-branch of
science — a Mathematical Society, a Physical Society, a Chemical
Society, an Astronomical Society, a Geological Society, a Physio-
logical Society ; and others occupied with sub-divisions of Biology
— Botany, Zoology, Anthropology, and Entomology : all of them
being children of the Royal Society and in some measure aids to
it. Nor let us forget that besides these metropolitan societies
there are scattered throughout the kingdom local societies, de-
voted to science in general or to some division of science.
This is not all. Integration, general and special, of the scien-
tific world is made closer, and the co-operation of all parts aided,
by continuous publications : weekly and monthly and quarterly
journals which are general in their scope, and others of like
periodicities which are special in their scope. Thus minor aggre-
gates held in connection as parts of a great aggregate have their
activities furthered by literary inter-communication ; and as else-
where implied (see Essays, vol. i, " The Genesis of Science "), the
vast organism thus constituted has acquired a power of digesting
and assimilating the various classes of phenomena which no one
part of it alone could effectually deal with.
How the style of house-building may be affected by the character of the
neighborhood is illustrated by the observation of Captain H. Bowen, that
while traveling in Turkistan, after crossing the Kotli-i Kandahar Pass,
from the Tung River into the valley of the Wachi River, the houses bore
evidence of the fear in which the inhabitants live of their neighbors on
the south, the Kunjuts. Instead of scattered farmhouses, the traveler in-
variably found several houses joined together and presenting a fortlike
appearance.
TROUT CULTURE. 749
TROUT CULTURE.
By FEED MATHER.
|~N the early days of fish culture, which for many years was only
J- trout culture, the statement was often made that any farmer
who had a small spring of cool water could, within a few years,
realize enormous profits from it, and that an acre of water was
worth more than an acre of land. Those of us who went into the
business a quarter of a century ago found much to learn, and
many dropped out discouraged. The writer bought a farm in
Monroe County, New York, in 1868, and made ponds below a fine
spring ; and after some failures, due to ignorance — for there was
then no literature of the subject — he began to succeed in raising
many fish, only to find, after raising them, that they had cost more
than they were worth, because there was no available food near,
and it required a man to drive fourteen miles to the city of
Rochester twice or more per week for food. To-day we know
that something more than a good spring of cool water of about
50° F. is necessary, and also that some acres of water may be
worth more than some land, but that so many local and other
conditions enter into the calculation that, as a general statement,
the comparison is not true. To-day there are several successful
trout farms where the fish are raised for market at a profit, and
in all of them there are large, never-failing springs of cool water
and cheap food, as well as intelligent management. There are
other important considerations in choosing the location of a trout
farm, such as a proper amount of fall to the water in order to
control it and give it aeration between the ponds and a formation
that will allow all surface water to be led aside and not to enter
the ponds. A sudden thaw with frozen ground may destroy the
work of years, and in summer the surface water brings leaves and
trash, which clog screens and either burst or overflow them.
The first thing to be considered is whether the trout farmer
wishes to merely hatch his fish and turn them into a suitable lake
or pond where they will find their own food and where he can
take a few for sport and market, and perhaps let anglers fish it
for a fixed sum, or whether he prefers to raise his fish by hand in
small pools.
The first method is the simplest, involving the least care, but,
if the conditions are favorable, not so profitable as the other. One
is like keeping a few fowls that pick up what they can, and
the other like poultry breeding, with this exception : poultry will
not eat their young, while trout will devour their fellows which
are smaller. A trout under a year old feeds mainly on insects
and their larvse in a state of nature, but a large trout of two
75°
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
Stripping a Small Trout.
pounds weight prefers something more substantial, like a yearling
trout or two for breakfast and a few more at intervals, with flies
and worms for dessert ; and this cannibalism is what keeps the
balance of life in a natural
state. If, however, it is de-
cided to follow the first-
named system, it will only be
necessary to provide spawn-
ing races for the adults and
^ £&**?' ^\l x)l ' follow the rules for hatch-
|^4 ^k V*jj ing the eggs, and either turn
A A V out the product as fry or
;*^^ ^ "Iwv as yearlings; the latter will
give the best results where
transportation is not needed,
as in the work of the fish
commissions of the different
States.
Where it is desired to make a business of trout-raising a series
of small ponds are necessary. After leaving the springs the water,
in summer, is continually approaching the temperature of the air ;
and when it gets to 70° the danger line is reached. In swift water
our brook trout have lived at five degrees above that point, but
they suffered, and some have died, while others lived until the de-
clining sun permitted the water to cool a trifle. This is a point
that should be in mind when planning ponds, for it is of the
greatest importance. A spring brook that will sustain many
trout in a pond of half an acre might fail to keep a single one if
the area was doubled. The surface and the shallows are warmer
in summer than the deeper portions, and in the case of springs in
the bottom of lakes or ponds the trout will gather about them in
warm weather. In the pond system the ponds are so small that
the fish can be seen at all times and their growth noted, so that
those which have outstripped their fellows may be taken out and
placed with others of the same size. This is practiced once a year
with the larger fish and about three times during summer with
the " babies," or those not yet arrived at the dignity of yearlings.
Cannibalism is not only prevented by this, but the smaller ones
will have a chance to get food at the first table, from which they
have been debarred.
Perhaps a description of the ponds that I have made for the
Fishery Commission of the State of New York at Cold Spring
Harbor, Long Island, may best illustrate the idea of small ponds,
first explaining that the object of the ponds is not only to grow
trout, but to get the greatest amount of eggs for hatching in order
to stock public waters with the different species of trout, such as
TROUT CULTURE.
751
our native brook trout, the brown trout, or common brook trout
of Europe, and the rainbow trout of California. The trout for
distribution are sent out when about ready to take food — in March
and April. Those to be kept at the station for breeders are fed in the
troughs for a month or more, and are then put in the " baby ponds."
These are of two-inch yellow-pine sides and one-inch bottoms,
twenty-five feet long, three feet wide, and about twenty inches
deep, with a strong flow and double screens of No. 8 wire cloth,
between which is a dam an inch higher than the pond below. In
these ponds are " rests," made of projections from the sides or of
dams, with a surface stop- water a few inches below them, which
causes the water to flow up and over the dam, and is then again
deflected below. This keeps weak fish from being swept against
the screens, and makes eddies for the food to swirl about in, in-
stead of sinking. Mr. Hoxsie has patented an ingenious device to
Trying the Big One without Help.
feed young fish in, and it is somewhat different from this plan
which I used at Honeoye Falls, N. Y., in 1874 and since. Of these
" baby ponds " we have ten, and, as we put ten thousand fry in
each, we start in with only three of them stocked ; but the little
fellows have a way of getting around screens that are supposed to
be tight, and before they are an inch and a half long some are found
in the lower ponds, having gone through joints in the planks or
sides or bottom, or around some loose screen, if not through a neg-
752 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
lected worm hole or nail hole. Their persistence in getting out
of the place where they are put is wonderful.
When the fish are about six months old, say in September,
they are taken out of the baby ponds, assorted in three or four
sizes, and put in the yearling ponds, where they remain until the
following year, when the largest are sent to the breeding ponds.
At the same time the water is lowered in all the ponds, and they
are thoroughly swept out preparatory to the taking of spawn, and
the fish are not again disturbed until spring. The breeding ponds
are cleansed in this way in midsummer, but all are daily gone
over with long-handled nets to remove the ordure and any un-
When a Large Trout Struggles.
eaten food ; the screens in the baby ponds are not taken out, but
are cleaned with brooms or a scrubbing brush on a handle.
The breeding ponds are best if about sixty feet long, fifteen
feet wide, and from two to three feet deep. In such a pond from
one thousand to four thousand trout of half a pound may be kept
if the flow is sufficient. If the supply of water is scant in sum-
mer, make the pond narrower or shallower, in order to give a
quicker change to the fish.
Each breeding pond must have a spawning race at its head,
and these are narrow and shallow, making an ideal place for a
trout to deposit its precious burden. They are from twenty-five
to fifty feet long, two to three feet wide, with water from five to
TROUT CULTURE. 753
ten inches deep. The bottom is covered with gravel of the size of
a pigeon's egg, and the top with boards cleated together in con-
venient lengths to lift. Here are all the requisites of a nesting
place — swift, shallow water, gravel, and shade, with its security
from overhead enemies and light. If undisturbed, a {>air of trout
would whip a nest in the gravel and lay their eggs and retire after
covering them, and the next pair would whip them out again in
their efforts to perpetuate their species, and in a state of nature a
horde of yearlings would follow the breeders to feast upon the
eggs, for of all fish baits the eggs of trout and salmon are among
the best. The spawning race is only to entice the trout to spawn
there ; a net on a frame sliding into grooves at the lower end is
slipped in, the covers lifted, and the fish driven into the bag.
They are then assorted. Those not ready to spawn to-day or later
are thrown back into the pond, the ripe males are put into one
tub and the ripe females in another, and to judge of this we note
the swollen vent and the softness of the abdomen. This is the
first test ; the next is the ready flow of eggs.
Here it may be well to say, in nature not more than forty per
per cent of the eggs are impregnated, owing to the failure of the
milt to reach all the eggs. Of those that are impregnated fully
one half are killed by the fungus that grows on the dead infertile
eggs, and the remainder are subject to suffocation from freshets,
depredations by young trout, eels, ducks, and other animals, as
well as the sun, while in our so-called artificial propagation we
get such a close contact of milt and eggs that the impregnation
amounts to about ninety-five per cent, and there is no loss from
sediment, fungus, enemies, nor direct sunlight. There is a loss of
perhaps five per cent in deformed fish, such as crooked tails,
double heads, twins with one umbilicus, and premature bursting
of the shell, but we beat Nature in trout-hatching far more than
we do in the breeding of any other animal, and the only compari-
son that seems fit is' that of cultivating trees and plants, where
we produce more than Nature can or does.
Our brook trout usually spawn from November to January on
Long Island, in the early part of the day, while the lake trout,
improperly called " salmon trout," spawn at night, thus prevent-
ing hybridization by means of drifting milt. About 8 a. m. we
place a net at the foot of the spawning race and drive the fish that
have run up for nesting into it. They are then put into tubs and
assorted. The males are put together; the females that appear
to be ripe are placed in other tubs, and those which are not near
ripe are returned to the pond. A ripe male is known by its slim
body and bright color ; often his back will be buff, the sides scar-
let, and the lower abdomen with a black stripe on each side. The
ripe female is soft, and the vent is swollen and protruding. Un-
754
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
Lower End of Hatching Trough.
less the eggs flow at a light touch, it is better to return her to the
pond, for eggs that have to be forced are not ripe, and if they can
be fertilized make weak fish. For the manner of handling the
fish, see illustrations from photographs. The so-called "dry-
method " is the best. A pan is wet and the water drained from
it. The eggs of a female
are taken by repeated
strokes of the forefinger,
if the trout is small, or
by the hand if large. The
eggs will be found to lie
the full length of the
body cavity, and the
strokes begin near the
vent and are then worked
farther up toward the
head. A bending of the
back, as shown, often starts the eggs. This operation takes less
time than it does to write it, and some water drips from the fish.
A male is then stripped over the eggs and water enough to cover
them is added, after which they are left to stand until they
" free." The eggs are soft as they leave the fish, and for twenty
minutes or more they absorb the milt and water, and while doing
this they adhere to the pan, but become free when filled. They
should not be disturbed until free, when they are washed by
changing the water and then are placed on trays in the troughs.
If an egg is not impregnated before it fills with water it never
can be fertilized, and the advantage of this " dry method " over
taking the eggs in a pan of water is that each egg is brought into
contact with the milt, which suddenly becomes active when it
comes in contact with water.
This work and all troughs should be in a building and pro-
tected from storms and sunshine, but hatching troughs have been
successfully worked in the open air. Rats are fond of trout eggs,
sediment will smother the embryo within the shell, and direct
sunlight will kill it. In a hatching house a distributing trough
should run the length of one side. If this is ten inches wide and
nine inches deep, with occasional cleats on top to prevent spread-
ing, it will be about right. The water may flow in at one end
and out at the other, over a dam six or seven inches high. With
hatching troughs at right angles to this and supplied by inch-and-
a-half cocks or gates the flow will be regular at all times. These
cocks should be halfway between the bottom of the distributing
trough and the surface of the water, and may have a fine screen
above them, or may pour into one below, as seems best, always
looking out that the flow is not stopped nor any fine material
TROUT CULTURE.
755
enters the trough that would clog the screen at the lower end
of the hatching trough and cause it to overflow and the fry to
escape.
These hatching troughs are best made of soft wood, preferably
sound, clear white pine, and if possible have them up so that the
tops are three feet six inches above the floor, for convenience in
working over them. If the bottoms are an inch and a half thick,
three carpenter's horses will sustain them. A trough thirteen
feet long, fourteen inches and a quarter wide, and seven inches
deep, inside measure, will be sufficient for twenty-five thousand
trout fry after they are hatched and feeding, but will be capa-
ble of developing four times that number of eggs. The troughs
should be made of regular width, to a hair's breadth, in order
to have any hatching tray fit every trough in any part of it, and
the edges of the bottoms should be carefully dressed and the
Lower Ends of Troughs with Outlet Pipes.
sides nailed to them after being touched with thin white lead.
The ends should be let in (see cut), in order to be nailed both
ways and be tight. An inch-and-a-half hole in the bottom of the
lower end will take the waste water where required ; a sink outlet
with the cross-pieces cut out is good to attach a waste-pipe to ;
above this hole nail an upright strip to each side to hold the dam.
During the egg stage use one of two inches or less ; after hatching
756 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
begins, put in one of five inches and a screen above it. Just
above the dam put two strips each side to hold the screen, which
must fit tight all around, or tails will get in cracks and the fish
will die. This screen should be of No. 14 wire cloth, and is some-
times placed upright and at others with its top up stream to give
more surface and to release a weak fish from it by its own weight,
but the difficulty in keeping a screen so placed clean is an offset
to its advantages. If space permits, the troughs should be placed
by twos, but some prefer them by threes.
Coal Tar. — All troughs, screens, trays, and all wood and iron
that is in contact with water, should be painted with coal tar,
which can be had from the gas-works. Thin it with spirits of
turpentine, and give it two or three coats with a half-worn paint-
er's brush in hot weather. It must be perfectly dry before water
is let in, and then there will be no taste, rust, flavor of pine, nor
fungus. Asphaltum is used, but I have not tried it. After the
first season one coat each year is sufficient.
If the hatching troughs are all exactly one width, make the
trays one quarter of an inch narrower and about twenty-seven
inches long ; use half-inch pine, cut in strips three quarters of an
inch wide and laid flat, so that the frame is only half an inch
deep ; make the corners strong. If the frames are fourteen inches
wide outside, have wire cloth especially woven of a length to
cover them all, but half an inch narrower than the frames, for
the selvage will be uneven ; have it made with a mesh three quar-
ters by an eighth of an inch, the long way of the mesh across the
cloth ; this holds the egg, but lets the fish drop through. Use No.
18 wire for the cross-wires, and finer wire for the double over
and under, for the warp. A double-pointed carpet tack under
each corner of the tray allows circulation beneath and prevents
crushing the fry.
Having shown how to make the troughs, screens, and trays,
and how to take the eggs, we must now proceed to the care of the
eggs and fry. Our implements are few and simple : a wisp
broom, a pair of nippers, a small, flat net, and the wing-feather
of a goose set in a handle of light wood are all, except an out-
fit of pans which are to be used in stripping the fish. The little
hand broom is used daily ; a tray of eggs is taken from the bot-
tom of the trough and soused in and out of the water to remove
sediment, and is put over into the next trough, etc. When all
are out, the dam below is removed and all slime washed out and
both darn and eggs replaced. The nippers are cut out of wood,
red cedar preferred, and are about six inches long, with a spread
of three quarters of an inch at the points ; the latter are best
when finished with a loop of brass wire, but can do good service
without this. A dead egg turns white, and can be seen at a glance
TROUT CULTURE.
7 $7
among the amber ones, and an egg that has not been fertilized
often remains clear until the rest are nearly hatched, but it can
not stand any rough usage, and shows up in numbers after each
washing, and, if left for two or three days, will develop a fungous
growth that will attach the surrounding eggs in a mass and kill
them all. In our early work, when we hatched on fine gravel,
fungus was the bugbear : a dead egg would get down in the gravel
and send out its deadly tentacles unseen ; but with wire cloth and
daily supervision fungus is unknown. It is this that kills the
eggs in the brooks, and avoiding this cause of mortality from
Front of Hatchery, showing Inlet Trunk from Reservoir.
By courtesy of Mr. W. H. Cooper, President of the Photo-Section, Brooklyn Institute.
unimpregnated eggs is one of the reasons why we beat the meth-
ods of Nature in increasing a species by protection from its
enemies.
At about fifteen days old the expert can take trout eggs in a
glass tube or vial and, by holding them above his eye, can see the
line of vertebrae which marks the impregnated egg ; a few days
later he can pick out the " ringers," or eggs which, having no fish
in them, retain the ring which they first had on top of the egg.
At thirty days, more or less, according to temperature, the eyes
show, and the development goes on until the hatching begins at
sixty to ninety or more days, according to the thermometer, but
the colder waters produce the strongest trout.
758 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
When hatching begins, the water in the trough is raised, and
the trays are brought near the surface and held there by light
wedges which do not spring the sides of the troughs. The feather
sweeps the bottom of sediment, taking care not to injure the deli-
cate embryos, for they are more delicate when first hatched than
when in the egg. At this time cleaning should be confined to the
removal of any dead eggs or fry and of egg-shells on the screen,
and here is where the little flat net of milliner's " millinet," on
a three-inch brass-wire frame, is found most useful. This wire
is covered with muslin to which the netting is sewed, and, moved
quickly through the water, it gathers the shells which are clog-
ging the screen, and a smart rap on a pan cleans the net. It is
also of use in taking out dead fry and foreign matter from the
bottom, as well as deformed fish, for we find crooked-tailed fish
that can not swim and take food, double-headed fish, and twins
attached to one sac, which never live.
When first hatched the embryo trout hardly look like fish ;
they have simply burst the shell in which they appeared as a
slim, dark body, with big eyes, coiled around the yolk, and now
merely straighten out and have the great yolk-sac still attached,
and so heavy that they can not swim, but lie on their sides and
huddle together to avoid light ; and now there is danger of the
bottom ones being smothered. Cover the trough in spots to in-
duce them to gather in different places, and keep them as dark as
possible. At this stage there is nothing to do but to remove the
few dead — sediment can not hurt them now — and keep the outlet
screen free. When they get to be about a month old the sac will
be nearly gone, and the fry begin to show signs of swimming by
occasional darts from the bottom to examine some floating par-
ticle. They will take food some days before the sac is absorbed,
and it should be offered to them in small quantities.
The best food that I have found is beef liver, after abandon-
ing it for soft clams {My a arenaria) salt-water mussels, and horse
meat. The clams made the young fish grow fast, but did not pro-
duce the expected number of eggs ; the mussels were tried raw
and cooked, with the same result ; and, as the principal object at
this State hatchery was the production of fry for planting pub-
lic waters, we. next tried raw horse flesh, which was very objec-
tionable on account of the large proportion which was passed un-
digested and clogged the screens and fouled the water. Several
fish culturists have found an admixture of bran, shorts, or mill
feed with liver to be excellent. This I have not tried, because
the trout is not a vegetarian in the least degree, and it remains to
be proved that such vegetable addition to the food is of real ad-
vantage.
The liver is fed raw ; for the " babies " it is run through a
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76o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
meat cutter having holes one thirty-second of an inch at first, the
holes increasing in size as the fish can take larger particles. This
is mixed with sufficient water, and little by little scattered along
the troughs from a wooden spatula, taking care not to feed so
much at once that it will not be eaten. With twenty troughs one
man should feed all day, getting back to the first one in half an
hour, for, like all small animals, the trout want but little at a
time, but want it often. For this reason I never advise a novice
who receives fish from the State to pen them up and feed them ;
they would surely be starved, for if the. young are not fed a
dozen times a day they will show it by a shrunken body which
appears to be all head. A trout at two to three months old should
be larger around the abdomen than about the head, and there
should be no pinched look behind the gills. If you can not give
the babies this care, turn them into the stream or lake, and let
them find their food and face their enemies, and you will have
more and better fish. To take trout eggs and hatch them is not
difficult, but the best trout breeder is the one who brings the
greatest percentage of what he has hatched to be thrifty fish at
six months old.
For the yearling trout the liver may be cut in pieces from a
quarter to half an inch, and they should be fed all they can
eat at least twice a day. Larger fish will take more and larger
pieces, and will get along if fed once each day, preferably in the
evening, but they do not suffer if neglected for a day as the
babies do, and we find the same rule all through animal life in
mammals and birds, with which most people are more familiar —
the young require frequent feeding.
Too much importance can not be attached to the feeding of
the fry in the early days of their taking food. It is the critical
time, not only of their lives, but of their future development.
No amount of feeding can make a thrifty fish of one which has
been stunted by scant food in its first few months of life, and right
here is where intelligent care turns the scale between profit and
loss.
During the quarter of a century in which I have been engaged
in this work, and have had to trust the care of the fish to em-
ployees because my own time was fully occupied with other work,,
the man most valued was he who took best care of the babies and
fed them as though he loved them, and not in the spirit of one
who did it as a task.
If one wishes to raise trout on artificial food he must bend to
the task as he would if he were to raise any other stock in quan-
tities in confined quarters ; but he can arrange natural spawning
races, and either take the eggs by hand or let them be laid by the
fish, and be satisfied with a much less number of fish hatched,.
RECENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION 761
and then let them take care of themselves in a large pond or lake
of suitable temperature, and, if the water is not infested with
sunfish, perch, and other enemies which are beginning to look for
food in the spring when the young trout is also looking for its
first food, there is every prospect of success.
RECENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION.
By Prof. E. P. EVANS.
"FN 1879 a Catholic professor of theology in the University of
-L Bonn, Dr. Heinrich Reusch, published a little volume entitled
Die deutschen Bischofe und der Aberglaube (The German Bish-
ops and Superstition), in which he called attention to the vast in-
crease of superstitious beliefs and observances within the Catho-
lic Church since the middle of the present century, and to the
official approval and promulgation of them by the highest eccle-
siastical authorities. He animadverted severely on the extent to
which this tendency had tainted the religious literature most
widely diffused by the clergy among the masses of the people, and
censured especially the pious pamphlets and periodicals issued by
the Jesuits, such as Monat-Rosen zu Ehren der Unbefleckten
Gottes-Mutter Maria, and Der Sendbote des gotthichen Herzens
Jesu, both of which are edited by disciples of Loyola at Inns-
bruck under the auspices of the Bishops of Salzburg, Brixen, and
Trent, and with the benediction of Pope Pius IX. In these
monthly sheets one would seek in vain for a moral maxim or
practical precept inculcating kindness, truthfulness, and honesty
in the common relations of life, but their pages are filled with
records of miracles wrought and demons discomfited by conse-
crated medals, chrisms, holy waters, sacred scapularies, seraphic
girdles, and relics of the saints.
During the fifteen years that have elapsed since Prof. Reusch
uttered his earnest protest against this gross abuse of sacerdotal
functions and spiritual power, the evils which he lamented and
endeavored to correct have grown decidedly worse. In Germany
the most important of the influences and events that have con-
tributed to this deplorable result was the so-called Kulturkampf,
or antagonism of the state to the Church in the interests of modern
culture as opposed to the arrogant claims of a mediseval hier-
archy. The inevitable effect of this conflict was to consolidate
the forces of ultramontanism and to render them supreme in the
papacy, to bind priests and people more firmly together, and to
VOL. XLVII. 62
762 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
alienate the clergy from the cultivated classes of civil society.
Universities have been superseded to a considerable extent by
cloistral schools and special seminaries for the instruction of
ecclesiastics, who, in consequence of such intellectual isolation,
are as ignorant of the achievements of modern science and the
chief currents of modern thought as though they lived in the
ninth instead of the nineteenth century. Quite recently the Ger-
man Imperial Government suggested the desirability and indi-
cated the intention of establishing a Catholic faculty of theology
in connection with the University of Strasburg ; but the project
was disapproved by the Alsatian bishop and met with general op-
position on the part of the Catholic press in Germany, so great
was the distrust of any intimate association with the centers of
higher secular education. Also the convention of Catholics held
at Cologne during the last week in August, 1894, expressed no
word in favor of the afore-mentioned plan, but passed a resolution
urging the immediate founding of a university at Fulda, which
should be sanctioned by the Pope, controlled by the bishops, and
wholly independent of the state. The kind of instruction which
young men would receive in such an institution may be easily
imagined. The hexahemera of the fathers and the works of Al-
bertus Magnus would be the text-books in natural science, while
theology and philosophy would be nothing but a rehash of the
quiddities and quodlibets of Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus.
Two books recently published may be cited as fair specimens
of the sort of researches to which the professors of the proposed
Fulda University would probably devote their time and talents.
The first of these volumes is entitled Wunder und gottliche
Gnadenerweise bei der Ausstellung des heiligen Rockes zu Trier
im Jahre 1891 ; aktenmassig dargestellt von Dr. Felix Korum,
Bischof von Trier, of which a fourth edition has just been issued
by the Paulinus printing office in Trier (Treves). When it was
announced in 1890 that the " holy coat " of Trier would, after a
lapse of forty-six years, be again exhibited for the adoration of
the faithful, many sincere Catholics could hardly believe that, in
the latter half of the nineteenth century, such an appeal to the
crassest religious credulity would be made, or that it would meet
with any general response. Nevertheless the exhibition took
place in the following year and was crowned with immense suc-
cess. Vast crowds of people flocked to the sacred shrine, and ru-
mors went forth throughout the land of persons who had touched
the garment and proved its miraculous virtue by being healed of
their infirmities. This immense concourse of devotees presented
to the eyes of the bishop a " glorious spectacle " and is character-
ized by him as in itself a " moral miracle " ; a mind less blinded
by bigotry, and therefore more capable of tracing the logical con-
RECENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION. 763
nection between cause and effect, would discover in this marvelous
phenomenon only the natural result of the kind of religious in-
struction that has been systematically imparted by the Catholic
clergy to the souls intrusted to their special care and spiritual
cure during the last fifty years, and against which Prof. Reusch
deemed it necessary to utter his solemn words of protest and of
warning.
Dr. Korum seeks to give his brochure a quasi-scientific charac-
ter by a so-called " documentary representation " of the miracles
wrought by the " holy coat," consisting of certificates issued by
obscure curates and country doctors and indorsed by an episcopal
commission of theologians and physicians, who have very dis-
creetly forgotten to sign their names to their reports and thus re-
lieved themselves of all personal responsibility for their opinions.
The Council of Trent decreed that no new miracles are to be ac-
cepted as authentic unless allowed and approved by the diocesan
bishop, who, after taking the advice of theologians and other
pious men, is to come to a decision which shall be consentaneous
to truth and piety (veritati et pietati consentanea). Unfortu-
nately, the interests of truth and piety are not always identical,
and the demands of the former are apt to prove fatal to the claims
of the latter. The diseases reported by our author as having been
healed were nervous and hysterical affections, chorea or St. Vitus's
dance, and a few cases of certain milder forms of lupus and tabes,
which, as is well known, often disappear for months and even
for years without the aid of medicine or miracles. It is also
essential to a miracle that the afflicted person should be instan-
taneously relieved, or " cured from that very hour." The bishop,
however, records no instance of this kind ; as a rule, a very con-
considerable time elapsed, often weeks and months, before the
contact with the " holy coat " began to produce any perceptible
effects ; meanwhile the patient had been subject to a variety of
sanitary influences, such as change of scene and other diversions,
any one of which might have brought about the desired result,
and in some cases also underwent medical treatment. Under such
circumstances it would be the height of absurdity even for those
who admit the possibility of the miraculous healing of disease to
claim that the recovery was due to supernatural causes. Indeed,
of the thirty-eight cures said to have taken place during the
exhibition of the "holy coat," Dr. Korum owns that twenty-
seven may have been 'effected by natural means, thus leaving
only eleven in which he would fain discover the working of di-
vine agencies.
One of the most eminent of modern neuropathologists, the late
Prof. Charcot, published shortly before his death an interesting
paper on faith-healing, in which he acknowledges the reality of
764 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
the cures performed by this means, and states that his own prac-
tice furnishes many examples of the kind ; but every therapeutic-
miracle, he adds, has its explanation, and we are gradually becom-
ing better acquainted with the laws which govern the origin and
evolution of such phenomena, and better able to trace them to
their natural causes. Two factors are absolutely essential to
cures of this kind : first, a peculiar mental constitution of the
patient, easily accessible to confidence, credulity, or, as it is now
called, suggestibility ; secondly, a certain definite form of disease
confined to a very small province in the domain of therapeutics,
and comprising only those affections which the influence exerted
by the mind upon the body suffices to heal. To this class of ail-
ments belong partial or complete paralysis, cramps, convulsions,
and similar functional disorders, tumors and ulcers, muscular
atrophy, defective vision and other troubles of a hysterical na-
ture, which can be cured by hypnotic suggestion, or by impressing
upon the mind of the patient the conviction of their nonexistence,
or by appealing to the firm belief in some remedy which has no
intrinsic virtue. Under such circumstances a cripple may recover
the use of his limbs simply by being commanded to rise up and
walk, or a person suffering from lobes dorsualis may be restored to
health and strength by wearing a holy relic of high repute or by
going on a pilgrimage to some wonder-working shrine. In both
cases the cure is effected by the exercise of credulity under more
or less morbid and abnormal conditions produced either by som-
nambulism or superstition ; but in neither case is the result at-
tributable to supernatural causes. The sole aim of the physician
is to heal the sick, and he should be liberal-minded enough to
make use of any remedy which experience has proved to be effect-
ive— it may be a pill or a pilgrimage, a dose of sulphur or devotion
to a saint. In conclusion, Dr. Korum declares that " the Lord by
these marvelous manifestations of his almighty power has in a
special manner indorsed and confirmed the worship of relics,"
and adds that " the occurrence of so many miracles in our en-
lightened nineteenth century is annihilating to the haughtiness
of scientific research." The good bishop does not seem to be
aware that the events which he records, admitting the accuracy
of his descriptions, are merely illustrations and confirmations of
the most recent scientific researches and discoveries in the prov-
ince of neuropathology.
Dr. Korum also endeavors to show that miracles involve no
violation of the laws of Nature, but are only the temporary coun-
teraction of their ordinary effects through the operation of
higher laws. The following example may serve as a specimen of
his reasoning on this point : A stone falls to the ground in obedi-
ence to the law of gravitation ; the human arm or other agency
RECENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION. 765
may cause it to rise into the air ; this upward movement is, how-
ever, no violation of the law of gravitation, but merely a counter-
action of its usual workings through the intervention of a superior
force ; therefore, miracles are wrought without violating natural
laws. We commend this palpable non sequitur to any writer
who wishes to make a collection of peculiarly gross fallacies for a
work on logic.
An admirable reply to Dr. Korum's book is a brochure of
eighty-three pages written by Friedrich Jaskowski, and entitled
Der Trierer Rock und seine Patienten vom Jahre 1891 (Saar-
briicken : Carl Schmidtke, 1894). The author is a Catholic priest
in the diocese of Trier, and therefore under the jurisdiction of the
bishop, the absurdity of whose statements and the untenableness
of whose arguments he so courageously exposes and so conclu-
sively refutes. The holy coat, he says, has been in the custody of
the cathedral since the twelfth century, and was exhibited and
adored as a sacred relic probably a dozen times from 1512 to 1810,
but during these three centuries no healing virtue or wonder-
working power was ever ascribed to it. In 1810 some ignorant and
superstitious devotees reported that miracles had been wrought
by it, but these stories were not indorsed by the ecclesiastical
authorities. Not until 1844 did the popular demand for miracles
become so loud and persistent that Bishop Arnoldi finally yielded
to it and announced officially that "bodily wonders" or miracu-
lous cures had been performed. If the holy coat can restore the
sick, Jaskowski thinks it rather odd that it should have no power
of self-restoration ; it gets moldy when shut up in a damp closet,
wears out by use, and has to be cleaned, darned, and patched like
any other garment. The miracles of healing cited by Dr. Korum
are then subjected to a critical examination and shown to be
utterly unworthy of credence. In several instances the persons
said to have been cured died shortly afterward. Of the thirty-
eight cases cited, thirteen were men and twenty-five women.
" This predilection for the fair sex " is a rather suspicious circum-
stance, indicating that the maladies were mostly hysterical and
nervous and might be easily ameliorated by any influence that
would powerfully affect the imagination, without the aid of either
medicine or miracles. Jaskowski quotes Prof. Charcot, Dr. Forel,
and other neuropathologists to prove that hetero-suggestion
emanating from a physician or priest, or auto-suggestion origi-
nating in the person's own mind, may often be the most effective
remedy for disorders of this kind. In auto-suggestion the pa-
tient is possessed with the fixed idea that the doing of a certain
thing, which may be in itself absolutely indifferent, will afford
relief ; as an example of this faith-cure Jaskowski refers to the
woman who was diseased with an issue of blood, and approaching
7 66 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY,
Jesus said within herself, " If I may but touch his garment, I
shall be whole." This is precisely the position taken by Jesus
himself, who turned to the woman and said : " Daughter, be of
good comfort ; thy faith hath made thee whole." On another oc-
casion it is expressly declared by the evangelist that in a certain
place the unbelief of the people, or their lack of faith, prevented
the doing of many wondrous works. Jaskowski does not deny
that on this principle, which is now recognized by the most emi-
nent physicians, some persons may have been restored to health
by touching the holy coat of Trier ; and there is no doubt that the
popular belief in Bishop Korum's assertion that it is the same
garment which Jesus wore and the woman touched, would greatly
increase its healing efficacy through the force of auto-suggestion.
In conclusion Jaskowski declares that the cases of healing, so far
as they actually occurred, "were not due to a miracle or any
direct interference of God with the established course of things,
but happened in a purely natural manner."
The success, both devotional and pecuniary, which attended
the exhibition of the holy coat of Trier in 1801 on German soil
excited the religious and patriotic zeal of French Catholics, who
resolved to try what healing virtue might still inhere in the " holy
seamless coat" of Argenteuil. This rival relic, the gift of the
Byzantine Empress Irene to Charlemagne, had not been officially
exposed and had its therapeutic powers publicly tested since 1680,
and it was decided that the " elevation " should take place from
May 14 to June 10 in the year of grace 1894. No sooner was this
announcement made than it greatly alarmed the jealousy of
Trier, whose bishop published a pastoral letter denying the gen-
uineness of the coat at Argenteuil, and inviting the faithful to
pay their devotions only to that at Trier. This view was also
taken by a French ecclesiastic, the Benedictine Abbe" Vonel, who
wrote a pamphlet declaring that the legend of the Argenteuil
relic had no historical foundation, and that the whole thing was
merely a " pious illusion," which the Church should have sufficient
love of truth as well as sense of her own worthiness to repudiate.
This conclusion filled the inhabitants of Argenteuil with conster-
nation ; especially the tradesmen and innkeepers of the little town
on the Seine uttered loud and indignant protests against the at-
tempt to tarnish the traditional glory of this sacred shrine and to
diminish the prospect of putting money in their pockets, while the
people of Trier rejoiced at the condemnation and probable extinc-
tion of a dangerous competitor. At this juncture Monseigneur
Richard, Archbishop of Paris, intervened and induced the Abbe"
Vonel to withdraw his brochure from publication. In order to
remove any lingering traces of skepticism from the public mind,
the Bishop of Versailles submitted a small piece of the holy seam-
RECENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION. 767
less coat to the chemists of the Gobelin manufactory, who re-
ported that the web might possibly date from the time of Christ,
and that the stains may have been produced by blood ; whether
it was really the vesture upon which the Roman soldiers cast lots
they would not undertake to decide. This vague and utterly
worthless document was eagerly seized upon by the bishop and
printed in the newspapers as a confirmation of the truth of ancient
tradition by modern science.
We may add that the ecclesiastical authorities of Argenteuil
do not deny the genuineness of the relic at Trier, but only assert
that it is an upper garment, one of those which Christ's crucifiers
parted among them, whereas theirs is an under garment, worn
next to the skin, and therefore endowed with greater healing
virtue than could possibly be possessed by a mere overcoat. The
masses, however, do not seem to have been seriously affected by
the accusations and recriminations passed backward and forward
between the guardians of the two shrines vying for public patron-
age. On May 14th, the first day of the " elevation," thirty- seven
extra trains left Paris for Argenteuil, and forty-two thousand
persons paid their devotions to the wonder-working coat; and
when the exhibition closed on June 10th half a million pilgrims
had visited the little town on the Seine where, nearly eight cen-
turies ago, the youthful Heloise took the veil after her separation
from Abelard. That thousands were healed of otherwise incur-
able diseases, and the maimed, the halt, and the blind recovered
the use of their limbs and had their sight restored, has undoubt-
edly been fully recorded, and will in due time be officially re-
ported.
Meanwhile the Bonapartists made a bold attempt to take the
tide of popular superstition at the flood, hoping it might lead on
to political fortune. One of their agents, while kneeling in ado-
ration before the holy seamless coat, claims to have received a
divine revelation through the newly canonized tutelar saint of
France, Joan of Arc, who, it seems, has already begun to take a
hand in French politics and to utter prophecies concerning the
future of the land of which she was once the divinely commis-
sioned defender. According to this revelation from on high,
which has been printed on a single sheet of four large octavo
pages and distributed in thousands of copies among the rural
population and in the provincial towns, Prince Victor Napoleon
Y is the predestined ruler of France, and will be elected to the
presidency of the republic by popular suffrage, or attain to sov-
ereignty after bloody civil contests. In either case, Alsace and
Lorraine will, on his accession to power,- be reunited to France
either through diplomatic negotiations or as the issue of a short
but sanguinary foreign war. The recipient of this communica-
768 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
tion asserts that he is now seventy-two years of age, but that God
had assured him, through the mouth of the Virgin, that his eyes
shall see the salvation of France, and that he shall not die until
these predictions have been fulfilled. That such crass supersti-
tion should be made the means of political propagandism in the
last decade of the nineteenth century is certainly a strange phe-
nomenon.
Another book indicating the rank growth of superstition in
recent times is Dr. Theobald Bischofberger's Die Verwaltung des
Exorcistats nach Massgabe des romischen Benediktionale, of which
a new edition, revised and enlarged, was published by Roth at
Stuttgart in 1893. The author evidently prides himself upon his
powers as an exorcist, and relates with great unction and assur-
ance his experiences in casting out devils by a hocus-pocus worthy
of an American medicine-man or an African conjurer. In the
section of his manual entitled Recognition of Demoniac Dis-
eases he states that the signs of diabolical possession are quite
conspicuous, but not altogether infallible, such as understanding
foreign tongues without having learned them, and revealing the
place where objects have been hidden, a peculiar faculty now
known as mind-reading. Some persons thus affected are subject
to fits of fainting ; others shake and shiver as though they had
the ague ; others break out into profuse perspiration, or are seized
with an irrepressible tendency to yawn, often developing into
chronic oscitation. Sometimes the symptoms are imperceptible
to the observer, as when the patient complains of internal heat,
or suffers from constriction of the head, confusion of ideas, roar-
ing in the ears, and similar troubles. Dr. Bischofberger admits
that disorders produced by demons are difficult to distinguish
from those due to natural causes. Thus the paroxysms of an epi-
leptic who is diabolically possessed do not differ from those of an
epileptic who has ansemia of the brain or other cerebral affection.
The sensations of the aura epileptica and the convulsions that fol-
low them are the same, whatever may be their origin. There is,
however, one sure means of determining whether a disease is
demoniac or not — namely, the use of the pr&ceptum probativum
or exorcismus probation-is, by which the demon or demons, if
there are several of them, are commanded in the name of Jesus to
give a clear and manifest sign of their presence, and, if they have
any power over this creature of God in his sickness, to agitate
him and do the same things in the presence of the exorcist that
they have been wont to do in his absence : Prsecipio tibi daemon,
vel vobis da^monibus, si plures sitis, in nomine Jesu, ut mihi ali-
quod signum evidens et manif estum faciatis vestrise prsesentise, si
aliquam potestatem habeatis in hanc creaturem Dei in hac ejus
in eegrotatione, agitando earn vel coram me aliquid ex iis faciendo,
RECENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION. 769
quod me absente in ea faciebatis — in nomine Pa+tris, etc. While
repeating this formula, which, is efficacious only in Latin, the
priest is to lay his hand or, better still, some holy relic on the
person possessed. " This conjuration/' says our author, " may
make the ungodly laugh, but the devil must obey and make his
presence known, so great is the potency of these words." If the
evil spirit were ordered to come out of the person, the command
might not be obeyed, owing to some moral or physical obstacle
to the demon's exit, which must first be removed ; but if told to
give a sign of his presence he must do so ; otherwise (and mark
the peculiar cogency of the priest's logic) there would be no truth
in the apostle Paul's assertion that " at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and
things under the earth. . . . The inhabitants of heaven," he adds,
" bow the knee in rapturous devotion, the pious children of the
Church in humble faith, and the spirits of hell with repugnance
and gnashing of teeth, but they yield to compulsion and bow the
knee."
Herr Bischofberger prudently leaves many a loophole of es-
cape in case of failure : the demon may refuse to obey if the priest
lacks faith, or utters the words in jest, or lives an evil life, or if
the patient has little or no faith, or by the commission of a deadly
sin has fallen into the toils of Satan, who has thus acquired an
irreversible right to his soul. One would think that these excep-
tions would cover most instances of obstinacy on the part of the
demon. Our author states that often, in his own experience, " the
prozceptum probativum did not produce any effect until the pa-
tient had made a general confession and received full absolution."
He also notes that devils, like all evil-doers, are fond of going
about in disguise, and if they perceive that they hold possession
by a precarious tenure, and that their incognito is endangered,
they will sometimes depart before the exorcist asks their names,
or practice all sorts of equivocations and evasions, like a criminal
under inquisition of the police.
If the demoniac infestation is connected with a physical mala-
dy of any sort, the case becomes exceedingly complicated, and the
exorcism is attended with great difficulty, since the evil spirits
obstinately resist all efforts to expel them by intrenching them-
selves in the ills that flesh is heir to. Diabolical possession, if per-
mitted to continue for a long time, finally gets to be chronic and
inveterate, and develops into an organic and incurable disease.
Yery often, too, it is quite impossible to determine whether the
demon is the originary cause of the malady or merely takes occa-
sion of it to get possession of the person through the breach made
by illness, like an enemy lying in wait and ready to seize every
opportunity to assault the temporary citadel of the soul. Worn-
770 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
en, however healthy, are, from the very nature of their sex, sub-
ject to various bodily indispositions from which men are wholly
free, and are therefore more liable to demoniac affections ; hence
the vast number of unfortunate women who have suffered as
witches in times past, not necessarily because they were wicked
or morally corrupt, but because they were weak, the devil taking
advantage of their physical infirmities to get possession of their
persons and to make them the agents of his will.
The theory that " sin is the source of demoniac infestations "
is accepted by Dr. Bischofberger only in its general application to
the human race ; if applied to individuals and families, he thinks
it often works great injustice. He censures the conduct of many
guardians of souls, who say to those afflicted by demons: "It
serves you right ; you ought to lead a different life ; Satan has
power only over bad people." Such remarks betray a lamen-
table ignorance of the devil's devious ways and cunning devices.
Equally reprehensible is it to tell mothers who seek help from
the Church for their suffering children: "Your child has been
baptized and is in a state of saving and sanctifying grace and
inaccessible to devils. You must consult a physician." The
truth is, adds our author, little children are very frequently
demoniacally possessed for the same reason that women are;
on this account the old diocesan benedictionals contained a spe-
cial exorcismus parvulorum a dczmone infeslatorum, which has
now been in a great measure superseded by the equally effective
formula benedictio puerorum cegroiantium of the Romish bene-
dictional.
In illustration of his views on this subject Dr. Bischofberger
asserts that a place where a murder or other heinous crime has
been committed, if the offense remains undetected and unexpiated,
is sure to become the haunt of evil spirits and the scene of all
sorts of diabolic orgies, such as are so frequently described in the
annals of witchcraft. This state of things may continue for cen-
turies, and a house or barn built upon such a spot will be demo-
niacally infested, to the great annoyance of the indwellers, whether
men or cattle. The samp is true of houses whose inhabitants
have been guilty of gross iniquities, murder, brutality, blasphemy,
caricature of sacred rites, mockery of holy things, necromancy,
etc. Satan, having once got possession, is a tenacious tenant and
can not be easily dislodged ; and a subsequent proprietor, however
pure and pious he may be, will have to suffer the consequences of
these sins. Indeed, it is a noteworthy fact that, so long as such a
dwelling is occupied by godless persons, the demons are compara-
tively quiet, the devil recognizing them as his allies and letting
them alone ; but no sooner does it pass into the possession of a
good Christian than " the long-repressed flame of demoniac inf es-
RECENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION. 771
tation bursts forth/' It therefore behooves purchasers of real
estate to ascertain not only that the deed to the property is valid
and the conveyance firm in law, but that it is also unencumbered
by devils as well as by debts since a Satanic lien may ultimately
be the source of greater annoyance than a mortgage or mortmain,
or any other sort of legal claim. On this principle, property that
has been in the hands of pious people from time immemorial
ought to have a higher market value than the dwelling places of
the notoriously wicked. Our author thus emphasizes the truth
of Holy Writ by showing that not only is " godliness profitable
unto all things," but also, as mediaeval writers were wont to say,
unto some things besides, which the apostle Paul in his admoni-
tions to his " son Timothy " never dreamed of.
Exorcism may be practiced by any regularly consecrated
priest with the approval of the diocesan bishop. It is by no
means necessary to be a saint in order to possess this power.
" Such a demand would be absurd. Saints can not be stamped
out of the ground at pleasure, although it would be an excellent
thing if all priests were saints. . . . Priestly ordination and a
pure life suffice to overcome demons, at least in most cases." But
in addition to sacerdotal dignity and personal worthiness certain
physical qualities are desirable. A priest who is infirm or prone
to melancholy or of a timid disposition ought not to undertake
such duties. Strong faith, robust health, moral courage, force of
will, and a certain inventive genius in extemporizing expedients
within permissible limits are essential to the highest success in
coping with devils. " The instructions which precede the exorcis-
mus ad liberandos obsessos, in the Roman ritual, leave much to
the personal initiative and spontaneity of the exorcist, who, by
making a proper use of this freedom, is often able to confuse and
conquer the infernal adversary beyond the most sanguine expec-
tation." Dr. Bischofberger gives an example of what can be ac-
complished by such ingenuity from his own experience. In order
to expel the devils from a house in which a murder had been
committed fifty years before and gone unpunished, he bored holes
in the four corners of the doors, and after filling them with con-
secrated objects pegged them in. After a time, seeing that this
measure had proved ineffectual, he investigated the matter, and
found that the pegs had been pulled out and the contents of the
holes removed. He then replaced the holy objects, scorched the
pegs in the flame of a consecrated candle, dipped them in holy
water, and drove them into the holes. This ingenious device
threw the devils into the utmost confusion and compelled them to
vacate the premises, from which repeated efforts had been made
to expel them for more than three months.
Demons are said to watch with lively interest the progress of
772 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
modern science and to build great hopes upon it. On one occa-
sion, when the priest came with consecrated oil (oleum simplex)
and holy water and began to utter the prescribed exorcism, the
evil spirit cried out : " Woe is me ! I thought that rubbish had
long since gone out of vogue and been discarded as dead supersti-
tion." In the ages of faith it was customary to cast out devils in
the presence of the whole congregation ; but, owing to the growth
of skepticism even among so-called believers, it is now deemed bet-
ter to do it scorsum a multitudine (apart from the crowd), which
would be attracted by idle curiosity rather than by the spirit of
devotion. It is desirable, however, that the priest should select
from the kinsmen and friends of the energumen a number of pious
men who, after confessing and taking the communion, shall sus-
tain him by prayer and fasting. Dr. Bischof berger firmly believes
that our insane asylums contain many demoniacs who might be
healed by the Church, but whom " science falsely so called " has
condemned to the madhouse and the strait-jacket ; he condemns
the priests who would fain show their enlightenment by indors-
ing the decisions of the alienist, and exclaims : " O spirit of the
age ! How strongly hast thou infected even the clergy ! " It may
also be regarded as a concession to this spirit that it is now ad-
missible to call in a physician in order to repair the damages done
by the demon to the bodily organism, whereas in the middle ages,
and indeed down to the seventeenth century, the Church posi-
tively forbade any such intervention, and maintained that the
divine power which cast out the devil would also heal the breach.
With the general decline of faith in miracles it is permitted to
have recourse to medicine, which, however, must be blessed by a
priest before being administered to the patient.
In Italy a priest is usually called in, not only to bless newly
erected buildings but also to sprinkle with holy water and to
fumigate with incense every house in the octaves of Easter. Dr.
Bischof berger regrets that this " laudable custom " does not prevail
in Germany, since the old maxim that " an ounce of prevention is
worth a pound of cure " applies with peculiar force to the treat-
ment of demonical possession. We are also told that a very disa-
greeable " aura corrumpens " is apt to pervade all dwellings
which have been infested for a long time, and that this taint re-
mains many years after the demons have been expelled. A sensi-
tive person can not enter such a house without being seized with
dizziness, nausea, or strange nervous sensations which manifest
themselves in palpitations of the heart, sudden paleness, and
trembling of the limbs. The carnal mind, which is at enmity
with all supernatural interpretations of natural phenomena, would
suggest that these symptoms indicate inadequate ventilation and
would seek relief in opening the windows and letting in fresh
RECENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION. 773
air rather than in aspersions and adjurations and benedictiones
locorum.
Essentially the same method is to be pursued in freeing stables
and cattle from demons, only other formulas of benediction are
used, such as the benedictus stabuli, or pabuli, or jumentorum, or
medicines pro animalibus, as the case may be. The first thing to be
done is to bore holes in the four corners of the doorcase and to
fill them with bits of Easter candles and other consecrated ob-
jects. Great efficacy is attributed to this procedure, " since doors
have a symbolical significance, on account of which the Jews
were commanded to smear the door-posts with the blood of the
paschal lamb." Signs of the cross are also to be burned in the
hair of the cattle between their horns and in the manes of horses
while pronouncing in Latin the words " In the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost." Curiously complicated knots and
intricate twists and tangles in the hair of animals " are always
signs of demoniac infestation." Some eleven years ago the cattle
of a peasant in Dr. Bischofberger's parish had their jaws so
cramped and contracted that they could hardly eat. The demo-
niac attack, although severest at feeding time, extended more or
less over the whole day and night. If the cows succeeded in get-
ting a little fodder into their mouths, they would keep it there
almost motionless for half an hour or more, and only swallow
just enough to keep them alive, and after four or five weeks they
were all reduced to the verge of starvation. Our learned doctor
of divinity then went through with the prescribed benedictions of
kine, fodder, stall, etc., as above mentioned, and standing before
each animal in turn said, " I command you, demon, in the name
of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that you desist from tormenting
this creature of God and no longer disturb it in the exercise of its
natural functions." Gradually they began to chew their food
slowly, and no sooner was a cross burned in the tuft of hair be-
tween the horns than they fell to and ate with a ravenous ap-
petite.
In another case with which he had to deal he found the devil
more obstinate. A peasant woman had suffered from various
ailments, and after giving birth to a child fell into a state of ex-
treme nervous prostration. The prwceptum probativum indicated
demoniac infestation. By the use of consecrated oil and the proper
benedictions the evil spirit was cast out of the woman, but went
into the stable, where the cattle became strongly agitated. The
bovine benedictions expelled it from the cattle, when it returned
to the woman, from whom it passed into her husband and chil-
dren, but, owing to their good health and bodily soundness, it
could find no firm foothold there and was easily driven out,
whereupon it went back to the woman and one of the cows. A
774 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
veterinarian gave the animal some medicine, which the priest had
blessed, and benedictions were pronounced upon the entire build-
ing with all its inmates, men and cattle. Shortly afterward it
was found that the devil, instead of going back to hell as told to
do, had taken up his abode in the well, which was about half a
dozen yards from the house, for no sooner did the cows drink the
water than their hair bristled and stood on end ; also the woman
had a relapse after taking a sip of it. Dr. Bischofberger expelled
the devil from the well by throwing into it a little consecrated
salt, and, after chasing him with the weapons of the Church from
one nook and corner to another, finally succeeded in getting rid
of him and purgating the whole premises. " We thus see," he
concludes, " how the demon makes every effort to deceive, weary,
and discourage the officiating priest."
Another important sacerdotal function is the cleansing of
milk pails, churns, and other vessels used in the dairy from demo-
niac infection, which is frequently caused by women touching such
vessels during menstruation. However excellent the cream may
appear to be, no amount of churning can convert it into butter.
In such cases the churn and all the other vessels connected with
the dairy should be scalded with hot water and then sprinkled
with holy water and dried in the sun, after which it would be
well to ward off the possible return of the evil spirit by pro-
nouncing over them the benedictio ad omnia. " The hot water
removes the natural hindrances and the holy water the demoniac
hindrances to the production of butter."
The secret and inexplicable abduction of milk and eggs is also
the work of devils. " It is well known," says our author, " that
angels, at least some choirs or orders of them, have the power of
moving visible objects in an invisible manner from one place to
another." Ecclesiastical history, especially in the province of
hagiology, contains numerous instances of the exercise of this
power. Thus, in 1867, when St. Francisca of the Five Wounds
(or Stigmata) was canonized, her claims to sainthood were based
in part upon a legend of this kind. It was seriously related on
that occasion that while her pastor and confessor, Father Bianchi,
was celebrating mass, after the transubstantiation in the eucha-
rist had taken place, the cup suddenly disappeared for a moment
and returned to the altar. " This happened repeatedly, and it was
subsequently ascertained " (how, we are not informed) " that the
archangel Raphael had meanwhile carried the cup to Saint Fran-
cisca at times when she would otherwise have had to go without
the holy communion." (Leben der Heiligen (Francisca). Mainz :
Kirchheim, 1880, pp. 193 sqq). It is easy enough to explain how
a blear-eyed priest in a dark church might for a minute lose
sight of a small object on the altar, such as a goblet or a pyx,
REGENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION. 775
without the intervention of an archangel. Indeed, almost every-
one has had a similar experience in looking for something on a
table or shelf in vain, and then finding it there a few moments
later. The momentary oversight may be due to mental abstrac-
tion or to a transient visual blur. The angels, we are assured, did
not lose by their fall this power of carrying off things invisibly,
which therefore remains an attribute of devils, and enables them
to indulge their propensity to steal without detection. They
sometimes pilfer fruit and grain, but seem to have a special fond-
ness for milk and eggs, a very simple diet, one would think, for
infernal spirits. Many persons who keep fowls are often sur-
prised that they do not get any eggs. The hen sits on the nest,
lays or at least cackles, but the nest is empty. If such a hen be
killed, plenty of eggs in a more or less advanced stage of develop-
ment will be found in the ovary, and the oviduct will prove to be
perfectly healthy and normal. From these facts a strictly logical
mind, like that of our learned doctor, can come to only one con-
clusion : a demon stole the eggs. The same is true of cows, goats,
and other lactiferous animals which grow lean and cease to give
milk, although they are provided with the most nutritious fodder.
" In such cases it is right to assume the workings of witchcraft,
and to apply the formula contra maleficium invisibilis dblationis
lactis, etc., of the Constance Benedictional." In the earlier cen-
turies of the Christian era, before this ritual existed, simpler
methods of exorcism were employed and are still effective, such as
blessing the stalls, the fodder, and the cows, and washing the
teats with holy water, which may be warmed if the animals are
sensitive to cold. Snarled tufts of hair or tangles of hemp indi-
cate demonism, and should be thrown into the fire with the
words " In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost."
Dr. Bischofberger admits that " egg-stealing is more difficult to
stop, because the priest has less power over hens." The best rem-
edy is to surround the nests with consecrated things, so that the
demon can not get through without coming in contact with them ;
he will then probably desist. Granaries and fruit lofts are to be
protected in the same manner.
In conclusion, the author of this manual of exorcism says,
" People fondly imagine that these cunning devices of the Prince
of Darkness may have been practiced in former centuries, but
that they have been dissipated by the light of the nineteenth cen-
tury like the mist before the sun." His thirty-seven years' expe-
rience as a priest prove this optimistic assumption to be wholly
unfounded.
776 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY.
By Prof. MICHAEL FOSTEK.
TWO scenes in Huxley's life stand out clear and full of mean-
ing amid my recollections of him, reaching now some forty
years back. Both took place at Oxford, both at meetings of the
British Association. The first, few witnesses of which now re-
main, was the memorable discussion on Darwin in 1860. The
room was crowded though it was a Saturday, and the meeting
was excited. The bishop had spoken ; cheered loudly from time
to time during his speech, he sat down amid rapturous applause,
ladies waving their handkerchiefs with great enthusiasm ; and in
almost dead silence, broken merely by greetings which, coming
only from the few who knew, seemed as nothing, Huxley, then
well-nigh unknown outside the narrow circle of scientific work-
ers, began his reply. A cheer, chiefly from a knot of young men
in the audience, hearty but seeming scant through the fewness of
those who gave it, and almost angrily resented by some, welcomed
the first point made. Then as, slowly and measuredly at first,
more quickly and with more vigor later, stroke followed stroke,
the circle of cheers grew wider and yet wider, until the speaker's
last words were crowned with an applause falling not far short of,
indeed equaling, that which had gone before, an applause hearty
and genuine in its recognition that a strong man had arisen among
the biologists of England.
The second scene, that of 1894, is still fresh in the minds of all.
No one who was present is likely to forget how, when Huxley
rose to second the vote of thanks for the presidential address, the
whole house burst into a cheering such as had never before been
witnessed on any like occasion, a cheering which said, as plainly
as such things can say, "This is the faithful servant who has
labored for more than half a century on behalf of science with his
face set firmly toward truth, and we want him to know that his
labors have not been in vain." Nor is any one likely to forget
the few carefully chosen, wise, pregnant words which fell from
him when the applause died away. Those two speeches, the one
long and polemical, the other brief and judicial, show, when taken
together, many of the qualities which made Huxley great and
strong.
Among those qualities perhaps the most dominant, certainly
the most effective as regards his influence on the world, were, on
the one hand, an alertness, a quickness of apprehension, and a
clear way of thinking, which, in dealing with a problem, made
him dissatisfied with any solution incapable of rigid proof and
incisive expression ; he seemed always to go about with a halo of
THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY. 777
clear light immediately around him ; and, on the other hand, that
power of foreseeing future consequences of immediate action
which forms the greater part of what we call sagacity. The for-
mer gave him his notable dialectic skill, and mark all his contri-
butions to scientific literature ; the latter made him, in addition,
an able administrator and a wise counselor, both within the tents
of science and beyond. These, at least, were his dominant intel-
lectual qualities ; but even more powerful were the qualities in
him which, though allied, we distinguish as moral ; and perhaps
the greater part of his influence over his fellows was due to the
fact that every one who met him saw in him a man bent on fol-
lowing the true and doing the right, swerving aside no tittle, either
for the sake of reward or for fear of the enemy, a man whose
uttered scorn of what was mean and cowardly was but the recip-
rocal of his inward love of nobleness and courage.
Bearing in mind his possession of these general qualities, we
may find the key to the influence exerted by him on biological
science in what he says of himself in his all too short autobio-
graphic sketch — namely, that the bent of his mind was toward
mechanical problems, and that it was the force of circumstances
which, frustrating his boyish wish to be a mechanical engineer,
brought him to the medical profession. Probably the boyish
wish was merely the natural outcome of an early feeling that the
solution of mechanical problems was congenial to the clear, deci-
sive way of thinking, to which I referred above, and which was
obviously present even in the boy ; and that it was not the sub-
ject-matter of mechanical problems, but the mode of treating
them which interested him, is shown by the incident recorded by
himself, how when he was a mere boy a too zealous attention to a
post-mortem examination cost him a long illness. It is clear that
the call to solve biologic problems came to him early ; it is also
clear that the call was a real one; and, as he himself has said, he
recognized his calling when, after some years of desultory reading
and lonely, irregular mental activity, he came under the influence
of Wharton Jones at Charing Cross Hospital. That made him a
biologist, but confirmed the natural aptitude of his mind in mak-
ing him a biologist who, rejecting all shadowy, intangible views,
was to direct his energies to problems which seemed capable of
clear demonstrable proof. In many respects the biologic prob-
lems which lend themselves most readily to demonstrable solu-
tions capable of verification are those which constitute what we
call physiology ; and if at the time of his youth the way had been
open to him, Huxley would probably have become known as a
physiologist. But at that time careers for physiologists were of
the fewest. His master, Wharton Jones, a physiologist of the
first rank, whose work in the first half of this century still re-
YOL. XLVII. — 63
778 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
mains of classic value, had been driven to earn his bread as an
ophthalmic surgeon, and an even greater physiologist, William
Bowman, was following the same course. There was no opening
in physiology for the young student at Charing Cross, and he was
driven by stress of circumstances to morphological rather than to
strictly physiological problems ; but it was not until long after,
when he had achieved eminence as a morphologist, that he finally
abandoned his old wish to hold a physiological chair.
Looking back on the past, we may now be glad that circum-
stances were against his wishes ; for (though in every branch of
science there is need at all times of a great man) there was at the
middle of the century, in the early fifties, a special need in mor-
phology for a man of Huxley's mold. Richard Owen was then
dominant, and it is an acknowledged feature of Owen's work that
in it there was a sudden leap from most admirable detailed de-
scriptive labor to dubious speculations, based for the most part
on, or at least akin to, the philosophy of Oken. Of the " new
morphology" in which Johannes Miiller was leading the way,
and the criteria of which had been furnished by the labors of von
Baer, there was then but little in England save, perhaps, what
was to be found in the expositions of Carpenter. Of this new
morphology, by which this branch of biology was brought into a
line with other exact sciences, and the note of which was not to
speculate on guiding forces and on the realization of ideals, but
to determine the laws of growth by the careful investigation, as
of so many special problems, of what parts of different animals,
as shown among other ways by the mode of their development,
were really the same or alike, Huxley became at once an apostle.
His very first work, that on the Medusae,, wrought out amid the
distractions of ship life, written on a lonely vessel plowing its
solitary way amid almost unknown seas, away from books and
the communion of his fellow-workers, bears the same marks which
characterize his subsequent memoirs ; it is the effort of a clear
mind striving to see its way through difficult problems, bent on
holding fast only to that which could be proved. This is not the
occasion to insist in detail on the value of the like morphological
work which he produced in the fifties and the sixties, or to show
how he applied to other forms of animal life, to echinoderms, to
tunicates, to arthropods, to molluscs, and last though not least to
vertebrates, the same method of inquiry which guided the work
on the Medusae,. Nor need I dwell on the many valuable results
which he gained for science by attacking in the same spirit the
problems offered by the remains of extinct forms. Moreover, he
strengthened the effect of his own labors by admirable exposi-
tions of the results of others. Further, unlike his great prede-
cessor, who formed no school and had few if any disciples, it was
THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY. 779
Huxley's delight to hold out his hand to every young man who
he thought could profit by his help, and before many years were
over his spirit was moving in the minds of many others. Thus
it came about that during the latter half of this century, owing
largely to Huxley's own labors and to the influence which he
exerted not only in England but abroad, there has been added to
science a large body of morphological truths, truths which have
been demonstrated and must remain, not mere views and theories
which may be washed away.
The excitement of the Darwinian controversy, with its far-
reaching issues, has been apt to make us forget how great has been
the progress of animal morphology during the past half century.
Undoubtedly the solution of special problems touching animal
forms, and the great theory of natural selection through the
struggle for existence, have been closely bound together : the spe-
cial learning has furnished support for the general theory, and
the general theory, besides strongly stimulating inquiry, has illu-
mined the special problems. But the two stand apart, each on its
own basis ; and were it possible to wipe out, as with a sponge,
everything which Darwin wrote, and which his views have
caused to be written, there would still remain a body of science
touching animal forms, both recent and extinct, acquired since
1850, of which we may well be proud. In gaining that knowl-
edge Huxley, as well by his own labors as by his influence
over others, stands foremost, Gegenbaur being almost his only
peer; and had Huxley done nothing more, his name would live
as that of one of the most remarkable biologists of the present
century.
As we all know, he did much more ; his influence on England
and on the world went far beyond that of his purely scientific
writings. But when we reflect that a hundred years hence the
image of the man as he went to and fro among men, so bright
and vivid to-day, will have become dim and colorless, a shadow
as it were, and that then the man will be judged mainly by the
writings which remain, we must count these writings as the chief
basis of his fame. And, though we may think it possible that the
world of that day, much that is unwritten having been forgotten,
may find it in part difficult to understand how great a power
Huxley was in his time, the lapse of years will, we may be sure,
in no way lessen, it may be will heighten, the estimate of his con-
tributions to exact science.
As we all know, he did much more. To the public outside
science he first became known as the bold, outspoken exponent
and advocate of Darwin's views, and indeed to some this is still
his chief fame. There is no need here to dwell on this part of his
work, and I speak of it now chiefly to remark that the zeal with
78o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
which he threw himself into this advocacy was merely a part of
the larger purpose of his life. Science, or, to use the old phrase
of the Royal Society, natural knowledge, had a twofold hold on
Huxley. On the one hand, he felt deeply all the purely intellec-
tual and, if we may use the word, selfish joys of fruitful progress-
ive inquiry after truth. This was dominant in his early days,
and to it we owe the long list of valuable researches of which I
just now spoke, and which followed each other rapidly in the fif-
ties and the sixties. On the other hand, feeling deeply, as he did,
his duties as a citizen of the world, science laid hold of him as
being the true and sure guide to conduct man in all his ways ;
and this latter working of science in him, evident even in early
days (witness his Address to Workingmen at St. Martin's Hall in
1854), grew stronger and stronger as the years went on, until at
last it took almost entire possession of him. To him, indeed, it
may be said, science was all in all. He saw, as others see, in sci-
ence a something which is broadening and strengthening human
life by unceasingly bending Nature to the use of man, and mak-
ing her resources subservient to his desires ; he saw the material
usefulness of science, but he saw something more. He saw also,
as others see, in science a something in which the human mind,
exercising and training itself, makes itself at once nimble and
strong, and dwelling on which is raised to broad and high views
of the nature of things ; he saw in science a means of culture, but
he saw something more. He s^w in science even as it is, and still
more in science as it will be, the sure and trustworthy guide of
man in the dark paths of life. Many a man of science goes, or
seems to others to go, through the world ordering his steps by
two ways of thinking. When he is dealing with the matters the
treatment of which has given him his scientific position, with
physical or with biological problems, he thinks in one way ; when
he is dealing with other matters, those of morals and religion, he
thinks in another way ; he seems to have two minds, and to pass
from the one to the other according to the subject-matter. It was
not so with Huxley. He could not split himself or the universe
into two halves, and treat the one and the other half by two
methods radically distinct and in many ways opposed; he applied
the one method, which he believed to be the true and fruitful one,
to all problems without distinction. And as years came over him,
the duty of making this view clear to others grew stronger and
stronger. Relinquishing, not without bitter regret, little by little,
the calm intellectual joys of the pursuit of narrower morphologi-
cal problems, he became more and more the apostle of the scientific
method, driven to the new career by the force of a pure altruism,
not loving science the less but loving man the more. And his
work in this respect was a double one : he had to teach his scien-
THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY. 78i
tific brethren, at least his biologic brethren, the ways of science,
and he had to teach the world the works of science. It was this
feeling which, on the one hand, led him to devote so much labor
to the organization of biologic science in order that his younger
brethren might be helped to walk in the straight path and to do
their work well. It was this feeling, on the other hand, which
made him urgent in the spread of the teaching of science. It was
this, and no vain love of being known, which led him to the plat-
form and the press. The zeal with which he defended the theory
of natural selection came from his seeing the large issues in-
volved ; to him the theory was a great example of the scientific
method applied successfully to a problem of more than biologic
moment ; while the fierceness of his advocacy was a natural ex-
pression of resentment on the part of one who saw a scientific con-
clusion, gained with unstinted pains and large reasoning, judged
contemptuously by men who knew nothing of science according
to methods in which science had no part.
Science, under this aspect, is a part of what is sometimes called
philosophy ; and though Huxley felt, in common with others, and
felt deeply the pleasures of the intellectual wrestler, struggling
with problems which, seemingly solved and thrown to the ground,
spring up again at once in unsolved strength, it was not these
pleasures alone which led him, especially in his later years, to de-
vote so much time and labor to technical philosophic studies. He
hoped out of the depths of philosophy to call witnesses to the
value of the scientific method. Indeed, nearly all the work of
the latter part of his life, including the last imperfect fragment,
written when the hand of disease which was to be the hand of
death was already laid upon him, and bearing marks of that hand,
was wrought with one desire — namely, to show that the only pos-
sible solutions of the problems of the universe were such as the
scientific method could bring. This was at the bottom of that
antagonism to theology which he never attempted to conceal, and
the real existence of which no one who wishes to form a true
judgment of the man can ignore. He recognized that the only-
two consistent conceptions of man and the universe were the
distinctly theologic one and the scientific one : he put aside as
unworthy of serious attention all between. He was convinced
that the theologic conception was based on error, and much of his
old age was spent in the study of theologic writings whereby he
gathered for himself increasing proof that there was no flaw in
the judgment which had guided his way from his youth upward.
Not only so, but he was no less convinced that, owing to what he
believed to be the essential antagonism of the theologic and the
scientific methods, the dominance of the former was an obstacle
to the progress of the latter. This conviction he freely confessed
782 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
to be the cause of his hostile attitude ; he believed it to be the
justification of even his bitter polemics.
But while on the objective side his scientific mode of thought
thus made him a never-failing opponent of theologic thought of
every kind, a common tie on the subjective side bound him to the
heart of the Christian religion. Strong as was his conviction that
the moral no less than the material good of man was to be secured
by the scientific method alone, strong as was his confidence in the
ultimate victory of that method in the war against ignorance and
wrong, no less clear was his vision of the limits beyond which
science was unable to go. He brought into the current use of to-
day the term " agnostic," but the word had to him a deep and
solemn meaning. To him " I do not know " was not a mere phrase
to be thrown with a light heart at the face of an opponent who asks
a hard question ; it was reciprocally with the positive teachings
of science the guide of his life. Great as he felt science to be, he
was well aware that science could never lay its hand, could never
touch, even with the tip of its finger, that dream with which our
little life is rounded, and that unknown dream was a power as
dominant over him as was the might of known science ; he carried
about with him every day that which he did not know as his guide
of life no less to be minded than that which he did know. Future
visitors to the burial place on the northern heights of London,
seeing on his tombstone the lines —
"And if there be no meeting past the grave,
If all is darkness, silence, yet 'tis rest.
Be not afraid, ye waiting hearts that weep,
For God ' still giveth his beloved sleep,'
And if an endless sleep he wills — so best" —
will recognize that the agnostic man of science had much in com-
mon with the man of faith.
There is still much more to say of him, but this is not the place
to say it. Let it be enough to add that those who had the happi-
ness to come near him knew that besides science and philosophy
there was room in him for yet many other things ; they forgot
the learned investigator, the wise man of action, and the fearless
combatant as they listened to him talking of letters, of pictures,
or of music, always wondering which delighted them most, the
sure thrust with which he hit the mark, whatever it might be, or
the brilliant wit which flashed around his stroke. And yet one
word more. As an object seen first at a distance changes in as-
pect to the looker-on who draws nearer and yet more near, features
unseen afar off filling up the vision close at hand, so he seemed to
change to those who, coming nearer and nearer to him, gained a
happy place within his innermost circle ; his incisive thought, his
PLEASURES OF THE TELESCOPE. 783
wide knowledge, his sure and prompt judgment, his ready and
sharp word, all these shrunk away so as to seem but a small part
of him ; his greater part, and that which most shaped his life, was
seen to be a heart full of love, which, clinging round his family
and his friends in tenderest devotion, was spread over all his fel-
low-men in kindness guided by justice. — Nature.
PLEASURES OF THE TELESCOPE.
Br GAERETT P. SERVISS.
VII.— PISCES, ARIES, TAURUS, AND THE NORTHERN STARS.
THE eastern end of Pisces, represented in map No. 22, includes
most of the interesting telescopic objects that the constella-
tion contains. We begin our exploration at the star numbered
55, a double that is very beautiful when viewed with the three-
inch glass. The components are of magnitudes five and eight,
distance 6"G", p. 192°. The larger star is yellow and the smaller
deep blue. The star 65, while lacking the peculiar charm of con-
trasted colors so finely displayed in 55, possesses an attraction
in the equality of its components which are both of the sixth
magnitude and milk-white. The distance is 4*5*', p. 118°. In 66
we find a swift binary whose components are at present far too
close for any except the largest telescopes. The distance in 1894:
was only 0"36", p. 329°. The magnitudes are six and seven. In
contrast with this excessively close double is ij/, whose compo-
nents are both of magnitude five and a half, distance 30", p. 160°.
Dropping down to 77 we come upon another very wide and pleas-
ing double, magnitudes six and seven, distance 33", p. 82°, colors
white and lilac or pale blue. Hardly less beautiful is £, magni-
tudes five and six, distance 24", p, 64°. Finest of all is a, which
exhibits a remarkable color contrast, the larger star being green-
ish and the smaller blue. The magnitudes are four and five, dis-
tance 3", p. 320°. This star is a binary, but the motion is slow.
The variable R ranges between magnitudes seven and thirteen,
period three hundred and forty-four days.
The constellation Aries contains several beautiful doubles, all
but one of which are easy for our smallest aperture. The most
striking of these is 7, which is historically interesting as the first
double star discovered. The discovery was made by Robert
Hooke in 1664 by accident, while he was following the comet of
that year with his telescope. He expressed great surprise on
noticing that the glass divided the star, and remarked that he
had not met with a like instance in all the heavens. His obser-
784 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
vations could not have been very extensive or very carefully con-
ducted, for there are many double stars much wider than 7
Arietis which Hooke could certainly have separated if he had
examined them. The magnitudes of the components of 7 are
four and four and a half, or, according to Hall, both four ;
distance 8'5", p. 180°. A few degrees above 7, passing by /3, is a
wide double A, magnitudes five and eight, distance 37", p. 45°,
colors white and lilac or violet. Three stars are to be seen in 14 :
magnitudes five and a half, ten, and nine, distances 83", p. 3G°, and
10G", p. 278°, colors white, blue, and lilac. The star 30 is a very
pretty double, magnitudes six and seven, distance 38'6", p. 273°.
% 289 consists of a topaz star combined with a sapphire, magni-
tudes six and nine, distance 28*5", p. 0°. The fourth-magnitude
star 41 has several faint companions. The magnitudes of two of
these are eleven and nine, distances 34", p. 203°, and 130", p. 230°.
"We discover another triple in ■*, magnitudes five, eight, and eleven,
distances 3'24", p. 122°, and 25", p. 110°. The double mentioned
above as being too close for our three-inch glass is c, which, how-
ever, can be divided with the four-inch, although the five-inch
will serve us better. The magnitudes are five and a half and six,
distance 1'26", p. 202°. The star 52 has two companions, one of
which is so close that our instruments can not separate it, while
the other is too faint to be visible in the light of its brilliant
neighbor without the aid of a very powerful telescope.
We are now about to enter one of the most magnificent regions
in the sky, which is hardly less attractive to the naked eye than
Orion, and which men must have admired from the beginning of
their history on the earth, the constellation Taurus (map No.
23). Two groups of stars especially distinguish Taurus, the Hy-
ades and the Pleiades, and both are exceedingly interesting when
viewed with the lowest magnifying powers of our telescopes.
We shall begin with a little star just west of the Pleiades, 2
412, also called 7 Tauri. This is a triple, but we can only see it as
a double, the third star being exceedingly close to the primary.
The magnitudes are six and a half, seven, and ten, distances 0"3",
p. 216°, and 22", p. 62°. In the Pleiades we naturally turn to the
brightest star 17, or Alcyone, famous for having once been re-
garded as the central sun around which our sun and a multitude
of other luminaries were supposed to revolve, and picturesque on
account of the little triangle of small stars near it which the least
telescopic assistance enables us to see. One may derive much
pleasure from a study of the various groupings of stars in the
Pleiades. Photography has demonstrated, what had long been
suspected from occasional glimpses revealed by the telescope, that
this celebrated cluster of stars is intermingled with curious forms
of nebulae. The nebulous matter appears in festoons, apparently
PLEASURES OF THE TELESCOPE.
785
attached to some of the larger stars, such as Alcyone, Merope, and
Maia, and in long, narrow, straight lines, the most remarkable of
which, a faintly luminous thread starting midway between Mai a
o
and Alcyone and running eastward some 40', is beaded with seven
or eight stars. The width of this strange nebulous streak is, on
an average, 3" or 4", and there is, perhaps, no more wonderful
phenomenon anywhere in celestial space. Unfortunately, no tele-
VOL. XLVII. 64
786 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
scope is able to show it, and all our knowledge about it is based
upon photographs. It might be supposed that it was a nebulous
disk seen edgewise, but for the fact that at the largest star in-
volved in its course it bends sharply about 10° out of its former
direction, and for the additional fact that it seems to take its
origin from a curved offshoot of the intricate nebulous mass sur-
rounding Maia. Exactly at the point where this curve is trans-
formed into a straight line shines a small star ! In view of all
the facts the idea would not seem to be very far-fetched that in
the Pleiades we behold an assemblage of suns, large and small,
formed by the gradual condensation of a nebula, and in which
evolution has gone on far beyond the stage represented by the
Orion nebula, where also a group of stars may be in process of
formation out of nebulous matter. If we look a little farther
along this line of development, we may perceive in such a stellar
assemblage as the cluster in Hercules, a still later phase wherein
all the originally scattered material has, perhaps, been absorbed
into the starry nuclei.
The yellow star % 430 has two companions : magnitudes six,
nine, and nine and a half, distances 26", p. 55°, and 39", p. 302°.
The star 30 of the fifth magnitude has a companion of the ninth
magnitude, distance 9", p. 58°, colors emerald and purple, faint.
An interesting variable, of the type of Algol, is A, which at
maximum is of magnitude three and four tenths and at mini-
mum of magnitude four and two tenths. Its period from one
maximum to the next is about three days and twenty-three
hours, but the actual changes occupy only about ten hours, and
it loses light more swiftly than it regains it. A combination
of red and blue is presented by (mistakenly marked on map
No. 23 as i/f). The magnitudes are six and eight, distance 56",
p. 242°. A double of similar magnitudes is x, distance 19", p. 25°.
Between the two stars which the naked eye sees in k is a minute
pair, each of less than the eleventh magnitude, distance 5",
p. 324°. Another naked-eye double is formed by 01 and 0a, in the
Hyades. The magnitudes are five and five and a half, distance
about 5' 37".
The leading star of Taurus, Aldebaran (a), is celebrated for its
reddish color. The precise hue is rather uncertain, but Alde-
baran is not orange as Betelgeuse in Orion is, and no correct eye
can for an instant confuse the colors of these two stars, although
many persons seem to be unable to detect the very plain differ-
ence between them in this respect. Aldebaran has been called
" rose-red," and it would be an interesting occupation for an ama-
teur to determine, with the aid of some proper color scale, the
precise hue of this star, and of the many other stars which ex-
hibit chromatic idiosyncrasy. Aldebaran is further interesting
PLEASURES OF THE TELESCOPE.
7%7
as being a standard first-magnitude star. With the four-inch
glass we see without difficulty the tenth-magnitude companion
following Aldebaran at a distance of 114", p. 35°. There is an
almost inexplicable charm about these faint attendants of bright
stars, which is quite different from the interest attaching to a
close and nearly equal pair. The impression of physical relation-
ship is never lacking though it may be deceptive, and this
7 88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
awakens a lively appreciation of the vast differences of magni-
tude that exist among the different snns of space.
The actual size and might of this great red sun form an at-
tractive subject for contemplation. As it appears to our eyes
Aldebaran gives one twenty-five-thousand-millionth as much
light as the sun, but if we were placed midway between them the
star would outshine the sun in the ratio of not less than 160 to 1.
And yet, gigantic as it is, Aldebaran is possibly a pygmy in com-
parison with Arcturus, whose probable dimensions were discussed
in the chapter relating to Bootes. Although Aldebaran is known
to possess several of the metallic elements that exist in the sun,
its spectrum differs widely from the solar spectrum in some re-
spects, and more closely resembles that of Arcturus.
Other interesting objects in Taurus are o-, divisible with the
naked eye, magnitudes five and five and a half, distance 7' ; 2 674
double, magnitudes six and nine, distance 10'5", p. 147° ; 2 716,
double, magnitudes six and seven, distance 5", p. 200°, a pleasing
sight ; t, triple, magnitudes four, ten and a half, and eleven, dis-
tances 36", p. 249°, and 36', p. 60°. The ten-and-a-half-magnitude
star is itself double, as discovered by Burnham ; star cluster No.
1030, not quite as broad as the moon, and containing some stars as
large as the eleventh magnitude; and nebula No. 1157, the so-
called " Crab nebula " of Lord Rosse, which our glasses will show
only as a misty patch of faint light, although large telescopes
reveal in it a very curious structure.
We now turn to the cluster of circumpolar constellations some-
times called the Royal Family, in allusion to the well-known story
of the Ethiopian king Cepheus and his queen Cassiopeia, whose
daughter Andromeda was exposed on the seashore to be devoured
by a monster, but who was saved by the hero Perseus. All these
mythologic personages are represented in the constellations that
we are about to study. We begin with Andromeda (map. No. 24).
The leading star a marks one corner of the great square of Pega-
sus. The first star of telescopic interest that we find in Andromeda
is /*, a double difficult on account of the faintness of the smaller
component. The magnitudes are four and eleven, distance 49",
p. 110°. A few degrees north of /* the naked eye detects a glim-
mering point where lies the Great Nebula in Andromeda. This
is indicated on the map by the number 116. With either of our
three telescopes it is an interesting object, but of course it is ad-
visable to use our largest glass in order to get as much light as
possible. All that we can see is a long, shuttle-shaped nebulous
object, having a brighter point near the center. Many stars are
scattered over the field in its neighborhood, but the nebula itself,
although its spectrum is peculiar in resembling that of a faint
star, is evidently a gaseous or at any rate a meteoritic mass, since
PLEASURES OF THE TELESCOPE. 789
photographs show it to be composed of a series of imperfectly
separated spirals surrounding a vast central condensation. This
peculiarity of the Andromeda nebula, which is invisible with tele-
scopes although conspicuous in the photographs, has, since its
discovery a few years ago, given a great impetus to speculation
concerning the transformation of nebulae into stars and star
clusters. No one can look at a good photograph of this wonder-
ful phenomenon without noticing its resemblance to the ideal
state of things which, according to the nebular hypothesis, must
once have existed in the solar system. It is to be remembered,
however, that there is probably sufficient material in the Androm-
eda nebula to make a system many times, perhaps hundreds or
1
ASTEROPE 1
<\
ASTEROPE II*
,
TAYGETA*
4
MAlAjfr
CELAENO *
ALCYONE
■
* *
ELECTRA*
ATLAS *
[
MEROPE •
The Chief Stars in the Pleiades.
thousands of times, as extensive as that of which our sun is the
center. If one contemplates this nebula only long enough to get
a clear perception of the fact that creation was not ended when,
according to the Mosaic history, God, having in seven days fin-
ished " the heavens and the earth and all the host of them," rested
from all his work, a good blow will have been dealt for the cause
of truth. Systems far vaster than ours are now in the bud, and
long before they have bloomed, ambitious man, who once dreamed
that all these things were created to serve him, will probably
have vanished with the extinguishment of the little star whose ra-
diant energy made his life and his achievements briefly possible.
In August, 1885, a new star of magnitude six and a half made
its appearance suddenly near the center of the Andromeda neb-
ula. Within one year it had disappeared, having gradually
dwindled until the great Washington telescope, then the largest
in use, no longer showed it. That this was a phenomenon con-
79°
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
nected with the nebula is most probable, but just what occurred
to produce it nobody knows. The observed appearances might
have been /produced by a collision, and no better hypothesis has
yet been suggested to account for them.
o
Near the opposite end of the constellation from a we find the
most interesting of triple stars in y. The two larger components
of this beautiful star are of magnitudes three and six, distance
PLEASURES OF THE TELESCOPE. 791
10", colors golden yellow and deep blue. The three-inch shows
them finely. The smaller star is itself double, its companion
being of magnitude eight, distance when discovered in 1842 0*5",
color bluish green. A few years ago this third star got so close
to its primary that it was invisible even with the highest powers
of the great Lick telescope, but at present it appears to be widen-
ing again. In October, 1893, 1 had the pleasure of looking at 7
Andromedse with the Lick telescope, and at that time it was pos-
sible just to separate the third star. The angle seemed too small
for certain measurement, but a single setting of the micrometer
by Mr. Barnard, to whose kindness I was indebted for my view
of the star, gave 0"17" as the approximate distance. The brilliance
of color contrast between the two larger stars of 7 Andromedse is
hardly inferior to that exhibited in /3 Cygni, so that this star may
be regarded as one of the most picturesque of stellar objects for
small telescopes.
Other pleasing objects in this constellation are the binary
star 36, magnitudes six and six and a half, distance 1", p. 12°.
The two stars are slowly closing and the five-inch glass is re-
quired to separate them : the richly colored variable R, which
fades from magnitude five and a half to invisibility, and then re-
covers its light in a period of about four hundred and five days ;
and the bright star cluster 457, which covers a space about equal
to the area of the full moon.
Just south of the eastern end of Andromeda is the small con-
stellation Triangulum, or the Triangles, containing two interest-
ing objects. One of these is the beautiful little double 6, magni-
tudes five and six, distance 3*8", p. 77°, colors yellow and blue ;
and the other, the nebula 352, which equals in extent the star
cluster in Andromeda described above, but nevertheless appears
very faint with our largest glass. Its faintness, however, is not
an indication of insignificance, for to very powerful telescopes it
exhibits a wonderful system of nuclei and spirals — another bit of
chaos that is yielding by age-long steps to the influence of demi-
urgic forces.
A richer constellation than Andromeda, both for naked-eye
and telescopic observation, is Perseus, which is especially remark-
able for its star clusters. Two of these, 512 and 521, constitute
the celebrated double cluster, sometimes called the Sword-hand
of Perseus, and also x Persei. To the smallest telescope this ag-
gregation of stars, ranging in magnitude from six and a half
to fourteen, and grouped about two neighboring centers, presents
a marvelous appearance. As a striking object for an eye unac-
customed to celestial observations it may be compared among
star clusters to /3 Cygni among double stars, for the most indif-
ferent spectator wonders at it. All the other clusters in Perseus
792 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
represented on the map are worth examining, although none of
them calls for special mention, except perhaps 584, where we may
distinguish at least a hundred separate stars within an area less
than one quarter as expansive as the face of the moon.
Among the double stars of Perseus we note first 77, whose com-
ponents are of magnitudes four and eight, distance 28", colors
white and pale blue. The double e is especially interesting on
account of an alleged change of color from blue to red which the
smaller star undergoes coincidently with a variation of bright-
ness. The magnitudes are three and eight, distance 9", p. 9°. An
interesting multiple is £, two of whose stars at least we can see.
The magnitudes are three, nine, ten, and ten, distances 13", p.
207°, 90", and 112".
The chief attraction in Perseus is the changeful and wonderful
/?, or Algol, the great typical star among the short-period vari-
ables. During the greater part of its period this star is of magni-
tude two and two tenths, but for a very short time, following a
rapid loss of light, it remains at magnitude three and seven tenths.
The difference, one magnitude and a half, corresponds to an ac-
tual difference in brightness in the ratio of 3"75 to 1. The entire
loss of light during the declension occupies only four hours and a
half. The star remains at its faintest for a few minutes only
before a perceptible gain of light occurs, and the return to maxi-
mum is as rapid as was the preceding decline. The period from
one minimum to the next is two days twenty hours forty-eight
minutes fifty-three seconds, with an irregularity amounting to a
few seconds in a year. The Arabs named the star Algol, or the
Demon, on account of its eccentricity which did not escape their
attention ; and when Goodricke, in 1782, applied a scientific meth-
od of observation to it, the real cause of its variations was sug-
gested by him, but his explanation failed of general acceptance
until its truth was established by Prof. E. C. Pickering in 1880.
This explanation gives us a wonderful insight into stellar consti-
tution. According to it, Algol possesses a companion as large as
the sun, but invisible, both because of its proximity to that star
and because it yields no light, and revolving in a plane horizontal
to our line of sight. The period of revolution is identical with the
period of Algol's cycle of variation, and the diminution of light
is caused by the interposition of the dark body as it sweeps along
that part of its orbit lying between our point of view and the
disk of Algol. In other words, once in every two days twenty
hours and forty-nine minutes Algol, as seen from the earth, un-
dergoes a partial eclipse.
In consequence of the great comparative mass of its dark com-
panion, Algol itself moves in an orbit around their common cen-
ter with a velocity quite sufficient to be detected by the shifting
PLEASURES OF THE TELESCOPE. 793
of the lines in its spectrum. By means of data thus obtained the
mass, size, and distance apart of Algol and its singular comrade
have been inferred. The diameter of Algol is believed to be
about 1,125,000 miles, that of the dark body about 840,000 miles,
and the mean distance from center to center 3,230,000 miles. The
density of both the light and the dark star is slight compared
with that of the sun, so that their combined mass is only two
thirds as great as the sun's.
Mention has been made of a slight irregularity in Algol's
period of variation. Basing his calculations upon this inequality
Dr. Chandler has put forward the hypothesis that there is another
invisible body connected with Algol, and situated at a distance
from it of about 1,800,000,000 miles, and that around this body,
which is far more mssive than the others, Algol and its com-
panions revolve in a period of one hundred and thirty years !
Dr. Chandler has earned the right to have his hypotheses re-
garded with respect, even when they are as extraordinary as that
which has just been described. It needs no indulgence of the
imagination to lend interest to Algol ; the simple facts are suffi-
cient. How did that bright star fall in with its black neighbors ?
Or were they created together ?
Passing to the region covered by map No. 25, our eyes are
caught by the curious figure, formed by the five brightest stars
of the constellation Cassiopeia, somewhat resembling the letter
W. Like Perseus, this is a rich constellation, both in star clusters
and double stars. Among the latter we select as our first ex-
ample o-, in which we find a combination of color that is at once
very unusual and very striking — green and blue. The magni-
tudes are five and seven, distance 3", p. 324°. Another beautiful
colored double is rj, whose magnitudes are four and seven and a
half, distance 5", p. 200°, colors white and purple. This is one
of the comparatively small number of stars the measure of whose
distance has been attempted, and a keen sense of the uncertainty
of such measures is conveyed by the fact that authorities of ap-
parently equal weight place t\ Cassiopeise at such discordant dis-
tances as 124,000,000,000,000 miles, 70,000,000,000,000 miles, and
42,000,000,000,000 miles. It will be observed that the difference
between the greatest and the least of these estimates is about
double the entire distance given by the latter. The same thing
practically is true of the various attempts to ascertain the dis-
tance of the other stars which have a perceptible parallax, even
those which are evidently the nearest. In some cases the later
measures increase the distance, in other cases they diminish it ;
in no case is there anything like a complete accord. Yet of
course we are not to infer that it is hopeless to learn anything
about the distances of the stars. With all their uncertainties and
794
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
disagreements the few parallaxes we possess have laid a good
foundation Jafor a knowledge of the dimensions of at least the
nearerj parts of the universe.
6
a.
<
We find an interesting triple in iff, the magnitudes of the
larger components being four and a half and eight and a half,
distance 30". The smaller star has a nine-and-a-half-magnitude
companion, distance 3". A more beautiful triple is i, magnitudes
PLEASURES OF THE TELESCOPE. 795
four, seven, and eight, distances 2", p. 256°, and 7"5", p. 112°.
Cassiopeia contains many star clusters, three of which are indi-
cated in the map. Of these 392 is perhaps the most interesting,
as it contains stars of many magnitudes, including a red one of
the eighth magnitude, and a ninth-magnitude double whose com-
ponents are 8" apart. Not far from the star k we find the spot
where the most brilliant temporary star on record made its ap-
pearance on November 11, 1572. Tycho Brahe studied this phe-
nomenon during the entire period of its visibility, which lasted
until March, 1574. It burst out suddenly with overpowering
splendor, far outshining every fixed star, and even equaling
Venus at her brightest. In a very short time it began to fade,
regularly diminishing in brightness, and at the same time under-
going changes of color, ending in red, until it disappeared. It has
never been seen since, and the suspicion once entertained that it
was a variable with a period considerably exceeding three hundred
years has not been justified. There is a tenth-magnitude star near
the place given by Tycho as that occupied by the stranger. Many
other faint stars are scattered about, however, and Tycho's meas-
ures were not sufficiently exact to enable us to identify the pre-
cise position of his star. If the phenomenon was due to a col-
lision, no reappearance of the star is to be expected.
Camelopardalus is a very inconspicuous constellation, yet it
furnishes considerable occupation for the telescope. 2 390, of
magnitude five, has a companion of magnitude nine and a half,
distance 15", 160°. 2 385, also of the fifth magnitude, has a ninth-
magnitude companion, distance only 2'4", p. 160°. According to
some observers, the larger star is yellow and the smaller white.
The star I is a very pretty double, magnitudes both six, distance
10*4". Its neighbor 2 of magnitude six has an eighth-magnitude
companion, distance 17", p. 278°. The star 7 of magnitude five is
also double, the companion of magnitude eight being distant only
1*2*. A glance at star cluster 940, which shows a slight central
condensation, completes our work in Camelopardalus, and we
turn to Ursa Major, represented in map No. 26. Here there are
many interesting doubles and triples. Beginning with 1 we find
at once occupation for our largest glass. The magnitudes are
three and ten, distance 10', p. 357°. In the double star 23 the mag-
nitudes are four and nine, distance 23% p. 272°. A more pleasing
object is o-2, a greenish fifth-magnitude star which has an eighth-
magnitude companion, distance 2-6", p. 245°. A good double for
our four-inch glass is £, whose magnitudes are four and five,
distance 1'87", p. 183°. This is a binary with a period of revo-
lution of about sixty years, and is interesting as the first binary
star whose orbit was determined. Savary calculated it in 1828.
Near by is v, a difficult double, magnitudes four and ten and
796
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
a half, distance 7", p. 147°. In 57 we find again an easy double
magnitudes six and eight, distance 5*5", p. 4°. Another similar
URSA MINOR *• #■■
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CAMELOPARDALUS
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"flower in the crannied wall." But
are we to abandon or dispai-age what
we know about the chemical composi-
tion of the rose because there is that
in its synthesis which eludes us ? Or
are we to refuse our admiration to
the flower because its original ele-
ments promised no such revelation
of beauty ?
" The world is what it is, for all our dust and
din" ;
and the part of wisdom is to make
the best of it. If there are those who
think they discern a flaw in the title
of the moral law, and on that ac-
count propose to trample it under
their feet, all we can do is to keep
our eye on such and see that the
moral law is duly re-enforced by ma-
terial sanctions. A writer of more
than literary authority has described
" the law " as " a schoolmaster " (lit-
erally, pedagogue or child-conduct-
or) to bring us to the true source of
instruction ; and we may rightly in-
fer that the external precepts which
have more or less governed man-
kind in the past, by whatever au-
thority promulgated, have had for
their function to bring men to a rec-
ognition of the intrinsic moral qual-
ity of actions, and to incline them to
choose good in preference to evil.
The course of human evolution has
brought us a developed moral sense ;
and the important question for us
now is not whether that supreme
faculty was foreshadowed in the pre-
organic world, or whether it can be
read into the atomic philosophy ; but
whether it is a living fact today,
whether it is useful for guidance and
whether obedience to it is an essen-
tial condition of happiness. The
search for title-deeds is very well
within limits; but there was a time
when title-deeds were not, simply
because the conditions did not call
for them. The moral law is in pos-
session, and will remain in posses-
sion, because it has become part of
the constitution of human nature.
THE PATH OF SCIENTIFIC ADVANCE.
In an excellent article on the late
Prof. Huxley, contributed by the
eminent Professor of Physiology at
the University of Cambridge to Na-
ture, and reprinted in this number
of the Monthly, we read that the
"note" of the "new morphology,"
of which Huxley made himself so
earnest and successful an apostle,
was "not to speculate on guiding
forces and on the realization of ide-
als, but to determine the laws of
growth by the careful investigation,
as of so many special problems, of
what parts of different animals, as
shown, among other ways, by the
mode of their development, were
really the same or alike." The re-
sult of the prosecution of research
along this line, Prof. Foster says,
has been the acquisition since the
year 1850 of " a body of science
touching animal forms both recent
and extinct of which we may well
be proud," and that altogether apart
from the special discoveries which
may be traced directly or indirectly
to the influence of the Darwinian
theory of natural selection.
We have thought it worth while
to cite this dictum of the Cambridge
professor as bearing somewhat close-
ly on a recent discussion in these
columns. A contributor who was
dissatisfied with certain references
we had made to the doctrine of de-
sign, put forward his own opinion to
the effect that the time had now
come for making design the Why ?
— the guiding principle— of research.
Such is manifestly not Prof. Foster's
opinion, or else, while commending
Huxley for throwing in his lot with
the "new morphology," he would
certainly have hinted that there was
a yet newer morphology, destined to
846
TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
lead to still greater results, and the
note of which was, specifically, spec-
ulation on "guiding forces and the
realization of ideals." Of course,
this newer morphology would only
be the old pre-Darwinian speculation
back again ; and we think it is toler-
ably safe to conclude that such a re-
introduction is not contemplated by
the leaders in science to-day, and is
in no wise a probable event.
The comparative study of animal
forms resembles more or less all
other comparative studies. It does
not lead to the discovery of ideals in
any sense, any more than does the
comparative study of myths. We
are merely led back from more de-
veloped to less developed forms, in-
dicative of simpler conditions of life
and a less varied play of the action
of natural selection. We are no
nearer to any " Why " when study-
ing amoeba; than when investigating
the structure of the highest verte-
brates. The whole result of com-
parative biological study is to show
us the order, and to some extent, the
conditions of development of ani-
mal and vegetable structures, and to
establish connections, affiliations,
and homologies where, apart from
the comparative method, no resem-
blances or correspondences of any
kind could be detected. As our
knowledge in any field of investiga-
tion attains a certain completeness,
the imagination is impressed more
and more with the wonderful unity
of plan which prevails throughout
the works of Nature; and at times
we thrill as we catch, or 6eem to
catch, the pulsations of universal
life. These emotions come to us not
in the search for ideals, but in that
humbler search for facts and co-ordi-
nating principles which some would
have us forsake, as being altogether
too humble and below our high pre-
rogative as intellectual and moral
beings. To us the world and hu-
manity furnish an ample school for
the training of our highest faculties,
the religious not excluded. All de-
pends on the spirit in which knowl-
edge is pursued. Without grappling
with problems that are in their na-
ture insoluble, we may seek to adjust
ourselves progressively to the highest
knowledge we can attain, and thus to
reach the highest and best self-devel"
opment. If we do this, the path of
knowledge will be for each one of us
a path of ascent, and we shall find
that, without any investigation of
the Why, we have solved life's prob-
lem in the best possible manner.
THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION AT
SPRINGFIELD.
The meeting of the American As-
sociation for the Advancement of
Science this year was characterized
by a calm studiousness which was
promoted by the quiet but thrifty
environment in which it was held.
The address of the retiring president,
although confined to the one science
in which Dr. Brinton has won his
chief eminence, was a model for
such addresses, in that the whole of
it could be " understanded of the peo-
ple,1' while at the same time furnish-
ing food for thought to the man of
science. It is no doubt easier for an
anthropologist to prepare such an
address on his science than for the
specialist in some other fields, for
the science of man is no foreign
ground to any intelligent human
being. This was demonstrated by the
continued interest and large attend-
ance at the sessions of the Anthro-
pological Section. The addresses of
mast of the vice-presidents dealt with
broad aspects of the several sciences.
That of Mr. F. H. Ousting, on The
Arrow, was more like a special paper,
but the expressions of interest on the
part of his hearers showed that they
found no fault with him on that
score. The public has often been
EDITOR'S TABLE.
8+7
told what great benefits industry re-
ceives from labors in pure science.
It was a happy thought for Mr. Wil-
liam McMurtrie to point out to a
scientific audience the benefits that
the science of chemistry has derived
from industrial operations. Those
who listened to Vice-President Wil-
liam Kent's address on The Eelation
of Engineering to Economics carried
away several valuable ideas, one be-
ing that the invention of machines
has been of more economic impor-
tance than the division of labor of
which the old economists made so
much; another that America is far
behind the Old World in the art of
wasting human labor; and another
that improved methods inflict more
temporary loss on capital by destroy-
ing the value of machinery and ap-
pliances than upon labor by displac-
ing workmen. Mr. B. E. Fernow,
addressing the Section of Economic
Science, ventured upon the debatable
ground of governmental functions,
but probably most of his audience
accepted what he said in regard to
the conservation of our forests and
other natural resources. The papers
read gave evidence of diligent re-
search and had been in the main
well sifted, although occasionally
some newly fledged professor or gar-
rulous veteran consumed more time
than he should have. Time limits
rigidly enforced by the several pre-
siding officers might be worth trying
in order to give more snap to the
proceedings and increase the value
of the association to the best work-
ers. The only remarkable discovery
announced in the course of the meet-
ing was the finding of another im-
plement in the glacial gravels, which
strengthens the view that man lived
in America either during or imme-
diately after the Glacial period. The
implement was exhibited and de-
scribed by Prof. G. F. Wright, who
has become the leading exponent of
this view. The attendance was an
average number, and probably in-
cluded a smaller proportion of sight-
seers and a greater one of workers
than when the meetings are held in
larger cities.
Next year the association will hold
its fourth meeting in Buffalo, further
strengthening the precedent of a de-
cennial visit to that city, and Prof.
E. D. Cope will preside. The vice-
presidents elected are : (A) Mathe-
matics and Astronomy — William E.
Story, of Worcester ; (B) Physics —
Carl Leo Mees, of Terre Haute, Ind. ;
(C) Chemistry — W. A. Noyes, of
Terre Haute, Ind. ; (D) Mechanical
Science and Engineering — Frank 0.
Marvin, of Lawrence, Kan. : (E) Ge-
ology and Geography — Benjamin K.
Emerson, of Amherst ; (F) Zoology
— Theodore N. Gill, of Washington,
D. C. ; (G) Botany— N. L. Britton,
of New York city ; (H) Anthropology
— Alice C. Fletcher, of Washington,
D. C. ; (I) Social Science — William
R. Lazenby, of Columbus, Ohio.
Prof. F. W. Putnam remains Per-
manent Secretary. The following
are the other officers : General Sec-
retary, Charles R Barnes, of Madi-
son, Wis. Secretary of the Council,
Asaph Hall, Jr., of Ann Arbor, Mich.
Secretaries of the Sections : (A)
Mathematics and Astronomy — Ed-
win B. Frost, of Hanover, N. H. ;
(B) Physics— Frank P. Whitman, of
Cleveland, Ohio ; (C) Chemistry-
Frank P. Venable, of Chapel Hill,
N. C. ; (D) Mechanical Science and
Engineering — John Galbraith, of
Toronto, Canada ; (E) Geology and
Geography— A. C. Gill, of Ithaca,
N. Y. ; (F) Zoology— D. S. Kellicott,
of Columbus, Ohio ; (G) Botany-
George F. Atkinson, of Ithaca. N. Y. ;
(H) Anthropology— John G. Bourke,
United States Army ; (I) Social Sci-
ence—R. T. Colburn, of Elizabeth,
N. J. Treasurer, R. S. Woodward,
of New York, N. Y.
848
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
LITERARY NOTICES.
The Female Offender. By Prof. Cesar
Lombroso and William Ferrero. The
Criminology Series, edited by W. Doug-
lab Morrison. New York : D. Appleton
& Co. Pp. 313. Price, $1.50.
The scientific study of anthropology,
which has risen to prominence within the
last few years, bids fair to yield knowledge
of much practical value. The anthropolo-
gists of several countries, and especially
those of Italy, have been investigating the
criminal class — trying to see if criminals are
a distinct class, and what peculiarities mark
them off from moral persons. When a basis
of exact knowledge concerning criminals has
been obtained, it will doubtless be possible
to construct upon it much better modes of
dealing with them than are now in vogue.
Some results of this investigation have been
made known to a limited circle through con-
tributions to scientific journals and occa-
sional volumes, but now the quantity of in-
formation collected has seemed to warrant
the publication of a series of books devoted
to criminology. As editor of the series the
publishers have secured W. Douglas Mor-
rison, M. A., of her Majesty's Prison, Wands-
worth, England, a devoted student of the
subject, and one who has had exceptional
opportunities for observation. It is fitting
that the series should begin with a book by
Prof. Lombroso, who has devoted a laborious
life mainly to criminal anthropology, and is
the recognized leader of the Italian school
in this branch of science. Associated with
him as joint author is one of his most rap-
idly rising juniors — William Ferrero. As a
result of their investigations, the authors re-
gard as a complete type of the criminal
woman one wherein exist four or more of
the characteristics of degeneration. The
criminal type in the female sex is rare as
compared with the male. The reason is that
women are generally occasional rather than
habitual offenders. When a born offender,
a woman is, in the majority of cases, an
adulteress, a calumniator, a swindler, or a
mere accomplice — offenses which require an
attractive or at least a normal personal ap-
pearance. Atavism is regarded by our au-
thors as the key to female delinquency.
" The primitive woman was rarely a murder-
ess, but she was always a prostitute " ; hence
the modern woman who degenerates atavis-
tically takes to prostitution rather than to
crimes of violence. The authors have given
much attention to anthropometry, and pre-
sent in this volume a large number of meas-
urements of the skull, bodies, and limbs of
female delinquents, also studies of brains,
tests of senses, etc. The subject of suicide
and the influence of hysteria and epilepsy on
crime are considered. Tattooing, which is so
common among male criminals as to become
a special characteristic, is extremely rare in
female delinquents. The discussions of the
several topics treated are illustrated and for-
tified by many histories drawn from criminal
records, and by portraits of French, German,
and Russian subjects. The work is a valu-
able contribution to a new and much needed
science.
Mental Development in the Child and the
Race. Methods and Processes. By
James Mark Baldwin, M. A., Ph. D.,
Stuart Professor of Psychology in Prince-
ton University. New York and London :
Macmillan & Co. Pp. 496. Price, $2.60.
In this work Prof. Baldwin appears as an
observer, experimenter, theorizer, and critic,
in short, as a maker of science, in which role
he is quite as interesting and instructive as
in that of expositor. The first event which
led to the publication of this book was the
birth of a daughter in 1890, whose mental
unfolding was watched with unfailing atten-
tion. When she reached her ninth month
he undertook to experiment with her to find
out the exact state of her color perception.
The account of his procedure, of the re-
sults reached, and his criticisms thereon,
is given in Chapter III, entitled Distance
and Color Perception by Infants. Chapter
IV, on The Origin of Right-Handedness, de-
scribes the experiments undertaken to gain
light upon the facts and conditions of left-
handedness that had not before been closely
observed. After discussing in the earlier
chapters the general condition of the respon-
sive movements of infancy and pointing out
special problems, he enters in Chapter V
upon a description of experiments concern-
ing the rise of more complex movements.
In 1892, at the birth of a second daughter,
he continued his observations and planned
new experiments, enlarging the scope of his
LITERARY NOTICES.
849
inquiries, and testing with her the infer-
ences drawn from his experience with his
first-born. There were two other infants
under his observation at the time, though
not so constantly and uninterruptedly as
were his own children. In pursuing these
studies Prof. Baldwin was led on to an en-
largement of view concerning the mode and
order of unfolding of mind in infancy, and
the genesis of mind itself, and it is to this
enlargement of view that we are indebted
for the present work. It was while studying
the child's imitations and their relation to
volition that there came to him such a reve-
lation concerning the function of imitation in
the evolution of mind that he resolved to
work out a theory of mental development
embodying this new insight ; and he soon
saw that no consistent view of mental de-
velopment in the individual could be reached
without a doctrine of the race development
of consciousness. With this conviction he
undertook to make a synthesis of the biologi-
cal theory of organic adaptation with the
conception of infant development he had
already reached. The work, he says, is a
treatise upon this problem — an attempt to
form a system of " genetic psychology."
We can not give a fair account of Prof.
Baldwin's theory in the limits of a book
notice. But we will say, briefly, that he
bases it upon the law of dynamogenesis,
" which current psychology and biology
agree in accepting as a well-established prin-
ciple of the manifestations of organic and
mental life. The principle of contractility,
recognized in biology, simply states that all
stimulations to living matter — from proto-
plasm to the highest vegetable and animal
structures — if they take effect at all, tend
to bring about movements or contractions
in the mass of the organism. It is now also
safely established as a phenomenon of con-
sciousness that every sensation or incoming
process tends to bring about action or out-
going process." It should be remarked here
that the rise of hypnotism in late years has
opened the way to an entirely new method
of mental study. And it is now understood
that " suggestion by idea, or through con-
sciousness, must be recognized to be as fun-
damental a kind of motor stimulus as the
direct excitation of a sense organ." Some
idea of the importance of suggestion in mod-
vol. xlvii. — 69
ern psychology may be gained by noting the
headings Prof. Baldwin has given to the sec-
tions in the long chapter upon this subject.
They are (1) General Definition; (2) Physi-
ological Suggestion ; (3) Sensori-motor Sug-
gestion ; (4) Ideo-motor Suggestion;* (5)
Subconscious Adult Suggestion; (6) Inhibi-
tory Suggestion; (7) Hypnotic Suggestion;
(8) Law of Dynamogenesis.
In attempting to reach some kind of
formula of dynamogenesis, Prof. Baldwin
found the definitions of " suggestion " in the
psychologies very conflicting, and he there-
fore adopted the most general description of
suggestive reaction— i. e., "that it always
issues in a movement more or less closely
associated in earlier experience with the par-
ticular stimulus in question." This defini-
tion constitutes suggestion a phenomenon of
habit ; but many suggestions issue in move-
ments not exactly like those before associ-
ated with these stimuli. Many of them be-
get new movements, by a kind of adaptation
of the organism, which are an improvement
upon those the organism has formerly ac-
complished. This kind of adaptation Prof.
Baldwin names Accommodation, and one of
the main subjects discussed in the book is
this theory of accommodation. The chapter
upon suggestion closes with these words :
" So far as we have gone we have a right to
use the principle of suggestion as a principle
of dynamogenesis whenever we mean to
say simply that action follows stimulus. But
when we come to ask what kind of action
follows in each case each special kind of
stimulus, we have two possibilities before us.
A habit may follow or an accommodation may
follow. Which is it? And why is it one
rather than the other ? These are the ques-
tions of the theory of organic development
to which our next chapters are devoted."
These nine chapters are upon The Theory
of Development ; The Origin of Motor Atti-
tudes and Expressions ; Organic Imitation ;
Conscious Imitation (begun) ; The Origin of
Memory and Association; Conscious Imita-
tion (continued) ; The Origin of Thought and
Emotion ; Conscious Imitation (concluded) ;
* Prof . Baldwin observed his children during
their first two years to discover, if possible,
whether ideo-motor suggestion is a normal thing,
and the section upon this subject has absorbing
interest.
850
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
The Origin of Volition ; The Mechanism of
Revival— Internal Speech and Song ; Origin
of Attention ; Summary : Final Statement of
Habit and Accommodation. These titles, as
well as those given above of the sections of
an earlier chapter, are very attractive, and
we assure our readers that the text well
sustains the interest excited by the head-
ings, while the liveliness and earnestness of
the style will be found pleasant accompani-
ments of the author's command of his subject.
Of the scope and importance of this study
Prof. Baldwin well says: "The study of
children is generally the only means of test-
ing our mental analysis. If we decide that
a certain complex product is due to a union
of simpler mental elements, then we may
appeal to the proper period of child life to
see the union taking place. The range of
growth is so enormous from the infant to
the adult, and the beginnings of the child's
mental life are so low in the scale in the mat-
ter of instinctive and mental endowmeut,
that there is hardly a question of analysis
now under debate which may not be tested
by this method." To the questions, what
constitutes child study, and why we have so
little of it, he replies that only the scientific
specialist by the acutest exercise of his dis-
criminative faculty can observe children or
experiment upon them with profit. " Back
of the question, What did the infant do V is
the more difficult question, What did his
doing that mean? And how can people
who know nothing of the distinction between
reflex and voluntary action, or between nerv-
ous adaptation and conscious selection, ana-
lyze the child's actions and arrive at a true
picture of the mental condition that lies
back of them ? Even Preyer's experiments
to determine the order of rise of the child's
perceptions of different qualities of color,
depending as they did upon word memories,
are vitiated by the single fact that speech is
acquired long after objects and some colors
are distinguished." And if Preyer can thus
misinterpret appearances, Prof. Baldwin may
well say, " No child's deeds should be given
universal value without a critical examina-
tion, before which even the most competent
psychologist might well quail."
But notwithstanding these warnings, there
is a brief popular section written in a some-
\\ hat homiletic strain in the chapter on con-
scious imitation, entitled How to Observe
Children's Imitations. He begins with the
statement that " nothing less than the child's
personality is at stake in the method and
matter of its imitation." The observer is
told at length that he must take account of
the personal influences which have affected
the child ; its relations to brothers and sis-
ters and to other children, its chums and
friendships in the school and home, and
especially its games. The section closes with
these words : " Finally, I may be allowed a
word to interested parents. You can be of
no use whatever to psychologists — to say
nothing of the actual damage you may be to
the children — unless you know your babies
through and through. Especially the fathers !
They are willing to study everything else.
They know every corner of the house fa-
miliarly except the nursery. A man labors
for his children ten hours a day, gets his
life insured for their support after his
death, and yet he lets their mental growth,
the formation of their characters, the evo-
lution of their personality, go on by absorp-
tion— if no worse — from common, vulgar,
imported, and changing, often immoral,
attendants ! Plato said the state should
train the children, and added that the
wisest man should rule the state. . . . We
hear a certain group of studies called the
humanities, and it is right. But the best
school in the humanities for every man is his
own house." We have been much impressed
by another strain of remark in the same
section upon an only child. We have had for
some time under our sympathetic observation
a little boy whose brothers and sisters are
grown, and the truth of the following state-
ment is forcibly brought home to us : " An
only child has only adult ' copy.' He can
not interpret his father's actions, or his
mother's oftentimes. He imitates very
blindly. He lacks the more childish ex-
ample of a brother or sister near himself in
age. And this difference is of very great
importance to his development. He lacks
the stimulus, for example, of games in which
personification is a direct tutor to selfhood.
And while he becomes precocious in some
lines of instruction, he fails in imagination,
in brilliancy of fancy. The dramatic in his
sense of social situations is largely hidden.
It is a very great mistake to isolate children."
LITERARY NOTICES.
851
We close our notice with the sense that we
have done this thoughtful book but scant
justice.
Proceedings Commemorative of the One
Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of
the Foundation of the American Phil-
osophical Society. Philadelphia: Mac-
Calla & Co. Pp. 647.
An impressive commemoration of the
origin of this pioneer scientific society was
held in May, 1893. The exercises of the oc-
casion, which extended over five days, are
recorded in this handsomely printed volume,
and include addresses of welcome and con-
gratulation, the proceedings of the meetings,
scientific papers presented, etc. The address
by the venerable Frederick Fraley, president
of the society, is followed by letters of greet-
ing in French, German, and Latin, read by
representatives of universities and foreign
scientific societies, after which come tele-
grams from foreign bodies that were unable
to send delegates. The second day's pro-
ceedings were also opened by an address by
President Fraley, who was followed by Profs.
Alpheus Hyatt and Hubert A. Newton. On
the third day, President Oilman, of Johns
Hopkins, and the Rt. Rev. John J. Keane,
President of the Catholic University of
America, delivered addresses, that of the lat-
ter only being printed. The exercises of the
fourth day are especially interesting. They
include addresses on Benjamin Franklin —
printer, patriot, and philosopher, by Dr.
Samuel A. Green ; The Philosophy of Art,
by Prof. J. M. Hoppin ; and The Nature and
Design of the Historical Societies of Our
Country, by Dr. John B. Morris. On the
last day a paper in German, On Determina-
tion of Gravity by Means of a Pendulum Ap-
paratus, by R. von Sterneck, was read by
Chevalier Rousseau d'Happoncourt, of the
Austrian navy, who represented the Imperial
Royal Academy of Vienna. Dr. Isaac Rob-
erts then addressed the society on Recent
Progress in Astronomical Science, illustrat-
ing his remarks by photographs which he
presented to the society in behalf of the
Royal Astronomical Society of England,
which he represented. Prof. George F.
Barker read a paper on Electrical Progress
since 1743, dealing mainly with the work of
Franklin, Hare, Henry, Saxton, Rittenhouse,
and Bache. A few remarks mi Magnetism,
by Mr. Wharton, were followed by the clos-
ing address of the president. The scientific
papers presented include one of eighty pages
on Tertiary Tipulidse, by Prof. Samuel II.
Scudder; one of three hundred pages on
Phylogeny of an Acquired Characteristic, by
Prof. Alpheus Hyatt, and ten briefer ones 1 <\
various authors. The volume is illustrated
by a number of fine plates, including por-
traits of the officers of the society, views of
the interior of its building, reproductions of
the photographs presented by the Royal As-
tronomical Society, and figures illustrating
the papers by Scudder, Packard, and Hyatt.
Theoretical Chemistry, from the Stand-
point of Avogadro's Rule and Thermo-
dynamics. By Prof. Walter Nernst,
Ph. D. Translated by Prof. Charles
Skeele Palmer, Ph. D. London and
New York : Macmillan & Co. Pp. 697.
Price, $5.
A few years ago it was said with truth
that all the advances being made in chemis-
try were in the field of organic chemistry.
This condition has been changed, however,
by the fruitful researches of Ostwald, van't
Hoff, Thomsen, Berthelot, and others, which
have given us what may be called the new
physical chemistry. Prof. Nernst has pre-
pared a guide to this newly developed branch
of the science, taking as its leading principles
Avogadro's law and the doctrine of energy.
Taking up first the universal properties of
matter, he sets forth in succession those
characteristic of the gaseous, liquid, and
solid states of aggregation. The properties
of physical mixtures and dilute solutions are
also discussed. The theory of the atom and
the molecule forms the second division of
the work, this doctrine being tested and ex-
emplified by the phenomena of refraction,
polarization, magnetism, color, dissociation
of gases, and the behavior of both colloids
and crystalloids in solution. The transfor-
mation of matter and the transformation of
energy are the two remaining division-, the
former embracing the laws of chemical stat-
ics and chemical kinetics, while the latter is
concerned mainly with thenno-chemistry,
though touching upon the chemical action
of light and electricity. Two appendixes
.iic added, the first comprising Mime impor-
tant developments in theoretical and phys-
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
ical chemistry since the German edition of
this work appeared, and the second being a
valuable synchronistic table of chemical
periodicals. The index is divided in the
clumsy German fashion.
The Dynamo: Its Theory, Design, and
Manufacture. By C. C. Hawkins and
F. Wallis. New York : Macmillan &
Co. Pp. 520.
Nothing need be added to the title of
this book to indicate its field, and the
authors claim no originality in the matter
presented, except as to the construction of
the equations for magnetic leakage, for the
heating of dynamos, or the E. M. F. of alter-
nators. " Yet we do claim," they say, " a
certain novelty in our method of treatment
by which these facts are presented. It has
seemed to us that a systematic and method-
ical analysis of dynamos — of the causes and
reasons why they have assumed their pres-
ent shape — if only it be complete and accu-
rate, so far as its scope extends, would still
be sufficiently novel to merit attention.
Starting with a simple inductor cutting the
lines of a magnetic field, such an analysis
would gradually evolve in natural sequence
the various combinations of inductors which
constitute the windings of armatures and the
typical forms which the complete machine
is thence compelled to take, until, finally,
the whole should culminate in the descrip-
tion of actual machines as manufactured,
and the practical design of one or more dy-
namos for given outputs. This scheme we
have endeavored to carry out." The au-
thors have taken pains to uuite practice and
theory in this treatise and to avoid mathe-
matics and technicalities that were avoid-
able. There are one hundred and ninety
illustrations, including cuts of a number of
typical dynamos.
Descriptive Inorganic General Chemistry.
By Paul C. Freer, Ph. D. (Munich).
Boston : Allyn & Bacon. Pp. 550.
This book has been written for college
students, and assumes some elementary
knowledge of chemistry in those who are to
use it. The author first gives a short chap-
ter to the atomic theory, which he holds
should not be presented in an elementary
course, and then proceeds to describe the
elements and their inorganic compounds.
Oxygen is the first element described, hydro-
gen, the halogens, and the oxygen family
following in succession. " In discussing
chemical changes," Prof. Freer says; he has
" endeavored to present the various topics,
not as a series of isolated facts, but as so
connected, the one with the other, that there
is scarcely any one of the numerous phenom-
ena which are mentioned in this work which
does not find its analogon in some other por-
tion of the field of chemical study. The
attempt has been made especially to call at-
tention to the influence exerted by the nature
of the elements which make up a chemical
compound upon the character of that com-
pound itself." In his treatment of the latter
subject he is aware that he may have been
led into some speculation, but bespeaks at
least a hearing for the new arguments he
has ventured upon. His views on valence
and the use of structural formula? are con-
servative. In the application of physical
methods in the study of chemistry he has
followed Ostwald and Lothar Meyer, and in
regard to the double halides, fluosilicic acid,
and similarly constituted bodies he has
adopted the views advocated by Prof. Rem-
sen. There is an appendix of some forty
pages of laboratory notes, which is "not in-
tended as a laboratory manual, but mainly
as a guide to both teacher and pupil in com-
piling a list of experiments."
Churches and Castles of Medieval France.
By Walter Cranston Larned. New
York : Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 236,
with Plates. Price, $1.50.
This book, the author says, is a record
of a traveler's impressions of the great monu-
ments of France, published in the hope that
it may bring others to visit them. " It is
easy for the student to get accurate informa-
tion about them ; but nevertheless it may be
of some use to tell what effect they produce
upon one who does not wish to study deeply
into all their history and the minute details
of the building of them, but who does love
their beauty and cares about the place they
hold in the history of the French people."
We read the systematic accounts of these
things and get vague ideas about them as
something shadowy and far distant; then, as
a lady remarked on seeing the antiquities pre-
LITERARY NOTICES.
853
served in Winchester Castle and Cathedral,
we go and look at them and find that they
are all real. Next to seeing them for our-
selves is reading the mind-pictures of them
of one who has seen them intelligently, and
of the emotional effects they have wroughl
upon him — with the guide-book information
left out. A historical monument in France
is defined by the author as meaning " a
church, or a castle, or a town that has been
thought worthy either of restoration or pres-
ervation at the expense of the French people.
There is a tax levied to provide the money
necessary for these purposes, and it is aston-
ishing how much the French are willing to
pay to preserve or restore whatever has to
do with their history as a nation." More
than thirty works, cathedrals, churches, cas-
tles, etc., of historical or architectural inter-
est, are described in this book in the manner
we have indicated.
The Animal as a Machine and Prime Mo-
tor. By R. H. Thurston. New York :
John Wiley & Sons. Pp. 97. Price, $1.
This is a comparison of the animal as a
piece of mechanism for the conversion, ap-
plication, and utilization of energy with the
various machines which man has construct-
ed for the same purpose. The introductory
chapter is a discourse on some of the more
important physical laws and the efficiency of
the most economical machines whose con-
struction is based upon them. In the next
chapter, The Animal as a Prime Motor, the
various vital processes, the efficiency of vital
machines, intensity of muscular effort, and
the uses of food are among the most impor-
tant headings. The third and concluding
chapter considers some of the unsolved prob-
lems of the animal machine, such as the
source of the firefly's glow and the animal-
cule's phosphorescence.
The Land Birds and Game Birds of New
England. By H. D. Minot. Second
edition, edited by William Brewster.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Pp.
492. Price, $3.
It has been often remarked that a teacher
who is only a few lessons ahead of his class
has an important advantage in that he can
better appreciate the difficulties of his pu-
pils than one who is further removed in at-
tainments. On this account, as well as for
his happy manner of imparting knowledge,
Mr. Minot should he ranked as one of the
most acceptable guides to the amateur or-
nithologist. His book is a remarkable pro-
duction for a youth of seventeen. It, gave
substantial promise of important scientific
and literary work which was left unfulfilled
by the ill health that turned the author aside
to a different profession and by his untimelj
death in a railroad collision. The book con-
tains errors, and its statements as to range-
are deficient, but the editor has set sufficient
danger signals against the former, and has
duly supplemented the latter. It is riot
complete, but this does not prevent its being
highly useful. Its descriptions comprise the
external appearance of the species, its habits,
range, appearance of its nest and eggs, and
its song. An introduction contains directions
for collecting birds and eggs, and for study-
ing the birds at liberty. The illustrations
are some twenty odd outline drawings by
the author and a frontispiece portrait.
A Tabular Review of Organography has
been prepared by Prof. A. L. Benedict for
the use of the classes in botany of the De-
partment of Pharmacy in the University of
Buffalo. In it each point has, so far as
possible, been exemplified by some common
plant ; and each page of the manual is pro-
vided with a blank side to be filled in by
the student himself. It is thus intended to
adapt the little work especially for use as a
guide in field study. An apology for hastj
preparation at a season when the notes could
not be verified by reference to wild plants is
hardly in place in a scientific manual. With
another summer affording the means desired,
there should be no occasion for it to remain
in another edition.
The papers of Charles Robertson, of
Carlinville, 111., upon the Mutual Biologic , I
Relations of the Fntomophilous Flora and the
Anthophilous Insert Fauna of his county of
Macoupin are valuable to botanists and en-
tomologists, and to all persons interested in
horticulture.
In a little book on Condiments, Spices,
and Flavors, a brief account i- given by Dr.
Mary E. Green of the substances classed
under those heads, in the hope that it may
lead to a more intelligent use of them in
854
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
cookery. In it are included the flavoring
herbs known in our gardens ; spices, etc.,
from abroad ; condiments prepared from
animal foods, mixed sauces like the Worces-
tershire, and ketchups and pickles. The
author believes that these things, properly
used, are aids to digestion. (Published by
the Hotel World, Chicago.)
Of the Eighteenth Annual Report of the
Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station,
for 1894, Part II contains papers on the
availability of organic nitrogen, fungous
diseases and their treatment, and injurious
insects; Part III, Studies on the Proteids of
Rye and Barley and on the Chemical Nature
of Diastase ; and Part IV on subjects relat-
ing to the dairy and on tobacco. The publi-
cations of the station are sent free to every
citizen of the State who applies for them.
Under the title Bread from Stones a
translation of some of the writings of Julius
Hensel on fertilizers has been published by
A. J. Tafel (1011 Arch Street, Philadelphia,
25 cents). Hensel declares that the current
theory of fertilizing is wrong. Too much
potash, phosphorus, and nitrogen, he says,
are supplied to plants, and not enough lime,
magnesia, silica, sulphur, or fluorine. The
normal soil consists of weathered rocks.
This is the best soil for plants, producing
not only vigorous growth, but also edible
parts of firm texture, resisting insects, and
valuable and wholesome for food. He
therefore advocates the use of finely pulver-
ized stone-meal as a fertilizer, and gives
testimony as to its efficiency.
The Senile Heart, by George William
Balfour, M. D. (Macmillan, $1.50), is quite a
comprehensive consideration of this and
allied conditions in the other organs of the
body to which the aged are especially prone.
In the introductory chapter some space is
given to a consideration of why we get old
1 why we so rarely die of old age, and
this is followed in Chapter II by an exami-
nation of the direct effects of age on the
heart muscle. There are twelve chapters,
the last four of which deal with therapeu-
tics. A chapter is given to gout, and also
one to angina pectoris. The book contains
some interesting sphygmographic records.
The consolidated school law of ls'.tl
made a number of important changes; but
as published it is a pamphlet of one hundred
and thirty-five pages, the legal phraseology
and verbiage of which obscures the mean-
ing in many places. A Handbook for School
Trustees (Bardeen, 50 cents), by C. W. Bar-
deen, which arranges the law by subjects
aud gives the minor details only in notes,
ought to prove valuable to teachers and
other school officers. The differences in
law between the district and union schools
are pointed out, and directions are given for
the establishment of an academic department
under the Regents of the University.
In a little volume, half prose half poetry,
entitled The Supremacy of the Spiritual
(Arena Publishing Company, *75 cents), Ed-
ward Randall Knowles, LL. D., undertakes
to show that the ether is spiritual rather
than material.
John A. Kersey has written down under
the title Ethics of Literature a part of what
he would like to say about books and au-
thors— a part only, for on page 570 he
states that he is about to close without hav-
ing finished (the author, Marion, Ind.). " I
propose to inquire," he says in his preface,
" what some great literary luminaries have
done, and to show in some instances what
were better left undone for the enlighten-
ment of mankind. And in this retrospect
we will observe the acknowledged Titans
engaged in Herculean labors to establish
truths which, in the nature of things and of
mind, are either self-evident or unprovable.
We will observe minds which have given
the world some of the most superb thought,
grouping the rarest gems in clusters with the
veriest peter-funk.'n Other instructive ob-
servations are also promised to the reader.
A neat little forty-cent edition of Defoe's
History of the Plague in London is just is-
sued by the American Book Company.
While there is much fiction mixed up with
the description, Defoe being only four years
old at the time of the plague, there is enough
of actual fact to give the work a historical
value, and the less well authenticated por-
tions add much to its readableness.
Roman Life in Latin Prose and Verse is
the title of a book of selections from Latin
writings, made by Harry Thurston Peck and
Robert Arrowsmith (American Book Com-
pany). It is intended to be used either as
the chief book for a short course in reading
Latin or as a volume for sight-reading, and
LITERARY NOTICES.
855
may also serve as a series of specimens of
Latin literature from the early popular sunns
down to the hymns of Christian Rome. The
selections have been made with a view to
exhibiting the life, manners, opinions,
amusements, and dissipations of the Romans.
The more difficult words are translated at
the bottom of the page, and there are notes
at the end on matters of allusion, style, and
construction. The volume is illustrated.
In the Orations on Bunker Hill Monu-
ment, the Character of Washington, and the
Landing at Plymouth (American Book Com-
pany, 20 cents), we have the three best ora-
torical efforts of Daniel, Webster. His sim-
plicity of diction and perfect mastery of
pure idiomatic English render them excel-
lent models for the pupil who would perfect
himself in the use of the English tongue.
PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.
Agricultural Experiment Stations— Reports
and Bulletins. Connecticut : The Elm-Leaf Bee-
tle ; The San Jose Scale. Pp. 16 —Cornell Uni-
versity : Cherries. By L. H. Bailey and O. H.
Powell. Pp. 32.— Massachusetts (Hatch Experi-
ment Station) : Commercial Fertilizers. Pp. 8. —
Michigan : Crimson Clover, etc. Pp. 40 ; Ferti-
lizer Analysis. Pp. 16.— Nebraska : Annual Re-
port of the' Botanist. By Charles E. Bessey. Pp.
24.— New Jersey : Report of the Botanical De-
partment. By Byron D. Halsted. Pp. 140.— New
York : Feeding Laying Hens. Pp. 18.— The
Lutovka Cherry. P. 1. — North Dakota : Second
Annual Report of the Weather Service. Pp. 28.—
Weather and Crop Service, June,and July. Pp.
16 each. — Ohio : Noxious Weeds along Thorough-
fares and their Destruction. Pp. 8. — Purdue Uni-
versity : Commercial Fertilizers. Pp. 8, with
Chart'.
American Journal. The, of Sociology. Alhin
W. Small, Editor. Vol. I, No. 1. July, 1895.
Chicago : University of Chicago Press. Pp. 112.
15 cents. $3 a year.
Ashley, Charles S. The Financial Question.
Toledo, Ohio. Pp. 103.
Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Publica-
tions. Vol. VII, No. 43. Pp. 20, with several
Plates.
Bay. J. Christian. Investigations concerning
the ^Etiology of Smallpox. Pp. 10.
Beat, F. E. L. Preliminary Report on the
Food of Woodpeckers ; and the Tongues of
Woodpeckers. By F. A. Lucas. U. S. Depart-
ment of Agriculture. Pp. -10, with Plates.
Cams, Paul. The Gospel of Buddha, accord-
ing to Old Records. Chicago : Open Court Pub-
lishing Company. Pp. 276. $1.
Clare, L. Pierce, M.D., Middletown, Conn.
Some Observations on an Epidemic of Typhus
Fever. Pp. 27.— The Flechsig Method in the
Treatment of Insane Epileptics. Pp. 24.
Committee of the Royal Medical and Chirurgi-
cal Society of London. Report on the Climates
and Baths of Great Britain. Vol. I. Macmillan
& Co. Pp. 640. $6.50.
Crosby, W. O. Tables for the Determination
of Common Minerals. Boston : The Author.
Pp. 106.
Daniell, Alfred, A Textbook of the Princi-
ples «ii' Physics Third edition. Macmillan &
Co. Pp. 783. $4.
Donaldson, Henrj Herbert. The Growth of
theBrain. London : Walter Scotl Pp.874.
Doyle, A. Conan. The Stark Munro Letters.
New York : D. Appleton A < '<>. Pp. 885.
Eliot, Henrietta l.\, and Blow, Susan E. The
Mottoes .ind Commentaries of Friedrich Froebel'a
Mother Play. New York : D. Appleton & Co.
Pp. 310.
Frei, G. D., Editor. The Public Schools.
Vol. I, No. 5. ClarksvUle, Tenn. : W. P. Titus.
Pp. 16. 5 cents.
Green, Mason E. Are we losing the West ?
Boston: Charles E. Brown & Co. Pp. 81. 10
cents.
Harrop, II. B., and Wallis, Louis A. The
Forces of Nature. Columbus, Ohio : Harrop A
Wallis. Pp. 159. $1.25.
Holbrook, Dr. M. L. Hsematoblasts and Blood
Platelets. Pp. 10.
Hussey, W. J. A Study of the Physical Char-
acteristics of Comet Rorda'me. Pp. 24.
Iowa Health Bulletin. J. F. Kennedy, Editor.
August, 1895. Des Moines. Pp. 16.
James, Joseph F. Washington, D. C. : Fossil
Fungi. Pp. 5. — Remarks on the Genus Anthro-
phycus, Hall. Pp. 5.— Daimonelix, or " Devil's
Corkscrew," and Other Fossils. Pp. 10.— The St.
Peter's Sandstone. Pp. 20.— The Genus Fucoides.
Pp. 20. All with Plates.
Jarvis, Josephine, Translator. Friedrich
Froebel's Pedagogics of the Kindergarten. New
York : I). Appleton A Co. Pp. 337, with Plates.
Mace, William H. A Working Manual of
American History for Teachers and Students.
Syracuse, N. Y. : C. W. Bardeen. Pp. 297.
Michigan Mining School, Houghton. Prospec-
tus of Elective Studies. Pp. 50.
Morgan, Thomas J. Patriotic Citizenship.
American Book Company. Pp. 367. $1.
Old South Leaflets. The English Bible. (Ex-
tracts from Different Versions.) Pp. 20.
Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. The Course
in Practical Chemistry. Prospectus. Pp. 21.
Quinn, Rev. D. A., Providence, R. I. Steno-
typy, or Shorthand for the Typewriter. Second
improved edition. Pp. 55.
Revue Franco-Americain. New York : E. T.
Gurchy, 63 Fifth Avenue. Pp. 123. $1 a copy ;
$10 a year.
Roark, Runic N. Psychology in Education.
American Book Company. Pp. 312. $1.
Scientific Alliance of New York. Fifth An-
nual irectory. Pp. 54. 25 cents.
Singleton, M. T. Gravitation and Cosmologic-
al Law. Atlanta, Ga. Pp. 23.
Starr, Frederick. Summary of the Arcbse
ology of Iowa. Pp. 124. — Comparative-Religion
Notes. Pp. 53.
Syms, L. C. First Year in French. American
Book Company. Pp. 128. 50 cents.
Thompson, \Y. Gilman. Practical Dietetics.
with Special Reference to Diet in Disease. New
York : D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 802.
Tennessee State Board of Health Bulletin.
Nashville, Augusi 20, 1895. Pp.16.
TJdden, Prof. J. A. A Geological Section
across the Northern Part of Illinois. Pp. 82,
United states Coast and Geodetic Survey.
Notice to Mariners. (Chart Corrections.) Pp.8.
United States Geological Survey. Fourteenth
Annual Report of the Director, J. \V. Powell
Parti. Pp.321; Pan II. Accompanying Papers.
Pp. 597, with Maps. — Mineral Products of the
United States. Chart.
Ward, Lester F. The Nomenclature Question.
Pp. 20.
856
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
Watkins, James L. Production and Price of
Cotton for One Hundred Years. U. S. Depart-
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White, Frances Emily. The American Med-
ical Woman. Pp. 16.
White, Francis A. Outline Studies in the His-
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pany. 30 cents.
Willis, Bailey. The Northern Appalachians.
American Book Company. Pp. 32. 20 cents.
POPULAR MISCELLANY.
in Instance of Webbed Fingers in Man.
— (Communicated by F. E. Lloyd and F. L.
Washburn.) The subject of this sketch, now
about twenty-five years of age, was born near
Smyrna, Iowa. He now resides in eastern
Oregon, and is attending one of the State
schools, where, though slow, he is proving
himself fairly efficient in some lines of work.
little finger of each hand are provided with
only two movable joints or phalanges. On
the fourth finger we find an enlargement at
the point where the lower or distal end of
the first joint should be. This rigidity,
therefore, seems to have been brought about
by a growing together or anchylosis of the
first and second joints. The first joint or
first phalanx of the little finger, however,
although equal in length to two normal joints,
is perfectly smooth and cylindrical. As if
to compensate for this stiffness, the terminal
joints of these two fingers can be bent to
make a perfect right angle with the longitu-
dinal axis of the finger. The toes are also
webbed, but not so strikingly as the fingers.
All of the following measurements have been
made from a line passing through the distal
end of the metacarpal bones ; in other words,
tm
^m 43
»'
'•^^^B «H
f. J
■ -9
pi
W 3
■ «
■■y$
J
IF M
fcgfc .
'.
^j'%
bdjp' -'
'^
u
Of large, powerful frame, he is a welcome
adjunct on the football field, though ordi-
narily awkward in his movements. Accord-
ing to his statement, he has never suffered
any special inconvenience from the abnormal
condition of his hands, and feels disinclined
to undergo a surgical operation for their bet-
terment. When but a few days old, the
webs were cut, but the operation was badly
performed, and apparently their growth was
not checked. The scars resulting from the
operation may yet be seen. An interesting
fact to be noted is, that the fourth finger and
from the point where the bones of each finger
unite with those of the hand. A centimetre
is practically equivalent to two fifths of an
inch.
To tip of second or index finger. . . 10-8 ctm.
" " third or middle finger. . . 12-4 ctm.
" " fourth finger 11 "4 ctm.
To angle of web between second
and third fingers 7"6 ctm.
To angle of web between third and
fourth fingers 5-2 ctm.
To end of first joint of second
index finger 5-7 ctm.
POPULAR MISCELLANY.
85:
To end of first joint of third finger 7 3 ctni.
" " " " " little " 71 ctm.
" " fourth " 6 4 ctm.
" " second " " '• " 9-8 ctm.
The last two are the anchylosed phalanges
mentioned above. The subject under discus-
sion has one brother similarly affected, whose
webs are decidedly larger than in the present
instance. This brother has but one stiff
joint on each hand. The father has hands
somewhat webbed. A second brother has no
webs, nor has the mother, nor the paternal
or maternal grandparents.
How Stone Arrowheads were Made. —
The guiding principle of Mr. F. H. Cushing's
fruitful researches in anthropology has been
" Put yourself in his place." When he
wished to learn how stone arrowheads were
made he became an arrow-maker himself.
As a result of his labors and researches he
was able to tell, in his address to the Anthro-
pological Section of the American Associa-
tion at Springfield, how primitive men made
their arrows. They first sought the material,
he said, mined it arduously from buried
ledges, with fire, mauls, and skids, or prefer-
ably sought it in banks of pebbles, digging
such as were fit freshly from the soil, if pos-
sible, and at once blocking out from them
blanks for their blades by splitting the
pebbles into suitable spalls. This was done
by holding the pebbles edgewise on a hard
base, and hitting them sharply and almost
directly on the peripheries, but with a one-
sided twist or turn of the maul or battering
stone. At each deft stroke of the maul a
spall was struck off — sometimes twenty from
a single cobble or block of moderate size.
These were, with almost incredible rapidity,
trimmed to the leaf-shaped basis of all primi-
tive chipped tools, by knapping them with
a horn, bone, or very soft, tough, granular
stone hammer, mounted in a light handle.
For this the spall was placed flatwise on the
knee, or on a padded hammer-stone, so
called, and held down by the base of the
thumb of one hand, and rapidly struck along
the edge transversely and obliquely to its
axis, lengthwise, with the outwardly twist-
ing kind of blows used in the splitting.
The blanks thus formed were then carried
"home for leisurely or opportune finishing;
and carefully buried in damp soil, not to
vol. xlvii. — 70
hide them, as has boon usually Bupposed,
but to keep them even-tempered, uniformlj
saturated or full of sap and life, as these
ancients thought — whence the so-called
'•caches" of numerous leaf shaped blades
which are now and then found throughout
old Indian ranges. To show that making
arrowheads is not such a slow and laborious
process as many have supposed Mr. Cushing
stated that he had succeeded from the time
he found a suitable pebble of fine grained,
ringing, cold and fresh quartzite, in making
seven finished knife and arrow blades in ex-
actly thirty-eight minutes ; and he had often
made from obsidian or glass a very small
and delicate arrow point — the most easily
made — in less than two minutes.
Chemistry advanced by the Industries.—
In showing how pure science had been pro-
moted by industrial operations and require-
ments, which was the theme of his vice-
presidential address before the American
Association, Mr. William McMurtrie cited an
interesting example from Hoffmann, who
says, "It is not generally known that the
theory of substitution owes its source to a
soiree in the Tuileries." Dumas had been
called upon by his father-in-law, Alexandre
Brongniart, who was director of the Sevres
porcelain works, and, as Hoffmann says, in a
measure a member of the royal household,
to examine into the cause of the irritating
vapors from candles burned in the ballroom,
a demand to which Dumas readily acceded,
because he had already done some work
upon the examination of wax which could
not be bleached and was therefore unmer-
chantable. He was readily led to the con-
clusion that the candles used in the palace
had been made with wax that had been
bleached with chlorine, and that the vapors
were hydrochloric acid generated in the
burning of the candles. But examination of
the wax of the candles showed that the
quantity of chlorine found was greater than
could be accounted by for its presence as a
mechanical impurity, and from it Dumas was
led to experiments which showed that many
organic substances when heated with chlo-
rine have the power to fix it, and from these
results he was in turn led to the further
generalization concerning the law of substi-
tution. It was an incident similar to that
858
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
already described that brought Dumas to the
reaction whereby hydrogen sulphide may be
oxidized to sulphuric acid. He found the
walls of one of the bath rooms at Aix-les-
Bains covered with crystals of calcium sul-
phate, which could have no other source
than the vapors liberated from the hot
water.
Range of the Unman Voice. — In dis-
cussing a paper read before the Section of
Physics of the American Association, Prof.
W. Le Conte Stevens remarked that the
lowest recorded tone of the voice is that of
a basso named Fischer, who lived during the
sixteenth century, and who sounded F0,
about forty-three vibrations per second. Mr.
Stevens himself, without possessing a bass
voice, has sounded as low as A0, fifty-three
and a third vibrations per second, when his
vocal cords were thickened by an attack of
catarrh. This, however, is under abnormal
conditions. The highest note hitherto re-
corded in the books was attained in singing
by Lucrezia Ajugari. At Parma in lYYO she
sang for Mozart several passages of extraor-
dinarily high pitch, one of which included
C6, two thousand and forty-eight vibrations
per second. She trilled in D6, eleven hun-
dred and fifty-two vibrations, and was able
to sing as low as G2, one hundred and ninety-
two vibrations, having thus a range of nearly
four octaves and a half. Ajugari's upper
limit has been attained by Ellen Beach Yaw,
of Rochester. Mr. Stevens has often esti-
mated, by comparisons with a tuning fork,
the pitch of a child's squeal while at play,
which has been repeatedly found to be in
excess of twenty-five hundred vibrations per
second, in one case as high as G0, about
three thousand and seventy-two vibrations.
The total range between these extremes is in
excess of six octaves.
Criminal Anthropology. — Among rea-
sons for including anthropology among the
preparatory studies for medicine, Mr. Have-
lock Ellis refers to special branches of prac-
tice in which knowledge of it is of great
assistance — such as practice abroad among
different races, and practice among the in-
sane at home, and in dealing with the phe-
nomena of crime. Numbers of criminals in-
herit their qualities and transmit them, and
constitute a distinct class. Their increase
must be prevented by dispersing them and
checking the reproduction of their kind. In
the light of these principles, Lombroso has
constructed his system of criminal anthro-
pology. The Lancet says that in Paris
medical experts are appointed to examine
the persons arrested overnight, and to send
to asylums those whom they find to be trou-
bled with brain disease, whereby they are
secured from association with criminals and
soon may be restored to soundness. Dr.
Benedikt, of Vienna, has done great service
in this line of practice in his studies of
criminals of different types. Three factors
are named by Dr. Clouston which should be
taken cognizance of in criminal anthropol-
ogy, viz. : The heredity of the criminal ; his
brain, with its reactive and resisting qualities
in each case ; and the criminal's surroundings,
immediate and permanent. The first takes
account of the past history of the criminal's
family, and the transmission of its inherited
diseases into other diseases in offspring.
The second factor, involving the receptivity
and reactive power of the brain, its resources
in self-control, especially in withstanding
pain, fear, temptation, and other trials of the
moral sense, concerns a wide field and pre-
sents great difficulties to the investigator.
The third factor includes the mental and
social atmosphere in which the subject of
criminal anthropological inquiry has been
brought up, and must comprise early com-
panionship, moral and religious influence,
and whatever contributes to motive in its
less healthy tissues. " Those tracts of the
brain cortex organized for mental processes
are the field in which the future character of
the individual' — criminal or non-criminal —
germinates and grows ; they are, as Dr.
Clouston well puts it, ' the fullest of hered-
itary qualities, the most powerful, yet the
most notable, by far the most physiological-
ly valuable part of man,' and the question
that confronts the student of criminality he
formulates thus : ' Have we among us men
and women whose mental cortex is of such
quality that in its ordinary environment the
conduct of its possessors must necessarily be
an ti social and lawless ? and if so, what
anatomical, physiological, and psychological
signs are there to distinguish this criminal1
cortex and its possessor ? ' " The Italian
POPULAR MISCELLANY.
859
and sonic of the German school assert that
such signs exist, and are not difficult to rec-
ognize ; or, that the criminal was a criminal
potentially before he was one actually. The
chief problem of dealing with crime funda-
mentally is, then, one of taking it at this
stage ; and it is here that medical anthro-
pology can make itself most useful.
Explorations in Labrador and Alaska.
— Of the geographical explorations on the
American continent during 1894, Prof. An-
gelo Heilprin, in the Bulletin of the Geo-
graphical Club of Philadelphia, mentions as
most noteworthy those of Messrs. Tyrrell
and Low, on British territory. To the for-
mer we owe the exploration of a large por-
tion of unknown region lying to the west of
Hudson Bay — a region that for at least six
hundred miles was totally unknown — and
the rectification of much of the western con-
tour of the bay. A peculiarity of the region
traveled over by Mr. Tyrrell is the total ab-
sence of timber. " All the wood that was
gathered in the course of this six hundred
miles' journey, it is said, would not have
been sufficient to give the material for a
single boot-peg. On the other hand, even in
this most treeless area, game of at least one
kind is described as being most unmanage-
ably abundant. Over an area of three square
miles or more the reindeer were so thick as
almost completely to shut out from view the
ground." To Mr. Low belongs the honor of
having made the first crossing of Labrador.
Beginning at Lake Mistassini on the east,
and terminating at Ungava Bay on the
north, he crossed the height of land of the
region, a rugged and forbidding country,
partly timber-covered, and in the main de-
void of inhabitants. No specially marked
physiographic features were discovered, no
great mountain ridges or peaks, and no
large streams, " but the accessions of general
knowledge to a region are always welcome,
and particularly when it is so little known as
is Labrador." A third exploration on our
continent is that of the joint Anglo-Ameri-
can Alaska Boundary Commission. The state-
ments in the newspapers that the surveys
of this commission would remove Mount
St. Elias from the United States to British
America is " perhaps premature," and Mr. J.
C. Russell, who first definitely determined
the position of the mountain, is quoted as
authority for saying that no basis exists for
the assumed necessary transfer. Two other
peaks, however, possibly higher than Mount
St. Elias, have been observed, unquestiona-
bly on British soil.
Snow-coloring Insects. — An interesting
communication has been published from Dr.
Vogler de Schaffhouse concerning red snow-
insects. An excursion of a Vaudois society
to the Great St. Bernard in August, 1893, at
an altitude of twenty-six hundred metres,
near the col de Fenetre remarked in a little
combe at the left of the path a well-defined
rose-red spot on the snow. One of the ex-
cursionists, M. Th6odore Bottinger, found by
the aid of a glass that the red color was due
to little jumping insects, of which thousands
were distributed on the surface of the melt-
ing snow. There were such prodigious
numbers of them at the bottom of the
combe that they formed a compact mass
an inch thick in spots, like a bed of orange-
red sawdust. The insect, called in French a
podurelle, is a new species of the Lipura of
Burmeister — the Anurophorus of Nicolet,
hitherto undescribed. The red and black
colorations of snow are usually ascribed to
an alga {Protococcus nivalis), which turns
black from red in the course of its growth.
M. J. Brun observes, in an article he has
published on the subject of coloration, that
he has met the podurelle of Benedict de
Saussure (Desoria glacialh) in innumerable
masses, and believes that the existence of
the podurelle is connected with that of the
protococcus, and that the insects owe their
color to the black spores on which they feed.
It appears, then, that the coloration of the
snow is chiefly due to the presence of the
lower vegetation, but that the existence of
the podurelles being connected with that of
the protococcus, those insects may under
some circumstances contribute by their num-
ber to form colored spots.
Power of Petty Snperstitions.— The
force of superstition, the London Specta-
tor observes, in an article on that subject,
is rarely felt by the cultured Englishmen, be-
cause their superstitions are usually unim-
portant, it not signifying much whether you
pass under a ladder or not, or whether you
86o
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
are for a moment alarmed because you have
broken a mirror; but among a great portion
of mankind, including a section of the poor
of enlightened countries, the smaller super-
stitions make up a real and heavy burden.
They keep up a permanent distrust in the
goodness of Providence, and a watchfulness
to avoid evils from unknown forces which is
most enfeebling. A French or Italian peas-
ant will do nothing that is opposed to cer-
tain apothegms registered in his mind as
dogmas, and an Asiatic peasant is bound
hand and foot by a whole system of beliefs
in omens which cramp his energies as much
as even the rabbinical views of the law as to
anise and cummin cramped the energies of
the Jews in the time of Christ. There is not
an Asiatic in the world who would dare go
dead against the warnings of his horoscope,
and very few Europeans of the Continent
would stride forward resolutely in an under-
taking the beginning of which has been
marked by a stumble or a failure. Even in
England this special idea about omens has
amazing influence, as have also the other be-
liefs in premonition or presentiment. We
all know the annoyance to which the belief
in the superstition about thirteen subjects
English dinner-goers, while on the Continent
it is difficult, and in Paris impossible, to let
a house with the number thirteen on the
door. Even the iron logic of French func-
tionaries gives way before that belief, and
proprietors of rows are permitted to register
the thirteenth house as 12 B.
Heavy Rainfall and Ship Canals. — The
best series of rainfall observations in Cen-
tral America, according to Prof. M. W. Har-
rington, is that taken at San Jose, Costa
Rica, by Prof. Enrique Pettier. Several
other series are nearly as good. The great-
est hourly rainfall observed there was l-9
inches, or at a rate of forty-six inches — or
nearly four feet — per day. " The results of
such enormous falls of rain have often been
described and can easily be imagined. The
dry stream beds or qucbradas, very common
on the plateaus, are rapidly filled ; the water
comes down in a wall several feet high ; the
camping place, two or six feet above the wa-
ter, is overflowed, and soon the new camp-
ing place, hastily sought in the dark and
several feet higher, is also overflowed. In
such a country as Mosquitia dry stream beds
become rivers, marshes change to lakes, and
the natives temporarily take to the trees or
to their boats. While all this is striking, it
is by no means unparalleled in the temperate
regions. . . . The difference between such
falls of rain id the tropics and in the tem-
perate zones is chiefly that in the latter they
are occasional, while in the tropics they are
customary. These conditions are especially
interesting from the standpoint of the pos-
sible ship canals in Central America. ... It
must be acknowledged that the conditions at
Suez, Sault St. Marie, and the Welland Canal
are in this respect very favorable, for in
them the question of sudden floods does not
enter. It enters in the case of the great ship
canal of St. Petersburg-Cronstadt and of
those of the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta ; but
in these cases there are no changes of level
sufficient to make the use of locks necessary.
Indeed, the use of locks on ship canals where
feeders are subject to sudden and violent
floods appears to present a new engineering
problem, first met in the Panama Canal."
House and Room Ventilation. — Draughts
in houses may be defined, Dr. G. V. Poore
says, as currents of air rushing in at the many
places through channels that have insufficient
area. The only way to cure draughts is to
place inlets of sufficient area in proper posi-
tions. When building a house, one might
place louvre ventilators in the walls between
room and passage at a height of six and a half
feet above the floor. The alteration of a door
panel into a ventilator costs only a trifle. In
the author's experience it is a most excellent
way of ventilating a room, always provided
that the air of the passages be wholesome.
Windows should extend to within a few
inches of the ceiling, and should open at the
top. If the room be twelve or thirteen feet
high, and the windows go to the top, then
the window becomes unmanageable from its
height, and the opening at the top, though
theoretically possible, is seldom put in prac-
tice. The wholesomeness of a room depends
very much upon the rapidity with which the
air within it can be renewed — the facility, in
short, with which one can give it a blow-out.
This depends upon the relation of window
area to entire capacity. Windows should be
so constructed that they can be easily ma-
POPULAR MISCELLANY.
861
nipulated by a child. The louvre window
ventilator, such as is common in churches,
will be found very valuable for the admission
of a constant but comparatively small supply
of air. Relatively low rooms, with big, mul-
lioned windows going to within a few inches
of the ceiling, are far more wholesome than
lofty rooms in which the tops of the walls
are inaccessible to the housemaid, and the
window sashes are too weighty for her to
move them without difficulty. For whole-
someness and comfort the author believes a
height of ten feet is sufficient for any do-
mestic living room and nine feet for a bed-
room. Provided the windows go to the top
and can be easily opened, it is very doubtful
if there is any object, from the purely sani-
tary point of view, in having rooms more than
nine feet high. Facility for cleaning should
be ever in the mind of both builder and fur-
nisher. The modern boudoir, hung with dabs
of mediaeval rags and stuffed with furniture
and knickknacks, is often not very cleanly, and
when the daylight is excluded, lest fading
should take place, and the sun's rays never
have a chance of disinfecting the dust on
and behind the curios, it can not be very
wholesome.
Tepee and Other Butte*. — The term butte
is ordinarily applied to steep-sided hills with
narrow summits. More rarely it has been
employed to designate mountains, but this is
probably obsolescent. The tepee buttes de-
scribed by Messrs. G. K. Gilbert and F. P.
Gulliver in their paper on that subject are
so called on account of their resemblance to
the lodges, or tepees, of the Sioux Indians.
They are constituted around limestone masses
in the Pierre shales of Colorado, higher than
wide, and in all dimensions of a size to be
measured by feet or yards, which, resisting
erosion much better than the shales, stand
above the general surface. Their fallen frag-
ments protect sloping pedestals of shale, and
their positions are marked in the landscape
by conical knolls. These limestone masses
may be called tepee cores and their material
tspee rock. They are found scattered irreg-
ularly over a considerable district within the
Pierre group, in places so thickly set that
hundreds may be seen from one point, while
elsewhere they are solitary or in groups of
two or three. The tepee rock is of coarse
texture, breaking with rough fracture, of
light, warm gray color, and full of fossil ma-
rine shells {Lucina), imbedded in a matrix
composed of fragments of shell, water-worn
grains of calcite, foraminfera, and clay. Al-
lied phenomena are found in Canada, of
" great spongy and cavernous masses," form-
ing islets which the Indians call wigwams
and the caverns doors. Other forms of butte
mentioned by the authors are the butte mark-
ing the site of a volcanic neck, which differs
from the tepee butte- in the nature of the
core ; the dike, or elongated butte, having a
vertical plate rather than a cylinder for a
core ; the cylinder butte, which does not owe
its form to a hard core, though it may have
one, and when freshly formed has a crater
at the top ; the spring butte, formed by
deposition from the water of geysers or other
springs; and the mesa butte, which is the
remnant of a tabular outlier, and is carved,
like the tepee butte, from a greater mass,
but has a hard cap instead of a hard core,
and hence a flat-topped instead of a conical
form.
Scientific Work of the Franklin Insti-
tute.— A historical sketch of the Franklin
Institute, Philadelphia, compiled by Mr.
Wahl, the secretary, contains a full and only
just account of the work it has done during
the seventy years of its existence for the ad-
vancement of science and the useful arts.
Among the most prominent of the works in
which it has been engaged, the first of gen-
eral public importance was the investigation
of the various forms of water wheels for giv-
ing economical value to water power. Fol-
lowing this, and in the same line of practical
usefulness, was an investigation of the cause
of the explosion of steam boilers. Closely
connected with these experiments was an in-
quiry into the strength of materials used in
construction. These investigations, the re-
sults of which were published in the Journal
of the Institute, formed a contribution of
great value to manufacturers of steam ma-
chinery, architects, and builders. At the in-
stance of the Government, the Institute made
an investigation and report on the suitability
of various building stones, with special refer-
ence to the construction of the Delaware
Breakwater. At the request of the Legisla-
ture of Pennsylvania it examined and report-
862
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
ed on our system of weights and measures,
providing.the basis of the present State law.
In 1848 it secured an appropriation for the
equipment of stations for the systematic ob-
servation and collection of meteorological
facts — probably the earliest instance in this
country of such an appropriation. This work
was begun, extended, and carried on under
the direction of the committee of the Insti-
tute for several years, and the collection of
weather data by the observers it has enlisted
was continued afterward. The Institute sug-
gested, in 1887, the institution of the present
State weather service. In 1864 it obtained
a report on the shape and proportions of
screw threads used in machine construction,
which gave the basis for the standard now
universally current in this country. It par-
ticipated, through its committee, in 1875, in
the inquiry concerning the present and future
water supply of Philadelphia. Its investiga-
tion, in 1878, of the efficiency of the dynamo-
electric machine for arc lighting appears to
have been the earliest intelligent inquiry into
the relative merits of the several types of
these machines. In 1884 a more elaborate
report was issued on the same subject, and
another on the Life-Duration and Efficiency
of Incandescent Electric Lamps. Allied to
these investigations was its report on The
Conditions of Safety in Electric Lighting,
published in December, 1881, which formu-
lated for the first time a number of the con-
ditions to be observed in the wiring of build-
ings and the running of circuits, which have
since become incorporated in the regulations
of the Fire Underwriters' Association.
North Nyassa Superstitions. — Connected
with the superstitions of the people of the
region north of Lake Nyassa, in Africa, are
the sacred groves or burial places of their
ancestors. The undergrowth in them is so
thick that the sun's rays seldom penetrate.
In their days of trouble the priests resort
there to pray to the spirits of their fathers.
In them the prophets deliver their messages.
No other living creature is allowed to enter.
Should war or disease visit the tribe, the
priest kills a bull, and offers the blood and
the head of the animal. The people firmly
believe in the spirit of evil. He is " Mbasi."
In one place Mbasi is a person — an old man
— who exercises extraordinary power. He
speaks only at night, and to the head men
of the tribe, and during the interview every
other voice must be silent and .every light
extinguished. In Wundale the people be-
lieve in such a person, who has the power to
make lions, and who employs them as mes-
sengers of evil. His house is surrounded
with long grass, in which he keeps his lions,
as other men keep dogs. If a man has a
dispute with a neighbor who refuses to
come to terms, these lions may be hired to
destroy his cattle. Dr. D. Kerr-Cross was
much struck to find that all over the north
end of Lake Nyassa the people regularly per-
form a post-mortem to the dead. Death in
war is the only exception. One of the elder-
ly men takes a strip of bamboo, and, mak-
ing an incision in the abdominal wall below
the ribs, carefully inspects the viscera. They
bury immediately outside the door of the
house, and in a sitting posture. In Wun-
dale, about a year after the decease, and at
dead of night, the friends lift the bones and
cast them into certain clumps of trees found
all over the country. These groves are full
of human bones.
The Vitality of Seeds. — Discussing the
vitality of seeds, Mr. W. Botting Hemsley
first speaks of the infinity of variety in the
behavior of seeds under different conditions.
Neither under natural nor under artificial
conditions will some seeds retain their vitali-
ty more than one season. Others will hold
their life for a time that has not yet been
defined. The scarlet-runner bean loses its
germinative power on exposure to compar-
atively slight frost, the degree depending
upon the amount of moisture in it ; yet it will
retain its vitality for an almost indefinite
period under favorable artificial conditions
In both this seed and the acorn germination
would naturally follow as soon after matura-
tion as the conditions allowed. The seeds
of the hawthorn are incased in a hard, bony
envelope, in addition to the proper coat or
testa. Committed to the earth, and under
the most favorable conditions, these seeds
do not germinate till the second year, and
often not so soon. Prolongation of vitality
is probably due in some measure to the 'pro-
tective nature of the shell inclosing the seed.
The primary condition to the preservation of
vitality in a seed is perfect ripeness. Un-
NOTES.
863
ripe seeds of many kinds will germinate and
grow into independent plants if sown imme-
diately after removal from the parent. This
may be readily observed in wheat, and the
same property is found occasionally in vari-
ous other plants. Sometimes the seeds of
pulpy fruits germinate in the fruit. The
vitality of certain seeds is not impaired by
floating and being partially submerged in
sea water for as long as a year. Plants are
growing at Kew from seeds that have been
thus exposed. Some seeds will bear immer-
sion in boiling water for a short time ; but
seeds of all kinds will bear for a consid-
erably longer period a much higher dry
temperature than they will soaking in wa-
ter of the same temperature. D17 grain is
equally impervious to cold. Some of the
fir trees, especially of North America, bear
the seed vessels containing quick seeds of
many successive seasons ; and only under the
influence of forest fires or excessive drought
do they open and release the seed. The un-
opened cones of thirty years have been count-
ed on some fir trees ; and it is averred that
the seed vessels of some proteaceous trees do
not open to shed their seed, under ordinary
conditions, until the death of the parent
plants. The stories of the germination of
" mummy wheat " have not been confirmed ;
but kidney beans taken from the herbarium of
Tournefort are said to have grown after hav-
ing been thus preserved for at least a hun-
dred years. Wheat and rye are said to have
preserved their vitality for as long a period.
Seeds of the sensitive plant germinated at
the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, when sixty
years old. If seeds retain their vitality for
so long periods under such conditions, it is
quite conceivable that seeds buried deep in
the earth, beyond atmospheric influences and
where there is not excessive moisture, might
retain their germinative power for an indefi-
nite period.
Cultivation of Dates at Tafiiet.— The cul-
tivation of dates and leather work form, ac-
cording to Mr. Walter B. Harris, the sole
industries of Tafiiet, Morocco. The water
for irrigating purposes is brought by many
canals from the Wad Biz to the palm groves.
The soil under the trees is carefully dug, and
divided by low raised banks into squares
from ten to twenty yards in extent. Into
these, by removing a small part of the bank
into which the water flows — for the canals
are raised above the general level of the soil
— a connection is formed with the canal and
the land flooded, the water being allowed to
proceed from square to square by removing
portions of the dikes. The object of this
irrigating of the patches separately is to
avoid waste, only the portion which actually
requires water receiving it; these squares
are cultivated with lucerne, wheat, and barley
where the shade of the palms is not excess-
ive, and maize and palms, the latter of which
are not so common as in other parts of the
desert, for the dates take their place as the
staple article of food of the people. Besides
the palm supplying the people with provision,
the coarser species of dates are employed for
fodder, and constitute the chief food of such
cattle as there are, and of horses and donkeys.
The finer qualities are exported to Fez and
Morocco City by caravan, the pack animals
bringing in return wheat and European
manufactures and rough iron. About ninety
per cent of the export of Tafiiet dates from
Morocco go to London.
NOTES.
In the construction of the new speedway
at High Bridge, New York, a bed of quick-
sand was encountered, which much impeded
the work. The difficulty was obviated by
the artificial refrigerating process. A row
of four-inch pipes was sunk a few feet apart
to the depth of forty feet. These pipes were
capped at the bottom, and inside them were
inserted smaller pipes open at the bottom.
Cold air was forced f om a condenser through
the smaller pipes into the larger and thence
returned to the condenser. The air was
cooled by expansion to a temperature of
about —45° C, thus freezing the surrounding
mud and wet sand, and checking the flow
into the excavation.
A Mr. Bickesten, of Liverpool, proposes
to avoid the hardship of having — in the
future — to remove from the marine service
persons who may be found defective in vision
by making the tests for their admission
more stringent. He therefore suggests new-
rules providing that no boy or man shall lie
allowed to enter the service until his form
vision and color vision have been tested and
found sufficient ; that their certificate of eye-
sight be exhibited by seamen before they are
permitted to sign articles; that color-blind-
ness and defective vision be made in them-
selves reasons for breaking indenture engage-
864
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
ments ; that officers affected in their vision
be given shore employment ; and that certain
specified improvements be introduced into
the method of testing for defects of vision.
The way changes are produced in the
configuration of the country in a region of
lakes by the action of the water is illustrated
in a recent lecture by R. H. Mill. Taking-
certain English and Scotch lakes, Loch Tay
has been gradually silted up during the last
thirty years ; a stony peninsula is building
up at the foot of Ullswater ; the rush of the
waves is slowly eating away the eastern
shore of Windermere; the affluent rivers are
filling Haweswater with stones and rubbish,
and a delta has been formed which nearly
cuts the lake in two — a process which has
been completed in certain lakes that are
specified. The famous floating island of
Derwentwater is probably a piece of the
moat of waterweed that covers the floor of
some parts of the lake, raised to the surface
by the gas given off by its own decompo-
sition.
Thoreau says in his Early Spring in
Massachusetts, speaking of a class of books
which have not yet gone out of fashion :
" A good book is not made in the cheap and
offhand manner of many of our scientific re-
ports, ushered in by the message of the
President communicating it to Congress, and
the order of Congress that many thousand
copies be printed with the letters of instruc-
tion from the Secretary of the Interior (or
rather exterior), the bulk of the book being
a journal of a picnic or sporting expedition
by a brevet lieutenant-colonel, illustrated by
photographs of the traveler's footsteps
across the plains, and an admirable engrav-
ing of his native village as it appeared on his
leaving it, and followed by an appendix on
the paleontology of the route by a distin-
guished savant who was not there ; the last
illustrated by very finely executed engrav-
ings of some old broken shells picked up on
the road."
Of a limited study of dietaries, mostly
in New England, acknowledged to be imper-
fect, the results, as summarized by Prof. W.
0. Atwater, decidedly confirm the general
impression of hygienists that our diet is one-
sided and that we eat too much. The food
which we actually eat, leaving out of account
that which we throw away, has relatively too
little protein and too much fat, starch, and
sugar. This is due partly to our large con-
sumption of sugar and partly to our use of
fat meats. The rejection of so much of the
fat of meat at the market and on our plates
at the table is not mere willfulness. It is in
obedience to Nature's protest against a one-
sided and excessive diet. How much harm
is done to health by our one-sided and excess-
ive diet no one can say. Physicians tell us
that it is very great.
A successful demonstration was given
in April to a meeting of medical men in
London by Mr. S. Schontheil, of the most
modern and scientific method of training the
deaf and dumb so as to enable them to use
articulate speech and give them a full com-
mand of language. Several pupils were in-
troduced who were subjected, with highly
satisfactory results, to exercises in pronun-
ciation, lip-reading, dictation, recitation, read-
ing, and answering miscellaneous questions.
It is now generally recognized in Great
Britain, ex-President Teall, of the Geological
Section of the British Association, says, that
there is no important difference in structure
or composition between the rhyolites, ande-
sites, and basalts of the Palaeozoic and of the
Tertiary periods. Identity of structure and
composition in this case implies identity in
the physical conditions under which the
rocks were produced. Hence we may sum
up the case of the bearing of volcanic rocks
on the theory that, so long as observations
are confined to a limited area, doubts may
arise as to the truth of the uniformitarian
view, but these doubts gradually fall away as
the area of observations is extended. There
are still some outstanding difficulties, but, as
many similar ones have been overcome in the
past, it is improbable that those that remain
will prove formidable.
OBITUARY NOTES.
The death of Prof. Valentine Ball, of
Dublin, is a serious loss to the scientific
circles of that town. He contributed much
to the literature on precious stones, and pub-
lished several books of travels. Although
of fine physique, he died at the age of only
fifty-one.
The death is announced of Prof. Baillon,
Director of the Botanical Laboratory of the
faculty of medicine at the Sorbonne. He
was one of the most distinguished of the
Erench botanists and a very prolific writer.
He was born at Calais, November 30, 1827.
Dr. Friedrich Tietjen died on June 21,
1895. He was Professor of Astronomy at
Berlin University and editor of the Astrono-
mischen Jahrbuch. He was born in 1834.
His most important labors lie in the region
of astronomical computation.
Dr. FRiEnRicn Wilhelm Gustav Sporer,
chief observer in the Astrophysical Observa-
tory at Potsdam, died on the 7th of July of
heart disease. He was born in Berlin, Oc-
tober 23, 1822. He took his degree from
the Berlin University in 1843. He did a
large amount of valuable astronomical work,
being especially interested in sun spots, his
work on these making his name known to
the scientific world.
I^DEX,
ARTICLES MARKED WITH AN ASTERISK ARE ILLUSTRATED.
PAGE
Abbott, Charles C. Timothy Abbott Conrad. (With Portrait) 257
Abrasive Substances. (Misc.) 426
American Association, Meeting of the. (Misc.) 421
The, at Springfield. (Editor's Table) 846
Ancestor-worship among the Fijians. B. H. Thomson 671
Animals and Plants, Distinction of. (Misc.) 286
Variation in the Habits of. G. C. Davenport 619
Anthropology, The Growth of. (Editor's Table) 265
Antillean Continent, The Former. (Misc.) 425
Elevations and Depressions. (Misc.) 570
Archaeology in Denmark.* F. Starr 12
Argon : the New Constituent of the Air. J. T. Stoddard 522
The New Element in the Atmosphere. (Misc.) 286
Armadillo, The, and its Oddities.* C. H. Coe 354
Art, Aboriginal, in Copper. (Misc.) 571
" and Eyesight.* L. Howe 458
Astronomical Work of Harvard Observatory. (Misc.) 285
Bactericidal Solar Rays. (Misc.) 281
Balfour's, Mr., Dialectics. H. Spencer 327
Barbara, To. (With Portrait.) D. S. Jordan 538
Baskets, The, of Lichtenfels. (Misc.) 138
Beaulieu, Paul Leroy. The Office of Luxury 25
Ben jafield, Harry. Fruit as a Food and Medicine 677
Bergen, Mrs. Fanny D. Survivals of Sun-worship 249
Biological Laboratory at Cold Spring. (Misc.) 139
Birds' Eggs, Coloration of. (Misc.) 710
Birds of Prey, Hunting with.* E. Blanc 818
" The Study of, Out-of-doors.* F. M. Chapman 664
Blanc, Edouard. Hunting with Birds of Prey * 818
Boerhaave, The Illustrious. (With Portrait.) W. T. Lusk 110
Bohn, Grace Green. Steel Engravings as Works of Art. (Corr.) 121
Bond, William Cranch, Sketch of.* (With Portrait) 400
Books noticed 126, 268, 411, 559, 701, 848
Aerial Navigation, Proceedings of the In- American Philosophical Society, Proceed-
ternational Conference on, 129. ings commemorative of the One Hundred
Aeronautical Annual for 1895. James and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Founda-
Means, editor, 414. tion of the, 851.
Alabama, Geological Survey of. A Report Angot, Alfred. Les Aurores Polaires, 419.
on the Geology of the Coastal Plain of Anthony, Gardner C. Elements of Me-
Alabama, 5&4. chanical Drawing, 132.
VOL. XLVII. — 71
JJ7o?
866
INDEX.
Books noticed :
Arrowemith, Robert, and George M.
Whicher, editors. First Latin Readings,
416.
Art Education. Vol. I, No. 1, 134.
Astrophysical Journal. Vol. I, Nos. 1 and
2, 413.
Atken, Charles H. The Ills of the South,
130.
Baldwin, James Mark. Handbook of Psy-
chology, 701.
— Mental Development in the Child and the
Race, 848.
— Elements of Psychology, 701.
Balfour, George W. The Senile Heart, 854.
Bardeen, C. W. Handbook for School Trus-
tees, 854.
— Roderick Hume ; the Story of a New
York Teacher, 417.
Barnett, Mrs. S. A. The Making of the
Body, 268.
Bass, Florence. Animal Life, 418.
Benedict, A. L. A Tabular Review of
Organography, 853.
Bhikshu, Subhadra. A Buddhist Cate-
chism, 132.
Bigelow, Robert P. Report on the Crus-
tacea of the Order Stomatopoda, 276.
Binet, Alfred. Psychologie des Grands
Calculateurs et Joueurs d'Echecs, 130.
Bird, Charles. Geology, 706.
Boston Society of Natural History. Pro-
ceedings. Vol. XXVI, Parts II and m,
273.
Bottone, S. R. Electricity and Magnetism,
559.
Brnnache, P. Le Centre de l'Afrique au-
tour du Tchad, 419.
Call, Richard E. The Life and Writings
of Rafinesque, 271.
Carhart, Henry S. Physics for University
Students, 559.
Carus, Paul. The Gospel of Buddha, 132.
— The Nature of the State, 707.
Cary, George H. How to Make and Use
the Telephone, 559.
Catholic University Bulletin, 415.
Chambers, George F. The Story of the
Stars, 560.
Chapman, Frank M. Handbook of Birds
of Eastern North America, 703.
Cicero, M. T. De Senectute, 565.
Clodd, Edward. The Story of " Primitive"
Man, 705.
Cobbe, William Rosser. Dr. Judas : a
Portrayal of the Opium Habit, 561.
Comstock, John Henry, and Anna Bots-
ford. A Manual for the Study of In-
sects, 411.
Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Sla-
tion. Eighteenth Annual Report, 854.
Connell, William C. The Currency and
the Banking Laws of the Dominion of
Canada, 133.
Curry, J. L. M. Education of the Negroes
since 1860, 707.
Daily News Almanac and Political Regis-
ter for 1895, 414.
Dana, James D. Manual of Geology, 413.
Davidson, Thomas. The Education of the
Greek People, 411.
Davis, Walter G. Annales de la Oflcinc
Meteorologica Argentina, 417.
Defoe, Daniel. History of the Plague in
London, 854.
Dooner, P. W. The Genesis of Water, 134.
Farquhar, Henry. A Stable Money Stand-
ard, 134.
Ferree, Barr, and others. Architectural
Education for America, 561.
Fewkes, J. Walter. The Walpi Flute Ob-
servance, 274.
Foster, Horatio A. Central Station Book-
keeping and Suggested Forms, 275.
Freer, Paul C. Descriptive Inorganic Gen-
eral Chemistry, 852.
Gay, Selina. The World's Great Farm, 274.
Geikie, Sir Archibald. Memoir of Sir An-
drew Crombie Ramsay, 270.
Geikie, James. The Great Ice Age and its
Relation to the Antiquity of Man, 126.
Gould, S. Baring-. No6mi, 565.
Gowers, W. R. The Dynamics of Life, 133.
Green, Mary E. Condiments, Spices, and
Flavors, 853.
Grifling, Harold. On Sensations from
Pressure and Impact, 564.
Griswold, W. M. Index to St. Nicholas,
Vols. I to XXI, 275.
Harris, William T. How to Teach Natu-
ral Science, 415.
Hawkins, C. C, and F. Wallis. The Dyna-
mo, 852.
Hensel, Julius. Bread from Stones, 854.
Herdler, Alexander W., editor. Scientific
French Reader, 272.
Heysinger. I. W. The Source and Mode
of Solar Energy, 704.
Hodge, Frederick Webb. List of the Pub-
lications of the Bureau of Ethnology, 275.
Huidekoper, Rush Shippen. The Cat, 562.
Jacobi, Mary Putnam. Common Sense
applied to Woman Suffrage, 272.
Jones, Richard. The Growth of the Idyls
of the King, 275.
Journal of the American Public Health As-
sociation, 415.
Journal of the College of Science, Imperial
University, Japan. Vols. VII and VIII,
274.
Kanthack, A. A., and J. H. Drysdale. A
Course of Elementary Practical Bacteriol-
ogy, 564.
Kennedy, John. Must Greek go ? 564.
Kersey, Johu A. Ethics of Literature, 854.
Keyes, Charles R. Coal Deposits of Iowa,
277.
Kitson, Arthur. A Scientific Solution of
the Money Question, 707.
Knauff, Theodore C. Athletics for Phys-
ical Culture, 563.
INDEX.
867
Books noticed :
Knobel, Edward. A Guide to Find the
Names of all Wild-growing Trees and
Shrubs of New England by their Leaves,
706.
— Ferns and Evergreens of New England,
706.
Knowles, Edward It. The Supremacy of
the Spiritual, 854
Lamed, Walter C. Churches and Castles of
Mediaeval France, 852.
Libby, Orin G. The Geographical Distri-
bution of the Vote of the Thirteen States
on the Federal Constitution, 273.
Lodeman, E. G. Spray Calendar, 708.
Lombroso, Csesar, and William Ferrero.
The Ft male Offender, 848.
McCook, Henry C. American Spiders and
their Spinning Work. Vol. Ill, 271.
Mach, Ernst. Popular Scientific Lec-
tures, 274.
McMurrich, J. Playfair. A Text-book of
Invertebrate Morphology, 413.
Martin, George H. The Evolution of the
Massachusetts Public-School System, 270.
Mateer, Horace N. Evolution and Chris-
tianity, 564.
Matter, Force, and Spirit, 708.
Merriam, C. Hart. Monographic Revision
of the Pocket Gophers, 273.
Merriam, L. S. Higher Education in Ten-
nessee, 418.
Minnesota, Geological and Natural His-
tory Survey of. Twenty-second and
Twenty-third Annual Reports, 553.
Minct, H. D. The Land Birds and Game
Birds of New England, 853.
Missouri Botanical Garden, Fifth Annual
Report of the, 133.
Missouri Geological Survey Report. Vols.
IV and V, 272.
Morse, L. D. Advertiser's Handy Guide,
416.
Moses, Alfred J., and Charles L. Par-
sons. Elements of Mineralogy, Crys-
tallography, and Blowpipe Analysis,
414.
Nernst, Walter. Theoretical Chemis ry,
851.
New Jersey, Geological Survey of. Annual
Report for 1893, 127.
— Report. Vol. Ill, 562.
New York Academy of Sciences, Transac-
tions, Vol. XIII, 276.
New York Agricultural Experiment Sta-
tion. Twelfth Annual Report, 134.
Newton, Alfred, and Hans Gadow. Dic-
tionary of Birds. Part III, 419.
Nordau, Max. Degeneration, £68.
Orford, Henry. Lens Work for Ama-
teurs, 564.
Packard, Alpheus S. The Systematic Po-
sition of the Siphonaptera, 276.
Paine, Thomas. Writings, edited by Mon-
cure Daniel Conway. Vols. II and
in, 412.
Palmer, Julius A., Jr. About Mush-
rooms, 131.
Pancoast, Henry S. An Introduction to
English Literature, 416.
Parker, Leonard F. A History of Higher
Education in Iowa, 276.
Peck, Harry T., and Robert Arrowsmith.
Roman Life in Latin Prose and Verse,
854.
Perkins Institution for the Blind. Sixty-
second Annual Report, 277.
Phillipson, John. The Natural History of
Hell, 132.
Plummer, Fred G. Change of the Earth's
Axis, 564.
Powell, J. W. Physiographic Processes,
417.
— Physiographic Features, 417.
Powell, Lyman P. History of Education
in Delaware, 418.
Prinz, W. Agrandissements de Photogra-
phies lunaires, 418.
Prosser, Charles' S. The Devonian System
of Eastern Pennsylvania and New York,
708.
Quatrefages, A. de. The Pygmies, 130.
Rayleigh, Lord. The Theory of Sound,
Vol. I, 133.
Revne Franco-Americaine. Vol. I, No.
1, 563.
Riggs, Stephen Return. Dakota Grammar,
Texts, and Ethnography, 416.
Robertson, Charles. Mutual Biological Re-
lations of the Entomophilous Flora and
the Anthophilous Insect Fauna, £53.
Robinson's New Intellectual Arithmetic,
707.
Rockhill, William Woodville. A Journey
through Mongolia and Tibet in 1891 and
1892, 563.
Russell, Stuart A. Electric Light Cables
and the Distribution of Electricity, 562.
Russell, Thomas. Meteorology, 128.
Sabine, Stewart R., and Charles D. Lowry.
Elementary Lessons in Algebra, 707.
Salt, H. S. Animal Rights, 706.
Saunders, Charles H. Handbook of Practi-
cal Mechanics, 707.
Schorlemmer, Carl. The Rise and Devel-
opment of Organic Chemistry, 559.
Schultz, G., and P. Julius. Systematic
Survey of the Organic Coloring Matters,
131.
Scripture, E. W. Thinking, Feeling, and
Doing, 704.
Sheldon, W. L. What we mean by Duty,
564.
Smallpox in the Tenement-house Sweat-
shops of Chicago, 708.
Smith, Eugene A. Geological Map of Ala-
bama, 415.
Smithsonian Institution. Report for 1892-
'93, 277.
Society for Psychical Research. Proceed-
ings, Part XXVI, 412.
868
INDEX.
Books noticed : page
South Dakota, State Board of Health of. Turkey under the Sultan Ahdul Hamid II,
Report for 1892, 134. A Few Facte ahout, 565.
Spencer, Mr. Herbert, on the Land Ques- Ufer, Christian. Introduction to the Peda-
tion, 269. gogy of Herbart, 706.
Spurr, J. Edward. The Iron-bearing United States Bureau of Ethnology. Twelfth
Rocks of the Mesabi Range, 708. Annnal Report, 419.
Standard Dictionary, A, of the English — Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries.
Language. Vol. II, 560. Report for 1891-'92, 277.
Steiner, Bernard C. History of Education — Fish Commission. Bulletin. Vol. XIII,
in Connecticut, 418. 415.
— History of Education in Maryland, 418. — Commissioner of Labor. Ninth Annual
Stokes, Anson Phelps. Joint-metallism, Report, 275.
416. — Geological Survey. Geological Atlas of
Stone, Witmer. The Birds of Eastern the United States, Folios 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 417.
Pennsylvania and New Jersey, 129. University of the State of New York. Re-
Tarr, Ralph S. Economic Geology of the gents' Bulletin, No. 25, 418.
United States, 131. Vincent, Frank. Actual Africa, 702.
Thomas, Allen C. A History of the United Walker, Francis A. General Hancock, 127.
States, 273. Walker, Louisa. Varied Occupations in
Thomas, Cyrus. Report on the Mound Ex- Weaving, 417.
plorations of the Bureau of Ethnology, Walsh, John H. Elementary Arithmetic,
131. 416.
Thompson, Silvanus P. Elementary Les- Ward, C. Osborne. The Equilibration of
sons in Electricity and Magnetism, 561. Human Aptitudes and Powers of Adapta-
Thurston, R. H. The Animal as a Machine tion, 707.
and Prime Mover, 853. Webster, Daniel. Orations, 855.
Tolman, William Howe. History of Higher Wiley, Harvey W. Principles and Practice
Education in Rhode Island, 415. of Agricultural Analysis. Vol. I, 705.
Torrey, Bradford. A Florida Sketch-book, Woodward, R. S. Smithsonian Geograph-
560. ical Tables, 414.
Tracy, Frederick. The Psychology of Yeo, John. Steam and the Marine Steam
Childhood, 563. Engine, 134.
Trevert, Edward. Electrical Measure- Ziwet, Alexander. Elementary Treatise on
ments, 707. Theoietical Mechanics, 132.
British New Guinea. (Misc.) 423
Bronze-casting, Japanese. (Misc.) 429
Bronzes, Japanese, Patinas of. (Misc.) 574
Brooks, W. K. An Old Naturalist— Conrad Gesner (1516-1565) * 49
Buildings, Steel. (Misc.) 567
Biisgen, M. The Life of Water Plants 798
Business, Friendship, and Charity. L. G. McPherson 73
Buttes, Tepee and Other. (Misc.) 861
Canals, Ship, Heavy Rainfall and. (Misc.) 860
Capitan, L. Microbes as Factors in Society 103
Carbonic Acid, The Dangerous Proportion of. (Misc.) 427
Cave Exploration. (Misc.) 138
Cereals in Japan. (Misc.) • • - 572
Chapman, Frank M. The Study of Birds Out-of-doors * 664
Childhood, Studies of. J. Sully. VIII. Fear 1
IX. Fear {continued) 340
X. Material of Morality 648
XL " " (continued) 808
Children Lie, Why. N. Oppenheim 382
Child's, A, Thoughts about Providence. (Misc.) 566
Chinese Ideas of War. (Misc.) 137
Chitral. (Misc.) 572
INDEX. 869
I'Aui:
Clark, Hubert Lyman. The Motive for Scientific Research 501
Climate and Health. C. F. Taylor 213
" of the City of Mexico. (Misc.) , 711
Coe, Charles H. The Armadillo and its Oddities * 354
Color-blindness, The Peril of. (Misc.) 574
Companies, Worthless, The Tricks of. (Misc.) 717
Conrad, Timothy Abbott. (With Portrait.) C. C. Abbott 257
Creation, St. Augustine and the Days of. (Misc.) 280
Criminal Anthropology. (Misc.) 858
Criticism, the Higher, From the Divine Oracles to. A. D. White.
I. The Older Interpretation 145
II. Beginnings of Scientific Interpretation 289
III. The Continued Growth of Scientific Interpretation 446
IV. The Closing Struggle 577
V. Victory of the Scientific and Literary Methods 721
Crothers, T. D. A Medical Study of the Jury System 375
Culture, Similarities in. (Misc.) 714
Cycling and the Heart. (Misc.) 142
Dana, Prof., Death of. (Misc.) 279
Dates, Cultivation of, at Tafilet. (Misc.) 863
Davenport, Gertrude Crotty. Variation in the Habits of Animals .... 619
Disease, Oysters and. (Misc.) 282
Doggish Sympathy. (Misc.) 136
Earth, The Bowels of the.* A. C. Lane 302
" Wabbling of the. (Misc.) 280
Earthquake Motion, Eapid Transmission of. (Misc.) 424
Earth's School of Enterprise, The. (Misc.) 428
Education, Public, and Public Opinion. (Editor's Table) 122
Sham. (Editor's Table) * 699
" The Nervous System and its Relation to. J. Ferguson 528
" The Physical Element in. E. L. Richards 471
Eight-hour System. The, in Practice. (Misc.) 285
Electric Cooking Vessels. (Misc.) 714
Engravings, Steel, as Works of Art. (Corr.) G. G. Bohn 121
Ethics, Applied, Plymouth School of. (Misc.) 140
Evans, E. P. Recent Recrudescence of Superstition. 1 761
Evermann, Barton Warren. Two-Ocean Pass * 175
Evolution, Human, The Work of Ideas in. G. Le Bon 541
in 1858. (Corr.) H. F. Osborn 264
Social. (Editor's Table) 409
Kiddon. W. D. Le Sueur 38
u
Faces, Trades and. L. Robinson 6^7
Falkenhorst, C. Only a Match 683
Farmer, Friends of the. (Misc.) 710
Farming on the Yang-tse Kiang. (Misc.) 574
Fere, Charles. Morbid Heredity ; ••••••• 388
Ferguson, John. The Nervous System and its Relation to Education . 528
8 7o INDEX.
PAGE
Filters; Unsanitary. (Misc.) 715
Fingers, Webbed, An Instance of, in Man.* (Misc.) 856 '
Finland, Science in. (Misc.) 566
Fires, Apparatus for Extinguishing.* J. G. Morse 477, 603
Fjords, Fjords, and Fobrden. (Misc.) 138
Flint Implement Factory, An Ancient. (Misc.) 284
Flowers and their Unwelcome Visitors. (Misc.) 426
Forests and Climate. (Misc.) 139
Foster, Micbael. Thomas Henry Huxley 776
Franklin Institute, Scientific Work of the. (Misc.) 861
French Science, A Generation of. (Misc. ) 428
Fruit as a Food and Medicine. H. Benjafield 677
Geological Study, Recent, Characteristics of. (Misc.) 568
Gesner, Conrad (1516-1565), An Old Naturalist.* W. K. Brooks 49
Gothenburg System, The. (Misc.) 425
Harley, Lewis E. Race Mixture and National Character 86
Herbaria in their Relation to Botany. J. P. Lotsy 360
Heredity, Morbid. C. Fere 388
Hitchcock, Edward. (With Portrait) 689
Honor not Honors. (Editor's Table) 558
Hosack, David, Sketch of 834
House, Making the, Healthful. (Misc.) 573
Howe, Lucien. Art and Eyesight * 458
Human Classifications, Prof. Sergi's. (Misc.) 141
Huxley, Prof. (Editor's Table) 557
Thomas Henry. M. Foster 776
Hypnotism, Therapeutic. (Misc.) 712
Indian Bows, Arrows, and Quivers. (Misc.) 140
Industries, American, Development of, since Columbus. XIX. Appa-
ratus for Extinguishing Fires.* J. G. Morse 477, 603
Industries, Chemistry advanced by the. (Misc.) 857
Insects, Snow-coloring. (Misc.) 859
Irrigation of the Nile Valley. (Misc.) 573
James, Frank L. A Prediction of the Phonograph. (Corr.) 265
Jordan, David Starr. To Barbara. (With Portrait) 538
Jury System, A Medical Study of the. T. D. Crothers 375
Korean Hats. (Misc.) 571
Koreans, The. (Misc.) 283
Labrador and Alaska, Explorations in. (Misc.) 859
Lane, Alfred C. The Bowels of the Earth * 302
Lead, White, Substitute for. (Misc.) 427
Le Bon, Gustave. The Work of Ideas in Human Evolution 541
Le Sueur, W. D. Kidd on Social Evolution 38
Library, A Model Public. (Misc.) 284
INDEX.
871
PAliE
Life Zones, American. (Misc.) 539
Light, the Acetylene, Qualities of. (Misc.) 141
Unsolved Problems in the Manufacture of. (Misc.) 709
Lightning, Overhead Wires and. (Misc.) 429
Lotsy, John P. Herbaria in their Relation to Botany 360
Lu Chu Islands Politics. (Misc.) 421
Lusk, William T. The Illustrious Boerhaave.* (With Portrait) 110
Luxury, The Office of. P. L. Beaulieu 25
McAdie, Alexander. Natural Rain -makers * 042
Macdougal, D. T. Irritability and Movement in Plants * 225
McPherson, Logan G. Business, Friendship, and Charity 73
Madagascar, Journeying in.* F. Vincent 239
Marriages, Korean. (Misc.) 424
Match, Only a. C. Falkenhorst 683
Mather, Fred. Trout Culture * 749
Maya Hieroglyphics, A Study of. (Misc.) 137
Mental Action, The Weather and. (Misc.) 568
Microbes as Factors in Society. L. Capitan 103
Militarism, The Spirit of. A. B. Ronne 234
Milk, Diphtheria and. (Misc.) 712
Minot, Charles Sedgwick. The Work of the Naturalist in the World. 60
Monkey's Caprices, A. (Misc.) 141
Morally Defective, Treatment of the. (Misc.) 279
Morris, Charles. War as a Factor in Civilization 823
Morse, John G. Apparatus for Extinguishing Fires * 477, 603
Museum, the Peabody, Work of. (Misc.) 281
Music, Physiological Influence of. (Misc.) 430
Naturalist, The Work of the, in the World. C. S. Minot 60
Nature, Undisturbed. (Misc.) 421
Newcomb, H. T. The Decline in Railway Charges 180
Nickel Mines, American. (Misc.) 424
Obituary Notes. W. S. W. Ruschenberger, Sir Henry Rawlinson,
Jules Reynauld, F. Schraitz, J. Owen Dorsey, Gerhard Kriiss, D.
Hack Tuke, George Newbold Lawrence, T. P. Kirkman 144
John Newton, George A. Rex 288
Julius Lothar Meyer, Karl Ludwig, Carl Vogt, Daniel Kirkwood.. 432
Thomas Henry Huxley, William C. Williamson 570
Franz Neumann, Valentine Ball, Theodore Brorsen 720
Valentine Ball, Baillon, Friedrich Tietjen, Friedrich Wilhelm
Gustav Sporer 864
Object Lessons, The Value of. (Misc.) 710
Opium, Report on. (Misc.) •r>('<'
Oppenheim, Nathan. Why Children Lie 382
Oysters, Sewer-fed. (Misc.) 428
Osborn, Henry F. Evolution in 1858. (Corr.) 264
Pamirs, The. (Misc.) ; 283
Patrick, G. T. W. The Psychology of Woman 209
8 72 INDEX.
PAGE
Professional Institutions. H.Spencer. I. Professions in General 34
II. Physician and Surgeon 164
III. Dancer and Musician 364
IV. Orator and Poet, Actor and Dramatist 433
V. Biographer, Historian, and Litterateur 594
VI. Man of Science and Philosopher 739
Phonogragh, A Prediction of the. (Corr.). F. L. James 265
Photography, Color. (Misc.) 716
Physical Measurements of School Children. (Misc.) 712
Pictures, Sunlight and. (Misc.) 716
Pimento. (Misc.) 717
Plant-growing, Electricity and. (Misc.) 422
Plants, Irritability and Movement in.* D. T. Macdougal 225
Race Mixture and National Character. L. R. Harley 86
Railway Charges, The Decline in. H. T. Newcomb 186
" The Great Siberian. (Misc.) 711
Rain-makers, Natural.* A. McAdie 642
Ramie Cultivation, Revival of. (Misc.) 429
Red Cross, The. (Misc.) 709
Richards, Eugene L. The Physical Element in Education 471
Robinson, Louis. Trades and Faces 627
Ronne, A. B. The Spirit of Militarism 234
Sand Blast, Uses of the. (Misc.) 713
Science and Nescience (Editor's Table) 843
" Teaching, Uses of. (Misc.) 569
The Alleged Dogmatism of. (Editor's Table) 124
The Sphere of. (Editor's Table) 554
Scientific Advance, The Path of. (Editor's Table) 845
Research, The Motive for. H. L. Clark 501
Seeds, The Vitality of. (Misc.) 862
Selection, Natural, The Office of. (Misc.) 284
Serviss, Garrett P. Pleasures of the Telescope. V. In Summer Star-
lands* 194
VI. From Lyra to Eridanus * 508
VII. Pisces, Aries, Taurus, and the Northern Stars * 783
Shepard, Charles Upham, Sketch of. (With Portrait) 548
Sleep. Conditions of. (Misc.) 430
Smoke. (Misc.) 712
Smoking in Mashonaland. (Misc.) 570
Snake-bite Antitoxine. (Misc.) 715
Snake, Lu Chu Island. (Misc.) 711
Socialism, The Prospects of. (Editor's Table) 697
Songs, Modoc. (Misc.) 569
Spencer, Herbert. Mr. Balfour's Dialectics 327
" '' Professional Institutions. I. Professions in General. 34
II. Physician and Surgeon 164
III. Dancer and Musician 364
IV. Orator and Poet, Actor and Dramatist 433
V. Biographer, Historian, and Litterateur 594
INDEX. 873
PA(iE
Spencer, Herbert. Professional Institutions. VI. Man of Science and
Philosopher 739
Spencer on Professional Institutions. (Editor's Table) 125
Spiders, The Vision of. (Misc.) 422
Stalactites, Formation of. (Misc.) 714
Starr, Frederick. Archaeology in Denmark * 12
Stars, Hot, Protoplasm for. (Misc.) 136
Stoddard, John Tappan. Argon : the New Constituent of the Air 522
Stone Arrowheads, How they were Made. (Misc.) 857
Sully, James. Studies of Childhood. VIII. Fear 1
IX. Fear (continued) 34U
X. Material of Morality 648
XI. " " (continued) 808
Sun-worship, Survivals of. F. D. Bergen 249
Superstition, Recent Recrudescence of. I. E. P. Evans 761
Superstitions, Petty, Power of. (Misc.) 859
North Nyassa. (Misc.) 862
Taylor, Charles Fayette. Climate and Health 313
Telescope, Pleasures of the. G. P. Serviss. V. In Summer Star-
lands * 194
VI. From Lyra to Eridanus * 508
VII. Pisces, Aries, Taurus, and the Northern Stars * 783
Thomson, Basil H. Ancestor- worship among the Fijians 671
Torture, The Passing of. (Misc.) 282
Trout Culture.* F. Mather 749
Tuberculosis in Meat. (Misc.) 713
Tuke, Dr. Daniel Hack. (With Portrait) 625
Two-Ocean Pass.* B. W. Evermann 175
Variation, Human, Significance of 710
Ventilation, House and Room. (Misc.) 860
Vincent, Frank. Journeying in Madagascar * 239
Voice, the Human, Range of. (Misc.) 858
War as a Factor in Civilization. C Morris 823
Water Plants, The Life of. M. Biisgen 798
Waves, Lord Rayleigh on. (Misc.) 239
Woman as an Inventor and Manufacturer* 92
The Psychology of. G. T. W. Patrick 209
" American, in Science. (Misc.) 283
White, Andrew D. From the Divine Oracles to the Higher Criticism.
I. The Older Interpretation I45
II. Beginnings of Scientific Interpretation 289
III. The Continued Growth of Scientific Interpretation 446
IV. The Closing Struggle jj77
V. Victory of the Scientific and Literary Methods 721
White's, Dr., New Chapters, Conclusion of. (Editor s Table) 267
Wire, Uses of. (Misc.) 571
END OF VOL. XLVII.
Vol. XLVII.J Established by Edward L. Youmans. [No. 1.
POPULAR" SCIENCE
MONTHLY.
MAY, 1895.
EDITED BY WILLIAM JAY YOUMANS.
PAGE
CONTENTS.
I. Studies of Childhood. VIII. Fear. By Prof. James Sully, LL.D. 1
II. Archaeology in Denmark. By Prof. Frederick Starr. (Illus.). 12
III. The Office of Luxury. By M. Paul Leroy Beaulieu 25
IV. Professional Institutions. I. Professions in General. By Herbert
Spencer 34
V. Kidd on " Social Evolution." By W. D. Le Sueur 38
VI. An Old Naturalist. By Prof. W. K. Brooks. (Illustrated.) ... 49
VII. The Work of the Naturalist in the World. By Prof. Charles
Sedgwick Minot 60
VIII. Business, Friendship, and Charity. By Logan G. McPherson. 73
IX. Race Mixture and National Character. By L. R. Haki.ey, A. M. 86
X. Woman as an Inventor and Manufacturer. (Illustrated.) 92
XI. Microbes as Factors in Society. By M. L. Capitan 103
XII. The Illustrious Boerhaave. By William T. Lusk, M. D., LL. I).
(With Portrait.) 110
XIII. Correspondence : Steel Engravings as Works of Art 121
XIV. Editor's Table : Public Education and Public Opinion. — The Alleged Dogma-
tism of Science. — Spencer on Professional Institutions 122
XV. Literary Notices 126
XVI. Popular Miscellany 136
XVII. Notes 143
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POPULAR* SCIENCE
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EDITED BY WILLIAM JAY YOUMANS.
PAGE
CONTENTS.
I. New Chapters in the Warfare of Science. XX. From the Divine
Oracles to the Higher Criticism. I. The Older Interpretation.
By A. D. White, LL. D., Ph. D 145
II. Professional Institutions. II. Physician and Surgeon. By
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Vol. XL VII. ] Established by Edward L. Youmans. [No. 3.
POPULAR E SCIENCE
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EDITED BY WILLIAM JAY YOUMANS.
PAGE
CONTENTS.
I. New Chapters in the Warfare of Science. XX. From the Divine
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Interpretation. By Andrew D. White, LL. D., Ph. D 289
II. The Bowels of the Earth. By Alfred C. Lane. (Illustrated.). 302
III. Climate and Health. By Dr. Charles Fayette Taylor 313
IV. Mr. Balfour's Dialectics. By Herbert Spencer 327
V. Studies of Childhood. IX. Fear (concluded). By James Sully,
M. A., LL. D 340
VI. The Armadillo and its Oddities. By Charles H. Coe. (Ulus.) 354
VII. Herbaria in their Relation to Botany. By J. P. Lotsy, Ph. D . . 360
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XI. Morbid Heredity. By M. Ch. Fere 388
XII. Sketch of William Cranch Bond. (With Portrait. ) 400
XIII. Editor's Table : Social Evolution 409
XIV. Literary Notices HI
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Vol. XLVII.J Established by Edward L. Youmans. [No. 4.
POPULAR" SCIENCE
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AUGUST, 1895.
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CONTENTS.
PAGE
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II. New Chapters in the Warfare of Science. XX. From the Divine
Oracles to the Higher Criticism. III. The Continued Growth
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X. To Barbava. By Prof. David Starr Jordan. (With Portrait. ) 538
XL The Work of Ideas in Human Evolution. By Gustave Lb Bon 541
XII. Sketch of Charles Upham Shepard. (With Portrait.) 548
XIII. Editor's Table : The Sphere of Science.— Prof. Huxley —Honor not Honors. ;>•>!
XIV. Literary Notices '),)!'
XV. Popular Miscellany :,,i,i
XVI. Notes ")7:>
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Vol. XLVIL]
Established by Edward L. Youmans.
[No. 5.
POPULAR ^SCIENCE
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SEPTEMBER, 1895.
EDITED BY WILLIAM JAY YOU MANS.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
I. New Chapters in the Warfare of Science. XX. From the Divine
Oracles to the Higher Criticism. IV. The Closing Struggle.
By Andrew D. White, LL. D., Ph. D 577
II. Professional Institutions. V. Biographer, Historian, and Litte-
rateur. By Herbert Spencer 594
III. Apparatus for Extinguishing Fires. Development of American
Industries since Columbus. ,XIX. (Concluded.) By Johx
G. Morse. (Illustrated.) , 603
IV. Variation in the Habits of Animals. By G. C. Davenport. . . . 019
V. Dr. Daniel Hack Tuke. (With Portrait.) 625
VI. Trades and Faces. By Dr. Louis Robinson 627
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IX. The Study of Birds Out-of-Doors. By F. M. Chapman. (Illus.) 664
X. Ancestor- Worship among the Fijians. By Basil H. Thomson . . 671
XL Fruit as a Food and Medicine. By Harry Benjafield, M. B. . . 677
XII. Only a Match. By C. Falkenhorst 683
XIII. Sketch of Edward Hitchcock. (With Portrait.) 689
XIV. Editor's Table : The Prospects of Socialism.— Sham Education 697
XV. Literary Notices 701
XVI. Popular Miscellany 709
XVII. Notes 718
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Vol. XLVIL] Established by Edward L. Youmans. [No. 6.
POPULAR* SCIENCE
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OCTOBER, 1895.
EDITED BY WILLIAM JAY YOU MANS.
PAGE
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and Literary Methods. By Andrew D. White, LL. D., Ph. D. 721
II. Professional Institutions. VI. Man of Science and Philosopher.
By Herbert Spencer 739
III. Trout Culture. By Fred Mather. (Illustrated.) 749
IV. Recent Recrudescence of Superstition. I. By Prof. E. P. Evans. 761
V. Thomas Henry Huxley. By Prof. Michael Foster 776
VI. Pleasures of the Telescope. VII. Pisces, Aries, Taurus, and the
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VII. The Life of Water Plants. By M. Busgen 798
VIII. Studies of Childhood.. XL Material of Morality. (Continued.)
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IX. Hunting with Birds of Prey. By M. Edouard Blanc. (Illus.). 818
X. War as a Factor in Civilization. By Charles Morris 823
XL Sketch of David Hosack. (With Portrait.) ^>l
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XIII. Literary Notices 848
XIV. Popular Miscellany 856
XV. Notes 863
XVI. Index to Vol. XLVII 865
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