THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

THE
POPULAR SCIENCE

MONTHLY

EDITED BY

J. MCKEEN CATTELL

VOLUME LXXIV

JANUARY TO JUNE, 1909

NEW YORK

THE SCIENCE PRESS
1909

Copyright, 1909
The Science Press

Press of

The new Era printing company

Lancaster. Pa.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE

MONTHLY.

JANUARY, 1909

THE CAREEE OF HEEBEET SPENCEE

By Professor LESTER F. WARD

BROWN UNIVERSITY

THAT " the evil that men do lives after them ; the good is oft
interred with their bones/' is one of those literary palindromes
which may be read both ways. Probably there is no great man, who,
from the standpoint of pragmatism, has not done both evil and good, but
the question as to which predominates can never be decided to the satis-
faction of all. In the case of a Nero most men are agreed, but in that
of a Napoleon opinions differ. Aside from war and politics there are
few cases in which the consensus of opinion would fall on the side of
evil, but many cases leave it doubtful, as, for example, those of Machia-
velli, Hobbes and Eousseau, while in others it changes from one age
to the next, as in the cases of Voltaire and Thomas Paine. Usually it
is the evil that is most conspicuous during the life of the subject, and
this has often been carried to the extreme of persecution during life
and canonization after death. The world is full of monuments to
those who were put to death for the things that are now chiefly admired.
All this admonishes the biographer of the caution required in passing
judgment on those of his own day and generation.

Herbert Spencer stands, and will probably always stand, on the
light side of the picture, but there are very few of those familiar with
his work who would maintain that there is no dark side. His Auto-
biography naturally presents the bright side, but the Life and Letters
emphasize rather the shades than the lights, and it may be doubtful
whether it would not have been better if that work had not appeared.
Still, when we remember the deficiencies of human nature, perhaps this
showing up of the whole man as he was is nothing more than a re-
assertion by him of the universally approved maxim of Terence: homo
sum.

6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Leaving the worlds then, to pronounce its judgment on this question
of ethics, or pragmatism, let us briefly consider the career of Herbert
Spencer in its broad outlines as brought out by his complete works
supplemented by the four posthumous volumes now before us. There
is certainly no vehicle in America, if there is any in the Old "World,
more appropriate to this task than the Popular Science Monthly.
As has already been said by its present editor :

Readers of this journal are familiar with Spencer's work, for he contributed
to it nearly a hundred articles. It was indeed established by Dr. E. L. Youmans
in 1872 largely with a view to provide a suitable medium for printing Spencer's
" Study of Sociology," and . . . may be regarded as one of the by-products
of his genius.^

As is well known, the first article in the Popular Science
Monthly (May, 1872) is by Herbert Spencer: *'The Study of
Sociology, I., Our Need of It," which is also the first chapter of the
book he was writing on " The Study of Sociology " for the Inter-
national Scientific Series. In his " Autobiography " (Vol. II., pp.
284^286) he says:

Before he left England my American friend [Dr. E. L. Youmans] volun-
teered to arrange for the carrying out of a suggestion which had arisen, I do
not remember how, that the successive chapters of " The Study of Sociology " —
the extra book in question — should be first published serially, in England and
America at the same time. Here the Contemporary Review . . . was the
contemplated medium; and a fit medium in the United States, Professor
Youmans proposed to negotiate with as soon as possible after his return. . . .
And now there arose an unlooked-for result from the understanding that had
been made for simultaneous publication in America. Negotiations which
Youmans had carried on with one or other periodical in the United States had
all failed; and at the time when the first chapter had been put in type, neither
he nor I saw how our plan was to be carried out. When the proof of this
first chapter reached him it caused prompt and surprising action, as witness the
following extract from a letter of his dated April 3, 1872:

" A thousand thanks for your favour of March 13th, with article on
' Study of Sociology ' enclosed . . . You did wisely in sending it, and I decided
upon our course in ten minutes after getting it. I determined to have a
monthly at once, and in time to open with this article . . . We have started
a monthly of 128 pages ... I am utterly glad that things have taken the
course they have. I have wanted a medium of speech that I can control, and
now I shall have it."

The magazine thus started was The Popular Science Monthly; which, under
the editorship of my friend, has had a prosperous career and done very good
work.

Not only did the " Study of Sociology " thus all appear in the
Popular Science Monthly, but Mr. Spencer continued to contribute
to it chapters from his " Synthetic Philosophy " for many years, and
declined to allow them to appear in other periodicals. When asked as

^PoPtJiAB Science Monthly, September, 1908, Vol. LXXIII., p. 285.

TEE CAREER OF HERBERT SPENCER 7

late as 1895 by the London editor of McClure's Magazine to contribute

to that journal, he replied :

I have, in virtue mainly of my indebtedness to my old friend for all he
did on my behalf in the United States, felt bound to make the Popular Science
Monthly my sole medium for publication of articles in the United States, and
the obligation, which was preemptory during his life, remains strong after his
death, since his brother occupies his place and he has continued his good offices
on my behalf.^

The choice of a spokesman is less happy, but when we remember
that the brothers Youmans, John Fiske, and most of the otlier disciples
of Spencer in America have passed away, the difficulty in finding a
proper person for such a task will be appreciated. Probably it should
have fallen to an unqualified disciple who would simply pronounce an
eloge in some extended form. The one to whom it has been assigned,
while he yields to none in his high estimate of Spencer's talents and
achievements, and has made this known on many occasions, has re-
mained eclectic as to his peculiar doctrines, accepting such as appeal to
him as sound, rejecting those which seem to be obviously unsound, and
suspending judgment as to many that appear doubtful or await suffi-
cient evidence.

In these several respects it is possible to classify Spencer's views
under two heads and to explain the reasons which assign them to the
one or the other class. The first class includes his cosmic philosophy
in general, beginning with inorganic nature and extending through
biology. It also includes much of his psychology, anthropology and
sociology, considered in their philosophic aspects. The second class
embraces his ethics as a whole, both individual and political. To it
also belong most of the applications that he makes of psychology and
sociology to current events, his dealings with the state, government,
war, industry, business and economic problems. While no one will
go so far as to say that his views on the first of these classes are always
sound, or that those on the second are always unsound or questionable,
it is still true that all that is great and profound in his philosophy
belongs to the first of these classes, while his errors, his narrow views,
and his unworthy utterances are confined to the second class.

And now as to the explanation of this. Primarily it rests on the
fact that in treating the first class of subjects there was no room for
the play of the emotions, while the subjects of the second class often
appeal to the feelings, and Spencer, with all his logic and philosophic
poise, never had his feelings under complete subjection to his reason.
But secondarily, in the case of topics appealing to the feelings he un-
fortunately imbibed a whole series of prejudices during his early youth
from which he was never able to free himself. Indeed, they were so

- " Life and Letters," Vol. II., p. 89.

8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

strong that he did not attempt to overcome them, but rather gloried
in them to the end of his life. This, however, was not the worst con-
sequence. They blinded him to everything that was taking place in
the world around him, to the extent that social movements, which,
could he have seen it, were the natural outcome of the cosmical prin-
ciples he had laid down, were regarded by him as the signs and omens
of social degeneracy and as portending a relapse into barbarism. In
the inorganic and organic worlds he had not been taught anything, and
his vast intellect was free to enter those fields and work out far-reaching
principles untrammeled by early prejudices. In the ethical, political,
and economic worlds he was enclosed in a shell and could grow no
larger than his prison walls. To use one of those biological analogies
of which he was so fond, in the physical and organic sciences he was a
vertebrate with an adjustable internal skeleton, while in the moral and
political sciences he was a crustacean without the power to shed his
carapace.

In appraising Spencer's truly great contributions to human
thought and knowledge we are therefore compelled to leave out of view
all his earlier writings, except perhaps an occasional essay. His letters
on the "Proper Sphere of Government" (1843), his " Social Statics"
(1850), his "Principles of Psychology" (1855), his "Education"
(1861), are all excluded from this high meed of praise. The same is
true of Part I. of his "First Principles" (1862), which formed the
stumbling-block to his whole system of philosophy, and if published
at all, should have been placed at the end as a sort of appendix or
curious metaphysical by-product. Solid ground is reached only in
Part II. of the " First Principles," and in only one other of his works
is his master mind revealed with equal clearness. His grasp here of
cosmical principles is astonishing, and the vast swing of his logic car-
ries the reader irresistibly on, sweeping majestically across the whole
cosmos in many different directions, until everything is compassed in a
universal scheme. Here, too, more than anywhere else, is his happy
choice of expressions, never before employed, but precisely and concisely
characterizing cosmical principles, singularly manifest. The word
" evolution " itself, which perhaps he was the first to use in a philo-
sophic sense,^ though introduced in his earlier works, is here given its
full meaning, and the thought it conveys has now captured the world.
The phrase " redistribution of matter and motion " sums up the cos-
mic process as it had never been summed up by any other phrase. The
assertion that evolution proceeds " from the homogeneous to the hetero-
geneous " has never been questioned except by those who give different
meanings to the terms from those intended by Spencer, and which are
the proper and even the popular meanings. Such phrases as " the

' " Life and Letters," Vol. IL, p. 329.

THE CAREER OF HERBERT SPENCER 9

instability of the homogeneous/' " the rhythm of motion," " the mul-
tiplication of effects," and such single terms as " aggregation," " segre-
gation," " equilibration," " dissolution," are all fraught with profound
significance, and most of the processes described by them take place in
all departments of nature. The introduction and illustration of these
terms and the description of the processes of nature of which they are
the names, would alone make " First Principles " an immortal work.

It is true that Spencer failed to see the essential distinction be-
tween cosmic and organic evolution, and when it was pointed out in
1877,^ as it was not his own idea, he characteristically ignored it. He
also missed the principles of creative synthesis, cosmic, organic and
social synergy and sjTnpodial development, which are quite as important
as those set forth in " First Principles." But he is to be judged for
what he did rather than by what he did not do. There is, however,
one omission, which, deliberate and intentional though it was, has not
been condoned by his readers. This is his failure to elaborate these
fundamental principles of inorganic nature in a manner proportionate
to that in which he elaborated the principles of biology, psychology,
sociology and ethics. Uniform regret has been expressed by his read-
ers, including his warmest admirers, that he should have abandoned
this great work so auspiciously begun, and hurried on to the more
special and complex sciences before laying an adequate foundation for
them. The present writer was among those to express this regret and
to maintain that his excuse for omitting the two volumes upon which
the " Synthetic Philosophy " would and should have rested, viz., that
the scheme would have been too extensive for him to complete it, and
that " the interpretation of Organic Nature after the proposed method
is of more immediate importance," was not a sufficient or valid excuse.
It is generally felt that if these two volumes had been written, which
might have borne the title of " Principles of Cosmology," it would be
small matter whether the " Principles of Ethics " ever saw the light
or not.

The world was even left in the dark as to how and in what order
he would have treated inorganic nature had he written the omitted
volumes. It is true that in the opening paragraph of the first volume
of the " Principles of Sociology " he says :

Of the three broadly-distinguished kinds of Evolution, we come now to
the third. The first kind, Inorganic Evolution, which, had it been dealt with,
would have occupied two volumes, one dealing with Astrogeny and the other
with Geogeny, was passed over because it seemed undesirable to postpone the
more important applications of the doctrine for the purpose of elaborating
those less important applications which logically precede them.

The bare names, therefore, which he would have given to the two
*P0PULAB Science Monthlt, October, 1877, Vol. XI., pp. 672-682.

lo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

volumes were thus made known, but from them it was impossible more
than to conjecture what the treatment would have been. The complete
scheme was drawn up early in 1858 and sent to his father in a letter,
but the revised scheme, issued in 1860, and with which we are all
familiar, wants the details for all below the biology. Not until the
*' Autobiography " appeared in 1904 was this hiatus supplied.^ This
was the reason for publishing a letter from him dated September 19,
1895, in which considerable was said on this subject. Nearly eight
years, however, were allowed to elapse before this step was taken in
1903. His permission to publish it would have been asked had it not
been known that at that date Mr. Spencer was nearing his end, his
death occurring in December of the same year, and it seemed highly
important that information so vital to his system should not be lost.^

While, therefore, Mr. Spencer's treatment of inorganic nature, so
far as it could be judged from " First Principles " and other indica-
tions, was full of promise, still, inasmuch as he did not fulfil that
promise by an exhaustive elaboration of it, it was soon overshadowed
by his work in the next great field, that of biology, the only other field
of his labors in which no early preconceptions existed to warp his
judgment or impede the flight of his genius.

Herbert Spencer's " Principles of Biology " is the gem of his " Syn-
thetic Philosophy," and must rank for all time as his masterpiece.
In it he founds the science of biology squarely upon that of organic
chemistry, and " Chemical Development " was to have been the final
topic of " The Principles of Geogeny."^ This makes clear the filiation
of the sciences thus far. Then come his several proximate definitions
of life, closing with " the broadest and most complete " one : " the
continuous adjustment of internal relations to external relations."
Few have been satisfied with this, and the more it is studied the less it
seems to fulfil the conditions. The objection to it is that there is no
life in the definition. It is strange that he should have failed to
cement the lowest organic science, biology, to the highest inorganic
science, chemistry, by recognizing the brief step from the spontaneous
molecular activities of the most complex organic compounds, the albu-
minoids, to the no more spontaneous molar activities (motility) of the
simplest living substance, which we know as protoplasm, and believe
to result from the further recompounding of the former.^

" " Autobiography," Vol. II., p. 17; " Life and Letters," Vol. II., pp. 158-159.

* " Pure Sociology," pp. 66-67. A portion of this letter appears in " Life
and Letters," Vol. II., pp. 90-91. Mr. Duncan should have mentioned this
earlier publication of the letter in full followed by the reply to it and a fur-
ther discussion of the principles involved.

' " Life and Letters," Vol. II., p. 159.

" Cf. " The Organic Compounds in their Relations to Life," Proc. A. A.
A. 8., Vol. XXXL, pp. 493-494; The American Naturalist, Vol. XVI., December,
1882, pp. 968-979.

THE CAREER OF HERBERT SPENCER ii

But this fundamental criticism aside, Spencer's handling of biolog-
ical problems is nothing short of masterful. In his chapters on
growth, development, function, adaptation, generation ("genesis"),
heredity, variation, etc., although not a specialist in any branch of
biology, he marshals an immense body of facts in support of funda-
mental principles, many of which had never before been discovered.
In dealing with heredity he postulates the existence of " physiological
units," later changed to " constitutional units." The " Principles of
Biology " was published in 1864, and therefore Spencer could have
known nothing of Darwin's " pangenesis," treated in his " Variations
of Animals and Plants under Domestication," which appeared in 1868.
But Spencer's " physiological units," as he points out,^° are not at all
the same as Darwin's " gemmules." They are still less similar to
Weismann's " biophores."^^ They are nothing but " compound mole-
cules (as much above those of albumen in complexity as those of albu-
men are above the simplest compounds," and are for the same organ-
ism " substantially of one kind." Why he did not admit that they are
merely forms of protoplasm we do not know, but certain it is that
biologists are now coming to believe that no hereditary units in the
sense of independent bodies exist, and that all the phenomena of
heredity, obscure and recondite as they are, can be as easily conceived
to result from the action of protoplasm in various ways not yet fully
understood, as from any imaginary bearers of hereditary " Anlagen."^^

It is in Part III. on the " Evolution of Life " that the philosopher
comes forth in his full power. After disposing of the special creation
hypothesis, he attacks the cosmic principles underlying the organic
world. Many of those enumerated in " First Principles " are shown
to be in full force on the biotic plane. The process from homogeneity
to heterogeneity finds its clearest exemplifications here, and the two
great principles of differentiation and integration are formulated and
illustrated with wonderful force. "We can not here even enumerate all
the biological principles set forth in this work, but the application of
the principle of equilibration to the organic world can not be passed
over in silence. The Lamarckian principle of increase by use and
atrophy from disuse, called somewhere by Spencer "use-inheritance,"
and early recognized by him as "the inheritance of functionally-
acquired modifications," now becomes, in the new terminology of
biology, " direct equilibration," while natural selection, which Spencer,
along with many others mentioned by Darwin in the later editions of
the " Origin of Species," had foreshadowed before that work appeared,

" " Life and Letters," Vol. I., p. 199.
"/btd., Vol. IL, p. 52.

"^ Cf. Minot, " The Problem of Age, Growth, and Death," New York, 1908,
pp. 233 ff.

12 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

becomes " indirect equilibration." The discussion of these two prin-
ciples is among the most profound of all of Spencer's writings. The
subject, so intimately connected with this, of the transmission of ac-
quired characters, was not overlooked in the " Principles of Biology,"
but it was not brought into the foreground until Weismann's " Essays "
began to appear, denying its possibility. Spencer, as is known, entered
the lists with his paper on " The Factors of Organic Evolution," and
continued to reply to Weismann for a number of years. In him the
trained biological specialist found a foeman worthy of his steel. Head-
ers of these papers on both sides will of course differ in their judgments
on the argument according to their cast of mind, but all will admit
that Spencer's presentation of the case was able, and to it, as much as
to anything else, were due the many notable concessions that Weismann
was from time to time compelled to make.^^

In the second volume of the " Principles of Biology," devoted
mainly to morphology and physiology, Spencer showed that he could
play the role of a specialist, but his special studies and illustrations all
have a pliilosophic purpose in establishing principles. These, however,
belong for the most part to the minor or more special laws of biology,
and do not call out the same philosophic powers as the major and more
general laws dealt with in the first volume. Perhaps the most im-
portant of these laws is what he calls the " antagonism between growth
and sexual genesis," which might otherwise be stated as the law that
nutrition and reproduction are inversely proportional. The truth of
this is known to practical breeders, florists and horticulturists, but
not to the general public, and it has some interesting results.

Spencer lived to revise his " Biology " and introduce into it much
of the "Weismann controversy and other features which had not pre-
sented themselves clearly at the time the work was originally written.
Upon the whole it is a remarkable work. Surprise has often been ex-
pressed that trained specialists in biology had rarely or never been able
to trip him on any of his statements. This is partly explainable by
the fact that Professor Huxley read the proof of a considerable part of
the work, but it does not appear that he found much to correct, and
we must admit that Spencer possessed a remarkable faculty of ac-
curately stating biological facts that he had not himself observed, and
a still greater talent for correlating and interpreting them and fitting
them into his universal scheme.

Let us now turn to the " Principles of Psychology." In his
" Synthetic Philosophy " Spencer placed it after the Principles of
Biology. Although he says little about his reasons for this arrange-
ment, it seems clear that he regarded it as the order of evolution. Yet

" Of. Weismann's " Concessions," Popuxab Science Monthly, Vol. XLV.,
June, 1894, pp. 175-184.

TEE CAREER OF HERBERT SPENCER 13

in his attacks on Comte's serial classification of the sciences he denies
that there is any serial order.^* But whenever he mentions the sub-
jects of his " Synthetic Philosophy " he always arranges them in the
same order,^^ corresponding to that of his original program and of all
subsequent programs. No one will probably question the propriety of
this arrangement, and it may be inferred that he regarded psychology
as having some such relation to biology as the latter has to chemistry,
i. e., as in a sense growing out of it. Now, whereas he does clearly show
this filiation of biology and chemistry, it is difficult to find in his
psychology a recognition of its dependence upon biology in the same
sense. This is probably due to the fact that the " Psychology " was
first written and published as an independent work several years before
he conceived the idea of a " Synthetic Philosophy," and afterward
revised, enlarged, and adapted, and then set up in its proper niche
in the general structure. But the task of adapting it was not an easy
one, and he seems to have devoted himself more to what he regarded
as its improvement, to the answering of criticisms, and to bringing it
up to date, than to linking it on to his " Biology " which stands before
it, and to his " Sociology," which was to follow.

He wrote the " Psychology " when fresh from the reading of
Hamilton, Mansel, Mill and Kant, and the point of view was that of
the old philosophy of mind, which he, indeed, attacked, but scarcely
from the modern scientific point of view. This is more true of the
second volume than of the first. The work opens, as do most works
on psychology, with a treatise on the nervous system, and the chapter
on ^stho-physiology is certainly luminous and forms a new departure.
His definition of mind as consisting of feelings and the relations be-
tween feelings is inexpugnable. In part III. he treats of life and mind
as " correspondence," but does not seem to regard mind as an outgrowth
of life. In treating pleasures and pains at the end of part II, he
recognizes the existence of feelings which do not consist of pleasure or
pain, and even calls them " indifferent," but he does not there or
elsewhere show that the function of such feelings is to furnish knowl-
edge. This was perceived by Eeid, though he did not grasp its import.
Spencer thus fails to show the genesis of the rational powers. He
clearly sets forth the biologic origin of feeling, but he does not perceive
that the intellect was also an advantageous attribute whose origin can
be explained on natural principles. Notwithstanding the acknowledged
ability of this work, these and other deficiencies deprive it of the title
given it by some of being Mr. Spencer^s chef d'oeuvre. Standing as
it does between the " Biology " and the " Sociology," with neither of

""Life and Letters," Vol. I., p. 97; "Pure Sociology," p. 66 (this part
of his letter is omitted in the " Life and Letters," Vol. II., p. 90.
« " Life and Letters," Vol. II., pp. 285, 328.

14 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

which it is adequately linked, it seems isolated and solitary. The
failure clearly to aflQliate mind upon life is not its worst fault. From
the standpoint of the sociologist the most glaring defect is the absence
of all recognition of the psychologic basis of social phenomena. Neither
in the " Psychology " nor in the " Sociology " which follows is there
to be found any attempt to show what are the underlying causes of
social phenomena. The nature of social energy which moves the world
is nowhere set forth, the distinct roles played by feeling and thought,
as the motor and rector^^ agencies of both the individual and society
are not recognized, and both psychology and sociology are thus reduced
to mere descriptive sciences. Much the same may be said of his failure
to recognize a vital energy in biology with motility as the dynamic
agent, which also leaves biology in the descriptive stage. Life and
mind are forces, and organic, psychic and social structures are
magazines of energy. Any system that fails to recognize this is not a
full-fledged science.

It may be said that Spencer constantly insisted that it was feeling
and not ideas that moved the world, as opposed to Comte's statement
that ideas govern or overthrow the world. It is clear that he mis-
understood Comte, who held the same view as Spencer, and that the
two statements are not antagonistic.^'^ Spencer also said that "the
will is a product of predominant desires to which the reason serves
merely as an eye."^^ This is very true, and Schopenhauer had said it
forty years before him. But such scintillations of the truth do not
make a science nor justify us in saying that he thereby furnished
sociology with a psychologic basis.

Coming now to the " Principles of Sociology," we find that the
work was not hampered by any previous work, and, as in the " Biology,"
the field was clear for a new start in a most alluring direction. If the
order in which the volumes of the " Synthelic Philosophy " stand is
the order of nature, marking the course of evolution, we should expect
to find the " Sociology " opening Avith a chapter or an introductory
part setting forth the causal connection between sociology and psy-
chology. But, just as no causal connection was shown between biology
and psychology, so none appears binding psychology and sociology
together. This confirms what was said of the isolated condition of
the " Principles of Psychology." What we do find, however, is a rather
definite intimation that it is biology rather than psychology that forms
the natural basis of sociology. How could any one be expected to doubt
this when nothing is said in the first volume of the " Sociology " about
its relation to psychology, while, after the long treatise on the beliefs,

^° Used by Fourier in this sense (" moteur et recteur ") .

" Cf. Applied Sociology, pp. 41-43.

" Westminster Review, January 1, 1860, p. 93.

THE CAREER OF HERBERT SPENCER 15

customs, and ideas of primitive races, belonging rather to anthropology,
we find in part IT. that " a society is an organism," and that social
growth, social structures, social functions and social organs are
treated from the strictly biological point of view? Mr. Spencer denied
that he based sociology upon biology and censured two American
authors for intimating that he seemed to do so, but the comparison that
he used is not at all apposite. ^^

The other two volumes of the " Principles of Sociology," based as
they are on his great compilation, " Descriptive Sociology," are above
criticism in their comprehensive sweep as a vast induction. Some of
his facts will, of course, be denied, but he admitted that the reports of
travelers must be taken with many grains of allowance. Yet these are
almost the only sources from which an author who is not himself a
traveler must rely. For those therefore who consider such a work to
constitute " Sociology " the only vulnerable part is the terminology,
classification, and arrangement of the subject-matter. The phrase
" ecclesiastical institutions " may be justly objected to as seeming to
predicate something like a church of the religious structures of primi-
tive man. The word " ecclesiastical " might be stretched sufficiently to
justify this were there no better term, but it is universally admitted
that the priesthood was practically coeval with human society, and we
possess an adjective corresponding to this noun which is more
euphonious and more expressive than the one used. By all means, then,
should the phrase sacerdotal institutions be substituted for " ecclesias-
tical institutions." The introduction of " political institutions " be-
tween the " ceremonial " and the sacerdotal is a forced arrangement.
The ceremonial are largely sacerdotal, and their separation is difficult.
The sacerdotal should probably stand first, and the "professional,"
beginning with the " medicine man," so similar to a priest, should
follow. " Political institutions " would then be in order, to be followed
by " industrial institutions." But Mr. Spencer had no conception of
gentile society and the fundamental distinction between it and political
society, so clearly set forth by Morgan. This classification shows how
late the latter class of institutions have always been in the historical
development of society. Still less was he acquainted with that other
most important of all transformations which is undergone by every
advanced society at the proper stage in its history, viz., union and
amalgamation of groups, whether through war or peace, by which a
third and higher group results from the blending of two lower groups,
constituting what is appropriately called the cross-fertilization of cul-
tures. It is only through this that all the higher political, industrial,
economic, and professional institutions arise.

After thus threading the mazes of cosmic, organic, psychic and

" " Life and Letters," Vol. II., p. 357.

1 6 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

social phenomena, we come at last to the " Principles of Ethics," which
Mr. Spencer regarded as the crown of his system. One can not but
be struck by the resemblance in this respect of Herbert Spencer's career
to that of Auguste Comte. Both began with a lively interest in what
may be called political ethics, an interest which they both continued to
feel through life. But both saw, after their early survey of the field,
that the world was not ready for their final achievement, and therefore
both stopped and devoted twelve or fifteen years of arduous labor to
laying a scientific foundation for the magnum opus which was to reform
the world. Comte laid special stress on this, and placed as a motto at
the head of the first volume of his " Politique Positive " the lines of
Alfred de Vigny:

Qu'est-ce qu'une grande vie?
Une pens^ de la jeunesse, ex6cut^ par I'age mQr.

Spencer could not even wait to complete the last of the preparatory
works, and stopped in the middle of it to write the final work. So
strongly was he impressed by the importance of this last work, and so
apprehensive that he might not live to complete it, that he said in the
preface to the first part (" Data of Ethics " issued separately) :

I am the more anxious to indicate in outline, if I can not complete, this
final work, because the establishment of rules of right conduct on a scientific
basis is a pressing need. Now that moral injunctions are losing the authority
given by their supposed sacred origin, the secularization of morals is becoming
imperative. Few things can happen more disastrous than the decay and death
of a regulative system no longer fit, before another and fitter regulative system
has grown up to replace it.

The implication of course is that Herbert Spencer's " Principles of
Ethics " will henceforth constitute the Koran of moral doctrine to the
exclusion of all other codes ! Comte has been pronounced an egotist
and a fanatic for proclaiming himself the high priest of the religion
of humanity, but he never assumed to be an infallible pope in the
domain of moral conduct. The parallelism, however, does not end
here. The world has passed judgment upon Comte's career, and while
his final work for which he had lived and labored, viz., his " Positive
Polity," has been declared a mistaken dream, the preparatory work,
his " Positive Philosophy," which he intended to be only the pedestal
upon which the monument was to stand, is looked upon by most men
as a path-breaking, by many as an epoch-making achievement, and as
marking the beginning of scientific philosophy. In Spencer's case it
is too early to speak thus definitely, but all things point to the complete
rejection of his political ethics as outlined in " Social Statics " and
perfected in his " Principles of "Ethics " and " Man Versus the State,"
while his cosmic philosophy, which he regarded as little more than a

THE CAREER OF HERBERT SPENCER 17

foundation for the other, grows more solid with time, and is clearly
seen to be too massive for the flimsy superstructure that he sought to
erect upon it.

In Spencer's system ethics is placed last in the series of subjects
or sciences, as if it were the highest evolutionary product. Although
he laid no stress on the serial arrangement of the sciences, and in his
little book on the " Classification of the Sciences," written to refute
Comte's " hierarchy," he practically ignores it, still he could not answer
the charge of arranging his volumes in practically the same order as
Comte arranged the sciences. Nor did he deny that he regarded this
as the order of evolution. As Comte did the same for his " Morale,"
the implication is that they both regarded ethics as a science of the
same type as the others, only higher in the scale, and, in fact, the
highest of them all. It would thus grow out of and be affiliated upon
sociology. The treatment of it does not in either case sustain this
claim. In Spencer's case this is much more marked than in Comte's,
because they had quite different ideas of what constitutes a moral sci-
ence. Spencer, as we have seen, regarded it simply as a " regulative
system," which is not a science at all. His treatment of it virtually
carries out this idea, and his " Principles of Ethics " scarcely differs
from the traditional moral teaching of other writers, except that it is
" secular " and recognizes no religious or " ultra-rational " sanction.
After he had abandoned his " absolute ethics," as set forth in his
"Social Statics" (expunged from the last edition), but shown to be
false by a study of the widely divergent moral ideas of the races of
men, the last claim to the title of a science had been withdrawn from
ethics, and it stood at the head of the system having no organic con-
nection with the other sciences of that system. What, then, is his
ethics ? It is simply an attempt to make a practical application of the
true sciences, especially of sociology to human needs. In so far as
it is a science in any sense, it is an applied science, and the greater
part of it may be denominated applied sociology.-"

The subject of Spencer's relations with Comte and the similarity
of their ideas has been purposely avoided in this article, because it
presents the least attractive side of a great man's mind. His over-
weening affection for what he called " the progeny of the brain,"^! his
intense love of originality, which often seems to exceed his love of
truth, and his morbid sensitiveness to any apparent appropriation of
his ideas, blinded him to the merits of others and often led him to
refine upon a distinction without a difference. Jealousy as well as
envy may be a compliment. This can alone explain Spencer's attitude
toward Comte. He must have felt, and been oppressed by the fact,

'"Cf. "Applied Sociology," pp. 317-318.
" " Life and Letters," Vol. I., p. 254.

VOL. LXXIV. — 2.

i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

that there was a man on the other side of the Channel who, like him-
self, was striving to give the world a philosophy of science. And in
fact, from this point of view, Auguste Comte was to the first half of
the nineteenth century what Herbert Spencer was to the second half.

A fuller discussion of the merits and demerits of Spencer's political
ethics is also purposely avoided in this place, partly for want of space,
partly because it would have to be too critical for the appraisement
here proposed, and partly because it has already been attempted, not
only by others but by the present writer. ^^

The statement has been so frequently made that Mr. Spencer's
sociology and his political and economic doctrines do not logically fol-
low from his law of cosmic and organic evolution, that something more
might naturally be expected here on that point than has been said
above as incidental to the discussion of other questions. This subject
is, however, too large to be treated here, and would require a separate
article. This lack has been partially supplied in other places and to
these sources the reader is referred.^^

^ " The Political Ethics of Herbert Spencer," Annals of the American
Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. IV., January, 1894, pp. 582-619.
Publications of the Academy, No. 111.

^ " Herbert Spencer's Sociology," The Independent, New York, March 31,
1904, Vol. LVI., pp. 730-734; Herbert Spencer's Autobiography, Science, N. S.,
Jime 10, 1904, Vol. XIX., pp. 873-879; "The Sociology of Political Parties,"
American Journal of Sociology, January, 1908, Vol. XIII., pp. 439-454.

LINEAMENTS OF THE DESERT

LINEAMENTS OF THE DESEET

By De. CHARLES R. KEYES

DES aiOINES, lA.

OUE notions of the genesis of desert landscapes have lately under-
gone complete revision. In land-sculpturing under conditions
of aridity we are led to recognize some entirely new phases of geologic
operations. The principles deduced are not alone applicable to coun-
tries with excessively dry climates, but likewise to all lands of the earth.

In the moister regions of the globe, or those parts with which the
majority of us are most familiar, moving water is so universally
regarded as the chief agent of denudation that other erosive means are
seldom more than barely considered. In the arid districts there is a
reversal of the relative efficiencies of the erosion processes. Water-
action is of quite secondary consequence. Wind-scour, or deflation, is
not only the most vigorous, but often almost the sole, erosive power.

The tremendous efficiency of wind as an erosive agent has been
lately brought to general notice mainly through the results of Pas-
sarge's investigations in the South African deserts. His principal
deduction is far-reaching in its scope and significance, and seems des-
tined to stand in geology as one of the grand generalizations of the
new century. In our own country it opens up vast and fertile fields
of geologic inquiry.

The desert regions of earth have given to modern geography its
most suggestive and fundamental concepts. This is a fact that is all
but forgotten by most of us who are accustomed daily to apply these
basic principles in the more familiar moist tracts in which we live.
Yet the definite cycle of evolution which land-forms pass through, the
base-level to which all erosion tends, and a general plains-leveling,
without regard to sea-level, that goes on in dry countries, are deduc-
tions of the desert.

True desert conditions prevail over a much larger proportion of
our earth than most of us appreciate. Southwestern United States,
the greater part of central Mexico, western South America, South
Africa, northern Africa, southwestern, central and east-central Asia,
eastern Europe and central Australia, all present vast areas of territory
which have rain-fall insufficient to raise ordinary grain crops without
artificial watering. The desert, however, is not the repulsive land that
its name whenever mentioned suggests to the layman. Most of it is not

20

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Navajo Church, New Mexico. Ponderous pinnacles of eolian erosion, rising nearly
a thousand feet above the valley at left. (C. E. Button, photo.)

the barren waste of popular fancy. Vast tracts of it are certain to be
reclaimed to the uses of mankind. Some of it is doubtless to become
the most eagerly sought of all estates. Its beauties and its treasures
are only beginning to be understood. Even scientists have only com-
menced to turn their attention seriously to the make-up, features and
resources of the so-called desert regions.

The idea of a base-level of erosion, lying but slightly above tide,
but below which stream-corrasion can not go, has done for geography
what the principle of evolution has accomplished for biology. It is,
in fact, the evolutionary principle applied to land sculpture. This
theory of Powell's is justly regarded as one of the three grand deduc-
tions which geology of the century just past has bequeathed to science.
Conceived midst the arid regions of the West, its widest influence has
been in the moister countries of the earth.

LINEAMENTS OF THE DESERT

21

The second great geographic principle, that of the verity of a dis-
tinctly staged cycle of erosion comparable in a way to the periods of
growth in the human individual, has done more than anything else to
advance and place the study of geography on a tinily genetic basis.
It is to Davis we are chiefly indebted for devising for us a practical
working scheme.

What the base-level of erosion is to the general theory of land
degradation under conditions of a normal moist climate Passarge's
great deduction of the possibility of general land leveling and lowering
without regard to sea-level is to land sculpture under conditions of a
dry climate. Until within the last lustrum the lineaments of the
great desert regions of our globe have remained without adequate or
satisfactory explanation. The genesis of the grander features of the
landscape on the basis of ordinary tectonics, or of normal erosion dur-
ing former wet climatic periods, or of water-action under present con-
ditions, has always met with seemingly unsurmouutable obstacles. The
origin of the salient features of the desert, its peculiar mountains, its
smooth plains, its strange plateaus, its streamless surface, its remark-
able rock-floor, and its many other unexpected features, are only begin-
ning to be fully appreciated in their proper relationships. To us of
the moister countries they present many novelties. They make us
acquainted with the vigorous workings of geologic processes to which
we are as yet almost complete strangers.

In the operations of the geologic processes under conditions of an
arid climate the most noteworthy efl^ects as compared with those under
normal conditions are the prevalency, the constancy and efficiency of

Ghost-like Desekt Range of Baboquivaei, Arizona. Central Peak is nearly a
mile high and ten miles distant. (W J McGee, photo.)

22

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

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LINEAMENTS OF THE DESERT 23

wind-scouring, the very subordinate, local and sporadic character of
water-action, and the remarkable plains-forming tendency which de-
flative erosion effects.

Since most of our conceptions of landscape genesis are derived from
our experiences in a normal moist or wet climate, the erosion agency
with which we are best acquainted is running water. In the desert
regions actually and necessarily water plays but small part in erosion.
With less than ten inches of annual rainfall, most of which sinks into
the earth as soon as it touches it, as in the dry regions of southwestern
United States and the northern part of the Mexican tableland, or less
than one inch as in the Nubian and Libian deserts of north Africa,
the erosive influences of water must be all but a negligible quantity.

With water-action reduced to relative impotency in the desert
region, wind-scour assumes a role the denuding power of which has
been heretofore little considered. Its action is general and constant.
Its effects are probably even more vigorous than the work of water
under normal climatic conditions. In the effort to reduce the land
surface to a low-lying plain the belts of hard and soft rocks are brought
into somewhat stronger contrast than in the case when water is the
chief agency of planation. The geologic structures are more sharply
accentuated. The rock-floors are cleaner swept. The belts of weak
rocks are faster removed. At all times the plain is more character-
istically the main relief feature.

Contrary to popular belief the great desert tracts of the earth are
mountainous regions. The mountain character has many novel and
instructive peculiarities. Yet so dominant is the plains feature locally
that the mountain ranges, bold and lofty as they often are, rise sharply
from the level expanse as do volcanic isles out of the sea. So charac-
teristic is this aspect that it is, in the South African deserts, appro-
priately denominated the " Inselgeberglandschaft."

In regard to the manner of their development the salient linea-
ments of the desert deserve much more attention than ever has been
given them. They acquire new meanings when their peculiarities are
considered in the light of an origin eolian in nature. Notwithstanding
the fact that some of us, whose lifelong experiences have been mainly
with the workings of the geologic processes in the moister parts of the
globe, may find it a little difficult to fully appreciate at first the direct
significance of many of the details of the relief features, a visit to the
desert soon convinces us of their verity. There are at least a score
of these physiographic characteristics of the diy lands that are espe-
cially striking.

The dominant feature of such desert regions as the western part
of our own country and of Mexico is the interrupted plain the general
surface of which is 5,000 to 7,000 feet above the sea. Out of it rise

24

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

abruptly the numerous mountain ranges to like heights above the
plains-surface. Of this region four fifths are plain; one fifth high-
land. The vastness and evenness of the intermont plains is a matter
of much speculation with all who travel the region, scientist and lay-
man alike. Extensive desiccated lake-bottoms they are usually re-
garded. They are sometimes considered to be intermont basins deeply
filled with wash from the peripheral highlands. At the present time
the only adequate explanation of their physiognomy is that they are
fashioned mainly by eolian agencies with some slight modification
by water.

The complete isolation of the different mountains is one of tlie
most remarkable facts concerning the desert features. In most parts
of the world there is some more or less close structural relationship
between neighboring mountains which are often united to one another
by foot-hills. In the desert there is no such tectonic connection. The
mountain ranges are all independent individuals without relationship
of any kind to one another. Structural mountains, volcanic moun-
tains, laccolithic mountains, fault-block mountains and high residual
plateau mountains are neighbors distinctly separated by stretches of
level plain.

Mountain ranges throughout the dry regions of western America
are completely and evenly surrounded by level plains as if by the sea.
They are numerous, short and narrow. Upon the map Button has
likened them to an army of caterpillars crawling northward out of
Mexico, dividing as it enters the United States, the main body turning

Great I'oso ^■EKDE Tlain. Isolation of the mouutaius, sharp meeting of plain and
mountain, and absence of foothills are noteworthy characteristics.

(W J McGee, photo.)

LINEAMENTS OK. THE DESERT

25

CoroTE Mou>'TAix, AitizoN'A, risiug 3,<J0U I'et-t above the plaiu. Devoid of soil ;
impotency of water-action shown in the small volume of fans at the base.

westward and then northward again until it passes into the British
possessions. The simile is as striking as it is apt.

To the average mountaineer, one of the strangest characteristics of
the desert ranges is the absence of foot-liills. The main eminences of
the mountains rise directly from the plains. The line where plain and
mountain meet is as sharply defined as if drawn with a pen. Often
this line is represented by high mural faces that can be scaled at Imt
few points. For this reason it is, chiefly, that the mountains appear
to be half buried by the drifting sands. It is on this account largely
that the plains areas appear to be leveled by the waters of former seas,
of which the mountains formed the coastal cliffs. The illusion is all
but completed by the fact that the phenomenon is perfectly inde-
pendent of geologic sti-ucture. This surprising feature is really one
of the most novel peculiarities of eolian action under conditions of
aridity.

That the substructure of the intermont plains is made up of the
softer or non-resistant rocks is an observation the full significance of
which has been only lately appreciated. Under conditions of a moist
or wet climate it is not an unlooked-for fact that the belts of weak
rocks coincide with the valleys or lowlands. It is unexpected, however,
that this is also true in an arid country, especially since the intermont
plains are commonly considered as areas of extensive accumulations of
mountain waste. On the whole they are now thought to be areas of

26

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

most rapid degradation. The much stronger contrasts of belts of soft
and hard rocks observable in the arid lands than in the moist lands
appear to be due to this very fact. Then, too, wind-scour and not
water-action must be reckoned with as the main erosional means,
another fact that has not been usually taken into account.

Without exception the mountain rocks of the western deserts are
very hard and resist the attacks of erosive action to an eminent degree.
The plains rocks being mainly non-resistant rocks, as we have seen,
there thus appears a notable alternation of hard and soft rock-belts.
In the geologic succession the rocks composing the mountains are prin-
cipally ancient crystallines and Paleozoic limestones which are followed
by enormous thicknesses of soft sandstones and shales that frequently

Sierra. Oscuro, New Mexico. Rises out of plain like a volcanic isle out of the sea ;
height 4,000 feet ; distance 15 miles. It is composed of hard rock ;
the plain of soft sandstones.

attain a vertical measurement of 10,000 feet or more. Tertiary fault-
ing on a grand scale has brought the soft strata to the same level as the
resistant beds. In the general and profound wearing down of the sur-
face of the country towards sea-level, marked contrasts of relief are
produced between the various rock-belts. In the moist countries the
ipolated residual eminences of general erosion, known to geographers
by the special name of monadnocks, after the New England mountain
regarded as the type, are of rare occurrence. In the desert region the
majority of the mountains are of this character.

One of the most peculiar of the many odd features of the desert is
the beveled rock structure of the plains-surface. In the moist regions
a high-lying plain with the substructure beveled is taken as an indica-
tion of former peneplanation, the lowest level to which water can wear

LINEAMENTS OF THE DESERT

27

down the land. The intermont plains of the arid region of western
America have beveled rock-substructures, but their surfaces are 5,000
to 8,000 feet above sea-level. The beveled character of the strata is
almost conclusive evidence that these plains are not areas of extensive
aggradation. In the absence of adequate water-action their origin
must rest mainly in long-continued and effective deflation.

Critical examination of the substructure of the plains, in favorable
places, shows clearly that the rock-floor itself is a plain. Although
not always apparent at first glance this rock-floor is commonly only
thinly mantled by wash debris and soil. Hence the rock-floor and the
present plains-surface are not very different in their detailed relief
characters.

Sierra Organo. Striking example of nbsence of rock-weathering in arid country :
the peaks rise 5,000 feet above the plain.

A phenomenal feature of the desert plains is the plateau-plain.
Mesas they are called in southwestern United States and Mexico.
These mesas, as their Spanish name signifies, are extensive, fiat-topped,
table-like areas rising abruptly from the general plain to heights of
from one or two hundred feet to a thousand feet or more. The great
Mesa de Maya, in northeastern New Mexico, is 3,500 feet above the
next lower plain.

The surface of the plateau-plain is usually found to be composed
of some hard rock layer, as in the case of the vast Llano Estacado, or
" walled plains," or staked plains as it is called by the Texans ; or is
made up of an extensive lava flow, as, for example, the Mesa de Maya,
the Ocate mesa and the majority of the plains of this kind. The sur-
face beneath the lava flows of the mesas is itself a plain worn oiit on

28

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

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LINEAMENTS OF THE DESERT 29

the beveled edges of the strata. The plateau-plain thus represents a
former position of the general plains-level. It is the best example of
eircumdenudation through vigorous wind-scour.

The soil mantle of the interment plains is everywhere relatively
thin. These plains instead of being areas of great accumulations of
recent rock-waste, as might very naturally be expected, appear to be,
as a rule, only thinly veneered. Often extensive areas are swept clean
by the winds so that the rock-floor is exposed.

Nearly all of the finer surface detritus is transported from a greater
or less distance. It is rare for the surface materials of the desert
plains to give any suggestion of the rock-composition immediately
beneath.

The gravely character of the intermont plains of the desert, to
which travelers commonly allude, is largely only apparent. Most of
the gravel-surfaced areas when upturned by the plow give excellent
loamy fields. It is not generally recognized that the great abundance
of pebbles on the surface of many plains is due to the fact that the
strong and persistent winds blow away the finer materials, leaving a
pebble mosaic behind.

While the rock-floor of the plains is itself a plain there are many
inequalities in the surface. Between sheet-flood erosion and wind-
drifted sands all local depressions are quickly filled. The tendency of
the surface mantle is thus merely to make the plains smoother than
thev otherwise might be.

One of the most remarkable features which at once attracts the
attention of the traveler is the general absence of distinct waterways
in the valleys or intermont basins. Notwithstanding the fact that the
gradients are high, no drainage systems are developed. Channel- ways
that are corraded by unusual freshets, which sporadically occur, are
quickly obliterated by the drifting sands and soils.

The degradation of the desert regions is not to be regarded as all
accomplished by wind-scour. At times water plays a minor but impor-
tant part locally. In the loftier mountain ranges normal torrential
water-action takes place, much the same as it does in humid regions.
The streams which are occasionally formed by heavy rainfalls soon
sink into the ground on reaching the plain and become lost rivers. At
other times, the stream-ways are without water for the greater part of
their courses ; arroyos, or dry creeks, the Spanish term them. McGee's
vivid description of the advance of a flood-sheet over a piedmont slope
is in reality the running of an arroyo as it enters a plain.

Water sometimes assumes another strange phase. The excessive
local rainfalls which occur at rare intervals, " cloud-bursts " they are
called, often form in the intermont valleys extensive shallow lakes.
Most of these bodies of water are of short duration. When they are

30 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

so situated as to be periodically renewed for a part of each year the
areas become vast mud-flats, forming the playas of the Mexicans. Not-
withstanding the fact that most of these lakes are ephemeral in charac-
ter, they are sometimes long-lived. In the valley of the Eio Conchos,
in the state of Chihuahua, the rainfall was once so heavy that in a
single night a great lake was formed that lasted for more than eighty
years.

A most singular phenomenon resulting directly from water-action
in the desert is sheet-flood erosion. The vigor with which it often
acts makes it locally an important plains-forming agent. Instead of
the water from the rainfall tending to concentrate along certain lines
of lowest level, as in humid regions, it spreads out over the sloping
plains- surface. The railroads crossing the desert have yet to discover
an effective method to overcome the disastrous work of the flood-sheet.

In the desert, however, extensive water-action is exceptional and
relatively unimportant.

Not the least striking characteristic of desert regions is the marked
absence of rock-weathering as we ordinarily know it. All exposed rock
surfaces present an aspect of wonderful freshness. Chemical decom-
position of rock-masses is all but unknown under the influences of a
dry climate. The breaking down of the rocks is mainly mechanical,
assisted somewhat by sand-blast action.

During the next decade the features of the arid portions of our
earth promise to give us many novel ideas concerning the workings of
certain of the geologic processes. To the scientist the desert will
become one of the most interesting fields of research.

THERAPEUTIC ACTION OF FEBMENTED MILK 31

ON THE THEKAPEUTIC ACTION OF FEEMENTED MILK

By C. a. HERTBR, M.D.

rnOFESSOK of PHAEMACOLOGY and THEKAPBTJTICSj COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

DUEING the past year there has been in the United States a large
increase in the use of fermented milk in the treatment of dis-
orders of digestion and nutrition. A clearly discernible influence in
bringing about this increase lies in the publications made by Professor
Metclmikoff and his colleagues in reference to the fermented milk
known as lacto-bacilline. The statements made by these scientific
workers have been repeatedly exaggerated by persons having a commer-
cial interest in the sale of certain kinds of fermented milks. It is
apparently true that many physicians have been influenced by these
statements in the direction of recommending among their patients a
much wider use of fermented milk, and especially of lacto-bacilline,
than was previously the case. Moreover many persons have decided
without the advice of a physician to make a trial of some form of
fermented milk or of some form of lactic acid ferment capable of act-
ing upon milk sugar. It appears that this dietetic practise is still on
the increase and likely to modify the habits of a not unimportant part
of the community in respect to diet. In view of this fact it seems to
me desirable to consider from a critical standpoint the therapeutic
effects supposed to be derivable from the use of fermented milks, and
more especially from milk that has been fermented through the use of
the B. hulgaricus recommended by Professor MetchnikoS and now
widely employed in the .production of lacto-bacilline. I believe that at
the present time there exists a considerable confusion of mind as to
what may or may not reasonably be expected in the way of therapeutic
results from the use of milk which has undergone lactic acid fermenta-
tion. It is the object of this paper to consider briefly the elements
which should enter into the formation of a judgment as to the thera-
peutic efficacy of lacto-bacilline and allied milk products.

In order to be able to form an unimpeachable judgment on the
therapeutic action of a fermented milk, it is necessary that experi-
ments of a very painstaking sort should be carried on in a number of
individuals for considerable periods of time. Experiments of a kind
calculated to furnish a firm scientific foundation for a rational use of
fermented milks have not yet been made. Such experiments in order

32 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

to be decisive would have to be conducted not merely on people in
good health, but also on a suitable variety of digestive and nutritional
disorders in which the bacterial conditions in the intestine, the state
of metabolism and the general conditions of life are taken into account
with the greatest care and judgment. Although I have for many
years been interested in watching the influence of fermented milk on
the human organism in various states of digestive derangement, and
have accumulated many observations bearing on the question, my
experience falls far short of what is necessaiy to establish final con-
clusions. In this communication, therefore, I do not ofPer any solu-
tion of the therapeutic problems pertaining to the use of fermented
milks, but seek only to discuss critically, in the light of such informa-
tion as now exists, some of the claims that have been made for the
employment of these kinds of milk. I do this with the thought tliat
a discussion of the various elements which should enter into the forma-
tion of a Judgment regarding the therapeutic value of milk subjected
to lactic acid fermentation may prove helpful to those who have not
given the subject much personal study and are therefore unable to
analyze the problem in a way that is likely to serve as a practical guide.

There are five important kinds of effects referable to the action of
fermented milks which must be considered in any judgment of the
therapeutic effects of a milk which has undergone lactic acid fermenta-
tion. These are, first, the effects on the absorption of fats and pro-
teins; secondly, the effects due to reduction of carbohydrates; thirdly,
effects due to the presence of lactic acid; fourth, effects due to the
bacteria used in lactic fermentation; fifth, effects due to a lowering of
putrefactive decomposition. These latter effects, which are of the first
importance in connection with any study of the action of fermented
milk, are of course not entirely distinct from the others just men-
tioned, but stand related to each of these other factors. Owing to their
prominence, however, it is desirable that they should be separately
considered.

At present the influence of lactic acid fermentation upon absorp-
tion of the milk constituents is but little understood. The question
relates especially to the absorption of fats and of proteins, for the
carbohydrates of the milk are in large degree removed by the fermen-
tative process, lactic acid, carbon dioxide and alcohol being the chief
constituents resulting from the breakdown of the milk sugar. It is
important that we should obtain exact data with regard to the absorp-
tion both of the fats and of the proteins, but, so far as I am aware,
these do not at present exist. If it could be shown that the absorption
of milk fat and of milk proteins is increased in health through the
influence of lactic acid fermentation of any kind, this would be a dis-
tinct argument in favor of the use of such milk as an article of diet.

THERAPEUTIC ACTION OF FERMENTED MILK 33

since it would make for economy in the administration of the machinery
of the body. Equally important and desirable are reliable observa-
tions on the effect of fermented milks on the absorption of milk fats
and milk proteins in various types of intestinal infection with their
accompanying acute and chronic catarrhal inflammation of the mucous
membranes of the digestive tract. The therapeutic claims put forward
by enthusiastic advocates of the use of fermented milk have in general
taken a different direction and have concerned themselves much more
with the question of the reduction in intestinal putrefaction than with
increase in absorption. But it must not be overlooked that an im-
proved absorption of proteins is one of the most important conditions
in general for reducing intestinal putrefaction, because whatever favors
prompt and complete absorption must correspondingly limit the oppor-
tunity for decomposition. In a lesser degree this statement holds true
also of the fats. I have been able to show experimentally that in nor-
mal persons the butter-fat may be much increased above the usual
intake — say from fifty grams to one hundred and fifty grams daily —
without materially increasing putrefactive decomposition. On the
other hand, such an increase in butter-fat in persons already suffering
from increased putrefactive decomposition shows a pronounced tend-
ency to still further increase the putrefaction. I attribute this
tendency to the mechanical obstacle to prompt absorption of proteins
arising from the presence of fat in abundance. The failure in prompt
absorption of proteins from an intestine infected with putrefactive
microorganisms means intense putrefaction, whereas a similar failure
in a healthy intestine is far less significant owing to the relative infre-
quency of putrefactive bacteria.

In considering the therapeutic influence of fermented milk, it is
necessary to take into account the fact that in such milk the carbo-
hydrate material has been in a large degree replaced by the products
of fermentation. Where milk is used in only small amounts in the
dietary, and these small amounts are replaced by a fermented milk,
the difference in quantity in respect to the intake of carbohydrates may
be so small as to be negligible. Where, however, the dietary consists
largely of milk and this large amount of milk is replaced by an amount
of fermented milk equivalent in protein and in fat, the difference in
respect to the carbohydrate material may assume considerable impor-
tance. In the case of the unfermented whole milk, there is enough
milk sugar to markedly encourage fermentative decomposition in the
intestine with the production of considerable gas. The gas-forming
organisms especially likely to attack the milk sugar are B. lactis
cerogenes, B. coli and B. cerogenes capsuJatus {B. welchii, or B. per-
fringens). In cases where there is marked flatulence from the use of
whole milk, the use of any fermented milk in which the milk sugar

VOL. LXXIV. — 3.

34 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

has been largely destroyed by fermentative bacteria introduces condi-
tions unfavorable for intestinal fermentation. I consider that the
diminution in fermentable material thus arising from the decrease in
the parbohydrates of the milk is an important factor not merely in
reducing intestinal fermentation, but also in reducing intestinal putre-
faction, for it is true that in some intestinal infections in which we are
justified in assuming that the colon bacillus or B. cerogenes capsalatus
or both these organisms have extended in an upward direction toward
the stomach, the abundant presence of fermentable carbohydrate pabu-
lum leads to a great increase in these microorganisms. After the
absorption of the acid produced in the course of this fermentation there
may be established a neutral or even an alkaline reaction in the lower
part of the small intestine and in the colon. In the absence of acid
and indeed in the presence of a moderate amount of acid, the colon
bacilli and B. cerogenes capsulatus are capable of making an increased
attack upon the protein material. This increases intestinal putrefac-
tion. On the other hand, the irritation arising from organic acids
formed in the small intestine and stomach often leads to a fermenta-
tive diarrhoea.

Turning now to the effects attributable to the presence of lactic
acid in the soured milk, it is at once apparent that we have to dis-
tinguish clearly between the action of such preformed lactic acid as
may be introduced with the milk and such acid as may be formed in
the course of further lactic acid fermentation after the soured milk
has been ingested. The essential difference lies in the fact that such
lactic acid as is preformed in fermented milk is liable to be absorbed
from the upper part of the small intestine, whereas if lactic acid
fermentation goes on within the digestive tract, the acid may be formed
at any level of the intestine. In the former case the action of the acid
is to be regarded as largely limited to the portion of the intestine in
which putrefactive decompositions seldom occur; in the latter case
there may be production of acid within the territory in which putre-
factive decompositions are apt to take place. We should therefore
expect greater anti-putrefactive efficacy from the use of soured milk con-
taining living lactic acid producers than from the same milk after
sterilization. Whether such a difference as this is actually discernible
in practise I am unable to say, as I am not aware of the existence of
satisfactory experiments made to test this point.

As to the efficacy of lactic acid as an anti-putrefactive agent it is
necessary to speak with caution. It has been the practise of many
physicians to employ lactic acid in the treatment of disorders of
digestion, especially those of infancy. But I am unaware that we have
adequate data for the establishment of the therapeutic anti-putrefactive
value of lactic acid. Where the stomach secretes no free hydrochloric

THERAPEUTIC ACTION OF FERMENTED MILK 35

acid it is reasonable to suppose that the use of lactic acid in weak
concentration exerts some anti-fermentative action, especially against
such microorganisms as do not readily grow in acid medium. But
there are many kinds of microorganisms in the digestive tract «which
are resistant to the action of lactic acid in the low concentration which
can be tolerated by a somewhat irritable mucous membrane. Most
yeasts and some important intestinal bacteria, such as B. lactis cerogenes,
B. hifidus, B. infantilis and various organisms classed at acidophiles,
have this property. It is a fact little known that some of the coccal
organisms of the intestine resist the action of acid in a remarkable
measure. It is therefore quite clear that anything approaching a
significant modification of the activities of organisms of the types just
mentioned is not to be looked for through the use of lactic acid. More-
over, I have shown that a considerable grade of acidity in the intestinal
tract is consistent with very active fermentative growth of B. cerogenes
capsulatus. This organism forms butyric acid during the fermentation
of carbohydrates, together with only small quantities of lactic acid, and
there is no reason to suppose that its development in the intestine is
materially inhibited by any concentration of lactic acid which is likely
to be obtainable in the lower part of the small intestine or in the colon,
either as the result of administering lactic acid or in consequence of
the use of soured milk.

That a considerable or high degree of putrefactive decomposition in
the intestine is not controllable in man by the administration of
moderate doses of lactic acid has become plain to me as the result of
clinical observation. And that even very large doses of lactic acid are
unable to restrict intestinal putrefaction is rendered highly probable
from experiments made in my laboratory by Dr. Helen Baldwin. In
dogs taking a meat diet and excreting urine characterized by abundant
indican and high ethereal sulphates there was no falling off in putre-
faction as a result of administering doses of lactic acid as large as
five grams daily. It seems to me doubtful if under these circum-
stances enough lactic acid could reach the large intestine to exert even
a moderate anti-putrefactive action. The experiments just mentioned
represent an extreme case, since they were made on animals living ex-
clusively on meat. The results obtained can not, therefore, be regarded
as strictly applicable to man. Nevertheless these experiments are in-
structive as indicating the inefficacy of large doses of lactic acid in
controlling intestinal putrefaction where the conditions for such putre-
faction are favorable and where the acid is given under conditions
rendering likely its absorption in the upper part of the digestive tract.

That the presence of lactic acid in soured milk does not necessarily
exert a significant anti-putrefactive action in the large intestines is
clearly shown by the observation which I have several times made that

36 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

persons suffering from chronic intestinal putrefaction have shown no
diminution in the putrefactive products excreted in the urine where
the patients have added a soured milk to their usual diet. It is, of
course, clear that in cases of this sort the failure of the putrefactive
process to decline may be attributable to the introduction of more than
the habitual amount of protein material. The observation is, however,
of interest in that it emphasizes the fact that the ingestion of lactic
acid, even if probably associated with lactic acid fermentation within the
intestine, may not suffice to exert any beneficial influence in reducing
putrefaction.

I do not wish to be understood as maintaining that the presence
of lactic acid in soured milk is of no value in checking intestinal putre-
faction. I wish merely to point out that the administration of lactic
acid per se can not be regarded as a significant anti-putrefactive pro-
cedure. It seems to me probable, on the other hand, that the presence
of lactic acid in the large intestine would at least in a degree tend to
restrict putrefactive decomposition. But I must own that positive evi-
dence on this point seems to be at the present time entirely wanting.
In my judgment only very carefully planned studies would suffice to
enable us to form a final opinion on the value of lactic acid as an anti-
putrefactive agent. "We are not justified in developing an enthusiastic
attitude toward lactic acid as an agent in the inhibition of intestinal
putrefaction on the basis of our present knowledge.

Let us now consider the effects derivable from the bacteria used in
lactic fermentation. As an example of a strong lactic acid producer
we may take B. bulgaricus, used in the production of lacto-bacilline.
This organism is a powerful lactic acid ferment, forming large amounts
of lactic acid from milk sugar while forming very little alcohol. The
organism grows well in milk and on some media containing an
abundance of soluble carbohydrates, as, for instance, in malt extracts.
We may take the behavior of B. bulgaricus in the digestive tract as
being typical of efficient lactic acid bacilli in general. There are two
questions which we must put to ourselves regarding the therapeutic
effects of such bacteria. First, to what extent do the lactic acid bacilli
replace obligate normal types of bacteria or the undesirable saprophytic
forms present in disease ? Secondly, to what extent is it desirable that
there should be a replacement of the intestinal flora by lactic acid
bacilli ?

It is one of the fundamental assumptions of the sour milk treat-
ment of intestinal diseases that the lactic acid producing microorgan-
isms establish themselves throughout the digestive tract and through
their more or less aggressive growth directly or indirectly inhibit the
development of putrefactive or other undesirable forms of bacteria.
In some of the statements put before the public in regard to the action

THERAPEUTIC ACTION OF FERMENTED MILK 37

of the lactic acid bacilli it is claimed that they drive out other forms
of bacteria from the large intestine^ the chief seat of intestinal putre-
faction. It is desirable that we should soberly consider the known
facts relating to this question. I think it safe to say that the ability
of lactic acid forms to replace or dominate other types of bacteria in
the large intestine is much exaggerated. I have devoted some study
to this question, especially in the case of the B. hulgaricus employed
in the production of lacto-bacilline. This organism, owing to its
large size, morphology and cultural peculiarities is easily recognized
and is cultivable, from the intestinal contents. When given to human
beings in the large numbers present in lacto-bacilline it can after a few
days' administration be cultivated without difficulty from the move-
ments. Even when large quantities of the fermented milk have been
taken I have not found that it becomes the dominant organism, although
it may be present in moderate numbers. On stopping the administra-
tion of the lacto-bacilline, the B. dulgaricus generally disappears in the
course of a few days, showing that it has not permanently established
itself within the intestinal tract. There may be exceptions to this
statement, but I have not yet met with any. These clinical results are
quite in accord with those obtained by Dr. Kendall and myself in
experiments upon a monkey fed for two weeks on lacto-bacilline ex-
clusively. At the end of this period, when the movements were show-
ing the regular presence of B. hulgaricus in relatively moderate
numbers, the animal was killed and the digestive tract examined with
care at all its levels. The lactic acid organisms were found in greatest
abundance in the small intestine. In the lowest portion of the small
intestine a notable falling off was observed and other types of bacteria
were prominent. In the large intestine the numbers were only
moderate as compared with other varieties of bacteria, thus clearly-
showing that in this instance, at least, the B. hulgaricus was very far
from dominating other associated types of bacteria. I consider this
fact noteworthy, as the experiment was carried out under conditions
highly favorable to the establishment of the lactic acid bacilli in the
digestive tract. The large number of microorganisms given and the
relatively short extent of the digestive tract in the monkey should, it
would seem, provide conditions for the adaptation of the organisms
throughout the alimentary canal.

It is probable that the experience Just recounted with regard to
lactic acid bacilli is not at all exceptional, or in other words that
foreign bacteria in general find it difficult to gain a permanent footing
in the digestive tract. The literature of experimental bacteriology
shows this to be the case. Personal experiments made with a highly
fermentative putrefactive organism — B. cerogenes capsulatus (B.
welchii or B. perfringens of the French writers) — in feeding expert-

38 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

ments on monkeys showed that in health these animals have the power
of very quickly ridding themselves of this variety of bacteria. Experi-
ments now under way with a microorganism described by myself and
Dr. Kendall as B. infantilis and found very abundantly in some of the
digestive diseases of children, show the same thing to hold true.

The fact that B. hulgaricus does not readily gain a dominant posi-
tion in the digestive tract in man or in the monkey has an obvious
bearing on the results to be expected from its therapeutic use. If it
be indeed true that B. hulgaricus is capable by its presence in the
intestinal tract of inhibiting undesirable types of bacteria and especially
the microorganisms concerned with intestinal putrefaction, then it must
be equally true that the difficulty in obtaining a dominant and perma-
nent foothold in the intestinal tract is a fact with which we must reckon
in any estimate of the results likely to be obtained through the admin-
istration of these organisms. The moderate representation of B.
hulgaricus in the large intestine after the free administration of lacto-
bacilline is surely something very different from what has been already
frequently pictured by the enthusiastic upholders of the use of this
form of fermented milk in the treatment of diseases of the digestive
tract.

I think it has been assumed with far too little reason that the
dominant presence of foreign microorganisms of the lactic acid group is
necessarily a desirable thing. If it could be shown that lactic acid
bacilli, such as B. hulgaricus or certain varieties of B. acidi lactici, have
the faculty of replacing undesirable forms of microorganisms such as
the bacilli of typhoid or of paratyphoid fever or putrefactive micro-
organisms, such as B. proteus vulgarus or B. cerogenes capsulatus, this
would undoubtedly be cause for congratulation, especially if it could
be shown at the same time that the normal flora of the digestive tract
remained unchanged. I do not deny the possibility that this selective
kind of anti-bacterial action may some day be proved to exist. I
desire merely to point out that at present I know of no facts to justify
tis in believing that such antagonistic action as the lactic acid bacteria
may possess is directed solely against the disease-inciting invaders of
the digestive tract. If it should prove true that the antagonism exerted
by the lactic acid bacilli against injurious invaders is also exerted
against the obligate bacterial inhabitants of the alimentary canal, such
as B. coli communis and B. lactis cerogenes, I am by no means con-
vinced that this could be regarded as a point in favor of the prolonged
therapeutic use of lactic acid bacilli. If, as appears to be true, these
obligate inhabitants of the digestive tract are especially adapted to the
normal conditions of secretion and digestion in the human intestine and
tend to be suppressed in some serious conditions of the digestive tract
(while their reappearance and reestablishment in abundant numbers

THERAPEUTIC ACTION OF FERMENTED MILK 39

is one of the first, most definite and most reassuring signs of im-
provement in the clinical condition of certain kinds of patients) to
make use of any mode of lactic acid bacillus therapy which will inhibit
the normal development of B. lactis cerogenes or B. coli communis in
the digestive tract would, in my judgment, be a profound error in prin-
ciple. I do not wish to intimate that I consider B. hulgaricus or any
of the common lactic acid bacilli to be capable of seriously checking the
growth of B. lactis cerogenes and B. coli communis in the digestive
tract, but wish to state that in so far as such modification is possible
it appears to me not without undesirable features. To the validity of
this statement there is one possible exception that occurs to me. In
cases where there is a colon bacillus infection of the intestine, that is
to say, an inflammatory state associated with a great over-growth of
B. coli, the antagonistic influence of lactic acid bacilli might be useful.
But I am not sure that this is more than a merely apparent exception
to the general rule which I have above expressed as valid, for it is not
clear that it has been proved that the colon bacilli apparently answerable
for digestive infections are in reality the normal colon bacilli. It ap-
pears to me more likely that they are commonly variants of such bacilli
whose fermentative characters have not yet been determined fully and
precisely.

I would also mention here the fact that there are diseases of the
intestinal tract associated with the presence of bacteria capable of
forming lactic acid. Obviously, then, this property of a microorganism
does not necessarily screen the digestive tract from injury.

One of the most important and most loudly heralded effects of the
administration of soured milk is that on intestinal putrefaction. Un-
der conditions of health the putrefactive decompositions in the intes-
tinal tract seldom attain a considerable degree of intensity — a surpris-
ing fact when we consider the immense numbers of bacteria which
inhabit the large intestine. In many pathological states the condi-
tions of putrefaction in the intestine are very much altered in the direc-
tion of great intensification. This is shown both by the dominance of
putrefactive microorganisms in the large intestine and by the appear-
ance of products of putrefaction in the urine. It is unnecessary here
to discuss the nature of these products. It should, however, be pointed
out that the intensity of putrefaction as judged by the quantity of
putrefactive products in the urine is notably influenced by the quan-
tity of protein material ingested. We may say that in general a con-
siderable increase in the protein intake is followed by a corresponding
increase in putrefaction and that a marked diminution in protein
intake is followed by a distinct falling off in putrefaction. This state-
ment holds true in general in conditions of health and it is even more
strikingly exemplified in cases of chronic intestinal infection associated

40 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

with habitual excess in putrefaction. In view of this fact it is clear
that in experiments designed to determine the influence of fermented
milks upon the intensity of putrefaction it is essential to take accurate
cognizance of the quantity of protein ingested. It is easy to under-
stand that if a patient has been in the habit of eating for his midday
meal an abundance of protein food and decides under advice to take
a fermented milk for his lunch in place of the more elaborate meal,
the mere reduction in protein will suffice to reduce putrefaction. So
it is clear that a decrease in putrefaction can be effected through a
variety of dietaries which have in common the fact that they contain
a smaller amount of protein material than the patient has been in the
habit of eating. Whole milk and various fermented milks are thus
capable of influencing putrefaction in such a way that we may readily
fall into the error of exaggerating their influence upon putrefactive
decomposition in the intestine. Hence it is evident that the only fair
test of the value of a fermented milk in respect to its influence on
putrefaction is to compare it with the effects of other articles of diet
containing exactly the same amount of protein material. Such care-
ful comparisons have not, I believe, been made up to the present time.
In the future they will doubtless be made and will enable us to form
quite definite judgments as to the relative effectiveness of different
kinds of fermented milks upon intestinal putrefaction. At present I
should hesitate to say that one kind of fermented milk is more effective
than another in bringing about a reduction in intestinal putrefaction.
"We may regard it as well established that a diet in which milk
takes the place of other kinds of food is very apt to be followed by a
reduction in the intensity of putrefactive decomposition in the intes-
tine. There are, however, clinical indications that the use of fer-
mented milks does possess real advantages over the use of whole milk
at least in some disorders of digestion. Although the exact character
of these advantages is not yet firmly established, they seem to be none
the less real. From what has already been said in this paper on the
criteria of judgment of the action of fermented milks, it is evident
that the clinical advantages which have been observed may be attrib-
utable to several different peculiarities possessed by fermented milks in
general. One of these is the favorable mechanical influence on the
minute subdivision of the casein, which prevents the undesirable effects
associated with the presence of large clots of casein which are not
easily disposed of in persons with weak digestion. The exact conse-
quences of this advantageous mechanical state of the milk food can not
now be appraised. A second point which has already been mentioned
is the formation of lactic acid. Here again the precise extent of the
favorable influence can not be measured; but on the other hand it can
not be denied that in at least some disorders of digestion the presence

THERAPEUTIC ACTION OF FERMENTED MILK 41

of lactic acid in the intestinal tract may exert a degree of anti-putre-
factive action. It should, however, be remembered that there are per-
sons with chronic inflammatory states of the digestive tract who
tolerate very badly acids of all sorts. These persons are unable to take
considerable quantities of fermented milk if the milk contains a high
percentage of lactic acid, the attempt to utilize such food being fol-
lowed by various unpleasant sensations and diarrhoea. The possible
anti-putrefactive influence of the presence of living lactic acid bacilli
in various parts of the digestive tract has already been discussed at
sufficient length and it has been pointed out that this factor again is
one whose value can not at present be accurately estimated.

It must be plain from what has been said that the therapeutic use
of fermented milks rests at the present time rather more securely on
the clinical observations that have been made with it than on an ade-
quate scientific study of the influence exerted upon digestion and
nutrition and especially on the processes of putrefaction. To obtain
the necessary scientific data will require elaborate and very laborious
experiments covering long periods of time. With the aid of such
experiments I have no doubt that the usefulness of soured milks in
health and in disease will be definitely and discriminatingly estab-
lished. The limitations of utility will become equally plain, and I
predict that they will prove to be many. The importance of this sub-
ject for the welfare of people at large not only in respect to immediate
physical comfort and efficiency but as regards the prolongation of life,
would, in my opinion, amply justify a very considerable expenditure of
money to acquire this knowledge.

It can not be regarded as surprising that the enthusiasm which
has been aroused partly through the public exploitation of various
kinds of fermented milk in the treatment of disease and partly by the
undoubted successes of the treatment should have led to various abuses.
One of the most important things to understand in reference to the
use of fermented milk is that it should be employed in most instances
as a substitute for other forms of food rather than as an addition to
the usual dietary. Especially is it necessary to bear this in mind in
the case of chronic disorders associated with an increase in putrefac-
tion. The addition of a considerable amount of fermented milk to the
habitual dietaiy has often been practised with disastrous results, and
I do not doubt that this practise is still widely extended. Such bad
results might be predicted, for since all fermented milks contain a
large proportion of protein material capable of undergoing putrefac-
tion and since this putrefaction is not checked, in any specific way,
through the agency of the fermented milk itself, a great increase of
putrefactive decomposition may follow the injudicious excessive use

42 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

of such food. I have seen several instances of this error, which is not
confined to laymen, but is sometimes committed by physicians also.

Another feature of fermented milk which needs to be closely scru-
tinized is the character of the microorganisms employed as fennents
of the milk. In a few instances I have known to be used as ferments
what I believe to be very undesirable types of bacteria. I think it
may be said that most of the fermented milks on the market in this
country at the present time contain chiefly fermentative organisms
which are harmless when not excessively administered. In some cases
the lactic-acid producing bacteria have become contaminated by pos-
sibly undesirable yeasts. It is only natural that accidents of this sort
should occur in what is comparatively a new industry, and it is likely
that with increasing experience the manufacturers of the various fer-
mented milks will be compelled to exercise every reasonable caution in
regard to the purity and quality of the ferments employed in their
products.

The use of tablets of other preparations of lactic acid bacilli is
now becoming widespread. The tablets are taken with some carbohy-
drate material which will permit the growth of the bacteria and the
formation of lactic acid. I have seen good results from this method
of using lactic acid bacilli, in the relief of symptoms referable to ex-
cessive intestinal putrefaction. But I do not think the data exist at
present for an intelligent comparison of this use of lactic acid bacilli
with their use in fermented milks. I hope before long to be able
to discuss this question on the basis of experimental observations.

POETRY AXD SCIENCE 43

/•■■

POETEY AND SCIENCE: THE CASE OF

CHAELES DAEWIN Hj/

Br EDWARD BRADFORD TITCHENER

i/>

^^L

IN the autobiographical chapter of the " Life and Letters of Charles
Darwin " occurs a well-known passage, in which the writer de-
plores his loss, in middle life, of the higher esthetic tastes.

Up to the age of thirty, or beyond it, poetry of many kinds, such as the
works of Milton, Gray, Byron, Wordsworth, Coleridge and Shelley, gave me
great pleasure, and even as a schoolboy I took intense delight in Shakespeare,
especially in the historical plays. . . . But now for many years I can not endure
to read a line of poetry: I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, and found it
so intolerably dull that it nauseated me. . . . This curious and lamentable loss
of the higher esthetic tastes is all the odder, as books on history, biographies,
and travels (independently of any scientific facts which they may contain),
and essays ou all sorts of subjects interest me as much as ever they did. My
mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of
large collections of facts, but why this should have caused the atrophy of that
part of the brain alone, on which the higher tastes depend, I can not conceive,
A man with a mind more highly organized or better constituted than mine
would not, I suppose, have thus suiTered; and if I had to live my life again,
I would have made a rule to read some poetry ... at least once every week;
for perhaps the parts of my brain now atrophied would thus have been kept
active through use. The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness, and may
possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character,
by enfeebling the emotional part of our nature.

The loss which Darwin here regrets has often been charged to the
particular account of his occupation with science. I have always
believed that the charge is unfounded. It is difficult to give precise
reasons, to translate into words what is, at bottom, a matter of general
cumulative impression; but I shall attempt to show that there are, at
any rate, plausible grounds for doubting the common construction put
upon his remarks.

I must begin by saying that there is no real evidence to the effect
that Darwin showed, at any period of his life, a deep feeling for
poetry, or a profound understanding of it. I use the adjectives advis-
edly. The true love of poetry, and the intimate understanding of
poetry, are matters primarily of a man's temperament. But they are
also, like ever^^thing else that is worth while, largely — much more
largely than is ordinarily supposed — matters of teclmique, of long and
studious apprenticeship. Temperament and training, then, must go

44 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

together, if anything more than superficial interest is to result. Now
Darwin's temperament was scientific : " My love of natural science,"
he writes, " has been steady and ardent." I suggest that the combina-
tion in a single individual of the scientific and the poetic tempera-
ments is and must be rare. And I suggest, further, that, where it
occurs, the temperament will almost inevitably develop one-sidedly, so
that poetry outtops science, or science poetry.

In Goethe's case, poetry was in the ascendent. As I said above,
I do not think that Darwin had any large admixture of the poet in his
make-up; certainly not so large an admixture of poetry as Goethe had
of science. But I believe that he had something of the poet in him;
I believe that the atrophy of this something went less far than he him-
self imagined; and I believe that science is not specially responsible
for its partial loss.

Every normal man is a poet for a few years of his life. With
most of us, the poetic interest and inspiration die out, as naturally and
almost as suddenly as they came, somewhere about the age of twenty-
five, and usually sooner rather than later. Darwin was a man of
genius, and like many other men of genius he came late to maturity;
his plastic period extended, as he himself declares, "up to the age of
thirty or beyond it ;" and the " Origin of Species " was published in
1859, when he was fifty years old. Perhaps as a result of this pro-
longation of adolescence, perhaps as a coordinate feature of his ex-
traordinary endowment, Darwin possessed the poetic gift, the gift of
creative imagination, in a marked degree. He writes:

I have steadily endeavoured to keep my mind free so as to give up any
hypothesis, however much beloved (and I can not resist forming one on every
subject), as soon as facts are shown to be opposed to it. . . . On the other hand,
I am not very sceptical — a frame of mind which I believe to be injurious to the
progress of science.

Here is the poetic temper showing, quite unconsciously to its possessor,
through the overlay of scientific training; here we get a glimpse, not
of " a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collec-
tions of facts," but of the credulous and imaginative attitude of
the poet.

If I am right in my interpretation, and if Darwin, while never
profoundly poetical, still had more than the common share of poetic in-
sight, then we ought to find traces of this character in his books. We
must not expect too much, for Darwin pruned his manuscripts to the
quick. His son tells us :

He had a horror of being lengthy, and seems to have been really much
annoyed and distressed when he found how the " Variation of Animals and
Plants " was growing under his hands. I remember his cordially agreeing with
Tristram Shandy's words, " Let no man say, Come, I'll write a duodecimo."

POETRY AND SCIENCE 45

We shall not, then, look for poetic quotations in the " Variation." If
Virgil is cited, it will be only in connection with the choice of seed
corn; and if Homer is mentioned, it will be only because there is no
mention of Callus hanJciva either in the " Iliad " or in the " Odyssey."
Nor shall we look for poetic excerpts in the " Origin," that wonder of
compressed argumentation. But we may fairly turn to the " Natural-
ist's Voyage," and to the " Expression of the Emotions," and to the
*' Descent of Man." And if we do, our search will be rewarded.

When, for instance, Darwin is describing in the " Voyage " the
feasting of the Indian troops at Bahia Blanca, he not only gives a
description which is itself reminiscent of Virgil, but he quotes, in the
most natural manner possible, the very words —

Nam simul expletus dapibus, vinoque sepultus
Cervicem inflexam posuit, jacuitque per antrum
Immensus, saniem eructans, ac frusta cruenta
Per somnum commixta mero —

in which Virgil in the third book of the " ^neid " describes the gorg-
ing of Polyphemus. And when he is surveying the desert behind Port
Desire, on the Patagonian coast, he says :

All was stillness and desolation. Yet in passing over these scenes, without
one bright object near, an ill-defined but strong sense of pleasure is vividly
excited. One asked how many ages the plain had thus lasted, and how many
more it was doomed to continue.

None can reply — all seems eternal now.
The wilderness has a mysterious tongue.
Which teaches awful doubt.

It is only fair to say that the passage from Virgil occurs in the first
draught of the " Voyage," which appeared in 1839 (when Darwin was
thirty) as part of Fitz-Eoy's work. But then it is also fair to say
that the passage from Shelley's " Mont Blanc " occurs for the first time
in the edition of 1845.

The " Descent of Man " was published in 1871, when its author was
sixty-two. In it he quotes from Tennyson's " Idylls of the King "
(1859) the words of Guinevere —

Not ev'n m inmost thought to think again
The sins that made the past so pleasant to us —

and, in the second edition (1874), Hookham Frere's rhymed version
(1872) of Theognis, Fragment X. The quotation from the Greek poet
Xenarchus — " Happy the Cicadas live, since they all have voiceless
wives " — bears witness, perhaps, rather to Darwin's sense of humor
than to his love of poetry.

46 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

The " Expression of the Emotions " came out in 1872, wlien Darwin
was sixty-three. Here he cites from " King Henry VIII." Norfolk's
account of Wolsey's " strange commotion/' and from " King Henry V."
the king's picture of warlike anger. The former passage is correctly
given; the latter is printed with some curious omissions, which are not
indicated; probably it was written down from memory. The book
contains, further, quotations from '^ King Richard II.," " King Henry
IV.," pt. i., " King Henry VI.," pt. ii., the " Merchant of Venice,"
"King John," "Julius Cjesar," the "Winter's Tale," "Titus An-
dronicus," " Eomeo and Juliet " and " Hamlet." Not a bad list for
a man who, four years later, was to declare that he has " tried lately
to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated
me ! " Here Shakespeare is neither dull nor intolerable, but endowed
with " wonderful knowledge of the human mind." And it must be
understood that the passages quoted are not taken, haphazard, from a
Shakespeare concordance. I have worked through the thirty-seven
plays myself, with a view to emotive psychology, and I know what the
possibilities of quotation are. Darwin's passages are selected, and I
have little doubt that they were remembered first and looked up after-
wards. Darwin quotes, again, from Somerville's " Chase " the lines —

And with a courtly grin, the fawning hound
Salutes thee cow'ring, his wide op'ning nose
Upward he curls, and his large sloe-black eyes
Melt in soft blandishments, and humble joy —

which may pass for poetry. He quotes the "laughter, holding both
his sides " from Milton's " L'Allegro " ; he quotes twice from Worsley's
rhymed version of the " Odyssey " ; he refers to the laughter of the
gods in the first book of the " Iliad " ;^ and he quotes twice from the
" ^neid " of Virgil.

I hope that these illustrations of Darwin's use and knowledge of
poetry are enough, if not to prove my point, at any rate to give it
plausibility. It is, perhaps, not wholly superfluous to add that the
absence of certain apt quotations from Darwin's pages is adequately
explained by the circumstance that the poets are post-Darwinians. I
have found more than once, in discussing this question, that even
highly educated persons may be a trifle hazy in their dates.

When, on the other hand, we ask whether Darwin would have
retained his poetic sense by weekly readings, the answer must be doubt-
ful. If he had read with any overt intention of refreshing the intel-

^ So I have always interpreted the rather puzzling passage at the beginning
of chapter VIII. My colleague, Dr. L. L. Forman, suggests, however, that
Darwin may have confused the Greek with the Norse gods. If this is the case,
the reference is probably to some prose work upon Norse mythology.

POETRY AND SCIENCE 47

lect or building up the moral character, then very certainly the effort
would have ended in failure; poetry must be taken for its own sake,
or it may as well not be taken at all. I incline to the opinion that
the readings, while they would undoubtedly have increased the store
of possible quotation, would still have left Darwin with the regrets
that the " Autobiography " expresses.

The argument of the present note may now be summarized as fol-
lows. I do not think that Darwin ever had a profound interest in
poetry; the scientific temperament was too strong in him. The his-
torical plays in which as a schoolboy he took " intense delight " prob-
ably interested him in the main as stories. The poets whom he read
during his plastic period probably attracted him, in large measure, by
their felicity of language; the cult of words and phrases is character-
istic of adolescence, and is curiously different from a real appreciation
of style — into which it may or may not develop, according to the
temperam.ent of the reader. On the other side, I think that Darwin's
poetic leanings were much more pronounced and much more persistent
than those of the average man of science. By his own unconscious
confession, and by the evidence of his written works, his mind was
leavened with poetic feeling; all through his mature life he is ready
with quotation when the occasion calls; and the veiy poignancy of his
regret for the loss of poetry witnesses to his poetic endowment. If
and in so far as he did lose his poetic interests, the loss was due, not
specifically to his occupation with science, but generally to the combi-
nation of a stupendous life-work with continued ill-health. " For
nearly forty years he never knew one day of the health of ordinary
men," and in those forty years he revolutionized biology. Small won-
der, then, that he had neither time nor energy for that critical cultiva-
tion of poetry which, however gifted the temperament, is the sine qua
non of a true poetic insight. It was not that addiction to science
brought with it an atrophy of the higher esthetic tastes. It was rather
the fact that an esthetic power, distinctly above the average, though
not of the first rank, was left, by the demands of an absorbing pursuit
upon a frail constitution, to work itself out unguided, and to show
itself as best it might. The cry that Shakespeare is intolerable is the
cry of a man to whom Shakespeare is familiar from cover to cover,
tragedy and history and comedy, and for whom Shakespeare might,
under other circumstances, have been a source of never-ending delight.

I have spoken only of poetry. The considerations which I have here
urged apply, however, with the necessary modifications, to Darwin's
loss of pleasure in pictures and music.

48 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

A BIOGEAPHICAL HISTOEY OF BOTANY AT ST. LOUIS,

MISSOUEI. II.

By Dr. PERLEY SPAULDING

LABORATORY OF FOREST PATHOLOGY, BUREAU OF PLAKT INDUSTRY,
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

THOMAS DEUMMOND^ was born about 1780. He is known to
have been a native of Scotland, but the exact place of his birth is
unknown, as is also his early training and education. He was a brother
of James Drummond, the Australian botanical explorer, and is known to
have succeeded George Don in the nursery at Forfar. In 1825-6-7 he
accompanied the Second Overland Arctic Expedition, led by Sir John
Franklin, as assistant to Dr. Eichardson, who was the naturalist of the
expedition. In Canada Drummond explored very extensively, even into
the Eocky Mountains and on the Mackenzie Eiver where the main part
of the expedition did most of its work. Upon the completion of the
Journey he returned to England, and from 1828 to 1829 he was curator
of the Belfast Botanical Garden. Soon after his return to England he
published a work upon the American mosses, which was chiefly the re-
sult of his collections made in Canada. He again sailed for New York
under the patronage of Drs. Hooker and Graham, for the purpose of
exploring the southern and western United States. Beginning his tour
at New York City in the spring of 1831, he went to Philadelphia,
visited Bartram's garden, thence to Baltimore, Washington, and to
Wheeling on foot. At the last-named place he embarked for St. Louis,
descending the Ohio Eiver and coming up the Mississippi by boat. It
was his original intention to Join some fur-trading expedition to the far
western country, but he arrived in St. Louis too late for this. He ac-
cordingly remained in St. Louis and collected in the vicinity until the
next winter. He lost considerable time by sickness, but in January he
sent a collection of several hundred species of phanerogams and a con-
siderable collection of mosses and hepatics to Hooker at Kew. Hooker

° Date of birth and photograph supplied by Mr. J. R. Drummond, grandson
of Thomas.

Hooker, Wm. J., Companion to the Jour, of Bot., 1: 21-26, 39-49, 95-101,
170-177, 1835; 2: 60-64, 1836. Journal of Botany, 1: 50-60, 183-202, 1834.
Botanical Miscellany, 1 : 178, 1849.

Lasfegue, A., "Mus6e Bot. de M. Benj. Delessert," 196-198, 1845.

Sargent, C. S., " Silva of North America," 2 : 25, 1891.

BOTANY AT ST. LOUIS

49

Fig. o. Thomas Drujimo.nd.s-i

From a crayon portrait at the Kew Gardens ; by permission of the Kew Garden
authorities, through the Isindness of Mr. J. R. Drummond, grandson of Thomas.

seems to have prepared his collections for distribution, and we find him
publishing a list of about two hundred and fifty species which were
collected around St. Louis by Drummond.

During the next spring and summer Drummond collected in the
vicinity of New Orleans, and here he obtained even more plants than
he did at St. Louis. He next went to Texas, which he was one of the
first to explore botanically. Here he gathered a rich harvest, in spite
of a season of the most unfavorable weather. He then returned to New
Orleans and went to Appalachicola in 1835 for the purpose of exploring
the Florida peninsula. He soon left western Florida with the intention
of reaching Key West by way of Havana, Cuba. Hooker learned that
Drummond was taken sick while at Havana and died very suddenly in
March, 1835.

Harvey dedicated the genus Drummondita to the two brothers.

®* By an unfortunate error, this portrait of Thomas Drummond was in the
last issue of the Monthly printed as a portrait of William Baldwin, and the
portrait of William Baldwin was printed as the portrait of Meriwether Lewis.

VOL. LXXIV. — 4.

5°

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Fig. 4. Prince Maximilian : from his " Reise nach Brasilien.

Very appropriately Brummondia, a genus of American mosses, was
named in Thomas's memory by his patron, Sir William Jackson Hooker.
Numerous species of our phanerogams are also named after this most
industrious and successful collector.

Even persons of royal lineage were numbered among the many
naturalists who came to America for the purpose of exploring unknown
sections for new plants and animals, and to make scientific observations.
While Prince Alexander von Humboldt attained eminence for his
travels and scientific worth, he was not the only royal person who did so,
although we generally hear no other mentioned. Alexander Philip
Maximilian, Prince of Wied neu-Wied, came to the New World on two
different occasions. On the first tour he visited Brazil, and on the
second he visited the United States and especially the northwestern or
Missouri country.

Prince Maximilian^^ was born on September 23, 1782, in Wied

" Thwaites, R. G., " Early Western Travels," Vols. 22, 23 and 24.
Maximilian, Prince, " Reise nacli Brasilien," 1820-1.
Sargent, C. S., " Silva of North America," 9: 138, 1896.

J

BOTANY AT ST. LOUIS 51

neu-Wied, a small principality of Rhenish Prussia. He was from boy-
hood of a studious inclination, and early became interested in the natural
sciences. In spite of this he was in the Prussian army at the battle of
Jena, and was among those captured by the enemy. He returned to his
studies at the end of this war, but was among the victorious army which
entered Paris in 1813. In this service he earned the iron cross of
Chalons and a major-generalship. During all of this time he had been
planning a scientific expedition to Brazil in order to satisfy a keen de-
sire to add to the world's knowledge, imparted to him by the celebrated
Professor Johann Friederich Blmnenbach, of whom he was a favorite
pupil. Early in 1815 he started for Brazil. He was joined in South
America by two other German scholars, and the trio spent two years
studying the flora, fauna and native races of this country. His result-
ing publications gave him a high rank among the scientists of the period,
and his " Eeise nach Brasilien in den Jahren 1815 bis 1817 " was soon
translated into the French, English and Dutch languages.

In 1833 Prince Maximilian started on a second enterprise — a trip
to the trans-Mississippi region. He arrived in Boston on the fourth of
July. He brought with him a very capable artist, for the express pur-
pose of obtaining portraits of famous Indians. He made more or less
brief visits to Boston, New York and Philadelphia, and then went to
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and thence through the coal region, reaching
Pittsburg in the autumn. The journey was then continued overland to
Wheeling, where they embarked for the voyage down the Ohio River.
They turned aside for the purpose of visiting New Harmony, Indiana,
where then was located the best library of American and natural history
west of the Atlantic seaboard. Here the winter was spent studying
and preparing for the journey on the Missouri River. On March 16,
1833, the journey was resumed and they arrived in St. Louis before the
fur-trading expeditions had left on their annual trip to the northwest.
Following the advice of several St. Louis men, the journey was made by
boat up the Missouri River, instead of by land, as was at first planned.
On April 10 the journey was commenced, and by the twenty-second they
had reached Fort Leavenworth. The expedition was continued to Fort
McKenzie, on a branch of the Yellowstone River, among the Blackfeet
Indians, where they remained for two months. The return trip was be-
gun on September 14, and the succeeding winter was spent at Fort
Clark, near the present town of Bismarck, North Dakota. The next
spring Prince Maximilian returned to St Louis and journeyed eastward
by way of the Ohio canal and Lake Erie to New York, where he em-
barked for the Old World on July 16, 1834. Upon returning from the
upper Missouri country the collections which had been made were left
behind to be sent down the river in another steamer which was soon to
follow the one carrying the party. A fire broke out on this steamer and

52 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

man}^ of the collections were destroyed because they were not deemed
of as much value as other things which were on board.

After his return to his native city Prince Maximilian worked over
his collections and other material with the aid of a number of experts,
and published several papers upon his results. In 1843 he published his
"Systematic View of Plants Collected on a Tour on the Missouri River."
His collections are preserved in the museum of his native city, where he
died in 1867.

Martius honored him by naming a genus of Brazilian and West In-
dian palms, Maximiliana, thus very appropriately connecting him with
the botany of that country, of which he was one of the pioneer explorers.

Hardly had Prince Maximilian started for home before another
explorer was at work on the Missouri. This person was none other
than Thomas Nuttall, the greatest botanist of this country in his time.
As has been already mentioned, he had visited this section in company
with John Bradbury in 1811.

Thomas KuttalP^ was born in the town of Settle, England, in the
year 1786. His parents were in very moderate circumstances, and the
boy was early apprenticed to a printer. After several years he had a
disagreement with his employer and went to London seeking for work.
Here he came very near total destitution. When about twenty-two
years of age he emigrated to America, landing in Philadelphia. Dur-
ing his youth he so improved his spare moments that he acquired an
intimate knowledge of the Latin and Greek languages, and he seems to
have studied other branches, as he was described at the time of his
landing as " a well-informed 3'oung man, knowing the history of his
country, and somewhat familiar with some branches of natural history,
and even with Latin and G-reek." Nuttall knew nothing of botany at
this time, but very soon after he became interested in the " amiable
science," and also began an acquaintance with Dr. Benjamin Smith
Barton. His studies of plants naturally led him into making short
excursions which soon lengthened as his interest deepened, until he had
visited the lower part of the Delaware peninsula and the coast region
of Virginia and North Carolina.

At about this time Nuttall became acquainted with John Bradbury,
and he eagerly proposed to accompany him on his trip up the Missouri
River. Accordingly,Nuttall joined Bradbury at St. Louis, and early

"Short, C. W., Transylvania Jour, of Med., etc., 34: 14-16, 1836.
Meehan, Thos., Gardeners' Monthly, 2: 21-23, 1863.
Durand, Elias, Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc., 7: 297-315, 1860.
Sargent, C. S., " Silva of North America," 2: 34, 1891.
Britten, Jas., and Boulger, G. S., " Biographical Index of British and
Irish Botanists," 129, 1893.

Anonymous, Pop. Sci. Monthly, 46: 689-696, 1895.
Harshberger, J. W., " Botanists of Philadelphia," 151-159, 1899.

BOTANY AT ST. LOUIS

53

Fig. 5. Thomas Nuttall ; from The Populak Science Monthly, Vol. 46, 1895.

in the spring of 1811 the two made the journey up the river to the
Mandan villages, as previously described in this paper. Both natural-
ists were more than once in extreme danger, but Nuttall brought back
with him many treasures of seeds, plants and other objects of interest.
The next eight A^ears he remained at Philadelphia, studying in the
winter the collections which he made during his summer excursions to
various parts of the country east of the Mississippi, from the Great
Lakes to Florida. At about this time he was preparing the manuscript

54

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Fig. 6. Entrance of the Linnm5an Greenhouse at the Missouri Botanical

Garden, St. Louis, Missouri ; showing the three busts of

Linnaeus, Gray and Nuttall.

for his " Genera of the North American Plants," which did not appear
until 1818. Nuttall himself set most of the type for this work. In
1818 he started from Philadelphia for Arkansas, reaching Fort Belle-
point on April 24, 1819. He made this his center of operations, ex-
ploring in various directions and making large collections. He was
taken sick with fever and on recovering made one more excursion and
then set out for home, reaching New Orleans February 18, 1820. At
this time he had made a journey of over five thousand miles through a
country still in the undisputed possession of the Indians, and almost
wholly unexplored by scientific men. Immediately upon his return to
Philadelphia in 1820 he began to study his collections and to write his

J

BOTANY AT ST. LOUIS

55

Fig. 7. Bust of Thomas Nuttaix, over the entrance of the Liunjeau Greenhouse
at the Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, Mo.

'^' Journal of Travels into the Arkansas Territory During the Year
1819," which was published the following year.

At the end of 1822 he was called to Harvard College as curator of
the botanical garden, there not being enough money to support a pro-
fessorship. He soon became dissatisfied with this and took up the
study of ornithology, producing a two-volume manual of this science.
About the beginning of 1833 Nuttall went to Philadelphia with the
collection of plants made by Captain Wyeth during an overland jour-
ney to the Pacific Ocean. A second journey was to be made and
Nuttall resigned his position and spent the interval before the depar-
ture of the expedition studying the Wyeth collection and his own
Arkansas plants.

Mr, Nuttall went in company with John K. Townsend, the two

56

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Fig. 8. Geamte Obelisk in tuf. Missouri Botanicai, Garden near the Museum —

in honor of Thomas Nuttall.

being sent by the American Philosophical Society. The two arrived
at St. Louis on March 24, 1834, on the steamboat Boston, from Pitts-
burg. They started from St. Louis, going on foot to the point of
rendezvous at Boonville, Mo., where they joined the Wyeth party.
The brief period while they went on foot from St. Louis to Boonville
is the one which concerns us at present. Unfortunately the season
was so early that JSTuttall found but few plants in bloom.

The expedition ascended the Missouri Eiver to the headwaters of
the Columbia, and then followed that to its mouth. When winter
came on with our travelers on the Pacific coast they took passage for
the Sandwich Islands, where they arrived January 5, 1835. Here

BOTANY AT ST. LOUIS 57

Nuttall remained for two months collecting plants and sea shells upon
the different islands. He then separated from his companion and
sailed for California. He spent most of the spring and summer upon
the Pacific coast and then returned to the Sandwich Islands, where he
embarked upon the same vessel that Dana was serving his " Two
Years Before the Mast," to come home by way of Cape Horn. He
arrived at Philadelphia in October, 1835, and settled down to study
his treasures. For several years he worked thus and published two
important memoirs. At Christmas, 1841, Nuttall went back to Eng-
land, where he resided the last seventeen vears of his life. This
was not from choice, but because of the conditions under which an es-
tate was left to him by his uncle, requiring him to live in England
nine months of the year. He used his ample grounds for growing
rare plants. Just previously to leaving the United States he wrote
a supplement to Michaux's " Sylva." In the preface his wanderings
were outlined. He returned to America but once, when he took the
last three months of 1847 and the first three months of 1848. At
this time he studied the plants brought by Gamble from the Eocky
Mountains and Upper California, and published a paper upon them.
His death occurred on September 10, 1859, resulting from overstrain-
ing himself in opening a box of plants.

Torrey and Gray dedicated a genus of the Eosaceae Nuttallia, to
this prince of scientists.

Henry Shaw has honored him by placing a small obelisk of granite
near the north end of the museum building in the Missouri Botanical
Garden, with the following inscriptions : on the north side, " In Hon-
our of American Science," and on the south side, " To the Memory of
Thomas Nuttall, born in England 1786 and died September, 1859.
Honour to him the zealous and successful naturalist, the father of
western American botany, the worthy compeer of Barton, Michaux,
Hooker, Torrey, Gray and Engelmann." He also placed over the en-
trance of the main greenhouse in the Garden three busts : that of
Linnaeus in the middle, and those of Nuttall and Gray on either side.

Although Nuttall explored the Missouri country on two different
occasions and worked in Arkansas, he seems never to have published
any considerable list of plants found by himself near St. Louis.

[To be continued)

58 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

THE ART OF BLEACHING AND DYEING AS APPLIED

TO FOOD

By Peofessor E. H. S. BAILEY

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS

AT last the time seems to have come when the public will have to
choose between those food products which from their beauty of
coloring or their superior whiteness appeal to the eye, although they
may be of doubtful wholesomeness, and those foods which are in their
natural state, and have not been " processed " to make them appear
better or more desirable than they really are.

That we are becoming rapidly educated in matters that pertain to
pure food there is no doubt, therefore those who are nearest the sources
of information and who have the opportunity to study the action of
foods upon the system may direct public opinion in the right channels.
Thinking people always " want to know," even if they are not always
quick to overcome prejudice and do what their judgment indicates is
the best.

While we should be the last to attempt to retard the development of
taste for the beautiful in coloring as well as in form, it is time to
consider seriously what is to be the outcome of " carrying out the color
scheme," in the parlance of the society reporter, in the domain of foods
whose function is to nourish the human body.

For the past two or three years there has been a protest, in the
more progressive journals devoted to hygiene and pure foods, against
the bleaching of foods and the addition of color. This coloring has
too often been practised to give the food a better appearance, and we
regret to say, to simulate an article of better quality. We are now
at a point where the people will have an opportunity to show by their
support of existing legislation whether they are ready to take advanced
ground against bleached and artificially colored foods.

While for hundreds of years bread made from a good quality of
wheat was considered good enough, within the past few years a demand
has arisen for white bread. If this notion is analyzed it will probably
appear that it goes back to the time when a cheaper bread was made
from rye flour or from badly milled wheat flour. Perhaps one reason
for the dislike for a dark flour was that its use would indicate that the
housewife could not afford a higher grade of flour. No doubt the
beauty of the white loaf, with its rich brown crust and fine even tex-

ART OF BLEACHING AND DYEING 59

ture, also appealed to her. The fact that starch was a comparatively
cheap food, and the proteids which made the flour yellow was an ex-
pensive food, and that the bread made from the dark flour had a more
delicate flavor, was lost sight of in the desire to have a " nice, white "
bread to set before her guests.

But the conditions of living have changed, and now most of the
bread, especially for the dwellers in the city and village, comes from
the bakery. ISTow it is the baker who tries to fill the demand for a
white loaf. With this demand comes naturally enough the effort to
get a cheap flour that will make white bread, and the advent of
bleached flour into the market.

That this flour is usually bleached by chemicals, just as much as
your straw hat is bleached by sulfur fumes, and your sheeting is
bleached by " chloride of lime " in the bleachery, is covered up by the
statement that the flour is bleached by electricity. Electricity would
not injure food, surely ! There is no statement, however, that by the
use of electricity both nitrous and nitric acid fumes as well as oxides
of nitrogen are developed, and that they have, as Professor T. H.
Shepard has recently shown, a powerful antiseptic action and actually
retard digestion for a longer or shorter time, dependent on the strength,
the action of ferments existing in saliva, in the gastric and in the
pancreatic fluids. If this is true how can the product do otherwise
than retard digestion ?

Another phase of the bleached flour question is that this process is
used to enable the miller to put on the market a larger per cent, of
white flour than he otherwise could, and, of course, greatly to his
advantage. This bleached flour is then plainly misbranded unless it
bears the label " artificially bleached." Then the customer can pur-
chase this chemically treated flour if he thinks best.

While discussing the use of a bleachery in the preparation of foods,
what about the use of sulfur fumes in drying fruits, on the large scale ?
Is it not possible, the careful housewife inquires, by using a little more
care and better stock to dry these fruits without the use of sulfur, or
at least with the use of an extremely small quantity? It is true that
the dried product may by its color suggest the article that our grand-
mother used to prepare on the farm. After all, was that so very
objectionable, and was the flavor of a dried apple pie made from fruit
that had not been bleached and processed until all flavor was gone, so
very disagreeable that we did not ask for another piece?

Since the people possibly had the idea that white asparagus was
better than green, and that a light-colored sweet corn was more agree-
able to the customer than that having the slightly yellow color which
nature had given it, the manufacturers began to bleach these products
with sulfites in the process of canning. This was in deference to a

bo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

supposed demand, but the fact that the sulfites might injure the flavor
and lower the value of the food from a dietetic standpoint, was entirely
lost sight of by the packers.

That much of the food still on the market has been badly spoiled
by the art of the colorist, as well as at the bleachery, goes without
saying. It is necessary to mention only a few of the foods that have
been mistreated in this way. Maraschino cherries are sometimes first
bleached and then dyed with coal-tar colors, like a piece of dress goods,
any color to suit the prevailing style. Tomato catsup has to bear the
burden of sometimes containing much of the refuse, peelings and in-
ferior fruit of the cannery, preserved, it is true, by benzoate of soda,
but brought up to the brilliant color desired, by the liberal use of
aniline colors. We find it hard to resist the suggestion that in some of
these products color is added to conceal inferiority. The best tomato
catsup, however, is not made after the receipt mentioned above.

Within the last two or three years artificial color has not been as
abundantly used in jams and jellies as formerly, thanks to the provision
in the laws of most states, that the constituents of the product must be
plainly stated on the label, or the goods would be condemned as mis-
branded.

Now-a-days you can actually buy ground mustard of good quality
that has not been colored yellow with turmeric to cover the inferiority
of an article of low grade. Since lemons happen to be yellow, the
manufacturers of the extract have thought it allowable to make a weak
alcoholic solution of the oil of lemon and color it yellow with a coal-tar
dye so that it might appeal to the eye of the purchaser, who, of course,
does not investigate by removing the cork and tasting the material.
It was a serious fraud upon the consumer. Fortunately, however, at
the present time, the people are becoming educated so that there is a
demand for an almost colorless extract of lemon, of standard strength.
They were no doubt surprised to learn that it did not have to be
yellow to be good.

Not long ago the author had occasion to examine a can of French
peas (petits pois). They were of a brilliant green color and evidently
colored by the use of sulfate of copper. A very tasty brass label was
soldered on to one side of the can. When this was removed, however,
there appeared in English the statement, " colored with sulfate of
copper." Thus the deception practised had been concealed from the
consumer.

Bleaching, as carried on by the use of moisture and sunlight, upon
the household linen, was apparently a natural process, at least it did
not injure the goods. By growing plants away from the sunlight, and
thus retarding the growth of the chlorophyl cells, it is possible to bleach
the stems and other parts. The natural color of fruit is developed by

ART OF BLEACHING AJSD DYEING 6i

growth in air and sunshine. We are content with the ruddy glow of the
apple, the blush of the peach and the rich scarlet of the strawberry,
and ask no artificial coloring to improve them. Wlien these fruits
are preserved, or extracts or juices are put upon the market, are we
not entitled to the natural product without falsification or adornment?
If in the process of preserving the color is not wholly retained, let it go ;
the flavor of the fruit will not suffer from loss of color, and we soon
learn that this change of color goes with fruit preserved in that par-
ticular way. The manufacturer prepares only what he believes is
demanded by the people, so, after all, the consumers must indicate
whether they want artificially colored food or not.

In regard to the artificial coloring of ice-cream, jams, jellies, pre-
serves, gelatin preparations, canned fruits, vegetables, extracts and all
foods that have heretofore been colored, the safest position is to demand
that they appear on the market without the so-called " improvement,"
by the art of the color manufacturer, no matter how skillful he be.
In this way only are we assured of the quality of the article and its
freedom, from this source, at least, from injurious ingredients.

62 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

ME. EOOSEVELT'S OrPOETUNITY AS PEESIDENT OF A

UNIVEESITY

By Tkofessoe DICKINSON S. MILLER

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

AS one grows older one grows weary of mere generality and abstrac-
tion. It would be easy to expatiate at large in this article on the
ideal of American universities and the best work that could next be done
for them. That, or some of the elements of that, are my subject. But
one may well reach out, in this thin medium of idealism, and catch at
anything that has more body and more invstant meaning. The name
of Mr. Eoosevelt has come into mention in connection with the leader-
ship of four American universities. There is no evidence whatever,
so far as I am aM^are, that Mr. Eoosevelt himself would seriously enter-
tain such a project; and definite announcement has been made of
plans that appear to conflict with it. But there is time in store, and
universities not a few. In any case it happens that this particular
public character serves as no other illustration could to give point to
certain suggestions about university life. The human illustration is too
helpful to forego.

These suggestions relate, first of all, to the nucleus of the American
university, the " college." As compared with all other depai-tments,
this part of the institution is in a plight all its own. It suffers from
a comparative lack of motive. We have most of us remarked the
difference in a student's work when he passes from the college to a pro-
fessional school. When that step is taken, and the need of a living,
the chance of gain and success come home to his daily work, the change
in many cases stirs for almost the first time a youth's profound intel-
lectual repose. Machiavelli is right in observing that fear is commonly
a more powerful motive than love. At all events the fear of poverty
is more powerful than the love of " general culture." To make the
balance even, the motives of interest and attraction on the latter side
need to be discerningly reinforced. The problem is psychological.
Can it be said that in the circumstances of undergraduate study at
present there is much to invest the things of the intellect with glow
and fascination for average minds? Any one who has talked with
students about their election of studies notices that after some experi-
ence they will often choose not from the comparative interest of the

MR. ROOSEVELT'S OPPORTUNITY 63

subject but from the comparative interest of the teacher. Admiration
and imitation are amongst the most potent of all formative forces.
A young man, whether he knows it or not, wants a hero. This want
may of course be supplied for him in very varying degrees and equivocal
manners. But at all events he has an eye for such diverse points in his
companions as physical prowess, genial manner, wit, leadership, distinc-
tion of air, some of the best parts of character, wealth or money-making
power — not to mention the grand item of elegant and gentlemanly attire.
Now a professor, to the undergraduate, is a more or less amiable "grind"
of riper years. Eiper, but still unluscious. He is in the center of the
undergraduate's vision for an hour, let us say, three times a week;
mainly under that lecture-system which, as it has been with fine accuracy
stated, enables the student to lean back and observe at perfect leisure
the personal peculiarities of the instructor. The student is to have a
career in time himself, and dimly or consciously he looks forward to it.
A general, a statesman, an explorer, an orator, a sportsman, a successful
lawyer, an archmillionaire — or even an artist — is by no means without
interest for him; but the amount of Lehenslierrlichkeit represented
in a professor does not reach what psycliologists call the threshold of
his appreciation. This fact colors the feeling of his class. To teach
young men like themselves might appear a high calling were it not
that to bore yoimg men like themselves seems a dingy trade.

Now it must candidly be confessed that the student's view is not
without some elements of justice. A profession whose chief function
is performed in the classroom and which yet so often leaves the class-
room-hour on the whole such a lackluster memory does forfeit its
claims to some portion of the glamour that might perhaps ideally
attach to it. Not that the memory should be simply of entertainment.
There is much in the saying of Epictetus that the lecture-room should
often be, like a surgery, rather a place of beneficent pain than of
pleasure. What is important is that it should be a scene of effective-
ness.

In 1881 Phillips Brooks, then preaching at the full tide of his
influence, was invited to become chaplain and professor at Harvard.
Efforts were made by men of weight in Boston to induce him not to quit
his work in that city. Mr. John Long, then governor, wrote in the
course of a letter since published :

The Harvard boys do not need you so much. They have everything already.
If they develop some wild oats, yet the general surroundings of their college
life lead them to higher opportunities and standards sooner or later.

Mr. Henry Higginson wrote:

You can't work on those boys in the same way, simply because they are :.t
the questioning, critical, restless age. The vporst of them are not bad, but
frivolous or idle-minded. The best of them afe seeking for the truth everywhere.

64 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

and had better seek by themselves. Let them ferment. Of course you can help
many a restless spirit, when he wishes to be helped — but you can do it as well
here as at Cambridge.

Mr. Eobert Treat Paine wrote :

College life is full of fun and froth and frolic and frivolity and scurrility.
It is acutely critical. It turns into sport everything, sacred and profane. Life
is free there first — full of joy and sparkle, full of study and sports, absorbed
and preoccupied. Entire absence of variety in experience; death, marriage,
children, business, failure, sickness, suffering, danger, all that makes adult life
so full — none of all this enters the life of the student. . . . Surely this is the
least impressible part of life. It is not responsive, it has no magnetism in it.^

That the best youth seeking truth in a university " had better seek
by themselves " and that youth (at least if at college) " is the least im-
pressible part of life " are doctrines of precisely the tendency that
occasions the present article.

It would be grossly unfair to take these remarks, dropped as they
were in the course of a heartfelt argument for the surpassing value of
Phillips Brooks's work in Boston, as though they stood for the whole
thought or final attitude, on the subject, of the writers' minds. And
no doubt Brooks solved his personal problem with a wise caution in
refusing to leave his own rich field for one untried. What the letters
completely miss, however, is the fact that the extraordinary conjunction
in college youth of the freshly acquired faculties of manhood with free-
dom from manhood's burdens and chilling memories is not a mere
hindrance to the great leader but an extraordinary opportunity. Appre-
ciation of certain things has not come in youth because experience of
them in oneself has not come; but the liberated energies are ready for
ardor and enterprise and generous impulse as those of the burdened and
hard-worked can never be. Have we not heard of something called
youthful enthusiasm and of something called youthful idealism? A
writer of genius has described youth as " cold and pitiless." That is,
though it sees (with what sharpness !), its sympathies fail much, because
it has not felt for itself such things as are behind the face it sees. That
is the sole reason, for the youth flus the experience (might it be re-
membered?) is the material of which the less "pitiless" man is made.
No one can long observe the studentry of a college, watching them in
their sports and crises, without seeing a fire ready to be kindled,
waiting only for the spark. If college youth are cold on their more
serious side it has at least something to do with the fact that so many
of the minds with which they come in contact are absolute non-con-
ductors of heat.

It will perhaps be clear at this point why I can not forego the human

1 Allen, " Life of Phillips Brooks," Vol. II., ch. 10.

MB. ROOSEVELT'S OPPORTUNITY 65

illustration of my meaning furnished by Mr. Eoosevelt. I remember
a lady of exquisite perception saying that for twenty years and more
she had lived near a great university and that she looked to see there
in the future " a blaze of impulse." Has there been any one in our
history who could kindle " a blaze of impulse " in a community of
young men as Mr. Eoosevelt could? As a psychologist has remarked,
he is a born moralist. And the moral principles he preaches (the fact
is often made a reproach to him) are not above the comprehension of
everybody ; they are what were called long ago " the great commonplaces
of morality." He may regard the disdain of fastidious minds on this
account with much equanimity. Life is indeed " a rediscovery of copy-
book maxims." The somewhat slender hold that born moralists for
the most part have upon the young man is due to their not being rich
in natural life and in the raw material of human nature. There is
just a touch of the astringent about them ; a taste of " moralic acid."
In other words they are not quite the type that he spontaneously ad-
mires. The combination in Mr. Eoosevelt, which for us and in its
degree may fairly be called unique, is that of the moralist and the
natural hero of average minds. It is something to have in one person
the intense preacher and him of whom every boy would say (as
the poet said of the " rough-hammered head — great eye, gross jaw
and griped lips " of another) " What a man ! " At all events the
boy would say it if not prompted otherwise by having overheard the
acidulous talk of alienated elders. The strong hold of such a leader
on his college men would be maintained in part by addressing them.
It is something to have a speaker who is also a doer. That he is without
grave faults Mr. Eoosevelt himself, I cannot help fancying, is the last
one who would pretend. That his intention and his nature are not
good no unentangled person who has watched him long and closely
can easily be found to testify. The general verdict of such is that of
Mr. John Morley: "A man and a good man." We have had hasty
and crude statements from him on subjects where he was not at home;
we have in general ceased to have them when be became at home on those
subjects. We have had unduly heated language from him under in-
tensely provoking circumstances; a conductor of heat has the defect
of his quality. We have had plentiful charges against him of in-
accuracy and worse. The statistics respecting charges of loose state-
ment against responsible executives, if they could be gathered, would
be interesting and to many surprising. Decision in each case is pos-
sible to no man without searching investigation. The statistics in
regard to actual accuracy in general would perhaps in each case sur-
prise none so much as the one they concerned. I would not condone
looseness in such matters; much to the contrary; but I would remind

VOL. LXXIV. — 5.

66 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

the accusers of themselves and of cautious justice. Whether his state-
craft has on the whole been correct is a political question, out of place
here. No doubt there are those who would try to punish him for
deviations from the public policy they have desired by opposing him
for a non-political post. With such animosity I shall not contend.
We kaow that in the vast range of remote appointments Mr. Eoosevelt's
selection of men for places not the highest has often been bad. We
know that near home, in his cabinet and otherwise, he has surrounded
himself with some of the most capable. His desire and his enthusiasm
for men of power, his absolute freedom from the jealousy that would
surround itself with lesser and merely instrumental men, his generous
friendship and laudation, are for our present interest amongst the traits
that promise most.

The chief trait, that on which we have already dwelt, is perhaps best
characterized in Walter Bagehot's remarks on Mr. Gladstone as a public
speaker :

A man must not only know what to say, he must have a vehement longing
to get up and say it. Many persons, rather sceptical persons especially, do not
feel this in the least. They see before them an audience — a miscellaneous col-
lection of odd-looking men — but they feel no wish to convince them of anything.
" Are not they very well as they are ? They believe what they have been brought
up to believe." " Confirm every man in his own manner of conceiving," said one
great sage. " A savage among savages is very well," remarked another. You
may easily take away one creed and then not be able to implant another.
" You may succeed in unfitting men for their own purposes without fitting them
for your purposes " — thus thinks the cui bono sceptic. Another kind of sceptic
is distrustful, and speaks thus: "I know / can't convince these people; if I
could, perhaps I would, but I can't. Only look at them! They have all kinds
of crotchets in their heads. There is a wooden-faced man in spectacles. How
can you convince a wooden-faced man in spectacles? And see that other man
with a narrow forehead and compressed lips — is it any use talking to him?
It is of no use; do not hope that mere arguments will impair the preposses-
sions of nature and the steady convictions of years." Mr. Gladstone would not
feel these sceptical arguments. He would get up to speak. He has the didactic
impulse. He has the " courage of his ideas." He will convince the audience.
He knows an argument which will be effective, he has one for one and another
for another; he has an enthusiasm which he feels will rouse the apathetic, a
demonstration which he thinks must convert the incredulous, an illustration
which he hopes will drive his meaning even into the heads of the stolid. At any
rate, he will try. He has a nature, as Coleridge might have said, towards his
audience. He is sure, if they only knew what he knows, they would feel as he
feels, and believe as he believes. And by this he conquers. This living faith,
this enthusiasm, this confidence, call ic as we will, is an extreme power in
human affairs. One croyant, said the Frenchman, is a greater power than fifty
incr^dules.

This quality is far from the only quality required in an educational
leader ; but circumstances conspire to give it value in a college. Some-

MB. ROOSEVELT'S OPPORTUNITY 67

body is needed to make cultivation seem " worth while." Somebody is
needed to " lead the cheering " for study^, for work. Somebody is
needed to offset the snobbish instructor who says (and whose own
sympathies are affected by the opinion) : " Debating contests are not
a thing that the best class in the university takes any interest in."
Somebody is needed to make the prizeman just the least bit of a hero
amongst his fellows. Somebody is needed to make the keen intellectual
blade or wide reader, whether he take academic rank or not, feel his
accomplisliment to be something more than an overshadowed and un-
fashionable brilliancy. Somebody is needed to fan the lurking sparks
of ardor in the mind. Somebody is needed to make visible to the young
eye that invisible war with powers of the air in which the scholar is a
man-at-arms and a campaigner. And if this leader is also an athlete
and a sportsman, if this leader of work is also a leader of play, the
blend can hardly, as things now stand, be over-prized.

For it brings us, in a rough but ready form, in sight of that round
and whole education which is the sane ideal. It might even make the
sanguine hope to see in an American university ideas current amongst
the healthy studentiy as one often sees them in Europe. Such a
leader would not stop contented with those excellent athletic contests
in which, however, a horde of undergraduates sit as spectators while
a few harrassed braves perform. He would be likely to remember
that the most successful systems of education, in antiquity for example,
cared for the bodily training of every individual. One can not imagine
his advent failing to make a difference even to " the unexercised and
the unwashed."

But the difference made by his advent as regards moral ideal is the
least to be forgotten. I will not repeat what is so often truly said about
the state of the moral atmosphere in the nation with regard to money.
Which are the personalities that really glitter to average young eyes?
When a brilliant man of business and of fashion accumulates a vast
fortune in his last years by methods believed to be dishonorable and
dazzles a city by his social charm, the tasteful splendor of his sur-
roundings, and his business power, when it is commonly said in com-
ment on the tales of his private life that " those men do absolutely
anything they like," it is noticeable that even the rumors touching
the manner of his death do not entirely check the awe of the young
listener.

It is something to give collegians an embodiment of what they feel
to be dashing success and national power, wholly untainted in point of
honesty and private life; something to have brilliancy and probity
undivided.

Of course there may be those who feel that Mr. Roosevelt would
come whooping into the still air of study and, being used to mightier

6S THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

affairs, would disarrange nice customs, dishevel sound old proprieties,
and step absentmindedly over the college halls. These, however, would
be apprehensions hardly worthy of men prepared to stand to their own
prerogatives and duties. If Mr. Eoosevelt could lend signal aid in
education he would hardly dispute that such a task would have its
education for himself. And if students delight in his sturdy man-
hood, it would be a pity that the race of teachers should shudder at his
somewhat carnivorous quality and taste for the jungle.

There is, to be sure, a delicacy of tone, a fine and deep cultivation
of spirit, a sense of esthetic rectitude in things of detail, that one would
gladly see set before " our young barbarians, all at play," in the chief
person of their community. The fiery furnace of American public life
is hardly the place to foster and finish such a product. Indeed this
fine fleur — for the truth must be told — does not at present flourish
abundantly in American life at all. Our scholarship has largely gone
for training to Germany, custodian of the letter rather than of the
spirit of culture; and there is something raw in the air at home. But
in Mr. Eoosevelt's passion for knowledge and for achievement, in the
range of a certain information he has in science, history and letters,
in the interest and respect he has always shown for the personalities of
the men who advance these studies, there is much to contribute toward
the first things needful, the foundation of university life.

It is obviously a grave consideration on the other hand that he has
had no direct experience, except as a student, of educational affairs.
This, however, as it happens, is bound up with the essential qualifica-
tions we have been considering. Senator Hoar remarks in his " Auto-
biography " :

Making all the allowance for the point of view, and that I was then a
youth looking at my elders who had become famous, and that I am now look-
ing as an old man at young men, I still think there can be no comparison
between the college administrators of fifty years ago and those of to-day. It
was then the policy of the college to call into its service great men who had
achieved eminent distinction in the world without. It is now its policy to
select for its service promising youth, in the hope that they will become great.
Perhaps the last method is the best where it succeeds. [And Mr. Hoar notes
the distinguished success of President Eliot.] But the effect of failure is most
mischievous. Presidents Quincy, Everett, Walker and Sparks administered in
succession the office of President during my connection with the Academic
Department and the Law School [of Harvard], although Dr. Walker's inaugura-
tion was not until later. Each of them in his own way was among the first
men of his time. Quincy had been an eminent statesman, a famous orator, and
a most successful mayor of Boston. Edward Everett had been in his early
youth one of the most famous pulpit orators of the country, afterward a dis-
tinguished Member of Congress, Governor of the Commonwealth, Minister to
England, and Senator of the United States. He was a consummate orator, on
whose lips thousands and thousands of his countrymen had hung entranced.

MR. ROOSEVELT'S OPPORTUNITY 69

He was, wliat is less generally remembered now, perhaps the ablest and most
accomplished diplomatist ever in the public service of the United States. Jared
Sparks was a profound student of history, somewhat dull as a narrator, but of
unerring historic judgment. . . . James Walker was a great preacher and a
profound thinker.

We need not venture to pronounce on Mr. Hoar's preference for good
old days. "What is notable is the suggestion of the effect of bringing
successful men of a high type from the midst of the world, for which
the student is destined, and putting them in his formative time before
his eyes. The result, in honorable ambition, civic enthusiasm and the
influence of large ideas upon the tone of mind, weighs something, it
must be admitted, against the chosen man's lack of direct acquaintance
with an educational institution and with just this species of adminis-
trative headship. The appalling diversity of subjects that a national
president must master encourages the hope that he would not fail to
respond with skill to those of the president of a university.

This brings us to face the question what, at the present juncture,
the largest problems of an American university are. I have been
forced, however, to dwell at some length on the justness of my human
illustration, and on immediate problems that such a leader would
help to solve. Space fails me to discuss certain other and more complex
problems in which the putting of precisely such a powerful shoulder
to the wheel is equally required. With the editor's permission I will
return to the subject next month in a second article. These latter
difficulties call for a leader who adds to enthusiasm a long-borne burden
of the most trying practical experience. They call for one who, if an
idealist, has the best reason to be a realist too.

70 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

COMMEECIALISM

By PE0FES30B JOHN J. STEVENSON

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

THE pessimistic streak, woven into every man's nature, becomes a
broad band in the community when industrial interests are pros-
trate. During the past year, the men who during prosperous times
lived in the solitude of their sorrows have come forth and have found
appreciative listeners as they denounce our country's sins and despair
of its salvation. For a year they have gloated over the frailties of
society, the corruption of politics, the degradation of business morals;
they have pictured the gloomy future of a country sunk in materialism,
a prey to commercialism; they have sung in minor key of the purer
days when a man was counted for his worth, when mere wealth carried
no weight, when mind was more than matter, when dishonor was
iinknown.

Every unprejudiced observer sees that affairs are sadly out of joint
and he longs for some mighty surgeon to adjust them; but he sees no
ray of hope, no cure for human woes in these jeremiads; he recognizes
only the old wailing, the old discord, with here and there a new note
to catch the ear of passers-by. It is as old as the race itself. Doubt-
less poor old Adam thought sadly of his bachelor days, untried by any
Eve of speculative temperament. The Prisse papyrus, written during
the twelfth dynasty and copied from one of the fifth, carries us back
to at least 2500 B.C.; its aged author grieved over the degeneracy of
his times and longed for those better days of the past. More than
fifteen hundred years afterwards the author of Ecclesiastes, pessimist
himself, rebuked querulous men who asked why the older days had
been better than these; Greek and Eoman literature is full of laments
and the poets sang wearily of a golden age, long past and past forever.
Our own Washington had little hope for his country as he considered
the decadence of public and private honor, the selfish anxiety for
advancement and the corruption prevailing everywhere toward the
close of the eighteenth century. Yet that was our age of gold, when
corporations were unknown, when railroads had not been conceived,
when petroleum had not soaked the land with its slime and Wall Street
had not come to crush the people's energies.

Commercialism is the superabounding cause of all troables; a vague

COMMERCIALISM 71

something is this term commercialism, eluding definition, hut evidently
including all that is evil. It is the spirit of business. To denounce
commercialism is the duty of every " high thinker " ; the defender of
business men can rarely obtain fair hearing. If in modest position,
he is liable to be treated with mingled pity and contempt ; if in respon-
sible position, he is likely to learn that he is biased by self-interest ; if
a college officer, he is cast out of court at once as a hireling, because
at some time or other a business man has done something for the col-
lege. The " high thinkers " can be described only by Job's reply to
his similarly self-sufficient and equally ill-informed friends — " No
doubt but ye are the people and wisdom shall die with you."

These critics of our day in their denunciation of commercialism
are merely plagiarists of not very high order. The ancient Persians
avoided commerce as a baneful pursuit, fatal to integrity; the Eoman
held commerce in slight esteem and mocked the gold-worshipping
Athenians with the sneer, GrcEcia semper mendax. Yet those peoples,
seeing so clearly the mote in their neighbor's eye, were blind to the
beam in their own; while they despised the arts of peace they saw no
sin in the arts of war, the wiles of diplomacy or the treachery of con-
flict. One can understand the Persian's position, but it is difficult to
understand how an educated Eoman could fail to recognize that his
nation's culture had been absorbed from Grecian colonies on the Italian
coasts. The Eoman contempt for merchants was ingratitude matched
only by that of some would-be philosophers of our time. For, be it
remembered, civilization and commerce are twin sisters, never antag-
onistic, but always advancing hand in hand.

The world's greatest debt is due to civilizations born on the Nile
and on the Euphrates, six or seven thousand years ago, both of them
commercial. The Babylonians, inhabitants of the lower Euphrates
area and intermediaries of commerce between India and the Mediter-
ranean peoples, attained to a civilization prior to 2500 B.C. apparently
comparable to that of Great Britain in the eighteenth century. It was
marked by studies in science, by literature, by a noteworthy system of
laws and by prosperity of the common people as well as of the rich.
It dominated the whole of southwestern Asia and by 1500 B.C. its
language had become that of the court even in Egypt and Asia Minor.
Wlien the course of commerce was diverted to the Eed Sea and Alex-
andria, the glory of the Euphrates departed, to return only for a little
when commerce revived under the caliphs of Bagdad.

Close intercommunication and the interchange of products along
fifteen hundred miles of the Nile, conjoined with a vast caravan and
sea trade with Arabia, Asia Minor and Mesopotamia, as intermediaries
of the whole region drained by the upper Niles, led to the development
in Egypt of a civilization whose remains are even more notable than

72 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

those along the Euphrates. Its character appears from the architec-
ture, the engineering works, the agricultural operations as much as
from the literature and the science. When one views the ruins at
Karnak and considers that the rock on which the Egyptian sculptor
labored is one of the most intractable granites known, he marvels at
the sculptors' skill as much as he admires the genius of the architects
who planned the gigantic structures. If instead of granite from Syene
the material had been soft Pentelican marble, the dainties of Grecian
architecture and the grandeur of Egyptian might have been united at
KarnaJs.

The Greeks competed long with the Phoenicians for control of
Mediterranean trade; their colonies were in Asia Minor, Italy and
Sicily as those of the Phoenicians were in northern Africa and the
west. When Psammetichus ended the seclusion of Egypt by opening
her ports and by enlisting Greek mercenaries into his army, travelers
from Grecian colonies found their way thither, gathered fragments of
Egyptian philosophy, literature, science and art and carried them back
to their own land to be fused with similar fragments from Arabia,
Mesopotamia and Phoenicia, just as seventeen hundred years later the
Crusaders brought home with them the knowledge of oriental civiliza-
tion. The philosophy and literature of Greece originated in her com-
mercial colonies. When Athens and her immediate allies, after the
Persian war, wrested commercial supremacy from the Phoenicians, the
Pirfeus was enlarged and Athens became at once the commercial and
the intellectual center of the world. Then, the art and thought of
other lands unfolded through Grecian genius into wondrous propor-
tions— with a background of no history and a foreground of the dark
ages, it seemed to be a veritable Melchisedec, without ancestor, with-
out descendant. Only within the last thirty years has its true place
been determined.

Those whose energies are expended in bitter sneers against com-
merce either forget or ignore the truth that Athens was preeminently
commercial. They seem to think that the city was enveloped by an
atmosphere of pure intellectuality amid which the necessary merchants
moved in a state of semi-asphyxiation. Some years ago, a writer in a
religious paper, lamenting modern degeneracy, asserted that in Athens
the street boys competed in making verses whereas in New York the
street boys play marbles. No doubt some Athenian boys engaged occa-
sionally, just as some New York boys do now, in the possibly lofty
game of verse-making, but from what is known of the Athenians and
of the Greeks from the earliest times to our own day one may suppose
with more probability that the Athenian boys' favorite sport was that
of matching small coins. Commerce was never disreputable in Athens ;
Aristotle is said to have been an apothecary, and Plato an exporter of

COMMERCIALISM 73

oil. That city at the time of her greatest intellectual splendor can be
compared in modern times only with cities such as London and New-
York. Long centuries hence there will be men who too will grieve
over decadence of the race and the love of pelf. They will hark back
to the days when London, Boston and New York produced such mar-
velous intellects.

That commerce brings wealth and that wealth brings luxury with
eventually moral and physical decadence are propositions which, sepa-
rately, admit of no dispute; but they must not be united, for wealth,
not commerce, is responsible for the luxury and in part for the decad-
ence. Babylon, Tyre, Athens, Corinth and Alexandria were commer-
cial cities; each, after reaching the zenith of prosperity, showed that
decay which so delights some students. But the morality of Persia
sank to wretched depths in the time of Xerxes, when the vast wealth
of many lands had been gathered by conquest; Nineveh, alike com-
mercial and warlike, was enervated by luxury in the time of Assur-
banipal and soon sank into obscurity; while commerce-despising Eome,
enriched by the spoils of war, became, even before the Christian era,
a veritable sink of moral pollution. At the same time one must note
the all-important fact that though luxury eventually brings about de-
cadence, still its first fruits among commercial peoples have always
been intellectual and esthetic growth. The grandeur of Egypt attained
its maxima under luxurious Amenemhat, Thothmes III. and Rameses
II.; luxurious, unwarlike Assurbanipal gathered the literature of an-
cient Babylonia and of Assyria into his vast library at Nineveh;
luxury-loving Athens and Corinth, not luxury-hating Sparta, produced
the Grecian sculpture and architecture; luxury-loving Bagdad and
Cordova encouraged literature and science and, in Spain, built the
Alhambra.

Commerce brings wealth ; the possession of wealth leads to luxury ;
a luxurious community is corrupt. This, according to moralists, is
the sequence, and the belief in its truth is of such hoary antiquity
that to contest it is as though one doubted the law of gravitation. But
the belief only proves poor human nature's readiness to shift the blame
for its inherent weaknesses. The corruption of a wealthy community
differs from that of a savage community not so much in kind as in
degree. The clerk who pilfers from a cross-roads shop is in the same
class with a bank officer who " appropriates " several millions of dol-
lars. The difference is only in opportunity. Dishonesty in one form
or another is so much part of human nature that its spores, so to speak,
are breathed out into the atmosphere. A reformer, aggrieved by its
constant reappearance, is as unreasonable as the amateur gardener who
is perplexed by reappearance of weeds in his carefully tended garden.
There will always be enough to give occasion for the philosopher's

74 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

tears, enough to give a dull background to any picture ; but that is not
to say that when one compares this day with that of our fathers he
must find reason for renewed sorrow.

Man can not pass at once from savagery to civilization ; that change
has been in process for millenniums and still it is far from complete.
Equally slow is the passage from primeval grossness to ideal purity.
The golden rule is a fundamental principle of the ethnic religions as
much as of Judaism and Christianity. During more than three thou-
sand years it has been urged as the rule of life, but war and rapine
still fill the pages of man's history; yet it has not been ignored and,
with the passing centuries, its hold on mankind becomes stronger. In
the business world, each period of advance ends abruptly in a storm
of stress and panic, by which all seem to be prostrated; but the reces-
sion never returns to the previous stage. So in the moral world, the
tide flows and ebbs, but each rise advances farther up the slope than
did the last — as much in this land as elsewhere.

Three years ago the community was startled by revelations of mis-
management in the great insurance companies and the matter was
more than a nine days' wonder. Pulpit and press vied in condemna-
tion of the wicked men. Yet the culprits had not looted their com-
panies ; they had not decreased the security of the policy-holders ; they
had merely utilized their positions for personal gain, making them-
selves partners with their companies in profitable ventures; they had
been guilty of imperfect consecration to the interest of their trust and
had shown what wholly unscrupulous men could do. One can well
imagine the perplexity of a resurrected magnate of sixty years ago,
when told of this crime. Surely he would think that times had
changed. In his day such conduct would have passed unrebuked, nay,
it might have been commended, as the companies had profited by the
transactions. It is rebuked now because there is at last a public con-
science which compels respect.

Even politicians recognize this and are not slow to turn it to their
own advantage. Only a little while ago, the operations of a syndicate
in connection with a western railroad were the subject of governmental
investigation; the so-called exposure filled columns of the papers, was
made almost a national issue, being utilized in political strife. Yet
the whole transaction had occurred in full view of the public without
attempt at concealment or deception. The syndicate which owned the
property almost outright was charged with increasing the capitaliza-
tion without equivalent expenditure, but there was no evidence that
any one had suffered by the operation, though clearly some one had
profited. Whether or not there was any wrong in this transaction is
difficult for a layman to discover; but as presented in ex parte form,
the matter sufficed to justify the astute politician's appeal to the pub-

COMMERCIALISM 75

lie conscience. The existence of the wide-spread sense of justice
secures attentive hearing to critics of " commercialism " when they
denounce the methods of corporations; ex 'parte statements by prose-
cuting attorneys and statements by magazine writers are accepted as
embodiments of undisputed fact. The development of a public con-
science has not been accompanied by equal development of the judicial
temperament.

Whether or not the methods employed by some corporations in
efforts to overcome competition measure up to the popular conception
of the golden rule is not open to discussion. In the original form that
rule is " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself " ; and it would seem
that the obligation is on all alike. But the popular conception is that
the command is binding only on the corporations and that all indi-
viduals in the community are " neighbors." Yet corporations are
merely copartnerships, so that in their case, as in the case of the indi-
vidual, the standard of the rule is the love of one's self, which brings
into consideration the question of self-preservation. A man is justi-
fied before the law if he take the life of another to protect his own
or that of any under his charge; he may take life to protect his prop-
erty; equally in business affairs, a man is justified in doing things
for self-protection, which under other conditions would be unjustifiable.

The owner of a cross-roads shop, who has built up a good trade by
close attention and honest dealing, would be thoroughly justified in
bitterly antagonizing a rival who had secured the old stand that he
might reap where he did not sow. If, however, success have made him
negligent so that he serves his community indifferently, he should not
complain against the invasion; he alone is responsible; he had thrown
away his estate.

Both conditions are familiar. Corporations find themselves at
times as the old, still energetic shopkeeper, fighting to hold his own;
at others, as the sturdy newcomer invading an area occupied by slug-
gish men, satisfied with small business and large percentage profits.
To illustrate.

Several men competing in the manufacture of some product com-
bine, reduce working expenses and with the money thus saved secure
competent scientific aid for improvement of methods. Few processes
are discovered, cost of production is decreased, waste is prevented and
by-products are utilized; the result being eradication of rule-of-thumb
competitors while the innovators gain control of the business to their
own great profit and to the great advantage of the consumers. They
remain incessant in efforts to better processes and to make new indus-
tries; but eventually the earlier patents expire. Other men, in view
of this, have been investigating and have discovered improvements in
methods, to become available with expiration of the early patents.

76 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

The men whose foresight made possible the vast extension now see
their property placed in jeopardy by means of their own processes, dis-
covered at great cost, and they struggle to retain their own. Under
such circumstances the importance of the golden rule is made very
prominent, each side charging the other with neglect; yet, whatever
may be the shortcomings of the older manufacturer, one must concede
that the newcomer usually regards himself as the neighbor and there-
fore unfettered.

On the other hand, combinations have invaded areas regarded by
others as their preserves ; and here is involved the question of a man's
natural right to secure a living easily at the expense of his fellows —
that which is involved in the department-store problem. A corpora-
tion, under heavy jfire recently, was charged with the crime of owning
its retail shops, while selling its goods to retailers. Yet any self-
respecting man would resent an effort to prevent him from selling his
own goods according to any one of the approved methods. If a manu-
facturer, on large or small scale, choose to establish his own retail
store or stores, no one has any right to complain — it matters not what
the goods may be, cigars, shoes, oil or meats. In any event, such a
method would be advantageous to the greater number by leading to
division of middlemen's profits between maker and consumer.

The cry in many quarters is for unrestricted competition in trade,
but recent events prove the cry to be utter hypocrisy. In one state
a suit for ouster was brought against a corporation because, owing to
competition, it sold its products more cheaply in some localities than
in others. A similar suit was brought in another state because the
company had set its prices so low for some years that no competitor
could do anything in the region. Evidently the only free competi-
tion desired is that which would remain after binding the one on the
ground — an open market for the newcomer. The opponent of that
company is anxious to have the government enter into conspiracy with
him to increase the cost of necessaries of life.

That conditions in commercial circles are not ideal is beyond ques-
tion— they are far from ideal in any circles and they will never be
otherwise until man has passed away and has been succeeded by a
superior race of beings. But one must recognize that very much of
the wickedness upon which writers descant so vehemently consists
merely in so-called evasion of law. It is certain that serious dan-
gers to the commonwealth are inherent to vast combinations of capital;
and it is equally certain that imperfect legislation in the past opened
the way to abuse, of which selfish men have not been slow to avail
themselves. Some form of governmental control is necessary to pre-
vent excess. All recognize that a corporation, being a creature of the
law, does not possess natural rights as does an individual; but once

COMMERCIALISM 77

created it has the rights conferred on it and in all legislation those
rights must not be forgotten. Unfortunately, most of the legislation
against combinations is the offspring of men unfamiliar with the inter-
lacing of business interests, so that while it may correct or destroy one
wrong it creates a dozen others. Too often the statutes make criminal
that which is ethically just. Such statutes, it is true, are the law of
the land and every good citizen should obey them as far as in him lies.
But the law requires him to obey the letter, not the spirit, for no
created being can fathom the depth of the spirit or divine what was
in the mind of those who conceived them. If the laws prove to be
ineffective, the fault is not in the citizen, but in the ignorance of the
lawmaker. Our country owes a debt of gratitude to those lawyers
who, ascertaining the exact letter, have guided our great corporations
through the labyrinth of statutes and enabled them to avoid pitfalls.
Had not a merciful providence provided those lawyers, the country
would have been the loser — and the statute-makers, most of all, should
be grateful, for the evils of their work have not recoiled upon their
heads. Controlled in most instances by men of great sagacity, com-
binations have lessened the cost and increased the output of manu-
factures while bettering the wage-earners' reward.

Assertion that the existence of vast combinations of capital is the
surest foundation of national prosperity is, for many, evidence of
insanity or of dishonesty or of both. Yet no generalization could be
more nearly true. A single illustration suffices.

When the business depression following 1873 ended abruptly in
1879, the iron and steel industry was wholly unprepared for the new
conditions. A great part of the furnaces were out of blast and the
metal required at once by railroads and other interests could not be
supplied. Great combinations were unknown, there were many con-
cerns— there was that unrestricted competition which some regard as
Utopian. All had suffered severely during the depression and the few
concerns still in operation set themselves at once to make good their
losses. A veritable scramble for profits ensued on the part of both
employers and employed. The price of pig iron increased so rapidly
as to pass the point where the moderate tariff became unimportant and
foreign makers unloaded their stocks of metal on us, glutting the mar-
ket and prostrating the pig-iron industry. Meanwhile the cost of
manufactured products had gone beyond what the " traffic could bear "
and prosperity came quickly to an end.

The conditions of 1879 were repeated in 1899, but the outcome was
wholly different, for the iron and steel interests were concentrated and
the business was controlled by a few vast combinations. No one of
them could increase the price without consent of all, but any one could
hold the price down against opposition by all its rivals. The leading

78 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

concerns, mindful perhaps of 1879 and 1880, determined that prices
for manufactured products should not exceed a fixed scale, more being
ruinous — and they maintained that scale in spite of greatly increased
cost of pig metal. The result was almost uninterrupted prosperity
imtil 1907, when the whirlwind of senseless attacks on corporations,
as such, swept over the country. Even now the prostration is unlike
that following 1873 and 1893, The great organizations, during their
prosperity, laid aside a surplus for evil days. "When disaster came a
year ago, there was no wild rush to dispose of accumulated stocks;
there was no crash in prices; there was no wholesale reduction in
wages. While there has been want in the distributing centers, the
country at large has known no such wide-spread distress as that which
followed former business disasters.

But the wisdom of our rulers has made consolidation or combina-
tion of competing interests unlawful. A New York judge recently
decided that consolidation, even though advantageous to the public,
is illegal in case it involve stoppage of competition. If two grocers
on opposite corners have waged war until both are threatened with
bankruptcy, their friends would advise them to reach an understand-
ing, might advise even union and the closing of one shop, that by
reducing expenses and selling at a fair profit they might gain an hon-
est living. Yet there is reason to believe that such a course might
be adjudged contrary to law, being a conspiracy to increase cost of
necessaries of life. Their customers would certainly express that
opinion.

This is no exaggeration. Eesidents of New York City were well
satisfied some years ago to buy coal at $4.50 per ton, wholly indifferent
to the fact that the anthracite companies were engaged in reckless and
unjustifiable strife. When the contest had gone so far that bank-
ruptcy seemed inevitable for some of the companies, the officers awoke
to their responsibility to the helpless stockholders, whose interests they
were to guard. An agreement was made to mine no more coal than
the market demanded and to charge a price which would enable them
to pay fair wages, to meet their obligations and to earn interest on
their investments. At once the customers were filled with indigna-
tion, the papers denounced the oppressive " coal barons " and agitation
began which eventuated in legislation so drastic that, were it sustained
by the courts and fully enforced, the companies, deprived of rights
guaranteed them half a century ago, would be forced into bankruptcy
and millions of persons would be plunged into misery. There is a
strong popular feeling that live and let live is the only true policy;
but clearly the popular interpretation of this doctrine is wholly one-
Bided, the policy must favor the consumer alone — in forgetfulness of

COMMERCIALISM 79

the fundamental principle that all interests are mutually dependent,
that one can not suffer alone; all must share.

The day of small things has passed; railroads, telegraphs, express
steamships have changed the units of competition from individuals to
nations. If Great Britain, Germany and the United States are each
to have a fair share in the world's markets, they will do so only through
the sagacity of men controlling the policies of great combinations.
Even in our own country, the territory is so vast that, to secure inter-
nal prosperity, such combinations are essential in every department of
activity, manufactures, colleges or transportation. Petty rivalries of
neighbors are too costly, too wasteful; duplication of plants is foil}'',
when by a slight increase in some portion of one it can be made to do
the work of both. In view of this, men should recognize that vox
popnli as expressed in legislative enactments is not necessarily vsx del;
that right can not be converted into wrong by the vote of an accidental
majority; that exact obedience to law is not sin.

8o

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

FOEEIGN ASSOCIATES OF NATIONAL SOCIETIES. 11.

By Peofessob EDWARD C. PICKERING

HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY

A HISTORY of the sciences and of scientific men during the last
two centuries, by M. Alphonse de Candolle, was published in
1873. A table is given showing the foreign membership in various
societies for the four epochs, 1750, 1789, 1829 and 1869, at intervals
of about forty years. Since another interval of forty years has now
elapsed, it may be of interest to compare the results with those at the
present time. The earlier part of Table I. is taken from M. de Can-
dolle's volume, page 176. The country is given in the first column.
Scandinavia includes Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Austria in-
cludes Hungary. Russia includes Poland. Spain includes Portugal.
A few scattering names are similarly included. The percentages of
membership in the various countries are given in the following col-
umns, the year being given in the first line of the headings and the
letters designating the various societies being given in the second line.
F, B, G and R denote the Institute of France, the Royal Society of
London, the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences and the Imperial
Academy of St. Petersburg, respectively. Since only foreign member-
ship is included, dashes are inserted in the case of home societies.
Thus, in the first line, dashes are inserted in the column headed G,
since no Germans could be foreign members of the Prussian Academy.
Some of the results to be derived from Table I. will be found in

Table I.

Country.

Germany

France

Great Britain.
Scandinavia ...

Italy

United States..

Austria

Holland

Kussia

Switzerland....

Belgium

Spain

1750

B

14 15

— 46

17 —

14 1

20 14

43
12

7
12

6 7 10
... 1 2
17 12 12

11 4

1789

B G

8 14

— 36

15 —

10 10

15 16

3 2

3 ...

10 3

8 3

13 10

3 3

13 4

33

3

19

3

8

6

19

1829

29
7

10
1
1
3
1
7
3

B

36 27 —

- 38 41

- 14

8 12

8 18

2

2
2
8

1869

F

B

G

R

42

45

45

—

33

38

23

29

—

26

16

1

4

9

5

4

2

3

• • •

2

3

8

> • ■

"i

"i

• • •

10

2

6

9

8

8

5

4

2

4

1
J.

...

...

...

...

20
11
7
7
3
7
5
3
3
1

1908

B G R

33 39 — 37
— 18 21 18
17 16

9 17

9 7

11 10

2 17

7
2
2

8
8
4
5

3
1

ASSOCIATES OF NATIONAL SOCIETIES

8i

Table II. The country is given in the first column, as in Table I.
The percentages of the entire membership of each country in the years
1750, 1789, 1839, 1869 and 1908 are given in the next five columns.
As the tenths of a per cent, are omitted, the sums are not exactly 100.
The seventh column gives the difference found by subtracting the num-
bers in the second column from those in the sixth. If positive, it indi-
cates an increase, if negative, a decrease in membership during the one
hundred and fifty-eight years. These twelve differences may be divided
into three groups of four each, including the countries showing a large
increase, those remaining nearly the same, and those showing a large
decrease. The results are given in the last three lines of the table.
It may now be of interest to compare the results of this discussion with
that published in The Populak Science Monthly, LXXIII., 372.
A list is there given of the eighty-seven persons who were foreign asso-
ciates of two or more national societies, in 1908. The percentage of
these members and of their membership is given in the eighth and
ninth columns. They are derived from Table III. of that paper.
The tenth column gives the percentage of the eighty-seven members
who were born in each country.

Table II.

Country.

1750

1789

1829

1869

1908

Difif.

M.

SS.

B.

German V

12
36
12
6
12

6

1
11

"5

9

29

6

6

14
2
1
6
5
12
2
7

24

30

17

7

9

"i

1
3
5

1
1

35
25
19

4
2

2

"i
4

6

2

31

16
15
10

7
7
6
4
3
2
1

+ 19
—20
+ 3
+ 4

— 5
+ 7
+ 6

— 2
+ 2

— 9

+ 1

— 5

34

14

15

10

3

7

5

5

3

2

1

35
14
17
8
4
8
5
4
2
1
1

32

France

13

Great Britain

Scandinavia

Italy

17

11

3

United States

Austria

3
3

Holland

6

Russia

3

Switzerland

Belgium

5
2

Spain

Increasing

18
19
64

18
19
62

32

22

45

41
26
33

54

23
25

+36
+ 4
—39

56
24
19

56
24
19

49

Stationary

28

Decreasing

21

The most remarkable change, shown in Table II., is that of Ger-
many, which passed from the fourth place in 1789 to the first place
in 1869, and nearly quadnipled its percentage of membership during
that time. The diminution of membership in France is almost equally
striking, while the change in Great Britain is slight. The four coun-
tries grouped in the last line but two and the corresponding differ-
ences are: Germany, -f- 19; United States, -\- 7; Austria, -\- 6; Scan-
dinavia, -\- 4. The increase in Austria is largely due to recent mem-
bership in the Prussian Academy, as shown in Table I., and is perhaps

VOL. LXXIV.

-6.

82

TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

affected by proximity and a common language. The second group in
which the change is small consists of Great Britain, -\- 3 ; Eussia, -|- 2 ;
Belgium, + 1 ? Holland, — 2. The third group, in which the per-
centage diminishes, contains : Italy, — 5 ; Spain, — 5 ; Switzerland,
— 9 ; France, — 20. Evidently this grouping is not accidental, but
is due to a common cause. The first and second groups include, in
general, central and northern Europe, the Germanic, English and
Slavonic races, and the Protestant countries. The third group in-
cludes in a marked manner southwestern Europe, the Komanic races
and the Roman Catholic countries. The results for the German, Eng-
lish and French groups of countries, represented by the last three
lines of the second to the fifth columns of Table II., are shown in the
accompanying figure. Horizontal distances represent times and ver-

(I <

German Geodp.

English Group.

French Group.

tical distances, percentages of membership. In the first group the
percentage of membership has increased about three times, in the last
group it has diminished nearly two thirds. The numbers in the
eighth and ninth columns, headed M and S, closely correspond to
those in the sixth column, headed 1908.

The grouping according to country may be studied in four ways.
First, place of birth, to determine the effect of heredity or nationality.
Second, education, as indicating the relative efficiency of different col-
leges or universities. Third, residence, indicating perhaps the best
opportunities for work. Fourth, occupation, showing which universi-
ties have attracted the greater number of men of eminence. The third
form of grouping only was considered in the former paper and is given
there in Table III. Three of the European members, represented in
Table II., have called my attention to the importance of the first form
of grouping. It is not always easy to determine the place of birth,
and in a few cases the nationality has been assumed to be the same as
that indicated by residence. The most striking case of change is that
of the United States. Of the six residents, members of 7, 6, 5, 4, 3
and 3 of the seven national societies, the three members of 7, 6 and 4
societies were born in other countries. The argument in the former
paper, that better opportunities for advanced work should be furnished
in this country, is thus greatly strengthened. Three of the residents
in England were born in Scotland, or as many as in the entire United
States. Holland is increased from three to five. The order accord-

ASSOCIATES OF NATIONAL SOCIETIES 83

ingly becomes: Prussia, 18 members; England and France, 11 each;
Holland, 5 ; Sweden and Switzerland, 4 each ; Austria, Denmark, Italy,
Norway, Eussia, Saxony, Scotland and United States, 3 each.

The fourth method of grouping is easily made. Fifty-five of the
eighty-seven members are given in Minerva as officers of one of twenty-
six universities. Of these, Berlin has 9 members; Paris, 8; Bonn,
Gottingen and Leipzig, 3 each; Cambridge, Christiania, Copenhagen,
Erlangen, Harvard, London, Munich and Vienna, 2 each; Amsterdam,
Berne, Bologna, Chicago, Heidelberg, Jena, Johns Hopkins, Leiden,
Liege, Eome, St. Petersburg, Stockholm and Zurich, 1 each.

84 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY

By J. McKEEN CATTELL

IN our complicated civilization a change in any direction may have
unforeseen effects in other directions. If we do away with an
aristocracy of birth, we leave room for a plutocracy and for politics
as a trade; if we learn to use machinery, we throw into quasi-slavery
a large part of the people; if we improve the means of communication
and transportation, we build the tenement districts of the cities; if
we develop a system of credits and exchange, we get public debts, pan-
ics, lockouts and congested wealth; if we use reason more, the surer
instincts atrophy.

One of the cases where notable progress has yielded sinister by-
l^roducts is the tendency of the school to weaken the family. Civiliza-
tion may persist and progress without the family; but human and
pre-human societies have been so completely based on it that no one
can foresee the results of its destruction. Mankind will last only so
long as children are born and cared for; and no plausible substitute
for the family has been proposed. It is in any case evident that the
premature weakening of the family will bring disaster; our reasoned
efforts should at present be directed to its support and toward adjust-
ing to it our newer adventures.

The school by its nature weakens the family, for it takes the chil-
dren away from home and gives them interests not centered in the
home. Within certain limits it may be a gain to polish homely wits
and supply a new and wider outlook. The family can withstand a
certain amount of aggression and may even be the better for it. But
the notion is wide-spread that the more years a child spends in school,
the more days in the year and the more hours in the day, the better
it is, and that the scholastic trivialities inherited from the idle classes
are the proper material for education. There is even approval of places
like kindergartens and girls boarding schools, which are harmful both
to the family and to the individual.

The sacrifice of the family to the school under the best of condi-
tions is serious enough; it is distressing to see methods used that are
wantonly destructive. If children are really more cultivated than
their parents there is inevitable discord. We can only say that the
older generation must suffer for the newer, the present family for the
better family that is to be. But the emphasis on superficial book

THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY 85

knowledge that is so common leads the young people to assume a
superiority which they may in no wise possess in the more sterling
qualities. We greatly overestimate the value of the three r's, the two
g's and the one s. People are what they feel and do, much more than
what they know; in any case the residuum of knowledge surviving the
eight years of the elementary school is pitifully small.

One must learn to read in self defense. If ninety per cent, of the
population carry pistols, it will not do for the remaining tenth to go
unarmed. And people should learn to read in order to preserve and
pass forward the social heritage, which may some time be the endow-
ment of all, and is now the necessary condition for selection of those
competent to improve or enjoy this heritage. But the present advan-
tages of reading to the average individual are small, while it is prob-
ably injurious to family life. The main benefit of reading for most
people seems to be that it is a substitute for alcohol, in which excess
does not lead to such harmful consequences. The effect of reading the
newspaper or current novel is similar to that from a small dose of alco-
hol or opium; it relieves conscious strain and the burden of routine
individuality. A weekly journal or an ounce of alcohol on Saturday
evening would doubtless be better than illiteracy or abstinence; but
people will not run themselves as machines subject to the laws of
utilitarian hygiene. The Bible may be read aloud and give solidarity
to the family and community; the city newspaper absorbs the indi-
vidual in transient details, not fit to be talked about or remembered..
Its tawdriness distracts from homely interests. As a social factor, it
is more likely to lead to national hysteria than to solid homogeneity.

There is relatively less to be said against writing and more in its
favor. Its acquisition, while likely to be harmful to the immature
nervous system, is less destructive than learning to read. What the
average man reads is rarely worth while; what he writes is ordinarily
of use. As a matter of fact, he writes very little, and could get on
fairly well without that little. But of course, under existing condi-
tions, every one should know how to write. I have found that practis-
ing on the typewriter for twenty minutes a day for two months, namely,
a total expenditure of twenty hours, will enable people to write faster,
not to mention legibility, than they could after eight years of school-
ing and twenty years of practising with the hand, though doubtless it
is this practise that makes typewriting easy to learn.

It has become necessary for every one to deal with numbers and
quantities, but it is a question as to how far the average man is helped
in this by the school work in aritlnnetic, with the possible extension to
geometry and algebra. One of the most persistent errors of our scho-
lastic methods is the teaching of a child of a certain age with great
labor and at the production of much stupidity what could be learned

86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

easily and with pleasure a couple of years later. It is possible to teach
an infant to walk two months before the body is ready, but bow legs
are likely to be the only permanent result. So it may be that the
premature use of numbers apart from any real interest is actually
harmful. The school work in arithmetic is certainly of very little use.

Exploitation of the conventional spelling and grammar is one of
the insignia of the classes, which, like their dress and etiquette, is
imitated by the masses without profit. The accuracy of spelling
secured by school drill is useless; the syntactical limitations injure
expression and style. Nothing much can be said in favor of geogra-
phy, history and literature as they are taught, or for such science as
now and then appears. We have a book method, essential for certain
purposes, extended far outside the limits of its usefulness. The clerk
or priest becoming teacher regards the elements of those subjects in
which he is expert as the only ones proper to education, and the great
mass of the people are ready to imitate those who have assumed
authority over them. The futile system is supported ex post facto by
a bad psychology, which claims that the methods used will teach chil-
dren to observe, remember and reason. Primary education is planned
as a preparation for the high school, and the high-school course as a
preparation for college; the college is for students preparing for the
professions and at the same time a club for the idling classes.

It is not at all clear why the public should pay a thousand dol-
lars for the expenses of each boy who goes through college to enjoy
the pleasures of drinking clubs and betting on athletics ; and it is surely
absurd to let the conventional courses of the college distort every ele-
mentary school. As Franklin said, there is a good deal of difference
between a good physician and a poor physician, but not much difference
between a good physician and no physician ; and the same is true of the
lawyer, the clergyman, the journalist and even the university president.
We could get on tolerably well without all these gentlemen, except
only the few who are working to advance knowledge and its applica-
tions; and it is, in any case, needless to make their production the
principal aim of our educational system. The good ones are born fit
for their work, and will do equally well whether they learn to read at
twelve or at six.

The imprisoned hope of Pandora is the only justification of our
educational system. We look forward to getting some day professional
men who will serve a better civilization, and schools that will make
children happier, wiser and more useful. In the meanwhile we con-
sume on the altars of our schools more property than the lawyers can
guard, more health than the physicians can restore and more unborn
souls than the clergymen can save.

The unborn children due to the schools have been too little regarded.

TEE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY 87

From the very beginning of organic evolution the principal function
of every generation has been the production of the next. The origin
of each higher species has been an incident of this function, and man
who looks before and after has been the final result. The ultimate
outcome of evolution has been a rationalism that threatens to end the
long process.

Last year the deaths in France exceeded the births by 19,920. In
some departments there were less than seventy births to fill the places
\acant by one hundred deaths. A patriotic Frenclmian has written
naively that this state of things is not so bad as it seems at first sight,
as all civilized nations will soon be in the same condition. It is indeed
true that the birth rate is decreasing in every country. The serious-
ness of the situation is obscured by the fact that the death rate is also
decreasing, so that an increase of population has been as a rule main-
tained. But the decrease in the death rate can not continue indefi-
nitely, and if present tendencies persist the birth rate will fall below
the death rate everywhere, as has already happened in France and in
New England.

It is now considered praiseworthy to postpone marriage imtil a
family can be supported in comfort, and proper not to have more chil-
dren than suits the pleasure of the parents. In 81 divorce cases tried
in a month in a New York City court — divorces have trebled since
1870 — the 162 married persons had among them 52 children. A cen-
sus of twenty-two apartment houses in New York City proved them
to contain 485 families and just 54 children — one child to nine fam-
ilies. These are the extreme cases; but among the educated and well-
to-do classes the number of children does not nearly suffice to continue
the race. The Harvard graduate has on the average seven tenths of
a son, the Vassar graduate one half of a daughter.

These conditions are regarded as bad because the successful stocks
are superseded; but to the present writer this does not appear to be
the danger. There is probably not so much difference between one
stock and another but that in each generation the place of the extinct
families can be supplied from the inferior classes to advantage. A
hereditary aristocracy is not maintained by inbreeding but by selection
from below.

The fundamental danger to society lies in the fact that the pattern
set by the ruling classes dominates; and this is especially true in a
partial democracy, such as the United States or France. Where
classes are distinct and permanent, each can have its own ideals, as it
has its own dress. But when the hats and shoes of the rich are imi-
tated by the middle classes, and those of the middle classes by the
laboring classes, we may be sure that there will be a similar following
of the leader in social customs and morals. If the two-child family

88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

is temporarily standardized for the upper classes, it will soon become
the model elsewhere, and when one child takes the place of two, as it
is already doing, the contagion will not be limited to the class in which
it originates.

It may be that the population of the western world increased dur-
ing the nineteenth century as rapidly as it could be assimilated. If
Malthus had been correct in his theories it might be as anti-social and
be made as illegal to have six children as to have two wives. But
Malthus was a false prophet; thanks to the applications of science the
means of subsistence have increased more rapidly than the population.
If the density of population in the United States were equal to that
in Great Britain, all the people in the world could live here ; and they
could live in comfort. There is a complete lack of the constructive
imagination which might lead to bitter mourning for the hundreds of
millions of human beings that might have been but are not, and to
boundless regret for the science and art they might have produced for
the benefit of all; but the decline and extinction of the race can not
well be dismissed as a matter of no consequence.

It is now only to a limited extent the case that there are vigorous
races waiting to take the place of those decayed. The Teutons may
supplant the Celts, and be supplanted by the Slavs. If the negroes
maintain their fertility and decrease their morbidity, and the eastern
nations maintain their family sanctions, they may supplant the white
races. But an extension of rationalism and a tolerably uniform world
civilization will tend toward similar conditions ever3rw^here in regard
to the family and the birth rate. The past history of the human race
is probably longer than its future history will be. Physicists tell us
that the earth may be uninhabitable in twenty million years; it may
be uninhabited by man in twenty centuries.

The disintegration of the family and the decline of the birth rate
are due to many causes of which we need here concern ourselves with
but two — the city and the school — for the object of this article is to
offer a constructive suggestion intended to make these factors less
destructive.

The modern city is surely subversive of the home and the family.
Houses without individuality, dark and ugly, tenements and apart-
ments, boarding houses and hotels, not owned by those who live in
them, inhibit the instinct to form a home. Children do not stay in
the house and can be put to no use about it. They are away at school
and on the street; later they earn money for themselves. Women are
not physiologically fit to bear and nurse children. The father is away
all day, and the mother is often away. The parents and the children
do not have work, amusements or interests in common. There are no
family traditions and sanctions. A certain irresponsibility in the

TEE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY 8g

tenement districts gives a fairly large birth rate and a high infant
death rate, but every advance in temperance and thrift decreases the
birth rate.

It has been said that we must look to the country for men and to
the city for ideas. But the trouble is that the city takes from the
country its men and supplies it with ideas and ideals which are unfit.
If paternalistic legislation and philanthropic efforts are of any use,
they should be directed to the support of the family farm and the
country home. A measure such as the protective tariff which builds
up the manufacturing center and the city at the cost of the country
should be regarded as intolerable. Measures such as agricultural
experiment stations, the rural postal delivery and postal express should
be welcomed. We need most of all to make life in the country attrac-
tive and fine, to lessen routine and incessant labor, to make each church
and school a center for the social, intellectual and artistic life of a
community.

The country school is at present no such place. Its general tend-
ency is not to prepare children for usefulness and happiness in country
life, but rather to make them inefficient and uncomfortable there and
to send those who are more clever and ambitious away to the city.
And the school shares with the city the bad preeminence of being one
of the principal causes now working to break up the family.

It has been noted above that in so far as the school gives children
interests not centered in the home, the family is inevitably weakened.
This may be necessary in the interests of wider socialization, but in
its methods and results the school contrasts unfavorably with the
church, especially with the unreformed churches and the Hebrew syna-
gogue. The sacraments of the church — baptism, confirmation, mar-
riage, burial — are closely interwoven with family life; its services,
ceremonies, fasts and fetes are shared together by parents and children.
In spite of inconsistencies in creed and in practise, the religious insti-
tutions both of the west and east tend by their observances and by their
non-rational sanctions strongly to support the family. The school
supersedes the church as a socializing factor to the injury of the family.
In so far as this result is due to the methods by which the schools are
conducted and the kind of instruction given, every effort should be
used to find remedies or palliatives. In so far as it is due to the par-
tial rationalization that follows, we are face to face with a difficult
problem.

It may be thought that people are not likely to become too reason-
able; nevertheless perhaps the principal danger to our civilization is
the checking of instincts by rationalistic considerations. The instincts
for mating, for forming a home and for the care of the young are pre-
human and very strong. But like other instincts, they are only com-

90 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

pelling for a limited period and imder suitable stimuli. Postponement
from prudential motives and the general conditions of modern life lead
readily to their atrophy. This occurs first in the dominating and
super-educated classes, and the model they set is followed in widening
circles. Fui-ther it is noteworthy that there is no primitive instinct
to have children; the instincts of mating, home-building and the care
of the young suffice in the earlier stages; later the chief sanctions have
been religious and tribal, and these are waning, largely through the
influence of our educational methods. The reinforcement of instincts
and impulses by rationally devised sanctions appears to be the only
hope there is for the family and so far as can be seen now for the race.

Next after the rationalistic attitude implanted by our present
methods of education and the diversion of the interests of children
and young people from home life, the most serious injury to the family
from the school is probably economic in character. It is said that a
boy is legally of age at twenty-one, because for the first seven years
of his life he is a charge to his parents, for the second seven years he
is self-supporting and during the third seven years he repays the out-
lay for the first period. However this may be, there is no doubt but
that children are more welcome when they add to the family income
than when they take from it. A definite relation exists between the
economic demand and the supply of children. A leading economist
has argued that the population of the United States would be the
same had there been no immigration. There are more children in
farming communities and in factory towns than elsewhere; laws
against child labor decrease the number of children.

As sentimental vegetarianism, if general, would exterminate most
of the domestic animals, so humanitarian efforts for the welfare of
children tend to exterminate them. The school is the most potent fac-
tor. When the well-to-do and professional classes must support their
boys until the age of twenty-five and their daughters until twenty-two
— a thousand dollars a year for each is not regarded as an excessive
allowance — the limit of economic possibility is soon reached. And
the burden on the poor is relatively as great when they send their
children to school to the age of twelve or sixteen, after which they go
off to shift for themselves. It looks as though the state would need
to add to free schools not only free books, free sports, free transporta-
tion, free food and free clotlies, but pajnnent to parents for the time
of their children — an ominous outlook for society. Charitable and
state institutions other than schools, such as hospitals and old-age
pensions, make children less desired. It is an old saying that a father
can support seven children, but seven children can not support one
father; still every father does believe that his children will come to his
aid when needed. If he sends them off to school to be taken care of

TEE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY 91

by the state, and in turn looks to the state to take care of him, the
state may have to pay for the bearing of children as well as for raising
them. And when states no longer want citizens for defense or aggres-
sion and liave no peculiar institutions to support, it is not likely that
the cosmopolitan world will be more ready than the individual to sacri-
fice present pleasures in order that there may be posterity.

In addition to the psychological and economic effects of the school
subversive of the family, the physiological effects are serious. The
health of our children is in large measure conserved by the inefficiency
of our teachers. If children really did what our scheme of education
asks, the results would be much worse than they are. It is also true
that conditions at home, especially in cities, are such that the school
may be an improvement. But the ordinary defective eyesight and lat-
eral curvature of the spine are signs of deep-seated injury to the
nervous system and bodily organs. Schools are centers for the spread
of contagious diseases. The sedentary habits are not only injurious
at the time, but are likely to persist, and the result is that but few
educated people have normal circulations, digestions and reproductive
systems. Alcoholic drinks, tobacco, coffee and medical drugs are used
to replace the stimulation that should be obtained through normal work
and out-of-door exercise. Some must do too much physical work and
are never rested, while others shirk it altogether and are permanently
tired.

It is generally assumed that the small family and diminishing birth
rate are due to psychological and economic causes, but it is probable
that physiological and pathological conditions are equally potent.
When there is no child or but one, until recently at least, physiological
infertility may be assumed; and this class represents one third of all
families of college alumni. Among these alumni, a considerable per-
centage of whom are clergymen, large families such as were formerly
common simply do not occur, and it is difficult to believe that volun-
tary restriction is absolutely universal. Among women of the Amer-
ican upper classes there are probably about as many miscarriages as
births, and probably less than one fourth of all mothers can nurse ade-
quately their infants. The small family is often due to voluntary
restriction in deference to the health of the wife.

It is quite impossible to determine the extent to which the failing
birth rate is due to physiological infertility or the extent to which this
is chargeable to the schools. It has been held that intellectual devel-
opment inhibits the reproductive function; in Malthusian days this
was even urged as a beneficent plan of nature. Girls are injured more
than boys by school life; they take it more seriously, and at certain
times and at a certain age are far more subject to harm. It is prob-

92 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

ably not an exaggeration to say that to the average cost of each girl's
education through the high school must be added one unborn child.

Our system of coeducation is favorable to conventional morality,
but not to romantic love. A man is no more a hero to his girl chums
than to his valet; a certain distance is necessary before the halo about
a girl's head becomes visible. Small doses confer immunity to the
larger passions. The 40,000 girls now in our colleges are putting off
marriage beyond the age when impulse is dominant. This is regarded
as one of the merits of the system; but it means that half of them
will not marry and that the other half will have families of the average
size of two children. Women of this sort ask too much of the men.
They want a kind of education and a kind of interests that can not
be universal ; they are not content to begin with the simple servantless
menage that satisfied their parents. It is well for family happiness
when husband and wife have interests in common; a university pro-
fessor can have to advantage a college-bred wife. But the superficial
culture of the American woman, the reading of the monthly magazines
and best-selling novels, the frequenting of those theaters, art exhibi-
tions and women's clubs, for which the husband has no time or taste,
are not conducive to harmony and homogeneity in family life.

The economic employment of women in sedentary work and work
away from home, which is such a marked development of modern and
especially of American conditions, obviously tends to prevent marriage,
to limit the number of children and to break up the family. When
spinsters can support themselves with more physical comforts and
larger leisure than they would have as wives; when married women
may prefer the money they can earn and the excitement they can find
in outside employment to the bearing and rearing of children; when
they can conveniently leave their husbands should it so suit their fancy
— the conditions are clearly unfavorable to marriage and the family.
It is further an important consideration that men who must compete
in the market with women can not afford to marry and support a
family. Here again the school and the employment of female teachers
are dominant factors.

There are in the United States about 400,000 women employed as
teachers, and the numbers are continually increasing. In our cities
there were at the time of the last census 76,348 female and 6,302 male
teachers, and the proportion of females has since increased, so that now
probably not more than one teacher in fifteen is a man. In one Ohio
town there are about 200 female teachers without a single man. In
the graduating class of a California normal school this year there were
272 girls and one man. In Germany, on the other hand, about two
thirds of the teachers are men.

This vast horde of female teachers in the United States tends to

THE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY 93

subvert both the school and the family. The lack of initiative and
vitality in our entire school system is appalling. The influence of our
half million teachers on the problems of democracy and civilization is
entirely insignificant. The attractive and normal girls and the few
able men tend to drop out, leaving the school principal, narrow and
arbitrary, and the spinster, devitalized and unsexed, as the dominant
elements. Boys get but little good from their schooling and leave it
when they can. Girls, who need men teachers even more than boys,
predominate in the upper classes. Women are good teachers, especially
young girls with their intuitive sympathy for children and mothers
who have bred children of their own, and women are cheaper than men
cf equal education and ability. But the ultimate result of letting the
celibate female be the usual teacher has been such as to make it a
question whether it would not be an advantage to the country if the
whole school plant could be scrapped.

It has been urged that the backwardness of the middle ages was
due to the fact that the ablest men were selected for celibacy; with
equal plausibility it might be argued that the 400,000 American
women teachers withhold the million children who might give to our
country the intellectual distinction that it lacks. However this may
be, it is certain that the homes and the children are lacking; and in
every school patterns are set to be copied in the next generation with
disastrous results.

It will doubtless be thought by most of those who read this paper
that the futility of our present educational scheme and tbe evil effects
of the school on the family have been exaggerated. The rhetorical
phrases that have been used to give emphasis may leave an impres-
sion of lack of sanity and humor. It is indeed true that the shadows
rather than the lights have been depicted. It would be possible to
write in praise of universal education and the humanity of modern
civilization, to tell once more how the American school opens the gate-
way to any career to every child, and how woman has been freed from
a slavery as 'Complete as that to which any race has been subjected.
But it is not the object of this paper to relate the progress of civiliza-
tion; its aim is to draw attention to certain poisonous by-products in
the hope that antidotes may be found, and to make a suggestion tend-
ing in this direction.

The proposal — not likely to be heeded, for if it were, then its need
would largely disappear — is that the teacher should be the family and
so far as may be that the scholar should be the family.

In the last of the often-read tales that give distinction to American
literature, we learn how the traveler, after a weary world search for
the three fatalities that should give him love, treasure and influence,
returns to his native New England village to find them there in a wife

94 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

who had been the playmate of his childhood, in tilling the earth of his
garden and in teaching the country children. One of the great novels
of the greatest living master of letters tells how the heroine failed to
find her hero in the warlord, but found him in the schoolmaster, when
together among the hills they taught their boys the ways of truth
and honor.

Is there indeed in all the wide world a better place than a home in
the country where parents and children are doing what they can for
themselves and for the neighborhood? The clergyman and the phy-
sician are, by the character of their professions, half missionary and
half charlatan ; in the lawyer and the journalist the missionary element
is decidedly less. But there might be in this broad land of ours five
hundred thousand men, as many women, twice as many children, all
leading lives wholly useful and noble, as teachers in their communities.
The money is there ; the men and women are not lacking ; the children
need not be; it is only the spirit and the will that fail.

Can one not fancy a school in the countiy, the house a model of
simple beauty, built and adorned from year to year by those whose use
it serves? It would be adjacent to or perhaps a part of the home of
the teachers, surrounded by gardens, orchards and barns. The house
would be fitted out as a club, with books, pictures and music continu-
ally renewed. Its furniture, its lighting, its ventilation, its heating,
its water-supply and baths, its workshop, its kitchen and laboratory,
all would offer a standard for the neighborhood. In this house the
children would gather, and so far as might be the older folks, for some
two hours a day. The master and the mistress and their older chil-
dren, with the help of others who were able, would teach the tricks of
reading, writing and reckoning to those who lacked them, and all
would be encouraged to go as far as they cared along the paths of let-
ters and science. Two further hours might be spent in working about
the place, in the shop, in the garden or with the animals, sewing, cook-
ing or cleaning, learning to do efficiently and economically the things
that must be done. The children and older folks would gladly return
to the school for sports and games, indoors and out, for books and
music, for theatricals, lectures and meetings, to eat and to gossip.

A school of this kind would be supported mainly by the work of
those whom it served; perhaps no taxation would be required; in any
case the money needed for the master, the mistress and their children
to live in quiet elegance would not be much. The garden or inten-
sively cultivated farm with the equipment of the school would need to
be supplemented by a minimum of ready money. To each school
might be added some productive concern — the raising of strawberries,
mushrooms, or squabs, a creamery, smithy or printing shop. The
teachers, and to a certain extent the people of the neighborhood, would

TEE SCHOOL AND THE FAMILY 95

be experts in some one line; they would do this special work as well
as it could be done and be alert to improve the methods. Prentices
would be trained who could carry expert skill to other neighborhoods.

The master and the mistress would have ample time. Four hours
a day might be devoted to tlie children of the school, in work only partly
sedentary. The wife could be spared when higher duties demanded,
and the man could devote himself for a time to the completion of some
pressing work. Both could have some trade or profession in addition
to the teaching. It might be only the care of the school and garden —
the postoffice would naturally be there — or the village shop might be
added, or one of them might be skilled in carpentry, plumbing or sur-
veying. They might edit and print the country newspaper, or a special
journal whose edition of four hundred would go to all quarters of the
world. One or both of them might be physicians, promoting hygiene
and public health, knowing their own limitations and the limitations
of the profession, able to refer patients to the best specialists within
reach. Or one might be himself a specialist, spending part of the year
at the university and city hospital, carrying forward researches in
experimental medicine. The teacher might — could the Jangling of the
creeds be hushed — be the village clergyman ; or he might be the lawyer,
drawing up deeds and wills, suppressing lawsuits, showing the ways
of justice and mercy. The teachers might be devoted to science, letters
or art, perhaps applying the better methods to agriculture or industry,
writing verses for the country papers, or training the choir; but here
and there would be one able to move forward the boundaries of science,
to write what would be read far off and long after, to create art in
touch with the emotions of the people.

Five hundred thousand families, continually increasing in numbers,
engaged in learning and in teaching, would give to this country a true
democratic aristocracy. Into it would be taken the best elements of
all the people, and from it would be chosen leaders in every department
of human activity. Sons and daughters would return to carry forward
the work of their parents; family sanctions and traditions would be
maintained from generation to generation. Children would always be
the chief concern in a home and in a school such as this. There would
be no pathological, no economic, no psychological conditions at work
for their extermination. Mothers fit to bear and nurse their young
would be selected and trained. Children would not only be the chief
treasure sought; they would also add to the material wealth of the
family. Those who did not want children would be cast aside as little
better than the abortionist and the infanticide. In all the world there
is nothing more ultimate than the primitive voices of the two Eachels ;
Eachel weeping for her children, not to be comforted, because they are
not; Eachel who said: Give me children, or else I die.

96

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

THE PEOGEESS OE SCIENCE

WOLCOTT GIBBS
Oliver Wolcott Gibbs, one of the
few great men of science given to the
world by the United States during the
first part of the nineteenth century,
died at his home in Newport on De-
cember 9. He was born in New York
City on February 21, 1822, his father.
Colonel George Gibbs, being one of
the earliest American mineralogists,
and his mother, Laura Wolcott, the
daughter of Oliver Wolcott, secretary
of the treasury under Washington and
Adams, being an artist of ability.
Gibbs graduated from Columbia Col-
lege in 1841, and received the degree
of doctor of medicine from the College
of Physicians and Surgeons in 1845.
In the meanwhile he had been assistant
to Dr. Robert Hare, professor of chem-
istry in the medical school of the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania. The next
three years were spent abroad; and
work was carried on in the laboratories
of Rammelsberg and Rose in Berlin,
Liebig in Giessen and Regnault in
Paris. In 1849 he became professor of
chemistry and physics in the Free
Academy, later the College of the City
of New York, and in 1863 he was
elected Rumford professor in Harvard
University. In 1887 he became pro-
fessor emeritus and retired to his home
at Newport, where he equipped a labo-
ratory for his chemical researches.

The researches that he accomplished
give distinction to this country. His
work on the electrolytic deposition of
copper as a means of quantitative an-
alysis has become of great significance,
and many other methods of quantita-
tive analysis were improved under his
guidance. Other works of great impor-
tance were his extended experimental
studies of complex salts, especially the
cobaltamine compounds and those con-

taining some of the rarer elements.
These are of great theoretical interest,
owing to their relation to theories of
molecular structure.

Gibbs was the last surviving founder
of the National Academy of Sciences,
which he served as president; he had
been general secretary, vice-president
and president of the American Associa-
tion for the Advancement of Science.
He was a member of the Prussian
Academy of Sciences and the only Am-
erican honorary member of the German
Chemical Society. His work was recog-
nized by many other societies, and by
honorary degrees conferred by Colum-
bia, Harvard, Pennsylvania, George
Washington and Toronto Universities.
A portrait of Gibbs was published in
The Populab Science Monthly for
June, 1900. There is here reproduced
a letter addressed to the editor in
answer to a request for an article.
This letter illustrates the courtesy and
kindness not less characteristic of
Wolcott Gibbs than the eminence of
his services to science.

OTIS T. MASON
Otis Tufton IVIason, head curator
of the department of anthropology in
the United States National Museum,
died at Washington on November 5,
in his seventy-first year. He was the
son of John and Rachel Thompson
(Lincoln) Mason, and was born at
Eastport, Maine, April 10, 1838. He
was graduated from Columbian (now
George Washington) University as
A.B. in 1861 (A.M., 1862; Ph.D., 1879;
LL.D., 1898). In the following year
he married Sarah E. Henderson, and
at once entered on his career as a
teacher. As principal of the prepara-
tory department of Columbian College,
from 1861 to 1884, he used his oppor-

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GIBBS AVENUE
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98

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

tunities for leading the young into
correct methods of study, and every
leisure moment out of the classroom
for perfecting himself in those original
investigations that were his life work.
Mason's interest in anthropology be-
gan in his boyhood days, and his in-
spiration may be traced directly to the
enthusiasm with which he read a copy
of Guyot's '-Earth and Man" that
accidentally came into his hands. Fol-
lowing Guyot, the writings of Maury,
Guizot, Lane Fox, Klemm, Lubbock,
Tylor and Evans were devoured, and
his text for life became " thoughts in
things, or human history written in
human inventions." Ever a devout
churchman and a leader in Sunday-
school work, he equipped himself with
a knowledge of Biblical archeology,
which subject he pursued assiduously
whenever opportunity afforded. His
deep and growing interest in this and
kindred studies attracted, in 1873, the
attention of Professor Joseph Henry,
secretary of the Smithsonian Institu-
tion, through whose influence Mason's
studies became diverted to the Amer-
ican field at a time when but few
students were aware of the fruitfulness
and the possibilities of the western
continent for ethnological and arche-
ological research. In the same year he
was made a collaborator of the Smith-
sonian Institution, and commenced to
compile the synonj'my of the North
American tribes — the inception of what
has developed into the " Handbook of
American Indians," now in process of
publication by the Bureau of American
Ethnology. He also prepared schemes
for anthropological exhibits at the Cen-
tennial Exposition in 1876, and became
the editor of the anthropological sum-
maries that appeared in " Harper's
Annual Record of Science and In-
dustry" (1874-8), in the American
Naturalist (187G-87), and in the
Smithsonian Reports (1875-93). Pro-
fessor Mason was appointed curator of
anthropology in the United States
National Museum in 1884, and head

curator of its department of anthro-
pology in 1902.

Otis Tufton Mason was the most
charming of men. Kind, generous, con-
siderate, patient beyond measure, with
a fount of humor that bubbled forth on
every occasion, one would never suspect
fiom outward appearance that the best
years of his life had been blighted by
mental anguish. Paralyzed after hav-
ing passed his sixtieth year, he began
life anew, as years before he had begun
again, after years of application, when
Henry advised him to drop the eastern
Mediterranean field and adopt America
as the subject of his labors. His right
hand being practically dead, in a few
weeks he learned to write as well with
the left, and planned further work
with bravery worthy of a young man
in prime physical condition.

Being essentially a worker among
collections. Mason's activities w'ere de-
voted chiefly to the material culture of
primitive peoples. This is exemplified
by his writings on the " Latimer Col-
lection of Antiquities from Porto Rico "
(1876); "Basket-work of the North
American Indians" (1884); " Throw-
ing-sticks in the National Museum "
(1884); "Cradles of the American
Aborigines" (1887); "North Amer-
ican Bows, Arrows and Quivers "
(1893); "Origins of Inventions"
(1895); "Aboriginal American Zo-
otechny" (1889); "Aboriginal Amer-
ican Basketry" (1902), and many
others. He insisted that the most rigid
methods of the naturalist should be
applied to the investigation of human
problems, and that every human act
and invention be subjected to this close
scrutiny. His long experience in the
training of youth made him ever a
willing guide and instructor of those
in search of the knowledge that he pos-
j sessed, and many a young student re-
I ceived his first impetus in the study
of ethnology through Mason's friendly
aid. His scientific papers, numbering
many score, are written largely in pop-
ular vein, as if designed for the benefit
of youth rather than for his fellow

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

99

Otis Tufton Mason.

lOO

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

workers. With !Mason passes one of
the founders of the Anthropological
Society of Washington in 1879, in the
activities of which he took a most
prominent part while health lasted,
serving as its president from 1893 to
1895. His associates will miss his cor-
dial greeting, his fatherly advice and
encouragement, his tender sympathy,
the cheering atmosphere tliat one al-
ways felt when in his presence. In
time to come Mason will be recognized
as the pioneer in the classification and
analysis of the material culture of the
American aborigines.

THE H. K. GUSHING LABORATORY
OF EXPERIMENTAL MEDIGINE
OF WESTERN RESERVE
UNIVERSITY
The school of medicine of the West-
ern Reserve University, wliich is one

of those in tliis country maintaining
the highest standards, has been fortu-
nate in receiving from Mr. H. M.
Hanna and Colonel Oliver H. Payne a
gift of $200,000— to which they have
just added .$17,000 towards the endow-
ment— for a laboratory of experimental
medicine, named in honor of one of the
distinguished professors of the school
in its early days. The laboratory was
dedicated on November 20, when, after
a welcome by President Thwing, the
principal address was made by William
H. Welch, M.D., LL.D., professor of
pathology in the Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity. An address was also made by
George Neil Stewart, D.Sc, M.D., pro-
fessor of experimental medicine and
director of the new laboratory.

The new laboratory adjoins the main
building and the physiological labora-
tory building of the Medical School.

The original building of the Western Reserve Medical School, erected in
1844 for the Cleveland Medical College. Replaced in 1887 by the present main
building of the Western Reserve University Medical School.

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

lOl

It is four stories higli, of reinforced
concrete, faced with brick, and complete
in all its appointments. The building
contains laboratory rooms, a balance
room, a library, photographic rooms,
rooms for individual investigations, a
refrigerating room, rooms for conduct-
ing studies in the nutrition of animals,
store rooms, workshops and the office
of the director.

The H. K. Gushing Laboratory will
fill an important place in the field of
medical research and education. So
long as medicine was a comparatively
simple science it was possible for the
physician, while actively practising his
profession, to keep himself sufficiently
in touch with the fundamental medical
sciences such as physiology, anatomy
and pathology. The rapid advance,
both in the practical arts of medicine
and surgery and in the underlying sci- dr. William H. Welch,

ences on which they depend has ren- Professor of Pathology in the .Johns
dered it impossible for any one man to Hopkins University, who delivered the
J ■ , j_ .1 n ^J mi. e j.i principal address at the dedication of

dominate both fields. Therefore the ,, rTT-/-.!,- rt * ^t^

the H. K. Cushmg Laboratory of Ex-
time seems to have come for improving perimental Medicine of Western Reserve
the means of coordinating practical University.

medicine and the medical sciences. It
is proposed to accomplish this at the
Western Reserve University by the
establishment of a laboratorj- and chair
of experimental medicine, the occupant
of which and his assistants shall be
expected to keep themselves in touch,
so far as is possible, with clinical work,
on the one hand, and physiology and
pathology, on the other, and to en-
courage and direct investigation having
a bearing upon both. The new founda-
tion is intended to form a link between
the knowledge of the laboratory and
the knowledge of the hospital.

The researches which in the future
may be carried out in this laboratory
are planned to have, as far as possible,
a direct practical bearing upon clinical
questions. For example, some light has
been thrown by experimental investi-
gation on the pathology of such condi-
tions as goitre, diabetes, gout, the
anemias, ulcer of the stomach, etc..

Dr. Neil Stewart,

of Experimental Medicine and
K. Gushing Laboratory

Professor
Director of the H
of Experimental Medicine
Reserve University.

of Western

I02

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

The Main Building and 1'hysiulouical Labukatoky Buiiding of the Western
Reseeve Medical ScrotiL, Cleveland. The main building is of brown stone, and
comprises four floors and a basement. It contains two amphitheaters and the Labo-
ratories of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, Pathology and Bacteriology and
Pharmacology. The building was first occupied in 1887 and cost .$240,000. The
Physiological Laboratory was built in 1898. It houses the Laboratories of Physiology
and Physiological Chemistry with private research rooms and work shops.

but very much remains to be discov-
ered. A deeper insight into problems
of this kind may be obtained if investi-
gators at the same time as they are
working at the subject from the experi-
mental standpoint in the laboratory,
are in a position to sttidy clinical cases
of the disease in the hospital, and this
it is planned to do in the H. K. Gush-
ing Laboratory.

THE CONVOCATION WEEK MEET-
INGS AT THE JOHNS HOPKINS

UNH ERSITY
The scientific meetings to be held at
Baltimore during the week following
that in which Christmas falls promise
to be of very great interest. In addi-
tion to the American Association for
the Advancement of Science, with its
eleven sections covering the entire field
of the natural and exact sciences, no
less than twenty-five independent socie-

ties will meet in affiliation. These
national societies include those de-
voted to mathematics, physics, chem-
istry, geology, geography, paleontology,
physiology, astronomy, bacteriology,
zoology, entomology, botany, ps\'cliol-
ogy, philosophy and anthropology.
The officers and members of the Amer-
ican Association, of the American So-
ciety of Naturalists and of these special
societies, are practically identical with
the productive scientific men of the
country. It is likely tliat fully two
thousand of tlicm will l)e at Baltimore
and that the number of papers read
will exceed five htmdred.

While the special scientific societies
and their technical programs are prob-
ably the chief factors promoting and
guiding the advancement of science in
this country, a large meeting of scien-
tific men has certain other advantages,
the most imitortant of which are per-

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

lo-

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PROPOSED PLAN

FOR

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
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Present needs : A, Library ; B, Administration Building ; C, C, Class Rooms ;
D, D, D, D, Laboratories: E, Levering Hall (Y. M. C. A.) : F, Dining Hall; G, Dormi-
tory ; H, Gymnasium ; S, Athletic Field ; T, Tennis Courts. Future needs : K, Assembly
Hall ; L, L, Museums ; M, Chapel ; N, N, Laboratories ; O. Museum ; P, P, P, P, P, P, P,
Dormitories ; R, President's House.

liaps the widening of personal interests
and acquaintance, and the development
of a spirit of loyalty to science and
scientific ideals. The machinery for
conducting a large meeting of this
character is not fully adjusted — it is
only five years ago that tlie first of the
convocation week meetings was held in
Washington — but each year the friction
has become less, and the advantages
have become more evident.

The first general meeting will be held
at ten o'clock on the morning of De-
cember 28 in McCoy Hall of the Johns
Hopkins University. Addresses of wel-
come will be made by Dr. Ira Remsen,
president of the university, and Dr.
William H. Welch, chairman of the
local committee, both past presidents
of the association, and the president of
the meeting, Professor T. C. Chamber-
lin, will reply. In the evening, the
retiring president. Professor E. L.
Nichols, will give his address, and
during the week the vice-presidents for
the sections and the presidents of many
of the special societies will make ad-
dresses. These will in most cases be of

general interest to scientific men, and
i=rpecial sessions will be arranged that
will be of general interest. The most
notable is an entire day (January 1)
with a dinner in the evening devoted
to the celebration of the one lumdredth
anniversary of the birth of Charles
Darwin and of the fiftieth anniversary
of the publication of the " Origin of
Species." A symposium on public
health will be held on December 31.

When the Johns Hopkins University
was opened in 1876, it adopted the wise
policy of spending its means on men

\ rather than on buildings. Its labora-
tories are. however, admirably equipped,
and with its medical school — unfortti-

, nately at some distance from the other
departments — it offers all needed facili-

I ties for a large scientific meeting. The

I university will, when money is ob-

j tained, remove to the beautiful site it
has ptirchased on the outskirts of the

j city. In addition to athletic grounds
there is at present in use only some
equipment for the botanical depart-
ment. The site will be developed and
buildings erected in accordance with

, the plan here given.

I04

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

SCIENTIFIC ITEMS

In addition to Wolcott Gibbs and
Otis T. Mason, the country has lost in
the death of William Keith Brooks one
of its most eminent men of science.
A biographical sketch of Professor
Brooks, who had been professor of zool-
ogy at the Johns Hopkins University
since 1876, together with a portrait,
will be found in the issue of The Pop-
VLAR Science Monthly for July, 1899.
We regret also to record the death of
Dr. Andrew J. McCosh, a leading sur-
geon of New York City; of M. Alfred
Ditte, the French chemist, and of W. E.
Ayrton, the British physicist and elec-
trician.

Dr. Richard C. MacLaurin, for the
past year professor of mathematical
physics in Columbia University and
previously professor of mathematics in
the University of New Zealand, has
been elected president of the Massachu-
setts Institute of Technology. — Pro-
fessor W. W. Campbell, director of the
Lick Observatory, has been appointed
lecturer for next year on the Silliman
foundation at Yale University.

Nobel prizes in the sciences for 1908
have been awarded as follows: For
chemistry. Professor Ernest Ruther-
ford, director of the physical labora-
tories of the University of Manchester,

England; for physics, M. Gabriel Lipp-
I mann, professor of physics in the Uni-
versity of Paris; for medicine, divided
between Dr. Paul Ehrlich, of Berlin,
and Professor Elie Metchnikoff, of the
Pasteur Institute of Paris.

The Royal Society has awarded med-
als as follows: the Copley medal to
Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace, in recogni-
tion of the great value of his numerous
contributions to natural history, and
of the part he took in working out the
theory of the origin of species by nat-
ural selection; the Rumford medal to
Professor H. A. Lorentz, for his in-
vestigations in optical and electrical
science; a Royal medal to Professor
John Milne, for his preeminent services
in the modern development of seismo-
logical science; a Royal medal to Dr.
Henry Head, for his researches on the
relations between the visceral and so-
matic nerves and on the functions of
the afferent nerves; the Davy medal
to Professor W. A. Tilden, for his dis-
coveries in chemistry, especially on the
terpenes and on atomic heats; the
Darwin medal to Professor August
Weismann, for his eminent services in
support of the doctrine of evolution by
means of natural selection; the Hughes
medal to Professor Eugene Goldstein,
for his discoveries on the nature of
electric discharge in rarefied gases.

<• -«v^-«^ V.'' .

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THE x^ « h:

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

FEBRUARY, 1909

THE NATIONAL EXPOSITION AT EIO DE JANEIRO

By Professok ROBERT DeC. WARD

HAEVARD UNIVERSITY

A MONTH later than the date originally set for its opening, the
first National Exposition of Brazil was officially inaugurated on
August 11. Patriotic pride in the gratifying evidence which the
exhibits give of Brazilian arts and industries, and of Brazilian progress,
is the dominant note everywhere. As one of the leading newspapers
of Rio has enthusiastically said :

The one feeling that every one has in his heart is an immense satisfaction,
an overwhelming patriotic joy, as he sees this splendid exposition which gives
evidence of our national capacity for work, and of our national vitality.

In his opening address, the president of the exposition commission
referred to the important event in the history of Brazil which the
exposition commemorates, viz., the opening of the Brazilian ports to the
commerce of the world, one hundred years ago (January 28, 1808), and
to the desire of the present government to bring together, on this
centennial anniversary, the evidence of Brazilian progress in the last
one hundred years. There have, it is true, been previous exhibitions,
on a small scale, along similar lines. Thus, the Brazilian exhibits
which were sent to London in 1862 ; to Vienna in 1873 ; to the Cen-
tennial in 1876; to Paris in 1889; to Chicago in 1893, and to St.
Louis, were previously collected and open to the public in Rio. But
the present exposition is far more representative and more complete
than any of these others. Every one of the twenty states of Brazil is
here represented, as well as the Federal District of Rio de Janeiro and
the territory of Acre, " that precious piece of land recently added to
our national demain," as one newspaper characteristically puts it, and
goes on to say, " All the cells of our national organism here palpitate

vol,. LXXIV. — 8

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NATIONAL EXPOSITION AT RIO DE JANEIRO 107

with life, showing the latent force which is impelling us on to the
magnificent destiny prepared for our country by a Divine Providence."
The background, with Eio's wonderful hills, and the foreground,
with Eio's magnificent bay, combine here to make a natural setting
which it is safe to say no national or international exposition has ever
had. No artificial lakes and canals, picturesque as these may be; no
magnificent buildings; no marvels of electric lighting; no fountains or
cascades — none of the things that have made other expositions famous,
can compare with what nature herself has done in giving Eio de
Janeiro this splendid harbor and these mountains, here green and soft,
there grim and bare, with the famous " Sugar Loaf " guarding the

The Exposition Theater.
The theater has a seating capacity of about 750.

entrance to the harbor on one side of the exposition grounds, and
the precipitous Corcovado, towering up like a sentinel above the city,
on the other. To readers who do not know Eio de -Janeiro, the words
of the opening address, in which the beauties of the city were enthusi-
astically described, will seem like undue exaggeration. The speaker
said:

The most beautiful city in South America, where the deep sea and the
laughing bays; the high and solemn peaks; the gently-sloping hills; the rows
of houses bathed in sunshine or showing, less distinctly, in the lights of the
rosary of diamonds which surrounds the shores, fantastically mirrored in the
waters of the bay — these combine to give a picture which is wholly unique ia

io8

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

the world — to strangers, a surprise and an enchantment; to us Brazilians a
source of pride.

The visitor who comes to Rio with the idea that he is to see a
grand exposition, on a large scale, will be disappointed. Compared
with any of the international expositions, this Brazilian undertaking is
naturally very small. It covers but little ground. Its buildings are
few in number, and not notable for size, beauty of architecture, or
originality of arrangement. The exhibits are not numerous, nor are
they very impressive, to the casual visitor. But the Rio Exposition
means very much to Brazilians. Seen with their eyes, it embodies the

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The Poktdguese Pavilion.
This pavilion was erected and offered by Brazil to the Portuguese nation for

exhibition purposes.

spirit of their national progress ; it gives tangible evidence of what
Brazil can do in the way of products and manufactures; it serves to
show that Brazil is becoming less dependent upon foreign countries : it
therefore strongly appeals to the patriotic side of the people. When
looked at by a foreigner so far as possible with Brazilian eyes, this ex-
position is not merely interesting; it is well worth careful study. The
location was wisely chosen, at the southern end of the city, near the
old military school, where the land now occupied by the exposition
buildings was largely wasted. That quarter of the city will, from this
time on, assume a different aspect. Most of the money which has
been spent by the government has gone into permanent buildings. The

The Textile Industries Building.

This monumental structure, surmounted by a statue of Fame, is the remodeled

Military Academy.

The Bangu Factoky Building.
This building was erected by the Bangfi Textile Mills for the exhibit of its products.

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NATIONAL EXPOSITION AT RIO DE JANEIRO m

old military school building was largely torn down and then rebuilt,
and one of the other buildings, which before was standing half-done
and unused, has been completed and made into a fine permanent
structure of stone. The land has been graded and cleared. A new
sea-wall and boulevard have been built out to the exposition grounds.
This is all clearly for the permanent advantage of the city, although
the exposition itself, as a whole, will doubtless be a financial failure.

Brazil is an immense country. From the northern states with
their vast forests — which most of us make the mistake of thinking
cover the larger part of the country- — to the southern states of Eio
Grande do Sul and Santa Catharina, it includes climates of many
kinds. The visitor to this exposition will see rubber and wheat ; sugar-
cane and corn; cotton, rice, manioc, coffee, mate, grapes, tobacco,
alfalfa, sorghum. He will see most of the familiar vegetables and
cereals of home, and next to them can examine the characteristic tropical
woods from the forests of the Amazon. Amazonas and Para on the
north have sent the products of the tropics; Minas Geraes has sent its
famous cheeses, made from the milk of cows pastured on its great
inland campos, as well as specimens of its gold and diamonds and
precious minerals, and a fine model of its well-known Morro Velho mine.
Santa Catharina on the south sends wheat and corn, wine, tobacco,
cotton, coffee, dried beef, cheese, tinned butter, and the like — products
of its temperate climate and of its cattle industry. It is probable that
most Brazilians, as well as most foreigners, will be surprised at the
variety of food-stuffs here exhibited, but it is certain that few visitors
to this exposition will expect to see such evidence as is here given
of the development of different industries in Brazil. Even the leading
newspapers of Rio express surprise at the exhibits of cotton and woolen
cloth; of footwear and of hats; of canned foods; of wines and beer;
of dairy products, furniture, glassware, pottery and iron-work. The
pride of Brazilians is especially appealed to by the exhibit of native
foundry-work, of agricultural implements an3 of machinery of various
kinds, for preparing rice, manioc, coffee and sugar-cane. By " special
concession " on the part of the government, Germany and the United
States have been permitted to exhibit maehiner}^, some of it in opera-
tion. The former country shows agricultural implements and ma-
chinery for preparing rice, manioc, etc. From the United States
there are exhibits by the United Shoe Machinery Co., the Continental
Gin Co., of Birmingham, Ala., the Oliver Chilled Plow Co., of Indiana,
and the Loomis Co., of Indiana. The Federal District (Rio de
Janeiro) makes an effective showing with furniture and cabinet work,
carriages and wagons, flour, glassware, laces, some excellent pottery
and tiles, drugs and chemicals, bricks, wooden-ware, wire work, and a
good collection of vegetables (fresh and dried) grown in the market

112

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

I'dSTcM I'll i: AMI 'ri:i.i:i;i;,\ri I Urn, him;

gardens around the capital. Para, at the mouth of the Amazon, sends
pottery and tiles; and an excellent exhibit from one firm in the city
of Porto Alegre (State of Rio Grande do Sul) includes metal bedsteads
and other articles of furniture, stoves, galvanized iron-work, safes,
locks, etc., which would look well in any exposition anywhere. Those
who have traveled in Germany Avill see unmistakable evidence of
German skill and workmanship in the Santa Catharina exhibit of

NATIONAL EXPOSITION AT RIO DE JANEIRO 113

Agkicultural Depaktment Building.

needlework and embroidery, baskets, furniture and woodenware, and
oil paintings, and a copy of " Der Urwaldsbote," published in
Blumenan, shows that the language of the Fatherland is not forgotten
in the midst of the new surroundings of Brazil.

Mere enumeration of the kinds of exhibits is tedious alike to writer
and to reader; it leaves a confused impression on the mind. In any
exposition, even a sm.all one such as this in Eio, the best that can be
done is to single out a few things for special mention. The exhibit
made by the director of the Botanical Garden is representative, so far as
it was possible to make it under the circumstances. In and around a
glass pavilion there are shown, in pots, 1,337 selected plants, all care-

Federal District Building.

The San 1'aulu I'amliun.

The San Paulo Building stands next to that of Minas Geraes, and covers an area of

4,593 square feet. It was one of the finest buildings of the exposition.

NATIONAL EXPOSITION AT RIO DE JANEIRO 115

fully labeled and classified. These include 345 palms, 144 ferns, 112
fruits, and a large number of specimens of special economic and
medicinal value, including dyewoods. The colors of the labels dis-
tinguish the different groups of plants. For example, dark green is
for medicinal plants ; white for cotton ; red for the purely ornamental ;
yellow for fibrous ; vermilion and white for dyewoods ; vermilion for oil
and resinous; etc. The opportunity here afforded, of a close examina-
tion, within a conveniently restricted area, of the characteristic plants
of Brazil, is an excellent one. A collection of all the publications of
the Botanical Garden is arranged inside the glass pavilion, and includes
two volumes of the splendid work by Dr. Barbosa Eodrigues, the
director of the garden, " Sertum Palmarum Brasiliensum." These
volumes are placed on an inclined shelf, where they may be freely
consulted by any visitor, and are not even fastened in any way to the
shelf. The authorities must have abundant faith in the honesty of the
public here. Or perhaps it may be the duty of some watchman — who
was absent on the occasion of the writer's visit — to guard these books.

The Astronomical Observatory of Rio has put on exhibition a
Wiechert seismograph, recently imported from Germany. This ma-
chine is of a somewhat simpler pattern than the Bosch-Omori seis-
mograph, lately installed in the Geological Section of the Harvard
University Museum, at Cambridge. It is very badly set up so far as
detecting earthquake shocks is concerned, for it cannot fail to be
affected by the movements of the people who are walking about on
all sides of it, but the writer was given to understand that, for exhibi-
tion purposes, it was desired to have the public see, with its own eyes,
how sensitive such a machine is, and from that point of view it is
admirably exposed ! The observatory exhibit also includes several large
diagrams showing the variations in the different weather elements
at Eio during the year. Here one may see the extraordinary pre-
ponderance of winds from southeast and from northwest; the slight
changes in temperature throughout the year; the marked rainy season
of summer; the higher pressure, clearer skies and drier air which
characterize the winter. Another meteorological exhibit is that of the
' meteorological department of the Brazilian navy. This branch of the
government has charge of the daily weather map and of the daily
weather forecast, and has a small working meteorological station in the
cupola of the building of the mail and telegraph service, where the work
is explained and the forecasts are displayed.

The broadest generalization that one can give regarding the exhibits
as a whole is that the southern states of Brazil are far ahead, indus-
trially, of the central and especially of the northern states. This
results naturally from the fact that the southern states have a far
more extended railroad development and are — or rather because they

ii6

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

mmm

wffiiiiTiTMiirMm^^

Bahia Building.

The Bahia Pavilion occupies an area of 54,359 square feet. The exterior is adorned

with two majestic statues of Justice and Science, and a central group consisting

of figures bearing a shield, representing the State of Bahia.

are — settled by a large number of recent European immigrants. The
exhibit of Kio Grande do Sul, the southernmost Brazilian state, adjoin-
ing Uruguay, is a revelation to every one who sees it. The writers
guide through this exhibit was a typical representative of the state.
With French and German blood in his veins, but himself a thorough

NATIONAL EXPOSITION AT RIO DE JANEIRO 117

Brazilian, he took enthusiastic and wliolly justifiable pride in pointing
out the variety of the products and the excellence of the workmanship
exhibited in the collection of articles sent by his state. These include
articles of clothing of all kinds, of silk, cotton, woolen, linen and
leather; straw and felt hats; furniture; leather and canned goods;
soaps, perfumery and drugs; glassware; pianos and musical instru-
ments; preserves and pickles; cigars and tobacco; articles of horn;
books; artificial flowers; furniture; papers; brushes; beer and wine;
flour; crackers of all sorts. It is clear enough that European manu-
facturers will soon have to meet strong competition here in Brazil.
As the writer's guide proudly said : " We make Just as good biscuit,
and just as many varieties, as the English do." The state of San
Paulo, next south of Eio de Janeiro, makes an exhibit which is fully as
complete and as varied as that of Eio Grande do Sul. On the other
hand, we have the exhibit of that great northern state, Amazonas, whose
name at once brings up vistas of immense tropical forests, with their
precious woods of all kinds, and especially with their most precious
rubber — the rubber which is causing so much jealousy about national
boundaries in South America; the rubber to secure which men are
Ijeing held in slavery as harsh and cruel, probahly, as any slavery ever
was in the world. An " Inferno Verde " the life of these rubber-
collectors doubtless is. Such is the title of a recent book on this sub-
ject which is attracting attention here in Eio. Its cover-design is the
figure of a naked Indian woman, bound hand and foot to a rubber-
tree, her blood dropping out, from many wounds, into the little tin
cups used in collecting the precious sap of the rubber-tree. The
Amazonas exhibit gives a good opportunity to see how this famous —
or infamous — rubber is collected and prepared for shipment. A
rubber-tree, with a gash, and the little tin cup shows the first stage.
Bottles of the milky sap, " rubber-milk " they call it, show the rubber
as it came from the tree. This liquid is then carried to be smoked and
dried; and is rolled up into great bales for shipment. One of these
huge oval masses of rubber, weighing 800 kilograms, forms part of
the Amazonas exhibit. All these steps are well illustrated by photo-
graphs. Amazonas is typical of the non-industrial states. It is rich in
woods. The present exposition includes 200 specimens of these woods,
ranging from those Avhich are soft and light and porous, to the very
dense and very heavy pao ferro (iron-wood). The brilliant feathers
from the Amazon forests, wonderfully colored, would arouse the anger
of our Audubon Society members, especially if they were told that
many of these feathers go to the United States. Even Amazonas is
not wholly destitute of manufactured articles, although they are few
in number and mostly of a primitive kind. As one runs over the
exhibits from the states situated successively farther and farther south.

ii8

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

the industries increase, until, in San .Paulo, Parana, Santa Catharina
and Rio Grande do Sul, they reach their maximum variety and highest
development. Rich in promise for the future is the immense western
state of Matto Grosso, across which a new railroad line has recently
been surveyed, to connect the railroads of San Paulo on the east with
those of Bolivia on the west. Matto Grosso sends to this exposition

t-s. im*'z» * ■

The Minas Geeaes Building.

A stately and solidly constructed building, expressing the power and wealth of the

great central State. It was designed by the Brazilian architect, Rebecchi.

«

specimens of its sugar and farina and rice and corn ; of its herbs ; and of
its woods, including the famous quebracho and shows, by means of
photographs, some of its great herds of cattle. The state now has

NATIONAL EXPOSITION AT RIO DE JANEIRO 119

3,000,000 head of cattle. Kio Grande do Sul has a fine exhibit of live
cattle. Special mention may be made of the thoroughbred Durham
and Hereford bulls, of which a considerable number are shown.

Whoever thinks of Brazil thinks of coffee, and whoever thinks of
coffee-production in Brazil thinks of the state of San Paulo, the greatest
coffee-growing district in the world. In the San Paulo exhibit the
visitor will see bag after bag, and sample after sample, of coffee, of
all grades, varieties, qualities, prices — confusing monotonous, if you
will, but very instructive. A large diagram, hung on the wall, shows
the export of coffee from Brazil in the year 1906-7. The total
amount exported was 20,190,000 sacks, of 60 kilograms each. Santos,
the world's greatest coffee port, exported 15,392,000 of these sacks. All
countries outside of Brazil exported only 3,595,000 sacks. In this
diagram these various amounts are represented by small coffee sacks,
and each of the sacks of the diagram really represents 50,000 sacks
of 60 kilograms each ! Whether the traveler to Brazil can manage to
get into the coffee district or not, he should surely not fail to see
Santos. As the steamer comes up to the city through the narrow
channel, winding about through green fields, one wonders where this
famous coffee port is, of which every one has heard so much. You see
some houses in the distance, very unattractive to the eye, and are told
that is Santos. Your surprise continues to grow until, on making a
final turn in the river you see, stretching out on your left, the famous
Santos docks and warehouses, with steamers of all sizes and of many
flags, lying two deep in many cases, the whole length of the docks.
Everybody is busy. Teams, and mule-carts and donkey-engines and
traveling cranes and porters — all busy loading coffee. Coffee is every-
where: in the streets, in the stores, on the train. If coffee is injuring
the human race, Santos is doing its best to accomplish that purpose.
From Santos to San Paulo there is a fine railroad journey up across
the Serra do Mar; a steep climb, by cable road, to 2,500 feet above
sea level. This trip should be taken by the late afternoon train. The
contrast between the hot muggy air of Santos and the cool, fresh air
on top of the Serra is then most striking and refreshing; the light
on the mountains is then softest and most varied. The views down into
the valley, with its many banana plantations, are very fine, and even
the least observing traveler can not fail to notice the extraordinary
precautions which have been taken to guard the line against washouts.
The whole mountainside is actually walled up, in places, and every-
where are seen the brick and cement drains and ditches which carry off
the rainfall. One of the engineers of .this road says that the ideal
for which he is striving is to know what will become of every drop of
rain that falls on these mountain slopes ! -To maintain this line, in
good order, is one constant struggle against the destructive action of

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NATIONAL EXPOSITION AT RIO DE JANEIRO 121

rain-water, which is flowing downhill — nothing more — and, unfor-
tunately for the railroad, nothing less !

Another exhibit, mention of which is suggested by the above note
on coffee, is that of mate. Barrels and bags and smaller samples of
mate are seen best in the exhibits of the state of Parana. The com-
mon name for mate, " Paraguay tea," associates this plant with Para-
guay, but Brazil is becoming a more and more important mate-pro-
ducing country. Wlien white men came to these parts of South
America, the Indians were found to be drinking mate, and the Jesuit
missionaries soon discovered the excellent properties of the plant and
forthwith adopted the native custom of using it. The mate tree grows
to be 10 to 20 feet high; its natural habitat is on the plateaus 1,500
or more feet above the sea, and chiefly in Matto Grosso, Parana and
Paraguay. It is now extensively grown on plantations. Advocates of
the use of mate as a drink, in place of tea and coffee, have gone very
far in attributing to this herb medicinal, nutritive and stimulating
qualities which would seem to make mate an absolute essential to
health and happiness. The writer has before him at this moment a
report on mate, made to a commercial and industrial body in Parana a
few years ago, and in this account the benefits to be derived from the
use of mate tea are enumerated at great length. But whether these
beneficial qualities are exaggerated or not, the fact remains that mate-
drinking is very much on the increase, and that those who indulge in
it are practically unanimous in stating that mate is far superior to tea,
in not producing insomnia or nervousness. Americans who want to see
a mate factory will do well to visit Curityba, the capital of the state
of Parana. There the " Fabrica Tibagy," one of the largest in Brazil,
will be freely opened to their inspection. This factory exported last
year 3,000,000 kilograms of mate, the whole amount exported from
Parana being 30,000,000 kilograms. The leaves and small stems are
brought to the factory in burlap or rawhide bags, and after being thor-
oughly dried, in ovens, are passed through a screening process, which
separates the stems and leaves, according to their size. The coarsest
stems are used for fuel; the less coarse ones are sold for the cheaper
grades of mate. The leaves are then carefully sorted, according to
their quality, and are next run through crushing machines. The best
mate is in the form of a very fine olive-green powder. Mate tea is
prepared much like ordinary tea. It may be taken in a cup, if prop-
erly strained, but the native way is to leave the powder in the water
and to suck up the tea through a tube provided at the lower end
with a fine strainer. The taste of mate to the novice is not unlike that
of a very weak solution of hot turpentine. It is therefore safe to say
that mate-'drinking is an acquired taste for those who are accustomed to
ordinary tea. Most of the Brazilian mate goes at present to the

VOL. LXVIII. — 9.

122 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Argentine Eeijublic, but some is already being exported to France. The
visitor to Curityba should, by all means, going or coming — preferably
both going and coming — take the trip by rail between Curityba and
Paranagua. This is without question one of the most picturesque rail-
road journeys in the world. From Paranagua, on the coast, the rail-
road ascends the splendid range of coast mountains up to a height of
about 3,000 feet above sea level, by a long series of curves, tunnels and
bridges which are marvels of engineering skill. Bare rock, mountain
torrent and waterfall, forested slope distant views over the deep
valleys and plains below, follow one another in rapid succession for two
hours. On the lowland and lower slopes you see, in the greatest pro-
fusion, oranges, bananas and sugar-cane. On the way up you pass
through a densely-tangled forest, whose trees are almost completely
covered with moss, creepers and parasitic plants of all kinds. Once
across the top of the mountains you find yourself on a canipo — rolling;
sparsely wooded, very bare by contrast. Very few American tourists
ever take this journey. But one can hardly be said to have seen any-
thing of Brazil who has not been farther inland than the immediate
sea-coast, and it is in the coast cities that most travelers spend their
time.

American visitors to this exposition will be especially interested in
the exhibit of the experimental rice farm at Moreira Cesar, in the state
of San Paulo. On this farm, with the aid of irrigation, our fellow
countryman, Mr. Wellman Bradford, of Louisiana, is carrying on an
experiment station where students, selected by the government, are
being taught scientific rice-growing. Mr. Bradford has had many
difficulties to contend with in his work, but he has faithfully persisted
in his undertaking, and deserves the greatest credit for his skill and
perseverance. Japanese rice, which has lately been sown on this farm,
has been found to give the best results as to quality of the crop.
Another exhibit of interest to Americans is that of the model farm at
Piracicaba, in the state of San Paulo. This farm is carried on, as is
the rice farm just referred to, under government auspices. Its director
was formerly at the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station.
Cereals of many kinds are raised, as well as cotton, rice, sorghum and
alfalfa. Experimental plantings of various kinds of wheat and corn
from the United States are being made, and the people who come to
the farm are being taught modern methods of farming, and stock-
raising. No more important work for the agricultural future of the
country here in Brazil is being done than that now in hand at the
rice farm at Moreira Cesar, and at the Fazenda Modele at Piracicaba.

The National Exposition at Eio de Janeiro, taken all in all, is im-
mensely significant, instructive, impressive. It tells of the natural
wealth of Brazil; of the variety of its products; of the many arts and

NATIONAL EXPOSITION AT RIO DE JANEIRO 123

industries that have here been developed almost wholly without the
knowledge of the bulk of the people in whose midst the factories and
mills and machine-shops have sprung up. It is fitting that this
exposition should take place in celebration of the centennial anniversary
of the opening of the ports of Brazil to the commerce of the world.
The exposition finds its appropriate location in the new Eio de Janeiro,
with its new avenues and boulevards, docks and warehouses, and the
many other improvements which have changed it so recently into a
modern city.

124 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

A BIOGKAPHICAL HISTORY OF BOTANY AT ST. LOUIS,

MISSOUEI. III.

By Dr. PBRLEY SPAULDING

laboeatoey of forest pathology, bueeau of pi_\nt industey,
u. s. dbpaetment of ageicultuee

Ij^ XPLORATION in the Missouri country was commenced in 1835
J-^ by Karl Andreas Geyer, a collector who became well known for
his botanical explorations in the northwestern section of the United
States. His explorations extended over a number of years and ranged
from Illinois westward to the Pacific. He traveled especially in the
territory included between the Mississippi and the Missouri River as
far north as North Dakota.

Karl Andreas Gej^er^^ was born in Dresden, Germany, on November
30, 1809. His father was a market gardener of very moderate circum-
stances. The boy was naturally bright and studied Latin under the
tutelage of a kind-hearted man who helped him with his lessons, which
were studied while he was selling hi;? father's produce in the streets of
the city. In 1826 he entered the garden at Zabelitz as an apprentice.
In 1830 he removed to Dresden and engaged as assistant in the bo-
tanic garden there. In this place he had numerous friends, among
whom was Dr. H. G. Reichenbach, whose lectures upon botany he at-
tended with great regularity. He seems to have been a very likable
and attractive person, drawing the attention of those with whom he
came in contact. In February, 1834, he left Dresden for America.
Here he collected plants during the summer months and worked at
odd jobs in the winter, thus maintaining himself for several years. In
one case he entered a newspaper office as compositor, but a few months
later he was writing the leading articles for the same paper that he had
helped set in type. ■

Geyer's first great journey in this country was in 1835, when he
visited and explored the plains of the Missouri with a single compan-
ion. In 1836 and the succeeding years he went with Nicollet survey-
ing the country between the Missouri and the Mississippi River. In
1840 he collected around St. Louis and in Illinois, making very consid-
erable collections during this season. While in St. Louis he became
acquainted with Dr. George Engelmann and this friendship seems to
have lasted as long as Geyer was in this country. Engelmann seems to
liave worked over his collections, as we find him publishing upon them

"Anonymous, Chronik des Oartenioesens, 3: 185-187, 1853.
Reichenbach, H. G., Kew Garden Miscellany, 7: 181-183, 1855.

BOTANY AT ST. LOUIS 125

in 1844. He also came into possession of some of Geyer's collections,
as it is definitely stated that they had been deposited in the Engelmann
herbarium.

In 1841 Geyer went with Fremont to the J)es Moines River in Iowa
territory, where he found a number of new plants. In 1843 he ex-
plored the upper Illinois territory and formed the herbarium which
was first offered for sale. In 1843 he began the journey from Missouri
to the Pacific coast, lasting through the years 1843 and 1844. He ex-
plored the northwestern country very extensively and penetrated to
hitherto inaccessible places by accompanying missionary trains on their
visits to the different Indian tribes. He finally reached Fort A^an-
eouver, and from there sailed on November 13, 1844, for England, go-
ing by way of the Sandwich Islands and Cape Horn. He arrived in
England May 25, 1845, and spent some months at Kew, working over
his collections and sorting out small lots of plants to sell. A large
part of his profits from such sales was used in defraying expenses
caused by a sickness brought on by his previous hardships. In Sep-
tember, 1845, he again returned to his home in Saxony, after an ab-
sence of eleven years. At first he entered the employment of head-gar-
dener Lehman in Dresden, and later in the Royal Botanical Garden.
His wanderings had shown him the value of a home, and on August
24, 1846, he married Miss Emma Schulze. Besides his duties for the
garden he taught students the English language, his pupils coming
from every class in Meissen. Geyer also took a prominent part in the
local society for the advancement of science. During the last three
years of his life he was editor of Chronik des Gartenwesens und
Feuilleton der Isis, a periodical published at Meissen on the first and
fifteenth of the month, from January 1, 1851, to December 15, 1853.
Geyer's death occurred just before the end of the third volume, and it
was discontinued with the third volume. While in no wise neglecting
his duties at the garden, he came in written communication with the
prominent botanists of the time and rounded out his collections.
Heart disease troubled him considerably in his latter days and finally
caused his death on November 21, 1853.

In 1835 a physician, George Engelmann by name, settled in St.
Louis and soon built up a lucrative practise. During his spare mo-
ments he worked upon botanical problems, and before long he had
established a reputation among botanists such that at his death he was
ranked among the foremost of botanical workers.

Dr. George Engelmann^ ^ was born at Frankfort-on-the-Main, Feb-

" Gray, Asa, Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sci., 19: 516-522, 1884.
Sander, Enno, Trans. St. Louis Acad. Sci., 4: 1-18 (Supplement).
Anonymous, Pop. Sci. Monthly, 29: 260-265, 1886.

126

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Fig. 9. De. Geo. Exgelmann ; by courtesy of the Director of the
Missouri Botanical Garden.

ruary 2, 1809. He was the eldest of thirteen children. Aided by a
scholarship he went to the University of Heidelberg in the year 1827,
where he had as fellow-students and companions Karl Schimper and
Alexander Braun. Political embarrassments caused him to go in the
autumn of 1828 to Berlin University for two years, and finally to
Wiirzburg, where he took his degree of Doctor of Medicine in the sum-
mer of 1831. His inaugural dissertation, " De Antholysi Prodromus,"
published at Frankfort in 1832, testifies to his truly scientific mind.

1887.

Trelease, Wm., and Gray, Asa, " Botanical Works of Engelmann," 1-548,

Sargent, C. S., " Silva of North America," 8 : 84, 1895.
White, C. A., " Biogr. Mems. Nat. Acad. Sci., 4: 3-21, 1896.

BOTANY AT ST. LOUIS

127

It is a morphological study founded chiefly upon monstrosities, and it
had the honor of receiving the notice and approval of Goethe, who of-
fered to place in Engelmann's hands his notes and sketches, which
intention was frustrated by his death before it had been carried out.
This first paper has been very favorably commented upon, and com-
pared with much more extended and pretentious works of a similar
nature.

The spring and summer of 1832 were passed at Paris in medical
and scientific studies with Braun and Agassiz as companions. He
then became the willing agent of his uncles, who had resolved to make
some land investments in the Mississippi Valley, and he sailed from
Bremen for Baltimore in September. He joined some of his relatives

Fig. 10. Residence of Dh. Geo. Engelmann in St. Louis, Missouri :
by permission of the Director of the Missouri Botanical Garden.

who had previously settled in Illinois near St. Louis, and made lonely
journeys on horseback through southern Illinois, Missouri and Ar-
kansas. He finally established himself in St. Louis as a doctor of
medicine late in the autumn of 1835. At this time St. Louis was a
frontier town of eight or ten thousand inhabitants. Beginning in
poverty, he soon built up a large practise and so established himself in
his profession that he was able to go back to Germany for some months.
While there he married his cousin. Miss Dora Hartmann, in June,
1840.

Again in 1856 he left his practise for a two years' absence, devoting

128 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

the first summer to botanical investigations at Cambridge, and then
visiting his native land in company with his wife and son. In 1868
the family again visited Europe for a year, the son remaining to study
at Berlin. The mother died in January, 1879, and Englemann's own
health failed alarmingly. A journey to Germany was taken in 1883
and the voyage was so beneficial that he was able to resume his botanic-
al work. Serious symptoms soon caused him to return and the ocean
voyage again proved very restorative and he resumed his labors with
increased vigor. Increasing infirmities, however, gradually reduced
his working powers until his death, which took place on February 4,
1884.

Upon first coming to this section of the country Dr. Engelmann
traveled on horseback through southern Illinois and in Missouri and
Arkansas; and during the latter part of his life he explored the moun-
tains of North Carolina and Tennessee, the Lake Superior region and
the Eocky Mountains and contiguous plains in Colorado and adjacent
territories, thus being able to study in place, and with the acuteness of
judgment which characterized his work, the Cacti, Conifers, and
other groups of plants which he had investigated for years. In 1880
he made a long journey through the Pacific states, where he saw for
the first time growing naturally many plants which he had described
and studied over thirtv vears before.

Dr. Engelmann's papers are voluminous even for a man who could
devote all of his time to botany ; but it must be remembered that he had
a large practise as a physician, which took most of his time, and that
botany was taken up only in spare moments. When this is taken into
account, together with the fact that he was also interested in other
sciences (especially meteorology), their extent is nothing short of mar-
velous. The memorial volume of his papers published by Henry Shaw
contains eighty-seven different papers of varying length. These have
been grouped in this volume under the following headings or general
topics: Cuscutinese, Cactese, Juneus, Yucca and Agave, Coniferae,
Oaks, Vitis, Euphorbiaceaj, Isoetes, Miscellaneous, Lists and Collected
Descriptions of Plants, and General Notes. It was the custom of Dr.
Engelmann to take any scrap of paper and make notes upon it which
might occur to him, together with sketches showing characters of the
plant in hand. All such notes were at his death collected and mounted
in a set of large books which are now in the possession of the Missouri
Botanical Garden. These notes were so numerous that they made a
library in themselves, filling sixty of these books.

His method of working was to take a single group of plants and
work it out systematically so far as was in his power. His treatment
of the genus Cuscuta in his first monograph of that group increased
the number of species from one to fourteen without going west of the

BOTANY AT ST. LOUIS

129

Mississippi Valle3^ Seventeen years later, after an investigation of the
whole genus in the principal herbaria of this country and of Europe,
he published a systematic arrangement of all the Cuscutse, giving sev-
enty-seven species, besides a number of varieties.

Dr. Engelmann's authority upon the CactacecE was of the very high-
est. He established the arrangement of these plants upon floral and
carpological characters. This work was carried on through a series of
papers beginning with his sketch of the botany of Dr. A. Wislizenus's
expedition from Missouri to northern Mexico, and continued in his
account of the giant cactus of the Grila, in his synopsis of the Cactacese
of the United States, and in his two memoirs upon the southern and
western species contributed to the Pacific Railroad Reports and to
Emory's " Report on the Mexi-
can Boundary Survey." He
had made preparations for a re-
vision of at least the Noith
American Cactacese, but upon
his death much knowledge of
this ditHcult group was lost.

His papers on the American
oaks and the Coniferae are of
the highest interest, and are
some of the best specimens of
his botanical work; and the
same is also true of his study of
the vines. Nearly all that we
know of this genus scientifi-
cally is directly due to Dr. En-
gelmann's investigations.

His work is characterized
by a minuteness and careful-
fulness of observation, coupled
with a nicety of discrimination
which made him a master in
S3^stematic work, his treatment
of the yuccas and agaves, the genera Juncus, siiphorhia, Sagittaria,
Isoetes, the Loranthacece, Sparganum and Gentiana giving him an
eminence among fellows botanists to which few attain. His name
was upon the rolls of many societies devoted to the investigation of
nature, and he was the recognized authority upon those departments
of his favorite science which had most interested him. His name
has been given to a monotypical genus of plants, Engelmannia, by
Torrey and Gray. Numerous species also bear his name.

Shortly after Dr. Engelmann settled in St. Louis, Nicholas Riehl.

FiG. 11. Nicholas Riehl ;
from a photograph kindly loaned by his son,
Mr. E. A. Riehl. '

1 .30 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

a native of France, came to his city and settled on a piece of land on
the Gravois Eoad in South St. Louis, and began to collect botanical
specimens.

Nicholas EiehP* was born in Colmar, province of Alsace, France
(now Germany), about 1808. His father's business was that of manu-
facturing cloth; not liking it, Nicholas sold it after the death of his
father, and divided the estate. He took his share and traveled over
much of Europe and America, coming as far west as St. Louis. Ta-
king a liking to this part of the country, he returned to his old home
and married. The two returned to St. Louis in the spring of 1836,
and settled on a piece of ground on the Gravois Eoad in Carondelet,
just outside the St. Louis city limits, and established a nursery. This
is believed to have been the first nursery in St. Louis county, if not in
the state of Missouri. The nursery business he carried on with success
and profit until the time of his death in September, 1852. Eiehl evi-
dently collected botanical specimens some years before he came to this
country, as specimens in his herbarium bear dates as far back as 1830,
which were collected in the vicinity of Colmar. He also collected con-
siderably in the vicinity of St. Louis in 1838. He had printed labels
made for the collections made in this year, and they number not far from
two hundred. Besides the specimens bearing the printed labels, there
are many with incomplete labels which undoubtedly were collected here
also. His entire collection was sold to Mr. Henry Shaw, who was at
that time just starting to develop his botanical garden. The larger part
of them were collected in Europe or were exchanged with European
collectors. Mr. Eiehl was a friend and admirer of Dr. George Engel-
mann, and was much interested in the work which he was doing. The
Eiehl nursery furnished Mr. Shaw the first trees which he planted in
his newly started botanical garden.

In the forties Theodore C. Hilgard was collecting the native plants
of the vicinity of St. Louis.

Theodore Charles Hilgard^^ was born at Zweibrucken, Ehenish
Bavaria, on February 28, 1828. His father, Theodore Erasmus Hil-
gard, was a lawyer, who in 1836 resigned from the Supreme Court of
the province and emigrated with his family to America, settling on a
farm near Belleville, 111., which at that time was the home of many
other educated Germans who for political reasons had preceded him.
Theodore was the sixth of a family of eight. The schools being poor
and few in number, Theodore with the other younger children received
his primary education from his elder sisters and elder brother Julius,

" Information and photograph supplied by Mr. E. A. Riehl, of Alton,
Illinois, son of Nicholas.

" This sketch is adapted with very slight changes from a manuscript kindly
furnished by Professor Eugene W. Hilgard, brother of Theodore.

BOTANY AT ST. LOUIS

131

while all received their higher training, especially in the languages,
from their father. The boys aided in the farming operations and Theo-
dore early manifested a marked interest in the natural sciences, and es-
pecially in botany; in which, however, his father could not help him.
He soon found an enthusiastic helper in his younger brother Eugene,
and together they made extensive collections of the native plants and in-
sects of the vicinity. Dr. George Engelmann, a second cousin, greatly
assisted the boys in their botanical studies.

Early in 1847 Theodore went to Europe and entered the University
of Heidelberg as a student of medicine. Henle, Chelius and Hasse
then made Heidelberg the most notable center for medical study outside
of Vienna, while Bischoff represented botany. Hilgard at once began
to make what subsequently became a very complete collection of the
flora of central Europe. The revolutionary agitation of 1848 some-
what disturbed the regularity of the
course of study, but no actual in-
terruption occurred until, in the
spring of 1849, active revolutionary
movements took place in Baden
itself. Theodore then (with his
brother Eugene, who had meantime
joined him) went to Ziirich, and
there passed three semesters, study-
ing especially microscopy under
Naegeli, and physiology under Lud-
wig, besides attending the natural
history lectures of Oken. During
this time the brothers made ex-
tended excursions on foot through
Switzerland and collected the Al-
pine flora. In 1851 Theodore went
to Vienna to study, where were
then such medical celebrities as

as Eokitansky, Oppolzer, Bednar and Hebra. After nearly two semes-
ters, during which he gave much time to botanical study in the great
Endlicher collection, he was obliged to go to Malaga to bring back
his widowed sister. While there he made an extensive collection of
Mediterranean plants which greatly interested him. On his return
he went to Wilrzburg, where he graduated in June, 1852, summa cum
laude, as doctor in medicine, surgery and obstetrics. He then went
to Berlin to study ophthalmology with Graefe, as well as surgery.
In the summer of 1853 he returned to America, taking a position as
ship physician on an emigrant vessel, on which he experienced an
epidemic of cholera.

Pig. 12. De. Theodore C. Hilgard ; by
courtesy of Dr. Eugene Hilgard.

J32 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Soon after his arrival he went on a visit to the west to see whether
he had best practise his profession there. On the way he sustained a
severe shock to his spine in a steamer accident. It took him several
weeks to recover somewhat, but he never fully recovered. He was dis-
appointed in the outlook and returned to the east, where he took up
practise in Philadelphia. There he became a friend of Elias Durand,
a druggist and botanist, who in the latter capacity was requested to
elaborate the botanical collections made by Heermann while with the
Williamson Pacific Kailroad Expedition. Durand proposed to Hilgard
that they should collaborate in this work, and the latter being by na-
ture an expert drauglitsman, he not only described, but drew the illus-
trations of a large number of the " Plantse Heermanianse " accompany-
ing the final report of the expedition. The strain of this work seemed
to develop the spinal injury into a serious inflammation, from which he
was prostrated for months. After recovery which was, however, never
complete, he resolved to begin practise in St. Louis, and removed there
in 1855.

He continued to practise in St. Louis from that time until 1870,
much handicapped by the spinal weakness which obliged him to refuse
much lucrative practice. His spare time was chiefly devoted to botani-
cal studies, now more especially to the cryptogams, whose development
he studied under the microscope, in the use of which he became very
expert. In these studies he found that the then current classification
and nomenclature of these - organisms was seriously at fault, many
merely developmental forms being classed as separate species, genera
and even orders. He also worked zealously in devising a system of
arrangement of the phanerogams which would express their mutual
cross relations, the best graphic presentation of which on a flat surface
he found in the pentagrammatic form. Comparative anatomy and the
homotaxy of organs and structural parts also formed a favorite subject
of investigation. Most of his work on these subjects was published in
the Proceedings of the St. Louis Academy of Sciences, of which he was
a charter member; also in the Proceedings of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science and in the St. Louis Medical Reporter.
He also helped in the organization of the " Humboldt Institute "
library which for some time had a very useful cultural influence. In
1865 he married Miss Georgina Koch, daughter of Mr. A, Koch, of
Zeuglodon fame. No children came of this union.

As the state of his health precluded his acting as an army surgeon,
he remained at St. Louis during the war in hospital and private prac-
tise. After the war medical practise seemed to become more and more
incompatible with his strength, and he gave it up and joined his brother
Eugene at the University of Mississippi, where at that time a lecture-
ship of botany was contemplated. But it failed of realization, and he

BOTANY AT t^T. LOUIS 133

accepted a position in the U. S. Coast Survey as observer in the mag-
netic survey then being made on the basis of the " Bache Fund." In
this he continued until 1873, when he found it necessary to settle to a
quiet life. The last year of his life was passed at New York City,
where in March, 1875, he died of an abscess of the lungs.

The Hilgard collection of plants, embracing about 12,000 species,
was taken by his brother Eugene to the University of California, where
it was destroyed by fire in 1897.

Shumard in his presidential address before the St. Louis Academy
of Sciences in 1869 spoke as follows concerning a collection of j)lants
given by Hilgard to the Academy :

Our botanical collection embraces an extensive series of lichens and mosses
amounting to several hundred species, chiefly from western states and terri-
tories. These were collected by Dr. T. C. Hilgard, of this city, and by him
presented and arranged in our museum."

In the fire which destroyed part of the academy museum a few
years later, this collection was also destroyed.

^° Shumard, Trans. St. Louis Acad. ScL, 3: XII., 1869.

{To be conthiued)

134 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

THE LATEST CALABEIAN DISASTER

By Professor WM. H. HOBBS
university of michigan

~VT0W that more reliable accounts have reached us of the terrible
-i-^ disaster to Calabria and Sicily, it is possible to discuss some
larger facts which seem to be revealed with clearness. The grand
eruption of Etna, the disappearance of the Eolian islands, and other
equally improbable rumors, have ceased to be valuable scareheads in
the newspapers. The death loss it is still too early to properly esti-
mate, but on the basis of a well determined law of news reporting,
it is safe to say that the larger of the estimates will be much reduced.
Many that have been reported killed will eventually be classified among
the maimed and wounded, and many communes now supposed to be in
as great plight as their near neighbors, will be found either to have re-
ceived but slight damage or even to have remained immune. Such has,
at least, been the history of the earlier Calabrian earthquakes.

A number of large towns at first reported destroyed as a result
of the Calabrian earthquake of September 8, 1905, the writer found
on visiting them a few weeks later had escaped without injury of any
kind. The reported death roll fell from many thousand to 3,000, then
to 1,500, and finally to 529, the last figure, that of the official count by
communes.

Yet, notwithstanding this history there seems no reason to doubt
that the death loss from the recent shocks will mount far into the
tens of thousands. The greatest of previous disasters from this cause
within the same region occurred in February and March, 1783, at
which time the death roll was 29,515 (as finally counted by villages)
and the property loss $26,000,000. This was, however, one of the
greatest earthquake disasters of history, for recent extended studies
by Woehle have shown that Lyell's estimate of 60,000 for the deaths
caused by the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 should be divided in half.
In this instance the estimates of deaths which were made at the time
ranged all the way from 25,000 to 150,000.

One can not read of the rush of Italy's king and queen to the
succor of their pitiably afflicted subjects, and of their remaining among
them with considerable danger to themselves, without realizing that
there is much of the heroic in it. The traditions of an almost parental
relationship to their subjects, have thus been well maintained through

THE LATEST CALABRIAN DISASTER 135

the inspiration of their presence and their magnificent personal cour-
age. The actual conditions have been terrible enough, but apprehen-
sions of phantom dangers flourish amid ignorance and superstition, and
in Italy the inspiring example of the sovereigns is hardly less im-
portant to operations of succor than are the rescue corps and their
supplies. It was the writer's fortune to follow somewhat closely in
the footsteps of King Victor Emanuel and Queen Helena after the
Calabrian earthquake of 1905, and again after the Vesuvian outbreak
of the following year, on both of which occasions a similar impulse
carried them at once to the afflicted districts. As a result of this ex-
perience the writer has only admiration for their conduct.

A further word may be added concerning the work of the troops
which were then engaged in rescue operations, since their conduct
has been unfavorably commented upon in some quarters. The writer
had ample opportunity to observe their work and would submit that
the army acted not only with vigor and effectiveness, but upon a
thoroughly scientific plan. There is, therefore, every reason to believe
that all which is possible will be done by the Italian government in
the face of the much greater catastrophe which it is now facing.

It is, however, beyond Italy's power to properly meet this disaster
without some help from the outside world. The first supplies of food
and of hospital stores, it may be expected, will be contributed in suffi-
cient quantity, for the horror of the event has stirred the entire western
world. The greatest pinch of poverty and starvation will come when
the great wave of emotion has passed and the future a,lone is to be
considered. To properly appreciate this, it is necessary to consider the
normal economic conditions and the recent physical history of southern
Italy.

Calabria and northeastern Sicily, the provinces affected by the
earthquake, are overpopulated, and from them there has been much
emigration to the United States and to South America. The chief
sources of income are the culture of the olive, fig, the citrus fruits,
and the cereals, and in Sicily the mining of sulphur. As regards fruit
and cereal culture, the peculiar conditions of farm tenure are such that
even under favorable circumstances a large part of the population is
kept on the verge of poverty. The sulphur mining in Sicily is carried
on in a small way over most of the interior, and until a few years ago
was a fairly profitable industry. Now, however, the use of pyrites as
a substitute for sulphur in the manufacture of vitriol, and the recent
successful exploitation of the vast sulphur deposits of Louisiana, have
so reduced the price of sulphur as to threaten the only means of
livelihood of a large part of the Sicilian population.

In contrast to southern Italy, the conditions of living in the north-
ern provinces are good, and it has long been necessary for the north

136 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Italians to contribute to the support of their compatriots in Calabria
and Sicily. As a result of this burden, a strong party in the govern-
ment has long been advocating a separation of the two sections, which
would leave Calabria and Sicily to care for themselves.

To these discouraging general conditions must be added a series
of special calamities which have befallen southern Italy since the sum-
mer of 1905. In September of that year, without warning of any
kind, came the blow of the great Calabrian earthquake, the shocks of
which destroyed property to the value of nearly $10,000,000, besides
leaving a long list of killed and wounded. Both government aid and
large private subscriptions from the northern provinces were necessary
in order to succor the victims and in part to rebuild the mined villages.

In the following spring heavy rains largely ruined the crops in
Sicily, and in April occurred the great eruption of Vesuvius which
spread a mantle of ash on the flanks of the mountain, so as to bury
the vineyards and remove for some years the sources of livelihood.
Many thousand people who dwell upon the flanks of the volcano were
thus thrown upon the government for support and the more favored
Italians in the northern provinces were obliged to make further sac-
rifices for their relief.

What, we ask, is Italy to do in the face of the new disaster, follow-
ing as it does so swiftly upon the heels of the others, and dwarfing
them by its proportions. It avails nothing now to argue that much
of the loss of life and property might easily have been avoided, had
buildings suited to such a seismic district been constructed. This
fact has again and again been pointed out by properly qualified persons
after each fresh disaster, but the force of inherited tradition is not so
easily turned aside, and it was only after the earthquake of 1905 that
the beginning of better things was seen. Then in place of the loose
stone and tile houses — veritable man deadfalls — which have again and
again been raised over their own ruins, strong wooden barracks were
constructed under government supervision. It is, however, only in
such towns as were largely destroyed in 1905 that such reform measures
have been adopted.

Leaving now the humanitarian side of this calamity we may turn
to its scientific aspects. Enough is already known to state that the site
of the heaviest movement lay in and about that small arm of the Med-
iterranean which separates Sicily from the mainland of Italy — a sec-
tion of crust, therefore, which immediately adjoins upon the west
that which was heavily shaken in the fall of 1905. This fact, no doubt,
helps to explain the otherwise exceptional character, since a destructive
earthquake is apt to be followed liy a rather long period of comparative
quiet, so soon as the so-called aftershocks have faded away. The great

THE LATEST CALABRIAN DISASTER 137

earthquake of 1783 possessed likewise this double character, but in that
instance also the areas of the heavy shocks were distinct though
adjacent.

For purposes of study the latest Calabrian earthquake appears
to offer some exceptional opportunities. The peculiar outlines of the
two land masses which are involved render them specially open to
study from the sea as a base. The full importance of this fact will be
appreciated by any one who has been compelled to find accommodations
where only the ruins of hotels exist. Under such circumstances one
must proceed on foot or with a donkey, carrying supplies of bread
and wine with him.

A scientific party engaged in studying the Calabrian earthquake
could live for most of the time upon a vessel from which the shore
would be reached either at the numerous ports or by launches. If a
government vessel is to be sent with supplies to the afflicted district,
the opportunity should not be lost to despatch a scientific party aboard
her.

For another reason the recent earthquake offers unique oppor-
tunities for study. It has long been known that the straight eastern
coast line of Sicily corresponds to a great zone of faulting within the
earth's crust, and more than once in the past the slips upon it have
brought disaster. On at least one such occasion, the sea bottom between
Messina and Eeggio and between Charybdis and Scilla has been con-
siderably modified. In the vicinity large strips of cliff have slipped
down into the deep sea at their base. A primary object of a scientific
party charged with the investigation of this earthquake should, there-
fore, be to carry out an elaborate series of soundings in waters within
and about the straits of Messina. Fortunately the dangerous nature
of this channel is responsible for accurate data which represent the late
condition. We have, therefore, here the opportunity of determining by
a simple re-survey the changes which are ascribable to the recent earth
disturbance.

A second section of the expedition should have for its chief object
the preparation of maps of all portions of the shores or inland areas
which reveal any change of configuration as a result of the earthquake.
One of the most difficult of questions which arise in connection with
earthquakes is to determine the exact significance of the so-called
" secondary cracks." These cracks are generally found in loose mater-
ials, and the question is in how far they represent the projection
upon the earth's surface of cracks within the consolidated rock below,
or in how far they are due to settlement, and have in consequence
less significance of orientation. This question can be definitely settled
only by the aid of careful and detailed maps, which are studied in con-

VOL. LXXIV. — 10.

138 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

nection with the fracture system of the more firmly consolidated
rocks.

Either the same or a separate triangulation section of the party
should have charge of the re-occupation of primary triangulation sta-
tions in order to see what changes in position and elevation of these sta-
tions are properly ascribable to the earthquake. It may well be doubted
if more ideal conditions could anywhere be found for such a study.
If continued changes should be found to occur during the progress of
the surveys, as is by no means improbable, the opportunity thus offered
to compare mass movements of the ground with the time of prominent
aftershocks should be regarded as of the first importance.

In every great earthquake which is studied, perhaps the most
important line of attack is found in the distribution of the surface in-
tensity of the shocks. It is now everywhere acknowledged that this
intensity or amplitude of movement (and it is on this that damage
to structures depends), is in a large measure determined by the elastic
or non-elastic nature of the underlying material. Amplitude of move-
ment is least on so-called " solid rock," it is greater on non-coherent
deposits such as alluvial material, and it is probably greatest over so-
called " made ground," with its tin-can and crockery ingredients.

With the passing of the centrum theory it is inevitable that the
study of the immediate basement of each locality should enter ujDon the
quantitative stage of development. The local quantitative effect of
the surface layers is a factor which to an approximation may be kno^vn
and for this reason should be eliminated, if the seats of movement are
to be determined. Local thickness and relative elasticity of the uncon-
solidated materials in the basement must therefore, be determined, and
the value thus obtained be deducted from the total local intensity, if we
are to arrive at the genesis of the disturbance. Accurate geologic maps
and earlier detailed seismological studies in Calabria and Sicily are fav-
orable to an extended study of this subject.^

There are few, if any, places where within a circumscribed area
more elaborate magnetic observations have been carried out than about
the straits of Messina. Before the earthquake of 1905 a detailed mag-
netic survey for this district had been completed. It is almost certain
that large changes would be revealed by a new survey since it has been
shown in Japan that important changes in the isomagnetics resulted
from the great earthquake of 1891. The importance of magnetic
records to earthquake study is each year being made more apparent.

* William H. Hobbs, I., " On Some Principles of Seismic Geology," with an
introduction by Professor Eduard Suess ; II., " The G^eotectonic and Geodynamic
Aspects of Calabria and Northeastern Sicily," with an introduction by Count
de Montessus de Ballore. Gerland's "Beitraege zur Geophysik," Vol. 8, 1907,
pp. 219-362, pis. 12.

TEE LATEST CALABRIAN DISASTER 139

A sixth object of study should be the tsunamis or "tidal waves"
which apparently followed upon the recent shocks, since it has been
demonstrated that such waves go out from the deeps of the sea appar-
ently as the result of movements upon the floors of those deeps. That
these movements are not directly connected with the land disturbances
is apparent in their absolute lack of relation to such disturbances, even
when the land disturbance is localized at and near the border of the
sea. The California earthquake of 1906 was followed by no afterwave,
though the Yakutat Bay (Alaska) eartliquake of 1899 was succeeded by
an inundating wave over forty feet in height.

Great deeps of the Mediterranean occur both to the north of Sicily
(the Tyrrhenean deep on the site of a former land area) and also
to the southeastward in the Ionian depression. Fortunately the land
areas form a barrier between these deeps and furnish unusual oppor-
tunities of localizing the sea floor movements on the basis of the shore
lines which have been washed by the wave. A series of soundings in
these deeps, which have been already surveyed with considerable care,
should afford a confirmative determination, provided changes not ascrib-
able to errors in either series of soundings should be discovered. Such
a discovery would certainly take foremost rank among earthquake
investigations.

To sum up, therefore, it may be said that the proposed scientifie
expedition should be prepared to carry out at least six separate lines of
investigation, since conditions are in all cases unusually favorable for-
study. These lines are : ( 1 ) a re-survey by soundings of the sea bottom-
separating Sicily from Calabria; (2) the preparation of precise and
accurate maps by expert topographers of all sections of the land which
have suffered noteworthy visible deformation; (3) the re-occupation of
primary triangulation stations in the vicinity of the straits of Messina,
in order to determine changes in location and elevation; (4) the dis-
tribution of the damage on the land with due regard to the depth andl
character of superficial deposits, and further comparison of the results;
with those of earlier quakes within the same district; (5) a magnetic re-
survey of the near shores (unless this is to be carried out by Italian
workers) ; (6) the taking of a sufficient number of soundings over the
great Tyrrhenian and Ionian deeps to determine whether changes in.
depth explain the after-waves of the earthquake.

As precedent for such studies conducted upon foreign soil, it
should be stated that the great Andulusian earthquake of Christmas
Day, 1884, was studied by a French Commission headed by Professor
F. Fouque, sent out by the Paris Academy of Sciences. The same
disaster was also successfully investigated by an Italian Commission
sent by the Royal Academy at Rome, and our present knowledge of
this earthquake is very largely based upon the monographs which were

I40 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

published by the French and Italian Commissions.^ There is, more-
over, every reason to think that the Italian government would welcome
and cooperate in every way with such an expedition as is here proposed.
The present writer takes pleasure in saying that his studies of the
Calabrian earthquake of 1905 were aided in every possible manner
by the Italian scientific societies, and by individual seismologists.

There is a further reason why such a study should be undertaken
by outside parties. It is difficult for one unfamiliar with the facts
to understand the vexatious delays under which Italian scientists are
often compelled to carry out their work. As a result of the financial
straits in which the Italian government finds itself, the publication
of scientific monographs is often long delayed. The manuscript of
a report upon the Calabrian earthquake of 1894 had not seen the light
when the shocks of 1905 arrived. This greater catastrophe seemed
to render the report of less vital importance than a new report, and
two separate royal commissions were appointed to prepare a report upon
the disturbance of 1905. As their report has not yet appeared it is
likely to be side-tracked for the report upon the new disaster. Thus
the results of much painstaking scientific work see the light only in
brief abstracts, because government action is too slow or, shall we say,
seismic action too frequent.

^ F. Fouque et al., Mission d'Andalousie ; "Etudes relatives au tremble-
ment de terre du 25 d6cembre 1884 et a la constitution geologique du sol
^branlg par les secousses," Acad. Sci. Paris, Mem., 2me ser., Vol. 30, 1899, pp.
1-772, pis. 42. T. Taramelli e G. Mercalli, " I terrimoti andalusi cominciati
il 25 dicembre 1884," Atti della R. Accad. dei Lincei, Mem., 4th ser., Vol. 3,
pp. 116-222, pis. 4.

JEFFERSON DAVIS'S CAMEL EXPERIMENT 141

JEFFEKSON DAVIS'S CAMEL EXPEKIMENT

By Professor WALTER L. FLEMING

LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY

WHEN Jefferson Davis was secretary of war he inaugurated an
interesting and important experiment for the purpose of deter-
mining whether camels could be used for transportation purposes in
the United States. Never before or since that decade preceding the
Civil AVar has the government been confronted with such serious prob-
lems as were caused by the territorial expansion of the late forties, and
of these not the least serious were the difficulties of communication and
of transportation on the far western frontiers. Even before the an-
nexation of Texas, New Mexico and California it had been a difficult
task to administer government on the outer frontier ; after the Mexican
war the troubles were multiplied. Immense territories had been added,
the frontier was more than doubled in length and was more exposed
and dangerous; much of the unsettled region was mountainous, or was
dry and without grass and water for pack animals and cavalry horses.
The settlements on the Pacific coast also had a frontier — an eastern
frontier which had to be guarded as well as the western frontier on
the other side of the moimtains. And for political and military
reasons it was necessary that communications between California and
the rest of the United States be made shorter and safer. The experi-
ences of the army officers, especially those of the Quartermaster's De-
partment, during the Mexican war caused them to turn serious attention
to the question of transportation. On account of the rough or desert
character of much of the country it was not jDossible to make much use
of horses and packmules. Eailroads, it was thought, would not for
years traverse any of this country, and would never open up all of it.
A formidable danger to frontier settlements, to small army garrisons
and camps, and to communication of any kind, lay in the attacks of the
hostile Indians of this region who, on their swift ponies, could make
sudden raids and escape capture by the foot soldiers or the small bodies
of cavalry.^

That the camel would suit such conditions was the belief of several
army officers and particularly of Jefferson Davis, who when a young
man had served in the army on the western frontier and later had com-
manded a regiment in the war with Mexico. The camel could travel
faster than a horse and carry heavier loads over rougher ground, could
go without water for days at a time and could live upon the poorest

' See Eeports of Secretary of War, 1853-7.

142 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

forage. It could also endure better than the horse or mule the ex-
tremes of heat and cold in this western region. The experience of
other peoples had proved the value of the camel. In northern Africa
and over the greater part of Asia the animal had always been the beast
of burden — the most important agent of transportation. In climate
and physical geography our western frontiers were similar to the re-
gions which were the home of the camel.

Camels had been used in America, but not in large numbers. The
Spaniards had imported them into Cuba and South America for use in
transporting ore from the mines to the coast, but this experiment had
not been a success. In 1701 some camels were brought to Virginia,
but nothing more is known of them. In Jamaica, where the English
tried them, the " chigger " or " chiqua," an insect which infested the
feet of the negroes, got into the feet of the camels, rendering them
unserviceable.^

The proposal to substitute camels for mules, horses and oxen in
transporting supplies for the army was first made by Major George
Hampton Crossman, a graduate of West Point, who was Zachary
Taylor's quartermaster in the Seminole war. The difficulty of trans-
porting supplies in Florida caused him to suggest that camels be intro-
duced and used for that purpose. He made a study of the subject, and
twenty years later was considered one of the authorities concerning
camels.

Prominent among the officers who took an interest in the matter
was Major Henry Constantine Wayne, a Georgian, who during and
after the Mexican war, served in the Quai-termaster's Department.
He, with Senator Jefferson Davis, late colonel of the Mississippi Rifles,
made extensive studies in regard to the different breeds of the animal,
its habitat, the proper care of it, and its adaptability to the arid plains
of Texas, New Mexico and California. Wayne, in 1848, made a for-
mal recommendation to the War Department that camels be imported
for experimental purposes, and Davis, who was on the military affairs
committee, undertook to get an appropriation. In March, 1851, he
proposed to insert in the army appropriation bill an amendment pro-
viding the sum of $30,000 for the purchase of fifty camels, the hire of
ten Arabs, and other expenses. In support of his measure he made
a speech reviewing the history of the camel as a servant of man and
explaining the need for the animals in the west. There they would
be valuable, he said, not only because of their burden-bearing capacity
and their ability to live long without water and to eat scraggy bushes,
but because of their greater speed. The dromedaries, or swift camels,
could be used to mount cavalry and could carry small cannon, as had
been done in Persia and in Egypt. Senator Ewing at first objected
that the climate in the mountainous parts of the west was too cold for

* Leonard, "The Camel," pp. 1-18; Marsh, "The Camel," chap. 16.

JEFFERSON DAVIS'S CAMEL EXPERIMENT 143

the animal, but Davis convinced him that camels were useful in parts
of Asia where the extremes of heat and cold were greater than in the
west. Senator Eantoul objected that the proposition was extravagant
and others that it was ludicrous. The appropriation was not made.^

A year later, when Davis had returned to Mississippi, Bissell, of
Illinois, introduced into the House a bill carrying a $20,000 appro-
priation for the purchase of camels. Both Evans, of Maine, and
Shields, of Ohio, who supported the measure, spoke of it as originating
with Davis. The remarks made show that the War Department had
considered the matter carefully and favored the measure. The house
passed the camel bill but it was lost in the senate.*

By this time the public was becoming familiar with the proposal
to import camels and numerous suggestions were made to the govern-
ment. John Eussell Bartlett, the author and etlinologist, who for
three years (1850-1853) had worked on the southwestern boundary,
was of the opinion that camels should be used in that region. George
Eobins Gliddon, the archeologist, who had lived in Egypt for twenty-
three years, wrote a memorial to congress declaring that the project
was feasible. Another eminent person, who was exerting himself to
get the government to make the experiment, was George Perkins
Marsh, the philologist and diplomat, who had lived in the Levant and
who was acquainted with the camel in Turkey and Italy. To help the
cause he delivered a lecture in 1854 at the Smithsonian Institution and
also wrote a little book which was published in 1856 : " The Camel, his
Organization, Habits and Uses, considered with reference to his Intro-
duction into the United States."^ The general interest in the camel
project caused the organization of " The American Camel Company,"
of New York, which proposed to import burden camels for use in the
west. About 1857 the company landed one shipment in Texas, but
nothing is known of further activities.

In 1853 Jefferson Davis returned to Washington as secretary of
war and at once took up the question of importing and experimenting
with camels. He had already made extensive researches into the his-
tory and habits of the camel when a member of the senate committee
on military affairs. !N"ow Major Wayne, of the Quartermaster's Depart-
ment, and Lieutenant Beale and Captain Adams, of the Fort Yuma
post, were directed to prepare information with reference to the use of
camels on the western deserts. In his report at the end of the year*

« House Ex. Doc, No. 1, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 24.

^ Cong. Globe, 31 Cong., 2 Sess., March 3, 1851. See Marsh, chap. 17, and
Leonard, p. 15, in regard to Napoleon's camel corps and Wayne's translation of
Columbari's Zemboureks about the Persian dromedary artillery.

* Cong. Globe, 32 Cong., 1 Sess., August 28, 1852.

"Marsh, "The Camel," chap. 17, on Introduction into the United States,
and chap. 17, on Military Uses of the Camel.

144 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Davis made a strong recommendation to Congress in favor of an ex-
periment. He went into details about the great extent of newly-
acquired territory, its lack of navigable streams and of good roads, and
the absence of grass and water for long distances. With horses, mules
and oxen long circuitous routes had to be followed; the cost of
transportation alone in this region was for one year nearly half a
million dollars; and Indians made attacks and escaped because they
could not be followed into the deserts and mountains; moreover, the
Pacific coast, 120 days distant, was defenseless and for that reason
quicker and better transportation must be provided.

Congress refused to make the desired appropriation and in Decem-
ber, 1854, Davis renewed his request for money to make the experi-
ment. When the army appropriation bill was reported it carried no
appropriation for the purchase of camels, but Senator Shields of Illi-
nois and some western representative secured the amount of $30,000
for this purpose. The bill became a law on March 3, 1855, and Davis
at once proceeded to send for the animals.

The camels could be procured only from the Levant. The mission
to the Orient was first offered to Major Crossman, who nearly twenty
years before had first suggested the use of camels. He declined, and
Davis sent Major Wayne and Lieutenant David D. Porter of the Navy.
Wayne was to go to England and France to secure further information
about the camel, and Porter was to take the storeship Supply to the
Mediterranean and meet Wajoie at Spezzia. Davis furnished Wayne
with a digest of all that was loiown about the camel and his letters of
instruction show that the secretary possessed full knowledge of the
subject.

Wayne visited first the Zoological Gardens in England and reported
that camels had been reared there under such conditions that he was
certain of success in the United States. Next he went to Paris to
consult with the French officers who had made use of camels in Algeria.'^
From the information secured he decided that the African camel would
not succeed in America as well as the Asiatic. He adopted the follow-
ing classification: The Bactrian was the large two-humped animal, the
Arabian the one-humped, and the " dromedary " was merely a swift
Arabian, not a burden camel. These were points then confused by
naturalists.

Meanwhile Lieutenant Porter had gone ahead and inspected at Pisa
the camel herd of the Duke of Tuscany. These were descendants
from Egyptian stock and had been used in Italy for two hundred
years. There were 250 of them. Porter wrote, and they performed the
work of 1,000 horses — some of them carrying as much as 1,200 pounds
at a load; but he considered them overworked and badly cared for.^

' See Marsh, chap. 17.
* See Leonard, p. 13.

JEFFERSON DAVIS'S CAMEL EXPERIMENT 145

After Wayne and Porter met at Spezzia they decided to get a camel
at once in order to study its habits and to learn the proper treatment.
They went in the Supply to Tunis, where Mohammed Bey gave them
two animals which they hoisted on board, and proceeded to the Asiatic
coasts, studying on the way the habits, ailments and care of the ani-
mals. Their observations were carefully reduced to writing and sent
to Davis. The first stop after leaving Tunis was made at Smyrna,
where they found fine burden camels, but no dromedaries such as Davis
was anxious to get for chasing the Indians; at Salonica, the next stop,
there were no camels — from both places the dromedaries had been taken
for use in the Crimean war then going on. Davis had instructed
AVayne and Porter to go to Persia to see about the Bactrians of that
region, but at Salonica they found that the roads were closed by snow —
it was now December — and that the country was in an unsettled con-
dition. So after sending circulars to the English-speaking mission-
aries, consuls and business men in the Levant requesting information,
the two officers sailed to Constantinople and thence went to the Crimea
to see what was being done there with the camels. Wayne reported that
the Bactrians seemed to be of little use because they were slow and
because of their two humps, which made it difficult to fasten on the
loads. But the one-humped Arabians were valuable ; 3,000 were already
in the Crimea and more were to be imported for the next campaign.
The English officers who had used them in India were enthusiastic.

At Constantinople Wajme was disappointed in not getting a supply
of both kinds of animals. All there were worthless or had the " itch."
The Sultan sent far into the interior for good ones to give them, but
Wayne, anxious to go to Egypt, did not wait for them to be brought
to Constantinople.

The Supply sailed to ^gj]}t and while Wayne went to Cairo to get
permission to export dromedaries Porter remained at Alexandria look-
ing over the market and making a lengthy report to Secretary Davis.
He was now an enthusiast on the subject of camels. " 1 hope to see
the day," he wrote, " when every Southern planter will be using the
animal extensively." The education of Wa}Tie and Porter progressed
rapidly. They were soon expert camel traders. Animals at first
palmed off on them as good they were now able to pronounce worth-
less. These they got rid of — two, for instance, they sold to a butcher
in Constantinople for $44. Porter said " the good condition of these
camels recommended them to a butcher of Constantinople, who bought
them for purposes known only to himself." The natives now could
not impose upon the ignorance of the American officers.

An amusing incident happened in Egypt. Wayne found it difficult
to get permission to carry camels out of the country. He wanted
twenty dromedaries; but could get permission to carry out only two.
After protest this number was increased to four and later to five. Some-

146 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

what disgusted, Wayne started to leave Egypt, but the viceroy notified
him that he would present six camels to the United States government.
After delay the animals came. Porter after looking at them wrote an
indignant letter refusing to accept the gift. They were " worthless
and diseased/' he said, and " I can not conscientiously receive them."
The attempt of the Egjrptian officials, he said " fraudulently to force
a present on us " was a " discourtesy " to the United States which he
would not tolerate. The viceroy laid the blame upon his servants and
finally six good dromedaries were secured. Only three others were
taken on board here, and the Supply sailed for Smyrna to complete
the cargo.

The loading of the camels was done under Porter's supervision.
Before leaving the United States he had prepared a " camel deck " or
stable on the lower deck and had cut through the upper deck to secure
a constant supply of fresh air for the animals. To get them on board
he constructed a long flat-bottomed boat which could be run ashore.
On this was a strong car with wheels which could be pulled out on
land to receive the camels who often had to be dragged into it, and
then the car was rolled back on the boat. From the boat the car holding
the camel was hoisted into the ship and let down to the " camel deck."

While in Alexandria waiting for the viceroy to act, Mr. 0. H. Heap,
an American who had lived in Tunis and who accompanied the expe-
dition, was sent on ahead to purchase other camels and equipments.
When the Supply reached Smyrna, on January 30, 1856, Heap had
the camels, saddles and other supplies ready. They were taken on
board and on February 15 the Supply was turned toward America.
The cargo consisted of thirty-three camels: nine dromedaries (Arabi-
ans) from Egypt; twenty Arabian burden camels; one young Arabian
camel; two Bactrian (two humped) males; one Booghdee or Tuilu,
the offspring of a Bactrian male and an Arabian female, having one
hump.

Before leaving Smyi-na the females that were not already with
young were covered by the males, since it was the rutting season, and
it was desired to increase the herd as fast as possible. To take care
of them four Americans, two Turks and three Arabs were brought
along — all under the supervision of Albert Eay, an army wagon master.

During the return trip, which lasted three months, the weather was
rough. Wayne and Porter had been requested by Davis to stop at the
Canaries^ to see the camels there, but they were prevented by heavy
winds. Wayne occupied himself in writing a long report to the secre-
tary of war and in translating French works relating to camels. He
wrote Davis that the information furnished by the letter had been gen-
erally accurate. The report gave a detailed history of the camel, an

* See Leonard, p. 13.

INSTRUMENTS AND METHODS OF RESEARCH 147

account of the different breeds, their habits and usefulness, the nature
of their diseases, the location of the best stock, the cost, the proper
food and the methods of transportation. One of the papers translated
was by Linant Bey, a French engineer in the Egyptian service, on
'' The Egyptian Dromedary " ; one by General J. L. Carbuccia on
" The Use of the Camelin Algiers." A paper by Colonel F. Columbari
entitled " The Zemboureks, or the Dromedary Field Artillery of the
Persian Army," had been translated and illustrated by Wayne in 1854.

During the voj'age the animals were under the direct supervision
of Lieutenant Porter, who interested himself in the minutest details.
On the camel deck he posted detailed regulations to be followed in the
care of the camels. A " journal of the camel deck " was kept, and in
it every day wagon master Pay made note of every item of interest
concerning the animals, their ailments, feed, appetites, when they were
rubbed, curried, oiled, salted, etc. Some of the names are given:
Said, Ayesha, Gourmal, Ibrim, etc. The first young camel born on
board the ship was dubbed " Uncle Sam " and was trained by one of
the Turks as a Pehlevan, or wrestler. Four of the grown camels were
Pehlevans. Camel fighting was as much an oriental amusement as
horse racing was a Kentucky sport, and Porter thought that the Amer-
icans might in time come to like camel contests.

When the weather was stormy and the ship unsteady there was
danger of the animals falling on the smooth deck and injuring them-
selves. To prevent this Porter fashioned a sort of harness for each
one and in rough weather made them kneel and strapped them to the
deck. Once they were so strapped down for seventy-two hours.

During the voyage six calves were born. Of these only two lived;
the others were probably killed by the ministrations of a quack Turkish
camel doctor on board. Porter took care of the young camels as if
they had been children, and gravely wrote to Davis about their diet,
appetite, health, etc. Soon he was a better camel doctor than the Turk
and the latter was superseded. To the secretary of war Porter sent
some of the Turk's prescriptions : For a cold give the camel a piece of
cheese; for swollen legs, tea and gunpowder; cauterize frequently for
skin diseases; and for other complaints tickle the camel's nose with a
chameleon's tail, or boil a young sheep in molasses and administer half
of the mixture while hot. No wonder Porter was certain that Amer-
icans could manage camels better than the Asiatics.

At Kingston, Jamaica, a stop was made and great numbers of
visitors came on board to see the camels — in one day 4,000 came. But
here the camels suffered so much from heat that departure was hastened.

On April 29, 1856, the store ship reached Pass Cavallo, off Indi-
anola, where, it was planned, the camels were to be landed. But the
sea was so rough that the transfer to lighters could not be made. Porter
then sailed to the Balize, the southwestern mouth of the Mississippi

148 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Eiver, and there on May 10 he transferred his cargo to the steamer
Fashion under Major Wayne. Four days later Wayne landed the cargo
at Powder Point, three miles below Indianola. The animals were in
good condition notwithstanding the long confinement — one of them
had been on board nine months. " On being landed, and feeling once
again the solid earth beneath them/' Porter wrote, " they became
excited to an almost nncontrollable degree, rearing, kicking, crying out,
breaking halters, tearing up pickets, and by other fantastic tricks
demonstrating their enjoyment of the ' liberty of the soil.' Some of
the males becoming even pugnacious in their excitement, were with
difficulty restrained from attacking each other." The Texans were
greatly interested in the camels and Porter wrote later to Davis that
" perhaps the love of amusements may render the importation of camels
in Texas popular if their utility does not recommend them." He meant
that the Texans might possibly take to camel fighting.^"

Less than one third of the appropriation had been expended and
Davis determined to send at once for a second cargo of camels. Wayne
was again offered command of the vessel, but he preferred to remain in
Texas to conduct the experiment. Major Grossman also declined to go.
Finally Porter and Heap were sent. Before leaving Porter carried
to Davis the " Camel Deck Journal," his letters rejecting the camels
offered by the viceroy of Eg}^t, and some drawings of camels in harness
made by Mr. Heap. Porter arrived at Smyrna in JSTovember, 1856,
where he found that Heap, who had gone on ahead, had collected a
number of young camels. The six dromedaries presented by the Sultan
had been sent to Smyrna and these with the others were taken on board.
On November 14 the Supply again set sail for Texas. On board were
forty-four animals : Two Bactrian males ; three Arabian males ; one
Tuilu, cross-bred, male; one Tuilu, cross-bred, female; thirty-seven
Arabian females.

The second voyage homeward lasted eighty-eight days and was
rougher than the first. For thirteen days at one time the camels were
strapped to the deck. But only three died during this voyage and
Porter turned over to Captain Van Bockelen, quartermaster at India-
nola, forty-one animals in good condition. There were now seventy in
the herd, five of the first number having died since reaching Texas.

Meanwhile, during the summer of 1856, Wayne had been testing the
value of the camel as a burden bearer. Certain of success, he wanted
to breed camels until the herd was large, but Davis wanted to ascertain
first whether they would be useful. For a few days the animals rested
at Indianola. The Texans refused to believe in their burden bearing
capacity, so one day Major Wayne had two bales of hay, weighing 314
pounds each, loaded on one of the males; the spectators were sure that

^" The documents in regard to the expedition are in Sen. Ex. Doc, No. 62,
34 Cong., 3 Sess. See also Marsh, p. 210.

JEFFERSON DAVIS'S CAMEL EXPERIMENT 149

he could not rise; Wayne then put two more bales on, making 1,256
pounds in all. The camel rose easily and walked off. Wayne wrote
to Davis that it quite convinced the skeptical and that it caused a
Texan poet to break into verse in the Indianola Bulletin. Later Miss
Mary A. Shirkey, of Victoria, Texas, knitted from camel's hair a pair
of socks for President Pierce. Major Wayne forwarded them through
the secretary of war.^^

During the latter part of May the camels were marched by easy
stages to San Antonio where they were kept nearly a month and then
removed to Val Verde (Green Valley) — a military post sixty miles
southwest of San Antonio. Here at Camp Verde, as it was called, the
permanent camel post was located. In September Wayne sent camels
and horses to San Antonio for supplies. The camels easily brought
600 pounds each; six of them carrying as much as twelve horses could
haul in wagons and in forty- two hours less time; the camels made the
sixty miles in two days and six hours, while the horses required over
four days. Later tests, made in November and December, 1856, showed
that camels could easily climb mountain trails where wagons could not
go, and that on muddy roads over which horses could not draw wagons,
the camels traveled without fatigue. Only on slippery slopes were they
troubled, and at the crossing of streams. Not being accustomed to
fording, they had to be driven in by throwing water in their faces. At
the end of 1856 Davis reported that in his opinion the experiment was
a success.^-

Davis left the War Department in March, 1857, and was succeeded
by John B. Floyd. Wa}Tie was transferred to Washington and the
camels were left under the supervision of Captain J. N. Palmer, at
Campe Verde. In 1858 the " Societe imperiale Zoologique d'acclimata-
tion" of Paris, awarded to Major Wayne a first class gold medal for
the successful introduction and acclimation of the camel in the United
States. Secretary Floyd was convinced of the usefulness of camels on
the western plains, and in his second report, December, 1858, he recom-
mended that 1,000 be purchased. This recommendation was repeated
in 1859 and in 1860, but Congress paid no attention to the matter.^^

After 1857 some of the camels were sent to the army posts at El
Paso and Bowie. They were disliked by the army hostlers; the Ara-
bian and Turkish caretakers were regarded with contempt, and it was
difficult to get the American hostlers and wagon masters to help in the
experiments. The horses objected to the smell of the camels when
stabled or picketed near them and the hostlers sometimes turned the
camels loose to get rid of them. However, during the four years before

" Sen. Ex. Doc, No. 62, 34 Cong., 3 Sess., p. 148-63. Harper's Magazine,
October, 1857.

" Sen. Ex. Doc, No. 5, 34 Cong., 3 Sess., p. 22.
" Sen. Ex. Doc, No. 2, 36 Cong., 1 Sess.

ISO THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

the outbreak of the civil war some interesting and successful attempts
were made to use the " ship of the desert " for military transportation
purposes. The first lengthy expedition was made by Lieutenant
Edward F. Beale, who on September 1 set out to make a wagon road
from Fort Defiance, New Mexico, to California. Camels, as well as
mules, were used by the road-making party. The work lasted forty-
eight days. Beale reported that the camels had been subjected to the
severest tests and had failed in no instance; that they even learned
to swim rivers. Beale considered that one of them was worth four good
mules. From 1857 to 1861 Beale with twenty camels was occupied in
exploring the unknown regions of the southwest. He found that the
camels could do successfully all that was required of them. By 1861
his herd of twenty had increased to twenty-eight.^*

Other trials of the camels were made in 1859 by Major D. H.
Vinton, who used twenty-four of them in carrying burdens for a survey-
ing party.^^ From May to August, 1859, Lieutenant Edward L. Hartz
was in charge of the camel herd. Hartz sent to the War Department a
full journal of an exploring expedition in which camels and mules were
used. His verdict was not quite so enthusiastic as those of Wayne and
Beale, but he pronounced the experiment a success. The camels were
inferior to mules, he said, on slippery surfaces; they were not as good
climbers as mules, but they were much swifter on level, rocky or
sandy ground; it was difficult to keep the loads on the camels and
frequent stops had to be made to replace the saddles, which could not
be properly fastened by inexperienced packers. It was his belief that
the female camel was better than the male; that the camels really pre-
ferred bushes, dry shrubs and grasses to grazing grasses ; that they could
go without water for more than two days and not suffer. All in all,
he concluded, the camel was much superior to the mule.^®

The success of the War Department tests caused other importations.
In 185'8 a British vessel brought over two cargoes of camels for a Mrs.
Watson, who lived near Houston, Texas. Arab caretakers were em-
ployed and F. E. Lubbock, later governor of Texas, was put in charge
of them. He says that they were healthy, and useful, but that they
created too much sensation when they went into Houston or traveled
about the country."

There is a tradition that ten animals were brought to New York in
1857; of these two survived and were sent to Nevada, where by 1875
their offspring numbered ninety-five.^®

In 1861 a San Francisco company imported twenty Bactrians (two-

" Circular No. 53, Bureau of Animal Industry, 1903.
^= Sen. Ex. Doc, No. 2, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 422.
" Sen. Ex. Doc, No. 2, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 425-41.
" Lubbock, " Six Decades in Texas," 1900, p. 238.
"Leonard, pp. 14, 123.

JEFFERSON DAVIS'S CAMEL EXPERIMENT 151

humped) camels from the highhands of Asia for use in transporting
salt from Esmeralda County, jSTevada, to the Washoe Silver Mill, a
distance of two hundred miles. The discovery of a nearer supply of
salt left the camels without regular occupation. Some were used near
Virginia City as late as 1876 to carry cord- wood. ^^

When the civil war began the government camels were scattered.
Some were at Camp Verde, Lieutenant Beale's herd of twenty-eight was
in California, and others at various posts in Texas. Beale, whom in
1861 Lincoln had appointed surveyor-general of California, proposed to
Stanton that the government animals, which were scattered about in
California doing nothing, should be turned over to him for use in
carrying supplies and in making explorations. His request was not
granted. In 1863 an attempt vv^as made to use the camels in carrying
the mails between New Mexico and California, but the officers in charge
of the mails, knowing nothing of camels, objected and they were not
used. In 1864 the herd, now numbering thirty-five, was sold to Samuel
McLaughlin, who disposed of them later to circuses and zoological
gardens. -"

The herds at Camp Verde and other places in Texas were constantly
used by the army quartermasters up to 1861. The ugly animals were
well known sights in the towns near Camp Verde and between San
Antonio and the gulf coast. But horses were often frightened by them
and people began to regard them as a nuisance; Brownsville had an
ordinance forbidding them on the streets. When the United States
forces were withdrawn from Texas in 1861, the camels fell into the
hands of the Confederates who made little use of them and spent little
care upon them. They were turned loose to graze and some wandered
away. Three of them were caught in Arkansas by union forces and
in 1863 they were sold in Iowa at auction. Others found their way
into Mexico. A few were used by the Confederate Post Office Depart-
ment. At the close of the civil war the animals at the Camp Verde
station, numbering sixty-six, were advertised for sale. Only three bids
were received, one for $5 each, one for $10 each, and one for $31 each.
So on March 8, 1866, the quartermaster in New Orleans sold to Colonel
Bethel Coopwood the camels then in Texas. Colonel Coopwood carried
them to Mexico and disposed of them to traveling circuses.

The stray camels were heard from occasionally — stampeding horses
and ravaging fields. The Indians killed and ate some. The Navajos^
it is said, once tied a Mexican shepherd to a camel's back and turned
the animal loose. During the seventies soldiers in the southwest re-
ported seeing strange camels.'^ Colonel Philip Eeade writes that in
July, 1875, he saw a herd of wild camels near Oatman's Flat, on the

" Circular No. 53, Bureau of Animal Industry.
^ Circular No. 53, Bureau of Animal Industry.
'^ Taylor-Trot wood Magazine, June, 1907.

152 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Gila Eiver. One of the government camels was living a few years ago
in the public parks of the City of Mexico,

The attempt to make use of camels might have succeeded under
different conditions. Davis, the strongest advocate of the use of the
camel, went out of the war office just as the experiment promised
success. Major Wayne, who alone of army officers had full theoretical
and practical knowledge of camels, was transferred to office work at
"Washington, and Beale, who later accumulated considerable experience,
was not encouraged by the War Department officials. The army
teamsters and most of the officers outside of the Quartermaster's De-
partment, took no interest in the matter and some opposed the experi-
ment; the members of Congress were too deeply engaged in sectional
controversies to care much about transportation problems in New
Mexico. The Civil War afterward occupied the attention of those in
authority while the herds were neglected, and the fact that Jefferson
Davis had inaugurated the experiment was, in the opinion of many,
enough to condemn it. After the war the rapid development of rail-
roads solved many of the problems that seemed so serious in the fifties.

And yet had Wayne, Beale and Hartz been given ten years of
favorable conditions, it is probable that camels would now be used as
beasts of burden in some parts of the south and west, for conditions still
exist in that section under which the camel would be useful.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

" The Purchase of Camels for the Purpose of Military Transportation." Senate

Ex. Doc, No. 62, 34th Congress, 3d Session. Washington, 1857.
Leonabd, a. G. The Camel: Its Uses and Management. London, 1894.
Davis and Floyd. Reports Secretary of War, 1853-60.
Marsh, G. P. The Camel: His Organization, Habits and Uses, Considered with

Reference to His Introduction into the United States. Boston, 1856.
Twentieth Annual Report of the Bureau of Animal Industry (1903), pp. 391-409.
Taylor. Trotwood Magazine, June, 1907.
Harper's Magazine, October, 1857.
Circular No. 53, Bureau of Animal Industry.
DeLeon. Treatment and Use of Dromedaries in Egypt. Senate Mis. Doc, No.

271, 35th Congress, 1st Session.
CoLUMBABi, Colonel F. The Zemboureks, or the Dromedary Field Artillery of

the Persian Army. (Translated, 1854, by Brevet Major Henry C. Wayne,

U. S. Army, from the Spectateur Militaire, 1853.)
Carbuccia, General J. L. The Anatomy of the Dromedary. (Translated by

Dr. S. A. Engles, U. S. Navy.) Senate Ex. Doc, No. 62, 34th Cong., 3d Sess.
Ray, Albert. Notes upon the Camel, collected from Reports upon " The Use of

the Camel in Algiers," by General J. L. Carbuccia, and from the letter of

General E. Doumas . . . upon the acclimation of the Camel in France.

Senate Ex. Doc, No. 62, 34th Cong., 3d Sess. (Ray was a former wagon

master, U. S. Army, and was attached to Wayne's expedition to the Orient. )
Bellefonds, Linant (LiNANT Bey). Notes upon the Dromedaries met with in

Egypt. (Translated by Major Henry C. Wayne.) Senate Ex. Doc, No. 62,

34th Cong., 3d Sess., p. 64.

THE SMOKE NUISANCE 153

EAILEOADS AND THE SMOKE NUISANCE

By CLINTON ROGERS WOODRUFF

AMERICAN CIVIC ASSOCIATION

IT is estimated, so says the Scientific American, that 150,000,000 tons
of coal are used annually by the railways of the United States,
out of which but 7,500,000 tons are used in drawing the trains, while
142,500,000 tons go up the smoke-stack. And a recent English writer,
John W. Graham, declares that a locomotive uses 3% tons of coal per
day on an average, and scatters the smoke of 36 pounds of coal over
every mile on fast trains.

These two statements give us some conception of the appalling
extent of the smoke nuisance so far as the railroads are concerned, and
fill us with amazement and incredulity. How is it possible that rail-
roads which are run for the profit of the stockholders, or at least are
presumably so run if we may credit the statements made before legis-
lative committees by their representatives, can permit so great a source
of waste to have gone so long unchecked? "Why is it that so many
railroad ofiicials have opposed in every way possible efforts to reduce the
evil?

In Boston, according to one observer who has carefully studied the
situation, the New York Central and Hudson Eiver Eailroad Com-
pany, through its officials, curtly refuses to discuss the matter or to
make any change in its smoke-producing methods, and he made sub-
stantially the same charge against the New York, New Haven and
Hartford road. Z. A. Willard in an open letter to the Boston Herald
(on March 7 last) declared that

Having been deeply interested for many months past in an endeavor to
prevent or mitigate the smoke nuisance resulting from the use of soft coal on
locomotives engaged in suburban traffic, I was called in consultation by the
Boston management of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad and
informed that under no circumstances would this company make any change
involving expense. Economy was now the ruling consideration.

When informed that the nuisance could be entirely obviated by the use of
coke — coke being no more expensive than soft coal — the answer was the same,
" Economy."

When reminded that eighteen locomotives had been constructed for the
suburban traffic designed especially for burning anthracite, the answer was the
same, " Anthracite costs money, and would not be considered." So that if so
small a matter as the prevention of annoying smoke will not be considered by
the New York Central authorities, tunnels, electricity, etc., may as well be
relegated to the limbo of the impossible.

VOL. LXXIV. — 11.

154 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

A correspondent of the Providence Tribune registered strong
protest, as late as April 26, against the nuisance which the New York
and New Haven Eailroad Company is maintaining in the Elmwood
district of the city. All day long the section is shrouded in a pall of
dense, evil-smelling smoke and cinders, vomited forth by locomotives.
The chief offenders are the short suburban trains, the expresses and
heavy freights not causing half the bother made by the little fellows.

In and around New York City the aid of the Public Utility Com-
mission had to be invoked to abate the nuisances maintained by these
two roads in the matter of smoke. The New York Central in January
last was ordered, " directed and required to cease and desist from the
use of soft coal on any of the engines used by it on its New York and
Putnam Division while within the corporate limits of the city and to
institute and continue the use of hard coal on its engines."

The New York, New Haven and Hartford road was " directed and
required to cease and desist from suffering or permitting in any
manner the emission of black smoke from the stacks of the engines
in use on the company's lines" while in the Harlem Eiver Terminal
Yard, and moreover it was ordered to cover all soft coal fires in engines
with coke and to continually feed and replenish them with coke while
the engines are in the yard.

Here we have the striking spectacle of two railroads being com-
pelled by law to do certain things (and doing them, too) at one ter-
minus, which they declare at the other end they can not do on the
score of economy. At the one end (New York) there is a strong and
effective law designed to protect the interests of the public; at the
other, there is no such law, for, alas ! the Massachusetts Eailroad Com-
mission, admirable though it is in many respects, finds that it is power-
less to suppress the smoke nuisance.

The most striking defense of the railroad smoke nuisance, however,
comes from the president of the Erie Eailroad, one Frank D. Under-
wood, who is on record in a letter to Monsignor Sheppard, of Jersey
City, rector of the Eoman Catholic Church of St. Michael, that

There is a good deal of nonseiise about coal smoke being injurious. There
is no healthier class of people in the world than those employed about soft coal
mines, and they are begrimed from head to foot the majority of their lives.

Permit me to state that men occupying leading positions, such as yours,
are expected to allay senseless clamor against corporations instead of adding
fuel to it, and it is hoped we may have the influence of your valuable efforts
in our direction rather than adversely. Many of the people who gain a liveli-
hood through the Erie Railroad I have no doubt are parishioners of yours and
you should be able to ascertain from them whether there is more black smoke
than is absolutely necessary in the operation of a railroad.

In conclusion, the Erie Railroad was chartered fifty years ago, and it is
identical with other interests in that it pays taxes. Is not something due to it,
therefore? And was it not on the ground in advance of most of its complain-

THE SMOKE NUISANCE 155

ants? It is a penalty people pay for prosperity. The smoke-laden air of every
city is but a testimonial of the general prosperity of the country. No smoke
and rural stagnation is the rule — pleasant to live in, but not conducive to
general prosperity.

All of which is respectfully submitted by the president in behalf of the
board of directors.

Here then we have what we may appropriately call the official
defense of black smoke ! It is healthy ; it is inevitable ; it is a con-
comitant of prosperity and those who make it pay taxes ! Surely a
formidable argument, hardly requiring, however, a reply from the rev-
erend Monsignor. Still parts of his reply are so apt as to justify
quoting. After declaring that he had not asserted that the Erie
engines could be run without smoke while consuming coal, he declared
that the use of bituminous coal should not be tolerated in our cities,
as it is not tolerated in New York, which had its

smoke problem and solved it as New Jersey should do; of course I need not
tell you that the elevated roads running through the great arteries of the
metropolis, and the Grand Central were to my mind a species of " railroad
traffic " and therefore my comparison is not odious.

I have not said that any, or all, railroads are a nuisance, on the contrary,
I consider them one of the greatest blessings, but I do most persistently assert
that they are capable of committing nuisances, and in this particular instance
under discussion are now injuring, as they always do, where such abuses are
patiently borne, our property, and our homes.

I believe railroads do pay taxes. I do not know a great deal about this
question, never having given it much consideration, but I do read occasionally
that the whole machinery of the city and state have to be put in motion to
collect the taxes levied.

From what you say of the healthy condition of the bituminous coal fields,
which is not relevant to the issue, the attention of our leading physicians
should be called to it. As health resorts these fields might enter into com-
petition with the seashore and the Adirondacks.

No evidence is needed in any city of considerable size as to the
existence of the smoke nuisance and of the part which the railroads
play in maintaining it. There is an abundance of it on every hand;
all too obvious, all too persistent. The encouraging feature of the
situation, however, is the existence of a wide-spread and intelligent
effort on the part of alert and progressive railroad officials to meet the
situation and abate the nuisance. Largely, no doubt, because of the
financial considerations, but in some instances because of a growing
conviction that it behooves them to give heed to legitimate public de-
mands, and because they are awakening to the fact that it is the wisest
policy.

The recent orders of the Pennsylvania Railroad to its engineers
and firemen may be said to be almost epoch-making in their importance
and significance. This great corporation, in order to secure greater
economy in the use of coal and to reduce the smoke nuisance, has inau-

156 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

gurated a special campaign of education among its engineers and fire-
men. A general order has been issued to the effect that " smoke
means waste and must be avoided."

Five assistant road foremen of engines are now at work instructing
firemen how to reduce the quantity of smoke emitted by engines. It
is estimated that ten pounds of coal were required last year to generate
steam necessary to haul one freight car one mile. The safety valve of
an engine, if left open one minute, will lose an equal amount of steam.
The Pennsylvania Eailroad last year hauled 1,248,300 freight cars one
mile and its coal bill was $10,000,000. Therefore, the savings of one
per cent, by more efficient handling of coal will result in a saving to
the company of $100,000 annually.

Under eighteen separate heads, thorough and minute instructions
in the general order issued, the company has gone into the elementals
of locomotive firing. Coal no larger than three inches tliick may be
used; tenders must not be overloaded so that coal is dropped along the
track ; grates and ash pans must be watched closely, in order to decrease
the number of repairs on engines.

The example thus set by the Pennsylvania Eailroad is bound to be

of far reaching influence. As the Chicago Record Herald puts the case

The argument should appeal to every smoke producer, for it would seem
now that it had time to penetrate the smokiest kind of a brain. At any rate,
its soundness has been demonstrated beyond question many times, and examples
such as that of this great railroad corporation should add greatly to its force.
But it is curious how long it has taken to convince smokers that the smoke
actually meant waste, and how stubborn some of them are still in spite of all
the teaching by precept and example. Conditions prove that they would never
learn excejjt under compulsion, under the determined attempts of the public
authorities to abate a nuisance and to protect the thousands against the stupid
selfishness and indifference of the law.

Another view of the attitude of the corporation was taken at the
Providence meeting of the American Civic Association by the superin-
tendent of motive power on the New York, New Haven and Hartford
Eailroad, Mr. George W. Welden, declaring that

As a general proposition, railroad companies are assumed, by the rank and
file, to take only such interest in the question of smoke elimination on loco-
motives as they are actually compelled to through the clamor of the public and
the penalties imposed or prescribed by ordinances and enforced by the courts.
If the above assumption were really true, then railroad operation in general
could be properly classed as the most miserably managed business in the world.
The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, while constituting but a
small percentage of the railroad mileage of the United States, and necessarily
consuming but a small proportion of the total fuel bui'ned on all railroads,
could save annually for its treasury approximately $600,000 if some good
Samaritan would suggest a method or device by means of which the black
smoke and unconsumed gases which now escape from the smoke stacks of our
locomotives could be completely burned and used as effective fuel. Second to

THE SMOKE NUISANCE 157

the above-mentioned saving would be that accruing to the treasury because of
the absence of the necessity of defending damage cases before the courts,
involving, as they do, hundreds of thousands of dollars, and, naturally, the
saving of the very large sums paid annually in fines. In addition to this, many
incidental savings would be made in the form of less labor and time required to
clean all classes of equipment both inside and out, including an increased life
for the varnish on all classes of equipment. Coupled with this would be a
decidely improved appearance.

"Whether moved to do so by force of public opinion, by lawsuits,
by economic considerations, or by the strong arm of the law as in the
New York cases already cited, the railroads of the country are moving
in the matter and moving in the right direction at a fairly rapid
degree of progress.

The American Master Mechanics, in their latest session at Atlantic
City, have declared that it is possible to stop the nuisance. Expert
firing and proper stoking are the most efficient means. These master
mechanics, who are mostly connected with the railroads, are of the
opinion that smoke-consuming devices are of assistance in keeping
down the flow of black soot that has resulted in the passage of city and
state laws against use of cheap, soft coal as fuel, but the firing is of so
much more importance in the work that recommendations will be
made to sacrifice cost of expensive devices of the kind in favor of
higher paid and more expert firemen.

This opinion is unquestionably shared by the Pennsylvania Rail-
road, for their most recent instructions are in harmony with this prin-
ciple, and when their Cincinnati superintendent was asked if the com-
pany's firemen were arrested for violations of the local ordinances
would the companies pay the fine, he said :

No. The men would have to pay that themselves. We favor your getting
after the men. We have suspended some firemen for making too much smoke.
If they throw one shovelful of coal into the furnace at a time and do it fre-
quently, they will not cause so much smoke. But instead of doing that, they
throw in ten shovelfuls, and then take a rest. We have pleaded in vain with
many to stoke in the right manner. Perhaps better results could be obtained
if the league's officers went after them rigidly and called them to time.

Another student of the subject (Z. A. Willard, of Boston) has also
reached the decided conclusion that the fireman on the locomotive is
largely responsible for the nuisance. The firing of any furnace, loco-
motive or stationary, although generally considered a perfectly simple
matter, is, on the contrary, a science requiring the services of a con-
scientious and experienced fireman, an opinion which is supported by
Mr. Angus Sinclair, president of the Society of Locomotive Engineers,
who, in his book on locomotive firing, gives his experience with two
firemen on the same locomotive, running the same distance, on two
successive days. The first fireman, in one hour and fifty-five minutes.

158 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

the time occupied in the ran, used eight thousand pounds of soft coal,
making steam with difficulty, and filling the atmosphere with smoke.
The next day, another fireman, with the same engine, running the
same distance, used forty-five hundred pounds of the same coal, with
plenty of steam and no smoke. The result was a saving of 43% per
cent, of coal, and no annoyance from smoke. As the first condition
is pretty nearly universal on roads where soft coal is used, the loss to
the roads from ignorance or carelessness must be enormous.

Electrification is another method by which the smoke nuisance is
to be abated.

On and after July 1 there are to be no more steam trains run into
the Grand Central Station in New York. Electrification of the New
York Central terminal, according to the New York papers, has pro-
gressed far enough to malce this change practicable, and the order to
run only electric trains into the big depot went into effect on July 1.
This move does away with the nuisance of smoke, steam and gas in the
Park Avenue tunnel. The new order applies also to the New Haven
Railroad trains.

The Scietitific American quotes some statistics from a paper read
by W. S. Murray at a recent meeting of the American Institute of
Electrical Engineers, which confirm and strengthen the testimony
furnished by W. J. Wilgus to the American Society of Civil Engineers.
They clearly show that electrification pays when tried.

In Mr. Murray's paper it is shown that to haul the express, local
and freight trains of the New York division of the New Haven railroad
now involves the consumption of 57,000, 58,000 and 188,000 tons of
coal, respectivi ly, whereas when the whole division is operated elec-
trically the amount of coal burned for the respective classes of service
will be 30,000, 28,000 and 139,000 tons.

In like manner the figures of cost and repairs of twenty steam
freight and passenger locomotives on the New Haven road are given.
They show an expense of 8.1 cents per locomotive mile for freight
engines and 5.6 cents for passenger ones. The total mileage of the
locomotives per year is easily ascertained and therefore the total ex-
pense for maintenance and repairs of locomotive service. The figures
are placed at $316,962 per annum. Available figures for electric loco-
motive repairs show two cents per locomotive mile. Counting the same
number of miles and the same number of engines, the total expense
would show a saving of $196,038 per annum.

In brief, experimentation in the east has proved that electrification
pays both in a great saving in the cost of the coal used and in the cost
of maintenance and repairs. If it pays in the neighborhood of New
York it will pay, as the Chicago Tribune maintains, in Chicago. It is
electrification, not improved smoke consuming devices, that Chicago

TEE SMOKE NUISANCE 159

wants the railroads to experiment witli. The head of the Illinois Cen-
tralj however, J. T. Harahan, seems to think otherwise and in a long
letter urges first that the art of electrification is in its infancy, and,
secondly, that the experiments in the east have developed many
difficulties.

Possibly if Illinois had a public utilities commission, like that of
New York, President Harahan might take a somewhat different view
of the situation, one more like that of the New York Central, al-
though the economic argument ought to appeal to President Harahan
and he ought not to allow the Pennsylvania Eailroad to outdo him in
the race for dividends or compliance with reasonable public demands.
As one commentator on his position put it, " The financial question has
two sides to it. The cost of electrification will be heavy. The cost of
the smoke and noise nuisance to the community is a hundred fold
heavier," and it could have pointed out that whatever makes for the
prosperity and uplift of a community eventually makes for the benefit
of the railroad.

According to Smoke Inspector Krause, of Cleveland, the smoke
from railroads in that city has, within the past few years, been greatly
reduced through the care that has been taken by the railroad officials.
The inspector has one man who gives his entire time to this side of
the work. Their records are sent to the offices of the officials and the
crews are called in and reprimanded if the records show that they have
been at fault. Some of the men have been discharged for rrot exercis-
ing proper care in this respect. The New York, New Haven and
Hartford Eailroad assumes a similar attitude. Eecently it caused to
be published this discipline bulletin:

An engineman and fireman have been disciplined for permitting their
engine to emit black smoke while standing in a passenger terminal some thirty-
minutes before leaving time, in violation of the rules of ordinary intelligence
as well as those of the railroad company, and in disobedience of chapter 983
of the public laws of the state of Rhode Island, — J. A. Dodge, Superintendent.

Z. A. Willard, already several times quoted, declares as a result of
his investigation that the use of coke will entirely eliminate the smoke
evil, as it is free of smoke, soot and dust, and can be used on locomo-
tives as at present constituted. The Boston and Maine Eailroad is
daily using seven hundred tons of Otto coke (produced by the gas
works at Everett, Massachusetts) on all their short lines, and pro-
nounces it perfectly satisfactory both to patrons of the road and resi-
dents along the lines, in avoiding smoke.

Some of the western roads use petroleum. For instance, the Mexi-
can Central burns 4,000 barrels a day, at a cost of $1.10 a barrel. The
Southern Pacific is also introducing oil-burning engines, especially for
the switch engines. Hard coal is also used on the roads, which have

i6o TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

convenient access to the anthracite regions, like the Lackawanna and
the Eeading; but other companies maintain that the cost of the coal
and of changing their boilers prohibits the introduction of anthracite.

There is always some reason for not doing the obviously proper
thing !

It is to be hoped, however, that the despatch of June 17 from
Chicago is well founded. It reads to the effect that

The general managers of railroads centering in Chicago claim that a deter-
mined campaign has been begun to secure greater economy in the use of coal,
and at the same time reduce the smoke nuisance. Perhaps the most virtuous
exponent of fuel economy is the Pennsylvania, the management of which has
just started a campaign of education among its firemen.

To sum up : The elimination of the smoke nuisance, so far as the
railroads are concerned, is feasible. Primarily it is a matter of proper
firing and the use of the right sort of materials. The railroad officials
are considering the question from various standpoints; some with a
sincere desire to do all that possibly can be done as quickly as possible ;
others as rapidly as they are forced to do it by the law and by a militant
public opinion; and a rear guard of hold-backs who are still closing
their eyes to the obviously inevitable. These men will some day be
disagreeably awakened, for the public is awakening on the subject and
it expects everybody else to be.

SOUTHERNMOST JAPAN i6i

ACCOUNT OF A TEIP IN" SOUTHERNMOST JAPAN,
WITH EARLY RECORDS OF ITS DISCOVERY

By Dr. ROBERT VAN VLBCK ANDERSON

WASHINGTON, D. C.

ON one of the early days of May, 1905, three of us — a Japanese
friend, my brother and I — were trudging through long avenues
of pine trees and crossing the upland border line between the provinces
of Hiuga and Osumi in southern Kiushiu and southern Japan.
Kiushiu, the farthest south of the four main islands of Japan, is an
exceptionally interesting and picturesque country, and perhaps the
finest member of the archipelago. At this time we were traversing it
diagonally from the open shore of the Pacific Ocean on the east to the
bay and city of Kagoshima that mark the island's southern extremity.
This is far from the center of the empire and the region of foreign
traffic, and as yet there was no railway leading thither. The country
paths are seldom trodden by foreigners, and the towns and villages are
rarely afforded the amusement of a stranger's advent.

The rain was continuous, at times bringing such a downpour that
it seemed to bid fair to fiatten every object in the landscape. One
who lives much out-of-doors in Japan must be reconciled to the coming
of rain at all times, so we walked on gayly through it all, until the end
of each day brought us to some inn where the night could be spent.
As we neared our destination, the way followed torrents muddy with
a burden of silt derived from the hills of volcanic ash and other volcanic
rocks around about, and among green unterraced hills that reminded us
of the limitless smooth slopes of home in America, so unlike were they
to the usual terraced, stone-walled and rice-grown hills with forested
tops that one knows throughout Japan. Finally we crossed over the
axis of the island, the main divide, whence precipitous volcanic slopes
led down through the rain-mist to the bay and islands that we could
not see. Neither could we see the great smoking volcano Kirishima-
yama, of which days before we had caught a glimpse from far in the
north in the vicinity of Aso-san, and which we were later to view from
southward on finer days.

After descending from the mountains and skii-ting the bay through
extended ill-smelling fishing villages populous with staring people, we
reached Kagoshima, the city of gardens and rich semi-tropical growth,
the great port of the south. Here one looks down from one's balcony
upon whole streets of shipping agencies, where hang great black and
white placards of Chinese characters advertising dates of departure

i62 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

that are never kept. Here there is a beauty in the landscape and a
spirit of liveliness in the people that invites one to stay, and an invi-
tation in the bay and boats to go adventuring southward to the little-
known Liu Kill Islands and Formosa, from relations with which this
most charming of Japanese cities acquires much of its character. And
here one is in the heart of the old province of Satsuma, famed for its
porcelain of centuries, and its heroes, and its influence on the history
of the empire from the earliest day to the very present.

During most of our stay a warm rain was flooding down over the
city, interfering with the manufacture of " ancient " Satsuma ware,
and hindering the departure of all steamers, which seldom go when it
rains and thus give their crews and passengers the enjoyment of fur-
loughs much of the time. It was entertaining to sit in kimono on the
balcony outside of the paper windows and look down on the scene in
the streets, at the constant flow of people walking with bare feet and
bare legs along the muddy ways under brown oil-paper umbrellas; at
the shoulder-borne baskets heaped with yellow " biwa," or loquats, with
chrysanthemums and lilies; at the wide bamboo rain hats from under
which rang out the musical cries and songs of men and women, basket
carriers, venders of fish just out of the water, turnips just out of the
ground, young bamboo sprouts that have grown over night and will
be eaten for dinner, fruits, cakes and flowers to decorate the shrines.

A few days more brought out the sun and the full plant life of the
height of spring, and all the clearness of outline and symmetry of the
island-volcano Sakura-jima, which springs from a bay rivaling that
of Naples in the loveliness of its water and surroundings. And it was
rather to my disappointment that, with the coming of good weather,
the little boat which we had been waiting to take to the islands farther
south finally made up its mind to leave for Tanegashima.

This island lies south of Japan in latitude 30° 30', and is sepa-
rated from Kiushiu by the Van Diemen Strait. It is long and low
and narrow, trending northeast, its length being thirty-six miles and
greatest width seven. It is composed of highly tilted strata of Ter-
tiary age. Its people are Japanese, and as far as known it has always
belonged to Japan, being in every way more closely related to that
country than to the more southern or Liu Kiu islands that form a long
curving chain down to Formosa.

Tanegashima was the first portion of Japan to be discovered by
Europeans centuries ago, and it was here that the Japanese first became
acquainted with members of that other race. With the foreigners
came a knowledge of firearms, which spread from this island to the rest
of the empire. For this reason Tanegashima was the name formerly
applied to all firearms, and to the present day some pistols are still
so called.

SOUTHERNMOST JAPAN 163

To-day the island is not greatly changed from its condition at the
time when the first Europeans came to its coast. Few foreigners have
been there since, and on going there one in a measure reexperiencea
the impressions that must have come to those early navigators, and
presents a somewhat similar appearance to the present inhabitants as
did those first foreigners to the earlier generation. The people live in
a world of their own, and are connected with the mainland — a mainland
that is itself an island — merely by a little one-hundred-ton steamer that
runs with a reliable lack of regularity.

The sixty-mile ride out to sea from Kagoshima on this steamer was
to be an all-night one. We purchased the best accommodations to be
had and were ofiE down the bay in the evening. The process on board-
ing a boat in Japan, after taking a sampan or scow out from the land-
ing to where the boat is moored, is first to see to the safe storage of
one's heavy baggage, and then, taking ofE one's shoes, and bowing the
head, to enter the little door of the cabin that serves as sitting-room,
dining and bedroom for those of the class to which one's ticket entitles
him. Bowing the head is in this case not an act of politeness but
merely of practical utility in preserving one's cranium and temper, and
a practise that a foreigner in Japan learns to remember after many
daily lessons. After one has entered, the act of kneeling and bowing
to the floor as a greeting to those already present is an act of politeness
which though dispensable is always appreciated by the Japanese. In
the present case the cabin measured twelve feet by seven, and five feet
in height, and already five men were squatting on the floor with their
personal baggage, preparing to make a night of it. Presently four
more came in and that made us twelve, a good-size company for such
a cubby hole. Each spread his blanket down in the little crevice that
was left for him, and as he tired of the talk and of the smoking — one
can imagine how much the volume of smoke poured forth by each of
the Japanese, with the exception of our friend, added to the general
comfort — each cuddled down, sardined himself in, and was lulled to
sleep by the chunk, chunk of the machinery, the occasional tapping of
some lingering smoker's pipe on the bronze brazier, and the cradling
of the boat as it stood out into the rough, splashing waters of the strait.

Early morning brought us in view of the low, forested sky line of
Tane gashima, and we were soon rowed ashore across the little bay of
Akaogi, or Nishi-no-omote, where the port and largest village is
marked by a group of huts along the coral-strewn beach. We left our
belongings on the beach, and threading our way through the gathering
crowd of men and boys, and women and girls with babies on their
backs, who were flocking to see us, we went to a little inn to make
arrangements for a stay.

The yadoya, or inn, is one of the most typical and interesting insti-

1 64 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

tutions of Japan. The traveler will find it wherever he may go, now
pretentious and from the Japanese standpoint luxurious, now very
humble or even dirty. As camping out is next to impossible in that
country, we made great use of the yadoya throughout our journeying.
As one steps before the wide open doors of the reception room, or
into the court, or the kitchen as the case may be, the host approaches
and greets with a low bow, followed by the hostess and usually one or
more of the maids, who, kneeling, bend to the floor. The salutations are
returned, a word is exchanged perhaps about the rooms or the meal
that is to be prepared, and the guest seats himself on the low porch
or platform that surrounds the entrances, and removes his shoes or
sandals, leaving them on the ground. If one wears the Japanese cloth
shoe and straw sandal, as I did some of the time, the feet are always
washed in a wooden basin of water brought by a maid, who comes
clattering around the outside of the house on wooden clogs, to bring
it, and sets it down before one on the ground. A little towel is brought
too, imless one, as usual, has this most useful of articles about his
person. Then the guest steps in, in stocking feet or barefoot, and,
preceded by a servant passes through the open rooms, often between a
double line of all the people of the household who are bowing to the
floor. He enters the room allotted to him and there seats himself
cross-legged on a cushion on the matted floor before a tiny charcoal fire
in a brazier, and rests — at least pretends to rest if he is a foreigner —
until disregard for ceremony gets the better of him and he adopts an
easier position. Presently comes a demure or smiling little maid, with
rosy cheeks and fancifully colored silk kimono, who kneels outside and
slides open the paper door, enters, kneels and closes it, brings tea things
to the center of the room, and kneeling pours out a wee cup of tea to
the guest or each of the guests. This done she bends her forehead to
the floor and patters out, opening and closing the door as before. If
the guest is an honored one some dainty, such as bean jelly or cakes,
or raw dough rolled in pink and green powder is brought with the tea.
Then the guest steps out to the porch to wash, and as he dries his face
he looks at the little cultured garden, or off to distant valley, or forest
or mountain, or sea. Eeturning to his room, he is most of the time
alone until the coming of the meal ; or if it chances to be afternoon or
evening, until the announcement comes that " the bath is ready." One
is never entirely alone ; access to the room is always free on several sides
and host, or visitor, or servant, may come in at any time. One becomes
used to this and learns to like it in most ways. There is nothing
hidden. It makes life simple and informal and more natural. "We
found it a disadvantage sometimes when we had too many visitors whose
curiosity got the better of them, but we always took it in good part,
finding it amusing rather than annoying.

SOUTHERNMOST JAPAN 165

After the tea-drinking that m-^ning at Tanegashima, I opened a
panel at one side of our room and stepped out on the porch under the
low roof. Just before me was the white beach and the water's edge,
where two junks that looked for all the world like ancient Spanish
galleons were moored ; and I looked off beyond to the little rock-hemmed
bay banded with green and purple water under the changing cloud
shadows, and still farther to the distant pine-crowned sand dunes and
headlands fringing the blue of the open sea. To a stranger, such a
scene is overpowering witii a sense of isolation in which there are
mingled elements of loncVness and charm.

Upon the announcenv.it that "go-hang," the meal, or literally,
the " rice," was ready, we s. .natted on the floor and the maid laid before
each of us a square tray of viands, and herself kneeled to serve the rice
from the wooden firkin. Each tray bore four main dishes, one in each
corner, and a cup in the center. There were three bowls, an empty
one of porcelain for the main food — rice, another of lacquered wood
containing a very thin soup, and the third a mingling of dried fish and
seaweed, while the fourth corner was occupied by a plate holding a
small baked fish entire. The central cup contained two square pieces
of pickled turnip. The maid remained throughout the meal and filled
the bowls with rice when they were passed. And, of course, we ate
with chop-sticks, drinking the soup. This was a typical hotel meal,
purely Japanese, even more elaborate than what one would expect at
a private home of people of the middle class, and far better than any-
thing one is served with when traveling in country places away from the
seashore.

The island of Tane is not very thickly inhabited and the people are
fairly well-to-do. They are half fisher-folk, and the rest farmers or
peasants. The low hills that rise from the coast leaving no bordering
flat-land are wide and level on the summit, and, in contrast to most of
the hills in other parts of Japan, are wooded on their flanks and culti-
vated on the top. Eice, wheat, yellow mustard for oil, and sweet
potatoes are the principal crops. The little fields and patches are
usually hemmed in by shrubbery and trees, or often by rows of banana
palms. The people live in homesteads that come nearer to being homes
as we know them than most of the habitations in other parts of
Japan. The low houses with steep thatched roofs are bosomed in
gardens of luxuriantly growing vegetables, vines, shrubbery, palms and
flowers, with a deep, rich background of old cryptomeria, pine, oak,
camphor and banyan trees. It was a pleasure to walk through the
rank forest away from the coast on a hot summery day, and there to
come upon old settlements framed in the abundant greenery and other
coloring of the woods.

One of these old homes situated on the hills above Nishi-no-omote,

1 66 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

was a wide rambling bungalow of wood and paper, roofed with tile and
surrounded by a garden of trees trimmed witli fantastic artificiality, of
flowers and wild growth. Here lived the present member of the
ancient noble Tanegashima family that previously ruled the island.
My brother called on him one day, and was cordially received, and from
him we obtained accounts of the first coming of Europeans to Japan
and of the introduction of firearms. It was the custom to keep a
family record, and the contemporary account of this episode of the
history of the island is most interesting. In addition to the account
set down at the time in the family records a complete narrative of the
events was written by a priest of the island named Monshi about 1606,
or sixty-three years after they occurred, when, as he says, there were
still living some old men, with hair as white as the Japanese crane, who
remembered the arrival of the foreigners. This narrative he called
" Teppoki," or " gun-record." In recent years a history of the Tane-
gashima family has been written in Japanese by Tokihito Nishimura,
and these original accounts are included in it. During some long rainy
days on the island our friend Kiyoshi Kanai translated the family
records and the " Teppoki," and we studied out their meaning and in-
terpreted them in English as well and as closely as we could. They
were written in old-fashioned Japanese and many passages are obscure
in meaning and difficult to render.

As the " Teppoki " tells the whole story well and as it incorporates
the account given in the family records, I shall give our translation of
it, leaving out the other, which would be largely duplication.

There is an island called Tane, 44 miles from Gushu.^ Our ancestors always
lived there. People say that the reason why they call it Tane is that, though
it is small, it is full of people and they are all well-to-do. As a seed planted
grows and brings forth fruit without end, so multiplied and prospered the
dwellers on this island.^

On the 25th day of August, 1544, a large ship was found on the beach of
Nishi-no-mura, and they did not know from what country it came. The whole
crew numbered more than a hundred, the shape of their bodies was not like
ours and they could not talk with us. The peojile that saw them thought them
very curious. Among them there was a Chinese student named Goho; we had
no way now of knowing his last name. The head officer of Nishi-no-mura was
Oribenosho Tokitsura, and he knew a good deal. He met Goho and with his
cane he wrote on the sand as follows:''^ "We do not know whence the crew of
the ship comes. How diflferent their figure is ! " Then Goho wrote : " They are
merchants of the southwest barbarians. Though they know about the principle
of emperor and subjects they are ignorant about ceremony. So that when they

^ The southern province of Kiushiu, now called Osumi.

* Tanegashima means literally " Island of seed," from Tane — seed, ga — of,
shima — island.

*" The meaning of the written characters in Chinese and Japanese is much
the same whereas the spoken languages are mutually incomprehensible.

SOUTHERNMOST JAPAN 167

drink they use a large dish, not the cup.' When they eat they use their hands
and not the liasu^ They know only to do what their desire tells them, and
have no knowledge of literature." They are so-called merchants who travel to
places and stay there. They only exchange what they have for what they want
and are not men to be suspected."

Then Oribenosho wrote again: "Thirty miles from here there is a port
called Akaogi" where the owner of the island always stays, where there are
several thousand houses and every house is rich and the streets are crowded.
If we lay anchor there, there will be no danger, for the harbor is deep and the
water smooth." And he sent word to Etoki and Tokiaki.^

Now the ship was conveyed by several tens of small fishing boats, and it
entered Akaogi on the 27th.

At that time there was a priest named Chushuza, who had come from the
Riugen temple of Hiuga and was staying at the port to learn about the Hokke
sect, and who finally changed over to be a priest of the Hokke sect from that
of Zen, and was called Diuzoin. He knew the sacred books and could write
skilfully, and he could speak with Goho. Thus Goho found a friend in this
foreign country and felt, as it is said, that there was " one voice, one heart "
between them.

There were three head merchants; one was Murashusha and another was
Kirishita Demoto.

They had an article in their hands that was about two or three feet long.
There was a hole inside of it, and outside it was straight. It was made of veiy
heavy materials. Though there was an empty passage on the inside, this was
tightly closed at the end. There was a hole in one side to pass fire through.
We covild find nothing to compare with its shape. When a man used it, he
would put a wonderful medicine' into it, add a leaden ball and set up a white
mark on the coast; and then he would hold it up, keeping one eye closed and
the body straight, put fire through the hole and always hit. When it fires it
looks like lightning and the sound is like the rolling of thunder. Every one
who heard covered both ears. After marking a white spot on a rock a man
could shoot at it very accurately. With the firing off of this thing silver
mountains could be destroyed and iron walls dug through. Enemies who do
harm to a man's country would be very much frightened on meeting this,
and still better would it be for hunting the deer or boar that do injury to
young plants. There were many ways of using this article. When Tokiaki saw

^ To the oriental, drinking tea or liquor is a significant ceremony and the
little porcelain cup is a part of the form. The departure from this way and
the use of a large coarse bowl or mug, such as from their standpoint should
be used only to eat from, doubtless seemed an indication of barbaric crudity.

* What we call, with insufficient reverence, chop-sticks.

° " Literature " here connotes learning, culture, ceremonial. These com-
mentaries are interesting; they illustrate another point of view. The bases of
judgment are exactly similar to those applied to-day by many Europeans and
Americans in passing judgment on the orientals.

' This is the chief port and town of the island, now most frequently called
Nishi-no-omote. It is the port to which we came, as before stated.

' Etoki and Tokiaki were father and son in the ruling house of Tanegashima.
The latter was at about this time succeeding his father in the position of
responsibility.

^ The present word for powder in Japanese means " fire medicine."

1 68 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

it he tliought it was the most wonderful thing in the world. At first he did
not know any name for it or how it was used, but it finally acquired the name
" teppo." I do not know whether it was so named by the Chinese or by our
island-people.

One day Tokiaki said to the barbarians through the interpreter : " I can
not shoot this very well, I wish to learn." The barbarians answered, also by
means of the interpreter : " If you wish to learn this we will go to the very
bottom of it with you." Tokiaki said: "I would like to go to the deepest
principle." The barbarian said : " All that is necessary is to quiet the mind
and keep one eye closed." Tokiaki answered: "To adjust one's mind was
taught by the old sacred teachers, and that is what I have learned. In general
throughout the world if the mind is not under control all conduct will be false.
What you say in regard to controlling the mind must mean just this. But
about closing one eye — if it is not bright enough without both to put a candle
at a distance,' is it necessary to close one eye? " The barbarian replied: " Well,
everything must be done in a simple way." ^^ Tokiaki said gladly : " That may
be as Roshi said, ' To say clear, looking small thing.' " "

On a certain ceremonial day Tokiaki put a white spot at one hundred steps
away, and with the wonderful medicine and a small lead ball he shot pretty
closely. People were surprised, and when it hit they were frightened. He said
solemnly : " I wish to learn." Tokiaki did not complain about the fearfully
high price, but bought two teppo from the barbarians and added them to the
house curios. He had the small vassal Sasagawa Koshiro learn the method of
making the medicine. Tokiaki studied very earnestly; the first time he shot
pretty closely; but later if he shot a hundred times he hit a hundred times,
and never failed even once.

At that time a priest named Sugibo of Negoro temple in Kii " came to
get a teppo, not caring for the distance. Tokiaki was affected by that strong
desire for searching, and thought to himself : " In the olden time Jiokun coveted
Kisatsu's sword, though he never let it be known by words. Kisatsu found it
out and gave him his honorable sword. Our island is small and we can spare
one teppo. I came by them unexpectedly and I was so overjoyed that I did
not sleep, and had a strong desire to hand them down to my descendants. How
much more delighted would a person be to get one after having searched for it.
What I like, others will like. Why should I conceal them in boxes ? " So he
sent Tsuda Kanmotsunojo to Sugibo with one of them and let him know how
to make the medicine and how to set it off.

As Tokiaki prized the firearms very highly he had several blacksmiths
examine them, and desired them to make new ones. Though they got the shape
almost the same they could not discover the way to close the end.^'

" This probably means, " If with only one eye I can not see any better than
by candle light."

" Probably means, " It requires concentration."

" This probably means that clearness of statement is aided by considering
one point at a time. There is a suggestion of similarity here to the passage
in Matthew VI., 22, " if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be
full of light."

'^ The Kii peninsula in central Japan, several hundred miles away.

"The difficulty that they encountered was probably in finding a way to
close the stock end of the barrel, when once they had molded a barrel tube, open
at both ends, around a smooth rod. They learned to do this later, probably by
screwing in a breech plug and welding the end.

SOUTHERNMOST JAPAN 169

The next year the foreign merchants came back to Kumano. . . . Fortu-
nately there was a blacksmith among them. Tokiaki thought that to be a gift
from heaven and ordered Kimbioe Kiyosada to learn the way to close the end.
After awhile he learned how to do it by means of a screw. Thus in the course
of a year they were able to make several tens, and after that they made the
wooden parts and the other decorations.

This completes the main portion of the " Teppoki/' but the family
record of the smith Kimbioe Kiyosada which is also preserved forms an
interesting addition. Here is a translation of part of this contempo-
raneous account:

Kiyosada brought about the relation of teacher and pupil between one of
the strangers and himself with the purpose of learning the way to make the
teppo. He thought that the barbarian would never tell the truth and that it
would be better to give his daughter to him and let him marry her. Though he
learned how to shape the teppo he did not imderstand how to close the end.
After several months the ship went away, with the daughter, and many presents
were left.

The record goes on in more detail and tells us the outcome. The
daughter was seventeen years old and her name was Wakasa. After a
year's time the ship returned, as the other records tell also, and
Kiyosada found out how to complete the making of the firearms.
Wakasa returned to her parents, and the family in order to keep her
pretended to the strangers that she was dead and that the burial cere-
mony had taken place. The family of Kiyosada still lives on Tane-
gashima and is in possession of some porcelain ware presented at the
time by the merchants.

The foregoing narrative is a history of the discovery of Japan by
Europeans from the standpoint of the Japanese themselves. It is
interesting to compare with this the story as written by one of the
discoverers. The Portuguese navigator, Ferdinand Mendez Pinto,
after returning home, described his many experiences in his book
" Peregrinagao," and among them, his arrival at the island Tane-
gashima, or, as he called it, Tanixumaa.

He set out from Cochin China for a journey in the China seas, and
after various wanderings through the Liu Kiu islands and elsewhere
came by chance upon Tanegashima. This was the first time that any
portion of Japan had been seen by Europeans. He was accompanied
at this time by two other Portuguese, Diego Zeimoto and Christovano
Borralho.^* Later he went to other parts of Japan farther north. The

" The names in the Japanese account were Murashusha and KirisMta
Demoto. As one Japanese writer says, foreign names are to their people " like
cold water to the sleeping ear." The names must have been ill understood and
imperfectly represented in the Japanese syllables and there may have been a
still further departure from the original in the present retranslation. The
former may stand for Mendez Pinto. The first name of the second doubtless
stands for Christovano (Bolero), (the Japanese now say Kirish for Christ),

VOL. LXXIV. — 12.

I70 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

whole story is most interesting, but there is place for only a few extracts

here. Their junk hove to first at the southern end of the island and

was then conducted by native boats to " a great town, named Miay-

gimaa "^^ where the chief nobleman of the island soon came on board.

The account reads :^^

He no sooner perceived us three Portugals, but he demanded what people we
were, saying, that by our beards and faces we could not be Chineses. . . .
Thereupon having called a woman of Lequia" whom he had brought to serve
as an interpreter between him and the Chinese, captain" of the junck; "Ask
the Necoda, said he unto her, where he met with these men, and upon what
occasion he had irotight them hither with him into our country of Jappan? "
The captain thereunto replied, that we were honest men and merchants. . . .
After he had seen all the commodities in the junck, he sate him down in a
chair upon the deck, and began to question us about certain things which he
desired to know, to the which we answered him in such sort, as we thought
would be most agreeable to his humour, so that he seemed exceedingly satis-
fied therewith; in this manner he entertained us a good while together, making
it apparent by his demands that he was a man very curious, and much inclined
to hear novelties and rare things.

^c-

On leaving the vessel the lord of the island asked the strangers to
come ashore and visit him, and they did so, being royally entertained
and answering many questions regarding the world from which they
had come, which was entirely unknown to the Japanese. Within three
days all the goods on the ship weie disposed of at great profit, but
Pinto and his companions remained on the island after that more than
five months. Again the narrative reads :

Now as for us three Portugals, having nothing to sell, we imployed our
time either in fishing, hunting or seeing the temples of these Gentiles, which
were very sumptuous and rich, whereinto the Bonzes, who are their priests,
received us very courteously, for indeed it is the custom of those of Jappan to
be exceedingly kind and courteous. . . . Diego Zeimoto went many times a
shooting for his pleasure in an harquebuse that he had, wherein he was very
expert, so that going one day by chance to a certain marsh, where there was a
great store of fowl, he killed at that time about six and twenty wild ducks.
In the mean time these people beholding this manner of shooting, which they
had never seen before, were much amazed at it. . . . The lord of the island
sent presently for Zeimoto, just as he was shooting in the marsh, but when
he saw him come with his harquebuse on his shoulder, and two Chineses with
him carrying the fowl, he was so mightily taken with the matter, as he could

and the last name for Zeimoto, especially as the Japanese account says dis-
tinctly that there were three men.

" The name of the chief town which was then as now the chief one of the
island, and to which Pinto came according to the Japanese account, is Akaogi
or Nishi-no-omote. He evidently confused with it the name of the small island
Mage-shima that lies a few miles out to sea in front of the town.

" From the translation by H. C. Gent published in London in 1663.

" Pinto's version of Liu Kiu, the name of the island chain to the south.

" The three Portuguese were then traveling in the vessel of a Chinese pirate.

SOUTHERNMOST JAPAN 171

not sufficiently admire it; for whereas they had never seen any gun before in
that country, they could not comprehend what it might be, so that for want
of understanding the secret of the powder, they all concluded that of necessity
it must be some sorcery.

The story goes on to tell how the nobleman took Zeimoto up behind
him on his horse and had criers declare through the town that there-
after he considered him as his kinsman, and that he should be treated
accordingly on pain of death. The lord treated Zeimoto very kindly,
and the latter, according to Pinto, presented his harquebuse to the lord,
who gave him in return 1,000 tcsls silver.^^ The lord took more
pleasure in shooting the gun than in anything else, and many of his
subjects set to work to learn to make firearms. Pinto says that when
he returned to Japan another time, which was in 1556, he was amazed
to find how the art of making guns had spread, and he says that on
expressing his amazement :

" Certain merchants of good credit assured me that in the whole island of
Jappan there were above 300,000 harquebuses. ... So that by means of that
one, which Zeimoto presented to the Nautaquim in acknowledgment of the
honour and good offices that he had done him . . . the country was filled with
such abundance of them, . . . whereby one may perceive what the inclination
of this people is, and how much they are naturally addicted to the wars,
wherein they take more delight than any other nation that we know.

The first finding of Japan by Europeans opened the way to the
coming of more merchants, and missionaries. It was not long after
that St. Francis Xavier came and converted large numbers of the
Japanese to Christianity and started this new religion, which in later
years gained such a firm rooting and developed among the Japanese
some of the bravest Christian martyrs known to history. During fol-
lowing centuries a very important trade continued between Japan and
the Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch until the country was opened to
the world by America in 1854.

We found the people in many of the out-of-the-way parts of Japan
not much altered, it would seem, from what they were centuries ago,
and just as much filled with curiosity as they were then at the coming
of " red-haired barbarians with green eyes." To cite just one instance
— one day an old man who had never seen a foreigner before sat for
half an hour outside our door, which happened to be a little open, and
watched us while we were eating. I heard later that his comment
was — " they have beautiful complexions but I do not like their hair,"
A light complexion is always considered an element of beauty, and for
this reason a large proportion of the girls use powder, although their
faces are in general whiter and rosier naturally than the men's. Black
hair is, of course, an element of beauty, and sandy hair such as ours is
not, since black is practically the only color laiown among themselves;

" Compare this with the Japanese account of the transaction.

172 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

and as for blue eyes — if a Japanese, having never seen them, could
imagine them at all it would only be with horror.

The people of Tanegashima are rather easy-going, and along the
coast are often poor and dirty, rather from indolence than lack of
opportunity. When not lounging idly they are at their fishing or sea-
weed gathering, or the women in their sweet-potato patches. All down
the rocky coast one sees ragged children playing, and naked men with
well-formed bodies of the color of bronze, working at their boats and
nets or swimming in the sea with baskets gathering edible sea-weed.
In the fields, too, the peasants work almost naked during the warm
days. The coast is one of rocks and pools and waves, of fish-nets spread
out to dry, of dirty fishing shanties, of coral walls surrounding the
yards, of salt-making paddies, and long reaches where nothing grows
but grass and shrubs and pines.

Our wanderings took us along the coasts, across the island and
down its center, and afforded us many experiences and views that are
memorable. Toward the southern end we stayed one night at Kumano
Bay on the eastern coast, the place to which the foreign ship of Mendez
Pinto came first, and where lived the blacksmith Kiyosada who first
learned to manufacture firearms. Here there is a large inlet among the
hills that is filled with water only when the tide is in, where one
sees " now- horseback riders and now the white sails of boats " as one
Japanese writer quaintly puts it. We walked across the dry, flat floor
of the bay one evening on our way out to the seacoast to examine some
caves. Eeturning after dark we started across it and found it full of
water up to our waists. At every step we took, the disturbed bay
gleamed with phosphorescence in a circle all about us and made a fine
picture here in the valley of water between pine-crowned hills that stood
out even blacker than the night. Here where the landscape changes
with the tide is the holiest place in the island, and we had the pleasure
of spending the night with the priest of the Shinto shrine in an
exquisitely beautiful Japanese house that had just been built for him.
He lived alone, but called in a charming lady and her perfect little
daughter from the neighboring hamlet to prepare our food. The meals
were very simple, but neatly and daintily served, after the general plan
of the meal before described. The priest did not eat with us, but we
sat with him and talked for some time by the open fire that was burning
in a basin in the floor. The custom of having fires differs among the
Japanese. Usually in the hotels and private houses there is a wood fire
on the dirt floor or in a rough stove in the kitchen, and nothing but
braziers in the living rooms. But often also, in the country homes
especially, open flres burn in a round hearth in the center of the house.
There is never a chimney, and in the present case the rich new wood-
work of panel and ceiling was fast becoming blackened with smoke from
the tarry pine wood.

SOUTHERNMOST JAPAN 173

We went to sleep on short mattresses on the floor, under covers of
silk, and so passed one of the last of our nights in Tanegashima. Be-
fore leaving this southern end of the island the next day I climbed a
high hill and saw the great blue mass of the island Yakushima that
rises under a dense cover of old forests over six thousand feet out of the
sea not far away. To this island I sailed a few days later, while my
brother left me to go back to the north.

It was just at the time when the long expected Eussian fleet was
gradually crawling toward Japan, and the whole country, ignorant of
the fleet's whereabouts and of the route that it might take, and not
knowing at what moment it might strike, was calmly and confidently
awaiting its arrival. On several different days we had heard occasional
distant rumblings that did not sound at all like thunder and did not
approach nearer. We thought to ourselves, could that be distant
cannonading? But although the noise was probably due to distant
thunder storms it added something of awe and doubt to the suspense.
Finally the news came, and the intoxicating, unbelievable story of
wholesale success was quietly received and at once believed by the
people as if it were only what had been expected. A couple of days
after the great victory, as I was sailing across the straits to Yaku Island,
I saw a Japanese war vessel swooping down the coast of southern
Kiushiu, probably in search of any Eussian ship that might possibly
have escaped. The war, now almost ended, which had been carried on
with such assured skill by the Japanese, gave an added significance to
the first introduction of firearms and a prophetic truth to the words of
Mendez Pinto at the end of the passage quoted above, and to the foiiow-
words with which the priest Monshi summed up his " Teppoki " :

After this, throughout the eight provinces, and even in the country dis-
tricts, every one obtained guns and practised. ... In the first place Tokiaki
got two guns from ihe foreigners and learned their use. One shot shook all.
Japan.

174 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

AN AMEEICAN CONTEIBUTION TO THE HISTORY OF
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF DIGESTION

By Pbofessok LAFAYETTE B. MENDEL

SHEFFIELD SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL OF TAIJi; DNIVEESITY

MY interest has lately been aroused in reading a little American
monograph published over a hundred years ago as a disserta-
tion submitted for the degree of doctor of medicine to the faculty of
the University of Pennsylvania. It is entitled : " An Experimental
Inquiry into the Principles of Nutrition and the Digestive Processes,"
by John P. Young, of Maryland (submitted June 8, 1803). ^ The
essay does not appear to have received notice from the writers of that
period; nor was there, probably, more occasion for calling attention to
this monograph than to the usual doctor's thesis of the present day.
Dr. Young's contribution, nevertheless, seems noteworthy because, in
examining the knowledge of digestion then current, he applies the test
of experimental evidence obtained at first hand — a sort of critique less
in vogue in his day than in ours. On the title page he quotes from
Lavoisier : " We ought in every instance to submit our reasoning to
the test of Experiment, and never to search for truth, but by the nat-
ural road of Experiment and Observation." The dissertation further
possesses a value, aside from its intrinsic merit as a scientific inquiry,
in giving some indication of the status of physiological studies in
America at the opening of the nineteenth century and in the first
medical college of this country. To appreciate Dr. Young's mono-
graph in the light of those times one must indulge in a moment's
retrospect.

The history of the physiology of digestion may conveniently be
divided into three periods. The first of these embraces the earlier
days of science until the publication of Haller's " Elementa Physiolo-
gise " (1757), when theory and debate still maintained the triumph
of the " animal spirits " and the various conceptions of " vital prin-
ciples." In the succeeding epoch Reaumur (1752), Stevens (1777)
and Spallanzani (1783) put into practise the teaching of Bacon:

Non fingendum aut excogitandum, sed
quid natura faciat observandum.

^ I am indebted to Dr. C. F. Langwortliy, of Washington, for directing my
attention to this paper. It is reprinted in the Medical Theses, edited by Charles
Caldwell, M.D., Philadelphia, Thomas and William Bradford, 1805, which was
obtained for the Yale University Library through the courtesy of the Library
of the Surgeon General's Office in Washington.

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF DIGESTION 175

Previous to this time various theories of digestion were based upon
obscure ideas of trituration, concoction, fermentation and putrefaction
or whatever these words might imply. Difficult as it is for us to-day
to reproduce the point of view of men who were " struggling with the
spiritualistic fermentations of van Helmont, on the one hand, and with
the material effervescences of Sylvius, on the other," we can neverthe-
less appreciate the remark of William Hunter:

Some physiologists will have it, that the stomach is a mill, others, that it
is a fermenting vat, others, again, that it is a stew-pan; but, in my view of the
matter, it is neither a mill, a fermenting vat, nor a stew-pan; but a stomach,
gentlemen, a stomach.

The third epoch in the study of the physiology of digestion coin-
cides with the rise of modern chemistry and may, perhaps, be said to
start with the discovery of free hydrochloric acid in the gastric juice
by Prout and by Tiedemann and Gmelin in 1824, soon followed by the
pioneer work of Dr. "William Beaumont upon Alexis St. Martin. Fos-
ter writes:

It was left for the nineteenth century to throw a new light on the nature
of the gastric changes and at the same time shew that what took place in the
stomach was not the whole of digestion, but only the first of a series of pro-
found changes taking place along nearly the whole length of the alimentary
canal.

Let us bear in mind, then, that although the presence of a solvent
fluid in the stomach had begun to be admitted in 1803, its nature and
the mode of its operation were not understood until Beaumont's classic
experiments (1833) on "the man with a lid on his stomach," as St.
Martin was derisively called. Eeaumur (1753) experimented on a
buzzard, administering to it hollow metallic capsules perforated like a
sieve and containing foods within. The possibility of mechanical
crushing or trituration was thereby excluded ; but when the tubes were
regurgitated it was found that digestion (solution) of the food mate-
rials had nevertheless taken place. Some chemical action must have
been exerted; and by placing sponges in the metallic tubes, Eeaumur
was able to express therefrom specimens of gastric fluid. He appre-
ciated that it possessed properties antagonistic to putrefaction; and
fragmentary as his observations may appear, he introduced a- new
method into physiological research. To Spallanzani was left the exten-
sion of these investigations in most fruitful fields. He well recognized
the antiseptic power of the gastric secretion. With regard to the
nature of digestion Spallanzani concluded (1783) in these words:

None of the three forms of fermentation distinguished by chemists under
the name of spirituous (alcoholic), acid, or putrid, have any place in digestion.

His well-conceived experiments in which animals swallowed meat
attached to strings by which it could be withdrawn from time to time,

176 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

and the ways in which gastric fluid was removed by squeezing out
sponges swallowed and withdrawn, are familiar. The impression which
these researches left is well emphasized by Beumont. He wrote
(1833):

Suffice it to say that the theories of Concoction, Putrefaction, Trituration,
Fermentation and Maceration, have been prostrated in the dust before the lights
of science, and the deductions of experiment. It was reserved for Spallanzani to
overthrow all these unfounded hypotheses, and to erect upon their ruins, a
theory which will stand the test of scientific examination and experiment. He
established a theory of chemical solution, and taught that chymification was
owing to the solvent action of a fluid, secreted by the stomach, and operating as
a true menstruum of alimentary substances. To this fluid he gave the name of

GASTRIC JUICE. . . .

By far the most respectable and intelligent physiologists have now settled
down in the belief that chymiflcation is eff"ected in the stomach, by a specific
solvent, secreted by that organ, called, after Spallanzani, the Gastric Juice.
From the difficulty, however, of obtaining and submitting this fluid to the test
of experiment, and the diversity of results in the examination of such as has
been obtained, no very satisfactory conclusions have been arrived at. The pres-
ence of an active solvent is rather an admission — a conclusion from the effect
to the cause.

Spallanzani failed to understand the acid character of solvent gastric
juice. Even as late as 1825 Leuret and Lassaigne, in a memoir hon-
ored by the Academie des Sciences, declined to accept Front's evidence
of the existence of hydrochloric acid in the gastric secretion. This
deserves notice with reference to the experiments of Dr. Young which
will be described later.

Young's essay opens with a review of the Nutrientia, the views of
Dr. Cullen being subjected to criticism. This famous Edinburgh
teacher^ referred " the principal of nutrientia to vegetables ; and that
they derive this property from their acid, sugar and oil." Taking
these up in order, Young rejects acid as a true nutrient, with these
words :

The doctor (Cullen) appears to have founded his opinion on the idea, that
all vegetable substances, when taken into the stomach, undergo a fermentation,
whereby an acid is evolved; and "as this entirely disappears with the progress
of the aliment, without being again evident in the mass of blood," so he sup-
posed it undoubtedly entered into the composition of the animal fluid. That an
acetous fermentation takes place in the human stomach in a healthy state, we
entirely reject, as will appear in what follows; and if this opinion be well
founded, we obviate the principal argument favouring the idea, of an acid being
nutritious. Acescent vegetables we can not doubt as affording nourishment, but
this is not to be referred to their acid, but to their sugar and oil.

Young overthrows Cullen's assumption that " sugar is not alimentary
in its pure saline state, but only when combined with an oleaginous

^I have assumed that the writer must refer to William Cullen (1712-90),
of Edinburgh, under whose influence the abler young men from the English
colonies in America came.

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF DIGESTION 177

matter," by citing the ease of the West Indies negroes who grow fat
on sugar at certain seasons when they are at work on the cane. The
absorption and need of water and " calcareous earth " is also discussed.
The author reaches the conclusion that water not alone supplies the
waste of fluids, but also goes to form the solids of the body. He says :
Dr. Foi'dyce informs us he put a gold-fish in a glass vessel, and supplied it
with spring water; the fish lived in this manner for fifteen months, grew to
more than double the size it was when first confined, and threw out much
feculent matter. Lest it should be supposed the fish lived on substances held in
the water by solution, he used distilled water and impregnated it with the air
of the atmosphere, and put other gold-fish in the water thus treated, and kept
them six months,' during which time they threw out feculent matter, and thrived
as before mentioned.

In referring to the " action of the mind " on the secretion of saliva
Young makes the following comment in a foot-note:

Is not the secretion of the saliva and gastric juice synchronous? It is
highly probable from long habit, the actions of these two sets of vessels become
associated; hence, when the stomach and its vessels are irritated, as in nausea,
there is always a flow of saliva, though nothing stimulating has been applied
to the mouth. The excitement of the vessels of the one seems to keep pace with
that of the other ; when the nausea is so great that vomiting is just at hand, the
flow of the saliva is proportionally increased; and when we make an unsuccess-
ful eff"ort to vomit, we generally throw out a mouthful of saliva.

Is it far-fetched to recall in this connection the comparable psychic
secretion which has been described in recent years for both saliva and
gastric juice and the probability of a common stimulus for the produc-
tion of each?

Let us now consider more particularly Dr. Young's observations on
the processes in the stomach. He assumes that sufficient evidence was
already at hand from experiments on animals to permit plausible, if
not conclusive, inferences concerning our own digestion. He writes :

It would be unnecessary to recite particular experiments, to prove the
solvent property of the gastric fluid, this being admitted on all hands. . . . The
effects of solution are most remarkable in such animals as swallow their food
without mastication; we will, therefore, relate a few experiments made on some
of these.

Our common large bull-frog (Rana ocellata) was chosen in order to observe
the effects of the gastric fluid, as they swallow all their prey whole. They have
a large membranous stomach, which when distended, occupies the whole anterior
part of the abdomen: the oesophagus is very wide, so that their food can be
examined at pleasure. Two of a very large size were procured, and their
stomachs were found to be greatly distended with food: being desirous of seeing
what was their natural aliment, and the efl'ects of their digestive power upon
it, by means of a pair of forceps, one of their stomachs was easily emptied of
its contents; and to my surprise, and that of others who witnessed the fact, it
was found to contain a common sized spring frog, and aflforded a fine oppor-

' One is reminded of J. Loeb's demonstration nearly a hundred years later
that certain fishes can be put into distilled water without the least injury.

178 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

tunity to see the effects of their gastric liquor. The whole external surface of
the frog was acted upon, the muscles having, superficially, quite lost their
texture; some parts of the backbone were bare, the spinous processes of which
were quite soft. Upon introducing a forceps, a second time, the hinder parts
of a second frog were found, which shewed the effects of their fluids in a still
greater degree : the muscles of the thigh were reduced to a complete jelly, though
still retaining their form; some parts of the bones that were covered with flesh
were quite soft and flexible. Upon extracting the contents of the stomach of the
second frog, it was found to contain a field mouse, about a third larger than our
common mouse: its whole surface was quite soft, having entirely lost its
texture ; the fore legs were nearly disconnected from its body, the bones of which
were soft; the bones of other parts of the body were also examined; they were
all soft. But what was most surprising, the teeth of this animal did not escape;
the incisors were, as Dr. Jacobs witnessed, soft and flexible, having the appear-
ance of a piece of half dried tendon. Neither the frog nor the mouse had any
acid or putrid smell.

It appeared very evident from the preceding experiment that the fluids of
these animals acted upon bones; but in order to ascertain whether they could
dissolve them completely down, the following experiment was performed. The
head and all the bones of the mouse were cleared of their flesh, and forced into
the empty stomach of one of the frogs; he was then put into a jar of water.
In two days, the bones were all discharged in the form of a mortar; by rubbing
it between the fingers, small pieces of bone were distinguishable. This will
serve to shew us the powerful action of an apparently inert fluid on an animal
matter, sparing not bones, nor even the teeth of animals.

Being desirous of knowing the length of time they would require to dissolve
down a small frog, the following experiment was performed. A packthread was
tied to the hind legs of a living spring frog; its head was then put into the
mouth of one of the large frogs; as soon as he felt it move it was swallowed
greedily. In five hours it was drawn up by means of the thread; the skin and
external surface of the muscles were tender. It was again introduced; in the
space of seven hours, it was drawn up a second time; the abdominal muscles
were now dissolved, and the intestines had protruded; the bones of the feet
were soft, and separable from the leg by the least force; in a word, the whole
was a complete dissolved mass. It was swallowed a third time, and attempted
to be drawn up in six hours afterwards; but it had so far lost its texture that
the two legs, to which the thread was tied, could only be brought up; the bones
of these were soft and flexible, as before mentioned. Many experiments of this
kind were made to see the effects of their gastric menstruum : in many cases,
after giving them small frogs, the trunk and head of these animals were drawn
out of their stomachs complete skeletons, but the bones were always soft, and
felt like tender cartilage. In all the half-digested substances which were at
different times taken from their stomachs, as frogs, veal, beef, etc., an acid was
constantly found present: they were seldom examined before two hours after
being swallowed; at this short interval when their surfaces were touched with
litmus paper, it was turned red.

Snakes, like the large frogs, also swallow their food without mastication:
many experiments were therefore also made on them, by forcing frogs, lizards,
etc., into their stomachs, to see the effects of solution: they agreed in every
respect with what has been said of frogs, like them perfectly dissolving down
entire animals. The only difference between them was, that the solution of
snakes went on only about half as fast as that of the large frogs.

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF DIGESTION 179

The gastric fluid of man and that of frogs and snakes agree perfectly in
their action on flesh, as the experiments of Spallanzani prove that the first of
these powerfully dissolves meat out of the body. As the menstruum of the two
latter animals acted so uniformly on bones, it appeared highly probable the
fluid of our own stomach would also. To ascertain this, the condyles of the
thigh bone of a chicken, weighing eleven grains, were swallowed; the bone
remained a considerable time in the stomach, as was supposed from some uneasy
sensations that were occasionally experienced for between two and three days;
the fourth day it was discharged, reduced to a shell, weighing only three grains.
Thus far the digestion of man and these animals perfectly agree, in solution
being the first step towards the conversion of food into chyle; but they differ
in some particulars, and probably by attending to these, they may be of use to us.
First. They are cold-blooded animals: heat is a powerful agent in all solu-
tions, and the experiments of Spallanzani prove it greatly assists the action of
the gastric liquor out of the stomach.

Secondly. They do not masticate their food.

These two inconveniences are obviated, by these animals never drinking
when their digestion is going on, so that their fluid acts in its undiluted state;
whereas in man, it is always diluted, as he seldom eats without drinking. That
this was the case with these animals I had clear proof; for although I examined
the contents of their stomachs so often, in no one case could I find any fluid
more than a jelly-like substance, appearing to be made up of gastric juice and
dissolved flesh. Supposing, however, that the pressure used in bringing up the
food of the frogs might have forced the more fluid parts into the duodenum,
I resolved to ascertain the fact in another way; this was easily done. A tea-
spoon could readily be passed into their stomachs, and with this the dissolved
food could all be brought up; it was always, however, of the consistence above
mentioned. During the time these experiments were made, they were constantly
kept in large jars of water. The attention to this circumstance by these animals,
which swallow their prey entire, is a necessary part in their digestion, as they
require a very powerful menstruum, so as to dissolve not only entire muscles,
but also bones. The inference we would draw from it would be, to attend occa-
sionally to what necessity urges them to observe constantly. Thus when our
stomachs are weak, or we are troubled with dyspeptic symptoms, like them we
ought to avoid much diluting our gastric juice; so that although it were
secreted not perfectly healthy, yet having the advantage of acting in its uncom-
bined state, solution and digestion may go on, when it otherwise would not,
with the common quantity of drink. Indeed our stomachs in this respect act
a kind part to us; for when we make our first dish on broth it seldom relishes
much solid aliment after it; hence soups are the first dish at the table of the
temperate, and the last at that of the epicure.

Both Spallanzani and Eeaumur believed that vegetable food is less
easily digested by certain animals than meat. Young reinvestigated
this question on frogs. He found that when peas, beans, wheat and
bread enclosed in linen bags were introduced into the stomach, all but
the bread were still entire at the end of thirty hours; but when the
peas and beans were well bruised before introduction they were dis-
solved. The author concludes that the living 'principle in the seeds
resists digestion. In harmony with this view he found that seeds
would germinate when retained in the stomach. An entertaining
story is cited from the Italian anatomist Morgani.

i8o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

He informs us that a young lady living entirely on vegetables (it being
lent), vpas seized with a violent affection of her stomach, and great emaciation
ensued. Different medicines were used, but without the least alleviation of her
symptoms. At length a violent vomiting commenced, and to the astonishment
of all present, she threw up a small plant, with perfect leaves and roots! This
at first sight might be looked upon as approaching the marvellous; yet why
should we doubt it? The authority of our author is as respectable as any other
of our profession; and we have just seen that seeds will vegetate when retained
a sufficient length of time in the stomach. The probability here was, that the
young lady had swallowed the seed of some small plant, without destroying its
texture by mastication; which being retained in the stomach, and exposed to
heat and moisture, vegetation progressed.

Vegetable and animal foods alike are, then, capable of solution by
the gastric fluid, provided that their " organization or vital principle
be previously destroyed." One could thus believe the further evidence
that " a respectable gentleman " had seen two polar bears " that had
subsisted on vegetable food alone, from the time that they were taken
from their mother's breasts ; and that they were more than half grown,
and very fat." On the other hand, he cites the case of the Italian
naturalist who " by dint of hunger learnt a pigeon to eat meat of
which it became so excessively fond, that it preferred it to every other
kind of food, even to wheat, which in their natural state, they eat
before anything else."

Will simple solution by the powerful action of the gastric fluid
explain the conversion of " aliment into chyle ?" asks Dr. Young.
Many earlier teachers had assumed that activities which we now know
to be associated with microorganisms play a part. The warmth and
moisture of the body would facilitate this fermentation and putrefac-
tion. Our author writes:

Chemists divide fermentation into three kinds, the vinous, acetous and
putrefactive; the product of the first is vinous spirit, or alcohol; of the second,
acetous acid, or vinegar; of the third, ammoniac, or volatile alkali.

In order to ascertain whether a vinous fermentation could take place in
the human stomach the following experiment was performed. My friend, Mr.
Mitchell, avoided his usual breakfast, in the place of which he took, between
the hours of eight and ten, twelve ounces of sugar. Nothing more was taken
until one o'clock. Having the power to ruminate, it was at this hour thrown
up; the mass was sweet: upon being put to rest no intestine motion or dis-
engagement of air was to be perceived. It was then submitted to distillation:
a limpid fluid passed over into the receiver, which was sweetish, but had none
of the properties of a vinous spirit. Carbonic acid gas is constantly evolved
during the vinous fermentation; Mr. Mitchell, therefore, paid particular atten-
tion to this, as long as the sugar was on his stomach; but there was not the
least eructation of air during the whole period the experiment was going on.
If ever a vinous fermentation took place in the stomach, we expected to have
found it in this experiment; as this viscus was plentifully supplied with sac-
charine matter, which passes so readily to this state; but as nothing of the
kind occurred, we conclude the vinous fermentation has nothing to do with the
digestive process.

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF DIGESTION i8i

Young's experiments on frogs had already taught him, in confirma-
tion of Spallanzani, that the gastric juice resists decay and it " even
restored putrid substances to their original sweetness." Here is an
additional experiment upon himself:

On an empty stomach I made a light dinner, on chicken pye, and drank
simple water: in half an hour, by irritating my fauces, it was thrown up; at
this time it was plentifully supplied with gastric fluid, as well as saliva, as the
quantity of food was but small. It was then exposed in a tumbler to a heat
equal to the human temperature. For the space of nine hours there was not
the least intestine motion nor any disengagement of air. As digestion is per-
formed sooner than this period, it was not attended to any longer.

Young convinced himself of the acid character of the gastric fluid
and attempted to identify the acid present.

A piece of fresh veal was introduced into the empty stomach of one of the
large frogs: in two hours it was examined; the surface was a little tender;
upon being touched with litmus paper it was turned red. Here digestion was
progressing quite regular, yet an acid was present. It appeared impossible at
the same time to conceive the meat could become sour in so very short a time,
and in so very low a temperature; it was therefore conjectured, the acid was to
be referred not to the meat, but to the gastric juice, which the following experi-
ments confirmed us in. A frog was kept starving for two days; a piece of
litmus paper was then forced into its empty stomach by means of a pair of
forceps; upon being drawn out, it was covered with gastric juice, and the litmus
turned red. The naked gastric juice was afterwards often examined, by bring-
ing it out of their stomachs with a teaspoon, and constantly found to be slightly
acid. Being thus fully persuaded the acid, in the digested food of frogs, did
not arise from a fermentation, but was to be referred to their gastric juice, we
were led by analogy to suppose the acid of our own stomachs was to be at-
tributed to the same origin: but this analogical reasoning might be called mere
probability; the following experiment was therefore performed. Early in the
morning, my stomach being empty, I irritated my fauces with a view of throw-
ing up some gastric juice: though many efforts were made, none could be
vomited. The following day I took some meat on an empty stomach: in half
an hour afterwards, by irritating my fauces, the meat was thrown up, and with
it some gastric fluid: upon being tested, an acid was very evidently present.
Here no one can suppose the acid was to be referred to the meat. We have
little hesitation, therefore, in saying that the acid so constantly found in the
stomach of man, and almost, probably, all animals, is to be referred to their
gastric fluid.

Young's friend, ]\rr. Mitchell, " being in good health and having
the power to ruminate," collected gastric fluid for him. The analysis
of the filtered fluid was performed by precipitating with acetate of
lead. The precipitate was treated with muriatic acid " which decom-
posed it, a very white powder remaining at the bottom, and a fluid
above." From analogy with the behavior of urine similarly treated
the author concluded:

Though great accuracy and many varied experiments are required to ascer-
tain certainly the presence of an unknown acid, yet we are disposed to believe
any person who had witnessed the great similarity in the comparative precipita-

1 82 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

tions just mentioned would have pronounced the same explanation was to be
applied to both, or that the acid in the filtered fluid was the phosphoric.

Additional evidence of the presence of phosphoric acid was believed to
be derived from the behavior of the fluid towards solutions of mercury
or silver in nitric acid and towards lime water.

The supposed finding of a mineral acid led Young to comment
upon the efficiency of metallic iron recommended by Italian physicians
as a tonic, its solution being thereby explained. For, he asks, " does
not the uniform eifects of iron in its metallic state prove that an acid
is always present in the stomach ? "

The solvent property of the gastric juice on bones and teeth sug-
gested the possibility of its use as a solvent for stone in the bladder.

A calculus was obtained from Dr. Jacobs of a very firm texture weighing
exactly fifty grains. It was introduced into the stomach of one of the large
frogs. In two days it was taken out for examination: at first sight it was
evident solution had taken place, for the gastric juice which adhered to it was
coloured with some of the dissolved stone: it was found to weigh forty-five
grains. It was forced into the stomach a second time, where it remained for
two days; it now weighed thirty-eight grains: from this, it appears, it is well
worthy of more attention. When introduced into the bladder, with the heat of
the human body, we have little doubt the gastric juice of frogs would act upon
calculi with much efi'ect. The fluid is easily procured, and without the neces-
sity, as in other animals, of sacrificing a life every time we wish to obtain it:
by means of a teaspoon it is readily brought up from their stomachs.

With the theory of fermentation rejected, the author proceeds to
attempt an explanation of the digestive function.

Aliment is dissolved by the gastric menstruum; it then passes into the
duodenum and meets with bile and pancreatic liquor; after being united with
these, a heterogeneous mass is formed called chyme, and from this the lacteals
secrete chyle.

We are Jed to believe this to be the true doctrine, because, as before
observed, simple solution will not explain the phenomenon of digestion; nor
will the mixture of this dissolved mass, with bile and pancreatic liquor, change
it into chyle; for we know chyle is formed when both these fluids are wanting:
thus nutrition goes on when the biliary ducts are obstructed, and also when
the pancreas is schirrous. That the absorbents have a secreting or digestive
power, we learn from the following. Dr. Wistar informs us of a remarkable
case, which occurred under his own observation, of a person who was supported
for many weeks, by nourishing enemata, alone. Here it can not be said there
was bile, gastric and pancreatic liquors to assimilate the injected fluid into
chyle; yet chyle was formed and the system nourished. If the lacteals acted
the part of simple absorbing, or capillary tubes, their contained fluids ought to
partake of the sensible properties of the mass from which they are absorbed.
But the reverse of this is the case: chyle has always the same taste, however
difl'erent the sensible properties of the contents of the intestines may be,
whether they are acid, bitter, etc. We draw a strong argument in truth of
this opinion, by turning to the vegetable kingdom, throughout the whole of
which the digestive process is seated in the absorbents. Water is to them
what the fluids of the primsevijB are to the digestion of man: it dissolves their

TEE PHYSIOLOGY OF DIGESTION 183

food, which being exposed to their vessels is taken up; but the fluid thus taken
up can not be imitated by any mixture of earth and water, any more than we
can imitate chyle by combining aliments with the fluids of the alimentary
canal. As we thus have proofs the one is a secretory process, why not admit
that of the other to be so also, since the circumstances of each so perfectly agree.

One hundred years later the obscure importance of the absorbing
alimentary tract must still be emphasized. In the words of a popular
textbook: the energy that controls absorption resides in the wall of
the intestine, presumably in the epithelial cells and constitutes a special
form of imbibition which is not yet understood. Thus the dignity of
the living structures still remains unchallenged.

The uncertainty regarding the acidity of the gastric juice which
still prevailed twenty years after Young's paper was. published has
already been mentioned. Even as late as 1812 Montegre insisted that
what was supposed to be gastric juice is nothing but swallowed saliva.
An American, Professor Smith, suggested that digestion is performed
" by the veins of the stomach, and by the liver." Vague ideas like
these, in contrast with modest experimental inquiries illustrated by the
monograph which we have reviewed in some detail, led Dr. Beaumont
to remark:

It is unfortunate for the interests of physiological science that it generally
falls to the lot of men of vivid imaginations, and great powers of mind, to
become restive under the restraints of a tedious and routine mode of thinking,
and to strike out into bold and original hypotheses to elucidate the operations
of nature, or to account for the phenomena that are constantly submitting to
their inspection. The process of developing truth, by patienc and persevering
investigation, experiment and research, is incompatible with unrestrained genius.
The drudgery of science is left to humbler and more unpretending laborers.
The flight of genius is, however, frequently erratic.

1 84 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

THE INSTEUMENTS AND METHODS OF RESEAECH^

By De. L. a. BAUER

CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON

WEEE I to accuse you of forgetfulness^ of shortness of memory, or
possessed of tliat quality apt to prove troublesome to others,
though characterized by the oldest of our past presidents, in his delight-
ful " Eeminiscences of an Astronomer/' as a valuable quality — absent-
mindedness — I dare say you would not be much offended, though
possibly a trifle annoyed. But were I to accuse you of narrow-minded-
ness I might meet with a different reception. To none of us would it
matter much to be called short-memoried or absent-minded, but to be
termed narrow-minded arouses our resentment immediately. But are
we not all necessarily so, more or less, according to the circumstances in
which we find ourselves?

Mind the Chief Instrument of Eesearch
I believe it was the mathematical physicist Stokes who warned us
we must not forget that the chief instrument of investigation — the
mind — is itself the object of research. To the mind, then, we should
devote our first and chief attention in the discussion of the subject for
this evening. How to reduce and check as far as possible this natural
tendency of all of us to narrow-mindedness in one or more directions,
or how, realizing its necessary existence, to make due allowance for it in
the formulation of conclusions which, though drawn with utmost care,
are nevertheless subject to " personal equation," is, as we at once
readily see, a matter of the very highest importance.

Many of you are doubtless familiar with the Hindoo fable set to
rh3ane by Saxe :

It was six men of Indoostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant

(Though all of them were blind),
Tliat each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.

The First approached the Elephant,

And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side.

At once began to bawl :
" God bless me ! but the Elephant

Is very like a wall! "

^ Address of the retiring president, delivered before the Philosophical So-
ciety of Washington, Saturday evening, December 5, 1908.

INSTRUMENTS AND METHODS OF RESEARCH 185

The Second, feeling of the tusk,

Cried, " Ho ! what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?

To me 'tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant

Is very like a spear! "

The third, happening to grasp the " squirming trunk within hia
hands/' declared the elephant to be " very like a snake " ; the fourth,
feeling " about the knee/' thought the elephant seemed " very like a
tree " ; the fifth, " chancing to touch the elephant's ear/' described him
as being "very like a fan/' and when within the scope of the sixth
came the swinging tail, the fact that the elephant " is very like a rope "
was to him proved beyond dispute.

And so these men of Indoostan

Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion

Exceeding stiff and strong.
Though each was partly in the right,

And all were in the wrong!

And now, if you will permit me to slightly alter the poet's last verse,
so as to point the moral to our own selves :

How oft in scientific wars

We disputants are seen
To rail in utter ignorance

Of what each other mean.
And prate about an Elephant

Not one of us has seen!

What is Eesearch?

In this day of encyclopedias mmierous and ponderous, one is often
struck with the fact that in spite of the manifest care and conscientious
thought bestowed by the responsible editors, the omissions and evidences
of discontinuity of treatment, and lack of recognition of the prime pur-
poses of the compilation, are as noteworthy as the imposing array of the
results of our steadily advancing knowledge is startling. For a philo-
sophic treatment — one fully appreciative of that which the student
really requires, not only to enlighten him with regard to a particular
subject, but also to stimulate him to research where it is most needed —
I frequently get more satisfaction out of the older encyclopedias than
from our modern ones, even though they can but present the status
of the subject up to the time they were written.

As an illustration, take the word " research," appearing in our topic
of this evening, or any of the associated terms — " discovery," " experi-
ment," " investigation " and " observation." Turning to the index
volumes of the ninth and tenth editions of the " Encyclopedia Britan-

VOL. LXXIV. — 13.

1 86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

nica/' I find but two references in which the word " research " appears
— one to the exploring vessel, the Research, and the other to " re-
search degrees/' Turning to the page on which the latter occurs, we
find this interesting statement referring to Oxford University :

New degrees for the encouragement of research, the B.Lit. and B.Sc.
(founded in 1895, and completed in 1900 by the institution of research doctor-
ates), have attracted graduates from the universities of other countries. In
1899 a geographical department was opened, which is jointly supported by the
University and by the Royal Geographical Society.

Now comes the interesting statement which I beg to emphasize :

Of more hearing on practical life are the Day Training College Delegacy}
{1892) and the diploma in education (1896). Under the former elementary
school teachers are enabled to take their training course at Oxford, and do so in
growing numbers, etc.

We thus see what the writer of this article thinks of the relative
value in practical life, of research foundations and normal school foun-
dations! Yet we all know that this view is not typical of that held
in a country having such productive research organizations as the Eoyal
Society or the Royal Institution. Sir Norman Lockyer, in his luminous
inaugural address before the British Association for the Advancement of
Science, in 1903, on the "Influence of Brain-power on History," says:
" A country's research is as important in the long run as its battleships."
Why, then, does not the standard encyclopedia of that country make
space for a representative article on " research" ?

Under " investigation " there also appears absolutely nothing.
However, we have the ship, " Investigator," Investigator Shoal, In-
vestigator Group, etc., but not a word about the general methods em-
ployed by " scientific investigators." And so it is with the word " dis-
covery " — there is no reference whatsoever to an article on the general
principles leading up to discoveries. Likewise with the word " obser-
vation " ; though there are many references to observations of various
kinds, there is no one article for setting forth the general principles of
" observations " or the part they play in the discovery of fundamental
facts. The same experience is had with regard to the word " experi-
ment."

Now let us turn to an encyclopedia I invariably read with pleasure
and profit; it frequently has supplied me with references to earlier
work not to be obtained elsewhere. We shall find it instructive to
us to-night, though the articles to which I beg to invite your kind
attention were written three fourths of a century ago. I refer to the
classic Gehler's " Physikalisches Worterbuch " — the revised edition by
the noted investigators Brandes, Gmelin, Horner, Littrow, Muncke
and Pfaff, in 20 volumes and published in Leipzig, 1825-1845. A
veritable fund of information is found under the headings " Beobach-

INSTRUMENTS AND METHODS OF RESEARCH 1S7

tung" (observation) and "Versuch" (experiment). The article
on " Beobachtung/' by the physicist Muncke, embraces 28 octavo pages.
He shows the distinction between " Beobachtungen " (observations)
and " Versuche " (experiments) to be that the former pertain to the
perceptions of phenomena presented to ns by nature in her unmodi-
fied course, whereas in the latter — in the experiments — we are seek-
ing to produce certain results or phenomena, more or less looked for,
in order either to verify a law already known or to disprove one sus-
pected of being wrong or even to discover a new one. Both classes
of experiences are necessary for a piece of investigation or research
work.

Thus, we may behold either visually or in some other way certain
striking solar phenomena; these belong to the class of observations
which we ourselves are unable to modify in any manner whatsoever.
Continued observation may, however reveal a certain law which by
experiment in the laboratory, conducted along more or less definite
lines, we may seek to imitate in the hope of getting some clue to the
modus operandi of the observed phenomena. In this article on " Ob-
servations " the author treats in detail the various elements entering
into correct methods of investigation, condition of the observer and
of his senses, his being unbiased, character and errors of the instru-
ments, errors of results, methods of increasing accuracy, representa-
tions of observations by graphs and formulae, method of least squares,
etc. He points out the mistake sometimes made, that an established
formula satisfying the observed phenomenon within certain limits
represents an actual law of nature.

The article "Versuch" (experiment) consists of 44 pages and is
contributed by the astronomer Littrow. He shows that the most rapid
development takes place in those sciences which afford the greatest
opportunity for experimentation, referring, e. g., to the slow and
painful progress of the astronomer as long as he had to confine him
self to mere celestial observations and the comparatively rapid
strides which occurred as soon as some of the observed phenomena
could be either imitated by, or be compared with, those derived by
laboratory experiment. The investigator, he says, must be abso-
lutely free from preconceptions and be careful, cautious and un-
biased in his interpretation of what his senses may reveal to him.
He illustrates how man, called jokingly "das TJrsachenthier " (the
animal ever bent on ascertaining the cause of things), proceeds in
ferreting out the why and wherefore of observed phenomena, and how
his methods of circumspection develop with the advance of Imowledge.

Though man can not determine the " Endursachen,'^ or ultimate
causes of things, the field open to him to discover the laws governing
phenomena or, vice versa, classifying and enumerating those which

i88 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

follow a certain revealed law, is, nevertheless, still very large and
sufficient to tax his energies. Witness, for example, the host of ob-
served phenomena obeying the law of inverse squares!

The remaining sections of Littrow's article deal with the reduction
of the experiments to the laws of motion, the numerical expression
of the observed results in definite units, the importance of the part
played by instruments or mechanical appliances, derivation of laws
governing the observations, methods of ascertaining these laws, meth-
ods of reduction and of publication, and errors to be avoided.

These two articles will show sufficiently the character and scope
of similar ones we should like to see in our standard English and
American encyclopedias.^ Such information is contained in some
measure, at least, though not as comprehensively, in the modern
German book of reference, Brockhaus's " Conversations-Lexikon," as
also in the " Grande Encyclopedia " of the French. It is tmly re-
markable that there should be such an oversight in our " International
Encyclopedia," when it is remembered that the editor-in-chief was
one to whom research work owes a very great debt of gratitude in-
deed— the late and greatly lamented Daniel Coit Gilman. The only
article found is one on " expert," and this pertains chiefly to " expert
evidence " in courts of law. Yet what better statement concerning
the " research or scientific spirit " could be made than contained in
the following quotation^ from Gilman's writings?

It is perpetually active. It is the search for the truth — questioning,
doubting, verifying, sifting, testing, proving, that which has been handed down;
observing, weighing, measuring, comparing the phenomena of nature, open and
recondite. In such researches, a degree of accuracy is nowadays reached which
was impossible before the lens, the balance, and the metre, those marvelous in-
struments of precision, had attained their modern perfection. Wherever we
look we may find indications of the scientific spirit. The search after origins
and the grounds of belief, the love of natural history, the establishment of
laboratories, the perfection of scientific apparaj;us, the formation of scientific
associations, and the employment of scientific methods in history, politics,
economics, philology, psychology, are examples of the trend of intellectual
activity. The readiness of the general government and of many State legisla-
tures to encourage surveys and bureaus, the establishment of museums of natural
history, and the support of explorations illustrate this tendency. Even theol-
ogy feels the influence. The ancient and sacred proverb has been rediscovered
— the letter killeth and the spirit maketh alive. I will go only to the edge of
this disputed territory and shelter my own opinions behind those of a learned
devout prelate of the English Church (Bishop Walcott), whose words are these:
" No one can believe more firmly than I do that we are living in a time of
revelation, and that the teachings of physical science are to be for us what
Greek literature was in the twelfth century." . . .

^ " Chamber's Encyclopedia " is found to contain a short article on " Experi-
ment " ; also one on " Observation."

' Extracts from the " Launching of a University," 1906, pp. 147-150.

INSTRUMENTS AND METHODS OF RESEARCH 189

With the growth of the scientific spirit grows the love of truth, and with
the love of truth in the abstract comes the love of accuracy in the concrete.

Our foremost English dictionaries are in general not any more
satisfying or edifying regarding the precise meaning of " research "
in the scientific sense than are the standard encyclopedias. Their
illustrations of the use of the word are usually neither apt nor suffi-
ciently comprehensive.

How MAT WE SHARPEN OUR SENSES?

Of the senses, sight plays the greatest part in investigation. To
this organ we have thus far devoted most attention to supplement
and increase its natural powers by mechanical means — the telescope,
microscope, etc. Next would rank the sense of hearing; but the ap-
pliances for increasing our sensations in this respect are compara-
tively few, and still more is this the case with regard to the senses
of taste, smell and touch.

Yet what truly wonderful powers of touch are developed by the
blind, and how extraordinary are the capabilities of certain animals
for foretelling the distant approach of a deadly foe by the means of
hearing or of smell ! There are well-authenticated cases on record
where animals unquestionably appear to have " felt " the coming of a
great natural catastrophe, like an earthquake, several hours before any
human being had the same knowledge.

Might not man also, to his advantage, increase or stimulate his
less-used senses in some manner, to the same degree or approxi-
mately so, as that of sight? If he did, is it not possible that thereby
he might have perceptions which would materially assist him in solv-
ing some of the vexed riddles of the universe? May he not, for lack,
of proper development of these senses, be in much the same plight
as the " six men of Indoostan to learning much inclined who went to see
the elephant, though all of them were blind"?

If there is some possibility in this direction, how about the power
of stimulating or interpreting our muscle sensations, the sensations
of heat and cold, of pain, of pleasure, etc. ? Efforts have been made,
as you know, to trace a definite connection between certain atmospheric
phenomena and bodily sensations, or between the impelling motives
to commit suicide or other crimes and certain meteorological condi-
tions. Likewise are there attempts by well-known men of science
to sharpen and interpret the psychic sensations.

There is revealed here a field of research but little explored as yet
— the increase of our powers of perception along other lines than"
chiefly those of sight. No one can foretell the future possibilities in
these directions.

The doctrine of evolution teaches the result of long-discontinued

I90 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

use of any particular organ, and has familiarized us with the won-
derful achievements of nature brought about by sustained and con-
tinued effort along some definite direction. Both the physical and
the psychic conditions of the observer require their highest and healthi-
est development to insure not only the best results with the ever-
increasing accuracy or precision required by the steady advance of
knowledge, but also to bring about that round- or broad-mindedness
needed for the proper interpretation of the results observed.

The Mathematical Instruments of Eeseaech.

A good-sized chapter might be written on the " Mathematical
Instruments or Tools of Eesearch." The predominating tendency
of resolving or expressing every natural phenomenon — periodic or
otherwise — by a Bessel or a Fourier series or by spherical harmonic
functions has brought about at times, especially in geophysical and
cosmical phenomena, if not direct misapplications, at least misinter-
pretations of the meaning and value of the coefficients derived. Like
a certain class of " naturalists," we also may have laid ourselves open
to the approbrious term of " nature-fakir," and instead of clarifying
the situation our calculations may have actually contributed instead
to " befog " it.

Frequently by the purely mathematical process there have been
eliminated, in the attempt to represent a more or less irregularly oc-
curring natural phenomenon by a smoothly flowing function, the very
things of chief and permanent interest. The normal or average diur-
nal temperature curve, for example, or a uniform magnetic distribu-
tion over land, so as to yield perfectly regular lines of equal magnetic
declination, never occurs in nature. There is thus being impressed
upon us more and more forcibly the fact that what we have been re-
garding as " abnormal features " — the outstanding residuals between
observations and the results derived from the mathematical formula —
are in truth not " abnormal " from the standpoint of nature, but
are rather to be taken as indicative of the " abnormality " or " nar-
row-mindedness," which means the same thing, of ourselves in trying
to dictate to nature the artificial and regular channels she should
pursue in her operations.

Louis Agassiz said:

The temptation to impose one's own ideas upon nature, to explain her
mysteries by brilliant theories rather than by patient study of the facts as we
find them, still leads us away.

The fundamental law of nature is to invariably follow the paths
of least resistance, and by examining these lines of structural weak-
ness of the opposing systems we may have opened to us the very
facts which are to be of real value and of sure benefit to mankind.

INSTRUMENTS AND METHODS OF RESEARCH 191

The irregularity of the banks bordering a natural watercourse serves
to differentiate the work of nature from that of the builder of the
artificial and regular channel.

No, instead of rejecting, we must learn to retain the outstanding
residuals and study them most carefully and regard them as the true
facts of nature, and not those which we so egotistically and presump-
tuously try to force on her. What great discoveries may lie open
to us when we once have grasped the true significance of the facts
we have been so fond of measuring by our own standard and have
been terming as " abnormal " or " irregular " !

An interesting example of not wholly successful application of the
continuous and ever-recurring functions of spherical harmonics to a
typical geophysical phenomenon — the distribution of magnetism over
the earth's surface — has been discussed by the speaker elsewhere.
Though the number of unknowns has been increased in recent com-
putations from the original 24 of Gauss to 48, nevertheless the dif-
ference between theory and observation is of such an order of magni-
tude as to preclude the use of the formula for even the purely
practical demands of the navigator and surveyor. Nor has any one
succeeded in giving any physical interpretation of the laboriously de-
rived coefficients beyond the first three. And what do these three
stand for? The simplest possible case of a first approximation to
the actual state of the earth's magnetism, viz., that of a uniform
magnetization about a diameter inclined to the axis of rotation !

The prime difficulty here may be summed up in a word. The very
surface over which the spherical harmonic functions are spread is it-
self such a prolific source of disturbance as to cause effects embracing
a continent, a state or a locality. Such a large number of terms
would be requisite for an adequate representation as to make their
computation prohibitive. We are dealing here with more or less non-
continuous effects that cannot be imitated by continuous functions
without leaving behind a train of residuals, precisely as though we
were to try to fit to the actual configuration of the earth some stand-
ard pattern of our own. Let me ask what phenomenon have we, in
fact, which will admit of the determination of 48, or even of 24,
physical constants?

It had been my intention to say a few words on the value and
limitation of that much-used as well as abused mathematical instru-
ment of research, the method of least squares. Properly employed,
it is a most useful adjunct to investigation; but, as intimated, the
true significance of formulae established by this method is at times
pushed far beyond the limitations. What the tenor of my remarks
might be will be sufficiently evident to you if I submit this query for

192 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

your consideration: What actual laws of nature have been discovered
by the method of least squares?

The Mechanical Instruments of Eeseaech
A few minutes were to have been given to the instruments em-
ployed by the scientific man to sharpen and amplify his natural senses
and sensations — in a word, the tools furnished him by the mechanician.
I am glad, however, both for your sake and mine, that this part of
the subject was covered by an interesting paper presented at the pre-
vious meeting of the society. It was emphasized there that for the
best results it is essential that the investigator be able to work with
instruments so constructed as to permit him to control or renew the
various adjustments without the necessity of returning the instru-
ment to the maker. The principle at times employed, which assumes
that when adjustments are once made they are to " remain put," is
apt to prove a very pernicious one. A number of very interesting
examples from my own experience in the purchase of magnetic instru-
ments during the past ten years might be cited; but, as has been
said, this part of the subject having already been covered, there
is no need to dwell further upon it than to emphasize the injunction
that the research worker, if he desires the best results, must know
his instruments as thoroughly as himself.

Subjects of Eeseakch

We come next to a brief consideration of the subjects of research,
though not specifically mentioned in the title of our paper, yet im-
plied in it. The rapid progress made by a science as soon as it
reaches the stage of experimentation has already been noted. A
crucial experiment has at times furnished information which by mere
observation of phenomena, running their natural and unmodified
course, might either have never come into our possession or at best
would have taken a considerably longer time than that of the decisive
experiment. You are all familiar with such cases, for almost every
science can furnish examples.

jSTow it is an extremely interesting and suggestive fact that the
greatest experimental discoveries to-day are not made in the older,
well-recognized sciences, but on their borderlands — in the " twilight
zones " of more or less related sciences. I have but to mention the
words " physical chemistry," " physical geology," " astrophysics," " bio-
chemistry," etc., and you will readily grant the assertion made. In
the overlapping regions there seem to be the greatest opportunities
afforded for solid, thorough, and at the same time remarkably rapid,
experimental achievements. And so we are having produced almost
daily new specialties or new sub-specialties.

INSTRUMENTS AND METHODS OF RESEARCH 193

What is the effect on the general broad-mindedness of man by
this extreme specialization^ so necessary for the production of the
best and most far-reaching results? 7s the modern specialist more
narrow-minded than the generalist of a century or two ago? In
view of our opening statement that the prime instrument of research
is, after all, the mind, the question is, as you see, not an irrelevant
one. We find statements occasionally made which would imply an
affirmative answer to our question; but I, for one, would most em-
phatically protest against such an inference. I should maintain that
the specialist, other things being equal, is likely to be a broader man
than he who has no specialty, but simply a general knowledge of
some particular science. The reason for my positive statement would
be found in the fact mentioned, that the greatest part of the research
work to-day is being done on the border-lands of the general sciences;
for he who wishes to take part in this very active competition must
needs be far better equipped than the mere generalist. The physical
chemist, to be most successful, must have a very intimate knowledge
of both physics and chemistry, and the more mathematical skill he
possesses the b.etter. The astrophysicist must be a physicist, a chemist,
a mathematician, besides being an astronomer. And so with regard to
the geophysicist.

Only a few names need be cited — like those, for example, of Fara-
day, Maxwell, Kelvin, von Helmholtz, Mascart — to support the con-
tention that the broadest physicists are, as a rule, those who have
regarded their laboratory experiments and deductions therefrom
merely as a means to an end, not an end in themselves, and who
have accordingly sought to apply the knowledge gained to the solu-
tion of some of the great problems affecting the general welfare of
man. There is the greatest need in this country of well-trained and
well-equipped physicists in the solution of the many perplexing prob-
lems of the earth's physics with regard to the phenomena of seismology,
vulcanology, meteorology, geodesy, atmospheric electricity, terrestrial
magnetism, etc. When the investigator makes the attempt to apply
some of his laboratory facts to geophysical and cosmical phenomena, he
has opened to himself a world of which he never dreamed ; he finds zest
in familiarizing himself with the fundamental facts of other sciences
in which until now he could take no interest.

Methods of Eesearch; Discovery op Lavs^s
The methods in general have already received treatment in con-
nection with the foregoing topics. It is always interesting to know
what was the precise course followed in the discovery of a great law.
However, no two investigators have ever pursued, or at least but rarely,
precisely the same paths, and we must therefore be content with the

194 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

statement of the general principles of research, such as has already
been given.

A prevalent fault is observed in scientific publications whenever the
investigator has had good training only on the observational side and
but very little experience in scientific computing. He is very apt to
violate one of the first and fundamental principles of good observing,
viz., to employ such a method or scheme of ohserving as will yield
tut one definite result, and that with the highest possible accuracy
and ivith the least amount of computation. Oftener than may be
thought, schemes of observation are used which leave an arbitrary ele-
ment to the computer, and in consequence a different result is forth-
coming, according to who makes the computation. Had we time apt
illustrations could readily be given from published works. The
point made, that the observer must also bear in mind the computa-
tion side, and work up his results as soon as possible, is of funda-
mental importance in research ivorh.

It may be worth while to consider briefly the insatiable desire
of the analyst to " ring " in a series of sines and cosines to resemble the
course of some natural phenomenon of which he does not know the
exact law. Is this the old story over again, though in somewhat
altered garb, of the epicycles and deferents of ancient astronomical
mechanics, which received its highest development in the Ptolemaic
System of the Universe? You will recall that Ptolemy, building on
the suggestions of Appollonius and Hipparchus, supposed a planet to
describe an epicycle by a uniform revolution in a circle whose center
was carried uniformly in an eccentric round the earth. By suitable
assumptions as to his variable factors, he was thus able to represent
with considerable accuracy the apparent motions of the planets and to
reproduce qiiite satisfactorily other astronomical facts. This was the
artifice employed by the astronomer of the period before the modern
and more subtle art of simulating nature, by the sine-cosine method,
had become known.

What seemed so intricate and complex in Ptolemy's time could
be expressed in very simple language indeed, when a Kepler discovered
the true functions as embodied in his three fundamental laws. The
present method of hiding our ignorance of the real law, which seems
at times to exert such a mesmerizing influence over us as to make us
mistake the fictitious for the real, reminds one of the old conundrum:
" Patch on, patch on, hole in the middle ; if you guess this riddle,
I'll give you a golden fiddle." If the sine and cosine of the angle
does not represent the curve of observation, patch on a sine and
cosine of twice the angle ; then, if necessary, thrice the angle ; next, four
times, and so ad infinitum ! Now guess the riddle !

Of course I do not mean to discard this useful and in fact indis-

INSTRUMENTS AND METHODS OF RESEARCH 195

pensable tool of research, but simply wish to call attention to its
limitations and to the importance of not overlooking the fertile by-
products, the residuals which, because of our neglect of them, may
some day rise and smite us in their wrath. Each one of us at one
time or another has doubtless established, by least squares, an empirical
formula of some kind which so beautifully fits the observations as to
make us bold and venturesome. Now comes a new observation, some-
what outside of the range for which the expression was established.
Eagerly the test is applied, and we find, to our chagrin, that the for-
mula on which so much work had been spent will not fit the new
result, and that we have a " counterfeit " and not the real law.

A graphical process, like the crucial and decisive experiment, may
at times reveal an essential fact that the mind of even the greatest
of mathematicians has failed to extract from his formulas.

Let us suppose, for illustration, we are dealing with a phenomenon
which almost entirely unfolds itself during the time between sunrise
and sunset — the well-known diurnal variation of the earth's magnetism
is a striking case of the kind. Following the usual method, the phe-
nomenon is resolved into component parts with the aid of a Fourier
series. The formula as generally adopted includes the four terms
having, respectively, periodicities of 24, 12, 8 and 6 hours. For ordi-
nary magnetic latitudes the striking result is obtained that the second
term — the 12-hour one — is as important as the first, or 24-hour, one;
so we might equally as well say " the semidiurnal " as " the diurnal
variation of the earth's magnetism." In fact, as the semidiurnal term
unfolds itself twice in 24 hours, it is in reality more important than
the purely diurnal one.

Does the resolution into Fourier terms of a phenomenon of the
kind given really prove their existence in nature? Can we conclude
without question that in addition to the diurnal term we also have
a semidiurnal one? Even with four terms, the series does not repre-
sent each hourly observation of the 24 with the same degree of
precision. In fact, the residuals for the night hours are nearly of the
same order of magnitude as the observed quantities. If the physic-
al existence of the 12-hour term is not proved, then there is no need
of racking our brains as to its physical origin.

The difficulty disclosed by this example is of the same kind as
the one treated in spherical harmonics, viz., that we are attempting
to represent a more or less non-continuous function having a duration
commensurate with that of the daylight hours by functions running
smoothly through their individual courses for 24 hours.

Babbage, the inventor of the calculating machine named after him,
said he once had the following question put to him : " Pray, Mr.
Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right

196 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

answer come out ? " Do we not at times attempt to put wrong pre-
mises into nature's machinery and then expect correct answers?

"We can not close this section better than by quoting the following
passage from the address of the first president of this society, Joseph
Henry, given on November 24, 1877 :

The general mental qualification necessary for scientific advancement is
that which is usually denominated ' common sense,' though, added to this,
imagination, induction, and trained logic, either of common language or of
mathematics, are important adjuncts. Nor are the objects of scientific culture
difficult of attainment. It has been truly said that the " seeds of great dis-
coveries are constantly floating around us, but they only take root in minds
well prepared to receive them."

Henry's insistence on the application in our scientific work of
" common sense " reminds one of Clifford's apt definition of science as
being " organized common sense."

Publication of Eesults of Eeseaech Work

We come next to the question of publication of the results of
research. I think it may be taken as almost axiomatic that what-
ever is worthy of investigation should be made known in some effective
manner, so as to reach without question those concerned. The multi-
plicity of literature on any one subject or even on any small portion
thereof is nowadays such that the worker finds it utterly impossible to
keep abreast of publications, even those in his own field, to say noth-
ing of kindred ones.

He is forced more and more to rely on abstracts — at least in so
far as to direct him to that which he unquestionably must consult
in the original, if possible. In my own particular line of work I
rarely find that an abstract supplies all that is needed, and I almost
invariably prefer to work directly with the original. I have heard
similar statements from workers in other fields.

If it be true, then, that the investigator usually finds it necessary
to consult the original publications, the next conclusion to be drawn
is that the publication of any research work should, in general, be of
such form and size as to permit the widest distribution possible, not
only among the libraries and the principal seats of learning, but also
among the workers and institutions immediately interested.

The scientific worker generally does not possess the means to pur-
chase or to construct the instruments he requires for the prosecution
of his work, and a book bearing in any way on the line of work to be
pursued is as much to be considered part of his equipment as the
purely mechanical tools. Indeed, I was told by the late von Bezold
that Wilhelm Weber set his laboratory students to work by telling
them, " Here are the instruments, and there are the Annalen der
Pliysik; now go to work." The man of science usually wants his

INSTRUMENTS AND METHODS OF RESEARCH 197

tools close by and within ready reach. He cannot afford to go to a
distant library and then possibly find the book out. Private possession
permits him, furthermore, to make marginal notes and references to
enable him quickly to put his finger on the very thing needed.

Owing to these well-organized needs, there has grown up a cour-
teous and friendly interchange of publications among coworkers and
sympathizers in the same field that to my mind deserves the highest
encouragement. The time has unfortunately gone when scientific in-
vestigators can write such delightful and voluminous letters as passed
between the research workers of half a century and more ago. The
present system of interchange of publications has necessarily taken
the place, to a very large extent, of the early letter-writing. It is a
system of gradual develoj)ment along the lines of least resistance that
it would be disadvantageous to contend against until some more ef-
fective means of intercommunication among scientific men has been
devised.

But such free interchange of research publications can only be
conducted to a limited extent and can embrace only certain kinds
of publications, viz., generally reprints or those of which the original
cost for publication has already been borne in some manner, be it by
a journal or by some research foundation. Larger publications, how-
ever, because of their expensiveness, must generally be restricted, for
one reason or another, in their general circulation, with the inevitable
result that the persons directly reached may be entirely out of pro-
portion to the importance of tlie work undertaken.

Scientific men and scientific bodies could well afford to pause and
consider the tremendous cost of publication and the rather frequent
waste of money incurred. Why is it, for example, that when an ex-
plorer gives an account of his travels in an unexplored region for the
commercial press he finds it possible to say what he wishes in an at-
tractive and handy octavo form, but when he is working for an en-
dowed institution he feels compelled to present his matter in an ex-
pensive, ponderous, quarto form, inconvenient to handle?

It should he noted that it is as important to make research work
known as to do it. To get our friends to read the contributions we
may make to science requires nowadays no little skill and diplomacy
and an attractiveness of literary style on the part of the author not so
essential in the days of less frequent printed works. The original
purposes of important and costly expeditions are sometimes well nigh
defeated or superseded, because of the delay in publication, ensuing
from the elaborateness of the plan adopted for the reduction of the
field results and the form of publication decided upon.

Reduction in the pretentiousness, size and cost of scientific publi-
cations appears to me to he one of the greatest needs of research
to-day.

198 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Methods op Eesearch by Institutions

Some time could profitably be spent on a consideration of the
general agencies engaged in furthering research work and the methods
employed for doing so. Being, however, connected with a " research
institution," I should consider myself incompetent to enter upon a
free and unbiased discussion of the methods of such organizations for
the furthering of research work. Suffice it to say that it appears
sometimes to be overlooked that the most valuable asset of a research
organization is the research spirit of its workers, without it no amount
of funds could accomplish the desired end. My remarks will be chiefly
confined to a brief discussion of the methods to be used in certain in-
vestigations of a world-wide character. Craving your indulgence once
more, I shall take as an example the general magnetic survey of the
earth as representative of the kind of world-embracing research en-
terprises I have in mind.

Alexander von Humboldt, whose mental grasp was extraordinary
in more than one science, set forth the following plan in his " Cosmos "
for a general magnetic survey of the globe.*

Four times in every century an expedition of three ships should be sent out
to examine as nearly as posible at the same time the state of the magnetism,
of the earth, so far as it can be investigated in those parts which are covered
by the ocean. . . . Land expeditions should be combined with these voyages. . . .

May the year .1850 be marked as the first normal epoch in which the ma-
terials for a magnetic chart shall be collected, and may permanent scientific insti-
tutions (academies) impose upon themselves the practise of reminding, every
twenty-five or thirty years, governments, favorable to the advance of navigation,
of the importance of an undertaking whose great cosmical importance depends
on its long continued repetition.

Here was a noble project, universally conceded to be not only of
the greatest scientific interest, but also of the greatest practical im-
portance. Yet why is it that this grand plan has never been carried
out by the foremost nations in friendly concert? Have our academies,
as Humboldt suggested, never " imposed upon themselves the practise
of reminding every twenty-five or thirty years governments, favorable
to the advance of navigation, of the importance of an undertaking "
of this character?

Instead of working along a common and definite plan, the mag-
netic operations hitherto have consisted of more or less isolated and in-
complete surveys, independently undertaken by various nations and dis-
tributed over a great number of years. Not even for a single epoch has
it been possible to construct the magnetic charts on the basis of homo-
geneous material, distributed over the greater part of the earth, with
some attempt, at least, at uniformity. And as to the possibility of

* The quotation is from E. C. Otto's translation of the " Cosmos," vol. 11.^
pp. 719-720.

INSTRUMENTS AND METHODS OF RESEARCH 199

constructing the charts, with the aid of similar data, for epochs
twenty-five or thirty years apart, as Humboldt had dreamed, this, in
spite of the enlightened interest of many countries, is even more remote.

Why should it have remained for a purely research organization
to undertake a problem touching so keenly, as this, on even the so-
called sordid, highly practical interests of man? It is a fortunate
fact that Humboldt's fascinating international scheme failed of exe-
cution, and that the chief brunt of the work is now being borne by a
single organization? It is not for the speaker to attempt to answer.
The magnetic work of the Carnegie Institution of Washington has em-
braced, since 1904, a general magnetic survey of the Pacific Ocean,
and land observations have been made in more or less unexplored
regions in different parts of the world. The ocean magnetic work is to
be undertaken next in the Atlantic Ocean, in 1909, on a specially
built vessel, the first of its kind. ^

It is believed that an effective scheme of operation has been
evolved, with the aid of the valuable advice received from eminent in-
vestigators. Without danger of giving offense to any one, it is possible
to deal directly with the officials concerned, submitting to them our
plans and ascertaining whether they contemplate doing anything simi-
lar, and, if so, whether, in case their funds are insufficient, they could
suggest some friendly basis of cooperation between their organization
and ours. This plan of action has met with entire success thus far.
Duplication, overlappings and possible jealousies are all avoided; and
in countries where no organization whatever exists to do the work, we
are free to go ahead and finish the task in less time than it would
necessarily take to get an official action or official consensus of opin-
ion from a large scientific body.

Slow deliberation in terrestrial magnetic work would be disastrous,
for the prime reason that the phenomena of investigation in this
field of research are continuously undergoing change. The time-ele-
ment in the earth's magnetism, even for a period of a few years, is of
such moment as to completely mask the fine, hair-splitting points
which would necessarily and rightly have to be raised on some inter-
national mode of action, to say nothing of the painful and cumbersome
method which would have to be employed to conform with the rules of
official correspondence between nations. Many a well and carefully ex-
ecuted magnetic survey in the past has had its full importance for
world-wide investigation destroyed because of the possibility of error
in the secular variation corrections which must be applied to bring
its results up to date.

Though I may be judged guilty of defending my own policy, I
believe the course pursued by the Carnegie Institution of Washing-
ton in conducting the general magnetic survey of the globe is the only

200 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

way in which this particular project, and similar ones to it, could not
only be expeditiously conducted, but so as to realize the chief objects
of the work. Judging from individual expressions received from
scientific men everywhere, they appear in agreement with u.s. This
policy, briefly stated, is: To make, with the aid of the friendly and
harmonious cooperation of all concerned, a rapidly executed magnetic
survey of the greater part of the globe, so that a general survey, all-
sufficient for the solution of some of the great and world-wide prob-
lems of the earth's magnetism, will be completed within a period of
ten to fifteen years. At a smaller number of points, selected in con-
sideration of the prime questions at issue, the observations are to be
repeated at intervals of five years or less, in order to supplement the
rather sparsely distributed magnetic observatory data. Thus the de-
termination of the corrections for reduction of the general work to
any specific date is continuously provided for.

Now, had I the time or were this 'the place, I should like to add
a paragraph regarding the needful accuracy and the prime questions
to be considered in the conduct of such a piece of work. Permit me to
say that the most evident result of all magnetic work in the past is that,
for the purposes of a general survey, it is far better to make some
sacrifice in accuracy if thereby it is made possible to secure observations
at another point. In other words, the errors due to local disturbing
conditions are far greater than the purely observational ones. Hence
multiplicity of stations rather than extreme accuracy and laborious
methods of ohservation and reduction is the prime requisite in mag-
netic survey work.

Stimulants to Eesearch "Work
Dr. Gilman, in his charming reminiscences of the non-resident
lecturers of the Johns Hopkins University, related the following of
the great mathematician Sylvester:

Sylvester enjoyed stimulants — I do not mean such vulgar and material
articles as alcohol and coffee. I never saw any indications that he cared for
their support. But he loved such stimulants to intellectual activity as music
and light, lively society, in which he was not called upon to participate. Once
at a symphony concert I sat just behind him, admiring the dome of his capacious
cranium, unconcealed by hair, and I noticed how absorbed he was. The next
day, Sunday, he came to me impetuously to say that he had worked out some
mathematical proposition at the concert of the evening before, the music having
quickened his mathematical mind. He really thought this was his greatest
achievement yet, and he had hastened to write it out and mail it to the Academy
of Sciences in Paris. Once he told me that, having a special paper to prepare,
he went to a store and bought a pound of candles, which he placed about his
room, on all sorts of extemporaneous candlesticks; "for light," he said, "is
a most powerful tonic."

These anecdotes will serve to recall similar ones of noted men.

INSTRUMENTS AND METHODS OF RESEARCH 201

and many of you, doubtless, were this an experience meeting, could
easih' occupy the balance of the evening in delightful recollections
of what each has found best to stimulate him to renewed intellectual
activity; and I dare say tliat many of you would unite with me in de-
claring that membership in this society has been one of the most help-
ful and stimulating influences.

We really have much to be proud of in the history and membership
of the Philosophical Society of Washington. I should, indeed consider
myself remiss in the duties imposed upon me by the subject selected
did I not refer at least to the eminent part this society, through its
members, has taken in bringing about the wonderful appreciation of
scientific work and scientific methods we are to-day witnessing in our
country. There have been several notable addresses by past presidents
that might advantageously have been reviewed in connection with our
topic. But we lack the time.

I cannot refrain, however, from quoting once more from Henry's
address, already referred to, which I hope you may be induced to read
in its entirety :

Man is a sympathetic being, and no incentive to mental exertion is more
powerful than that which springs from a desire for the approbation of his fellow-
men; besides this, frequent interchange of ideas and appreciative encouragement
are almost essential to the successful prosecution of labors requiring profound
thovight and continued mental exertion. . . .

It is an essential feature of a scientific society that every communication
presented to it should be subject to free critical discussion. Such discussion not
only enlivens the proceedings, but is generally instructive, frequently eliciting
facts which, thovigh insignificant when isolated, when brought together mutually
illustrate each other and lead ultimately to important conclusions.

Conclusion

My address began with statements revealing the necessity of keep-
ing our minds ever open and free for the careful weighing and the un-
biased reception of the facts observed and discovered. Throughout I
have attempted to lay chief sti*ess upon the mental and human elements
involved in the topic. I can not do better in closing than to quote
you a sentence from a letter^ which the great mathematical physicist,
James Clerk Maxwell, wrote to Herbert Spencer on a subject of con-
troversy in the latter's " First Principles," viz. :

It is very seldom that any man who tries to form a system can prevent
his system from forming around him, and closing him in before he is forty.
Hence the wisdom of putting in some ingredient to check crystallization and keep
the system in a colloidal condition.

Let our watchword therefore be: ever to Tceep our systems — our
theories — in a colloidal condition!

""Life and Letters of Herbert Spencer," by David Duncan, Vol. II., p. 163.
VOL. LXXIV. — 14.

Dk. David Stauk Jokdan,

President of Lelaiul Stnnfortl Junior University and President-elect of the
Americ.-in AssdcliUion fi r the Advancement of Science.

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

203

THE PROGEESS OF SCIENCE

THE SCIEXTIFIC MEETINGS AT
BALTIMORE

The meetings of tlie American Asso-
ciation for tlie Advancement of Science
and the affiliated national scientific
societies held at the Johns Hopkins
University during con\-ocation week
brought together more than two thou-
sand scientific men and their programs
contained the titles of more than one
thousand scientific papers. Such a
gathering has not occurred elsewhere
or hitherto, and it is encouraging to
see demonstrated in this public way
the fact that this country is now ^
taking the place in scientific research
warranted by its population and its
wealth. The meeting is not only an
exhibition of what has been accom-
plished; it is also a stimulus in fur-
ther efi'orts. The scientific men who
come together from all parts of the j
country to present and discuss the re-
sults of the year's work return to their
institutions with more knowledge and
renewed zeal. It would be worth the
while for each of our thousand colleges j
— and the smaller and more remote '
they are the more worth the while —
to pay the expenses of delegates to a
meeting of this kind. This would be
no less useful or profitable than to
supply books or apparatus. Dartmouth ,
College set this year a precedent, ma-
king an appropriation of $300 to send
nine representatives to the meeting.

The arrangements by the local com-
mittee worked so smoothly and the
meeting places of the groups were so
separated that it was difficult to realize
fully the magnitude of the meeting
except by reference to the progi'am.
In it one found some seventy pages
devoted to a mere list of the papers
to be presented and a great array of

general meetings, public lectures, din-
ners, smokers, etc. From this vast
mass of material only a few events can
be selected for mention.

At the opening meeting on the morn-
ing of December 28, the retiring presi-
dent. Dr. E. L. Nichols, professor of
physics at Cornell University, intro-
duced the president of the meeting,
Dr. T. C. Chamberlin, professor of
geology at the University of Chicago,
and the association was welcomed to
Baltimore by the maj'or of the city,
by Dr. Ira Remsen, president of the
Johns Hopkins University, who pre-
sided at the first convocation week
meeting in Washington six years ago,
and by Dr. William H. Welch, chair-
man of the local committee and pro-
fessor of pathology in the Johns Hop-
kins University, who presided at the
New York meeting two years ago.

In the evening the retiring president
gave his address, which was an ad-
mirable survey of the place of science
in modern civilization and an impres-
sive plea for more research work and
greater freedom in our universities.
All the vice-presidential addresses be-
fore the sections of the association and
the presidential addresses before the
special societies maintained high scien-
tific standards, and some of them were
of broad general interest. Among the
lectures may perhaps be selected for
mention the addresses by ]Mr. G. K.
Gilbert, of the U. S. Geological Survey,
on earthquake forecasts, which had a
sad and dramatic timeliness; by Major
Squier. U.S.A., on the remarkable re-
cent progress in navigating the air by
means of dirigible balloons and aero-
planes; by Mr. Bryan, 07i ilt. Kilauea,
whose address was beautifully illus-
trated and of special interest in \iew

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THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

205

of the probable meeting of the asso-
ciation in Honolulu eighteen niontlis
hence; by Professor Wilson, of Colum-
bia University, describing the classic
researches made by him and others on
the determination and heredity of sex;
by Dr. Brown, U. S. Commissioner of
Education, who spoke with authority
on world standards of education ; by
Professor Penck, of Berlin, eminent as
a geologist and geographer, who lec-
tured on man, climate and soil, and by
Professor Poulton, of Oxford, the lead-
ing authority on natural selection,

De. Louis Kahlenbbrg,
Professor of Phj'sical Chemistry in the
T'niversity of Wisconsin, Vice-presi-
dent for the Section of Chemistry.

whose subject was mimicry in the but-
terflies of North America.

In addition to the great niunber of
discussions and special sessions, two
memorial meetings were of striking
signlfv-ance. The former students and
colleagues of William Keith Brooks,
professor at the Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity from its establishment in 187fi
to his death, two months ago, met to
do honor to his memory. No fewer
than sixty joined in a dinner on the
last day of the old year, and their
numbers and standing not less than

Dr. C. J. Keyser.

Adrian Professor of Mathematics in

Colviml>ia University, Vice-president

for the Section of Matliematics

and Astronomy.

their words bore witness to the great
influence exerted by Brooks on the
development of the biological sciences
throughout the country. The last day
of the meeting and the first day of the
new vear was devoted to a Darwin

Dr. C.\rl E. Guthe,

Professor of Physics in the University

of Iowa, Vice-president for the

Section of Physics.

2o6

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

r)R. C. .lUDSON IIeKRICK.

rrofessoi- of Neurology in the I'nivei-sity

of Chicago and Vice-president of the

Section of Zoology.

memorial, celebrating the Inmdredth
anniversary of his birtli. wiiich occurs
on February 12, and the fiftieth anni-
versary of the publication of tlie origin
of species. Professor Poulton, who

Dr. William U. IIowkll.
Professor of Physiology in the Johns Hop-
kins University and Vice-president for
the Section of Pliysir)l(igy and
Experimental Medicine.

came from England to take part, gave
a vivid account of Darwin's work and
inliuence. He was followed by a num-
ber of leading American investigators
of problems of organic evolution whose
papers gave an excellent survey of pres-
ent conditions, showing both the de-
pendence of modern biological science
on Darwin's work and the new prob-
lems which have now come to the front.
Dr. David Starr Jordan, president
of Stanford University, eminent as an
ielithyologist and as a student of a

Dr. Herbert Maule Richards.

Professor of Botany in Barnard College,
Colunil)ia T'niversity, and Vice-presi-
dent fur the Section of Bot;iny.

wide range of evolutionary problems
and equally for his services to educa-
tion and civilization, was elected presi-
dent for the meeting to be held next
year in Boston. The vice-presidents
of the Baltimore meeting were worthily
succeeded by a group of men who rep-
resent the best scientific work now
being done in this country. They are:
Matheniuiies and Astronomy — Professor
Ernest W. Brown, Yale University.
I'hijsics — Dr. L. A. Bauer, Carnegie
Institution, Washington, D. C. Chem-
istry— Professor William IMcPherson,
son, Ohio State Universitv. MecJuin-

TEE PRO GEE SS OF SCIENCE

- 207

Dr. R. S. Woodworth.
Adjunct I'l-ofessor of Psychology in Co-
lumbia T'niversity and Vice-president
of the Section of Anthropology
and Psychology.

■ical Sciriirr and Enciiiicrriiui — Dr. J.
F. Haytnrd. U. 8. Coast and Geodetic
Smvey. (Icolofij/ and Geography — Dr.
R. W. Brock, director of the Canadian

George F. Swain,
Professor of Civil Engineering in the Mass-
achusetts Institute of Technology and
Vice-president for the Section of
Mechanical Science and
Engineering.

( ii'oloiiical Siirvi'v. Zuvloyjj — i'rofcs.sor
William E. Ritter, University of Cali-
fornia. Botany — Professor D. P. Pen-
hallow. ^IcGill University. Anlhroyol-
o(jy a)id Psyt'holoyy — Dr. William H.
llohr.es, Bureau of American Ethnology.
Social and Economic Science — Presi-
dent Carroll D. Wright. Clark College.
J'liysiology and Experimental Medicine
— Professor Charles S. Minot, Harvard
INIedical School. Education — Dr. J. E.
Rnssell, dean of Teachers College,
Cohimbia Universitv.

THE REPORT OF THE SECRETARY
OF AGRICULTURE
Secretary Wilsoin's annual report
to the president is a striking document,
almost bewildering in the range ana
magnitude of the subjects of which it
treats. It is not easy to think in bil-
lions of dollars and realize what it
means to say that the value of onr
farm products in 1908 was $7,770,000,-
000. This is about three hundred mil-
lion dollars above the value in 1907
and three billion dollars above the
value in 1S99. The increase is, how-
ever, in part due to higher prices, as
well as to larger ])roduction, and in
so far as all prices have risen, even
the farmers do not profit. But their
wealth has increased greatly in recent
years. The six million farms of the
country are valued with their buildings
and stock at twenty-eight billion dol-
lars. While indi\idual bank deposivs
have increasetl 12 per cent, in New
York State, they have increased 28.5
per cent, in Iowa and 334 per cent, in
Kansas. The farms- of Kansas, mort-
gaged to the east twelve ysars ago, now
send their profits to be invested in New
York. The exports of agricultural
products last year were valued at over
one billion dollars, representing a great
increase in the wealth of the country,
though it is to be feared that it in
part means the sale of the fertility of
tlie soil. Indian corn is valued at
about one third of all farm crops;

2o8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

wheat, hay and cotton at more than
one third and the smaller crops at
nearly one third. The annual value of
animal products is approximating three
billion dollars.

The work of the Department of Agri-
culture is commensurate with this vast
production of the farms. W hen secre-
tary \Yilson assumed charge eleven
years ago, there were less than 2,500
persons employed. There are now more
than 10,000, and of these more than
2,600 may be classified as scientific
men. The bureau that has had the
most remarkable growth is the Forest
Service, which has increased from 14
persons to 3,753. It administers an
area of national forests amounting to
168,000,000 acres, Avhich paid laf?t year
into the national treasury $1,800,003 in
receipts. The income of the agricul-
tural colleges was five million dollars
in 1897 and fifteen million dollars in
1908. There was one agricultural high
school in the former year and no nor-
mal school taught agriculture. There
are now fifty-five agricultural high
schools and one hundred and fifteen
normal schools at which agriculture is
taught. The Department of Agricul-
ture distributed last year nearly seven-
teen million publications. The more
these are read the better it is, not only
for the farmers of the country, but for
all the people.

SCIENTIFIC ITEMS
We record with regret the deaths of
George Washington Hough, professor

of astronomy at Northwestern Univer-
sity and director of the Dearborn Ob-
servatory, and of Thomas Gray, pro-
fessor of engineering at the Rose Poly- -
technic Institute.

Presiding officers of societies meet-
ing at Baltimore were elected as fol-
lows: The American Society of Nat-
uralists, Professor T. H. Morgan, of
Columbia University; The Geological
Society of America, Mr. G. K. Gilbert,
of the U. S. Geological Survey, for the
second time, he having held this office
in 1892; The American Chemical So-
ciety, Dr. W. R. Whitney, director of
the Research Laboratories of the Gen-
eral Electric Company, at Schenectady^
The American Zoological Society, Pro-
fessor Herbert E. Jennings, of the
Johns Hopkins University; The Amer-
ican Anthropological Association, Dr.
W. H. Holmes, chief of the Bureau of
American Ethnology; The American
Psychological Association, Professor
Charles H. Judd, professor of psychol-
ogy at Yale University and director-
elect of the School of Education in the
University of Chicago; The American
Philosophical Association, Professor J.
G. Hibben, of Princeton University.

Professor T. C. Chambeelin, after
presiding at the Baltimore meeting of
the American Association, left for San
Francisco on his way to China, where
he will study the geology of the coun-
try with special reference to its influ-
ence on social and educational condi-
tions, as a member of a commission
sent by the University of Chicago.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE

MONTHLY.

MARCH, 1909

THE ELECTEIC OPEEATION OF STEAM RAILWAYS

Bt Professor J. B. WHITEHEAD

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY

THE possibility of operating all classes of steam railway service by
electricity has been demonstrated beyond question. Heavier
trains may be hauled at higher speeds and with greater comfort to pas-
sengers, and electric locomotives may be built which surpass in power
any steam locomotive which may be constructed. Two of the most im-
portant railway systems entering New York city are now operated
entirely by electricity for distances between twenty and thirty miles
from Grand Central Station. The Pennsylvania Railroad Company
has recently closed contracts to the extent of $5,000,000 for the electric
operation of its tracks between Newark, N. J., through the Hudson and
East River tunnels, to Jamaica, L. I., where it will join the tracks of
the Long Island Railroad, which for some time has been operated elec-
trically.

The total steam railway mileage in this country aggregates about
220,000 miles of line but notwithstanding the important projects men-
tioned above, and others of less note, it remains a fact that only about
1,000 miles of railroad, formerly operated by steam, have been trans-
formed to the use of electricity as motive power. The question then
arises as to what conditions have started the present development and
as to whether this beginning will extend itself in general degree to
the large trunk line systems of the country. It is not sufficient for the
engineer of to-day to demonstrate the physical possibilities of a project,
but he must go further, and justify it on the grounds of business ad-
visability and economy. If, then, it be asked why have steam railroads
begun to substitute electricity as motive power, the answer is to be
found in two broad reasons. The first of these is, that in some in-

VOL. LXXIV. — 15

2IO TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

stances the use of electricity is the only possible way of handling the
traffic. The second reason is the invariable one, in this commercial
age, for all engineering enterprise — that it pays.

The development of the engineering methods by which the electrical
operation of railways has been made possible is largely due to the first
of the reasons mentioned above. Beginning with the electrification of
the Mt. Eoyal Tunnel of the B. & 0. Eailroad, in 1896, there have been
an increasing number of tunnel and terminal projects which have made
use of the possibilities of electric operation in the way of increased
traffic and freedom from smoke and gases of combustion. One con-
spicuous instance, the Grand Central Terminal in New York city, il-
lustrates the typical limitations of tunnels and terminals which have
rendered electric operation necessary. In 1903, an act of the New
York Legislature was passed providing for the operation before July
1, 1908, of all trains into Grand Central Station by some form of
motive power not involving the combustion of fuel in the motive units.
This action was aimed directly at the elimination of smoke and gases
in the tunnels leading to the terminal. The results of the adoption of
electricity have in this respect entirely justified expectations. Pas-
sengers may now occupy observation platforms in passing through these
tunnels which were formerly notorious for their danger and discomfort.

There was, however, an additional reason why it was necessary to
adopt a motive power other than steam in the New York terminals.
Traffic into the Grand Central Station is limited by the number of
tracks in the tunnels. The minimum three-minute headway between
trains operated by steam fixed the maximum traffic at forty trains per
hour each way. The capacity of the terminal with this limitation of
service was taxed to its utmost and some relief for the increasing traffic
was imperative. Owing to the improved conditions of electric opera-
tion, trains may be run on a two-minute headway or less, thus increas-
ing the station capacity by more than fifty per cent. The conditions
in the New York tunnels are typical and other conspicuous instances of
similar installations are those of the B. & 0., at Baltimore, the St. Clair
tunnel of the Grand Trunk Eailway and a three-mile tunnel on grade
on the Great Northern Eailway. The Illinois Central Eailroad is
about to electrify 325 miles of track, comprising the approaches to its
Chicago terminals.

The elevated lines of New York city are an additional instance of
the necessity of adopting some other system than steam in order to
increase the capacity for traffic. The continued growth of the popula-
tion of New York city has far surpassed that of the traffic facilities for
transportation within the city. As measures for relief the elevated and
surface lines were equipped with electricity and in addition the subway
system was constructed. Within three years following the adoption

ELECTRIC OPERATIONS OF STEAM RAILWAYS 211

of electricity, the capacity of the elevated lines in car-miles per day was
increased 33^ per cent, and this in spite of the facts that the subway
system had inaugurated during this time a service furnishing over 75
per cent, that of the steam elevated and that the surface lines showed
little or no decrease. During the two years ending 1906 the increase
in passengers on all the lines of New York city numbered more than
114,000,000, which is about 75 per cent, of the ultimate capacity of the
subway system. In order to handle this continuously increasing de-
mand it has now become necessary to consider the construction of addi-
tional subways.

Eeturning to the second of the reasons given for changing to elec-
tricity, the general statement that it will pay to electrify a steam rail-
road may not be made without important qualifications. It is
admittedly true for the majority of steam roads of any considerable
size and density of traffic that the operating expense would be substan-
tially reduced by electric operation. Figures showing that this saving,
together with the returns from increased business, is sufficient to offset
the interest charges on the necessary capital are still few. Such figures
have, nevertheless, been given for existing roads on which the transfer
to electricity has been made. On the other hand, on railroads operating
light trains and comparatively infrequent traffic, it is at once evident
that there would be little if any saving in operating expense in chang-
ing the motive power. Much of the economy possible under electric
operation results from the combination of all the locomotive boilers
and engines into a central power plant. It is obvious that when the
number of such locomotives is small that the cost of the power plant
and the motor equipments may far outweigh the economies obtained.
There is, however, an intermediate class of road, many instances of
which have been equipped electrically, in which the saving in operating
expense, together with the usual increase of business following the
electric installation, are looked to for a reasonable return on the capital
invested. The enormous amount of capital represented by the steam
equipments of existing railroads, which can not be applied to the new
equipment, is the most serious obstacle to the general adoption of
electricity as motive power. It will only pay to electrify in those cases
where the economies in operation and the increase in business will out-
weigh the charges on the new capital necessary.

The public will invariably drift to an electric rather than a steam
route between given points. Moreover, when a steam road is paralleled
by electric service, not only does the latter take the bulk of the traffic,
but the traffic itself increases in volume. Further, when a sparsely
settled section is penetrated by an electric road, population and conse-
quent business follow promptly. These facts are now matters of com-
mon observation. One extreme example will indicate the lengths to

212 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

which these facts may go. A steam road in the middle west was paral-
leled by an electric line ; the latter took away over fifty per cent, of the
steam traffic and increased the total traffic fifteen times the original
amount within seven years. If we look for the reasons for such ad-
vantages in absorbing and promoting traffic we realize that electric
travel is faster, more frequent and more comfortable. It provides
freedom from smoke, better ventilation, easy regulation of light and
heat and in fact travel in many instances is actually a pleasure.

While the public is appealed to as cited above, the operating and
transportation departments of the railroad are equally appealed to by
the methods afforded under electric operation for handling the resulting
increase in business. Present day steam service may be divided into
three broad classes: (1) Suburban and terminal; (2) long haul pas-
senger and express and (3) freight traffic. The advantages of elec-
tricity as motive power in all three of these classes of service are found
in the possibilities of obtaining more mileage and hauling capacity
from the equipment, the operation of more trains on the line at one
time and better operating conditions and consequent reliability.

Figures have already been given showing the increased train capac-
ity of the several electric installations in and about New York city
and many other similar instances might be cited. These results are
largely due to the fact that an electric locomotive or train operates at a
higher schedule speed than is possible under steam. The elapsed time
of a suburban train between stops depends principally on the rapidity
with which it attains its maximum speed. The rate at which it
reaches this speed, that is, the acceleration, depends on the value of the
pull exerted by the motive power. During the period of starting the
greatest draw-bar pull is required, since during this time the inertia
of the mass of the train must be overcome. After reaching a maxi-
mum speed the only forces to be overcome are those of frictional re-
sistance of the track and the air. In a steam locomotive the greatest
draw-bar pull being required at starting, steam is admitted to the
cylinders throughout the full length of the stroke. The demand on
the boiler per revolution is, therefore, greatest at this time. No loco-,
motive can, on the average, exert a greater pull than 25 per cent, of
the weight carried by its own driving wheels, for beyond this figure the
wheels will slip on the track. The boiler capacity, therefore, is de-
signed to give no more steam than that demanded by this value of the
pull at starting. A steam train, therefore, does not utilize the weight
of its own cars as a means of increasing its grip on the rails. In a
multiple unit electric train, motors are placed on each car, thus utiliz-
ing the weight of the entire train for frictional adhesion to the rail.
By electric control of the motor switches all the motors may be oper-
ated simultaneously by one man at the head of the train. By this

ELECTRIC OPERATIONS OF STEAM RAILWAYS 213

system the draw-bar pull per ton of train may be increased from 2.5' to
4.5 times that for steam and the rate of acceleration is only limited by
the comfort of the passengers. As a direct result of this the schedule
speed is increased;, the headway between trains is reduced and more
trains may be operated on the line. By the use of electric locomotives
in terminals for switching service great economies are effected. Since
the electric locomotive operates in either direction and takes its entire
power supply from the trolley or third rail, much useless mileage of
locomotives in going to and from the turn-table, the water-tank and the
coal-chute is avoided. The New York Central has already reported as
a result of tests a net saving of 21 per cent, on the cost of switching
service and 16 per cent, in the ton mileage of switching locomotives.

For long-haul passenger and express service rapid acceleration is
not so important, but the maximum speed becomes the determining
factor in a fast schedule. For any type of motive power the draw-bar
pull is greatest at starting and falls to lower and lower values as maxi-
mum speed is approached. Consequently, for this class of service,
large initial effort is not so important as large effort at high speed. In
this respect the electric motor has a great advantage over the steam
engine. Since the boiler of the steam locomotive is proportioned to
the maximum demand which it can generate at starting, corresponding
to the grip which it has on the rails, at higher speeds the steam must
be cut off from the cylinders at a less and less fraction of full stroke,
for otherwise the boiler can not supply steam fast enough and still
maintain its pressure; thus the total tractive effort, which depends on
the proportion of a revolution during which steam is admitted to the
cylinders, is reduced as the speed increases. While the tractive effort
of the electric motor also decreases somewhat with the speed it does
not do so nearly as rapidly as that of the steam locomotive. As a con-
sequence, a given weight of train can be handled faster by electricity
than by steam or a heavier train may be hauled at a given maximum
speed. Again, the safe limits of speed are much higher in electric
operation. The rotative effort is uniform in a motor, while that of a
locomotive is intermittent and accomplished through the medium of
heavy reciprocating parts. The moving mass of these parts as the
speed increases tends to lift the locomotive from the track and pounds
the rails with a blow which in many instances has been sufficient to
cause derailments. The limiting speed of steam trains is about 80 or
90 miles per hour, while speeds of 130 miles per hour have been reached
in tests on electric trains.

The advantages of electricity for freight traffic are most apparent
on long single track lines with heavy grades and mixed traffic. The
length of the freight train of to-day is limited by the draw-bar pull of
the locomotive which is in turn dependent on the locomotive weight.

2 14 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

and by the schedule speed. Speaking generally, longer trains and hence
fewer trains on the line at one time, are to be had only at great sacri-
fice of speed. The longest freight trains weigh from 2,000 to 3,000
tons and are only operable on level track. On reaching moiintain
grades, such trains have to be broken into two or three parts, which,
therefore, on single-track roads increase the number of passing points
and subsequent delays, thus rapidly shortening the headway between
trains and filling the line to its capacity. Schedule speeds on such
grades now average about ten miles per hour. The operation of two or
more locomotives in a train is not satisfactory, owing to the impossi-
bility of seciiring simultaneous cooperation of the several motive units.
As already stated the tractive efl^ort at high speeds is much greater for
the motor than for the steam locomotive; hence, in the case of electric
operation, the limiting weight of the train on grade is higher, also the
schedule speed may be largely increased by the use of double or triple
headers. This method of operation is perfectly possible under elec-
tricity by the system of multiple control, already mentioned, and the
length of a train is limited only by the strength of the draft gear.
This limit would disappear if all freight cars could be equipped with a
simple standard cable, enabling the placing of an electric locomotive in
the middle or at the end of a train. This cable would be necessary to
secure the simultaneous operation of the several locomotives.

A few comparative figures bearing out the above facts of the pos-
sible methods of increasing railway business are not without interest.
A typical western freight locomotive, weighing with its tender 165 tons,
can develop continuously a draw-bar pull of 25,600 pounds, up to a
speed of 15 miles per hour. An electric locomotive, weighing 100 tons,
can develop this value of pull, up to a speed of 37 miles per hour.
Another similar type of electric locomotive gives 56,800 pounds, up to
23 miles per hour, and still another 8-motor type can develop 113,600
pounds draw-bar pull up to a speed of 23 miles per hour.

A late type of Mallet compound locomotive, weighing 300 tons, can
develop continuously 2,180 horse power at its driving wheels. A New
York Central electric locomotive can do the same and weighs only one
third as much. The cost of each locomotive is about the same. It
may be noted that 200 ton-miles are saved in every locomotive mile if
the electric locomotive is used instead of the steam locomotive. At 40
cents per locomotive mile and 100 miles per day the saving is $40 per
day or about $15,000 per year. The saving on this account alone
would in two years pay for the electric locomotive. Another type of
Mallet locomotive, weighing with its tender 250 tons, can haul a train
weighing 330 tons up a 2.2 per cent, grade at 15 miles per hour. A
100-ton electric locomotive can haul a train of 800 tons under the same
conditions. The total train weights are thus 580 and 900 tons and the

ELECTRIC OPERATIONS OF STEAM RAILWAYS 215

electric locomotive weighs 100 tons less than the steam locomotive, re-
sulting in the consequent saving in the ton mileage of dead weight.

The operating conditions and the reliability of service are improved
in all classes of traffic by the substitution of electricity. The construc-
tion of the electric locomotive is far simpler. The steam locomotive
comprises fire box, boiler, steam engine and facilities for handling coal
and water. The electric locomotive, on the contrary, consists only of
the electric substitute for the engine and this substitute has no recipro-
cating parts. There is consequently less wear and tear and less likeli-
hood of derailment and broken rail. The fire box and boiler are absent
as sources of danger in a collision, as are also apparatus for steam or
fire heating and oil or gas lighting. Signals are clearer in the absence
of smoke and automatic signals are possible, though as yet they are
little used. The control of power to trains in sections or blocks is also
possible. The number of car miles per train-minute of delay has been
nearly doubled on the elevated lines of New York since the electrical
operation was inaugurated. Less time is required for clearing and
despatching trains, water and coal stops are obviated and less attention
is required for light and heat. The electric locomotive is always ready,
requiring no time for firing.

As against these several advantages in operating conditions and re-
liability, there are several disadvantages. The supply of power to all
trains from one power house is objectionable from the standpoint that
an accident at the power house may stop all trains. Whatever may be
said of the steam locomotive in its comparison with the electric motor,
the locomotive is self-contained. This danger under electrical opera-
tion is minimized by a thorough subdivision of all the power house
apparatus. This method of subdivision, however, is not so readily pos-
sible in the transmission and conducting systems leading power to the
trains and accidents to this portion of the equiiDment constitute one of
the most serious menaces to the continuous operation of an electric
railroad. The presence of the third rail or trolley and the transmis-
sion line throughout the right of way is in itself a certain source of
danger. In a collision the danger of a fire from a third rail in some
measure offsets the similar danger from a locomotive fire box. The
danger from this source, however, has been overestimated, and the
danger of shock from a high voltage trolley is practically eliminated by
the modern methods of suspension. These methods consist in supple-
menting the actual trolley conductor with one or more steel cables for
increasing the tensile strength of the overhead construction. The
thorough grounding or connecting to the rail of all the supports of the
trolley wire ensures that even in the unlikely instance of the breaking
of the overhead construction the wire will have no voltage when it
reaches the ground. So reliable has this method of suspension come

2i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

to be regarded that it is now often used for crossings of telegraph, tele-
phone and transmission wires in place of the usual cradle or network
of wires stretched between the two lines. The values of voltage now
advocated for railway and transmission work have caused considerable
criticism and opposition. This is probably due in large measure to the
long standing figure of 600 volts for trolley service; this figure, how-
ever, is fixed by the character of the direct current motor and not by
any consideration of possible danger from shock. A further source of
disturbance by electrical operation is the interference by electrostatic
and electromagnetic induction between the transmission conductors and
the telegraph and telephone lines in the vicinity. Methods have been
developed, however, and are at present in use by which such disturb-
ances are prevented at slight cost.

A decrease in the operating expenses has already been stated as one
of the means by which electric operation may be made to pay. The
operating expenses of an average steam railroad may be roughly divided
as follows : Maintenance of way 21 per cent., maintenance of equipment
19 per cent., conducting transportation 56 per cent., general expenses
4 per cent. Considering these items under electric operation the great-
est saving is effected in the item of conducting transportation, which
includes the cost of coal. The steam locomotive consists of a boiler
and engine. For obvious reasons neither is as efficient as the same
apparatus of a stationary type. The same amount of coal in a locomo-
tive boiler will evaporate only about two thirds as much water as in a
stationary boiler. The average steam consumption of a good locomo-
tive engine is about 30 pounds of steam per horse power hour developed;
turbo-generators are now guaranteed for a consumption of only 15
pounds of steam per electrical horse power at the switchboard. As off-
setting these marked advantages it is necessary to consider the electrical
losses in the transmission system and in the motor equipments. Speak-
ing roughly, 75 per cent, of the electrical energy supplied by the
switchboard is available at the wheels of an electric train for tractive
effort. These figures indicate that an electric locomotive requires less
than one half the amount of coal used by the steam locomotive giving
the same horse power output. Further than this, it has been esti-
mated that for every hour that a locomotive is standing idle, with
steam up, 400 pounds of coal are burned. The excess of useless mileage
and the excess ton mileage owing to the greater weight of the steam
locomotive have already been noted, and are also causes for excess coal
consumption. As opposed to these, there is the light load coal con-
sumption of the power station. The final value of the balance in coal
saving will depend on the proportion of time in which the power sta-
tion operates to its full capacity. Based on careful comparative tests
of steam and electric locomotives the engineers of one of the large

ELECTRIC OPERATIONS OF STEAM RAILWAYS 217

installations already mentioned have announced that the electrical
operation of the former steam service is being handled with the con-
sumption of only 60 per cent, of the amount of coal, resulting in a
saving of nearly $350,000 per year. Figures have been published
showing that the Manhattan Eailway under steam operation secured
about 1.5 ton miles to a pound of coal; under electric operation this
figure has increased to 3.85. These and other careful estimates indi-
cate that in the general electrification of through railway lines a saving
of 50 per cent, in coal consumption may be effected. It is to be noted,
however, that the cost of fuel alone is only about 12 per cent, of the
total cost of operation ; therefore, a saving in this respect would be only
6 per cent, of the total operating expense. In the kindred items of
firemen, roundhouse men and other expense peculiar to the steam loco-
motive a further saving of about 5 per cent, is possible. It is interest-
ing in this connection to consider the effect of this fuel saving on the
total coal supply of the country. The fuel consumption of all the locomo-
tives in this country in 1905 was about 52,000,000 tons, which was
about one eighth of the total coal production of that year. The total
coal consumption, therefore, would be reduced by about 7 per cent, if
all the railways in the country were electrified. This does not appear
to be a very important reason why railways should electrify; but with
trans-Atlantic liners burning 5,000 tons of coal per voyage and the
end of the coal supply of the state of Ohio in sight within 25 years,
any influence tending to check coal consumption must soon assume im-
portance.

The repairs to steam locomotives amount to about 8 per cent, of
the total operating expense. The repairs to an electric locomotive
amount to far less. The greater simplicity of the electric locomotive
has already been noted. There are now available plentiful data based
on experience indicating that the above figure of 8 per cent, may be
reduced to the neighborhood of 2 per cent. An additional saving in
the maintenance of track and other less striking items offsets
the repairs to track bonding and overhead construction and leaves
an additional saving in favor of electric operation of about 3 per cent.
The aggregate of the above economies in operating expense amounts to
20 per cent., which should be readily available by any of the large rail-
way systems in the transformation to the electric method of operation.

Considering further the several pioneer installations of electric serv-
ice, we find that they differ materially in their characteristics and
there are several so-called systems at present available. The early de-
velopment of the electric railway for operation in cities was entirely
dependent on the use of the direct current motor as the only motor
available. This motor had been developed in spite of the fact that the
earliest electromagnetic generators were of the alternating current

2i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

type. The value of alternating currents was not appreciated, however,
as the principles of transformation and their value for transmission
were not understood. The high degree of perfection to which the
direct-current motor has been developed naturally led to its use for
railways as city lines were extended, and this tendency has resulted in
the enormous mileage of suburban and interurban electric railways.
This tendency was aided by the development of the rotary converter
which permitted the transmission of power by alternating currents and
its conversion to direct current for supplying the trains. The direct
current motor operates at about 600 volts and thus fixes the value of
the voltage on the trolley or third rail. The voltage being fixed, the
total energy at a car is proportional to the current. Thus, for light
cars and infrequent traffic, the loss in the trolley and feed wires, due
to the passage of current delivering energy to the car, is sufficiently
small to allow operation at comparatively long distances from the point
of generation. With increasing size of cars or trains the points of
supply must be brought nearer together and be made of greater ca-
pacity. In the case of the New York Central installation, the average
distance between such stations is four miles. Each of these sub-
stations contains transformers for reducing the voltage from the trans-
mission line and rotary converters for changing the alternating to
direct current. The amount of current taken by a train on this system
may go to very large values and this necessitates large trolley and feed-
ing conductors when the traffic increases in volume. Under this system
the feeding conductor may be either trolley or third rail and the col-
lecting device, the trolley wheel or third rail shoe. The latter must be
used when the currents are of large value.

With increasing length of line the cost of sub-stations and feeders
in the direct current system becomes prohibitive. This has lead to the
development of alternating current systems, in which the energy is
generated, transmitted and delivered to the car at voltages as high as
15,000, with consequent reduction in values of the necessary current.
Theoretically, the reduction in the size of conductors necessary to carry
the current is inversely proportional to the square of the voltage.
While certain characteristics of the alternating current system reduce
this theoretical value quite materially, the gain in this respect is never-
theless enormous, and the distance between feeding points increases to
between thirty and fifty miles, depending on the density of the traffic.
The trolley wire alone is often the only feeding conductor required.
Further, the apparatus in the sub-stations in these systems comprises
stationary transformers only which require no attendance. Two con-
spicuous alternating current systems for railway operation have been
developed. The single phase system, which has been almost the only
alternating current system used in this country, and the three-phase
system, which has met with some favor in Europe.

ELECTRIC OPERATIONS OF STEAM RAILWAYS 219

The single-phase motor has the same characteristics and operates
exactly as the direct current motor and may in fact be operated
by direct current — a fact which constitutes one of its greatest ad-
vantages. It is, however, heavier for the same output and since
it, too, operates at low voltage, a stationary transformer is required on
the car or locomotive to reduce the high trolley voltage to the value re-
quired. This necessitates a heavier and more expensive motor equip-
ment than the direct current system and acts as an offset to the saving
effected in feeding conductors and sub-stations. In this system the
feeding conductor is the overhead trolley with catenary suspension and
the collecting device is the sliding trolley or pantagraph which is neces-
sary for very high speed and permissible by reason of the low values of
current required.

The three-phase system owes its principal value to the fact that the
speed variation of the motor is very small throughout its full range of
tractive effort. As already stated, the tractive effort of the direct-cur-
rent and single-phase motors falls off with increasing speed, though not
so rapidly as that of the steam locomotive. Owing to this advantage,
the three-phase locomotive can maintain its high speed independently
of the grade. It operates without transformers on the car with trolley
voltages up to 5,000 and in coasting it returns power to the line auto-
matically, its motors acting as generators. It is, however, heavy per
unit of output and the system requires two trolley wires and is not
adapted to operation on the direct-current installations to be found in
many terminals. It has been adopted for one installation in this
country in which it is desired to increase the schedule speed on a long
mountain division.

In this country the best engineering opinion seems to have united
in thinking that the single-phase system is the one best adapted for
future application to steam railways. This system is as yet only four
years old, yet there are at present over 1,000 miles of railways in the
United States operating under it and in this aggregate there are at
least five railroads formerly operated by steam. The system has proved
most successful in operation, although the first six months' operation
of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Eailroad have developed so
many unforeseen troubles, when applied to such a large enterprise, as
to bring upon it much adverse criticism. On the other hand, the high
degree of perfection to which the direct-current system has been
brought, the greater capacity of the motors of this system and the
enormous mileage already installed in tunnels and terminals have re-
sulted in a strong advocacy of this system. Speaking generally for
motors of equal weight, that of the direct-current system has 25 per
cent, more capacity than that of the alternating-current system. The
equipment of a high speed interuban car having four motors of approxi-

2 20 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

mately 100-horse-power capacity, will weigh under direct current sys-
tem 22,500 pounds and under the alternating system 32,000 pounds,
or nearly 50 per cent, excess over the direct-current equipment.
For the entire car, however, the excess weight would be only about
12 per cent. The excess in cost would be about 35 per cent. In
the case of locomotives the excess weight of the alternating-current
equipment is even greater. The New York, ISTew Haven & Hartford
alternating locomotive has about the same weight as the New York
Central direct-current locomotive, but if compared on the basis of
maximum tractive effort the former weighs twice as much. The two
locomotives are, however, designed for different service and the com-
parison is much more favorable to the alternating-current system if
based on the continuous capacity. The cost of each of these locomotives
is about the same.

Taking a broad view of the situation at present, we find that the
direct-current system is already installed and continues to be favored
for dense, short-haul traffic, such as is found in city terminals and
tunnels, and short suburban service. This is largely due to the greater
familiarity with the direct-current motor, to its greater capacity and
less cost. It is admitted, however, that this system will not do for
through traffic over long distance. The single-phase system possesses
marked advantages for long haul, express and passenger service on ac-
count of the great saving effected in line conductors and sub-stations.
It has the great additional advantage that it can operate on direct
currents also and may, therefore, enter terminals already equipped with
direct current. There is every indication that the operation of steam
railways by electricity will be rapidly extended within the next few
years. It appears probable that the single-phase, high-voltage, alter-
nating-current trolley will be used and that for some time direct cur-
rent will continue to be used in terminals. The tendency, however,
will be to abandon direct current in terminals, substituting the high
voltage trolley throughout.

The process of change to electricity, however, must necessarily be
gradual. The necessary capital investment must be provided for and
this will probably be accomplished in any large instance by doing tlie
work piece-meal and charging the cost to renewals. Methods for
handling freight traffic have not yet been thoroughly developed. Much
freight hauling is done by electricity, but before the bulk of traffic of a
through line can be handled some method of multiple operation must
be devised for freight trains and the work must be experimented upon
by applying the methods at present indicated, to some large project.
The standardization of electric railway apparatus is one of the greatest
necessities of the present situation. No extensive system would care
to operate its trains without the possibility of the exchange of cars with

ELECTRIC OPERATIONS OF STEAM RAILWAYS 221

neighboring systems and until railway engineers are agreed as to the
fundamental questions of frequency and methods of train control it is
probable that no large project will be put in hand. A further oppo-
sition to be met is the mass of present-day, steam-railway methods and
prejudices. The steam railway has a long history and each system has
its highly-trained corps of operating engineers. Electrical operation
introduces many new points of view, old dangers disappear and new
precautions have to be taken. Besides these matters, there are various
less important disturbances to steam practise which will have to be
provided for, among the most serious of which are the clearances of the
third rail and trolley at crossings and at overhead structures ; the clear-
ances on draw-bridges and the methods of leading currents through
such bridges; new splice bars to accommodate rail bonds and the tell-
tale for notifying a brakeman on top of the car of a low bridge ahead.
It seems probable that the next step in this development will be the
progressive equipment of a complete system involving through traffic
over long distances, with its attendant feeder and branch lines. When
such a system is once installed and the minor difficulties above enumer-
ated developed and overcome, a rapid application of electricity for
steam operation will follow.

/

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Ob 1

-S3

\

222 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

THE INFLUENCE OF EADIUM RAYS ON A FEW LIFE

PROCESSES OF PLANTS^

By Professor C. STUART GAGER

UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI

THE purpose of the present paper is to present in non-teclmical
form some of the more striking results embodied in the author's
memoir on " Effects of the Rays of Radium on Plants."^

It is now well known that radioactivity was discovered by Henri
Becquerel in 1896. Earlier in this same year Niewenglowski had
found that several substances, after being exposed to sunlight, gave off
a new kind of rays that could penetrate matter opaque to ordinary
light. Following up this work, Becquerel found that the salts of
uranium gave off such rays, even when not exposed to sunlight.
Uranium, he said, manifests a kind of " invisible phosphorescence."
It was Madame Curie who, in 1898, proposed the term " radioactive "
for substances possessing this property. In 1898, also, M. and Mme.
Curie and Bemont announced the discovery of a new substance forte-
ment radio-active, contained in pitchblende. In a moment of inspira-
tion they named it radium.

The discovery of radioactivity and of radium introduced a new
epoch into physical science. Not only was it necessary to revise old
ideas and ways of expressing them, but new ideas and conceptions, and
a new scientific jargon all developed in less than a decade. Atom,
affinity, opaque, ray, electricity, matter and other more or less funda-
mental terms had to be redefined. To the layman, getting his science
largely from the daily press, it was revolution; but to the patient
worker in the laboratory it was evolution. He welcomed the new
light as the sure reward of years of patient interrogation of nature; as
the culmination of a long series of painstaking investigations.

Through the further classical researches of the two Curies, of
Rutherford, Righi, Soddy, Becquerel and many others, the new science
of radioactivity rapidly developed. The term atom became a figure of
speech; matter and electricity became difficult to distinguish from each
other, and what remained of scientific materialism received a blow
from which it may never recover.

It need hardly be restated here, that radioactivity is an expression
of the disintegration of atoms. The atom of radium is constantly
breaking up and hurling into space minute particles at enormous

^ Contributions from the Botanical Department of the University of Mis-
souri. No. 16.

' Mem. N. Y. Bot. Gard., 4 : 1-286, November, 1908,

RADIUM RAYS 223

velocities. The smallest of these particles, one one-thousandth the
size of a hydrogen atom, bear negative charges (or, shall we say, are
negative charges) of electricity, and are called electrons. They travel
with about 95 per cent, of the velocity of light, penetrate " opaque "
bodies, passing easily between and through their atoms, darken a photo-
graphic negative, and to a slight extent ionize a gas through which
they pass. Streams of these particles constitute the fi rays of radium
and other radioactive substances.

The larger particles projected from radioactive bodies are about
twice the size of a hydrogen atom, or two thousand times as big as the
/3 particles. They move more slowly than the latter, and carry a
charge of positive electricity. On account of their relatively greater
size, they are much more effective ionizers, and correspondingly less
penetrating to " opaque " matter than the ^ particles. They were
named a particles by Eutherford. Streams of them constitute a rays.

Whenever a [3 particle, or electron, is started or stopped a pene-
trating electro-magnetic pulse in the ether (X ray) is developed.
Such rays proceeding from radium are called 7 rays. In addition to
the emission of one or more of these three kinds of rays, radioactive
materials give off a radioactive gas, called the emanation. In study-
ing the physiological effects of radium, therefore, we have to consider
these four factors — a rays, /3 rays, y rays and emanation.

Our interest in the effects of radium rays on living organisms is
enhanced by the discovery that radioactivity is widely distributed in
nature. It is probable that all plants and animals are adjusted to a
normal degree of radioactivity in their environment, or, in other words,
are in a state of radiotonus. Professor J. J. Thomson was the first
to discover that air bubbled through Cambridge (England) tap-water
became decidedly radioactive, and the subsequent researches of numer-
ous other physicists have taught us that this property belongs to the
waters of most deep wells, to mineral waters generally, to freshly fallen
rain and snow, to the spray at the foot of waterfalls, to the water of
the ocean in certain localities, and quite probably to all spring waters.

After Elster and Geitel found radioactivity a property of the
" fango," or mud from the hot springs of Battaglia, in northern Italy,
other investigators discovered the same property in mud from various
widely separated sources, in lava from volcanoes, in the sediments of
springs, the sand of the seashore, and in sedimentary rocks.

The discovery, also made by Elster and Geitel, of the presence of
radioactivity in the earth's atmosphere has been abundantly confirmed.
Soil-air is more strongly radioactive than air above the surface. Evi-
dence leads to the conclusion that the radioactivity of water, air, mud,
rocks, etc., is due to the presence of the emanation of radium and other
radioactive substances.

Eadioactivity, therefore, must be recognized as a factor of plant

2 24 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

environment, and plant physiology and the newer physics join hands.
Here, as elsewhere, the boundaries between the different " sciences "
break down.

Fig. 1 is from a photograph of a few of the preparations employed
in the experiments about to be described. The three marked R are
sealed glass tubes containing radium bromide. The figures indicate
the degree of activity of the preparations in terms of the activity of
uranium taken as a unit. Eadium bromide of 1,800,000 activity is the
purest salt thus far obtained. The lower right-hand tube contains
radio-tellurium, which gives off only a rays.

The rod below the tubes is of celluloid, coated on one end with
radium bromide of 25,000 activity. The radium coating is overlaid
with one of celloidin for purposes of protection.

By means of the rod, not only the three kinds of rays, but the
emanation as well, are available. The walls of the sealed glass tubes
permit the ft and y rays to pass, but the emanation and the a rays'
not at all.

Eadium coatings, such as those on the rod, were devised by Mr.
Hugo Lieber, of New York City, and are a valuable aid in studying
the physiological role of radium. The experiments of the writer, car-
ried on for over three years at the New York Botanical Garden, were
made possible solely through the great liberality of Mr. Lieber, who
freely supplied all the standard preparations, several thousand dollars
worth in all.

In none of the experiments did the radium itself come in contact
with the plant tissues. The results noted were due to the action of
the rays alone. When the sealed glass tubes were used, the effect was
produced by the /? and 7 rays, acting together; when the radium coat-
ings were employed, by the combined action of the emanation and the
rays, a, ^ and 7.

To review the results obtained by other investigators is beyond the
scope and purpose of the present article. Koernicke, Dixon and
Wighman, A. B. Greene, Guilleminot and Abbe, not to mention others,
have experimented on the action of radium rays on germination and
growth, and, to a slight extent, u.pon other plant processes. There
seems to be general agreement among them that the rays exert a
retarding or an inhibiting effect, depending upon the activity of the
preparation employed and the duration of exposure to the rays.

Germination is easily retarded or inhibited by exposing seeds while
dry, or during imbibition of water. In one experiment ten seeds of
" Lincoln " oats, after being soaked in water overnight, were exposed
for eighteen hours to rays from the tube of 10,000 activity, by being
placed with their embryo-sides in contact with the tube. Germination
was retarded by this treatment. After being exposed for about 50
hours longer to the same preparation (67 hrs. 35 min. in all), the

RADIUM RAYS

225

Fig. 1.

seeds, together with ten unexposed, but otherwise similarly treated
seeds, were planted in soil in pots. The relative amount of growth in
the two cultures at the end of five days after planting is illustrated in
Fig. 2, where R is the culture exposed to the rays, and C the control
(unexposed) culture. The growth of the root system was also greatly
retarded by this treatment, and the root hairs on seedlings from
exposed seeds were much longer than normally.

The effect of duration of exposure on the germination and growth
of lupines (Lupinus alius) is shown in Fig. 3. The activity of the
radium was the same in each case, 1,800,000, the seeds were exposed
dry, and the length of exposure, from left to right in the figure, was
72 hours, 50 hours, 26 hours, 0 hours (control). The size of the
largest seedling in the pan at the left doubtless indicates that the seed

VOL. LXXIV.

-16.

Fig. 2.

326

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

was poorly exposed. There is usually more or less difference in the
resistance of individuals, but never as much as that apparently indi-
cated, in the 72-hour culture. This and similar experiments confirm
the results of Koernicke and others that the effect varies directly with
the duration of exposure.

Fig. 3.

The relative effect of preparations of different activities is illus-
trated by the following typical experiment. Three sets, a, b and c,
of six dry seeds of the white lupine were exposed to rays from sealed
glass tubes of radium bromide by laying the tubes in contact with the
hilum edges of the seeds. Care was taken to have the radium salt dis-
tributed evenly along the bottom of the horizontally placed tube. The
activities of the preparations were: a, 1,800,000; h, 1,500,000; c,
10,0-00. A fourth set, d, served as a control. All exposures were for
91.5 hours. The seeds were then sown in soil in pots, and the com-
parative amounts of growth in the four cultures are shown in Fig. 4.
The activity decreased from left to right. It is clearly demonstrated
that the stronger the activity the greater the amount of retardation,
under the conditions of the experiment.

Fig. 4.

An experiment to test the effect of a radioactive atmosphere on
germination and growth was facilitated by the preparation by Mr.
Lieber of a tube lined with the radium coating devised by him. This
tube {T, Fig. 5) was connected with the upper tubulure of a glass
bell-jar, resting air tight on a ground-glass plate. The lower tubu-
lure was connected with an exhaust, so that air, entering the radium-
lined cylinder, carried with it into the bell-jar the radioactive emana-

RADIUM RAYS

227

tion. This air was delivered over pots of growing plants or freshly
planted seeds in various ways, one of which is shown in Fig. 5, where
the radioactive air passed over the soil-surface from an ordinary dove-

Fin. 5.

tail gas burner. The opening to the outlet pipe is under the flower
pot. A control apparatus was similarly arranged, with the exception
of the omission of the radium preparation. In one experiment, after
a six days' exposure of timothy grass seed, sown unsoaked and covered
with only an extremely thin layer of soil, germination and growth
were shown to be retarded and the amount of retardation was greatest
nearest the point of delivery of the radioactive air (Fig. 6), But
where germinated seeds of the white lupine, with radicles marked 10

Fig. 6.

mm. back from the root-tip, were exposed for twelve hours in the
radioactive atmosphere, growth was greater than that of a like number
of roots similarly placed in the control jar. In one experiment, for

2 28 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

example, the total growth in 24 hours was, for the exposed radicles,
28.66 mm., and for the control radicles only 16.08 mm.

Thus it is seen that exposure to radium rays, though followed in
some cases by a retardation or inhibition of function may, under cer-
tain suitable conditions of exposure and with certain tissues, be fol-
lowed by an acceleration.

Excitation of function is further illustrated by the following ex-
periment: In a flower pot of soil unsoaked seeds of oat were sown in
three concentric circles, distant, respectively, 7 mm., 22 mm. and 45
mm. from the center of the pot. Into the soil at the center was in-
serted the sealed glass tube of radium bromide of 1,500,000 activity.
The end containing the radium was about 15 mm. below the soil sur-
face. A second pot was arranged in a like manner except for the
substitution of an ■empty glass tube for the radium tube. At the end
of 106 hours the seedlings from the exposed seeds were much taller

Fig. 7.

than those in the control pot (Fig. 7), the amount of stimulation
being greatest in the outer circle of plants and least in the inner circle.
At the end of the 106-hour period the radium tube was placed in the
control pot and the empty glass tube in the pot R. Following this
change the seedlings in CR grew faster than those in R, now serving
as a control. Thus it was possible to accelerate the growth of the
seedlings in either pot at will by transferring the radium tube from
one culture to the other.

The fact that incandescent gas mantles contain a large percentage
of thorium, a radioactive substance, suggested the following experi-
ment. On the surface of soil in a pot was sown a row of timothy grass
seed, and over this row and at right angles to it, was suspended a fresh,
^^nburned mantle at a distance of three or four millimeters above the
seeds (Fig. 8). Germination and subsequent growth were both re-

RADIUM RAYS

229

Fig. 8.

tarded by the rays from the mantle, and Fig. 9 shows the appearance
of the culture seven days after the experiment was started.

The influence of radium rays on photosynthesis was tested in sev-
eral ways. For example: A nasturtium {Tropceolum) plant was
placed in sunlight after having been in darkness for 18 hours. Under
one of the leaves, and lightly in contact with it, was placed a Lieber's
coated rod of undetermined (probably 25,000) activity. After twenty-
four hours the leaf was dechlorophyllized and stained with iodine to
test the presence of starch. Starch was almost entirely wanting in the
part of the leaf that was directly over the radium-coated rod, but was

Pig. 9.

*

23°

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

present in other portions of the leaf. The result was recorded by
exposing the leaf to sunlight in contact with the velox paper in a
printing frame. The region lacking starch, being more translucent,
gave the darkest image on the velox paper (Fig. 10).

It was found possible to increase the rate of respiration of germi-
nating seeds by means of the rays, and alcoholic fermentation was also
accelerated by suitable exjaosure, as follows: Five fermentation tubes

were filled with equal quantities of
a mixture of 2 gm. of a compressed
yeast cake in 250 c.c. of a 5 per
cent, solution of cane-sugar. Into
four of the fermentation tubes were
placed sealed glass tubes as follows :
IlaBr^ 1,500,000 X; 10,000 X;
7,000 X; radio-tellurium. The
fifth served as a control. At the
end of about three and one half
hours the cultures were photo-
graphed (Fig. 11). It is clearly
shown in the figure that the rate
of alcoholic fermentation, as measured by the evolution of gas, was
accelerated by the rays; most by the preparation of 1,500,000 activity,
least by that of 7,000 activity, and to an inteimediate degree by the
other preparations.

Various attempts have been made to detect a tropistic response, or
curvature of a growing organ toward or from a radioactive source.
The phosphorescent light of radium has not been found intense enough
to call forth phototropic curvatures, and the existence of a true radio-
tropism is yet to be demonstrated. Koernicke found that seedlings

Fig. 10.

Fig. 11.

RADIUM RAYS

231

grown from exposed seeds were still sensitive to gravity and unilateral
illumination, and the experiments of the writer confirm this result.
Under certain conditions of exposure of corn grains, however, the
seedlings failed to respond to gravity, and grew horizontally, close to

Fig. 12.

the soil surface. Thus, in one experiment, the grains were exposed
for twenty-seven hours to rays from radium bromide of 1,800,000
activity, and all of them showed this tendency to a greater or less
degree (Fig. 12, pot 27). Whether geotropic sensibility was destroyed
by the exposure is difficult to say, for histological examination showed
the tissues to be so abnormal that it is possible the plants could not
have stood erect even if they had been able to detect the stimulus of
gravity.

All attempts to obtain a curvature of growing organs or plants
toward or from a radium tube or radium-coated rod proved unsuccess-
ful, but when a sealed glass tube of radium bromide is suspended hori-

FiG. 13.

zontally in tap-water, or in nutrient solution, in which radicles of
white lupine seedlings are growing vertically, the tips of the roots may
be made to curve toward the radium. Such a result is illustrated in
Fig. 13. In this experiment the radium tube was originally about 5
mm. distant from the root-tips. Whether this result was due to the
direct influence of the rays, or to some undetermined condition estab-
lished by them in the liquid can not yet be decided.

232 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

The above experiments were all confirmed by repetitions, and
clearly indicate that radium rays act as a stimulus to the varioiis
physiological processes of plants. If the strength of the radium, the
duration of exposure, and other conditions are suitable, the response
is an excitation of function, but if the method of treatment is other-
wise, the radium too strong, the exposure too prolonged, the result is
a retardation, or complete inhibition of function, or the death of the
plant. There are not only differences in sensitiveness between indi-
viduals, but also between different species and different tissues. As in
the case of animals, embryonic and younger tissues are more sensitive
than those that are older and more mature.

TEE WORK OF BOARDS OF HEALTH 233

THE WORK OF BOARDS OF HEALTH^

By Dr. GEORGE A. SOPER

NEW YORK CITY

THP] spirit of the laws by which matters of public health are admin-
istered rests upon the theory which underlies all forms of gov-
ernment, that is, that the state has the power to compel the ignorant,
the selfish, the careless and the vicious to so regulate their lives and
property that they shall not be a source of danger to others. It is an
expression of the idea that the interests of no man can exceed the in-
terests of his fellows. The welfare of the many is the supreme law.

Extraordinary powers have from early times been vested in the
authorities charged with administering sanitary laws. The highest
courts have declared that the administration of public health laws is
fundamentally important and entitled to the support of the police
power of the state. Public health authorities are in effect police officers
charged with a special jurisdiction over the conditions which cause,
aggravate or predispose to disease. In the exercise of their remarkable
powers health authorities may restrain persons from contact with others,
they may enter upon and even destroy private property and may exer-
cise supervisory jurisdiction over trades and occupations.

Many years ago, the almost autocratic power enjoyed by health
authorities was much more necessary than it is at present, for the highly
contagious diseases have, through the operation of health laws, better
personal and household hygiene and municipal sanitary works, been
relegated to a comparatively unimportant place as a cause of death.
Epidemics of high mortality and vast extent rarely take place in civil-
ized countries to-day, and the need of a prompt, decisive exercise of
great authority in this direction is consequently less often necessary
than formerly.

At the same time, a new class of duties is growing upon health
authorities. Some of these duties are plainly within the proper func-
tions of health boards, while others appear to be less so. Among the
obviously proper duties referred to are vaccination, the manufacture
and distribution of antitoxin, the control of methods of sewage disposal
and the sanitary management of milk and water supplies. Of less
obvious appropriateness is the regulation by boards of health of such
matters as the discharge of excessive quantities of smoke into the
atmosphere of cities, the suppression of street noises, the hygienic care

* Paper read before a joint meeting of the National Municipal League and
the American Civic Association at Pittsburg, Pa., November 16, 1908.

234 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

of the food, clothing, exercises and amusements of school children. It
is probable that these matters should be made the subject of regulation
in the public interest, but should the board of health be the instrument
chosen to regulate them ?

Obviously some limit should be placed upon the exercise of the
power possessed by boards of health when questions not strictly germane
to the sanitary welfare of the public are concerned. If no such limit
is placed, it is difficult to understand where the activities of boards of
health are to cease. Almost every act and occupation and nearly every
feature of city life may be construed as having some bearing upon public
health and welfare. Before a board of health sets out upon a campaign
of more esthetic than sanitary value it should be certain that all its
simple and essential duties are being efficiently discharged. There is
often much inconsistency in public health work.

So extensive and so numerous are the conditions of modern civiliza-
tion which certainly affect health, that boards of health generally do
not pretend to cover them all. For example, the construction and
maintenance of public water supplies and sewerage systems, although
undertaken by the public at the public expense, are not conducted by
health authorities but by private corporations or special municipal
departments. Likewise the collection and disposal of garbage, and
even the cleaning of privies, is often done by other than public health
authorities.

There is something incongruous about a board of health conducting
a crusade against smoke and noise and at the same time allowing the
streets to be filthy with dirt and dust and offensive with accumulations
of fermenting garbage. Again a great deal of the attention of health
boards is occupied with alleged private nuisances which affect comfort
but not health. The history of every city is a record of more and more
strict regulations to minimize the unpleasant as well as the unsanitary
conditions of household life.

The work of boards of health has been, on the whole, very decidedly
for the advancement of the general welfare. The great reduction in the
general death rate and the more wholesome and agreeable conditions of
living of to-day as compared with those of a generation ago, bear ample
testimony to this success. If it be objected that other factors have been
at work to improve the sanitary conditions of cities, it must be answered
that much of the inspiration for this other work has come from health
authorities. It should never be forgotten that it is sanitation which
has made the growth of cities possible.

Having thus briefly referred to the scope and bearing of public
health work we may pass to a consideration of the relation of city,
state and nation in protecting the public health.

The authority exercised by public health boards is derivable from

THE WORK OF BOARDS OF HEALTH 235

the state. In the United States the management of the internal affairs
of each separate state is left, for the most part, to the state concerned.
Municipal charters are obtained from the state governments and in
these charters the power to regulate conditions affecting public health
are specifically granted. Cities and towns thus owe responsibility to
the state governments and are answerable to them to a greater or less
extent, depending upon local circumstances. In Massachusetts local
boards of health are comparatively independent of the state authority,
while in New York the state department of health is a central body to
which the local boards of health are closely tributary.

State health authorities are in no case responsible or answerable to
the general government. There is no national board of health.

In the management of health matters the smallest unit of respon-
sibility is a municipal health officer or municipal board of health; the
largest the state health officer or board of health. Whether municipal
or state, the functions of health authorities are very much the same.
The main differences arise from the differences in area over which the
authorities are required to exercise supervision. Local boards have
charge of the conditions which occur in the several localities in a state ;
they take cognizance of individual houses and of persons. The ultimate
units over which state boards exercise jurisdiction are municipalities.

It is the first duty of all health boards to collect vital statistics, to
collate them in tabular form, and to interpret these data so as to show
the state of the public health. Local boards of health collect reports of
deaths and of contagious and other diseases from physicians, interpret
these data, for the benefit of the districts in which they apply, and
then forward them to the state authorities. The state authorities so
obtain a knowledge of the health in various sections of the state and are
so enabled to judge the relative healthfulness of the different localities.
An excessive prevalence of disease in one place can thus be promptly
detected.

The methods of collecting vital statistics are often unsatisfactory
and the results frequently deceptive. It may be remarked in passing
that vital statistics are to-day available for only a part of the people
of the United States, except during years when this government makes
a census enumeration. The census returns are themselves unsatisfac-
tory. In this respect the United States government is behind nearly
every civilized country in Europe. The fault lies with our municipal
and state governments.

In interpreting death rates careful account must be taken of the
marriage and birth rates, total population, migrations of population,
and other factors ; and it would be well for boards of health to eharsre
themselves with collating as well as collecting these vital statistics, in a
more intelligent manner.

236 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

"When the evidence of vital statistics indicates the presence of an
nnsanitary condition through an excessive prevalence of some com-
municable disease;, investigations are commonly made to determine the
nature of the difficulty. This is often a troublesome and uncertain task.
But when the difficulty is once discovered it is usually a simple matter
to prescribe the remedy.

In very recent years sanitary investigations have been made much
more definite and effective by the applications of bacteriology, chem-
istry and pathology, and a new class of professional men has been devel-
oped for laboratory and field work of the highest and best order. These
persons we may call sanitarians or, better, hygienists.

The second main branch of public health work is the suppression of
communicable diseases. Suppressive measures include the establish-
ment of quarantine, the isolation of patients, disinfection, vaccination
and the management of epidemics. Contrary to the custom of twenty
years ago, all the best work in these directions to-day is based upon a
scientific knowledge of what we may call the natural history of disease.
In all these matters of control the dictum of the health authority is
supreme. It can be resisted only through intervention by the courts.

The third main branch of public health work is the abatement of
nuisances. The practical work of suppressing unsanitary conditions is
done by health authorities by recourse to special statutes and local regu-
lations made by the authorities themselves and termed " sanitary ordi-
nances " or " sanitary codes." Offenders against these laws and regula-
tions are brought before proper magistrates and fined. A board of
health exercises the imique function of both making and enforcing
the law.

It may be extremely difficult to determine what does and what does
not constitute a nuisance. For practical purposes it is often considered
that anything which is detrimental to health or which threatens danger
to persons or property may be considered and dealt with as a nuisance.

Interesting work for the suppression of disease lies in educating the
public, the medical profession and the health authorities as to the
causes of and means of preventing the transmission of disease germs.
This is one of the newest and most successful branches of public health
work which has been undertaken for many years. It is based on the
fact that people are not careless in sanitary matters because of a wilful
or vicious design against the public welfare ; they err through ignorance.
By educating the less fortunate concerning the ways in which diseases
are transmitted and showing how they can be prevented, substantial
benefit results.

This educational work is carried on by the daily papers, the medical
papers, special bulletins and magazines, by lectures, by clinics, by con-
gresses and, to some extent, by schools. Sanitary societies and public

THE WORK OF BOARDS OF HEALTH 237

health associations deserve special credit for good work in arousing the
public to the need of better public health work.

At the same time it is regrettable that arguments have been made
and movements have been initiated in the name of public health which
have had no foundation in fact or scientific principle. The cause of
public health has always been a favorite theme alike for the charlatan
and the statesman.

By the remarkable advance in that composite body of knowledge
known as sanitary science much of the quackery of fraud and the dece])-
tions of ignorance are being dispelled from public health work, and we
may confidently look forward to the time when persons who have had
adequate training and experience in this direction will be looked upon
as the proper sanitary teachers.

In the campaign of sanitary education which is going on it is a
deplorable fact that the universities and colleges of the United States
are singularly backward. With a few notable exceptions, there is
scarcely a school for higher education in the United States where a
competent knowledge of hygiene can be obtained. In spite of the fact
that man} of the largest and most prominent universities have had
severe experiences with typhoid they have been exceedingly slow in
providing proper facilities for the teaching of hygiene. One of the
greatest needs of to-day is the want of competent teaching for health
officers, physicians, engineers and others, who may wish to obtain a com-
plete and practical knowledge of their profession. In the absence of
suitable facilities for the education of health officers the United States
is decidedly behind European countries.

In the management of communicable diseases the principles of iso-
lation, disinfection and vaccination, have been referred to. It remains
to mention the help that may be afforded by the establishment of labora-
tories for the diagnosis of suspected cases of communicable diseases.
Laboratories where examinations may be made of sputum, blood, urine,
stools and other pathological specimens, are one of the newest develop-
ments in public health work, but they have been in operation sufficiently
long to make them seem indispensable. By their means early and
obscure cases of tuberculosis, typhoid fever, diphtheria and other too
common preventable diseases may be discovered, and with a precision
and promptness generally impossible in private medical practise. Along
with pathological work of municipal public health laboratories facilities
are often provided for the analysis of water, milk, food and drugs.
Any citizen may send specimens to these laboratories for examination,
and is entitled to a report without charge.

Every board of health should have the benefit of laboratory assist-
ance of this kind. Municipal boards in large cities can afford to
maintain them, but for the small city and village other provision must

238 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

be made. Here the state can render valuable assistance and maintain
laboratories for the benefit of municipalities which can not have them.

In addition to the measures of prevention and suppression which
have been mentioned reference should be made to the preparation and
distribution of antitoxin by boards of health. Here we have an appli-
cation of the laboratory principle applied to the production of a remedy
rather than to the discovery of the cause of disease. Antitoxin is a
curative measure which may be and is applied more often than not to
isolated cases of diphtheria. The beneficent results which have fol-
lowed the use of this agent in combating one of the most common and
fatal of household diseases are unquestioned, but it must not be for-
gotten that in supplying antitoxin without charge, boards of health lay
themselves open to the charge of competing with private manufactories
which prepare the same product and are presumably in a legitimate
business to make money.

Eesults seem to show that it is desirable for boards of health to
supply antitoxin, but the principle involved is an interesting one. If
antitoxin is to be supplied gratis by boards of health, should not those
boards also supply disinfectants, concerning which there are no greater
frauds in the American markets to-day? And if antitoxin and disin-
fectants, why not other things such as indispensable articles of clothing ?

To enumerate all the functions of boards of health, local and state,
would far surpass the necessary limits of this paper, but enough has
been said to show warrant for endorsing most of the work being done
to approve the extension of some and the limitation of others of the
ever-growing activities of health bureaus. A long paper could be
written on any of a dozen phases of this subject.

Taking a rapid review of the subjects covered here, we may remark
first that boards of health have ample power. The standards of public
health and municipal hygiene are continually growing higher.

The dangers from disease in gross epidemic form are becoming less
and less, and in their place a new set of hygienic standards is being
erected. Some of these new standards verge upon the realm of
esthetics. To what extent boards of health are right in extending their
efforts to improve municipal conditions which bear remotely, if at all,
on disease and death, but undoubtedly affect public comfort, is a ques-
tion for debate.

To be effective health work must be cooperative. Statistics must
be promptly and accurately collected by the ultimate units of sanitary
authority, municipal health boards, and transmitted to boards having
jurisdiction over larger territory. Whether or not the largest unit of
health control sliould be the state or the nation is a question which this
paper need not discuss. It is to be remembered in this connection,
however, that state boundaries are only imaginary lines and that some

THE ^VORE OF BOARDS OF HEALTH 239

kind of understanding is indispensable between neighboring states for
some forms of sanitary control, such, for example, as the purity of
water supplies, the management of epidemics and the regulation of
milk and other food products. Likewise the management of quaran-
tine, a subject of importance to large portions of the population of the
nation, should not be left to the regulation of any particular locality,
but should be managed in accordance with laws which are general for
the common welfare.

First and foremost among the defects and needs of public health
administration must be placed the want of adequate knowledge of the
principles and practises of public health work on the part of officials
having jurisdiction. It is a deplorable fact that special professional
qualifications are not as a rule required of health officers in the United
States,

If there is any department of municipal government which should be
taken out of politics and put upon a high plane of professional efficiency,
it is public health work. Generally, in the United States, appointment
upon a health board means a thankless and gratuitous service performed
for the sake of the small honor which is supposed to go with it. Where
a salary is connected with the position the office is too often a reward
of political rather than professional merit.

Until the need of high-class health work is demanded, appreciated
and properly rewarded by compensation in money and honor, men will
not be prepared by the schools for a life-work in the public health
service, and the most needed improvement in the work of boards of
health will not be made.

2 40 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

A BIOGKAPHICAL HISTOEY OF BOTANY AT ST. LOUIS,

MISSOUEI. IV

By Dr. PERLEY SPAULDING

laboratory of forest pathology, bdreau of piant industry,
u. s. department of agricultdre

ONE of the best known of the botanical collectors of this conntry who
worked shortly after the middle of the last century was August
I'endler. He, like numerous others, came to America from Germany
in the late thirties. From 1864 to 1871 he lived at Allenton, Mis-
souri, about thirty miles from St. Louis. While living at Allenton
I'endler arranged the first botanical specimens in the herbarium which
was just being started by Henry Shaw for his Botanical Garden.
These numbered about 60,000 and consisted of the herbaria of Bern-
hardi and Eiehl, the latter containing a considerable number of local
species. Because of his extensive and excellent collections, he became
known to botanists and botanical institutions. While he was widely
known by reputation, he seems not to have been well known personally,
because of his excessive diffidence.

August Fendler^^ was born August 10, 1813, in the town of Gum-
bmnen, in eastern Prussia. When he was six months old his father
died, and two years later his mother married again. His parents had
but scanty means and his school training for a number of years could
scarcely be called schooling. When about twelve years old he was sent
to the Gymnasium, and was here for about four years, when his parents
were obliged to take him from school because of financial troubles. He
was apprenticed to the town clerk's office, and here began to think of
traveling in foreign countries.

At the end of his apprenticeship he had an offer to accompany a
prominent physician as his clerk in a journey of inspection along the
Eussian frontier of Prussia where the cholera was beginning to be
feared. Fendler was soon in the midst of the cholera and remained for
some time, returning home when the disease had abated. He now
learned the trade of tanning and currying during the next two years.
In the fall of 1834 Fendler was admitted to the Eoyal Gcwerbeschule,
but the strain upon his already frail health caused him to abandon it
after finishing the first year with credit.

"Canby, W. M., Bot. Gaz., 9: 111-112, 1884; 10: 285-290, 301-304, 319-
322, 1885.

Gray, Asa, Amer. Jour. Sci. and Arts, 3d series, 29: 169-171, 1885.
Sargent, C. S., " Silva of North America," 12: 123-124, 1898.

BOTANY AT ST. LOUIS

241

In the fall of 1835 he started with a knapsack upon his back from
Berlin as a traveling artisan^ passed through parts of Silesia, Saxony, to
I'rankfort, down the Ehine, and finally coming to Bremen. Early in
the spring of 1836 he embarked for Baltimore, Maryland, arriving with
but two dollars in his pocket. In Philadelphia he worked in a tannery

Fig. 13. Me. August Fendlee, at about the time he lived at Allenton, Mo.

for a time, then went to New York and worked at the lamp manufac-
turing business. Tbe financial panic of 1837 caused this business to
be closed in the spring of 1838.

« Having made up his mind to go to St. Louis, he started as soon as
possible. The easiest way was from New York to Albany by boat,
thence to Buffalo by canal, to Cleveland by steamer, to Portsmouth on
the Ohio Eiver, and then down the Ohio and up the Mississippi by
steamboat. This trip took thirty days.

In St. Louis, which had then about 13,000 inhabitants, he soon got
employment, but decided to go to New Orleans because of the approach-
ing winter. He left St. Louis about Christmas, 1838, on foot, with his
knapsack on his back; he crossed the Mississippi and walked along
through the thinly settled .forests of Illinois, the cane-brakes of Ken-
tucky, and a part of Tennessee, where he fell in with two others going
to the same destination. At the mouth of the Ohio they joined in buy-

VOL. LXXIV. — 17.

242 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

ing a skiff and set out for New Orleans in it. They soon were caught
by a steamer going their way and they boarded her and abandoned their
skiff. Upon arriving in New Orleans the talk about Texas decided him
to go farther west^ and he arrived in Galveston in January, 1839. He
stayed in Texas about a year and then returned to Illinois where he
taught school for some time.

In the fall of 1841 he found an uninhabited island in the Missouri
about three hundred miles above St. Louis, and he took up his solitary
residence there. When the spring rise came it caused him to leave.

In 1844 he sailed for home, and while on this trip first learned that
sets of dried plants might be sold. On his return to America and to
St. Louis he began to collect and was aided by Dr. Engelmann in naming
his specimens. He visited different parts of the country between Chi-
cago and New Orleans for the purpose of collecting. Dr. Engelmann
commended him to Dr. Asa Gray, and he was furnished with the author-
ity to accompany some troops which were being sent to Santa Fe, so
that he had free transportation for himself and luggage. He returned
to St Louis in the fall of 1847. In the spring of 1849 he started on
another collecting trip to the West. He was unsuccessful, having lost
most of his stock of drying papers in a flood, and he was forced to re-
turn to St. Ijouis. Upon his arrival here he found that all of his large
collections and notes and journals had been destroyed in the great fire
which burned much of the business section of the city during his ab-
sence. In 1849 he embarked for Panama, and after four months again
returned to Arkansas, and finally went to Memphis, where he went into
business. In 1854 he went to Venezuela and collected for four years,
during this time exploring alone mountain ranges which were scarcely
known at that time. He made very large collections, which are of great
value. He returned to Missouri in 1864 and bought a tract of land in
the town of Allenton, about thirty miles west of St. Louis. This he be-
gan to clear and cultivate in company with his half-brother, who was
half-witted, and who always was dependent upon him. Here he re-
mained for seven years, with the exception of a month spent in the Gray
Herbarium, assisting in its arrangement. During this time Mr. Letter-
man became acquainted with him, and from 1870 to 1871 they met two
or three times a week and nearly every Sunday with green plants to be
identified. He seems to have collected but little in the vicinity, but was
very familiar with the plants of the general neighborhood. After clear-
ing his land and putting up his house, mostly with his own hands, he
spent most of his time writing a book. This is undoubtedly his " Mech-
anism of the Universe," which was unfortunately published at his own
expense later. Failing health forced him to dispose of his farm and re-
move to another climate. In 1871 he sold the farm and left for Europe,
intending to live there the rest of his days. He, however, returned and

BOTANY AT ST. LOUIS

243

settled at Wilmington, Delaware, in 1873. While here he finished his
book and published it. Eepeated attacks of rlieumatism compelled him
to seek a warmer climate, and he and his brother went to the island of
Trinidad. They lived at Port of Spain, landing in June, 1877 ; here the
remainder of his life was spent in making botanical observations and
collecting, especially among the ferns. Advancing age restricted his

Fig. 14. House built by August Fendler in Allextox, ^Missouri, and occupied

by him during his residence here from 1S64 to 1871. The small ell

has been added by subsequent owners.

efforts to the immediate neighborhood, and when this was exhausted he
did but little. His death occurred in ISTovember, 1883.

An appreciation of his work from one who knew him best follows :

It is needless to say that Fendler was a quick and keen observer and an
admirable collector. He had much literary taste, and had formed a very good
literary style in English, as his descriptive letters show. He was excessively
diffident and shy, but courteous and most amiable, gentle and delicately refined.
Many species of his o^^^l discovery commemorate his name, as also a well-
marked genus, Fendlera, a Saxifragaceous shrub which 'is winning its way in* i
ornamental cultivation." ^

"Gray, Asa, Ainer. Jour. Sci. and Arts, 3d series, 29: 1G9, 1885.

244

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Dr. F. Adolph Wislizenus came to America from Germany in 1835 ;
he landed at New York and lived there for the next two years. In
1837 he went west, settling near Belleville, 111. Two years later he
came to St. Louis and lived in that city practically all the rest of his life.
He is not known to have performed any botanical work in the vicinity of
St. Louis, but he is included in the present paper because of having
made a very considerable collection of plants in New Mexico, Mexico,
and other parts of the great American arid plain. This collection was

Fig. 15. De. Adolph Wislizenus ; by permission of the St. Louis Academy of
Sciences, from a photograph in their possession.

one of the first from the region visited, and is considered especially im-
portant because Dr. Wislizenus was one of the first to give an accurate,
scientific account of the sections visited by him. This is especially true
of Mexico, of which there were very erroneous and distorted ideas in the
United States.

Dr. Frederick Adolphus Wislizenus^^ was born in 1810 at Koenigsee,
in Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, one of the numerous tiny German principal-
ities of that period. He was the youngest of three children of a Prot-
estant minister whose ancestors were said to have fled from Bohemia,
victims of the religious fanaticism which resulted in the persecution of
Hus and his followers.

"Engelmann, Geo. J., Truns. ISt. Louis Acad. Sci., 5: 464-468, 1890.
Sargent, C. S., " Silva of North America," 6: 94, 1894.
Wislizenus, F. A., "Memoir of a Tour to Northern Mexico," 1-141, 1848.
Pop. Sci. Montpily, 52: 643. 1808.

BOTANY AT ST. LOUIS 245

Wislizenus studied medicine at the University of Jena in 1828, and
later at Gottingen and Wiirzbiirg. He was a member of the " Bursch-
enschaft/' but escaped arrest when that was broken up by the author-
ities. He followed his friend and teacher, the great clinician Schoenlein,
to Ziirich and there joined an expedition to aid Mazzini in his struggle
against Austrian rule ; but the Swiss troops disarmed them on the border
so he was forced to return to his studies.

Wislizenus graduated in Zurich in 1834 and soon sailed for New
York, where he began to practise his profession in 1835. Here he re-
mained two years writing constantly for the German papers of the city.
He then went west in 1837 and joined some of his fellow-exiles who had
settled in St. Clair County, Illinois. In 1839 he came to St. Louis and
immediately seized an opportunity to accompany an expedition of the
St. Louis Fur Company for trading with the Indians. He thus went
far into the ISTorthwestern country towards the source of the Green
Elver in the Wind Eiver Mountains. When the expedition started to
return he joined a band of Flat-head and Nez Perce Indians. He thus
crossed the Eockv Mountains to Utah and went as far as Fort Hall, the
most southern post of the English trading company. Here he could
find no guide to take him to California, so he returned; crossing the
Green and the south fork of the Platte, he followed the Arkansas to
Missouri. During this trip he had no facilities for making scientific
observations and collections, so it was wholly without any such results.

On his return to St. Louis in 1840 he resumed his practise of medi-
cine He was identified with early efforts towards the establishment of
an Academy of Science, and aided Dr. Engelmann in his efforts to found
a botanic garden, and was an earnest worker in the Western Academy
of Science. He soon gained a lucrative practice, but as soon as the op-
portunity offered he was again in the field. He joined a trading ex-
pedition to Mexico, well equipped this time with instruments and ap-
paratus for scientific work. In Santa Fe they first learned of the war
between Mexico and the United States, but Wislizenus obtained a pass
and proceeded to Chihuahua, where he with other Americans was seized
and imprisoned. He was sent to a small mountain town of the interior
and there had ample opportunity to carry on his collecting and observa-
tions in the neighborhood during the winter. Upon the arrival of Col.
Doniphan's troops in the spring he was released and accompanied them
in a professional capacity until their disbanding at New Orleans in 1847,
when he returned to St. Louis.

Senator Thomas H. Benton became interested in him and his ex-
periences in Mexico, and finally was the cause of his being summoned
to Washington and being requested to prepare for publication the results
ot his investigations. His resulting " Memoir of a Tour to Northern
Mexico in 1846 and 1847 " was considered important enough so that the
senate ordered 5,000 copies printed for distribution. This publication

246 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

gave a good account of the country which was then much misunderstood
and misrepresented, and resulted in correcting many erroneous ideas
regarding that section of the American continent. It contained many
very valuable data concerning the meteorology, geology, topography and
botany of the region. Among the valuable results of this tour was a
botanical collection containing many new plants which were classified
and described by Dr. Geo. Engelmann, of St. Louis, who commemorated
the valuable services of Wislizenus to science by applying his name to a
new genus, Wislizejiia, as well as to several of the new species of the col-
lection.

Wislizenus again returned to St. Louis from Washington upon the
completion of his report, and served faithfully during the cholera epi-
demic of 1849. As soon as this was over, however, he went to Constan-
tinople in 1850 to bring back with him as his bride, Miss Lucy Crane, a
sister-in-law of Hon. Geo. P. Marsh, whom he had met while in Wash-
ington. After visiting his old home in Thilringen and the large cities
of the Old World, the two returned to the United States. Leaving his
wife with her friends in the east, he went to Panama and California in
search of a more desirable location. But he again returned to St. Louis
and finally settled down permanently. He was one of the founders of
the St. Louis Academy of Science and an active worker and one of the
officers of the St. Louis Medical Society and of the Western Academy of
Sciences. He was for many years president of the German Medical So-
ciety of St. Louis. His barometrical observations and his botanical and
mineralogical collections, together with his memoir, are distinct addi-
tions to science. He was interested in meteorology from 1858 till his
death, and in 1861 he commenced to study the atmospheric electricity
with the belief that this would be of value in connection with meteorology.
He discontinued this study, however, upon arriving at the conclusion
that it was valueless in this connection — a fact which is now generally
acknowledged. His last days were spent in seclusion, he being closely
confined to the house by his infirmities and the loss of his sight. He
died on September 22, 1889, in his eightieth year.

In 1851 there began a most important movement for the advance-
ment of botany in St. Louis.-'^ In that year, Mr. Henry Shaw, while on
his last visit to Europe, first conceived the idea of establishing for him-
self a country estate on lines similar to those of many of the large Eng-
lish ones. In fact he had already started to build a home in the country
district west of St. Louis;

This idea of a large private estate seems to have soon become changed
to that of a botanical garden, for in 1857 he commenced active opera-

=^Trelease, Wm., Mo. Bot. Garden Report, 1: 84-90, 1890. Plant World,
5: 1-4, 1902. "The Academy of Science of St. Louis," Pop. Sci. Monthly, 62:
118-130, 1903. "The Missouri Botanical Garden," Pop. Sci. Monthly, 62:
193-221, 1903.

BOTANY AT ST. LOUIS 247

tions to this end. He even at one time planned a grand school of bot-
any with all the appendages and equipment necessary for a college of
botany. This was modified in its first inception, but has been carried
out to a degree. Very soon he built a botanical museum, bought her-
baria and built greenhouses in which tender and exotic plants might be
grown, while the grounds themselves were planted with many of the
more hardy species. In 1859 he secured the passage of an act of the
Missouri state legislature enabling him to deed or will to a board of
trustees such property as he might wish, to be used for the maintenance
of the Missouri Botanical Garden, as he prophetically named it. In
1885 he founded the Shaw School of Botany in connection with Wash-
ington University of St. Louis and provided for very close relations be-
tween the school and the garden. The estate deeded for the use of the
garden was valued at about one million two hundred and fifty thousand
dollars. This has increased very materially in value with the rapid rise
in real estate in and about St. Louis. From the small beginnings of a
private estate, the garden has developed until there were in cultivation in
1906, over seventeen thousand species and varieties of living plants;
fifty-five thousand books and pamphlets in the library, including a
very fine collection of pre-Linnfean works, and five hundred and sixty
thousand sheets of dried specimens. The garden has issued eighteen
annual reports, and is in exchange relations with nine hundred in-
stitutions interested in botany, gardening, horticulture or forestry.
The library is one of the finest of the botanical libraries of the world,
and all resources of the garden are placed at the free disposal of those
capable of using them. Thus Mr. Shaw's life-work has reached its
fruition, and a fitting memorial is rising steadily to more and more
impressive proportions.

Henry Shaw-^ was born in Sheffield, England, July 24, 1800. He
was the eldest of four children. His father was a manufacturer of
grates, fire irons, etc., and owned a large establishment. Henry's early
education was obtained at Thorne, a neighboring village, and his favor-
ite place for study was an arbor in the garden. He was later transferred
to Mill Hill, about twenty miles from London. This was termed a
" dissenting " school, but was also considered one of the best private
schools in the Kingdom. He remained here about six years, leaving
probably in 1817, thus finishing his schooling. He studied while here
considerable Greek, more Latin, more than the average amount of math-
emathics, French, and undoubtedly German, Italian and Spanish.
With this scholastic training he began to assist his father at the home
establishment for a year, after which he accompanied him to Canada.
In this same year, 1818, his father sent him to ISTew Orleans, mainly to
investigate cotton raising. He stayed in Louisiana but a short time,

=• Dimmock, Thos., Mo. Bot. Garden Report, 1 : 7-25, 1890.

248

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

as he did not like the climate nor were there financial inducements for
his doing so. He was now his own master and decided to go north and
try his fortune in the then small and remote French trading post known
as St. Louis. He accordingly embarked upon the Maid of New Orleans,
and after a long and tedious voyage landed at St. Louis on May 3, 1819.

Fig. 16. Henry Shaw ; from a watercolor painting at the Missouri Botanical
Garden, by permission of the Director.

He began business on the second floor of a building which he found
for rent, and for a time lived, cooked and sold his small stock of cutlery
in this one room. The capital with which he bought his first stock of
goods was furnished by his uncle. While Mr. Shaw's main object at
this time was to make money, and while he denied himself many youth-
ful enjoyments, he still did not thus deny himself beyond reasonable
limits.

He had been succeeding in business, and when the balance sheet for
1839 was struck it showed to his own great surprise a net gain for the
year of $35,000. His figures were gone over again and again until there
could be no doubt of the fact. It seemed to him that " this was more
money than any man in my circumstances ought to make in a single
year.'' Accordingly, the following year, when opportunity offered, he
closed out his business. At this time he was forty years of age, physic-
ally and mentally unimpaired, and vigorous, a free man, and the pos-
sessor of $250,000, equivalent to more than $1,000,000 at the present
time.

BOTANY AT ST. LOUIS 249

In September 1840, Mr. Shaw made his first visit to Europe, stop-
ping on his way at Eochester, New York, where his parents and sisters
resided. He took an extended tour on the continent and, returning to
St. Louis in the autumn of 1843, arranged his affairs for another ab-
sence in Europe. This lasted for about three years, during which time
he visited all of the accessible European localities, together with Con-
stantinople and Egypt. A journey to Palestine was prevented by the
prevalence of the plague in that country.

Early in 1851 his last trip abroad was made, the first World's Fair
being then held in London. While on this visit the idea first occurred
to him to make a garden of his own, modeled after those which are so
well known upon the great private estates of England. Mr. Shaw re-
turned in December, 1851; the mansion at Tower Grove had been fin-
ished in 1849, and the one on the corner of Seventh and Locust streets
was then being built. After this time he was in St. Louis, with the ex-
ception of short summer vacations at the Atlantic coast or the northern
lakes. Seemingly a man of leisure, he was really a very busy man for
the next thirty years, and was never an idler until compelled to be.

In 1857 the late Dr. Engelmann, who was then in Europe, was com-
missioned by Mr. Shaw to examine botanical gardens and to obtain such
suggestions as he might think of value. About this time a correspond-
ence was begun with Sir William J. Hooker, Director of Kew Gardens,
who wrote on August 10, 1857 :

Very few appendages to a garden of this kind are of more importance for
instruction than a library and economic museum, and these gradually increase
like a rolling snowball.

Accordingly, Mr. Shaw in 1858-9 erected a building for this pur-
pose. The selection of books was entrusted largely to Dr. Engelmann
in consultation with Hooker, Decaisne, Alexander Braun and others of
his botanical friends. At the same time Dr. Engelmann urged upon
Mr. Shaw the purchase of the herbarium of the recently deceased Pro-
fessor Bernhardi, of Erfurth, Germany, which was offered at a very
small price. Hooker wrote January 1, 1858 :

He [Engelmann] tells me of the herbarium of the late Dr. Bernhardi, of
Erfurth, which he expects to buy for St. Louis. That ought to be a good com-
mencement for the more scientific part of the establishment. . . . The state
ought to feel that it owes you much for so much public spirit, and so well
directed.

Mr. Shaw has told that he at one time planned a grand school of
botany, with residences for the faculty, laboratories, etc., opposite the
main gate; but he abandoned the project because of the advice of Dr.
Asa Gray.

In 1866 Mr. Shaw secured the services of Mr. James Gurney from
the Koyal Botanical Gardens of London, whose practical experience and

250

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

faithfulness contributed very largel}' to make the Garden and Tower
Griove Park what they are to-day. Mr. Shaw, however, never abandoned
his personal supervision, and he thus spent the last twenty-five years of
his life perfecting what he had begun. Until the summer of 1885 he
had not been out of St. Louis, except to drive out to dine with a friend,
for about twenty years. At this time the hot weather caused a failure of
his usual good health, and he went to northern Illinois and Wisconsin
for some time. He returned much improved and resumed his accus-
tomed avocations with renewed vigor.

On the twenty-fourth of July, 1889, he received numerous visitors
who congratulated him upon the beginning of his ninetieth year. Al-
though weak, he was able to meet them in the drawing-room, and his
mind was as clear as ever. This, however, was his last public appear-
ance. An attack of malaria resulted in his death on August 25. On

Saturday, August 31, he was laid
to rest in the mausoleum which had
been already prepared in the midst
of the garden which he had created
— not only for himself, but for all
succeeding generations.

Mr. G. W. Letterman is one of
the few persons who have worked
upon botany in the vicinity of
St. Louis during their whole life-
time. Mr. Letterman has worked
especially in Missouri, but is also
very familiar with the plants of
the region included in eastern and
northern Texas, Louisiana, Arkan-
sas and Indian Territory. He has
accumulated a very large her-
barium, in which the flora of
St. Louis is represented probably
better than in any other private
herbarium.

George Washington Letterman,'^ the son of John and Charlotte (Blair)
Letterman, was born near Bellefonte, Center County, Pennsylvania, of a family
which had lived for three generations in Pennsylvania, his father being of
Dutch, and his mother of Irish descent. From the public school he entered the
State College in Center County, but left before graduation to join the Union
Army, in which he enlisted as a private; serving until the end of the war he
was mustered out of the service with the rank of captain of volunteers. After
crossing the plains to New Mexico in 1866, he returned to Pennsylvania, and
then going west again to Kansas, with the idea of becoming a farmer in that
state, he finally, in 1869, settled in Allenton, Missouri, a railroad hamlet about

'"^ Sargent, C. S., " Silva of North America," 13: 79-80, 1902.

r

\

If

•Jp.,

-m

BL o&r

^^^

^^

^

Fig. 17. Mk. Geo. W. Letterman.

BOTANY AT ST. LOUIS 251

thirty miles west of St. Louis. Here Mr. Letterman taught in the public
schools uninterruptedly for twenty years, and then for two years served a3
superintendent of schools in St, Louis County. Shortly after settling in Allen-
ton Mr. Letterman met August Fendler, the botanist, who had a farm at this
time in the neighborhood. This meeting with Fendler stimulated his interest
in plants, especially in trees, and led to an acquaintance with Dr. Engelmann,
for whom Letterman made large collections of plants in the neighborhood of
Allenton, with many notes on the oaks and hickories. In 1880 he was appointed
a special agent of the Census Department of the United States, to collect infor-
mation about the trees and forests of Missouri, Arkansas, western Louisiana
and eastern Texas, and later he was employed as an agent of the American
Museum of Natural History in New York, to collect specimens of the trees of
the same region for the Jesup collection of North American woods. The dis-
tribution of the trees of this region before Mr. Letterman's travels was little
known, and much useful information concerning them was first gathered by
him. Of his numerous discoveries species of Vernonia, Poa and Stipa commem-
orate the name of Letterman.

The above account is taken verbatim from Sargent's " Silva of
North America," as it is the only authentic account of Mr. Letterman's
life available. Mr. Letterman still lives at Allenton, Missouri, and is
carrying on his botanical work. From the accounts of those in a posi-
tion to know, his herbarium is very large, and at the present time prob-
ably contains as complete a representation of the St. Louis flora as any
other, with the possible exception of the Eggert collection, which,
however, can hardly surpass it. Mr. Letterman is connected with the
local botanical societies, and is well known by the botanical workers
of the city.

One man who has left an enduring impression upon botany, al-
though his life work was along other lines, was Dr. Charles Valentine
Eiley.^^ Dr. Riley was born at Chelsea, London, September 18, 1843.
His boyhood was spent at Walton-on-Thames, where he became ac-
quainted with W. C. Hewitson, the author of a work on butterflies.
This acquaintance undoubtedly turned his inclinations towards ento-
mology. He studied for three years in the school at Dieppe and after-
wards at Bonn. His teacher at the latter place urged him to study art
at Paris, but this was not done. At the age of seventeen he emigrated
to Illinois and when about twenty-one went to Chicago as reporter and
editor for the Prairie Farmer. He was for six months in an Illinois
regiment during the latter part of the Eebellion. He attained such
success as an entomologist that he was made State Entomologist for
Missouri in 1868, and he held this office until 1877, when he went to
Washington in the government service. 'During this period he and his
assistants. Miss Mary E. Murtfeldt and Mr. Otto Lugger, worked out
two cases of the relation of insects to plants which are of more than
ordinary interest.

In 1863 there were first noted in France the ravages of the Ameri-

^ Howard, L. 0., Proc. Soc. Prom. Agric. Sci., 17: 108-112, 1896.

2 52 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

can Phylloxera upon the tender European varieties of grapes. These
injuries became so serious that in 1872 the trouble was known not only
in France, but in Portugal, Switzerland, Germany and England, and
the entire grape and wine industry of Europe was threatened with
annihilation. Eiley became much interested in the problem of con-
trolling the pest and finally hit upon the plan of grafting the sus-
ceptible European varieties upon roots of the resistant American
species. This simple expedient undoubtedly saved the grape industry
of Europe and also incidentally prevented a tremendous loss of money.

The second case was one of purely scientific value and interest.
Dr. George Engelmann had noted that the character of the pollen of
Yucca indicated that pollination of the flowers must be accomplished
by some kind of an insect. Eiley took up this hint and finally, with
the aid of his assistants, discovered that the pollination was actually
performed by the Pronuba and Prodoxus moths. This line of work
was continued for twenty years, and a series of publications upon it
issued at various times during this period.

Incidentally his work was of interest to botanists in many other
cases, but these two seem especially noteworthy. He won an enviable
reputation among entomologists the world over. He died the latter
part of the year 1895.

Because of her botanical work, as well as her association with Dr.
Eiley in working out the pollination of Yucca and other problems. Miss
Mary E. Murtfeldt deserves mention. In 1885 Professor S. M. Tracy,
then of Columbia, Missouri, published a list^* of the plants of the
state. In this list one finds many species from the vicinity of St. Louis
credited to " Murtfeldt " as their collector. These specimens were
collected by Miss Murtfeldt not long before the publication of the
" Tracy " list and are still in her possession, forming a collection of
about 500 numbers. Miss Murtfeldt's first scientific work was in bo-
tanical lines, but this later changed to entomology, her botanical knowl-
edge being indispensable in following out the life histories of new or
little known insects upon their host plants. Many of her later botan-
ical specimens are of much interest from the entomological standpoint
and were prepared for that purpose alone. Miss Murtfeldt is well
known among entomologists for her work, which has been mostly of
this nature.

In 1874 Mr. Henry Eggert, as he was known, came to St. Louis,
went into business, and began the study of the local flora and the for-
mation of an herbarium which probably represented the flora of that
vicinity at the time of his death, the best of any in existence. Eggert
came to America from Prussia when about thirty years of age; he had
already collected and studied the plants of different sections in Europe,
=>* Tracy, S. M., "Flora of Missouri," Mo. State Hort. Soc. Report (Ap-
pendix), 1-106, 1885.

BOTANY AT ST. LOUIS

253

and his work about St. Louis seems to have been simply a continuation
along similar lines to that already done in Europe. Although he lived
in St. Louis and in later years in East St. Louis, he seems to have been
somewhat of a hermit, and was not understood, or even comparatively
well known, by his neighbors. He seems to have been an enthusiast
upon botany, and his botanical collection was apparently his one lux-
ury and hobby.

Heinrich Karl Daniel Eggert^^ was born March 3, 1841, in the
town of Osterwieck, Prussia. He was educated at a seminary in Hal-
berstadt, and became a teacher in the public schools of the neighboring

Fig. 18. The Eggert House in East St. Louis, Illinois ; pi-actically as it was
at the time of the death of Henry Eggert.

city of Magdeburg. He early became interested in the study of plants,
and before leaving Europe he had made botanical collections in the
Harz Mountains and on short journeys to Kreuznach and in Bohemia.
Dissatisfied with the small salary of a German school teacher, Eggert
came to x\merica in 1873, and for a few months worked on a farm in
southern New York. From N^ew York he went to St. Louis, where he
remained for a number of years and then removed across the river to
East St. Louis, where he lived the rest of his lifetime.

The first work which he seems to have taken up in St. Louis was
that of carrying papers for the local press. He carried papers for about
twenty years, handling both a morning and an evening one. He
worked early and late, never sparing himself and always living by him-
self in a secluded manner. Comparatively few persons ever saw the in-

^^ Sargent, C. S., " Silva of North America," 13: 51-52, 1902.

2 54 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

terior of his house, and still fewer were on really friendly terms with
him, as we ordinarily use that phrase. While he had but little to do
with his neighbors he never seems to have had any enemies.

Eggert's first start in making more money than usual was at the
time of the great outbreak of the American Phylloxera in the vineyards
of Europe, destroying immense numbers of the vines and threatening
the entire wine and grape industry of Europe. It was finally discov-
ered that the American native grapes might be used as stocks upon
which to graft the more susceptible European varieties, so that a vine
was obtained which had roots of the American resistant species with
the top of some desirable but susceptible European species. This
work resulted in an immense demand for the seed of some of our native
species of grapes. Eggert's knowledge of botany led to his being
recommended as a suitable person from whom to get these seeds. For
at least two or three years he made a business of collecting and selling
them to foreign countries. The business was quite remunerative and
in the proper season he is said to have made several hundred dollars a
month in this way. He seems to have kept up his carrying of papers
at the same time. At first he carried them on his back, taking im-
mense loads in a bag slung over his shoulder. As his business grew he
bought a horse and wagon and still later he employed others, so that
at one time he conducted a considerable business of this kind. He
never relinquished his botanical work, and in early days he collected
specimens for sale to botanists and for use in colleges and schools, thus
making some little money. In later years his left arm and hand be-
came affected with a partial paralysis which he attributed to his severe
work in carrying such heavy weights of papers slung over that shoulder.
His money he invested in farms and similar property, and he suc-
ceeded in amassing considerable property. In his personal habits he
was always very frugal, his only luxury seeming to have been his botan-
ical collecting. In 1896 he sent to Germany for his nephew, August
Eggert, and turned his greenhouses over to him to run. This nephew
lived more or less intimately with him. Mr. Eggert was always of a
peculiar disposition, apparently being constantly in fear of some at-
tempt upon his life. He had hallucinations in which he thought every
one had designs upon his life, and these became worse as he grew older.
His mind was undoubtedly unbalanced, and on the night of April 18,
1904, he shot himself with a revolver.

As mentioned above, Eggert early learned botany and collected ex-
tensively all of his life. He collected assiduously all around St. Louis
for a considerable distance, and his collection probably represented the
flora of this district better and more completely than any other ever
made. He also went on collecting trips to various parts of Missouri,
Illinois, Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee and Texas, and the southeast-
ern states. He seemed to possess a genuine love for botany, and his

BOTANY AT ST. LOUIS 255

determinations seem to have been, as a rule, correct beyond the ordi-
nary. He was a charter member of the Engelmann Botanical Club,
and was its first vice-president. He was also a member of the Inter-
national Association of Botanists, and was made one of its vice-presi-
dents.

Personallly, he seems to have had no enemies; he always remem-
bered an injury, either real or fancied, and was unstinting in his ex-
pression of dislike for those who had in any way incurred his displeas-
ure. His love of botany and his fine herbarium made him well
known to the local botanists, yet he never seems to have been on really
intimate terms with many of them. He was always ready to exchange
specimens of rare plants or local species, and his herbarium was thus
greatly enlarged by exchange from other countries as well as from all
parts of the United States. During early days he collected specimens
for the purpose of selling them, but as he grew older he could rarely
be induced to sell his specimens, preferring to exchange.

His herbarium at his death was estimated to contain about 60,000
specimens, and was considered very valuable. It was acquired by the
Missouri Botanical Garden, and is at present being incorporated with
the herbarium of that institution as rapidly as possible. His her-
barium is especially valuable for the reason that it was the basis of a
local flora published by Eggert in 1891 under the title " Catalogue of
the Phsenogamous and Vascular Cryptogamous Plants of the Vicinity
of St. Louis, Mo." His preface is characteristic and self-explanatory,
so that it may well be given :

Since-" the publication of Mr. Geyer's catalogue of the Plants of Illinois
and Missouri, about 1842, no other effort has been made to publish a list of
plants growing in the vicinity of St. Louis but my o\vn partial lists of species
found in former years. I hope my present catalogue of Plants growing in a
radius of about 40 miles around St. Louis will be welcome to botanists until
a local flora is published.

Since 1874 I have systematically looked over the ground in all directions,
so that very few plants will have escaped my observation; but as I could only
go out one day at a time, in places too far off from railroads, there still may
be found something new. Railroads also will bring new immigrants from other
legions when some of our own plants may have vanished, so that it will be a
very important matter for later botanists to know what in former years was
growing here. This idea mostly led me to have this catalogue printed.

With the exception of a few plants reported to me by Mr. Letterman, of
Allenton, Mo., all plants are collected by myself. The catalogue contains nearly
1,100 different species and varieties, so that St. Louis need not be ashamed of
her flora.

This catalogue of Mr. Eggert's is by far the best and most nearly
complete list of our plants which has yet appeared. Besides the above
mentioned catalogue, a number of small lists of desiderata were dis-

^ Eggert, Henry, " Catalogue of the Phsenogamous and Vascular Crypto-
gamous Plants in the Vicinity of St. Louis, Mo.," 1-16, 1891.

256

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

tributed to Eggert's correspondents for a number of years. Aside
from these he published absolutely nothing, so far as now known.
Exact localities were not given either in his lists or upon the labels
accompanying his specimens, but he is known to have kept a note-book
in which all such data were given. This note-book disappeared during
the changes following his death, and thus much valuable and intimate
knowledge of our flora was lost. As mentioned above, his entire her-
barium is now in the possession of the Missouri Botanical Garden,
where it will receive the best of care and will be accessible to all botan-
ists desiring to use it.

One of the more recent collectors who have worked in and about St.
Louis, especially upon the fleshy fungi, is Dr. N. M. Glatfelter.

Dr. Noah M. Glatfelter was born in York County, Pennsylvania, on
ISIovember 28, 1837. He lived on a farm until he was seventeen years
of age, when he began teaching school. He finished seven terms, and
during the time attended successively the York County Academy, Lan-
caster County Normal School, and Franklin and Marshall College at
Lancaster, Pa., for two thirds of the sophomore year. He then com-
menced the study of medicine with Dr. John L. Atlee, of Lancaster.
In 1863 he attended the medical lectures at the University of Penn-
sylvania, and graduated from the
same institution in 1864. He then
received a commission from Presi-
dent Lincoln as Assistant Surgeon
of United States Volunteers. In
1867 he left the army in Dakota
territory. Ever since that time he
has practised medicine in and near
St. Louis.

About 1889 Dr. Glatfelter com-
menced collecting the herbaceous
plants in the vicinity of St. Louis
and obtained specimens of most of
the species of the district. This
herbarium is still in the collector's
possession. From 1892 to 1898 he
gave special attention to the wil-
lows of St. Louis, and contributed
papers on the venation of Salix, on
Salix Iiybrids, on Salix longipes and on the relations between Salix
nigra and S. amygdaloides.

In 1898 he became interested in the collection and study of the
Hymenomycetes. This has led to the accumulation of about five hun-
dred species, making quite an exhaustive collection of these fungi.
This work is being continued and has already resulted in the discovery

Fig. 19.

De. N. M. Glatfelter ; about
1900.

BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF BOTANY 257

of a number of species new to science, several of which have been
named in honor of their discoverer. This material has been submitted
to Professor Chas. H. Peck, so it is authoritativel}^ named.

In 1906 a list of this collection was published by the St. Louis
Academy of Science."' The specimens are mostly in Dr. Glatfelter's
private herbarium. Collecting has also been done in Pennsylvania in
1899, 1905 and 1900, and somewhat in other states. The herbaceous
herbarium has been increased by exchanges, so that it numbers over
•4,000 species. Dr. Glatfelter is a member of the local botanical so-
cieties and is still collecting the fleshy fungi, to which he is giving most
of his attention.

The more recent botanical workers of St. Louis we find grouped
into two distinct bodies; the staif of the Shaw School of Botany, and of
the Missouri Botanical Garden, and the investigators of the Mississippi
Valley Laboratory of the United States Department of Agriculture.
In the former group, which has existed for the longer time, the follow-
ing persons should be mentioned: Dr. William Trelease, director of
the Missouri Botanical Garden since the death of Mr. Shaw, and also
professor of botany in the Shaw School of Botany. Besides adminis-
tering the affairs of these two institutions, and bringing them to their
present development and efficiency, he has published many scientific
papers; the earliest ones were concerned with fungi and various plant
diseases; then the pollination of flowers was taken up; and of late years
his work has been in the systematic revision of certain groups, such as
the genera Acer, Rumex, Yucca, etc. Under his management the bo-
tanical garden has issued eighteen annual reports of scientific material,
which have given that institution a name for scientific research, al-
though it can hardly even yet be said to have fairly emerged from the
preparatory stage of its development. Associated very closely with
Doctor Trelease since 1891: is Mr. H. C. Irish, who has had general
charge of the grounds, greenhouses and outdoor planting. Mr. Irish
has published papers on horticultural subjects, including a scientific
revision of the genus Capsicum, and of the " garden bean," and has
in preparation another extensive paper along similar lines. Mr. C. H.
Thompson has been connected with the garden for a number of years,
and is engaged also upon scientific investigations. Dr. J. A. Harris,
librarian of the garden, has published a number of scientific papers,
and is engaged upon others, in the preparation of which the extensive
and excellent library facilities of the garden are being fully employed.
Others who have been connected with the garden staff, and who are now
well known scientifically, are Dr. L. H. Pammel, Dr. H. J. Webber and

=" Glatfelter, N. M., " Preliminary List of Higher Fungi Collected in the
Vicinity of St. Louis, Mo., from 1898 to 1905," Trans. Acad. Sci. St. Louis,
16: 33-94, 1906.

VOL. LXXIV. — 18.

258 • THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

J. B, S. Norton, all of whom worked more or less upon the fungi of the
locality while at the garden. Dr. S. M. Coulter, assistant professor of
botany in the Shaw School of Botany, has, ever since coming to St.
Louis, been working upon ecological problems.

The second group of botanists is a small one, of whom the following
have been more or less intimatelv connected with the local work being
carried upon the flora of the vicinity : Dr. Hermann von Schrenk,
in charge of the Mississippi Valley Laboratory until its removal to
Washington in 1907, has published a number of scientific papers deal-
ing with the diseases of forest trees and of timber. Some of these
were worked out from material collected around St. Louis, either par-
tially or entirely. Dr. von Schrenk continues his work at St. Louis,
having severed his relations with the United States Department of
Agriculture upon the removal of the Mississippi Valley Laboratory
from St. Louis to Washington. Drs. G. G. Hedgcock and Perley
Spaulding, assistants of Dr. von Schrenk, were also engaged upon
problems relating to the diseases of fruit and forest trees. All three
have collected the fungi of the vicinity, and have been intimately con-
nected with the botanical activities of the place.

Besides the above workers should be mentioned Mr. John Kellosfg,
long employed by the garden, who is very familiar with the local flora,
and has a very good private herbarium; Dr. N. L. T. Nelson, who is
collecting the mosses of the vicinity; Mr. 11. M, T. Hus, who is col-
lecting the algse; and numbers of others who have collected in the lo-
cality at various times.

FIRE'S HAVOC 259

FIEE'S HAVOC A SENSELESS WASl^E C

By F. W. PITZPATRICK

washington, d. c.

WE have reason to be proud of the phenomenal growth of our
American cities, the beauty of their buildings and the vast
volume of building construction that is 3'early carried on in the process
of that growth. But a careful analysis shows us that that great volume
of building is not all growth, but is, to a very great extent indeed, the
replacing of buildings that have been destroyed by fire. And that de-
struction, a most senseless and cruel waste, has had a proportionate
increase, year by year, far in excess of the pro rata of our new buildings
or indeed of many other details of our rapid growth. In this country
we deal in big figures and it would almost seem as if we were as proud
of our appalling wastes as we are of our mammoth productions. At
least one would judge so by the complacency with which we contem-
plate a drain upon our resources that would be deemed positively in-
tolerable in any other country.

Statistics from all over the world for the year 1908 are now pretty
nearly complete. Let us see what that year has meant in this fire
matter. In the forty leading cities new buildings and repairs to old
ones, building construction, reached a total value of $478,000,000 in
that year, or a grand total in all the cities and towns of $510,000,000
—the biggest 3'ear we ever had in our history, 1905-6 showed a total
of $667,000,000. iSTow then, during the same period we permitted to
be destroyed by fire buildings and contents to the value of $'3 18,000,000.
Incidentally, the reader will please remember that in most transactions
where " losses " occur, those losses resolve themselves generally into
transmutations or exchanges. In financial matters where one man
loses the other gains, in more scientific affairs fuel, for instance, is
consumed but produces steam, power. They say that nothing is utterly
lost, but we also know that in this fire proposition nothing is left but
ashes and smoke. It is not an exchange. The destruction of vahie is
absolute for so far we have exceedingly little use for ashes, and smoke
has not yet been turned into anything commercially or scientifically
valuable. Add to the value of property destroyed the cost of main-
taining fire departments, fire-fighting apparatus, high water pressure,
city and private efforts at stopping fire when once it has started, some-
thing like $300,000,000. Then, in a further effort to recoup ourselves
after fire has laid waste our property, we have gambled with the in-

fa

w

FIRE'S HAVOC

261

surance companies in a ])et that our buildings would burn. During
the year we have paid those companies in fire-insurance premiums
$316,000,000. They liave paid ns l)ack in adjusted losses $135,000,000,
so that the difference between those two sums, $181,000,000, is the
amount we have paid those companies for tlie privilege of getting back
a little over half of the value of the property we ha^■e ]iermitted to be
destroyed by fire. Applying the paid losses of $135,000,000 on the
burned value of $218,000,000, the net loss in property value was $83,-
000,000, the cost of fire "' protection " of all kinds was $300,000,000
and the amount we o-ave the insurance comiianies to o-narantee us some

IJUILDl.Ni; THE FLOOKS and rUOTECTING THE StEELWoKK WITH 11(11, LOW FlHE-

PROOFiNG Tile in a Modern Skyscraper.

reimbursement for our losses was $181,000,000, so that the total of de-
stroyed values and incidental costs of fire for the year was $564,000,000.
Compare this figure that we might call destruction with the new
buildings added, $510,000,000, or what we might call production, and
the result is not one of which we have any reason to be proud.

Eliminating the consideration of the cost of fire-fighting, we have
destroyed in property values $1,258,000,000 worth in the past five
years! Again eliminating all incidental expenses fire alone has cost
us in 1908, $2.73 per capita. Compare that to the fire losses in Euro-
pean countries and you will realize how far behind them we are in fire-
prevention. In France. Germanv. Ttalv. Switzerland, Austria and

FIRE'S HAVOC ^ 263

Denmark the general average is a trifle less than 33 cents per capita.
In Italy it is as low as 12 cents and in Germany it has never been
above 49 cents. In thirty of the principal foreign cities the average
was 51 cents, while in 25'2 of our cities the average was $3.10 ! In
New York City in 1908 there were 14,000 fires and -the property loss
amovnited to $7,250,000, and the cost of maintaining the city fire de-
partment was $7,000,000 ; in St. Louis, there were 3,200 fires with a loss
of $1,298,000, and the cost of the fire department was $1,018,000, and
so our cities run with a general average of the cost of fire departments
almost equalling the actual combustion of property. In Europe, Eome
may be taken as a fair example, an average. There fire losses amounted
to $56,000 in a year in 270 fires and the maintenance of its 200 firemen
costs $50,000 and Eome is a city of 500,000 people, or nearly the size
of St. Louis.

Let me add just one more comparison and then we will leave tabu-
lations alone, for statistics are always more or less wearying. In this
country in January of 1908 the total amount of building and repairs
done scarcely reached $16,000,000; during that same month fire de-
stroyed $24,000,000 worth of property.

Surely we have had figures enough to clearly establish and to firmly
impress even the layman that fire can be said literally " to be eating at
the very vitals " of our economic structure. Many causes have con-
tributed to this deplorable condition. One is that our people are nat-
urally reckless and careless and build as they do much else, merely for
the moment, temporarily. Then, too, until very recently our lumber
supply has seemed inexhaustible and it was the material with which
buildings could be erected with greatest rapidity and least initial cost.
The pioneer couldn't be expected to haul brick and steel into the wilder-
ness when he had trees all about him from which he could fashion his
rude habitation. Pioneer settlements grew into villages and the villages
into cities and the habit of building of wood stuck to them. Why, even
last year, with the j^rice of lumber a hundred per cent, higher than it
was ten years ago and with incombustible materials available every-
where and at low cost we still built 61 per cent, of the year's, construc-
tion of wood. In the older communities, in Europe, they have got
well over their pioneerdom and lumber has never been so plentiful
as with us and the authorities have had more forethought and realized
the necessity of better construction so that the general average of the
buildings in cities, towns and villages is infinitely less inflammable
than is the average here. But from that it must not be deduced that
the science of building is carried to greater perfection there than here.
That seems an anomalous condition but it's a fact nevertheless that our
architects and engineers know a great deal more about fire-proof con-
struction and practise it to a far higher degree of perfection than do

264 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

the architects and engineers of Europe. They really have nothing to
compare with our superior buildings. Take, for instance, the Singer
Tower in jSTew York and regardless of its height, there is nothing in
Europe to compare with it in the way of fire-resisting qualities. The
trouble with us is that there are so few of those buildings. We have
something like 12,000,000 structures in the country, but of that vast
number there are but 8,000 in which even the slightest effort has been
made at fire-prevention ! It is our average construction that is so poor
and that makes such a bad showing compared with Europe. You can
readily see that in a city composed of buildings that are not fire-proof,
but that are comparatively incombustible, the fire hazard is much less
than it is in a city of fire-traps with a few perfect buildings scattered
here and there. And, too, in order to resist fire those fire-proof build-
ings have to be superlatively perfect because there is so much fuel all
around them that a fire attack against them is vigorous in the extreme.
In the European cities the big and important buildings need not to be
so perfectly constructed because the danger of fire from within is always
the minimum and the danger of fire from without is not very great on
account of the superior general quality of construction. There it is
seldom that a fire gets beyond the building in which it originates.
Here, in spite of our splendid fire departments — and there are none
superior to them, for none have the practise and the experience they
have — fires frequently extend to neighboring buildings, entire blocks
and indeed whole sections of cities.

Municipalities, states and even the country at large are beginning
to realize the gravity of this fire waste and that sometliing drastic has
to be done towards fire-prevention. The great trouble is that whatever
we may do now can simply be an abstaining from adding fresh fuel to
burn because we have received such a heritage of combustible buildings
that it will be yet many years before those old fire-traps will have all
been destroyed or torn down to be replaced with better buildings. But
a beginning has to be made some time and most of our cities have so
revamped their building regulations that at least within certain dis-
tricts nothing of an •inflammable nature may not be erected. But that
is not enough, because immediately outside of those districts we are
permitting fire-trap construction that, in turn, will be the inheritance
of our successors and will be in congested districts and prove almost
insuperable barriers to real i^rogress. The thing to do is to absolutely
prohibit inflammable construction, the use of wood, in the structural
parts of buildings erected anywhere within the jurisdiction of a city.

Many may deem this a great hardship upon the poor man and that
it would be almost prohibitive in cost. That is a most popular mistake.
The first cost of a fire-proof building is but 12 per cent, or 15 per cent,
more than that of ordinary construction. But, considering the differ-

FIRE'S HAVOC

265

Aetistic Bricklaying.

Indestructible by fire ; as effective as

granite or marble and less costly.

ence in repairs, the longevity of the better building and the lessened,
i'f any, insurance tliat need be carried, inside of four or five years that
difference is wiped out and, as a
matter of fact, the best construction
is an actual economy, for in no case
does the interest on the added cost
of good construction amount to
anything like the insurance pre-
miums, the wear and tear and de-
terioration of the ordinary or al-
legedly cheap building. The only
man who profits by the so-called
ordinary or cheap building is
the Buddenseick, the speculative
builder whose business it is to put
up the flimsiest kind of a con-
traption, paint it gaudily and sell it at a fat profit to the easily gulled
individual who believes in buying ready-made houses.

The space assigned me will hardly permit our going very extensively

into the minutiffi of fire-proof con-
struction. Suffice it to say that in
general terms it means the avoid-
ance of anvthing combustible. But
farther than that it is also well to
remember that many materials
that are in themselves incombust-
ible, non-inflammable, are most
seriously damageable, nevertheless,
l)y flame or great heat. Iron, for
instance, can not burn but sub-
jected to heat it will twist and con-
tort and in column form, as an il-
lustration, it will collapse to the
utter destruction of whatever it is
supporting. So that many mate-
rials have in turn to be protected
from fire though they will not
themselves burn. Many people
imagine that stone represents the
very epitome of safe and perma-
nent construction, yet all granites, marbles, sand and limestones spall
and go to pieces under severe fire tests. My idea of a perfectly
fire-proof building, therefore, is one whose exterior walls are of un-
damageable material, brick and terra-cotta, products that have gone

An

Insufficiently protected Steel
colujin after a fire.

266

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

through intense heat in their process of manufacture. The internal
framing, the skeleton, is of steel, thoroughly jDrotected from fire by
brick or hollow tile; the partitions and floors are also of tile; the ele-
vators and stairways are enclosed and witli automatically closing doors
at every story so that each story is a unit l)y itself, virtually*a separate

FutE's Ingress via the Window Route.

building. This is all-important. Fire's tendency is ever upward.
Make it impossible for fire to travel from story to story and you have
cut down your fire possibilities 90 per cent. And the same thing ap-
plies to each story. These should be so partitioned as to form as small

FIEE'S HAVOC 267

units as possible. Fire can then do damage only in some small space
in which it originates. The whole secret of fire-fighting is this isola-
tion, this keeping of fire within the narrowest possible confines, where
it can readily be extinguished and by any employee of a building with-
out having to call out the fire department. Further, my perfect build-
ing would have all of its exposed windows or narrow alleys and streets
wire glazed in metal sash. What is the use of stout brick walls if you
provide openings for fire every few feet and offer no greater barrier in
those openings than wooden sash and sheet glass ? Forty-four per cent,
of our entire fire loss is attributable to this lack of proper window pro-
tection. In San Francisco, nearly all the loss was traceable to that
same cause, because after the earthquake fires only originated in a
comparatively few buildings but spread from one to the other via the
window route. My interior decorations would be of marble or metal,
or even plain plaster tastily ornamented in color, anything rather than
the heavy wooden wainscoting, wooden floors, beamed ceilings and all
that sort of thing that means just that much well-oiled fuel or rather
kindling for a fire. Such is a really fire-proof building. It is a type
that has proved its value time and time and again. It is nothing new
and untried ; it is not a mere theory. The great trouble has been, how-
ever, that some one item or other has been neglected in our existing
so-called fire-proof buildings. In one, the windows are unprotected,
though everything else is well done; in another the elevator wells are
open, some one thing that vitiates the whole, for, remem))er, that like a
chain, whose strength is equal only to its weakest link, so is a " fire-
proof " building only thoroughly fire-proof if everything about it is
properly done. You can not have half-fire-proof or semi-fire-proof.
Those are misnomers.

Therefore, it is imperative that our authorities should demand good,
incombustible construction. Left to their own volition it would be
years before the people would build that way. It has to be made com-
pulsory. The community must legislate for its safety and against the
selfish or ignorant interests of the individual. But it may help the in-
dividual nevertheless by making it directly advantageous, to him to
build properly. Supposing even that the regulations do not exact fire-
proof construction everywhere, taxes should be so arranged that a maxi-
mum rate should be assessed against inferior, highly combustible
buildings. It is for their protection that the city has to maintain ex-
pensive fire departments and fire-fighting media ; were it not for those
buildings such expense would be unnecessary. It is nothing but right,
consequently, that the owners of those buildings should pay their full
pro rata of that charge. The rate upon first-class fire-proof construc-
tion should be the very minimum because those buildings require the
least of that protection and their owners should not l)e made to pay as

268

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

1 ~-«-«-.^.'- *« ^ n f it

• i» '. C

kjhjl&ii

«^-*r^

£^

s^^

«- ,.,;i-b.»— '■' ^^^^ .-.<5*!^!«^*'^*^^

i-f*'*''"'^'*^ " .|f

.. -- •— '~: ^ -'^^MI

,^pg,.^ fl

-^^^ .. - - ^ : ap». ^.

»> ^ c s^>*c -^^^B

iHH^^HUH^b^

j^" ■',...- ^

— ^

Damage by Watek — $1,000 a minute while these three nozzles are being played

upon the contents of a warehouse.

Searching for the Dead aftek a Fike.

FIRE'S HAVOC

269

Ineffective Fikeproofing.

much for it as are others. Tliis would be but equitable in the first
place and in the second place would encourage men to replace their
combustible contra|}tions with better luiiklings. Next and immediately
necessary the authorities sliould conspicuously label every building of
public or semi-public nature, just as to its class of construction, "fire-
proof," " ordinary," " dangerous." As it is now, the term " fire-
proof " is cruelly abused. It is applied where there is not tbe slightest
foundation for its use and is made the means of obtaining tenants and
occupants under false pretenses. A man with " dangerous " affixed to
his building would have difficulty in renting it and that would be a
powerful incentive to him to at least make the building better if he did
not absolutely eliminate it and build correctly. Then we should have
the same municipal reguh^tions tliat they have in most European cities
relating to " neighboring liability." Here we have a selfish way of
taking care of ourselves and letting the other man shift. There they
make you responsible for any damage to your neighbors' premises or
property that may result from a fire on your premises caused by your
or your agents' negligence or carelessness. It makes people wondrously

270

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

careful in handling their ashes, waste paper, etc. These neighboring
damages are always collectible at law in Europe and the regulation is
one of the most effective of fire-preventative measures.

These are not heroic or revolutionary methods and yet, wherever
applied, they would work marvels in the way of bettering conditions
There is too much apathy in this fire matter and the authorities who
know what it really means are fearful of applying the restrictions that
are needed because, forsooth, some of these might too nearly touch
powerful constituents or friends. We may only hope to attain the de-
sired ends by forcing these authorities to do what is right via the pres-
sure of public opinion. It is passing strange how those things run,
but interesting withal to find that in all reforms the masses have to be
compelled to do certain things by authority and the authorities have in
turn to be compelled to apply these compulsory measures by the weight
of public opinion ; public opinion in turn is molded, created by printers'
ink and I know of no cause that deserves better at the hands of the
press than does this one of fire-prevention.

Cop.vrigllltd hy Irving I udurliill Ni'» York.

The Sky-line of New York City.
The highest and best-constructed buildings in the world.

THE WORLDS ANNUAL METAL CROP 271

THE WOELD'S ANNUAL METAL CROP

By THEO. F. van WAGENEN, E.M.

zacatecas, mexico

SOME one has characterized the present as the " age of metals."
There are at least fifty-nine of these useful substances known to
the chemist of to-day, yet if the average well-educated man was asked
to name them, it is doubtful if he could enumerate more than a score.
In that far distant period called by the archeologists the " dawn of his-
tory " (say 8,000 to 10,000 years ago), only four appear to have been
recognized, viz., copper, tin, gold and silver. Sometime later, iron,
lead and mercury were added to the list. These seven constituted the
metallic stock in trade of the ancients, and of the moderns for the first
thousand years of the Chiistian era. In the opinion of most historians,
copper, as the metal that is found most abundantly in the native or
pure state, was the first to attract the attention of primitive man, and it
is likely that tin was recognized very soon thereafter, for the latter,
though far from abundant, and never existing naturally in the metallic
state, yet occurs under conditions where it would be easily noted by its
weight as a substance very different from ordinary stone, and in a
chemical combination from which it can be smelted by the simplest
of fire processes. Moreover, the greatest tin-producing district in the
world lies in a part of the globe that has been inhabited from most an-
cient times. Both copper and tin are alone too soft to be utilized as
weapons or tools, and humanity at a very early period in the progress
of civilization learned to produce, by combining the two, that most
serviceable alloy we know as " bronze," which can be forged and
tempered to a keen edge and point, and which is so resistant to the
attacks of air and water that great numbers of the implements made by
the ancient smiths are pi-eserved in the museums of the present day.
Gold and silver were doubtless recognized as separate entities at a very
early date, and their rarity and beauty set them apart at once as suit-
able measures of the value of other things. It is thought that iron,
though the most abundant of all the common metals, did not come into
general use until 1500 or 1000 B.C. Eor a long time lead was re-
garded as another form of tin. It does not occur in a metallic con-
dition in nature, only one of its ores (cerrusite) is easily smelted, and
most of them are associated with ores of antimony, arsenic and zinc,
from which it is separable only with considerable skill. Mercury, on
the other hand, comes from its ore with much ease, but it was a puzzle

2 72 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

to the ancients, who called it "liquid or live silver'' (whence our
modern name, quicksilver), and they found but little use for it. Zinc
was also one of the mysteries of the olden times. The Greeks and
Romans knew of it as a troublesome impurity, often associated with
lead ores, and in some way the very desirable alloy now called "' brass,"
which is composed of tin and zinc, was discovered and produced by
them to a limited extent, but the metal zinc remained unknown*

Through medieval times practically no progress was made in a
knowledge of the metals. The science of chemistry was unknown, but
its precursor, alchemy, flourished. The alchemists recognized many
of the natural substances that are now known as ores of the metals, but
were unable, except by accident, to decompose them. However, about
the 3'ear 1450, antimony and bismuth became articles of commerce, and
in 1520 pure zinc was j^roduced, though it did not come on the market
in any quantity until 17-1:3. In 1694 arsenic was isolated and recog-
nized. Thus, up to a little- more than 200 years ago, the world knew
of but eleven of the metals, and of these, arsenic and antimony are not
now regarded as such, being classed as semi-metals.

Chemistry, as a science, began to arise during the eighteenth cen-
tury, as a result mainly of the perfection of the laboratory balance to a
point where delicate operations in weighing could be carried on. In
this period the list of the metals was doubled by the discovery of co-
balt and platinum in 1735-6, of nickel in 1751, of manganese in 1774,
of tungsten and molybdenum in 1781, of titanium, uranium and
zirconium in 1789, and of chromium and yttrium in 1792. All of
these excejDt zirconium and yttrium are now fairly familiar names to
us, but none of them were produced in any quantity, or put to any
commercial use as metals, for a long time after their discovery. Plat-
inum for a century was merely a curiosity. Certain compounds of
cobalt and of uranium found considerable use in the ceramic arts, and
of chromium and manganese in the laboratory as reagents, in the crude
chemical research of the dav. But with the opening of the ninteenth
century, and the advance of chemistry to the condition of an exact
science, the metal elements began to come to light. Cerium, iridium,
osmium, palladium, rhodium and tantalum became known in 1804 ;
in 1807 potassium and sodium were recognized; in 1808 barium, cal-
cium, magnesium and strontium, and in 1817 cadmium and lithium.
Between 1828-1830 aluminum, glucium, thorium and vanadium were
added to the list, and in 1839 lanthanum. Then came didymium,
erbium, terbium, columbium and ruthenium in the five years between
1842 and 1846. In the sixties caesium, indium, rubidium and thal-
lium were discovered; in the seventies gallium: in the eighties ger-
manium, and since then the chemists have added gadolineum, scandium,
samarium, thulium, ytterbium, and finally radium.

TEE WORLDS ANNUAL METAL CROP 273

The most of these are as yet merely names to the general public,
and some are certain to remain no more than chemical curiosities for
years to come. There are good reasons to believe, moreover, that the
list is still incomplete. But of the fifty-nine now known, eleven,
aluminum, copper, gold, iron, lead, nickel, mercury, platinum, silver,
tin and zinc, are, as metals, among the staple articles of commerce,
which are being produced in large and ever increasing quantities, as
the demand grows; while another list of six (manganese, tungsten,
molybdenum, titanium, chromium and vanadium) are market staples
in the form of alloys with iron, being largely used in the production
of certain brands of steel. These are known in the trade as the ferro-
metals. Again, there are six more (bismuth, arsenic, cobalt, uranium,
thorium and cadmium) that are regularly produced, but not in the
metallic state, for use mainly in the ceramic and electrical arts.
Finally are iridium, osmium and palladium which find emplo3anent to
a small but steadily increasing extent among makers of delicate instru-
ments and tools of precision; tantalum, of which the electricians are
now making incandescent light filaments, and magnesium, which for
a number of years has been used by the photographers in the produc-
tion of flash light. Thus nearly half of the total list may be said to
be already among the indispensables of civilization, and already several
of the remainder are under consideration by scientists, engineers and
inventors — notably potassium, sodium and calcium — on account of the
qualities they possess. Lithium, the featherweight of the metallic
family, which will float in water, and has only one fifth the weight of
aluminum, may before long be commandeered by the aeronauts, if a way
can be found to protect it from the corroding action of air and water,
while rubidium, that is as soft as fresh putty or wax at ordinary tem-
peratures, zirconium, that possesses many of the qualities of thorium,
and ruthenium, that is extremely infusible, are all certain to fill a want
in the arts before long. In fact, each of the remaining known metals
appears to possess some inherent and exclusive quality that will sooner
or later be needed in our complex civilization. The most of those
that are not yet exploited occur apparently in very small quantities
in the crust of the earth, as, for instance, the last discovered, radium,
which is so rare that but a few grains can be obtained from many
tons of its ore. Yet it is one of the surprising facts of recent years
that as soon as one of these rare metals is proved to be of real use
to humanity, new sources of supply have quickly been found. We
know little as yet as to the capacity of the wonderful storehouse we
live upon. Nature seems to have provided a substance for every con-
ceivable want of mankind, and beyond question, some of these sub-
stances that appear now to be useless are merely in reserve for wants
not yet developed, while others that apparently are so scarce as to be

VOL. LXXIV. — 19.

2 74 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

of no practicable use, even if they liad desirable properties, have only
to be searched for, to be found in sufficient quantity for our needs.

Eeturning to the eleven well-known true metals, viz., aluminum,
copper, gold, iron, lead, mercury, nickel, platinum, silver, tin and zinc,
wonderful progress has been made during recent years in the matter
of their production. Few of us appreciate the extent to which we are
absolutely dependent on some of these substances which, a generation
ago, were so rare. It is quite impossible now to conceive of a metal-
less civilization, or one in which they were so costly as to be practically
unavailable for the ordinary affairs and circumstances of life. In the
home, the office, the factory and the club they confront us everywhere.
Upon the person of a day laborer ordinarily clothed, half of the list
will usually be found, while in the home of the average well-to-do
citizen every one, except perhaps platinum, will exist in more or less
abundance. It will be both interesting and instructive to note just
what amounts of these metals have been taken from the crust of the
globe during recent years, for the benefit of our modern civilization.

Aluminum
This metal began to appear on the market as a costly curiosity,
in 1888, just twenty years ago, commanding a price of $5 per pound,
and the total world's output for that year did not exceed 50 tons. By
the end of the century, however, the annual production had increased
to nearly 5,000 tons, while the price had fallen to $1.50 per pound.
Since then there has been a steady increase of output until during
1906 it amounted to about 20,000 tons, while the price had fallen to
35 cents, causing the metal to be available in so many waj's and forms
that the civilized world would now find very great difficulty in getting
along without it. But, remarkable as has been this growth, it is
as nothing to what may be expected in the near future. For alum-
inum is the most abundant of all the metals, existing in such enor-
mous quantity in the crust of the earth, and in deposits so accessible
and so easily mined, that it is certain to become, before another
century has passed, and as soon as its metallurgy has been perfected,
the rival and supplanter of iron. Every clay bank and slate quarry
is a high-grade mine of the metal, only we have not yet learned how
to extract it cheaply from these ores. Innumerable other rocks and
formations contain it in various quantities. A well-known geologist
has recently calculated that 8.13 per cent, of the earth's crust is
aluminum, against 4.71 per cent, for iron, and less than one tenth of
one per cent, for copper. Bulk for bulk, aluminum has one third the
weight of iron. In tensile strength it is almost the equivalent of
cast iron, though far inferior in that respect to steel. Yet the metal-
lurgists are rapidly learning how to increase its strength by alloying

THE WORLDS ANNUAL METAL CROP 275

with it other metals, and when it can be produced at a price not more
than two or three times that of iron, it will certainly replace it very
extensively. For it is far more ductile and malleable, it melts at half
the temperature, and so may be cut or forged into bars, sheets and
tubes at much less cost; it is practically unalterable in the air or
water, while iron and steel disappear in rust in a very few years,
unless very carefully protected by paint or grease or cement. As yet
there is but one ore from which the metal can be produced with
reasonable economy, the mineral known as bauxite, which has been
found at only a few places, and in masses of comparatively small
extent. The rate at which the demand for the metal is now growing
will result in their exhaustion in a few years. The great metallurg-
ical problem of the day, therefore, is to devise a means for the extrac-
tion of aluminum cheaply from its most abundant ore, ordinary clay.
This problem is perhaps on the verge of solution. In another decade
we are almost certain to see the metal a staple on the markets of the
world at not to exceed five to ten cents per pound. Wlien that day
arrives a revolution will have occurred in the industries that it is
difficult now to apprehend.

Copper
Accurate statistics of the world's output of copper do not go back
much further than the year 1879, when the amount was 170,199 tons.
But fairly close approximations have been made for many previous
years, and from these it appears that in 1856 the production through-
out the world was about 47,300 tons. In 1906 it amounted to 786,794-
tons. This is a marvelous increase in the case of a metal that is yet
used as a coin by more than half the population of the globe. That
the annual product now should be nearly seventeen times what it was-
about half a century ago, while at the same time the price should be-
less, explains why civilized nations have abandoned its use as a coin-
and for ornamentation, and indicates that modern man has acquired!
much greater facility than his immediate ancestors in extracting it
from its ores, which are by no means abundant, nor easy to work.
Those of us who have reached middle age can easily remember when
a copper kettle was almost a family heirloom, to be kept under lock
and key when not in actual use, and whose burnished sides and in-
terior were the pride of the housewife. Nor in those days did we
refer disrespectfully to pennies and cents as " chicken feed."

Gold and Silver

■ The story of the two money metals is much the same as that of
copper. A half century ago we used to talk of their production in
terms of Troy ounces. During the eighties the kilogram (2.8 lbs.)
began to be used as a more convenient unit, and now that has become

2 76 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

entirely too small for silver, while many statisticians are using the
2,000-lb. ton for both metals. A ton of gold would make a little cube
measuring about 14^ inches along its edges, and of silver, one of 17^
inches. Measure these off on your desk ruler and it will become ap-
parent into what small packages nature can pack her valuables if she
has a mind to, for the golden cube will represent $603,861.22, while
that of silver, at the price of 55 cents per ounce, will be worth $16,-
041.30. Now, in 1850, just before California and Australia began
to produce the former metal in quantity, the world's annual crop of
gold was about 60 tons, which could all be stacked away in a small
bank vault, having a floor space four feet square and a height of six
and one half feet — a mere closet. But in 1906 the crop amounted to
675 tons, more than ten times as much, and to accommodate it would
require a vault of the same height, but with a floor space of twelve by
fifteen feet — quite a good-sized room. As to silver, in the fifty-six
years that have elapsed since 1850, the world's annual production has
grown from about 975 to 6,360 tons. Carefully piled up in cubes this
mass of the white metal would nearly fill up a room 100 feet long, 20
feet wide and 10 feet high.

Iron

In iron, the metal which is at the basis of the civilization of the
day, the record is, if possible, even more remarkable. Reasonably ac-
curate statistics of the world's production do not go back of the year
1865, when it amounted to 10,009,632 tons. In 1906 the output was
64,983,481 tons, showing an increase of nearly 650 per cent, in the
forty years. Such figures are not easily grasped by the mind, but let
us make the effort. Metallic iron weighs seven and a half times as
much as an equal bulk of water. A cubic foot of water will weigh in
round figures 62 pounds, and consequently one of iron will tip the
beam at 465 pounds. This means that a ton of metal will contain a
little more than four and a quarter cubic feet, and that a cube of it
measuring about nineteen and a half inches along its edges will weigh
a ton. Hence, the output of the year 1906, if put in the form of a
solid cube, would contain 279,429,000 cubic feet, and would measure
along its edges nearly 650 feet. A city block in New York measures,
say, 250 by 500 feet, and its area is about 125,000 square feet, or
roughly, three acres. Ten such blocks would be completely covered
to the depth of 220 feet by the world's output of iron during the year
1906. This would be the equivalent in dimensions of an eighteen
sk>ry building, completely covering a thirty-acre tract of land in the
metropolis of America.

But to gain even a more striking impression of what the metal is
to modern man, let us figure up the total production of the iron mines
of the world during the last eventful forty years. In round numbers.

THE WORLDS ANNUAL METAL CROP 277

it amounts to over six hundred million tons. Such a mass will meas-
ure up nearly twenty-six billion cubic feet. Put this into the form
of a pyramid, with a base ten thousand feet square (about twenty-
three hundred acres) and its height would be nearly eight hundred
feet. Or, cut down the base to dimensions of a five thousand foot
square (say sixty acres) and the structure would be nearly two thirds
of a mile high. It may not be so difficult then to agree with the iron
producers who claim that another half century of such strenuous
civilization as the last one will serve to exhaust all the known great
iron deposits of the world. Who of the generation that saw the Civil
War would have imagined such an expansion of an industry that
was then but lightly regarded even by economists? It is indeed high
time for the chemists and metallurgists of the day to redouble their
efforts to solve the problem of the cheap production of aluminum,
for in that direction only does there seem to be an escape from the
dilemma of a world unable to procure the common metal it needs, if
its civilization is to continue.

Lead

In the case of lead we come down to more ordinary figures, yet
none the less surprising when the services the metal gives us, by
reason of its peculiar qualities, are considered. Without lead, no
paint, no shot or bullets, no flexible piping. These are the three
principal uses to which it is put in these days, and more than half of
the annual crop of the mines becomes paint, and is employed to pro-
tect and improve the appearance of the structures that man raises
to live, and to transact his business in. In 1885 the world turned out
391,542 tons of the metal. Lead is a dense and heavy substance,
and it only requires a cube measuring a short seventeen inches along
its edges to weigh a ton. Even so, the production of the year 1885
would make a mass covering a quarter of an acre of ground, and
standing nearly one hundred and ten feet high. But when the year
1906 closed, and its doings were figured out by the statisticians, it
was found that the lead mines of the world had turned out in that
twelve months nearly three times as much as they had in 1885. To
be accurate, the crop amounted to 1,061,533 tons. This mass of metal
would make a pyramid with a base one hundred and fifty feet square,
and rising nine hundred feet into the air. An increase of 300 per
cent, in twenty years indicates an enormous growth in the demand
for paint and putty, to say nothing of the consumption in the way of
ammunition and piping.

Mercury

Mercury is the one degenerate in the family of the metals. Be-
tween 1850 and 1860 it was tremendously in demand by the miners

2 78 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

of Australia and California, who were gathering their golden harvest
with its aid, and in the two succeeding decades the silver miner also
impressed it extensively into his service. But as the various great
precious-metal mining districts of the world became connected with
fuel and labor centers by rail, the smelting industry arose and gradu-
ally supplanted most of the amalgamation process in which quick-
silver was the prime factor, and so the demand for it slowly declined.
The largest recorded yield occurred in the year 1877, when the output
amounted to 5,308 tons. In 1906 the world's jDroduction was only
3,964 tons. For many years now the silver miner has given up its
use almost altogether, but the Alaskan placer miner must still have it,
and there is yet a considerable consumption in those gold districts of
Africa and Australia, where smelters do not exist, and even in our own
west, at isolated or very low grade mines. At present the principal
demand is for the manufacture of mirrors, and certain scientific in-
struments like thermometers and barometers. There is good reason
to believe that there yet remains, undiscovered, in Asia, Africa and
South America, one or more great gold placer regions. When these
come to light the market for mercury will revive, and remain active
until the new fields are exhausted. There is no lack of its ores in
the crust of the earth. The metal has been produced in Spain for at
least three millenniums; the California deposits are far from being
exhausted, though they have been worked more energetically in the
last fifty or sixty years than the Spanish deposits since their dis-
covery, and the great mines of Huancavelica in Peru have hardly
been touched. So when the demand again arises, mother earth is
prepared to meet the drafts of her children, as usual.

Nickel

Fifty years ago this metal was practically unknown, except to the
scientist. Its successful production as an article of commerce began
in the United States about 1863, when it was detected in some copper
ore coming from the Lancaster Gap Mine in Pennsylvania. For the
next ten years, practically the entire world's output came from this
mine. At its best, however, the yield never exceeded 100 tons per
year, the metal commanding a price of $2.50 to $3 per pound, which
of course severely restricted its use. In 1867 one of its ores was
found in comparative abundance in the island of New Caledonia, a
French possession, lying to the northeast of Australia, and commercial
production from there began about 1874. In 1880 the metal was
discovered in copper ores coming from Sudbury district, Canada, on
the north shore of Lake Huron, and by 1886, a production began
which has since steadily increased until at the present time two thirds
of the annual world's crop of the metal comes from the later locality.

TEE WORLDS ANNUAL METAL CROP 279

Finally, there is a small amount produced annually in Sweden and
Norway. The total world's output in 1906 was in the vicinity of 19,-
000 tons. The largest use to which it is now put is in the manufac-
ture of an alloy with iron which is particularly hard and tough, and
hence suitable for armor plate. After that comes nickel coinage
and plating. The metal has excellent qualifications for these latter
purposes. It will not corrode or blacken under ordinary atmospheric
conditions, it takes a high polish, and its soft white luster, with a
faint tinge of yellow in it, is exceptionally pleasing to the eye. The
modern world has a genuine need of nickel, and so the production
will increase, but it is never likely to become as common a metal in
the arts as copper or lead or zinc.

Platinum

The heaviest of all the metals is also the rarest of those that have
become staple articles of commerce. It required nearly seventy-five
years after its discovery for mankind to find uses for it. Then its
extreme resistance to heat, and to the action of acids, commended it
to the chemist, and later to the electrician. It began to come into
the market in small quantities in 1824, from the region where it was
first found — the western foothills of the Andes in the republic of
Colombia. Almost simultaneously it was found in the Ural Moun-
tains of Eussia. The Colombian region has never been exploited or
worked regularly, owing to the unsettled political conditions of the
country, and it is figured that up to date not over 25 tons altogether
of South American origin have been produced, practically all of which
was gathered by natives in a desultory way. The Eussian field has
been operated regularly since its discovery, biit with little enterprise
or judgment or science. The metal has also been found in small
quantities associated with gold in the auriferous gravel deposits of the
Pacific coast of our own country. But up to the end of 1907 not
more than 160 tons altogether of platinum had been produced through-
out the world since its discovery, in spite of its rapidly increasing
price, for it is now worth, weight for weight, about 25 per cent, more
than gold. It is a real commercial misfortune that the two locali-
ties where it exists in such comparative abundance, and from which
it could be produced in quantity, are under the control of nationalities
so backward in social conditions and general civilization, that capital
and engineering talent hesitate to take the risks involved in the illib-
eral laws and disturbed conditions that prevail. The metal occurs
in nature generally in the pure or native state, and in the condition
of grains, nuggets and dust disseminated throughout deposits of
gravel, from which it is very easily recovered by methods similar to
those employed in operating gold-bearing placer mines.

28o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Tin

The story of tin is particularly interesting because it illustrates
(perhaps better than that of any other metal) the interdependence
of the elements of modern civilization. In 1862, which is about as
far back as accurate statistics of its production go, the world's annual
output was roughly 22,000 tons, of which about half came from Corn-
wall, and the balance in small and scattered amounts from Germany,
Austria, South America, Mexico and the East Indies. In 1906 the
crop amounted to nearly 109,000 tons, showing an advance of almost
500 per cent, in 45 years. When we investigate the uses to which the
metal is put, we find that previous to our Civil War about all the need
the world had for tin was for the manufacture of cooking and kitchen
utensils, and for roofing. Now, however, nine tenths of the demand
is caused by the canned food industries, and those connected with the
distribution of mineral oils. Tin roofs are completely out of fashion,
and aluminum is rapidly becoming the favorite kitchen metal. But
the tin can, made of plated sheet iron, is the vehicle in which kero-
sene has traveled to every part of the inhabited globe, and which has
made it possible for the fisherman, the stockman, the farmer and the
horticulturist to deliver their products in a fresh and edible condi-
tion wherever there are people who want them. It is an interesting
fact that quite three quarters of the annual crop of tin now comes
from the East Indies, and is gathered by Chinamen and Malays. The
region is probably the most ancient mining district in the world.
Tin has been coming from there in small quantities for at least 5,000
years, ever since the beginning of the bronze age of the archeologists,
and the world is only now beginning to appreciate the extent and
value of the field. More than fifty per cent, of this old world product
finds its market in the United States, where it is converted into mil-
lions of cans of all kinds, from the familiar five-gallon receptacle in
which the Standard Oil people pack their product, down to the dimin-
utive sardine can of the picnicker. When these are filled and sealed
they start on their travels, and in a few brief months — or years at
the outside — the neat vessels are scattered throughout the world from
the equator to the poles, over the plains and deserts and through the
mountains. Vast numbers of the larger sizes are doing duty as
water pails everywhere, while the remainder become vagrants and
strays in the refuse piles that everywhere mark the paths or dwelling
places of man. Thus the metal, gathered with toil and danger by the
patient and stolid oriental, is by the strenuous and impatient occi-
dental put to a use which almost immediately insures its dissimina-
tion to and dissipation in every corner of the known world. Without
tin, our present-day civilization would almost come to a standstill, and
certainly the exploration of the yet unknown parts of the planet would

THE WORLDS ANNUAL METAL CROP 281

be seriously delayed. The metal is almost as resistant as gold to the
action of air and water, and to the attacks of those acids which exist
in foods of all kinds, and which in a few weeks would destroy iron,
and convert copper, lead or zinc into poisons, and kindly nature has
segregated it in the crust of the earth in places where it may be col-
lected at moderate cost, and utilized in activities that have become
quite of the nature of indispensables to the further progress of hu-
manity.

Zinc

This metal, which a thousand years ago was a puzzle to the metal-
lurgists, and a nuisance to the lead miner, has become, during the last
quarter of a century, one of the most useful and necessary products of
the mine. The demand has increased so enormously that producers
have at times had the greatest difficulty in meeting it. We have no
reliable statistics of the world's output previous to 1883, when it
amounted to 310,000 tons. Its principal use up to that date was for
the production of brass, an indispensable alloy in the manufacture
of bearings and fittings for all kinds of machinery. Previous to the
present mechanical age its only use was in ornamentation. Now
many other employments have been found for the metal. In the
condition of an oxide it is consumed very extensively by the paint
manufacturers. In the form of an electrically deposited coating on
sheet iron it is in great demand by the building trade for cornice
work, etc., under the name of galvanized iron, and is exported in
enormous quantities to all new parts of the world for use as roofing
and siding in those temporary structures reared for protection against
the weather in lands where lumber is not available at reasonable cost.
With the development of the electrical industries it has become a
necessity in many forms of batteries, and during the last dozen years
or so hundreds of tons have been consumed annually in the recovery
of gold from certain of its ores by means of what is known as the
cj^anide process. These new uses, as well as the steady increase in
the demand for brass in the ever-growing machinery trade, have
caused its production to grow with such rapidity that in 1906 the
crop amounted to 774,525 tons, a gain of 250 per cent, in twenty-four
years. Zinc is not reckoned as one of the heavy metals, nor yet is it
a light one, its specific gravity being a little less than that of iron.
Yet if the product of last year was melted and cast into a pyramid
with a base of an acre, the apex would stand at an altitude of about
250 feet. This is a fairly good record for a metal that in 1850 was
practically unused except in the form of brass. By itself, it is a
beautiful substance, almost as soft as lead, very malleable, and with a
rich blue-white luster that is the delight of the artist.

History seems to indicate very clearly that nations who have pos-

282 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

sessed and developed notable deposits of the metals, have invariably
taken a prominent position among their contemporaries, and have
reached a higher physical and intellectual plane than those dependent
alone upon agriculture or on commerce. Food crops quickly disap-
pear. Fabric crops are worn out in a year or two. Fuel crops burn
up about as quickly as they come into the market. There must be
an annual harvest of these or trouble ensues. Commerce is the
science of the distribution of crops, and is dependent on them for its
existence. The various metal crops, however, are of the nature of
permanencies. They go into use and not into consumption, and a
very considerable part of each year's addition to the world's stock be-
come articles or structures that are capable of earning interest for
their owners. Probably in this lies the explanation of the prosperity
that invariably results from an active metallic production. These
substances can not be eaten up like wheat, they can not be worn out
like cotton or wool, they can not be burned up like coal or lumber or
tobacco. They remain and accumulate, are perhaps remelted and
used yet another time, and even such parts as are apparently lost in
the chemical arts, or in plating or ornamentation, are very extensively
recovered from time to time. As a nation, we are producing about
35 per cent, of the world's crop of aluminum, 58 per cent, of that of
copper, 23 per cent, of the gold, 33 per cent, of the lead, 43 per cent.
of the iron, 26 per cent, of the mercury, 30 per cent, of the silver, and
29 per cent, of the zinc.^ This is a remarkable record for a commun-
ity that has existed for less than a hundred and fifty years, and it
means that not only are we in possession of a part of the globe that
has great mineral resources, but that our form of government and the
nature of our laws are such as to foster and encourage that individual-
ism that alone permits a people to develop the best that is in them.
The metal era has but just begun. The earth beneath us is a store-
house abundantly full of them. Heretofore man has been content
to utilize only those things that were on the surface of the planet.
"We have now begun to call upon the earth for its very heart blood.
Heretofore the mason and the woodworker have been almost the sole
executors of the will of the architect and the artist, but now the
founder and the smith are becoming his main interpreters. Sub-
stances that can be liquefied and molded, rolled and hammered and
drawn into form, are taking the place of those that with painful and
long effort must be chiseled and sawn. Materials that seem to be
capable of taking on life, that can be made to pulsate and vibrate, that
will transport energy and light and sound and other forms of force,
are being substituted for inert stone and brick and mortar, wherever
strenuous life exists or is to be protected. In its future evolution
* Statistics of the year 1906.

THE WORLDS ANNUAL METAL CROP 283

mankind is bound to reflect this great change in the nature of the ma-
terials upon which it impresses its ideals and will.

On the following sheet is given the statistics of the crop of the
principal commercial metals for the year 1906.

The Metal Ckop of the Wobld dubing 1906

Tons Value

Aluminum 20,157 $15,319,320

Copper 786,794 309,996,839

Gold 675 406,931,323

Iron 64,983,481 2,323,799,280

Lead 1,061,533 120,483,995

Mercury 3,964 4,233,552

Nickel 18,983 16,879,684

Platinum 5.5 3,527,481

Silver 6,365 123,822,928

Tin 108,738 86,577,768

Zinc 774,525 69,428,421

Total 67,765,220.5 $3,481,000,591

284 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

SCIENCE AND MORALITY

By Professoe ALBERT P. MATHEWS

UNIVEESITY OP CHICAGO

ONE of the most striking phenomena of the nineteenth century was
the great rise of science and the loosening of religious ties coin-
cident with a marked improvement in general morality. As it has for
centuries been generally taught that morals depend upon religion, this
phenomenon has to many appeared inexplicable. Indeed, some have
closed their eyes to the great change for the better that has taken
place/ so convinced are they that an improvement of morals is im-
possible except through religion. To them the basis of morality has
seemed to be slipping away with their religious tenets.

The decadence of theology accompanying the rise of science is no
mere coincidence. The general enlightenment of the age, which has
been brought about by the scientific method, has undermined the
Christian theology and indeed all theology in two ways: it has, on the
one hand, seriously impaired the authority of the Bible as an errorless
book; and, on the other hand, in a far more important way it has
revolutionized the world by exalting reason rather than faith. What
may be called the scientific habit of mind is incompatible with the
blind acceptance of statements unsupported by evidence. Science has
been justified, moreover, by the enormous contributions it has made to
human happiness in the last half century. The question is, having
thus undermined religious beliefs, what has science to offer in the
place of religion as basis of morals? Can it take the place of religion
as an aid to morals ?

The discovery of the fundamental causes of moral conduct is of
the first importance if we are to answer these questions and hasten
the process of improvement. For it has been generally felt that our
progress in national and individual morality is not so rapid as it
ought to be. A method of hastening the process is sought and many
suggestions have been made, the most frequent being that of teaching
morals in the schools. It is obvious that before proceeding intel-
ligently we must understand what the causes of morality are. If
morals depend upon religion it would appear sensible to give religious
instruction in the schools; if, however, the deep springs of good

* By many people the awakening of public consciousness of the immorality
of certain acts is misinterpreted as an increase in immorality, instead of the
distinct improvement in morals which it actually represents.

SCIENCE AND MORALITY 285

conduct have some other source than theology or religion, then religious
instruction would not be the remedy sought. Indeed, it is possible that
those springs of virtue may be choked and their flow retarded by theo-
logical tenets, and the remedy proposed would not only not be beneficial
but actually detrimental.

To clear the ground for a discussion of the causes of morality it is
first necessary to agree on what moral conduct is. If virtue no longer
consists in obeying a set of arbitrary statutes given to man by an
omniscient being, what criterion shall be used in judging conduct?
What makes lying, murder, adultery, covetousness, immoral, since that
they are immoral we all feel instinctively? How can we tell good
from bad conduct? The answer is obvious from the results which
follow such conduct. All immoral acts result in communal unhappi-
ness; all moral acts in communal happiness. The ten commandments
really constitute the " common law " of morality ; for, although they
have been given the form of mandatory statutes, they actually represent
those fundamental principles of conduct which humanity has found by
experience to be necessary to human happiness. Humanity should,
and does, modify and add to these basic principles as long experience
shows to be desirable. We can use this criterion for distinguishing
good from bad conduct and say that all acts which cause general
unhappiness, or permanently diminish human happiness, are immoral;
and all acts which increase it are moral. This criterion enables us to
understand why different standards of morality exist among different
peoples, since the immorality of any act is not generally acknowledged
until the misery which comes from it is generally perceived.

Since moral conduct conduces to general comfort and immoral
conduct to discomfort, one factor in the improvement of morals is
obvious, for that the general happiness is influenced by the acts of
individuals is perceived by all. Humanity has been driven by its own
unhappiness to adopt a code of actions which produces a minimum of
unhappiness. In other words, it has been driven away from immoral
and toward moral conduct. This, however, is not the whole, and
possibly not the most important, cause of individual morality. Such
an altruistic basis of morality would probably not be a sufficiently
powerful incentive to good conduct in each of us, were it not reinforced
by another factor. The selfishness of the majority of men is so great
that the unhappiness of others, produced by their acts, would have little
effect in modifying their conduct, provided their own happiness was
secured, were it not for that other factor.

There is in each one of us a fundamental instinct which actually
makes the happiness of others the most powerful of all incentives to
morality. Man is endowed by nature with a feeling of love for his
fellow men, which makes it impossible for him to be happy and at

286 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

the same time to conduct himself in an immoral manner. This in-
stinct is the most effective incentive to civilization. It underlies all
our material and moral progress ; it is the source of most that is good ;
it is the whip driving us onward and the reward enticing us along the
straight and narrow path. It is human affection, the social instinct.
It is a feeling, to be sure, differently developed in different races, tribes
and individuals, but it is present to some extent in all. It is a feeling
which develops as one grows, extending outward from oneself. It is
at first for parents, brothers and sisters, then for wife and family; for
blood relatives ; for tribe or nation ; and finally for the race. It is the
feeling of kinship. It is one of the strongest basal instincts of
humanity.

The real origin of morality in the past has been this basal instinct;
and it must continue to be an effective cause of morality in the future.
Eor the love of offspring of which this instinct is part is one of the most
fundamental in animals. Religious beliefs may develop or thwart this
instinct, but they are powerless either to suppress it entirely or to take
its place. If we should take away all religious belief, the belief in a
personal God, in a future life, in rewards and punishment in such a
life, we should not disturb this fundamental basis of moral conduct in
the least degree. The instinct of human affection would still exist as a
powerful aid to morals, one which has always existed, which always will
exist and which is without any essential connection with any religious
belief whatever.

Eeligion and science have a certain relationship to this fundamental
instinct. Eeligion in certain ways, but unfortunately not in all, has
acted as a stimulus to this instinct in each individual, and it has pre-
sented a moral code enforced by a system of rewards and punishments.
The actual effect of the Christian religion on morals has been both
good and bad. The rapid development of this religion at the outset
was very largely owing to the fact that it appealed to and stimulated
this fundamental instinct. The teachings of Jesus appear for the most
part to have been directed chiefly to this end. " This is my command-
ment, that ye love one another." His whole life was a teaching by
precept and example of the blessings of human affection. It is this
element which has made the religion live ; which is accountable for what
good it has done in the world ; which makes it unique among religions.
The appeal of the religion was primarily to tlie feelings, but it was
just as effective an appeal to the reason, if only one perceived that the
real basis of all good conduct was affection.

If the early Christians had contented themselves with following
Jesus's teachings in this particular, their religion must always have
been a power for good in the world. But it happened that metaphysical
speculation gradually wrapt around, concealed and weakened the force

SCIENCE AND MORALITY 287

of those teachings. It was taught that Jesus was the son of God
himself, miraculously conceived; the doctrine of the Trinity was in-
vented and more stress came to he laid on the value of believing these
doctrines than in doing the things Jesus declared to be good. The
doctrine of salvation by faith became dominant and with this became
associated many other conceptions, the general effect of which was to
paralyze the growth of the germ of good contained in the religion.
These conceptions divided man from man, race from race; they taught
men to value their own salvation more than the happiness of others,
and their general effect was selfish and opposed to the feeling of human
brotherhood, which Jesus sought in every way to arouse, and which is
the basis of morality. So completely did they modify that religion
that they made of it for centuries a blight instead of a blessing,
detrimental alike to moral, physical and intellectual progress. On the
whole, therefore, it must be admitted that the good produced l^y the
Christian religion has not been unmixed with evil.

Since the Christian religion was built on the same foundation as
morality, not morals on that religion, and since the effect of the
religion was both good and bad we can understand how it happens that
the decadence of theology does not involve the decadence of morality,
but may coincide with its improvement.

Morals, however, have not only not declined; they have actually
improved, owing to a change in that instinct on which morality rests.
The past century has seen a tremendous growth in the feelings of
human brotherhood; the social instinct has been wonderfully stim-
ulated. This is the most glorious achievement of science.

Science besides its material conquests of nature has developed
human pity and compassion. It is the greatest preacher of the brother-
hood of man since Jesus. Science, as a matter of fact, is developing in
us just those feelings Jesus himself sought to arouse. By teaching man
the causes of his own conduct, he is filled with charity and pity; by
annihilating distance and time, it has broken down artificial barriers
between groups of individuals ; and, by the solution of the transporta-
tion problem, it has brought distant nations close together. It has
shown the human race to be actually one great family, of which the
misery of any part necessarily affects the happiness of the whole. The
evolutionary hypothesis, the germ theory of disease, the telegraph, the
telephone, the locomotive, the printing press, the daily paper, wireless
telegraph}^, these are the great moral apostles of the age, for they
knit men together, conquer prejudice and extend our sympathies.
Every discovery in science is a step forward in morality. Science is,
indeed, in this way one of the greatest, if not the greatest, moral infiu-
ence the world has beheld.

But science has done still more for morality than to stimulate

288 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

human affection. In another and not less glorious way it has exerted
a profound influence for good. It has ta^^ght the golden value of truth
and candor. Beliefs, dogmas, have no jDlace in science. More than
any religion science has inculcated the love of truth for its own sake.
Truth, modesty, candor ! That is its creed, so far as it has any. So
rare ; so simple ; so powerful for good ! Science has patiently taught,
at first to a few and now to the multitude, that the understanding of
the causes of things can only come through patient and unprejudiced
study. A mighty force for good has come into the world unknown to
it in all its past history.

Perceiving that virtue springs from affection, it becomes possible
intelligently to attack the problem of moral instruction in the schools.
It would be a mistake to return to religious instruction as a basis of
morality, for, as we have seen, morals do not really depend on religion
and there are many tenets of the present faith which are, on the whole,
distinctly detrimental or, at least, not an aid to morality. Duty, or
responsibility to others, should be the key word of education. While
all knowledge is a moral force, knowledge being in its nature essentially
moral since it increases happiness, and while any real education is in
itself a powerful aid to morality, it would be well indeed if the ideals
of science could become the ideals of every one; if the love of truth
and candor could permeate every individual; if the interdependence of
mankind could be so clearly perceived by all that obscure crimes against
the community could be recognized and detested. Above all, the whole
plan of education, if it is to be efficient morally, while it stimulates the
feelings of sympathy, compassion, duty and affection, must inculcate
habits of logical thought, the conception of physical cause and effect,
and a knowledge of the work-a-day world. For all morality has in it
these three components, reason, knowledge and affection; and affection
alone is instinctive and blind.

We need not worry, therefore, over the decadence of religious beliefs.
All that is erroneous in such beliefs it is obviously immoral to uphold
and should be got rid of as soon as possible. Unproved hypotheses,
such, for example, as that of a continued, conscious existence after
death, should not be taught as facts. For that man who builds his
moral edifice upon such unproved beliefs is assuredly building on a
doubtful foundation. What is good and worth saving in religion will
be found to be working in the future side by side with science in
increasing in each individual that human affection which makes man
better, will he nil he, and is the really valuable thing in the characters
of all of us.

Moral conduct, then, is conduct which increases human happiness.
A man must be moral if he would be happy, since he has in him a
fundamental instinct, the social instinct, which causes him to love his

SCIENCE AND MORALITY 389

children and his fellow men, and which will not permit him to make
them unhappy without making himself unhappy also. This feeling of
human affection is the real basis of morals. It does not depend on
religious beliefs ; it will persist even though all religious belief perishes.
It has been greatly stimulated by science and it is on account of the
development of science that the world has grown better, while its
religious beliefs have weakened. And, furthermore, anything which
hinders or opposes the development in each individual and each nation
of this feeling is seen to be necessarily immoral. From this point of
view all obstacles to free trade, free intercourse and friendly relations
between nations and individuals may be shown to have an importance
in general morality.

vol.. LXXIV. — 20.

290 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

STEPS IN THE EVOLUTION OF EELIGION

By Pbofessob FRANK SARGENT HOFFMAN

UNION COLLEGE

THE most remarkable thing yet discovered about this planet is the
fact that human beings exist upon it in large numbers, scattered
almost everywhere over its surface, that pay homage to superterres-
trial powers. But this fact, remarkable as it is, is only a portion of
the truth. For the most searcliing and unprejudiced investigation has
failed to reveal any time in human history when it was otherwise.
However ignorant and forlorn man may have been in the past, we have
no evidence that he has ever been so low down in the scale of being
that he did not look upward with some degree of reverence and awe to
higher powers.

Not many years ago this fact of the universal prevalence of religion
among men was seriously called in question by no less weighty writers
than Sir John Lubbock and Herbert Spencer. They quoted at length
from the reports of certain travelers and missionaries among the Eski-
mos of North Greenland, the Hottentots of South Africa and the
Indians of Lower California in support of their position; and they
stoutly contended that in these documents we have proof positive that
there are communities now in existence that have no religion at all.
This challenge led to a careful and thorough study of the status of
these tribes by competent anthropologists, and in every case an exten-
sive mythology was discovered among them, together with elaborate
religious rites. A false idea of the meaning and scope of religion, a
short stay in the country, or a lack of knowledge of the native language,
had been the cause of the mistaken judgment. Probably no scholar
of repute to-day would hesitate to accept the statement of Professor
Brinton in his recent work on " The Religions of Primitive Peoples "
that:

There lias not been a single tribe, no matter how rude, known in history
or visited by travelers, which has been shown to be destitute of religion under
some form.

The reason for this historical fact is a psychological one, and has
never been more clearly or forcibly expressed than by Dr. Edward
Caird. He asserts :

Man, by the very constitution of his mind, has three ways of thinking open
to him: he can look outwards upon the world around him; he can look inwards
upon the self within him; and he can look upwards to the God above him.

THE EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 291

And he very appropriately adds, " none of these possibilities can re-
main utterly unrealized/'

For the fact is that man is a seK-conscious being. And inasmuch
as he is endowed with some degree of reason and will, he can not stand
still and passively gaze at the objects about him as though he were a
mere brute. He must at least exert himself enough to form some kind
of a conception of the powers around and above him, and put forth
some degree of energy to place himself in harmonious relations with
them. But it should not at all surprise us if, at the outset of his career
as a religious being, he shows the same confusion of ideas about the
objects he worships, as he does about all the other matters that come
within the sphere of his experience. On the contrary, we should natu-
rally expect to find him growing and developing in his religious ideas
as he grows and develops in all others.

As a matter of fact, this is actually the case, and it will be our
present purpose to trace out in a general way some of the principal
steps that he has taken as he has advanced from lower to higher con-
ceptions on this subject in the course of history.

It is now generally agreed by careful students of anthropology that
the most primitive form of all religion is best characterized by the
word spiritism. This is the naive and unreflective belief that most ob-
jects in this world, especially those that are capable of motion, contain
an unseen being which, for the lack of a better term, we will call a
demon, or spirit; that these spirits have superhuman powers and can
affect for good or ill everything that concerns the ongoings of nature
and the lives and happiness of man. In this stage of development
human beings attribute all their pleasant experiences to friendly
demons, and all their disagreeable ones to just the opposite source.
Hence they make use of every means in their power to win the favor of
the good spirits, and ward off the envy and wrath of the bad.

The reason for this state of things it is not hard to find. For when
the primitive man first begins to give form to his religion, he is him-
self the only being that he knows anything about that possesses the
power of spontaneous action. He can not help attributing the same
power to all the objects with which he in any way comes in contact.
He acts just as every little child acts in a similar condition. Any ob-
ject that constantly gives a baby pleasure it pats and caresses with af-
fection. The one from which it gets a hard pinch or knock it wants to
pound and kick with all its power. It spontaneously assigns to the ob-
ject the same sensations and feelings and will as it is itself conscious
of. Its experience is so limited and crude that it does not know
enough to do otherwise. So it is with primitive man. To him every
other is another, and he attributes to that other all of his own powers.
In his opinion the world about and above him is made up of a vague.

292 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

indefinite host of superhuman demons or spirits, and the form of his
religion is determined by that fact.

Another thing that confirmed the primitive man in the belief that
he was surrounded by a world of supersensuous beings was his experi-
ence in dreams : when he had developed far enough to remember his
dreams with any vividness, he always thought of them as real experi-
ences. The beings that visited him in his sleep were as genuine reali-
ties and as truly to be dealt with as any that he came in contact with
when awake. In fact, he finds that he can often do things in dreams
that he can not do when awake, and that he frequently communes with
beings that he has no knowledge of when awake. The Kamchatkans
and Eskimos, we are told, determine what they will do when awake to
a great extent by their dreams ; for they regard the knowledge obtained
in this way far superior to that gained through the senses. Lucretius,
however, goes too far when he asserts that " the dreams of men peopled
the heaven with gods." Many of the lower animals are vivid dreamers,
but they show no signs of having any religion. Still, dreams in all
ages have often been regarded with superstitious reverence, and were
undoubtedly an element in determining the character of the primitive
religion of mankind.

It has come down to us from the Latin poet Petronius that "fear
first made the gods." As a complete statement of the origin of relig-
ion, it is contrary to the history and nature of man. The primary re-
ligious influence is not fear, but confidence and awe. The spirit of
many early religions was quite the opposite of fear. " Probably the
first of all public rites of worship," says a high authority, " was one of
joyousness, to wit, the invitation to the god to be present and to par-
take of the repast." Many modern students of the subject would bear
witness to the presence of joy and confidence in primitive religions.

Yet it can not be denied but that fear early came to be one of their
most important elements. For just as with the little child, the primi-
tive man was often disappointed in his confidence. As his experience
widened and the ills of life multiplied, he began to doubt the friendly
character of the spirits. He soon came to the conviction that some
only were favorable to him. The rest were to be feared. And as fear
once aroused feeds upon everything within its grasp and grows with ex-
traordinary rapidity, the uncertainty as to what the attitude of the
spirits would be toward him naturally caused the primitive man to
spend the most of his energy in devising ways to appease their wrath.

A slight step in advance beyond spiritism was taken when the opin-
ion began to prevail that all objects do not contain superhuman beings,
but only some of them. This stage in religion is called fetishism. The
term was first applied by certain early Portuguese explorers to the ob-
jects worshipped by the savage tribes they discovered in Senegal and

THE EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 293

the region of the Congo. They found some of these peoples paying
homage to such objects as a piece of wood, a feather, the fin of a fish,
the claw of a bird, the hoof of a goat. Others among them regarded
with reverential awe a big rock, a grove of trees, some such animal as a
snail, a snake, a lizard or a crocodile. In fact, anything became an ob-
ject of worship to them when they fancied that a powerful unseen being
had attached himself to it.

The fact that no man ever worships a material object is well illus-
trated by the treatment accorded a fetish. If a fetish brings good luck,
it may be sold for a high price if the owner wishes to part with it. If
it brings bad luck, it is thrown away or demolished. For all virtue
has gone out of it. The spirit that was in it has departed, and it has
lost its power. The favorite fetish of a Papuan of New Guinea is a
little wooden doll with a bright-colored rag tied around it. If a stroke
of ill fortune comes to him when he has this in his belt, he will take it
out and stamp on it, or tear it in pieces with his teeth, and cast it from
him as utterly of no value.

As we go about over the surface of the earth, we find that different
tribes have selected different objects for their fetishes, according as the
objects have impressed themselves upon them as possessing superhu-
man powers. Among the Maoris of New Zealand spiders were paid
divine honors; for it was in their gossamer threads that they fancied
the souls of the departed ascended heavenwards.

Some of the Indian tribes of the northwest regarded the raven, or
the thunder-bird, as they called it, as especially sacred; and according
to Capt. Cook, the Sandwich Islanders also did so. The peacock, the
swan, the rooster, the eagle and the dove, have been the favorite fetishes
of other tribes. In Australia and Polynesia the lizard was greatly
revered. The Chaldeans paid the fish divine honors. In Egypt the ox
was especially sacred, and so it is in parts of India. In certain of the
Piji Islands the shark is worshipped, just as the alligator is in the
Philippines. The Samoyeds in Siberia make a fetish of the whale and
the polar bear.

But the most widely worshipped of all animals is the serpent. Mr.
Ferguson, in his work on " Tree and Serpent Worship," finds that the
serpent was accorded divine honors by nearly all the nations of an-
tiquity, and is now worshipped in many parts of Asia, Africa and
America. Among the Lithuanians in southern Eussia, says a high au-
thority " every family entertained a real serpent as a household god."
Sir John Lubbock tells us that in Liberia

No negro would intentionally injure a serpent, and any one doing so by
accident would assuredly be put to death. Some English sailors once having
killed one which they found in their house, were furiously attacked by the
natives who killed them all and burned the house.

2 94 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Closely allied to fetishism, yet indicating some advance in the evo-
lution of religious belief s, is ancestor- worshijD. This easily arises when
man has developed far enough to begin to meditate upon the phenomena
of death. At the very outset it is likely that death did not arouse much
more interest than it does now among brutes. Britton asserts that

The evidence is mountain-liigh that in the earliest and rudest period of
human history the corpse inspired so little terror that it was nearly always
eaten by the surviving friends.

But even this custom was probably of a religious origin. A traveler
(D'Orbigny) in Bolivia tells us of an old Indian he met there whose
only regret in giving up his old religion and adopting Christianity was
that his body would now be devoured by worms, instead of being eaten
by his relatives.

At all events, it early became an elaborate and solemn religious rite to
provide the body with carefully prepared viands for its last long journey.
Any neglect on the part of the survivors would be severely punished.
For the soul of the departed would continue to roam about without a
home, unless it was properly attended to its final resting place. Hence
it became the world-wide custom among savage tribes to place in the
tomb or on the funeral pyre such articles as the weapons, the clothing
and ornaments of the deceased. In many cases the wives or slaves or
companion-in-arms were slain or slew themselves to accomjoany a chief-
tain to his long home. Often among the American Indians they were
interred in the same mound, and many such mounds exist in different
parts of the country.

When a tribe had survived so long as to have a history, and to trace
its descent through the male head of the family, a decided change in
their religious views usually followed. As Giddings describes it :

While the household may continue to regard natural objects and forces and
•miscellaneous spirits with superstitious feelings, they entertain for the soul of
the departed founder of the house the strongest feeling of veneration. They
think of the ancestral spirit as their protector in the land of shades. To the
ancestral spirit, therefore, they pay their principal devotions.

We find it generally true that the family tomb was near the house
and not far from the entrance. The children were brought up under
its shadow, and constantly addressed to it their prayers. Within the
house on the family altar burned the sacred fire that went out only with
the extinction of the family. Around this fire all the household dead
were supposed frequently to assemble to hear their mighty deeds nar-
rated and to be reverenced and adored.

All the ancient Semitic tribes were ancestor-worshippers, and so
were the Aryans when they first appeared on the shores of the Mediter-
ranean. The Egyptians carried the cult to a high state of perfection,
and the manes-worship which long held sway among the Eomans is an

THE EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 295

example of it. It is to-day the religion of the Bantu tribes of Africa,
and still prevails to some extent in Japan. But it is chiefly among the
Chinese that this form of religion has reached its highest form of de-
velopment. All changes in the customs of the country are resisted as
a reflection upon the regulations established by their ancestors, for the
infraction of which they will be severely punished. The greatest sin
they can commit is to allow the graves of their ancestors to be disturbed
for any cause whatsoever.

As men progress in their knowledge of the things about them, they
come to see the defects in the forms of religion described above, and be-
gin to turn their attention to more exalted powers. They cease to pay
exclusive homage to the spirits that reside in the objects that they
themselves have handled and can make or destroy, and begin to look
up in reverential awe to the beings that manifest themselves on a vaster
scale, and in a more consistent and impressive manner.

Thus arose what is usually called nature-worship, the most promi-
nent form of which is the worship of the celestial bodies. It is prob-
able that the division of the week into seven days came about from the
dedication of one day to each of the gods manifesting himseK through
the seven greatest luminaries.

Naturally, in all except the torrid zone, the sun-god received the
greatest homage. As the source of light and warmth, as the earth's
great fructifying power, as the one constant ever-recurring factor in
man's daily experience, it has always awakened the most powerful re-
ligious emotions, in the minds of rude as well as semi-civilized people.
Among the ancient Phoenicians the sun was the center of their cultus.
It was probably the leading feature of the religion of the ancient
Persians. The same was also true of the Sabeans. The worship of
Apollo, so popular among the Greeks, was in all probability sun-wor-
ship. The Egyptians gave the sun a high place in their system, and
the ancient Peruvians paid it their chief honors. The Celts and the
Teutons, as well as the East Indians, made much of it, and so do
numerous tribes in Africa to-day. It is maintained by many writers
that the North American Indians were always and chiefly sun-wor-
shippers ; that the sun was actually their Manitou, or Great Spirit.

In some lands the moon was fixed upon as the chief deity. Certain
Australian tribes believe to-day that all things, including man, were
created by the moon.

At all periods of the world's history the stars have received special
homage. Among the early natives of Greenland and Australia the
Milky Way was nothing less than the pathway of souls ascending to
their home in the heavens. The auroras borealis and australis were
actually in their opinion the dance of the gods across the firmament.

Another form of nature worship was the adoration of the fire-god.

296 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Among all peoples fire has been held sacred. It was thought of as the
central principle of life. Among the Kafirs in South Africa every re-
ligious ceremony must be performed in front of a fire. The Indians
of Guatemala regard it as their greatest and oldest deity. The fire
test was practised by the Aztecs of Mexico, as well as by the Moloch
worshippers of Syria. In Borneo the crackling of blazing twigs is the
speech of the gods. The vestal fire of old, and the perpetual fire of the
modern Christian altar are both founded upon the assumption of its
sacred character.

As the experience of man widens, he discovers not only that he can
destroy the tree whose spirit he worshipped, and can entrap the animals
and subdue them, but also that the sun, moon and stars do not vary
their action at their own option. They are obliged to move about in
certain more or less prescribed courses. Even the clouds are driven
to and fro by some superior power and are not free to follow their own
desires. Hence he easily and naturally comes to see the truth that
there must be powers above these forces that are far more worthy than
they are of his homage. He rejects the notion that the forces of nature
reveal the highest spirits, and he looks up to deities that can use these
forces freely at their option. As distinguished from nature-worship
and other lower forms of religion, this doctrine is called polytheism,
although it differs from these other forms not in kind, but only in de-
gree.

Undoubtedly, the development of this doctrine is closely related to
the development of the social and governmental relations existing
among the people themselves. When chiefs and kings begin to make
their appearance in any community, then these greater gods begin to
be recognized as over and above all lesser spirits. Oftentimes the kings
and chiefs themselves are elevated to the sphere of gods, and in some
cases, even while alive, receive divine honors. Earely, however, does
polytheism do away with any of the lower forms of religion. On the
contrary, it usually coexists with belief in disembodied spirits, local
genii of rocks and fountains and trees, household gods, and a host of
other good and evil demons. The deities of this form of religion
simply take their place as presiding over all inferior gods, using them
as messengers or agents for the furtherance of their plans and purposes.

At first, each tribe or district is thought of as having its own par-
ticular deity. But as the tribes intermingle and learn more of one
another, the tribal gods give way to national. At the outset the na-
tional gods of one country are regarded as distinct from those of
another, but of equal powers. Even the ancient Hebrews considered
the gods of other nations, such as those of Assyria, 'Phoenicia and
Egypt as real divinities.

Many tribes and peoples have risen in some degree to the stage of

TEE EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 297

polytheistic thought, but the nations that carried it to a higher degree
of perfection than any others were the ancient Greeks and Romans.
Costly temples were erected to the honor of their gods. Elaborate
ritualistic services were instituted to do them reverence. A great mul-
titude of priests and priestesses devoted their lives to finding out and
enforcing their will and purpose. The character and extent of this
form of religion are, however, so familiar that there is little need of
further explanation of it here.

This can hardly be said of monotheism, the next step in the evolu-
tion of religion. For there has been and in some quarters still is a
great divergence of opinion regarding its historic origin. For until
within a few generations, it was the common belief of thinkers on the
subject of religion that the knowledge of the existence of one god was
a primitive revelation, made to the first representatives of the human
race, and handed down by them to their posterity. Polytheism and all
other forms of religion, it was maintained, are a degeneration from a
once higher form. But this view has few if any advocates among
recent scholars. For it is now known that the tendency to the mono-
theistic position exists among all people when they have advanced to a
certain degree of mental culture. As Jastrow well says :

There is a difference in the degree in which this tendency is emphasized,
but whether we turn to Babylonia, Egypt, India, China or Greece, there are
distinct traces towards concentrating the varied manifestations of divine
powers in a single source.

This tendency is a perfectly natural one, and arises the moment
man begins seriously to reflect upon the universe. He can not fail to
observe the inequalities that exist among the deities, and to realize that
of necessity one must be supreme to all the others. When any two
peoples united as the result of war or for any other reason, the superior
place would naturally be accorded to the deity of the conquering
power; and as a nation grew in influence and became conscious of its
strength, it would gradually change its opinions regarding the gods of
the nations about it. It would either do as the Greeks did in the case
of Ammon, the god of the Egyptians, recognize in him their own Zeus
as appearing in another form, or come to treat other gods as inferior
deities not worthy of being compared with their own god, as the He-
brew looked upon Chemosh, the supreme god of the Moabites, in com-
parison with Jahveh, or Jehovah, their own national deity.

It is a matter of history that monotheism did not originate in any
one quarter alone, but was an idea attained independently by many
people at a comparatively early stage in their development.

The chief contribution of the Hebrews to religion is not their mono-
theistic idea, but the emphasis they put upon the ethical character of
their supreme deity. He was not mere power that goes stalking

298 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY /

through the universe, but a being of righteousness that deals with men
and nations according to their moral character. It was this view that
caused the worship of Jehovah to supplant that of all ihe other gods
among the Hebrews themselves, and to survive the crash of faiths that
early befell the entire ancient world.

In this brief outline of the main steps that have been taken in the
development of religion, it is not claimed that any hard and fast dis-
tinction can be made between them. Indeed, it is the opinion of com-
petent authorities that all the different forms of religion described
above coexisted among the Hindus, the Greeks, the old Norsemen, and
to some extent still coexist among modern Africans, as well as the ne-
groes and Indians of our own land. Nor is it held that any sudden or
complete transition from a lower to a higher stage has actually taken
place at any time in history. On the contrary, the changes have been
gradual, and many evidences of the survival of the old amid the new
exists in the notions and customs of even the most highly civilized and
intelligent nations of our own day.

Amulets, charms, lucky stones and coins, the veneration of sacred
relics, everything that goes under the name of " mascot," are all legiti-
mately descended from fetishism; just as belief in ghosts and haunted
houses, fear of the dark, and the like, come from a more primary form
of religion. Current ideas concerning lucky and unlucky days and
numbers, spilling salt, throwing rice at a wedding, charming away
warts, are survivals of a similar sort. So, too, are the present notions
of man as to sacred days and places, sacred utensils, holy water. And
we should not hesitate to class in the list of primitive and outgroAvn
religious ideas the worship of saints, and the common belief that a
person acquires peculiar supernatural authority in religious matters by
the laying on of hands, or by any other form of ordination. For they
are notions on a par with the old Greek tradition that one gets a super-
natural inspiration by the very act of paying a visit to the fountain of
Parnassus, or taking a draft at the Pierian spring. But the most
striking of all is the present popular belief that between man and the
Supreme Being there exists an ascending gradation of angels and arch-
angels on the one hand, and evil spirits on the other, reaching up to a
supreme evil demon, who, under the title of Devil or Satan, is sup-
posed to be the author of the sin and misery of mankind.

In the light of this view of the evolution of religion, we can see
how irrational it is to divide religions into true and false, instead of
classifying them as primitive and developed. It was maintained by
Empedocles among the ancient Greeks that all religions are false be-
cause they are the product of a diseased mind, and Feuerbach in the
last century strongly advocated the same view among the Germans.

While few, if any, maintain that opinion at present, there are many

THE EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 299

who hold that all religions are false except one, and that the one they
themselves have come to adopt. The Jew does this who asserts that God
by a perpetual covenant, recorded in the Old Testament, has made his
own race the sole repository of his will. The Islamite does this who re-
gards the Koran alone as the sole guide to truth and life. And the
Christian who sees in the New Testament the only source of religious
faith and practise belongs to the same class. No writer has given us
a more vivid picture of the erroneous way of regarding the religions of
the World than Milton in his " Paradise Lost." That all religions ex-
cept the Christian are pure inventions of the Devil to ensnare the un-
wary is his fundamental thought.

This position has been the source of untold mischief and suffering
in the past, and immensely impedes the progress of mankind at present.
It is contrary to actual fact, and is based upon the false assumption
that man possesses the ability to acquire absolute certainty in religious
matters, a thing which is denied to him in every other sphere.

The truth is that man's religion develops as he himself develops.
The steps in the evolution of religion are the steps in his own mental
advancement. There is never a time after he comes into conscious
possession of his powers as a person when he is without religion, and
there is no possibility of his outgrowing religion. He does not get his
religion out of any book, but primarily out of the experiences of his
own mind and heart. The experiences of others are a help to him only
as he reproduces them in his ovm. The more sensual he is, the more
sensual will be his religion, and the more rational and pure his life is,
the more refined and spiritual will his religion become. In other
words, the more of a man he is himself, the loftier will his conception
be of the Maker and Sustainer of the universe.

3O0 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

THE AMEEICAN PUBLIC SCHOOL

By JAMES P. MUNROE

BOSTON, MASS.

HORACE MANN", speaking in 1841, said: "A practical unbe-
lief in the power of education — the power of physical, intel-
lectual and moral training — exists among us, as a people." Two
generations later are we still, as a people, unbelievers ? We extol with
fervor, with acclamation, with volubility, free schools ; we pay our taxes
not too unwillingly, spend an occasional session in our children's
schools, help John and Mary, spasmodically and ineffectively, with
their harder lessons, send them at some sacrifice to a high school or
perhaps to college, and then thank God for the priceless blessing of a
liberal education !

Having thus, with characteristic amiability and liberality done his
duty according to the custom of his neighbors, the average American
proceeds to exalt the " self-made " man, to deride the college and even
the high school graduate, and to wonder why, with free schools and
compulsory schooling, crime, folly and corruption flourish so amaz-
ingly. As in 1841, there is a " practical unbelief," not in education
itself, but in the thing called education which most schools and col-
leges give.

We Americans pride ourselves upon being a practical people, yet
fail to treat education as a practical question. Therefore, as a rule, our
public schools are neither practically governed nor fitted in a practical
way for the ends which they should serve. Blinded by time-honored
fictions, we ignore the plainest facts. Paying vast taxes for the sup-
port of schools, we act as though the spending of that money would be
guided by Divine inspiration. Making this upon education one of our
largest outlays, we are content that such an enormous expenditure
should be in the hands of changing and irresponsible boards, to most
of whom the problems of education are as remote as the wisdom of Con-
fucius. Setting in motion the machinery upon which we depend for
the quality of future citizenship and therefore for the very existence of
the republic, we are, as a rule, quite heedless whether that machinery
turns out youth well fitted or totally unfit for the duties of men and
women. The public schools are a business investment which stern
necessity taught the founders of the nation the wisdom of making; yet
the hardest thing to impress upon this nation of business men is that
simple and fundamental fact.

TEE AMERICAN PUBLIC SCHOOL 301

Without public education genuine democracy is impossible; there-
fore the democratic state must make provision for free common schools.
From every point of view, however, especially from that of the pupil's
own good, those common schools should be regarded as investments
from which the state, if it would prosper, must get the best possible re-
turns. All measures in education, be they of the kindergarten or of
the college, should be judged mainly from the standpoint of an en-
lightened political economy, from the standpoint, that is, of securing
the greatest good for the greatest number by the least expenditure of
social force.

Quite as much for our sakes as for theirs we require all children of
certain ages to attend school and, directly or indirectly, tax ourselves
to pay for this free teaching. But in paying taxes and in voting for a
school board — supposing even that we do the first cheerfully and the
second with some shadow of knowledge of the candidates — we are ful-
filling but a small part of our duty to youth and to ourselves. There
are at least two other obligations. The first of these — since we compel
the child to go — is to make sure that his schooling is the best obtain-
able; the second — since we contribute so much to the cause of educa-
tion— is to make certain that we secure the equivalent of this money,
in the quality of citizenship which the schools produce. If we ac-
knowledge the wisdom of educating every child ; if, not simply recogniz-
ing it, we actually compel it and set up a system against which private
enterprise is powerless to compete, it would seem but plain duty to
make this compulsory education humanly perfect. Even failing, how-
ever, to recognize this moral obligation, it still remains extraordinary
that a nation so shrewd as ours, lavishing millions upon free education,
should not look more closely to it that industrial capacity, mental and
physical strength, and effective citizenship result.

Being, so to speak, a protected monopoly, the public school, to
Justify its favored position, should do as much for every child as any
other means of education, were it free to maintain itself, could accom-
plish. As long as the claim can anywhere truthfully be made that
parents must send their children to private schools in order to their best
education, just so long the public schools are falling short of their full
and essential service, a service that involves the giving, not of mere in-
struction, but of real education. To prepare youth for civic duty and
for industrial, business or professional life, the free schools must fur-
nish those means of intercourse, those fundamentals of a civilized so-
ciety, which the casting of a ballot and the pursuit of a business or a
trade demand; but, in addition and far more importantly, they must
lay such foundations that every youth, broadly speaking, may become
the best workman, the most successful man of affairs, the completest
citizen that it is possible for him to be.

302 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

A man's real success in life is determined by two things: the de-
gree of development of his faculties and his conduct as a member of
society. It follows, therefore, that the two main ends to be sought by
a public school are to give the boy command over himself and to teach
him how to be a useful citizen. That is to say, public education exists
in order to develop human power, and the kinds to be developed by a
school are two : social power and personal power. The school must do
the most it can to perfect every one of its pupils in the ability to play
the largest part possible to him in the life of the community; it must
help him, also, to make the most of himself. Of course these two ends
of education intertwine ; one can not make a boy a good citizen without
making him, at the same time, a better man; neither can one make
him a good man without producing, concurrently, a better citizen. To
make a boy perform his due part in society he must be taught the arts
of social life : how to read, write and cipher, how to comport himself,
how to maintain pleasant relations with his kind. Moreover, this body
of upgrowing youths must be trained and accustomed to act together,
to feel their interdependence, to see the interrelations of the vast social
structure perfection in which has made modern civilization possible.
But, more than this, the school must, so far as it can, train, foster and
direct the physical and moral forces of every individual child towards
his highest individual development.

The boys who enter a counting-house or factory, the girls who take
service in a shop or kitchen, the citizens who, in uncounted ways, main-
tain their communities and support the sovereign state, must, as a rule,
know how to read, write and cipher. To do these things well counts
greatly in their favor. That so many do not do them well is a serious
charge against the public school. These, however, are not the funda-
mental qualities which employers seek and which communities require.
They demand health, character, honesty, truth-telling, clean living;
they demand willingness to work, readiness to comprehend, quickness
of adaptation, fertility of resource, vision; they demand alertness,
vigor, self-command, dexterity and muscular control. These things
which result, not from set lessons, but from self -discipline, self-reliance,
self-knowledge, determine the success of a boy or girl in life, and these
qualities the public school must seek to develop through every means
and every force at its command.

Looked at from any point of view, economic or moral, physical
health is the fundamental material good of mankind. Yet what con-
tribution does the ordinary public school make towards hygiene ? As a
rule it crowds fifty or sixty children into a room that, under the most
favorable conditions, has fresh air enough for only thirty. It places no
bar against the unwashed child, gives him no incentive or opportunity
to be clean; therefore most schools contain enough of these effectually

THE AMERICAN PUBLIC SCHOOL 303

to poison the atmosphere for those who are kept decent. All these
children, breathing an insufficient quantity of more or less polluted air,
are in many instances cramped into penitential desks, ten minutes' stay
in which provokes intolerable restlessness, and are told by a much over-
worked teacher, also ill-supplied with a like bad quality of air, to keep
still and to do a uniform task, a task which is too easy for some, too
hard for others, and mainly distasteful to all. The teacher does her
best ; the pupils do better than one would suppose ; both are victims of
ill-planned conditions. Nothing superior to rigid discipline and un-
varied tasks can be thought of when sixty little individualities, burst-
ing with life and spirits, must be dampened into order and dragged
forward somehow into that formidable next grade by an overwrought
teacher whose work is judged solely by its outward results.

The inevitable outcome of such conditions, especially with growing
girls and the teacher herself, is headache, nervousness, ill-temper — all
the present and future ills which lurk in this Pandora's box of bad
hygiene and overcrowding. Moreover, to serve as an antidote, we find
in most cases nothing but some listless calisthenics, monotonous march-
ing, and aimless romping in a bricked back-yard. So much do most
schools contribute towards that foundation of a useful life, good health.
Alertness, vigor, dexterity, self-command, individuality, can hardly
develop out of such anti-natural conditions as these. The boy may be
vigorous, alert and dexterous; but it will be in spite of the school, it
will be because his life outside the schoolroom, that life which he loves,
is full, as the school life is devoid, of the means to encourage those ad-
mirable and necessary qualities.

And those other virtues which the employer of young men is always
seeking and so seldom finds, for which municipal life is crying out,
without which the nation will perish — does one get them, as a rule,
because of or in spite of the public school training? Does the setting
of uniform tasks, with penalties for their neglect, either uniform or
gauged by the passing temper of the teacher, develop an eagerness to
work and a delight in labor ? Do wholesale lessons explained by whole-
sale to sixty children, each one of whom has a different mind-content,
a different means of apprehension, each of whom needs, therefore, spe-
cial leading over every new difficulty — do these tend to promote readi-
ness, quickness and alertness? Nothing, on the contrary, could be
better calculated to dry up that intense eagerness to know, that grasping
after new ideas, which most children come to school with and which,
alas ! so many go away without. Do desiccated text-books, rote work,
graded lessons, the whole abominable system of yearly promotion, re-
sult in that quickness of adaptation, that fertility of resource, which are
the very soul of civilization? Is honesty encouraged by the usual
school discipline and methods? Does truth-telling always plainly get

304 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

its reward ? Is purity fostered by the promiscuous herding of hundreds
of children, old and young, corrupt and innocent, in the same building,
under teachers whose time must be given to mint, anise and cummin
rather than to these weightier matters of the Eternal Law? Says M.
de Coubertin, " Not ignorance and sloth of mind threaten our younger
generation so much as moral inertia and atrophy of the will. The su-
preme problem is to cure these." This moral inertia can be overcome,
this will of the child can be developed and trained only by treating
each pupil as a special problem to be worked out with knowledge, with
sympathy, with tact, with enthusiasm, by every teacher under whose
control the child is brought.

The bottom fallacy of much of the acknowledged inefficiency of pub-
lic education is that equality implies uniformity. We are to give all
youth an equal chance; therefore let us put it through one common
course of study, therefore let us give it a discipline of the barracks.
But this is not to secure to children an equal opportunity at all. Whose
omniscience devised this uniform course which is so to act upon the
antipodal natures of John and of Patrick, of Marie and of Tessa as to
give them an equal chance to develop into their very best ? Who found
this universal solvent of all the oddities, stupidities and personalities
of a townful of child nature? A uniform course is the very em-
bodiment of inequality, making the weak weaker, the dull duller, the
cross-grained more out of touch with the rest of mankind. Such a
course may suit three children out of every twenty; but the remaining
seventeen are mainly stupefied by it, learning only to associate what is
most disagreeable, what is most useless, what is most quickly to be for-
gotten with those school years during which it was vainly attempted to
fit their tender and growing individualities to an arbitrary mould.
The only way in which to give every child an equal chance with every
other is to provide for each the atmosphere and incentives suited to his
particular needs and nature. Then that nature will respond and grow,
revealing powers and aptitudes inconceivable under the blight of uni-
formity. There is no such thing as an " average child." He is a
fiction as absurd as the passionless man of the old political economy.
As well might one talk of an average vegetable and subject all plants to
an unchanging regimen.

The fundamental principle of the " new education " which is as old
as India and Greece — is to develop and strengthen individuality. All
men are born free : you shall not make them slaves to a fictitious aver-
age. All men are born equal before the law : you shall not make them
unequal before the law by forcing upon them a common training which
gives those few whom the course happens to fit an enormous advantage,
leaving the rest substantially untouched by the real forces of education.
So much of the military, disciplinary side of the school as promotes

THE AMERICAN PUBLIC SCHOOL 305

solidarity, makes children feel themselves to be social units, favors the
impulse to activity arising from mere mass, is vital to the state. The
marching together, singing together, playing together (provided the
play be judiciously organized) is a splendid stimulus to social and
civic life, impossible to be done away with. Along with this, however,
and all the more strongly because of this, the individuality of the child
must be nourished, promoted and developed by every rational means.
Within the range of his powers all health, virtue and capacity are within
him as the germ is within the seed. The teacher's business is to stimu-
late, to encourage and also to prune, these elemental forces. This can
not be done by instruction given by wholesale, but only through
genuine education acting directly upon the individual child.

Shall teachers, then, be converted into nursery governesses, one to
each pupil? That extreme would be worse than the other. Under a
right plan of public education, however, no teacher would have charge
of more than twenty pupils ; and no teacher would have charge of any
at all unless, by temperament, by understanding of child nature, by a
thorough professional training, he or she were fitted to make out of
every one of those twenty pupils the most that can be made. Such
professionally trained teachers, with classes limited to a proper size,
would not simply instruct, they would really educate their pupils by
giving them the tools of knowledge, not as dead processes, but as living
means to illimitable ends. Out of the common, elementary studies,
with no loss but with great gain in form, they would develop the con-
tent of literature, of power of expression, of sober reasoning, of world
interest, of nature interest, of social and civic responsibility; and. upon
these fundamental studies they would lay the solid foundations of self-
reliance, self-knowledge, self-respect. They would do this, moreover,
not through dependence upon text-books, routine, and uniform lessons;
nor, on the other hand, would they do it by excursions into psychological
subtleties or by pandering to their pupils' and their own self-conscious-
ness. They would do it as every intelligent, human man or woman who
has the " faculty " of teaching and who has been taught to teach, knows
how to appeal to the differing nature of each child, making him see the
common fact from his special point of view and assimilate it to his
personality, thereby building up by sure degrees his individual char-
acter.

Such teaching — and this is no vision; it has been demonstrated
again and again — would make most children eager to go to school, im-
patient to learn, greedy of every new chance of mental and moral
growth. Out of such an atmosphere would come a race of artisans and
business men — better still, of citizens — such as the world has not yet
seen. It would be a really efficient race of ivorl-ing men, neither wasting
time and materials, nor shirking what they have to do ; for they would

VOL. LXXIV. — 21.

3o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

have been taught how to work, how to concentrate themselves upon a
task, how to get pleasure from the mere act of doing thoroughly and
well. It would be a race of studious and inventive workmen, of pro-
gressive business men and of enlightened citizens ; for they would have
tasted the delight which comes with the use of the acquisitive faculties,
with nimbleness of wit, ingenuity of thought and adaptation of means
to ends. It would be a race of self-reliant and self-respecting artisans,
traders and individuals; for they would have been shown the enormous
significance of the ego, who makes his own career and who, if he will,
can make that career of tremendous importance to his day and gen-
eration.

Such a diminution in the size of classes, such an insistence upon
supreme fitness in the teacher, will add incalculably to the cost of pub-
lic education, through doubling the number of teachers and through
doubling or trebling their pay; for present salaries will not warrant
such a professional training as the new education demands. From the
industrial standpoint alone, however, this added expenditure would pay
vast dividends. There is frightful waste of power in the burning of
coal to run a locomotive; but it is as nothing to the waste in the in-
dustrial world in the attempted utilization of human power. Ill-
health, low physical force, untimely death, intemperance, vice, crime,
manual inefficiency, stupidity, lack of interest, shirking — all these and
many other human failings continually clog and stop the industrial
machine, so that it would scarcely be an exaggeration to place the ef-
fective power of the millions engaged in gainful occupations at one
tenth of what it should be. If by proper schooling this efficiency
could be doubled — and it is reasonable to say that it could be much
more than doubled — how infinitely would such a gain outweigh the
added cost of a rational public education.

No startling changes are necessary in the free school system. Its
general plan is admirably suited to American conditions. It needs
but to be altered in this detail and in that, in the expansion of this
principle and in the suppression of that practise. We must, however,
do away with the curse of uniformity, allowing, instead, full play to
individuality; we must, furthermore, fit the means and methods of the
school to the real needs of the future worker and citizen; and we must,
in addition, make the profession of teaching self-respecting by releasing
it from its present bondage to amateurs, to well-intentioned but inex-
pert school boards who are jauntily settling pedagogical problems that
appall trained experts. The teachers, if they are to teach from them-
selves instead of from prescribed text-books, must have a larger share
in the control and development of schools and must be so trained and
stimulated as to be fit to assume that larger share. Not elaborate
buildings, or reformed courses of study, or wiser supervision will, of

THE AMERICAN PUBLIC SCHOOL 307

themselves, make the new education succeed — it will be the teachers;
and if this vast responsibility rests upon them, with them must rest
also power and initiative, in them must appear professional pride far
beyond what they possess to-day.

These fine, great schoolhouses, with all modern devices — provided
their ventilating systems work, their floors are kept clean and their
rooms are not overcrowded — are admirable; but they do not in them-
selves educate. The complicated apparatus, the works of art, the libra-
ries, with which many of those schoolhouses are filled, again are admir-
able; but in themselves they are mere sticks and stones. The subdivi-
sion of labor among teachers, the calling in of specialists, the elaboration
of methods of teaching are — sometimes — excellent ; but they are but the
husks of real education. Psychological laboratories, child- study, the
heaping up of great masses of pedagogical data are also, when backed
by real knowledge, excellent: but they are only minor helps to a real
education. Pile buildings, apparatus, methods, psychological sub-
tleties high as Pelion on Ossa and there will result no better education
than was given in the ancient district school unless behind this com-
plexity of educational machinery are real teachers knowing how to
teach and with time to do true, individual teaching. The more we
elaborate education, the more time we spend on pedagogical minutise,
the more we load ourselves down with apparatus, the more plainly it
appears that the sole essential for real education is the educated teacher
who knows how to teach. Upon his, or her, personal fitness rests the
future of the country ; with him, or with her, not in systems and appa-
ratus, lies the solution of this vexed question of the public school. The
regeneration of mankind will be brought about, so far as the common
school can effect it, by the direct, human influence of the individual
teacher upon the individual pupil.

Such teachers, however, will not appear in numbers sufficient to
make their influence felt until they are assured of decent remuneration,
of tenure of office during real efficiency, of small classes, and of a pro-
fessional standing regulated, as is that of physicians and lawyers, by
the profession itself. And only when the great public gives that as-
surance, by its individual and corporate support of those who are trying
to foster the new education, will it prove that it really believes now, any
more than it did in 1841, in the actual " power of physical, intellectual
and moral training."

!08

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MOXTHLY

THE PEOGEESS OF SCIENCE

HARVARD UNIVERSITY AXD THE
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE

OF TECHNOLOGY
Boston is still the chief educational
center of the country. Among its in-
stitutions for higher education, Har-
vard is our greatest university and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
our greatest school of technology. This
year Harvard is for the first time sur-
passed by Columbia in the number of
students, and it will soon be overtaken
by several of the state universities.
Cornell and Michigan have more stu-
dents in applied science than the Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology. But
Harvard and the institute have been
leaders in setting certain educational
ideals, and each will for a long time
maintain its preeminence. Harvard
consists of a college with free electives
for culture and professional schools
based on it; whereas the institute aims

: to give culture with and through its
professional studies. The outcome ap-
pears to be more play at Harvard and

I more work at the institute. It is ex-
tremely difficult to appraise the value
of an educational system by its results
on the students. So long as students
of the upper classes with their hered-
itary and social advantages or students

i selected from all classes by their su-

: perior ability and enterprise go to col-
lege, and so long as the college is the

' natural gatewaj^ to certain careers, it
is not possible to test the value of a
college education by its objective re-
sults on the future success of the
students. When, however, the graduate
school of applied science endowed with

I the income of the McKay bequest at
Harvard has been completely estab-
lished, it may be possible to make an
interesting comparison of its work with
that of the institute.

The President's House, Harvard University.

TEE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

509

I'ROFESSOR A. Lawrence Lowell,
President-elect of Harvard University.

It is a curious fact that the two
institutions, after the unsuccessful at-
tempts to form a merger two years ago,
should now at the same time elect new
presidents. In the men selected and
even in the methods of selection, the
institutions have shown their individu-
ality. Harvard has in the most gentle-
manly manner elected a member of its
own set; the institute after floundering
about has chosen a man from the
antipodes.

Professor A. Lawrence Lowell, elected
to succeed Mr. Eliot as president of
Harvard University, belongs to the
Harvard and New England aristocracy.
The cities of Lowell and Lawrence were
named from his ancestors, who for
generations have maintained traditions
of wealth and culture. Of this stock
he is typical, even to the extent of
having married his cousin and having
no children. In an address made very
shortlj- before the election of his suc-
cessor. President Eliot said: "When
the corporation selects some young man
to take my place I hope you will all
lock at him with this one inquiry — is

this a promising joung man, is he a
young man who has in him a large
capacity to grow? '' But the corpora-
tion chose a man completely formed by
heredity and experience, eminent as an
author of important books on govern-
ment, trained first as a lawyer in
charge of large vested interests and
later as a professor, lecturing in
courses attractive to college students.
We may be sure that Mr. -uowell will
be as exemplary as president of Har-
vard as in everj' otiier relation of life,
and that the traditions and spirit of
the university will be safe in his hands.
Professor Ricliard C. MacLaurin,
president-elect of the J\Iassach\isetts
Institute of Technology, though born
in Scotland and completing his univer-
sity studies in Cambridge, has spent
most of his life in New Zealand, where
he was professor of mathematics in
Wellington. A little over a year ago,
he accepted the chair of mathematical
physics in Columbia University, which
had been vacant since the election of
Professor R. S. Woodward to the presi-
dency of the Carnegie Institution.
Professor MacLaurin has recently pub-

Peofessoe Richaed C. MacLauein,

President-elect of the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology.

3IO

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

lished the first volume of an iuqiortaiit
woiTv on mathematical optics. He has
also been trained as a lawyer and has
broad interests in philosophy and edu-
cation.

It is a fact of some interest that
Mr. Lowell is a member of the corpora-
tion of the institute and with Dr.
Pritchett represented the institute in
the joint committee of the corporations
which recommended the merger with
Harvard. The most important action
of Harvard since the election of Mr.
Lowell has been the calling of two
heads of departments of the institute,
Professor Swain and Professor Clifi'onl,
to its Graduate School of Applied
Sciences.

ENGLISH VITAL STATISTICS

The recently published report of the
English registrar general shows that
the death rate of England and Wales
during 1907 reached the remarkably
low figure of 15 per thousand of the
population. This is 2.4 per thousand
lower than it was ten years ago; it is
lower than for any other nation, except
perhaps Sweden and Norway, though
the lowest recorded death rates appear
to be in Indiana and Michigan, where
in 1905 they were 12.8 and 13.5, re-
spectively. There is nothing more
appalling than, and at the same time
so hopeful as, the great differences in
the death rates in different parts of the
civilized world. It seems almost in-
credible that in one country or in one
city twice as many people of each
thousand inhabitants die as in others.
We may sympathize with Tolstoy in
his grief for the cruel executions that
occur in Russia, but they are after all
an insignificant matter compared with
the fifty million people who have died
needlessly in that country in the course
of the past twenty-five years. But we
need not go to Russia for a warning,
when the death rate in New York is
twenty per cent, higher than in Lon-
don, when ten times as many in pro-

portion to the population die from
typhoid fever in Pittsburg as m New
York, or when the death rate in one
Massachusetts town is twice as high
as in another.

It is gratifying that the infant mor-
tality in England in 1907 was as low
as 118 per 1,000 births, as compared
with an average of 145 in the ten pre-
ceding years. But it is an ominous
fact that the birth rate has fallen even
more rapidly than the death rate. The
birth rate in 1907 in England and
Wales was 26.3, as much as 0.8 lower
than in the preceding year and 10 lower
than in 1876. If this fall should con-
tinue there would be no children born
in England at the close of the present
century. Absurd as this may appear,
it is difficult to see why if the average
family has decreased from four to three
in the course of thirty years, it may
not continue to decrease to two and to
one.

On the other hand, the death rate
can not continue to decrease indefi-
nitely, and indeed it seems to have
almost reached its minimum. When
one thinks of the vast amount of in-
temperance, poverty and preventable
disease in England, it might appear
that there is room lor endless improve-
ment. But even a death rate of 15 is
paradoxical. This means that only one
person in 66.6 dies each year, and if
the population were stationary the av-
erage duration of life would be 66.6
years. As one infant in seven dies, the
average age at death of those who sur-
vive the first year would be 77, which
obviously it is not, nor is likely to be.
The paradox is explained by another
paradox, namely, that a high birth
rate tends to give a low death rate.
Countries, cities and classes having a
high birth rate usually liave a high
death rate and the infant death rate
is nearly ten times the average; yet it
is the high birth rate in England in
past years which gives it its present
low death rate.

If the birth rate of a courtry should

M. Gabkiel Lippmax.
The eminent physicist of the Sorbonne, to whom the Nobel prize in physics

has been awfirded.

312

TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

suddenly increase, its death rate would
also increase at first, owing to the high
infant mortality, but in the subsequent
fifty years the population would be
composed largely of people between the
ages of ten and fifty years, whoso death
I'ate is the smallest, and the death rate
of the whole country would be low.
Thus in England the greatly increased
population of the country is due to the
high birth rate in the sixties, seventies,
eighties and nineties. Although the
recorded birth rate was higher in 1876
than previously, this is probably due
onh^ to the improved registration. But
the ever increasing population has
given a composition such that those
predominate in numbers who are at
ages at which the death rate is low.
Of a thousand people in France, about
125 are over sixty years of age, of a
thousand in England only about 75 are
of this age. The lower death rate in
England is largely due to its more
youthful population. It may decrease
somewhat further, owing to improved
hygiene and sanitation ; but if the birth
rate continues lo decrease there will
come a time when the death rate will
increase.

ALBERT GAUDRY

In the loss of Professor Gaudry, who
died recently , in Paris, paleontology'
suffers not only in France but in the
world at large, for he was an investi-
gator of rare ability who was also
gifted with a felicitous mode of expres-
sion. It is remarkable that his earliest
woik of note was also his greatest.
This was the memoir on the fossil
mammals of Pikermi, a small hillock
of Upper Miocene age in Greece. Taken
altogether, the volume on the Pikermi
mammals is the finest contribution
which has ever been made to the pale-
ontology of the mammals in Europe,
with the possible exception of Kowa-
levsky's great memoirs of 1873. Sim-
ilar works appeared on fauna of the

same age at Mt. Leberon. Gaudry's
most popular volume was his " En-
ehainements du Mo de Animal."

The most original feature of Gaudry's
research on the Pikermi fauna was his
recognition of the polyphyletic nature
of the evolution of the horses, rhi-
noceroses and other animals whose
remains are found in such profusion
in this classic locality of Greece.
Gaudry's other great service to science
was the building up of the splendid
collection in the Jardin des Plantes,
Paris, and the artistic finishing of the
famous '• Gallerie de Palreontologie,"
which contains the older collections
which have found their way to Paris,
including the classic types of Cuvier
and de Blainville.

Professor Gaudry was a man of
cliarming character and personality, a
French gentleman of the old school ;
extremely sympathetic in his relations
with others, and cordially enthusiastic
in recognition of their work. He
always showed marked hospitality in
his reception of visiting paleontologists
to the Paris museum, and was warmly
welcomed on his rare journeys to for-
eign countries.

SCIENTIFIC ITEMS
The Astronomical Society of the
Pacific has awarded its Bruce gold
medal for the year 1909 to Dr. G. W.
Hill for distinguished services to as-
tronomy.— The first award of the gold
medal recently established by the
Smithsonian Institution in memory of
the late Secretary Langlej^ has been
made to Messrs. Wilbur and Orville
Wright. — M. Henri Poincare,'the emi-
nent mathematician and philosopher,
has been received into the French Acad-
emy, taking the seat vacant by the
death of the poet Sully Prudhomme.

Dr. S. Weir Mitcehell celebrated
his eightieth birthday on February 15,
iiiid Professor Ernst Haeckel his sev-
(Mity-fifth birthday on February 16.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE

MONTHLY.

APRIL, 1909
LIFE AND WORKS OF DAEWIN^

By Dr. HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN

COLUMBIA UXIVEESITY AND THE AJIERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

COLUMBIA UNIVEESITY is celebrating the liundredtli anniver-
sary of the birth of Darwin, the fiftieth anniversary of the publi-
cation of the " Origin of Species." In the year 1809 many illustrious
men^ were born, among them Darwin and Lincoln, one hundred years
ago to-day, February 12. So widely different in their lives, Darwin and
Lincoln were jet alike in simplicity of character and of language, in
love of truth, in abhorrence of slavery, and especially in unconsciousness
of their power. Both were at a loss to understand their influence over
other men. " I am nothing and truth is everything," once wrote Lin-
coln. In concluding his autobiography Darwin wrote :

With such moderate abilities as I possess, it is truly surprising that I
should have influenced to a considerable extent the belief of scientific men on
some important points. My success as a man of science has been determined
as far as I can judge, by complex and diversified mental qualities and condi-
tions. Of these, the most important have been, the love of science, unbounded
patience in long reflecting over any subject, industry in observing and collecting
facts, a fair share of invention as well as of common sense.

Lincoln's greatest single act was his death blow to slavery. Man
had been fighting for centuries for his freedom, in labor, in govern-
ment, in religion, and in mind. It is certainly notable that the final
victory for bodily liberty was won during the "very years which wit-

^ Address delivered at Columbia University on the one hundredth anni-
versary of Darwin's birth, as the first of a series of nine lectures on " Charles
Darwin and His Influence on Science."

^Alfred Tennyson, Edgar Allen Poe, Felix Mendelssohn, Oliver Wendell
Holmes, William Ewart Gladstone.

o

1 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

nessecl the final emancipation of the mind. I do not see that Darwin's
supreme service to his fellow men was his demonstration of evolution —
man could have lived on quite as happily and perhaps more morally
under the old notion that he was specially made in the image of his
maker. Darwin's supreme service was that he won for man absolute
freedom in the study of the laws of nature; he literally fulfilled the
saying of St. John, " Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall
make you free."

When we look back upon the very recent years of 1858-59, the
years of revoliition, we see that we were far from free either to- study
nature or reason about it. Our intellectual chains were from the
forges of theology both catholic and protestant. The Bible was read
as a revelation of physical law rather than as an epic of righteousness
and spiritual laAV. Theology while in power was itself in a most
critical position, in a cid-de-sac of antagonism to reason and common
sense, and this despite the warnings of Augustine and of Bacon. As
early as the fifth century the wise theologian of Numidia had said :

Leave questions of the earth and the sky and the other elements of this
world to reasoning and observation. Perceiving that you are as far from the
truth as the east from the west the man of science will scarce restrain his
laughter.

Similarly, the great founder of the inductive method observed:

Do not excite the laughter of men of science through an absurd mixture
of matters human and divine. Do not commit the consummate folly of
building a system of natural philosophy on the first chapter of Genesis or on
the Book of Job.

It is difficult for the college student in this day of libert}'', if not
of license, to realize that, in the words of Lowell:

We breathe cheaply in the common air thoughts that great hearts once
broke for.

When, in 1844, Darwin communicated to the botanist Hooker
under promise of secrecy his outline of evolution, he well knew the
opprobrium it would bring, for he subsequently added (1846) :

When my notes are published I shall fall infinitely low in the opinion
of all sound naturalists, so this is my prospect for the future.

From the borders of Poland in 1543, or just three centuries
earlier, Copernicus had published his " Eevolutions of the Heavenly
Bodies," and thus fired the first shot in a three-hundred-years war for
freedom to observe nature. In 1611 the telescope of Galileo demon-
strated the truth of the Copernican law that the earth moves around
the sun; and the most impressive object to-day in Florence is the
model of the finger of this great astronomer as he held it up before
the examiners of the inquisition, with the words, " It still moves."

As time advanced the prison gave way to the milder but effective

LIFE AND WORKS OF DARWIN 319

weapons of ostracism and loss of position. In Ijiology Linnaeus,
Bnffon^ Lamarck, St. Hilaire, in turn discovered the evidences of evo-
lution, but felt the penalty and either recanted or suffered loss of
position. The cause of supernaturalism had ne\er seemed stronger
than in 1857; the masterly works of Paley and Whewell had appeared;
the great series of Bridgewater Treatises to demonstrate the wisdom
and goodness of God in the special creation of adaptations had just
been closed ; men of rare abilitj'^, Cuvicr, Owen, Lyell and Agassiz,
were on the side of special creation; yet at the very time this whole
system of natural philosopliy was rotteii at the foundation because not
the work of free observation.

Where his great predecessors Buff on and Lamarck had failed,
Darwin won through his unparalleled genius as an observer and
reasoner, through the absolutely irresistible force of the facts he had
assembled and through the simplicity of his presentation. Lacking
the literary graces of his grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, and the
obscurity of Spencer, Darwin was understood by every one as every
one could understand Lincoln. It is true the cause was immediately
championed by able men, but victory was gained not by the vehement
and radical Haeckel nor yet by the masterly fighter Huxley, but
through the resistless power of the truth as Darwin saw it and pre-
sented it. It was not a denial, as had been the great skeptical move-
ment of the end of the eighteenth century, but an affirmation. Dar-
win was not destroying but building; yet at the time good and honest
men trembled as if passing through an earthquake, for in the whole
history of human thought there had been no such cataclysm.

II

In what he achieved Darwin is so entirely alone that his place in
the history of ideas is next to Aristotle, the great Greek biologist and
philosopher who preceded him by over 2,000 years.

The biographers of Lincoln are at a loss to explain his greatness
through heredity. Darwin belonged to an able family, and his ances-
tors are singularly prophetic of his career. He was near of kin to
Francis Galton, who shares witli ^Veismann the leadership in the
study of heredity during the nineteenth century. By a happy com-
bination of all the best traits of the best of his ancestors coupled with
the no less happy omission of other traits, Darwin was a far greater
man than any of his forebears. Kindliness, truthfulness and love of
nature were part of his birthright. From his grandfather Erasmus,
Charles may have inherited especially his vividness of imagination and
his strong tendency to generalize. Countless hypotheses flitted through
his mind.^ " Without speculation there is no good and original ob-

' " I can not resist forming one on every subject."

320 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

servation," he wrote to Wallace. Still more interesting is the fact
that the inheritance of his grandfather's tendency toward speculation
took the direction of evolution, for before the close of the eighteenth
century Erasmus Darwin gave the world in poetical form his belief
in a complete evolutionary system as well as the first clear exposition
of what is now known as the Lamarckian hypothesis. But in the
grandson hypotheses were constantly held in check by the determina-
tion to put each to the severe test of observation. Darwin speaks of
his father, Eobert, as the most acute observer he ever saw, and attrib-
utes to him his intense desire to understand the reasons of things;
from him came caution and conservatism. He says in his " Auto-
biography " :

I have steadily endeavored to keep my mind free so as to give up any
hypothesis (however much beloved), and I can not resist forming one on every
subject, as soon as facts are sho\vn to be opposed to it.

If the " poet is born not made," the man of science is surely both
born and made. Bare as was Darwin's genius, it was not more rare
than the wonderful succession of outward events which shaped his life.
It is true that Darwin believed with his cousin Francis Gal ton that
education and environment produce only a small effect upon the mind
of any one, but Darwin underestimated the force of his educational
advantages just as he underestimated his own powers, and this because
he thought only of his book and classroom life at school, at Edinburgh
and at Cambridge, and not of his broader life. It was true in 1817,
as to-day, that few teachers teach and few educators educate. It is
true that those were the dull days of classical and mathematical drill.
Yet look at the roster of Cambridge and see the men it produced.
From Darwin's regular college work he may have gained biit little,
yet he was all the while enjoying an exceptional training. Step by
step he was made a strong man by a mental guidance which is without
parallel, by the precepts and example of his father, for whom he held
the greatest reverence, by his reading of the poetry of Shakespeare,
Wordsworth, Coleridge and Milton, and the scientific prose of J'aley,
Herschel and Humboldt, by the subtle scholarly influences of old Cam-
bridge, by the scientific inspiration and advice of Henslow, by the mas-
terful inductive influence of the geologist Lyell, and by the great
nature panorama of the voyage of the Beagle.

The college mates of Darwin saw more truly than he himself what
the old university was doing for him. Professor Poulton of Oxford,
believes that the kind of life which so favored Darwin's mind has
largely disappeared in English universities, especially under the sharp
system of competitive examinations; yet this is still more truly the
atmosphere of old Cambridge to-day than of any of our American
colleges. It would be an interesting subject to debate whether we

LIFE AND WORKS OF DARWIN 323

could nurture such a man ; whether a Darwin, were he entered at a
Columbia, a Harvard, a Princeton, could develop mentally as Charles
Darwin did at Cambridge in 1817. I believe that conditions for the
favorable nurture of such a mind are not with us. They are, repose,
time for continuous thought, respect for the man of brains and of
individuality and of such peculiar tastes as Darwin displayed in his
avidity for collecting beetles, freedom from mental convention, general
sympathy for nature, and above all ardor in the world of ideas. If the
genial mind can not find the kindred mind it can not develop. Many
American school and college men are laughed out of the finest prompt-
ings of their natures. In short I believe our intellectual environ-
ment would be distinctly against a yoimg Darwin to-day.

Thus event after event in Darwin's life was singularly propitious.
None but a Darwin would have reflected these events as he did, but
grand and rare they certainly were.

At the age of nineteen he entered Christ's of Cambridge, the small
college which two hundred years before had sheltered John Milton, the
great poet of " Paradise Lost," the epic of the special creation theory
which it was Darwin's destiny to destroy. His passion for sport, shoot-
ing, hunting, cross country riding, his genial enjoyment of friends
of his own age, did not prevent delightful excursions with older men.
He was known as " the man who walks with Henslow " ; and close
personal intercourse with this learned and genial botanist (Eev. Wm.
C. Henslow) affected him more than any other feature of his college
life. After graduation this personal association extended through
Henslow to the geologist Sedgwick, who prepared him for the next
step in his career. It was Henslow who secured for him his place on
the exploring ship Beagle and the voyage round the world (1831-
1836), by far the most important experience in his life.

No graduate course in any university can compare for a moment
with the glorious vision which passed before young Darwin on the
Beagle, but here again fortune smiled upon him, for this vision re-
quired the very scientific spirit and point of view which came to him
through the reading of the " Principles of Geology " of Lyell, the
masterly teacher of the uniformitarian doctrine of Hutton. That
nature worked slowly in past as in present time, and that the inter-
pretation of the past is through observation of the present gave the
note of Darwin's larger and more original interpretation, because the
slow evolution which Lyell piously restricted to geology and the sur-
face of the earth Darwin extended to biology and all living beings.
If during the voyage Lyell's arguments convinced Darwin of the per-
manence of species, Lyell's way of looking at nature also gave him the
means of seeing that species are not permanent. In his own words,
he " saw through Lyell's eyes," and with the admiration of others

324 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

always so characteristic of him his tribute to Lyell is without reserve.
The second edition is dedicated :

With grateful pleasure as an acknowledgment that the chief part of what-
ever scientific merit this Journal and the other works of the author may
possess has been derived from studying the well known and admirable " Prin-
ciples of Geology."

The five years of the voyage filled the twenty-second to twenty-
seventh years of Darwin's life, the period now ordinarily given to pro-
fessional studies. In reading this simply written but fascinating book,
which stands quite by itself in literature, we see how Darwin through
his own genius and through the methods successively impressed upon
him by his father, by Ilenslow, by Sedgwick and by Lyell was uncon-
sciously preparing his mind for the " Origin of Species " and the
" Descent of Man," the two most influential books of science which
have ever appeared. From the islands of the Atlantic and the Pacific
Ave follow his delightful comments on animals and plants of all kinds
on sea and land, through forests, pampas and steppes, up the dry
slopes of the Andes, along the salt lakes and deserts of Chili and of
Australia. The dense forests of Brazil pendent with orchids and gay
with butterflies contrast with those of Terra del Fuego and of Tahiti,
and with the deforested Cape de Verde Islands. On these islands, the
first he visits, he is enormously impressed by the superiority of Ly ell's
method. He visits other islands of all kinds, inhabited and uninhabi-
ted, the non-volcanic St. Paul's rocks, half -submerged volcanic cones,
coral reefs and islands of the south Pacific. He observes live glaciers,
as well as the contrasting action of active and of dead volcanoes.
Along the rivers of Patagonia he unearths great extinct or fossil
mammals ; in Peru he studies the extinct races of man ; the aborigines
of Terra del Fuego and of Patagonia make the most profound impres-
sion upon his mind. In brief, he sees the great drama of nature in
all its lesser scenes and in all its grander acts. He begins the voyage
a firm believer in the fixity of species, but doubts begin to enter his
mind when in the sands of the pampas of South America he perceives
that the extinct forms are partly ancestral to the living, and when on
the isolated Galapagos Islands he finds the life is not that of a special
creation but that detached from the continent of South America six
hundred miles distant.

Darwin says :

I owe to the voyage the first real training and education of my mind.
That my mind had developed is rendered probable by my father's first exclama-
tion on my return, " why the shape of his head is quite altered."

Ill

Soon after Darwin's return he moved to London for the two most
active years of his life, to care for his collections and to write up his

LIFE AND WORKS OF DARWIN 327

observations. At this moment came the third of the great turning
points in his life, which as a mysteriously disguised blessing was
brought about through ill health. In London he was entering official
duties and public scientific service which would undoubtedly have
increased and interfered more and more seriously with his work. We
can only count it as one of the most fortunate circumstances in the
history of science that Darwin at the age of thirty-three was forced to
leave London and to move to Down. Here for forty years he never
knew for one day the health of an ordinary man; his life was one long
struggle against the strain of sickness. But unrealized by him there
was the compensation of a mind undisturbed by the constant interrup-
tion of outside affairs, such interruption as killed Huxley and is kill-
ing so many fine and ambitious men to-day. When I saw Huxley and
Darwin side by side in 1879, the one only fifty-four, the other seventy,
the younger man looked by far the more careworn of the two. Huxley,
the strong man, broke down mentally at fifty-six ; Darwin, the invalid,
was vigorous mentally at seventy-two.

Darwin's writings fall into three grand series. In the nine years
after he returned from the voyage, or between his twenty-seventh and
thirty-sixth years, Darwin wrote the first series, including his pre-
evolutionary geological and zoological works, his " Coral Eeefs "
(1842), his "Zoology and Geology of the Voyage of the Beagle"
(1844—1846), his "Journal of Researches," the popular narrative of
his voyage (1845). Darwin's ill health thereafter shut him off from
geology, although his last volume, " The Earthworm," was in a sense
geological.

It is characteristic of the life of every great man that his genius
and his ovm self -analysis instinctively guide him to discover his mental
needs.

Until the age of forty-five Darwin in his own opinion had not
completed his education, in the sense that education is a broad and
exact training. He now proceeded to fill the one gap in his training
by devoting the eight years of his life, between thirty-seven and forty-
five, to a most laborious research upon the barnacles, or Cirripedia.
This gave him the key to the principles of the natural or adaptively
branching and divergent arrangement of animals through the laws of
descent as set forth in the " Origin," which he certainly could not
have secured in any other way. The value he placed on his work on
the barnacles is of especial import to-day when systematic work is so
liglitly esteemed by many biologists, young and old. Darwin subse-
quently, in the words of Hooker, " recognized three stages in his
career as a biologist, the mere collector at Cambridge, the collector
and observer on the Beagle, and for some years afterwards, and the
trained naturalist after, and only after, the Cirripede work."

328 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Long before this, however, at the age of twenty-eight, Darwin had
begun his career as a Darwinian. In July, 1837, he began his notes
on the transmutation of species, based on purely Baconian principles,
on the rigid collection of facts which would bear in any way on the
variations of animals and plants under domestication and in nature.
Rare as was his reasoning power, his powers of observation were of a
still more unique order. He persistently and doggedly followed every
clue; he noticed little things which escaped others; he always noted
exceptions and at once jotted down facts opposed to his theories. On
the voyage the marvelous adaptations of animals and plants had been
his greatest puzzle. Fifteen months later, in October, 1838, in read-
ing the work of Malthus, on " Population," there flashed across his
mind the three-fold clue of the struggle for existence, of constant
variabilit}^, and of the selection of variations which happen to be adap-
tive.

The three memorable features of- Darwin's greatest work, " The
Origin of Species," are, that he was twenty-one years in preparing it,
that, although by 1844 he was a strongly convinced evolutionist and
natural selectionist, he kept on with his observations for fifteen years,
and the volume even then would have been still longer postponed but
for a wonderful coincidence, which constitutes the third and not the
least memorable feature. This coincidence was that Wallace had also
become an evolutionist and had also discovered the principle of natural
selection through the reading of the same essay of Malthus. It is further
remarkable that of all persons Wallace selected Darwin as the one to
whom to send his paper. It was then through the persuasion of the
great botanist Hooker, who had known Darwin's views for thirteen
years that these independent discoveries were published jointly on July
1, 1858. All the finest points of Darwin's personal character were dis-
played at this time; in fact, the entire Darwin- Wallace history up to
and including Wallace's noble and self-depreciatory tribute to Darwin
on July 1, of last summer, is one of the brightest chapters in the history
of science. Wallace himself pointed out the very important distinction
that while the theories contained in the two papers published fifty years
ago were nearly identical, Wallace had deliberated only three days after
coming across the passage in Malthus, while Darwin had deliberated for
fifteen years. He modestly declared that the respective credit should be
in the ratio of fifteen years to three days.

Several months past the age of fifty Darwin published his epoch-
making work (November, 1859), and despite ill health, between fifty
and seventy-three, he produced the nine great volumes which expand
and illustrate the views expressed in " The Origin of Species."

A parallel to this remarkable late productiveness is that of Kant,
who also put forth his greatest work after fifty. Let those past the five

LIFE AND WORKS OF DARWIN 331

decades take heart, for it appears that while there are inborn differ-
ences between men in this regard, imagination, observation, reasoning
and production do not necessarily dim with age. Darwin's mind re-
mained young and plastic to the end; his latest and one of his most
characteristic works, " The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the
Action of Earth Worms " was published at the age of seventy-two,
after forty-four years of observation. It contained another and per-
haps the most extreme demonstration of Lyell's principle that vast
changes in nature are brought about by the slow operation of infini-
tesimal causes.

Three of Darwin's succeeding volumes are a filling out of the
" Origin." " The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domesti-
cation" (2 vols., 1868) presents the entire fabric of the notes begun
twenty-one years before on the transmutation of species. " The
Descent of Man " (1871) was another logical outcome of the " Origin,"
yet it was only faintly adumbrated by a single allusion in that work
to the fact that the transmutation of species necessarily led to the
evolution of man. The " Descent " marks tlie third of the great dates
in the history of thought, as the " Origin " marks the second, because
it is the final step in the development of ideas which began with Co-
pernicus in 1543. The world-wide sensation, the mighty storm pro-
duced by this bold climax of Darwin's work, is so fresh in the memory
of all that a mere allusion suffices. The evolutionary or genetic basis
for modern psychology as stated in " The Descent of Man " was given
still more concrete form in Darwin's succeeding and most delightful
volume "The Expression of the Emotions" (1872).

The knowledge of zoology and anatomy displayed in these four
evolutionary volumes came from direct observation, vast and syste-
matic reading and note-taking from the simple materials which Dar-
win could collect at Down. Always penetrating as these observations
are, they are still, in my opinion, surpassed in beauty and ingenuity
by his marvelous work on plants, published between 1862 and 1880.
Here the principles of coadaptation of plants and insects in cross- and
self-fertilization, in climbing plants and insectivorous plants, in forms
of flowers, in movements of plants, are all brought forth in support of
the theory of natural selection and the operation of unknown laws.
Darwin's most precise observations and some of his most brilliant dis-
coveries recorded in these volumes laid the foundations of modern
experimental botany.

Of his method Darwin writes :

From my early youth I had the strongest desire to understand or explain
whatever I observed, that is, to group facts under some general laws. My mind
seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large
collections of facts.

The only work which Darwin wrote deductively was his " Coral

332 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Reefs." Every other volume came through the inductive-deductive
process, tliat is, through an early assemblage of facts followed by a
series of trial hypotheses, each of which was rigidly tested by addi-
tional facts. The most central of these trial hypotheses was that of
the building up of adaptations through the selection of the single
adaptive variation out of the many fortuitous variations, and this
Darwin was unable to rigidly test by facts but was obliged to leave
for verification or disproof by work after him.

Darwin passed away in the year 1882, at the age of 73. Out of the
simple and quiet life at Down he had sent fortli the great upheaval
and revolution.

IV

There is no denying that there is to-day a wide reaction against
the central feature of Darwin's thouglit and this leads us to consider
the merits of this reaction, as will be more clearly and fully set forth
in the succeeding lectures of this series.

Kow on this centenary when we are honoring Darwin, many may
ask, exactly what is Darwinism ? Failure to know leads some to doubt,
others to predict a decline, especially where " the wish is father to the
thought." Nothing could be less true than to say that there is the least
abatement in the force of the main teaching of this great leader, namely,
of the evolutionary law of the universe. The vitality of this idea is
shown by its invasion of the physical world. Again, Darwinism is the
sum of Darwin's observations on earth structure, on jjlants, animals
and mau. This vast body of truth and of interpretation still so far
surpasses that brought forward by any other observer of nature, and
these facts and interpretations are so far confirmed that they have be-
come the very foundation stones of modern biology and geology.
Finally, looking at Darwinism as the sum of his generalizations as to
the processes of evolution we again find a vast body of well established
laws which are also daily becoming more evident. As to the laws of
evolution, there is no single biological principle more absolutely proved
by the study of living and extinct things since Darwin's time than the
broad law of natural selection : certainly the fittest survive and re-
produce their kind, the fittest of every degree, classes, orders, genera,
species, individuals and even the fittest organs and fittest separate parts
of organs. Darwin still gives us the only explanation which has ever
been suggested of hundreds of thousands of adaptations of which
neither Buffon's view of direct effect of environment nor Lamarck's
view of the inheritance of bodily modifications even approach an ex-
planation worthy to be considered. Take the egg of the murre or
guillemot, which is so much larger at one end than the other that
it can not roll off the cliff on which it is laid, or the seasonal changes
of color in the ptarmigan, every one of which is protective.

LIFE AND WORKS OF DARWIN 335

There is some lack of perspective, some egotism, much one-sided-
ness in modern criticism. The very announcement, " Darwin de-
posed/' attracts such attention as would the notice " Mt. Blanc re-
moved " ; does it not argue courage to attack a lion even when
deceased? Preoccupation in the study of one great law, as in the case
of Bateson on Mendelism and De Vries on Mutation blinds to every
other law. To be dispassionate, let us remember that Darwin's hypo-
thesis was framed in 1838, seventy years ago. Are the two great
Cambridge men, Newton and Darwin, lesser men because astronomy
and biology are progressive sciences? Secondly, to know your Darwin
you must not judge him by single passages but by all he wrote. Darwin
is not to be known through the extremes of those of his followers
with whom an hypothesis has become a creed. Heading him afresh
and through and through we discover that his " variation " and
" variability " are very broad and elastic terms. Every actual example
he cites of his main hypothesis, such as the speed of the wolf, or the
deer, or the long neck of the giraffe, is a variation both heritable and
of adaptive value.

"When we put together all the concrete cases which he gave to illus-
trate his views of selection we see that he includes both continuous and
discontinuous variations, both the shades of difference of kind and pro-
portion and the little leaps or saltations from character to character.
For example, certain cases of immunity to disease are now known to
be " unit characters " in Bateson's sense, or " mutants " in the De
Vries sense. Darwin repeatedly referred to immunity as a variation
which would be preserved by selection. Moreover, Darwin's own re-
peated assertion of his profound ignorance of the laws of variation
certainly pointed the way to the investigation of these laws, and it is
this very study which is modifying the applications of his selection
hypothesis.

From first to last Huxley maintained that it would require many
years of study before naturalists could say whether Darwin had been
led to overestimate the power of natural selection. Darwin's mind
from first to last was also open on this point. Through every edition
of the " Origin " we find the passage :

The laws governing the incipient or primordial variations (unimportant
except as the groundwork for selection to act on and then all important) 1
shall discuss under several heads. But I can come, as you may well believe,
to only very partial and imperfect conclusions.

In 1869 and in the latest edition of the " Origin " Darwin speaks
of " individual differences " as of paramount importance, but he illus-
trates these differences by such instances as the selection of passenger
pigeons with more powerful wings, or the selection of the lightest
colored birds in deserts.

336 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

There can be no question, however, that Darwin did love his selec-
tion theory, and somewhat overestimated its importance. His con-
ception of selection in nature may be compared to a series of concentric
circles constantly narrowing from the largest groups down to the
minutest structures. In the operations of this intimate circle of
minute variations within organisms he was inclined to believe two
things : first, that the fit or adaptive always arises out of the accidental,
or that out of large and minute variations without direction selection
brings direction and fitness ; second, as a consistent pupil of Lyell, he
was inclined to believe that the chief changes in evolution are slow
and continuous. The psychology of the former is that he was in a
reaction state from the prevailing false teleology. He was not expect-
ing that purposive or teleological or even orthogenetic laws of variation
woiild be discovered. William James has thus recently expressed and
endorsed the spirit of Darwinism as a natural philosophy in the follow-
words :

It is strange, considering how unanimously our ancestors felt the force of
this argument [that is, the teleological], to see how little it counts for since
the triumph of the Darwinian theory. Darwin opened our minds to the
power of the chance-happenings to bring forth " fit " results if only they have
time to add themselves together. He showed the enormous waste of nature
in producing results that get destroyed because of their unfitness.

The simple question before us to-day and in the succeeding lectures
of this course is: is this true? This really involves the deep seated
query whether the intimate or minute parts of living things are opera-
ting under natural laws like non-living things, or are really lawless.

Before expressing my individual opinion based on my own re-
searches of the last twenty years I may summarize the general modern
dissent : in three points it may be said that Darwin's teachings are not
accepted to-day.

First, his slowly developed belief in the inheritance of bodily
modifications as well as the provisional " assemblage theory " of
heredity which he called pangenesis, have been set aside for Weis-
mann's law that heredity lies in the continuity of a specific heredity
plasm, and for want of evidence of the transmission of acquired char-
acters.

Second, while his prevailing belief that changes in organisms are
in the main slow and continuous is now positively demonstrated to
be correct by the study of descent in fossil organisms, there is also
positive evidence for the belief which he less strongly entertained that
many changes are discontinuous or mutative, as held by Bateson and
De Vries.

Finally, his belief that out of fortuitous or undirected variations
in minute characters arise direction, purpose and adaptation through
selection still lacks proof by either observation or experiment. Fossil

LIFE AND WORKS OF DARWIN 339

and other descent series entirely unknown in Darwin's time certainly
prove beyond question that law rather than chance is prevailing in
variation.

What the nature of these laws is it is still too early to say. Per-
sonally I am strongly of the opinion that the laws of life, like the ulti-
mate laws of physics, may ultimately prove to be beyond analysis.

To allow myself just one flight of fanciful statement drawn from
personal observation and reflection I may say there is a likeness
between the unit forces working in a single organism, both as revealed
by the microscope and in fossil series, and the individual soldiers
composing a giant army. The millions of well-ordered activities in
the body correspond with the millions of intelligently trained men who
compose the army; the selection process or the survival of the fittest
is like the competition between two armies, between the Eussian and
Japanese, for example. It is an outward and visible competition
between two internally prepared and well-ordered hosts of units and
groups of units. Selection is continuously working upon the army as
a whole and also upon every unit which affects survival — an immunity
unit, an intelligence unit, a speed unit, a color or group of color units ;
just as in the army it is working upon units of courage, of strategy,
of precision of fire, of endurance, of mass. In this sense it is perfectly
true to say with Darwin " that selection works upon certain single
variations." It is not true or at least it is not shown, that these varia-
tions are a matter of chance ; they rather appear to be a matter of law
as indeed Darwin foresaw when he stated that he used the word
" chance " merely as a synonym of " ignorance."

In the present state of biology we are studying the behavior of the
thousands of parts, sometimes of blending, sometimes of separate,
sometimes of paired or triplicate units, Avhich compose the whole and
make up the individual organism. Natural selection determines which
organism shall win; more than this, it determines which serviceable
activities of each organism shall win. Here lie the limits of its
power. Selection is not a creative principle, it is a Judicial principle.
It is one of Darwin's many triumphs that he positively demonstrated
that this judicial principle is one of the great factors of evolution.
Then he clearly set our task before us in pointing out that the unknown
lies in the laws of variation and a stupendous task it is. At the same
time he left us a legacy in his inductive and experimental methods by
which we may blaze our trail.

Therefore, in this anniversary year, we do not see any decline in
the force of Darwinism but rather a renewed stimulus to progressive
search. As Huxley says:

But tnis one thing is perfectly certain — that is, it is only by pursuing his
method, by that wonderful single-mindedness, devotion to truth, readiness to
sacrifice all things for the advance of definite knowledge, that we can hope to

340 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

come any nearer than we are at present to the truths which he struggled to
attain.

V

On December 8, 1879, when Darwin was in his seventieth year and
I in my twenty-second, I had the rare privilege of meeting him and
looking steadily in his face during a few moments' conversation. It
was in Huxley's laboratory, and I was at the time working upon the
anatomy of the Crustacea. The entry in my journal is as follows :

This is a red letter day for me. As I was leaning over my lobster
(Homarus vulgaris) this morning, cutting away at the brain, I raised my head
and looked up to see Huxley and Darwin passing by me. I believe I never
shall see two such great naturalists together again. I went on apparently
with skill, reallj' hacking my brain away, and cast an occasional glance at the
great old gray-haired man. I was startled, so unexpected was it, by Huxley
speaking to me and introducing me to Darwin as " an American who has
already done some good paleontological work on the other side of the water."
I gave Darwin's hand a tremendous squeeze (for I never shall shake it again)
and said, without intending, in an almost reverential tone, " I am very glad
to meet you." He stands much taller than Huxley, has a very ruddy face,
with benevolent blue ej^es and overhanging eyebrows. Plis beard is quite long
and perfectly white and his hair falls partly over a low forehead. His
features are not good. My general impression of his face is very pleasant.
He smiled broadly, said something about a hope that Marsh with his students
would not be hindered in his work, and Huxley saying, " I must not let you talk
too miich,'' hurried him on into the next room.

I may add as distinctly recorded in my memory, that the impres-
sion of Darwin's bluish-gray eyes, deepset under the overhanging
brows, was that they were the eyes of a man who could survey all
nature.

Another memory of interest is that the instant Huxley closed the
door I was mobbed as the " lucky American " by the ninety less
fortunate students of Great Britain and other countries.

Huxley's solicitude for Darwin's strength was characteristic of
him. He often alluded to himself as " Darwin's bull dog."

I have already stated that of the two men Darwin gave the im-
pression of enjoying better health. Huxley was then sixteen years the
younger, yet the burdens and strain of London life made him look
less young and hale. In this connection an earlier jotting from the
same laboratory is as follows:

Huxley comes in as the clock strikes and begins to lecture at once, almost
before it ceases. He looks old and somewhat broken, his eyes deeply sunken,
but as a lecturer as strong as he ever could have been. His language is very
simple too.

VI

What of the conflict between science and theology? We are now
in a process of readjustment, but let us imagine our descendants in

CL ^.

a^T^uyx^i^

LIFE AND WORKS OF DARWIN 343

this university three or four hundred years hence looking back on the
history of man. With larger perspective they will see two grand
thought movements; the first, oriental, marked by oriental lack of
curiosity about natural law, a great moral and spiritual movement de-
veloping along the Nile, the Tigris and Euphrates, out of five thousand
years of hard human experience, culminating in Judea in the faith
that nature is the continuous handiwork of God, in a supreme stand-
ard of righteousness, and in the simple expression of the human law
" thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

Another movement begins six centuries earlier in the inquiring
mind of the west, always characterized by curiosity about nature. It
was the search for natural law. Its rapid progress among the Greeks
sadly terminates with the fall of Greece. After nineteen centuries it
revives with Copernicus and Galileo and culminates in Darwin. Man
is a part of nature; in the study of nature man finds intellectual
delight; in the laws of nature man finds his physical welfare.

The conflict of opinion aroused by Darwin will subside like the
evil passions of our Civil War. Surely the reverent study of nature
can not lead man astray. These two great movements of love and of
knowledge, first of the spiritual then of the intellectual and physical
well-being of man, will be seen to be a harmony and not a discord.

344 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

THE INDIVIDUALITY OF CHAELES DAEWIN

By CHARLES P. COX

PRESIDENT OF THE KEW YOKK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

WE are assembled, at the invitation of an organization devoted to
the dissemination of scientific knowledge, under the hospitable
roof of an institution maintained for the promotion of systematic
observation, for the purpose of honoring the memory of one of the
greatest of seers. Charles Darwin, whose birthday we celebrate, was
a man of the clearest mental vision born into a generation scientific-
ally blind. He first, of those in his day accounted wise, was able to
see all nature unfolding according to uniform and verifiable law. The
outlook of other men called by his contemporaries scientists and philoso-
phers was, as a rule, limited and obscured by a narrowing and hamper-
ing doctrine of supernatural intervention. It is hard for us, who are
privileged to contemplate with admiring minds the harmonious inter-
relations of all natural phenomena, to realize that only fifty years ago
it was commonly regarded as both irrational and immoral to believe
that one great principle underlay the origin, maintenance, diversifica-
tion and development of living forms and that tliat principle was dis-
coverable through human investigation. During the ages previous to
the memorable year 1859 a few bold thinkers, now and then, had ven-
tured to suggest a theory of general evolution, but they had failed to
supply it with a substantial foundation of proof, or to assign to it a
reasonable and intelligible cause, and had been, consequently, one and
all, overwhelmed and suppressed by the powerful and prevalent dogma
of special creation. Naturalists had been for centuries active in the
collection of facts, but, until Darwin came, the various phenomena of
living things remained disconnected and unexplained. Indeed, it was
impossible that they should have been correlated and elucidated as long
as the domain of science was in thralldom to tyrannical authority and
originality of thought was little less than a crime. For a hundred years
prior to Darwin even professed students of nature were not free to see
what lay under their very eyes. The scientific world was awaiting a
liberator. Finally the revolution was proclaimed and the first decisive
blow struck by the publication of "The Origin of Species" on the
twenty-fourth of November, 1859. It was no hasty and ill-considered

^ An address given at the American Museum of Natural History on Feb-
ruary 12, on the occasion of tlie presentation of a bust of Darwin by the New
York Academy of Sciences to the museum.

THE INDIVIDUALITY OF CHARLES DARWIN 345

stroke. Events had been shaping themselves to this end since the
twenty-seventh of December, 1831, when the little brig Beagle sailed
from Plymouth harbor, bearing the unknown and youthful Charles
Darwin to the discovery of a new world — ^not, however, an unexplored
continent to be claimed for commerce and civilization, but a vastly
greater and more valuable realm of thought to be opened to knowledge
and conquered for intellectual freedom. Darwin, like the prophets
of old, in preparation for his exalted mission, betook himself to the
uninhabited wilderness, away from the influence of other minds, in
order that he might draw inspiration from untrammeled and clarifying
communion with nature. In his narrow cabin on the broad Atlantic,
on the desert plains of Patagonia, on desolate and unpeopled islands
of the Pacific, in the dark and solemn forests of the tropics, and on
the summits of the bleak and barren Andes he gained the coveted
prize of wisdom which had been denied him in the populous halls of
two great universities where his free spirit had rebelled against the
narrow conventionality of classical education.

Although a born investigator he had been driven and harassed for
fourteen years by unthinking instructors devoid of both the ability and
the disposition to consider his natural endowments and inclinations and
who, with one or two exceptions, according to his own later judgment,
wasted their time upon an unappreciative and discouraging pupil. He
says of himself that he was slow in learning, but a review of his produc-
tive life clearly shows that, if he was dull in any respect, it was solely in
the matter of accepting ideas at second hand. It happened, merely, that
what most of his teachers were prepared to impart he was not consti-
tuted to receive ; and so one of the acutest observers the world has ever
known was thought to be inattentive and unreceptive. During all the
school days of his childhood, passed in his native town of Shrewsbury,
not only were his superb mental gifts wholly unrecognized, but no
attempt was ever made to find out if he had any such gifts. He spent
seven useless years at Dr. Butler's so-called " great school," but, appar-
ently, the head master never came to know his talented pupil, for the
educational system which prevailed in that institution had no reference
to " the discovery of the exceptional man." The one ceaseless effort of
his schoolmasters was to crowd him into the common mold.

Eeceiving no sjnnpathy and little assistance from the teachers of his
boyhood, he developed " a strong taste for long solitary walks " and cul-
tivated the habit of stealing time for more or less surreptitious collecting
in several departments of natural history. Thus he became, in all
important respects, self-taught and, driven to his own resources, his
natural inclination to consider his path of life as lying far aside from
the common highway was confirmed and strengthened. This sense of
solitariness followed him to the end of his life and was, no doubt, an

VOL. LXXII. — 24.

346 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

important factor in the formation and preservation of his extraordinary
individuality and faith in his own powers. Darwin's followers may
therefore bless even the obtuseness and unwisdom of his preceptors who
left him unspoiled by their restraining influence.

When, in 1825, Doctor Eobert Darwin concluded that his son Charles
was lacking in natural aptitude for scholarship, he sent him to Edin-
burgh University, intending that he should follow in the footsteps of
his father and of his grandfather by becoming a physician. But here,
again, the young man found himself unable to receive what was oSered
him on the strength of ancient authority. The instruction dispensed
in that hoary institution was, to him, perfunctory and uninspiring and
he was once more driven to seek the real enlargement of his knowledge
by self-directed methods. In this way he appears to have obtained, at
Edinburgh, some sort of acquaintance with the fundamental principles
of scientific research, but, as the learning thus acquired was not in the
line of his intended profession, it was not appreciated by his family and
friends. Accordingly, after two sessions spent at that university, it
was concluded that his regular studies had been entirely misdirected
and he was therefore withdrawn and sent to Cambridge. There he was
still worse misguided in the endeavor to educate him in theology.
Again was repeated the old story of an uncongenial curriculum osten-
sibly conformed to but in reality shirked and avoided in favor of natural
history privately followed by side paths. The unwilling student wished
to be obedient to his father's direction, but native bent proved stronger
than conventional rule — the call of destiny louder than the voice of
filial duty.

His father, in most things a wise man, saw in his son's insect- and
bird-hunting proclivity a tendency to the life of "an idle sporting
man" and was sorely grieved and disappointed when he was obliged
to concede the failure of his plan to connect the house of Darwin with
the Church of England. Fortunately, however, the youthful Darwin
came under the influence, at Cambridge, of a teacher endowed with
more than ordinary discernment and, in this particular matter, with
somewhat unusual independence and courage, and he took the budding
naturalist and his lawless pursuits under his patronage and protection.
To the faith and friendship of Professor J. S. Henslow Darwin was
indebted for his appointment to the Beagle expedition, and to Professor
Henslow, who robbed the church to enrich science, the world owes an
incalculable debt of gratitude for the discovery, if not for the devel-
opment, of one of its loftiest geniuses.

Others besides Henslow, however, had contributed to the fixation of
Darwin's inborn talents and abilities, but Darwin never admitted that
he received, either at Edinburgh or at Cambridge, anything like sys-
tematic mental training. He was, from the beginning of his school

THE INDIVIDUALITY OF CHARLES DARWIN 347

days to the end of his university life, a person set apart for individual
preparation for a special and peculiar career. Wlien he bade farewell
to Christ's College, Cambridge, in the summer of 1831, his actual
education was yet to be acquired, but not through human instruction.
He has himself declared : " I have always felt that I owe to the voyage
the first real training or education of my mind.'*

It was therefore no professional scientist who eagerly accepted the
unsalaried post of naturalist to the Beagle expedition around the world,
but a modest, though confident, youth of twenty-two whose most impor-
tant article of outfit 'was the first volume of the first edition of Lyell's
" Principles of Geology," which had been published the year before, the
second volume of which was not issued until after Darwin had reached
South America. Thus it was providentially ordered that during the
formative period covered by this epoch-making voyage, Darwin should
remain as free as possible from human influences. If, instead of
proceeding, raw as he was, directly from the seclusion of the university
to the isolation of the voyage, he had directed his steps to the metrop-
olis and had there mingled with the leaders in scientific thought,
it is quite possible, if not probable, that he would have fallen under
their authority and would have accepted the orthodox beliefs of his
time. If that had been the case, we might be dominated to-day by
the prohibitive doctrine of the immutability of species, instead of enjoy-
ing that freedom of thought and liberty of investigation to which
Darwin made us heirs. But, happily for the intellectual world, during
the five years which Darwin spent on the Beagle, under the intimate
tutelage of mother nature, he laid, for our benefit, as well as for his
own, the solid foundations of that never-failing habit of mind in which
open-eyed teachableness ever supplemented unwavering honesty of pur-
pose and fearlessness of approach.

After Darwin's return from the circumnavigation of the globe, he
resided, for a little more than five years, in London, and that was the
only portion of his life during which he was in actual personal contact
with any considerable number of his fellow men. Even then, however,
he was mostly engaged with his own thoughts, for he was arranging his
collections and preparing for publication the results of his observations
made while on the Beagle voyage. It was at the very beginning of this
residence in London (July, 1837), while the things he had seen in
South America and the Pacific Islands were still fresh in his memory
that he opened his first note-book for facts in relation to the origin of
species, about which he says he " had long reflected." For twenty-two
years thereafter Mr. Darwin continued to pursue this revolutionizing
subject with unexampled patience and, except as to two or three inti-
mate friends, entirely within the privacy of his own mind.

In September, 1842, he went into retirement at Down, an out-of-

348 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

the-way village in Kent. There, partly compelled by ill-health, he
dwelt as a recluse for forty years, serenely contemplating nature and
diligently gathering information, but seldom emerging into the world
from which his richly-stored and phenomenally creative intellect had
little to gain, but to which it never ceased to give, during the remainder
of his life. Bare knowledge he welcomed from any source, but opinions
and deductions he invariably produced for himself. What he wrote to
H. W. Bates, who complained of a want of advice, is true of Darwin
himself : " Part of your great originality of views," he said, " may be
due to the necessity of self -exertion of thought." What has been said
by his son Francis is equally true of Mr. Darwin — one of his most
striking characteristics was " that supreme power of seeing and thinking
what the rest of the world had overlooked."

Mr. Darwin was what we are accustomed to call a genius, but I
know of no good definition of a genius but a man of insight. The per-
son who by his unaided mental vision is able to see into and through
problems which to other men are baffling or insoluble, has the highest
right to be considered inspired. Darwin's wonderful endowment in this
respect constituted him, by divine right, a leader of men. The world
has always justly honored its standard bearers and we are here to pay
homage to the name of one of the most attractive and commanding of
them all. In other parts of this city and of this land, our fellow-citizens
are gathering to-day to pay grateful tribute to the estimable character,
and to recall the memorable deeds of a great emancipator. We likewise
are celebrating the beneficent acts of a man, simple and modest as that
other, who, at a critical period, spoke courageous words which conferred
freedom on millions of his fellow creatures. It is altogether fitting
that the birthdays of these two benefactors should be the same.

We now dedicate this monument in this approprite place not only
to the honor and memory of Charles Darwin the great thinker, whose
life and personality we admire, but also to the encouragement and
guidance of all who may hereafter frequent these halls — as a testimony
to the power of self-reliance and independence of mind which Charles
Darwin preeminently exemplified and illustrated. May this portrait of
a noble truth-seeker which we now unveil, signify, for all time to come,
to him who would advance the boundaries of scientific knowledge that
nature will yield up her secrets only when appealed to directly and in
humility and purity of spirit.

D Amy IN AND GEOLOGY 349

DAEWIN AND GEOLOGY ^

By Professor JOHN JAMES STEVENSON

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

CHAELES DAEWIN was born in a time of intellectual nnrest.
Explorers, students of chemistry and workers in mines had been
adding to actual knowledge for nearly one third of a century and thought-
ful men had been forced to recognize the worthlessness of many concep-
tions which had long passed current. Nowhere was this unrest more
manifest than among the younger geologists; but they were compelled
to express themselves cautiously, for, fettered by a false chronology,
the church dignitaries who controlled the universities rebuked investi-
gation and branded as infidels those who recorded obnoxious facts.
Little more than a year prior to Darwin's birth, the Geological Society
of London had been founded as a protest against subjective study of
this globe, but already many adherents to the principles of that society
had appeared on the continent, proclaiming that actual knowledge of
conditions must precede attempts to explain them.

The development of opinion was so rapid that before Darwin
reached his majority the geological pendulum had made its great swing
from the doctrine of cataclysms to that of uniformity; from the belief
that this globe is less than 6,000 years old to an abiding faith that its
age can not be measured in" years. It was amid such conditions that
toward the close of his university studies, he came under the influence
of Henslow and Sedgwick, the latter being engaged at that time along
with Murchison in an effort to unravel the tangle of Welsh geology.
Some have said that these men taught him how to observe; not so; he
was already a keen observer and they merely led him into wider fields.

In 1831, Captain Eitzroy was assigned to command H. M. S. Beagle,
a little brig of 240 tons, and was commissioned to complete the coast
survey of southern South America as well as to run a line around the
globe. When he expressed the wish to be accompanied by a naturalist,
Darwin, then only twenty-two years old, promptly volunteered his
services, which were accepted, and he was enrolled as a supernumerary
member of the staff. The Beagle left England on December 27, 1831,
and returned on October 2, 1836, bringing with it Charles Darwin,
now grown intellectually to man's stature and bearing a notable cargo
of material collections as well as of accumulated observations. There

^ An address given at the American Museum of Natural History on Feb-
ruary 12.

35° THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

was DO haste in publication ; aside from some very brief communications
to societies, nothing appeared until 1839, when the Journal of Re-
searches was printed. Owen's descriptions of the fossil mammalia was
issued in 1840 with an introduction by Darwin and the final publica-
tion of results was made in three parts, dated 1842, 1844 and 1846.
Thus early in his career, Darwin showed that caution which character-
ized him throughout life, an indifference to priority which was the out-
growth of his love of accuracy.

Part 2 of the " Geological Observations," dated 1844, relates chiefly
to volcanic islands. In most cases the stay at those was brief and the
studies were fragmentary; yet Darwin saw enough to let him discuss
the origin of volcanic cones, to determine some cardinal points respect-
ing the distribution of the islands, to distinguish submarine from sub-
aerial lava flows and to prove that experimental studies on metamor-
phosis of limestones had led to very nearly true conceptions of the
process.

As the coast survey of southern South America was the important
object of Captain Fitzroy's expedition, there was ample time for a good
reconnaissance of that region and Darwin spent nearly six months in
studying the pampas from the Parana and Uraguay rivers southward
almost to Magellan's Strait. A synopsis was given as an introduction
to Owen's Memoir, but the details did not appear until 1846, when they
were published as Part 3 of the " Geological Observations." The whole
subject was discussed attractively in the second edition of the Journal
of Researches.

The superficial deposit of the great plains is a " reddish argillaceous
earth " containing concretions of indurated marl, which, at times become
continuous layers or even replace much of the red earth. In the north-
erly part of the plains-area, this pampas deposit, which passes down-
ward into sands, limestones and clays of late Tertiary age, yielded no
marine shells to Darwin; its infusoria, studied by Ehrenberg, proved
to be partly marine, partly freshwater, while the marly concretions re-
semble some freshwater limestones seen in Europe; but this paucity of
invertebrate life was unimportant, for the whole of that region proved
to be one vast cemetery, in which the skeletons of gigantic extinct
mammals are so numerous that a line could not be drawn in any
direction without passing through some bones. In northern Pata-
gonia the red deposit is bound closely to an overlying gravel, contain-
ing marine forms belonging to species now existing on the coast,
while in southern Patagonia marine shells occur in the pampas de-
posit itself.

Darwin believed that this pampas material was deposited within
a vast estuary, into which great rivers carried from the surrounding
region carcasses of the animals whose skeletons were entombed in

DAEWIN AND GEOLOGY 35 1

muds tranquilly accumulating on the bottom. All conditions go to
show that the mammalia became extinct after the sea had received
its present fauna; and there is nothing to suggest that a period of
overwhelming violence swept away and destroyed the inhabitants of
the land; everything supports the contrary belief. The only note-
worthy change in conditions has been a gradual elevation of the con-
tinent; but that was not enough to modify the climate or to bring
about a change in the land fauna.

Several of the important genera collected by Darwin had been
found in North America long prior to his time. This similarity of
the Quaternary faunas induced him to speculate on the causes which
had divided the American continent into two well-defined and some-
what contrasting zoological provinces. He does not hesitate to sug-
gest recent elevation of the Mexican platform or more probably,
recent submergence of the West Indian Archipelago as a conceivable
cause of this separation. It seems to him most probable that the
elephants, the mastodons, the horses and the hollow horned rumi-
nants of North America " migrated, on land since submerged near
Behring "Straits, from Siberia into North America, and thence, on land
since submerged in the West Indies, into South America, where for
a time they mingled with forms characteristic of that southern con-
tinent and have since become extinct." Had this American Museum
of Natural History existed in Darwin's day, study of the remarkable
exhibits in its Mammalian Hall would have enabled him to extend
his list of extinct forms common to both continents, and possibly he
might have anticipated some of the all-important generalizations for
which the world is indebted to the former president of this academy,
who now is president of the museum.

Nothing in South America, east or west, escaped Darwin; from
glaciers to peat bogs, from earthquakes to climatal variations, every-
thing was important; but what impressed him most on both sides of
the continent were the evidences of extremely slow secular movement
in the earth's crust. This was the preparation for that study of the
coral islands which resulted in his chief contribution to philosophical
geology.

Many voyagers prior to 1833 had observed and had tried to account
for the strange atolls, or low ring-like coral reefs, each enclosing a
lagoon which communicates with the sea by a narrow channel; but
Darwin discovered other forms of reefs which were equally perplexing.
Many islets of rock are fringed by coral growth, while vast barrier reefs,
separated from the land by channels of varying depth, extend at times
for hundreds of miles along coasts. All explanations by previous
observers were defective as they seemed to ignore these types as well as
other features, not less important.

352 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Eeef-making corals can not endure exposure to the air and they can
not thrive at a depth of more than 20 fathoms, so that their vertical
range is about 115 feet; yet hooks and anchors brought up coral rock
and sand from many hundreds of feet below the limit of growth; in a
great number of instances, the atolls or ring-like reefs are mere peaks
rising with abrupt slopes from " fathomless " abysses. Coral-bearing
areas within the Indian and Pacific Oceans are of vast extent, there
being chains of archipelagos, 1,000 to 1,500 miles long. The reefs are
rudely circular or elliptical in the islands but are linear along the
coasts ; in the one case, the reef encloses a lagoon, in the other, a lagoon-
like channel separates the reef from the coast. These are fundamental
elements of the problem, not one of which may be neglected in the solu-
tion. A clue to the explanation was found by this keen observer when
he saw an islet of old rock, fringed with coral, rising from the lagoon
of an atoll, so that the atoll-ring resembled in many respects the barrier
reef of a continent and the lagoon itself resembled the lagoon-like
channel seen on the Australian and other coasts.

Chamisso's suggestion that coral reefs had been formed on banks of
sedimentary material seemed wholly incompetent to meet the condi-
tions, for the areas are too vast, and Darwin was compelled to believe
that the atolls rest on rocky bases; but even on this supposition, it
appears incredible that peaks of several great mountain chains should
all come to within less than 180 feet of the surface and that not one
rose any higher. The long study in South America had prepared him
to seek an explanation in mobility of the earth's crust ; but it was clear
that elevation could not bring about the conditions, as that would
destroy the corals themselves; subsidence alone can account for the
phenomena. And thus Darwin presents his case :

If then the foundations of the many atolls were not uplifted into the
requisite position, they must of necessity have subsided into it; and this at
once solves every difficulty, for we may safely infer from the facts given in
the last chapter, that during a subsidence the corals would be favorably
circumstanced for building up their solid framework and reaching the surface,
as island after island slowly disappeared. Thus areas of immense extent in
the central and most profound parts of the oceans might become interspersed
with coral islets, none of which would rise to greater height than that attained
by detritus heaped up by the sea, and nevertheless they might all have been
formed by corals which absolutely require for their growth a solid foundation
within a few fathoms of the surface. . . . The rocky bases slowly and suc-
cessively sank beneath the level of the sea, while corals continued to grow
upward.

The origin of the ring as well as that of the barrier reef seemed to
be easily explained by this hypothesis. The corals on the outer side of
the reef grew with greater rapidity than did those within, as the supply
of food is constant ; those on the inner side became starved and eventually
the interior growth ceased and the lagoon was shallowed by wind-drifted
material from the shores.

DAEWIN AND GEOLOGY 353

Darwin's hypothesis and the facts on which it was based have become
so familiar that students sometimes express surprise that so much praise
has been awarded to the author. The conditions as presented in his
discussion are so clear that certainly no man could reach any other
conclusion. That is true, but it is true only because Darwin mar-
shalled his facts in a manner so masterly ; in any event, it is always easy
to do a thing when another has done it well and told us how. But it
must be remembered that an hypothesis of this sort, though normal
enough in our day, was very abnormal in that day; indeed, it was con-
trary to Darwin's own underlying conceptions, for, though a uniformi-
tarian, he had seen many phenomena which, for a time, made him only
a halting disciple. Yet his hj^othesis was a monumental contribution
in support of the uniformitarian doctrine, which, under the leadership
of Lyell, was gaining sturdy adherents. That the hypothesis met with
uncompromising opposition need not be said. The material of coral
origin extended to vast depths alongside of the islands, in some cases
apparently to 4,000 feet. The upward growth of the reef was known
to be extremely slow. If the subsidence and the upward growth kept
pace, as was essential to the hypothesis, evidently the required period,
belonging to the latest portion of the earth's existence, was immensely
long. It is difficult now to understand how great moral courage was
needed by the man who published such a doctrine ; sixty years ago, the
educated man of Great Britain had not learned to distinguish between
faith and prejudice.

This effort to explain the origin of coral reefs has been regarded,
justly, as Darwin's especial contribution to geology. It has been
opposed strenuously by careful students during the last twenty years
and even now it is a bone of contention ; but the most strenuous oppo-
nent concedes that it is logical and a fair induction from the facts as
then known. Be it true or not, be it a competent explanation or not,
no matter. In influence on geology it has been as far-reaching as the
doctrine of natural selection has been on biology. It involves every
important problem in dynamics of the earth's crust; in testing it, men
have been led into paths of investigation, which, but for Darwin, might
still be untrodden. The influence went farther. The hypothesis was
presented at a time when men's minds were warped by prejudice, when
men were extremists, when too many were defenders of dogmas in sci-
ence and too few were searchers after truth. Darwin's discussion was a
model of frankness; suggestions offered by his predecessors were dealt
with courteously; he searched far and wide for objections to his own
suggestions, and when objections were found he stated them in detail,
concealing nothing and urging further investigation. His conclusions
were, for him, merely tabulations of observed facts. One can not over-
estimate the importance of this method ; it was a chief factor in chang-

354 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

ing the tone of scientific literature, in leading to replacement of sub-
jective by objective modes of investigation.

Darwin's work as geologist practically ended with these publications
of the Beagle results. It is true that in later years he made some con-
tributions possessing much interest, but they were merely incidental to
studies in other directions ; the greater part of his long life was devoted
to biological problems. At the same time, his whole mode of thinking
and of observing was that of the geologist, so that if one were treating
of his later years the topic might well be the influence of geology upon
Darwin. In his later works, one finds constantly recurring considera-
tion of geological conditions as potent factors in biological change, while
on the other hand he emphasized the influence of life as a factor in
bringing about geological changes. To him nature was always one;
and he, in great measure, was responsible for the broadness of view
characterizing the geologists who were his contemporaries as well as for
the remarkable change in attitude of the community toward scientific
discussion. Nowadays, when workers are so many and knowledge is so
increased, men have been forced into narrow lanes of investigation;
students, perplexed by phenomena within their limited vision, too often
think little and know less of what neighbors are doing. And this must
continue until some important problems have been solved, at least in
part, and some positive results have been obtained in many directions.
Then another Darwin will come, will gather loose strands floating in the
wind and will weave from them a new system, once more binding nature
studies into one and providing a safe platform, whence men may start
anew to fathom the unknown by means of the known.

DARWIN AND BOTANY 355

DARWIN AND BOTANY ^

By Dr. NATHANIEL LORD BRITTON

NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN

CONSIDERING the fact that Charles Darwin disclaimed the title
of botanist, his contributions to the knowledge of plant life and its
phenomena were certainly extraordinary. His investigations extended
over a great range of topics, at one time or another practically covering
the whole field of botanical research. In repeatedly stating that he
was not a botanist, he evidently meant to imply that he was not a
systematist, and it is true that his knowledge of plant taxonomy was
the least of his scientific acquirements. In his first letter to Dr. Asa
Gray, written in 1855, which was the commencement of a long corre-
spondence, he almost apologized for asking questions ! During that
year he became keenly interested, however, in knowing more about the
kinds of plants growing wild in the vicinity of his home, and in a letter
to Dr. Hooker he complains about the dreadful difficulty of naming
plants, though he apparently became quite enthusiastic in this pursuit
and advised Dr. Hooker, " If ever you catch quite a beginner and want
to give him a taste of botany tell him to make a perfect list of some
little field or wood." The facts just stated seem to indicate the extent
of his taxonomic studies. He accepted, for the most part, the names
of plants which he studied from the determinations of others.

Darwin was attracted to observations of natural objects as a young
boy and he early considered plants; his juvenile collections were ento-
mological, and his earlier investigations were mainly zoological and
geological. As a pupil of Professor Henslow at Cambridge University
he attended botanical lectures and took part in field excursions; he
greatly enjoyed the field work, and from it his inspiration for investi-
gation was doubtless derived.

As naturalist of the voyage around the world of the ship Beagle

(1831-1836) his collections of plants made in South America and on

the islands of the Pacific Ocean, and his observations upon the botanical

features of the countries visited, contributed greatly to the knowledge

of the flora of those regions. They were extensively utilized by Dr.

Hooker in his " Flora Antarctica " and in his " Flora of the Galapagos

Archipelago," as well as by other authors in various contributions.

Darwin's valuable herbarium is preserved in the museum of Cambridge

^An address given at tlie American Museum of Natural History on Feb-
ruary 12.

356 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

University. That he collected assiduously at times during portions of
this expedition, is evidenced by his having brought home specimens of
193 species of the 225 species which, after his specimens had been
studied, were known to inhabit the Galapagos Islands and by the fact
that about 100 species new to science were represented in his Galapagos
collection. He noticed the extraordinary distribution of species or
races on the several islands of this group, many of them inhabiting
only a single island, and he laid the foundation for all subsequent study
of insular floras. The narrative of observations and experiences during
this memorable voyage is replete with interesting facts and suggestions
concerning plants, and his conclusion that "Nothing can be more
improving to a young naturalist than a journey in distant countries,"
is one that should be reiterated by all teachers of natural science, and
such experience should be sought by all students who propose engaging
in investigation. Darwin is commemorated in botanical taxonomy by
many species named in his honor. The beautiful barberry, Berheris
Darwinii of Hooker, native of Chiloe, is occasionally seen in cultivation.
Darwinia, an Australian genus of the myrtle family, named by Eudge
in 1813, commemorates his grandfather, Erasmus Darwin.

The beginnings of Darwin's theory of descent of animals and plants
from preexistent species, with modifications, were made during the
voyage of the Beagle, and from the year after his return to England,
when, he tells us, he opened the first note-book on the subject. For
twenty-two years he was interrogating gardeners and breeders, botanists
and zoologists, and diligently observing plants and animals. He first
thought of publishing on the theory of descent in 1839, but delayed for
twenty years. During the studies which led up to the publication, in
1859, of " The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the
Preservation of Favored Eaces in the Struggle for Life," Darwin closely
observed a great number of wild and cultivated plants, with reference
to variation in nature and under domestication, the struggle for exist-
ence due to competition for food and sunlight, the facts of geographic
distribution, the succession of plant life on the earth as indicated by
the fossils of successive geologic periods, and a great range of other
facts and phenomena. The recorded observations of other botanists
were also freely utilized and discussed. Nearly all the chapters of this
epoch-making work contain conclusions drawn from his own botanical
observations. He was especially impressed by the divergent views of
different botanists relative to the taxonomic treatment of highly poly-
morphic genera such as Hieracium (hawk- weeds), Ruhus (blackberry),
Quercus and Rosa, and he employed this consideration to great advan-
tage in his argument for derivation during descent. Eudimentary
organs were considered with much interest and readily explained by
Darwin as vestiges of structures which were useful to the plant in

DAP^YIN AND BOTANY 357

earlier stages of its existence. The facts of geographic distribution
were eagerly examined as bearing on the theory of descent and Darwin's
writings abound in speculations relative to their significance. He was
inclined to combat the geologic theory of former land connections of
present existing continents, as not satisfactorily accounting for many
features of geographic distribution, though he ultimately agreed with
this theory to some extent. He closely studied the natural means by
which seeds are transported over great distances and also inquired into
the vitality of seeds.

The title of the " Origin " was a subject of considerable doubt in
his mind, and in 1857, two years before it was printed, he had proposed
to call it " Natural Selection." The title " Origin of Species by Means
of Natural Selection," is, if taken literally, somewhat misleading, and
has occasioned considerable discussion. The subtitle — " Or the Pres-
ervation of Favored Eaces in the Struggle for Life " — is a more accurate
statement of his theory. On November 23, 1856, he wrote to Dr.
Hooker :

The formation of a strong variety, or species, I look at as almost wholly
due to the selection of what may be incorrectly called chance variations.
Again, the slight differences selected, by which a race or species is at last
formed, stand, as I think can be shown in the far more important relation
to its associates than to external conditions.

Darwin's great contribution to the subject of evolution was the
incontrovertible proof adduced by him that living species are modified
descendants of preexisting species, and that the modifications are
brought about by natural causes. His observations led him to the con-
clusion that the modifications were all minute, gradual and cumulative.
We know that they may also be considerable and abrupt and that they
are cumulative because favorable changes are preserved.

How, then, do the modifications or primordial variations, either
large or small, arise? Is variation an innate essential quality, or is it
induced by external environmental factors? Proof of environmental
agencies having at least something to do with it in plants seems to be
accumulating, as the experimental work carried on by MacDougal and
by Gager at the New York Botanical Garden appears to imply.

I think that we may now safely outline the methods of formation
of species somewhat as follows : Through causes which are not yet at
all well known, but by means of which agencies external to the germ-
cells certainly may have a part, the offspring of a plant grown from
seed differ more or less from the parent (variation). The thus modified
offspring, subjected to natural selection, ultimately perish if they are
unadapted, but survive if they are adapted to their surroundings.
Repetitions of this process finally bring the descendants of plants to
differ materially from their ancestors (evolution). The end of the

358 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

process seems to be the development of organisms which are little or
not at all subject to variation (monotypic genera). All genera of
plants containing a large number of species are evidently subject to
continued variation and their species and races almost defy classifica-
tion. Just what part the phenomena of hybridism take in the final
result is not clear, but it may be pointed out that they are evidently
unnecessary, because great groups, whole orders, in fact, of the fungi,
are devoid of sexuality, and hybridism is therefore impossible among
them; yet they are subject to variation like other plants and are quite
as difficult to classify.

Observations on insectivorous plants occupied Darwin at intervals
from 1860 until the publication of his volume on that subject in 1875.
He commenced with the round-leaved sundew {Drosera rotundifolia)
while staying at Ashdown Forest, and was soon intensely interested in
the exquisite sensitiveness of the leaf -glands to nitrogenous substances.
His studies were continued over most of the plants of the sundew
family, and to others known to entrap insects or other small animals.
He discovered that the leaves of Drosera and of Dioncea secreted a
ferment when supplied with various kinds of nitrogenous food and he
closely observed the movements of their glands and tentacles and recorded
them in detail. Experiments were also made on these plants with a
great variety of non-nitrogenous substances. Darwin pointed out the
remarkable parallelism between the digestive powers of the secretions
of the Droseracese and those of the gastric juices of animals. The sacs
of the aquatic bladder-worts (Utricularia) and the leaves of butter-
worts (Pinguicula) were also closely studied. His book is replete with
records of careful observations and ingenious deductions. Nepenthes
had already been shown by Dr. Hooker to secrete digestive fluids in its
pitcher-like leaves, and Sarracenia was suspected of similar activity by
Darwin and by others, although he did not regard this as proved.

As early as 1838 or 1839 Darwin was attracted to observe the
processes of pollination and noticed the dimorphic flowers of Linum
flavum. He had concluded at that time that cross-fertilization was
potent in holding species stable and constant. He obtained a great
deal of information on this topic in 1841 by reading Sprengle's " Ent-
deckte Geheimniss der Natur," which stimulated him to continued
investigations during summers and he became especially interested in
the methods of pollination of the wild orchids growing about his home.
This study of pollination of orchids resulted in the publication, in 1862,
of his book on that subject, and in it his detailed observations are
recorded. Some of his closest observational work was done on this
subject of cross-pollination, and he examined a great many species and
grew thousands of plants from seed, reaching the broad generalization
that cross-fertilization is beneficial to a species and self-fertilization is

DAE\YIN AND BOTANY 359

injurious. The phenomena do not now, however, appear to have as
important a relation to evolution as they were formerly supposed to
have, and Darwin later expressed regret that he had not given more
attention to the processes of self-fertilization.

His interest in showing that cross-fertilization was beneficial led
him to closely investigate the various structural features of flowers
which necessitate this process to a greater or less degree, such as dioecism,
monoecism, polygamy and heterostyly ; his observations and speculations
are presented in the volume entitled " Different Forms of Flowers and
Plants of the Same Species," published in 1877. He records that
making out the meaning of heterostyled flowers gave him very great
pleasure. A chapter of the book is devoted to cleistogamic flowers,
which are necessarily self-fertilized and produce seed abundantly. This
work is largely a revision and rearrangement of several papers previously
published in the Journal of the Linncran Society.

"The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,"
Darwin's largest work, appeared in 1868, published in two volumes. As
bearing on this topic he had studied, among plants for many years, the
cereal grains, garden vegetables, edible fruits, ornamental trees and
ornamental flowers. In the preface he again discusses natural selection
and defines it as "This preservation, during the battle for life of
varieties which possess any advantage in structure, constitution or
instinct," noting that Herbert Spencer had well termed the same process
" The Survival of the Fittest." But the bulk of the work is given to
the consideration of selection by man — artificial selection, by which races
useful to us, economically or esthetically, have been preserved and
modified, some of them having originated in very remote times and been
taken advantage of by uncivilized man. A chapter is devoted to the
phenomena of bud-variation, in which many cases of branches of plants
different in one respect or another from other branches on the same
plant are described in detail. Many of these have been taken advan-
tage of by horticulturists for the propagation of valuable races. He did
not reach any definite conclusion as to the cause of these interesting
occurrences ; but recently acquired knowledge of mutation seems to indi-
cate that they are of that category, differing from seminal mutations in
that a cell in the axil of a leaf is affected rather than a germ-cell. In
these volumes we find Darwin's most detailed discussion of heredity of
variability and of hybridism and the last chapter outlines his provisional
hypothesis of Pangenesis, an ingenious supposition, applying to living
matter the general features of the atomic theory, with an additional
inherent power of reproduction of the atoms or "gemmules" as he
termed the hypothetical ultimate particles.

The movements of plants and of their various organs were also
studied by Darwin for many years. His first essay on this topic

36o TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

appeared in 1865 and ten years later he revised and enlarged it as a book
under the title "The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants,"
using, as always, not only his own detailed and extensive observations,
but also the published writings of other botanists, among them the paper
on tendrils by Hugo de Vries, who was subsequently destined to throw
such a flood of light on the phenomena of variation. Darwin grouped
climbing plants into twiners, leaf-climbers, tendril-bearers, hook-climbers
and root-climbers. He maintained that the climbing habit has been
developed to enable vines to reach the light and free air ; tropical forests
show conclusively that this is the case. He showed that circumnutation,
the bending of growing tips successively to all points of the compass, is
a general phenomenon among flowering plants, and he thought it of
high importance to them. The sensitiveness of tendrils to external
influences interested him deeply and he made many original experi-
ments upon them. Following the subject much further, he published in
1880 the work entitled "The Power of Movement in Plants," a treatise
abounding in records of original observations on seedlings and parts of
mature plants, including further studies of circumnutation, of the sensi-
tiveness of plants to light and to other forces, and of the phenomena of
geotropism and apogeotropism, which he regarded as modified phe-
nomena of circumnutation.

The value of the impulse given by Darwin to botanical investigation
in all its branches is beyond estimation ; his power of exact observation
and record has seldom been equaled and certainly never excelled; his
deductions were highly philosophical and most of them have stood the
test of thirty years' inquiry and criticism; he was searching for truth
and his absolute honesty in research is plainly evidenced by his repeated
criticism of his own conclusions.

The immense number of plant species which had been described
and named, and the lack of any complete index to them led Darwin
to provide in his will for complete enumeration of the names of pub-
lished species of flowering plants. This great work was prepared at
the library of the Eoyal Gardens, Kew, England, and published in
1895 in four large quarto volumes, to which several supplements have
since been added. This " Index Kewensis " is a great boon to all
investigators, and is quite indispensable to those who have to take
plant names into consideration.

DARWIN AND ZOOLOGY 361

DAEWm AND ZOOLOGY 1
Bx De. hermon c. bumpus

AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

THIS is an assembly composed substantially of members and
friends of the New York Academy of Sciences, united to do
homage to one whose genius has been long felt in our meetings, and
whose influence is now recognized in every field of intellectual
endeavor. The example of Darwin's precision in observing, of his
wisdom in interpreting, and of his truthfulness in recording the
phenomena of nature, has transformed zoology — the subject assigned
to me — from prosaic description to acute speculation, from a merely
interesting study to an aggressive science.

This change has taken place in an incredibly short space of time,
and it may be worth while, on an occasion such as this, to examine
the condition of scientific academies and similar organizations in
America at the time of the publication of the " Origin of Species,"
to note the first center of appreciative acceptance and to trace the
spread of the belief in Darwinism as it betrayed itself in the publi-
cations of the time.

Fifty years ago there were in America five leading centers of organ-
ized scientific activity.

In Philadelphia were the American Philosopical Society, founded
by Franklin, and then well along in its second century of " promoting
useful knowledge," and the Academy of Natural Sciences, approach-
ing its semi-centennial.

In Boston were the adolescent Boston Society of Natural History,
approaching its thirtieth birthday, and the mature American Academy
of Arts and Sciences, founded in 1780.

In New Haven was the Connecticut Academy, founded in 1786.

In Washington, although the National Institution for the Promo-
tion of Science (founded in 1810) and the Smithsonian Institution had
been publishing for eleven years, men of science apparently did not
unite in an academic way until the Philosophical Society of Wash-
ington was organized in 1871. Even the National Academy was not
incorporated until 1863, four years after the announcement of the
" Origin of Species."

In New York, this academy (then called the Lyceum of Natural
History) was meeting at Fourteenth Street, at a point now occupied
by the headquarters of Tammany Hall. Of those then attending its
meetings, but one now remains.

^An address given at the American Museum of Natural History on Feb-
ruary 12.

362 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

The dominant mind at Philadelphia was that of Leidy, thirty-six
years of age. Cope was a boy of nineteen. In Washington, were
Joseph Henry, sixty-two; Bache, sixty-three; Baird, thirty-six, and
others attached to the Smithsonian Institution, and the great govern-
ment surveys. Baird was often a contributor to the publications of
the New York Lyceum of Natural History.

In New York was Torrey, a man of sixty-three, and among others
two young men, Theodore Nicholas Gill — the senior member of this
academy — and Daniel Giraud Elliot, now honoring this museum with
his presence — both born in New York, and both in their early twenties.
Not only have these two — early identified with the scientific publica-
tions of this academy — witnessed the change that has taken place
during the past fifty years, but their long series of contributions to
science admirably illustrate the strange power that has been exerted
upon zoological work in general, and descriptive zoology in particular,
by him who came into being one hundred years ago.

In New Haven were James Dwight Dana, forty-six; Daniel C.
Gilman, twenty-eight, and the Sillimans.

In Boston, were Agassiz, adored by the people — preeminent among
teachers — the studious lovable Gray, at one time (1836) librarian of this
academy, and Jeffries Wyman. Both Agassiz and Gray were about the
age of Darwin. Jeffries Wyman was a few years their junior; of him
Lowell has written:

He widened knowledge and escaped the praise

He toiled for science, not to draw men's gaze.

Under the influence of these, Agassiz, Gray, Jeffries Wyman, there
gathered at Cambridge, at about this time, what we should now in-
formally and affectionately call " a bunch of boys." Shaler, eighteen ;
Verrill (who has come down from New Haven to be with us this after-
noon) and Packard, twenty; Morse, Hyatt and Allen — our Dr. Allen —
twenty-one; Scudder, twenty-two.

Of the five centers of scientific activity, youth was certainly the
characteristic of the school at Boston. It is therefore safe to predict
that the germ of the new truth in biological science would find a more
favorable medium in Boston than here in New York or farther south.

The infection was immediate, indeed " pre-immediate." The period
of incubation extended over about ten years, ending in an acute epi-
demic from 1871-1876, which affected lyceums, associations and acad-
emies indiscriminately. Convalescence than began, since which the
American body-scientific has enjoyed good health and has shown many
periods of remarkable growth.

The " Origin of Species " was published in London late in Novem-
ber, 1859. The following month, Asa Gray, long intimately acquainted
with Darwin, and anxious that Americans should see promptly the

DARWIN AND ZOOLOGY 363

significance of the new theory, wrote for Silliman's Journal a review of
the book, before a single copy of the " Origin " had reached this country.
He predicted that the work would produce great discussion — it did.
A copy arrived, it was carefully reviewed, but before the review could
be gotten through the press, a second edition was announced, and within
three months two American editions were advertised.

Gray gave his first review in December. In January, Professors
Agassiz, Parsons and Eogers are recorded as' having discussed the
" Origin and Distribution of Species " at a meeting of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences on Beacon Street. Gray was present.
In February Agassiz began his open opposition to the theory of Dar-
win, stating at the Boston Society of Natural History that, while Dar-
win was one of the best naturalists in England, his great knowledge
and experience had been brought to the support of an ingenious but
fanciful theory.

In March Agassiz continued to oppose Darwin, and in April Gray
and Parsons made their reply. In May they were at it again. Then
followed the admirable essay of Parsons, Professor of Law at Har-
vard, and the unfortunate advance sheets of the third volume of
Agassiz's " Contributions." Then came Gray's Atlantic Monthly
articles, and thus ended the first year.

Among the records of the learned societies of New York, Philadel-
phia and Washington, I can find nothing to indicate that there was-
any particular interest in the disturbances that were going on in and
about Boston. Professor Dana, easily the dominant figure in science-
at New Haven, was in poor health and out of the country, but it was;
generally considered that his intensely idealistic views would probably
have prevented him from accepting a theory that was felt by many
to be grossly materialistic. The infection therefore was local and re-
mained local about Boston for a full decade.

In 1863 Jeffries "Wyman, in his review of Owen's monograph on
the " Aye-aye " gave inference of his adherence to the theories of Dar-
win, and indicated the impossibility of there being any neutral ground.

In 1864 Agassiz doubtless discussed the matter before the National
Academy in a paper on the " Individuality of Animals." A copy of
the paper I have been unable to find.

In 1865 Morse came to New York, from Salem, to be the guest of
this academy, but the formal paper that he presented did not contain
even a remote allusion to the discussions that were going on in what
was then considered America's educational center.

In 1867 Hyatt's paper on '' Parallelism " appeared. This I believe
to be the first distinctly evolutionary contribution from the zooloo-ical
side. In this year, 1867, Professor Newberry, later and for twenty-
three years the president of this academy, delivered his address at the
Burlington meeting of the American Association for the Advancement
of Science, betraying in this a singular nobleness of character toward

364 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

those to whose advanced views he felt that the scientific world could
not entirely subscribe, and admirably illustrating what he interpreted
to be the prevailing opinion, as shown by the following quotation :

Although this Darwinian hypothesis is looked upon by many as striking
at the root of all vital faith, and is the hete noire of all those good men who
deplore and condemn the materialistic tendency of modern science, still the
purity of life of the author of the " Origin of Species," his enthusiastic devo-
tion to the study of truth, the industry and acumen which have marked his
researches, the candor and caution with which his suggestions have been made,
all combine to render the obloquy and scorn with which they have been
received in many quarters, peculiarly unjust and in bad taste.

This was also the first year of the American Naturalist, edited by
those four pupils of Agassiz — Packard, Morse, Hyatt and Putnam —
of whom two are still spared. The introduction of the charming first
volume of this characteristic American publication is suflicient proof
that at the time of its issue even the younger men felt that there were
two distinct schools of thought relative to the " Origin of Species " —
Those who are familiar with this introduction will remember that it is
illuminated with one of Morse's inimitable sketches, a snail peering
through a binocular microscope, symbolical, doubtless, of the slow-
ness of perception of those who clung to this archaic instrument and
possibly also of those who cling to archaic ideas.

The following year, 1868, the Academy of Natural Sciences of
Philadelphia, which in 1860 had elected Darwin to membership,
published the first important direct contribution to the subject of
evolution made by one not directly under the influence of the Boston
academies. This contribution, " On the Origin of Genera," was made
by Cope, who for several years had been submitting papers to the
academy of a descriptive and semi-speculative character, and largely
dealing with the classification of reptiles. I believe that I am perfectly
safe in saying that no academy in America has ever published a paper
that reflects more to its credit than this extraordinary essay of Cope.
It is apologetically issued as a fragment, but in it there are shown an
intimate acquaintance with anatomical detail that is almost super-
natural, an independence of thought that is extraordinary, a power of
analysis that stuns the reader, an estimate of the weak and the strong
points of the Darwinism theory that is masterly, an agility of logic
that marks its author as a dangerous antagonist, an energy to reach the
truth, and an impetuosity to convince others of truth, that is pro-
phetic, indeed, that is completely demonstrative of pent-up mental
power, which must have been most disturbing to those of his academy
who had nestled down into positions of comfortable intellectuality.

We now enter upon the five years of acute activity.

On December 15, 1871, Cope attended a meeting of the American
Philosophical Society, and presented his paper on " The Method of
Creation of Organic Forms." In a fortnight a reply was given, which
began with a quotation from Job : " I am a brother to dragons and a

DARWIN AND ZOOLOGY 365

companion to owls/' and continued for several pages in attempted
explanation and demonstration of the falsity of Darwin's theories, and
ended with the author's conviction that the only good that can come
from these theories is the fact that they must bring about their own
defeat.

Cope replied immediately and was then replied to, and so on. But
why follow the discussion?

The spell was being felt even farther south. Within two months
of the date of its founding, the Philosophical Society of Washington
listened to a paper by Professor Gill, in which it was stated that if the
doctrine of evolution was accepted at all, it must involve man.

This was also the date of Dr, Allen's paper on the "Geographical
Variation of JSTorth American Birds," a philosophical as well as a
descriptive article, an important contribution to the then scant litera-
ture of distribution, a paper which established a distinct method of
zoological research that has reflected the highest credit on its author
and on the institutions with which he has been connected.

It was also in this year that Morse published his paper on " Adap-
tive Coloration."

In January, 1872, the New York Academy made its first direct
contribution to the subject of evolution by publishing a brief paper
on the " Carpus and Tarsus of Birds." I hope that Professor Morse,
now forty-five years a member of this academy, is present at this
gathering, for the fifty years that have passed since the appearance
of the " Origin of Species " exactly synchronize with the period of his
devotion to the principles enunciated therein.

If, among the volumes of this academy from 1859-1876, one bind-
ing shows more signs of use than the others, take down the book, and
you will find that it opens to this article by Professor Morse: a con-
tribution to zoology, to comparative anatomy, to embryology, and to
the theory of evolution. It is a refreshing spot, but somewhat out
of place in an arid expanse of descriptions of new species and revised
classifications.

Another paper issued by the academy in 1872, and characteristic
of the new thought of the time, was by Benj, M, Martin on the " Unity
of the General Forces of Nature," but this was physical rather than
biological.

If one were forced to accept the presidential addresses of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science as indicative of
the advancement of science in American associations, the address of
1873, delivered by one who said he thought that natural selection had
died with Lamarck, would sadly mislead. He writes:

In Darwin we have one of those philosophers whose great knowledge of
animal and vegetable life is transcended only by his imagination. In fact, he is
to be regarded more as a metaphysician with a highly-wrought imagination
than as a scientist.

366 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

But tliis is only the beginning of the gloom that anticipated the
dawn.

Although in 1874 Dr. Elsberg, in a " Contribution to the Doctrine
of Evolution/' addressed this academy (and also the American Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science), in favor of the principles of
Darwin, although Cope continued to sustain his earlier contentions,
and general workers were beginning to make original observations in
favor of the principles of organic descent, the reviewers of the delibera-
tions of scientific gatherings give little promise of anything like a
general acceptance of the beliefs in which we are interested.

In 1875, the retiring president of the American Association said:

I fear that the unhappy spirit of contention still survives, and that there
are a few who fight for victory rather than for the truth.

One of the vice-presidents at this meeting declined to " enter on
the vast field of discussion . . . opened up by Darwin and others,"
and resolved to avoid the use of the word " evolution," " as this has
recently been employed in so many senses as to have become nearly
useless for any scientific purpose."

Thus closed five years of struggle.

The year 1876, the centennial of political independence in America,
marked also the dawn of intellectual independence and scientific free-
dom. It was the year of Brooks's first Salpa paper, and of his paper
on pangenesis. Cope explicitly stated that the law of natural selection
was now generally accepted, and the then librarian of this academy,
Louis Elsberg, submitted his paper on the plastidule hypothesis, as non-
chalantly as though he were discussing a lingual ribbon.

It was under these really blessed conditions that the American Asso-
ciation met in BufEalo and listened to a vice-presidential address fully
worthy the title of the organization, Edward S. Morse had demon-
strated his ability as an investigator in his paper of 1872, already men-
tioned, but the simple, straightforward, patient and kindly manner in
which he addressed his audience in 1876, the thoroughness with which
he scanned the work of others, the fairness with which he acknowledged
the value of their results, and his concluding passages, in which he indi-
cated the important bearing that the theories of descent had upon the
social problems of the day, render his address a fit conclusion of a dis-
tinct epoch in the history of American science.

Since 1876, practically every zoological worker has sought to make
some contribution that might strengthen his faith in a rational evolu-
tion of organic life and activities. It may be that such contributions
will prove insufficient. It may be that Darwinism as a thing will ulti-
mately fail of proof, but to those in the future who may inquire for the
reason for these exercises and for the erection of this monument, Dar-
winism as a method will ever be a sufficient reply.

FOB DARWIN 367

FOE DAEWm^

By Peofessoe T. H. MORGAN

COLOMBIA UNIVEESITY

WE have come together to-day to consider Darwin's influence on
zoology. It is a hazardous task to pretend to estimate the
influence of any event on the course of history so long as we can not
know what the outcome had been otherwise. But to this at least we
can testify, that it is the general belief of zoologists to-day that Dar-
win's influence in bringing about the acceptance of the theory of evo-
lution marks a turning point in the history of their science, and I
shall attempt to justify this opinion by pointing out the condition of
zoology before Darwin and its subsequent course of development after
1859.

To the zoologist Darwin was above all else a zoologist. It is true
he interested himself greatly in geology, but he does not stand as a
leader of that science; he carried out many experiments with plants
and wrote some important botanical books, and here the zoologist will
yield second place to his brother, the botanist. Darwin wrote on the
"Descent of Man," he studied the expression of the emotions and
carried out physiological work along several lines, yet I should not
rank him preeminently an anthropologist, a psychologist or a physi-
ologist any more than a paleontologist or a botanist.

In the mind of the general public Darwinism stands to-day for
evolution. The establishment of the theory of evolution is generally
accepted as Darwin's chief contribution to human thought, and while
Darwin did not originate this idea that forms the framework of our
modern thinking, yet by general accord its acceptance is attributable,
and justly so, to Darwin.

To the zoologist Darwinism means more especially evolution ac-
counted for by the theory of natural selection, yet also many other
things, to which I shall refer in the proper place.

But I shall attempt this afternoon, before all else, to convince you
that the loyalty that every man of science feels towards Darwin is
something greater than any special theory. I shall call it the spirit of
Darwinism, the point of view, the method, the procedure, of Darwin.

In order that we may form some idea of Darwin's influence on
zoology, let us examine the condition of that science prior to 1859 to

^ A lecture on " Darwin's Influence on Zoology," delivered at Columbia
University, February 26, 1909.

368 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

see what influence zoology had on Darwin and his contemporaries. I
shall not try your patience by attempting to review the history of the
subject, but it would not belittle the greatness of Darwin's achievement
one whit to find that brilliant discoveries had been made before his
time, the theory of evolution plainly enunciated, the doctrine of spon-
taneous generation disproved ; comparative anatomy widely studied ; the
important functions of the body elucidated, the foundations of the
science of embryology laid, and the principles of pedigree breeding
followed.

In the eighteenth century, when the study of different kinds of ani-
mals inhabiting sea and land attracted the attention of zoologists, great
classifications were invented. Two main facts emerged. On the
assumption of fixity of type, a classification of the different forms of
animals and plants became possible. But on the other hand the more
extensive the material to be classified, the more difficult it became to
make such systems, for the fixity of type was often lost in apparent
transitions to other types. Counter claims arose as to the superiority
of one system over another, and the question of an artificial system
versus a natural one was widely debated. Now, an artificial system,
like the arrangement of the words in a dictionary, is obviously only a
matter of convenience, but it became a question of deep philosophical
importance to decide what was meant by a natural classification. To
us at the present time a natural classification implies a relation due
to descent; it is neither more nor less than the natural relation of a
man to his ancestors. But it were a fatal mistake to read our meaning
backwards to the time before Darwin.

To the great Cuvier a natural system meant an assemblage of groups
having a common plan of structure, and he was enraged by Geoffroy
St. Hilaire's attempt to put all animals from the bottom to the top in a
straight line. A common plan of structure might only mean that
idea which best expressed the outcome of a wide study of structure;
but to those who tried to peer behind the scenes it meant not seldom
to fathom the creation of the world ; and it required no vivid imagina-
tion to add that it gives an insight into the plan by which the world
was created.

A historian of the times wrote:

Yet in fact the assumption of an end or purpose in the structure of organ
ized beings appears to be an intellectual habit, which no eflforts can cast off,
It has prevailed from the earliest to the latest ages of zoological research
appears to be fastened upon us alike by our ignorance and our knowledge . .
and the doctrine of unity of plan of all animals, and the other principles asso
ciated with this doctrine, so far as they exclude the conviction of an intelligible
scheme and a discernible end, in the organization of animals, appear to be
utterly erroneous.

Contrast, in passing, this pious conviction with Geoffro/s modest
lines :

FOE DARWIN 369

I ascribe no intention to God, for I mistrust the feeble powers of my
reason. I observe facts merely and go on. I can not make nature an
intelligent- being who does nothing in vain, who acts by the shortest mode, who
does all for the best.

Thus arose in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the dogma
of the fixity of species — a dogma based, it is true, on a direct appeal
to fact as well as to conscience. But this dogma contained the germ
of its own undoing, in so far as it appealed for its support to observa-
tions that every man might make for himself. Yet so influential were
its advocates, so convinced of its truth, that more than one assault was
made before it crumbled away.

It is no small pleasure to repeat to-day the names of those bold and
original thinkers, who braved the displeasure of their compatriots and
the contempt of their times, who brought forward evidence and argu-
ment to disprove the teaching of the schools. Their work, it is true,
failed in the sense that it received no suflicient meed of praise or word
of commendation, but who will deny that a seed was sown that in time
bore fruit? Foremost, I think, ranks the great Lamarck, the cente-
nary of whose " Philosophic Zoologique " is celebrated this year in
France — a bold spirit, whose ideas, based on a wide familiarity with
facts, live and bear fruit to-day. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, advanced
thinker and philosopher of nature, opponent of the great anatomist
Cuvier, brought the problem of evolution to the bar of judgment, losing
the decision, it is true, but his ideas a later generation hold in high
esteem. Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of our Darwin, author of " The
Zoonomia," celebrated in verse " The Botanic Garden " and the " Loves
of the Plants," and even before Lamarck, advocated the principle of
evolution and the thory of inheritance of acquired characters. Her-
bert Spencer, adopting the idea of evolution, laid thereon the elaborate
superstructure of his philosophy. Robert Chambers, too, kept alive the
central idea of change in the organic world in his " Vestiges of Crea-
tion." Others there were, besides, in different lands, but these especially
were nearer to Darwin and his times.

We come now to the years between 1837 and 1844, when Darwin
was making his memorable notes on the relation between varieties and
species. Eeading through his letters of this period one is surprised
to find how little he was impressed by the history of zoology and the
influences of his own time, and how much he based his conclusions on
the results of his own close observations, his accumulation of data, and
careful consideration of facts. In regard to Lamarck, Darwin states
in his autobiography, that in 1835 when he was at Edinburgh Uni-
versity, Dr. Grant " burst forth in high admiration of Lamarck and his
views on evolution. I listened in silent astonishment, and as far as I
can judge, without any effect on my mind."

In later years, after reading Lamarck, Darwin wrote Lyell, in 1859 :

370 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

You often allude to Lamarck's work; I do not know what you think about
it, but it appeared to me extremely poor; I got not one fact or idea from it.

Writing to Lyell in 1863, he says :

You refer repeatedly to my view as a modification of Lamarck's doctrine
of development and progress. . . . Plato, BuflFon, my grandfather before
Lamarck, and others, propounded the ohvious views that if species were not
created separately they must have come from other species, and I can see
nothing else in common between the " Origin " [of Species] and Lamarck.

Darwin wrote to Hooker in 1844:

Heaven forfend me from Lamarck's nonsense of a " tendency to progres-
sion," " adaptations from the slow willing of animals," etc. But the con-
clusions I am led to are not widely different from his; though the means of
change are wholly so.

Darwin had read " The Zoonomia " of his grandfather prior to 1825
in which " similar views [to those of Lamarck] are mentioned but
without producing any effect" on him. He continues, with his usual
candor :

Nevertheless it is probable that the hearing rather early in life such views
maintained and praised may have favored my upholding them under a
different form in my " Origin of Species."

It is a regrettable fact that Darwin did not appreciate Lamarck's
work. The failure of Lamarck's writings to produce any apparent
influence on Darwin may be attributed, I think, to the form in which
Lamarck's views are presented. He uses facts as illustrations of his
ideas, while with Darwin the facts are all important as furnishing the
evidence on which a theory is to be established. He misunderstood
Lamarck's view in regard to the inheritance of acquired characters, yet
held himself the same opinion in the main as had Lamarck. The
modern idea of descent, as a system of branching due to divergence in
those species descended from the same parent species, was expounded
luminously by Lamarck, yet Darwin discovered it independently for
himself. He says:

But at that time (1844) I overlooked one problem of great importance;
and it is astonishing to me . . . how I could have overlooked it and its
solution. This problem is the tendency in organic beings descended from
the same stock to diverge greatly in character as they become modified. That
they have diverged greatly is obvious from the manner in which species of all
kinds can be classed under genera, genera under families, families under
suborders, and so forth, and I can remember the very spot in the road where
to my joy the solution occurred to me.

It is this same view that Lamarck had fully expounded thirty-five
years before.

"We have now arrived at the period just before the publication of
Darwin's famous book. It is sometimes said that the time was ripe
for the reception of the ideas formulated by Darwin — it was in the air,

FOE DARWIN 371

as we say — but if so, it must have been so attenuated as to be invisible
to eyes as sharp as Huxley's and the other famous naturalists of that
time. Huxley says that within the ranks of the biologists he met with
but one who had a word to say for evolution. Outside these ranks the
only person known to him "whose knowledge and capacity compelled
respect " and who advocated evolution was Herbert Spencer. " Many
and prolonged were the battles they fought " on this topic, but Huxley
maintained his agnostic position. He states :

I took my stand upon two grounds; firstly that up to that time the
evidence in favor of transmutation was wholly insufficient; and secondly that
no suggestion respecting the causes of the transmutation assumed which had
been made was in any way adequate to explain the phenomena. Looking back
at the state of knowledge at that time I really do not see that any other
conclusion was justified.

This frank statement of Huxley not only gives us an insight into
the position of one of the most progressive zoologists of that time, but
what is of more importance it implies also why the " Origin of Species "
convinced him of the doctrine of evolution.

We have now sufficiently traced the possible influences of the times
on Darwin. Before we proceed to study the influence of Darwin on
his time, let us for a moment pause to consider what influence Darwin's
own surroundings had in shaping his views. His voyage in the Beagle
had brought him in contact with the question of geographical distri-
bution. He read Malthus in 1838 and this gave him his first idea of
the survival of the fittest ; and, as his son and biographer states, this
date marks " the turning point in the formation of his theory," so that
by 1844 he formulated "a surprisingly complete presentation of the
argument afterwards familiar to us in the ' Origin of Species.' " His
extensive study of variation under domestication furnished him with
the experimental evidence that went so far towards making his study
of variation of far-reaching and profound importance. Indeed, in this
one essential respect, Darwin was far ahead of all of his contemporaries,
and, if you will pardon the anachronism, far ahead of his successors.
It is only in recent years that zoologists and botanists have begun once
more to work the rich mine of materials at their very doors. The paper
of Wallace on " Natural Selection " in 1858, the reception to the
"Origin of Species" in 1859, the storm of disapproval it met on the
one hand, the staunch and able friends it made on the other, need only
be recalled in passing.

We come now to the influence that Darwin's work has had on modern
zoology. That influence is due not alone to the " Origin of Species "
that gave to the world an abstract only of his views, but equally to his
other works, especially, I think, the " Variation of Animals and Plants
under Domestication," and the " Descent of Man." After Darwin and
largely as an outgrowth of the wide interest his views aroused in all

372 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

branches of zoology we find activity going on in many lines of work.
One group of workers, the systematists, have kept nearer, I think, to the
older traditions. They have been concerned with three of the most
important matters that have a direct influence on the " Origin of
Species " — the intensive study of species and varieties, the geographical
and geological distribution of animals, and the influence of the environ-
ment in modifying species. Their results have supplied the
most extensive contributions, perhaps, that have been made to the
theory of species-formation and transmutation. They seem to me, how-
ever, to have paid less attention to another, equally important, field,
that of the adaptation of animals to their environment, and the causes
that have been effective in bringing about this adaptation. To phys-
iology we look in vain for an answer to this question, that is perhaps
a physiological problem, for while physiology has advanced to a won-
derful degree our knowledge of the complicated adjustments within the
body, the origin in time of these adjustments and their relation to the
outer world has excited less interest.

The morphologists, or philosophical anatomists, form the second
great group of students whose activity is a direct outgrowth of Dar-
winism. The determination of the relationships of the great classes of
animals on the principle of descent has occupied much of their time.
Two other important fields of labor have also fallen to their share. The
study of development or embryology has been almost exclusively pursued
by morphologists, inspired in large part by the theory of recapitulation.

The older form of the doctrine, that in the development of the
individual the past history of the race is repeated, has been revived — a
doctrine much in vogue in the early part of the last century, which has
continued to have its followers despite the different interpretation that
von Baer gave to the same facts. Whatever interpretation we choose
at the present time, the presence of structures like gill-slits in the
human embryo, directly comparable to those in the fish, has had an
important influence in disentangling the relationship of living animals
to their remote ancestors.

The morphologist has also undertaken the study of heredity, and the
relation of heredity to the germ-cells that are the links in the chain of
organic life. Few other studies have advanced in recent years at a
more rapid pace and few have yielded facts of greater significance, for
here lies the key to the origin and nature of variations.

Systematists and morphologists alike have been evolutionists, but it
is a curious fact of zoological history that until very recently there has
been no body of students whose interests have been directed primarily
towards the problems of evolution. This is due, I think, to a general
feeling that the data for evolution are rather the by-products of the
zoologist's work-shop, than products directly manufactured by him.

FOB DARWIN 373

despite the splendid example of Darwin to the contrary. Is it not
strange, therefore, with all the real interest in the theory of evolution,
that so few of the immediate followers of Darwin devoted themselves
exclusively to a study of that process ? As I have said, the systematists
have been accumulating a vast amount of valuable material, but their
chief interest has, on the whole, been in its classification, only sec-
ondarily in its bearing on evolution. The morphologist has been busy
in applying the theory of evolution to the explanation of group relation-
ships. The paleontologist has perhaps been more directly concerned
with the evolution question than has any other worker.

There is a school that calls itself Lamarckian or ISTeo-Lamarckian
which as far as its name goes should include the followers of Lamarck
rather than of Darwin. Yet with few exceptions the Neo-Lamarckians
derive their inspiration, I think, directly from Darwin. Darwin held
that characters acquired during the life-time of the individual may be
transmitted to the offspring. He abhorred what he supposed to be
Lamarck's rubbish, that an animal acquired a new part by willing it.
We have seen that this is a travesty on Lamarck's real teaching, and that
on the whole Darwin's view of acquired characters is almost Lamarck's.
Yet the modern Lamarckians get their doctrine direct from Darwin
rather than from Lamarck, who propounded it fifty years earlier, as had
Erasmus Darwin, still earlier.

I have laid emphasis on the relation of Lamarckism to Darwinism
in order to draw attention to the problem of adaptation. The Neo-
Lamarckians have kept this all-important question in the foreground,
while others have taken adaptation too much for granted in their
attempts to explain the origin of species; for species, in a technical
sense, may have little to do with the problem of adaptation. The life
of an animal is intimately dependent on its adaptative characters, but
its " specific characters " may be largely unimportant for its existence.
Systematists and morphologists include broadly the followers of
Darwin during the thirty years after the publication of the " Origin of
Species." They have advanced to a high degree the principles of their
science, and the modern aspect of zoology is largely the outcome of their
varied and far-reaching labors.

There is a small group of writers scattered amongst these larger
groups that are ranked or rank themselves Neo-Darwinians. I must
pause a moment to pay them my tardy respects. They have set them-
selves up to be the true Darwinians. They seem less concerned with
the advancement of the study of evolution than with expounding
Darwinism as dogma. Their credulity is more remarkable than their
judgment. To imagine a use for an organ is for them equivalent to
explaining its origin by natural selection without further inquiry.
Any examination, in fact, into the nature of variation, they appear to

374 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

regard as superfluous, although harmless, but it is heresy to study criti-
cally the working out of the theory of natural selection. Such has ever
been the procedure of the infertile followers of great leaders. In the
present instance the result is the more deplorable, since Darwin's own
independence of the traditions of all schools, his careful study of facts,
his emancipation from prejudice, are his lasting virtues. The Neo-
Darwinian, worshipping the letter of the law, forgets its import. Let
us salute, and pass.

And now we come to the last twenty years of zoology as influenced by
Darwin. This, I believe, is the brightest chapter of Darwinism, for the
spirit of Darwin is once more abroad.

Foremost amongst the many debts that modern zoology owes to
Darwin is this : he pointed out that in order to understand how evolu-
tion takes place, we must study the variations of animals and plants,
for here is the material on which rests any solid superstructure. To my
mind, the appreciation of this maxim and its application is the distin-
guishing feature of Darwin's work. Before his time the theory of
evolution remained but a general idea, though one of profound signifi-
cance. After Darwin, the theory of evolution rested its claims for
recognition on a definite body of information relating to variations and
their inheritance. It is these data that first convinced his greatest con-
temporaries of the reality of evolution, and finally convinced also the
rank and file of thinking men. So extensive were the facts of variation
accumulated by Darwin, so penetrating was his analysis of these facts,
so keen was his insight, and so wise his judgment as to their meaning,
that for thirty years afterwards little of importance in this direction
was added. In their amazement at Darwin's accomplishment zoologists
forgot that he had opened the door leading into an unexplored territory.
During the last twenty years the march forward has once more begun
and the reward has been immediate.

Let us tarry therefore a little in these rich and pleasant fields of
discovery and examine in some detail what is being done. The study
of variation has been actively pursued in three main directions. The
biometricians have applied exact measurements to variation; the ecolo-
gists have studied the complex influences of the environment ; the experi-
mentalist has put to the test the supposed factors of change. Each of
these methods has brought out results of significance.

A careful study of variations within each species has shown that
taken as a group many variations conform to the law of probability.
Popularly expressed, this means that chance determines variations, or,
put more exactly, variations taken as a group and measured, give the
same mathematical results that follow when any set of objects become
arranged according to the laws of probability. There was a time when
chance meant lack of conformity to law. Such a popular interpreta-

FOE DARWIN 375

tion has no scientific standing. The great law of causation is not
abrogated, but the outcome is only the result of a large number of
small influences whose effects depend on the nature of the material and
on the nature of the conditions. It is so important that this fact be
clearly understood that I may be pardoned if I call to mind some
familiar illustrations. No two leaves on a tree are identical, yet if
many are measured, they give the curve of probability. Men are of
different heights, yet they range about a mode. Color appears in
various shades, yet if standardized, it is found to follow the same laws
of chance variation.

What value have these facts for the theory of evolution? If in
every generation we find that the same kinds of individuals recur, the
results mean stability, not progress. That this state of affairs actually
exists in many species living under the same environment during suc-
cessive generations there can be little doubt. But change the environ-
ment and the results also change. Another factor comes to light that
is independent of outside conditions. It is what has been called prefer-
ential mating. If within a group the males and females of certain
kinds tend more often to pair with each other, the collective group
becomes modified in one or more directions. In man this factor assumes
a special importance, for, as Pearson has shown, there is measurable
evidence that such mating occurs.

It has often been urged, and I think with much justification, that
the selection of individual, or fluctuating variations could never pro-
duce anything new, since they never transgress the limits of their
species, even after the most rigorous selection — at least the best evidence
that we have at present seems to point in this direction. But a new
situation has arisen. There are variations within the limits of Linnean
species that are definite and inherited, and there is more than a sus-
picion that by their presence the possibility is assured of further definite
variation in the same direction which may further and further tran-
scend the limits of the first steps. If this point can be established
beyond dispute, we shall have met one of the most serious criticisms of
the theory of natural selection.

It is not without interest to note in this connection that Darwin
often assumed that fluctuating variations are transmitted to the
offspring. The idea that they are not was a later development — the
result, it is true, of a better knowledge of the law of fortuitous effects,
or of probability. But we have discovered the additional fact that some
small variations are inherited. Let us call these definite variations, and
if these be the material with which evolution is concerned, Darwin's
assumption in regard to the nature of variation will be, in part, justified.

These small, definite variations appear to be closely allied to those
larger, more visible definite variations that we now call mutations.

^

376 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

We owe our modern ideas of such variations mainly to de Vries and to
those who have followed in his footsteps. Such sudden changes have
been long known and were spoken of by Darwin as saltations — or sports.
Darwin knew of cases like the ancon ram, from which a race of short-
legged sheep was produced. He knew that totally black or melanistic
mutations and albinos arise in many groups suddenly, and transmit their
characters. A black-shouldered or japanned peacock has appeared more
than once and perpetuated itself without selection. It would be out of
place to-day to discuss this absorbing problem. That extreme mutations
may at times have been an element of progress in nature few will deny,
especially if we exclude such monstrous forms as those the breeder has
used in building up domesticated races of animals.

It is not, however, to these extreme examples of definite variations
that I wish especially to draw your attention, but to that group of
smaller variations of a similar nature that may at their first appearance
fall within the limits of ordinary variability. I now ask you, therefore,
to follow me in an attempt to apply this latest discovery to the theory
of evolution.

If we trace the ancestors of any living animal — man, for exam-
ple— we discover that his ancestry goes back not as a single line,
nor as a converging system of lines, but as a vast branching network.
Each man has had 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents,
16 in the fourth generation, 32 in the fifth, 64 in the sixth, 128
in the seventh, 256 in the eighth, 512 in the ninth, 1,024 in the
tenth. A few generations further removed we should expect to find
that the majority of all the individuals of the species had poured their
blood, as we say, into each individual of the future generations. Each
of us is the descendant of a large population. The statement is not
strictly true, for some lines die out, many lines cross, and caste has
narrowed the field, but the statement suffices to show that a species
moves along as a horde rather than as the offspring of a few indi-
viduals in each generation. The mass serves to keep the species afloat
in times of calamity, it may have little else to do directly with its
advance. Nevertheless this fundamental fact is too often overlooked in
the attempt to explain the origin of new races, varieties and species
from single favorable variations.

For advance we must look to those individuals that contribute some-
thing new to the species — it is the superman that will add something
to the common level of humanity, but the rest keep the race alive until
his advent and then carry his kind forward on an advancing wave.

If we could count those individuals that are the pioneers of advance,
their number might be very small ; in order to survive, they must graft
themselves onto the stock. They are the harbingers of the better times
to come — the forerunners of progress.

FOR DARWIN 377

"We touch here the crucial point of evolution in its relation to
Darwin's principle of natural selection. Darwin says that he did not
at first realize the overwhelming influence of the mass in its swamping
effects on the individual variant. He made a very important conces-
sion to this view in the later editions of the " Origin of Species," and
thought it necessary to assume that for a new form to arise it must
first appear in a large number of individuals.

But to-day the situation has changed and new facts have come to
light — facts that remove the enormous difficulty that Darwin met by
what may seem now to have been an unnecessary concession. y

An imaginary case will illustrate what I wish to say. Suppose that
a species consisted in each generation of a million individuals and let
us imagine that a new character — a definite variation — appears in an
individual. The individual that bears it will pair with another ordinary
individual and transmit its new character to all of its offspring. In
order to simplify our case let us imagine that from each pair of indi-
viduals four reach maturity. The million of individuals has increased
to two millions, but accidents and competition may kill off one million
of these, so that the race is again reduced to its standard of one million.
If, then, we suppose that two of the new kinds of individuals survive
on the average, and pair at random, there will be eight in the next gen-
eration (in reality only six of the eight will show this character). If
these survive they will transmit their character to twelve of their off-
spring. Gradually, however, step by step, the new character will be
added to the whole race. Thus any new, definite character will gradually
appear in all the individuals whether it is useful or not. If it is useful
it may sooner implant itself on the race than if it is indifferent; for
more individuals may survive that possess it, than of those without it.
It will spread faster, but in any case it will come in the long run. Thus
we see that it spreads, not because it is advantageous, but because it is
a definite variation. Injurious characters will have greater difficulties
in infiicting themselves on the race, and if distinctly injurious may
never succeed.

While one character is spreading, other definite variations may also
be adding themselves to the race. Those individuals that combine
the greatest number of useful additions will have the best chance of
survival. Slowly the race advances in the direction of the sum of its
advantages and adaptation ; success, not in one but in several characters,
is the true criterion of survival.

To fix our attention on each single advantage and to ascribe to it
alone the palm of victory gives an incomplete idea of the progress of
evolution, for evolution follows the line of the greatest number of
adaptations. Success in every generation cannot be traced to one varia-
tion, but to the sum of all mingled advantages.

378 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

This interpretation broadens, I think, our general conception of
natural selection. We see that it is erroneous to suppose that all the
individuals that bear a particular, useful trait owe this trait to their
descent from one kind of individual, in the sense that this individual is
the sole ancestor of all the later survivors. The first individual is not
alone the ancestor of all the individuals that later bear its mark, it is
only one of 999,999 ancestors that have contributed to the perpetuation
of the race.

In order to simplify the case we have imagined that the new varia-
tion has appeared in a single individual. Should it appear in more
than one, or arise again and again, its implantation would be thereby
hastened, but the principle remains the same.

My contention may be summed up in a sentence. Survival- value is
not the only test for the perpetuation of any one useful character; it
is the sum total of useful variations that determines progress. The
species moves as a group always. Evolution is not a simple but a com-
plex problem. This is the general opinion held by most modern
zoologists.

To-day there are three great rival claims that attempt to explain
how evolution takes place : ( 1 ) that which adopts the theory of natural
selection in one or another of its aspects; (2) that which maintains that
acquired charact^s are inherited; (3) that which, trying to pene-
trate deeper into the mystery of life, ascribes to living matter a purpose-
fulness — an almost conscious response to " the course of nature."

In a few concluding words I shall try to point out the standing of
these rival claims.

Darwin himself adopted both the first and the second of these veiws.
His whole philosophy stands opposed in principle to the third view.
He did not hesitate at times to adopt the theory of the inheritance of
acquired characters, whenever the facts seemed more in accordance
with that interpretation than with that of natural selection. He
strenuously objected that he had never intended to refer the entire
process of evolution to natural selection, and later in life affirmed that
he had perhaps laid too little stress on the influence of the environment.
To-day the doctrine of inherited effects is in disgrace, largely owing to
the brilliant attack of the philosopher of Freiburg. Nevertheless it has
warm adherents; and not a few of the most cautious zoologists now
living have expressed themselves in its favor. It has not lacked able
advocates, but it has sadly lacked direct evidence to support it. I can
show you an example of how it fails when put to the test. I have here
a waltzing mouse that turns round in circles instead of moving for-
wards. This is a domesticated variety and breeds true, i. e., all of its
offspring are waltzers. I next show you a pair of mice that were in-
jected with acetyl-atoxyl to cure them of sleeping sickness. They
have artificially acquired the same habit as a result of the injection, and

FOR DARWIN 379

have waltzed for nearly a year. Here are their offspring that show not
a trace of the trick.

Cases like these, and I could cite not a few, show how cautiously
we must view the theory that such acquired characters are inherited.
The experiments do not disprove the possibility, but until direct evi-
dence is forthcoming, judgment must remain suspended.

It has seemed, therefore, to many modern zoologists that we must
face the two alternatives, either natural selection or purposeful re-
sponse. Natural selection has been likened in recent years to a sieve
that lets the non-adapted pass through and conserves the adapted. On
the sieve metaphor natural selection produces nothing — it is described
as a process of destruction of the unfit. How then can natural selection
the destroyer become a factor in a creative process ?

I have already tried to indicate how natural selection may assume
such a role. If definite variations appear, however small or large, that
are of some benefit, they may engraft themselves in time on to the
species; if other useful definite variations are also adding themselves,
if their presence insures some further definite variations in the same
directions, advance is certain. In other words the elimination of the
unfit has not produced the fit, but it has left the conditions more favor-
able for further progress in the direction of fitnes^. This is the inter-
pretation of Darwinism that attracts at present the serious attention oi
the most thoughtful and advanced students of evolution.

I hesitate to bring before you in a closing sentence or two the alter-
native doctrine of purposefulness — a doctrine so fraught with human
and superhuman import, for of all theories of creation it undoubtedly
makes the strongest emotional appeal to mankind.

We are so conversant with the fact in human affairs that whenever
purpose is involved there is an intelligent agent — a mind that designs, a
mind that foresees — that our thinking has become tinctured with the
idea that wherever there is purpose there is something like mind that
has anticipated it. Organic nature is full to the brim of what seems
purposeful adaptation — means to ends. Two modern zoologists and a
noted philosopher have nailed this banner to their mast-head.

There is one consideration above all others that warns the zoologist
against speaking dogmatically about purposefulness, or its absence, in
the response of living matter to its environment — his ignorance of the
causes of variation. If I have implied that all variation is purely
" accidental " ; if I have led you to infer that it is entirely fortuitous, I
have gone beyond the facts. We must be careful to distinguish between
the individual differences that we can safely ascribe to chance, and the
small definite variations that arise in the germ. The latter appear to
be limited, to be in part determined by the internal nature of the parts
affected, and to be constant when they have once appeared, but more
than this we dare not afiirm. We may believe if we like that the evidence

38o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

indicates that they are not purposeful, but we can not prove this. If
they are not purposeful then the purposefulness of the living world has
no direct relation to the origin of useful variations. The origin of an
adaptive structure and the purpose it comes to fulfill are only chance
combinations. Purposefulness is a very human conception for useful-
ness. It is usefulness looked at backwards. Hard as it is to imagine,
inconceivably hard it may appear to many, that there is no direct rela-
tion between the origin of useful variations and the ends they come to
serve, yet the modern zoologist takes his stand as a man of science on
this ground. He may admit in secret to his father confessor, the
metaphysician, that his poor intellect staggers under such a supposi-
tion, but he bravely carries forward his work of investigation along
the only lines that he has found fruitful.

In the last analysis it is a matter of expediency; or if the word
jars, a matter of instinct. Wliy forsake the gold mine at our feet,
because the transmutation of metals is a philosophic possibility ?

Whether definite variations are by chance useful, or whether they
are purposeful are the contrasting views of modern speculation. The
philosophic zoologist of to-day has made his choice. He has chosen
undirected variations as furnishing the materials for natural selection.
It gives him a working hypothesis that calls in no unknown agencies;
it accords with what he observes in nature; it promises the largest
rewards. He does not deny, if he is cautious, the possibility that there
may be a purposefulness in the sense that organisms may respond
adaptively at times to external conditions; for the very basis of his
theory rests on the assumption that such variations do occur. But he is
inclined to question the assumption that adaptive variations arise he-
cause of their adaptiveness. In his experience he finds little evidence
for this belief, and he finds much that is opposed to it. He can foresee
that to admit it for that all important group of facts, where adjustments
arise through the adaptation of individuals to each other — of host to
parasite, of hunter to hunted — will land him in a mire of unverifiable
speculation. He fears to enter thereby on a field of exploitation of
nature that has proved itself so sterile in the past.

We have reached the end of our theme. If I have led you too far
into some of the remote corners of zoological thought, I must plead
that such thoughts are the legitimate outgrowth of Darwinism.

I have tried to show you the modern zoologist at work on the great
theory of evolution. We stand to-day on the foundations laid fifty
years ago. Darwin's method is our method, the way he pointed out we
follow, not as the advocates of a dogma, not as the disciples of any
particular creed, but the avowed adherents of a method of investigation
whose inauguration we owe chiefly to Charles Darwin. For it is this
spirit of Darwinism, not its formula, that we proclaim as our best
heritage.

PBEDABWINIAN AND POSTDARWINIAN BIOLOGY 381

PEEDARWINIAN AND POSTDAEWINIAN BIOLOGY^

By Professoe WILLIAM MORTON WHEELER

HAKVAED ITNIVBESITY

CHAELES DAEWIN" undoubtedly exerted a profound and three-
fold influence on botany, zoology and all the kindred sciences;
first, by his rehabilitation of Lamarck's theory of transformism, or
evolution, as it is more generally but less aptly called ; secondly, by his
wonderful studies on variation; and thirdly, by the announcement of
his brilliant theory of natural selection through the survival of the
fittest. There is much difference of opinion as to which of these con-
stitutes Darwin's most glorious achievement. Neodarwinists regard
the promulgation of the theory of natural selection as his greatest work ;
experimental zoologists and botanists attribute to his studies on varia-
tion a deeper and more salutary influence on present and future inves-
tigation; while Neolamarckians insist that his labors in the cause of
evolution in general, quite irrespective of whether it be conceived to
result from natural selection or from other factors, is his most impor-
tant contribution, not only to biological science, but to the whole body
of modern thought. With this last estimate I believe that most con-
servative men of science will agree. Just how Darwin's work has com-
pelled us to change our attitude so radically towards the world about us
can be made clear if you will permit me very briefly to contrast the
tendencies of ancient and modern science.

The unceasing flux of phenomena which is all that science can deal
with has been envisaged very differently by ancient and modem
observers. The Greek scientist fixed his attention on particular mo-
ments or aspects of phenomena, so that science became to him a static
edifice of concepts or ideas, a hierarchy of genera and species. The
scientist of to-day does not thus concentrate his attention on single
moments to the exclusion or neglect of all other aspects of a phenom-
enon, but seeks to obtain a complete knowledge of the uniformities and
constants in its occurrence and recurrence. For this reason modern
science is dynamic and lays stress on laws and not on the definition and
classification of concepts and ideas. These important differences between
ancient and modern science have been clearly pointed out by the eminent
French philosopher, Henri Bergson, in the following words :

Ancient science believed that she understood her object when she had
noted its privileged moments, whereas modem science considers it at any

^Read before the Boston Society of Natural History, February 12, 1909.

382 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

moment. The forms or ideas of a Plato or an Aristotle correspond to privileged
or salient moments in the history of things — the very same moments, gen-
erally speaking, that have been fixed by language. They are supposed, like
the infancy and old age of a living being, to characterize and express the
quintessence of a period, all the remainder of which is filled with the transition
from one state to another, and is, therefore, devoid of interest in itself.
Consider, for example, the falling of a body. It was thought to be a sufiicient
account of the fact when it had been characterized summarily as a movement
downward, a tendency towards a center, the natural movement of a body,
which, after being separated from the earth to which it belongs, returns
again to its original position. Therefore, the final or culminating point
(TeAof, aKfir/) of a process is singled out and is erected into an essential
moment, and science is satisfied with this moment, which language has seized
upon for the purpose of expressing the ensemble of the fact. In the physics
of Aristotle, the movement of a body hurled through space, or freely falling,
is defined by concepts of above and below, of spontaneous and enforced dis-
placement, of proper and improper position. But Gallilei believed that there
was no essential moment, no privileged instant; in his opinion one should
be able to give an account of a falling body at any moment in its course,
for that is the true science of gravitation which determines the position of a
body in space at any instant of time. For this purpose we, of course, need
more precise symbols than those of language.''

To Aristotle we may also turn for a biological illustration of the
differences between ancient and modern scientific observation. Accord-
ing to his conception, the type or privileged moment of humanity is
represented by the adult male individual, with reference to whom youth
and age are merely incipient and declining stages respectively, and
woman is merely an abortive attempt on the part of nature to produce a
man. Contrast with this our present biological conception of the sexes
.and the ontogeny of the human species !

It must be admitted that the tendency of modern science is in the
•direction of much greater refinement on the ancient method, a tendency
to scrutinize more humbly and more closely, and hence, to multiply
indefinitely the observed moments and aspects. I, therefore, do not
use the term " ancient " in the sense of " no longer existing," since the
tendency thus designated is still constantly manifested in all our ordi-
nary thinking. To observe and retain only the privileged moments
and aspects of things is for very many purposes eminently practical,
but it has its disadvantages, for the more such moments of an
object are accentuated or exalted, the more insignificant or debased
become its other aspects. Such emphasis may be highly artistic, but
it is contrary to the spirit of modern science. Indeed, much of the lack
of sympathy that exists between men of extremely artistic and extremely
scientific temperament is due to this difference of instinctive attitude
towards the world of phenomena.

It is well known that in their development the biological have

' " L'Evolution Crgatriee," 4th edition, 1908, pp. 357, 358.

PREDARWINIAN AND POSTDARWINIAN BIOLOGY 383

always lagged behind the physical sciences. This is attributable in
large measure, of course, to the greater complexity of organic phe-
nomena, but I suspect that the fact that animals and plants admit of
an arrangement in generic and specific categories, which seem at first
sight to be in singular haiTQony with the spirit of ancient science and
philosophy, may be to a considerable extent responsible for the stolid
conservatism of systematic biology. At a time when the physical sci-
ences, through the labors of Kepler, Gallilei and Newton, had already
become modern sciences in the true sense of the word, biology was still
practically in the Greek stage. This is certainly true of zoology and
botany proper up to the middle of the last century, although zoology
had through medicine contracted some of the modern spirit, since by
that time anatomy and physiology had definitively abandoned Greek and
scholastic methods.

At this juncture appeared Darwin's " Origin of Species." The
effect of this work was in the first instance destructive, for it tended to
dissolve and mobilize the rigid conceptual schematism that dominated,
not only the zoology and botany, but the whole cosmology of the time.
The conception of an evolution which melted all living beings, man
included, into a single vital stream, surging on into the future as it
has surged through the aeons of the past, continually creating new and
destroying old forms, could not fail to clash with the conception of a
world created once for all and since engaged very largely in marking
time. According to the old view, living objects are more or less vitiated
Platonic ideas or Aristotelian forms, according to the new they are
eddies or whirlpools in a living current that modify and regulate their
movements according to the obstacles, i. e., the " environment " which
they encounter. No wonder men like Cuvier declined to accept the
doctrine of evolution when it was first promulgated by Lamarck, and
that von Baer and Louis Agassiz regarded its rehabilitation by Darwin
as a heresy. All of these men believed in the existence of permanent
types of organic structure, which, after all, were merely Platonic ideas
parading under assumptions more or less theological, privileged moments
or aspects of animal and plant morphology interpreted as thoughts of
the Deity. It is quite unnecessary to mention the innumerable
scholastic and theological opponents of evolution. Their animosity
certainly had and still has other motives than a predilection for the
Mosaic account of creation.

It is far pleasanter to contemplate the constructive aspects of Dar-
win's work. Since evolution, as conceived by him, admitted of a
mechanical explanation — for survival through natural selection is
mechanical and not teleological like survival through psychical effort
as postulated by Lamarck — it breathed the spirit of the physical sciences
and therefore allied itself with these rather than with psychology and

384 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

philosophy. When presented with Darwin's conception of evolution,
the botanist and zoologist could no longer remain satisfied with mere
contemplation of privileged moments. It became necessaiy to attend
to every aspect of the organism. Every phase of its development from
the egg to its dissolution, and every particle of its structure had to be
submitted to the closest examination, for no character — so ran the
theory — was too insignificant to decide whether a species could survive
in the struggle for existence. Indeed, even vestigial and rudimental
characters began to assume an astonishing importance as witnessing to
the past and prefiguring the future history of the species. Such close
scrutiny of the entire life-cycle and structure of organisms was also
necessitated by Darwin's assumption that the evolution of organic forms
is a very gradual process, requiring enormous periods of time. Hence
the incentive to record the minutest variations and adaptations and to
search for their causes. From the same source sprang the inspiration
to study the lower animals and plants with the utmost care and in all
their aspects, for these forms — according to the theory — had departed
least from the first, simple beginnings of life on our planet, and might,
therefore, be expected to throw light on the initial movements of
organic evolution. But the animals at the other end of the organic
scale were not to be neglected, for the theory which made man a blood
relation of the higher mammals could not fail to arouse universal
interest in these and all the other vertebrates. And not only did it
become necessary to investigate the plants and animals now living on
the earth, but the strata of the planet had to be ransacked for evidences
of past evolutionary history. Paleontology was born anew, and the dis-
tribution of life in the present and past became a subject of absorbing
and ardent study. Even the most conservative branch of biology, the
classification of animals and plants, was shaken to its foundations by the
theory of evolution, for under its solvent action the old conceptions of
the genus and species, and all the other taxonomic categories, lost their
rigid outlines and became fluid and dynamic. In proof of all these
statements concerning the immediate effects of the promulgation of the
theory of evolution, we have only to glance at the marvelous develop-
ment during the past fifty years of anatomy, embryology, histology,
cytology and physiology, both human and comparative, and of paleon-
tology, chorology, ethology and taxonomy, both botanical and zoological.
The constantly increasing tendency during the past half century to
substitute a careful genetic study, that is, a study of all the stages
of the life-processes, with a view to establishing the laws or constants
of their occurrence, for the ancient cut and dried methods of defining
and classifying concepts obtained from the contemplation of privileged
moments in the vital flux, has spread far beyond the confines of biology
properly so-called. Psychology, which is the most closely related of all

PREDARWINIAN AND POSTDARWINIAN BIOLOGY 385

the mental sciences to biology, has been revolutionized. Its students
have abandoned the old facultative and associationist schematism and
turn with renewed interest to the psychology of emotion, volition and
instinct, to animal and child psychology and the normal and patho-
logical psychology of the various human races. Mind is no longer
looked upon as a thing, but as a living process, the study of which must
be undertaken with far subtler methods than were ever dreamed of by
the ancient and mediaeval psychologists. Philosophy, ethics and relig-
ion, which are all so intimately bound up with psychology, are also at
last breaking away from conceptualism and absolutism. This is clearly
seen in the works of the pragmatists and humanists, and among theo-
logical writings in what has been called modernism. These tendencies
of the mental sciences have also reached out into sociology, anthropology,
archeology, philology, economics and education. Even the fine arts,
though still necessarily addicted to the glorification of certain privi-
leged or dramatic moments, have been seized with the modern scientific
craving to multiply these moments indefinitely and thus to increase
our delight and interest in the full efilorescence of life and its cosmic
setting.

Some may doubt whether these marvelous changes in all modern
intellectual endeavor have been brought about by the doctrine of evolu-
tion. Of course, even if Darwin had never lived and if the doctrine of
evolution had never been revived, it is certain that the biological sciences
would have developed considerably during the past fifty years merely by
following in the footsteps and by adopting the methods of physics and
chemistry, but that Darwin's thought quickened, exaggerated and domi-
nated this development cannot be doubted. And even if we go so far
as to say that natural selection may eventually prove to be an unim-
portant factor in evolution, to be consigned to the limbo of defunct
hypotheses, together with Darwin's views on pangenesis, sexual selection
and the origin of species from fluctuating variations, we must, I believe,
still admit that the great English naturalist opened up before us a vast
new world of thought and endeavor. But for the doctrine of evolution
we should still be contemplating living organisms from afar and in a
more or less scholastic and theologizing spirit, like the biologists of the
first half of the nineteenth century, and not as now, at close range and
with a deeper and freer insight into the significance of the minutest
details of development, structure and function.

386 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

THE HALO OF A HUNDEED YEAES^ (FEBEUAEY, 1809,

TO FEBEUAEY, 1909)

Br Peofbssoe R. M. WENLEY

DNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

IN ordinary circumstances, a humble representative of Wissenschaft
der Pliilosophie, like myself — a pursuer rather than a possessor of
knowledge, would deem any poor words of his superfluous on such an
occasion, and in an assembly composed chiefly of those who have con-
secrated their lives to the natural sciences. But, to-night, I am so bold
as to proffer claim to a little niche, because we are to make a pregnant
pause, and enjoy an interchange of ideas, in commemoration of the
illustrious name, services and discoveries of Charles Eobert Darwin,
who first saw the light at Shrewsbury, on February 12, 1809, that
memorable year of memorable infants.

Place aux dames, as if Darwin were not enough, 1809 gave us
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Mary Cowden Clarke, the Shakespeare
scholar, and Fanny Kemble, the great actress. In science, it produced
Grassmann and Liouville, the eminent mathematicians; the botanists
K. H. E. Koch and George Engelmann; the geologist J. D. Forbes;
Jakob Henle, the anatomist; Fitch, the economic entomologist; Stock-
hardt, the founder of agricultural experiment stations; and Griscom,
the physician. Its children made literature immensely their debtor,
for, among them were Tennyson, Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Lever,
Monckton Milnes (Lord Houghton), Oliver Wendell Holmes, Mark
Lemon (the humorist), Edward Fitzgerald, who rendered Omar
Khayyam an English classic ; Paludan-Miiller, an ornament of Scanda-
navian letters; Giusti, the Tuscan poet, whom his countrymen delight
to call the Beranger of Italy; and Nikolaus Becker, author of that
famous song, " Der deutsche Ehein." In music we owe it Chopin and
Mendelssohn; in art, Diaz de la Pena, the French landscape painter;
in history, Hefele, John Hill Burton, Kinglake, Skene, Cronholm,
Bruno Bauer, and Michael Horvath, greatest of Hungarian historians ;
in scholarship, Theodor Benfey and John Stuart Blackie; in theology,
Isaac Dorner; and, in practical religion, Selwyn, the influential mis-
sionary-bishop of New Zealand. The educationist, Barnard; the jurist,
Phillimore; the publicist, William Eathbone Greg; the philanthropist,
Miall, and Baron Hausmann, who found Paris brick and left it

* Address of the president of the Research Club of the University of
Michigan, on the occasion of the Darwin commemoration.

THE HALO OF A HUNDRED YEARS 387

marble, were born in 1809, like the philosophers Vacherot and Franck,
in France ; Tari, in Italy ; Nielsen, in Denmark ; and Bledsoe, in this
country. In the arts of war it bore at least four leaders of distinction —
Canrobert, marshal of France ; Manteuffel, first governor of the ReicJis-
land after the fall of Napoleon III. ; Dahlgren, the American admiral,
an authority on ordnance; and Menabrea, the Italian engineer, an
eminent name in the science of fortification. Its most noted diplo-
matist was Eutherford Alcock, who saw some of the stress that accom-
panied the introduction of occidental civilization into Japan, and whose
bread, cast upon the waters long ago, has returned to such consequence
after many days. Finally, as if to round out the universe of human
activity, 1809 brought to birth two immortal statesmen — ^Lincoln, who
was born on the same day as Darwin, and Gladstone.

Now notwithstanding the multifarious activities, incalculable influ-
ence, and momentous events, connected with these fifty-four names — an
extraordinary galaxy — there can be little doubt that, setting aside place
and, in particular, nationality, Darwin has laid profoundest hold upon
the universal imagination of mankind. And the obvious question
arises, why? Let us look at this for a little; it is much easier to ask
than to answer.

In this presence, it would be an impertinence on my part were I to
wander into the problem of evolution as understood by students of
natural science. But, possibly, I may be able to contribute my tiny
mite from another standpoint.

We may take it as axiomatic that genius achieves supremacy very
rarely against, or without, the cooperant " social mind," and that it pays
the price for lone attainment by missing' highest rank. To adopt Mat-
thew Arnold's phrase, the man and the moment must agree ; or, as Goe-
the said, only he who unites with the many at the right moment ever
becomes great. If I be not far wide of the mark, Darwin enjoyed
peculiar fortune in this respect and, thanks to his extraordinary patience,
backed by unusual perseverance and devotion, came to enthrone him-
self amid the master intellects typical of the nineteenth century.

To begin with, then, we must bear in mind that centuries are arbi-
trary divisions, that no break assails the onward movement of thought,
and that every age serves itself upon its successor. The immense dis-
placements, due to the Eenascence in the fifteenth century, and to the
Reformation in the sixteenth, carried over into the seventeenth; while
the seventeenth lived on in the eighteenth, just as the eighteenth, thanks
probably to political and social conditions, continued to rule the nine-
teenth to 1873 (death of John Stuart Mill), say, especially in the Eng-
lish-speaking countries. Indeed, much of the opposition encountered
by evolution from the man in the street, and from pseudo-thinkers,
may be traced to this simple fact. Nay, we can trace its potent influ-

388 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

ence in Darwin himself. The main limitation of his theory results
from its bondage to the idea of utility — a heritage from the eighteenth
century. In illustration of these cross-currents, still inexplicable, re-
call that Monge, the mathematician, though born in 1746, was essen-
tially a nineteenth century man; so was Lamarck, born two years
earlier; so was Erasmus Darwin, even if sixty-nine of his seventy-one
years belonged to the heyday of Pope, Johnson and Paley. Similarly,
when we face towards the future rather than the past, we find the
seminal ideas of the nineteenth century already astir soon after the
middle of the eighteenth. Winckelmann, in 1758; Lessing, in 1766;
and, more plainly. Herder, in 1786, are apostles of synthetic as opposed
to analytic methods, of " life-history " as against mere taxonomy.
Listen to Herder, and note how he prophesies the genetic era :

Among millions of creatures whatever could preserve itself abides, and
still after the lapse of thousands of years remains in the great harmonious
order. Wild animals and tame, carnivorous and graminivorous, insects, birds,
fishes and man are adapted to each other.

And again, on the side now of the human sciences:

All the songs of primitive peoples turn on actual things, doings, events,
circumstances, incidents, on a living, manifold world. All this the eye has
seen, and since the imagination reproduces it as it has been seen, it must needs
be reproduced in an abrupt fragmentary manner. There is no other connection
between the different parts of these songs than there is between the trees and
bushes of the forest, the rocks and caverns of the desert, and between the
different scenes of the events themselves.

You see the same thing in Goethe's " Iphigenie " (1787), in hia
"Versueh die Metamorphose der Pflanzen zu erklaren " (1790), and
his "Zur Morphologic" (1795-1807), above all, in "Faust," erster
Theil (1808). Small wonder, then, that the systematic thinkers bred
in the same movement, Kant aside, should be dominated by the genetic
idea of development ; and even Kant, especially in his " Kritik der
Urtheilskraf t " (1790), to say nothing of the extraordinary prevision
of his " Allgemeine Naturgeschichte und Theorie des Himmels "
(1755), is not without latent suspicions concerning the direction to be
taken by the new tide. To mention none of his other manifold services
— of which, in a company of investigators, the part he played at the
foundation of the University of Berlin should merit particular remem-
brance— Fichte's "Der geschlossene Handelsstaat " (1800), originates
a line of socio-economic thought thoroughly characteristic of Darwin's
lepoch, and affiliated sometimes with biology. Schelling's " Ein-
leitung zum Entwurf eines Systems der Naturphilosophie " (1799),
as I have tried to show in another place,^ exercised no little formative-
power over a group of his countrymen who made important contribu-
tions to the early modern phases of physiology, chemistry, botany,

* " The Movement Towards ' Physiological ' Psychology," pp. 75 f.

THE HALO OF A HUNDRED YEARS 389

anatomy and medicine. Still, when all is said and done, Hegel shone
the bright particular star of the constellation. Indeed, so far as our
perplexing proximity permits fair judgment, we must rank him fore-
most among the systematic thinkers of the nineteenth century. The
ceaseless praises and recriminations that have encompassed his memory
ever since his death, in 1831, prove no less. Present signs of his return-
ing influence among the Teutonic peoples indicate much the same thing.
But, some one will inquire, what has all this to do with Darwin's
hold upon the general imagination ? I answer, everything ! For while,
schooled by long neglect, even contumely, we philosophers have learned
to consume our own smoke in comparative silence, you, my scientific
colleagues, may be prepared to take the word of one who, perhaps more
than any of your coadjutors, possesses the right to speak with authority
on the occasion of the Darwin Centennial. Professor H. F. Osborn
writes :

It is a very striking fact that the basis of our modern methods of
studying the evolution problem was established not by the early naturalists
nor by the speculative writers, but by the philosophers. They alone were
upon the main track of modern thought.^

Many proofs might be adduced readily. Two mere indications must
suffice here. Hegel, for instance, insists, and rightly, that the botanists
of his day, obsessed by classification, did not realize the force of Goethe's
position, " eben well ein Ganzes darin dargestellt wurde."* Again,
Goethe himself formulated Spencer's famous principle about the pas-
sage from indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to definite, coherent
heterogeneity. Goethe points out:

The more imperfect a being is the more do its individual parts resemble
each other, and the more do these parts resemble the whole. The more
perfect the being is, the more dissimilar are its parts. In the former case
the parts are more or less a repetition of the whole; in the latter case they
are totally unlike the whole. The more the parts resemble each other, the
less subordination is there of one to the other. Subordination of parts indi-
cates high grade of organization."

But, like other incalculable human forces, the idealists bore their
manifest limitations. And Hegel may be taken as their consecrated
representative. Perhaps we may understand this matter best by saying
that, after a fashion, he came too soon. His central thesis embodied a
theory of universal development, a theory that has had no parallel for
boldness and penetration since Plato and his unique pupil, Aristotle.
Now, a huge framework of this sort needs multifarious filling in. And
one may well admire the temerity of the philosopher when he recalls
the condition of knowledge between 1813 and 1816, the years that wit-

' " From the Greeks to Darwin," p. 87.

* " Naturphil.," p. 489.

'"Life of Goethe," G. H. Lewes, p. 358.

390 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

nessed the successive volumes of Hegel's masterpiece. All things con-
sidered, the physical sciences as we know them now — astronomy, geol-
ogy, physics and chemistry, as well as mathematics in large part — had
hardly begun their latest growth ; the biological sciences, in their splen-
did structure of to-day, were still ahead; while the entire group of
human sciences, created mainly by the impetus lent by Hegel himself,
in the nature of the case, had not entered upon significant formulation.
In a word, the idea of development saturated the intellectual atmos-
phere; nevertheless, the elaborate and toilsome labor of thinking it
through piecemeal for the endless realms of nature, and for the subtlest
manifestations of consciousness, lay in the future. Here Darwin, like
many another, found his opportunity.

In the second place, he was favored by the situation dominant in
the field of science as a whole, no less than by his own preeminently
cautious and " concrete " mind. With regard to the latter, we have a
characteristic statement from his pen, in the form of a letter to Herbert
Spencer, acknowledging a copy of the " Essays." Eecall that, not long
before, Spencer had been writing to Huxley on the subject of Owen,
who was to damn Darwin with faint praise eighteen months after,^ and
had expressed himself as follows:

I am busy with the onslaught on Owen. I find on reading, the " Archetype
and Homologies " is terrible bosh — far worse than I had thought. I shall
make a tremendous smash of it, and lay the foundations of a true theory on
its ruins.''

From one point of view, this is still the nineteenth century
against the eighteenth. Darwin's letter, dated 25th November,
1858 — one year precisely before the "Origin of Species" — runs thus:

Your remarks on the general argument of the so-called Development Theory
seem to me admirable. I am at present preparing an abstract of a larger work
on the changes of species; but I treat the subject simply as a naturalist, and
not from a general point of view; otherwise, in my opinion, your argument
could not have been improved on, and might have been quoted by me with
great advantage.*

If Hegel evinced intuitive grasp upon the general framework of
development, DarAvin's cautious genius led him to exercise superlative
perseverance in conquering difficult provinces of the detailed phe-
nomena incidental to evolution.

At the same time, Darwin valued the aid of generalization and

* It is generally understood now that the review of the " Origin of
Species " published in the Edinburgh Review for April, 1860, was by Owen.
At this time, all who have access to it should refresh their memories by reading
it. The tone of Spencer's references explains not a little to be found in this
critique, especially its concluding emphasis upon the superiority of Cuvier.

'"Life and Letters of Herbert Spencer," D. Duncan, Vol. I., p. 112,

'Ihid., p. 113.

THE HALO OF A HUNDRED YEARS 391

hypothesis, to which many naturalists, misled by Bacon's thoroughly
unscientific temper, had been too averse: Accordingly, the trend of
scientific method had become tainted, if not with disastrous conse-
quences, at least with results inimical to progress, as we account means
of progress now. This, the former of the two aspects mentioned above,
has been delineated admirably by Romanes, from whom, I may say in
passing, I derived the only knowledge of Darwin's personality, conveyed
at first-hand by a mutual friend, that I possess.

He nowhere loses sight of the primary distinction between fact and
theory; so that, thus far, he loyally follows the spirit of revolt against sub-
jective methods. But, while always holding this distinction clearly in view,
his idea of the scientific use of facts is plainly that of furnishing legitimate
material for the construction of theories. Natural history is not to him an
affair of the herbarium or the cabinet. The collectors and the species-framers
are, as it were, his diggers of clay and makers of bricks; even the skilled
observers and the trained experimentalists are his mechanics. Valuable as the
work of all these men is in itself, its principal value, as he has finally demon-
strated, is that which it acquires in rendering possible the work of the architect.
Therefore, although he has toiled in all the trades with his own hands, and
in each has accomplished some of the best work that has ever been done, the
great difference between him and most of his predecessors consists in this —
that while to them the discovery or accumulation of facts was an end, to him
it is the means. In their eyes it was enough that the facts should be dis-
covered and recorded. In his eyes the value of the facts is due to their power
of guiding the mind to a further discovery of principles. And the extraordinary
success which has attended his work in this respect of generalization immedi-
ately brought natural history into line with the other inductive sciences, be-
hind which, in this most important of all respects, she has so seriously fallen.
For it was the " Origin of Species " which first clearly revealed to naturalists
as a class, that it was the duty of their science to take as its motto, what is
really the motto of natural science in general,

Felix quit potuit rerum cognoscere causas.
Not facts, then, but causes or principles, are the ultimate objects of scientific
quest. . . . The spirit of speculation is the same as the spirit of science,
namely, as we have just seen, a desire to know the causes of things. . . . And
to frame hypotheses is to speculate. . . . The difference between science and
speculation is not a diff'erence of spirit; nor, thus far, is it a difference of
method. The only difference between them is in the subsequent process of verify-
ing hypotheses. . . . The only danger of speculation consists in its momentum
being apt to carry away the mind from the more laborious work of adequate
verification; and therefore a true scientific judgment consists in giving a free
rein to speculation on the one hand, while holding ready the break of verifica-
tion with the other. Now, it is just because Darwin did both these things
with so admirable a judgment, that he gave the world of natural history so
good a lesson as to the most effectual way of driving the chariot of science.'

While it may well be impossible to assail Romanes's panegyric, and
while it is eminently fitting that we should throb to its mood at this
time, Darwin would have been the last man to magnify his own office,

•"Darwin and After Darwin," Vol. I., pp. 4-7 (London, 1892).

392 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

or to deny his heritage from predecessors. Just as the Neapolitan
philosopher- jurist, Vico (1668-1744), foresaw some of the transitive
ideas that thinkers from Herder to Hegel, and philologists from F. A.
"Wolf and Niebuhr, were to clarify, so, too, Goethe and Erasmus Darwin,
Lamarck and Chambers, had substituted evolution for spontaneous gen-
eration and special creation ere Darwin's day. But two tasks remained,
for whose accomplishment Darwin's endowments of mind and char-
acter were to the manner born. First, an enormous accumulation of
evidence stood in need. This Darwin furnished on a scale still unpar-
alleled by any single investigator. Second, it was necessary to experi-
ment with tentative and candid applications of the evolution hypothesis,
apart altogether from flamboyant allegations that the key to every
mystery had been grasped at length. Darwin's scientific conscience,
and his eminently sane, self-effacing character, equipped him rarely for
these essential services. And, with him, evolution may be said to have
attained a poise lost somewhat since, I fear, amid the clash of new
theories and rival schools, even nations. After long years devoted to
excursions in many fields of intellectual activity, I, at least, have met
no one who, with such a heady prospect in plain sight, knew how to
hold the balance so true as the author of the " Origin of Species."
One might almost go so far as to call him the proof, in propria persona,
of Hegel's profound deliverance : " Not only must philosophy be in har-
mony with experience, but empirical natural science is the presuppo-
sition and condition of the rise and formation of the philosophical
science of nature."^*'

And this leads, naturally, to a few words concerning Darwin's cir-
cumstances, and his character as a man.

Taken on the whole, his achievement happens to be thoroughly
typical of English science, in contrast with German, French, or even
Scottish, not to say American, methods. He wrought in an independ-
ence of others that amounted almost to loneliness. He seems to have
gained no inspiration from his teachers at Edinburgh and at Cambridge
from none except Henslow, through whose instrumentality he under-
took the famous voyage on the Beagle. In 1842, while yet a young
man, he retired to Down, in Kent, there to mature his epoch-making
investigations "far from the madding crowd," but, nevertheless, to
show his age its own express image.

As with so many Englishmen of foremost rank in science, he stood
apart from that organization of Wissenschaft provided by the institute
and academies of France, by the university system in Germany and
Scotland. We must think of him, in the main, as we think of Young,
who presented his fundamental discoveries on the undulatory theory of
light in such obscure ways and channels that they never received due

" " Naturphil.," p. 11.

TEE HALO OF A HUNDRED YEARS 393

contemporary recognition ; of Dalton, who^ working as a private teacher
at Manchester, was first appreciated in the University of Glasgow; of
George Green, the self-taught IsTottingham genius, who anticipated
Gauss in elaborating the general mathematical theory of potential func-
tion, and who was also made known to European science by my alma
mater; of Boole, who, though the founder of the science of invariants,
taught in "venture" schools at Doncaster and Lincoln, and never
climbed higher than the professorship of mathematics at an incon-
spicuous Irish college ;^^ of Faraday and Joule, whose pertinacious,
unaided labors were also rated first at their real worth in the University
of Glasgow; of the Yorkshire shepherd, Dawson, who made Senior
AVranglers at Sedbergh in the last years of the eighteenth century. All
these men — and I might name others, like the classical succession of
English philosophers — were personalities, not ranking officers in a
national syndicate of scientific feudalism. Darwin stood latest in their
wonderful, and characteristically English, line. The Englishman's
passion for independence, his desire for the free play of idiosyncrasy,
may account for this. More powerful, in my judgment, is the fact
that the pursuit of science had not become a profession, and with the
astonishing consequences noted so caustically b)'' Brewster, in 1830.

Tlie great inventions and discoveries which have been made in England
during the last century have been made without the precincts of our univer-
sities. In proof of this we have only to recall the labours of Bradley, Dollond,
Priestley, Cavendish, Maskelyne, Rumford, Watt, Wollaston, Young, Davy
and Chenevix; and among the living to mention the names of Dalton, Ivory,
Brown, Hatchett, Pond, Hersehel, Babbage, Henry, Barlow, South, Faraday,
Murdoch and Christie; nor need we have any hesitation in adding that within
the last fifteen years not a single discovery or invention of prominent interest
has been made in our colleges, and that there is not one man in all the eight
universities of Great Britain who is at present known to be engaged in any
train of original research."

(A research club takes due note, I hope !) Science lay in far deeper
debt to the unusual endowment of individuals than to the patronage of
academies, or the fostering stimulus of universities, true to the highest
trust of education. In this connection, then, note finally that Darwin's
character furnished an ideal instrument for the continuation of this
process, more Anglicano.

On the intellectual side, Darwin's character presented a combination,
unique in modern times at least, of extensive knowledge, profound
sagacity and deliberative caution. His mastery over detail simply over-
whelms one. His sense for relationship and consequent power to detect
a single principle, no matter how confusing the multiplied phenomena

"Queen's College, Cork.

^Quarterly Review, Vol. XLIII., p. 327. This article led to the founda-
tion of the British Association. Cf. " The English Utilitarians," Leslie Stephen,
Vol. I., pp. 47 f., 112.

394 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

might be, lent him the ability that was to restore synthesis to its lost
place in scientific method. Still, fertile though he proved along theo-
retical lines, his caution prevented him from riding off, heedless, upon
preconceived notions. In this connection, it is a fact worthy of con-
stant note that he refused to discuss questions about the origin of life,
and the genesis of the earliest living organisms — subjects fraught with
wandering lights. My own ignorance of the field wherein he labored
may lead me into error, but, nevertheless, I do not think I am far
wrong when I affirm that the adjuncts of his systematization which
have least stood the test of time, thanks to manifold discoveries, his
fruitage, were precisely those framed as concessions to the opinions of
others. His ver}^ inability to dogmatize, and his readiness to enter
into the standpoint of colleagues, illustrated his mighty virtue of second
thought, nigh in the act of overreaching itself. Accordingly, it makes
small difference to what extent further investigation may have com-
plicated the problem of the means of evolution; his illuminating and
thorough presentation of the fact stands untouched. The dilemma
becomes plainer every day — either evolution, or irrational chaos.

On what may be called the ethical side, his personality exercised
immense influence over his intimates and won upon them deeply. A
brilliant and witty conversationalist, his refinement and sensitiveness
placed even the youngest at ease, while his benevolent wisdom tied men
to him by bands stronger than steel. Like all real masters of those who
know, he was charmingly unconscious of his eminent genius, and his
unaffected modesty led him to see achievements surpassing his own in
many a one. "What he wrote of Henslow offers a most apposite com-
mentary upon himself.

Reflecting over his character with gratitude and reverence, his moral
attributes rise, as they should do in the highest characters, in preeminence
over his intellect.

But, to my mind, the most impressive testimony to Darwin's personal
nobility comes, not from any of his devoted friends, but from Leslie
Stephen, a critic averse constitutionally from ecstatic praise of any one.
He even says : " I should like to succeed in praising somebody some
day."^^ Remember, too, that Stephen was on terms of familiarity with
the chief figures of the Victorian era, that his own family had produced
men of high distinction, and that he married a daughter of Thackeray.
Yet, temperament and opportunity notwithstanding, Darwin overtopped
all others with him. The venerable naturalist had been to see him in
London, and Stephen writes to Charles Eliot Norton, in 1877 :

You may believe that I was proud to welcome him, for of all eminent
men that I have ever seen he is beyond comparison the most attractive to
me. There is something almost pathetic in his simplicity and friendliness.

" " The Life and Letters of Leslie Stephen," p. 307.

THE HALO OF A HUNDRED YEARS 395

I heard a story the other day about a young German admirer, whom Lubbock
took to see him. He could not summon up courage to speak to the great
man; but, when they came away, burst into tears. Tliat is not my way;
but I can sympathize to some extent with the enthusiastic Dutchman."

Although Darwin must have been tried sorely by vulgar misrepresenta-
tion, partisan spite, ignorant invective and foul traduction, " he never
took an ill-natured view of any one's character." His conduct mid-
most the cataract of abuse let loose upon the " Origin of Species " con-
stitutes a glorious monument to his elevation of soul. His open sim-
plicity earned the reverence no less than the affection of those who were
privileged to know him. And, as we now place our bays upon his
crowned memory, we may adopt the words of the Scottish poet, an
acquaintance of my college days, whose sonnet voices the truth so finely :

Man's thought is like AntiEus, and must be
Touched to the ground of Nature to regain
Fresh force, new impulse, else it would remain
Dead in the grip of strong Authority.
But, once thereon reset, 'tis like a tree.
Sap-swollen in spring-time: bonds may not restrain;
Nor weight repress; its rootlets rend in twain
Dead stones and walls and rocks resistlessly.

Thine then it was to touch dead thoughts to earth,
Till of old dreams sprang new philosophies,
From visions systems, and beneath thy spell
Swiftly uprose, like magic palaces, —
Thyself half-conscious only of thy worth — -
Calm priest of a tremendous oracle!

"Ibid., pp. 300, 301.

396 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

THE ORIGIN OF THE THEOEY OF NATURAL SELECTION^

By Dr. A. R. WALLACE

I BEG to thank the council of the Linnean Society for the very great
honor they have done me, in coupling my name with that of
Charles Darwin on tlie celebration of this anniversary, and for the still
greater and more exceptional honor, of perpetuating my features with
those of my illustrious forerunner, upon the medal you have now
awarded me.

With your permission I propose to make a few remarks both as to
the actual relations between Darwin and myself prior to July, 1858,
and also to some peculiarities of our respective life-histories which
brought about those relations, and which will, I hope, be both novel and
of some general interest.

Since the death of Darwin in 1882, 1 have found myself in the
somewhat unusual position of receiving credit and praise from popular
writers under a complete misapprehension of what my share in Darwin's
work really amounted to. It has been stated (not unfrequently) in the
daily and weekly press, that Darwin and myself discovered " natural
selection " simultaneously, while a more daring few have declared that
I was the first to discover it, and that I gave way to Darwin !

In order to avoid further errors of this kind (which this celebration
may possibly encourage), I think it will be well to give the actual
facts as simply and clearly as possible.

The one fact that connects me with Darwin, and which, I am happy
to say, has never been doubted, is that the idea of what is now termed
" natural selection " or " survival of the fittest," together with its far-
reaching consequences, occurred to us independently, and was first
jointly announced before this society fifty years ago.

But, what is often forgotten by the press and the public, is, that
the idea occurred to Darwin in October, 1838, nearly twenty years
earlier than to myself (in Febrnary, 1858)'; and that during the whole
of that twenty years he had been laboriously collecting evidence from
the vast mass of literature of biology, of horticulture and of agriculture :
as well as himself carrying out ingenious experiments and original
observations, the extent of which is indicated by the range of subjects
discussed in his " Origin of Species," and especially in that wonderful
store-house of knowledge — his " Animals and Plants under Domestica-

^ Reply on receiving the Darwin-Wallace medal of the Linnean Society of
London on July 1, 1908.

ORIGIN OF THEORY OF NATURAL SELECTION 397

tion," almost the whole materials for which works had been collected,
and to a large extent systematized, during that twenty years.

So far back as 1844, at a time when I had hardly thought of any
serious study of nature, Darwin had written an outline of his vieAvs,
which he communicated to his friends Sir Charles Lyell and Dr. (now
Sir Joseph) Hooker. The former strongly urged him to publish an
abstract of his theory as soon as possible, lest some other person might
precede him — but he always refused till he had got together the whole
of the materials for his intended great work. Then, at last, Lyell's
prediction was fulfilled, and, without any apparent warning, my letter,
with the enclosed essay, came upon him, like a thunderbolt from a cloud-
less sky ! This forced him to what he considered a premature publicity,
and his two friends undertook to have our two papers read before this
society.

How different from this long study and preparation — this philo-
sophic caution — this determination not to make known his fruitful
conception till he could back it up by OA^erwhelming proofs — was my
own conduct. The idea came to me, as it had come to Darwin, in a
sudden flash of insight : it was thought out in a few hours — was written
down with such a sketch of its various applications and developments as
occurred to me at the moment, — then copied on thin letter-paper and
sent off to Darwin- — all within one week. I was then (as often since)
the " young man in a hurry " ; he, the painstaking and patient student,
seeking ever the full demonstration of the truth that he had discovered,
rather than to achieve immediate personal fame.

Such being the actual facts of tlie case, I should have had no cause
for complaint if the respective shares of Darwin and myself in regard
to the elucidation of nature's method of organic development had been
thenceforth estimated as lieing, roughly, proportional to the time we
had each bestowed upon it when it was thus first given to the world — •
that is to say, as twenty years is to one week. For, he had already made
it his own. If the persuasion of his friends had prevailed with him,
and he had published his theory, after ten years' — fifteen years' — or
even eighteen years' elaboration of it — / should have had no part in
it whatever, and he would have been at once recognized, and should be
ever recognized, as the sole and undisputed discoverer and patient inves-
tigator of the great law of " natural selection " in all its far-reaching
consequences.

It was really a singular piece of good luck that gave to me any
share whatever in the discovery. During the first half of the nineteenth
century (and even earlier) many great biological thinkers and workers
had been pondering over the problem and had even suggested ingenious
but inadequate solutions. Some of these men were among the greatest
intellects of our time, yet, till Darwin, all had failed ; and it was only

398 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Darwin's extreme desire to perfect his work that allowed me to come
in, as a very bad second, in the truly Olympian race in which all philo-
sophical biologists, from Bnffon and Erasmus Darwin to Eichard Owen
find Robert Chambers, were more or less actively engaged.

And this brings me to the very interesting question: Why did so
many of the greatest intellects fail, while Darwin and myself hit upon
tlie solution of this problem- — a solution which this celebration proves
to have been (and still to be) a satisfying one to a large number of
those best able to form a judgment on its merits? As I have found
what seems to me a good and precise answer to this question, and one
which is of some psychological interest, I will, with your permission,
briefly state what it is.

On a careful consideration, we find a curious series of correspon-
dences, both in mind and in environment, which led Darwin and myself,
alone among our contemporaries, to reach identically the same theory.

First (and most important, as I believe), in early life both Darwin
and myself became ardent beetle-hunters. Now there is certainly no
group of organisms that so impresses the collector by the almost infinite
number of its specific forms, the endless modifications of structure,
shape, color and surface-markings that distinguish them from each
other, and their innumerable adaptations to diverse environments.
These interesting features are exhibited almost as strikingly in tem-
perature as in tropical regions, our own comparatively limited island-
fauna possessing more than 3,000 species of this one order of insects.

Again, both Darwin and myself had, what he terms " the mere pas-
sion of collecting,"- — ^not that of studying the minutiae of structure
either internal or external. I should describe it rather as an intense
interest in the mere variety of living things-^the variety that catches
the eye of the observer even among those which are very much alike,
but which are soon found to differ in several distinct characters.

Now it is this superficial and almost child-like interest in the out-
ward forms of living things, which, though often despised as unscien-
tific, happened to be the only one which would lead us towards a solu-
tion of the problem of species. For nature herself distinguishes her
species by just such characters — often exclusively so, always in some
degree — very small changes in outline, or in the proportions of appen-
dages, as give a quite distinct and recognizable fades to each, often
aided by slight peculiarities in motions or habits ; while in a large
number of cases differences of surface-texture, of color, or in the details
of the same general scheme of color-pattern or of shading, give an
unmistakable individuality to closely allied species.

It is the constant search for and detection of these often unexpected
differences between very similar creatures, that gives such an intellec-
tual charm and fascination to the mere collection of these insects; and

ORIGIN OF THEORY OF NATURAL SELECTION 399

when, as in the case of Darwin and myself, the collectors were of a
speculative tiii-n of mind, they were constantly led to think upon the
" why " and the " how " of all this wonderful variety in nature — thi^
overwhelming, and, at first sight, purposeless wealth of specific forms
among the very humblest forms of life.

Then, a little later (and with both of us almost accidentally) we
became travellers, collectors and observers, in some of the richest and
most interesting portions of the earth; and we thus had forced upon
our attention all the strange phenomena of local and geographical dis-
tribution, with the numerous problems to which they give rise. Thence-
forward our interest in the great mystery of how species came into
existence was intensified, and — again to use Darwin's expression —
" haunted " us.

Finally, both Darwin and myself, at the critical period when our
ininds were freshly stored with a considerable body of personal observa-
tion and reflection bearing upon the problem to be solved, had our
attention directed to the system of positive cliecTfs as expounded by
Malthus in his " Principles of Population." The effect of this was
analogous to that of friction upon the specially-prepared match, pro-
ducing that flash of insight which led us immediately to the simple
but universal law of the " survival of the fittest," as the long-sought
effective cause of the continuous modification and adaptation of living
things.

It is an unimportant detail that Darwin read this book two years
after his return from his voyage, while I had read it hefore I went
abroad, and it was a sudden recollection of its teachings that caused
the solution to flash upon me. I attach much importance, however, to
the large amount of solitude we both enjoyed during our travels, which,
at the most impressionable period of our lives, gave us ample time for
reflection on the phenomena we were daily observing.

This view, of the combination of certain mental faculties and ex
ternal conditions that led Darwin and myself to an identical conception,
also serves to explain why none of our precursors or contemporaries
hit upon what is really so very simple a solution of the great problem.
Such evolutionists as Robert Chambers, Herbert Spencer and Huxley,
though of great intellect, wide knowledge, and immense power of work,
had none of them the special turn of mind that makes the collector
and the species-man, while they all — as well as the equally great thinker
on similar lines, Sir Charles Lyell — became in early life immersed in
different lines of research which engaged their chief attention.

Neither did the actual precursors of Darwin in the statement of the
principle — Wells, Matthews or Prichard — possess any adequate knowl-
edge of the class of facts above referred to, or suflScient antecedent
interest in the problem itself, which were both needed in order to per-

400 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

ceive the application of the principle to the mode of development of
the varied forms of life.

And now, to recur to my own position, I may be allowed to make
a final remark, I have long since come to see that no one deserves
either praise or blame for the ideas that come to him, but only for the
actions resulting therefrom. Ideas and beliefs are certainly not volun-
tary acts. They come to us— we hardly know how or whence, and once
they have got possession of us we can not reject or change them at will.
It is for the common good that the promulgation of ideas should be
free — uninfluenced by either praise or blame, reward or punishment.

But the actions which result from our ideas may properly be eo
treated, because it is only by patient thought and work, that new ideas,
if good and true, become adopted and utilized; while, if untrue or if
not adequately presented to the world, they are rejected or forgotten.

I therefore accept the crowning honor you have conferred on me to-
day, not for the happy chance through which I became an independent
originator of the doctrine of " survival of the fittest," but, as a too
liberal recognition by you of the moderate amount of time and work
I have given to explain and elucidate the theory, to point out some
novel applications of it, and (I hope I may add) for my attempts to
extend those applications, even in directions which somewhat diverged
from those accepted by my honored friend and teacher — Charles
Darwin.

402 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

THE FIEST PEESENTATION OF THE THEORY OF
NATURAL SELECTION"!

By Sir JOSEPH HOOKER

T Have been honored by receiving from the council of our societv
-L a request that I would take up a little of your time and attention
with a brief address. No theme or subject was vouchsafed to me by the
council, but, having gratefully accepted the honor, I was bound to find
one for myself. It soon dawned upon me that the object sought by
my selection might have been that, considering the intimate terms upon
which Mr. Darwin extended to me his friendship, I could from my
memory contribute to the knowledge of some important event in his
career. It having been intimated to me that this was in a measure
true, I have selected as such an event one germane to this celebration
and also engraven on my memor}^, namely, the considerations which
determined Mr. Darwin to assent to the course which Sir Charles Lyell
and I had suggested to him, that of our presenting to the society, in one
communication, his own and Mr. Wallace's theories on the effect of
variation and the struggle for existence on the evolution of species.^

You have all read Francis Darwin's fascinating work as Editor of
his father's " Life and Letters," where you will find^ a letter addressed,
on June 18, 1858, to Sir Charles Lyell by Mr. Darwin, who states that
he had on that day received a communication from Mr. Wallace written
from the Celebes Islands requesting that it might be sent to him (Sir
Charles).

In a covering letter ]\Ir. Darwin pointed out that the enclosure
contained a sketch of a theoiy of natural selection as depending on the
struggle for existence so identical with one he himself entertained
and fully described in manuscript in 1843, that he never saw a more
striking coincidence : had Mr. Wallace seen his sketch he could not
have made a better short abstract, even his terms standing " as heads
of my chapters." He goes on to say that he would at once write to
Mr. Wallace offering to send his manuscript to any journal; and con-
cludes: So my originality is smashed, though my book (the forth-
coming "Origin of Species"), if it Avill have any value will not be
deteriorated, as all know the labor consists in the application of the
theory.

^ Reply on receiving the Darwin-Wallace medal of the Linnean Society of
London on July 1, 1908.

2 See Jour. Linn. Soc, III. (1859), pp. 45-61.
^Vol. IT., p. 110.

404 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

After writing to Sir Charles Lyell, "Sh: Darwin informed me of ^Iv.
Wallace's letter and its enclosnre, in a similar strain, only more
explicitly announcing his resolve to abandon all claim to priority for
his own sketch. I could not but protest against such a course, no doubt
reminding him that I had read it, and that Sir Charles knew its con-
tents, some years before the arrival of Mr. AVallace's letter: and that
our withholding our knowledge of its priority would be unjustifiable.
I further suggested the simultaneous publication of the two, and offered
—should he agree to such a compromise — to write to Mr. Wallace fully
informing him of the motives of the course adopted.

In answer, Mr. Darwin thanked me warmly for my offer to explain
all to Mr. Wallace, and in a later letter he informed me that he was
disposed to look favorably on my suggested compromise, but that before
making up his mind he desired a second opinion as to whether he could
honorably claim priority, and that he proposed applying to Sir Charles
Lyell for this. I need not say that this was a relief to me, knowing
as I did what Sir Charles's answer must be.

At Vol. II., pp. 117, 118 of the "Life and Letters," Mr. Darwin's
application to Sir Charles Lyell is given, dated June 26, with a post-
script dated June 27. In it he requests that the answer shall be sent
to me to be forwarded to himself. I have no recollection of receiving
the answer, which is not to be found either in Darwin's or my own
correspondence; it was no doubt satisfactory.

Further action was now left in the hands of Sir Charles and myself,
Ave all agreeing that, whatever action was taken, the result should be
offered for publication to the Linnean Society.

On June 29, Mr. Darwin wrote to me in acute distress, being him-
self very ill, and scarlet fever raging in his family, to which an infant
son had succumbed on the previous day, and a daughter was ill with
diphtheria. He acknowledged the receipt of letters from me, adding,
" I can not think now of the subject, but soon will : you shall hear as
soon as I can think " : and on the night of the same day he writes again,
telling me that he is quite prostrated and can do nothing but send
certain papers for which I had asked as essential for completing the
prefatory statement to the communication to the Linnean Society of
his and Wallace's " Essays." This was only forty-eight hours before
the reading of the paper laid before the society by Sir Charles and my-
self on July 1. It may be interesting to recall that the last ordinarv
meeting of the session of this society is held in the middle of June
The occasion of the meeting on July 1 was exceptional, and was duo
to the death of the eminent botanist, Robert Brown. As a mark of
respect to that great past president, the ordinary meeting of June 17
was adjourned, and a special meeting called in order to elect a suc-
cessor to the vacancy on the council, caused by his decease, George

4o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Bentham being nominated in his place. The usual election of council
and officers had taken place at the anniversary meeting only a month
before; and, oddly enough, for the first time among the new members
of that body was Charles Darwin. Other papers were also read at the
special meeting on July 1, but it will not have escaped your notice
that the whole correspondence relating to the two papers on the evolu-
tion of species was subsequent to June 17; indeed, the joint letter from
Sir Charles Lyell and myself communicating them to the society was
only written on June 30.

Thus the death of Robert Brown was the direct ca^ise of the theory
of the origin of species being given to the world at least four months
earlier than Avould otherwise have been the case.

The communications were read, as was the ciistom in those days,
by the secretary of ths society. Mr. Darwin himself, owing to his own
illness and distress, could not be present. Sir Charles Lyell and my-
self said a few words to emphasize the importance of the subject; but,
as recorded in the " Life and Letters,"* although intense interest was
excited, no discussion took place : " the subject was too novel and too
ominous for the old school to enter the lists before armoring."

It can not fail to be noticed that all these inter-communications
between Mr. Darwin, Sir Charles Lyell and myself were conducted by
correspondence, no two of us having met in the interval between June
18 and July 1, when I met Lyell at the evening meeting of the Linnean
Society; and no fourth individual had any cognizance of our pro-
ceedings.

It must also be noted that for the detailed history given above there
is no documentary evidence beyond what Francis Darwin has produced
in the " Life and Letters." There are no letters from Lyell relating
to it not even answers to Mr. Darwin's of June 18, 25 and 26; and
Sir Leonard Lyell has at my request very kindly but vainly searched
his uncle's correspondence for any relating to this subject beyond the
two above mentioned. There are none of my letters to either Lyell
or Darwin, nor other evidence of their having existed beyond the latter's
acknowledgment of the receipt of some of them; and, most surprising
of all, Mr. Wallace's letter and its enclosure have disappeared. Such is
my recollection of the day of the fiftieth anniversary of which we are
now celebrating, and of the fortnight that immediately preceded it.

It remains for me to ask your forgiveness for intruding upon your
time and attention with the half-century old, real or fancied memories
of a nonogenarian as contributions to the history of the most notable
event in the annals of biology that had followed the appearance in 1735
of the " Systema Natures " of Linnaeus.

'Vol. II., p. 126.

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

407

THE PEOGRESS OF SCIENCE

DARWIN'S MANUSCRIPT

There is here reproduced the text of
two pages of the original manuscript
of " The Descent of Man " in the hand-
writing of the author. This manu-
script, as well as the portraits by Lock
and Whitfield and by Maull and Fox
reproduced above, we owe to the kind-
ness of Mr. Charles F. Cox, president
of the New York Academy of Sciences,
who has permitted the use of his val-
uable collection of Darwiniana. With
the manuscript, the handwriting of
which is somewhat reduced in size, is
given a transcription, and in the second
column the text as it finally appeared
in the first edition of the " Descent of
Man" as published in 1871, Volume I.,
pp. 42-43.

The manuscript shows the great
amount of revision which the author
made in all his work. It is corrected
and interlined, and when it appeared
in print it had been largely again re-
written by correcting the proofs. Thus
the author evidently expected this mat-
ter to appear in Chapter I., but made
additions which carried it over into
Chapter II. Darwin's daughter, Mrs.
Litchfield, who assisted him in the cor-
rection of some of his later works,
says:

" He did not write with ease, and
was apt to invert his sentences both
in writing and speaking, putting the
qualifying clause before it was clear
what it was to qualify. He corrected
a great deal, and was eager to express
himself as well as he possibly could."

In the "Life and Letters," Mr.
Francis Darwin writes:

" Perhaps the commonest corrections
needed were obscurities due to the
omission of a necessary link in the
reasoning, something that he had evi-
dently omitted through familiarity
with the subject. Not that there Mas
any fault in the sequence of the
thoughts, but that from familiarity
with his argument he did not notice
when the words failed to reproduce his
thought. He also frequently put too
much matter into one sentence, so that
it had to be cut up into two.

" On the whole, I think the pains
which my father took over the literary
part of the work was very remarkable.
He often laughed or grumbled at him-
self for the difficulty which he found
in writing English, saying, for instance,
that if a bad arrangement of a sentence
was possible, he should be sure to adopt
it. He once got much amusement and
satisfaction out of the difficulty which
one of his family found in writing a
short circular. He had the pleasure of
correcting and laughing at obscurities,
involved sentences, and other defects,
and thus took his revenge for all the
criticism he had himself to bear with.
He used to quote with astonishment
Miss Martineau's advice to young au-
thors, to write straight off and send
the MS. to the printers without cor-
rection. But in some cases he acted
in a somewhat similar manner. When
a sentence got hopelessly involved, he
would ask himself, ' Now what do you
want to say?' and his answer written
down would often disentangle the con-
fusion."

4o8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

^/i-t^ CA^ (^Q^ C7

/--^ /^^-"^-^ <i^-^ '^ »^ 'f'i— ,' ^i^^cr^^ ?-c^<^

TEE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

409

MANUSCRIPT OF DARWIN'S "DESCENT OF MAN"

fear & something very like modesty,
when begging too often for food. Some
dogs and other animals as horses easily
turn sulky; some are good-tempered,
others ill-tempered. A great dog scorns
the snarling of a little dog. Several
obserA'ers have stated that mouKeys
certainly hate being laughed at. They
will also make for themselves imagin-
ary offenses; thus I saw a baboon in
the Zoological Gardens who always got
into a furious passion, when his keeper
took out a letter or book and read it
aloud to him; on one occasion in his
rage he bit his own leg till the blood
Howed.

We will now turn to the more intel-
lectual emotions & faculties, which are
very important as the almost necessary
steps to the development of the higher
mental powers. Animals manifestly
enjoy excitement, & suffer from ennui,
as may be seen with dogs & accord-
ing to Rengger with monkeys. All
animals plainly feel Wonder; & may
exhibit Curiosity, as is sometimes
proved to their cost by the hunter play-
ing antics and thus attracting them.

I There can, I think, be no doubt that
a dog feels shame, as distinct from fear,
and something very like modesty when
begging too often for food. A great dog
scorns the snarling of a little dog, and
this may be called magnanimity. Sev-
eral observers have stated that monkeys
certainly dislike being laughed at; and
they sometimes invent imaginary of-
fences. In the Zoological Gardens I
saw a baboon who always got into a
furious rage when his keeper took out
a letter or book and read it aloud to
him; and his rage was so violent that,
as I witnessed on one occasion, he bit
his own leg till the blood flowed.

We will now turn to the more intel-
lectual emotions and faculties, which
are very important, as forming the
basis for the development of the higher
mental powers. Animals manifestly
enjoy excitement and suflFer from ennui,
as may be seen with dogs, and, accord-
ing to Rengger, with monkeys. All ani-
mals feel Wonder, and may exhibit
Curiosity. They sometimes suffer from
this latter quality, as when the hunter
plays antics and thus attracts them;

4IO

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

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THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

411

as I have witnessed with deer, & as is
known to be the case with the wary
cliamois & with wild ducks. Brehm
gives a curious account of the instinct-
ive dread of snakes whicli his monkeys
exhibited; but their curiosity was so
great that they would not desist, in a
most human fashion, from occasionally
satiating their horror by lifting up the
lid of the box, in which the snakes were
kept, & peeping at them. I was so
much surprised at this account, that
I took a w^ell stuffed & coiled up snake
into the monkey House at the Zoolog-
ical Gardens, & the excitement there
caused was one of the most curious
spectacles which I ever beheld. Three
species of Cercopithecus were most
alarmed; they darted about their cages
& uttered sharp signal-cries of danger,
which were apparently understood by
the other monkeys. A few young
monkeys and an old Anubis baboon
took no notice. I then placed the
stuffed snake on the ground in one of
the large compartments, & after a time
all the monkeys, staring intently, col-
lected around it forming a large circle
4c presenting a most

i have witnessed this with deer, and
so it is with the wary chamois, and
with some kinds of wild-ducks. Brehm
gives a curious account of the instinct-
ive dread which his monkeys exhibited
towards snakes; but their curiosity
was so great that they could not desist
from occasionally satiating their hor-
ror in a most human fashion, by lift-
ing up the lid of the box in which the
snakes were kept. I was so much
surprised at his account, that I took
a stuffed and coiled-up snake into the
monkey house at the Zoological Gar-
dens, and the excitement thus caused
was one of the most curious spectacles
I ever beheld. Three species of Cer-
copithecus were the most alarmed;
they dashed about their cages and
uttered sharp signal-cries of danger,
which were understood by the other
monkeys. A few young monkeys and
one old Anubis baboon alone took no
notice of the snake. I then placed the
stuffed specimen on the ground in one
of the larger compartments. After a
time all the monkeys collected round
it in a large circle, and staring intently,
presented a most ludicrous appearance.

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

413

PORTRAITS OF DARWIN

In this number of The Popular
Science Monthly, commemorating the
hundredth anniversary of Darwin's
birth, are reproduced eight portraits.
Tlie first of these, given as a frontis-
piece, is from a Woodbury-type made
from life by Lock and Whitfield and
published in " Men of Mark " by Samp-
son, Low and Company about 1876.
IL gives perhaps a better impression
of Darwin as he actually looked in his
later years than any other portrait.
There follows a portrait from a photo-
graph by Maull and Fox taken about
1854. At the same time a similar
photograph was made from which a
somewhat idealized portrait was en-
graved in wood for Harper's Magazine
for October, 1884. The portrait next
given appeared in the Quarterly Jour-
nal of Science in 1866. There then
follows a reproduction of an engraving
on steel made for Nature in 1874 by
C. H. Jeens from a photograph taken
by 0. J. Rejlander about 1870. The
next Illustration is a photograph of
the bronze bust made by Mr. William
Couper and presented by the New York
Academy of Sciences to the American
Museum of Natural History on the
hundredth anniversary of Darwin's
birth. A second photograph of this
bust as it stands on the pedestal is
given at the end of the number. The
origin of the portrait next given is not
known to the editor. The following
portrait is from a photograph taken

by ^Irs. Cameron at the Isle of Wight
in 1868. Darwin wrote under it " I
like this photograph very much better
than any other which has been taken
of me." The last portrait is from an
engraving on wood by G. Cruels for
•• The Life and Letters," from a pho-
tograph taken by Elliott and Fry in
1881.

There are also given portraits of
several of those whose relations to
Darwin and his work were especially
intimate : Alfred R. Wallace, whose
paper on natural selection was pre-
sented simultaneously with Darwin's
and whose subsequent contributions to
the theory of evolution are notable,
whom Darwin calls " generous and
noble " ; Sir Joseph Hooker, the most
eminent of British botanis-ts, the life-
long friend and scientific adviser of
Darwin, of whom he says : " I have
known hardly any man more lovable " ;
Sir Charles Lyell, whose " Principles
of Geology " was Darwin's early in-
spiration and who was later his warm
friend and constant adviser, who with
Hooker presented to the Linnean So-
ciety the papers on natural selection;
the Rev. J. R. Malthus, whose " Prin-
ciples of Population " suggested the
idea of natural selection to both Dar-
win and Wallace, as Lyell's " Prin-
ciples " had previously impressed on
them the idea of evolution; Erasmus
Darwin, poet and philosopher, defender
of the doctrine of the transmutation of
species, whose grandson resembled him
in manv traits.

K u./\.sci/ui,s i)/VKvym,M

n''H'tf

I

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

415

CELEBRATIONS IN HONOR OF THE
DARWIN CENTENARY

The most notable celebrations of
Darwin's birth and of the fiftieth anni-
versary of the ■' Origin of Species " are
the exercises of the Linnean Society of
London, held on July 1 of last year,
and the celebrations to be held at Cam-
bridge in June next. The Darwin-
Wallace celebration of the Linnean So-
ciety was notea at the time in this
journal, and a reproduction was shown
of a medal struck in honor of the fif-
tieth anniversary of the presentation
to the society of the papers on
natural selection by Darwin and ^^'al-
lace. These papers were reproduced
in the issue of The Popular Science
Monthly for November, 1901. The
celebrations at Cambridge in June \\ill
last several days, and some three hun-
dred universities and learned societies
throughout the world will be repre-
sented by delegates.

While, as is becoming, the two most
elaborate commemorations of the Dar-
win centenary have been arranged in
his own country, celebrations have been
more general in the United States than
in Great Britain. The most notable
exercises were arranged by the Amer-
ican Association for the Advancement
of Science and held at Baltimore on
January 1. Professor E. B. Poulton,
probably the most distinguished living
representative of the theory of natural
selection, came from England as the
guest of the association to make the

opening address, and this was followed
by a series of papers giving an account
of the state of research in the biolog-
ical sciences based on the doctrine of
evolution. These papers are about to
be published for the association in a
memorial volume by Messrs. Henry
Holt and Company.

The commemorative exercises that
were perhaps next in interest were held
in New York City on Darwin's birth-
day. The New York Academy of Sci-
ences presented to the American Mu-
seum of Natural Historj- a heroic bust
of Darwin in bronze bj- Mr. William
Couper, illustrations of which are
reproduced in this number of the
Monthly. The addresses made on
this occasion are printed above. At
Columbia LTniversity, on the same day,
a series of lectures on Charles Darwin
and his influence on science was begun,
the opening address being printed in
this memorial issue.

An equally notable series of lectures
on Darwin's influence is being given
at Chicago, and commemorative cere-
monies and addresses have been ar-
ranged not only in large centers, such
as Boston and Philadelphia, but also
at universities throughout the countrj\
Ihese include Michigan, Cornell, Mis-
souri, Nebraska, Iowa, Iowa State Col-
lege, Georgia, Brown, Wesleyan and
other institutions. In some cases the
celebrations extended over several days
and as many as ten or more papers
and addresses were given.

/ ' '

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•■APVOF THE

1 vx.iV.j/^.j'-. ;.

^VBLIGATION
ORIGIN

:^ECIES

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE

MONTHLY,

MAY, 1909

THE TYPE OF THE PANAMA CANAL

Br C. E. GRUNSKY

MEMBER OF THE ISTHMIAN CANAL COMMISSION OF 1904

T~"rNDEE the law of June 28, 1903, generally referred to as the
v-^ Spooner act, which authorizes the construction of an inter-
oceanic canal President Roosevelt appointed, in March, 1904, the fol-
lowing commissioners : Rear Admiral John G. Walker, U. S. Navy
(retired), chairman; Major Genl. Geo. W. Davis, U. S. Army (retired) ;
Col. Frank J. Hecker, of Detroit ; Major Benjamin M. Harrod, civil
engineer of New Orleans; Professor ^Yillam H. Burr, of Columbia Uni-
versity, New York; Wm. Barclay Parsons, of New York; and the
writer, of San Francisco.

The Spooner act empowers the president to purchase the canal
properties upon the Panama route at a cost not exceeding $40,000,000,
or, in the event of failure to do this, to enter into negotiations with
the republics of Costa Rica and Nicaragua for a right of way on what
is commonly known as the Nicaragua route.

Provision was made for the prosecution of the work of canal con-
struction by the president, acting through and with the aid of a canal
commission. An appropriation of $10,000,000 was carried by the act
for use upon either of the two routes, and Congress was pledged to
make additional appropriations as required up to $135,000,000 in case
the Panama route was adopted and not to exceed $180,000,000 for
work on the Nicaragua route. The secretary of the treasury is author-
ized to borrow from time to time, as funds may be required, the sum
of $130,000,000, issuing therefor coupon or registered thirty-year bonds
in such form as he may prescribe, redeemable after ten years, bearing
interest at two per centum per annum.

The passage of the Spooner act by Congress, followed the submis-
sion of a report by the canal commission of 1899-1901, which recom-

voL. Lxxiv. — 27. 417

4i8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

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THE TYPE OF THE PANAMA CANAL 419

mended the acquisition bv the United States of the rights and prop-
erties of the New Panama Canal Company. This recommendation was
the direct result of an offer of the canal company to sell all its rights
and properties for the sum of $-1:0,000,000. The actual transfer of the
canal properties to the United States took jdace on May 1, 1904.

The great engineering question before the commission, above
named, related to the type of canal. Should the canal be built at sea-
level or should it cross the backbone of the isthmus at the elevation
suggested by the investigating commission of 1899-1901, and appar-
ently contemplated by the Spooner act, with a summit level at 85 feet,
or should it be a lock canal with some other elevation of its summit
section? This question and tlie administration's course in setting
aside the recommendation of a majority of the board of consulting
engineers and adojjting the plan of a lock-canal Avith a summit at the
elevation suggested by the commission of 1899 and advocated by the
minority members of the board of engineers are still fruitful of dis-
cussion.

A review of the proceedings leading to the solution, and a presenta-
tion of some of the physical features of the problem, as disclosed by
the proceedings, may prove an aid to a better understanding of the
present situation.

Eelating to the kind of canal to be constructed the law provides:

The President shall then, through the Isthmian Canal Commission . . .
cause to be excavated, constructed and completed, litilizing to that end, as far
as practicable, the work heretofore done by the New Panama Canal Company,
of France, and its predecessor company, a ship canal from the Caribbean Sea
to the Pacific Ocean. Such canal shall be of sufficient capacity and depth as
shall afford convenient passage for vessels of the largest tonnage and greatest
draft now in use, and such as may reasonably be anticipated, and shall be
supplied with all necessary locks and other appliances to meet the necessities
of vessels passing through the same from ocean to ocean. . . .

It was recognized by the commission of 1904 that under the Spooner
act as quoted, a departure, to some extent at least, from the project
which the earlier commission had outlined as a basis for comparative
cost estimates was authorized and proper. It was incumbent upon the
commission to determine whether a canal with summit level at 80 or
60 or 30 feet wonld not, all things considered, be better than the canal
with summit level at 85 feet. It was therefore necessary to regard the
entire question of type of canal an open one to be solved by the selection
of that t^'pe and that summit elevation which would best fulfill all
requirements. It was realized that this question required careful con-
sideration from every standpoint, particularly in relation to its service-
ability, to time required for construction, to first cost and to the cost
of operation and maintenance with due regard to the importance of
early completion, and reliability of service after completion.

In entering npon a preliminary discussion of these matters the lack

420

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Seacoing Suction Dredge Ancon taking on Coal near Dry Dock at Cristobel.
This and other photographs are from the Annual Reports of the Commission.

of adequate data was sorely felt by the members of the commission and
it was soon found that no satisfactory conclusion could be reached with-
out supplementing by additional exploration witli the auger and other-
wise, the information disclosed by records of surveys, borings and
shafts, which had been made by the engineers of the French canal com-
panies. There had been no explorations to sea-level by shaft or by
borings in the central sections of the canal yet this information was
now of paramount importance for the determination of safe slopes for
the sides of the deep cuts. In the absence of such information no satis-
factory conclusion could be reached relating to the amount of material
that would have to be excavated to maintain a great open cut at Cule-
bra. The side slopes of this cut must be so flat that they will stand
permanently. They should be as steep as they can safely be held in
order that the quantity of excavation may not be unnecessarily in-
creased. For the solution of this problem, it was necessary to know not
only the character of all material to be encountered down to sea-level,
but to a depth of over 40 feet below sea-level. Incomplete or unre-
liable data would tlirow more or less doubt upon the conclusions
reached.

The commission of 1904, therefore, entered at once upon the col-
lection of additional data and hoped to be able to reach an intelligent
conclusion relating to the type of the canal at an early date. The
published proceedings of the commission show that on December 8,
1904, seven months after the United States had taken possession of
the canal properties, it was resolved to send the committee on engineer-
ing, coDsisting of Professor W. H. Burr, Wm. Barclay Parsons, and
Major B. M. Ilarrod to the isthmus

THE TYPE OF THE PANAMA CANAL

421

to see that the necessary surveys and data for determining the type of canal
have been completed and to bring the same to Washington to be laid before
the commission; and that the committee on engineering phms shall, if possible,
recommend to the commission, during March, various plans and estimates for
the several types of canal, so that the commission as a whole may determine
the same.

The writer was a fourth member of the committee on engineering plans.

In compliance with this resohition two members of the committee,
Professor Bnrr and ]\Ir. Parsons, went to the isthmus, where their
deliberations were participated in by General Davis, who by virtue of
his station on the isthmus was a member of all committees there in
session. Major Harrod did not accompany tlie other members of the
committee, because it was necessary to preserve a quorum of the com-
mission at Washington for the transaction of business.

On February 23, 1905, the committee, having returned from the
isthmus, made a report, in which it recommended that the construc-
tion of a breakwater at the entrance of Limon Bay should be com-
menced at the earliest practicable date; that the harbor at Cristobal
should be deepened and otherwise improved; that, if a lock-canal be
constructed the summit level of the canal should not exceed 60 feet;
that Chagres Eiver should be controlled by a dam at Gamboa; and
that a plan for a sea-level canal, free from the restriction of locks
(except a tidal lock near the Pacific Ocean) should be adopted. The
committee included in its recommendations 150 feet as the least bot-
tom-width of the canal and 35 feet as the least dejith. suggesting,
however, that estimates be also made to cover a depth of 40 feet. The
committee also took up the question of the necessary lock dimensions,
if locks be required, and advocated a width of 100 feet and a usable

Old French Ladder or Elevator Dredge deepeMiNG Entrance Channel in the

Pacific near La Boca. This dredge is being served by two old French

self-propeHing hopper barges, known as " clapets."

422

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Typical Ckoss Section adotted by the Boakd of Consulting Engineers foe

THE Culebra Cut. K. 54.41.

length of 1,000 feet, but with intermediate gates to conserve time and
water. The committee called attention to the increasing difficulties of
constructing a dam at or near Bohio, disclosed by additional borings,
and condemned as impracticable a dam at Gatun where borings to 172
and to 139 feet below sea-level did not reach bed-rock.

The data, which the commission had instructed the committee to
bring to Washington, were not submitted with the report, neither did
such data accompany a progress report of the chief engineer, Mr. John
F. Wallace, which was received a few weeks later. The ty})e of canal
was, however, quite fully discussed by Mr. Wallace, and his report con-
tained the recommendation

that no temporary or tentative plan be adopted that will interfere with the
final adoption of the " sea-level plan," which it is hoped will ultimately receive
the favorable consideration of the commission.

The committee report, however, brought before the commission a
definite recommendation, relating to the type of the canal. In the

EN&.
NEWS.

Total Amount of Excava+^on required May 1, 1904:
1«,000',000 Cubic Yards.

~ Fig. 1. Progress of Excavation on
the Panajia Canal inder the United
States, as Compared with Total Ex-
cavation Required.

ENS-
NEWS.

Total Estimated Excavation ,-'mcMing
French,- 132,000, 000 Cu. Yds.

Fig. Li. I)LU;l!A.M showing ItULATIOX

OF French and American Excavation
on P.\nama Canal to Total Estimated
Ajiount.

THE TYPE OF THE PANAMA CANAL 423

absence of the data necessary to reach a final conclusion on this point,
and in view of the fact that no endjarrassment would I'csidt from a de-
libeiate weighing of all the facts, the writer, though with a pronounced
leaning toward the sea-level type, could not see his own way clear to an
immediate concurrence in the conclusions of the committee. There
was nothing convincing either in the report of the chief engineer nor
in the report of the committee relating to quantity of material to be
excavated nor in relation to probable cost. Th.e writer did not then
believe, nor does he now l)elieve, that the steep slopes where the cut is
deepest, as suggested liy the committee, nor as incorporated in the plans
now being carried out, can be adhered to.^ There will have to be taken
out ultimately very much more material than heretofore assumed at
Culebra. This fact coupled witli the concentration of the great mass
of the excavation in a relatively short central section of the canal, which
rendered preliminary estimates of time and cost of the removal of this
material uncertain, was a factor tliat could not be ignored. When,
therefore, at a meeting of the commission in March, 1905. it was pro-
posed by Major Harrod that the recommendation of the committee be
adopted and that the commission decide in favor of the sea-level canal
the writer was not prepared to go so far and the committee report was
referred to the committee on engineering plans, of which he was a
member, for further consideration.

From these facts, as recorded in the printed proceedings of tlie
canal commission, it might be inferred that at that time Major Harrod
was in favor of the sea-level type of canal and that the writer favored
the lock type. But the writer's stand was taken, as explained, to pre-
vent action based on inadequate data, while Major Harrod is found
eight months later among the members of the second canal commission
who determined that the lock ])lan of canal, as recommended by the
minority of the board of consnlting engineers, is the one that should
be carried out. And now the writer, after having had several years
more time for reflection, and in the light of such additional informa-
tion as has come to hand, is not yet convinced that the wisest course
was pursued b}^ the later commission, by the secretary of war, by tlie
president and by congress when the findings of the majority of the
board of consulting engineers, eight to five, were disregarded and the
plans for a lock-canal project, as recommended by the minority, were
ado])ted.

Before the committee on engineering plans made a report the
Walker commission was superseded by the commission of 1905, whose
powers were concentrated in an executive committee of three, at the

^ Since this article was written information has been received tliat tlieie has
been much flattening of slopes. The standard section as shown in the illustra-
tion elsewhere presented is therefore no longer strictly typical of the section to
which the canal will be finished.

424

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

1^—

i

i

^^y'-jfS^^^^^^^ ^Sj^^-^^^

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\'iEw IN Cui.EiiiiA Cut, neak EjiriHE, LuoKiNG South.

head of which, with dominating influence in the commission's executive
affairs, was Mr. T. P. Shonts.

This commission was appointed on April 3, 1905. Two months
later President Eoosevelt named a board of consulting engineers, to
whom he submitted the question of canal type. Thirteen engineers
accepted the invitation to participate in the deliberations of this board
of engineers.

The board, as finall}^ constituted, consisted of : Geo. W. Davis, Major
General U. S. Army (retired), chairman; Alfred Noble, chief engineer
of the East Eiver Division P., N. Y. & L. I. E. E. ; Wm. Barclay Par-
sons, chief engineer of the New York Subway ; Wm. H. Burr, professor
of civil engineering, Columbia University; Henry L. Abbot, Brigadier

Steam Shovels loadi.\(; Ledgerwood Flats on East Side of Culebra Cut

JUST South of Gold Hill.

THE TYPE OF THE PANAMA CANAL 425

General U. S. Army (retired) : Frederic P. Stearns, chief engineer of
the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board, Boston; Joseph Eipley,
general superintendent of the St. Mary's Falls Canal : Isham Eandolph,
chief engineer of the Sanitary District, Chicago ; AVm. Henry Hunter,
chief engineer of the Manchester Ship Canal ; Eugen Tincauzer, Konig-
lich Preussischer Regierungs-und-Baurath, Konigsherg, Germany;
Adolphe Guerard, inspector general des Fonts et Chaussees, France;
E. Quellennec, chief engineer des Fonts et Chaussees and consulting
engineer of the Suez Canal Company, France ; and J. W. Welcker,
Hoofdingenieur, Directeur van den Pyks-Waterstaat, Tlie iSTetherlands.

On this board of engineers were the tliree members of the first
canal commission,- General Davis, Professor Burr and Mr. Parsons,
who a few months before had submitted a recommendation favoring a
sea-level canal. Other members of the board were known to favor a
lock canal. The members of tlie l)oard therefore naturally fell into two
groups of which one was friendly to the sea-le^•el, the other to the lock
type of canal, and to the committees appointed from these groups was
assigned the task of discussing the canal junblem from the two diverg-
ent standpoints. The board as a whole, liowevcr, passed on certain
features in order that the conclusions thus reached might serve as a
guide in determining otlier features of the projects. Thus it was re-
solved that locks should have a usable length of 1,000 feet, a width of
100 feet and a depth of 40 feet. The board determined, too, upon the
type and dimensions of the canal section which should be made the
basis of a comparison of cost estimates.

The consulting engineers visited the isthmus and thus learned
much, by personal observation, of the conditions under wliich the canal
work must be prosecuted.

As a result of their studies the members of the lock-canal committee
of the board of engineers submitted four projects. Two of these were
for a canal with a summit level at 60 feet and the otlier two for a canal
with its highest section at 85 feet.

Other projects for the lock-type of canal were jiresented by Mr.
Lindon AY. Bates, by Mr. P. Bunau-Varilla and by Major C. E. Gil-
lette, of the engineer corps of the U. S. Army. Mr.- Bates presented
three projects with a preference expressed for a plan including a terminal
lake at each end of the canal, of which the lake at tb.e Atlantic end was
to be formed by a dam at Mindi and the lake at the Pacific end by
dams from Ancon to Sosa Hill and from Sosa Hill across the Eio
Grande. Under this project there would also be an intermediate lake,
formed by a dam across the Chagres Eiver at Bohio. The summit level
suggested was 62 feet.

^ Of the other members of the first commission Admiral Walker had re-
turned to private life, INIajor Harrod had been named on the second commission
and the writer had accepted the position of chief consulting engineer in the
Reclamation Service under the Secretary of the Interior.

426

THE rO PILAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Las Cascadas Slide, ('ri.EiuiA Division, April, 1908. Area of Slide, 5,433 Square

Yards. P^stimated ;i mount of material in motion, 100,000 cubic yards.

Tliis slide started in the dry season and extended back 230 feet from

the edge of cut and to within 50 feet of the crest of the hill.

Mr. Biinau-Varilla^ a civil engineer who was at one time chief
enginee]-, of the Panama Canal Company, proposed a project with a
summit level at 130 feet ; l)ut with all locks so arranged that tliere
could he a gradual progress of excavation and deepening of the summit
level with a successive cutting out of locks until finally the lock canal
was converted into a sea-level canal.

Major Gillette advocated a lock canal with its highest section at 100
feet above sea-level.

The sea-level canal committee of the board of engineers reported in
favor of a canal 40 feet deep, with a bottom width of 150 feet in earth,
and side slopes adjusted to the nature of the ground so as to give a
surface width of 302 to 437 feet. The bottom width in rock was
to be increased to 200 feet and the surface width in rock was to be
208 feet. At the Pacific end tlie canal was to he protected by a tidal
lock located between Ancon and Sosa hills. The plans, as proposed by
the committee, included a dam at Gamboa across Chagres liiver of
either masonry alone or of earth and masonry combined. This dam
was necessary for the contiol of the river.

The dimensions of the canal of the committee ])roject at the i^oint
of deepest cutting near Culebra are as follows : Bottom width, 200 feet ;
tlie hanks to have a hatter of 1 in 10 rising from the bottom to a berm
10 feet above the water snrface; the berm to he 45 feet wide (according
to diagram; 5(» feet according to text of report) ; then a succession of
bank slopes with a batter of 1 in 4 and a rise each of 30 feet, one above
the other, with intermediate hernis each 12i feet wide up to the rock
line — shown by a diagram for the ])oint known as Kilometer 54.41 in

THE TYPE OF THE VAXAMA CANAL

427

Culebra cut at alioiit 170 feet al)ove tlio water surface — thence to the
natural surface with a rise of one foot in two.

In tlie course of its deliberations the hoard of engin'eers passed
favorably upon the feasibility of a canal of either the lock or sea-level
type. It determined that a lock canal with summit level at 60 feet
should be the basis of com})aiison of the lock with the sea-level type. It
reached the conclusion that about 10 to 11 ytvirs should be the time
assumed to be necessary for the construction of a lock canal, with sum-
mit level at GO feet, and about 1';? to 13 years for the construction of a
sea-level canal.

The quantity of material of all kinds to be excavated in construct-
ing a sea-level canal was estimated at 231,026,000 cubic yards, and the
estimated cost of making the excavation was $183,136,000.

Among the important considerations bearing upon the selection of
the best canal type the board of consulting engineers, as noted in the
iiinjority repoit, says:

The canal will |ii(i\i(lc tlie o\w great iiiaiitiiue lii<ili\\ay, not between seas,
but between oceans; not for countries, but for continents. The vastness of the
interests to be served by the canal, many of which interests now wait for their
development on the construction of tlie waterway, demands that the canal shall,
when opened for trattic, be of the type which will mo.'rt perfectly fulfil the
purposes which the waterwaj' is intended to accomplish.

First and foremost it is essential that the Panama Canal shall present not
merely a means of interoceanic navigation, but a means of safe and uninter-
rupted navigation on which no special liazards will be encountered by and no
vexatious delays will be occasioned to the vessels which will traverse it. It is
therefore evident that the canal ought to be formed in such manner that the
course thereof shall be free from all unnecessary obstructions, and that no
obstacles should be interposed in that course, whether temporary or permanent,
which would by tlieir very nature be an occasion of ]ii'ril and of detention to

SlIiEAUlNG MatEKIAL ON THE COROZAL DUJIP.

428

TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTELY

passing vessels, and more particularly to vessels of the great size which the
Panama Canal is designed to accommodate.

The board is of opinion that this consideration should be of determining
force in respect to the type of canal to be adopted, and that it should lead to
rejection of all proposed plans in which lift-locks, whether few or many, form
the principal or dominating features, and consequently to the acceptance of the
sea-level plan as the only one giving reasonable assurance of safe and uninter-
rupted navigation.

The majority then set forth that no canal with locks can fulfil
these requirements and that the sea-level canal is the only type of canal
that can give reasonable assurance of safe and uninterrupted naviga-
tion. They refer to three accidents in the preceding nine years arising
from collisions between steamers and lock gates on the ". Soo," and to
three accidents of a like nature on the Manchester Canal, and to the
disastrous results that would have followed such accidents at the locks

Tkestle Dujir ..ii'ST outside of East Toe of the Sosa-corozal Dam.
Ancon Hill and Ancon Hospital buildings in tlie background.

of larger dimensions and higher lift on tlie Panama C*anal. They
placed the estimated cost of a sea-level canal at less than $350,000,000,
and thought that it could be completed in twelve to thirteen years.
They strongly condemned any provisional treatment such as the con-
struction of a lock canal.

It is interesting to find among these members Mr. Hunter, the chief
engineer of the Manchester Ship Canal (which is a lock canal), who in
a convincing statement explains wh}'^, although as a member of the
Comite Technique, he favored the lock canal as best suited to the con-
ditions under which the New Panama Canal Company was operating,
he is now in favor of the sea-level canal.

As an offset to the recommendation of the majority, a minority of
five members, Noble, Alibot, Stearns, Eipley and Randolph favored a
lock canal for the following reasons:

TEE TYPE OF THE PANAMA CANAL 429

Greater capacity for traffic than afforded by the narrow waterway proposed
by the board.

Greater safety for ships and less danger of interruption to traffic by reason
of the wider and deeper channels which the lock canal makes possible at
small cost.

Quicker passage across the Isthmus for large ships or a large traffic.

Materially less time required for construction.

Materially less cost.

The project recommended by the minority, which is the project as
now being carried out (except for an enlargement of the locks, a change
of lock locations, and the abandonment of the proposed dams on both
sides of Sosa Hill at the Pacific end of the canal), includes a dam at
Gatun, but none at Bohio, and no dam at Gamboa. The locks were to
be 95 feet wide, 900 feet lojig, and the depth of water was to be 40
feet. The summit level was fixed at 85 feet.

Under the minority plan there were to be at the Pacific end of the
canal duplicate locks of one lift of 31 feet each, and twin locks in flights
of two at Sosa Hill.

The time required to construct the lock canal was estimated by the
minority at about six years less than would be required for a sea-level
canal, and the cost of the canal is estimated by them at $139,705,000.
They say in their report :

The greater cost of the proposed sea-level canal — upward of $100,000,000
more than that of the lock canal herein advocated — is not a trifling sum even
for the resources of the United States. If such an outlay is incurred a greatly
superior waterway should be obtained or the expenditure will be unwise and the
result discreditable.

The minority then present their views at length, calling attention
to the small risk of injury to a well-equipped canal lock; to the equal
facility of protecting the canal against injury in time of war, no matter
what its type ; to the greater liability of delay and injury to shipping in
traversing artificial channels at considerable speed than in moving
slowly under perfect control through locks; to the greater speed at
which the open water above the locks can be navigated; to the reduced
time that will be required in the passage through the canal with locks;
to the greater amount of traffic that would at the outset be provided for;
to the provisions that can be made to prevent accidents at the locks ; to
the extraordinary dimensions proposed for the earth dams at Gatun
and at Sosa Hill; to the fact that time required to make Culebra cut
and to construct the locks is about the same. They estimate that six
years less time will be required to build the lock canal than to build a
sea-level canal.

At the time, January 10, 1906, the board of consulting engineers
submitted their majority and minority reports to the Isthmian Canal
Commission, the membership of the commission was as follows: T. P.
Shouts, chairman; C. E. Magoon, governor of the Canal Zone; Rear

43°

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Admiral Mordecai T. Endicott^ civil engineer, U. S. Navy; Brig. Gen.
Peter C. Hains, corjjs of engineers, U. S. Arnw (retired) ; Col. Oswald
H. Ernst, corps of engineers, U. S. Army (retired) ; and Benjamin M.
Harrod. A vacancy in the commission that had heen caused by the
resignation of Mr. John F. Wallace had not been filled.

This commission determined on February 5, 1906, by a vote of
five to one, to recommend to the president the lock canal project of the

Lniox Bay fkom the De Lesseps House. Sketched April 10, 1904. The ships at
nnclior are the Ncivarkj the Montgomery and the Marietta, all of the U. S. Navy.

minority of engineers. The dissenting member was Admiral Endicott,
who favored the adoption of the sea-level project.

The recommendation of tlie commission was accompanied by a re-
port of Mr. John F. Stevens, their cliief engineer, who favored the lock-
canal plan.

I'he secretary of war approved the recommendation of the com-
mission and the president was not slow in acting. On February 19,
1906, the reports and papers were transmitted to Congress with a state-
ment of his conclusions that the type of canal to be built is the canal
with locks.

On June 21, 1906, the senate, by a Aote of 36 to 31, passed an act
authorizing the construction of a lock canal. This act was a few days
later concurred in by the house without division. It provided

That a lock canal be constructed across the Isthmus of Panama connectina-
the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, of the general type proposed by
the minority of the board of consulting engineers, created by order of the
President under date of .lanuary 24 (June 24), 1905, in pursuance of an act

THE TYPE OF THE PANAMA CANAL 431

entitled "An act to provide for tlie coni=i: ruction of a canal connecting the
waters of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans," approved June 28, 1902.

It lias already l)('eii stated tliat the iiiinoiity of the 1)oard of engi-
neers recommended thnt the locks ))e made !*o feet wide with a usable
length of 900 feet. The canal commission determined that larger locks
would be desirable and fixed the width at 100 and the usable length
at 1,000 feet. This action did not, however, satisfy the U. S. Navy.
The question of still larger locks was agitated and resulted in action
by the naval authorities upon whose suggestion it was finally decided
to increase the width of the locks to 110 feet. The depth of water in
the locks is to be about 41.5 feet; this will be the depth in fresh water
which will be equivalent to 40 feet in salt water.

Since the final and specific approval of the lock-canal plan by Con-
gress all the work on the isthmus has Ijeen directed to the rapid con-
struction of this type of canal. Before juesenting a few of the salient
facts relating to the progress which has been made, a brief review will
be given of the opinion expressed by some of the experts whose views
were considered in reaching the conclusion that unrler all the circum-
stances it was best to build a lock canal.

It should be stated in this connection that the earlier conclusion of
the Comite Technique, which was an advisory body to the New French
Canal Company, favoring a lock canal, can be given hut little weight,
as an influence upon the later conclusion, because the advice of that
committee was given to a private company operating under a conces-
sion with a time limit, and it was compelled to give paramount weight
to the financial aspect. A canal had to be built under restrictions of
time and cost, and it was to be made a profitable venture. It is not sur-
prising, therefore, that under the new conditions, one of the members
of that committee, Mr. Hunter, is found in 1905, as already stated,
among those who advocate the sea-level canal.

Mr. John F. AYallace, a past ])resident of the American Society
of Civil Engineers, who was called from the jDosition of chief engineer
and manager of the Illinois Central Eailroad to the position of chief
engineer of the commission of 1904 and was later made a member of
the commission of 1905, in addressing the board of consulting engineers
pointed out :

That the most desirable transportation routes are straight and level.
Variation from the ideal may become necessary to overcome obstacles of a
physical, financial or other nature. The plan usually selected is the one in
which the sum obtained by adding the interest on cost of con^ruction to the
annual cost of maintenance and operation is a minimum. In the case of the
canal the feature of future development should not be overlooked and any
variation from the ideal of a straight or sea-level canal should only be made
after the most mature and careful consideration and for the gravest of reasons.
Minor deflections from a straight line are comparatively immaterial as com-
pared witli variations of levels.

432

THE I OPl LAB SCIENCE MONTHLY

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THE TYPE OF TEE PANAMA CANAL 433

Mr. Wallace formulates certain propositions which he considers
fundamental and others which are essential in arriving at the most
desirable plan of canal. He says that the most desirable canal is the
sea-level canal of such dimensions as would afford unrestricted passage
for the largest vessels afloat, with such margin for increase in size and
draft as can reasonably be anticipated, making allowance for unex-
pected developments. No plan should be adopted that would prevent
the ultimate construction of a sea-level canal at least approximately
approaching to the final idea of the Straits of Panama. Time and cost
should be considered to the extreme limit before determining upon a
plan which would interfere with this ultimately desirable accomplish-
ment. It is highly desirable that no dams should be constructed the
foundations of which can not be carried to bed rock, or at least imper-
vious curtain connection be made therewith. No high dam should be
constructed, the destruction of which, by accident or design, would close
navigation through the canal until its restoration. If it is absolutely
essential to the project that such dams be constructed, they should
retain the lowest possible head of water and be of such a nature as not
to require the use of experimental, new or untried methods of con-
struction. If terminal lakes are to be formed, the dams creating them
should be as low as possible imposing the minimum weight upon the
subsoil. The construction of even a low barrage at the Eio Grande
Delta would undoubtedly encounter innumerable difficulties in cross-
ing localities where the sub-formation would be such as to give way
under the imposition of the weight of material placed thereon. The
same obstacle would probably be met to a greater or less extent in the
construction of a dam, particularly a high one, in the vicinity of
Gatun. The entire valley to at least a depth of 200 feet is alluvial.
It is therefore, highly improbable that in the heterogeneous mass of
material with which the ancient gorge is filled, particularly near the
surface, that unforeseen difficulties in securing proper foundation would
not be encountered.

Mr. Wallace repeats to the board of engineers the recommendation
which he had already made of the canal commission, that no temporary
or tentative plan should be adopted that will interfere with the final
adoption of the sea-level plan.

Mr. Quellennec, of the board of consulting engineers, at a board
meeting on November 18, 1905, explained his stand in favor of a sea-
level canal, stating that it was undeniable that a sea-level canal is
preferable to a high-level multi-lock canal both with a view to safety
and to facility of operation. He referred to his experience on the Suez
Canal which has convinced him of the advantages offered by a sea-
level canal. In spite of greater time and cost, he believes the sea-level
canal at Panama should be constructed, but in making this statement

VOL. XXLIV. — 28.

434 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

he does not wish to be understood as saying that a lock canal is not
practicable.

At the same meeting, Mr. Hunter, of the Manchester Canal, gave
expression to his views on the type of canal, explaining that although
as a member of the Comite Technique he favored, under the circum-
stances then prevailing a lock canal, he could not under the altered
conditions "undertake the responsibility of joining in a recommenda-
tion to the United States for the construction of a lock canal. . . ."

Advocating the adoption of a lock-canal project, on the other hand,
Mr. Noble said :

I believe the lock canal affords quicker construction, that the wider and
deeper waterways it provides would give better navigation; that the transit
of ships would be quicker and that the lock canal would have even a greater
capacity for traffic than the narrow waterway proposed by the sea-level canal
committee.

Another advocate of the lock type of canal, Mr. Eipley, concurred
in the remarks of Mr. Noble and gave as an additional reason for
his position the belief that this type of canal would provide for a navi-
gation the limit of which will not be reached in a number of years
probably 40 to 75 years, so that the people of the United States will
not soon be called upon to make additional expenditures for improving
the canal; whereas for a sea-level canal it is quite probable that within
a short time, possibly 15 or 25 years, a widening will be necessary which
will cost many millions of dollars.

Mr. Parsons, also of the board of engineers, referred to the fact
that a canal was to be built for all time, that it was a work of the
greatest constructive magnitude ever undertaken. The plan of the
canal should be of the broadest and largest possible type which we can
conceive. A few years more or less in time is of no consequence.
Neither is an additional cost of $50,000,000 or even $100,000,000 of
importance, as there will be an adequate return. Accidents similar to
those which have occurred on the Manchester and the " Soo " Canals
have occurred also in the Welland and other canals. These accidents
by great good fortunes have not been disasters. With locks of large size

of the size now contemplated the results would have been more serious. It
is not the danger to the ship itself that I have in mind, . . . but the danger
to the canal. If at one of these big locks an accident should happen, such as
has happened at other locks and as will happen here, and a ship should go
plunging through and carry away the safety gates and every other mechanical
device for protection, releasing the lake of water that lies behind those locks,
the section of the canal between that lock and the ocean terminas would be so
destroyed that it would take anywhere from one to five years to put it back in
service again. The terminal port itself would be gone, the canal would be out
of use, the world's traffic would be deranged and the difference in cost of the
two types would be wiped out in a few seconds of time. That risk a great
government can not be justified in taking.

With these views before him, and in the light of all the information

THE TYPE OF TEE PANAMA CANAL 435

then at his command, the president reached the conclusion that a canal
with locks would best fulfil all requirements, and says in transmitting
the board report to the Congress :

In my judgment a lock canal as herein recommended is advisable. If the
Congress directs that a sea-level canal be constructed, its direction will of
course be carried out. Otherwise the canal will be built on substantially the
plan outlined in the accompanying papers, such changes being made, of course,
as may be found necessary, including possibly the change recommended by the
Secretary of War as to the site of the dam on the Pacific side.

When the matter was before the senate committee on inter-oceanic
canals, another opportunity was provided for the expression of views
by experts. At these hearings. Professor Burr said that he was as
strongly in favor of the sea-level canal as he ever had been.

The more I reflect upon it, the more it seems to me that that plan is the
one which the United States Government should adopt.

In discussing the Gatun dam, which is a feature of the lock-canal
project as adopted, he says:

It is proposed to build this dam by simply clearing off the surface material
and then spreading the earth, suitably selected from the canal excavation, in
layers, and so building it up to a height of 135 feet, making its base something
like half a mile wide.^ In my judgment, that is a dangerous experiment on a
colossal scale, which this government is not justified in undertaking.

Continuing, Professor Burr states that he has no objection to earth
dams under suitable conditions if properly designed and founded.
Anything like a flow of water through the permeable material under the
dam should be prevented. No suitable means for accomplishing this
are provided in this design. He indicates measures that are ordinarily
taken to check the flow of water under a dam, and instances several
failures of earth dams. In speaking of the dams near LaBoca resting
against Sosa Hill, the construction of which was subsequently under-
taken, but owing to the yielding, unstable character of the marsh lands
on which they were to rest, have been abandoned. Professor Burr says :

The dams on the Pacific side are smaller, and the risks, perhaps, may be
of less magnitude; but they are of the same character, and there is the same
objection to them, in my opinion. This dam between LaBoca and the high
ground opposite would be founded largely upon the most slippery kind of mud.
Any one who has been there and has seen the bottom of the Rio Grande estuary
exposed at low tide, I think will agree with me that it is a very lubricating
material; and if you were to put a bank of earth on it, even if it were half a
mile thick, I think it would be in great danger of being pushed out bodily.

In speaking of the operation of locks, he calls attention to the fact
that the experience at the lock at St. Mary's Falls is not a safe guide
for reaching conclusions regarding the safety of six such locks as will
be required for the Panama Canal. Their lift is 50 per cent, greater,

'As now contemplated, the dam is to be constructed by the hydraulic fill
method.

436 . TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

and the dangers increase at a more rapid rate than proportional to the
lift, and the dangers are magnified by the fact that the locks are to be
in flights. He furthermore reaches the conclusion that the traffic capa-
city of the lock canal should be estimated at about 35,000,000 tons per
annum instead of at 80,000,000 tons, the figure assumed by the
minority.

An extended and comprehensive argument for a sea-level project
was presented to the senate committee by General Davis, who, as a
member of the commission of 1904, and resident on the isthmus as
governor of the Canal Zone for a year, and thereupon as chairman of
the board of consulting engineers, had had unusual opportunity for
arriving at a mature conclusion. All that General Davis said in rela-
tion to the type of the canal before the committee should be read by
those who desire to follow this matter farther. Short extracts, and a
condensed statement embodying the substance of his presentation, can
alone be here attempted.

What the situation demands is well known, and the American government
has declared to the world that the obstacle at Panama shall be removed. Will
it be removed if we leave a hill over which the world's commerce and navies
are to be hoisted? Will the world consider that we have adequately solved the
problem, and will the American people be satisfied with the result if we offer
them anything inferior as respects capacity, or convenience, or adaptability for
enlargement, or type, to what capital did for the old world — a canal which now
serves as a model, and will continue to, until we acquit ourselves of the respon-
sibility voluntarily and eagerly assumed.

General Davis compares the Soo Canal, with its few thousand feet
of channel approaches, to the great tidal harbor basins of Europe. It
is more nearly analogous to these than to a great interoceanic canal on
which the aggregate length of locks alone exceeds by nearly a mile the
entire length of the Soo Canal. Because Lake Huron is twenty odd
feet higher than Lake Erie, it was useless to hope for a channel clear
of all obstructions, and American and Canadian engineers have provided
the best solution possible.

At first, locks 350 feet long sufficed. Then one 515 feet long was added.
"Next, the first were demolished and replaced with a lock with a chamber 800
feet long. Then the Canadians made another in their territory 900 feet long;
and we are about to demolish our second lock to put in one 1,400 long. . . .
The critics of the majority report admit that a canal at sea-level would have
certain advantages. I think it may be said that one and all concede that if a
sea-level waterway be wide and deep enough, it would be superior to any in-
volving excavated lakes, locks and lifts; but they discard it as impracticable
because of the greater cost.

The better approach to the straight line requirement by the sea-level
canal is pointed out. The lock canal project shows 21 per centum more
winding and tortuous navigation than the sea-level project. General
Davis estimates the expense of maintenance and operation of a sea-level
canal at $1,550,000 per annum, and the lock type of canal, at $2,-

THE TYPE OF THE PANAMA CANAL

437

150,000. The cost of the government of the Canal Zone, estimated at
$100,000 is not included in these figures. Eelating to dimensions, and
other features of various canals, data were presented in tabular form, in
part as here reproduced.

Existing and Proposed Canals

Total length

Straight portion

Curved portion

Curved portion

Depth

Least bottom width
Least bottom width

in curves.

Least cross-section.

Total curvature

Curves

Locks

Locks, length

Locks, width

Units

Panama

Panama

Sea-level

Lock

Miles

49.35

49.72

Miles

30.18

42.25

Miles

19.17

7.46

Per cent.

38.8

15.0

Feet

40

40

Feet

150

200

Feet

150

250

Sq. feet

8,160

8,160

Degrees

597

637

Number of

19

24

Number of

1

6

Feet

1,000

900

Feet

100

90

Suez Now

94.76
81.73
13.04
13.8
31.2
108.26

131

5,813

6,025

467

15

0

Suez
Enlarged

94.76
81.73
13.03
13.8
34.4
14763

160*

7,741

8,144

467

15

0

Kiel

57.89

40.9

29.52

72.17

75.2
4,444

26
2

492

82

* Approximate.

The enlargement of the Suez Canal is not jet complete. The total
length of the Suez Canal is 104.8 statute miles, of which about 10
miles are in lake, leaving the length of the excavated channel 94.76
miles.

The total length of the Kiel Canal is 60.89 miles, of which 3 miles
are in lakes. "Where two sets of figures are noted for the area of the
cross-section, one applies to low, the other to high water.

General Davis shows that the proposed sea-level canal will not be
dangerous, narrow or contracted, because this is not true of the Suez
Canal, which is longer, narrower and shallower, and has more abrupt
bends than the canal proposed by the majority of the engineers. He
calls attention to the fact that in the opinion of very able engineers
the cost in time will be but slightly more for the channel at ocean level,
than for a canal with a summit level at 85 feet; and he says:

It is certain that the cost in money of the simple low-level channel in
•which every existing and projected vessel would find convenient passage, will
cost some tens of millions more than the complicated high-level structures, but
the former will closely approach and ultimately result in the ideal, simple
natural waterway . , . while the latter will stand for the opposite until heroic
measures are resorted to and the objectionable structures are removed, for the
idea of transformability is eliminated by the majority.

Col. Oswald H. Ernst, of the Engineer Corps, U. S. Army, a mem-
ber of the canal commission of 1905, said in part:

I have made a very careful review of the arguments presented on both sides,
as exhibited in these two reports which you have before you — the majority and
the minority reports — and I am satisfied that the United States will get a

438 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

perfectly satisfactory canal in very much less time, and for very much less
money, under the plan proposed by the minority. I believe that the canal under
that plan will cost little more than half what the canal of the majority will
cost, and the time will be a little more than half, and when done it will be a
better canal, because it will be three times as big a canal. The volume of water
in the sea-level canal is only one third what the volume of water is in the
lock canal. Leave out everything in those lakes beyond the width of 1,000 feet,
and everything beyond a depth of 45 feet, and you have three times the number
of cubic yards of water in the lock canal that you have in the sea-level canal.

Among the earliest and best-informed advocates of the lock canal
is General Henry L. Abbot, of the Corps of Engineers, TJ. S. Army
(retired), who was a member of the Comity Technique, and was also a
member of the board of consulting engineers. General Abbot has been
a close, able and careful student of the hydraulic and other problems
involved, and ever since the days of the Comite Technique lias con-
tributed much to the discussion thereof. In presenting his views to the
board of consulting engineers, which are at too great length to be
quoted in full, he says:

The most important consideration, from an engineering point of view, in
projecting a transit route, whether a railroad or a canal, is to adjust the details
to the topography and natural conditions of the region to be traversed. On the
Isthmus, the Chagres River is the dominating feature. . . . The deep excavation
in the Culebra section is a formidable undertaking, chiefly because it will be
necessary to transport the soil to long distances; but once executed, it will
remain without giving occasion for anxiety in the future. The Chagres is
capable of becoming a very active enemy at any future time, unless effectively
tamed by good engineering methods.

General Abbot thereupon discusses the peculiarities of this river,
and its relation to the several canal projects. He readies the conclusion
that the problem of the control of the Chagres is solved by the lock
canal project in a manner at once vastly better and vastly more simple
than by the sea-level project. He expresses his judgment, however, that
the primary consideration in choosing between the two projects " should
be their relative merits as routes for shipping. The elements of time
and cost are secondary, but too inaportant to be neglected." According
to General Abbot, double the cost and double the time should be allowed
for the completion of a sea-level canal, and when completed, the canal
would be distinctly inferior to a canal with locks. In the matter of the
sufficiency of the flow of Chagres River to maintain the lake above the
Gatun dam, at the desired elevation, General Abbot is emphatically of
the opinion that the water supply will be adequate. Based on a most

Tubie Feet
per Second

Evaporation loss, estimated 710

Leakage of gates 250

Infiltration 77

For light, power, etc 200

Contingencies 200

Total i;i37

TEE TYPE OF THE PANAMA CANAL 439

careful study of all existing data, on the assumption that the water
surface of the lake will have an area of 110 square miles, he gives the
following figures:

The water available is estimated at not less than 1,225 cubic feet
per second natural flow at Gatun during the three months of lowest
river stage, and to this amount there are to be added an additional
volume of 1,577 cubic feet per second, resulting from a four feet allow-
able fluctuation of the lake surface. There are then 2,802 cubic feet
per second available, of which the difference between 2,802 and 1,437,
or 1,365 cubic feet per second, will be available for lockages. This
amount of water, according to General Abbot, will be adequate for 26
daily transits. Should there be need for more stored water, the same
can be secured by the construction of a dam at Alhajuela, where suffi-
cient water can be impounded to increase the number of lockages by
40, though only 27 have been assumed by the minority.

It is absolutely certain that there can be no deficiency of water for any
conceivable traffic demands.

Since the foregoing estimates were made it has been found that the
Gatun Lake will have a surface area of about 164 square miles, instead
of 110, as assumed. The lock dimensions have also been increased, as
explained, and more water will be required for each transit through
the canal. The estimates relating to the available water supply as above
quoted therefore need revision.

And thus, in the light of the infomiation then available, the type
of the canal was fixed in 1906 by action of the Congress of the United
States in substantial conformity with the recommendation of the minor-
ity of the board of engineers, and for three years the work of construc-
tion has been actively pushed.

The progress that has been made is clearly set forth in the records
of work done. Measured by cubic yards of excavation it has been
highly satisfactory. The graphical presentation herewith is from a
recent summary published by the Engineering News. It appears from
the figures compiled for that summary that the total excavation since
the canal became the property of the United States at the close of the
year 1908, amounted to 59,980,000 cubic yards, of which 53,161,000
cubic yards had been taken out of the canal prism, and 6,819,000 cubic
yards were excavated from the locks and spillway sites and from other
points outside of the canal proper. Of the total work, that done by
steam shovels (work in the dry) amounted to 37,155,000 cubic yards,
and dredges had excavated 22,825,000 cubic yards.

It has been estimated by the canal commission that the total exca-
vation to complete the canal on the lines of the accepted project (not
including the work by the French canal companies) is 142,000,000
cubic yards. According to these figures there were about 89,000,000
cubic yards yet to be removed from the canal prism on January 1, 1909.

440

THE POFrL.iR SCIESl

STHLT

It dxMiM be not^, howrrer, that there h« been little d«

tW CA&al fxcftvation on the I e isthmus,* tt mad

Oiklkn briow ! i U Uhe I The work

n..w

~, hereafter,
'rogren cm
:: vhkh can
Tt>riL It m

^u6a Hill

abas-
ii
to

^QS {mx has r> Uic v

«r " "^^uirement for •«

be iv.a.ntaineii, as DOW shov
bait be anfwered b^ *^ -^ -^^

protebk that the :_.-.

f^f T\rv>r!v« if moaffcred br rards of ex

. . 0 dams coi : rirr, from

hifb gronad at « -^l to Sosa IlilU va.- ^' >:on foimd

that theae atiui'tmea were ill-advi«ed. '\ e mtick and mod of the
« ManglaTV^ d not support the loa *( a moderate fill There

much - ' and lateral d Laplace:

This was in no wise fatal to
red the f
Miraflof^v vhere excavauon iur illux u

The wx>^' the main dam, t^ .;^, has barely com-

». ' "^ :.-^ u*m will be of eauii , ave a crest laig& of

^Jtgj^ ' • --1 - v,..-,i^}j of > ... * ^ and down stzcan,

0f 0, . ^"t T-ial of which the

-,alic metiiod.

-. and a practically

-ited acroas tiie

_' and slippiag d a

of the proposed

'iiere will be other slips imtil

nder and particokriy near

The dooblB

Tb* Trmtfrial V .

it . and safe body of earth v

Tmlier ^f the Cbagrea at Gattir
rock -t was being pla.

•tractore is of do gre^t ice.

diq>beeneDt of lajers of yielding ma'
the edges of soch fills, is sufficient to
ftT?«"*g the feasibility of a Etructure
fe«r of sue- • the ur • -

vmtcr at oou.
tent and permc^ar:..!} (
'••rings aDd shaft' *

11 ^
daa

/.^_-^i I ... ,,.^

ATS

a mofeneDi of
depoaila, flie ex-
.^rmatioD obtaiwfd
or leas ooojectinaL
■■m the safety of the
:« resatt.
are f_ ■ " b«t little basia for fliem.

71,,. , ;ry to the dam froi a moderate underflor if wit-

Able r^ are taken to let the wter come to the surface at flie

dc/wn-rtream toe of the dam throng' and, gravel and beofcen rock
• InU^rm^tUm U |mbli.i»d ia tk* Co- 4 oi Ttbraxrj 10, 1»», tfcit

ih» Fr«>4r«t la Ortobrr, 1«HJ, autborittid « widening of t^ ^^"^''^
•ItWo Ti»0f«4<mtfc« bottom toOO fe«t. Tfci* f««t ^—

tW .r,^« WM writt«i. TV pntm of wideaiaf with* ^^

tkt .t^r.f d*T»tfc of this MctiB of the eaaal may be apttUd to
, tk*T*i<fr; aomt tiam loagvr.

^Uemlly

I

TBE TYPE >T TEE PAS AM A CASAL ^:

dq)06ife. so that it can no -displaee the eartii particles wiiii whidi it
comes in contact in its i-assge nnder tihe dam. To make a con-riDciiig
estimate of tiie vohnne of nw in tiie porons snb-smface strata imder
the dam is almost out of le question, hecanse ihe eitait, chancer
and continnitT of these rtita can not he defimtdr ascertained, and
it win he diflBcnlt. if no: impGesibley to determine at what point
or points the water will mk fr?™ t^e lake aboTc iiie dam into
these layers. The en^lners ~ Therefore, do no better tiiam
make nnfavorahle assnnino:!^ __i determine "Hie maximum
water loss that may resiil: nder inch hypotheses. There is no proba-
bflitr that this will be sncl as to prove anbarrassing to the project
It is to be remembered in tis connection that nearly always, wiien a
subsurface flow in a river chnnel has beeai developed by the etmstme-
tion of a subsurface curtain c dam. the result in water output has beoi
disappointing. In other weds, the probability is t " ' --£ —

will be over-estimated- Xevrtheless, the public seems ;o ^xz-ev: r- " :
assurance that ti»e canal wc£ is progressing a] . - - -r-

ticularly as it now appears pDl>able that the cor: ~ "

be more than double the amont named by the ..— - . __ . ::i m
comparing the cost of the tw types of canal.

In the writers opinion. : may confidently be assrir. :*e

dam can be constructed at btun. The situation at '.
fore, of minor importance in be further discussion of the
has again arisen: "Would i -ot still be wdl to change :
project and to complete the icavation to sea-level ? '' This q^iestion,
if it be again opened, will hve to be considered in the light of the
views of the experts whose opiions have been herein referred to. '
light of the work already doc and the progress already made : :i
light of the experience on the qthmns during nearly five y?^~- - * ' :-
ive work, and in the light oi-uch additional facts and e::------- -

mav be submitted bv the ensieers now about to rrarr for the is-_ r

Jantiarv 25, 1909.

•

442 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

TAEIFF EEVISION FEOM THE MANUFACTUREE'S

STANDPOINT^

ByDe.A. b. farquhak,

YORK, PA.

My experience as a manufacturer for more than half a century, an
exporter and writer upon economic questions for about forty
years, enables me to unite practise with science in demonstrating the
truth of what I shall say to you.

The manufacturer's occupation, in common with most other occu-
pations, has for its object to make money. As a social factor, his
function is the elaboration of material, to meet the increasingly com-
plex needs of a continually advancing civilization ; but that and all else
has to be subordinated, from a business man's point of view, to the
endless task of investing smaller quantities of money and realizing
larger; the difference of those two sets of quantities measuring his
success or failure. He is a constructor incidentally — essentially he ia
a merchant. His great study is how to buy cheapest and sell dearest.

The tariff, considered as protective, is contrived and constructed
with the single purpose of aiding the producer to sell dear. That aid
is extended in part to production of mere raw material, but mainly to
that of more elaborated articles, and the manufacturer has accordingly
been always regarded as its chief beneficiary. Nor can manufacturers
in general be fairly charged with ingratitude for the assistance it so
graciously accords them in holding the hands of their customer while
they rifle his pockets. But this grateful sentiment, though general,
has never been quite universal; and the discordant voices, in the prev-
alent harmony, have of late grown more numerous than ever. The
reasons for this — why the manufacturer is coming more and more to
regard the tariff as not quite the most precious friend he has in this
cold world — are, after all, very simple indeed. First, he comes to find,
as his skill and facilities for production increase, that there is more
profit in the greater number of sales to be had at a moderate price than
in the smaller number at a high price, so that the ability to advance the
price of his goods is, beyond a certain limit, no favor to him. A second
and more important reason is that his interest is as much involved in
buying cheap as in selling dear, and his " raw material " is always the
finished product of some other producer, whose profits the tariff in-

^This and the following papers on tariff revision were presented before
Section L — Social and Economic Science — at the recent Baltimore meeting of
the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

TARIFF REVISION 443

creases, just as it increases his, by adding to the price of the article
sold. Thus the same agency that helps him at one end hinders him at
the other, and the hindering is usually greater than the helping. Wliy ?
Not because the tariff rates are proportionately greater on the material
he buys than on the wares he sells, for they are in most cases less ; but
because an}i:hing that forces him to charge a higher price for his prod-
ucts in order to get the same profit from the manufacture and sale of
each, must at the same time diminish the number he can sell. The
wise manufacturer, like other sellers, looks for " small profits and quick
returns," but returns are not quick when even a small profit necessi-
tates a liigh price.

There are additional reasons, worthy of consideration, why the
tariff is no such aid to manufacturers in general as it was designed and
is claimed to be. It is not possible to depend for success on the favor
of any government, autocratic or popular, and at the same time lead as
vigorous and normal a career as when independent. One eye must be
kept all the time on the business, and the other eye on the seat of
authority— St. Petersburg or Washington. Part of the savings must
be spent in keeping friends at court, or a lobby in the national capitol ;
or a subsidized press. Every congressional election must bring a fresh
expense — a "frying of fat," as one United States senator termed it.
But besides this waste of power, the cause in which it is incurred must
suffer to an incalculable extent from the corruption which often at-
tends (^and is always suspected, whether discovered or not) the enact-
ment of legislation from which individuals may derive a profit. Any
deterioration of political morality tends to lower the self-respect of
every citizen, and hurts business by lowering the public credit on
which it is based. There is no proof that revisions of the tariff have
been undertaken for the sake of the rewards that might be secured by
those in charge of them, from the " favored industries " whose fortunes
they are so powerful to make or mar ; and probably there have been no
such strokes of legislative enterprise in our history. But it is interest-
ing to observe that the " friends " of the tariff, in whose hands we are so
often exhorted to leave the entire office of amending it, have actually
made a great many more revisions, generally upward — done many
times more " tariff tinkering " — than ever have the friends of the mass
of the people who bear the tariff's cost. The next revision will also be
of the same character — by the friends of the system.

It is dangerous to invade the citizen's natural rights. The priv-
ilege enjoyed by some producers, of having all others taxed for their
profit, delightful though this privilege may be to the possessor, is not a
natural right, nor can years of undisturbed possession make it so. But
the right to buy wherever one wishes to buy at the least attainable
cost is one of the natural rights. The question of liberty of purchase
is the same as of liberty of any other kind. There are the same ex-
cuses for restricting it, the same motives for maintaining it. To be

444 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

sure, there is something better than any liberty in an unquestioning
submission to a higher guidance; greater than being our own master
is unshaken loyalty to God as our master. Yet in practise, all attempts
that have been made to find a ruler of a state, whose government could
be in like manner better and greater than free citizens^ government of
themselves, have proved failures, and personal liberty remains a nat-
ural right — not because " the voice of the people is the voice of God,"
but only because of the imperfection of every accessible substitute.
Perfect wisdom, we may readily admit, would easily guide us to pur-
chase more wisely, and make a better selection of persons to purchase
from, than is possible to our free choice ; but it is absurd to look to the
authors of tariff laws for such perfect wisdom, and our natural right
remains. The country's defense occasionally calls upon its citizens
for sacrifices of personal liberty, and may call sometimes for sacrifices
of the liberty of purchase as well as other liberty. But to make the
rare occasions when sacrifices are needed for defense an excsue for a
perpetual infringement of this natural right — liberty of purchase — is
preposterous. To maintain an oppressive tariff for such a purpose
would be ridiculous, if it were not tyrannical. The only difference
between this liberty and other liberty — an adventitious and not essen-
tial difference — is the facility with which the argument from patriot-
ism may be applied against it. Yet in every such application we must
see a confusion of thought, or exhibition of ignorance, unless we leave
out of view the necessary reciprocity of international trade. Imported
merchandise must about equal exported merchandise in value, unless
there is an exceptional demand for specie in the country trading, or in
some country trading with it, or unless the payment is made in service
instead of merchandise in value, unless there is an exceptional demand
for specie in the country trading, or in some country trading with it, or
unless the payment is made in service instead of merchandise. The
British, for example, always import a large excess of merchandise be-
cause they have a large credit balance abroad, from their services in
ocean carriage, yielding five hundred millions annually, and even more
from interest on foreign loans. Our own country, on the other hand,
having " protected " its ocean merchant-marine to death, must export
an excess of merchandise to pay for carriage both ways, and must also
pay a heavy interest bill to foreign investors. The important point is
that there is always a practical equality which our import taxation
system can not disturb. Hence it follows that the so-called encourage-
ment to foreign labor and enterprise in buying an article made abroad,
is at the same time an equal encouragement to labor and enterprise at
home required to produce the merchandise that is to go abroad to pay
for it. It follows, also, that if we make ourselves, as is alleged, de-
pendent on some foreign country by buying from it something that may
be needed by us in warfare, we make some foreign country dependent

TARIFF REVISION 445

on us in the same act, for the commodity we must send abroad to effect
the purchase.

Perhaps the most important condition of prosperity, to manufac-
turing and all mercantile business, is " Peace among ourselves and with
all nations." There can be no reasonable doubt that continually sha-
ping our policy with a view to possible war has a tendency to provoke
war, among nations as among individual citizens; while the endeavor
to increase the interdependence of nations, as of citizens, is a potent
agency for peace. Free trade is thus a long step on the way t6ward
universal peace, and as such it accords with the interests of mercantile
business, as with the aspirations of all who believe in the Sermon on the
Mount.

The question of the true interest of the manual laborer, too im-
portant to pass without a mention, is also too wide for adequate treat-
ment within the limits here permissible. All other considerations
might be banished from the problem, when once we convince ourselves
which way the interests of the toiling millions point. If their interests
demand a high protective rate of import duties, we might feel justified
in adopting that policy, however objectionable it appeared on other
grounds. But there is no real reason for separating the interests of
the manufacturing operatives from those of their employers, and every
business which would draw larger profits from cheaper raw materials
and greater sales of cheaper finished products, would be sure to have
more to pay its laboring men. As to the many times larger number of
laborers in occupations not protected, because not subject to foreign
competition or because able to meet it on its own ground by exjx>rting,
it is difficult to see anything but clear gain in the reduction of tariff
duties for them. The most important of such occupations is the agri-
cultural. Free trade is clearly to the advantage of the farmer, and
whatever helps him will help those he employs. Every workman, in
whatever calling, must be benefited by increasing the purchasing
power of his wages, and the demand for labor in general must be in-
creased by opening new markets abroad.

Some people pretend to believe, and some others may really believe,
that free trade between countries having different wage-rates per day
will tend to equalize those daily rates ; but that is a fancy that finds no
support in the realm of fact. It might be so if a day's work were
everywhere under similar conditions and equally effective in produc-
tion; but that has never been the rule, and with the increase of ma-
chinery it is becoming less and less the rule. The great difference in
wage-scales prevailing in different sections of our union have estab-
lished themselves and grown wider in the face of complete free trade
throughout ; the higher wages paid in Great Britain, with lower average
cost of necessaries of life, as compared with all other countries of
Europe, accompany a policy of free trade, and have advanced with it;

446 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

the protective system of the republic of Mexico or the continent of
Europe has had no effect in improving the condition of laborers there ;
and — no end of instances could be brought to show that the supposed
tendency does not exist. The only way to make out that it may exist
is to ignore every test by facts. Wages are high in this country, for
several good reasons; but a protective policy is not among them. Yet
men even so intelligent as the manufacturers who appeared before
the Ways and Means Committee, joined in protesting that they
could only maintain their business, in the event of lower duties, by
lowering their rate of wages. Unquestionably a lower price for the
product, unless accompanied by considerably larger sales, argues either
a lower total profit or a reduced cost of production; but why should
these manufacturers look for their saving only to the payroll? Would
they have us believe they are now paying their workmen more than the
competition of other employers compels them ? Or is their first thought
always, in case of a business loss, to take it out of their men? As has
been shown, they could not if they would.

There are positive reasons, moreover, for believing that a stronger
demand for the services of the laboring man would naturally follow
when we put our trade and industries into a more normal condition.
It would be a benefit, surely, to cease to discourage the higher grades of
industry by making their raw materials dearer. Even the protective
nations of Europe — Germany and France and Italy — as well as Great
Britain, adopt the expedient which Alexander Hamilton emphatically
recommended as an encouragement to manufacture, admission of the
raw material free of duty. Such a piece of barbarous stupidity as tax-
ing the importation of raw wool, for instance, never occurs to European
nations, although they raise many sheep. Nor do they put a penalty
on shoe wearing by a tax on hides, or a premium on forest waste by
barring out lumber. Again, we learn from the experience of Germany
that lowering the duties on food is followed not only by a reduction in
the laborers' cost of living, but by an increase in the government's
revenues, and by increased merchandise exports, thus conferring a
triple benefit. For another instance, we see the two Australian colo-
nies. New South Wales and Victoria, characterized until 1901 by a dif-
ference in fiscal policy, adopted some thirty years before, and we find
the free-trade colony, at first in the rear, now taking the lead in
amounts manufactured and in income per capita. Once more, we are
reminded by a prominent member of the British Parliament that in
the twenty-eight years following 1879, when the Cobden treaty with
France expired and when Germany definitely adopted a protective
system, exports of British merchandise not only increased, but in-
creased by a much greater amount, than during the thirty years that
preceded; thus proving that free trade encourages exports, not only
when other countries reduce duties at the same time, but also when the

TARIFF REVISION 447

whole world appears arrayed against it. The reason of this tendency
of free trade to advance industry, as I pointed out, in an address before
the International Free Trade Congress in London last summer, is
" that every agency for reducing and obstructing importations must at
the same time, a little less directly but precisely as powerfully, obstruct
and reduce exportations."

It is altogether fallacious to treat the interest of the manual laborer
as if it were something apart from that of the people as a whole — as if
it were not practically identical with that of the consumer generally.
Yet it seems peculiarly absurd to sunder the two in this case, because
the main interest of the consumer, in cheaper and more abundant pro-
duction, is one that necessarily and especially involves a great and
steady increase in the demand for labor. That helps us to understand
what so puzzled our great-grandfathers, the tendency of labor-saving-
machinery to bring prosperity instead of ruin to the working people.
Free trade, now feared on exactly the same grounds as our ancestors
feared labor-saving machines, will be sure to work the same way, as is-
proved by the last half century of English history.

A pretended connection of low-tariff legislation with panics and
hard times has again and again been brought forward to befog the
people's minds. It might be thought that the example seen a year and
a half ago, of a business crisis occurring under the untrammeled sway of
unmitigated Dingleyism, would cure any such notion. But since custom
seems to devolve upon the tariff reformer the duty of accounting for
all financial crises, it is worth while to say that the best explanation of
that of 1907 appears to be the unnatural stimulus to protected indus-
tries given by the Dingley tariff, resulting in overproduction and a
consequent glut, with which the inelastic currency system still surviv-
ing to curse our country was powerless to cope. But we must limit this
degree of connection : if people are diligently enough taught to re-
gard anything — no matter what — as the cause of panics, the appearance
of that thing will produce a panic as the direct effect of the teaching.
There is hardly even that connection between political economy and
political boundary lines. It is everywhere conceded, probably, that a
free exchange of goods is a benefit to our citizens throughout our
northern territory, as far as the Canadian border. But why should
there be an abrupt change across that artificial line, where conditions
— except the color of bunting floating from buildings — are all the same ?
This reminds me of an old story of a German who lived, or thought he
lived, in Pennsylvania, before the boundary was settled by Mason and
Dixon. The border line, which he had believed to be just south of
his house, was finally fixed a few lines north, and Hans was told
that he now lived in Maryland. He replied : " I'm very glad of it, for
I am told it is warmer in Maryland than in Pennsylvania."

The tariff, like national questions generally, ought to be settled oa

448 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

the broad ground of principle. Fundamentally illogical, it is clumsy
as a means of raising revenue, incurably inequitable in its application
to the business of the country, corrupt and demoralizing in the way it
is made into law, in the relation it forms between the government and
the citizen, and in its creation of vested rights that too soon become
vested wrongs. Hence arises a natural difficulty in discussing such a
subject. Tariff revision? The only suitable revision is to revise it
out of existence, except upon luxuries and articles coming under in-
ternal revenue taxation. It is difficult, also, to give serious attention to
a complicated scheme of what Bastiat has so happily called " negative
railways " — duties whose sole object is to increase the " friction of ex-
change," to heap up obstacles to commerce in the place of those which
railways, steamship lines and good roads are provided and constructed
to remove.

Considerably more force might be given to this general discussion
by taking up some individual articles, such as iron and steel, or borax,
or lumber, or wool, or hides, and applying the argument to it alone.
Or a particular manufacturing business might be taken, as agricul-
tural implements, or shoes, or carpets, and the effect of protecting its
raw material be individually considered. Although the general prin-
ciple applies throughout, it is quite natural that its illustrations should
be easier to draw, and clearer to see, in some lines than others. Par-
ticular cases have been the theme of the weeks recently spent, and
pages on pages printed, in the investigation by the Ways and Means
Committee of Congress. With a general impression that that com-
mittee is likely to do as little as it can, it may nevertheless be fairly
complimented on the interesting body of testimony it has heard and
published.

Since the problem of tariff revision, here and now, is largely one of
psychotherapy — how to " minister to a mind diseased " — since the only
evil in tariff reduction is a direct result of the expectation of
evil from it, just as panics result from a disappearance of con-
fidence— the Ways and Means Committee method of looking for a
solution may not be so hopelessly bad, after all. It is of vital concern
to escape the general panic that might follow from the conviction of
many men that lower duties would play havoc with them; and it is
therefore proper enough to see and hear those men, and thus ascertain
how delicately cases like theirs must be treated. Individually, no
doubt, minds of this type are as little significant as the separate organ-
isms that are collectively the cause of trichinosis, or typhoid, or cholera;
but, like the same weak or undeveloped organisms, their number may
be enough to give them a grave importance. Among the things that
were with certainty predicted of this Ways and Means inquiry was that
it would not recommend or introduce any measure that would reduce the
percentage of protection to the excess of labor-cost of production in the

TARIFF REVISION 449

United States over that in Europe. This certainty comes from two
sources : first, the difference in a large number of cases, even of high-
protected articles, is the other vray. The foolish assumption that a
difference in wages per day means a precisely similar difference in labor-
cost of articles produced, deserves hardly the honor of a refutation ; for
a real index of the fact, we can not do better than note, as did Mr.
Carnegie, who is probably the best living authority on the subject, the
confessed profits of the U. S. Steel Corporation: $133,000,000 net in
1907, on 10,000,000 tons of steel. They thus cleared $13.50 per ton,
which, deducted from the selling price, leaves a cost-price lower than
can be equalled in any country in the world. Every penny of that
$13.50, above the " reasonable profit " that the world's competition
would allow, is obviously a gratuitous bestowal of the people's money
upon the trust; but our present concern with it is as a conclusive
demonstration of lower labor-costs here than in Europe. The same is
true, to a less striking extent, in the case of every product which is
freely exported from this country. A second reason why we know that
the committee will not apply this difference-in-labor-cost criterion is
found in the absurdity of the principle itself. The little boy in the
story, whose sympathies, in viewing a picture of Daniel in the den of
lions, were especially called out by " that poor little lion in the corner,
that was not going to get any of Daniel," seems particularly absurd
when we first hear of him; but he was quite a master in protectionist
logic. This criterion of labor-cost shows a very nice regard for the
equities among the lions who are to feed on Daniel, and no regard for
the prophet himself.

It would be interesting, also, to discuss the tariff before a scientific
audience, as a purely scientific question, in a scientific way. This
would involve, probably, an examination of the evolution of a national
policy from a community policy, showing how each development on the
larger scale had been long preceded by a similar development on the
smaller. The question of division of labor, among members of a tribe,
was probably as hotly discussed in its day as is the question of promo-
tion or suppression of foreign trade in this ; and quite possibly the argu-
ments then made, on the one side and on the other, were very similar to
those we now hear. The reason why no record of this ancient debate
remains for us is doubtless that the decision was so complete and con-
clusive that it passed in a short time beyond the field of controversy;
and so we may hope for the question of to-day — when the present pleas
for industrial independence of nations shall have gone to join the old-
time pleas for industrial independence of families, just as we expect
national wars and war preparations and war policies to follow into
obsolescence the continual tribal wars and hostile proceedings of the
past.

VOL. LXXIV. — 29

45 o TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

TARIFF EEVISION" FEOM THE MANUFACTUEEE'S

STANDPOINT

By H. E. miles
racine, wis.

IWEITE as a Protectionist and a Eepublican, I believe thoroughly
in the old-fashioned principle of protection to American indus-
tries and labor, as first accepted by Hamilton and Washington.

I understand that under our constitution money can not be properly
legislated out of the pocket of a private citizen by Congress except for
value received. I believe that the citizen does get value received from
a tariff which gives to any desirable, well-managed industry a protection
tariff which measures, in the language of Mr. Taft, " substantially the
permanent differential between the cost of production in foreign
countries and that in the United States." If it costs 90 cents to pro-
duce an article in Germany and $1.00 in New York, the New York
manufacturer must be protected by the difference in this cost or must
go out of business, leaving the American market to be supplied from
Germany. The other alternative, that he cut his wages and lower the
standard of living to his operatives is impossible.

I believe it pays the American consumer to maintain American
manufacturing industries by whatever addition to price protection so
measured requires. Also that this difference should be figured with
that enlightened selfishness which ordinary prudence justifies. The
duty, in the above instance, might well be 20 per cent., thus giving the
American producer an advantage equal to 8 per cent, and causing the
foreigner to pay this much for the privilege of entering our market and
enjoying the protection of our laws, for the support of the government,
etc. Protection of this kind steadies the home market, stimulates
manufacturing, diversifies pursuits and should bring only beneficent
consequences.

During this generation, politicians, economists and others in con-
sidering this question have seemingly spent all their time and energy
in the discussion of the abstract theory of protection versus free trade.
They have not got down to earth. They failed adequately to consider,
or at least to emphasize and apply the principle of measurement above
indicated, and from this omission came the opportunity for evil, of
which special interests have made full use.

With public opinions overwhelmingly for protection, and no rule of
measurement, it is small wonder that infinite loss and harm have come

TARIFF REVISION 451

to us as a people, economically and morally. If there is an honest rate
in the present tariff I am unable to name it after two or three years of
study, and if shown one I should be obliged to think it accidental. It
could not have come upon careful consideration and exliaustive de-
termination, for there has been no governmental process by which a
rate could be made scientific and right. Our tariffs have been made by
men almost wholly inexperienced in that work. Mr. McKinley, for in-
stance, was the only man of previous experience among the majority
members of the committee which framed the McKinley bill. The
stories as to who wrote the schedules are scandalous, and, I judge, are
true.

I know, for instance, that Mr. McKinley said to the head of an im-
portant industry : " Of course I do not know what rates you should
have. You make them out "and be fair about it." The gentleman
addressed consulted others in his industry, and recommended some of
his principal products for the free list because they were made more
cheaply here than abroad, and were sold abroad higher than the do-
mestic price. Mr. McKinley so recommended to his committee, but
greedy men intervened and a miscalled protection was given in the bill
of 65 per cent. It still bears about that rate and is still exported in
large quantities at better than domestic prices.

So of the Wilson bill. Only three members of the majority upon
that Ways and Means Committee, possessed previous experience and
that as minority members upon the McKinley committees, where they
had too great consideration for the majority even to be present when
the real work was done. These three men with others wholly inexperi-
enced made the Wilson bill. It was this so-called free trade Wilson bill
that, by a wretched hocus-pocus, put Standard Oil upon the free list and
gave at the same time a protective duty of 100 per cent, at an annual
cost to the American people of about $40,000,000 per year. That lying
" protection " was continued in the Dingley bill. When H. H. Rogers,
manager of the Standard Oil Company, was asked how he got this pro-
tection from the " free trade " Wilsonites, he put his head back and
laughed. There could be no better cormnent from his standpoint.

And from that day to tliis the Honorable S. E. Payne and John
Dalzell have been on the committee " standing pat " — poker-playing as
it were — with the people's money, playing the " game " with intent to
lose, and losing in twelve years to the Oil Trust alone $360,000,000 of
the people's money and to other trusts ten times more.

The free-trade Wilson bill also gave a high protection to sugar, and
the sugar people offered money in large amounts for votes. The pro-
tection given them caused sugar stocks to advance ten points in forty-
eight hours. Said President Cleveland of the Wilson bill — " Bought,
bought, bought."

452 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

The Dingley committee had among its majority members only four
men, Messrs. Dingley, Payne, Dalzell and Hopkins, a newspaper editor
and tliree attorneys, and Mr. McMillan of the minority, with previous
experience. That men so inexperienced should have hastily made a
tariff for this nation was worse than a blunder — it was a crime. They
only made a great blind jab at the task. They began wrong by taking
classifications more than a generation old, inapplicable to their time.
The committee had neither knowledge nor time to consider this impor-
tant phase of the subject adequately. Consequently, we have had 30,000
lawsuits on the classifications of the appraisers, nine tenths of which
might have been avoided. They put in one classification, for instance,
buttons, stoves, electric fans, revolvers, nails, dress trimmings, railway
cars and enameled portraits, cannon for war and crosses for churches.
They were as careless as to rates. Said a member of the Ways and
Means Committee in conversing with me upon this subject, " Why, when
any one down in my district wants anything I get it for him, I get all
I can, and that is all there is to it."

Wlien Congress passed the Dingley bill it went into the trust-making
business up to its eyes. A list which I have compiled of all the principal
industrial trusts in the United States shows an absolute and complete
disregard of the principle of measurement, or any other principle in
the making of the schedules in which trusts are interested. A table
showing the more important of these trusts was exhibited.

The tariff is supposed to be a protection to wages. This table shows
that most of the trusts have tariff rates that are from one to fifteen
times their total pay-rolls and yet the tariff should measure but little
more than the difference between the American wage cost, per unit pro-
duced, and the foreign cost. In this sense these trusts have from
fifteen to one thousand times a just rate. When Congress gives more
than a just rate to any industry it invites, as a practical matter, those
in that industry to form a trust and add to their prices as against the
home consumer the difference between a fair protection and the excessive
protection given.

Prohibition is not protection. An excessive tariff is usually prohibit-
ive. It makes foreign competition impossible. The home producers
by consolidation eliminate home competition and then have their 80,-
000,000 compatriots at their mercy. When, for instance. Congress
put a duty of 45 per cent, upon goods I make, 15 per cent, being enough,
it gave Congressional permit, if not a Congressional invitation, that all
in my industry consolidate and add to our present domestic prices the
difference between the necessary 15 per cent, and the 45 per cent, given.
This is what all our trusts have done. The question whether any indus-
try does add much or all of the tariff to its domestic prices is answered
by this other question, " Can they ? " If they can they do. Trusts can
and trusts do.

TARIFF REVISION 453

As Mr. Carnegie has said, it may be taken for granted that the chief
purpose in forming any trust is to raise prices. Industries operating
under the old-fashioned principle of competition do not add tariff ex-
cesses to their prices, because they can not. In competition, and in that
alone, is protection to the American consumer.

Government reports show that the Standard Oil, for instance,
charges its domestic consumers 35 per cent, to 60 per cent, more for oil
than it charges its foreign consumers. Domestic users pay about 40
per cent, more for files than foreign buyers of the American-made
article. The foreigner gets American-made screws for about one half
the price to the American consumer. Bar iron and other steel products
are sold abroad at 20 per cent, to 40 per cent, less than home prices.
It is a question whether ignorance is to be accepted as a congressional
excuse. Said Zach Chandler, once a great senator from Michigan,

" You may call me a thief, you may call me a liar, but, you, don't

you call me a fool."

It seems impossible that our congressmen can have failed to under-
stand that the marvelous profits our trusts make comes, in great part,
not from the operation of plants, but from their manipulation of Con-
gress itself, comes by vote of your congressman and mine, compelling
you and me to make unwilling and forced contributions to trusts over
and above fair compensation for their products.

It is pleasant for some to look toward Pittsburg and see the great
flood of money rolling into its coffers, but look the other way. Trace the-
river to its sources, and you find the mighty flood dividing into millions-
of rivulets and at last each of them falling from a slit in a man's
pocket — a slit cut by a congressman.

This situation has been brought about by the carelessness with which
the American people regard their political interests, and by reliance
upon the principle of competition, until recently sufificiently operative
really to protect the consumer and make unnecessary scientific and
exact procedure upon the part of Congress, in tariff-makino-.

This carelessness upon the part of Congress has now come to be
practically intolerable because of the frightful excess to which many
rates have been lifted. The walling in of 80,000,000 of consumers and
their deliverance under an excessive rate to any who will and can
" trustify " has led to the greatest exploitation of the public that has
ever occurred in the history of any people. This hurt has come not only
to 80,000,000 consumers, but in no less degree to the thousands of
" intermediate consumers," the non-trustified competitive manufacturers
who get their supplies largely from the trusts and are so overcharged
as to be almost driven out of business. Steel, for instance, costs almost
twice what it did when the Dingley law was enacted and the industry
trustified. Those who use steel have been obliged to force their prices

454 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

up against the consumer until the latter all but rebels. Consumption
is limited; margins are reduced. There are 216,000 manufacturing
establishments in the United States. Of these about 175,000 are still
upon the competitive basis. The trusts not only charge these competi-
tive manufacturers excessive prices for their supplies, but they sell
abroad at less price, so that such of these 175,000 independents as
formerly competed to advantage upon highly finished products as
against European manufacturers, in neutral markets like South Africa
and the Argentine are now unable successfully to compete. They are
losing out in foreign trade.

Also many trusts, those in steel and hides, for instance, own sub-
sidiary corporations that compete with the independents. These trusts
charge high prices for raw material and through their subsidiary
companies make the finished product at so little above the price of the
raw material as to leave no margin for the independents, who must
either be given relief by tariff betterment or go out of business.

An excessive tariff like the Dingley is a blow at labor. This has not
been suflBciently emphasized. A reduction in the tariff to the level
required by Mr. Taft's principle of measurement will give the laborers
of this country three chances for a raise in wages with no chances for a
decline. This raise would come (1) through a lesser cost of living, (2)
by increased employment, for with a lowering of prices must come an
increased demand, (3) higher daily wages. A manufacturer can pay his
employers only a part of what is left in the till after the bills for
materials are paid. A return to moderate but ample protection will
increase the profits of competitive manufacturers. In such increased
prosperity labor always shares.

And so at the behest of trusts Congress made a tariff in the name
of labor which has been a blow to labor.

None has been so befooled as the farmers. A glittering nickel, as
it were, has been held before the farmer's eyes as it might before a
babe's, and while he has looked at the nickel his pockets have been
rifled of dollars. The farmer, for instance, has been given a tariff of
15 cents per bushel on corn, a product of which he has almost exclusive
control, the crop of 1908 being valued at one quarter million of dollars.
Last year the government raised tariff revenue the great sum of $2.78
on imports of corn from Cuba and about $1,400.00 from the rest of the
world. Likewise as to eggs. Five cents per dozen protection, $27,000
imported and $300,000,000 produced at home. Against such trifling
and almost insulting gift to the farmer, he is overcharged on his
implements, on his clothing, on his shoes and almost everything he
buys, overcharged in all about $250,000,000 per year.

The efficiency of the American mechanic has been wretchedly mini-
mized. The character of our laboring population was splendidly evi-

TARIFF REVISION 455

denced in the last campaign. Mr. Taft said to labor, " I will give
you what you deserve, neither more nor less," and that statement se-
cured for him the biggest labor vote ever given a president. So always
of American labor. Upon sober thought it wants what it deserves,
neither more or less.

The statements made before the Ways and Means Committee within
the last few days by those who wish to bolster wretched rates imply
that it takes about two American mechanics to do the work of one
European, as measured in wages. Except in tarifi-making we hear that
it takes two Europeans to equal one American. Let us not hastily de-
clare that high wages and other splendid considerations given Ameri-
can labor are an economic loss. It pays to give men a good education;
it pays to feed them well, to give them meat twice a day. Porterhouse
steaks are good for a workingman, if he will only work hard enough
to earn them. And ours do. Manufacturers usually say that their
highly-paid men are the cheapest. This statement can be made inter-
nationally also. Said J. B. Sargent, a great New England manufac-
turer of hardware:

I ship abroad most successfully those of my products which carry the
largest amount of the highest paid American labor. I have little success with
those which carry either cheap labor or little labor.

I mention steel and other important products only as examples.
The tariff is as bad generally in textiles. For instance, it lays extra-
heavy burdens upon the poor man's purchases and induces the sale of
shoddy and cotton as good wool. It affects chemicals, even the medi-
cines of the sick. It reaches in all directions.

As Mr. Taft has said, a doctor will not cut off a patient's head to
cure a cold. "We must not destroy in seeking to correct. The tariff
must be taken out of politics and put into the hands of a semi-judicial,
non-partisan commission composed of men especially of the highest
integrity, who shall investigate schedule by schedule and report their
findings in the form of recommendations to Congress and the executive.
The right to make tariffs rests wholly in Congress; a commission can
only recommend, as it did in Germany. We must believe that the Con-
gress of the United States will legislate justly and wisely if only it is
fully informed. The commission must be given authority and inde-
pendence only that it may be efficient as the servant of Congress.

The commission idea is not new. There are hundreds, if not thou-
sands, of commissions, national, state and municipal. Most of the great
legislative reforms of this generation were based upon the findings of
commissions. There is a tremendous movement now in favor of a
tariff commission. We shall have one soon, it being only a question
whether this next tariff will be based upon the findings of a commission
or whether this tariff will be the last one to be made after the old fash-

456 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

ion. If it is to be made in the old way there is evidence already
at hand that it will be based upon misstatements and misunderstand-
ing. It will harm the public infinitely. It may lessen, but it will not
abolish, the graft now estimated conservatively at $500,000,000 per
year.

The public is thoroughly aroused and the work of reform is pro-
gressing as fast as ever any national movement of equal consequence.
One of the most fortunate consequences of a justly protective tariff
will be the tremendous enlargement of foreign trade. We pride our-
selves upon the exportation of $1,082,000,000 of manufactured products,
but 63 per cent, of these exports are crude and semi-crude; meat,
petroleum, rails, billets, bar iron, lumber, cement, skins, etc. They
contain 20 per cent, or less of labor. These are the very products needed
by our own more numerous manufacturers at moderate prices for the
employment of American operatives and the development into more
highly finished products. With tariff correction, these semi-finished
products will go abroad in higher forms with from two to five times more
of good American labor in them. We shall become in larger and larger
measure an industrial bee-hive, with our foundation world-wide and
not to be shaken as heretofore by domestic panic. With this broaden-
ing of trade will come an intellectual and moral broadening and ease-
ment that will make us more truly the world power we sometimes affect
to be.

TARIFF REVISION 457

TARIFF EEVISIOX FEOM THE IMPORTEE'S STANDPOINT.

By FRANCIS B. HAMILTON

NEW TOEK CITY

THE exchange of commodities between the inhabitants of this world
began at the point of time when original savagery first felt the
influences tending toward semi-barbarism, and the purely physical
control of man over his fellowman began slowly to yield to less brutal
methods.

From that day, many thousands of years ago, until the present time,
the advancement of civilization has been accurately measured by the
state of commercial development, so that we now classify nations not
by the numbers of their fighting men, but rather by the magnitude of
their trade.

For a long period the free exchange and barter which sent Joseph
and his brethren from Arabia down to Egypt and brought the Queen
of Sheba to King Solomon's gates, ruled the known world over, and the
caravans of Kenghis Klian or the sailor merchants of Cleopatra
bought where they could buy the cheapest and sold where they could
sell the dearest — duty free — be the market at home or abroad.

As the centuries passed and the people became less nomadic, the
various nations were known each to each as producers of specific
articles or classes of merchandise, and the tides of commerce began to
flow in more fixed channels as the years ran. The spices of the east
came westward for sale to the nations of Europe and the Atlantic coasts,
while the stuffs and tapestries of Germany and Italy and the weapons
of Spain found markets in both England and Asia. Except when some
despot, requiring the gold to fill an empty exchequer, sold the privilege
to trade in particular goods and thus created a monopoly, all the
merchandizing from the beginning of the Christian era down to about
1600 was free and untrammeled of duty, either import or export.

From that time on, however, it was found that in various countries
and with regard to various commodities, some restriction in the market
and the method of their sale was necessary or the production languished
and the goods disappeared.

The first duty laid upon goods coming into this country went into
operation August 1, 1789.

The necessity for providing a national revenue was the first con-
sideration with the new congress.

Within seventy hours of the opening of the organization James
Madison introduced the subject of the Tariff, in part by the following
words :

458 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

I take the liberty, Mr. Chairman, at this early stage of the business, to
introduce to the committee a subject which appears to me to be of the greatest
magnitude; a subject, sir, that requires our first attention and our united
exertions. . . . The deficiency in cur treasury has been too notorious to make
it necessary for me to animadvert upon that subject. Let us content ourselves
with endeavoring to remedy the evil. To do this a national revenue must be
obtained; but the system must be such a one that, while it secures the object
of revenue, it shall not be oppressive to our constituents. Happy it is for us
that such a system is within our power, for I apprehend that both these objects
may be obtained from an impost on articles imported into the United States.

In pursuing this measure, I know that two points occur for our considera-
tion. The first respects the general regulation of commerce, which, in my
opinion, ought to be as free as the policy of nations will admit. The second
relates to revenue alone, and this is the point I mean more particularly to
bring into the view of the committee. . . . The proposition made on this subject
by Congress in 1783, having received generally the approbation of the several
states of the union in one form or other, seems well calculated to become the
basis of the temporary system which I wish the committee to adopt.

In closing, Mr. Madison offered a resolution declaring it to be the
sense of the committee that specific duties should be levied on spirituous
liquors, molasses, wines, teas, sugars, pepper, cocoa and spices, and an
ad valorem duty upon all other articles ; and also a tonnage duty upon
American vessels in which merchandise was imported, and a higher
rate upon foreign vessels.

From that day until this the United States has maintained a tariff.
At times for revenue only, but in the main to produce a revenue and to
protect home industries.

The act of August 10, 1790, was entitled "An act for laying a
duty on goods, wares and merchandises imported into the United States
... for the discharge of the debts of the United States and for the
encouragement and protection of manufacturers."

It should therefore be noted that from the very inception of our
government the tariff has been recognized as exercising two distinct
functions ; to wit, to raise a revenue and as well to protect home manu-
facturers.

Since the act of 1790 there have been passed by Congress thirty-
three distinct tariff acts up to and including the act of 1897. Of these
the McKinley act of 1890, the Wilson act of 1894 and the Dingley act
of 1897, being the one now in operation, are those of most interest to
the importer of the present day.

Probably no tariff act was ever placed upon the statute books that
did not contain mistakes and that was not open to criticism from one
source or another. The most equitable, the most liberal act must
hurt some individual.

The importer who purchases his goods in other countries to sell
at home, is primarily a free trader, and as such regards each per cent,
of duty laid upon his particular importation as a tax upon his business.
Sometimes he is so short-sighted as to consider his own particular

TARIFF REVISION 459

interests as paramount, and to forget the many intricate questions
involved, all of which go to the proper conduct of the commercial
scheme of an entire nation.

To-day the most experienced and intelligent business men are prac-
tically agreed upon the necessity of a tariff. The unsettled question
which stands between the law maker and the importer is the rate.
Both are now agreed as to the justice of the principle when equitably
enforced ; what remains is to agree upon what is equity to the importer,
to the government, to the home producer and competitor and to the
consumer.

I had the honor quite recently to suggest to the ways and means
committee of Congress at one of the tariff revision hearings what I
regarded as a " just tariff," which should be an act so drawn as to pro-
duce the needed revenue and at the same time protect home interests.
Such protection should be equally divided between the capital that
establishes, the labor that produces and the public that consumes.

I am still inclined to regard the definition both concise and correct.

Mr. Taft quite recently voiced his view of the tariff principle laid
down in the republican platform in the following terms :

The measure of the tariff should be the difference between the cost of
production of the article in this country and such cost abroad, and in the
estimate of the cost of production abroad and in the estimate of the cost of
production here there should be included among other elements what is regarded
in each plan as a reasonable manufacturers' profit.

With this the importer finds no complaint, as a duty fixed along
such lines would leave open to reasonable business competition all the
fields wherein foreign and domestic merchandise naturally seeks a com-
mon market. What the importer does object to is the establishment of
a duty which either strangles all competition, thus creating a monopoly
for home products only, or a rate so high that the so-called " reason-
able " manufacturer's profit becomes unreasonable, forces the consumer
to pay too dearly for his goods, either foreign or domestic, and in-
evitably produces " trust " control in the lines affected.

Such a tariS is unjust and benefits no one but the home producer.

Under it the importer must necessarily pay a heavy bonus for the
privilege of conducting his business; the consumer is compelled to
pay a high price for his merchandise ; and it is always unjust to labor,
since the rate of duty is never used as a measure by which to regulate
the wage scale. The sole beneficiary is the home producer who is
enabled to realize a profit drawn from the pockets of three classes, the
importers, the consumers and his own employees.

One of the best examples of a violation of the basic principle set
forth by Mr. Taft is the present tariff rate upon watch movements
imported in cases or without.

Fixed in 1897 through the efforts of certain interests in this country,

46o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

it has resulted in the creation of a watch " trust/' producing millions
of profits, even while the labor employed was often so poorly paid as
to be unsettled and to have gone upon strike a number of times, and
the consumer has paid for his American-made watch 20 per cent, to
30 per cent, more than the Italian, the Englishman, or even the Swiss
paid for the same article purchased abroad.

That such a condition is evil, and that it should be corrected, all
true lovers of their country will agree, but too often "What is every
one's business is no one's," and tariff revision along this and a score of
other lines equally bad can only be hoped for if the facts are placed
before the Congress in convincing form.

It must ever be remembered that those who are now benefited
through the protection of the tariff are on the alert to prevent any
revision which will reduce their profits, whether reasonable or unreason-
able, while the importer can, at the most, be only secondarily interested.
He must continue business under existing conditions, although he
would prefer a change, but those most interested and to whose benefit
such a change would most conduce — the great mass of consumers, the
people, are individuals busy with their daily affairs and unable to give
the time or afford the expense which would be necessitated by any
concerted effort to correct the existing wrongs.

And a great number of wrongs exist under the present act. It is
somewhat of a popular fallacy that duties are levied only upon luxuries,
and that the average citizen, the one who does not buy diamonds or
automobiles and who has never made a trip abroad, has little or no
interest in tariff questions.

That this is an error is easily proved by a glance at the act itself.
There are 705 separate paragraphs, 463 of which, covering more than
six thousand different articles, impose duties running as high as 60
per cent, ad valorem. The remaining paragraphs, 242 in number, con-
stitute the " free list." In the minds of the general public the " free
list" should contain all the necessities of life; as a matter of fact it
covers less than half a dozen articles regarded as necessities, tea, coffee,
needles, ice.

With all the remaining " free of duty importations " the average
citizen has nothing to do. The wool which enters into the manufacture
of your hat and your clothing pays a duty ranging from 4 to 12 cents
per pound; the linen you wear or that is upon your bed pays 60 per
cent, ad valorem; your stockings pay 30 per cent, ad valorem and the
hides which are imported to make leather for your shoes pay from 15
per cent, ad valorem up. Gloves are taxed from $1.75 per dozen pairs
to $4.75 per dozen, and jewelry pays 60 per cent, ad valorem.

We need to import but little food stuffs, as we are able to produce
enough to supply our home necessities, but if we eat imported food we
pay a tax upon it ranging from 10 per cent, to 45 per cent, ad valorem.

TARIFF REVISION 461

It will tlierefore be seen that the tariff is a subject that affects every
citizen, even though he is unconscious of it, and that its revision is a
matter of almost universal interest.

And because of the universality of this question it can be understood
how vitally it affects all who are home producers.

The man whose business has grown up under the wing of a protec-
tive tariff will never admit that the original "infant industry" has
become a lusty youth able to care for itself. He rather appears before
the committee on revision and with simulated anxiety presents reasons
why the protective rate should be increased, hoping doubtless by such
tactics to prevent any reduction.

So general has this procedure become during the past two months
while the ways and means committee have been holding tariff hearings
in Washington, that lately when any one appeared before them request-
ing an increase in the tariff the committee would propound to him the
initial query : " Are you making money in your business ? "

One of the most striking examples of this pronounced selfishness
on the part of the home producers was evidenced in the hearings under
the paragraphs protecting oranges, lemons and olives.

A large delegation appeared from the California fruit growers, who
presented to the committee among other things the statement that in
the past twelve years the lemon growers had realized less than 5 per
cent, net upon their investments and that unless the duty upon citrus
fruits, lemons and oranges could be at least doubled, that is, made $1.60
per box instead of as at present, 80 cents, the California interest in
these fruits would be destroyed.

In reply to such statement there was presented to the committee
the annual report of the U. S. Government Pomologist for 1907,
showing the cost per acre of maintaining the average lemon grove to
be about $370.86 while the average production of one carload of fruit
per acre sold at an average price during the past five years of $696.00
per car; thus making a net profit of about 90 per cent, annually; or
allowing the cost of the land as given by the Californians themselves,
viz., $1,000 per acre, the annual returns would pay all yearly expenses
and 33 per cent, upon the original investment.

No reply to this official " knock out " has been made by the citrus
fruit growers, but it is not an isolated case. The rule is absolute that
human nature, especially American human nature, gets all it can and
keeps — if possible — all it gets. The public must look out for itself
or fall under Commodore Vanderbilt's noted ban.

In the marts of trade no day passes that complaint is not voiced
against the present tariff law. The mutations of eleven years have been
such as to render scores of the paragraphs of that law and the duty
rates imposed thereunder most inequitable and unjust. It is my belief
that the so-called " good trusts " as well as the " bad trusts " have been

462 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

the natural outgrowths of the tariff, and I further believe that while
the good trusts should be continued and their interests safeguarded
for the benefit, not of the trusts themselves, or their thousands of stock-
holders, but for the interests of the millions of consumers, the "bad
trusts" should be shorn of the power to rob those millions of con-
sumers, which power is now largely theirs through the protection which
the present tariff gives.

To arrive at this desirable end and as well to protect his own inter-
ests is the aim of the reputable importer, and because of the reasons
given above, the necessity of producing the required evidence which will
prove where the evil conditions now exist, and of submitting such
evidence to the Congress, devolves upon the importer.

In the parlance of the day " it is up to him " to present to those
engaged in the revision of the tariff all the data required to establish
the injustice of any of the present duty rates and to urge the correction
of the same.

The subject is the most important which has been before the
Congress in the past decade. The prosperity of the country and its
people, our commercial supremacy, our national credit, all largely
depend upon the result of the present tariff revision. If the new bill,
which may become a law by July 1, 1909, and which surely will become
a law before January 1, 1910, is just and equitable in its provisions,
we may look with assurance for many years of prosperity; if on the
contrary the new act retains many of the evils which have grown up
under the present one, if it is so drawn as to protect favorites and to
slur over or fail to eliminate the wrongs now existing within its pro-
visions, we may anticipate commercial unrest, if not disaster, and all
the attendant train of calamities.

Tariff revision, therefore, from the importer's standpoint, is of the
first importance. Greater than the Canal question — for our country
will go on in its magnificent career whether the Panama Canal be
completed in seven years or fifteen — greater than any political issue —
for experience has taught us that the people right political wrongs in
the long run — greater than any questions affecting our army and navy,
our insular possessions, or even the future of our ex-presidents — the
question of tariff revision goes to the very vitals of national life. And
this being so, the importer finds himself suddenly thrown into the lime
light as the spokesman for — not alone his own interests — but as well
the interests and further welfare of all the people, the great body of
the nation, the consumers, and as the champion for them and to protect
and ensure them in their rights for years to come, he accepts the
responsibility and seeks to supply our law makers with the enormous
mass of facts, and the needed evidence which they require in order to
produce a finished tariff act, one that shall be grounded in " favoritism
toward none and justice to all."

TARIFF REVISION 463

TARIFF EEVISION FROM THE CONSUMER'S STANDPOINT

By JESSE F. ORTON

REFORM CLUB, NEW YORK CITY

EX-REPRESENTATIVE Charles H. Grosvenor, of Ohio, while
addressing the Ways and Means Committee, December 2, on
tariff revision, used this language : " It is an unfortunate reference that
is constantly being made to the wants and anxieties of the consumer.
. . . The prosperity of the consumer goes hand-in-hand with the
prosperity of the manufacturer/' We have long been accustomed to
the view that the consumer's interest is a subordinate one; but now
mere reference to it is " unfortunate " ; perhaps it will soon be criminal,
or at least an act calling for social ostracism.

The majority members of the ways and means committee did not
in terms echo General Grosvenor's sentiment, that the " wants and
anxieties of the consumer " should be tabooed, but most of them showed
their sympathy by action throughout the hearings. Representative
Boutell, of Illinois, from the very first, set out to ascertain from wit-
nesses what effect the lowering of duties would have on what he termed
"the ultimate consumer"; and this phrase soon became a standing
joke with the committee. One would have thought that surely there
could not be, among the constituents of these congressmen, a single
person so insignificant and vulgar as this same " consumer " must be.
As most of the witnesses were protected manufacturers, they easily
agreed that the consumer would not be helped by any reduction of
duties, that the wicked importers would take all the benefits. When
witnesses thought duties should be increased, as they frequently did,
they were sure that consumers would not feel the "infinitesimal" burden
that would be added, if indeed any were added. There seemed to be
a sort of division of labor among the committee members, and it was
Mr. Boutell's task to show that the misguided consumers of the country
had no need for " anxiety," that they could not be helped by removing
taxes or harmed by putting taxes on. Unfortunately, a few tax-paying
goats were mingled among the tax-eating sheep that appeared before
the committee, and their answers were not satisfactory to Mr. Boutell;
they were very sure that the consumer was hurt by taxing the things
he must buy and would be relieved by reducing the taxes ; but the good
representative from Illinois quickly forgot the discordant notes and
went on calmly stating, day after day, that the unanimous opinion of
witnesses was that the consumer would not benefit, etc., and expressing
a hope that, before the hearings closed, the committee might discover

464 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

some schedule on which reduction of duty would profit " the ultimate

consumer."

In showing up the folly of the consumer in supposing that he had
an interest in the tariff revision, Mr. Boutell had an able assistant in
Representative Gaines, of West Virginia. Mr. Gaines delighted in at-
tempting to show that the duty, if it were all added to the selling price,
would add very little to the cost of any particular article. For example,
the duty on hides and leather meant only a few cents on a pair of shoes
or a carriage top; and the duty on iron and steel meant only a trifle
for each wagon. Plainly, it was his opinion that the consumer who
would object to this small increase of cost was a very penurious fellow,
one chronically disposed to find fault. As a rule, the committee mem-
bers were careful to include in their reckoning only the added manu-
facturer's cost traceable to the duty. For example, they pointed to the
fact that the duty on the leather in a pair of shoes is only about ten
cents on the average, ignoring the profits that the wholesale and retail
dealers must make on this ten cents, by which the added cost to the
wearer of the shoes is made much greater.

There is at least one member of the committee who would not dignify
the consumer's standpoint by the merest mention, Eepresentative
Fordney, of Michigan. The word consumer does not appear to be in
his dictionary. He knows only the producer and regards as a blessing
any duty whatever which prevents the importation of goods and com-
pels their production in this country, no matter what may be the cost of
producing them here. Here and there, among the majority members,
there appeared a few indications of an appreciation of the rights and
interests of the consumer. This was most noticeable in Eepresentative
Crumpacker, of Indiana, and Eepresentative McCall, of Massachusetts,
with an occasional gleam of light from Eepresentative Hill, of Con-
necticut.

This general disparagement of the consumer's point of view did
not seem to be the result of the old claim that the consumer does not
pay tariff duties; but rather upon the consideration (1) that these
taxes are small, (2) that the consumer derives great benefits from the
tariff system, and (3) that if the taxes were removed, monopoly
would prevent the consumer from getting the benefit. It seems to be
generally admitted now that the consumer, and not the foreigner, pays
the duty. One frank manufacturer said to the committee : " The con-
sumer pays it and I am glad that he does."

If we were to inquire into the reasons why the representatives of
the people at Washington are disposed largely to ignore the interest of
the people as consumers, more than one answer might be made. To
a certain extent, of course, this attitude is due to a peculiar economic
belief, the acceptance of the protective theory, by which undue emphasis
is placed upon the function of production at the expense of the corre-

TARIFF REVISION 465

lative function of consumption. But protection, as a theory, certainly
is not directly responsible for all the indifference to the consumer.
Honest and consistent protection, assuming that there may be such,
would not in every case forbid the consumer to purchase cheaply abroad ;
but would, before levying a tax on the importation of an article, give
some consideration to the question whether it can be produced in this
country with reasonable advantage. In like manner, honest protection
would give to producing interests only such a duty as would enable
them fairly to compete with foreign producers, not an excessive duty
which will exclude the foreign article and enable manufacturers in this
country to exact, by combination or otherwise, unreasonable or monop-
oly prices from consumers.

It can not be doubted that congress has departed very widely from
honest or consistent protection. That this is the inevitable result of
the system of protecting private industries is my own belief; but that
it is a necessary consequence of that system conjoined with our un-
representative scheme of government, I think no observer at Wash-
ington can fail to see. Not only do selfish private interests nominate
and elect congressmen and control their course in regard to legisla-
tion, but congressmen themselves do not blush to have it known that
they are personally and pecuniarily interested in the levying of certain
tariff duties for which they vote as public legislators and for which they
work and lobby with all the skill at their command. If we had a high
and honest standard of public morals in congress, it would be much
easier to get an honest tariS, and the consumer would not be plundered
as he is now. Whatever may be said of the personal character of con-
gressmen as compared with the personal character of city councilmen,
I venture to say that the publicly established moral code in congress
is lower than in most city councils. In nearly all city councils a mem-
ber is not allowed to vote upon any contract or other question in which
he is known to have a pecuniary interest; and in many cities all mem-
bers of the council are absolutely forbidden to have any pecuniary
interest in any contract awarded by that body. In Washington it is
common gossip, that, out of the nineteen members of the ways and
means committee which will frame a new tariff, various ones are
pecuniarily interested in this or that schedule; that one is interested
in tobacco, another in olives, a third in lumber, and so on. Some of
these personal interests cropped out at the hearings. Representative
Fordney stated that he was engaged in the manufacturing of lumber,
and he bitterly opposed all proposals to remove the duty from that
necessity in the interest of 80,000,000 consumers and the conservation
of the country's forests. Ex-Eepresentative Rhodes, of Missouri, told
how he had introduced a bill in a former congress, increasing the duty
on barytes, while he was personally engaged in producing this mineral.
A considerable number of congressmen appeared before tiie com-

466 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

mittee as attorneys representing private interests and asking for duties
on various articles. If a judge should descend from the bench and
address the court of vs^hich he is a member, or a coordinate court, in
the interest of private suitors, we should at once cry out against the
system which made such an act possible. But in congress, representa-
tives, whose votes will be needed when the bill reaches the house, appear
before the committee in behalf of private parties ; and senators, who will
vote on the bill when it reaches that body, appear and ask for favors to
certain private industries. At the recent hearings Senator Hale, of
Maine, a member of the finance committee, to which the tariff bill will
be referred and one of the most influential men in the senate, appeared
in behalf of a duty on starch.

When the judges who are commissioned to sit at "Washington and
deal impartially between tariff-burdened consumers and tariff-protected
producers, not only represent selfish interests, but are themselves pecuni-
arily interested in their own decision, what wonder is it that the con-
sumer's interests are ignored. So far as moral quality is concerned,
Senator Burton's act in representing private interests before one of
the government departments, for which he was sent to prison, was mild
and harmless, as compared with the acts which are openly committed
by members of congress in tariff legislation. The one has been made
criminal by statute; the others have not.

I have dwelt at some length upon the methods and means by which
tariff revision will have to be obtained under present conditions. The
situation indicates that unless the law-making body is constrained by
an insistent and powerful public opinion, consumers are not likely to
get any fair measure of relief. With reference to the specific relief
that ought to be granted, something may now be said.

It is generally admitted that many existing duties are much
higher than the difference in the cost of producing goods here and
abroad. This difference in cost, considering reasonable profit as one
of the elements of cost, is a test which the people are entitled to insist
upon at this time. If it could be fairly applied, consumers would
escape the payment of tribute to monopoly, although they might be
injured by the protection given to certain industries that are not
well suited to this country. Among the schedules that should be
entirely removed, according to this standard, may be noted iron and
steel, lumber, coal, lead, salt, petroleum and hides. Among those
which will stand marked reductions, on the basis of relative costs, are
sugar, many chemicals, woolen, cotton and silk goods, glass and
earthenware, machinery and implements generally. We have, in the
wool-raising industry, one that should be removed from the protected
list on the ground that the duty is a burdensome tax on the people,
without any prospect of developing a supply at all adequate for the
needs of the country.

TARIFF REVISION 467

That these changes which I have mentioned, and others of a like
character, would bring great relief to the consumers of the country,
the whole people, I think, can not be doubted by any one who does not
ignore the ordinary laws of trade. If the ways and means committee,
or congress believes that some or all of the relief intended for consumers
would be absorbed by trusts and combinations, by the thwarting of
the laws of trade, these law-makers should be reminded that this is a
poor excuse for their failure to remove burdensome and unjust taxes,
that their proper function is to find a remedy for acts in restraint of
trade, not to make fear of these wrongful acts the pretext for continu-
ing oppressive burdens on the people.

If duties were reduced in strict accordance with the test relating
to cost of production, using cost figures that now obtain, it would
certainly be found that in the near future further reductions could be
made in accordance with the same rule. This is so on account of the
extent to which present costs in almost every industry in this country
are increased by the tariff duties themselves, making materials and
labor more expensive than they would otherwise be. Thus reductions
in one industry will make reductions possible in other industries, until
finally we may get down off from the unnatural level of prices caused
by the extraordinary tariff rates which we have had for several decades.
I believe that when we get down to natural conditions, we shall find
that there are few industries that any longer need protection from the
standpoint of actual inability to compete with foreign producers in
this market.

I have spoken of results that might follow honest application of
the test relating to comparative costs of production; but I regard this
test as at best capable of only a very rough and imperfect application.
Costs vary so much for different times and places, and the difficulty
of getting real facts is so great, that this test, probably the best that
can be offered in theory for "honest" protection, is wholly unsatis-
factory to consumers and to the general public interest. This fact,
with many others, leads me to reject entirely the system of protection,
as a scheme which is incapable of honest application. Even if we
should grant the essential economic arguments of the protectionist,
the irresistible tendency of the system toward corruption of govern-
ment, toward discriminating and excessive duties and monopoly,
toward the encouragement of inefficient industry, would condemn it as
one of the greatest forces for evil existing in our present civilization.

468 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

A PEEMANENT TARIFF BUREAU : ITS RELATION TO

CONGRESS AND PROPER PROCEDURE FOR

TARIFF REVISION

Br SEYMOUR C. LOOMIS

NEW HAVEN, CONN.

FROM the six volumes of conflicting testimony given by over six
hundred witnesses, during the six weeks' session of the Ways
and Means Committee, it is evident that the framing of a new tariff
law is fraught with many perplexities. It is important to make it, as
nearly as possible, adapted to the accomplishment of the desired end.
Frequent changes are to be avoided, because they upset calculations
which are at the foundation of trade. Even if the object of a tariff is
agreed to and settled, that object may not be attained by the means
proposed. A tariff builder always has in mind one or both of two ideas
or results; first, revenue with which to run the federal government;
second, protection to domestic industries. These ideas may be, and gen-
erally are, antagonistic. A schedule which produces a large revenue
may not be protective, and one which is protective may produce no
revenue at all. Between these extremes there are numberless conditions
where the relative amounts of revenue and protection change as the
duty is more or less. And when the modifications of supply and
demand and the variations of cost of production are considered the
situation becomes worse than kaleidoscopic. Persons may even agree
as to the principle upon which a tariff law should be drafted, and yet
be hopelessly apart as to its application to a given case. The essential
facts relating to many industries are hidden, and, if discovered, are
not easily placed and held at their true relative value. They need to
be coordinated with other facts relating to other industries here as
well as abroad. Iron and steel enter into and form a part of so many
articles, structures and things in general, that, it is claimed, if the price
of those commodities was the same here as in other countries, foreign
markets, now closed, would be opened to our manufacturers who use
iron and steel as their raw material. This is also claimed concerning
other staples. Whether this be true or false depends upon a great num-
ber of facts, which only an expert disinterested person can discover.

For these and other obvious reasons it is apparent that a corps of
men in the emplojmient of the government under the civil service,
whose permanent duty it should be to probe into, obtain and correlate
these facts, would be of great public advantage and utility. A perma-

TARIFF REVISION 469

nent commission, like the Interstate Commerce Commission, has been
spoken of, which should have authority to investigate, and upon giving
notice of from one to three years, to change the rate or schedule within
certain limits prescribed by Congress, say from three to five per cent.
A commission, however, with such powers would be unconstitutional.
Article I., section 8, of the constitution provides, " The Congress shall
have power to lay taxes, duties," etc. The power is given to Congress,
and according to the familiar principle that no legislative body can
delegate to any other person or tribunal whatever the power which was
conferred upon it, such power can not be delegated to any commission.
Congress must not only lay the tax and duty, but it must lay one which
shall be uniform, definite and certain. It can not entrust the slightest
modification or change to the discretion or Judgment of any other
tribunal. If a slight change in the tax can be made by a commission,
then Congress can authorize it to make a great change. There is no
middle ground. The entire power of laying taxes and duties is con-
ferred on the Congress and that power can not be shifted. A commis-
sion is in no sense a representative body, and the right to lay taxes is,
under our system of government, peculiarly limited to a body which
is representative of the whole people. Such essentially is the Congress,
to which the authority was given by the constitution.

All the benefits which would legally flow from a commission could
also be had from a bureau of tariff in the Department of Commerce
and Labor, and with less friction and more efficiency. Such a bureau
could furnish data and memoranda with verifying witnesses, who could
be examined by the Ways and Means Committee and by parties inter-
ested. In this way the whole people of the country would be repre-
sented before the committee in a substantial manner, where now they
are practically unrepresented so far as the presentation of the case by
witnesses and counsel is concerned. As a check upon the accuracy of
the work of the bureau, parties interested should have the privilege
of cross-examination, and also the right to bring before the con-
gressional committee, which is independent of the bureau and of the
department to which it belongs, experts of their own; these experts in
turn to be subject to cross-examination by counsel representing the
bureau of the tariff.

By such a procedure facts can be elicited upon which an orderly
and scientific revision of the tariff can be made. These suggestions
are not intended to unnecessarily postpone or indefinitely delay the
present proposed revision of the tariff, but simply to indicate a method
of procedure which should be made permanent.

470 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

JOSIAH WILLAED GIBBS AND HIS EELATIOK TO

MODEEN SCIENCE

By fielding H. GARRISON, M.D.

ASSISTANT LIBEARIAN, ARMY MEDICAL LIBRARY, WASHINGTON, D. C.

THE scientific papers of the late Professor Willard Gibbs, of Yale
University, which have been brought together in a memorial
edition by his pupiP and colleague, Professor Bumstead, furnish one
of the most remarkable examples in existence of the value and fruit-
fulness of mathematical methods in scientific investigation. Origi-
nally printed in the scientific transactions of his native state, some of
these papers have, by reason of the speedy exhaustion of their first
imprints, been much sought after, but for many years practically in-
accessible, except in French and German translations.

Gibbs was not, like Edison, Langley, Eowland, the inventor, experi-
menter or expert in delicate measurements, nor was he the great all-
round physicist, like Maxwell, Helmholtz or Lord Kelvin. He was
essentially and almost exclusively the mathematician, whose special
function was not the discovery of isolated facts or new methods of
experimental procedure, but the introduction of new currents of ideas;
and it was the severe and rigorous form in which his ideas were cast
that for a long period of time retarded their general adoption by the
scientific world. If we accept Cayley's view that theoretical dynamics
is in reality a branch of pure mathematics,^ then the opus magnum of
Gibbs, his survey of heterogeneous equilibrium, may be fairly accounted
a legitimate triumph for pure mathematics.

The enormous growth of biological science in the nineteenth cen-
tury has somewhat overshadowed the importance of the deductive and
analytic methods which were the very life of the science of the past,
and although mathematics, beginning with primitive man's attempt to
count, lies at the basis of all his exact knowledge of the material world,
its true function has not always been appreciated or even understood.
The synthetic or Baconian method, of which we have such supreme
examples in the work of Galileo and Darwin, must always appeal by
its very simplicity to scientific men, since, instead of indulging in
special assumptions and hypotheses, it has obtained from nature, by
observation and experiment alone, facts which, as in the Darwinian
theory, can be concentrated upon some special proposition to be induced
with the surety of Moltke's tactical device, Getrennt marschieren, ver-

^ J. Willard Gibbs, " Scientific Papers," 2 vols., New York and London, 1903.
'"Report British Association for the Advancement of Science," 1884, 20.

JO SI AH WILLARD GIBBS 471

eint sclilagen. As science aims only to classify, predict and control
phenomena, it has no absolute philosophic certainty except as a logical
interpretation of the empirical facts of man's experience, and of the
relative limitations of mathematical deduction and physical induction
it has been well said that " the former breaks down on the subtlety
of nature, the latter on its imperceptibility."^ Galileo's telescope,
Leeuwenhoek's microscope, Lavoisier's balance, KirchhofPs spectroscope,
are doubtless of more practical value, but certainly not of more scien-
tific importance than formal and symbolic logic, the calculus, deter-
minants, quaternions, vector analysis or the improved formulation of
dynamics. Without induction, it is true, no new facts; but without
deductive methods there could be no interpretation of these facts, nor
would scientists have the means of predicting other facts which go
beyond experience, or of controlling phenomena. Yet an authority so
open-minded as Professor Huxley, who seems to have confused mathe-
matical methods with the scholastic reasoning and bigotry which
opposed the great cause he championed, seldom lost an opportunity to
say hard things about the science "which knows nothing of observa-
tion, nothing of experiment, nothing of induction, nothing of causa-
tion."* In Professor Sylvester's brilliant and memorable reply to some
of Huxley's after-dinner denunciations,^ " the most eloquent of mathe-
maticians " retorted upon his adversary that his chaflfing might have
been more guarded " had his speech been made before instead of after
dinner,'"' and went on to show that the maligned science employs not
only imagination and invention, but observation and experiment at
need. Even mathematicians, Sylvester pointed out, occasionally make
discoveries, as witness Eisenstein's discovery of invariants, which was
happened upon by purely physical observation " just as accidentally
and unexpectedly as M. du Chaillu might meet a gorilla in the country
of the Fantees."'^ The touchstone of the matter lies in the one really
telling remark that Huxley made about it, viz., that mathematics will
not yield correct results if applied to erroneous data.^ The advance
of modem science is largely bound up with the perfection of instru-
ments of precision, and we have learned from the teaching of Lord
Kelvin and the writings of Poincare to recognize that mathematical

• " Lectures on the Method of Science," Oxford, 1905, 12.

* Huxley, "Lay Sermons," New York, 1871, 168.

" Hid., 66.

'Nature, London, 1869-70, I., 237.

'Ihid., 238.

' " Mathematics may be compared to a mill of exquisite workmanship which
grinds you stuff to any degree of fineness; but, nevertheless, what you get out
depends upon what you put in; and as the grandest mill in the world will not
extract wheat flour from peascods, so pages of formulae will not get a definite
result out of loose data." Huxley, "Aphorisms and Reflections," London,
1907, 93.

472 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

science is itself a powerful instrument of precision, which, if applied
in the right way to data of the right sort, may yield important results.
Biologists like Loeb, Francis Galton, Karl Pearson, Driesch, physiolo-
gists like Helmholtz and Chauveau, psychologists like Wundt and
Fechner, the leading physical chemists, van't Hoff, Arrhenius, Eooze-
boom, Ostwald, van der Waals, van Laar, Nernst, Le Chatellier, Ban-
croft, have all employed mathematics as a necessary part of their equip-
ment, and more especially has knowledge been advanced by physicists
like Maxwell, Lord Kelvin, Helmholtz, Hertz, the Curies, Stokes, J. J.
Thomson and Gibbs, who have got at the more imperceptible aspects
of nature by deductive methods " interlaced with physical induction
and experience." In the discovery of radium by the Curies all the
processes up to the use of pitchblende were inductive; after that every
step taken was pure deduction, based upon the a priori assumption of
an unknovm substance. Maxwell could predict the existence of electro-
magnetic waves from his equations^ at least twenty-five years before
their actual demonstration by Hertz^" and Gibbs's algebraic statement
of the theorems of chemical statics was far in advance of their labora-
tory verification.

Ostwald, in his interesting " Biologic des Naturforschers,"^^ has
divided men of science into two classes: The classicists (Klassiker),
men like Newton, Lagrange, Gauss, Harvey, who, dealing with a limited
number of ideas in their work, seek formal perfection and attain it,
leaving no school of followers behind them, but only the effect of the
work itself; and the romanticists {Eomantiker) who, like Liebig, Fara-
day, Darwin, Maxwell, are bold explorers in unknown fields, men fertile
in ideas, leaving many followers and many loose ends of unfinished
work which others complete. In the logical perfection of his work and
in his unusual talent for developing a theme in the most comprehensive
and exhaustive manner, Gibbs was emphatically the Klassiker. But in
the scientific achievement of his early manhood he showed something of
the spirit of the Eomantiker also. His mathematical theory of
chemical equilibrium was, as we have seen, far in advance of any experi-
mental procedure known or contemplated at the time of its publication,
and, although some of his predecessors, like James Thomson, Massieu,
Horstmann, had come within sight of the new land and even skirted its
shores, Gibbs, with the adventurous spirit of the true pioneer, not only
conquered and explored it, but systematically surveyed it, living to see
part of his territory occupied by a thriving band of workers, the
physical chemists. Cayley, in his report on theoretical dynamics in
1857," expressed his conviction that the science of statics " does not

Thil. Tr., 1865., CLV., 497-501.

^""Tagebl. d. Versamml. d. deutsch. Naturf. u. Aerzte 1889," Heidelberg,
1890, 144-9.

"^ Deutsche Rev., 1907, XXXII., Pt. I., 16.

^ " Report British Association for the Advancement of Science," 1857.

JOSIAH WILLARD GIBBS 473

admit of much ulterior development." The work of Gibbs has added
to it the immense field of chemical equilibrium and wherever " phases,"
" heterogeneous systems/' " chemical and thermodynamic potentials,"
or " critical states " are mentioned he has left his impress upon modern
scientific thought. It is not without reason then, that Ostwald has
called this mathematician " the founder of chemical energetics," as-
serting that " he has given new form and substance to chemistry for
another century at least."^^

Josiah Willard Gibbs was born in New Haven, Conn., on February
11, 1839. His father, who was descended from Sir Henry Gibbs, of
Honington, Warwickshire, was professor of sacred literature in Yale
College during the years 1821-61, and was esteemed for unusual
scholarship in his day. The son, like many other mathematicians,
showed early aptitude for linguistic as well as for mathematical studies,
and, entering Yale in 1854, was graduated in 1858, after winning many
prizes and distinctions in Latin and mathematics. He began to teach
mathematics and physics at Yale in 1863, having received his doctor's
degree in that year. During 1866-69 he traveled in Europe, studying
his chosen subjects at Paris, Berlin and Heidelberg, and hearing the
lectures of Magnus, Kirchhoff and Helmholtz. In July, 1871, two
years after his return, he was appointed professor of mathematical
physics in Yale College, about the same time that Clerk Maxwell as-
sumed similar duties in the Cavendish Laboratory, at Cambridge. This
position Professor Gibbs held until his death, April 28, 1903. Pro-
fessor Gibbs devoted his whole life to his work, the interests of his
university and his pupils, and apart from the earlier years of travel and
some excursions into the field of controversy, his was the quiet and
uneventful career of the typical man of science. During his period of
productive activity, 1873-1902, he made important contributions to the
electromagnetic theory of light, multiple algebra and vector analysis,
astronomy, theoretical and statistical dynamics, but his enduring fame
rests chiefly upon his work in thermodynamics, the science which, in
the words of his English biographer, he reduced " to its canonical
form." He was a member of most of the important scientific societies
of the world, was Eumford medalist of the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences in 1881 and in 1901, the Eoyal Society, of London,
conferred its highest distinction, the Copley medal, upon Professor
Gibbs, as being " the first to apply the second law of thermodynamics
to the exhaustive discussion of the relation between chemical, electrical
and thermal energy and capacity for external work."^*

" The history of thermodynamics," says Maxwell, " has an especial

"Am 28. April 1903 verschied im 64. Lebensjahre der Schopfer der chem-

ischen Energetik, J. Willard Gibbs. Der allgemeinen Chemie hat er fur ein

Jahrhundert Form und Gehalt gegeben." Ztschr. f. phys. Chem., 1903, XLIII.,

760.

^* Nature, London, 1901-2, LXV., 107-8.

474 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY .

interest as the development of a science within a short time and by a
small number of men, from the condition of a vague anticipation of
nature to that of a science with secure foundations, clear definitions and
exact boundaries."^^ Its development falls conveniently into three
stages : ( 1 ) The derivation of the two laws governing thermal trans-
formations of energy by Carnot, Eankine, Mayer, Joule, Clausius and
Kelvin. (3) The deductive application of the second law to all phys-
ico-chemical phenomena by Gibbs. (3) The application of probabilities
and statistical methods to the kinetic theory of gases by Clausius,
Kelvin, Maxwell and Boltzmann and the final derivation of the
theorems and equations of thermodynamics by statistical induction
from the average behavior of mechanical systems by Gibbs.

" It must not be thought that heat generates motion or motion heat
(though in some respects this is true) but the very essence of heat or
the substantial self of heat is motion and nothing else.^^ In this
sentence from the Novum Organum it is clear that Bacon, like
Descartes, Count Eumford, Sir Humphry Davy and Young, had a
more or less definite notion of the dynamic nature of heat and its
convertibility into work. But the exact science which treats of heat as
a mode of energy begins with the publication, in^ 1884, of the " Eeflex-
ions sur la puissance motrice du feu" of Sadi Carnot, whom Lord
Kelvin calls the " prof oundest thinker in thermodynamic philosophy "
in the first half of his century.^^ In this little work we have the first
treatment of the heat engine as a reversible " cycle of operations," a
mechanism which can be worked backward with its every action
reversed ; and such a system is now known everywhere as a " Carnot
cycle." Carnot compared the motor power of heat to a fall of water.^®
As the power of the waterfall depends upon its height and the quantity
of fluid employed, so the motor power of heat depends, not upon the
nature of the working substance, but upon the quantity of heat em-
ployed and the difference in temperature between its source (the boiler)
and the sink (or exhaust cylinder) to which it flows. A heat motor,
then, requires a hot body and a cold body; the ideally perfect engine
would be completely reversible and the efficiency of engines working
between the same limits of temperature is the same. In other words,
heat can not perform work except by spontaneous flow from a higher to
a lower temperature. This is Carnot's principle, from which is derived

^"lUd., 1877-8, XVII., 257.

*' Bacon, " Novum Organum," English translation of 1850, p. 165.

"Kelvin, "Popular Lectures," London, 1894, Vol. II., 460.

" " On pent comparer la puissance motrice de la chaleur a celle d'une chute
d'eau: ... la puissance motrice d'une chute d'eau depend de la hauteur et de
la quantity du liquide; la puissance motrice de la chaleur depend aussi de la
quantity de calorique employ^, et de ce que nous appellerons le hauteur de sa
chute, c'est a dire de la difference de temperature des corps entre lesquels se
fait I'echange du calorique." Carnot, " Reflexions," 1824, 15.

JO SI AH WILLARD GIBBS 475

the first statement of the second law of thermodynamics, that as water
flows towards the sea-level, but never backwards to its source, so heat
can not flow from a colder to a warmer body. But Carnot, like every
one else in his day, still thought that heat (calorique) , like the water in
the waterfall, was an indestructible, material substance and that the
quantity of heat given out by the exhaust chamber of the engine is
exactly the same as that taken in at the boiler. Although his post-
humous papers indicate that he corrected this view before his death, he
assumed that if we could find some way to consume the heat of a given
body without the necessity of conveying it to a colder body, we might
create motor power without fuel or obtain work from nothing, which
would be perpetual motion. As late as 1865 an authority like
Eankine^^ still believed that heat is of material essence, and when in
1842-7 the labors of Eobert Mayer and of Joule established the
mechanical equivalent of heat and Helmholtz^*^ in 1847 showed that
the first law of thermodynamics, the principle of conservation of energy,
is applicable to all physical phenomena, it was found difficult to recon-
cile this principle with Carnot's tacit assumption that heat is un-
changeable and indestructible. Even a physicist like William
Thomson-^ (the late Lord Kelvin) confessed himself baffled by the
problem in 1849 and turned aside to establish his " absolute scale of
temperature," without which further progress in the science would have
been impossible; but his brother James Thomson, one of the earlier
pioneers of physical chemistry, was able, by an implicit denial of
Carnot's assumption, to predict and prove that the freezing point of
water would be lowered by pressure (1849).^^ The difficulty was, at
length, settled in 1850 by Clausius, whose memoir " On the motor power
of heat," " marks," says Gibbs, " an epoch in the history of physics,"
for before its publication, '^' truth and error were in a confusing state
of mixture,"^^ and "wrong answers were confidently urged by the
highest authorities."

To Clausius we owe the doctrine, foreshadowed by Bacon, that the
heat of a body is the rapid movement, or vis viva, of its molecules ; the
kinetic theory of gases and the molecular theory of electrolysis, since
extended by Arrhenius into the doctrine of electrolytic or ionic disso-
ciation. Clausius showed that part of the heat in a Carnot cycle is
converted into available mechanical energy and consumed as work, while
the rest of the heat can not be so utilized, because it exists in a com-
pletely diffused state. The perpetual motion which might be obtained
from utilizing the heat of surrounding objects is impossible because
such heat being completely diffused is, in Lord Kelvin's phrase, un-

"Rankine, Phil. Mag., 1865, 244.

=»HeImholtz, " Ueber die Erhaltung der Kraft," Berlin, 1847.

=" Sir W. Thomson, Tr. Roy. Soc. Edinb., 1849, XVI., 543.

^ J. Thomson, Ibid., 575-80.

''Gibbs, Proc. Am. Acad. Arts and Sci., 1888-9, n. s., XVI., 459.

476 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

available thermal energy. So the fallacious principle of the conserva-
tion of heat became merged into the doctrine of conservation of energy ;
the reconciliation between the first and second laws, which, like the
Kantian antinomies, had seemed mutually contradictory, was effected,
and Clausius reasoned that heat can not flow from a colder to a warmer
body without compensation, that is, without the intervention of external
forces. Meanwhile Lord Kelvin, to whom we owe our ideas and defini-
tions of intrinsic and available energy, was able, in 1852, to shadow
forth that comprehensive form of the second law afterwards stated by
him as a physical law of irreversibility, according to which there is a
universal tendency in nature towards irrevocable dissipation of energy.^*
From this time on progress in the science was rapid. The mathe-
matical part of the theory was improved by the introduction of the
scalar value which Eankine called the " thermodynamic function "^°
and Clausius the " entropy "'® of a body, a variable quantity, momentary
increase or decrease of which indicates (in a reversible physico-chemical
transformation) whether heat is leaving or entering the body at that
moment, irrespective of its temperature or previous condition. The
temperature of a body, although measured by arbitrary standards, is in
reality a non-measurable " intensity " or quality of the body, depending
upon whether it is capable of giving up or receiving heat, i. e., upon its
dynamic potentiality; and, in practise, addition of heat to a body may
change its physical state but does not necessarily alter its temperature ;
nor does a change of temperature, as Trevor has recently insisted,^'^
necessarily imply absorption or development of heat; but the entropy
of a body is a definite measurable " capacity," and has been compared

"W. Thomson, Phil. Mag., 1852, IV., 304. "Available energy is energy
whicli "vve can direct into any required channel. Dissipated energy is energy
which we can not lay hold of and direct at pleasure, such as the energy of the
confused agitation of molecules which we call heat." Maxwell, suh voce " Dif-
fusion."

"■ Rankine, Phil. Tr., 1854, CXLIV., 126.

==" Clausius, Poggend. Ann., 1855, CXXV., 390.

" " When a mass of air is adiabatically compressed or when it expands into
a vacuum, the temperature of the mass changes, but no heat is added to it.
When heat is added to a block of metal, the temperature of the block rises.
When heat is added to a mass of liquid water and overlying water vapor sup-
porting a constant pressure, the temperature of the mass is not altered. Heat
may be added to a mixture of potassium sulphocyanate and water in the process
of forming a mixture, and the temperature fall. . . . The quantity of ' heat '
added to a body in a change of its thermodynamic state is the work absorbed
or absorbable by the body through direct intervention of a change of the tem-
perature of another body. This is all that a ' quantity of heat ' means. To
assume it to mean a quantity of an imponderable fluid, or a quantity of the
kinetic energy of hypothetical and inaccessible particles is to replace direct
statement of physical facts, made with the aid of clearly defined terms, by a
hypothetical interpretation of the facts." J. E. Trevor, Jour. Phys. Chem.,
1908, XII., 316.

JO SI AH WILLARD GIBBS 477

by Trevor to the weight in a mechanical system. For instance, imagine
a frictionless, reversible mechanical system, such as a weight suspended
by a cord passing over a pulley, and let this weight by its fall to the
ground do a certain amount of work, such as raising a body attached to
the other end of the cord. The potential energy of the system is meas-
ured by the height of the weight above ground, and when the weight falls,
the available energy of the system decreases at each point and moment
of the descent, while the unavailable energy undergoes a corresponding
increase point for point. On reversing the operation and raising the
weight, the available energy of the system is seen to increase while the
unavailable energy decreases (i. e., increases in a negative direction).
So, in any reversible thermodynamic system, the entropy at any moment
is an index, determinant, or coefficient of the relative amount of un-
available energy it possesses. When the temperature in an isolated
reversible system is constant, as in jacketed steam, the system is
" isothermal " and the entropy may vary at any instant ; but if a
reversible system be so isolated that no heat can enter or leave the body,
the temperature might vary but the entropy would be constant, and
such systems, of which we have an approximation in the insulated
cylinder of an engine, were called " adiabatic " by Eankine and " isen-
tropic " by Gibbs.

There are no mathematical or ideally reversible systems in existence,
although we have natural approximations to them in the motions of the
heavenly bodies and in certain chemical reactions, or human approxi-
mations in reversible heat engines or reversible electric apparatus;
the spontaneous processes of nature are always irreversible, proceeding
irrevocably in a definite direction with no negative or reversed dissipa-
tion of energy. In spontaneous, irreversible flow of heat from a warmer
to a colder body, the entropy or unavailable thermal energy of the
system increases inevitably to a maximum. In other words, the
entropy of a system is a criterion of its loss of efficiency or available
energy during irreversible change, and it follows, in the memorable and
aphoristic statement of the first and second laws by Clausius, that, while
the energy of the universe is constant, its entropy (or that part of its
energy which is unavailable) tends to a maximum and can never

decrease :

Die Energie der Welt ist constant,

Die Entropie der Welt strebt einem Maximum zu.

With this important generalization, which is the motto of Gibbs's prin-
cipal memoir, the first stage of thermodynamics ends. By stating the
second law as irreversible increase of entropy in natural processes and
by adopting some definite standard of the latter, all exact or scalar
relations in thermodynamics can be treated as shown by Eankine,
Clausius, and Gibbs, in a precise and definite manner.^^ But the
" Maxwell and Tait originally used the term " entropy " ag a synonym of

478 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Helmholtz-Kelvin statement of the first and second laws as conservation
and dissipation of energy enables us to apply these principles in the
broadest and most philosophical way. Lord Kelvin extended the
application of the second law to cosmic physics and, with Boltz-
mann, to predictions as to the ultimate thermal death of the earth.
Meanwhile Clausius, Maxwell and Boltzmann began to apply the
second law to the kinetic theory of gases, a phase of the subject
which belongs essentially to the last stage of its development. Maxwell
in particular emphasized the important point that since the heat
of a body is the kinetic energy of its molecular motions, the
second law is in reality not a mathematical but a statistical truth.
It can not, says Maxwell, be reduced to a form as axiomatic as that of
the first law, but stands upon a lower plane of probability, because it
depends upon the motions of millions of molecules of which we can
not get hold of a single one.^"* Could we reduce ourselves to molecular
dimensions, and with the gift of molecular vision trace the movements
of individual molecules, the distinction between work and heat would

Thomson's " available energy," with the statement that Clausius meant by it
that part of the energy which can not be converted into work. As Gibbs pointed
out, this is entirely incorrect. The entropy of a body is a definite physical
property of the body itself, and can not be measured by the same unit as energy.
If dQ represent the amount of heat imparted to a body at any point and T its
absolute temperature at that point, Clausius has shown that dQ/T represents the
infinitesimal change of entropy at that point for any given moment. The total
(fliange of entropy of any reversible chemical system in passing from an initial
state a to a final state 6 would then be

. C^dQ

and for a reversible (Carnot) cycle the mathematical statement of the second
law is the " Carnot-Clausius equation " :

/(f)

0.

This means that the positive and negative entropies of the system in passing
from a to 6 and in reversing backwards from 6 to a must balance each other.
Or as Gibbs has expressed it, " The second law requires ( for a reversible cycle )
that the algebraic sum of all the heat received from external bodies, divided,
each portion thereof, by the absolute temperature at which it is received shall
be zero." The criterion of irreversible processes is the " inequality of Clausius "

sm

<o

which implies that the phenomenon will proceed irrevocably or irreversibly in a
definite direction, entropy increasing or available energy dissipating to a maxi-
mum until a final state of rest or equilibrium (uniformly distributed tempera-
ture) is attained. Reversible thermodynamics deals, then, with equations; irre-
versible thermodynamics with inequalities, because in reversible processes the
total entropy of a system remains unchanged while in irreversible processes it
continually increases.

^'^ Maxwell, Nature, London, 1877-8, XVII., 279.

JO SI AH WILLARD GIBBS 479

vanish, and nothing would remain but the motions of material systems
and the laws of mechanics. Hence the second law must either be
obtained from our actual experience " with real bodies of sensible mag-
nitude/' or else derived a posteriori, as shown by Boltzmann, Helmholtz
and Gibbs, from averages of the hypothetical motions of mechanical
systems. In aid of this conception of the problem, Maxwell intro-
duced his whimsical notion of the " sorting demon," a being endowed
with molecular vision, who would be able through intelligence alone
to sort or direct the molecular movements at will and so reverse the
action of the second law on occasion.^'*

The second stage of thermodynamics begins in 1872-3 with August
Friedrich Horstmann's application of the entropy principle to prob-
lems of chemical dissociation.^^ In October, 1873, Horstmann an-
nounced the condition for chemical equilibrium to be that of maximum
entropy,^ 2 and in December of the same year Gibbs, in a modest foot-
note, stated that the condition for thermodynamic equilibrium in a
chemical system at constant temperature and pressure is that the func-
tion now universally known as the thermodynamic potential should be
a minimum.^^ In 1875 Lord Eayleigh stated that dissipation of
energy is a sufficient if not a necessary condition for chemical change,^*
and in October, 1875, appeared the first installment of Gibbs's memoir
of three hundred pages on chemical equilibrium, which, by its applica-
tions of the entropy principle to all physico-chemical or energetic
phenomena, has become a true scientific classic doing for the second
law what Helmholtz, in his treatise on the conservation of energy, had
previously done for the first.

Gibbs began his work in thermodynamics in 1873, with two impor-
tant papers on diagrams and surfaces. ^^ In the first of these he made
a careful and thoroughgoing study of all the diagrams that might be
of use or value in thermodynamics, the best known being that upon
which volume and pressure are erected to scale as coordinates, derived
from the familiar "Watts' indicator diagram found upon every steam
engine. Of the new diagrams which Gibbs introduced, he attached
most importance to the volume-entropy diagram, because it tells more
about the physical properties of a working substance than about the
heat employed or the work done. But the most important of Gibbs's
innovations for practical engineering purposes is the temperature-

^' For a description of the Maxwell demon and the powers ascribed to him
see Lord Kelvin's paper in Nature, 1879, 126.

^'Horstmann, Ann. d. Chem. u. Pharm., 1872, 8. Suppl.-Bd., 112-33.

^= Horstmann, Ibid., 1873, CLXX., 192-210.

^"^ Gibbs, Tr. Connect. Acad., Dec, 1873, II., foot-note to p. 393.

"* Lord Rayleigh, Proc. Roy. Inst., 1875, VII., 388.

«= Tr. Connect. Acad., 1873, II., 309-42, 382-404. Translated into French as
" Diagrammes et surfaces thermodynamiques," Paris, C. Naud, 1903. Trans-
lated into German by Ostwald in 1892.

48o TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

entropy diagram, which represents the efficiency of a Carnot cycle as
a simple rectangular figure and is, he points out, " nothing more nor
less than a geometrical representation of the second law of thermo-
dynamics." The area of the Watts diagram represents the work done
by the engine; the area of the Gibbs diagram represents the heat it
has received and, either upon separate blackboards or upon " quadrant
diagrams," the two taken together have proved invaluable in teaching
thermodynamics to engineers. As the indicator diagram tells the engi-
neer what he wants to know about the work done upon the piston, the
efficiency of the valves and passages and the total horse power of the
engine, the entropy diagram gives him the heat taken in or given out
and shows directly the losses of efficiency from such heat wastes as
wire-drawing of steam, incomplete expansion, etc. Professor John
Perry says that the thermod3Tiamics of heat engines is revealed by the
entropy diagram " as it can be revealed in no other way," and he
describes how " a man almost illiterate, innocent of algebra, can use
his t, ^ diagram of water steam or air or ammonium anhydride, obtain-
ing in a few minutes answers to problems which the mathematical
engineers of years ago spent days in solving."^^ In England the tem-
perature-entropy diagram has been found very useful in " engine test-
ing laboratories," and its ultimate adoption is due to the persistent
crusade of Mr. Macfarlane Gray, late chief engineer of the Eoyal Navy,
who introduced it independently in 1880 as the " theta-phi " (0, cj))
diagram. American engineers should not forget that this diagram was
first described in scientific literature by Professor Willard Gibbs,^^ who
clearly pointed out its advantages, in visualizing the second law, for
teaching purposes and its use and significance when attached to heat-
engines. In his second memoir^^ Gibbs extends his graphical methods
to three-dimensional space, the first example of which was the volume-
pressure-temperature diagram employed by James Thomson^® in 1871.
The first solid diagram described by Gibbs had for its coordinates,
volume, entropy and energy and is now generally known as the " ther-
modynamic surface." It is a solid model or relief-map, affording a
bird's-eye view of the chemico-physical changes of a system at constant
temperature and pressure as it passes through the coexistent states of
solid, liquid, vapor or gas. Maxwell, who had himself written learn-

^^ Nature, London, 1902-3, LXVII., G04.

=' Gibbs, Tr. Connect. Acad., April, 1873, II., 317-25. The equivalent of an
entropy diagram was laid down and described by the Belgian physicist M. Bel-
paire in 1872 (Bull. Acad. roy. d. sc, Brux., 1872, 2. s., XXXIV., 520-6), but his
treatment of the matter is so sketchy and slight in comparison with the
exhaustive and illuminative handling of Gibbs that it seems negligible. The
mere plotting of the diagram itself is nothing, for it was for years implicit in
Rankine's algebraic use of the "thermodynamic function" (0) as a coordinate
(1854), and to this day the British unit of entropy is called a "Rank."

» Tr. Connect. Acad., 1873, II., 382-404.

"J. Thomson, Proc. Roy. Sac. Lond., 1871, XX., 1.

JO SI AH WILLARD GIBBS 481

edly of diagrams, immediately recognized the importance of this paper,
part of which he incorporated as a chapter in his " Theory of Heat,"*"
and, shortly before his death, he sent Gibbs a copy of a model of the
thermodynamic surface constructed to scale with his own hands.*^
These solid diagrams have played a great part in the elaborate studies
of the continuity of gaseous and liquid states by Van der Waals and
his pupils, of which we have recently witnessed the final triumph in
the liquefaction of helium.

During the years 1875-8, Gibbs published the work which is his
chief title to fame, his memoir " On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous
Substances."*^ This treatise deals, as the title implies, with the statics
of chemical substances which, as gases, vapors, liquids or solids, are in
actual physical contact with each other, whether influenced or modified
by gravity, osmosis, catalysis, capillarity or electromotive force or exist-
ing under such varied aspects as gaseous mixtures, liquid films, " solid
solutions," or crystals. For the first time chemical substances are
treated as continuous or contiguous " phases " of " matter in mass '*
acted upon, like mechanical systems, by forces having " potentials " —
a new way of looking at things which has since become the definite
view-point of physical chemistry. As Larmor says, " Gibbs made a
clean sweep of the subject, and workers in the modern experimental
science of physical chemistry have returned to it again and again to
find their empirical principles forecasted in the light of pure theory,
and to derive fresh inspiration for new departures."*^ Some of its
theorems, as the Helmholtz doctrine of free energy,** Konowalow's
theorem of indifferent points,*^ Curie's theory of " crystal habit,"*'
were rediscovered by later investigators in ignorance of the earlier
work. Indeed the primary intention of Gibbs's memoir, to treat chem-
ical changes as a branch of mechanics, was not, at first, clearly under-
stood, the long deferred review in the " Fortschritte der Physik ""
merely listing its contents. Maxwell, however, with the same cordial
recognition which he had shown to Eowland, grasped its significance
at once, incorporated some of its results in his memoir on " Diflfu-
sion,"*^ and in an appreciative discourse before the Cambridge Philo-

«> Maxwell, " Theory of Heat," London, 1902, 204-8.

" " Copies of this model were distributed by Maxwell evidently with a cer-
tain amount of playful mystery, for each recipient thought that he was the
happy possessor of one of (at most) three. The writer knows of six at least,
and possibly there are more." C. G. K. in Nature, 1907, LXXXV., 361.

"Tr, Connect. Acad., 1875-8, III., 108-248; 343-594. Abstract by Gibbs
in Am. J. Sc, 1878, 3. s., XVI., 441-458.

"Larmor, " Encycl. Britan.," 10th ed., 1902, IV., 172.

** Helmholtz, Sitzungsb. d. k. preuss. Akad. d. Wissetisch., XXII.

"Konowalow, Wied. Ann., 1881, XIV., 48.

« Curie, Bull. Soc. Min., 1885, VIII., 145.

"Fortschr. d. Physik., 1878, XXXIV., 198.

""Encycl. Britan.," 9th ed., VII., 214-21.

482 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

sophical Society in 1876 declared that the methods of Gibbs " seemed
to throw a new light upon thermodynamics." Copies of the work were
consequently much prized and sought after in England about this time ;
but the most substantial recognition of Gibbs's work was to come from
Holland, where a long line of physical chemists, van der Waals, Eooze-
boom, van't Hoff, Lorentz, Schreinemakers, Stortenbeker, van Laar,
Hoitsema, Kamerlingh Onnes, have developed his ideas with very sub-
stantial additions to their own fame. Parallel with the work of these
men and the development of the important laws of Goldberg and
Waage, van't HoflE and Arrhenius, the science of physical chemistry,
which DuBois Eeymond called " the chemistry of the future," came into
being under the leadership of Ostwald in Germany and (since 1896) of
Professor Bancroft in America. With the gradual recognition of the
significance of " reversible reactions "*® and of Sainte-Claire-Deville's
doctrine of chemical dissociation, the algebraic formulge of Gibbs
became slowly converted into working theories of physical chemistry.
In 1892 Ostwald translated Gibbs's papers as " Thermodynamische
Studien " and part of them were rendered into French in 1899 by Le
Chatellier. The purely mathematical part of Gibbs's theory has been
developed in extension by the labors of Duhem, Paul Sorel, Trevor,
Bancroft, van der Waals, Larmor and Bryan. Eoozeboom, van der
Waals and Bancroft have made the widest applications of his ideas to
chemistr}^, while their best interpretation from the dynamic or ener-
getic point of view is that of Ostwald^° and of Larmor,^^ Although
a genial and engaging writer in his discourse on " Multiple Algebra "
and his biographical sketches, the strictly scientific papers of Gibbs are
not, like those of Maxwell, Boltzmann and Hertz, attractive reading.
Indeed, it has been said of his memoir on equilibrium that Ostwald is
one of the few people in the world who ever read every word of it, for
the student is repelled, not so much by its bristling quickset of some
seven hundred formula as by the severe and austere reasoning and a
literary style that is swift in movement and (doubtless from the very
nature of the subject matter) tense and dry in quality. Although
endowed with the scientific imagination of a man of genius, Gibbs's
strong point in demonstration was unusual quickness of intelligence

" The difference between reversible and irreversible chemical processes could
hardly be better indicated than in the following comparison of van't Hoff:
" Kill a chicken and prepare chicken soup ; it would then be very difficult to get
your chicken again. This is because preparing chicken soup is not reversible.
On the contrary, let water evaporate or freeze, it will be easy to reproduce the
water" {J. Phys. Chem., 1905, IX., 87). The distinction between reversible and
irreversible reactions is thus a physico-chemical or thermodynamic conception,
depending, like the operations of mechanical systems, upon the initial condi-
tions, under which the phenomenon takes place.

"'See Ostwald, " Lehrb. d. allg. Chemie," Leipzig, 1896, II., 2. Th., 114-5.

" See " Encycl. Britan.," 10th ed., XXVIII., sub voce Energetics.

JOSIAE WILLARD GIBBS 483

and great capacity for the rigors of formal logic, and the rapid move-
ment of his mind as he clears away the underbrush and covers the vast
area of his new territory is wearying and even confusing to the reader.
The intention of the present resume is frankly journalistic, aiming
only to emphasize such points in the Gibbsian theory as have been
thrown into strongest relief by their relation to recent science. These
are:

The General Equation of Thermodynamics. — In applying the laws
of dynamics to thermal phenomena, Clausius had shown that if we dif-
ferentiate with respect to the volume of a body, we obtain its pressure
with reversed sign; if we differentiate with respect to its entropy we
obtain its temperature on the thermodynamic scale; the energy of the
body can then be expressed as a function of its volume and entropy,
the differential coefficients with respect to the latter being the pressure
(with negative sign) and the temperature. Gibbs has extended these
principles to the formulation of a fimdamental equation of thermo-
dynamics, in which the new departure is taken of introducing the
masses of the chemical components of a system as variables, the differ-
ential coefficients in this case being certain new conceptions which he
terms the " potentials " of the substances considered. From this equa-
tion most of the principles and formulae of thermodynamics can be
deduced. It lies at the basis of the new aggregate of sciences called
" eneigetics"^^ as well as of mathematical chemistry, in which all
spontaneous changes of substance or state are regarded as more or less
direct consequences of the second law. The equations of Clausius and
Gibbs, although exceedingly general and difficult of application to
chemistrj^, are exact, representing the physical facts.^^

The Chemical Potentials. — In the fundamental equation of Gibbs
we distinguish two classes of variables, of which the volume, entropy
and masses of the component substances are looked upon as magni-
tudes or capacities, while the temperature, the pressure and the poten-
tials are to be thought of as qualitative, being non-measurable, non-
additive physical intensities of the system considered. Thus the pres-

" Tlioughout this paper, " energetics," thermodynamics and physical chem-
istry are regarded as practically identical in scope, in the original sense in
which Gibbs referred to all material systems as " actually thermodynamic," or
Ostwald to " das glanzendste Gebiet der heutigen Physik und Chemie, die reine
Thermodynamik, oder da dieser Name viel zu eng ist, die reine Energetik."

^ If e, t, 77, p and v represent the energy, temperature, entropy, pressure
and volume of a homogeneous substance respectively, the equation of Clausius
may be written d e = tdi) — pdv. It is applicable to all one-component systems,
such as steam in a boiler. The equation of Gibbs, which is applicable to any
chemical system whatever, is Avritten

de ^ tdr] — pdv + jx^^dm^ + fi^dnii ■ • • -\- fLndnin ,

where fi^, 112 • • • denote the chemical potentials, and wh, m^ ■ ■ ■ the masses of
the chemical components of the system.

484 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

sure of a substance connotes the intensity with which it tends to expand,
its temperature the intensity with which it tends to part with heat,
while the potential of a given chemical component represents (in Max-
well's acute interpretation) the intensity with which it tends to expel
itself from the mass or compound containing it."* Mathematically
the Gibbsian potential, which Maxwell thought " likely to become very
important in the history of chemistry," has been identified by Larmor
with the marginal available energy per unit mass of substance at con-
stant temperature,"^ depending upon the percentage composition of
the substance rather than its actual quantity. The chemical poten-
tials may be regarded, not unlike the potentialities of an individual,
as definite intensities which set things going, and as such their close
relationship to the surface energies and surface tensions of biological
science is obvious. As to the ultimate nature of the forces bound up
with these potentials, whether due in the last analysis to electronic
stresses or rotational stresses in the ether simply, we know little or
nothing. Thermodynamic (or "energetic") doctrine rests upon the
simple idea that mechanical, thermal, chemical and electric forces are
different modes of energy, continually changing and passing into one
another in an apparently elusive way, and is more concerned with
their dynamic effects than with their actual nature.

{To he continued)

" See the report of Maxwell's lecture in Am. J. 8c., 1877, 3. s., XIII., 380,
which is fuller than the one given in his collected writings.
«"Encycl. Britan.," 10th ed., XXVIII., 168.

AN ABUSE OF ABSTRACTION 485

ON A VEEY PEEVALENT ABUSE OF ABSTEACTION

By Professor WILLIAM JAMES

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ABSTEACT concepts, such as elasticity, voluminousness, discon-
nectedness, are salient aspects of our concrete experiences which
we find it useful to single out. Useful, because we are then reminded
of other things that offer those same aspects; and, if the aspects carry
consequences in those other things, we can return to our first things
expecting those same consequences to accrue.

To be helped to anticipate consequences is always a gain, and, such
being the help that abstract concepts give us, it is obvious that their
use is fulfilled only when we get back again into concrete particulars
by their means, bearing the consequences in our minds, and enriching
our notion of the original objects therewithal.

Without abstract concepts to handle our perceptual particulars by,
we are like men hopping on one foot. Using concepts along with
the particulars, we become bipedal. We throw our concept forward,
get a foothold on the consequence, hitch our line to this, and draw our
percept up, traveling thus with a hop, skip and jump over the surface
of life at a vastly rapider rate than if we merely waded through the
thiclmess of the particulars as accident rained them down upon our
heads. Animals have to do this, but men raise their heads higher
and breathe freely in the upper conceptual air.

The enormous esteem professed by all philosophers for the con-
ceptual form of consciousness is easy to understand. From Plato's
time dowTiwards it has been held to be our sole avenue to essential
truth. Concepts are universal, changeless, pure; their relations are
eternal; they are spiritual, while the concrete particulars which they
enable us to handle are corrupted by the flesh. They are precious in
themselves, then, apart from their original use, and confer new dignity
upon our life.

One can find no fault with this way of feeling about concepts so
long as their original function does not get swallowed up in the
admiration and lost. That function is of course to enlarge mentally
our momentary experiences by adding to them the consequences con-
ceived; but unfortunately that function is not only too often forgotten
by philosophers in their reasonings, but is often converted into its
exact opposite, and made a means of diminishing the original experi-
ence by denying (implicitly or explicitly) all its features save the one
specially abstracted to conceive it by.

486 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

This itself is a highly abstract way of stating my complaint, and
it needs to be redeemed from obscurity by showing instances of what is
meant. Certain particular beliefs dear to my heart have been con-
ceived in this viciously abstract way by critics. One is the " will to
believe," so-called; another is the indeterminism of certain futures;
a third is the notion that truth may vary with the standpoint of the
man who holds it. I believe that the perverse abuse of the abstracting
function has often led critics to employ false arguments against these
doctrines, and has led their readers too to false conclusions. I should
like to try to save the situation, if possible, by a few counter-critical
remarks.

Let me give the name of " vicious abstractionism " to a way of using
concepts which may be thus described: We conceive a concrete situa-
tion by singling out some salient or important feature in it, and class-
ing it under that; then, instead of adding to its previous characters
all the positive consequences which the new way of conceiving it may
bring, we proceed to use our concept privatively; we reduce the origi-
nally rich phenomenon to the naked suggestions of that name ab-
stractly taken, treating it as a case of " nothing but " that concept, and
acting as if all the other characters from out of which the concept is
abstracted were expunged.^ Abstraction, functioning in this way,
becomes a means of arrest far more than a means of advance in
thought. It mutilates things; it creates difficulties and finds impossi-
bilities; and more than half the trouble that metaphysicians and
logicians give themselves over the paradoxes and dialectic puzzles of
the universe may, I am convinced, be traced to this relatively simple
source. The viciously 'privative em/ployment of abstract characters
and class-names is, I am persuaded, the original sin of the meta-
physical mind.

To proceed immediately to concrete examples, cast a glance at the
belief in " free will," demolished with such specious persuasiveness
in this magazine not long ago by the skilful hand of Professor Fuller-
ton.^ Wlien a common man says that his will is free, what does he
mean? He means that there are situations of bifurcation inside of
his life in which two futures seem to him equally possible, for both
have their roots equally planted in his present and his past. Either,
if realized, will grow out of his previous motives, character and
circumstances, and will continue uninterruptedly the pulsations of
his personal life. But sometimes both at once are incompatible with
physical nature, and then it seems to the naive observer as if he made
a choice between them now, and that the question of which future is to

^ Let not the reader confound the fallacy here described with legitimately
negative inferences such as those drawn in the mood " Celarent " of the logic-
books.

*PopuLAE Science Monthly, Vols. 58 and 59.

AN ABUSE OF ABSTRACTION 487

he, instead of having been decided at the foundation of the world,
were decided afresh at every passing moment in which fact seems
livingly to grow, and possibility to turn itself towards fact.

He who takes things at their face-value here may indeed be de-
ceived. He may far too often mistake his private ignorance of what is
predetermined for a real indetermination of what is to be. Yet,
however imaginary it may be, his picture of the situation offers no
appearance of breach between the past and future. A train is the
same train, its passengers are the same passengers, its momentum is
the same momentum, no matter which way the switch which fixes its
direction is placed. For the indeterminist there is at all times enough
past for all the different futures in sight, and more besides, to find
their reasons in it, and whichever future comes will slide out of that
past as easily as the train slides by the switch. The world, in short,
is just as continuous with itself for the believers in free will as for the
rigorous determinists, only the latter are unable to believe in points of
bifurcation as spots of really indifferent equilibrium or as containing
shunts which there — and there only, not before — direct existing motions
without altering their amount.

Were there such spots of indifference, the rigorous determinists
think, the future and the past would be separated absolutely, for,
abstractly taken, the word " indijferent " suggests disconnection solely.
Whatever is indifferent is in so far forth unrelated and detached.
Take the term thus strictly, and you see, they tell us, that if any
spot of indifference is found upon the broad highway between the
past and the future, then no connection of any sort whatever, no con-
tinuous momentum, no common aim or agent, can be found on both
sides of the gaping wound which it makes.

Mr. Fullerton writes — the italics are mine — as follows :

In so far as my action is free, what I have been, what I am, what I have
always done or striven to do, what I most earnestly wish or resolve to do
at the present moment — these things can have no more to do with its future
realization than if they had no existence. . . . The possibility is a hideous
one; and surely even the most ardent free-willist will, when he contemplates
it frankly, excuse me for hoping that if I am free I am at least not very free,
and that I may reasonably expect to find some degree of consistency in my life
and actions. . . . Suppose that I have given a dollar to a blind beggar.
Can I, if it is really an act of free will, be properly said to have given the
money? Was it given because I was a man of tender heart, etc., etc.? . . .
What has all this to do with acts of free-will? If they are free, they must
not be conditioned by antecedent circumstances of any sort, by the misery of
the beggar, by the pity in the heart of the passer-by. They must be causeless,
not determined. They must drop from a clear sl<y out of the void, for just
in 80 far as they can be accounted for, they are not free.*

Heaven forbid that I should get entangled here in a controversy
about the rights and wrongs of the free-will question at large, for I

"Loc. cit., Vol. 58, pp. 189, 188.

488 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

am only trying to illustrate vicious abstractionism by the conduct of
some of the doctrine's assailants. The moments of bifurcation, as the
indeterminist seems to himself to experience them, are moments both
of direction and of continuation. But because the direction of growth
is not unequivocal, and because in the " either — or " we hesitate, the
determinist abstracts this little element of discontinuity from the super-
abundant continuities of the experience, and cancels in its behalf all
the continuously connective characters with which the latter is filled.
Choice, for him, means henceforward cZtsconnection pure and simple,
and a life of choices undetermined to advance in any respect whatever,
must be a raving chaos, at no two moments of which could we be
treated as one and the same man. If Nero were " free " at the moment
of ordering his mother's murder, Mr, McTaggart* assures us that no
one would have the right at any other moment to call him a bad man.

A polemic author ought not merely to destroy his victim. He
ought to try a bit to make him feel his error — perhaps not enough to
convert him, but enough to give him a bad conscience and to weaken
the energy of his defense. These violent caricatures of men's serious
beliefs arouse only contempt for the incapacity of their authors to
see the concrete situations out of which the problems grow. To treat
the negative character of one abstracted element as annulling all the
positive features with which it coexists, is not the way to change any
actual indeterminist's way of looking on the matter, though it may
easily make a prejudiced gallery applaud.

Turn now to some criticisms of the " Will to believe," as another
example of the vicious way in which abstraction is currently employed.
The right to believe in things for the truth of which complete object-
ive proof is yet lacking is defended by those who apprehend certain
human situations in their concreteness. In those situations the mind
has alternatives before it, so vast that the full evidence for either
brand is missing, and yet so significant that simply to wait for proof,
and to doubt while waiting, might often in practical respects be the
same thing as weighing down the negative side. Is life worth while
at all? Is there any general meaning in all this cosmic weather? Is
anything being permanently bought by all this suffering? Is there
perhaps a transmundane experience, something in Being correspond-
ing to a " fourth dimension," which, if we had access to it, might patch
up some of this world's zerrissenheit and make things look more
rational than they at first appear? Is there a superhuman conscious-
ness of which our minds are parts, and from which inspiration and
help may come? Such are the questions in which the right to take
sides for yes or no is affirmed by some of us, while others hold that this
is methodologically inadmissible, and summon us to die professing
ignorance and proclaiming the duty of every one to refuse to believe.

*"Some Dogmas of Religion," p. 179.

AN ABUSE OF ABSTRACTION 489

I say nothing of the personal inconsistency of some of these critics
whose printed works furnish exquisite illustrations of the will to
believe, in spite of their denunciations of it as a phrase and as a
recommended thing. Mr. McTaggart, whom I will once more take as
an example, is sure that " reality is rational and righteous " and
" destined sub specie temporis to become perfectly good " ; and his
calling this belief a result of necessary logic has surely never deceived
any reader as to its real genesis in the gifted author's mind. Mankind
is made on too uniform a pattern for any of us to escape successfully
from acts of faith. We have a lively vision of what a certain view of
the universe would mean for us. We kindle or we shudder at the
thought, and our feeling runs through our whole logical nature and
animates its workings. It can't be that, we feel, it must be this. It
must be what it ougJit to be, and it ought to be this; and then we
seek for every reason, good or bad, to make this which so deeply ought
to be, seem objectively the probable thing. We show the arguments
against it to be insufficient, so that it may be true; we represent its
appeal to be to our whole nature's loyalty and not to any emaciated
faculty of syllogistic proof. We reinforce it by remembering the
enlargement of our world by music, by thinking of the promises of
sunsets and the impulses from vernal woods. And the essence of the
whole experience, when the individual swept through it says finally
" I believe," is the intense concreteness of his vision, the individuality
of the hypothesis before him, and the complexity of the various mo-
tives and perceptions that issue in his final state.

But see now how the abstractionist treats this rich and intricate
vision that a certain state of things must be true. He accuses the
believer of reasoning by the following syllogism :

All good desires must be fulfilled ;

The desire to believe this proposition is a good desire ;

Ergo, this proposition must be believed.

He substitutes this abstraction for the concrete state of mind of
the believer, pins the naked absurdity of it upon him, and easily
proves that any one who defends him must be the greatest fool on
earth. As if any real believer ever thought in this preposterous way,
or as if any defender of the legitimacy of men's concrete ways of con-
cluding ever used the general premise " All desires must be fulfilled " !
ISTevertheless Mr. McTaggart solemnly and laboriously refutes the syl-
logism in sections 47 to 57 of his very readable book. He shows that
there is no fixed rational link, no link in the dictionary, between the
abstract concepts " desire," " goodness " and " reality " ; and he
ignores all the singular links which in the concrete case the believer
feels and perceives. He says:

When the reality of a thing is uncertain, the argument encourages us to
suppose that our approval of a thing can determine its reality. And when

49° TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

this unhallowed link has once been established, retribution overtakes us.
For when the reality of the thing is independently certain, we [then] have
to admit that the reality of the thing should determine our approval of that
thing. I find it difiicult to imagine a more degraded position.

Mr, McTaggart ends his chapter with the heroic words :

For those who do not pray, there remains the resolve that, so far as
their strength may permit, neither the pains of death nor the pains of life
shall drive them to any comfort in that which they hold to be false, or drive
them from any comfort [discomfort?] in that which they hold to be true.

How can so ingenious-minded a writer fail to see how far over
the heads of the enemy all his arrows pass? When Mr. McTaggart
himself believes that the universe is run by the dialectic energy of the
absolute idea, his insistent desire to have a world of that sort is felt
by him to be no chance example of desire in general, but an altogether
peculiar insight-giving passion to which, in this if in no other instance,
he would be stupid not to yield. He obeys its concrete singularity,
not the bare abstract feature in it of being a " desire." His situation
is as particular as that of an actress who resolves that it is best for
her to marry and leave the stage, of a priest who becomes secular, of a
politician who abandons public life. What sensible man would seek to
refute the concrete decisions of such persons by tracing them to
abstract premises, such as that " all actresses must marry," " all clergy-
men must be laymen," " all politicians should resign their posts " ?
Yet this type of refutation, absolutely unavailing though it be for
purposes of conversion, is spread by Mr. McTaggart through many
pages of his book. For the aboundingness of our real reasons he sub-
stitutes one narrow point. For men's real probabilities he gives an
abstraction which no man is tempted to believe.

The abstraction in my next example is less simple, but is quite as
flimsy as a weapon of attack. Empiricists think that truth in general
is distilled from single men's ideas ; and the so-called pragmatists " go
them one better " by trying to define what it consists in when it comes.
It consists in such a working, I have elsewhere said, on the part of the
ideas, as may bring the man into satisfactory relations with objects to
which these latter point. The working is of course a concrete working
in the actual experience of human beings, among their ideas, feelings,
perceptions, beliefs and acts, as well as among the physical things of
their environment, and the relations must be understood as being pos-
sible as well as actual. In the chapter on truth of my recent book
called " Pragmatism "" I have myself taken considerable pains to
defend this view. Strange have been some of the misconceptions of
it by its enemies, and many have these latter been. Among the most
formidable-sounding onslaughts on the attempt to introduce some
concreteness into our notion of what the truth of an idea may mean,

•Longmans, Green & Co., 1908.

AN ABUSE OF ABSTRACTION 491

is one that has been raised in many quarters to the effect that to make
truth grow in any way out of human opinion is but to reproduce that
protagorean doctrine that the individual man is " the measure of all
things/' which Plato in his immortal dialogue, the Thaeatetus, laid
away so comfortably in its grave two thousand years ago. The two
cleverest brandishers of this objection to make truth concrete, Pro-
fessors Eickert and Miinsterberg, write in German, and " Eelativis-
mus " is the name they give to the heresy which they endeavor to
uproot.

The first step in their campaign against " Eelativismus " is entirely
in the air. They accuse relativists — and we pragmatists are typical
relativists — of being debarred by their self-adopted principles, not
only from the privilege which rationalist philosophers enjoy, of believ-
ing that these principles of their own are truth impersonal and abso-
lute, but even of framing the abstract notion of such a truth, in the
pragmatic sense of an ideal opinion in which all men might agree, and
which no man should ever wish to change. Both charges fall wide
of their mark. I myself, as a pragmatist, believe in my own account
of truth as firmly as any rationalist can possibly believe in his. And
I believe in it for the very reason that I have the idea of truth which
my learned adversaries contend that no pragmatist can frame. I
expect, namely, that the more fully men discuss and test my account,
the more they will agree that it fits, and the less will they desire a
change. I may of course be premature in this confidence, and the
glory of being truth final and absolute may fall upon some later re-
vision and correction of my scheme, which scheme will then be judged
untrue in just the measure in which it departs from that finally satis-
factory formulation. To admit, as we pragmatists do, that we are
liable to correction (even though we may not expect it) involves the
use on our part of an ideal standard. Eationalists themselves are, as
modest individuals, sceptical enough to admit the abstract possibility
of their own present opinions being corrigible and revisable to some
degree, so that the fact that the mere notion of an absolute standard
should seem to them so important a thing to claim for themselves
and to deny to us is not easy to explain. If, along with the notion of
the standard, they could also claim its exclusive warrant for their
own fulminations now, it would be important to them indeed. But
absolutists like Eickert freely admit the sterility of the notion, even
in their own hands. Truth is what we ougJit to believe, they say, even
though no man ever did or shall believe it, and even though we have
no way of getting at it save by the usual empirical processes of testing
our opinions by one another and by facts. Pragmatically, then, this
part of the dispute is idle. No relativist who ever actually walked
the earth® has denied the constitutive character in his own thinking
of the notion of absolute truth. What is challenged by relativists is

492 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

the pretence on any one's part to have found for certain at any given
moment what the shape of that truth is. Since the better absolutists
agree in this, admitting that the proposition " There is absolute truth "
is the only absolute truth of which we can be sure/ further debate is
practically unimportant, so we may pass to their next charge.

It is in this charge that the vicious abstractionism becomes most
apparent. The anti-pragmatist, in postulating absolute truth, refuses
to give any account of what the words may mean. For him they form
a self-explanatory term. The pragmatist, on the contrary, articulately
defines their meaning. Truth absolute, he says, means an ideal set
of formulations towards which all opinions may in the long run of
experience be expected to converge. In this definition of absolute truth
he not only postulates that there is a tendency to such convergence of
opinions, but he postulates the other factors of his definition equally,
borrowing them by anticipation from the true conclusions expected to be
reached. He postulates the existence of opinions, he postulates the ex-
perience that will sift them, and the consistency which that experience
will show. He justifies himself in these assumptions by saying that
human opinion has already reached a pretty stable equilibrium regard-
ing them, and that if its future development fails to alter them, the
definition itself, with all its terms included, will be part of the very
absolute truth which it defines. The hypothesis will, in short, have
worked successfully all round the circle and proved self-corroborative,
and the circle will be closed.

The anti-pragmatist, however, immediately falls foul of the word
" opinion " here, abstracts it from the universe of life, and uses it as a
bare dictionary-substantive, to deny the rest of the assumptions with
which it coexists. The dictionary says that an opinion is "what
some one thinks or believes." This leaves every one's opinion free to be
autogenous, or unrelated either to what any one else may think, or to
what the truth may be. Therefore, continue our abstractionists, we
must conceive it as essentially thus unrelated, so that even were a billion
men to sport the same opinion, and only one man to differ, we could
admit no collateral circumstances which might presumptively make it
more probable that he, not they, should be wrong. Truth, they say,
follows not the counting of noses, nor is it only another name for a

• Of course the bugaboo creature called " the sceptic " in the logic-books,
who dogmatically makes the statement that no statement, not even the one
he now makes, is true, is a mere mechanical toy-target for the rationalist
shooting gallery — hit him and he turns a summersault — yet he is the only
sort of relativist whom my colleagues appear able to imagine to exist.

' Compare Rickert's " Gegenstand der Erkentniss," pp. 137, 138. Miinster-
berg's version of this first truth is that " Es gibt eine Welt" — see his "Philos-
ophic der Werte," pp. 38 and 74. And, after all, both these philosophers confess
in the end that the primal truth of which they consider our supposed denial so
irrational is not properly an insight at all but a dogma adopted by the will
which any one who turns his back on duty may disregard!

AN ABUSE OF ABSTRACTION 493

majority vote. It is a relation, that antedates experience, between our
opinions and an independent something which the pragmatist account
ignores, a relation which, though the opinions of individuals should to
all eternity deny it, would still remain to qualify them as false. To talk
of opinions without referring to this independent something, the anti-
pragmatist assures us, is to play Hamlet with Hamlet's part left out.

But when the pragmatist speaks of opinions, does he mean any
such insulated and unmotived abstractions as are here supposed? Of
course not, he means men's opinions in the flesh, as they have really
formed themselves, opinions surrounded by their causes and the in-
fluences they obey and exert, and along with the whole environment
of social communication of which they are a part. The " experience "
which the pragmatic definition postulates is the independent something
which the anti-pragmatist accuses him of ignoring. Already have men
grown unanimous in the opinion that such experience is " of " an in-
dependent reality, the existence of which all opinions must acknowledge,
in order to be true. Already do they agree that in the long run it
is useless to resist experience's pressure; that the more of it a man
has, the better position he stands in, in respect of truth; that some
men, having had more experience, are therefore better authorities than
others; that some are also wiser by nature and better able to interpret
the experience they have had; that it is the part of wisdom to compare
notes, to discuss, and to follow the opinion of our betters; and that
the more systematically and thoroughly the comparison and weighing
of opinions is pursued, the truer the opinions that survive are likely
to be. When the pragmatist talks of opinions, it is opinions as they
thus concretely and livingly and interactingly and correlaiively exist
that he has in mind; and when the anti-pragmatist tries to floor him
because the word opinion can also be taken abstractly and as if it had
no environment, he simply ignores the soil out of which the whole
discussion grows. His weapons cut the air and strike no blow. No
one gets wounded in the war against caricatures of belief and skeletons
of opinion of which the German onslaughts upon " Eelativismus " con-
sist. Refuse to use the word opinion abstractly, keep it in its real
environment, and the withers of pragmatism remain unwrung.

That men do exist who are " opinionated," in the sense that their
opinions are self-willed, is unfortunately a fact that must be admitted,
no matter what one's notion of truth in general may be. But that
this fact makes it impossible for truth to form itself authentically out
of the life of " opinion," is what no critic has yet proved. Truth may
well consist of certain opinions, and does indeed consist of nothing
but opinions, though not every opinion need be true. No pragmatist
needs to dogmatize about the consensus of opinion in the future being
right — he need only postulate that it will probably contain more of
truth than any one's opinion now.

494 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

THE CLOSING OF A FAMOUS ASTEONOMICAL PROBLEM

Bx Professor W. W. CAMPBELL

DIKECTOR OF THE LICK OBSERVATORY

THERE is perhaps no more striking illustration of the power of
scientific method than that relating to the discovery of Neptune
in 1846. The planet Uranus, until then the outermost known mem-
ber of our solar system, refused to follow the path computed for it by
mathematical astronomers. With the progress of time the discrepancies
between its predicted and observed positions grew constantly larger
until, in the early eighteen-forties, the discordance amounted to fully
75 seconds of arc. This is a small angle — not more than one twenty-
fifth the angular diameter of our moon — yet a very large angle to
refined astronomy, for a discrepancy of two seconds would have been
detected with ease. The opinion gradually developed that Uranus
was drawn from its natural course by the attractions of an undiscovered
planet still farther from the sun than itself. Adams in 1843 and
Le Verrier in 1845, independently, and each without knowledge of
the other's plans, attacked the then extremely difficult problem of
determining the approximate orbit, mass and position of an undis-
covered body whose attractions should produce the perturbations ob-
served. Regrettable and avoidable delays occurred in searching for
the planet after Adams's results were communicated to the astronomer
royal, in October, 1845. Le A^errier's results were communicated to
the Berlin Observatory in September, 1846, with the request that a
search be made. The disturbing planet, later named Neptune, was
found on the first evening that it was looked for, less than one degree
of arc from the position assigned by Le Verrier. If an energetic
search had been made in England the year before, the planet would
have been discovered within two degrees of the position assigned by
Adams.

The above resume of this unsurpassed achievement of the human
mind forms a natural prelude to the present article, as it was the im-
mediate forerunner of another problem, famous for half a century,
which has now been brought to a satisfactory conclusion.

The determination of the orbit of the planet Mercury gave great
difficulty to its investigators, principally from two causes :

1. Being the innermost known planet in our system, remaining
always near the sun, and usually lost to view in the sun's glare, fairly

A FAMOUS ASTRONOMICAL PROBLEM 495

accurate observations of its positions could be secured only when the
planet was near its greatest angular distances from the sun and
on the rare occasions when the planet passed between us and the sun's
disk. Consequently, observations of the highest accuracy were few
in number; and,

2. There were large discrepancies between Mercury's predicted and
observed positions, certainly not due to the attractions of any known
members of our solar system.

Le Verrier, of Neptunian fame, undertook a systematic investiga-
tion of Mercury's orbit, making use of all available observations.
His results were derived and published in 1859. His work established
that there were peculiarities in the planet's orbital motion which could
not be due to the attractions of known masses of matter. Chief among
the peculiarities was a slow rotation of the orbit itself. It is best
described as a forward motion of the orbit's perihelion amounting to
38 seconds of arc per century.

Le Verrier announced that the outstanding difEerences between
prediction and observation could be produced and explained by the
disturbing attractions of an undiscovered planet closer to the sun
than Mercury and revolving around the sun in an orbit lying nearly
in the plane of Mercury's orbit. The mass of (the quantity of matter
in) the hypothetical planet would depend upon its distance from
Mercury: if half way between Mercury and the sun, its mass would
be two thirds that of Mercury; if further from Mercury, the necessary
mass would be greater ; if nearer, smaller. A group or " ring " of
small planets, instead of one large planet, would serve equally well,
provided the total mass of the planetoids were of the same order of
magnitude. Le Verrier did not say that such an undiscovered planet
or ring of planetoids did exist, but simply that it would account for
the observed anomalies. The accuracy of his computations, published
in detail, could not be questioned. The recognition of his masterly
skill, and the memory of his entirely similar discovery of Neptune,
assisted in convincing astronomers quite generally that a planet or
group of planets existed. The discovery of the disturbing mass
became at once a noted problem.

A body traveling around the sun in a circular orbit whose radius
is only one half Mercury's average solar distance would never be
more than 12° from the sun as viewed by terrestrial observers. A
search for it by ordinary methods would accordingly be fruitless. A
body large enough to shine brilliantly on a dark-sky background would
be hopelessly lost in the bright sky near the sun. Mercury itself,
though running out between 20° and 30° from the sun every few
weeks, is seldom seen by any save astronomers; and they know where
to look for it in the twilight sky.

Two special methods of discovery were applicable: (1) To detect

496 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

the planet projected upon the sun's disk when its orbital motion carried
it between us and the siin; (3) to search for it when the sky background
was darkened at the time of a total solar eclipse.

Needless to say, a crop of discoverers by the first method grew up
without delay. The observer of greatest note was Lescarbault, a rural
physician of France. Immediately following the publication of Le
Verrier's conclusions, Lescarbault announced that he had observed the
transit of an unknown planet across the sun's disk several months
earlier. Le Verrier journeyed to Lescarbault's home, investigated all
the circumstances of the observation, weighed the evidence and con-
cluded that a real planet had been seen. In fact, so convinced of its
reality were many scientific men that the name Vulcan was given to it.
Older and later reported observations of the same character, to the
number of twenty, were collected by Le Verrier, and those which
seemed to be in harmony with each other were made the basis of an
orbit. Vulcan was found to be about one third Mercury's distance
from the sun, revolving once around the sun in between nineteen and
twenty days. In some of the text-books on astronomy appearing in
the sixties and seventies, Vulcan was assigned a place in the solar
system as conspicuous and as secure as that of Mercury itself.

Now it is probable that every one of the twenty observations
referred to was erroneous, though made in good faith. In essentially
every case the observer was inexperienced, and used a telescope of
insufficient power, or one unprovided with measuring apparatus suit-
able for determining whether or not the subject observed was in motion
across the sun's disk. Even the observation of Lescarbault was in
doubt when it later transpired that a Brazilian observer of considerable
professional experience was at the same hour studying the region of
the sun in question and saw only uniform normal solar surface. The
situation was not without its humorous side. For example, a Missis-
sippi Valley weather prophet who saw Vulcan crossing the sun's disk,
said it was about " as large as a new [sic] silver half dollar " ! Many
of the observations no doubt referred to small sun spots which, with
small telescopes, would look round.

Vulcan was searched for by visual observers at the principal eclipses
of the sixties, seventies and eighties. Two noted astronomers at the
eclipse of 1878, Watson and Swift, believed that they saw two new
planets near the sun. However, the two seen by Watson did not
agree with those seen by Swift, and still other astronomers at the same
eclipse saw no strange bodies in the same regions. As the assigned
locations depended upon the hasty readings of graduated circles, in
which one can so easily make errors, in the press and excitement of
eclipse conditions, the astronomical world quickly, and no doubt

A FAMOUS ASTRONOMICAL PROBLEM 497

correctly, concluded that the objects seen were well-known neighboring
stars.

The perfecting of dry-plate photography gave renewed interest
to the search for Vulcan, both when passing over tlie solar surface
and at times of eclipse. Although the sun has been photographed
almost daily during the past twenty years, at one observatory or an-
other, no experienced observer has seriously claimed that his plates
recorded an unknown planet crossing the sun. Neither were eclipse
searches more successful : the well-known bright stars lying nearly
in the direction of the sun were photographed, but no strange bodies.
Curiously enough, the optical principles governing the efficiency of
cameras in this search were overlooked for many years, and faint
objects near the sun — say stars fainter than the fourth magnitude —
were not observable, because their images, though formed on the photo-
graphic plates, were overwhelmed and buried from sight in the gen-
eral darkening of the photograph by the bright-sky background. It
was not until 1900 that the elements of the problem of photographing
faint bodies near the sun were comprehended. While preparing for
the eclipse of that year, three astronomers, Professor W. H. Pickering,
of Harvard College Observatory, and Messrs. Perrine and Campbell, of
tlie Lick Observatory, independently arrived at the same simple con-
clusion that the focal lengths of the intramercurial-search cameras
should be relatively long, in order to reduce the intensity of the sky
exposure on the plates without reducing the intensity of the star
images, and thus let the latter be seen on the negative. The principles
involved are so simple as hardly to call for elucidation.

Let the two cameras have lenses of equal aperture, say 3 inches,
of equal transparency and capable of covering equal angular fields of
view, say a circle 10 degrees in diameter. Let one be of short focus,
21 inches, and the other of long focus, 135 inches. The powers of
tlie two lenses to record stellar points on the sensitive plates in focus,
under good atmospheric conditions, are not very imequal, for the two
lenses collect equal quantities of light and condense the light into
images of very nearly the same size. Both collect the same quantity
of sky light, but the longer-focus camera spreads it (more thinly) over
an area (135)"/(21)^ = 41 times the greater. It is evident that
faint-star images hopelessly lost to view on the sky-blackened small
plate may be seen with ease on the nearly clear glass of the large plate.
"We may safely say that the large plate will show images of stars 3 or 3^
magnitudes fainter than the small plate. The same advantage exists
for small intramercurial planets as for stars, provided the exposures do
not exceed two or three minutes in length, as they seldom do at eclipses.
In longer exposures on intramercurial planetoids the advantage would
usually be lost, as their rapid (and unknown) motions would cause their

VOL. LXXIV. — 32.

498 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

images on the plate to move, slowly with short-focus and rapidly with
long-focus cameras, tlius drawing them out into trails. "With the
longer instrument here described, an eight-minute exposure would in
general be no more effective than one of four minutes. The most
successful instrument for the search in question must compromise be-
tween the advantage of long focus in reducing sky density, and the
disadvantage of long focus in producing long trails. Shorter ex-
posures, giving shorter trails, may be provided by increasing the diam-
eter of the lens, but this in turn means greater unavoidable optical
aberrations in the outer areas of the region photographed, which is a
reduction in efficiency. In this as in all instruments, extensive
experience and good judgment must combine to decide upon the best
compromise-proportions.

Professor Pickering, of Harvard, and Mr. Abbot, of the Smith-
sonian Institution, used such cameras at the total solar eclipse of
1900. The latter observer was favored with good conditions, in North
Carolina, and he secured one photograph of a considerable area sur-
rounding the eclipsed sun. Quite a number of the stars known to
exist in this region were photographed; but in the absence of a dupli-
cate photograph of the same region, he could not decide whether
certain apparent images on the plate were due to unknown planets, or
were defects such as always exist in photographic films.

At the eclipse of 1901, in Sumatra, Mr. Abbot, of the Smithsonian
Expedition, and Mr. Perrine, in charge of the Crocker Expedition from
the Lick Observatory, were prepared, with four cameras each, to secure
duplicate photographs covering a large area extending east and west
from the sun. Conditions were unfortunately against the success of
Mr. Abbot's plans, but thin clouds at the time of the eclipse let 25
per cent, of the light come through to Mr. Perrine's photographic
plates. The area covered in duplicate was 6° x 38°, extending along
the direction of the sun's equator, with the sun in the center of the
region. The plates recorded 170 well-known stars; and all apparent
images not of ordinary stars were proved by the duplicate plates to
be defects in the films. In two thirds of the area stars down to the
eighth magnitude and many fainter ones were recorded; and in one
third the area, covered with thicker clouds, stars were recorded down
to the fifth and sixth magnitudes.

At the eclipse of 1905 Mr, Crocker made it possible for me to
organize expeditions to Labrador, Spain and Egypt, each equipped with
four intramercurial cameras, in addition to apparatus for other lines
of research. The details of the twelve cameras were planned by Dr.
Perrine, the instruments were constructed under his supervision, and
any photographic plates obtained with them at the three stations
were to be assigned to him to examine for possible intramercurial-
planet images. The Labrador group of four cameras, mounted at the

A FAMOUS ASTRONOMICAL PROBLEM 499

station by Dr. Curtis, made no contribution because of the severe storm
conditions prevailing at the time of totality. The Egyptian cameras,
mounted by Professor Hussey, recorded a considerable number of
stars, but the sky, though clear in the usual sense, was full of dust,
and the sun and the surrounding region covered by the search were
at a low altitude. The Spanish cameras, photographing through
clouds which permitted only 20 or 30 per cent, of the light to pass,
recorded 55 stars down to abotit the seventh and eighth magnitudes.
All suspected images not occupying the positions of known stars were
proved to be defects in the films.

The eclipse of 1908 in the South Seas was utilized by the Crocker
Expedition to cover a region extending east and west along the sun's
equator with duplicate exposures. Notwithstanding interference from
rain and clouds at the beginning of totality, clear sky prevailed during
the last two thirds of the four critical minutes. Dr. Perrine finds more
than 500 images of well-lcnown stars on the plates, and no images of
unknown bodies. Stars are recorded down to nearly the ninth visual
magnitude.

It is not absolutely certain that intramercurial planets, revolving
around the sun in elliptical orbits would be seen in projection entirely
within the area 9°x29° lying along the solar equator and equally
east and west of the sun's center, yet there are exceedingly strong
reasons to believe such would be the case. The eight large planets and
the 650 ± minor planets in our system revolve around the sun in the
same direction and, excepting a small proportion of the asteroids, so
nearly in the sun's equatorial plane that the parts of their orbit planes
lying within the limits for intramercurial planets would be projected
upon the photographed area. The central plane of the zodiacal light
differs little from the sun's equatorial plane. It is certain, also, that
any intramercurial planets originally moving in planes inclined at
large angles to Mercury's orbit plane would gradually be compelled
by the attractions of Mercury and the other major planets to move in
planes inclined at small angles to the ecliptic. The coincidence of the
satellite planes in the systems of Jupiter and Saturn, and no doubt of
Uranus and Neptune also, with the equatorial planes of these planets
is another analogy of some weight. Admitting, for completeness, the
hypothesis of an extensive system of small planets moving in planes
making a variety of angles with the ecliptic and sun's equator, some
would certainly have been caught in the region photographed. A
single planet, or a half dozen planets, massive enough to meet the re-
quirements, moving in any orbit planes would no doubt have been dis-
covered a generation ago. In view of these facts, there is little reason
to fear that any planets effective in disturbing Mercury's motions were
north or south of the regions covered by photography.

500 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Inasmuch as planets, shining by reflected light, do not act upon
photographic plates so strongly as stars of the same visual magnitude,
we may say that exposures which recorded stars down to the ninth
magnitude should have recorded planets down to the eighth. From
the known brightness, distance from the sun and approximate diameter
of a few of the asteroids revolving in space between Mars's and Jupiter's
orbits. Dr. Perrine has computed that an average eighth-magnitude
intramercurial planet could scarcely be- larger than thirty miles in
diameter and that roughly a million such bodies, of great density,
would be required to supply the disturbing effect observed in Mercury's
orbit.

Taking all these points into consideration, 1 think we may say that
the investigations by Perrine, forming a part of the work of the
Crocker Eclipse Expeditions from Lick Observatory, have brought the
observational side of the Intramercurial Problem, famous for a half
century, definitely to a close. It is not contended that no such planets
will be discovered in the future; in fact, it would not be surprising,
nor in opposition to the opinions here expressed, if several such bodies
should be found; but it is confidently believed that any such bodies
would fail hopelessly to supply the great mass of material demanded
by Le Terrier's theory, as Perrine pointed out in discussing the Sumatra
observations of 1901.

On the occasion of a future eclipse of fairly long duration, occurring
in the dry season, it might be well to repeat the observations, inasmuch
as the instruments are in approximate readiness, and the observations
at the three past eclipses were made through thin clouds twice, and
with cloud-shortened exposures the third time. The cameras are
capable of recording tenth-magnitude stars with three-minute ex-
posures in clear sky. It will not be advisable to use these instruments
at the eclipses of the next four years.

There are other chapters, on the theoretical side of the problem, to
be entered here.

Professor Newcomb's researches on planetary motions extended
much further than Le Verrier's. He found small terms in the motions
of all the inner planetg — Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars — which are not
due to the disturbing attractions of any known masses of matter. The
chief discrepancies, aside from the large one found in Mercury's motion
by Le Verrier and confirmed by Newcomb,^ are in the perihelion of
Mars, and in the nodes of Mercury and Venus. These outstanding
residuals will be tabulated on a later page.

The attractions of any one j^lanet or ring of small planets, suffi-
cient to account for the excess motion of Mercury's perihelion, failed
to account for the other discrepancies discovered by Newcomb for the

*Le Verrier's discrepancy amounted to 38", Newcomb's to 41".

A FAMOUS ASTRONOMICAL PROBLEM 501

four planets. Satisfactory causes were looked for in a possible ellip-
soidal form of the sun, in a In-pothetical ring of small planets bet^yeen
Mercun^ and Venus, in an assumed minute variation in the law of
gravitation from the Newtonian inverse square of distances, and in
other assumptions, but in vain. One hypothesis, that the finely divided
material which gives rise to the zodiacal light (by reflecting the sun's
rays) is the responsible disturbing mass, has been discussed several
times since the days of Le Verrier and as many times rejected, with
one exception.

The exception is Professor Seeliger's recently published investiga-
tion. AVith great skill and with entirely reasonable assumptions as to
the form of space occupied by the zodiacal material, and as to the
density of the distribution of the material in this space, he establishes
that there is sufficient mass to account for the discrepancies in the
motions of all the four planets.

The following table exhibits the results of Seeliger's theory in the
first column of figures, and the actual results of observation as deter-
mined by IS^ewcomb in the second column. The ([uantities in the
third column, which bear the sign ±:, are the " probable errors " as-
signed by Xewcomb to his results; and, for the benefit of non-mathe-
matical readers, we may explain that these " probable errors," deduced
from the observations themselves, are indications of the uncertainties
existing in the quantities to which they are attached. In this table
e and i are respectively the eccentricity of the orbit and the inclination
of the orbit plane to the ecliptic; and All, AO and A/ are respectively
the changes, per century, in the longitude of perihelion, in the longitude
of node and in the inclination of the orbit plane, unaccounted for by
the attractions of known masses, as in the second column, and produced
by the attractions of the zodiacal matter as computed by Seeliger. In
the last column are the differences between the Seeliger and !N"ewcoml3
numbers : in other words, a comparison of theory with actuality.
These differences are small. All are within the probable errors in
the third column ; with one exception, far within these probable errors.

AVe can not ascribe tliis remarkable agreement between Newcomb's

Seeliger

Newcomb

N-S.

' Mercury

-f 8.49

+ 8.48

±0.43

— 0.01

e-AIT*;

Venus

+ 0.05

— 0.05

±0.25

— 0.10

Earth

+ 0.07

+ 0.10

± 0.13

+ 0.03

Mars

+ 0.59

+ 0.75

± 0.35

+ 0.16

^ Mercury

+ 0.65

+ 0.61

± 0.52

— 0.04

sin t . AO -

Venus

+ 0.58

+ 0.60

±0.17

+ 0.02

Mars

+ 0.23

+ 0.0.3

± 0.22

— 0.20

' Mercury

+ 0.52

+ 0.38

±0.80

— 0.14

At J Venus

+ 0.17

+ 0.38

± 0.33

+ 0.21

:\Iars

— 0.02

— 0.01

± 0.20

+ 0.01

502 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

and Seeliger's results to fortunate chance, and it is scarcely possible
to doubt that in the zodiacal-light materials lie the causes of the dis-
crepancies referred to. I have little hesitation in venturing the
opinion that Seeliger's investigation marks an epoch in the application
of Newton's law of gravitation to the motions within the solar system.
At one stroke he appears to have removed a group of discrepancies
which served as bases for many inquiries as to the preciseness and
sufficiency of the Great Law. With all respect to Seeliger's genius and
labor, however, scientific caution will value confirmation of his results
by other investigators.

Seeliger's assumptions as to the distribution and mass of the zodiacal
material are of interest, especially when we recall that the zodiacal light
within some 20 degrees of the sun is unobservable, on account of the
glare, and that the brightness of the light is a poor index to the mass :
a given quantity of matter, finely divided, would reflect sunlight more
strongly than the same quantity existing in larger particles. For the
mathematical development of the subject he assumed that the material
is distributed throughout a space represented by a much-flattened
ellipsoid of revolution whose center is at the sun's center, whose axis
of revolution coincides more or less closely with the sun's axis, whose
polar surfaces extend 20 or 30 degrees north and south of the sun
(as viewed from the earth), whose equatorial regions extend consider-
ably beyond the earth's orbit, and in which the density-distribution
of materials decreases as a function both of the linear distance out from
the sun and of the angular distance out from the equatorial plane
of symmetry. According to these assumptions, surfaces of equal
densities are concentric ellipsoidal surfaces, and the number of such
ellipsoids can be increased or decreased according as the computer
may desire to represent more or less closely any assumed law of
density-variation within the one great spheroid. Practically, Seeliger
found that the disturbing effects on the planets are almost independent
of the law of distribution of the material, as related to distance from
the sun, as far out as two thirds of the distance to Mercury. He
made use of only two ellipsoids : One with equatorial radius 0.24 unit"
and polar radius 0.024, of uniform density; and the other with corre-
sponding radii 1.20 and 0.24, of uniform but much smaller density.
The total mean densities determined for his volumes, on the basis of
unity as the mean density of the sun, are, respectively, 2.18 X 10"^^
and 3.1 X 10"^^; and the resulting combined mass of the two ellipsoids
is 3.1 X lO"'^ of the sun's mass, which is roughly twice the mass of
Mercury. The corresponding density of mass-distribution is sur-
prisingly low. In the inner and denser ellipsoid, the matter, if as
dense as water, would occupy 1 part in 30,000,000,000 of the space;
if as dense as the earth, only 1 part in 160,000,000,000.
^The distance from the sun to the earth being 1.00.

A FAMOUS ASTRONOMICAL PROBLEM 503

The reader should be cautioned against obtaining the impression
that Seeliger's two ellipsoids represent the truth as to the law of
distribution of density, for such is not the case. A very large number
of ellipsoids, doubtless decreasing rapidly in density as one proceeds
from the sun outward, would be required to represent the actual law.
Seeliger found that the attractive effect of the mass inside of the
ellipsoid with maximum radius 0.24 was essentially independent of the
law of distribution; and for convenience in the computations he there-
fore assumed the density in the said ellipsoid to be uniform. A solu-
tion based upon a greater number of constituent ellipsoids would
perhaps be a slight improvement.

The logic of Seeliger's work rests finally upon the reasonableness
of his assumptions and deductions concerning the distribution and
density of the zodiacal-light materials; and these are not out of
harmony with the meager knowledge of the zodiacal light which we
have obtained by direct observation.

In consequence of Seeliger's results further direct observations of
the zodiacal light take on renewed interest.

504

TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

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THE IIARPSWELL LABORATORY 505

THE HAEPSWELL LABORATORY

By max morse

the college of the city of new york

Whether one is sailing about upon tlie sunny sea, fishing with muslin
nets for the surface fauna, or steaming away far from shore to dredge for other
material, or, again, carrying on observations in the cool sea water tanks and
bell-jars of a neat little wooden workshop thrown open to the sea-breezes, it
alike requires some effort to persuade one's self that the occupation is really
something more than that of finding amusement. — Romanes, " Jellyfishes, Star-
fishes and Seaurchins."

ROMANES was thinking of Cromarty Firth when he drew this
beautiful vignette. One may equally well think of the " little
wooden workshop " founded by John Sterling Kingsley on Casco Bay.

As it stands at present^ the laboratory is a one-story, wooden build-
ing, 24 by 43 feet on the ground, with sixteen windows looking out
directly on a rugged shore, where the long ground swells from open
water break incessantly. The building, within, is divided up into nine
small rooms for investigators, and one large room, which is fitted up
with five tables, for other workers, as occasion demands. A portion of
this space is given over to shelving for the nucleus of a library made
up mainly of books from the private library of Dr. Kingsley and re-
prints given to the laboratory by various students. Arrangement is
made whereby the current journals are placed on file, during the season,
and back numbers may be obtained for the asking, either from Tufts
College or from the Boston Society of Natural History. At either end
of the laboratory are double doors and when these are " thrown open to
the sea breezes " an ideal temperature is assured, even on the warmest
days. There have been but few days for many years when the ther-
mometer in the laboratory registered above 78° F.

The equipment of the laboratory, modest as it is, lias been found
adequate for the purposes. Whenever special apparatus has been called
for it has been supplied without delay, either from Portland, which is
within an hour and one-half by the line of steamers running down the
bay, or from Boston, which may be reached within tliree hours. Micro-
tomes, glassware and the commoner laboratory materials are brought
at the beginning of the season from the zoological laboratory of Tufts
College. Investigators, even in our larger laboratories, prefer to take
with them their more special apparatus, and such workers have been
requested to do so when applying for space at the Harpswell station.

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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Fig. 1. The Laboratory, looking southeast. The sea reaches the bluff imme-
diately beyond the fence. The writer is indebted to Professor H. V. Neal
for the use of the photographs reproduced in this article.

One feature may appear, to some investigators, a serious drawback,
and that is the lack of running water. The experience, however, of
those who have carried on protracted series of experiments involving
the keeping of living material throughout the season has been that no
inconvenience has been felt by the absence of running water. The
main reason for this is that the temperature is so low that one may keep
material standing in dishes in the laboratory for many days without
even changing the water. Thus one may keep hydroids, echinoderms,
and even the " candles " of dog-fish without difhcultv.

The laboratory is supplied with several small boats and with a motor
boat, similar to the one which is used by the fishermen of Casco Bay.
It is wonderfully seaworthy and safe, and for the collector it is ideal.
If occasion demands, additional motors may be rented at low fees by the
day or week from the fishermen. An ample supply of seines, dredges
and trawls is maintained at the laboratory. The stock of chemicals
and reagents is large, and whenever additional supplies of this char-
acter are required they are readily obtained from the larger dealers of
Portland, who keep constantly on hand all but the more exceptional
reagents. In fact, this city may be drawn upon for supplies rarely
found in other cities of its size.

Accessibility to the laboratory is assured. The city of Portland is the
terminus of the Grand Trunk System, and of the Boston and Maine
and Maine Central railwavs and of several coastwise lines. The Maine

THE HARP SWELL LABORATORY

507

Steamship Company maintains throughout the year a line of steamers
between this port and that of New York. A day line and a night line
of steamers ply between Portland and Boston, while the down-east
ports, St. Johns and the St. Lawrence country are made accessible by
other steamship lines. In general, the rates of passage on these lines is
low and there is afforded a most comfortable and convenient mode of
travel.

The laboratory is situated in the little fishing village of South
Harpswell. A line of steamers sending a boat from Portland every
two hours, on the average, throughout the day, is utilized in the main
for reaching the laboratory. One may, if he desire, go overland to
Brunswick, the seat of Bowdoin College, fourteen miles up Harpswell
Neck. From Brunswick, Portland may be reached by trolley or by rail,
or by a line of steamers running from the jSTew Meadows Eiver to
Portland.

The Portland Public Library and the Library of the Portland Soci-
ety of Natural History may be called upon for literature not supplied
at the laboratory. The latter institution has, too, collections of the ani-
mals and plants from the surrounding region, identified by some of our
well-known systematists, such as Emerton and others.

It is not, however, the buildings and accessories that attract the
worker, but rather the living material. HarjDSwell has nothing to fear
in rivalry with sister laboratories, wherever they may be, in wealth of
material. In order to set this feature of the case clearly before the

Fig. 2. Interior of the Laboeatory^ looking northward.

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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

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THE HARP SWELL LABORATORY 509

reader, it will lie necessaiy to describe briefly the geography of the

region.

No geologist has described the rock formation of Casco Bay, al-
though many of the more salient points in its history are evident. A
glance at the accompanying map will show that the bay is dotted here
and there with islands, none of which are more than three miles in
length. It is popularly said by the denizens of the region that there
are as many islands in the bay as there are days in the year. However
that may be, it seems to the traveler who is making his first visit by
the little steamer threading tlirough the devious passages between the
islands, tbat the estimate has been too meager. Extending down from
the mainland are several long ragged points of land. Harpswell is one,
Cape Small Point is another. The axes of these peninsulas lie parallel
with those of the islands and between the islands and the peninsulas
are deep lagoons bordered by the steep high sides of the islands. The
average depth of these lagoons is fourteen fathoms, although a greater
depth is reached in some places. At the westward. Cape Elizabeth
forms the boundary for the bay.

A portion of the Arctic current flowing do^vn the Gulf of Maine from
the Greenland and Labrador shores is deflected into the immediate
vicinity of Casco Ba}', giving the cool water and the cool air charac-
teristic of the locality. The Gulf Stream lies beyond this cold current
and, while rarely a bit of the fauna of this stream comes into the bay,
its effect is practically nothing on the plant and animal life. The
dense fogs so characteristic of some of our other laboratories, nearer
the Gulf Stream, are nearly absent here. It is mainly for this reason
that one may safely use apparatus at the laboratory without in-
jury from rust and hydroxide and oxide depositions. The writer, dur-
ing the past season, used apparatus of great delicacy, such as is seldom
brought out of the city workrooms, in investigating the contractions
of muscle in various invertebrates, without any deleterious effect being
produced by its sojourn at the coast.

The geological structure of the region is such that the retreating
tides leave tide-pools filled with a wealth of animals and plants. The
range of the tides is great, averaging fourteen feet. The cleavage
planes of the mica schist and slate are normal to each other so that
square or rectagonal holes are left for the formation of the tide-pools.
Here may be found Asterias, Strong ylocentrotus, Metridium, Tetra-
stemma, Carcinus, Cancer and dozens of other species. The algalogist is
well rewarded for any labor he may expend in working these pools.
The lagoons were gouged out in preglacial times and therefore the rocks
are bare and free from till and boulders to a great extent. The sub-
sidence of the whole region in later times has deepened the water
throughout the bay, and these deep lagoons are carpeted with immense

5IO

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Laminaria and the perforated Agarum, belonging to the same group.
The surfaces of the islands bordering the water stretches and of the
peninsulas pushing seaward from the mainland are covered with ever-
greens, while as one passes up the sounds towards the mainland proper
this evergreen growth gives place to deciduous trees. Hence, within a
comparatively short distance, the botanist may have a wide range of
vegetation.

Out " upon the sunny seas " float Aurelia flavidula and Cyanea
arctica in countless numbers. Melicerta and Pteropods occur during

Fig. 4. Typical Rock Structure forming the Tide-pools.

the greater part of the season, and these may be collected in a row-
boat within the sounds themselves. On shallow banks of sand exposed
entirely at low tide Echinarachnius parma may be collected in quanti-
ties, and with great ease. Strongylocenirotiis drohachiensis is dredged
by the bushel within a mile of the laboratory, while the same dredgings
bring up Dentalium, Corymorplia, Chalina, Edwardsia, Pentacta, Tere-
hratulina, Pecten tenuicosiaia, Boltenia and other classics.

The one-day trips from the laboratory may be undertaken in one of
many directions. Twenty miles is generally a recognized limit. The
map reveals the possibilities of a day's collecting. All the trips are in

THE HABPSWELL LABORATORY 511

sheltered water or within safe distance of harbors, and the strong tide
sweeps which are familiar to the collector at many of our other labora-
tories are not present here, except in one or two points, hence the fear
of being carried away from the collecting ground never disturbs one.

A mile from the laboratory is the site of the Old Tide Mill, now no
more, but represented by the rapids which served in former years to
turn the wheels of the mill. The open sea is led in communication
with a large tidal pond by a long, narrow cove, at the narrowest portion
of which the old mill once rested. Through these narrows and over
the rocks the tide rushes at twelve knots an hour into the pool at rising
tide and out again at falling tide. Beneath these rocks is a veritable
curiosity shop for the novice and an Eldorado for the biologist. An
invoice from the overturning of a single stone, in genera, is given as
follows : Tetliya, Cliona, Tubularia, Clava, Metridium, Astcrias,
Crihrella, Ophiopholis, Ophioglypha, Strongylocentrotus, Pentacta,
Tetrastemma, Lepidonotus, Spirorbis, Membranipora, Balanus,
Pagurus, Cancer, Carciniis, Idothea, Purpura, JEolis, Molgula, Lepto-
cUnum and Amaroucium. The most fastidious could scarcely ask for
a greater galaxy.

Across the cove and opposite the mill-site is a fishermen's village.
Here are brought in, from the open water and the sounds, fish of all
descriptions. Aside from the food fishes, such as rock cod, hake, pol-
lock and the like, these men may, at the request of the laboratory,
bring back numbers of sand-sharks, rays and dog-fish, the " candles "
or egg-cases of which afford possibilities for embryological studies, both
descriptive and experimental, hitherto scarcely recognized. The abun-
dance of the material supplied by these fishermen is taken advantage of
by Professor F. D. Lambert, who maintains a supply station for zo-
ological material in connection with the laboratory on Harpswell. No-
where, to the writer's knowledge, is such an abundant supply of choice
material made available to the zoologist.

Nearer the laboratory, on the sandy shores of a neighboring island.
Nereis and Sipunculus may be dug in large numbers. Cerebratulus,
represented by two species, one being the giant form, occurs near the
" bridge," while Balanoglossus, Pholas, Zirphcea and other interesting
and important forms, from the point of view of the experimentalist, are
to be found in the same vicinity. But it is impossible to go on. One
would of necessity give a catalogue of the fauna of Casco Bay if he
desired to do the matter justice.

The history of the laboratory is brief. The late Professor Lee, of
Bowdoin College, insisited upon the desirability of establishing a sta-
tion for the study of marine forms in the Gulf of Maine, and specifically
in Casco Bay. In 1898, Professor Kingsley, together with a band of
students from Tufts College, leased a cottage near the present site and

512

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Fig. 5. The Coast at High Tide. Compare with Fig. 3.

converted it into a laboratory on the lower floor, while the upper
chambers were made living rooms. Then, in 1901, Tufts College
bought a tract of land and erected the present building, opening it for
the use of students for the first time in the summer of the same year.
Later on, an addition was made to the rear of the building. For the
first years, undergraduate instruction was maintained in the laboratory,
but in 1906, this was abandoned. Now, all the expenses of the labora-
tory are met from the small fee paid by each investigator, which is
made for the use of room and material. For the coming season, a new
arrangement has been made whereby funds other than those supplied
by the workers will be available and a collector will be ready to bring
to the investigator whatever material he may desire. Additions, too,
to the library and to the supplies and possibly to the building itself are
planned and if not completed during the coming season, they will be
made in the near future.

Living facilities, a matter of concern to the average investigator at
the summer laboratory, are at their best. One may find almost any
mode of living he may desire on Harpswell. If he desires a first-class
hotel, he has the choice of three. If he prefer to live in a private house
and obtain his meals either in the same house or one within easy access,
he may do so. If he desire a cottage, he may obtain one at low rental
for the season. The average rental for a five-room house is seventy-five
dollars, for the season, beginning as early and ending as late as one de-
sires. Country produce may be engaged and delivered at your door.

THE HARPSWELL LABORATORY

5^3

Fig. 6. A View in the E^'ergreens, one half mile from the laboratory.

at very reasonable rates, while grocers supply the best provisions, being
in the main those brought fresh from Portland, a city well known for
its splendid markets. Finally, camping is possible, either near the
laboratory, or farther away amongst the evergreens.

With a delightful climate, plenty of sunshine and clear sky, a rich
fauna and flora, good facilities for carrying on investigation, a comfort-
able summer home, freedom from the conventionalities of our more
formal stations, ease of access — certainly Harpswell has few rivals.

The biologist is notorious for being ever busy. " I have no vaca-
tions," complained an entomologist; "there are ants wherever I go."
The ability of the biologist to work incessantly is easily explained;
his work is his play. Emphatically is this so of the investigator at
Harpswell.

VOL. LXXIV.

-33.

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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

THE PEOGEESS OF SCIENCE

THE RESEARCH WORE OF THE
CARNEGIE INSTITUTION

The seventh year book of the Car-
negie Institution of Washington, like
its predecessors, gives an interesting
account of the investigations carried
on last year. The work is now in the
main conducted by its departments;
only a few minor grants are made to
scientific men in other institutions, and
these are nearly all in continuation of
work begun when it was the policy to
distribute the larger part of the in-
come in special grants.

The institution has now ten depart-
ments, or twelve, if the Index Mediciis
and the horticultural work of Mr.
Luther Burbank are included. Two of
the principal departments are in as-
tronomy, two in geophysics, three in
biology, one in physiology and two in
economics and history. The amount of
the grants for these departments last
year was: astronomy, $105,000; geo-
physics, $139,000; biology, $70,000;

physiology, $35,000; economics and
history, $50,000. There was a special
grant of $50,000 for publications.

In astronomy the institution con-
ducts the solar observatory on Mount
Wilson in California, under the direc-
torship of Dr. George E. Hale, and last
year established an observatory in
Argentina for meridian astrometry,
under Dr. Lewis Boss. The solar ob-
servatory has made notable progress
in its elaborate installations and has
carried forward research work in sev-
eral directions. The 60-inch reflecting
equatorial telescope has been mounted
in a new steel dome, and the tower
telescope and the horizontal telescope,
together with the spectroscopic labora-
tory in Pasadena, have been in use.
The most important work relates to
sun-spots and flocculi, giving new re-
sults in regard to the constitution and
rotation of the sun. The study of the
motion and structure of the stellar sys-
tem has been continued in the Dudley

Steel Building and Dome foe the 60-inch Reflector.

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

515

The Nutrition Labokatoey at Boston.

Observatory at Albany and is now be-
ing extended to the southern hemi-
sphere in the observatory erected at
San Luis in the Argentine Republic,
where the work is under the immediate
charge of Professor R. H. Tucker, who
has been given leave of absence from
the Lick Observatory for this purpose.
The work in terrestrial magnetism
under Dr. L. A. Bauer includes the
completion of the third cruise of the
Galilee on the Pacific, where altogether
over 60,000 nautical miles have been
covered in regions wnere magnetic data
were especially needed. With the ex-
tensive work done on land in different
countries by the institution and by
other agencies a new set of magnetic
charts covering nearly one third of the
globe can now be constructed. A new
magnetic survey yacht is being built,
which, on its completion this summer,
will be sent to the north Atlantic. The
geophysical laboratory at Washington,
of which Dr. A. L. Day is director, is
now in efficient working order and has
entered on a systematic study of rock
formation, with excellent equipment
for producing such effects of tempera-

ture, pressure, etc., as may have oc-
curred in the history of the earth's
development.

In biology, the institution supports
a desert botanical laboratory in Ari-
zona; a station for experimental evolu-
tion on Long Island and a marine
biological laboratory in one of the
Tortugas Islands. With the desert
laboratory at Tucson as headquarters,
very interesting experiments are being
made on the effects of moisture, alti-
tude, etc., in plants, including a study
of the vegetation following the receding
area of the Salton Sea. Especially
noteworthy have been the experiments
of Dr. D. T. MacDougall on the pro-
duction of new kinds of plants by
subjecting the reproductive organs to
chemical action. Elaborate experi-
ments in breeding have been carried
forward under the direction of Dr. C.
B. Davenport at Cold Spring Harbor,
Long Island, including the crossing of
p^oultry, canaries, cats, sheep, goats^
insects and plants, and observations on
human traits, which give quantitative
data of importance for determining the
laws of heredity. The station at Dry

516

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Tortugas, under Dr. A. G. Mayer, offers
admirable facilities for marine biolog-
ical work of certain kinds of which
some ten investigators took advantage.

The nutrition laboratory, under Dr.
F. G. Benedict, was last year in the
stage of construction and equipment.
It is adjacent to the Harv^ard Medical
School and several hospitals, which
will give opportunity to work with
pathological cases. In the new build-
ing, shown in the accompanying illus-
tration, work is now beginning with
the calorimeter and in other directions.

The work of the institution in eco-
nomics, sociology and history has con-
sisted in the collection of data and the
classification of records. The depart-
ment of economics and sociology has
suffered through the recent death ot
the director. Dr. Carroll D. Wright.
No work, or hardly any, has been done
in anthropology, psychology, philology,
literature or art.

Some twenty-four publications were
issued by the institution during the
year at a cost of about $64,000. The
administration building at Washing-
ton, erected at a cost of about $220,000,
at the southeast corner of Sixteenth
and P streets, is now nearly ready.

LIEUTENANT SHACELETON'S
ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION

Lieutenant Shacbxeton's expedi-
tion has been remarkably successful,
whether viewed as adventure or as
scientific exploration. The results are
the more noteworthy in view of the
unofficial character of the expedition
and its somewhat modest outfit. The
expedition seems throughout to have
been accompanied by that kind of good
fortune which may properly be attrib-
uted to expert knowledge and skilful
foresight.

The Nimrod, it may be remembered,
left New Zealand on January 1, 1908,
and included in its scientific staff
Professor Edworth David, F.R.S., of
Sidney University, and Lieutenant
Adams, R.N.A., geologists; Sir Philip
Brocklehurst, surveyor and map-maker,

and other scientific men. It had been
Lieutenant Shackleton's intention to
find a convenient place on King Ed-
ward's Land at the eastern end of the
ice barrier, but the conditions were
unfavorable, and it was necessary to
take up quarters in McMurdo Sound,
close to the place occupied by the Dis-
covery in 1902.

The first expedition started on March
5 and ascended Mt. Erebus, the great
Antarctic volcano, the summit of which,
at an altitude of 11,000 feet, was
reached on March 10. It was ejecting
vast amounts of steam and sulphurous
gas to a height of 2,000 feet.

The Antarctic winter was made use
of for collections, observations and pho-
tographs. In the early spring, three
exploring parties set out, one under
Mr. Armitage going westward, gather-
ing geological and topographical data;
the second under Professor David going
southward and reaching the magnetic
pole on January 16 in latitude 72° 25"
and longitude 154° east. The party
journeyed 1,260 statute miles in a
hundred and twenty-two days, suffering
many hardships and making important
discoveries.

The most dramatic expedition, in
which Lieutenant Shf^ckleton was ac-
companied by Messrs. Adams, Marshall
I and Wild, left Cape Royd on November
29, taking with them four ponies. On
December 26 they reached the Dis-
covery expedition's southernmost lati-
tude. Proceeding south and southeast
they reached a high range of mountains
and discovered a glacier 120 miles long
and forty miles wide, which they as-
cended, contending with deep crevasses.
On December 8 they discovered another
great mountain range. On December
26 they reached a plateau at an alti-
tude of 9,000 feet. During this time
there was a constant southerly blizzard
of wind and drifting snow, with tem-
perature ranging from 37 to 70 degrees
of frost. On January 9 they reached
latitude 88° 23" and longitude 162°
east, the most southerly point ever
i attained and 1° 17' nearer the pole than

TEE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

517

Map of the Antarctic Regio>-,

Showing the expeditions of the Shackleton parties toward the south geographical pole

and to the south magnetic pole. — From the Independent.

Peary's farthest north. They were then
111 miles from the south pole, and
saw a great plain without mountains
stretching towards the south at an alti-
tude of 10,000 or 11,000 feet above sea
level. One pony after another had been
killed and eaten, and during the latter
part of the trip the supply of food had
been reduced to a minimum. The re-
turn was accomplished with great
hardships, the headquarters being
reached on March 4, after an absence
of 126 days, during which the distance
of 1,708 statute miles was covered.
Coal measures were found in the lime-
stone, and eight distinct mountain
ranges with over 100 peaks were dis-
covered.

TWO GREAT FRENCH
NATURALISTS

In the deaths of Jean Albert Gaudry
and Alfred Giard, France has lost two
naturalists of distinction, whose con-
tributions to our knowledge of organic
evolution were important factors in the

most notable scientific advance of the
second half of the nineteenth century.
They both had in common with their
great leader, Charles Darwin, an ac-
curat6 knowledge of facts in broad
fields of the natural sciences and a deep
interest in theories and philosophical
generalization. They shared fully the
quick perception, wide insight and clear
expression which are characteristic of
French genius.

Gaudry was born near Paris in 1827 ;
as a boy he was interested in natural
science and the collecting of fossils.
At the age of twenty-six he was ap-
pointed assistant professor of paleon-
tology in the Paris Museum of Natural
History. Before and after the pub-
lication of " The Origin of Species "
he was engaged in his researches on
the late Tertiary vertebrate fauna at
Pikermi, near Athens, and on Mont
Leberon. His work on the evolution
of horses, rhinoceroses and other ani-
mals of these regions is of fundamental
and classic importance. Other re-

5i8

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Jean Albert Gaudry.

searches followed, including work on
the Patagonian vertebrates, and much
attention was given to the collections
of the museum. Wide influence was
exerted by his less technical writings in
paleozoology and organic evolution.

Giard was born in 1846 in Valen-
ciennes ; like Gaudry and so many other
naturalists, he was eagerly interested
in nature and in collecting as a child.
He became professor of natural history
at Lille in 1873, and in 1888 there was
established for him at the Paris Sor-
bonne a chair of " evolution of organic
beings," a valviable step that should be

followed by other universities. In the
meanwhile, Giard had in 1874 founded
at Wimereux, near Bologne, a marine
biological station from which there
have been issued not fewer than fifty
volumes containing a vast amount of
important research. His own work
covered nearly the whole range of the
biological sciences and extended to
botany. Perhaps his work on para-
sitology is best known, but his re-
searches are encyclopedic in their ex-
tent, equally at home in minute details
! and in broad theories.

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

519

Alfred Giard.

SCIENTIFIC ITEMS
We regret to record the deaths of
Dr. H. M. Boye, the chemist, who at
the age of ninety-seven years was the
only surviving founder of the American
Association; of Dr. Persifor Frazer,
the chemist and geologist of Philadel-
phia ; of Mark Vernon Slingerland, who
held the chair of economic entomology
at Cornell University, and of Dr. Will-
iam Jones, who was killed while en-
gaged in anthropological explorations
in the Philippines. Among foreign men

of science, we note with regret an-
nouncements of the deaths of Dr. Her-
mann Ebbinghaus, professor of philos-
ophy at Halle, and of Professor Arthur
Gamgee, F.R.S., the physiologist.

The centenary of the birth of Oliver
Wendell Holmes has been celebrated at
Harvard University, whpre he was pro-
fessor of anatomy and physiology from
1847 to 1882. — Congress has appropri-
ated $5,000 for the erection of a me-
morial to Major J. W. Powell, on the
brink of the Grand Canyon of the Colo-

520

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

rado, which he explored. — The commit-
tee in charge of a fund for a memorial
to the late Dr. Andrew J. McCosh
announces that more than $100,000 has
been subscribed. The fund will be de-
voted to some portion of the new build-
ings of the Presbyterian Hospital, with
the surgical service of which iJr. Mc-
Cosh was identified. — It is proposed to
endow as a memorial to the late Dr.
William T. Bull an institution for
surgical research to be connected with
the College of Physicians and Surgeons,
Columbia University.

The Royal Academy of Stockholm
has presented Mr. Thomas A. Edison

with its Adelskiold gold medal for his
inventions in connection with the
phonograph and the incandescent light.
This medal is conferred once in ten
years. — The ambassadorship to Great
Britain has been offered to President
Eliot after his retirement from the
presidency of Harvard University, but
it is said that he is not likely to accept.

It is announced that President Taft
has requested Surgeon General Wyman
to draw up a tentative plan for the
consolidation under one bureau of the
agencies exercised by the federal gov-
ernment for the preservation of the
public healtn.

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE

MONTHLY.

JUNE, 1909

THE TIDES: THEIR CAUSES AND EEPRESENTATION

By ROLLIN ARTHUR HARRIS

THE UNITED STATES COAST AND GEODETIC SDRVET, WASHINGTON, D. C.

Historical Note on the Tidal Problem

THE so-called problem of the tides has for ages engaged the atten-
tion of observing and thinking men. Before Newton established
the law of universal gravitation, the whole subject was surrounded with
an air of mystery, although the fact had long been recognized by many
that in some manner the tides are governed by the moon or the moon
and sun. Such views were held by Pytheas of Massilia, Seleucus of
Babylonia, Posidonius the Stoic philosopher, Caesar, Cicero, Strabo,
Seneca, Pliny the elder, Lucan, Claudianus and Macrobius.

The ancients say little as to the agency whereby the moon is enabled
to exert an influence upon the waters of the globe ; but winds produced
by the moon, vapors surrounding the moon and the special power of
the moon to replenish moist bodies, are severally mentioned as being
the probable means.

However, before Newton's great discovery, several philosophers had
gone so far as to suggest or assert that the tides are due to an attractive
force of the moon analogous to magnetic attraction. Among these
were Scaliger, Gilbert, the College of Jesuits at Coimbra, Antonio de
Dominis, Stevin and especially Kepler.

Of course, not all ancient or medieval theorists admitted the moon
to be the cause of the tides. Some of the many other causes brought
forward were: The discharging of rivers into the sea; variations in
depths and densities of the sea ; the surface of the sea not being every-
where upon the same level; the respiration of the earth; submarine
caverns; submarine heat; submarine vapors, exhalations, or fermenta-
tions; power exerted by a supernatural being; whirlpools and eddies;
and the non-uniform motion of the earth or of its various parts.

VOL. LXXIV. — 34.

52 2 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

When Newton had made public his capital discovery, and had shown
that the magnitudes or ranges of the tides increase and decrease in
accordance with the varying attractions of the moon and sun, the tidal
problem was supposed to be nearing a solution. Indeed, Newton
thought that he could see in the observed times of tides upon certain
shores a justification of his theoretical considerations. His work, how-
ever, was only a beginning. Since his time, eminent mathematicians,
astronomers and physicists — including Bernoulli, Maclaurin, Euler,
Lalande, Laplace, Young, Lubbock, Whewell, Airy, Ferrel, Kelvin, Dar-
win, Levy and Hough — have addressed themselves to this subject ; while
others, like Lagrange, Stokes, Eayleigh, Lamb and Poincare, have dealt
rather with the underlying mathematical and physical problems.

Since it has been universally recognized that the tides result from
the attraction of the moon and sun, the popular mind has taken little
interest in the manner in which these forces operate in order to pro-
duce the tides. The apparent hopelessness of the task has doubtless
deterred many investigators from devoting to it a full measure of their
attention. In fact, as will be shown below, there is no such thing as
" the tidal problem " analogous to the astronomers' " problem of three
bodies." The tide involves a number of problems, and to even discover
what these problems are requires a good knowledge of the forms, sizes
and depths of the oceans, together with a knowledge of the tide-pro-
ducing forces. The observed tides themselves render great assistance
in this matter; for their times and ranges indicate the ways in which
the various oceans probably oscillate, and so, in a measure, the under-
lying tidal problems requiring solution.

General Belief in a Westwaedly-progeessing Tide Wave
Various theories were instrumental in leading to the belief of a gen-
eral westward progression of the tide. As before the Copernican
system of astronomy became known or generally accepted, the tides
were made to accord with the Ptolemaic system then prevailing, so for
some time before and after the publication of Newton's " Principia,"
the tides were made dependent upon the vortices of Descartes's theory.
The Ptolemaic system of astronomy assumed the center of the earth
to be the fixed center of the universe around which revolved a series of
concentric spheres. The outermost of these was styled the primum
mobile; this by its westward motion imparted westward motion to the
stars and other heavenly bodies, to the atmosphere, and even to the
waters of the oceans. And so before the law of gravitation was estab-
lished, the notion became prevalent that water had a westward motion
(ah oriente in occidentem or ah ortu in occasum) around the globe;
and because the flood stream, rather than the ebb, was the one chiefly
considered, the flood stream (and so the progression of the tidal wave)
was commonly supposed to partake of this westward motion. The

THE TIDES 523

theory of a westerly motion of the waters thus had its origin in the
assumed motion of the primum mobile. The flood tide was associated
with this westward motion by Scaliger and Bacon. Kepler also as-
serts that the flood has a westerly direction, although, as already stated,
he attributes the tides to the attraction of the moon.

Descartes's vortex theory also gave a westward progression to the
tidal wave because he assumed that low water would always occur when
the moon crossed the local meridian.

Newton, Bernoulli and Laplace evidently contemplated tide waves
progressing westward around the earth, completing the circuit in 24
lunar hours, or 24 hours and 50 minutes solar time, although they were
aware that the land masses must produce many irregularities in this
hypothetical motion.

In order to see how any tide wave progresses, it is necessary to re-
duce to a common time. This is generally taken as Greenwich lunar
time. Consequently, if tides in a given locality are found to follow the
meridian passage of the moon by a certain interval (expressed in lunar
hours), this interval must be increased by the longitude, expressed in
hours, if the place be in west longitude and decreased if in east longi-
tude. Places having high water at the same tidal hour are said to lie
upon the same cotidal line.

The first extensive charts of cotidal lines were constructed by Whe-
well about 75 years ago ; and these charts, or these charts slightly modi-
fied, have been in common use in atlases and astronomies ever since.

The Impoetance of Stationary Waves suggested

The analogy between the tides and the oscillatory motion of water
in a vase, or other vessel, had been noted by many even before the
moon's attraction had been universally recognized as the principal and
primary cause of the phenomenon. But in order that the water should
oscillate, it must first be disturbed from its position of equilibrium.
Galileo imagined that he had found this necessary disturbance in the
non-uniform motion of different parts of the earth as it rotates upon
its axis and revolves about the sun.

Cesar d'Arcons (1667) supposes the solid earth to move a short
distance back and forth along its axis, thus causing the flood in the
northern hemisphere to appear to move from south to north and the
ebb in the reverse direction. According to his views the entire Atlantic
Ocean is a huge vessel of water, the surface rising and falling consider-
ably at the two ends (i. e., in high latitudes), but having little vertical
motion near the middle {i. e., in equatorial regions), where he logically
infers the horizontal motion to be great.

John Bryanston (1683) supposes the moon to produce in the earth
a small east-and-west libration, not detected by astronomers, and this

524 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

motion of the earth to cause the waters of the oceans to oscillate like
water contained in vessels of various shapes and sizes.

While not questioning the fact established by Newton that the tides
are primarily due to the attraction of the moon and sun. Admiral Fitz
Eoy attempts to explain the tides upon the assumption of stationary
waves extending in an east-and-west direction across various portions
of the several oceans. His wide experience as a navigator had famil-
iarized him with the fact that throughout some extended regions of
the ocean, the tides occur at nearly one and the same time; also that
even for islands remote from the land, the amount of rise and fall is
quite various.

Sir George B. Airy was the first person to make an extensive mathe-
matical study of wave motion implied in tidal phenomena. While he
does not point out how the ocean tides are produced, he shows that
certain dependent bodies of water, and in particular the Irish Sea, must
contain stationary waves. He establishes the theoretical result that
the tides in a north-and-south canal extending from the equator to
either pole must consist of a stationary wave.

William Ferrel suggests that, because of their unusual size, the tides
of the North Atlantic may depend upon stationary waves extending
in an east-and-west direction across the ocean ; and, in particular, upon
one extending between the coasts of Ireland and those of Newfound-
land.

These, and other writers who have expressed similar views, failed
to consider that an imperfectly bounded strip of the sea must have
considerable width (as well as a suitable length) in order to make
a stationary wave possible. They also failed to make any connection
between the known tidal forces and the times of the tide.

This brings us to the subject proper, which involves an approximate
explanation of the dominant ocean tides, it being manifestly unreason-
able to expect accurate mathematical solutions of the problems in-
volved.

It should be noted in passing that although Dr. Berghaus pro-
pounded no theories concerning the tides, his cotidal chart constructed
in 1889 marks a radical departure from those previously constructed,
and is in itself highly suggestive.

The Tide-producing Forces

The tide-producing forces of moon and sun can be computed from
well-established astronomical data, and there are no uncertainties con-
nected with their determination, at least to a moderate degree of re-
finement. In this place it is necessary to say only a few words de-
scriptive of these forces. The tide-producing force of the moon upon
a particle of unit mass is the difference between the moon's attraction
upon this mass and upon a unit mass situated at the earth's center; or

THE TIDES

525

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526 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

it is the difference between the moon's attraction upon the given unit
mass and the moon's attraction upon the entire earth divided by the
mass of the earth. Because the depths of the oceans are small in com-
parison with the length of the earth's radius, and because of the small-
ness of the tidal forces, only the horizontal components of such forces
are effective in the production of tides; and so these may, without im-
propriety, be spoken of as the tidal forces.

The vertical forces alter the intensity of the earth's gravity upon
the waters of the ocean in a way similar to the alteration which would
be occasioned were the density of the waters to undergo a fluctuation
having a range of less than one ten-millionth part of itself. Now the
greatest known ocean depth occurs near Guam Island and measures
5,269 fathoms or 31,614 feet; and it is obvious that the small density
fluctuation just mentioned, and so the vertical forces, can create no
sensible disturbance in the existing ocean.

For simplicity's sake, we shall here ignore that alternation in the
forces which depends upon the declination of the moon, and is respon-
sible for what is called the " diurnal inequality " in the tides. We
shall also, as a rule, ignore that portion of the tidal forces resulting
from the sun's attraction.

It is evident that at moonrise or moonset at a given point or local-
ity upon the earth's equator, the horizontal forces vanish because the
given point is then (very nearly) as remote from the moon as is the
earth's center. On account of the moon's parallax, the moon at the
times of rise or set does exert a downward disturbing force at the given
point or locality ; but, as already stated, this does not concern the tides.
When the moon is on the meridian above or below the horizon, the
disturbing force is all vertical and so the horizontal component does
not exist. Therefore the tidal forces vanish four times during each
lunar day. From moonrise to moon culmination, the force is directed
eastward; and from culmination to moonset, westward. Also from
moonset to lower culmination, the force is directed eastward, and from
lower culmination to moonrise, westward.

For a point not upon the equator, there is also a meridional
periodic force. In north latitude this force has its maximum south-
ward value at the time of either culmination, and its maximum north-
ward value at moonrise and moonset. The reverse of this is true for a
point situated in the southern hemisphere.

In accordance with what has been said, a suspended plumb bob
will, at the equator, make two complete oscillations daily in an east-
and-west direction. The average amount of deviation either way from
its undisturbed position will be about one thirteen-millionth part of the
length of the line measured from the point of suspension to the center
of inertia of the bob.

THE TIDES 527

Equilibrium or Lake Tides

The surface of a small and sufficiently deep body of water will ar-
range itself normal to the direction of apparent gravity ; that is, normal
to the direction of terrestrial gravity when disturbed by the moon and
sun, or, in other words, normal to the disturbed plumb line. If such
a body of water be situated upon the earth's equator, high water will
occur at its east end three lunar hours before the upper or lower culmi-
nation of the moon and low water, three hours after such times. When
it is high water at the east end, it will be low water at the west end,
and vice versa. The amount of the rise and fall {i. e., the range of
tide) at either end will be one thirteen-millionth part of the length of
the body of water. If the body of water be not upon the equator, the
range of tide will be somewhat less, and the times of high water around
its margin will be progressive, following the order of the hands of a
watch in the northern hemisphere and the opposite order in the south-
ern. At the center of gravity of the surface of such a body will be a
point having no rise and fall of tide, and so styled a " no-tide point."
Tides produced in this way are called " equilibrium tides " ; the
minute tide found in Lake Superior constitutes an excellent example
of this class. The observed rise and fall of the lunar tide at Duluth
amounts to 1.6 inches, while the value computed directly from the forces
amounts to 1.4 inches.

As commonly taught in schools and colleges, the expression " equi-
librium tide " is used to denote a fluctuation in the ocean's surface re-
sulting from an instantaneous arrangement of all water particles such
that the surface of the ocean is everywhere apparently level, or normal
to the direction of the earth's gravity when slightly disturbed by the
action of the moon. It is taught that, but for the resistance caused by
the continents and ocean bed, high water at a given place would occur
when the moon crosses the local meridian. As may be gathered from
what follows, this conception is fundamentally wrong. The semidaily
fluctuation of the ocean's surface does not even approximate towards a
surface of equilibrium, because the inertia of the water, and the shal-
lowness of the ocean, when its depths are compared with its horizontal
dimensions or with the distance from the surface to the center of the
earth, prevent such adjustment from taking place in anj^thing like the
half-daily period.

Oscillatory or Ocean Tides
Most tides are not equilibrium tides ; they are waves either station-
ary or progressive. The forces just described act upon portions of the
oceans which are susceptible of taking up stationary oscillations having
about the same period as the period of the forces. In this way the
dominant tides originate. But irregularities in depth and coast line,
particularly openings through the latter, cause the tides generated in

528 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

these ocean basins to send off progressive waves into other parts of the
oceans and into seas, gulfs, bays and tidal rivers.

By a stationary oscillation is meant a mode of motion which can be
readily set up and maintained in a tank, vase or other artificial vessel
of water. High water at one end of a rectangular body of water occurs
when it is low water at the other end, if the simplest mode of oscilla-
tion be under consideration. Between the two ends is a line, styled
" nodal line," along which there is neither rise nor fall but across which
the horizontal motion of the liquid particles is comparatively great.
In order that a large and regular oscillation may be maintained, it is
necessary that the natural period of the basin of water be very nearly
equal to the period of the applied forces : just as a resonator must have
certain dimensions if a particular musical tone is to be reinforced by
its presence. An oscillation is best sustained if the phases (or time-
angles) of the forces, all parts of the system being considered, agree,
as well as may be, with the phases of the velocities of the water par-
ticles. This furnishes a clue to the times of the tides when one knows
the times of the vanishing of the forces.

Obviously, if two rectangular basins performing simultaneous oscil-
lations in accordance with their simplest modes be put together end-to-
end, and the partition between them removed, the whole body may be
made to so oscillate that high water will occur simultaneously at the
two ends, while it will be low water over the central portion. The
nodal lines will remain in the same positions as before, crossing the
individual bodies midway between their real and virtual ends., or the
new body at points one quarter of the body's length from either end.
The individual bodies each comprise a half wave-length of the whole-
wave system to which they now belong. The oscillation in each of the
individual bodies is said to be " uninodal " and that in the whole body,
" binodal."

No-tide Points

Points shown upon the charts (Figs. 5, 6 and 7) from which the
cotidal lines radiate, are no-tide points ; that is, points at each of which
there is no rise and fall of tide. In the oceans these points are due to
the fact that the times of the tides around them and which times are
dependent upon stationary or progressive waves, or both, must take
successively all values from one to twelve, because in open water sud-
den changes in time can not occur.

In narrow arms of the sea, no-tide points may result from dependent
stationary oscillations influenced by the deflecting force of the earth's
rotation. This, for the northern hemisphere, is such that if we always
face the direction towards which the flood or ebb stream is flowing,
water will be piled up upon the side of the channel then situated upon
the right, and drawn away from the opposite bank. The reverse of
this occurs for channels situated in south latitude.

THE TIDES

529

Atlantic-Ocean Tides

A body of water resembling the artificial one just described is the
portion of the Atlantic Ocean (shown by one form of shading) ex-
tending from South America to southern Greenland and resting against
the western coast of Africa and Europe. A section of this basin or

BRAZIL
GUIANA

Near

CAPE VERDE IDS.

Off

MOROCCO

\N.of
IRELAND

SOUTHERN
GREENLAND

2 5 0 0 fms.

1100 fms.

35°ofQ:teat Circle

^Zi' of Great Circle

INDIAN
OCEAN

BENGAL

and

PEGU

I I O O fms.

Fig. 2. This diagram shiows ttie binodal oscillation going on in the North

Atlantic Ocean. When it is high water at either end, it is low water off Morocco

and vice versA. The depth of the southern portion being greater than the depth of

the northern, a half wave-length in the former exceeds a half wave-length in the

latter — the period in each case being very nearly 12 lunar hours.

system is shown by means of a diagram (Fig. 2). One nodal line
passes near the Cape Verde Islands and another lies westerly from Ire-
land. When it is high water on the coasts of Guiana and Brazil, it is
also high water around southern Greenland, and it is then low water
along the coast of Morocco, Spain and Portugal. The Roman numer-
als upon the small map of the world show that high water occurs at
eight o'clock, Greenwich lunar time,
for the South iVmerican and Green-
land ends of this basin and at two
o'clock for the central or Morocco
portion. On account of the extensive
openings to the eastward and north-
ward of this basin or system, pro-
gressive waves are formed which con-
tribute to the tides around the British
Isles and Arctic Archipelago, and are
chiefly responsible for the tides of
the Arctic Ocean. Since progressive
waves can not arise suddenly, their
effects are felt over a large portion of

the system now under consideration, and they tend to obscure the
theoretical nodal lines which cross it.

The tides along the Atlantic Coast of the United States are pro-
duced in the body of water which extends from this coast to the Ant-
arctic Continent by way of Cape of Good Hope. This is shown upon

the smaller chart of the world (Fig. 4) by one of the types of shading.

The northern portion of this region is not greatly influenced by pro-
gressive waves because the ■ openings through its northwestern, or

M of Great Circle

Fig. .3. This diagram shows
that the Bay of Bengal measures
a quarter of a wave-length to its
nodal line extending eastward
from Ceylon. Its tide depends
directly upon that tide of the
Indian Ocean which lies to
southward of the nodal line.

the

United-States,

boundary are not large.

Consequently, the theoretical

530 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

nodal line running northeasterly from the Lesser Antilles is not ob-
scured. Eef erring now to the cotidal chart of the Atlantic Ocean (Fig.
5), it will be seen that the mean range of tide, as shown by Arabic nu-
merals, is seven feet along the coast of Georgia, between two and three
feet for the Bahamas, one foot for the outer coast of Porto Eico, and
little or nothing some leagues farther eastward. Hence the observa-
tional proof of the existence of one end of this nodal line.

When it is high water along the Atlantic Coast of the United
States, it should be low water between Brazil and western Africa; that
is, because the tidal hour is twelve for the former locality, it should be
six for the latter. Doubtless such is the case for the portion of the
tide depending upon the system now under consideration. But the
system previously considered, viz., that extending from Guiana and
Brazil to southern Greenland, gives eight for the tidal hour off the
Brazilian coast. This explains why the observed times of tide between
western Africa and Brazil fall between six and eight o'clock.

All along the southeastern coast of Brazil, the tidal hour is six,
while west of Cape of Good Hope it is about twelve — but not exactly
twelve because this locality is influenced by a progressive wave due to
the existence of the Gulf of Guinea,

Farther south, along the Antarctic Continent, the tidal hour is
doubtless six, but no observations are available for verifying this
conclusion.

It may be noted here, and before going farther, that upon the
small chart of the world (Fig. 4), the unshaded water areas are such
that forces acting upon them, and them alone, can produce little tide
either in such areas themselves or in other parts of the oceans. In
other words, if they possess tides, these will depend upon the tides ex-
isting in such portions of the oceans as are comparatively well suited
for their production. Heavy lines upon the chart indicate outer bound-
aries of systems. If rigid walls were erected along the outer boundaries
of any particular system, the forces would incite tides of considerable
size in the waters bounded by the walls and the shore lines; the tides
of the system, if kept down by resistance, would nearly agree in their
times of occurrence with the tides actually existing. These hypothetical
bodies of water, together with such landward dependencies as have their
tides occurring simultaneously with those of the body proper and upon
which the forces act, are shaded by means of light parallel lines. In a
particular ocean, the systems are distinguished by the directions given
to the lines of shading. Double shading indicates an overlapping of
systems.

The waters surrounding the British Isles have, as a rule, large tides
accompanied by swift tidal streams. They depend chiefly upon the rise
and fall of that part of the ocean situated to the southwestward of
these isles.

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532 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

The diminution of the mean range of tide in going westward from
Portugal indicates the existence of a no-tide point westward from the
Azores. Other no-tide points occur in European and American arms
of the Atlantic Ocean. The no-tide point between Holland and Eng-
land was first pointed out by Dr. Whewell and the one in the Adriatic
Sea by Dr. Sterneck.

Indian-Ocean Tides

The Indian Ocean contains two strips of water well suited to the
production of tides. The first extends from the northwestern coast of
Australia to the coast of Somali Land and Arabia, the second, from the
southern coast of Australia to the southern coast of Africa and Mada-
gascar— the southern edge of this strip resting upon the Antarctic Con-
tinent. The tides of the Bay of Bengal depend upon those generated
in the first strip, while the horizontal shading in the area between
Madagascar and Hindustan, taken in connection with the tidal hours,
indicates that an oscillation exists in this area which depends chiefly
upon the rise and fall of the tide at the southern end of Mozambique
Channel.

The stationary character of the tide in the Bay of Bengal is shown
not only upon the small chart of the world, but also upon the chart of
cotidal lines which covers the Indian Ocean (Fig. 6). A vertical sec-
tion is shown by means of a diagram (Fig. 3).

The distance southward from the southern coast of Australia to the
Antarctic Continent is less than a half wave-length of the lunar tide.
It is more nearly equal to a half wave-length of the solar tide. Con-
sequently the tides due to this oscillation are chiefly solar, and the tidal
hours are enclosed in parentheses for the sake of distinction.

Fig. 6 shows that a great diversity of ranges of tide occurs in the
Indian Ocean. Between Ceylon and Sumatra the mean range of tide
is about one foot, while at the head of the Gulf of Martaban the range
is nearly 14 feet. In the mouths of the Ganges the mean range is
nearly 10 feet. At the southern extremity of Hindustan Peninsula
the mean range of tide is about 1.5 feet while at the head of the Gulf
of Cambay it is 23 feet. On the western coast of Madagascar the range
of tide is 8 or 10 feet, while at Tamatave, upon the eastern coast, it is
1.5 feet. At Freemantle, near the southwestern corner of Australia,
the range of the semidaily tide is 0.4 foot, while at Collier Bay and
King Sound on the northwestern coast the mean range of tide is about
24 feet.

Between Madagascar and Hindustan is a no-tide point where the
rise and fall of the semidaily tide vanishes.

Pacific-Ocean Tides
The tides in the Pacific Ocean are produced by two systems of oscil-
lations which are distinguished from each other by the two kinds of

Fig. 5.

FiQ. 6.

Fig. 7.

536

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

shading (Fig. 4). The region occupied by the first comprises a tri-
angular body of water covering the greater jDortion of the North Pacific
Ocean, and also a trapezoidal body extending in a southeasterly direc-
tion to the coast of Chile. The nodal line near Acapulco, Mexico, is

very apparent from' observation, as can be seen upon consulting the
chart of cotidal lines for the Pacific Ocean (Fig. 7). The same chart
shows the stationary character of the oscillation by the fact that at the
three angles of this huge triangle — that is, in Panama Bay, the Gulf

THE TIDES 537

of Alaska and off the coast of Luzon — the tide occurs at nearly one
and the same time, while the amount of rise and fall is considerable.
Also, that for a considerable area around each of these angles, the time
of tide changes slowly in going from place to place. The range of tide
gradually decreases from the Gulf of Alaska, where it is about eight
feet, to the western groups of the Aleutian Islands — the range off Eat
Islands being less than two feet.

The South Pacific system embraces an L-shaped region extending
from the coast of California and Lower California to the shoals and
islands north of New Zealand, thence southeasterly to southern Chile
and Grahani Land.

Three no-tide points occur in mid-ocean, one occurs in Norton
Sound, Alaska, one near either end of the Sea of Japan, and one in the
Gulf of Pechili.

Tides at the Isthmus of Panama and Elsewhere

Keferring now to the cotidal maps of the world, it appears that the
mean range of tide at Panama is 12.6 feet, while at Colon, just across
the isthmus, it is only 0.6 foot. That a great difference between the
tides at these two points exists was mentioned by Oviedo y Valdez as
long ago as 1526, and the question as to the reasons therefor has been
frequently raised even up to the present time. Upon consulting the
small chart of the world, it will be seen that Panama is situated at one
angle of the triangular area where the rise and fall would naturally be
greatest.

On the other hand, the tides which enter the Caribbean Sea from
the ocean must be small because of the proximity of the nodal line set-
ting out from the Lesser Antilles (Fig. 4). The time and range of the
small tide at Colon indicate that it belongs to the equilibrium tides of
the Caribbean Sea itself.

Likewise the small tides in the southwestern portion of the Gulf of
Mexico are equilibrium tides belonging to the gulf.

The tides in the eastern portion of the Mediterranean are equilib-
rium tides of that body.

The tides in the Eed Sea consist partly of a bodily oscillation of that
sea and partly of a progressive wave from the Indian Ocean.

The tides found along the South American coast, from Cape Horn
to Eio de la Plata, are derived from the tides of the Pacific Ocean, as
is apparent from the chart of cotidal lines for the Atlantic Ocean.
The range of tide is about thirty feet at the eastern end of Magellan
Strait and less than two feet at Buenos Aires.

Dependent Stationary Wave

It has already been noted that a dependent stationary wave occupies
the Bay of Bengal. Such waves are found in the following arms of the

VOL. LXIIV. — 35.

538 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

sea : The English Channel ; the Irish Sea ; the Adriatic Sea ; the Gulf
of St. Lawrence ; the Gulf of Maine, including the Bay of Fundy ; Long
Island Sound; Bahia Grande; the Gulf of California; the Gulf of
Georgia; and Norton Sound. These waves are accompanied by pro-
gressive waves, setting inwardly; and the effects of the deflecting force
of the earth's rotation upon the moving waters are generally more or
less apparent. As a consequence, nodal lines, such as characterize
simple stationary waves, are more or less concealed in the bodies of
water just mentioned.

Tides in the Vicinity of New York

Turning now to the chart of cotidal lines for New York Harbor and
approaches (Fig. 8), several items may be noted:

The tidal hour changes rapidly along the southeastern coast of Nan-
tucket Island. Here the range of tide is small. Over Cape Cod Bay
the time of tide is simultaneous, and the mean range exceeds nine feet.
Through Muskeget Channel the tidal hour changes rapidly and the
currents are hydraulic in character; i. e., the flood and ebb are not
oscillatory, but simply flow towards the body of water which is tempo-
rarily the lower. A similar remark is approximately true for Vineyard
Sound. Over Buzzards Bay the tide is nearly simultaneous, indicating
the stationary character of the tide wave. A similar remark is approxi-
mately true for Narragansett Bay.

The proposed Cape Cod Ship Canal will connect the waters of Cape
Cod Bay at a locality where the average rise and fall of the tide is
nearly ten feet with those of Buzzards Bay, where the average range
scarcely exceeds four feet. The difference in level due to the tides will
suffice to produce in this canal, a tidal current having an ordinary max-
imum velocity of three knots per hour.

In the eastern portion of Long Island Sound the time of tide
changes rapidly and the range of tide is small. Over the greater por-
tion of the Sound the tide is nearly simultaneous ; and the mean range
exceeds seven feet at the western end. The time and range of tide
change rapidly through East Kiver, and the tidal currents are hydraulic
and strong. West of the northern end of Blackwells Island, the ordi-
nary maximum velocity is five knots. Before the Hell Gate channel
was cleared of reefs and submerged rocks, the currents were a source of
much inconvenience and danger to all shipping passing through the
East Eiver. The time and range of tide change rapidly in Fire Island
Inlet, and the tidal currents are hydraulic and strong. A similar
remark is true for Barnegat Inlet. The tide in Earitan Bay consists
chiefly of a stationary wave. The tidal currents in Arthur Kill and
Kill van Kull are nearly hydraulic. The tide in the Hudson Eiver
consists chiefly of a progressive wave.

THE TIDES 539

Attention has been called to these local details for the purpose of
showing how varied the tidal phenomena may be within a compara-
tively limited region, and that detailed cotidal maps can be constructed
with accuracy only after tidal observations have been made at a great
number of points along the shores and upon the islands included in
the area to be represented. The gauging of the tide away from land
has seldom been undertaken; but there are indications that in the fu-
ture such work will be carried out on an extensive scale.

Concluding Eemaeks

From the cotidal maps of the world, the reader can draw his own
conclusions concerning the resemblance between the tides as they must
approximately occur in nature and the hypothetical tides progressing
westerly around the globe according to the popular conception of to-
day and which, as we have seen, existed at the time when the Ptolemaic
System held sway over the astronomy of medieval times. He will find
no indications of tide waves having crests coincident with meridians
and progressing westward at the rate of fifteen degrees of longitude
per lunar hour. He will see that even a general westerly progression
of the tide around the globe has no existence in fact.

The dictum of Aristotle, Pliny, Newton and others, that large tides
are found in large seas, can be tested by means of these charts. The
truth of this is manifest when the tides of the Mediterranean Sea are
compared with those of the North Atlantic Ocean, but no such rule
applies when the tides of the North Atlantic Ocean are compared with
those of the Pacific Ocean and especially with those of the South Pacific
Ocean.

The reader may ask. How does it happen that even rude approxima-
tions to the tides in nature have been so slow in their development?
The answer is. Definite or applicable theories concerning the causes of
existing tides were impossible before the depths of the oceans had be-
come generally known. And so, before a few decades ago, tidal theories;
were developed with reference to certain assumed or hypothetical cases'.
This remark is no disparagement of the labors of such men as Newton,
Laplace and Airy, and which compel the admiration of all persons in-
terested in tidal matters. In fact, the comparative simplicity of the
hypotheses upon which their theories were founded, placed tidal work
squarely upon a scientific basis and enabled these intellectual giants to
press their investigations a long way towards completion.

As to the construction of cotidal lines for the various oceans, it may
be said that this implies, not only a rational approximate theory, but
also a multitude of carefully-made tidal observations ; such observations
are, even to-day, either wanting or defective in many portions of the
globe despite the efforts of individuals, expeditions, learned societies,
institutions and governments.

540 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

FACTS CONCEENING THE DETERMINATION^ AND
INHERITANCE OF SEX

By H. E. JORDAN, Ph.D.

ADJUNCT PEOFESSOK OF ANATOMY, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA

SINCE the time of Aristotle numerous observations have been
recorded concerning the phenomenon of sex. Long prior to this
period, undoubtedly, men were vexed by such questions as: Why in
the same litter of animals are some male and others female ? Wliy in
the same brood of chickens do some develop into hens and others into
cocks? Why in the same family are some of the children girls and
others boys? What determines that one animal or plant shall be male
and another female? When does the sex of fiie organism become
unalterably fixed? Wliat is the nature of sex? A great deal of light
has been recently thrown upon all these questions. In modern times a
solution is being attempted by refined scientific means. Statistical,
experimental and cytological methods of research are being employed.
The fogs of mystery enshrouding the phenomenon of sex are becoming
more and more attenuated and we may confidently hope soon to see
them cleared away. Much has lately been discovered that strongly
indicates the probable answer to the foregoing questions. Moreover,
in their attempts to elucidate the enigmas of sex, men have been actu-
:ated as much by a pure scientific motive of love of truth as by the prac-
tical bearing of completer knowledge respecting sex-determination on
the matter of the control and regulation of sex. The two main prob-
lems involved concern the time when sex is determined and the means
hy which such determination is established.

Aristotle had noted in the case of pigeons that of two eggs laid in
each batch, one generally produced a male and the other a female. He
further reported that the first gave rise to the male and the second to
the female. Flourens has confirmed this fact for eleven sets of eggs
and Cuenot has more recently obtained the same result. What is the
meaning of this fact? Aristotle speculated and men are still specu-
lating. When Drelincourt wrote regarding the matter of sex in the
eighteenth century he gathered together two hundred and sixty-two
theories and hypotheses concerning the nature and cause of sex and
declared them all " groundless." Blumenbach subsequently contributed
another and reported two hundred and sixty-three worthless theories,
having added Drelincourt's to the list. Since then the number of
theories not well founded on actual facts has increased to more than five

DETERMINATION AND INHERITANCE OF SEX 541

hundred. The great majority of these are largely unscientific, the
result mostly of philosophical speculation or a priori opinion. As
examples of such it was supposed that an egg from the right ovary gave
rise to a male and an egg from the left ovary to a female ; that the sex
of the offspring was like that of the younger or more superior parent;
the exact opposite of the latter, that the sex was that of the weaker or
older parent; or that the younger or more vigorous parent determined
the opposite sex in the offspring; and many others involving equally
off-hand assumptions. That the sex of the offspring is that of the
weaker parent has been recently advocated again and statistically ap-
parently well supported by Dr. Romme, a well-known physiologist of
London. In further support of his theory he cites the fact that among
barbarous nations continually at war there is always a preponderance
of boys over girls.

Professor Schenck's famous sex-theory is in essence the same. He
proposes to increase the physical vigor and the number of the red blood
corpuscles in a person when it is the wish to beget a child of the opposite
sex. Renewed interest has been aroused in this theory, due to Professor
Schenck's connection with the royal family of Russia, where he put his
principle to the test with an apparently successful result when the
Czarina gave birth to the desired son. But Professor Simon Newcomb,
as the result of a very extensive statistical investigation, concludes that
" it seems in the highest degree unlikely that there is any way by which
a parent can affect the sex of his or her offspring."

Within the last decade students of the problem of sex have become
very generally agreed that sex is inherited. In other words, they believe
that the same mechanism that provides that an offspring shall have one
or the other of a pair of contrasting characters represented in the two
parents (a long sharp nose or a short stubby nose, for example) provides
also that the animal shall have either the sex of the mother or that of
the father. The problem of sex seems to be part and parcel with the
general problem of inheritance. Furthermore, characters of the parents
are believed to be inherited by the offspring according to Mendelian
principles. And it can be shown, as was done by Dr. Castle, of Har-
vard University, in 1903, that sex may be regarded as the result of a
Mendelian segregation, dominance and inheritance of sexual characters.
And now it becomes incumbent to explain Mendelian inheritance be-
fore continuing the discussion of the problem of sex, seeing that sex
appears to be inherited in Mendelian fashion.

Mendelism is the term employed to designate a set of phenomena
that appear when animals or plants with sharply contrasting characters
(white flower petals and colored petals; gray fur and white fur; short
stature and long stature; sagacity and stupidity; etc.) are crossed.
The principles included under the term Mendelism were first discovered

542 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

by Gregor Mendel, abbot of Briinn, in 1866. Since then our knowl-
edge of Mendelian inheritance has been greatly extended through the
researches notably of Professor de Vries, of Amsterdam; Professor
Bateson and Professor Punnett, of Cambridge University, England;
Professor Cuenot, of Paris; Professor Castle, of Harvard University;
Dr. Davenpoi-t, of the Station of Experimental Evolution of the Car-
negie Institution at Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, and Professor
Morgan, of Columbia University. For the purpose of elucidating this
subject in respect to its essential principles and its peculiar nomencla-
ture we will take the simple case of two varieties of pea, one with seed
colored yellow and the other with seed colored green. These are said
to be "pure" in the sense that from green seed-bearing individuals
when interbred only green seed-bearing plants will arise, and from
yellow peas only yellow seed-bearing plants. In order that plants or
animals may be successfully crossed it is requisite that they be closely
related species or varieties.

Mendel found at the beginning of his work that when a cross is
made between two such varieties of peas, the first succeeding generation
yields peas that are all colored yellow. When flowers from plants of
the latter are self-pollinated, i. e., crossed with their own kind, there
result peas of two kinds, yellow and green, and the proportion of such
seed is three of the former to one of the latter. This means that the
yellow color is " dominant " over the green color, which is said to be
" recessive." Mendel further discovered that when the green recessives
were self-pollinated their seed always produced only green seed-bearing
plants. Such were called " pure recessives " or " extracted recessives."
He found also that among the 75 per cent, of yellow seed 25 per cent,
always bred true, i. e., they gave rise to only yellow seed-bearing plants.
Such were designated " pure " or " extracted dominants." But the
remaining 50 per cent, on self-fertilization again yielded peas in the
proportion of 75 per cent, yellows to 25 per cent, pure recessive greens.
The Mendelian proportion then in the case where a single set of con-
trasting characters (" unit characters " or pair of " allelomorphs ") are
crossed is 25 per cent, pure dominants (yellow in color) ; 50 per cent,
color hybrids (also yellow in color, since yellow dominates over green) ;
and 25 per cent, pure recessives (green in color).

Mendel explained the foregoing facts on the assumption that during
the process of maturation, when the unripe cells divide each into
four mature germ-cells, eggs or pollen grains (ova or spermatozoa in
animals), the carriers of the qualities yellow and green are segregated
into different cells. In other words, no eggs or pollen grains (sperms)
carry both characters, but only one or the other character. Accord-
ingly, among the eggs 50 per cent, carry the quality yellow and 50 per
cent, carry the quality green; among the pollen grains 50 per cent, again

DETERMINATION AND INHERITANCE OF SEX 543

carry only the yellow color and 50 per cent, the green. At fertilization
eggs and pollen grains meet fortuitously and according to the laws of
chance there are twice as many possibilities that an egg with a green
color-determinant (G) shall meet a pollen grain with a yellow color-
determinant (Y), and vice versa, as that an egg with a green deter-
minant shall meet a pollen grain with a green determinant, or that an
egg with a yellow determinant shall meet a pollen grain with a yellow
determinant. Hence the combinations produced may be expressed
thus: lYY: 2YG: IGG. Among the seed 50 per cent, are hybrids in
respect to color, but since the yellow color dominates over the green all
appear yellow, giving a total of 75 per cent, yellow peas and 25 per cent,
green peas.

When pure strains of sweet peas with white flowers are crossed with
pure-bred peas with red flowers similar results follow. All the plants
of the first generation bear red flowers, showing the dominance of red
color over white color. When these are interbred the plants of the
second generation split up in the proportion of 75 per cent, red-flower-
bearing to 25 per cent, white-flower-bearing; or 25 per cent, will be red
pure dominants, 50 per cent, red hybrids and 25 per cent, white pure
recessives. Also when white mice (albinos) are crossed with gray mice
(or pigmented mice) the flrst generation are all gray, when the latter
are bred among themselves the second generation includes albinos and
gray individuals in the proportion of 1 pure gray: 2 gray hybrids:
1 pure white.

In applying Mendelian principles to sex, maleness and femaleness
are regarded as unit characters and during the maturation of the germ-
cells the carriers (chromosomal elements) of the male and female quali-
ties are believed to be segregated in different cells, both ova and sperma-
tozoa, so that one half of the ova contain the male-determining factor
and the other half the female; and likewise the spermatozoa. The
result of a fortuitous intermingling of ova and sperm, according to
strict Mendelian laws, should produce male and female individuals in
the proportion of 3 :1 or the reverse. Suppose femaleness dominated,
then there would be 75 females in every 100 of population or of any
particular species. No such disproportion of sexes obtains. In fact,
barring a few exceptions which may be explained as adaptations or as
the result of a selective mortality, all species are approximately equally
divided into two classes with respect to sex. Further assumptions must
be made and pure Mendelism modified. The obvious and necessary
assumptions are that there are no individuals pure in sex; all are
hybrids ; and the sex that the organism attains is the result of a struggle
between the mingled male and female tendencies and the dominance,
now of one tendency, now of the other. The dominance may be due,
as Dr. Thomson, of the University of Aberdeen, suggests, to slight

544 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

metabolic fluctuations, now in favor of maleness (katabolic), now in
favor of femaleness (anabolic), the net result being an approximately
equal proportion of males to females. In other words, there must
be selective fertilization, that is, a female ovum must be fertilized by
a male sperm, and vice versa. The various assumptions made are not
pure speculations, but rest upon many facts. Some animals do possess
two kinds of eggs, of which one (the larger) develops into females and
the other kind (the smaller) into males; there are many instances of
selective fertilization; and many animals do produce two kinds of
spermatozoa.

If there is only one kind of egg, as Correns suggests — as may well
be the case, since of the four potential ova, three (the polar bodies)
degenerate during maturation and only one becomes capable of fertiliza-
tion— and two kinds of spermatozoa, the explanation of sex becomes
very much simpler. One sex (female) must then be pure in respect to
sex (a homozygote) and the other must be a sex-hybrid (heterozygote).
If the egg is female in tendency, in order that there should appear 50
per cent, males, maleness must dominate over femaleness. In any case,
an interpretation of the facts involves the application of some phase of
Mendelism. As will appear farther on, the case of the honey-bee, ants
and plant-lice offer serious obstacles to the universal application of
Correns's interpretation, and even of the whole Mendelian scheme.

Within the last decade three main positions have been advocated
by various investigators in regard to the cause of sex. The posi-
tion held by Beard and his school is to the effect that there are two
kinds of eggs, male and female, and one kind of spermatozoa ; and that
sex is determined exclusively by the egg, the spermatozoon having no
role in sex production. This position can be supported by various
facts. A certain worm (Dinophilus apatris) carefully studied by Kor-
schelt, is known to produce two kinds of eggs, large and small, the
former developing into females, the latter into males. Of course it
might be urged that in consequence of selective fertilization only the
small eggs are impregnated by a male-producing spermatozoan and the
large eggs by a female-producing, and an entirely different interpreta-
tion of the facts would be necessitated. But in the case of Hydatina
senta, a rotifer or " wheel animalcule," where large and small eggs are
also laid, the former without fertilization develop into females and
the latter into males. However, both kinds of females, the large-egg-
laying kind and the small-egg-laying kind, came originally from fer-
tilized eggs, and it may be that a difference in metabolic activity of the
several females kept the eggs of the one small and allowed those of
another to grow large and so gave the victory to the female determinant
in the well-nourished egg. This assumption is supported by the fact
that the amount of nourishment taken by the young female between

DETERMINATION AND INHERITANCE OF SEX 545

the time of emergence from the egg and deposition of her first egg
determines which kind of egg she shall subsequently produce. The
well-nourished females produce female eggs, the poorly nourished pro-
duce male eggs. Sex, however, is determined while the ovum is still in
the ovary. Wlien the eggs have once been formed no subsequent change
of food or temperature can alter the kind of eggs that are produced.
Phylloxera vitifola, the plant louse that lives on the roots of the grape-
vine, also produces large and small eggs, developing parthenogenetically
(without fertilization) into females and males, respectively.

The second position is that taken by Strasburger, Castle, Wilson
and others who have derived their facts largely from the group of
insects. These investigators are inclined to believe that there are two
kinds of eggs as there are two kinds of spermatozoa, and that sex is the
outcome of an interplay or struggle of the sex determinants of these
elements and the dominance of one or the other sex. According to
these biologists all animals are sex-hybrids; either sex is potentially
present originally, but by reason of the dominance of one or the other
sex-determinant the particular sex becomes patent and makes the animal
definitively male or female. Dominance may be due, in many cases, as
is indicated by some of the Hemiptera, to the presence of one or several
extra and specific chromosomes — " idiochromosomes," " X-element "
(Wilson). According to this view fertilization is selective, i. e., a
female egg is fertilized only by a male sperm, and vice versa. There
are many observations and ascertained facts to support this position.

The case of the large "walking-stick" insect (Aplopus mayeri) or
" devil's riding horse " of Loggerhead Key, Dry Tortugas, Florida,
which I studied in 1907, illustrates the position under discussion.
Similar facts had been reported previously for many insects by various
American cytologists, notably Professor McClung, of the University of
Kansas ; Professor Montgomery, of the University of Pennsylvania, and
Professor E. B. Wilson, of Columbia University. Aplopus mayeri
(named after Dr. A. G. Mayer, director of the Biological Laboratory
of the Carnegie Institution of Washington at Dry Tortugas, Florida)
produces two kinds of spermatozoa differing in the number of chromo-
somes (rod-like bodies supposed to be the vehicles of the hereditary
qualities) that the two classes possess. One half of the spermatozoa
hold 17 chromosomes and the other half 18, the additional one being
large and V-shaped (called by McClung the " accessory chromosome ").
The somatic cells of the male contain 35 chromosomes, the somatic cells
of the female, 36 chromosomes. When the eggs mature, the 36 chro-
mosomes are reduced, by fusion in pairs and a subsequent double divi-
sion, to 18 chromosomes. Now at fertilization when an egg of 18
chromosomes unites with a spermatozoan of 18 chromosomes an organ-
ism whose cells contain 36 chromosomes results, and this is a female;

546 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

when the other combination occurs, 18 chromosomes from egg and 17
chromosomes from sperm, an organism results that has only 35 chro-
mosomes, and this is a male. It seems, therefore, as if the accessory
chromosome was a sex-determinant in some sense — probably only in
the sense of a visible accompaniment of some hidden underlying physi-
ological cause of sex — perhaps as the carrier of a specific enzyme or
'' hormone."

To bring these facts into line with Mendelian principles it becomes
necessary to postulate (1) two kinds of eggs, just as there are two kinds
of spermatozoa, (2) selective fertilization, and (3) dominance of female-
ness, and the observed facts can be explained. If the accessory chromo-
some is a sex-determinant, then when an egg is fertilized by a sperm
lacking this element, the egg itself must carry the factor that determines
that the sex of the resulting organism of 35 chromosomes shall be a male.
In the event of the other possible combination the egg selected must
have been one carrying the female determinant and, since the accessory
chromosome is a male-determinant and the union of the two produces
a sex-hybrid, femaleness must dominate in order to yield a female or-
ganism of 36 chromosomes.

The most recent position is that of Dr. Correns, professor of botany
in the University of Leipsig, to the effect that there is only one kind of
egg (always female) and two kinds of spermatozoa. He has brought
forth facts to amply support this view in flowering plants. He shows
that the spermatozoa determine the sex and that the time of this deter-
mination is the instant of fertilization. Correns attempts to bring the
second position above mentioned into harmony with his own, and the
facts upon which Beard's position is based are given a reasonable inter-
pretation. We shall consider these various positions from Correns's
standpoint, and will note how he disposes of the obstacles above re-
ferred to.

There are now known about one hundred cases, mostly among the
air-breathing arthropods, where there is a dimorphism of spermatozoa.
But if fertilization determines the sex, what about such cases where
eggs develop without fertilization, as in the drone honey-bee, ants and
plant lice (aphids and phylloxerans) ? These several examples until
recently had been serious stumbling-blocks to the theory that sex is
dependent on a dimorphism of spermatozoa. ISTor is the matter yet as
clear as we could wish it to be. All the fertilized eggs of the honey-
bee develop into females (workers or queens, depending upon the kind
and amount of food they receive), the unfertilized eggs develop into
males or drones. Meves has recently found that while the drone
honey-bee produces two kinds of spermatozoa, one set, the male-pro-
ducing, degenerates and becomes non-functional. Hence all fertilized
eggs must develop into females. The facts become intelligible if we

DETERMINATION AND INHERITANCE OF SEX 547

assume that all the eggs possess a predominating male tendency. There
appears to be Justification for this assumption since two polar bodies are
formed and a reduction division takes place which may be thought of as
partially eliminating the female tendency. Due to the preponderance
of female elements, fertilized eggs become females. Unfertilized eggs
become males, since the male tendency is undominated.

Aphids produce brood after brood of parthenogenetic females while
food and climatic conditions remain favorable. When environmental
conditions become adverse both males and females appear between whom
eggs are fertilized, which as " winter eggs " resist the elements until the
following summer, when they develop into parthenogenetic females.
These facts may be thus explained: the original ancestor (stem-mother)
of a parthenogenetic series arises from a fertilized egg ; the eggs of the
parthenogenetic females are all hybrids as to sex. No reduction is
thought to take place when the single polar-body is formed. When
conditions are favorable, metabolic activities give the ascendency to the
female elements; when these become adverse, the male element gains
the ascendency in *some of the eggs. When males and females appear
the sex determinants are segregated in the ova and spermatozoa in equal
proportions in each. During maturation in the male aphid, however,
Dr. N. M. Stevens, of Bryn Mawr College, and also Dr. W. B. von
Baehr, of Germany, have discovered that half the sperm degenerate
(these lack the accessory chromosome) and that these are male-pro-
ducing kind. Hence, since only female-producing sperm remain, all
fertilized eggs (sex-hybrids) must develop into females.

In the case of Phylloxera, where many generations of wingless
parthenogenetic females appear while environmental conditions re-
main favorable, and when these become adverse, give way to winged
males and females. Dr. T. H. Morgan has discovered a similar degen-
eration of the male-producing spermatozoa and the loss of a chromosome
in the parthenogenetic males. In these cases we must assume that the
eggs are intrinsically different (male and female), as they really appear
externally, or else, as Correns proposes, that the eggs are potentially
male and that in the fertilized egg where both sex tendencies are present
femaleness dominates when environmental conditions are favorable to
constructive metabolism. But some mechanism or condition must
remain whereby an apparently homozygous male may produce sperma-
tozoa bearing a female tendency. It is by no means proved that the
whole quota of female tendencies (elements) is eliminated at matura-
tion. The male and female (paternal and maternal) chromosomes are
probably promiscuously arranged on the spindle. The persistence of
chromosomes bearing female characters may supply the demands for the
production of female-producing spermatozoa.

The sex of the offspring then appears to be the result of the inter-

548 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

action of two factors, both unknown quantities. By the union of an
egg and a sperm an organism is produced which has a certain sex. If
we let X represent the unknown sex tendency of the ova, and Y the
unknown sex tendency of the spermatozoon, then we may state the
process of sex production thus : X -j- Y = sex of offspring. If we
could discover the value of X or Y we could solve the equation and
discover the secret of sex. Correns, as the result of experimentation
with certain flowering plants since 1900, has found the value of X in
these particular forms and has thus contributed invaluable facts for
the reinterpretation of former observations and for the formulation of
a wider generalization regarding sex phenomena.

Many facts are known which leave little doubt that in most animals
sex is absolutely fixed in the fertilized ovum. A real exception is the
case of the frog, where the embryo or even the larval tadpole is her-
maphroditic, i. e., it contains both ovaries and testes. In a later stage
of development one or the other of these pairs of organs degenerates
when the frog becomes a definitive male or a definitive female.

In the human species twins are frequently of the same sex, either
male or female. Such twins are known as " identical twins " when
enveloped in a common chorion or foetal membrane. They are the re-
sult of an independent development of accidentally separated cells at
the two-cell stage of development. Double monsters likewise are
always of the same sex. " Ordinary twins " are as frequently of
opposite sex as of the same sex. In this case each foetus is envel-
oped in its own chorionic membrane. Such twins are the result of
the synchronous development of two ova simultaneously successfully
fertilized. These facts show that sex is already determined in the
fertilized egg and before the first segmentation. Similar evidence is
contributed by Jehring, who studied poly-embryony in a species of
armadillo (Tatusa hyhrida) found in Paraguay. Here as many as
eight offspring appear at a single birth. Jehring reports that all eight
fetuses are enclosed in a common fetal envelope. Hence the eight
offspring must result from the development of the products of division
as the eight-cell stage of segmentation. Since the offspring are all of
the same sex, sex must have been already determined in the fertilized
egg prior to the first cleavage. Again, Professor Silvestri, of Naples,
has quite recently contributed new facts which lead to the same posi-
tive conclusion. He has discovered that Litomastix, a kind of bee
(Chalcidse), lays its eggs in the egg of a moth, Plusia. As the latter
develops into a larval caterpillar, the egg of Litomastix segments into
a chain of many eggs, each of which gives rise to an embryo bee. The
caterpillar may contain a hundred such embryos and they are all of
the same sex — female if the egg was fertilized; male if unfertilized.
Sex must have been already fixed in the fertilized egg. But this is an

DETERMINATION AND INHERITANCE OF SEX 549

entirely different matter from the position that Correns takes that sex
is fixed at the time of fertilization and determined by the spermatozoa.
Correns made his experiments with two species of Cucurbitacese,
the family to which our pumpkin and squash belong, growing wild in
central Europe. These two species are Bryonia alba and Bryonia
dioica. The former is the plant which supplies the root employed in
pharmacology for the treatment of dropsy. The especial value of
these species for experiments relative to the problem of sex, lies in the
fact that the former is hermaphroditic or monoecious, i. e., mature
male and female flowers appear on the same plant; and the latter is
diecious, i. e., male and female flowers appear on different plants.
These two species can be crossed in either direction. Correns made
three sets of experiments, the results of which have led him to a unique
and simple explanation of the cause of sex, in the light of which former
theories must undoubtedly be more or less extensively modified. Cor-
rens first crossed Bryonia dioica with Bryonia alba, using the eggs of
the former and the pollen grains of the latter. Sterile hybrid-offspring
appeared from the cross and they were all females. Correns explains
that since germ-cells of the hermaphrodite forms carry only herma-
phrodite determinants, the male gametes (pollen grains) can have had
no influence on the sex of the offspring of this cross. In other words,
hermaphroditism is recessive to dieciousness. And since the offspring
were all female, all the eggs of Bryonia dioica must have had female
tendencies.

Correns next pollinated the pistils of Bryonia dioica with the pollen
of the same species. Forty-one pure dioica offspring were obtained
from this cross, twenty-one of which were female and twenty male, or
in round numbers each sex appeared in 50 per cent, of the individuals.
Since the eggs were all female, as shown by the first experiment, this
result must mean that the pollen grains determine the sex and that
they must be of two kinds, male and female in tendency, and approxi-
mately equal in number. It must also mean that the male tendency
dominated over the female, else no males could have appeared.

In a third set of experiments the pistils of Bryonia alba were pol-
linated by Bryonia dioica. The offspring in this case were sterile hy-
brids, and of the seventy-six which came to maturity thirty-eight were
male and thirty-eight female. This again shows that hermaphroditism
is recessive to dieciousness since no hermaphrodites appeared. It
shows also again that there must be two kinds of male gametes with
male and female tendencies, respectively, of equal number, and that
they determine the sex. It shows, moreover, that sex is determined at
the time of fertilization, for before that instant all the female gametes
(ovules) had the tendency to develop into hermaphrodite forms. It
appears also in the light of this experiment that hermaphroditism and

550 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

dieciousness must be regarded as unit characters, since they behave in
crossing according to Mendelian laws. Hermaphroditism probably
has its chromosome determinant as also dieciousness, hence the cyto-
logical study of the germ cells of hermaphrodite forms will hardly sup-
ply the clue to the cause of sex as it was until recently believed to do.

In those insects where there is a dimorphism of spermatozoa, con-
sisting in the presence of an accessory chromosome in one half of the
gametes, no obvious diiference appears among the eggs. There are no
real grounds for a division of the ova into those with male character
and those with female character. In the light of Correns's recent ob-
servations, the eggs had better all be regarded as possessing the same
sex tendency, and this probably female in nature. The spermatozoon
with the accessory chromosome need then only be thought of as pos-
sessing the female tendency, and the one that lacks it, as possessing
the male tendency, and the facts are brought into line with the results
of Correns and admit of the same interpretation. In the case where
large and small eggs are produced, as by Dinophilus apatris, it is con-
ceivable that there is selective fertilization, i. e., while both tvpes of
egg may be female in tendency, only the larger admit of fertilization
by a female-producing spermatozoon.

The present status of the case concerning the determination of sex,
as well supported for a large class of plants and animals, appears to be
that sex is determined by the spermatozoa (or pollen grains) — which
are male and female in the proportion of 1 : 1 — and at the instant of
fertilization. But surely it would be the utmost folly to hold on the
basis of so comparatively few facts, that this explanation applies uni-
versally. Nature arrives at similar ends by devious and divers ways
and it is not inconceivable that sex has been attained by several paths,
and is now determined in different modes and at different times in the
different groups of animals and plants.

JO SI AH WILLARD GIBBS 551

JOSIAH WILLAKD GIBBS AND HIS EELATION TO
MODERN SCIENCE. II

By fielding H. GARRISON, M.D.,

ASSISTANT LIBRAEIAN, ARMY MEDICAL LIBRARY, WASHINGTON, D. C.

The Thermodynamic Potentials.^^ — In 1869 the physicist F. Mas-
sieu communicated to the French Academy of Sciences the discovery
of two algebraic functions from which all the thermodynamic proper-
ties of a fluid may be derived.^'^ These " fonctions characteristiques "
of Massieu contain in latent form two of the four relations which
Gibbs derived independently from his general thermodynamic equation
and which have since been variously interpreted as the fundamental
functions or thermodynamic potentials of heterogeneous chemical sys-
tems. Mathematically they are simplifications which dispense with
the necessity of endless transformations of equations and formulae,
evolving, as Bryan says, " order out of chaos."^^ As the foundations
of thermodynamics are its two laws, so the potentials may be regarded
as the coping stones of the edifice, and all recent progress in the sci-
ence, as in the physics of gas mixtures, osmosis, elastic solids or elec-
trolysis has been made with their aid. The four potentials are now
interpreted as the " free energy " (xp) and the " modified available
energy" or total thermodynamic potential (^) for constant tempera-
ture, and the intrinsic energy (c) and heat function (x) for constant
entropy.^^ Of these the first two are the most important, being the
analogues of the Newtonian or gravitational potentials (potential
energies) of mechanical systems, generalized, as Larmor says, " so as
to include the temperature " and connoting thermal effects,^" just as
the Maxwellian potentials connote effects of electromotive force. They

^ Tr. Connect. Acad., III., 144-52.

" " J'appelle cette fonction fonction caracteristique du corps: en effet,
lorsqu'elle est connue, on pent en tirer toutes les propri^t^s du corps que Ton
consid&re dans la thermodynamique . . . Je rapellerai d'ailleurs qu'une fois la
fonction caracteristique d'un corps d6terminee, la theorie thermodynamique de
ce corps est faite." F. Massieu, Compt. rend. Acad. d. sc, Paris, 1869, LXIX.,
859, 1058.

'^ Bryan, " Thermodynamics," Leipzig, 1907, 109.

^ If e, t, 7), p and v represent the energy, temperature, entropy, pressure and
volume of a chemical or thermodynamic system, its thermodynamic potentials
will be the intrinsic energy e obtained by integrating Gibbs's fundamental equa-
tion, the free energy \f/ = e — tri, the total thermodynamic potential or "modi-
fied " available energy f = e — tri -f- pv and the heat function x = e + pv.

"Larmor, " Encycl. Britan.," 10th ed., XXVIII., 167.

552 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

represent that part of the energy of a system which is due to changes
in its mass or structure rather than to thermal or molecular changes,
and so can take part freely in physico-chemical transformations. For
this reason the potential ij/, which is the difference between the total
energy of a system and its bound (molecular) energy, was called the
" free energy " of the system by Helmholtz, who rediscovered the prin-
ciple independently, not knowing that Gibbs had forestalled his labors
by at least six years. In lecturing on the subject during the later
period of his life, Helmholtz, with his usual breadth of spirit, was
inclined to assign complete priority to his predecessor,^^ while both
Gibbs and Helmholtz have acknowledged their indebtedness to
Massieu.*'^

Criteria 0/ Equilibrium and Stability. — Gibbs's conditions for the
complete equilibrium of an isolated homogeneous chemical substance
are that its pressure, temperature and the chemical potentials of its
components should be constant throughout the mass, since changes of
pressure and temperature disturb mechanical and thermal equilibrium,
while difference of potentials destroys stability and precipitates chem-
ical change. For an isolated heterogeneous system, as an enclosed
liquid and a gas in contact, the following maxima and minima are
criteria of complete equilibrium: The system must have and maintain
the greatest entropy consistent with constant energy; or for adiabatic
systems (at constant entropy), the intrinsic energy (c) or heat func-
tion (x) should have minimum values for constant volume or pressure,
respectively, but for isothermal systems (at constant temperature) the
free energy potential (i/^) or the thermodynamic potential {t) should
have minimum values for constant volume or pressure. Any deviation
from these maxima or minima will again disturb equilibrium and pro-
duce changes of physical or chemical state. The essential feature of
spontaneous chemical change is, then, either constant increase of
entropy in self-contained or adiabatic systems or a corresponding
decrease of free (mechanically available) energy in systems at uniform

" " Deshalb hat Gibbs, der auch diese Form der Darstellung zuerat fand,
die Function A das isotherme Potential genannt." Helmholtz, " Vorles. iiber
theoret. Physik," Leipzig, 1903, VI., 269. See, also, the lecture in his biography
by L. Koenigsberger, Braunschweig, 1903, II., 369: "In diesem Sinne hat Herr
Gibbs die Grosse F. das isotherme Potential des Korpersystems genannt, ich
selbst habe dafiir den Namen der freien Energie vorgeschlagen, well dieselbe
ArbeitsJiquivalente darstellt, deren Ueberfiihrung in andere Formen der Energie
nicht denselben Einschrankungen unterliegt wie die der Warme." For Lord
Kelvin's relation to the discovery of the free energy potential see Proc. Roy.
Soc. Lond., 1908, LXXXL, No. A 543, pp. xlvi-xlvii.

"' " M. Massieu appears to have been the first to solve the problem of repre-
senting all the properties of a body of invariable composition which are con-
cerned in reversible processes by means of a single function." Gibbs, Am. J. 8c.,
1878, 3. s., XVI., foot-note to p. 445.

JO SI All WILL ABB GIBBS 553

temperature, or in Lord Kelvin's phrase, a general dissipation of
energy in all irreversible phenomena. For each potential, with appro-
priate choice of coordinates, a solid model or relief map can be con-
structed, upon which the different minima of the potentials appear as
depressions in the landscape. When the lowest depression or minimum
has been reached, complete and permanent equilibrium is attained,
and we have what Gibbs calls a " phase of dissipated energy," at which,
as in a bar of metal or a block of granite, no further spontaneous
changes of physical state are possible so long as the system remains
isolated from external forces. In connection with his discussion of
equilibrium we may note Gibbs's forethought in extending his equa-
tions to n dimensions, since for more than three components a three-
dimensional model no longer suffices ; his early introduction of the time
element into the discussion of chemical reactions*^ and his pages on
" passive resistance to change,"^* which should be read by every chem-
ist, since they are of the essence of his subject, especially in regard to
carbon compounds or colloidal substances. In applying dynamic prin-
ciples to chemical phenomena Gibbs, and after him Helmholtz, thought
decrease of free energy at uniform temperature to be the most impor-
tant condition for equilibrium, since it measures the actual work done
and is thus the " force function " of mechanics with reversed sign.^^
The electromotive force of a reversible galvanic cell turns out to be
ident^'cal with the free energy of chemical decomposition in the cell,®*
and in the field of biology free energy is of equal importance, for rela-
tive uniformity of temperature is as common in living processes as in
the laboratory. Well did Boltzmann say that " the struggle for exist-
ence of living matter is a war for free energy," for when the free
energy of a living body becomes a minimum its death is at hand.

The Phase Bule.^"^ — Any aspect of a chemical substance which is
homogeneous in regard to physical state and percentage composition
has been called by Gibbs a phase of the substance, the components of
a phase being its constituents of independently variable concentration.
The phase rule asserts that a homogeneous substance having n com-
ponents is capable of only n -\-l independent phases, while a hetero-
geneous system of r coexistent phases, each of which has n independ-

•" Gibbs, loc. cit., 113.

^*Ibid., 111-3.

•» See Gibbs, Am. J. Sc, 1878, 3. s., XVI., 442. " The transition from the
systems considered in ordinary mechanics to thermodynamic systems is most
naturally made by this formula . . . the mechanical properties of a thermo-
dynamic system maintained at constant temperature being such as might be
imagined to belong to a purely mechanical system, and admitting of representa-
tion by a force function."

•• Gibbs, Tr. Connect. Acad., III., 520.

"^liid., 152-6.

VOL. LXXIV. — 36.

554 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

ently variable components, is capable of n -\- 2 — r degrees of free-
dom or variations in phase, of which not more than n -\- 2 can coexist
at the same pressure and temperature. Such systems, in Trevor's
nomenclature, are spoken of as invariant, monovariant, divariant, etc.,
according to the number of possible variations of state. Thus water
(HgO) has three independent phases, ice, liquid and steam, and is
invariant, the three phases being in equilibrium at only one pressure
and temperature, called the triple point, where the steam-line, ice-line
and hoar-frost line meet. But when calcium carbonate (CaCOs),
calcium oxide (CaO) and carbon dioxide (COo) are in equilibrium,
we have three coexistent phases formed of two components (CaO, CO2)
and the system is monovariant. By this rule the chemist is able to
predict the number of modifications of which a chemical substance is
capable from observation of its physical properties alone, or the number
of substances in a mixture from notation of the number of phases pos-
sible, or the strength of a saturated solution from its temperature and
pressure. Many different proofs of the phase rule have been given by
mathematicians and physicists from varied and independent points of
view,^^ and there is every indication that it is a complete and accurate
statement of a general chemical law. Its practical significance re-
mained for a long time undiscovered until the Dutch chemist Van der
Waals took it up, and when, in 1884-6, his colleague, Bakhuis Rooze-
boom, found himself unable to explain certain puzzling phenomena
connected with the equilibrium of gaseous hydrates and of double am-
monium salts, van der Waals was able to direct his attention to Gibbs's
theorem and showed him, by working out a special case, how thermo-
dynamic methods might be applied to practical chemistry.^^ From
that time on Roozeboom became the devoted champion of the phase
rule, which he compares to the ground plan of a gigantic building in
which all the collected phenomena of chemical equilibrium can be
stored in a convenient and comprehensive manner. " This structure,"
he adds with pride, " has since been completed, almost exclusively by
the work of the laboratories of Leyden and Amsterdam."^" In fact,
the investigations of Roozeboom and van't Hoff upon double salts, solid
solutions and metals are among the most brilliant results of modern
chemistry. It is in connection with the graphic study of chemico-
physical changes by the phase rule that Gibbs's diagrams and surfaces

^ Nernst, " Lehrb. d. theoret. Chemie," 2. Aufl., 564. Wind, Ztschr. f. phys.
Chem., 1899, XXXI., 390. Kuenen, Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinb., 1899-1901, XXIIL,
317; J. Phys. Chem., 1899, III., 69. Le Chatellier, Rev. g4n. d. sc, 1899, 759,
Saurel, J. Phys. Chem., 1901, V., 31, 401. Trevor, ibid., 1902, VI., 185. Weg-
scheider, Ztschr. f. phys. Chem., 1903, XLIII., 93, 113. Raveau, Compt. rend.
Acad. d. sc, 1904, CXXXVIII., 621. Mueller, ibid., 1908, CXLVI., 866.

"^ Roozeboom, "Die heterogenen Gleichgewichte," 1901, I., 7.

'"'Ztschr. f. Elektrochem., 1907, 94.

JO SI AH WILLARD GIBBS 555

have proved of greatest value. The triangular diagram which he orig-
inally proposed for this purpose^^ has been so improved by Eoozeboom'^
that the study of the chemical changes of a heterogeneous system and
the prediction of its possible degrees of freedom become for the skilled
vs'orker a simple and easy matter.

Scientific Applications of the Phase Rule. — The doctrine of phases
giTes the chemist a new way of looking at things, serving at once as a
basis of classification and a guide in qualitative research, and in contra-
distinction to the older gravimetric chemistry which dealt with some
one continuous state of an isolated substance, it inaugurates the chem-
istry of substances in contiguity. Here the phase rule bears the same
relation to physical chemistry that the periodic law of Lothar Meyer
and Mendelejeff does to inorganic chemistry. Although only quali-
tative in its application it gives the chemist a new fundamentuyn,
divisionis by components and phases, necessitating a revision of sub-
stances, of which many formerly recognized as compounds are now no
longer listed as such, while many new compounds have been intro-
duced.'^^ In analytical chemistry the phase rule has found its widest
application in classifying our knowledge of the dissociation of solid
substances such as alloys, solid solutions, cryohydrates, tartrates, basic
double and racemic salts, or in the solution of such special problems as
the changing solubilities of metallic hydrates or the distributions of a
dissolved substance between two solvents which do not mix. For
example, Eoozeboom discovered by the phase rule that four different
hydrates can be formed with ferric chloride, of which only two were
known before his investigation,'^* while van der Heide's studies of the
double sulphate of potassium and magnesium (Schonite) revealed the
possibility of at least fifteen heterogeneous modifications of phase.'^°
No less than thirty different ferric sulphates are now on record,^^ and
Bancroft has said that a general system of qualitative research is not
possible until we have studied the properties of such multi-component
systems. Tammann's researches on the equilibria subsisting between
solids and their melted states indicate that nearly all such substances
have more than one solid modification of phase,^^ while van't Hoff

" Gibbs, Tr. Connect. Acad., III., 176.

"Roozeboom, Ztschr. f. phys. Chem., 1894, XV., 143; Arch, neerl, 1895-6,
XXIX., 71. Bancroft, J. Phys. Chem., 1896-7, I., 403. In 1891, Sir G. Stokes
suggested the graphic representation of physical states of ternary alloys by
means of an equilateral triangle which he derived independently from Maxwell's
color diagram. (Proc. Roy. 8oc. Lond., 1891, XLIX., 174.)

"See Professor Bancroft's Journal of Physical Chemistry (passim), from
which most of the results in this section are taken.

"Roozeboom, Ztschr. f. phys. Chem., 1892, X., 477.

"Van der Heide, ibid., 1893, XII., 416.

"Cameron, J. Phys. Chem., 1907, XI., 641.

" Tammann, " Kristallisieren und Schmelzen," Leipzig, 1903.

556 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

has completely revolutionized our knowledge of the double salts and of
geological formations. One of the most beautiful applications of the
phase rule is found in van't Hoff's investigations of the oceanic salt
deposits at Stassfurt/^ in which from a laboratory study of the equi-
librium obtaining between the sulphates and chlorides of sodium, cal-
cium, magnesium and potassium the great chemist was able to recon-
struct the past history of the formation of the earth's crust from the
primeval ocean, giving even the limits of time, the pressure and the
probable temperature at which the water evaporated. The importance
of such methods in mineralogy and geology is self-evident and clearly
as extensive as the subjects themselves. In metallurgy the work of
Eoozeboom, Le Chatellier, Sorby, Stead and others on steels, bronzes,
tins, alloys and ingots of metal generally have, with the aid of the
microscope, given us most valuable knowledge of the continuous chem-
ical changes and " diseases of metals " going on in these substances,
which, without the guidance of the phase rule, were formerly in-
vestigated in an aimless and haphazard way, at enormous expense and
waste of time. Investigations of the very complicated equilibria in
such " solid solutions "''^ as carbon-steels, nickel-steels, cobalt-steels,
etc., have explained the causes of brittleness and crystalline structure
in steel-rails through extended use, and how such rails can be renewed
by prolonged heating at high temperatures. " The variations of the
engineering properties, such as tensile strength, torsional resistance,
ductility, etc., with varying concentration and varying heat treatment,
is a subject which can only be worked out satisfactorily with the phase
rule as a guide," says Bancroft, and he adds, " we do not yet know one
half the properties of our structural metals." The establishment of the
true constitution of Portland cement is another telling application of
the phase rule and it is thought that it will give us " clearer ideas as to
the strength of cements and the elasticity of clays." Lord Kelvin
expressed the hope that some day the architect might be in effect a
sanitary engineer,^" and Bancroft predicts that " the time will come in
our engineering schools when the subject known as ' materials of
engineering ' will have to be taught by the chemist rather than by the
engineer."^^

In agricultural chemistry the phase rule serves as a guide in the

" Van't Hoff, " Lectures on Physical Chemistry," Chicago, 1907.

" Solid solutions are solids dissolved in solids, and were first described by
Tan't Hoflf {Ztschr. f. phys. Chem., 1890, V., 322), who found that when certain
solutions are frozen, the separated solid is not the pure solvent, but a mixture
of the selvent and the solute, i. e., a solid solution, of which we have examples
in the alums, glasses, colored and hyaline minerals, alloys and the " ice flowers "
of the Antarctic regions.

«" Kelvin, "Popular Lectures," 1894, II., 210.

"^ Bancroft, J. Phys. Chem., 1905, IX., 209.

JO SI AH WILLARD GIBBS 557

investigation of soils. " The soil is the stomach of the plant/' being
in effect a complex system in three phases, of which the liquid phase
furnishes the nutrient solution to the plant. The bacteria, molds and
enzymes in the soil make its relation to the plant a complicated and
difficult problem,®^ but the application of physical chemistry to its solu-
tion of Cameron, Bell, Briggs and other chemists in the United States
Department of Agriculture is clearly in the right direction. Eecently
Bancroft has shown how the phase rule may be applied to photo-
chemistry when the radiant energy of absorbable light such as ultra-
violet is converted into chemical energy. The light acts as another
variable requiring n -{- 3 phases in an invariant system while in general
we may have as many additional degrees of freedom as there are kinds
of light.®^ The application of the phase rule to organic chemistry is
difficult owing to " passive resistance to change." Most of the reac-
tions in organic chemistry are reversible, i. e., proceed to equilibrium,
and if sufficient time be allowed will reverse backwards like a Carnot
cycle, to some approximation of their initial state. Many reactions
with organic substances, however, seem to stop short of equilibrium, and
the chemist, in working with colloids, ferments, gums, etc., is balked by
certain passive forces, which do not, like friction or viscosity, merely
retard chemical change, but actually prevent it. Even such explana-
tions as the hypothesis of reversibility in infinite time or Duhem's
theory of false equilibria and pseudoreversible reactions, do not entirely
account for these mysterious phenomena, and it is probably through
new methods of laboratory procedure that organic chemistry will ulti-
mately pass into the hands of the physical chemists.

In physiological chemistry the doctrine of phases opens out a new
perspective, a new qualitative way of envisaging problems which, ap-
proached quantitatively, are a severe task even for an Emil Fischer.
Eecently the Dutch physiologist Zwaardemaker has proposed the ap-
plication of the phase rule and the second law to general physiology.**
" The task of an energetic histology," he says, " would be to give the
number of phases and their relations, while an energetic physiology
would determine the equilibria and reversible processes by direct experi-
mentation."^^ Zwaardemaker proposes to regard the human body at
rest as a complicated system of coexistent phases in equilibrium, the
metabolic, reproductive and other processes of which are irreversible.
The animal cell he holds to be a system of heterogeneous phases, the
equilibrium of which can be disturbed by experimental removal of the
nucleus. The red blood corpuscles are probably divariaut, four com-
ponent systems of four phases, while the endothelial cells of the ven-

«- Cameron, ibid., 1904, VIII., 642^ ~

«3 Bancroft, ibid., 1906, X., 721.

^ Zwaardemaker, " Ergebnisse d. Physiol.," Wiesbaden, 1906, V., 108.
^Loc. cit., 154.

558 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

tricle of the heart are examples of a monovariant system. The
" pressure phosphenes " of the retina, luminous sensations produced by
pressure on the eyeball, and consequently " eye strain," may be due,
Zwaardemaker thinks, to displacements of equilibrium through dis-
turbance of the thermod}Tiamic potential. These speculations are, of
course, tentative, but there are indications that physiological problems
may be attacked in a way that has some show of success in that it is
qualitative.

The Law of Critical State. — When we have two contiguous phases
of a substance, as a liquefying gas or a vaporizing liquid, there is a point
where the two become continuous. This is called the critical state at
which the distinction between coexistent phases vanishes. Gibbs's law
asserts that a critical phase of independently variable components is
capable of w — 1 independent variations. This theorem is the basis of
the brilliant work of van der Waals, Duhem, van Laar and Kamerlingh
Onnes upon continuous gaseous and liquid states.

Osmosis and the Theory of Solutions. — Gibbs's work is remarkable
throughout for his avowed or explicit intention to have " nothing to do
with any theory of molecular constitution " as leading to strained and
unnatural hypotheses, and the wisdom of his decision is seen in his
earlier treatment of the equilibrium of osmotic forces. He bases his
theory of osmosis upon the idea of a semi-permeable diaphragm or
membrane, which he introduced into physics as a purely theoretical
concept, leaving the actual facts about it, he says, " to be determined by
experiment." This ideal membrane, which he supposes permeable to
one component and impermeable to others, is the key to the theory of
solutions, for, to the mathematician, it admits of the condition of
Teversibility which he finds in algebraic or chemical equations; to the
physicist, a solvent in the act of breaking up or wedging its way through
a dissolving substance is the dynamic analogue of a liquid forcing its
way into a denser liquid through the membrane, while to the chemist,
the assumption that the membrane is selective for certain substances
only implies some special chemical affinity between these substances and
the membrane itself. If two fluids of different composition or con-
centration, say water and alcohol, are separated by a semi-permeable
membrane, the osmotic flow of the water into the alcohol is due to
definite forces. These, in Gibbs^s argument, are, not a difference in
pressure, but a difference in temperature which disturbs thermal equi-
librium or a difference in the chemical potentials of components which
can pass the diaphragm, the condition for equilibrium being equalized
temperature and equality of chemical potentials. " Even when the
diaphragm is permeable to all the components without restriction," he
says, " equality of pressure in the two fluids is not always necessary for
equilibrium."^^ While Gibbs did not attempt a definite theory of solu-

«• See his abstract in Am. J. Sc, 1878, 3. a., XVI.

JO SI AH WILLARD GIBBS 559

tions, it is clear that he regarded osmosis as a chemical or thermo-
djTiamic phenomenon. Let us see how his mathematical theory agrees
with the facts of recent investigations. The mathematician Cayley
thought double-entry bookkeeping an example of a perfect science,
because its theory and practise are in complete agreement, so that the
detection of sources of error becomes simply a matter of expert skill.
For similar reasons one of the principal aims of modern physical chem-
istry has been to arrive at an adequate theory of solutions as a guide in
chemical and biological research. Such a theory has been proposed by
van't Hoff, who, starting from Pfeffer's measurements of osmotic
pressure, bases his argument upon the widely known equation which
asserts that osmotic pressure in very dilute solutions obeys the laws of
Boyle, Gay Lussac and Avogadro with the same physical constants that
obtain in mixtures of dilute or ideal gases.^^ Pushing this analogy
with gases farther, van't Hoff implicitly denied that there is any
specific attraction between the solvent and solute (dissolved substance)
or that the alleged semi-permeable membrane plays any active part in
osmosis, holding that " osmotic pressure," like the pressure exerted by
rarefied gases, is a real initial pressure caused by a bombardment of
the membrane by the dissolved molecules. Now van't Hoff's equation,
which Gibbs anticipated for dilute solutions of gases in liquids, and of
which van't Hoff, Lord Eayleigh^^ and Gibbs^^ have each given rigorous
thermodynamic proofs, was found to be true to the laboratory measure-
ments for extremely diluted solutions of sugar and other substances, but
(as Lord Kelvin said ten years ago) "wildly far from the truth" for
solutions of acids, bases and salts.®" Arrhenius, in his theory of elec-
trolytic dissociation,®^ has explained these discrepancies as " harmonies
not understood," due to free dissociation of ions in water and to in-
crease of molecular conductivity with dilution; but Lord Kelvin's
objection has still some force to this day. Two schools of chemists
have thus arisen, one of which seeks to approximate the laboratory
facts about solutions to van't Hoff's dynamic analogy with the gas laws,
the other holding that osmosis is bound up with an ascertained selective
action of the semi-permeable membrane, osmosis and solution being
both due to " chemical affinity." Most prominent among those who
have opposed the view that real solutions behave like ideal gases, are
Louis Kahlenberg and J. J. van Laar. The special service of Kahlen-
berg has been to discredit the molecular or dynamic analogy between
gases and liquids and to emphasize the point made by Fitzgerald in

"Van't Hoff, Ztschr. f. pMjs. Chem., 1887, I., 481.

^Nature, London, 1896-7, LV., 253.

^'Ibid., 461.

'"Ibid., 273.

'^Ztschr. f. phys. Chem., 1887, I., 631.

56o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

1896, that " chemical forces are of a far more complex nature than
electrolysis."®- Accepting the contention of the van't Hoff school that
the gas equation and the Arrhenius theory are only true for infinite
dilution, Kahlenberg has turned a clever flank movement upon them by
insisting that if liquids act like gases we should expect a solution of
increased concentration to behave at least qualitatively as gases do on
increase of pressure. As a matter of fact, although practically all gases
act alike, different solutions do not, as a rule, and solutions of solids
in liquids, or liquids in liquids, do not behave like solutions of gases in
liquids or gases in gases. Furthermore, the Arrhenius theory does not
agree with many facts about aqueous solutions, while it falls completely
to the ground for solvents other than water. This does not mean that
Kahlenberg opposes electrolysis or electrolytic dissociation as such, or
that he would have us abandon hypotheses of such value before we have
found better ones, but he insists that " the question why certain solu-
tions, molten salts, etc., conduct electricity and others do not will
probably not be answered until we can tell why a stick of silver conducts
electricity and a stick of sulphur does not."®^ Morse and others have
shown that the van't Hoff equation and the Arrhenius theory are true
for very small dilutions, that is for solutions so mathematically ideal
that they are practically independent of the nature of the solvent and
the solute, but the experiences of Kahlenberg have shown that they are
not always true for actual solutions of reasonable concentration. More-
over, the fact that the solute in tenth-normal solutions acts like a gas
by no means explains all the phenomena of solution. Kahlenberg's
experiments with semi-permeable membranes®* show that such mem-
branes, while passive for gases, are active or selective for different
liquids, so that the initial movement and actual direction of the osmotic
current are determined by the specific nature of the membrane itself
and of the liquids bathing it. Semi-permeable membranes, therefore,
exist as such, and although none are strictly ideal in Gibbs's sense,
their true " semi-permeable " or selective character is indicated by
Kahlenberg's discovery that in some cases true measurements of osmotic
pressure can not be obtained unless the solution is stirred to increase
chemical action. The semi-permeable membrane shows that osmotic

°^ " That other than purely electrical forces are operative in solution is
indicated by Helmholtz's investigations of electrical diffusion through fine
tubes." Fitzgerald, Helmholtz lecture, Nature, 1895-6, LIII., 297.

*^ Kahlenberg, Phil. Mag., 1905, 6. s., IX., 229.

»* Kahlenberg, J. Phys. Chem., 1896, X., 141-209. Recently Tammann has
advanced the view that in ideally diluted solutions the solute acts like a gas,
while in concentrated solutions there is a chemical interaction between the
solvent and the solute, and such solutions behave more like the solvent under
higher pressure. (Tammann, " Ueber die Beziehungen zwischen den inneren
Kraften und Eigenschaften der Losungen," Leipzig, 1903.)

JO SI AH WILLARD GIBBS 561

pressure is not an initial force, but a secondary hydrostatic pressure due
" to the same affinity which produces adhesion, imbibition, absorption,
adsorption, solution and chemical action." But all these forces are
reducible in the simple reasoning of thermodynamics to the difference
in temperature (Carnot's principle) and differences of chemical po-
tentials which promote chemical change. As to molecular bombard-
ment, " osmotic pressure," said Fitzgerald, in 1896, " is more nearly
related to Laplace's internal pressure in a liquid which depends upon
intramolecular forces, than to a gaseous pressure which is practically in-
dependent of the forces acting between the molecules."^^ Van Laar
pictures a sugar solution of reasonable concentration as made up of
crooked movements of molecules, slowly crowding upon one another,
with no intervening spaces, totally different from the rapid billiard ball
movements with wide repulsions that are supposed to obtain in diluted
gases. Osmosis, in van Laar's theory depends not upon the molecules
of the dissolved substance, but upon the solvent itself, which, having
the higher chemical potential, moves toward the solute. To explain the
phenomena of osmosis by appealing to an initial osmotic pressure, says
van Laar,^^ is like saying that an angry man's loud talk and unseemly
gestures are due to his red face.^'^ Anger is the real cause of both. So
the movement in osmosis, which produces a difference in hydrostatic
pressure, depends initially upon differences of chemical and thermo-
dynamic potentials. Beyond this we know absolutely nothing of the
interaction between the solvent and the solute. Again Bancroft has
shown that the pressure for finite solutions in osmosis varies with the
heat of dilution, which again varies with the specific nature of the
solvent and the solute.®^ All this brings us back to Gibbs's fundamental
position that osmotic pressure " is a function of the temperature and
the n potentials.'"'^ From this point of view, Graham's original
doctrine, that osmosis is the conversion of chemical affinity into me-
chanical power,^'"' is at once true to the mathematical theory and the
laboratory facts. If now we agree with Whetham that " osmotic phe-
nomena are intrenched in the strongest part of the vast lines occupied
by the science of thermodynamics," it is clearly due to the early pioneer
work of Gibbs that this vantage ground was gained in the first instance,
while the molecular theory of osmosis remains in the debatable land of
controversy and a true theory of solutions is still far to seek.

{To be continued)

«= Fitzgerald, Nature, London, 1895-6, LIII., 297.

"* Van Laar, " Sechs Vortrage iiber das thermodynamische Potential,"
Braunschweig, 1906, 3.
"Ibid., 34.

"^ Bancroft, J. Phys. Chem., 1906, X., 319-29.
»= Gibbs, loc. cit., 139.
"" Graham, Phil. Tr., 1854, 227.

562 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

SUGGESTIONS FEOM TWO CASES OF CEREBRAL
SURGERY WITHOUT ANESTHETICS

By Peofessoe GEORGE TRUMBULL LADD

ZALE UNIVEKSITT

FOR the first time, so far as I am aware, there have been placed on
record two cases of cerebral surgery, accompanied by somewhat
extensive explorations of the brain-substance, without the use of an-
esthetics. The suggestions afforded, and the problems further opened,
by these cases are so interesting from the psychological point of view
that it seems to be desiral)le at least to call to them the attention of
this association. Only one of these cases has as yet been reported in
print ;^ for some of the facts connected with the other case I am in-
debted to correspondence with the operating surgeon, Dr. Harvey
Gushing, of Johns Hopkins University.

Briefly described, the case of which we have the fullest report was
as follows. The patient, R. C, was 32 years of age, unmarried, a
farmer and teacher, a man quite up to the average of his class in in-
telligence, and of excellent moral habits. Previous to the beginning
of his present trouble he had been in excellent health. When nine
years of age he received a slight blow on the head ; later, he received a
blow from a baseball bat which fractured his nose. No other causes
of possible cerebral injury were discoverable. About the year 1895 he
began " to suffer from curious nervous attacks, which came on without
cause." These consisted of strange sensations in the head, and
twitchings of the left calf. But there was no loss of consciousness
and the seizures lasted only a few minutes. With these symptoms
there subsequently became associated tingling sensations, which some-
times spread up the left leg even to the thorax and the left arm, and
more extensive twitching of the muscles, spreading itself in the same
direction. These seizures were followed by numbness in the parts
involved; but until July, 1900, there were no fits with complete loss
of consciousness; and at the time of the first operation loss of con-
sciousness had occurred only six times, although during the ten years
previous there had been several hundred seizures.

The patient had, however, been subject to headaches from child-
hood, and these became more and more severe after the nervous at-

^ " Removal of a Subcortical Cystic Tumor at a Second-stage Operation
without Anesthesia " ( reprinted from the Journal of the American Medical
Association, March 14, 1908, Vol. I., pp. 847-856).

CEREBRAL SURGERY WITHOUT ANESTHETICS 563

tacks already described. For three months early in the year 1903,
the headaches were particularly intense, and this period of intense
pain in the head ushered in a period of definite occular symptoms,
consisting of momentary attacks of blindness, followed by diplopia for
two or three days. The headaches suddenly disappeared, but there
was permanent loss of visual acuity, weakness of the left leg, and
general nervousness.

At the time the patient entered the hospital, careful examination
of the nervous condition gave the following results : The optic nerves
seemed atrophied and there was some constriction of the visual fields.
There was distinct hemiplegic limp on the left side, a slight weakness
in the dorsal flexion of the left ankle, and possibly also in the flexion
of the knee and hip. The reflexes of the left leg were also somewhat
exaggerated. On the contrary, sensation seemed to be normal over
the arm and hand. The deep reflexes in the arms and right leg were
normal. The sensibility of the right leg and foot were without dis-
coverable abnormality.

The conclusion of the diagnosis made at this time afiirms : " It
was evident that the patient was suffering from an organic lesion
situated in the upper part of the Eolandic region, involving the cor-
tex itself or lying just below it."

Four different operations were performed for relief of this patient,
between the dates of November 22, 1906 and March 21, 1907. These
were all unsuccessful and did not even reveal the cause of the malady,
and this unfavorable result was chiefly due to the fact that the pa-
tient bore anesthetics — both chloroform and ether — so badly and the
cyanosis was so profound and threatening as to compel the surgeons
to abandon their attempts at further exploration of the brain, lest it
might lead to a fatal result. Moreover these operations served to
show that the exposed surface of the brain was entirely normal in ap-
pearance; and when this part of the cortex was faradized, there was
no abnormality of motor response. " Clean-cut movements were
elicited in the toes, lower leg and thigh." In the same way move-
ments were also obtained in the thoracic muscles, in the lateral ab-
dominal muscles and in the muscles of the shoulder; and from still
lower centers were obtained flexion of the elbow and flexion of the
wrist. Posterior to the central fissures no motor responses could be
elicited.

Following the third operation, or on and after December 23, 1906,
the seizures increased in severity. Aggravated by the weakness fol-
lowing an attack of bronchial pneumonia in January, 1907, the
nervous sjinptoms increased to one or more daily, consisting of severe
epileptiform fits which involved the entire body, and always with loss
of consciousness.

564 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

The constant and urgent request of the patient for relief, at all
risks, from his distressing condition, induced the doctors to attempt
the fourth operation; and when this was unsuccessful even to the ex-
tent of revealing the abnormal conditions, to the fifth operation, which
was without anesthetics and which is the one chiefly interesting from
the psychological point of view.

This fifth operation was performed March 26, 1907. The bone
flap was for the fifth time reflected; the dura was incised some dis-
tance outside the largest previous incision; an incision was made into
the gyrus centralis posterior, which appeared somewhat flattened and
yellowish in color; and about one centimeter below the surface the top
of a thin-walled cyst came into view. By enlarging the incision until
it measured 5 centimeters this cyst was removed; but below it a still
larger cyst was disclosed, which was " in turn shelled out of its bed
by pushing the brain away from it, and was in this way removed un-
ruptured." The entire procedure lasted about three hours.

But what about the mental condition of the patient during this
long-continued and extensive exploration and cutting and pulling of
the brain and its integuments ? We are informed that he was " in-
terested," asking questions and conversing with the doctors most of
the time. Although perfectly conscious, he "experienced no sensory
impressions whatever, even when the dura was incised." The only
discomfort, not to say pain, given to him by these extensive explora-
tions of his brain, was when the edge of the incision of the dura was
caught in a clamp and the membrane dragged upon. The patient
himself called the attention of the surgeons to an otherwise unnoticed
phenomenon which consisted of a slight twitching of the muscles of
the left side and shoulder.

In his report Dr. Gushing expresses his regret that this rare op-
portunity was not seized in order to test the effects of stimulating the
posterior and post-central convolutions upon the experience of con-
scious sensation. In a subsequent case of cerebral surgery without
anesthetics, however, these convolutions were stimulated and distinct
impressions of sensations were obtained which were localized by the
subject in the extremities and not at all in the cortex itself.^ No such
sensory impressions were obtained by stimulating the pre-central area,
or " motor strip," although the customary motor results were obtained.
Further details of the second case were not at my disposal at the time
of writing this paper.

The following remarks upon these surgical results as viewed from
the psychological point of standing are intended as suggestions rather
than as definitely established conclusions.

^ Still more recently, as I have learned in conversation, in a third case of
cerebral surgery without anesthetics, the same operator obtained similar resulta
of conscious sensations by faradizing the same region of the cerebral surface.

CEREBRAL SURGERY WITHOUT ANESTHETICS 565

And, first, it would seem that the cerebral hemispheres, including
their integuments, are largely or completely devoid of the capacity of
self-feeling. It has been known for some time that the substance of
the brain is insensitive to pain; but it has hitherto been held that the
dura is a highly sensitive tissue. This belief was strengthened by the
knowledge that this membrane receives its innervation from the tri-
geminal nerve, and by the experience that in trephining the lower
animals, when the dura is reached, struggling, and rise in blood-pres-
sure are common. But here was a fully conscious subject, able
intelligently to describe his sensations, who felt no pain while the
membranes over that part of the brain which is allotted to sensory im-
pressions were incised and manipulated. This experience, therefore,
throws back upon us the problem: What is it that causes intra-
cranial pain, especially in the form of those intense headaches which
follow upon disturbances of the cerebral blood-supply, or in cases of
cerebral lesion like that now under discussion? May we not find that
the causes of the pains which we locate in the cerebral hemispheres
invariably lie outside of those hemispheres? Certainly, it is not
strange that the localization in such cases should be even more in-
definite than in the case of an aching tooth or some form of abdomi-
nal distress. Indeed, cerebral pains and other forms of discomfort,
with their accompanying mental disturbances, may be so severe as to
result in insanity, and yet the location of the irritating causes,
whether nearby or remote from the brain, remain undiscovered.

Second, there is both additional light and increased confusion con-
tributed by these cases of cerebral surgery without anesthetics to the
problem of the functions of the post-central and so-called sensory
convolutions. In both these cases stimulation of the motor strip
called out motor responses; stimulation of the post-central area failed
to call out motor responses. More important still by far is the fact
that, in the second case, stimulation of the post-central convolutions
was followed by distinct sensory impressions — not mere signs of such
impressions, but conscious sensations, testified to in language by their
subject; and these sensory impressions were located in the extremities
and not at all in the cortex itself. This is definite and fairly con-
clusive evidence to the functional value of the post-central convolu-
tions. But now, on the other hand, we have the fact that, although
the incision was made in the middle of the field supposed to be es-
pecially if not exclusively sensory, no subjective sensations whatever
were called forth in this way ; and the yet more startling fact — T quote
the words of Dr. H. M. Thomas, clinical professor of neurology in
Johns Hopkins University — that.

With a tumor situated in large part in the post-central convolutions and
involving a considerable portion of its superior part, there was practically no
objective sensory loss. I think it may fairly be said that before the first

566 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

operation, even after numerous and thorough examinations, no definite objective
sensory disturbance could be detected. The tests were particularly devised to
estimate the power of localization and the power of recognition of objects felt.

All this accords with the evidence upon which our whole localization
theory is based. This evidence tends to show: (1) that the differ-
ent forms of mental functioning are not absolutely dependent upon
definitely circumscribed and permanently fixed portions of tlie cere-
bral hemispheres; and (2) that by mental development a relative
independence of the particular areas originally connected with the
different forms of mental functioning may be attained. From the
physiological point of view the cerebral substance appears as plastic
and educable to a degree until recently unsuspected. And any dis-
location or interruption of the proper connections becomes more
dangerous than even a considerable loss of the brain-substance. From
another point of view the same conclusion was reached in a paper
entitled " A Suggestive Case of Nerve- Anastomosis," which I read
before the Psychological Association at its meeting in 1904. I take
this opportunity to call attention to the fact that Dr. Gushing by a
purposeful division of the facial nerve and its anastomosis with the
spino-facial, has more recently succeeded in restoring to the patient a
considerable degree of normal emotional control of the expressive
muscles of the face. I leave to expert physiologists to conjecture what
new adjustments in their related forms of functioning this required
from the cerebral hemispheres.

Third, these cases of cerebral surgery without anesthesia would
seem further to confirm what has for some time been held to be true
— namely, that slow abnormal developments, even when they finally in-
volve much more serious destruction of the cerebral areas, and interrup-
tions of the normal connections, are tolerated much more easily than
sudden and rapid lesions or other abnormalities. Nor does it appear
wholly out of place to say that while this education of the cerebral
hemispheres to unwonted functions requires time, the emotions and
will of the conscious agent are factors of the greatest importance in
securing the results of this education.

Finally, there is one thought which I bring forward, not as a
matter of argument, much less of proof; but, the rather, as a personal
impression amounting almost to a conviction. In stating this im-
pression I will take the liberty to employ the language of an "old-
fashioned " but by no means altogether discredited psychology. Here
is an intelligent human soul ; he remains perfectly conscious, free from
pain, and taking a lively interest in a surgical operation which ex-
plores, incises, pulls about, and otherwise manipulates, and finally
drags two large abnormal growths out from, what is known to be the
most important part, for the life of conscious sensation and voluntary
motion, of his own brain. From the anatomical and physiological

CEREBRAL SURGERY WITHOUT ANESTHETICS 567

points of view, this picture is sufficiently startling. But when I take
the more purely psychological point of view, I am impressed with the
conviction that we are here dealing with the reality of a soul, as a
spiritual agent, which while it is confessedly dependent for its
development upon the development and normal functioning of the
nervous centers, is, nevertheless, capable of attaining in the exercise
of its higher and more complex forms of self-consciousness, a relative
independence of those nervous centers. And if we ask ourselves
whether this independence may perchance become absolute, after the
destructive forces of nature have completely disintegrated the cere-
bral substance, we can not, indeed, answer " Yes," with the certainty
of positive science. But upon my mind the impression made by such
experiences as these is favorable to the affirmative answer. And so
far as positive science can answer the inquiry at all, or even throw
much light upon it, I prefer to follow along the lines of the seen and
tangible and universally verifiable, rather than take the leap involved
in a premature interpretation of doubtful phenomena by hypotheses
touching the wholly unseen and intangible. Here, at any rate, is this
conscious soul, manifesting itself as a partially " disembodied spirit.''
Its voice I can hear and interpret as one of my own kind. This man-
ifestation appeals to me at present, and in accordance with scientific
methods, much more strongly than any alleged communications from
wholly disembodied spirits. Perhaps, however, at sometime in the
future of the physical and psychological sciences, the two voices may
speak with one accord.

568 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

HYSTEEIA AS AN ASSET

By PEARCE bailey, M.D.

adjunct pbofessoe of nedeologt, columbia university, new york

AT about the time that Commodore Vanderbilt was establishing in
America the methods which made railway travel easy, a book
was published in London which left untouched all problems of con-
struction and management, but nevertheless played an important part
in the economics of transportation. This book treated of railway
injuries and was written by England's foremost surgeon, John Eric
Erichsen. It brought together for the first time, in concrete form, the
nervous disturbances from which the victims of railway wrecks suffer
so severely; and by chronicling the large sums of money awarded in
such cases as were litigated, it showed how important an asset " rail-
way spine " might be. It soon became a best seller. It was indis-
pensable to physician and attorney alike ; and transportation companies
had to have it to protect themselves against the menace of the new.
disease. It almost became a court manual at this epoch, when the
quickening of railway movement was beginning to crowd court calen-
dars with damage claims. For nearly twenty years it stood unchal-
lenged and without a rival. Its influence was felt the world over, for
it carried with it a money importance such as seldom follows the
writings of medical men.

All this was half a century ago. Since then, new knowledge and
new ways of getting it have shown that Erichsen taught mostly error;
and his monograph, once so opportune and never to be stripped of the
glory of the pioneer, is nothing now but a historical document. It was
a costly book for railway companies. The cases it described were
serious and " railway spine " brought large verdicts. It was not until
1882 that its teachings were seriously questioned. Then Page, surgeon
for the London and Northwestern Eailway, took a hand. In vigorous
language, he presented new facts as seen by the railway surgeon. He
brought forward the after histories of over two hundred cases of railway
injuries and showed, contrary to Erichsen's teachings, that a large pro-
portion of them recovered. He wrote with candor, but being a cor-
poration servant, could not escape the charge of bias.

But Charcot was not biased, and when, in his studies of hysteria, he
began to demonstrate the mental origin of many physical symptoms,
the subject received its true illumination. Thoughtful physicians could
no longer fail to realize that railway injuries are not essentially different
from any others ; that the mutilations are such as surgeons see resulting
from a variety of causes, and that the nervous symptoms which so often

; HYSTERIA AS AN ASSET 569

follow accidents on railways are mental rather than physical and are
the same as originate from any one of a great number of emotional
experiences. And so " railway spine " passed away and in its place
came physical injuries and several groups of psychic phenomena which
a great German called the " traumatic neuroses " — " traumatic " be-
cause of the accident, " neuroses " because the nervous system, though
out of order, has sustained no physical damage and is capable, sooner
or later, of resuming its normal functions.

With the spread of industries and the ever increasing frequency of
claims for damages for personal injuries, these cases have become every-
day occurrences. Physicians the world over have had abundant op-
portunity to observe their mode of origin, their course, and (though
this with greater difficulty) their final outcome. And there is almost
universal agreement of opinion that fright at the time of the accident
and anxiety after it are the true causes. The cuts and bruises which
must be received if the injury is to be actionable (151 N. Y.) intensify
the psychic factors. But they do not cause the nervous symptoms,
though they may determine, to some extent, their trend.

That this agreement of opinion is not always manifest when these
cases come to court may cause regret but not surprise. "Witnesses are
not always candid, nor experts always wise. And the individual case
itself may present such baffling perplexities that it imposes not only on
judge and jury, but on the most learned professors in the land.

In Erichsen's day, diagnosis was uncertain in all the disorders at
present called the traumatic neuroses. Now, most of them, such as
neurasthenia and the various trains of morbid thought which result
from back-strain, can be recognized at their true value by any physician
who is reasonably experienced and careful. Not so hysteria. This
mocking psychosis, with its tragedy and humor, its counterfeits and its
realities, its impositions and its appeals for pity, is ever on the watch to
lead the unwary into error.

In September, 1899, in Norfolk, Va., the cart which a healthy
farmer was driving was struck violently by a trolley car. The man
was for a moment prostrate on the roadway, but whether he was thrown
out or had jumped out was one of the questions which perplexed the
jury. At any rate, he walked to the sidewalk and then swooned. He
was carried to a neighboring house, where he had a series of convulsions.
The bystanders, strong men, tried to restrain him, but he threw them
off. He then fell to the floor in such a way that only heels and occiput
touched it. And in this strange posture, with body arching toward
the ceiling like a bow, his frame was shaken during several minutes by
violent trepidations. He was finally carried to the hospital, apparently
unconscious. No evidences of physical injury were found. But the
next day he complained of pain down the whole right side and there
were twitchings of the face and arm. A few weeks later he became

570 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

deaf and dumb and shortly after that lost the use of the right arm and
the right leg.

In this condition he was brought to court, eight months after the
accident, the most important witness in his suit against the street
railway company. There never was a fairer trial. Opposed experts
coincided in the view that the plaintiff had received no injury of impor-
tant organs and that his dramatic symptoms were the physical expres-
sions of idea. It was a tribute to the dignity of honest experts that the
judge, in the face of the exhibit, listened calmly to this testimony and
that the jury did not laugh out loud. For the poor man seemed sitting
in the shadow of the tomb. Emaciated, his face agitated by constant
twitchings, his whole right side inert and powerless, hearing nothing,
uttering no sound, getting his questions on slips of paper and writing
the answers with the left hand (an accomplishment acquired since his
illness) — he looked the leaf about to drop, the very essence of decay.
Optimist indeed who could believe in his rehabilitation.

The jury disagreed, mainly on the negligence, and the case was
settled a few months later out of court. The man recovered, not all at
once, but gradually. He now hears everything, and, if his wife is to
be believed, talks too much ; his muscles have regained their power and,
when not busy on the farm, he ferries passengers across a little river
in the county of Princess Anne. So the doctors, all of them, were
right for once, for hysteria and nothing else can explain a case like this.

As a psychological proposition, this strange malady more than
demonstrates the influences of mind on matter — it establishes the de-
pendence of all voluntary expression on idea. It can disrupt mental
and physical unity as completely as the most destructive injuries. Its
dark shadows flitting in the subconsciousness corners of the mind may
stimulate to increased function, or so far suppress function that the
affected organ is left without its purpose. Hypersensitiveness, which
soon is pain, to light, to sound, to smell and taste, to feeling, may all
be products of hysteria when the disorder whips up function; when it
paralyzes, the victim must get along as best he can until his sensorial
servants come back to work. In the sphere of motion, twitchings,
tremors, contractions and even convulsions, bear witness to excess of
function; paralysis, to loss of it. These functional perversions, these
idealistic symptoms, are cast in the same mold as those of structural
disease. But they carry with them tell-tale differences of form and
arrangement which permit their true nature to be recognized. Various
and many are the hypotheses to explain the psychological enigma. For
its last analysis it needs the genius of a Plato. For working purposes,
perhaps the theory of Charcot is the most acceptable. He compared the
genesis of traumatic hysteria — which alone concerns us here — with the
mechanism of hypnosis. The jar, the blow, the fright, like the passes
or the artificial aids of the hypnotist, create disorder in the mind.

HYSTERIA AS AN ASSET 571

dazing it and reducing it to extreme impressionability. Then follow
the suggestions. Verbal from the hypnotist, to the hypnotized victim
of the casualty they come from the circumstances of the accident, or
what follows it, or from the victim's mind itself, as it reflects on injuries
he has seen or heard of resulting from similar disasters. Thus is
determined the symptomatic type. Little by little the symptoms spread
and deepen — they rarely reach their full development at once — until at
last, the patient, sound in wind and limb, may become as inert a mass
as ever wheel-chair carried.

As important as the accident itself, or even more so, are the circum-
stances which follow it. Injudicious sympathy from friends, fears felt
by physicians not wise enough to keep them to themselves, the solicitous
exaggeration by attorneys and the patient's perception of the financial
possibilities of his wrongs, all give new tentacles to the morbid ideas,
which burrow deeper among the roots of rational conduct. Left to
a physician versed in psychic medicine and rich of conscience, with
damage claim thrown out the window, there are few cases of traumatic
hysteria, taken at the outset, which a month of vigorous treatment
would not cure. But, with the demands of legal procedure ever immi-
nent, such a course is never possible. In Germany and other countries
which maintain parental protection of the injured, conditions are even
more unfavorable. In these countries, the injured workman is placed
on an allowance of money, graded in accordance with his earning, which
continues to be paid as long as he is incapacitated. This robs the
patient of his spur to effort and tends to prolong the mental instability.
As a result, in these countries, or at least in Germany, traumatic
hysteria is more protracted and rebellious than it is yath. us. With us,
sooner or later, the case is finished. It may be years before the final
card is played ; but some day the game is over and the hands are on the
table. And then, for the first time since the accident, the injured per-
son has a chance to regain his health. Before there was no chance.
For, with the persistence of symptom-inducing suggestions, inseparable
from litigation, it is practically unheard of, if not impossible, for a
plaintiff to improve in any essential particular before the release is
signed or the court-room doors have closed upon him for the last time.
This helps to make hysteria the most difficult disease of any found at
law of satisfactory settlement out of court.

At the outset, the surgeon for the company, thinking the case is one
of temporary shock, reports favorably and the claim agent makes offers
of small sums. These are rejected; the plaintiff's physician has seen
such symptoms aggravate with time. The attorney feels a conscien-
tious duty toward his client and must know the way things are going
before settlement is thought of. While they all thus solicitously wait,
the gloomiest fears are realized. Paralysis sets in. By this time the
dangerous character of the case dawns on the defendant. Head sur-

572 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

geons and neurologists are sent. These report the facts which usually
are conspicuous enough. The patient gets still worse. All chances of
settlement on any reasonable basis are now gone and the case finds its
way to court. Once in the court-room, the patient is at the acme of all
the symptoms. Paralysis, insensibility to pain, convulsions, loss of
special senses, all make profound impressions on judge and jury. The
medical opinions are too often flatly contradictory ; and the jurors, thus
deprived of the advantage of special knowledge, judge for themselves
from what they see.

The verdicts are always large. None too large, perhaps, as actual
amounts, in view of the suffering and delays the plaintiffs have gone
through. But excessive when compared with the amounts paid for
other injuries, more modest in their symptoms, but with far less hopeful
outcome. A young girl with hysteria can generally secure a higher
compensation in the courts than a working man with some lifelong
disability. The amounts thus unjustly graded may indicate that juries
can not grasp the dramatic power of idea ; or else that they believe that
symptoms conjured up from subconscious depths are even more per-
sistent than those of tangible causation.

In strong contrast to the verdicts is the fact that hysteria from in-
jury, in America at least, is cured in nearly every case. Such is my
personal conviction,^ based upon information obtained about the plain-
tiffs after the suit is closed. Into a detailed examination it is rarely
possible to go. For after the trial these individuals, with surprising
frequency, fold their tents and silently steal away. Those that remain
within a reasonable radius rebel at the idea of reexamination. They
seem to resent their recovery. A young man who was injured in one
of the terrible wrecks occurring near New York a few years ago, lay
in bed for two years with hysterical paralysis, awaiting the trial of his
case. There were two trials. At each of them he heard, from his
stretcher, his experts say his injuries were permanent. In spite of
that he was up and walking freely and was commuting to his work, as
he used to do, within eighteen months of the last trial. But a request,
prompted by the writer, for permission to reexamine him, brought a
response to the effect that " no information would be vouchsafed which
could in any way be used to prevent others who had suffered as he had
from being less generously compensated."

From such information as is obtainable, it would seem that full
functional recovery is the rule. The women who were cripples often
marry, the men return to work. But their assumptions or resumptions
of activity are often slow. The patients may be well again in a few
months. But the miraculous and instantaneous recoveries, such as we

^ In " Diseases of the Nervous System Resulting from Accident and Injury,"
Appleton, 1906, the writer presented the after histories of a number of cases of
litigated hysteria. Since then he has added many to the series.

HYSTERIA AS AN ASSET 573

hear of in the faith cures, or such as corporation partisans maintain
follow quick on payment, do not come within the range of medical
experience. It is always several months, sometimes a year or two or
maybe even longer, before disabling symptoms disappear.

The farmer whose case has already been described suffered pain and
disability for a year after his suit was finished and it was four years
before he recovered speech and hearing.

Litigation permits no let-ups in the disease creating suggestions;
and the longer the litigation period, the longer, other things being
equal, the time required for cure. In the case of a young man injured
in Washington, D. C, there were eight years between the accident and
final verdict. During this considerable fraction of his life, the plain-
tiff was glued to his chair, the victim of paralysis from idea.- I am
still confident of his recovery, though even now, eighteen months after
the finish of the legal contest, he has not begun to walk.

The mechanism of recovery in these litigated cases is different than
in the ones reported from the shrines of healing. In these latter, the
priests make new suggestions, getting at the soul through anticipation,
faith and religious fervor. In traumatic hysteria, the cures take place,
not so much from fresh suggestions as from removal of those which
worked the injury. New springs of action are not tapped; but the
stones which blocked the old ones are one by one removed. Once the
case is settled, the attorney's sympathy becomes homeopathic in its
dosage ; the physician abandons the contingent fee ; family and friends,
worn out by watching and satisfied at last that the patient will not die,
resume their wonted occupations. The invalid is left, more and more
alone. Under the fillip of neglect, the fixed ideas show signs of weak-
ening. The patient reflects less and less upon his injury and begins to
see, in the distance, perhaps, but every day more clearly, the smiling
visage of Hygeia. His interest now is to regain his health and enjoy
his money, as before it was to stay ill enough to get it. Little by little,
he regains his balance and begins to hobble about the room. New
trials and achievements add to his confidence, though he has occasional
relapses. 'He gets out on the street and finds himself more capable
than they ever let him think he would be. Then under the stress of
some emotion, or forced by some sudden danger, the part paralyzed
springs into pristine being; and soon after he resumes his work.

It has long been held that such cases are the products of voluntary
creation and that the hysteric is an actor and a fraud. Such a view is
surely wrong. No actor can ever equal the mimetic powers of this
wonderful psychosis ; and even if the hysteric is a fraud, who, at times,
is not? The disease reflects, to some extent, the normal nature of its
victims; but it reflects still more the environment in which it is born
and lives and dies.

* Physicians on both sides agreed in this diagnosis.

574 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Postscript
After this article was in type and the proof had been returned to
the editor there was received from the plaintiff's attorney in this action
the following letter, written by the plaintiff's wife :

Washington, D. C, April 26th, 1909.
My dear Mr. 8: —

I fear that I am too happy to express myself intelligently, but you can
understand the cause when I say Mr. P. has walked and it came about from
a fright produced by the falling of plaster from the ceiling at three o'clock in
the morning. Of course we were all sound asleep and when the crash came,
I thought some one had bursted in the door and I went into hysterical convul-
sions and Mr. P. found himself several feet from the bed. He is very weak,
but the Doctor says that he thinks he will gradually regain his strength as
the sensibility has returned to his limbs. Oh, we all are so supremely happy
and I feel sure that the Lord in his own good time will restore my boy to health.

Very respectfully,

Mbs. V P .

NOTES ON PHILOSOPHIES OF THE DAY 575

NOTES ON CERTAIN PHILOSOPHIES OF THE DAY

By ALEXANDER F. CHAMBERLAIN, Pn.D.

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ANTHROPOLOGY IN CLARK UNIVERSITY, WORCESTER, MASS.

I. The Rule of the Dead. — M. Le Bon, himself now in the other
world, would have it that we are suffering inutterably from a sort of
universal mort-main. There is but one real ease of majority rule on
earth, that of " those who have gone before." Our masters and rulers
are neither the select few among the living, nor the many-headed
people, but the great hulking mass of the dead.

With de mortuis nil nisi honum goes e vivis nihil honi. "We praise
the dead with our living tongues and let their inanimate hands act for
us. Our thoughts, no less than our bodies, are heirlooms from the
departed. Like the savage, we hear the dead whispering by the rivers
of life and speak their words after them. We bear the burden of their
sins ; we reap the harvest of their mistakes and their calamities. Paul,
the apostle, is not the only one who had the right to say " I die daily,"
for all men and women are in uninterrupted intercourse with the dead.
Even children, just beginning to live, are schooled with dead languages.
The old, in their second childhood, are counted already dead. Youth,
so full of life, is taught the art of war, adding, by national command,
to the number of the dead. Only when dead are the races that were
here before us, like the Indian, " good."

Yet many great ones of mankind have longed for emancipation
from the rule of the dead. Some adventurous psychologists hold out
the hope that some day we shall control the past instead of being abso-
lutely at its beck and call as we now are. The racial and the individ-
ual past shall both be ours and memory-guided progress will speed us
on to the destined goal. Then, indeed, shall " old men dream dreams "
and " young men see visions," and all who see in sleep, like Mahomet,
shall see truly. Eear of the unconscious and dread of the past shall
be lost in the conscious control of the experience of other days, of times
gone by. Then shall they be, as we have fondly imagined them
hitherto, the "good old days of yore." No longer shall we be the
living tombs of the dead past that will not bury itself; no more phos-
phorescent merely with the immemorially defunct. We shall then
have life, and life more abundantly.

II. Mutability. — Everything changes. As the old Greek philos-
opher said, flux is the very nature of things. Flora, fauna, races of
men, civilizations, institutions, customs and habits, beliefs, ideas and

576 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

ideals, are in eternal metamorphosis. Schrader tells us this to-day as
did Heraclitus long ago. The twentieth-century idea that its culture
and its creations will endure may be false, as have been the ideas of
Egyptians, Greeks and Eomans. The conception of stability is an
illusion. All passes and repasses.

Egypt for millenniums has been only a gift of the Kile renewed
by its floods. The heroes of Homer are brigands to-day. The Roman
Caesar has become a Pope. Spain died when the Indies were born.
The cliff-dwellings of Arizona and New Mexico speak of things past
and gone. The Negritos, the Bushmen, the Ainu, the Lapps, the
Eskimo are being driven to the wall. The fate of the American In-
dian is partly sealed. The Aztec is a peon; the Peruvian a cargador.
The Beothuk and the Tasmanian are already gone. Britain is saved
from being an insular Labrador by the Gulf Stream. Bordeaux sur-
vives only through its vineyards.

With the ebb and flow of industry and manufactures, villages, towns
and cities spring up like mushrooms. Others have disappeared like the
melting snow-flakes. The forest vanishes and the sea is encroached
upon. Holland reclaims a lost country, America reanimates a desert.
Eivers and lakes are dried up and mountains are hewn down.

But, after all, there is an illusion about this flux itself. To re-
mind us of its relativity, the Fellah, direct descendant of the most
ancient Egyptian, keeps watch beneath the pyramids. Before him
have passed, as the ages came and went, Libyan and man of Punt, Sar-
dinian and Hebrew, Persian and Babylonian, Greek and Eoman, Arab
and Turk, Frencliman, Englislmian and American. And amid all their
notable mutations he has remained practically the same. He still waits
for the stirring of the waters.

III. Lmitaiion. — Wise men before Solomon said " there is nothing
new under the sun." And in all they have thought, said, done or
dreamed, the ignorant in all times and among all peoples have cor-
roborated the sages. The great majority of the wise, too, have labored
zealously at the same task. To-day, Tarde tells us, imitation is
everything.

Art is imitation of nature and nature imitation of God. God
imitates himself. Civilization is mimicry. Genial repetition is the
sum and substance of great knowledge and deep wisdom. Ignorance
is gross imitation. Life and death are both imitative. By imitation
childhood learns, youth hopes, manhood forgets, old age despairs.
Heredity itself is imitation. Both the individual and the race have
acted, " as if its whole vocation were endless imitation."

How hard it is for man to do otherwise than his fellows are doin<r
or have done ! To repeat is so much easier than to invent. To borrow
than to create. To follow than to lead. To stand with the many

NOTES ON PHILOSOPHIES OF THE DAY 577

than to fall alone. Fortunately for mankind, evolution has set limits
to the tide of imitation :

There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will.

IV. Misoneism. — If we believe Lombroso, misoneism or neophobia,
*' the hatred of the new," is one of the most deeply ingrained character-
istics of man. Progress occurs only when there is a break in the neo-
phobic series. The leaders of mankind are not the many who imitate,
but the few who do new things, or think them. And many of these
put new wine into old bottles — the makers of new vessels are rarer still.
And woe unto those who, with new wine, break old bottles ! The blood
of such has been the seed of civilization, of the church, of science.
Genius, prophet, saint, hero, sage are slain, and the world moves on a
little, forgetting even to raise a monument to its great dead. Death
baptizes new life : The fall of the few wise inspires a little the ignorant
multitude. A martyr means more than a school or a church. On the
dead hero springs up the living faith. The doctrine of " the good old
days of yore " comes easily to man, who is naturally uncomfortable in
the presence of the new. Yet the monotony galls. To take the kingdom
of heaven by violence affords relief.

Beforms come from the acts of the few who destroy the old, or
through the deeds of the many who slay the innovator. Death or
ignominy for centuries has awaited him whose message is : " Behold !
I make all things new !"

But not so forever ! Slowly, but surety, men are learning wiser
and better ways of hating and destroying the new, of preserving and
■continuing the old. The cessation of blind leadership of the blind
means the orderly development of human society. Eevolution is giv-
ing way to evolution. The old turns naturally and peacefully into the
new. War will soon be as unhuman as murder.

An age is near in which we shall no longer imitate the errors of
revolutionary epochs. We shall grow into the future by growing out
of the past.

In that happy time we shall wonder that their bards could have
sung the Celts into vain and pernicious wars; that her philosophers
could have desolated Greece by making constitutions for her cities ; that
soldiers could have brought Rome to vice, luxury and decay; that
priests could have led Judaea to reject Jesus for Barabbas; that gold
could have brought Spain, once monarch of all the world, to nocuous
desuetude. We shall know evolution and act in its spirit.

The philosopher will be content to see the passing of his own phys-
ical and mental minority before attempting to lord it over the bodies
and souls of his fellows. The statesman will not venture to pro-
pound constitutions for states before he has learned to know the laws

578 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

of his own life. The soldier will not longer yearn to reenact on a
grand scale among the nations the war of members and of parts which
his own body and mind sustain in youth, but will seek to overcome it in
the body politic as in his own organism. Thus will be verified the say-
ing of Scripture : " He that ruleth himself is greater than he that
taketh a city." The priest will as gladly serve, as once he ruled, the
state. He will rejoice more in being a servant of God than a ruler
over men.

V. Struggle. — Man's struggle with the elements has been even more
successful than that with his fellows. The hours of final triumph have
often been delayed by his own carelessness and dishonesty alone. Be-
ginning with the arrow he won the all-encircling air, with the dug-out,
the inhospitable sea, with fire, the inclement sky, with the digging-
stick the unyielding earth to his service, or, at least, to his unhurt.

Since his first conquest — as Gallouedec suggests — of the hill-side
and of the little mountains, he has become master of the plains, and
now morasses and bogs, deserts and huge mountains are fast yielding
to his sway. He lords it over unfathomable chasms, dizzy heights and
wind-swept ocean. He makes the desert blossom as the rose, and from
the very bones of earth coins and fashions things whose beauty is ever-
lasting. He has harnessed the lightning, housed the sunbeam, and both
have become the servants of art and of science. Things terrible to his
eye and his ear, nay, that shook him to the uttermost depths of his
soul, when he first trod the earth, are his familiars now. He has made
nature his servant instead of remaining her slave. Gallouedec hardly
"exaggerates when he says that from the first man to the. Frenchman or
the Englishman of to-day is not a whit less than the distance separating
the formless block of marble from the statue produced out of it by the
genius of the artist. And the future bids fair to outglorify the past.
The conquered earth, once the mere hiding-place of the savage, or his
prison, is becoming more and more his home. Nature, who once held
him in bondage, after being his servant, turns to colleague and friend.
With the passing of war and the lust of human slaughter man is be-
ginning to feel at home in the world and in the universe. And now
the empire of the sky is beginning to be his. The future years will
see the results of the leisure which progress in man, who alone of all
creatures possesses the power to utilize the past and to discern the
future, has made possible. Man will live and labor, transform and
create in the full sense, of his partnership in all about him, his slaves
and servants having become his friends and co-laborers in the evolu-
tion of the cosmos. He will outdo Ulysses. He will become a part of
all that he has met, and all that he has met will have become a part of
him. Struggle will be succeeded by togetherness.

FORMATIVE INFLUENCES 579

FOEMATIVE INFLUENCES

By t>ROFESSOR G. J. PEIRCE

LELAND STANFORD JR. UNIVERSITY

WHEN I was a boy in New England it was the fashion to decorate
the windows of the drug-stores with masses of huge deep blue
crystals of copper sulphate — blue-vitrol or blue-stone. These orna-
ments have vanished now, even from the country drug-stores. Their
places are taken by electrical toys, patent medicines, even animals.
But these lumps of translucent crystals always interested me. Their
composition is simple; sulphate of copper and water are their sole
constituents. The sulphate of copper is itself a dull gray powder, not
a crystalline substance at all; but if water is with it, it becomes blue,
colors its solutions blue, and crystallizes in very regular form. The
color and the form of these crystals depend, therefore, upon both water
and copper sulphate.

The boy who plays with blue-stone, dissolving it in water and
then recovering it again by crystallization, thus doing for fun what
the freshman in a chemical laboratory does because he is directed,
learns that the crystals will be large or small, few or many, according
to the speed with which they form; large and few if they form slowly,
small and numerous if they form rapidly. This is equally true of
sugar, common salt and other crystalline substances. We see, then,
that circumstances as well as substance have to be taken into account.
Although we can not have crystals of this particular kind unless we
have the sulphate of copper, neither can we have them, even with an
abundance of the salt, unless we have water also. The water must not
be in excess, lest the copper salt remain in solution; nor deficient,
lest it remain amorphous. It must be exactly proportioned in quan-
tity if the salt is to arrange itself into bodies of definite form. The
size and the number of these bodies depend upon temperature, dryness
of air, any circumstance, in fact, which influences the rate at which
water evaporates from the solution.

Although the number, size and even the formation of blue-stone
crystals depend upon circumstances, and will vary according to cir-
cumstances, circumstances can not make blue-stone crystals exactly
like the crystals of other things. The crystals of common salt have
characters which identify them to the eye and mind of the crystallog-
rapher. These characters, we say, are inherent in the substance
itself. This may be true actually as it certainly is true practically;
but a scientific man might be found who would hazard the opinion
that common salt, which crystallizes in square plates with hollowed
surfaces under the conditions which we know, might crystallize in

58o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

another shape or remain amorphous on some other planet where the
force of gravitation, the composition and pressure of the atmosphere,
and other factors of its environment, would be different from those
constituting our environment on this earth.

Students of the natural sciences reckon with circumstance as well
as substance. Physicists and chemists know this, and work with a
conscious realization of this fact. Of the biologists, none more keenly
realize the significance of circumstance to the organism than physi-
cians and surgeons. Sociologists dispute whether heredity or environ-
ment determines the qualities of the man. Many botanists and zo-
ologists meantime are discussing fine-spun theories of heredity based
on the infinitely more finely spun microscopic structure of plant and
animal cells, devising a scientific vocabulary which breeds diction-
aries while it veils our real ignorance of the facts concerned.

The thorough study of mankind, or of any other living or lifeless
thing, involves a study of the substance of the thing and of its environ-
ment. Study of the simple substance of blue-stone and of common
salt is comparatively easy; but the bodies of living things contain and
probably consist of many substances, few of which are as simple as
blue-stone and common salt. Definite chemical compounds, many of
them complex and unknown, constitute the bodies of living things.
These compounds possess their own properties, their own character-
istics, inherent if you choose. Their behavior controls if it does not
constitute the behavior of the living thing. But this behavior de-
pends on circumstance, is controlled by environment. The living
thing, human or vegetable, can not be known till its environment as
well as its substance, and the influence of the one upon the other, are
known.

The chaplain of this university, coming to my laboratory one day,
was surprised by some machinery which he saw there and asked its
purpose. I told him that I was proving that, if you took a slum-child
early enough, you could make a decent man of him. My friend pro-
tested that I was omitting many links between the plants of my ex-
periments and the less fortunate of the human race. While frankly
admitting this, a scientific man may still believe that he can con-
tribute to such proof by using guinea-pigs, or rats, or even plants, as
the objects of his experiments. These experiments are designed to
furnish information about the circumstances, the influences, the fac-
tors of the environment, which affect behavior.

We see the various factors composing our environment directing
the movements of our fellows. A bright light or an unusual sound at
once attracts notice, may even draw a crowd. The absence of light,
generation after generation, has cost cave animals their organs of
vision. Who can say that the perpetual noise of our cities will not
induce changes in the nervous balance, if not in the organs, of men?

FORMATIVE INFLUENCES 581

The force of gravity ;, which enables a man to stand erect, defeats the
unbalanced efforts of the baby learning to walk; it directs the growth
of root and shoot from the sprouting seed; it forces organs and organ-
isms to carry a very large proportion of their own weight or perish.
Wlien plants and animals live in water, over seven hundred and fifty
times as much of their weight is carried for them as if they were
growing in air. When plants are supported on trellises, or grow on
trees, their mechanical strength, the development of their supporting
tissues, corresponds to the lessened load. The buoyancy of the water
and the mechanical support of trellise or tree, opposing the pull of
gravity, modify and reduce its formative influence.

If we compare the great brown kelps growing along the rocky parts
of the Pacific Coast, attached by hold-fasts to the bottom, floating up-
ward and along the surface of the ocean till they become the longest
plants known, with land plants, we find only some trees and such vines
as the rattan at all approaching them in length. But in structure and
in mechanical strength, what a difference there is ! Bring the sea-
weed ashore and try to stand it up; take the vine down from its sup-
port; neither will be able to sustain its own weight. The force of
gravity opposed, in the one case by water, in the other by the forest
trees on which the rattan grows, has not exerted its full influence on
either. The tree stands, and its trunk is composed of mechanically
strong tissues, in part at least because of the pull of gravity only feebly
opposed by the air.

Experiment proves the formative influence of gravity. The Eng-
lish gardener who trains his peach trees on the southern face of a wall
knows well that such trees are mechanically weaker, though more pro-
lific, than other peach trees growing unsupported in the same enclosure.
The delicate stalks of the blossoms of apple, peach or prune, thicken
and strengthen as the fruit sets, grows and ripens, the increased pull
of gravity stimulating the living stalk to meet the greater strain by
greater strength.

When we take into account the fact that the force of gravity acts
constantly, that though we ordinarily ignore it or take it unthinkingly
for granted (as we do the quality of our milk), it is an unchanging
force, the same night and day, from season to season, from cycle to
cycle, we begin to realize that it must exercise a formative influence of
the utmost importance on all living things, stimulating the growing
plant and animal to develop an adequate skeleton and to attain a bal-
ance of parts which will tend to stability.

Water opposes the force of gravity by buoying up, and carrying so
large a fraction of the weight of, the creatures living in ponds, streams
and the sea. In addition, it has a positive influence of its own. We
are used to the directive influence which causes the wild creatures of
field and forest to make the runwavs between den or nest and water-

582 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

hole so charmingly described by Mrs. Austin. Every trout-fisherman
has seen the roots of alder and willow growing from the bank into the
stream. We are accustomed to having our house-sewers stopped up
by the roots that will grow into them, though there is much more room
outside. But the formative influence of water is not so obvious. Yet
wlien we think of the creatures, plants and animals, of arid regions and
of well-watered ones, we perceive certain differences. When we realize
that water is formed, or is the surrounding medium, in almost every
chemical reaction which takes place outside the living body, and in
every chemical reaction within the living body, its importance is evi-
dent enough. The shape, size, structure and covering of every animal
and plant are influenced by the ease with which water may be obtained
and held. All land animals and plants lose water from their bodies by
evaporation; submersed aquatics do not. Land animals and plants
ordinarily get water from the earth, from depressions in its surface or
from its soil, and only through those limited parts of their whole bodies
which touch the water; but aquatics can take it in through their entire
surface. If a land plant or animal takes in water only through its
roots or its alimentary canal, there must be some system for distributing
the water to all the parts of the body; but this is not necessary in
aquatics. The difl'erences in structure and form between land and
water organisms is, then, partly due to their relations to water. The
differences between the tadpole and the frog, between the submersed
and floating leaves of the water-buttercup, between the swimming
sperm of moss and fern and the wind- or insect-borne pollen of the
higher plants, these differences are in their relations to water, in the
degrees in which the formative influence of water has been unopposed
by other factors.

Before turning to other formative influences, we should realize that
the force of gravity acts constantly, night and day, uniformly, age
after age, and it is impossible either to eliminate it in experiments or
to conceive of its operation ever being or having been interrupted in
nature. Water also is constant and uniform and unavoidable; for
until water ceases to be a necessary component of the living protoplasm
of the plant and animal body, until it becomes something else than
hydrogen and oxygen in the proportion of two to one, we can not con-
ceive of its being eliminated, by exclusion or substitution, in experi-
ment, or of its absence in nature. If water is absent, life is absent.
This is not true, however, of other influences, material or energetic,
which affect form and substance, as well as the direction of growth or
movement. These influences may be temporary.

Light is not a necessary condition of active life. It comes and
goes, day and night. In the extreme northern mid-summer the sun
never sets; the winter is dark and gloomy. In spite of the lack of
light, however, life goes on in the winter darkness provided sufficient

FORMATIVE INFLUENCES 583

warmth is attainable. Nor is light uniform, for though the total sea-
sonal light-fall may be, like the total seasonal rainfall, a moderately
uniform quantity, yet we know that the light which reaches our eyes
and plays on field and forest varies almost from moment to moment,
as a wisp of cloud, a trail of smoke, or a bird or butterfly, passes be-
tween us and the sun. Yet with all this variation in quantity from day
to night, and even from moment to moment, there is no variation in
quality. The composition of sunlight, as it reaches the earth's atmos-
phere, is the same age after age; its red, yellow, blue and other rays
fall upon animal and plant in similar proportions. Until the source
of light changes, until the composition of the sun becomes altered by
the exhaustion of this or that substance, the quality of light must con-
tinue the same.

The leaves, stems and flowers of our household plants turn toward
the window. Plants growing under a hedge turn out to one side, if
they are able to bear the shade long enough to get out of it. In the
early morning, or toward sunset, one can often see the leaves of weeds
all turned eastward or westward, according to the source of light.
These are familiar instances of the directive influence of light, an in-
fluence which changes with the direction and the intensity of the light
and is dependent upon some, not all, of the rays of ordinary daylight.

The formative influence of light is no less real and definite, although
not so generally recognized. It determines whether a plant shall be
stocky or straggling, short or long. Greenhouse men speak of spindly
plants unduly shaded as " drawn." The ordinary broad, brown bean
— Windsor, or Horse, or Spanish — sown in quantity in the vegetable
gardens of those parts of the west where the paths of the padres lay —
correspond in height quite as much with the light they receive as
with richness of soil. If sowed too closely, each plant over-shading
its neighbor, they grow in the same length of time to nearly double
the height of others solitary. Young pines in too close stands are tall,
slender, sparingly branched. The low stature of some of the plants
of mountain-tops is due not merely to crushing snow, brief growing
time, and chilly nights, but also to the greater brightness of the light
which falls on them than on the floor of the valleys below.

Thus the vegetative parts are affected quantitatively by the quan-
tity of light which reaches them. Stem and leaves reach their ordi-
nary dimensions only under ordinary illumination. There are struc-
tural differences between the sunned and shaded leaves of wild plants.
The beech offers the best known case.

Eastern greenhouse men spend anxious days before Easter lest
their lilies bloom too late. They can control the temperature, mois-
ture, soil, in their houses, but beyond certain narrow limits they can
not control the light. The same plants bloom at a decidedly lower
temperature in California than in the Mississippi Valley and on the

584 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

North Atlantic slope. When the Weather Bureau can give as accurate
measurements of the amounts of light reaching the soil in these differ-
ent regions as of the temperatures, we shall see one reason for this
difference. Even though flowers may be already formed, a certain
though unknown amount of light is generally necessary to bring the
flowers promptly to perfection. More than this, the number, size,
color, fragrance and other qualities of the flowers, the number of eggs
and sperm in them, even the formation of the flowers themselves, are
dependent in very many plants upon an amount of light more than
sufficient to maintain vigorous growth. This has been clearly shown
by experiment on so many plants, simple and complex, as to lead one
to think of light as a definite stimulus to reproduction. I can grow
certain moss-like plants year after year in my laboratory and, accord-
ing to their position, in a light or a dark place in the room, they will
form reproductive organs or will remain sterile. I can do the same
thing with submersed water-plants, and in garden and greenhouse the
same fact is demonstrated year after year.

John Muir, in his " Mountains of California," gives the most
glowing description of spring bloom which I know, where he tells of
the San Joaquin Valley before it was settled. The newcomer to Cali-
fornia to-day is struck with admiration of the great mats of color on
hill-side and valley-floor. This prodigality of bloom far exceeds what
one sees on either slope of the Alleghanies. Transplant the Cali-
fornia " poppy " to any less sunny land and it degenerates ; it blossoms
less freely, its flowers are smaller, its petals are more sulphur or lemon
than orange-yellow, its seeds are smaller and fewer. It seldom grows,
still less blooms, under the shade of the live-oaks, though the open
field may be golden with them. The more shade, the less bloom.

Testing this conclusion by experiment on plants very different in
shape and size in their vegetative and reproductive stages, as is the
case in Sempervirens and similar squat plants used for bedding or
bordering, it has been found that the reproductive stage may be in-
definitely postponed by growing the plant in feeble diffused light.
Eather more light stimulates the plant to send up a stalk from its
rosette of leaves, but this stalk is leafy. Still more light will induce
the formation of flowers; but only when fully illuminated will the
plant form perfect flowers and set good seed.

Cultivated violets are from eastern and European stock. In the
middle west, in New England and in northern Europe, violets of
many species form, in addition to the conspicuous blue flowers, others
ordinarily concealed by the leaves. These hidden flowers are white
or pale, lumpy, and closed. In certain districts in Italy, the same
species of violet do not form these closed (cleistogamous) flowers. In
the sunniest parts of California gardens the violets never form them.
Other plants form cleistogamous flowers, but the number of these

FORMATIVE INFLUENCES 585

species in different regions is very clearly related to the amount of
sunlight. Northern Europe, New England and the northeastern part
of the Mississippi Valley have less sunshine than the great western
plateau, the Eocky Mountain region, Italy and California. There are
some species of cleistogamous plants on the plateau and in the Eocky
Mountain region; there are more on the two slopes of the Alleghanies
and in Europe. Only a species or two have been found in central
California, and these live in the dim light of virgin redwood forest.

Animal physiologists have not yet shown, I believe, that the breed-
ing-seasons of animals generally mark the reaction of these animals
to external influences. There is obviously every reason why birds
should not mate till the rigors of a severe winter are over. The
breeding-season of frogs and toads must coincide with the season of
abundant water in ponds and pools. But I am inclined to believe
that where there are no seasonal differences, or only very slight ones,
in light, warmth, rainfall, there are only slight differences in the
habits of plants and animals. Sea-urchins, for example, like many
of the sea- weeds, have no regular breeding-seasons; the changes are
slight in the v/ater which nearly always covers them. On the other
hand, land animals, subject to the more pronounced changes in their
habitat, have their cycles of vital processes to correspond.

Light stimulates flowers to form; it stimulates the violet to de-
velop one kind or another according to the amount of light. Light
influences the growth of leaves and stems by its direction quite as
much as by its amount. The direction from which light comes de-
termines also where and how a plant part shall form. Vertical leaves,
like those of onion and eucalyptus, are alike both structurally and
superficially on the two sides. Horizontal or oblique leaves evidently
differ on their two faces. Light has much to do with this difference.
The reproductive stage of the fern is a small, flat, leaf-like plant,
usually growing closely applied to the soil, its upper side lighted, its
under side dark. If, for purposes of experiment, the light is made to
come from below or from one side, instead of from above, the repro-
ductive organs form, as before, on the side away from the light.
They always form on the dark side, whether this is above or below, or
more or less vertical. Light and not gravity is here the formative
influence, stimulating the reproductive organs to develop and de-
termining by its direction the side of the plant which shall bear them.
Sometimes there may be a conflict of influences. If there is no dark
side, because the plant is equally illuminated on both sides, the repro-
ductive organs will form equally on the two sides.

If the direction of illumination determines where the reproductive
organs of these small fern-plants form, may it not also influence the
shape of the plants themselves ? It may. There are many small leaf-
like plants, allied to the mosses and ferns, growing against soil, or

586 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

bark, or rock. Their structure is dorsi-ventral. When these little
plants first start, they are erect and cylindrical; the divisions of the
fertilized egg-cell from which they spring are at right angles to the
source of light. Presently, however, these little cylinders tip over
and, the light still coming from above, they spread out at right angles
to it. Thus the erect cylindrical form and radial structure soon give
place to prostrate leafy form and dorsi-ventral structure. It is now
known in at least one case, and suspected in many others, that if the
little plants can continue to receive light symmetrically, their form
will be correspondingly symmetrical. By slowly revolving them for
months after sowing, so that they were equally illuminated on all sides
in succession, I have obtained plants which were as cylindrical at the
end of my experiment as in the early weeks. Where the illumination
was equal, the structure was perfectly radial ; where it was unequal, the
structure was dorsi-ventral.

This matter of bodily form, different or like in two succeeding
generations, depends upon the direction from which the light comes.
If the offspring have a one-sided illumination, as their parents did,
their form will be flat and- prostrate like their parents; but if the off-
spring are symmetrically lighted, they will be S3rm.metrically formed
in spite of the difference from their parents.

So far as these experiments contribute at all to the solution of
biological or sociological problems they do so by indicating that like
influences produce like effects on the same substance, and that, al-
though the substance may be the same, unlike influences will produce
unlike results. They make us a little more confident that the child
of vicious parents, if itself sound, can be made into a much more de-
sirable citizen if brought under influences different and better than
those surrounding and exerted by its parents.

The formative influences so far discussed produce normal and
healthy effects. The deformative and pathogenic influences which
affect human and other animal bodies have their parallels among
plants. Besides the plainly marked plant-diseases due to such obvious
parasites as borers, rusts, rots and mildews, there are influences no less
real, although easily overlooked.

City life is unfavorable to plants. Atmospheric and soil condi-
tions are either bad or not bad, they are never good. One need only
pass along a street in which the gas-pipes have been exposed to know
that the soil is more or less saturated with stale illuminating gas.
The odor is offensive. Trees rooted in soil poisoned by large or small,
but always continuous doses, of illuminating gas, do not thrive. Their
leaves are never the full rich green of trees in the country, the foliage
yellows early and many leaves fall. Add leaky electric wires, leaky
sewers, and the putrefactions going on in fouled soil, and one realizes
the cause of the chronic lack of vigor of street shade trees.

FORMATIVE INFLUENCES 587

The trees in yards, gardens and parks are only somewhat better,
they are not entirely well. An atmosphere polluted by the products
of all our fuels except wood contains active poisons, not merely incon-
veniences. Because there is less soot in New York and San Francisco
the inhabitants speak boastingly to their less fortunate friends in Chi-
cago or St. Louis. But the smoke problem of cities is a problem of
gaseous, not solid, emanations. Smoke-consumers, so-called, add to
the bearableness of urban existence by reducing one disagreeable fea-
ture. They do not in any way affect the more serious ones. The
sulphurous and chlorine gases, even sometimes fluorine, escaping from
the chimney-tops of the office and factory buildings, and from the
dwelling houses, of a city of diversified activities, affect human, animal
and plant life. Certain wild plants which one would expect to see
on the tree-trunks and stone walls in towns where the air is humid,
are entirely absent. They have disappeared, in fact, from European
cities since the use of coal became general.

If one would have a clearer view of what the effect of these gases
is let him go where they are discharged in greater proportions into the
air and note the effect on the native vegetation. Wherever smelters
are in operation, treating sulphurous ores of copper, zinc, mercury,
plants sooner or later disappear. Forest and farm suffer and finally
become almost or quite valueless. This is simple poisoning, resulting,
where the dose is great, in death.

The egg of a gall-fly laid in or in contact with developing tissues,
hatching a grub which feeds and grows and excretes, becomes sur-
rounded by a growth imlike anything else which the leaf or branch
would develop, a growth of plant-tissue characteristic of the particu-
lar kind of plant and of the particular kind of fly. This developing
tumor is the result of the presence of the grub, of the formative in-
fluence of this parasite. Similarly, the tubercles developing on the
roots of many plants exhibit the formative influence of the worms or
of the bacteria without which they would not start, much less develop,
as they do.

The life-experiences of all living things, and even the things them-
selves, are the joint product of substance and circumstance. Some,
if not all, of the substance is continuous, transmitted, from parent to
offspring; some, but not all, of the circumstance attending this from
the beginning to the end of its existence, is continuous. In the con-
tinuity of substance and circumstance lies the basis of the likeness of
succeeding generations: in the difference of circumstance from time
to time lies the basis of the difference which we see between offspring
and parents. For circumstance is but Emerson's synonym for the
evolutionist's word environment; and environment, on analysis, proves
to be the sum of the formative influences.

588 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

TEAINING COLLEGE TEACHERS

By W. B. PITKIN

NEW YORK CITY

YOUE American is quite willing to admit that his children, on com-
mencement day, are not what they should be, but he is sure that
he and his fellow taxpayers are not to blame. They support twice as
many teachers as saloonkeepers. They have built all the machinery of
education. Never were more kinds of schools, never better equipment.
If, therefore, a college president were to sigh over the scarcity of good
instructors, your American would not understand. He would say:
You have your buildings and your professors and your students. You offer
graduate work for all who would teach. You even have teachers' colleges. And
I see many young men of exceptional attainments becoming college instructors
every year.

And probably the college president, too, would join in his mystifica-.
tion, or — what amounts to the same thing — repeat " nascitur non fit,"
and fancy the shortage explained. But the machinery is not complete,
as either party may discover when asked to point out the exact process
of training college teachers. Suddenly it will appear that there is no
such process.

Every other sort of teacher is being broken in. Normal schools are
swiftly filling elementary and high schools with men and women who
can manage not only their subjects but also their pupils. A teachers'
college prepares its students

for university and college professorships or instructorships in education; and
for work as supervisors, principals and superintendents of schools, and as heads
of academic or educational departments in normal and teachers' training
schools; as well as professional training, both theoretical and practical, for
teachers of both sexes for secondary, grammar and primary schools and
kindergartens; and for special teachers of such technical subjects as domestic
art, domestic science, fine arts, manual training, music, nature-study and
physical education.

" Professorships in education," but no classes for ordinary professors
who would educate ! And so everywhere else. The university special-
ist is drilled for research and for the management of graduate classes
during the years of his doctorate and later assistantship in laboratory
or library. But where does the college teacher, the man who is to
teach freshmen English and economics, pick up the tricks of his trade ?

If he ever picks them up, it is by chance or cleverness and in spite
of obstacles. The special knowledge he is to impart he gets well enough

TRAINING COLLEGE TEACHERS 589

— perhaps too well. The collegiate post is approached through the
doctorate. In the later stages of this way, he is sometimes allowed to
correct examination papers, lead quizes, and, if his professors are kind,
even give a course of lectures. But usually this last boon is reserved
for the days of assistantship, when, left to his own resources, he takes
charge of a brawling roomful of sophomores. Of pedagogy knowing
only the name, he sets about instructing by the method of trial and
error; and the result is mostly trials and errors. The holy law of in-
dividualism locks the door against the professor who might be tempted
to stroll into the beginner's class-room and help him along. But, if he
were only left alone at his teaching, he might hope to pick up practical
wisdom in a few years. He has not even that good fortune, though.
If not by word, then by attitude, his colleagues often discourage him
from becoming a " mere teacher." There is earnest in the old jest :
"A college would be a fine place, but for the students." Our young
instructor sees his seniors' names at the head of articles in his technical
journals and they spell : " Go thou and do likewise ! " At department
conferences, problems of economy and research are broached, but be-
yond the broader question of schedules, text-books, periods and general
manner of treatment, teaching is untouched: Is it because even the
professor thinks his colleague nascitur non fit, and so dares not advise
him for fear of insinuating that he is not fit? Be that as it may;
pedagogy is suppressed as by a. censor and investigation exalted until
the university habit is set in grooves too deep to leave. And the fresh-
man is left a foundling in inhospitable or palsied hands.

The results of this familiar unbalance are so grotesque that the
writer, for one, would not believe them save on the evidence of his own
eyes and ears. One instructor, whose researches have been a credit to
his college, makes his freshmen learn the French for all parts of a full-
rigged ship — and this, too, after he has taught several years. A scien-
tist, with an important investigation half finished, turns his undergrad-
uates into laboratory assistants ; and, when confronted by a complainant
committee, is honestly thunderstruck to hear that nobody is getting
anything out of his courses. A mathematician of international repute
lectures to his beginners on the great controversies of the geometers
since Descartes. And a student assures me that, in the second
semester of freshman German, he was set to translating " Macbeth "
into the tongue of Goethe.

Let us not berate anybody for such absurdities, least of all the
teachers themselves. Their pedagogical ignorance is due neither to
slovenliness nor to neglect, but is a more or less inevitable incident in
the great turmoil through which all our educational ideals, methods
and means have been and still are passing. The hour calls less loudly
for criticism than for a remedy. And the sky has cleared enough to

S90 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

bring the latter into sight. Though the purpose of college may still
be beclouded, and though there is still much fighting in the dark
over the curriculum, at least two things are pretty sure: first, within
fairly wide limits, it makes little difference what the undergraduate is
taught in his first two years, provided he is really taught;^ and, sec-
ondly, teaching is not a trick that any man can pick up for himself.
These two facts leave us with only one thing to do — train graduate
students to be college teachers.

Our normal schools and teachers' colleges have proved this possible.
They are turning out excellent high-school teachers, and, if that can be
done, then at least good teachers for the first two undergraduate years
are makable. The difference between high school and college is
narrowing. The National Association of State Universities, in its
efforts to create a Standard American College, aims to " differentiate
its parts in such a way that the first two years shall be looked upon as
a continuation of and a supplement to the work of secondary instruc-
tion, as given in the high school." Let us restrict our problem, then,
to the making of a freshman and spohomore faculty. If we can furnish
this much, the rest will be easy.

There are many reasons why the normal school should not be called
upon to do this for us; but the chief one is that the institution offers
no opportunity for genuine apprenticeship. And without apprentice-
ship, training is greatly hampered, as the normal schools themselves
have learned in the case of the high-school teacher. To the college,
then, falls the training. The larger universities must offer it in a
graduate school, and somewhat after the following manner.

1. A three-year course, of which one year shall be given over to
pedagogy and two to actual teaching, shall lead to a doctorate. I trust
the pedagogy needs no explanation. The two practise years, however,
may. They find their defense in the axiom that the only way to learn
how to teach is to teach. And they find their excuse in the fact that
the young teacher is a necessary evil. An ideal college, to be sure, would
have, say, a professor ordinary for every freshman class of fifteen; but
not even Mr. Rockefeller is willing to finance such an institution. And
not all the money in the world could make all college instructors finished
scholars. So surely as teachers must be born and bred, just so surely
must the undergraduate always suffer more or less from immature
instruction. But he will suffer least if led by young men who are
engrossed, not in writing a thesis, but in their class work.

The course of training I suggest should lead to a Ph.D. in order to
attach the same dignity to the expert teacher that now attaches to the
skilled investigator. This means, of course, a sharp break with tradi-

' Not that Choctaw is just as good as chemistry, but the lower levels of all
grand divisions of knowledge lie in about the same plane.

TRAINING COLLEGE TEACHERS 591

tion. The doctorate has always stood for original work, discovery,
scientific attainment. It has generally been assumed that these
virtues are superior to those demanded of the man who at once imparts
knowledge of a special sort and shows to growing minds its wider bear-
ings for the building of character and the perfection of culture. This
is, nevertheless, pure superstition; the sooner we smash it, the sooner
will business and professional men cease to look down upon teaching,
and the sooner have no ground for saying that the academic career
attracts inferior men. Let us frankly rate teaching as a specialty on
a par with those now pursued in graduate schools; it will prove not
only just but, I think, excellent diplomacy.

2. The candidate for such a degree shall specialize in some general
subject. His first year shall include the elements of teaching (if these
have not been mastered in undergraduate courses), and also as much
special drill in the pedagogy of his elected field as is feasible. If the
university can not offer the latter, an arrangement might be made
whereby the student could spend his first year at an institution where
the work is provided. There is no reason, though, why, after the
proposed system is inaugurated, one professor from each of the fresh-
man and sophomore departments could not find time to offer such work.

3. "Wlien, in the second year, the student becomes a teacher in the
department of his choice, be shall be assigned to full teaching work.
Perhaps an ideal apportionment would be two freshman and two sopho-
more sections of fifteen students each in three-hour courses, making
a total of twelve hours' classwork a week. Half this amount might
be preferable in the first semester of teaching. At least one professor
in the department shall devote part of his time to supervising the
student-teachers. He shall visit the sections as often as he deems
necessary. He shall question the student-teachers about the individual
men in their classes and their difficulties. At the close of each semester,
he shall examine the sections himself ; and his marking shall be counted
in upon the term marking both of students and their student-teacher
on some equitable fractional basis. (For instance, the supervisor's
markings might weigh equally with the term markings of the student-
teacher against the student; and the supervisor's average marking of
the class might weigh equally with the student-teacher's individual
knowledge of his subject in the computation of the student-teacher's
total efficiency. These proportions are, of course, merely illustrative.)

4. The student-teacher shall be required to attend no classes in
his last two years of work; but, he may have the privilege of so doing;
if, in the opinion of the department, he will profit thereby. In
general, however, the policy of the department should be to encourage
wide reading, not only in his specialty but in cognate branches, the
aim always being to give him his bearings in the world and make him

592 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

see things in such a perspective that he may speedily become a com-
petent adviser.

5. If after two years of teaching, the student-teacher shall have
convinced the professors of his department that he has mastered his
subject satisfactorily and has developed sufiBcient teaching ability and
has shown a character suitable for the calling, he shall be awarded the
degree of Ph.D. The degree shall be given in whatever subject the
recipient has taught. The method of determining ability may vary
considerably, no doubt; but some combination of examination ratings
and " general impression " should be struck, in any case. The student-
teacher receiving such a degree shall be placed upon a preferred list
of candidates for recommendation to college appointments.

What, now, are the advantages of this system?

1. It will provide the best possible young teachers. Under any sys-
tem the young teacher is a necessary evil ; but he is the least troublesome
when wholly devoted to his class-work. And he is most completely
devoted to it when in it he finds the way to a higher degree and to
advancement, and when he knows his success or failure as a teacher is
being checked up on his score-card.

2. It will permit the nearest practicable approach to individual
teaching. The supreme difficulty in the way of individual teaching is
the cost. Some day one or two of our richer colleges may hope to have
a staff of mature men large enough to give every student a faculty
adviser and a private tutor; but most schools must resign that pros-
pect. The next best thing, however, is the small class with closely
supervised instructors who are teaching without pay (or on small
scholarships) in the hope of an advanced degree and preferment.

Let us see how nearly the goal may be approached. Imagine
a very large college whose freshman class is, say, 1,000. Suppose
one course of English is required in each semester of the first year.
The English department will then have all these 1,000 students to deal
with. Suppose there are in this department altogether, 12 professors
and instructors (Harvard has at least 5 more, not counting her assist-
ants). And let us assume the purely ideal condition of having a
student-teacher manage only 2 sections of 15 students each. Suppose,
on the other hand, that neither of the required freshman courses could
be partly or wholly given by lecture. We should then have the ideal
arrangement fulfilled, if each of the 12 instructors took only one fresh-
man section and were assisted by 27 student-teachers. By increasing
the class unit to 20 students, only 19 student-teachers would be called
for. Does anybody imagine that a university with a college entering
class of 1,000 would have much difficulty in securing nearly that num-
ber of student-teachers for at least each of the five chief departments
under the terms of the system we have sketched?^ Needless to say.

TRAINING COLLEGE TEACHERS 593

could only half the ideal number of student-teachers be secured,
undergraduate instruction could still be revolutionized; if in no better
way, then by putting half the students in small sections one semester,
and the other half there the next. With a little careful adjusting
of schedules, most students would then receive close attention in two
of four departments each semester.

3. It would not add one dollar to the annual budget, but, on the
other hand, would actually reduce the latter by a considerable sum,
inasmuch as many assistants could be dispensed with. It is impossible
to compute accurately here, for the necessity of assistantships varies
greatly from department to department. In the natural sciences, for
instance, laboratory helpers will always be needed, however many stu-
dent-teachers there are. But, in the freshman and sophomore work,
the assistants in most of the departments only correct papers, hold
quizes, etc. — all of which could as well be done — and better — by the
student-teacher, who would have time for it and ought to learn it. If,
now, we assume that only half of the assistants now employed in our
leading colleges are doing such work, we shall find that our system would
reduce the yearly running expenses of Brown by $2,522, those of Cali-
fornia by $14,025, those of Harvard by $7,808, those of Chicago by
$9,990, and those of Columbia by $17,500. These estimates are based
upon the number of assistantships and the average salaries of the same
as given in the second bulletin of the Carnegie Foundation. Half of
these savings, devoted to small scholarships for worthy student-teachers,
would doubtless help materially in maintaining the quality of candi-
diates. Part of the other half, added to the salary of those professors
who supervised the staff of student-teachers, would stimulate competent
men to turn from research and graduate teaching to education. At
universities with good pedagogical departments, not a single new chair
would have to be created ; the general pedagogical work of the student-
teacher's first graduate year is already offered, while the special courses
for history teaching, mathematics teaching, etc., may be given by the
already installed professors of these subjects. Probably every uni-
versity of rank has, in each department, at least one man who can
give such courses. He is, I fear, often inconspicuous, thanks to the
overshadowing discoveries and books of his colleagues; but he can, for
all that, be found and turned into his proper work.

4. It will hasten the differentiation between college and university.
And, while these two institutions are still " siamesed," it will provide

2

'As closely as I can estimate from the Harvard catalogue, individual
training in English could be given at Cambridge, if the present staflF were
augmented by only 25 student-teachers, and the 11 assistants now employed
dispensed with. Were the latter converted into student-teachers, the depart-
ment would have to find only 14 more graduate students, in order to fulfil the
very severe conditions named.

594 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

for the fairer division of effort and attention between them. Student-
teachers will relieve some members of the faculty from elementary
work; it will let others pass over completely into the graduate schools
in the course of time. After ten years, a respectable number of student-
teachers will be ready to fill purely collegiate professorships.

5. While effecting this differentiation, it will also unify college life.
If it does nothing else, it will clarify the aim and policy of each depart-
ment simply by concentrating attention upon teaching problems. But
it may also lead to a more thorough system of faculty advisers than has
yet been found feasible. There is no reason why a student-teacher, at
least in his third year, could not profitably serve as personal counselor
for a few undergraduates. At present, as is generally known, the faculty
adviser rarely does more than talk at long intervals with his proteges,
and then on nothing more than the narrower questions of electing
courses. He has no time for intimacies, as he usually carries from 14
to 16 hours of lectures a week, and has from a dozen to a score of
students assigned to him. If, however, there could be an instructor
for every thirty or forty students in each of the five chief undergradu-
ate departments, then only six to eight students would have to be
assigned to a single adviser.

6. It will help bridge the gap between high school and college. A
common and well-grounded complaint to-day is that college teachers
are not drawn from the ranks of the better high-school teachers. The
trouble has not been with the latter; there has simply been a tradition
that a college teacher must be a Ph.D. and a scientific investigator — and
few high-school teachers have ever entered either of these select circles.
Give the doctorate, though, for mastery of college teaching; and two
things will eventually happen. First, many student-teachers upon
receiving their degree, will be unable to secure college posts; and so
they will then turn to high-school work, against which they will not be
prejudiced, as your ordinary Ph.D. is to-day, and for which they will
naturally be preferred candidates. Secondly, student-teachers thus
installed will not be rooted forever to their high school, for they are
known to college professors; they have taught two years in college and
have established something of a reputation there which will help the
best of them into college chairs some day. It is also possible that
a small movement from high school to college will be set up by high-
school teachers leaving their work to try for the Ph.D. in the hope of
getting permanently into college work. During the next decade, this
movement might be considerable, were the student-teacher system
generally adopted. There are many excellent teachers in high schools
who could teach freshmen and sophomores infinitely better than half
the young doctores eruditissimi now thus engaged. And among the
younger of them quite a few would prefer college to high school so
strongly that they would be tempted to become student-teachers.

TRAINING COLLEGE TEACHERS 595

7. It will so improve the first two years of undergraduate work that
students will be much better prepared to take up courses leading to
professional and graduate pursuits in their junior year. And this is
what many educators, together with the National Association of State
Universities, wish to bring about.

Several objections to this plan are already on the reader's lips. It
will make the doctorate equivocal. It will remove the professor from
the freshman, who really needs him most. Nobody will try for such a
doctorate. Or, maybe the opposite; every senior anxious to get a job
will rush into this line, and there will be no candidates for research.
With all the younger students under young men, discipline will become
lax, A student only five years beyond his freshman days can not
teach freshmen. To all these and many more, I think, good answer
may be given. In the meantime, if we admit that some project for
training college teachers is urgently needed, this one recommends itself
to trial because it can be put fairly well to the test without cost, without
change of curriculum, and, if necessary for prudence's sake, in only
one department.

596 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

OKEFINOKEE SWAMP

By ROLAND M. HARPER

TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA

OKEFINOKEE Swamp, which covers about 700 square miles of
territory on the southern borders of Georgia, is one of the least
known areas of its size in the eastern United States. Its existence has
indeed been known to white men ever since the eighteenth century, but
very few persons capable of giving an intelligent account of it have ever
explored it.

History

The earliest description of this swamp which we have is that of
William Bartram. He never saw it himself, but passed near it in the
spring of 1773, and seems to have gathered considerable information
about it from the Indians and traders. In his celebrated volume of
" Travels," published in 1791, we find the following description, which
is such a curious mixture of truth and legend, and withal of so much
historic interest, that it is worth quoting verbatim:

The river St. Mary has its source from a vast lake, or marsh, called
Ouaquaphenogaw, which lies between Flint and Oakmulge rivers, and occupies
a space of near three hundred miles in circuit. This vast accumulation of
waters, in the wet season, appears as a lake, and contains some large islands
or knolls, of rich high land; one of which the present generation of Creeks^
represent to be a most blissful spot of the earth; they say it is inhabited by
a peculiar race of Indians, whose women are incomparably beautiful; they also
tell you that this terrestrial paradise has been seen by some of their enter-
prising hunters, when in pursuit of game, who being lost in inextricable swamps
and bogs, and on the point of perishing, were unexpectedly relieved by a com-
pany of beautiful women, whom they call daughters of the sun, who kindly
gave them such provisions as they had with them, which were chiefly fruit,
oranges, dates, &c., and some com cakes, and then enjoined them to fly for
safety to their own country; for that their husbands were fierce men, and cruel
to strangers: they further say, that these hunters had a view of their settle-
ments, situated on the elevated banks of an island, or promontory, in a beautiful
lake; but that in their endeavors to approach it they were involved in per-
petual labyrinths, like inchanted land, still as they imagined they had just
gained it, it seemed to fly before them, alternately appearing and disappearing.
They resolved, at length, to leave the delusive pursuit, and to return; which
after a number of inexpressible difiiculties, they effected. When they reported
their adventures to their countrymen, their young warriors were enflamed with
an irresistable desire to invade, and make a conquest of, so charming a country;
but all their attempts have hitherto proved abortive, never having been able
again to find that enchanting spot, nor even any road or pathway to it; yet

^ According to Dr. William Baldwin, Bartram confused the Seminoles with
the Lower Creeks.

OKEFINOKEE SWAMP 597

they frequently meet with certain signs of its being inhabited, as the building
of canoes, footsteps of men, &e. . . .

It is, however, certain that there is a vast lake, or drowned swamp,^ well
known, and often visited both by white and Indian hunters, and on its environs
the most valuable hunting grounds in Florida, well worth contending for, by
those powers whose territories border upon it. From this great source of rivers,'
St. Mary arises, and meanders through a vast plain and pine forest, near an
hundred and fifty miles to the ocean, with which it communicates, between the
points of Amelia and Talbert^ islands; the waters flow deep and gently down
from its source to the sea.

About this time the swamp began to appear on maps, though often
located far from its true position, and with the name spelled in a
wonderful variety of ways. On old maps of Georgia preserved in the
Library of Congi'ess the following variations in spelling can be found:
Ekanfinaka (1790), Akenfonogo (1796), Eokenfonooka (1810),
Oquafanoka (1818), Oke-fin-o-cau (1818) and Okefinoke (1831).
The last agrees pretty well with the pronunciation used by people living
in the immediate vicinity at the present time, who commonly speak of
the swamp as "the Okefinoke" (leaving the e's silent or nearly so).
The name is said to be derived from Indian words meaning " trembling
earth," alluding of course to the boggy nature of the swamp.

After Bartram nothing of importance seems to have been learned
about this swamp for three quarters of a century. Dr. William Bald-
win, the botanist, who resided at the nearest seaport, St. Mary's, from
1813 to 1814, wrote to his friend Dr. Muhlenberg, of Pennsylvania, on
February 26, 1814, of having Just been on a short botanical tour which
" extended to within about twelve miles of the celebrated Okefanoka
Swamp, at the head of St. Mary's " Eiver, but he seems never to have
approached it any closer than that. The description in Eev. George
White's valuable " Statistics of the State of Georgia," published in
1849, is copied from Bartram, the principal difference being that the
name of the swamp is there spelled Okefinocau. The boundaries of the
area, however, are located more accurately on White's map than on
some of later date. In " Historical Collections of Georgia," by the
same author, published in 1855, is a shorter description of the swamp,
from the same source, and the name of it is spelled " E-cun-fi-no-cau."

Probably the first white men, other than hunters, to explore the
Okefinokee were Gen. John Floyd and his soldiers, who are said to have

^At this point in the German edition (published in Berlin in 1793) the
editor, E. A. W. Zimmermann, inserts the following footnote : " Dieser Sumpf
ist unstreitig der Ekanfonoka Sivamp unter 30° der Breite; er nimmt aber auf
Purcel's Karte mehr als Einen Grad ein."

* (Bartram's footnote.) "Source of rivers. It is said, that St. lUe
[Satilla], St. Mary, and the beautiful river. Little St. Juan [Suwannee], which
discharges its waters into the bay of Apalachi, at St. Mark's, take their rise
from this swamp."

* " Talbert " is a mistake. He should have said Cumberland, as Dr. Bald-
win pointed out about ninety years ago.

598 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

crossed it in pursuit of Indians during the first Seminole War, in the
second decade of the nineteenth century. One of the islands in the
swamp now bears the name of this general.

In the winter of 1856-7, Col. E. L. Hunter, an engineer, employed
by the state of Georgia, ran a line of levels around the swamp to ascer-
tain the practicability of draining it, and found its edges to range from
about 110 to 126 feet above sea-level. This survey is said to have cost
the state $3,260. His report to the governor, accompanied by a map,
was filed away and almost forgotten, until unearthed in 1875 by Col. E.
Y. Clarke, at that time editor of the Atlanta Constitution.

During the latter part of the Civil "War, a number of deserters from
the Confederate army found a safe retreat in the Okefinokee, and they
are said to have lived for some time on an island (or perhaps a penin-
sula?) in the southeastern part of the swamp, which is known to this
day as Soldier Camp Island.

Paul Fountain, an English traveler, claims to have been the first
naturalist to visit this region. In his book, " Great Deserts and For-
ests of North America," published in 1901, he devotes 23 pages to it,
and says among other things : " The Okefinoke has not, I think, been
often penetrated; it certainly had not at the time I visited it in 1871
and 1876." Judging from the way he uses the name, he must have
been pretty close to the place, but the chances are that he never saw the
real Okefinokee Swamp at all. About half of his chapter on it con-
sists of general remarks on snakes and other reptiles, and the remainder
purports to be a description of the swamp ; but this description differs
considerably from those of all other explorers, and would apply much
better to the swamp of the Suwannee Eiver, which flows out of Okefino-
kee toward the southwest. Even with this interpretation, however, his
remarks about the insalubrity of the region seem to be considerably
overdrawn.

The first expedition for the systematic exploration of the Okefino-
kee wilderness was organized in the fall of 1875, by the Atlanta Consti-
tution in cooperation with the state geological survey. The members
of this expedition were the State Geologist, Dr. George Little, his
assistants, E. H. Loughridge and C. A. Locke, Col. E. Y. Clarke and
Mr. E. E. Hyde, of Atlanta, Col. C. E. Pendleton, of the Valdosta
Times (now editor of the Macon Telegraph), two or three gentlemen
living near the swamp, and a cook, guide and laborers. The " Consti-
tution Expedition " remained in and around the swamp for six weeks,
in November and December, 1875. A brief account of their work
appeared in the report of the state geologist for that year, and a more
extended description in Janes's " Handbook of Georgia," published by
the state agricultural department in 1876. A few timber specimens
secured by this expedition, together with several from other parts of
Georgia, formed part of the state's exhibit at the Paris exposition in

OKEFINOKEE SWAMP 599

1878, and a list of them in a pamphlet describing this exhibit seems to
be the first authentic botanical information about the swamp ever
published. The descriptions of this region in Dr. Loughridge's report
on cotton production of Georgia, in the sixth volume of the Tenth
Census, are derived from the author's connection with the same ex-
pedition.

Several years later, at a time when public interest in everything
pertaining to the Okefinokee was heightened by circumstances to be
mentioned below, Mr. Louis Pendleton, brother of Col. C. E. Pendle-
ton, combined the historical incident of the deserters with his brother's
experiences in the swamp into a story quite true to life, entitled " In
the Okefenokee," which was published in six chapters in the Youth's
Companion in August and September, 1894. (In the same paper a
year later there appeared a short story entitled " Life in the Okefeno-
kee," which must have been written by some one who had never seen
the swamp.)

Until the last decade of the nineteenth century the greater part of
Okefinokee Swamp was included in the public lands of Georgia, never
having been claimed by private parties. In 1889 the legislature de-
cided to dispose of the state's remaining interest in it, and in March,
1890, it was sold for 26-| cents an acre to a S3Tidicate organized for the
purpose, headed by Capt. Henry Jackson, of Atlanta, and styled the
Suw?nee^ Canal Company. This company's purchase from the state
amounted to about 380 square miles, and the remainder of the area was
gradually acquired from private parties who held it. The object of
this company was primarily to convert the timber in the swamp into
cash, and the necessary surveys having been made, work began in the
fall of 1891. From Camp Cornelia (named after Capt. Jackson's
daughter), near the middle of the eastern margin of the swamp, a canal
about 45 feet wide and 6 feet deep was gradually cut by dredges, work-
ing day and night by the aid of electric search-lights, and progressing
toward the middle of the swamp (see map) at the rate of about three
miles a year. At the same time an enormous ditch was dug from the
same place to the nearest point on the St. Marj^'s Eiver, about six
miles away, by which it was intended first to float logs out to the river
and finally to drain the swamp. This ditch was practically completed
by 1894, but the company then found it more feasible to erect a saw-
mill at Camp Cornelia and ship the sawn lumber, by a railroad con-
structed for the purpose, to Polkston on the Savannah, Florida &
Western Eailway (now Atlantic Coast Line) and Bull Head Blufl on
the Satilla Eiver.

While this work was going on Capt. Jackson visited the Okefinokee
about once a month, sometimes staying a week or more at a time, and

" Suwannee is usually spelled with two n's, but in the oflScial designation
of this company it had only one.

6oo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

exploring it pretty thoroughly. He is said to have had a more exten-
sive knowledge of it than any other man living. As a result of his
activity a good deal of information about this interesting place was
spread before the public, in newspapers and otherwise. The best ac-
cessible description of Okefinokee Swamp, in ISTesbitt's " Georgia, her
Eesources and Possibilities," published by the Georgia agricultural
department in 1896, is based on his observations. Most of the above
history of the operations of the Suwanee Canal Company is taken from
this book, and is given in considerable detail here because the book
seems to be quite rare. An abridged description can be found in Stev-
ens & Wright's " Georgia, Historical and Industrial," a similar but
much larger book published by the same department in 1901, and in
Bulletin No. 5 of the Geological Survey of Georgia, by S. "W. McCallie.
After the death in 1895 of Capt. Jackson, its president and most
active member, the canal company suspended operations. The ten or
twelve miles of canal and five or six miles of drainage ditch began to
fill up with vegetation, the steamboats and dredges mostly sunk or were
burned, the sawmill fell to decay, and the rails of the logging road were
taken up. The property then passed into the hands of some northern
lumbermen, who it is said are still planning to exploit the economic
resources of the swamp, though there was no visible evidence of their
work at the time of the writer's visit a few years later.

To return to the progress of exploration of the Okefinokee ; Dr. Fili-
bert Eoth, at that time connected with the Division of Forestry of the
U. S. Department of Agriculture, seems to have made a brief visit to
the swamp in the spring of 1897. Incidental references to the two
commonest trees of the swamp, cypress and slash pine, were published
by him soon afterwards in Bulletin 13 (revised) and Circular 19 of
the Division of Forestry.

In August, 1902, the writer, in the course of botanical explorations
in south Georgia, spent two days in the swamp, and considerably more
time in the surrounding country. In the swamp he was accompanied
by Mr. P. L. Eicker, of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, and a
native guide. We traversed the whole length of the old canal in a
small boat, and made a side trip on foot through the bogs to an island
about two miles off the canal. Together we took about forty photo-
graphs, including all those used to illustrate this article. Brief notes
on this expedition have been published in several scientific journals,
but nothing like a complete description of the vegetation of the swamp
has yet been attempted.

During the winter and spring of 1905-6 a party from the Bureau
of Soils of the U. S. Department of Agriculture examined the soils
around Waycross, and in their report, published in April, 1907, is a
pretty fair description of the northern end of Okefinokee Swamp.

OKEFINOKEE SWAMP

6oi

Having outlined the sources of our knowledge of this interesting
region, it may now be described from a geographical standpoint.

Geography

Okefinokee Swamp lies almost entirely in Ware and Charlton coun-
ties, Georgia, about fifty miles from the coast and 115 feet above sea-
level. (It will be noticed that in its elevation and distance from the

Map of the southeastern Corner of Georgia, showing the
Swamp and the ridge east of it. Compiled from county maps
State's office in Atlanta, a map drawn for the Suwannee Cana
U. S. Coast Survey chart No. 157, 1901 : field notes of the
Rand, McNally & Co.'s map of Georgia, 1906. and the U. S. Depar
soil map of the Waycross area, 1907.

The abandoned railroads are shown principally because they
ways for exploring the almost trackless pine-barrens on foot,
islands and other details within the swamp are not given here
known about them at present.

ocation of Okefinokee
in the Secretary of

1 Company in 1897 ;
author, 1902-1904;

tment of Agriculture

are convenient high-
The location of the
because too little is

coast it differs considerably from the two other great swamps of east-
ern North America, namely. Dismal Swamp and the Everglades.) The
surrounding country belongs to the flat pine-barren region of the
coastal plain, and is notable for the lack of diversity in its topography.
Except in the vicinity of some of the creeks and rivers, the ground has
scarcely any slope, and the channels of the smaller streams are ill-de-
fined. At almost any point on a railroad within thirty or forty miles
of the swamp one can see the rails stretching away in a straight line
farther than the eye can reach, in one or both directions. The longest

602

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

stretch of straight track in Georgia, from a few miles southwest of
Waycross to a few miles beyond Valdosta, sixty miles in all, crosses the
head-waters of the Okefinokee.

The geology of this flat pine-barren region is comparatively simple.
The surface is a few inches or a few feet of Columbia sand, and under
that is the clay, loam or coarse sand of the Altamaha Grit or Grand
Gulf formation to a depth of three or four hundred feet. None of
these formations are fossiliferous, but they are believed to be quite
recent, j^robably of Pliocene or later age. Under them is a limestone
believed to be Miocene', and below that presumably all the older coastal
plain formations in succession. There is every reason to believe that
the whole swamp is underlaid by the same formations, from the
Columbia down.

Immediately east of the Okefinokee is one of the most interesting
topographic features of the region, which would scarcely be noticeable
but for the general flatness of the country. It is a broad low ridge,
exactly parallel with the coast and just about forty miles distant from
it. This ridge has been traced by the writer from a few miles west of
Jesup southward into the great bend of the St. Mary's Eiver, and about
thirty miles into Florida, where it is known as the " Trail Eidge," and
happens to coincide in part with the Atlantic and Gulf divide and with
the eastern boundary of Baker and Bradford counties, though still
maintaining its parallelism with the Atlantic coast. It is not an impor-
tant divide in Georgia, though no streams intersect it between the St.

'%,

a^Mfiifc^

L

^3

■Bh^ «' ^^^^^^^^M

Abandoned Drainage Ditch near Camp Cornelia.

OKEFINOKEE SWAMP

603

Mary's and the Altamaha except the Satilla and Little Satilla Rivers.
At Camp Cornelia^ where the old drainage ditch of the Suwanee
Canal Company cuts through it, this remarkable ridge is about two
miles wide and only about forty feet high; and it probably keeps prac-
tically the same dimensions for many miles north and south. Its
slopes are so gentle as to be scarcely noticeable to a person passing over
itj but when viewed from a point a few miles away on one of the
straight railroads which cross it it stands out quite conspicuously.

Inteeioe of Jackson's Bat.

Trail Eidge, or Okefinokee Eidge, as the Georgia end of it might
be called, does not belong to the class of cuestas or inland-facing es-
carpments which can be seen in many places in the upper half of the
coastal plain, for it slopes equally on both sides and has no stream
hugging its inland edge as far as known. Moreover, it is too smooth
and too straight to have been formed by erosion. The most reasonable
explanation of it would seem to be that it marks a comparatively recent
slight flexure of the earth's crust, formed during one of the oscillations
which the coastal plain experienced several times during its making.
There seems to be a similar though smaller ridge about fifteen miles
east of it, but so little is known about that that it could not be mapped
at the present time. Mount Pleasant and Waynesville, near the
boundary between Wayne and Glynn Counties, are located on the latter
ridge, and along its summit was one of the principal roads from
Savannah to East Florida a century ago, followed by Bartram and
other travelers.

6o4

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

The internal structure of the Okefinokee Eidge is not its least in-
teresting feature. In the big ditch at Camp Cornelia, as well as at the
crossings of four railroads (three of them shown on the map and one
a little farther north), there occurs beneath a few feet of white sand a
chocolate-colored or almost black material of unknown depth, known
locally as " hardpan." No analysis of the hardpan is availalile, but
when pulverized in the fingers it feels like nothing but sand. Its dark
color is doubtless due to vegetable matter, with a little cement of iron
oxide or bog ii'on ore, which makes it so hard in the mass that dynamite

Jackson's Bay (outer edge).

was used in removing it, it is said. ISTo recognizable organic remains
were noticed in it, but a faint horizontal stratification could be detected.
The aspect of the hardpan is so similar to that of the subsoil of existing
salt marshes that its origin is not hard to guess.

Although this peculiar formation may not be confined to the Oke-
finokee Eidge, its extent is evidently limited ; for in railroad cuts
around Waycross and Folkston and in Camden County and elsewhere
the ordinary reddish Pliocene loam can be seen near the surface, with-
out any signs of the black hardpan. The hardpan was doubtless
formed in some preliistoric swamp or marsh occupying a somewhat
larger area than Okefinokee does now — perhaps the " Suwannee
Strait " of geologists,® which is supposed to have separated Florida from
the mainland in Miocene times. It seems to have no effect on the vege-
tation above it, which is Just like that of the ordinary flat pine-barrens
underlaid by the loam.

°See Dall, Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv., 84: 111, 121-122, 126, 1892.

OKEFINOKEE SWAMP 605

Assuming the foregoing theories to be true^, we can now trace the
pruliahle development of Okefinokee Swamp. When the ridge was
thrown up across the shallow trough which had been Suwannee Strait
it naturally created a basin behind it, which must have quickly filled
with water, forming a large shallow lake. This lake then began to fill
with vegetation, as many other shallow lakes and ponds in temperate
regions are doing, and gradually took on the aspect it has to-day, which
will be described more in detail below, under the head of vegetation.
A glance at the map will show how the waters are dammed up by the
ridge, the straight eastern border contrasting with the very irregular
western border of the swamp.

The drainage of the region presents some peculiar features. Oke-
finokee Swamp is approximately on the watershed between the Atlantic
Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. In dry weather the Suwannee Eiver
seems to be its only outlet, but at other times some of the water may
be discharged into the Atlantic through the St. Mary's. Being about
on a watershed, the drainage area of the swamp is rather small, in-
cluding only a few hundred square miles outside of the swamp itself.
Its tributaries are practically confined to Ware County, on the north-
west, and none of them exceed twenty miles in length. As the swamp
is a few hundred feet vertically and a good many miles horizontally
from any limestone, subterranean inlets and outlets are out of the
question.'^ The color of the water in the swamp and in all the streams
in the vicinity shows it to be entirely free from lime as well as from mud.

The courses of the Satilla and St. Mary's Eivers in the neighbor-
hood of the swamp are rather peculiar. Each after passing through
the Okefinokee Eidge turns and flows parallel to the coast for about
thirty miles, in the trough between the two low ridges mentioned, and
then resumes its eastward course to the sea. The circuitous channels
of these rivers must have been formed at the time of the Columbia
submergence of the coastal plain if not before, for in such a flat sandy
country there is practically no erosion going on at the present time, and
such phenomena as stream-capture are unknown.

Climate

A pretty accurate estimate of the climate of the Okefinokee can be
obtained by taking the averages of the figures for Waycross, Ga., and
Macclenny, Fla., which lie on opposite sides of the swamp and at about
the same distance from the Atlantic coast. Summed up by seasons, the
average temperature and total rainfall are as follows :

' Paul Fountain, in his book previously referred to, described a large lime-
stone spring in the " northern part " of Okefinokee, but in all probability this
spring was on the Suwannee River somewhere in Florida, Avhere such things
are rather common.

6o6

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Seasons

Spring ' Summer
(March-May) (June-Aug.)

Autumn
(Sept.-Nov.)

69.3

Winter
(Dec.-Feb.)

52.3

Annual

Temperature (degrees
Fahrenheit)

68.4

81.6

67.9

Rainfall (inches)

10.0

19.5

9.8

10.7

50.0

Frost usually occurs in four or five months of every year, but snow
is rare. The maximum temperature here, as nearly everywhere in the
eastern United States outside of the mountains, is about 100°. It is
noteworthy that nearly two fifths of the total annual rainfall comes in
the three summer months, as seems to be the case all over the southern
half of Georgia. August is the wettest month, with about 7 inches of
rain, and November the driest, with a little less than 3. The total an-
nual amount happens to be a little less than the average for either
Georgia, Florida or Alabama.

Vegetation of the Swamp
The various aspects of different parts of Okefinokee Swamp
seem to depend almost entirely on the distance of the sandy bottom

Bugaboo Island.

below or above the water level. Areas where the sand rises above the
water constitute the islands. There are about half a dozen of these,
Floyd's Billy's, Mitchell's, Black Jack, Honey and Bugaboo, with areas
ranging from about one to ten square miles. The largest islands are
naturally highest and driest, and are said to bear a fine growth of long-
leaf pine {Pinus palustris), and perhaps some oaks and hickories. The
only island which Mr. Eicker and the writer were able to reach (on
account of the low stage of water prevailing at the time of our visit,

OKEFINOKEE SWAMP

607

the rainfall that month having been only about half the normal for
August) was Bugaboo Island, one of the smallest. Its surface seems
to be elevated only a foot or two above the surrounding swamp, and its
edges slope off so gradually that one can not tell within several rods
just where swamp ends and island begins. Nine tenths or more of
the trees on this island are slash pine (Pinus EUiottii), a species com-
mon in low or flat pine-barrens all over southeastern Georgia. The
rest of the trees are mostly black pine (Pinus serotina), and the under-

Sphagnum Bog with Pines and Ferns.

growth consists of saw-palmettos (Serenoa) and several other low
evergreen bushes, much as on the neighboring mainland. There is al-
most no grass on the island, probably on account of the rarity of fires,
which outside of the swamp keep the bushes in some measure sup-
pressed.

Bugaboo Island (and probably most of the others) is surrounded
by sphagnous bogs, which resemble the northern tamarack and cedar
swamps in many ways. The trees in the bogs are conifers, one ever-
green, the slash pine already mentioned, and one deciduous, the cypress
{Taxodium imhricarium.) ; analogous to the evergreen spruce and de-
ciduous tamarack of the northern bogs. (The white cedar or juniper,
Chamcecyparis, the only water-loving conifer common to the glaciated
region and coastal plain, is not certainly known to grow in Okefinokee,
but the chances are that it grows there just as it does in Dismal Swamp
and many of the swamps of Florida.) Beneath the trees, which grow
rather openly, tlie vegetation consists of heath-like shrubs, ferns

6o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

(mostly of one species^ Woodwardia Virginica), sedges, sundews,
pitcher-plants, etc. The pitcher-plants {Sarracenia minor and S. psit-
tacina) grow two or three times as large in Okefinokee as they do any-
where else. The leaves of S. minor, which had never been known to
grow more than a foot tall in the pine-barrens, often attain a height of
over three feet in the swamp. The ground in these bogs is everywhere
covered with a dense soft carpet of sphagnum.

Where the swamp muck has reached a depth of three or four feet
the pines can no longer exist, and the cypress grows much more densely
than it does in the bogs, constituting the bulk of the vegetation. Such
places are known locally as "bays." There the long moss (TiUandsia
usneoides) drapes every tree, though it never grows as luxuriantly as
in calcareous or alluvial regions in the same latitude. The shrubs,
herbs and mosses in the bays are much the same as in the bogs already
described, though considerably less abundant. One shrub deserves
special mention on account of its peculiar habit. It is Pieris phillyrei-
folia, a handsome little evergreen of the heath family, confined to
Georgia, Florida and Alabama. It sometimes stands erect, two or
three feet tall, but usually it starts at the base of a cypress tree, and its
stems insinuate themselves between the inner and outer layers of the
bark of the tree, gradually working upward to a height of thirty or
forty feet from the ground, and sending out branches with leaves and
flowers every few feet. Growing in this way the shrub might easily
be taken for a parasite, but its stems can always be traced down to the
ground, and they bear no rootlets and never penetrate to the living
part of the bark. As far as known this manner of climbing has no
parallel in the whole vegetable kingdom.

Where the sandy bottom of the swamp lies six feet or more below
the average water level no trees can grow, and we have what are known
as " prairies." The prairies are all in the eastern half of the swamp,
where their aggregate area is perhaps as much as a hundred square
miles. In wet weather the water covers them so that one can go almost
anywhere in a shallow boat, especially by following the " 'gator roads,"
or trails made by the alligators ; but when the water is low the prairies
are impassable for boats while still too boggy to walk in. This being
the case at the time of our visit we could only view them from the banks
of the canal. The bulk of the vegetation in the prairies consists of
"maiden cane" {Panicum digUarioides),^ interspersed with "fire-
leaf" or "bull-tongue" {Orontium aquaticum), " wampee " or pick-
erel weed (Pontederia) , white Avater-lilies {Castalia), and numerous
other characteristic aquatic plants. There seems to be no sphagnum,
perhaps because it will not grow without shade in that latitude. The

* The true cane {Arundinaria) , which is said to be very abundant in Dismal
Swamp, seems to be entirely absent from Okefinokee, as it is from the Everglades.

OKEFINOKEE SWAMP

609

prairies seem to have no counterpart in Dismal Swamp, but they look
very much like some pictures of the Everglades.

The prairies are dotted here and there with small clumps of cypress
trees and evergreen vines and bushes, known as " houses," from the fact
that hunters sometimes camp in them while in the swamp. These
probably represent shallower spots, or incipient bays.

In some of the prairies are considerable bodies of open water, known
to the natives as lakes. These doubtless mark the deepest parts of the
swamp, not yet tilled with vegetation. They are comparatively shallow
though, the combined depth of water and muck perhaps nowhere ex-
ceeding ten feet.

^"^

• "

■■--r

^W

.%

J^

b

^jjg^^^^^^

1

Chase's Peaieie.

Animal Life

As Okefinokee Swamp has probably never been visited by a zoologist,
no reliable account of its fauna can be given here. Bears and deer are
still found on the islands, and occasionally stray outside of the swamp.
An old hunter living at the north end of the swam]), when interviewed
by a correspondent of the Atlanta Constitution in the spring of 1897,
estimated that in the forty years he had lived tlicro he had killed about
150 bears, 200 deer, and hundreds of wolves, minks and wildcats. In
the summer of 1900 there was an item in the same paper to the effect
that a large black bear had been seen at Manor, about ten miles noi th-
west of the swamp, and caused great consternation among the negroes
employed in the turpentine orchards there. Early in 1907 a bear was
seen several times near Adel, in Berrien County, about sixty miles
farther west, and Col. C. E. Pendleton, commenting on it in his paper,

6io THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

the Macon Telegraph, expressed the opinion tliat it had come out from
Okefinokee by way of the swamps of the Suwannee and Withlacoochee
rivers. At the time of our visit to the swamp our guide showed us on
Bugaboo Island a fresh scar on a pine tree about five feet from the
ground, where it had been gnawed or scratched by one of these animals.
Other mammals reported from the swamp by the Constitution Expedi-
tion and Capt. Jackson, besides those already mentioned, are otters,
'coons, panthers and squirrels. In the line of birds we noticed especi-
ally a number of egrets ( ? ) , a water-turkey, and the nest of an eagle.
Owls, ducks and geese were reported by the Constitution Expedition,
white and blue herons and curlews were mentioned by Capt. Jackson,
and Gannet Lake and Buzzard Lake, in the southern part of the swamp,
probably indicate the occurrence of birds similarly named. The com-
monest reptiles are alligators, which sometimes attain a length of
twelve feet, according to several authorities, but they are now much
scarcer than formerly, owing to the depredations of hunters who seek
their hides, and we saw only one live one. Snakes are not very numer-
ous, and only one of them (a water-moccasin) was encountered in the
two days we were in the swamp. " Yellow-belly terrapins " are also
found there, it is said, and are sought after to some extent for their
flesh. Eishes mentioned by Capt. Jackson are large-mouth black bass
or " trout," weighing six to twelve pounds, and jackfish, up to ten
pounds. A small specimen of the latter jumped into our boat one after-
noon, and formed part of our next meal. The only insects which gave
us any trouble were mosquitoes, and those only at night.

Inhabitants

The greater part of the Okefinokee is of course unsuitable for human
habitation, but the islands are known to have supported a small if not
permanent population. Bartram's fanciful account of the inhabitants
must have had some foundation in fact, for it is pretty well established
that Indians have lived in the swamp. Billy's Island takes its name
from Billy Bowlegs, a Seminole chief, who lived on it early in the
nineteenth century, and there made his last stand against the wliites
under Gen. Floyd. On several of the islands are found low hillocks of
sand, which are believed to be Indian mounds, but have apparently
never been opened. The occupation of parts of the swamp by de-
serters during the war has already been mentioned. At the present
time a large family of white people is said to be living on one of the
islands near the head of the Suwannee Eiver.

The country around the Okefinokee is rather sparsely settled. The
four counties in which the swamp lies, Charlton, Pierce, Ware and
Clinch, averaged in 1900 10.2 inhabitants to the square mile, 66 per
cent, of whom were white. The population increased 36 per cent, be-
tween 1890 and 1900. Deducting the city of Waycross, which contains

OKEFINOKEE SWAMP 6ii

nearly half the population of Ware County, and is the largest city in
the pine-barrens of Georgia, the density of population in 1900 was 8.5
per square mile, the proportion of whites 69 per cent., and the increase
since 1890 30 per cent. For the whole state of Georgia the corres-
ponding figures were 37.5 per square mile, 53 per cent, white and 21
per cent, increase.

The principal occupations of the people in these counties, outside
of the towns, are stock-raising, lumbering, turpentining, farming,
hunting and fishing, approximately in the order named. There seem
to be a few " moonshiners " just south of the swamp in Florida. Not
more than 10 per cent, of the area of the four counties named, even
with the swamp excluded, has been touched by the plow as yet. Until
quite recently this flat sandy land was considered as little better than a
desert, but its merits are beginning to be appreciated, as is proved by
the rapid increase of population in the last decade. The leading crops
of this region are corn, sugar-cane, oats, sea-island cotton, sweet ])ota-
toes and rice. Sugar-cane syrup is becoming one of the principal agri-
cultural exports, especially north and west of the swamp.

Healthfulness of the Eegion

Like Dismal Swamp and the Everglades, the vicinity of Okefinokee
is remarkably free from climatic or endemic diseases, Fountain's state-
ments to the contrary notwitlistanding. Malaria, which in the popular
mind is commonly associated with swamps of all kinds, seems to be
chiefly confined to alluvial districts, and is therefore not to be expected
around Okefinokee, which is strictly a non-alluvial swamp. As many
as 200 men were sometimes employed in the swamp by the Suwanee
Canal Company, and it is said that there was never a case of malaria
among them or their families who lived at Camp Cornelia. No one is
known to have ever died in the Okefinokee, from illness, snake-bite,
starvation, drowning, or any other cause. On the contrary, instances
are recorded of men suffering with rheumatism who have gone in there
to work and come out in a few days greatly relieved, if not cured.

The chief drawback — though not a serious one — to life in the
swamp is the drinking water. It is of course rather warm in summer,
and always full of fine particles of peat, just as in northern cedar-
swamps, but nevertheless it is not unwholesome. Its properties are
doubtless similar to those of the Dismal Swamp water, which used to
be preferred by navigators sailing from Norfolk and vicinity because
on account of its slightly antiseptic properties it kept fresh on shipboard
longer than any other kind.

The flat pine-barrens around the swamp have many attractions as a
residential section, notwithstanding the pessimistic picture of them
which Bradford Torrey draws in his article " In the Flat-woods."^

^Atlantic Monthly, December, 1893. Also reprinted in his " Florida Sketch-
book," 1894, p. 1.

6l2

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Burns in 1892^° admits the healthfulness of this kind of eoimtry while
granting it no other advantage. In White's Statistics (1849) we read
that there were no doctors in Wayne County at that tinie^ because none
were needed. The universal surface of sand in this region makes it
the cleanest country imaginable, especially in wet weather, and also
incidentally obviates the necessity of shoeing horses.

The water from shallow wells near the swamp, especially those
which penetrate the " hardpan " of the ridge, is not always agreeable
to persons unaccustomed to it, but an abundance of good water can be
obtained from artesian wells, which are in successful operation at Way-
cross, Fargo, Moniac and other places.

Economic Aspects

The greatest material resource of Okefinokee Swamp to-day is of
course the cypress timber. This cypress, sometimes distinguished as

Scene on Logging Canal.

the pond cypress (Taxodium imhricarium) , is not the same as the com-
mon cypress of commerce (T. distichum) , but its wood is believed to be
a little stronger and heavier if anything. The pond cypress of Oke-
finokee is not surpassed anywhere for quantity and size, this being near'
the center of distribution of this species. (The other species seems to
center in the lower Mississippi valley.) With conservative methods of
exploitation the supply should be practically perpetual. Next to the

^'' Bull. 84, U. S. Geo]. Surv., p. 82.

OKEFINOKEE SWAMP 613

cypress the most imjjortant timber is the pine on the islands, but there
is still so much of the same outside of the swamp that this compara-
tively inaccessible supply has not yet been drawn upon for lumber or
turpentine. For the various hardwood species which inhabit the swamp
there has been as yet almost no demand, and even in the easily acces-
sible small swamps in the surrounding pine-barrens they have scarcely
been touched.

The vast quantities of peat in the swamp will doubtless be useful
for fuel at some future time, when coal and wood become considerably
scarcer than they are now. Capt. Jackson had some of the swamp
muck analyzed and found 85 per cent, of it combustible.

Doubtless the most absorbing economic question with regard to
Okefinokee Swamp is whether it will be feasible to drain it. The
popular demand for indiscriminate drainage of swamps will apparently
never be satisfied as long as Okefinokee continues to exist. The argu-
ments against swamp drainage in general, set forth in a recent article/^
need not be repeated here, but a few points which apply to this swamp
in particular deserve to be mentioned.

As the swamp is about 100 feet higher than the St. Mary's Elver at
the other end of the six-mile drainage ditch, it would seem a compara-
tively simple matter to empty it that way, until it is recalled that the
surface of the swamp slopes slightly in the other direction, and most
of the water discharges into the Suwannee River. Col. Hunter esti-
mated in 1857 that the swamp could be drained for $1,067,250, but
Capt. Jackson, soon after the dredging operations of the Suwanee Canal
Company began, expressed tlie opinion that to drain the swamp
thoroughly would require over 300 miles of canals, besides a consider-
able deepening of the drainage ditch, which is already about 100 feet
wide at the top of the ridge.

It was expected that the swamp muck when drained would make a
soil of surpassing richness, but experiments made with it where it was
thrown up on the banks of the canal gave only negative results. This
might have been anticipated from the nature of the surrounding
countr}^, which is completely covered with quartz sand, so that the few
streams emptying into the swamp carry practically no mineral matter.
The sour humus of the swamp might perhaps be dug out and used to
advantage on strongly calcareous soils, but there are no such soils
within a convenient distance.

A sudden draining of the swamp would be disastrous in several
ways. In the first place, it would kill the fish and other aquatic
animals, and would probably be detrimental to the health of the sur-
rounding country in other ways. Then it would put an end to the
production of cypress timber, for which the swamp seems to be best

^'^ Southern Woodlands, 2: 46-67, August, 1908. See also Science, N. S.,
28: 525, October 16, 190S; Literary Digest, 37: 890, December 12, 1908.

6i4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

adapted. Worst of all, fire would soon get in from the surrounding
pine forests (which are burned over more or less every year), and con-
sume the muck, timber and all. Several extensive fires have already
occurred in the swamp in very dry seasons, it is said, and even at the
time of our visit the peaty banks of the canal were smouldering in two
or three places.

With game laws properly enforced Okefinokee would be a paradise
for the sportsman. Capt. Jackson wrote of it to a friend in the spring
of 1892:

There is no healthier or more attractive spot in the world, to one who can
stand exposure and fatigue, than this property. If you are anything of a
sportsman, I will show you fishing and hunting that has never had a parallel.

The swamp has been and still is much visited by hunters, and their
wantonness has greatly decimated the large game, but none of the
species have been exterminated yet, and they would probably soon re-
establish themselves if given sufficient protection.

From a scenic standpoint alone Okefinokee is well worth visiting
at any season of the year. Its almost untrodden islands, its dense
moss-garlanded bays, and its broad open prairies, all have their peculiar
charms, and must be seen to be appreciated. There is nothing else
exactly like it in the world. There is really more reason for preserving
Okefinokee than Niagara, for its destruction would benefit but few
people in the long run, and the loss to science would be far greater.
It would have been much better if this enchanting wilderness had re-
mained in the possession of the state, to be perpetuated as a forest and
game preserve for all future generations.

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

6i5

THE PEOGEESS OF SCIENCE

JUSTUS TON LIEBIG AND THE
FIRST LABORATORY
It has been necessary to wait a long
while for a biography of Justus von
Liebig, but it has now appeared from
the competent hand of Professor Jakob
Volhard, of Halle, a chemist of distinc-
tion, known also as the biographer of
A. W. Hofmann. Liebig and Volhard's
father were school friends; the young
Volhard was treated almost as a child
in Liebig's family; later he was his
assistant at Munich and succeeded him
in some of his lectures. The biography
appears in two large volumes from the
publishing house of Barth and contains,
in addition to a full personal narrative,
an extended account of Liebig's re-
searches in organic chemistry.

As has often happened in the case of
those who have become eminent in sci-
ence, Liebig's father — a dealer in drugs
— was enjjaffed in work which influ-

enced the interests of the son; his
mother was a woman of character; he
was backward in his school studies, but
made rapid advances when permitted to
take up his chosen work, so that he
received his doctor's degree at the age
of nineteen and an assistant professor-
ship at the age of twenty-one; he
traveled and studied abroad.

At the beginning of the last century
there was in Germany a remarkable
renascence in letters, philosophy and
philology, to be followed a little later
by the revival which gave the universi-
ties their leading place in the advance-
ment of the natural and exact sciences.
Liebig was born in 1803, and when he
studied at the university the sciences
were dominated by the philosophy of
nature of the post-Kantians. He says
that he was robbed of two precious
years of his life by the infection.
Schelling, whose lectures he heard, was

Liebig's Laboratory at Giessen.

6i6

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Justus von Liebig.

not likely to lead a student to the
study of chemistry. He was capable
of writing: "The animal is in organic
nature the iron; the plant is the water,
for nature begins with the relative
separation of the sexes, and then ends
in this separation. The animal decom-
poses the iron, the plant decomposes
the water. The female and the male
sex of the plant is the carbon and
nitrogen of the water." Even Kastner,
the professor of chemistry whom Liebig
went to Bonn to hear and followed to
Erlangen, told his students that " the
influence of the moon on the weather is

obvious, because storms stop as soon as
the moon appears."

But fortunately for science Liebig
found his way to Paris and came under
the influence of Gay-Lussac. In 1824
he was appointed associate professor of
chemistry at Giessen and the following
year opened the laboratory of chemis-
try whicli is generally regarded as the
first regular scientific laboratory for
research and instruction. The alchem-
ists had their laboratories and the
founders of modern chemistry had
rooms in which they carried out their
experiments. Anatomical laboratories

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

619

for dissection trace their history to
Vesalius or even to the beginnings of
the medieval university at Salernuni.
But Liebig's laboratory at Giessen
stands for a new epoch in scientific
investigation and instruction. It had
its own development and was the model
for chemical laboratories in other Ger-
man universities and in other coun-
tries. It was some twenty-five years
before similar laboratories in physics
were established, to be followed still
later by laboratories of zoology, physi-
ology, botany, geology and psychology.

It is indeed a long way from " Specu-
lative Physics " — the title which Schel-
liny- gave to his work — to the science
of the modern laboratory. The trans-
formation in the German university
was truly marvelous and is due in
greater degree to Liebig than to any
other. It was of course a necessary
evolution, but a reading of the biog-
raphy of Liebig makes clear what diffi-
culties had to be overcome and how
largely this was accomplished by the
energy and personality of the great
chemist.

For twenty-seven years Liebig worked
in the Giessen laboratory attracting
students and fellow workers from all
parts of Germany and from foreign
countries. He there laid the founda-
tions of organic chemistry and its ap-
plications to physiology, to agriculture
and to the arts. In 1852 Liebig ac-
cepted a call to Munich. He died in
1873.

SCIENTIFIC AND EDUCATIONAL
MEETINGS
The principal scientific congress of
the year consists of the scientific socie-
ties meeting in affiliation with the
American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science in New Year's week,
with an attendance in the neighbor-
hood of 2,000 scientific men. The meet-
ing next in importance should be that
of the National Academy of Sciences
at Washington in the third week of
April. The academy has high func-
tions as the adviser of the government

in scientific matters and high tradi-
tions in maintaining the prestige of
science. If, however, the academy
transacts business of importance be-
hind closed doors this does not appear
in the annual reports, and the scientific
programs are small and somewhat un-
even in character. At the last meeting
there were nineteen papers on the pro-
gram not all of which were presented.
Several of these were important and
interesting, and several were important
but not interesting to others than ex-
perts in the special subject. In gen-
eral the programs are not of sufficient
value to attract to Washington men of
science other than members of the
academy.

The American Philosophical Society,
founded in Philadelphia by Franklin
on the model of the Royal Society,
after becoming local in character has
again undertaken to hold general meet-
ings. They follow immediately those
of the National Academy and appear
to have become of greater general in-
terest. Thus at the recent meeting
there were about fifty papers on the
program and some of the events, such
as the Darwin memorial session ad-
dressed by Ambassador Bryce, were of
real significance. The society is fortu-
nate in having its historic building on
Independence Square and means to pro-
vide luncheons, dinners and receptions.
It seems probable, however, that acad-
emies having a limited membership
selected for eminence and programs
covering all the sciences belong to the
eighteenth rather than to the twentieth
century.

The professional societies in the ap-
plied sciences and in education always
liave successful meetings. The Amer-
ican Medical Convention, meeting in
Atlantic City early in June, and the
National Educational Association, meet-
ing in Denver early in July, are certain
j to bring together thousands of mem-
bers. The National Educational Asso-
ciation not only has programs attrac-
tive to teachers, but the excursion
elements are emphasized so that the

620

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

trip itself is of social and educational
value. Many teachers will combine at-
tendance on the sessions at Denver
with a visit to the Rocky Mountains,
several views of which are here repro-
duced.

SCIENTIFIC ITEMS
We record with regret the deaths of
Dr. Frank Leo Tufts, A.B., adjunct
professor of physics in Columbia Uni-
versity; of Dr. W. H. Edwards, known
for his work on the butterflies of North
America, and of the Rev. Dr. Sereno E.
Bishop, who had made contributions to
our knowledge of the Hawaiian vol-
canoes.

The following new members of the
National Academy of Sciences were
elected at the meeting on April 22,
1909: Professor Joseph S. Ames, Johns
Hopkins University; Professor Maxime
Bocher, Harvard University; Professor
Oskar Bolza, University of Chicago;
Mr. Frank W. Clarke, U. S. Geological
Survey; Dr. John M. Clarke, New York
State Museum; Professor John M.
Coulter, University of Chicago; Pro-
fessor Henry Crew, Northwestern
University; Professor Thomas Hunt

"Morgan, Columbia University; Mr.
Waldemar Lindgren, U. S. Geological
Survey; Professor Henry L. Wheeler,
Yale University. The following were
elected foreign associates : Professor
Albrecht Penck, University of Berlin;
Professor Gustaf Retzius, Stockholm ;
Professor Wilhelm Waldeyer, Univer-
sity of Berlin; Professor Wilhelm
Wundt, University of Leipzig.

The following new members have
been elected to the American Philo-
sophical Society: Louis A. Bauer,
William Howard Taft, Washington,
D. C. ; Marston Taylor Bogert, Hermon
Carey Bumpus, Dr. Alexis Carrel, A. V.
Williams Jackson, New York; Edwin
Brant Frost, Williams Bay, Wis.;
Robert Aimer Harper, Charles Richard
Van Hise, Madison, Wis. ; William
Herbert Hobbs, Victor Clarence
Vaughan, Ann Arbor, Mich.; Abbott
Lawrence Lowell, Boston; William
Romaine Newbold, John Frederick
Lewis, Charles Bingham Penrose,
Philadelphia ; Francis Darwin, Cam-
bridge, England; Hermann Diels, Emil
Fischer, Berlin; Friedrich Kohlrausch,
Marburg; Wilhelm F. Ph. Pfeffer,
Leipzig.

INDEX

62 1

INDEX

NAMES OF CONTRIBUTORS ARE PRINTED IN SMALL CAPITALS

Abstraction, On a Very Prevalent

Abuse of, William James, 485
Agriculture, Report of the Secretary of,

207
Anderson, Robert Van Vleck, A Trip

in Southernmost Japan with Early

Records of its Discovery, 161
Anesthetics, Cerebral Surgery without.

Suggestions from Two Cases, George

Trumbull Ladd, 562
Antarctic Expedition, Lieutenant

Shackleton s, 516
Astronomical Problem, Famous, On the

Closing of a, W. W. Campbell, 494

Bailey, E. H. S., The Art of Bleaching

and Dyeing as applied to Food, 58
Bailey, Pearce, Hysteria as an Asset,

568
Baltimore Scientific Meetings, 203
Bauer, L. A., The Instruments and

Methods of Research, 184
Biographical History of Botany at St.

Louis, Perley Spalding, 48, 124, 240
Biology, Predarwinian and Postdar-

winian, William Morton Wheeler,

SSL
Bleaching and Dyeing, The Art of, as

applied to Food, E. H. S. Bailey, 58
Boards of Health, The Work of, George

A. Soper, 233
Botany, A Biographical History of, at

St, Louis, Perley Spalding, 48, 124,

240
Britton, Nathaniel Lord, Darwin and

Botany, 355
Bumpus, Hermon C, Darwin and Zool-
ogy, 361
Bureau, Tariff, A Permanent, Seymour

C. LoOMis, 468

Calabrian Disaster, The Latest, Wm.

H. Hobbs, 134
Camel Experiment, Jefferson Davis's,

Walter L. Fleming, 141
Campbell, W. W., On the Closing of a

Famous Astronomical Problem, 494
Canal, Panama, Type of the, C. iii.

Grunsky, 417
Carnegie Institution, The Research

Work of the, 514
Cattell, J. McKeen, The School and

the Family, 84
Cerebral Surgery without Anesthetics,

Suggestions from Two Cases of,

George Trumbull Ladd, 562

Chamberlain, Alexander F., Notes
on Certain Philosophies of the Day,
575

College Teachers, Training, W. B. Pit-
kin, 588

Commercialism, John J. Stevenson, 70

Consumer, Tariff Revision from the
Standpoint of the, Jesse E. Orton,
463

Convocation Week Meetings at the
Johns Hopkins University, 102

Cox, Charles F., The Individuality of
Charles Darwin, 344

Gushing, H. K., Laboratory of Experi-
mental Medicine at Western Reserve
University, 100

Darwin, Charles, Poetry and Science in
the case of, Edward Bradford Titch-
ENER. 43 ; Life and Works, Henry
Fairfield Osborn, 315; Individual-
ity of, Charles F. Cox, 344; and
Geology, John J. Stevenson, 349;
and Botany, Nathaniel Lord Brit-
ton, 355; and Zoology, Hermon C,
Bumpus, 361; For Darwin; T. H.
JNIoRGAN, 367 ; Predarwinian and
Postdarwinian Biology, William
Morton Wheeler, 381; The Halo of
a Hundred Years, R. M. Wexley,
386; The Origin of the Theory of
Natural Selection, Alfred Russel
Wallace, 396; The First Presenta-
tion of. Sir Joseph Hooker, 401;
Darwin manuscripts, 407; portraits,
413; Celebrations in Honor of the
Darwin Centenary, 415

j Desert, Lineaments of the, Charles R.

I Keyes, 19
Digestion, Physiology of the. An Amer-
ican Contribution to the History of
the, Lafayette B. Mendel, 174
Dyeing and Bleaching as applied to
Food, E. H. S. Bailey, 58

Educational and Scientific Meetings,

719
Electric Operation of Steam Railways,

J. B. Whitehead. 209
English Vital Statistics, 310
I Evolution of Religion, Steps in the,
I Frank Sargent Hoffman, 290
Experimental, Medicine, The H. K.
Gushing Laboratory of Western Re^
1 serve University, 100

-^7^<

622

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Exposition, National, at Rio de Ja-
neiro, Robert DeC. Ward, 105

Family and the School, J. McKeen

Catell, 84
Fakquhar, a. B., Tariff Revision from

the Manufacturer's Standpoint, 442
Fermented Milk, Therapeutic Action of,

C. A. Herter. 31
FiTZPATRicK, F. W., Fire's Havoc a

Senseless Waste, 259
Fleming, Walter L., Jefferson Davis's

Camel Experiment, 141
Food, The Art of Bleaching and Dyeing

as applied to, E. H. S. Bailey, 58
Foreign Associates of National Socie-
ties, Edward C. Pickering, 80
Formative Influences, G. J. Pearce, 579
French Naturalists, Two Great, 517

Gager, G. Stuart, The Influence of
Radium Rays on a Few Life Proc-
esses of Plants, 222

Garrison, Fielding H., Josiah Willard
Gibbs and his Relation to Moaern
Science, 470, 551

Gaudry, Albert, 312

G«ology and Darwin, John James
Stevenson, 349

Gibbs, Josiah Willard, and his Relation
to Modern Science, Fielding H. Gar-
rison, 470, 551

Gibbs, Wolcott, 96

Grunsky, C. E., The Type of the Pan-
ama Canal, 417

Halo of a Hundred Years, R. M. Wen-
ley, 396

Hamilton, Francis E., Tariff Revision
from the Importer's Standpoint, 457

Harper, Roland M., Okefinokee Swamp,
596

Harpswell Laboratory, Max Morse, 505

Harris, Rollin Arthur, Tides and
their Causes, 521

Harvard University and the Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology, 308

Health, The Work of Boards of, George
A. SoPER, 233

Herter, C. A., Therapeutic Action of
Fermented Milk, 31

HoBBS, Wm. H., The Latest Calabrian
Disaster, 134

Hoffman, Frank Sargent, Steps in
the Evolution of Religion, 290

Hooker, Joseph, The First Presenta-
tion of the Theory of Natural Selec-
tion, 401

Hysteria as an Asset, Pearce Bailey,
568

Importer, Tariff Revision from the
Standpoint of the, Francis E. Ham-
ilton, 457

Influences, Formative, G. J. Pearce,
579

Inheritance and Determination of Sex,
Facts concerning the, H. E. Jordan,
540

Instruments and Methods of Research,
L. A. Bauer, 184

James, William, On a Very Prevalent
Abuse of Abstraction, 485

Japan, Southernmost, A Trip to, with
Early Records of its Discovery, Rob-
ert Van Vleck Anderson, 161

Jefferson Davis's Camel Experiment,
Walter L. i^leming, 141

Johns Hopkins University, Convocation
Week Meetings at, 102

Jordan, H. E., Facts concerning the
Determination and Inheritance of
Sex, 540

Keyes, Charles R., Lineaments of the
Desert, 19

Ladd, George Trumbull, Suggestions

from Two Cases of Cerebral Surgery

without Anesthetics, 562
Laboratory, The Harpswell, Max

Morse, 505
Liebig, Justus von, 615
Life Processes of Plants, The Influence

of Radium Rays on, C. Stuart

Gager, 222
Lineaments of the Desert, Charles R.

Keyes, 19
LooMis, Seymour C, A Permanent

Tariff Bureau, 468

Manufacturer, Tariff Revision from the
Standpoint of the, A. B. Farquhar,
442; H. E. Miles, 450

Mason, Otis T., 96

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and Harvard University, 308

Mathews, Albert P., Science and Mor-
ality, 284

Medicine, Experimental, The H. K.
Cushing Laboratory of, at Western
Reserve University, 100

Mendel. Lafayette B., An American
Contribution to the History of the
Physiology of Digestion, 174

Metal Crop,' The World's, Theo. F. Van
Wagenen, 271

Methods and Instruments of Research,
L. A. Bauer, 184

Miles, H. E., Tariff Revision from the
Manufacturer's Standpoint, 450

Milk, Fermented, Therapeutic Action
of, C. A. Herter, 31

Miller, Dickinson S., Mr. Roosevelt's
Opportunity as President of a Uni-
versity, 62

Morality and Science, Albert P.
Mathews, 284

Morgan, T. H., For Darwin, 367

Morse, Max, The Harpswell Labora-
tory, 505

INDEX

623

MuNKOE, James P., The American Pub-
lic School, 300

National Exposition at Rio de Janeiro,

Robert DeC. Ward, 105
Natural Selection, Origin of the Theory

of, Alfred Russel Wallace. 396;

First Presentation of, Sir Joseph

Hooker, 401
Naturalists, Two Great French, 517

Okefinokee Swamp, Roland M. Harper,

596
Orton, Jesse E., Tariff Revision from

the Consumer's Standpoint, 463
OsBORN, Henry Fairfield, Life and

Works of Darwin, 315

Panama Canal, The Type of the, C. E.
Grunsky, 417

Pearce, G. J., Formative Inhuences,
579

Philosophies of the Day, Notes on Cer-
tain, Alexander F. Chamberlain,
575

Physiology of Digestion, An American
Contribution to the History of the,
Lafayette B. Mendel, 174

Pickering, Edward C, Foreign Asso-
ciates of National Societies, 80

Pitkin, W. B., Training College Teach-
ers, 588

Plants, The Influence of Radium Rays
on a Few Life Processes of, C. Stuabt
Gager, 222

Poetry and Science in the Case of
Charles Darwin, Edward Bradford
Titchener, 43

Predarwinian and Postdarwinian Biol-
ogy, William Morton Wheeler, 381

President, University, Mr. Roosevelt's
Opportunity as, Dickinson S. Mil-
ler, 62

Progress of Science, 96, 202, 308, 407,
514, 615

Public School, Tlie American. James P.
MUNROE, 300

Radium Rays, The Influence of, on a

Few Life Processes of Plants, C.

Stuart Gager, 222
Railroads and the Smoke Nuisance,

Clinton Rogers Woodruff, 153 |

Railways, Steam, Electric Operation of, j

J. B. Whitehead, 209
Religion, Steps in the Evolution of,

Frank Sargent Hoffman, 290
Research, Instruments and Methods of,

L. A. Baut:r, 184; Work of the Car-
negie Institution, 514
Rio de Janeiro, National Exposition at,

Robert DeC. Ward, 105
Roosevelt's Opportunity as President of

a University, Dickinson S. Miller,

62

School, and the Family. J. McKeen
Cattell, 84; Public, The American,
James P. Munroe, 300

Science, and Poetry in the Case of
Charles Darwin, Edward Bradford
Titchener, 43; Progress of, 96, 202,
308, 407, 514, 614; and Morality,
Albert P. Mathews, 284

Scientific Items, 90, 208, 312, 520, 620;
Meetings at Baltimore, 203; and
Educational Meetings, G19

Selection, Natural, Origin of the The-
ory of, Alfred Russel Wallace,
396; First Presentation of the The-
ory, Sir Joseph Hooker, 401

Sex, Facts Concerning the Determina-
tion and Inheritance of, H. E. Jor-
dan, 540

Shackleton's, Lieutenant, Antarctic Ex-
pedition, 51o

Smoke Nuisance, Railroads and the,
Clinton Rogers \voodruff, 153

Societies, National, Foreign Associates
of, Edward C. Pickering, 80

SoPER, George A., The Work of Boards
of Health, 233

Spalding, Perley, A Biographical His-
tory of Botany at St. Louis, 48, 124,
240"^

Spencer, Herbert, The Career of. Lester
F. Ward, 5

Steam Railways, Electric Operation of,
J. B. Whitehead, 209

Stevenson, John J., Commercialism,
70; Darwin and Geology, 349

Surgery, Cerebral without Anesthetics,
Suggestions from two Cases of,
George Trumbull Ladd, 562

Swamp, Okefinokee, Roland M. Har-
per, 596

Tariff Revision, from tlie Manufac-
turer's Standpoint, A. B. Farquhab,
442; H. E. Miles, 450; from the Im-
porter's Standpoint, Francis E.
Hamilton, 457; from the Consumer's
Standpoint, Jesse E. Orton, 463; A
Permanent Tariff Bureau, Seymour
C. Loomis, 468

Therapeutic Action of Fermented Milk,
C. A. Herter, 31

Tides and Their Causes, Rollin Ar-
thur Harris, 521

Titchener, Edward Bradford, Poetry
and Science in the Case of Charles
Darwin, 43

Training College Teachers, W. B. Pit-
kin, 588

University President, Mr. Roosevelt's
Opportunity as, Dickinson S. Mil-
ler, 62

Van Wagenen, Theo. F., The W^orld's

Annual Metal Crop, 271
Vital Statistics, English, 310

624

THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY

Wallace, Alfred Russel, Origin of
the Theory of Natural Selection, 396

Ward, Lester ¥., The Career of Her-
bert Spencer, 5

Ward, Robert DeC, National Exposi-
tion at Rio de Janeiro, 105

Wenley, R. IVi., The Halo of a Hundred
Years, 386

Wheeler, William Morton, Predar-

winian and Postdarwinian Biology,

381
Whitehead, J. B., Electric Operation

of Steam Railways, 209
Woodruff, Clinton Rogers, Railroads

and the Smoke Nuisance, 153

Zoology and Darwin, Hermon C. Bum-
pus. 361

Vol. LXXIV. No. 1. «-: JANUARY, 1909

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY.

EDITED BY J. McKEEJ^ CATTELL

CONTKNTS

The Career of Herbert Spencer. Professor Lester F. Wabd .... 5

Lineaments of the Desert. De. Charles R. Keyes 19

On the Therapeutic Action of Fermented Milk. Dr. C. A. Herter . . 31

Poetry and Science in the Case of Charles Darwin. Edward Bradford

TiTCHENER 43

A Biographical History of Botany at St. Lonis. Dr. Perley Spaulding 48

The Art of Bleaching and Dyeing as applied to Food. Professor E. H. S.

Bailey 58

Mr. Roosevelt's Opportunity as President of a University. Professor

Dickinson S. Miller 62

Commercialism. Professor John J. Stevenson 70

Foreign Associates of National Societies. Professor Edward C. Pickering 80

The School and the Family. J. McKeen Cattell 84

The Progress of Science :

Wolcott Gibbs ; Otis Tufton Mason ; The H. K. Cushing Laboratory of
Experimental Medicine of Western Reserve University ; The Convo-
cation "Week Meeting at the Johns Hopkins University ; Scientific
Items 96

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The Progress of Science :

The Fiftieth Anniversary of the Announcement of
the Theory of Natural Selection ; The Dublin Meeting
of the British Association : The Present Pandemic
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CONTENT- Cr DECEMBER NUMBER

The Cause cf Pulsation. Er. Alfeed Goldsboeough

JS; A. TEE.

A Bio raphical History if Botf.i y at ZK Louis, Missouri,

Dr. PeRLEY bi-AULDING.

The Apr'icatlon of Z'ological L«.vs to Man. Professor

"WILLLA.M RiDGWAY.

Canadian 'W i-eat. Professor J( n Waddbll,

College fctandardization. Professor W. Le Contb

Stevi..- 5.
Aspec-s of Modem Biology. Professor T.D. A.Cockebell.
Loyalty. Professor .^ohn C. Bbannee.
The Story cf Professor Rontgen's Discovery. Elheb

Ellshoeth Burns.

A Great Permita Delta and its Vertebrate Life, with
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The Latest Calabrian Disaster. Professor "Wm. H. Hobbs 134

Jefferson Davis's Camel Experiment. Professor Walter L. Fleming . 141

Eailroads and the Smoke Nuisance. Clinton Eogers Woodruff . . 163

Account of a Trip in Southernmost Japan, with Early Eecords of its Dis-
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An American Contribution to the History of the Physiology of Digestion.

Professor Lafayette B. Mendel 174

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The Progress of Science

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CONTENTS OF DECEMBER NUMBER

The Cause of Pulsation. Dr. Alfeed Qoldsborough
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A Bio raphical History of Botany at St. Louis, Missouri,
Dr. Peeley Spaulding.

The Application of Zoological Laws to Man. Professor

William Ridgway.
Canadian Wheat. Professor John Waddelx.

College Standardization, Professor W. Lb Contb

Stevens.
Aspects of Modem Biology. Professor T.D. A.Cockeeeli*
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The Story of Professor Eontgen's Discovery. Elmeb
Ellswoeth Burns.

A Great Permian Delta and its Vertebrate Lifo, with
Restorations by the Author. Dr. E. C. Case.

The Progress of Science :

Two great University Presidents ; Scientific Items-
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CONTENTS OF JANUARY NUMBER

The Career of Herbert Spencer. Professor Lestee F.
Waed.

Lineaments of the Desert. Dr. Chaeles E. Keyes.

On the Therapeutic Action of Fermented Milk, Dr. C.
A. Hektee.

Poetry and Science in the Case of Charles Darwin.
Edwaed Beadfoed Titchener.

A Biographical History of Botany at St. Louis. Dr
Peeley Spaulding.

The Art of Bleaching and Dyeing as applied to Food-
Professor E. H. S. Bailey.

Mr, Roosevelt's Opportunity as President of a Uni-
versity. Professor Dickinson S. Millee.

Commercialism. Professor John J. Stevenson.

Foreign Associates of National Societies. Professor
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The School and the 'Family. J. McKeen Cattell.

The Progress of Science :

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Vol. LSXIV. No. 3. MARCH, 1909

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY

EDITED BY J. McKEEM CATTELL

CONTENTS

The Electric Operation of Steam Eailways. Professor J. B. Whitehead 209

The Influence of Eadium Eays on a Few Life Processes of Plants. Pro-
fessor C. Stuart Gager 222

The Work of Boards of Health. Dr. George A. Soper 233

A Biographical History of Botany at St. Lonis, Missouri. Dr. Perlbt

Spaulding 240

Fire's Havoc a Senseless Waste. F. W. Fitzpatrick 259

The World's Annual Metal Crop. Theo. F. Van Wagenen .... 271

Science and Morality. Professor Albert P. Mathews , . . . . . 284

Steps in the Evolution of Eeligion. Professor Frank Sargent Hoffman 290

The American Public School. James P. Munroe ........ 300

The Progress of Science :

Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ;
English Vital Statistics ; Albert Gaudry ; Scientific Items .... 308

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BOOKS OF PEEMANENT, ALL-THE-TEAE-EOUND VALUE

Seven Great Works of Reference

VOLUME I AND II NOW READY

Cyclopedia of American Agriculture

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in the test and 100 Full-page Plates. Price of the set, cloth, $20 net ; half morocco, $32 net.

Vol. I. General Considerations of Farms, Climates and Soils. Now ready.

Vol. II. Farm Crops — General Facts relating to Plant Production: Individual Farm Crops.

Now ready.

Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology

Written by many handt and Edited by J. MARK BALDWIN, LL.D., with the eo-operation of an Inter-
national Board of Consulting Editor*, and Bihliographiet by DR. RAND.

In three volumes : Volume I, $8 ; Volume II, $8 ; Volume III, (in two parte) $10 net.
Volume III contains the "Bibliography of Philosophy, Psychology, and Cognate Subjects," by
Benjamin Band, of Harvard University, in two parts.

Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers

A new edition of a work which has no rival for completeness and trustworthiness. Thoroughly re-
vised, with over 1200 new biographies and more than 4000 alterations necessitated by modern research.

Five volumes, fully illustrated. Each $6.00 net.

Encyclopedia Biblica

Edited by The Hev. T. K. CHEYNE, D.D., and J. SUTHERLAND BLACK, LL.D., At»i*tedby many
Contributors in Great Britain, Europe and America. Cloth, $20 net ; half-morocco, $30 net.

Cyclopedia of American Horticulture

Edited by L. H. BAILEY, assisted by WILHELM MILLER and vthers. 8,000 pages, with g,800 illus-
trations and 60 full-page plates. Four volumes, cloth, $20 n«f; half morocco, $32 net.

A Dictionary of Architecture and Building

By RUSSELL STUR6IS, Fellow of American Inst, of Architecture, Author of "European Architec-
ture,'* etc., and many Architects, Painters, Engineers and other Expert Writers, American and Foreign.
With Bibliographies, and over 1,500 illustrations. Three vols. Cloth, $18 net ; half-mor., $30 wt.

Dictionary of Music and Musicians

By Sir GEORGE GROVE. Revised and greatly enlarged Edition, in Five Volumes. Each volume
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CONTENTS OF JANUARY NUMBER

The Career of Herbert Spencer. Professor Lestbk F.
Wakd.

Lineaments of the Desert. Dr. Charles E. Ketes.

On the Therapeutic Action of Fermented Milk. Dr. C
A. Heeter.

Poetry and Science in the Case of Charles Darwin.
Edward Bradford Titchener.

A Biographical History of Botany at St. Louis. Dr
Perley Spaulding.

The Art of Bleaching and Dyeing as applied to Food*
Professor E. H. S. Bailey.

Mr. Roosevelt's Opportunity as President of a Uni-
versity. Professor Dicbinson S. Miller.

Commercialism. Professor John J. Stevenson.

Foreign Associates of National Societies. Professor
Edward C. Pickering.

The School and the '.Family. J. McKeen Cattell.

The Progress of Science :

Wolcott Gibbs; Otis Tufton Mason; The H. K.
Gushing Laboratory of Experimental Medicine of
Western Reserve University ; The Convocation Week
Meeting at the Johns Hopkins University ; Scientific

Items.

CONTENTS OF FEBRUARY NUMBER

The National Exposition at Rio de Janeiro. Professor

Robert DeC. Ward.
A Biographical History of Botany at St. Louis, Missouri,

Dr. Perley Spaulding.
The Latest Calabrian Disaster. Professor Wm. H. Hobbs.
Jefferson Davis's Camel Experiment. Professor Walter

L. Fleming.
Railroads and the Smoke Nuisance. . Clinton Rogers

Woodruff.
Account of a Trip in Southernmost Japan, with Early

Records of Its Discovery. Robert Van Vleck

Anderson.
An American Contribution to the History of the Phys-
iology of Digestion. Professor Lafayette B.

Mendel.
The Instruments and Methods of Research. Dr. L. A.

Bauer.
The Progress of Science :

The Scientific Meetings at Baltimore; The Report

of the Secretary of Agriculture ; Scientific Items.

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Vol. LXXIV. No. i. APRIL, 1909

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY

EDITED BY J. McKEEJ^ CATTELL

CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN _.

Born February 12, 1809

Life and Works of Darwin. Dr. Henry Fairfield Osborn .... 315

The Individuality of Charles Darwin. Charles F. Cox 344

Darwin and Geology. Professor John James Stevenson 349

Darwin and Botany. Dr. Nathaniel Lord Britton 355

Darwin and Zoology. Dr. Hermon C. Bumpus 361

For Darwin. Professor T. H. Morgan 367

Predarwinian and Postdarwinian Biology. Professor William Morton

Wheeler 381

The Halo of a Hundred Years. Professor R. M. Wbnley 386

The Origin of the Theory of Natural Selection. Dr. Alfred Eussel

Wallace 396

The First Presentation of the Theory of Natural Selection. Sir

Joseph Hooker 401

The Progress of Science:

Darwin Manuscripts ; Portraits of Darwin ; Celebrations in Honor

of Darwin 407

THE SCIENCE PRESS

LANCASTER, PA. GARRISON, N. Y.

NEW YOEK : Sub-Station 84

SiKGLE NUMBEK, 30 CENTS YeAKLY SuBSCEIPTION, |3.00

COPYKIGHT, 1908, BY THE SCIENCE PRESS

BOOKS OF PERMANENT, ALL-THE-YEAE-EOUND VALXJE

SEVEN GREAT WORKS OF REFERENCE

VOLUME I AND II NOW READY

Cyclopedia of American Agriculture

Edited by L. H. BAILEY. Complete in Four Royal Octavo Volumes, -with about 3,000 illustrations
in the text and 100 Full-page Plates. Price of the set, cloth, $20 net ; half morocco, $32 net.

Vol. I. General Considerations of Farms, Climates and Soils. Now ready.

Vol. II, Farm Crops — General Facts relating to Plant Production: Individual Farm Crops.

Now ready.

Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology

Written by many hands and Edited by J. MARK BALDWIN, LL.D., v^ith the eo-operation of an Inter-
national Board of Consulting Editors, and Bibliographies by DR. RAND.

In three volumes : Volume I, $8 ; Volume II, $8 ; Volume III, (m two parts) $10 net.
Volume III contains the "Bibliography of Philosophy, Psychology, and Cognate Subjects," by
Benjamin Rand, of Harvard University, in two parts.

Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers

A new edition of a work which has no rival for completeness and trustworthiness. Thoroughly re-
vised, with over 1200 new biographies and more than 4000 alterations necessitated by modem research.

Five volumes, fully illustrated. Each $6.00 net.

Encyclopedia Biblica

Edited by The Rev. T. K. CHEYNE, D.D., and J. SUTHERLAND BLACK, LL.D., Assisted by many
Contributors in Great Britain, Europe and America. Cloth, $20 net ; half-morocco, $30 net.

Cyclopedia of American Horticulture

Edited by L. H. BAILEY, assisted by WILHELM MILLER and others. g,000 pages, with S,800 illus-
trations and 60 full-page plates. Four volumes, cloth, $20 net; half morocco, $32 neL

A Dictionary of Architecture and Building

By RUSSELL STURGiS, Fellow of American Inst, of Architecture, Author of " European Arehitee-
turt," etc., and many Architects, Painters, Engineers and ether Expert Writers, American and Foreign.
With Bibliographies, and over 1,500 illustrations. Three vols. Cloth, $18 net ; half-mor., $30 net.

Dictionary of Music and Musicians

By Sir GEORGE GROVE. Revised and greatly enlarged Edition, in Five Volumes. Each volume
illustrated with a photogravure and twenty-four full-page half-tone plates, besides many pictures in
the text. Cloth, 8yo. Volumes I. and II. now ready. Each $5.00 net, on orders for sets only.

Sold by fubtcripHon only. For full particulars at to special cash or instalment offers address

THE Macmillan Company, ^♦"^newTork'"'

The Popular Science Monthly

Bntered in the Post OJlcc m Lcmoaater, Fa., as seoond-class matter.

CONTENTS OF FEBRUARY NUMBER

The National Exposition at Rio de Janeiro, Professor

Robert DeC. Ward.
A Biographical History of Botany at St. Louis, Missouri,

Dr. Pseley Spaulding.
The Latest Calabrian Disaster. Professor Wm. H. Hobbs.
Jefferson Davis's Camel Experiment. Professor Walter

L. Fleming.
Railroads and the Smoke Nuisance. Clinton Rogers

Woodruff.
Account of a Trip in Southernmost Japan, with Early

Records of Its Discovery. Robert Van Vleck

Anderson,
An American Contribution to the History of the Phys-
iology of Digestion. Professor Lafayette B.

Mendel.
The Instruments and Methods of Research, Dr. L. A.

Bauer,
The Progress of Science :

The Scientific Meetings at Baltimore; The Report

of the Secretary of Agriculture ; Scientific Items,

CONTENTS OF MARCH NUMBER

The Electric iOperation of Steam Railways. Professor
J. B. Whitehead.

The Influence of Radium Rays on a Few Life Processes
of Plants. Professor C. Stuaet Gager.

The Work of Boards of Health, Dr. George P. Sopeb.

A Biographical History of Botany at St, Louis, Missouri.
Dr. Peeley Spaulding.

Fire's Havoc a Senseless Waste. F. W. Fitzpatrick.

The World's Annual Metal Crop. Theo. F. Van
Wagenen,

Science and Morality. Professor Albert P, Mathews.

Steps in the Evolution of Religion. Professor Frank
Sargent Hoffman.

The American Public School. James P. Munroe,

The Progress of Science :

Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology ; English Vital Statistics ; Albert
Gaudry ; Scientific Items.

war The MONTHLY will be sent to new subscribers for six months for One Dollar

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Publications on

...BEE CULTURE...

Check
here

My First Season's Experience with theHoney-

Bee. By ' 'The Spectator" of the Outlook, New York.

I I A ten-page leaflet detailing the experience of this

well-known writer. You will read the leaflet through

before you lay it down. Free.

Bees and Fruit, a pamphlet showing the impor-
tance of the honey-bee to the fruit-grower. Free.

Bee-keeping for Sedentary Folk. A 24-page
leaflet reciting the actual experiences of an amateur
bee-keeper, showing what equipment is be«t, profits
derived, etc. Free.

Facts about Bees. By F. Danzenbaker. a 64-
I [ page illustrated booklet. A practical treatise for
the amateur. Ten cents.

Habits of the Honey-Bee. By Db. E. F. Phillips.
p-i A somewhat scientifle handling of the habits and
anatomy of the bee. Ten cents.

The A B C of Bee Culture. A complete encyclo-
pedia on bees of nearly 540 pages, fully illustrated.
D 81.50 postpaid. Half leather, 82.00.

Gleanings In Bee Culture. A 64-page illustrated

semi-monthly magazine, the leading exponent of

bee culture in this country. Ten cents per issue,

□ but to new subscribers we will furnish it six months

for 25 cents.

This sheet may be used as an order sheet by proper
checking on margin, your signature and remittance if
required.

THE A. I. ROOT COMPANY, MEDINA, 0.

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Astronomical Telescopes

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visual and Photographic

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Vol. LXXrV. No. 5. MAY, 1909

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY

EDITED BY J. McKEEJ^ CATTELL

The Type of tlie Panama Canal. C. E. Gbunsky 417

Tariff Eevision :

From the Manufacturer's Standpoint. Db. A. B. Farqtjhar,

H. E. Miles 442

From the Importer's Standpoint. Francis E. Hamilton . . . 457

From the Consumer's Standpoint. Jesse E. Orton 463

A Permanent Tariff Bureau. Seymour C. Loomis 468

Josiah Willard Gibbs and his Relation to Modern Science. Dr. Fielding

H. Garrison 470

On a Very Prevalent Abuse of Abstraction. Professor William James . 485

The Closing of a Famous Astronomical Problem. Professor W. W.

Campbell 494

The Harpswell Laboratory. Max Morse 505

The Progress of Science :

The Eesearch Work of the Carnegie Institution ; Lieutenant
Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition ; Two Great Fi'ench I^Natural-
ists; Scientific Items - . . . 514

THE SCIENCE PRESS

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COPYKIGHT, 1908, BY THE science PRESS

BOOKS OF PERJIANENT, ALL-THE-TEAE-EOUND VALUE

SEVEN GREAT WORKS OF REFERENCE

NOW READY

Cyclopedia of American Agriculture

Edited by L. H. BAILEY. Complete in Four Royal Octavo Volumes, vith about 3,000 illustrations
in the text and 100 Full-page Plates. Price of the set, cloth, $20 net ; half morocco, $32 net.

Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology

Written by many hands and Edited by J. MARK BALDWIN, LL.D., with the eo-operation of an Inter'
national Board of Consulting Editors, and Bibliographies by DR. RAND.

In three volumes : Volume I, $8 ; Volume II, $8 ; Volume III, (in two parts) JIG net.
Volume III contains the "Bibliography of Philosophy, Psychology, and Ck>gnate Subjects," by
Benjamin Hand, of Harvard University, in two parts.

Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers

A new edition of a work which has no rival for completeness and trustworthiness. Thoroughly re-
Tised,with over 1200 new biographies and more than 4000 alterations necessitated by modern research.

Five volumes, fully illustrated. Each |6.00 net.

Encyclopedia Biblica

Edited by The Rev. T. K. CHEYNE, D.D., and J. SUTHERLAND BLACK, LL.D., Assisted by many
Contributors in Cheat Britain, Europe and America. Cloth, $20 net ; half-morocco, $30 net.

Cyclopedia of American Horticulture

Edited by L. H. BAILEY, assisted by WILHELM MILLER and others. g,000 pages, with S,800 illus-
trations and 60 full-page plates. Four volumes, cloth, $20 net; half morocco, $32 net.

A Dictionary of Architecture and Building

By RUSSELL STURGIS, Fellow of American Inst, of Architecture, Author of '^European Arehitec-
ture,'* etc., and many Architects, Painters, Engineers andQther Expert Writers, American and Foreign,
With Bibliographies, and over 1,500 illustrations. Three vols. Cloth, $18 net; haif-mor., $30 net.

Dictionary of Music and Musicians

By Sir GEORGE GROVE. Revised and greatly enlarged Edition, in Five Volumes. Each volume
illustrated with a photogravure and twenty-four full-page half-tone plates, besides many pictures in
the text. Cloth, 8vo. Volumes I. and II. now ready. Each $5.00 net, on orders for sets only.

Sold by subscription only. For full particulars as to special cash or instalment offers address

The Macmillan Company, ^^-^jJ,^'^;"^^"'

The Popular Science Monthly

Entered in the Pott Office m Lancaster, Pa,, as second-class matter. ■

CONTENTS OF MARCH NUMBER

The Electric sOperation of Steam Railways. Professor
J. B. Whitehead.

The Influence of Radium Rays on a Few Life Processes
of Plants. Professor C. Stuart Gagee.

The Work of Boards of Health. De. Geokge P. Soper.

A Biographical History of Botany at St. Louis, Missouri.
De. Peeley Spaulding.

Fire's Havoc a Senseless Waste. F. W. Fitzpatrick:.

The World's Annual Metal Crop. Theo. F. Van
Wagenkn.

Science and Morality. Professor Albert P. Mathews.

Steps in the Evolution of Religion. Professor Frank
Sargent Hoffman.

The American Public School. James P. Munrok

The Progress of Science :

Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology ; English Vital Statistics ; Albert
Graudry ; Scientific Items.

CONTENTS OF APRIL NUMBER

Charles Robert Darwin

Born February 12, 1809

Life and Works of Darwin. Dr. Henry FAiRFiELr

OSBORN.

Thelndividuality of Charles Darwin. Charles F. Cox.

Darwin and Geology. Professor John James Steven-
son.

Darwin and Botany. Dr. Nathaniel Lord Beitton.

Darwin and Zoology. Dr. Hermon C. Bumpus.

For Darwin. Professor T. H. Morgan.

Predarwinian and Postdarwinian Biology. Professor
William Morton Wheeler.

The Halo of a Hundred Years. Professor R. M. Wenley.

The Origin of the Theory of Natural Selection. Dr.
Alfred Russel Wallace.

The First Presentation of the Theory of Natural Selec-
tion. Sir Joseph Hooker.

The Progress of Science:

Darwin Manuscripts ; Portraits of Darwin ; Celebra-
tions in Honor of Darwin.

99" The MONTHLY will be sent to new subscribers for six months for One Dollar

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Vol. LXXIV. No. 6. JUNE, 1909

THE

POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY

EDITED BY J. McKEEM CATTELL

CONTKNTS

The Tides and their Causes. Kollin Arthur Harris 521

Facts concerning the Determination and Inheritance of Sex. Professor

H. E. Jordan ..... 1 540

Josiah Willard Gibbs and his relation to Modern Science. Dr. Fielding
H. Garrison .... - 551

Suggestions from Two Cases of Cerebral Surgery without Anesthetics.

Professor George Trumbull Ladd 562

Hysteria as an Asset. Dr. Pearce Bailey 568

Notes on Certain Philosophies of the Day. Professor Alexander F.

Chamberlain 575

Formative Influences. Professor G. J. Pearce -^ . 579

Training College Teachers. Dr. W. B. Pitkin 588

Okefinokee Swamp. Eoland M. Harper 596

The Progress of Science :

Scientific and Educational Meetings ; Justus von Liebig ; Scientific
Items 615

Index to Volume LXXIV 621

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CONTENTS OF APRiL NUMBER

Chaules Robert Darwin

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Life and Works of Darwin. Dr. Henry Fairfiele

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The Closing of a Famous Astronomical Problem. Pro-
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Lieutenant Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition;

Two Great French Naturalists ; Scientific Items.

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